7 Best Stock Brokers & Trading Platforms for 2025

Most people will want to use an online broker to buy and sell stocks. Our goal is to give you the best advice to help you make smart personal finance decisions. We follow strict guidelines to ensure that our editorial content is not influenced by advertisers. Our editorial team receives no direct compensation from advertisers, and our content is thoroughly fact-checked to ensure accuracy. So, whether you’re reading an article or a review, you can trust that you’re getting credible and dependable information. Any estimates based on https://www.xcritical.com/ past performance do not a guarantee future performance, and prior to making any investment you should discuss your specific investment needs or seek advice from a qualified professional.

For all-in-one app: SoFi Active Investing

Robinhood Gold, which forex crm I mentioned above, is a monthly subscription service that offers several more features mostly geared toward advanced traders. The best stock brokers are fully featured, easy to use, have low incidental fees, and provide a deep range of quality research and educational content. I opened personal test accounts at all these brokers and checked pricing to find the very best. Interactive Brokers charges the lowest margin rates of the brokers we reviewed.

Best Stock Brokers & Trading Platforms for 2025

While we cover a range of products, our comparison may not include every product or provider in the market. Always confirm important product information with the relevant provider and read the relevant disclosure documents and terms and conditions before making a decision. If a brand is a referral partner, we’re paid when you click or tap through to, open an account with or provide your contact information to the provider. Partnerships are not a recommendation for you to invest with any one company. Meanwhile, Tastytrade offers a comprehensive learning center with video and live demos to help you discount brokerage level up your trading. Interactive Brokers (IBKR) margin rates are among the industry’s lowest.

How to Open a Brokerage Account

To get the best possible experience please use the latest version of Chrome, Firefox, Safari, or Microsoft Edge to view this website. Check out Robinhood to start trading the basics for as little as $1. For more details about the categories considered when rating brokers and our process, read our full methodology.

One of SogoTrade’s unique features is its “Get Paid to Trade” campaign. This perk rewards users a dollar for every 1,000 shares traded via limit orders during regular market hours. If your broker only offers full shares, you’ll need enough deposited to buy your desired stock at full price. Stock prices range widely, from under $1 to over $1,000 per share. The trading platform is one of the best places to invest passively. Check out Vanguard to invest at affordable prices over the long term.

One of the common misconceptions about investing is that investments always have positive returns, i.e., if you invest, you will earn money at all times. This belief might be true on average, measured as a cumulative return over many years. However, the performance of an investment portfolio could be volatile, i.e., experiencing both negative and positive returns periodically. Another misconception about investing is that anyone who invests in financial markets will become rich quickly. While this might happen, it is not the norm but rather an exception.

When it comes to trading tools, Fidelity offers advanced traders access to Active Trader Pro, a fully-customizable trading platform with real-time streaming quotes and market data updates. Traders can also use the Real-time Analytics tool, Strategy Ideas and Trade Armour features to streamline and optimize their trading strategies. The National Association of Realtors (NAR) settled a lawsuit in 2024 that was based on full-service broker commissions. NAR’s settlement prohibits offers of broker compensation on the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) but this agreement would not affect discount brokers who aren’t affiliated with NAR. It would not necessarily reduce or affect fees owed to a discount broker.

While this brokerage isn’t the best option for active traders, the brokerage provides accounts for the entire family. Taxable, retirement, and custodial accounts are available, and you can switch to managed accounts as your investment portfolio grows. The brokerage also offers a wealth management service when you have at least $100,000 in investable assets. This service provides financial advisor access, but you will pay a maximum 0.85% annual fee and transition to a managed portfolio. This discount broker can also be one of the better options for trading options as you can access screeners, back testers, and analyzers – free of charge. Placing at least 30 trades per quarter also reduces the options trading commissions from $0.65 per contract to $0.50.

Discount brokers are financial intermediaries that offer trading services at a reduced cost compared to traditional brokerage firms. They allow traders and investors to buy and sell financial instruments such as stocks, commodities, and futures at a lower commission rate. Discount brokers typically offer online trading platforms that are accessible from any device with an internet connection, making it possible to trade from anywhere, at any time. Along with its offerings for retail traders, Interactive Brokers also offers robust services to serious investors.

Fidelity’s low costs, research and educational materials, as well as its strong customer service offering, makes it tough to beat for new investors. Are you a day trader or do you have a more set-it-and-forget investing style? Depending on what kind of investor you are, you’ll need to find a broker that has the features you require. Here are the features you should look for depending on your investment style.

You can get started investing by opening a brokerage account, depositing money via the trading platform, and using your deposit to buy and sell stocks. Some require a deposit upon opening, and you can use this deposit to trade. Choosing the right discount broker can be a challenging task, given the large number of options available. To make the right choice, traders need to consider a variety of factors, including fees, platform features, investment options, customer support, and research resources. Discount brokers have revolutionized the trading industry by providing cost-effective and convenient trading solutions to individual traders and professionals alike. They have made it possible for anyone with an internet connection to trade stocks, commodities, and futures without the need for a traditional brokerage firm.

NerdWallet’s comprehensive review process evaluates and ranks the largest U.S. brokers by assets under management, along with emerging industry players. Our aim is to provide an independent assessment of providers to help arm you with information to make sound, informed judgements on which ones will best meet your needs. They are regulated by the same agencies as traditional brokers, like FINRA—the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority—and are required to meet the same standards for protecting customer assets. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission indicates that the base fees connected to an investment portfolio handled by a full-service broker can range from 0.25% up to 1%. This may not sound like a lot but the fees are paid annually so your cost will grow in tandem with the value of your investments.

• Two additional non-negotiable annual fees to be aware of include $35 for IRAs and $100 for crypto accounts.
• But as technology breaks down the barriers to entry and increases competition, most brokerage firms have been forced to adjust their business models to offer commission-free trading and more.
• Steven Hatzakis is the Global Director of Research for ForexBrokers.com.
• It would not necessarily reduce or affect fees owed to a discount broker.
• Discount brokers have become the norm with their basement busting pricing, while the full-service broker has become more of a rarity as a means for handling all your investment needs in one place.
• Most other brokerages on this list offer retirement and crypto accounts, so you may choose them to avoid account charges.

Brokers with strong customer support allow you to contact them and ask questions, sometimes at any hour of the day via phone or chat. They’ll also have educational sections on their site that walk you through how to trade on their platform, what to look for in an investment and more. As you might expect, a retirement account is designed to hold and invest the funds you plan to use after you retire. Nonretirement accounts are other investment accounts that let you invest and trade in the short and long term. There are some notable differences between retirement and nonretirement accounts. Lei Deng, founder of Savor Financial, says you are looking for trade commissions, other transaction fees, and advisory fees if you plan to delegate your investing to a broker.

In the ordinary business of buying and selling stocks, options and index funds through online brokers, they send your orders to market makers for execution. Full-service brokers offer many services to clients, such as investment advice, research and management, retirement planning, tax planning, insurance assistance and more. The best discount brokers charge low fees (or none) for standard stock and ETF needs and low fees on these other assets. Vanguard excels as a free stock trading platform when you wish to buy and sell Vanguard securities like index fund ETFs. You pay no commissions on their products like VTI or VTSAX, or VFIAX. The service is the latest from the SoFi financial wellness platform and offers commissionless trades on stocks and ETFs, and more.

Two additional non-negotiable annual fees to be aware of include $35 for IRAs and $100 for crypto accounts. The research tools for individual stocks and funds aren’t the strongest for a legacy broker, but they can get the job done. You can perform technical analysis with interactive charts and also use fundamental analysis. Robo-advisor and advisor-led investing services are also available with different account minimums and annual advisory fees. The research tools are worth a look as you can review analyst opinions and company data provided by FactSet, a leading investment research tool.