E*TRADE vs. Robinhood

You’re choosing a new trading app, and you’ve narrowed your choices down to Robinhood and E*TRADE. Where do you go from here? Which one would be the best platform for your plans?

Our comparison guide will go over the most relevant information about each trading app to give you a clear picture of what each platform is ideal for. You can read up on the functionality of each app/website, fees or commissions, market access, and the available option trading tools. Because E*TRADE is good for advanced traders and Robinhood is more suitable for newbies, traders of all skill levels will find this comparison guide useful—keep reading to learn the differences between these well-known trading/investment apps.

Broker Overview | E*TRADE vs. Robinhood

We’ll start our guide with some baseline information on both ETRADE and Robinhood to give you a clear idea of what these platforms are all about. Right up front, we’re going to address that Robinhood is good for newer traders and those with minimal experience/knowledge, and ETRADE is well-suited for advanced traders who are looking for the best trading tools the market has to offer.

E*TRADE Summary

ETRADE became a public company in 1996 through an initial public offering, though its roots go back to 1982 when TradePlus was founded by William A. Porter and Bernard A. Newcomb in Palo Alto, California. ETRADE is considered one of the pioneers in online trading for retail investors and is one of the primary competitors in the modern market, offering many great investment opportunities, account types, and educational resources.

E*TRADE has one of the most comprehensive ranges of products for active, high-volume investors, including buying and selling options, stocks, mutual funds, bonds, ETFs, CDs, and more. It’s one of the best overall options for traders who are looking for advanced trading tools and the most in-depth market analytics. While the app and website are easy to learn and navigate, the tools themselves are designed for advanced traders who actively trade and deal with high volume.

Key Strengths

• Low trading fees on stock and ETF trading
• Prebuilt and automated portfolio options
• Good range of tools and resources (stock screeners, analyst research, etc.)
• Get free market data streaming, real-time quotes, and live market commentary
• Plenty of educational content
• Pays interest on uninvested cash
• Transparent pricing
• Extensive bond trading
• IRAs with no annual fees
• Use watch lists to monitor stocks, options, and ETFs
• Strong customer service—Options and futures specialists are available
• Automated investment management

Curious about E*TRADE? Our detailed review reveals its top benefits, unique features, and everything it offers active traders.

Robinhood Summary

The creation of Robinhood was the result of roommates from Stanford who saw that Wall Street firms paid little to trade stocks and wanted to deliver that experience to the average American. Founded in 2013 by Vladimir Tenev and Baju Bhatt, Robinhood became the first major brokerage platform to get rid of commissions on options and stock trading online. Since then, commission-free trading has become an industry standard in the online trading world, which means that Robinhood is a trailblazer of sorts in this regard.

So, it’s only natural that Robinhood is designed for traders who are looking for minimal commissions or fees in their trading experience. It’s particularly popular with passive investors who want to get into investing or trading, but they’re not looking for the intense trading experience that more advanced traders are looking for.

Key Strengths

• Commission-free stocks, options, and ETFs
• High interest rate on uninvested cash
• Easy to learn and use for investments/trades
• No account minimum
• No monthly fee
• Fractional share trading is available
• Access deposited cash instantly
• Streamlined user interface
• IRA with 1% match
• Solid cash management
• Use cryptocurrencies
• Recurring investment functionality

Read our updated Robinhood review to compare its top features, tools, and benefits for investors and active traders alike.

Account Types and Minimums

If you’re interested in seeing what kind of accounts you can open at ETRADE and Robinhood, you’ll want to read this section to see if either of these platforms would work for your trading goals or objectives. ETRADE offers brokerage accounts, IRAs, and several other accounts, while Robinhood only offers its customers individual brokerage accounts. E*TRADE has the upper hand when it comes to this criteria point.

E*TRADE Account Types

After opening any kind of new account, ETRADE customers must fund their account within 30 days to keep it. For their standard brokerage accounts, ETRADE doesn’t require a minimum initial deposit to open. Plus, there are no minimum balance requirements and no monthly account fees. The single exception is the margin accounts, which require a minimum balance of $2,000 to keep open.

Let’s check out the account types offered at E*TRADE:

Brokerage Accounts

• Brokerage Account
• Coverdell ESA
• Custodial Account

Retirement Accounts

• Rollover IRA
• Roth IRA
• Traditional IRA
• Inherited Beneficiary IRA
• E-Trade Complete IRA
• IRA for Minors

Managed Portfolios

• Core Portfolios
• Morgan Stanley Financial Advisors

Small Business Retirement

• Traditional and Roth Individual 401(k)
• SIMPLE IRA
• SEP IRA
• Investment-Only Account

Bank

• Premium Savings Account
• Max-Rate Checking
• Checking
• Line of Credit

Robinhood Account Types

Robinhood offers the following kinds of accounts for its customers:

• Margin Accounts: Borrow money from Robinhood to purchase securities through margin accounts. There’s a $2,000 minimum to open, and you must pay interest on the money borrowed (12% for regular members and 8% for Gold members).
• Cash Accounts: Members of Robinhood can fund cash accounts with their own money before they can buy or sell securities, but there’s no minimum required for you to begin investing. Any money that’s used from option sales has a waiting time of one day before it can be used, while cash from stock sales has a waiting period of two days.
• IRA Accounts: Both limited margin and cash IRA accounts are available at Robinhood. Investors cannot borrow against the value of your IRA holdings or create a debit balance, but they can trade unsettled funds from their options and stock sales!

Minimum Balance Requirements

While investors can open a Robinhood account without satisfying a minimum deposit requirement, there are a few minimum balance requirements to maintain certain accounts:

• Margin Accounts: A minimum balance of $2,000 must be maintained
• Instant Deposits (Basic Account): A minimum balance of $1,000 on the primary account must be maintained.
• Instant Deposits (Robinhood Gold): Maintain a minimum balance of $50,000 for a portfolio value of $50,000, a minimum balance of $25,000 for a portfolio value of $25,000, a minimum balance of $10,000 for a portfolio value of $10,000, and a minimum balance of $5,000 if a portfolio value is under $10,000

Trading Platform Features

Let’s take a look at the platforms themselves: the overall user experience, options for customizing your experience, and how these platforms can be accessed on a desktop computer or a mobile device like a smartphone or tablet. This part of our guide is especially helpful for any of our readers who are curious about how these apps work logistically and what you can expect in the day-to-day of operating these platforms.

E*TRADE Platform

Interface and User Experience

E*TRADE can be tricky to navigate at times due to the large volume of tools and resources available for customers who are looking to enhance their education on trading or need the right tools for executing advanced or high-volume trades. Figuring out how the website and mobile app work is easy enough for anyone, but it’s understanding the tools, how they work, and what they are used for that can be tricky to those with minimal trading experience.

Customization Options

• E*TRADE users can create multiple watchlists that customize data fields like volume, price, bid/ask, and more
• The watchlists can be customized with specific securities
• Traders can enjoy column customization
• Hand-select the data columns that appear in the security listings (change, volume, price, and 52-week high/low)

Mobile and Desktop Compatibility

E*TRADE can be used on any desktop computer as well as on primary iOS and Android mobile devices. However, there are four versions of E*TRADE that traders might be interested in knowing about before starting as an official member of the platform:

• E*TRADE Web: One version of the E*TRADE website, this choice is best for traders who want to access educational content. It’s also a good choice for passive traders seeking quotes and portfolio analysis.
• Power E*TRADE: A more advanced version of the E*TRADE website, Power E*TRADE offers more sophisticated features like screening capabilities, technical analysis, and drawing tools.
• E*TRADE Mobile App: By and large, the mobile app has the same features as the E*TRADE website, but the app offers watchlist integration (not available on the website).
• Power E*TRADE App: This is the more advanced version of the E*TRADE mobile app—it directly mirrors the E*TRADE website’s functionality.

Robinhood Platform

Interface and User Experience

Robinhood has a straightforward user interface that makes the entire experience manageable and relatively stress-free, the point is to cater to traders who are new or have minimal experience in online trading and investments. Traders can use robust stock screeners which are easy to learn—you can look for stocks or ETFs using more than 20 unique filters. Plus, there are great charting tools that can be navigated easily even if you’re new to trading. They include moving averages, relative strength index (RSI), and moving average convergence divergence (MACD).

Customization Options

Robinhood offers several great customization options:

• Drawing tools like horizontal and trend lines
• Watchlist custom—add specific stocks or ETFs
• Choose timeframe selection (daily, weekly, monthly, etc.)
• Choose technical indicators (moving averages, relative strength index, Bollinger Bands, etc.)
• Select chart types like candlestick or line
• Adjust the size or placement of different screen elements
• Choose color themes

Mobile and Desktop Compatibility

Although Robinhood has a website that lets traders do business from their desktop computer, they are more well known for their handy mobile app which can be used on iOS and Android phones or tablets. Robinhood offers the same trading experience between its mobile app and its website. Both function roughly the same and traders can access the same features. The primary advantage of the mobile app is that it’s a sleeker and more seamless trading experience.

Options Trading Tools

When it comes to trading options online, you need to have the right trading tools to ensure you can execute your strategy correctly, turn a profit, and ultimately meet your goals. Learn about the options trading tools that are available at E*TRADE and Robinhood, those that will be helpful during your trading sessions, like stock screeners, automated investment tools, and watchlists.

Robinhood and ETRADE offer comparable trading tools, so you’ll see a lot of similarities between the two, even though Robinhood is better for newer or passive traders and ETRADE is better suited for active investing.

E*TRADE

• E*TRADE is a great developer platform where customers can manage trading, review account information, authenticate customers, and retrieve price information
• Commission-free U.S. stocks, options, ETFs, and mutual funds
• Stock screeners and analyst research for informed trade and investment picks
• Get live market commentary, free market data streaming, and real-time quotes.
• Get your core portfolios managed by the E*TRADE team with automated investment management.
• E*TRADE offers retirement investing with IRAs where users don’t incur annual fees
• Develop a watch list from the E-Trade dashboard to monitor stocks, options, and ETFs
• Enjoy using two mobile apps(the regular E-Trade app provides charts, streaming quotes, portfolio information, research, education, tools, and screeners, while the Power E-Trade Advanced Trading app is geared toward advanced trading strategies with stocks, options, futures, and ETFs)

Robinhood

• Enjoy commission-free trading on stocks, options, cryptos, ETFs
• Look for stocks or ETFs using more than 20 unique filters (stock screeners)
• Access great charting tools like moving averages, relative strength index (RSI), moving average convergence divergence (MACD), etc.
• Robinhood Gold gets your bigger instant deposits, 5% on uninvited cash, and margin investing at a better interest rate.
• Get paid up to two days early with direct deposit.
• Trade cryptos like Bitcoin, USD Coin, Dogecoin, Ethereum, and others
• Automated investing is offered on Robinhood.
• Buy fractional shares if you’re an investor with a smaller amount of capital.

Fees and Commissions

In this section, you can find out how much you might be paying in fees and commissions using these trading apps. This is especially important to help investors and traders learn how much money is coming out of their profits to operate and maintain their trading accounts.

Our official opinion on this comparison is that Robinhood offers better fees, mostly due to Robinhood having no commissions on its stocks and ETFs. On the flip side, E*TRADE has some small fees on some trades like options contracts. Let’s look over the fees and commission structures of E*TRADE and Robinhood to give you a better idea of what we’re talking about.

Options Trading Fees

E*TRADE Fees

• Minimum Balance: $0.00
• Cost Per Stock Trade: $0.00
• Cost Per Options Trade: $0.65 per contract or $0.50 per contract with 30+ trades per quarter
• Commission-Free ETFs: All
• Non-Transaction-Fee Mutual Funds: 6,000+ NTF mutual funds
• Account Fees: $75 for full transfers
• $1 per bond ($10 minimum and $250 maximum)
• $25 per broker-assisted trade and commission-free Treasury trading
• $6.95 commission on over-the-counter stock trades
• $4.95 commission on OTC stock trades if you make 30 or more trades per quarter
• $1.50 per fixed futures contract
• $2.50 per cryptocurrency futures contract
• The margin rate for less than $10,000 is 11.95%
• The margin rate for $250,000-499,999 is 9.95%

Robinhood Fees

Commission Structure

Commission Structure

• Returned Check: $25
• IRA Rollover: $25
• Outgoing Wire Transfer: $25
• Instant Bank Transfer: Up to 1.75%
• Paper Statements (Monthly): $2
• Paper Trade Confirmations: $2

Withdrawal Fees

• 1.75% fee on transfers from the Robinhood account to a bank account or an outside debit card
• Minimum fee up to $2

Crypto Fees

• Robinhood doesn’t charge for crypto transfers
• They don’t charge a commission for trading cryptos on the app
• Use the Robinhood Connect tool to transfer cryptos to wallets for a fee of 0.5% to 1.5%
• Crypto miners and validators charge network fees for processing blockchain transitions (Robinhood passes these charges along without collecting a portion)

“Hidden” Fees

• $8 per $1 million of principal sells only, rounded to the nearest penny (regulatory fee)
• $0.01 per options contract for buys and sells (options regulatory fee)
• $0.02 per options contract for buys and sells up to 2,750 contracts (OCC clearing fee)
• $55 flat rate per trade on trades with over 2,750 contracts
• $0.000166 per share for equity sells and $0.00279 per option sell contract, rounded to the near penny and no greater than $8.30 (trading activity fee)

Account Fees and Miscellaneous Charges

E*TRADE has some transactions that might cost more than the basic withdrawal fee of $0, but it’s largely void of withdrawal fees. It has no inactivity fees or account management costs. Robinhood doesn’t have inactivity fees or account management costs, but they do have some withdrawal fees:

• ATM Withdrawals—In-network and out-of-network ATM withdrawals come with a fee of $2.50, but Robinhood will refund the ATM withdrawal fee if there are direct deposits of $300 or more within 24 days before the withdrawal.
• External Debit Card Account Withdrawals—A fee of 1.75% is charged by Robinhood with these kinds of withdrawals.

Discounts for High-Volume Traders

E*TRADE offers a discounted rate of $0.50 for options contracts for traders who make at least 30 traders per quarter as well as margin interest rates that range from 12.20% to 14.20% based on how much you’re doing in volume.

Robinhood is mainly geared towards commission-free trading on options, stocks, and ETFs, regardless of how much volume the investor is doing. This means there are no tiered pricing structures for active traders, and there aren’t any discounts for high-volume traders either.

Market Access

Check out what kind of trading and investment markets you can access using ETRADE or Robinhood. Upfront, better market access can be found when using ETRADE with its more advanced trading tools and its wider range of securities offered. Robinhood is mostly focused on basic stocks, options, and ETFs, so it’s not conducive to more experienced investors who are looking for deeper market access.

E*TRADE

• Stocks, Mutual Funds, and ETFs: Traders and investors at E*TRADE can buy and sell these securities on the platform.
• Options or Bonds: Trade stock options and bonds at E*TRADE as well.
• Futures: Invest in futures markets like energy, interest rates, gains, livestock, equity index, currency, and cryptos.
• Bitcoin ETFs: Although direct crypto investing isn’t offered at E*TRADE, the platform offers information on Bitcoin ETFs as well as the benefits/risks and how to invest.

Robinhood

• Stocks and ETFs: Investors on Robinhood can buy and sell US stocks and exchange-traded funds that are listed on US exchanges.
• Stock Options: Access options contracts on stocks and ETFs on US exchanges.
• American Depositary Receipts: One of the more incredible offerings at Robinhood is its over 650 global stocks through American Depository Receipts (ADRs).
• Cryptos: Commission-free trading is available for various cryptos, including Bitcoin, Dogecoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, etc.

Educational Resources and Support

When it comes to educational resources, ETRADE blows Robinhood out of the water. This comes from the fact that Robinhood is more focused on passive investing and therefore doesn’t require as wide a range of educational tools for its users. ETRADE members can gain free access to third-party and proprietary research, while Robinhood only offers third-party research at a fee for the Robinhood Gold members.

In terms of customer support, E*TRADE is also superior to Robinhood. There are so many more direct avenues for reaching the customer service center (online chat, email, and multiple phone numbers), whereas Robinhood deals more with indirect support via FAQ menus or educational readings that offer more of a troubleshooting approach.

E*TRADE

Educational Resources

• Use market newsto access articles on investing, trading, and retirement planning.
• Investors can find tutorials on placing a stock trade, investing ideas, and information on risk tolerance.
• Users can enjoy thematic investing to learn how to deal with companies and organizations that share their beliefs and principles.
• Use the “Advanced Trading” market dashboard to get a recap of the previous week every Monday.
• Use the “Monthly Sector Rotation” to view how investors moved in and out of the S&P 500 sectors monthly.
• Read the FAQ list (“Trading In-Depth”) to learn more about options, stocks, futures, and margin accounts offered.
• View key market insights and updates in Morgan Stanley Thought Leadershipto form actionable insights.
• Attend live and on-demand educational events such as online investing and trading webinars.
• Use the Life Stages tool (Knowledge menu) to learn about significant life events like education, retirement, family finances, or elder care.
• Save successfully for your retirement using the compounding interest tool—establish a timeline and adjust your rate of return for your retirement.
• Learn about capital gains and how investments are taxed through “Tax Planning.”
• Access resources for dealing with child tax credits, personal exemption, standard deduction, and deductions for home ownership.

Customer Support

Phone Numbers

• E-Trade from Morgan Stanley or Morgan Stanley Private Bank: 800-387-2331
• Morgan Stanley at Work Stock Plan Account: 800-383-0908 (12 a.m. to 11:59 p.m. EST, Monday-Friday)
• Designated Brokerage: 855-432-6834 (9 a.m. to 6 p.m. EST, Monday-Friday)

Regular Mail

For Bank: Morgan Stanley Private Bank
For Brokerage: E*TRADE from Morgan Stanley
PO Box 484
Jersey City, NJ
07303-0484

Overnight Mail

For Bank: Morgan Stanley Private Bank
For Brokerage: E*TRADE from Morgan Stanley
Harborside 2
200 Hudson Street, Suite 501
Jersey City, NJ
07311-1113

Robinhood

Robinhood has the following educational resources available for users on its website and mobile app:

• Wall Street Journal market coverage
• News from Reuters and Barron’s
• Videos from Reuters, Cheddar, and CNBC Business
• Robinhood video content
• The Robinhood podcast
• Three-minute newsletter posted daily called Robinhood Snacks

Customer Support

Customers can contact the Robinhood support center through the website and mobile app. There are three primary ways to get help from customer service. They include the 24/7 live chat, the phone number (1 (650) 761-7789), and the troubleshooting FAQ menus (along with several support articles). Support articles and FAQs can be found under the “Learn” menu option.

These are the three best ways for customers to reach the support center, but users can also request a callback from the customer service center and talk with members of the company via social media. Callback requests can be expected within 24 hours or so.

Trading Experience and User Reviews

To give you a good idea of the overall experience trading with either Robinhood or E*TRADE, we’ve outlined firsthand users’ experiences with using mobile apps and websites. We felt that these would provide some great insights into both of these platforms because who would know better than the actual users?

Ease of Use

Because Robinhood caters to newbies and trades with little experience, it’s typically considered the easiest of the two trading apps to learn how to use and navigate. It’s a more streamlined platform compared to E*TRADE, though E*TRADE is relatively easy to pick up even though the trading tools can be challenging to learn.

Both platforms have organized menus and tabs, which makes the overall user experience relatively stress-free. When testing out these apps, we were never confused as to where the primary features and functions were located and how we applied them in our trading sessions.

Trader Sentiment

We looked over some customer feedback sites like Trustpilot and SiteJabber to get a sense of how firsthand users feel about each of these trading websites/apps. It’s good to point out that we included good and bad feedback to give you a clear picture of what people have experienced using both E*TRADE and Robinhood.

E*TRADE User Feedback

Trustpilot Review—Dated January 16, 2024

“E*Trade has gone downhill since Morgan Stanley took them over as they are using E*Trade as a cash cow. Customer Service is bad and takes a long time to respond. They used to offer very good sweep options into Money Market accounts – now all cash balances yield 0.1% and there are no direct sweeps into Money Market available anymore. The trading software is quite good and executions fast, however I do not feel valued as a client and will consider my options in the future.”

–EFJ

Trustpilot Review—Dated September 5, 2024

“Had log in issues and Nick helped me today by providing access. I hung up at the end by accident so if someone from the company reads it, please tell him how helpful and professional he was.”

–Kathrin

SiteJabber Review—Dated October 10, 2023

“Great platform for trading. Very straightforward and not at all scammy like a lot of trading sites can be. Test test test.”

–Traci G.

SiteJabber Review—Dated December 13, 2024

“My Roth IRA account has been restricted since 2019. This whole year, I have been trying to either get it unrestricted or transfer my money out. It is ridiculous that this issue is still unresolved. It is worth filing a complaint with FINRA, moving my accounts elsewhere, and passing along knowledge of this long-running issue to others so they can be aware.”

–Tamara L.

Robinhood User Feedback

Trustpilot Review—Dated December 13, 2023

“I have nothing bad to say about my experience with Robinhood. In fact, I absolutely love it. It is always easy for me to make any transactions on Robinhood. Whether it is buying stock or transferring funds, everything happens quickly. I am a very hard to please consumer. But Robinhood has exceeded my expectations. I have never had difficulty in contacting customer service. Maybe I’m just lucky. But I have transferred all my holdings to Robinhood, and I have been very glad that I did. Highly recommend.”

–David Oakes

Trustpilot Review—Dated December 23, 2023

“I love trading crypto n stocks on Hood. I e had lots winning. Lots of luck on the site. I love the technology. The graphs and quotes is very detailed and help me makes decisions. Some other brokers don’t have good charts, slow tech. Great service, I was called several times after I emailed. Doing very well very happy. I def recommend you to try it. It’s fun n relaxing , some other brokers make trading service seems like neck choking unnecessary.”

–Ocean

Trustpilot Review—Dated December 27, 2024

“Problem with account being restricted because I tried to transfer too much money at one time back into my bank account. Alloweed only $1000 per day and I did not pay due dilligence, they restricted account and when I tried to contact them they said they would call me. No phone call and still waiting on acciount to be back to normal but nothing yet, they have my money and will not allow me to do anything with it for several days now. I am losing money and losing patience with this company and would not recommend them to anyone.”

–Jackie Rickhart

Community and Resources

Because E*TRADE’s focus is on investment research tools, it doesn’t have any elements of community interaction. Members can still reach the support center for individual inquiries through some direct contact methods like toll-free phone, live chat, or email.

While Robinhood fares a bit better than E*TRADE when it comes to community features and resources, it’s not by much. There’s no built-in forum or dedicated chat feature. Robinhood’s limited community feature is largely tied to referral programs, where current members will be rewarded when getting their family or friends to sign up. Users with successful referrals will get a gift stock for their efforts.

Pros and Cons Summary

If you had to break down the main advantages and disadvantages of using either E*TRADE or Robinhood, what would it look like exactly? We’ve taken the liberty of including the following pros and cons list to give you an idea of these platforms’ strengths and weaknesses.

E*TRADE

Pros

• Best mobile app for online investors and traders
• Low trading fees on stock and ETF trading
• Pays interest on uninvested cash
• Prebuilt and automated portfolio options
• Plenty of educational content
• Good range of tools and resources
• Strong customer service
• Options trading for Levels 1-4
• Options and futures specialists are available
• Transparent pricing
• Extensive bond trading

Cons

• No international trading exchange/No forex
• Low interest on uninvested cash
• No direct crypto investing
• No fractional shares
• Only bank transfers are available
• The website can be challenging to navigate
• No live chat
• Margin rates are higher than other platforms
• The Android mobile app isn’t the best

Robinhood

Pros

• No account minimum
• No monthly fee
• Commission-free stocks, options, and ETFs
• Easy to learn and use for investments/trades
• High interest rate on uninvested cash
• Fractional share trading is available
• Use cryptocurrencies
• Access deposited cash instantly
• Streamlined user interface
• IRA with 1% match
• Solid cash management
• Recurring investment functionality

Cons

• No mutual funds or bonds
• Delayed price quotes
• Accepts payment for order flow
• Customer service options are limited
• Limited asset types
• Active trading is encouraged with the app’s design
• Traders won’t find many research or educational tools

Who Should Choose Which Broker?

To find out which trading app will be better suited to your trading needs and goals, you can enjoy a nice summary of our guide right here!

• E*TRADE: This app/website is best for traders who are looking for the most advanced trading tools and technical analysis. It’s one of the better choices for active traders and investors who are looking for a wide range of trading opportunities, the broadest market access, and are interested in dealing with high volume.
• Robinhood: This commission-free trading app is best for new or inexperienced who are looking for low operation overhead, a guided investment experience, or are interested in passive trading. It’s also a great app when it comes to a low learning curve when it comes to using and navigating the platform.

Choose E*TRADE for an Advanced Trading Experience and Robinhood if You’re a Beginner

Let’s go over our final recommendation to our readers on ETRADE and Robinhood. For your convenience, we’ve taken the key takeaways from each section and boiled them down into our key differences summary to show you how each platform stacks up against the other. ETRADE is great for advanced, high-volume traders and Robinhood is great for beginners who are interested in learning about trading/investing.

Summary of Key Differences

• Account Types and Minimums: E*TRADE offers brokerage accounts, IRAs, and several other accounts, while Robinhood only offers its customers individual brokerage accounts.
• Trading Features: While both platforms have some comparable features, E*TRADE has features that are more suited to advanced traders. Robinhood’s features are more simplistic and work better for passive traders with less experience.
• Trading Tools: E*TRADE comes with advanced trading tools, while Robinhood’s are the most simplistic.
• Fees/Commissions: Robinhood has a much lower overhead for traders when it comes to fees and commissions on trades. It has a much better price structure than E*TRADE which helps investors keep more of their profit.
• Market Access: E*TRADE is the clear winner when it comes to market access. This includes stocks, mutual funds, ETFs, options, bonds, futures, and Bitcoin ETFs.
• Educational Resources: E*TRADE members can gain free access to third-party and proprietary research, while Robinhood only offers third-party research at a fee for the Robinhood Gold members.
• Ease of Use: Both are generally easy to use, but most can agree that Robinhood is the easiest of the two to learn and navigate due to its more intuitive design.

Final Recommendation

If you’re a trader with considerable experience and you’re looking for more in-depth research tools, trading resources, and market analysis, E*TRADE is the app of the two that would work best for your trading goals. On the flip side, Robinhood is a good option for newbie investors who are looking to trade with individual brokerage accounts and do so with a lot of guidance from Robinhood.

If you’d like to explore more of our side-by-side broker comparisons, visit this section of our site.