6 Best Investment Apps for Beginners for May 2024

Robinhood

Best investing app for beginners who: Want a user-friendly platform with minimal expenses.

Robinhood pioneered the concept of a low-cost, beginner-friendly trading app, and it is still one of the best in the business. Robinhood makes it extremely easy for beginners to start buying and selling stocks, and with fractional share trading, newer investors can build a diverse portfolio with little capital. It also offers one of the best cryptocurrency trading platforms that is also integrated with a stock trading app.

Why beginning investors might love Robinhood

No commissions: Robinhood is one of the few beginner investing apps that doesn’t charge anything for options or cryptocurrency trading. (Robinhood, like most investing apps don’t charge commissions on stock trading.)
Fractional share trading: Fractional shares allow beginning investors to construct a diversified portfolio with little capital.
Cryptocurrencies: Robinhood has more than a dozen cryptocurrencies available on its platform — perfect for beginner investors interested in getting started with crypto.

Why some beginning investors might not choose Robinhood

Membership: Some features, like stock research, require a Robinhood Gold membership, which beginners may not be ready to commit to.
Investment options: If you’d like to get started investing with mutual funds or bond investments, this isn’t the beginner app for you: Mutual funds and bond investments are not available on Robinhood.
Light on features: Though this is otherwise a beginner-friendly app, there are few educational resources to help new investors learn.

Read our full review of Robinhood.

SoFi Invest

Best investing app for beginners who: Want a one-stop-shop for managing their money.

SoFi is best-known for its loan products and online bank accounts — but it also offers an excellent investment platform that could be a great fit for beginners. In simple terms, SoFi offers a rare combination of an easy-to-use platform and lots of functionality. The SoFi Invest platform allows users to buy stocks (even new IPOs) and options, with no commissions, making it an extremely accessible option. Additionally, the SoFi Invest platform is a top choice for new investors who want to put their investing strategies on autopilot.

Why beginning investors might love SoFi

Low-cost: No trading commissions (including options) or account minimums — great for beginning investors who want to start small.
Fractional share trading: Fractional shares allow beginning investors to put together a diversified portfolio with little capital.
Great for learning: SoFi offers lots of educational resources compared to other apps, which can help investors become more skillful over time.
Robo-advisor: SoFi Automated Investing is an excellent automated investing platform for new investors who would like a hands-off option.

Why some beginning investors might not choose SoFi

Investment choices: SoFi Invest doesn’t offer mutual funds or fixed income investments, which might be appealing investments to some beginners.
Account types: Some account types aren’t available. SoFi offers basic individual investment accounts, as well as traditional, Roth, and SEP IRAs.

Read our full review of SoFi Active Investing.

Acorns

Best investing app for beginners who: Want an easy-to-use way to automate their investing.

Acorns is a robo-advisor app that makes investing even easier than most others do. In addition to being able to directly contribute money, Acorns allows customers to link their credit and debit cards and round up purchases to the nearest dollar to invest the change — so beginners can start investing without much of a hit to their budget. It offers several different account types, a paired checking account product, and the Acorns Earn platform that allows customers to earn free investment dollars when making purchases through Acorns’ partners.

Why beginning investors might love Acorns

Easy to automate investing: Acorns allows beginning investors to make one-time contributions, recurring investments, and to round up purchases and invest their spare change.
Top-rated app: Acorns’ app is easy to navigate and set up and has high ratings on the App Store and Google Play store.
Easy investing options: Acorns has five investment options to choose from, with easy-to-understand names like “aggressive” and “moderately conservative.”

Why some beginning investors might not choose Acorns

Pricing: While we’re generally a fan of Acorns’ straightforward pricing ($3, $5, or $9 per month, depending on the membership level), it can also make this an expensive platform for new investors just getting started.
No human advisors: Some robo-advisor apps offer access to real-live 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.

Read our full review of Acorns.

Betterment

Best investing app for beginners who: Want to automate their investments with a feature-packed platform.

Betterment was one of the pioneers of the automated investing industry and is still one of the best today. It has no minimum investment requirement, which is key for beginners looking to just dip their toes into investing. It also features a relatively low 0.25% management fee, so you won’t have fees cutting into your gains. Betterment offers features that could be very appealing to beginners, including an integrated high-yield savings account and the ability to invest in cryptocurrency portfolios.

Why beginning investors might love Betterment

Low-cost: Betterment has no minimum investment requirements, and a reasonable 0.25% management fee. This amount could be considered average, but we think it’s a deal considering the amount of features Betterment offers to beginning investors.
Cash management: Betterment has an integrated high-yield savings account that rivals most online banks.
Cryptocurrencies: Although they aren’t right for all investors, cryptocurrency portfolios are available as an investment choice. If you’re looking at getting started with crypto, Betterment is an app to consider.

Why some beginning investors might not choose Betterment

Lack of human help: Human financial advisor access requires a $100,000 balance, as well as a premium membership, which comes with a significantly higher management fee. This might not be accessible to some beginning investors.
Only a robo-advisor: Betterment doesn’t offer self-directed investing (you can’t buy stocks). While some beginning investors might prefer a robo-advisor, others will like the option to pick their own stocks.

Read our full review of Betterment.

Cash App Investing

Best investing app for beginners who: Want an easy-to-use platform to buy and sell stocks.

Cash App Investing offers its users the ability to buy and sell stocks, as well as Bitcoin, within the popular Cash App personal finance app. It offers fractional share investing, which allows beginners to create a diverse stock portfolio without a ton of capital, and there are no commissions whatsoever. The biggest downside to investing with Cash App Investing is that it doesn’t offer mutual funds, bonds, or any other investment type beyond stocks, ETFs, and Bitcoin.

Why beginning investors might love Cash App Investing

Easy to use: Cash App Investing makes it extremely easy for new investors to buy and sell stocks. All it takes to get started is just a couple taps on your screen and you can start a portfolio of your own.
Functionality: The ability to buy and sell stocks and cryptocurrencies integrates easily with the popular Cash App platform.
Fractional share trading: Fractional shares allow beginning investors to construct a diversified portfolio with little capital.

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, fixed income investments, or several other types of securities that may appeal to beginners.
Light on features: Cash App Investing offers some basic beginner educational tools, but not nearly as many as some of its rivals. It also is lacking in features like stock research reports.
Doesn’t support IRA investing: Cash App Investing offers one type of investment account, a standard taxable brokerage account. Beginners who want to start an IRA for retirement will have to look elsewhere.

Read our full review of Cash App Investing.

Stash

Best investing app for beginners 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 on its platform.

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 all in one. It can be a great choice if you want to put some of your investing strategy on autopilot, while simultaneously building a portfolio of stocks and ETFs.
Fractional shares: Stash offers the ability to buy fractional shares of stocks and ETFs, which can allow you to start investing with relatively little upfront capital, and to create a diversified portfolio without having to be able to buy at least one share of each stock.
Great debit card: Stash offers the excellent Stock-Back® Card, which is a debit card that allows you to use the uninvested cash in your account to pay for purchases. Instead of earning cash back rewards, debit card purchases are rewarded with stock, either 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: 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. But some competitors pay interest on uninvested cash, and Stash does not.

Read our full review of Stash.