Best Investing Apps: Top Picks for 2024

What is an investment app?

Investing apps allow you to buy and sell stocks, exchange-traded funds and other investments on your mobile phone, through an online brokerage account.

High-quality investing apps like the ones we've highlighted on our list allow you to monitor your investments and make investment decisions on the go, delivering an experience that's very similar to the broker's desktop platform. Many of the brokers we review have well-received investment apps that are suitable for beginners and advanced investors alike. But if a brokerage account's mobile experience is most important to you, we've narrowed down this list to help you find the best options.

Which features are most important when choosing the best investing app?

The most important thing to consider when choosing an investing app is how you're going to use it — if you're a frequent stock trader, you may require different functionality than someone who simply wants to monitor the performance of their long-term investments. Here's a Nerdy overview of the features you might consider when choosing the best app for you:

How much money do you need to start investing through an app?

For some apps, $1. Thanks to micro-investing apps like Acorns and Stash, you can kick-start an investment portfolio with small amounts of money — just your spare change, in fact. Acorns, for example, sweeps a linked credit or debit card account, rounds up purchases to the nearest dollar and invests the change. Stash offers a similar opt-in feature that rounds up purchases to deposit money in a user's account.

Beyond the micro-investing apps, the amount of money you’ll need to begin investing after you open your account depends on the assets you intend to buy. Individual stock shares range from as little as a few dollars to hundreds or even thousands of dollars per share. Mutual funds often have minimums, but exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and index funds are more accessible to smaller investments.

Many of NerdWallet’s picks for best apps have no account minimum, so you can open an account right away and entirely online. Here’s more on what a brokerage account is and how to open one.

What investments can you trade through an investing app?

The investments available to you will vary by broker. Typically, an app from a traditional online broker will offer the largest range of investment options, while smaller apps or start-ups tend to limit their selection. Here are some investments that may be offered through an investment app:

• Stocks

• Bonds

• Mutual funds

• Index funds

• Exchange-traded funds

• Options

• Cryptocurrencies

• Futures

• Forex

• Commodities

If you're looking to trade more advanced or niche investments, such as crypto or forex, you'll want to ensure that your broker actually offers that before you decide. Our individual broker reviews list what types of assets you can trade through each brokerage.

Here are the six top-scoring investment apps and the securities they offer:

And while InteractiveBrokers isn't one of the top-scoring investment apps, it does feature the largest selection of tradable securities, including stocks, mutual funds, ETFs, bonds, options, futures, forex, crypto and metals.

Which investing app is best for stock traders?

Many of the apps above are good choices for stock traders, but to see a list specifically focused on trading, check out our picks for the best stock apps.

What is the best investment app for beginners?

For new investors, working with a larger, established brokerage like Fidelity or Charles Schwab is often a good fit — their apps rate highly, and they also offer higher levels of educational support and strong customer service. You might also consider an investing app from a robo-advisor. Robo-advisors build and manage portfolios for you, often using ETFs, so you don't have to choose any investments yourself.

While the idea of buying individual stocks might be exciting, building a portfolio of stocks requires a fair amount of research and discipline. ETFs offer instant diversification in that they contain shares of multiple companies (dozens, even) like a mutual fund, but trade like individual stocks.

If buying individual shares of companies is something you’d like to do, see our guide on how to buy stocks.

Are investing apps safe?

Just as FDIC insurance insures bank accounts, SIPC insurance insures the money you have in your brokerage account (or robo-advisor account) up to $500,000. This includes investing apps. $250,000 of that total can be applied to protect cash that you haven’t yet invested. All of NerdWallet’s picks for best apps are members of the SIPC. (Here’s more on SIPC insurance and what it does and doesn’t protect.)

Some of the investment apps listed here also offer bank or savings accounts, which are FDIC insured against loss.

Investment apps typically also use industry-standard security measures, including two-factor authentication, hashing of passwords and encryption of personal information.

What happens if an investment app goes out of business?

If your brokerage (app or brick-and-mortar institution) goes out of business, it's highly unlikely that you will lose all your money. If another institution agrees to buy the failing brokerage, your assets will be transferred to the new brokerage. Many brokerages hold the amount they would need to cover that type of loss and keep it separate from their own holdings. Worst case scenario, the federal government offers SIPC insurance that will likely reimburse you for the value of your account at the time of the brokerage's failure.

Can you lose money with an investing app?

Yes, it is possible to lose money through an investment app, but that largely depends on how you invest your money within the app, rather than the app itself. Like traditional brokers, your investment decisions can determine how much money you gain or lose and how "safe" your money is overall. Some investments carry more risk than others — for example, individual stocks or cryptocurrencies are known to be riskier than funds, bonds or Treasurys.