Robinhood’s GameStop trading halt, $45 million SEC fine, and payment for order flow have eroded trust with retail investors. Here are the best commission-free trading apps with better support and fewer conflicts of interest.
Each app below addresses a specific gap in Robinhood's offering. We picked them based on real user review patterns and feature differentiation.
Routinely ranked the best overall brokerage. Commission-free stocks and ETFs, 3,300+ no-fee mutual funds, zero-fee index funds, and 24/7 customer support with actual humans. Fractional shares, retirement accounts, and Morningstar research included free.
Explore Fidelity data →One of the largest and most trusted brokerages in the US. Commission-free trading on stocks, ETFs, and options. Absorbed TD Ameritrade’s thinkorswim platform for active traders. Low-cost Schwab-branded ETFs rival Vanguard and Fidelity on fees.
Explore Charles Schwab data →The closest Robinhood competitor in mobile-first design, but with significantly better charting and analysis tools. Commission-free trading, extended hours, paper trading for practice, and educational courses. Popular with technical traders.
Explore Webull data →Commission-free stocks, ETFs, and options with no per-contract fees — one of the few brokers that charges zero on options trades. Part of SoFi’s broader platform with banking, loans, and credit cards. Automated investing with no management fees.
Explore SoFi Invest data →The anti-Robinhood: Public eliminated payment for order flow entirely, meaning your trades aren’t sold to market makers. Stocks, ETFs, options, bonds, and crypto in one app. Offers a 1% match on IRA contributions.
Explore Public data →Rounds up everyday purchases and invests the spare change into diversified ETF portfolios. Fully automated — no stock picking or chart reading required. Includes retirement accounts and a checking account. Built for people who want to invest without thinking about it.
Explore Acorns data →We found these alternatives by analyzing review patterns across hundreds of investing and trading apps. Users switching from Robinhood most commonly cite the GameStop incident, poor customer support, PFOF concerns, and regulatory fines.
Fidelity and Charles Schwab are the safest alternatives — both are established brokerages with decades of track record, SIPC protection, and 24/7 customer support. They offer commission-free trading like Robinhood but with institutional-grade security and customer service.
PFOF means Robinhood routes your trades to market makers like Citadel in exchange for payments. This creates a conflict of interest: you may not get the best price on your trades. Public eliminated PFOF entirely. Fidelity uses PFOF but has demonstrated strong execution quality.
Robinhood Gold includes higher APY on uninvested cash, a 3% IRA match, Morningstar research, and larger instant deposits. But Fidelity and Schwab offer similar research and features for free, making Gold less compelling for most investors.
App Vulture uses AI-powered review intelligence to analyze what real users say about apps — their pain points, feature requests, and reasons for switching. We identified these alternatives by analyzing review patterns across investing and trading apps.
Art & Design alternatives.
Connected Fitness alternatives.
Parental Monitoring alternatives.
Developer Tools alternatives.