Webull Review 2024: Pros, Cons and How It Compares
Many, or all, of the products featured on this page are from our advertising partners who compensate us when you take certain actions on our website or click to take an action on their website. However, this does not influence our evaluations. Our opinions are our own. Here is a list of our partners and here's how we make money.
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 Take
5.0
The bottom line:
on Webull's website
Pros & Cons
Pros
Commission-free stock, options and ETF trades.
Easy-to-use platform.
Advanced tools.
Access to cryptocurrency.
High interest rate on uninvested cash.
High order execution quality.
Cons
No mutual funds.
Thin educational support.
Compare to Similar Brokers
Current Product
NerdWallet rating 5.0 /5 | NerdWallet rating 4.9 /5 | NerdWallet rating 4.3 /5 | NerdWallet rating 4.6 /5 |
Fees $0 per trade | Fees $0 per online equity trade | Fees $0 per trade | Fees $0 |
Account minimum $0 | Account minimum $0 | Account minimum $0 | Account minimum $0 |
Promotion Get up to 75 free fractional shares (valued up to $3,000) when you open and fund an account with Webull. | Promotion None no promotion available at this time | Promotion 1 Free Stock after linking your bank account (stock value range $5.00-$200) | Promotion Earn up to $10,000 when you transfer your investment portfolio to Public. |
Learn more on Webull's website | Learn more on Charles Schwab's website | Learn more on Robinhood's website | Learn more on Public's website |
Get more smart money moves — straight to your inbox
Become a NerdWallet member, and we’ll send you tailored articles we think you’ll love.
Full Review
What we love about Webull
Webull is a well-reviewed, mobile-first trading app that has continually improved its offering year after year. It is one of the few brokers NerdWallet reviews that, as of 2024, earned the full five-star rating, along with Fidelity and Interactive Brokers. Here's what makes Webull stand out:
Its low costs: Webull ranks among the best in terms of costs, with free stock and options trades and no equity options contract fee.
The advanced tools: Webull was built to be user-friendly for a mobile-first generation, but that doesn’t come at the expense of advanced charting and screener tools.
The high interest rate on uninvested cash: Webull users can currently get 5% APY on their uninvested cash, which is among the highest of any brokerage.
Where we think Webull falls short
You can't invest in mutual funds. If you’re looking for the easy diversification of mutual funds, you won't find them at Webull.
There's not a lot of research support. Webull's third-party research and data offerings are lackluster compared to most other brokers.
Alternatives to consider:
For mutual funds: Interactive Brokers, E*Trade, Fidelity
For research and data: Charles Schwab, Tradestation, Fidelity, Interactive Brokers
Webull is a great fit for the following types of investors:
Intermediate traders: Webull isn't as advanced as Interactive Brokers, but you can do more than you can on Robinhood.
Active traders: If you're hoping to get more out of your investing than a buy-and-hold strategy, Webull could be a good choice.
Options traders: With no cost to trade equity options, this is a solid choice.
What the Nerds think 🤓
"From the moment you sign up, it feels like Webull has your back, and wants to give you the experience that's right for you. One of the first questions you're asked is whether you enjoy trading or investing. Tap trading, and you'll get a sophisticated platform built for advanced trading. Tap investing, and you'll get an interface with a little more hand-holding, fewer bells and whistles and access to long-term saving and investing products. And you can toggle back and forth, too.
Webull's paper trading platform is one of the most fun (and educational) out there. You're immediately given $1 million of play money and a full-fledged trading platform that looks and feels like the real thing. You can even practice options trading, which is a good thing, because options trading interfaces are rarely intuitive."
Webull at a glance
Options trades | $0 per trade and $0 per contract on equity options. $0.55 per contract on non-equity options such as index options. |
Interest rate on uninvested cash | 5%. |
Tradable securities | Stocks, ETFs, Options, ADRs, Crypto (via Webull Pay), Commodities, Futures |
Customer support options (includes how easy it is to find key details on the website) | Customer support available by phone from 9:00 a.m. Eastern time to 4:15 p.m. Email and in-app help center available 24/7. |
Execution quality | 99.43% |
Full details about Webull
Account minimum:
There is no account minimum at Webull.
Account fees:
Account fees are one area in which Webull has improved over the years; it has dropped its old transfer fee and joined the exclusive ranks of brokers that charge no account fees at all.
Stock trading costs:
Webull ranks high in terms of cost, with no account minimum and free trades on stocks, exchange-traded funds and American depository receipts.
Options trades:
Webull no longer offers completely-free trades on all options — they still do not charge a commission, and equity options are still no-contract-fee, but they do now charge a per-contract fee of $0.55 on index options. However, that's still lower than the fees charged by many other brokers.
Interest rate on uninvested cash:
Webull investors get their uninvested cash swept into a network of accounts at partner banks that accrue interest daily and pay it out monthly. Webull's 5% APY on uninvested cash is available to all users, and is one of the best cash interest rates among any broker.
Tradable securities:
Despite a robust offering for active traders, Webull lacks access to some common securities, such as mutual funds. Bonds are only available in the form of bond ETFs. For investors interested in saving for retirement in an IRA, this could make it harder to truly diversify across assets traditionally found in a retirement portfolio.
On the upside, Webull offers fractional shares — and provides cheap credit to advanced investors via some of the lowest margin rates in the business. It also recently launched commodities and futures trading.
Crypto offering: Webull's sister app Webull Pay gives investors the ability to trade 8 cryptocurrencies for USD. Webull Pay offers investors a smooth, easy-to-use trading interface. However, like many crypto offerings from stock brokers, it has fewer features than many pure-play crypto brokers. There are no crypto-crypto trading pairs, staking features, or third-party wallet compatibilities on Webull Pay, for example.
Number of no-transaction-fee mutual funds: Not rated.
Webull does not offer any mutual funds.
Trading platform:
Webull excels at marrying the minimalist look and feel the mobile-first generation is accustomed to with the capabilities of a more advanced product. This also helps Webull achieve the somewhat unique feat of creating a platform that bridges intermediate level trading and advanced trading, ushering users along their investment journey as they gain more experience. The extended trading hours — 4:00 a.m. Eastern time to 8:00 p.m. on weekdays — are a nice touch, as well.
How we nerd out testing trading platforms
Our reviewers — who are writers and editors on NerdWallet’s content team — hands-on test every online broker platform in our analysis. That way, we’re able to report on every aspect of the user experience, from funding a new account to actually placing trades.
We score each broker against a set of criteria that factors in both the capabilities offered and the actual user experience of trading with those capabilities. This includes how easy it was to sign up for and fund a new account. Note that a broker may score very highly for the platforms it offers, but low for the experience of actually using that platform. These are scored separately in our analysis, and they are weighted evenly when factored into the broker’s overall score. This means a broker can offer an advanced 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.
Webull offers investors access to initial public offerings (IPOs), as well as over-the-counter (OTC) stocks for an additional commission. That puts it ahead of some brokers in terms of the capabilities of its trading platform — but behind those that offer free OTC stock trades.
But in trying to appeal to both beginner and advanced investors, Webull delivers a less-than-perfect product for both groups. New investors might struggle to find the "buy" and "sell" buttons amidst all the chart widgets and screeners, while advanced investors might find those widgets and screeners somewhat disappointing compared to what's available from other trading-oriented brokers.
Webull also accepts payment for order flow (PFOF), which can result in orders being executed slightly slower or at slightly worse prices than at non-PFOF brokers — although its effects will be negligible for most investors. The PFOF business model involves routing customer orders through trading firms for execution, and the trading firms can use the customer order data to inform their own trading decisions. Webull says its execution quality is 99.43%.
The average execution quality of all brokers we review was 97.4% as of Aug. 31, 2023. That means 97.4% of orders sold for at a price that was at or better than the National Best Bid and Offer. Executing at or above the NBBO means you may receive a price improvement or a better share price than you were originally quoted.
Mobile app:
Webull has a highly rated mobile app, which makes sense, considering it’s targeting mobile-first customers. Within the app, users can access advanced features, like charts and indicators, a paper trading account and voice command functionality.
Research and data:
Webull's third-party research and data offerings feel significantly more limited than those of their competitors. Investors get access to data from Refinitiv and news from Bloomberg. A handful of other services are available — but less than most other brokers offer.
Customer support options:
Webull offers customer support via phone during market hours, by email 24/7, and an easily-navigable website. Its educational support offerings, however, are limited.
Is Webull right for you?
If you’re a true beginner, or if you’ve yet to build a well-diversified, long-term portfolio, there may be other brokers better suited for you. However, if you’ve got an intermediate level of experience, are interested in active trading or are hoping to improve your trading skills through advanced orders and technical analysis, Webull could be a good fit — especially considering its low price point compared with brokers with similar offerings.
How do we review brokers?
NerdWallet’s comprehensive review process evaluates and ranks the largest U.S. brokers 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 judgments on which ones will best meet your needs. We adhere to strict guidelines for editorial integrity.
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. 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.
on Webull's website