Best Beginner Investment Apps: Ranked 6 Best (2024)

The best investment apps for beginners let you open accounts for $0 and trade stock with as little as $1. In addition, these apps teach you how to invest with bite-sized videos and articles. You can pick up the basics while you earn -- no need to spend hundreds on Finance 101 courses. Some apps will even do your trading for you, managing your stock while you sleep.

We've waded through the fees, reviews, and fine print for over 45 brokers. See our picks for the best investment apps for beginners below:

2 Featured Picks From Our Best Investment Apps for Beginners

We've highlighted a short list of investment apps for beginners below, in case you're short on time:

• SoFi Active Investing: Great broker for beginners
• Robinhood: Standout mobile brokerage app

How do I choose a brokerage app for beginners?

Here's how to choose the perfect investment app:

SoFi Invest

Why SoFi Invest made the list: It's best for those who want a one-stop-shop for managing their money.

SoFi Invest offers a beginner-friendly place to buy and sell stocks. Even better, SoFi combines its investing, banking, and lending products in one app, making it a one-stop-shop for your money. SoFi Invest offers an easy-to-use platform with lots of features. For example, SoFi Invest lets you buy both stocks and options, including new IPOs. It charges no commissions, making it accessible. Plus, SoFi helps hands-off beginners put investing on autopilot. It covers tons of bases, and it does so without forcing you to wade through a monstrous fee schedule. That's a win, and it easily lands SoFi on our best-of list.

Why beginning investors might love SoFi Invest

• Low costs: There are no trading commissions, even for options, and no account minimums. This is great for new investors who want to start small.
• Fractional share trading: Fractional shares let beginners buy stocks with little money.
• Great for learning: SoFi Invest offers lots of educational resources compared to other apps. These resources can help beginner investors become more skillful over time.
• Robo-advisor: SoFi Automated Investing is a great platform for new investors. It offers a hands-off option, and you can open an account from the same app you use to manage other SoFi accounts.

Why some beginning investors might not choose SoFi Invest

• Investment choices: Investment choices are limited. For example, SoFi Invest doesn't offer cryptocurrency trading.
• Account types: Some account types aren't available. SoFi Invest offers basic individual investment accounts. It also offers traditional, Roth, and SEP IRAs.

Robinhood

Why Robinhood made the list: It's best for those seeking an easy-to-use platform with low costs.

Robinhood was the first to offer a low-cost, beginner-friendly trading app. It is still one of the best in the business. The investing app makes it easy for beginners to start buying and selling stocks, even if you've never done it before. (I bought my first stock on Robinhood, and it was easy.) Newer investors can use fractional share trading to build diverse portfolios with little money. Robinhood also has one of the best cryptocurrency trading platforms.

Why beginning investors might love Robinhood

• No commissions: Robinhood has no commissions. It's one of the few beginner investing apps that charges $0 for options or cryptocurrency trading. (Robinhood, like most investing apps, doesn't charge commissions on stock trading.)
• Fractional share trading: Fractional shares let beginner investors build diversified portfolios with little money.
• Cryptocurrencies: Robinhood has more than a dozen cryptocurrencies available on its platform. It's perfect for beginner investors getting started with crypto.

Why some beginning investors might not choose Robinhood

• Membership: Some features require Robinhood Gold, a paid membership. Beginners may not be ready to commit to it.
• Investment options: This app isn't for beginners who want to invest in mutual funds or bonds. Robinhood doesn't offer them.
• Light on features: The Robinhood app lacks features, and only offers basic investment and account types. For example, it doesn't offer custodial accounts.

Stash

Why Stash made the list: It's best for those who want to get started buying stocks and could use some guidance.

Stash combines a robo-advisor and self-directed brokerage in one app. You can use Stash to automate your investing, to build a portfolio of stocks without much initial capital, or both. Stash offers regular (taxable) brokerage accounts, retirement accounts, and custodial accounts.

Why beginning investors might love Stash

• Active and passive in one: Stash is a combination of a highly rated robo-advisor and a do-it-yourself broker. It's great for putting some of your investing strategy on autopilot, while simultaneously building a portfolio of stocks and ETFs.
• Fractional shares: Fractional shares let beginner investors build diversified portfolios with little money.
• Great debit card: Stash offers the excellent Stock-Back® Card, a debit card that lets you use the uninvested cash in your account to pay for purchases. Instead of giving cash back rewards, Stash rewards your debit card purchases with stock. You can choose to get stock in the company where you make the purchase or in a default investment of your choice.

Why some beginning investors might not choose Stash

• Monthly fees: Unlike most robo-advisors, Stash charges a monthly fee instead of a percentage of assets. These fees range from $3 to $9 per month. If you're just getting started and don't have a giant account balance, this can be a relatively high percentage of your portfolio that is being used to pay fees.
• Doesn't pay interest on cash: Some competitors pay interest on uninvested cash, but Stash does not. To be fair, the Stock-Back® Card can be better than an interest-bearing cash management account, especially for those who don't maintain high cash balances.

Acorns

Why Acorns made the list: It's best for those who want to make investing easy and automatic.

Acorns is a robo-advisor app that makes investing even easier than most beginner-friendly investing apps. You can contribute to your Acorns account through direct transfers or Round-Ups. Round-Ups round up your debit and credit card purchases to the nearest dollar and invest the difference. It makes saving small amounts easy and painless.

Why beginning investors might love Acorns

• Easy to automate investing: Investing with Acorns is easy to automate. It allows new investors to make one-time and recurring contributions. You can also round up purchases and invest your spare change.
• Top-rated app: The Acorns app is easy to navigate and set up, and it has high ratings on the App Store and Google Play store.
• Easy investing options: Acorns has five investment options. They have easy-to-understand themes like "aggressive" and "moderately conservative."

Why some beginning investors might not choose Acorns

• Straightforward pricing: We generally like Acorns' pricing: $3, $6, or $12 per month, based on the membership level. But it can be expensive for new investors.
• No human advisors: Some robo-advisory apps offer access to human financial advisors, but Acorns isn't one of them. If you're a beginning investor who wants human guidance, you'll need to look elsewhere.

Betterment

Why Betterment made the list: It's best for those who want to automate investments with a feature-packed platform.

Betterment is an oldie but goodie, among the best investment apps. It has no minimum investment requirement. This is key for beginners who want to dip their toes into investing. It charges a low 0.25% management fee, so you won't have fees cutting into your gains too much. Standout features include a high-yield savings account and cryptocurrency portfolios.

Why beginning investors might love Betterment

• Low-cost: Betterment has no minimum investment requirement and a reasonable 0.25% fee. This amount could be seen as average. But we think it's a deal because of the many features Betterment offers to beginning investors.
• Cash management: Betterment helps with cash management. It has a high-yield savings account that rivals most online banks'.
• Cryptocurrencies: Betterment is one of the few beginner-friendly apps that offers crypto. It's not for everyone, but if you're interested, it's a perk.

Why some beginning investors might not choose Betterment

• Lack of human help: Lack of human help is an issue. You need a $100,000 balance to access a human financial advisor. You also need a premium membership, which comes with a much higher management fee.
• Only a robo-advisor: Betterment doesn't offer self-directed investing (you can't buy individual stocks). Look elsewhere to create custom portfolios.

Cash App Investing

Why Cash App Investing made the list: It's best for those who want an easy-to-use platform to buy and sell stocks.

Cash App Investing lets you buy and sell stocks and Bitcoin in the popular Cash App. It offers fractional share investing, so you can buy slices of stocks for as little as $1. There are no commissions. The main downside to Cash App Investing is that it's barebones. The app lacks mutual funds, bonds, and other investment types. It only offers stocks, ETFs, and Bitcoin.

Why beginning investors might love Cash App Investing

• Easy to use: Cash App Investing makes it easy for new investors to buy and sell stocks. All it takes to get started is a couple of taps on your screen.
• Functionality: The app lets you buy and sell stocks and Bitcoin. It connects easily with the popular Cash App platform.
• Fractional share trading: Fractional shares let beginning investors build stock portfolios with little money.

Why some beginning investors might not choose Cash App Investing

• Few investment choices: Cash App Investing only accommodates stocks, ETFs, and Bitcoin. You can't buy mutual funds or fixed income investments.
• Light on features: It has few features. Cash App Investing offers basic tools for beginners, but it has far fewer than some of its rivals.
• Doesn't support IRA investing: Cash App Investing offers one type of investment account: a standard taxable brokerage account. Beginners who want to open an IRA for retirement will have to look elsewhere.

You can get started with an investment app by opening a brokerage account online:

1. Download the app on your mobile device. Search the app in your app store.
2. Sign-up for an account. Have your personal information on hand.
3. Deposit money into your account if necessary. Some robo-advisors only let you open an account if you deposit money right away.

Some apps let you create accounts on your computer. It may be easier to open an account on a bigger screen than your phone. Some apps offer limited-time brokerage bonuses. Check these out to earn cash for opening a new account.

Once you've created a brokerage account, you can dive right in to get started.

Put money in the market

When you're new, it's time to start exploring investments. The U.S. stock market offers thousands of investment options to choose from. If it's overwhelming, that's OK. You can start with small deposits. Many investment apps let you buy fractional shares for as little as $1.

Check out educational content

Many investment apps for beginners offer bite-sized educational content. Think three-minute articles or short YouTube videos. You can sometimes find these in your app. Or, you can check your app's online website or YouTube account.

Tweak your strategy

Practice investing to see what it's like. Notice when the market moves and how your investments fluctuate. Are your picks volatile? Do you feel OK watching your picks go up and down in value? If not, you may want to choose a more conservative investment strategy.

Conservative investment strategies vary. You might put most of your money in an ETF. Or, you might build a portfolio of 25 or more diversified stocks. The point is to keep your balance stable. That way, you stress less when the market makes big moves.

It's totally normal to tweak your strategy. You don't know what it's like to invest until you try. Even a small stake can vastly change your perspective of what it means to own shares or crypto.

Keep an eye out for fees

Watch out for fees you may have missed. If your investment app charges you a fee a month after opening an account, you may have been charged a monthly maintenance fee. If so, you may want to switch brokers. Many don't charge maintenance fees at all.

But some of the best robo-advisors charge low management fees. It's normal to see these hit your account. You may be charged monthly or yearly. Check your broker's fee schedule to confirm. All the brokerage fees should be listed on its website.

Check in for the latest promos

Investment apps frequently offer promos. You may be able to get free stock for referring friends. Or, you may be able to earn a bonus for transferring money over from another brokerage. It's worth keeping an eye on. You may earn a little extra income -- hundreds of dollars' worth.

Investment apps give you a variety of investing options.

You can buy stocks and ETFs

Investment apps typically let you buy stocks and ETFs. Some let you trade options and futures, though these are not beginner-friendly investments. Some let you trade cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum. Rarely, an investment app will let you trade mutual funds. If you want to trade more than stocks and ETFs, then filter out brokers that don't offer your preferred investment types. You probably want to do all your investing in one place. It's simpler.

You can open taxable brokerage accounts

Investment apps typically let you open taxable brokerage accounts, the standard account type for investing. But only some let you open traditional and Roth IRAs, good for retirement. Fewer still let you open other account types, including custodial accounts for kids and SEP IRAs for small business owners.

Online brokers offer more features

To buy other investments or open other account types, you may need to open an account with a brokerage that offers online or in-person access. Investment apps for beginners tend to be on the simpler side. Many online stock brokers let you trade other investments.

The best investment apps let you start investing for as little as $1. Investment apps that offer fractional shares are the best for starting small. You can invest $1 to $5 in big-name stocks. It's an easy way to avoid breaking the bank.

You can typically open an account with $0, no minimum deposit required. There are some exceptions, though. You may need to deposit thousands of dollars to open a robo-advisory account with access to financial advisors.

Investment apps are safe for beginners and investors of all skill levels when they and partner banks are SIPC and FDIC insured. The Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC) and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) keep your deposits safe up to $250,000. So, if your investment app goes bankrupt, you'll get your money back up to that amount.

To be extra safe, you can spread investments out. You can do this by opening another brokerage account when your balance nears $250,000. Or, you can move some of your money into a bank account, a different account type.

The FDIC and SIPC separate limits on accounts at different banks and brokerages. You can increase your $250,000 limit by splitting your investments across financial institutions. You mostly want to be sure your investment app is protected by the SIPC for securities and FDIC for uninvested cash. It's the safest way to guarantee you'll get your money back if something happens to the app.

At The Motley Fool Ascent, brokerages are rated on a scale of one to five stars. We primarily focus on fees, available assets, and user experience; however, we also take into account features like research, education, tax-loss harvesting, and customer service. Our highest-rated brokerages generally include low fees, a diverse range of assets and account types, and useful platform features.

See our full methodology here: Ratings Methodology