8 Best Stock Trading Apps for 2026

After I consider a inventory dealer, I image somebody working at a desk with a pc — and possibly a number of displays stuffed with charts and market information. However one other platform is quickly supplanting the desktop buying and selling battlestation for a lot of retail buyers.

The typical American checked their telephone 186 instances per day in 2025^[0]. Superior buying and selling requires plenty of consideration — and we pay extra consideration to our telephones than absolutely anything else.

Brokers know this, and in recent times a rising variety of them have constructed out cell app platforms with superior buying and selling capabilities.

The entire platforms listed under provide the next options, which we take into account to be the desk stakes for an app for superior merchants:

• Free inventory trades: Only some of the brokers reviewed by NerdWallet nonetheless cost commissions for inventory trades, and also you received’t discover any on this web page (though Interactive Brokers offers customers the choice to pay very small commissions for quicker order execution). Most of the brokers on this web page additionally provide free possibility trades.

• Fractional shares: The entire brokers on this web page mean you can purchase lower than 1 full share of a inventory, thereby supplying you with extra management over place sizing. Many brokers now permit buyers to purchase as little as $1 of a inventory, though some have greater minimums.

• Robust UX: We didn’t simply have a look at rankings to evaluate these brokers’ apps — we additionally examined them ourselves, opening accounts and putting trades on our personal telephones. The entire brokers right here earned prime or near-top scores on our cell consumer expertise rubric.

Past these standards, the very best inventory buying and selling app for you will differ based mostly on which options you take into account most necessary. So, we’ll begin with the three apps which are all best-in-class for a selected characteristic. Learn on to see what each stands out for — and likewise the place each falls quick.

Robinhood has arguably carried out greater than some other dealer to make buying and selling by way of telephone app widespread, and it continues to be a frontrunner and an innovator amongst cell brokers.

In case you’re the type of dealer who likes to make use of leverage (that’s, borrowed cash) to reinforce your potential returns, and you’ll tolerate the dangers that include it, there’s one more reason to like Robinhood: it presents the bottom common margin charges of any dealer we evaluate. Each the excessive finish and the low finish of its charges (which differ based mostly on steadiness) are nearly as little as you possibly can go. There are a few brokers whose lowest charges are decrease, however these typically require very excessive balances, within the a whole lot of 1000’s of {dollars} and even greater.

Different buying and selling options that stand out about Robinhood: Robinhood can also be a standout for one more type of high-risk transfer that day merchants typically like: cryptocurrency buying and selling. Robinhood has the widest crypto number of any stockbroker we evaluate, and it’s one of many few stockbrokers that provides options like staking and ship/obtain capabilities in its crypto providing.

The place Robinhood falls quick for merchants: In contrast to a few of its rivals, Robinhood doesn’t have any type of basket-trading characteristic. You’ll be able to solely purchase or promote one funding per order. Additionally, in the event you prefer to commerce bonds, you could discover Robinhood missing: They’re solely obtainable within the type of bond ETFs.

This text is oriented in the direction of superior merchants. Interactive Brokers is oriented in the direction of actually superior merchants. Need to purchase South African shares? Malaysian agricultural futures contracts? Choices on French bonds? Interactive Brokers has you lined.

It has, by far, the widest funding number of any dealer we evaluate, because of its number of asset lessons (together with shares, bonds, choices, ETFs, mutual funds, futures, currencies, crypto, occasion contracts and bodily treasured metals) in addition to direct entry to dozens of worldwide exchanges.

Different buying and selling options that stand out about Interactive Brokers: IBKR additionally has the widest analysis and information choices of any dealer we evaluate, with greater than 140 providers obtainable from greater than 40 suppliers. Nonetheless, not all of these are free; some require a paid subscription.

The place Interactive Brokers falls quick for merchants: IBKR is considered one of only some brokers on this record that also prices a per-contract price for possibility trades. IBKR Professional customers additionally pay commissions of a fraction of a cent on shares in change for quicker and extra environment friendly order execution, though free accounts don’t.

A number of brokers reviewed by NerdWallet now provide free possibility buying and selling, sans commissions or contract charges — however Public is the one one which places a unfavourable value on choices buying and selling; in different phrases, it pays you to commerce choices.

Public, like a lot of the different brokers on this web page, makes cash by promoting buyer order information to high-frequency buying and selling companies, which use it to tell their very own buying and selling selections — a enterprise mannequin often known as fee for order move (PFOF). In contrast to the opposite brokers on this web page, nonetheless, Public shares a portion of the PFOF income from possibility trades with its prospects, within the type of a rebate of between $0.06 and $0.18 per contract traded, relying in your buying and selling quantity.

Different buying and selling options that stand out about Public: In case you’re the kind of dealer who likes to maintain some money on the sidelines to purchase dips, Public stands out for its uninvested money administration choices. It presents a high-yield money account with a 3.3% APY on the time of final replace, in addition to a Treasury account that routinely invests your cash in T-bills, providing potentially-higher yields and exemption from state taxes.

The place Public falls quick for merchants: Public presents fractional shares on most property — 75% of shares, all Treasuries, and about 100 different bonds, to be exact — however the truth that its fractional share providing isn’t common places it at a drawback relative to its rivals. Additionally, it has a $5 minimal for fractional shares, which is on the excessive finish amongst brokers that provide this characteristic.

The three apps listed above every have distinctive benefits for merchants, however they’re not the one good inventory buying and selling apps out right here. Under is a listing of 5 different brokers that scored extremely on a mixture of trading- and mobile-app-related metrics in NerdWallet’s evaluate course of.