Robinhood is known as the original commission free trading app that kicked off the zero trading commission revolution. Now, almost every major brokerage platform has followed suit and ditched commissions. The launch date for the Robinhood app was in March of 2015.
Years later, Webull emerges as a competitor in May of 2018. Despite the multi-year head start advantage, Robinhood ended up losing a lot of customers to the new competitor Webull. That is largely based on the features available within the app. A lot of people refer to Webull as the "more advanced version of Robinhood."
Since they both offer commission free trading of numerous financial assets, Robinhood and Webull have a lot in common. However, there are some key differences to highlight between them.
Keep on reading to learn more about the similarities and differences between Webull vs Robinhood, or check out our video on the topic below.
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In a nutshell, Robinhood is designed to be the most user friendly app for beginners looking to invest. They have accomplished exactly that.
Webull, on the other hand, is designed for those who are looking for the same commission free trading as Robinhood with a lot more features. Both the Webull desktop trading platform and the app have top notch charting and features.
However, Webull is often an overwhelming experience for those who are investing for the first time. With so much information available at your fingertips, it often leads to analysis paralysis.
So, Robinhood has cornered a great market being the most beginner friendly trading app. Webull, on the other hand, provides a more advanced experience.
Here's how Webull and Robinhood compare based on different categories.
On both Webull and Robinhood, you will find regular taxable and margin accounts. With a Robinhood Gold account, you will even get a reduced interest rate on margin and get level 2 market data.
Both platforms also offer retirement account. You can invest in a traditional or Roth IRA with either platform. Robinhood just recently unveiled their match program. With an IRA on Robinhood, you will receive a 1% match from Robinhood for every contribution you make. This may not sound like much, but over time, it can equal quite a bit! A match on IRA contributions is very unusual. Typically, a match occurs with an employer provided retirement account only such as a 401k.
You might be thinking that retirement accounts don't make sense for an active trading platform like Webull. However, a lot of savvy investors often place short term trades within retirement accounts in order to avoid capital gains.
This is one of the many benefits of Roth IRA investing.
Webull and Robinhood Customer Service Options:
Both Webull and Robinhood offer the same level of customer support. However, you should expect either option to be a bit of a hassle. These apps are known for commission free trading, not award winning customer service.
If customer service is your main objective, you may want to consider a brokerage platform like Fidelity or Charles Schwab.
Robinhood and Webull are tied when it comes to customer service.
Webull is a bit of a "one trick pony" when it comes to the trading app. That is because they don't offer any other financial products at this time.
Robinhood does have a Cash Management account for those looking to make the most of their uninvested savings. Within Cash Management, you can also get a debit card and checking account.
It's basically a checking account without account minimums and most other fees associated with a traditional bank account. You also get access to over 75,000 free ATM's. Overall, the checking/savings accounts offered by Robinhood are quite lackluster. Bank accounts are inherently boring, but still, there isn't much offered in terms of features or benefits here.
Both Webull and Robinhood support zero commission trading of a limited selection of cryptocurrencies within the app. At the time of this writing, both platforms offer about 20 coins. A crypto platform such as Coinbase or Crypto.com will offer far more options.
With exchanges out there like Coinbase, you are able to send and receive cryptocurrencies as long as you have a verified account. This is not the case with Webull. You can buy crypto, but you can't send it anywhere.
Robinhood's Crypto Wallet does allow both sending and receiving of cryptocurrency.
Both Webull and Robinhood offer a few more features:
However, there are a few key differentiators. Robinhood offers automatic dividend reinvestment, whereas Webull does not. Dividend investors may lean towards Robinhood for that reason.
We do have to give Webull credit for offering a trading simulator, something you won't find on Robinhood. This allows you to test the Webull app as well as your trading strategy with $1,000,000 of pretend money. Webull will also give you access to a lot of advanced charting and research tools that you simply won't find on the Robinhood app. Keep in mind, Robinhood is designed to be as beginner friendly as possible.
Also, as mentioned earlier, Webull does have retirement accounts as well. This is not yet available on the Robinhood app.
If you are a brand new investor looking to trade assets with a simple user friendly app, that is quite literally what Robinhood was designed for.
You will be able to get your feet wet in the world of stock and ETF investing and maybe even explore the word of options or crypto trading. Robinhood allows you to invest in a small handful of cryptocurrencies right within the app.
If you plan on managing your money in one place, that can be accomplished as well with the Cash Management account from Robinhood. You will be able to save, invest and spend all within one app. However, be careful about taking on too much risk or dabbling in financial assets you wouldn't ordinarily invest in. Robinhood offers easy access to options, which are a way a lot of people actually lose money in the stock market.
Robinhood if often criticized for overall "gamification" of the investing process.
If you are looking to get started with Robinhood, check out our free training below!
If you have any level of experience with investing, you may want to choose Webull over Robinhood. Many people start out with Robinhood only to find out that it is lacking a lot of research tools and advanced charting features.
Robinhood did add candlestick charts, which is a plus, but that is about as far as it goes. Webull, on the other hand, provides you with access to dozens of technical indicators at your fingertips.
Crypto investors will also find a much wider selection of cryptocurrencies available for trading over on Webull compared to Robinhood. Again, the same warning applies to Webull as it did above with Robinhood. Webull offers easy access to options trading and other strategies such as margin or short selling. Be sure to consider the risks involved with these strategies before enabling these features within Webull.
If you are looking to get started with Webull, check out our free training below!
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