The Best Online Stock Trading Platforms

Sunday, March 23rd

2025 Online Stock Trading Platform Reviews

Fidelity

Fidelity's stock trading platform is simple and elegant, with a robust set of resources for beginners to advanced users. It has no account fees and offers three tiers of service in order to accommodate any would-be investor or active trader. Some feel that Fidelity is geared more to someone who has some knowledge and skill in investing, but Fidelity offers so many educational materials and options that even a beginner would do well. Fidelity is focused on community, and they have partnered with nonprofits to bring financial literacy to underserved kids. They also offer scholarships and resources to high schoolers who want to attend college. Fidelity is frequently praised by clients and industry peers alike as having some of the best customer service in the industry. They have several award-winning platforms to choose from that work on all devices. We are thrilled to give Fidelity our #1 ranking and top spot among stock trading platforms.

Merrill Edge

Merrill Edge, backed by Bank of America, is a stock trading platform that excels in saving people money through low fees - and no account fees - and has some of the most competitive pricing in the industry. With Bank of America being integrated into the Merrill Edge stock trading platform, all your banking and trading can be done in the same place. In addition, those who are customers of Bank of America can receive special perks and incentives. While Merrill Edge is a great value for self-directed accounts, its guided accounts can be pricey. There are some downsides to Merrill Edge, like having no ability to trade cryptocurrency, and customer service is hard to get a hold of. However, customers say that when you do reach them, Merrill Edge representatives will get your problem resolved. For these reasons and more, Merrill Edge still comes out as one of our top picks as a stock trading platform.

Zacks Trade

Zack's Trade made its name off of research, and that is one of the primary focuses of this online stock trading platform. It is also known for its policy of free broker-assisted trades, which is unique in the industry. While the fees are higher than many other stock trading platforms, Zack's robust tools in its software and app give investors everything they need - and many things they didn't know they wanted - to invest with confidence. Taking all this in and adding a competitively low margin rate, it's our pleasure to recommend Zack's Trade as an option with outstanding possibilities.

Sogo Trade

SogoTrade is a stock trading platform geared to the DIY self-directed investor. It is dedicated to offering good, easy-to-contact customer service. They have several channels to get in touch via phone, which is an industry exception. With a dedicated New York office and a midwest and nationwide office, as well as a nationwide Chinese-speaking office, you don't have to wait more than a minute or two to get the help you need during office hours. SogoTrade has five different platforms used for trading, so it can take a while to get used to it, but once you do, you will find it a pretty intuitive process. While it doesn't have all the bells and whistles that other stock trading platforms do, it has more than enough for the average trader. SogoTrade's dedication to customer service and their goal of maintaining no fees for the majority of trading and very low ones for selected transactions make it one of our top picks for a stock trading platform.

Ally Invest

Ally Invest's stock trading platform is a great option for those who are just beginning to get their feet wet in the world of investing. With an easy-to-use platform, a mobile app, educational resources, and some of the lowest costs around, it's a beneficial place for a beginner. This, coupled with a competitive 4% interest rate on cash holdings and 24/7 highly-rated customer service, makes it a great platform for a newbie. It offers three different stock trading plans that truly fit every budget. With its mobile platform, you can integrate all of your financial business and trading into one place. There are limitations with Ally, however - there is no trading cryptocurrency, futures, or forex, and there is no way to trade fractional shares or place contingent orders. There are also many negative reviews regarding Ally as a banking institution, so if you do integrate all your financial accounts at Ally, you may run into customer service or other problems on the banking side. For this reason, we rated Ally Invest as slightly above average and not any higher.

Charles Schwab

Charles Schwab has been around for over 50 years and is a trusted name in stock trading platforms. They became well-known early on for their quick trading practices and their low fees. They are welcoming to beginning traders and offer several plans that appeal to just about any level of experience. Seasoned traders really like the Thinkorswim trading platform, a product of Charles Schwab's merger with TD AmeriTrade. Unfortunately, this merger seems to have gone a little less smoothly than desired, with many customers recently complaining of glitches, outages, and terrible customer service. While the platform is beautiful and offers many educational opportunities for beginners and experts alike, we can't give it one of our top ratings due to the current growing pains Charles Schwab seems to be experiencing.

Firstrade

Firstrade's commitment as an online brokerage firm has been to offer the best service, the most resourceful tools, and the most convenient platform for the lowest fees. With their award-winning website, Firstrade GPT, and their mobile app, along with their incredibly low fee and pricing structure, Firstrade appears to be almost there. Account setup is almost completely painless and all digital, and there are often special offers available for first-time account holders. There are some limitations to be considered - withdrawals can sometimes be a headache, customer service is hit or miss, and Firstrade does not take debit cards or digital wallets for deposits. Overall, we found Firstrade to be fairly average as an online stock trading platform.

TradeStation

TradeStation is known for its robust tools and platforms, with so many features that even seasoned day traders are impressed. It has won multiple awards and has a wide variety of futures products for the active trader. TradeStation has recently updated their website in an attempt to attract less experienced investors. They have also improved their customer service and pricing structure. However, their fees are still higher than competitors, they employ outdated fee-charging practices, and they offer little by way of educational resources for such a high-level platform. The positives and negatives of this company end up being about even, so we feel comfortable giving TradeStation an average rating.

E*Trade

Around for almost as long as the internet, E Trade was the pioneer of online stock trading platforms. It has several robust platforms to choose from and lots of plans with no minimums and $0 commissions. However, upon being acquired by Morgan Stanley, customer reviews indicate that the company's platforms began experiencing crashes and glitches, and the company's customer service decreased substantially. In addition, when trying to close accounts, customers get ignored or have to wait on hold for long stretches of time. Customers have complained of extra fees, being unable to withdraw their own money, and customer service representatives being incompetent. We cannot recommend E Trade as anything but a not-quite-average stock trading platform.

SpeedTrader

SpeedTrader is all about…speed. Their focus has always been on using direct-access software to deliver the fastest ordering speeds and numerous routing options. They have been able to do that. Their customer service is also reported to be responsive and friendly. However, the tiered software just doesn't deliver on the level of sophistication they are selling, especially since they are exclusive to the advanced trader, and the pricing is a bit high. The company has a recent negative history with FINRA, and even its predecessor, Mint, has a history of fines with FINRA. For these reasons, we don't feel it makes the cut as a stock trading platform, and it is not included in our recommended picks.

Robinhood

Robinhood is controversial by design. Their sole focus is to shake up the industry by allowing anyone - not just the wealthy - to invest in the stock market affordably. They are the originators of the no commission, no minimum stock trading model, and they indeed turned the industry on its head. Since then, they have continued in their irreverent and boisterous way to shake up the market. Unfortunately, we have found that they are more "outlaw” than is acceptable. Recently, they had to pay a $7.5 million fine for the "gamifying” of their mobile app platform, and before that, they were slapped with the largest fine in FINRA history for questionable practices that have led to people's financial distress and, in one case, resulted in a suicide. We cannot recommend them as a stock trading platform, but we do appreciate their innovative ideas. We just wish that Robinhood could carry them out with a bit more integrity.

Webull

Webull is an app-based stock trading platform, much like Robinhood. But unlike Robinhood, it is not an innovator. While it embraces tech, it has taken the path to use tech to replace good customer service and quality customer screening and has been fined by FINRA for approving customers who weren't eligible for trading, and for replacing good customer service with a terribly subpar automated solution, which abjectly failed to answer customer questions and concerns in a reasonably timely fashion. Webull is not upfront about who they are, failing to mention that although they have headquarters in St. Petersburg, Florida, they are actually owned by a Chinese holding company with employees and offices in China, as well as tied to a telecom giant that surveys and shares citizen data with the Chinese government. In an industry where trustworthiness can mean the difference between losing your life savings or not, we expected Webull to be more transparent about their origins and ownership. We cannot recommend Webull as a stock trading platform at this time.