Best Brokers for Beginner Investors: Top Picks for 2026
We spent hours analyzing the best brokers for beginners to find ones that offer low costs, helpful educational content and a broad investment selection. Our testers also looked for trading platforms that are easy to navigate.The investing information provided on this page is for educational purposes only. NerdWallet, Inc. does not offer advisory or brokerage services, nor does it recommend or advise investors to buy or sell particular stocks, securities or other investments.
Our deep, independent analysis cuts through the details to find and evaluate the information investors want when choosing an investing account. To see our full methodology and learn more about our process, read our criteria for evaluating brokers and for evaluating robo-advisors.
Over 60 investment account providers reviewed and rated by our expert Nerds.
More than 50 years of combined experience writing about finance and investing.
Hands-on testing of the account funding process, provider websites and day trading platforms.
Dozens of objective ratings rubrics and strict guidelines to maintain editorial integrity.
When you’re a beginner investor, the right broker is more than a platform for buying stocks — it should also offer investing educational resources. Whether you're looking for a beginner-friendly platform to trade stocks or just want to build a portfolio of long-term investments like mutual funds, you'll find an option on our list below.
Note: All of the brokers we review and list here uphold high standards for security and carry SIPC insurance, which provides coverage of up to $500,000 for lost or missing assets in the event the brokerage firm fails. They are also regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA).
NerdWallet’s comprehensive review process evaluates and rates the largest U.S. brokerage firms by assets under management, along with emerging industry players. Our aim is to provide an independent assessment of providers to help arm you with information to make sound, informed judgements on which one will best meet your needs.
We collect data directly from providers through detailed questionnaires, and conduct first-hand testing and observation through provider demonstrations. The questionnaire answers, combined with demonstrations, interviews of personnel at the providers and our specialists’ hands-on research, fuel our proprietary assessment process that scores each provider’s performance across more than 20 factors.
We score each online broker against a set of criteria that factors in both the features offered and the actual user experience of using those features. This includes how easy it is to sign up for and fund a new account. Note that a broker may score highly for the stock trading platforms, tools or research it offers, but low for the experience of actually using those features. This means a broker can offer an advanced stock trading platform, but if it is clunky to use or the process of opening an account is unnecessarily arduous, that will be reflected in their score.
The final output produces star ratings from poor (one star) to excellent (five stars). For more details about the categories considered when rating brokers and our process, read our full methodology.
Our editorial team's picks for the best brokers for beginner investors
Company | NerdWallet rating | Fees | Mobile rating | Promotion | Learn more |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
4.8/5 | $0 per online equity trade | 3 | Up to $500 when you make a qualifying net deposit | Learn moreon Charles Schwab's website | |
Learn moreon Charles Schwab's website | |||||
Learn moreon Charles Schwab's website | |||||
4.5/5 | $0 per trade. Other fees apply. | 5 | Get up to $1,500 when you open and fund an E*TRADE brokerage account. Terms apply. | Learn moreon E*TRADE's website | |
Learn moreon E*TRADE's website | |||||
Learn moreon E*TRADE's website | |||||
5.0/5 | $0 per trade for online U.S. stocks and ETFs | 5 | None no promotion available at this time | Learn moreon Fidelity's website | |
Learn moreon Fidelity's website | |||||
Learn moreon Fidelity's website | |||||
4.2/5 | $0 per trade | 4 | None no promotion available at this time | Learn moreon Vanguard's website | |
Learn moreon Vanguard's website | |||||
Learn moreon Vanguard's website | |||||
4.5/5 | $0 on trades of stocks, ETFs and their options. Other fees may apply. | 4 | 1 Free Stock after linking your bank account (stock value range $5.00-$200) | Learn moreon Robinhood's website | |
Learn moreon Robinhood's website | |||||
Learn moreon Robinhood's website | |||||
More about our picks
Fidelity
2026 Best-of Award winner: Fidelity is NerdWallet's pick for the best online broker for beginning investors and the best app for investing. Fidelity is one of the largest and most well-established brokerages, and it shows. Fidelity charges no trading commissions, offers an extensive set of no-fee, no-minimum index funds. It also stands out for its top-notch research tools, a renowned trading platform and very strong customer service.
Fidelity frequently scores the highest on nearly every feature we put to the test, which makes it a well-rounded choice suitable for beginner investors. It's a broker that can grow with you as you advance your trading strategies and skills.
Charles Schwab
2026 Best-of Award winner: Charles Schwab is NerdWallet's pick for the best online broker for IRA investors. Charles Schwab has earned its strong reputation: The broker offers high-quality customer service, four free trading platforms, a wide selection of no-transaction-fee mutual funds and $0 commissions for stocks, ETFs and options.
Schwab gets an edge here for its paper trading platform — a tool that allows you to practice trades without putting your real money on the line. While it technically doesn't win on our paper trading roundup, it's the best broker for beginners that offers paper trading, with a large selection of investments to try out. Once you're ready to graduate from fake money, Schwab's impressive lineup of platforms will more than meet your needs — in fact, the broker's platforms are a favorite among even advanced traders.
E*TRADE
E*TRADE from Morgan Stanley has long been one of the most popular online brokers. The company's $0 commissions and strong trading platforms appeal to active traders, while intermediate investors benefit from a large library of educational resources.
E*TRADE has an excellent selection of educational materials, including webinars, videos and articles. There are daily webcasts that focus on the markets and Bloomberg TV is embedded into all trading platforms. While E*TRADE's platform could be slightly intimidating for a true beginner at first, the educational resources offer a level of hand-holding that makes up for it.
Vanguard
Vanguard is the king of low-cost investing, making it ideal for buy-and-hold and retirement investors. It offers a top-notch selection of proprietary, low-cost mutual funds, including many ESG options. Despite its $0 trade commission, active traders will find the broker falls short due to the lack of a strong trading platform.
Vanguard has long been known as the place for hands-off retirement investors, and its platform makes this clear. While active trading in individual stocks is possible, the user experience is much more aligned with a set-it-and-forget-it approach, which will typically serve beginner investors well.
Robinhood
At Robinhood, trades of stocks, ETFs and their options are commission free, as are cryptocurrency trades. (Other fees may apply, including on index options.) Robinhood Gold offers a high interest rate on uninvested cash and low margin rates. The company does not offer mutual funds or individual bonds.
Robinhood, for better or worse, makes investing fun and incredibly accessible. If you get bogged down with old-fashioned platforms and apps that feel like they were developed in the '90s, Robinhood may be a good choice for you.
SoFi Active Investing
SoFi Active Investing's $0 trading commission, fractional shares and $0 account minimum are attractive to new investors. More advanced investors will appreciate the company's wide mutual fund selection and IPO access.
SoFi is one of the few brokers we review that offers investors a meeting with a financial advisor. All members get one meeting; SoFi+ members can meet with advisors as much as they want. For new investors, this can be an incredible resource that many other brokers charge a hefty fee for.
M1 Finance
M1 Finance stands out for its unique investment approach — it helps investors visualize their portfolios as a pie, with "slices" made up of different securities. The mix of automation and manual investing will appeal to beginner investors who want to grow their skills and long-term investors who want help maintaining their portfolio allocation.
You may be surprised to see a broker with a lower overall score listed as one of our top picks for beginners, but M1 breaks the mold specifically in this category. One of our testers liked M1 so much they started using it for their own personal finances. (He writes all about why here if you want a deep dive — one of the biggest reasons was how quickly you can create custom portfolios and automate your investments into them.) If you're committed to long-term investing and want to build your own portfolio of individual stocks and ETFs, M1 is an excellent choice.
Wealthfront
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2026 Best-of Award winner: Wealthfront is NerdWallet's pick for the best robo-advisor for portfolio options. Wealthfront is our highest-scoring robo-advisor thanks to its blend of automated investment portfolios and DIY stock investing portfolios, its wide variety of account options, excellent tax strategy and low management fee. Wealthfront's only weak spots are its account minimum ($500) and its lack of access to human advisors.
If you'd rather have a robo-advisor pick and choose investments for you, Wealthfront is the best option. It also offers a middle ground for those who aren't sure — you can opt to have a robo-advisor managed portfolio and trade stocks and ETFs on your own within the same platform. The fee for investment management is just .25% of your assets under management, which works out to $25 a year on a $10,000 portfolio. Trading in the company's stock investing account — where you'll manage your own portfolio — is free.
How we review brokers for beginners
Our editorial team does a deep, comprehensive analysis of online brokers, which involves not just collecting data points about their offerings, but also hands-on testing of each broker. For beginners, we focus heavily on ease of use: How intuitive is the online broker's website? How easy is it to fund an account? Can a beginner quickly learn to place trades? Is customer support responsive and available when you need it?
We also look at factors like account fees, mobile app and investment selection — we don't expect brokers that target beginner investors to have complex investment offerings, but we do expect them to offer a range of approachable investments, like mutual funds and index funds.
Questions you might have before opening an account
How exactly do you open an account?
The process isn't all that different from opening a bank account, so don't be intimidated. To walk you through, one of our Nerds recorded the step-by-step process when she opened an account as part of our research for this list.
How do you start investing?
Picking a broker is just the first step here. Once you've done that and opened your account, you'll need to fund it, either by transferring money in from a bank account or from another brokerage account.
Once your account is funded, you can pick and choose investments. The brokers on our list all have handy tools for this to help beginners out, including screeners that allow you to search for stocks or funds that meet your goals. You can also select a diversified fund if you're investing for a set goal, like a target-date fund. These automatically invest your contributions based on a specific timeline, taking less risk as you approach that deadline.
How do I fund my account?
Once you've opened an account at one of the online brokers on our list, you can fund the account through a bank transfer or by initiating an ACAT transfer from another brokerage. If you're switching from another brokerage account, an ACAT transfer will allow you to move eligible investments to your new broker without selling them. (If you're not sure how to do this, your new broker will be happy to walk you through the process.)
Is money safe with a broker?
The Securities Investor Protection Corporation insures cash and securities up to $500,000, with a $250,000 limit on cash losses. But this protects you only in the event your stock broker fails. Many investments, including stocks, carry the risk of loss, and you're not protected if an investment you purchase goes down in value. You should expect the value of your investments to fluctuate, but over a long time horizon, the stock market has historically returned an average of 10% per year before inflation.
It may also be a little nerve-racking to start investing when the stock market is volatile. But if you're investing for the long-term, these bouts of volatility shouldn't deter you. In fact, falling stock prices can even mean more affordable entry points into the market.
How much does a broker cost?
The brokers on our list generally have low fees as a requirement to appear here, and as you can see above, they don't charge commissions to trade stocks or most other investments. It also doesn’t take a lot of money to get started — many online stock brokers allow you to open an account with no minimum deposit requirement.
But you will need enough money to purchase the investments you choose. Stock share prices can vary widely, but some brokers allow you to purchase fractional shares, which are a smaller slice of a stock. We have a list of the best brokers for fractional shares. Other investments, like mutual funds, may have investment minimums, but generally speaking, you can find options that don't — especially at the brokers we've chosen to appear here.
» Have $500? Learn how to invest it
What's the best trading platform beginners?
For beginner investors, we look for trading platforms that are easy to understand and navigate, but can also grow with you as you begin to move away from "beginner" status and start feeling more comfortable with investing and trading. Brokers that scored highly for both ease of use and their platform's capabilities include Fidelity, Charles Schwab and Robinhood.
Can you take money out of these accounts?
Yes, but it will take more time than getting cash from your ATM — often a few business days. Your broker may need to sell securities (like stocks, bonds or mutual funds) equivalent to the amount you want to withdraw, so it's not as simple as removing cash from a savings account.
If you're taking all of your money out, whether transferring to a different stock broker or cashing out to move to Tahiti, there may be account closing fees as well.
NerdWallet rates brokers on a scale of 1 to 5 stars, with 5 being the best possible score. The ratings are incremented in tenths of a star. Detailed information about how we rate brokers and the factors we consider in our assessments is available in our full ratings methodology.