Investment Platforms
Our Top Picks
Webull
A Traditional Trading Account
When you open an account through this link
You receive a random free stock valued between $3-$300
When you make any deposit
You receive a second free stock valued between $8-$1,000
- Great for beginners or experts
- Fractional shares just launched, enabling investing for as little as $5
- Traditional, basic investing functionality
- Free trading & no minimum balance
- Stocks, ETF’s, & crypto trading
- Both regular & retirement accounts
- Customer service seems good
- Mobile account opening & trading is simple
- Interface is easy enough, but still serious (not gamified)
- Extensive research tools for advanced investors
- Only available in United States, India, Brazil, Turkey, the Philippines, Malaysia, Japan, China, and Korea for now
- No cash checking
- Extensive tools might be a little overwhelming at first
- Relatively new institution.
M1 Finance
Assisted & Automated Trading
When you open an account with $1,000 through this link:
You receive $30 free cash from M1
- Great for beginners or experts
- Automated investing made very easy with auto-transfers, auto-invest, and auto-rebalancing, on fully customizable portfolios down to specific stocks
- Removes the intimidating process of placing trades
- Build an investment portfolio of stocks & ETF’s by choosing what percent you want in each investment, not by purchasing individual shares
- Or choose any pre-designed portfolios
- You’re always 100% invested
- Helpful growth projections
- No management or trading fees
- Both regular & retirement accounts
- One-stop-shop with checking accounts & loans with solid rates
- Mobile account opening is simple
- Responsive customer service over email, available for 1-on-1 tutorials
- Only available for US-based investors
- $100 minimum balance
- Unique interface takes a couple days to get used to
- No live customer service chat
- Relatively new institution with small asset size
Fidelity
Another Traditional Trading Account
No special promotions
- Great for beginners or experts
- Large, reliable institution
- Traditional investing functionality
- Free trading & no minimum balance
- Fractional shares available - invest in stocks & ETF's for as little as $1
- Stocks, ETF’s, & mutual funds
- The interface is serious, but manageable once you're used to it
- Good, responsive customer service for a big institution
- Educational resources for new investors
- Extensive research tools for advanced investors
- Wide account offering - regular, retirement, college savings, cash, charitable, & more
- No free stocks or cash for account opening
- No crypto
- Somewhat ugly/complicated interface
- Extensive tools might be a little overwhelming at first
- Only available for US-based investors
Webull
A Traditional Trading Account
When you open an account through this link
You receive a random free stock valued between $3-$300
When you make any deposit
You receive a second free stock valued between $8-$1,000
- Great for beginners or experts
- Fractional shares just launched, enabling investing for as little as $5
- Traditional, basic investing functionality
- Free trading & no minimum balance
- Stocks, ETF’s, & crypto trading
- Both regular & retirement accounts
- Customer service seems good
- Mobile account opening & trading is simple
- Interface is easy enough, but still serious (not gamified)
- Extensive research tools for advanced investors
- Only available in United States, India, Brazil, Turkey, the Philippines, Malaysia, Japan, China, and Korea for now
- No cash checking
- Extensive tools might be a little overwhelming at first
- Relatively new institution.
M1 Finance
Assisted & Automated Trading
When you open an account with $1,000 through this link:
You receive $30 free cash from M1
- Great for beginners or experts
- Automated investing made very easy with auto-transfers, auto-invest, and auto-rebalancing, on fully customizable portfolios down to specific stocks
- Removes the intimidating process of placing trades
- Build an investment portfolio of stocks & ETF’s by choosing what percent you want in each investment, not by purchasing individual shares
- Or choose any pre-designed portfolios
- You’re always 100% invested
- Helpful growth projections
- No management or trading fees
- Both regular & retirement accounts
- One-stop-shop with checking accounts & loans with solid rates
- Mobile account opening is simple
- Responsive customer service over email, available for 1-on-1 tutorials
- Only available for US-based investors
- $100 minimum balance
- Unique interface takes a couple days to get used to
- No live customer service chat
- Relatively new institution with small asset size
Fidelity
Another Traditional Trading Account
No special promotions
- Great for beginners or experts
- Large, reliable institution
- Traditional investing functionality
- Free trading & no minimum balance
- Fractional shares available - invest in stocks & ETF's for as little as $1
- Stocks, ETF’s, & mutual funds
- The interface is serious, but manageable once you're used to it
- Good, responsive customer service for a big institution
- Educational resources for new investors
- Extensive research tools for advanced investors
- Wide account offering - regular, retirement, college savings, cash, charitable, & more
- No free stocks or cash for account opening
- No crypto
- Somewhat ugly/complicated interface
- Extensive tools might be a little overwhelming at first
- Only available for US-based investors
We only recommend financial services that meet these criteria:
- Our users have asked for help evaluating this service.
- We use these services ourselves when possible.
- We’ve evaluated several alternative options for that service.
- We truly believe the chosen services provide greater value for our users.
How does Share Scoops make money?
By clicking the links above, you're helping Share Scoops continue to provide our completely free services to our users.
We've negotiated marketing partnerships with many of the services recommended on our page so that we can be compensated for the traffic of educated users we direct to these companies. You don't have any obligation to use our links, but by using these links you help us earn revenue or make a better case to that service provider for a revenue relationship.
Our intention is to align our revenue with our mission. If we can help more people straighten out their personal finances and build the confidence to start investing, everybody wins. So we're curating the financial services that align with our criteria to help our users take that next step safely.
If you have any feedback on the partners we've chosen, please don't hesitate to reach us at team@sharescoops.com.
Disclosures & Additional Info
Share Scoops, Inc. is not a registered investment, legal, or tax advisor; or a broker/dealer. All investment/financial opinions expressed on this site or in our content are based on personal research and experience and are intended as educational material only. Although best efforts are made to ensure that all information is accurate and up to date, occasionally unintended errors and misprints may occur. Investing involves risk. The value of your investments will fluctuate over time, and you may gain or lose money. Investing is serious stuff. Invest at your own risk.
Pick the platform that makes investing easy
At the end of the day, it’s all about what’s right for you. If you’re just buying basic funds and stocks to hold for the long term, you can do that almost anywhere. Just find a respectable institution that charges no fees and has an interface that you don’t hate using. You want to feel comfortable using it.