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Review of Investing Platforms

Money

With no account minimum or transaction fees, Public is available to anyone ready to invest their first dollar. However, service and regulatory fees do apply when you go beyond simple stock trading. For instance, a 1 to 2% markup is applied to all crypto transactions. And, true to their community roots, they are eager to get you and your people on board: when you refer friends, both of you get a free fractional stock share of your choice (from a pre-approved list).

Time

Account signup, which starts with downloading Public’s app, takes about 10-15 minutes — including responding to questions about your fluency with investing, which we’re guessing goes into their newsfeed algorithms. Once your banking info is hooked up, buying and selling are also simple processes. When you log on, your portfolio’s performance that day is the first screen you see, followed by a time-lapse visual. Their how-to’s and other 101 resources are sometimes flagged in your notifications, but otherwise, you need to do some searching and following to really get the most out of it.

Values

Public’s Themes tool curates stocks around values like American Made, Green Power, and Fighting Disease. In addition to its assigned Themes, company profiles include financial performance metrics, news and analyst predictions (including upcoming events that could impact stock price, like earnings calls), and recent activity from Public’s user community. Once again, the Community feature might be where you get the most values-related info: if lots of Unilever’s Public investors are using the hashtag #climateconscious, that could be a good sign for, well, the climate-conscious. By itself, the hashtag search feature is another way to find values-aligned posts, users, companies, and ETFs on Public — provided that your search guesses lead to the right auto-complete. Typing in “racial equity” showed zero search results, for example, but “Black” brought up “#blackentrepreneurs” and a bevy of other related hashtags… as well as the public company BlackBerry.

Money

With no real trading platform, Vanguard is for the wait-and-savers among us. There’s no minimum investment required to open an account, and the $20 annual fee for managing portfolios under $10,000 can be waived if you sign up for paperless statement delivery (also a win for the environment!). Vanguard’s fees are indeed low — their 0.09% average expense ratio is a fraction of the industry average — but that’s because they are focused on larger initial investments. For example, you can’t buy fractional shares on the platform, and most of those low-cost mutual funds require a minimum investment in the thousands of dollars. Crypto is also not on the menu, at least for now.

Time

Vanguard is geared towards long-term investors, especially those nurturing retirement or college savings accounts, making the more cumbersome registration process (you have to do it on a browser) a one-time inconvenience rather than a regular headache; they even break down exactly what you’ll need to create an account. Its interface is also more 1975 than 2022, but you’ll be able to glean basic performance information on your portfolio and potential stock purchases (and a face-lift appears to be underway).

Values

A signatory to the UN’s Principles of Responsible Investing, Vanguard makes values-related options available to all of its account holders. The firm’s ESG investing page lists its most popular ESG ETFs and clearly explains what’s included and excluded; individual ETF pages are much more focused on performance data, but also list out the criteria. That said, if you’re searching for a specific value — like climate-friendly investments — you’ll have to do more digging or chat with one of their advisors. It’s definitely more hands-on, but that is arguably a holdover benefit of the pre-Internet world in which Vanguard was founded.

Money

Ellevest charges a monthly membership fee that replaces what others might charge through transaction fees and mandatory account minimums. In addition to covering fees, each membership tier includes additional benefits. The lowest tier is just $1/month and includes one brokerage account and 20% off Ellevest’s coaching services. (Yes, at any membership level, talking to a real human being costs extra.) Members at the Plus ($5/month) or Executive ($9/month) tiers can create multiple IRA accounts and get up to 50% off coaching. Not interested in membership? Ellevest does offer free budget and savings worksheets and a robust hub of educational resources, including a regularly-updated blog. You can also book an a la carte coaching session at full price ($300 on average).

One quirk worth flagging: unlike a lot of robo-advisors, Ellevest does not offer automated tax-loss harvesting — meaning that if one of your investments loses you money, Ellevest won’t sell it at a loss to offset capital gains taxes you might owe on other investments.

Time

Ellevest’s tiered membership system means being prepared to spend time on the front end deciding which of their resources you’ll actually use. The platform is continually growing — most recently, they’ve added insurance options through partnerships with Lemonade and Policygenius — so it can be difficult to keep track of what you are or should be using it for. Once you’re in, though, Ellevest’s landing page greets you with a portfolio snapshot and fairly straightforward account maintenance links. It’s possible to set-it-and-forget-it, but Ellevest seems determined to keep you coming back from more.

Values

Ellevest’s proprietary investing algorithm uses women-specific factors to come up with a strategy. But that’s where the customization typically ends: members can create a portfolio in Ellevest Core, which prioritizes tax minimization, or Ellevest Impact, which includes up to 53% “ESG and impact” ETFs. Once you pick, Ellevest comes up with an aligned mix to meet your goals. Ellevest is somewhat explicit about what “impact” means to them — their big focus is advancing companies with women on boards and in C-suites — but digging deeper is tough, and if you don’t like what you find, your options are limited.

That said, Ellevest’s coaching component, which offers support on everything from negotiating a raise to building an annual personal budget at an extra cost, is about as customized as you can get.

Money

Fidelity offers fractional shares, but it is better known for its commission-free host of index funds with no expense ratio or transaction fees (read: no hidden fees for you!). In addition to $0 account minimums, Fidelity has eliminated most of the fees commonly associated with online brokers. A few exceptions: a $0.65/contract fee for options trading, a $3/year management fee for robo-advised accounts with more than $10,000, and a $32.95 fee (substantially higher than similar brokerages) for a broker-assisted trade.

Time

The biggest drawback to Fidelity is, unfortunately, the one that greets most users: it’s a bit of a slog to set up, and even though no minimum investment is required to open an account, you really can’t get a sense of the features until you’ve made your first deposit. Once you’re in, however, you’re in — and thanks to the diverse offerings, you can make your experience on the app what you want it to be. Fidelity does offer IRAs and other long-term retirement accounts, but most of its other tools cater to active traders. The density of offerings is offset by the readily-available education materials. Like so much of investing, this is an app where you truly get back what you put in. A fully-customizable experience is available with their Active Trader Pro, but it requires a high minimum portfolio value ($250k+).

Values

Until recently, Fidelity was slow on the sustainability uptake; in 2021 they doubled their ESG thematic mutual fund offerings to 11 and announced their support of shareholder resolutions to address climate change and gender diversity. To date, that’s about it. Given the short list to choose from (along with their extensive research catalog), it might be a quick decision whether there are options aligned with your values.

Money

From a free fractional share upon signup (chosen from a pre-selected list) to its pioneering zero-commission trades, Robinhood lives up to that “Investing for All” tagline. There’s a $1 minimum for purchasing a fractional share in just about any company and there are no transaction fees, aside from a $75 fee for transferring money out of your Robinhood account. Robinhood has also gone all-in on crypto, still a key differentiator among the apps.

That said, the analysis available on the free version of the app is limited to what is basically a highlights reel from major analysts. It’s not nothing, but it doesn’t exactly help you go deeper. For $5/month, you can upgrade to “Robinhood Gold,” which provides access to Morningstar’s full analyses, as well as perks like $1000 in interest-free margin trading and the ability to transfer more money into your account, which is still limited to a simple brokerage. Because Robinhood does not offer bonds or mutual funds, it’s trickier to build a diversified portfolio — you’re pretty much at the mercy of the market’s daily ups-and-downs.

Time

Robinhood’s origin as an app is reflected in its streamlined design and process: you just need your name, email, and some basic info to get started. They also have instant-transfer relationships with most major banks, meaning that you’re a few clicks away from having money in your Robinhood account to make your first investment.

Once you’re in, you’ll see a quick snapshot of your portfolio performance, followed by the performance of companies on your Lists. The app defaults to listing the most popular companies — Apple, Twitter, and Tesla are regulars at the top — but the idea is that you create multiple lists of companies whose performance you want to monitor, so that you can strike when the proverbial iron is hot. The search screen includes Trending Lists (think “Newly Listed Cryptos” and “20 Most Popular ETFs”) and daily snapshots of market news (known as “Robinhood Snacks”).

To navigate Robinhood, keep in mind that the default setting is “popularity”: if you haven’t personalized anything, it will keep showing you what the majority of other investors are buying, selling, trading, or saying. So if you want to look beyond household names like Netflix or Microsoft, it may take some digging to find alternatives. (Plus, we have never been fans of crowdsourcing investment advice.)

Values

We’ll be blunt: If you want readily-available info on the values-related ratings of companies, Robinhood is not the place to find it. (Case in point: a search for “climate” on the app brings up only companies and ETFs that have the word “climate” in their name. The profile of one such ETF, “US Vegan Climate,” does not even mention its ESG criteria beyond “principles-based,” and its only related Robinhood List is “Size-based ETFs.”) Company profiles capture financial performance, but that’s it; the “People Also Own” feature on the company profile could introduce you to other potential investments. And, Morningstar does include ESG and other sustainability-related metrics in their analyses, so Robinhood Gold subscribers might fare a little better. But for the free users that form the backbone of Robinhood’s customer base, the app more or less assumes that you’re doing your values-related research elsewhere and bringing your knowledge onto their platform.

Money

Schwab and TD Ameritrade have free options, but there are exceptions. There are no account minimums for simple self-managed brokerage accounts (where you can invest in over 4,000 no-transaction-fee mutual funds), but you need to deposit at least $5000 to take advantage of their robo-advisor services.

Same with their respective day trading platforms: they’re free to use, with no minimums or fees attached, unless you opt for one of their premium upgrades. If day trading becomes your new hobby, then forking over a little extra might be worth it for the extra research/analysis access — but the free versions are pretty robust, especially if you’re just getting started.

As with other platforms, though, the lack of minimums doesn’t change the fact that most of the investment options are in at least the hundreds of dollars; TD Ameritrade does not offer fractional shares at all, and Schwab’s fractional share selection is very limited.

Time

Account setup is quick and straightforward with both institutions. Account management is another story. There are a lot of options, and if you really want to dive into that day-trading rabbit hole, there’s a lot of research available to read. The variety of offerings will take some time to sort through and figure out what you want, need, or just find kind of cool to play with. Interface-wise, Schwab’s site and apps are a bit more intuitive than TD Ameritrade’s; both offer regular banking services for that all-in-one experience (Schwab can also show the status of your non-Schwab accounts on your landing page). Customer service for both also rates relatively high.

Values

Pre-merger, both TD Ameritrade and Schwab had ESG options at the ready (including TD Ameritrade’s Socially Aware portfolios, and Schwab’s Ariel ESG ETF). And while it’s not clear what exactly their post-merger ESG offerings will look like, they will continue providing their clients with plenty of resources to decide what aligns with your values. Pages for each mutual fund and ETF on Schwab’s ESG list, for instance, prominently break down fund strategy, which companies are in the holding and what countries are represented, and their Morningstar ratings. The layout is a bit eye-watering in its level of detail, so you’ll need to do some digging, but it’s all there.