• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Optimized Portfolio

Investing and Personal Finance

  • Start Here
  • Investing 101
    • Beginners Start Here – 10 Steps To Start Building Wealth
    • What Is the Stock Market? How It Works & How to Invest in It
    • How To Invest in an Index Fund – The Best Index Funds
    • Portfolio Asset Allocation by Age
    • How To Invest Your Emergency Fund
    • Portfolio Diversification – How To Diversify Your Portfolio
    • Dollar Cost Averaging vs. Lump Sum Investing (DCA vs. LSI)
    • How To Invest Your HSA (Health Savings Account)
    • Factor Investing and Factor ETFs – The Ultimate Guide
    • more…
  • Lazy Portfolios
    • All Weather Portfolio
    • Bogleheads 3 Fund Portfolio
    • HEDGEFUNDIE’s Excellent Adventure
    • Warren Buffett Portfolio
    • Golden Butterfly Portfolio
    • Paul Merriman Ultimate Buy and Hold Portfolio
    • Ben Felix Model Portfolio
    • Permanent Portfolio
    • David Swensen Portfolio
    • 60/40 Portfolio
    • more…
  • Funds
    • VOO vs. VTI – Vanguard S&P 500 or Total Stock Market ETF?
    • The 7 Best International ETFs
    • The 8 Best Small Cap ETFs (4 From Vanguard)
    • The 5 Best REIT ETFs
    • The 5 Best EV ETFs – Electric Vehicles ETFs
    • VIG vs. VYM – Comparing Vanguard’s 2 Popular Dividend ETF’s
    • The Best Vanguard Dividend Funds – 4 Popular ETFs
    • The 5 Best Tech ETFs
    • The 7 Best Small Cap Value ETFs
    • The 6 Best ETFs for Taxable Accounts
    • The 5 Best Emerging Markets ETFs (1 From Vanguard) for 2023
    • more…
  • Leverage
    • What Is a Leveraged ETF and How Do They Work?
    • How To Beat the Market Using Leverage and Index Investing
    • The 9 Best Leveraged ETFs
    • Hedgefundie’s Excellent Adventure
    • Leveraged All Weather Portfolio
    • Leveraged Permanent Portfolio
    • Leveraged Golden Butterfly Portfolio
    • NTSX – Review and Summary
    • TQQQ – Is It A Good Investment?
    • PSLDX – A Review
    • SWAN – A Review
    • RPAR Risk Parity ETF Review
    • more…
  • Dividends
    • The Best M1 Finance Dividend Pie
    • The 11 Best Dividend ETFs
    • The Best Vanguard Dividend Funds – 4 Popular ETFs
    • VIG vs. VYM – Comparing Vanguard’s 2 Popular Dividend ETF’s
    • 8 Reasons Why I’m Not a Dividend Income Investor
    • QYLD – A Harsh Review
    • more…
  • Brokers
    • The 5 Best Stock Brokers
    • The 4 Best Investing Apps
    • M1 Finance Review
    • Brokers with the Lowest Margin Rates
    • M1 Finance vs. Fidelity
    • M1 Finance vs. Vanguard
    • Webull vs. Robinhood
    • Stash vs. Robinhood
    • M1 Borrow Review (How M1’s Margin Loan Works)
    • more…
  • Retirement
    • The 10 Best ETFs for Retirement Portfolios in 2023
    • The 4% Rule for Retirement Withdrawal Rate – A Revisitation
    • Sequence of Return Risk in Retirement Explained
    • Traditional IRA Explained
    • Roth IRA Explained
    • 401k vs. Roth IRA
    • Roth IRA vs. Traditional IRA
    • Backdoor Roth IRA Explained
    • more…
  • My Toolbox

Stash vs. Robinhood Brokerage Comparison (2023 Review)

Last Updated: January 5, 2023 No Comments – 6 min. read

stash vs robinhood

Low-fee investing platforms like Stash and Robinhood have recently surged in popularity, offering simplicity, convenience, and modern apps and interfaces. Here we’ll compare Stash and Robinhood.

Disclosure:  Some of the links on this page are referral links. At no additional cost to you, if you choose to make a purchase or sign up for a service after clicking through those links, I may receive a small commission. This allows me to continue producing high-quality, ad-free content on this site and pays for the occasional cup of coffee. I have first-hand experience with every product or service I recommend, and I recommend them because I genuinely believe they are useful, not because of the commission I get if you decide to purchase through my links. Read more here.

Stash vs. Robinhood – Summary Comparison

Stash

Robinhood

Commissions

$0

$0

Fees

$1-9/mo.

$0

Account Types

2/5
1/5

Investment Products

2.5/5
4/5

Customer Service

4/5
1/5

Education

3/5
3/5

Mobile App

4/5
3/5

Interface/Usability

5/5
4.5/5

Checking Account

Yes

Yes

Fractional Shares

Yes

Yes

Auto Rebalancing

Yes

No

Dividend Reinvestment

Yes

Yes

Summary Score

4/5

3.8

3/5

3.2

Summary Review

Stash is a great low-cost investing platform with flat, low monthly fees and fractional shares. Stash also gives you extra shares of stock via their Stock-Back® program. If you don't want to think about your investments and don't need the ability to trade options and cryptocurrency, Stash may be the better choice.

Robinhood is the better choice for traders, but note that the platform does not offer retirement accounts. Like Stash, Robinhood supports fractional shares and has an optional checking account. The customer service and overall stability of Robinhood seem questionable, given the widespread user complaints and pending lawsuit over its March 2020 outages.

Learn More


Learn More


Stash

Commissions
Fees
Account Types
Investment Products
Customer Service
Education
Mobile App
Interface/Usability
Checking Account
Fractional Shares
Auto Rebalancing
Margin

Summary

Stash is a great low-cost investing platform with flat, low monthly fees and fractional shares. Stash also gives you extra shares of stock via their Stock-Back® program. If you don’t want to think about your investments or if you want to open a retirement account, and if don’t need the ability to trade options and cryptocurrency, Stash may be the better choice.

3.8

Robinhood

Commissions
Fees
Account Types
Investment Products
Customer Service
Education
Mobile App
Interface/Usability
Checking Account
Fractional Shares
Auto Rebalancing
Margin

Summary

Robinhood is the better choice for traders.Like Stash, Robinhood supports fractional shares and has an optional checking account. The customer service and overall stability of Robinhood seem questionable, though, given the widespread user complaints and pending lawsuit over its March 2020 outages.

3.2

Contents

  • Stash vs. Robinhood – Summary Comparison
  • Stash vs. Robinhood – Commissions and Fees
  • Stash vs. Robinhood – Account Types
  • Stash vs. Robinhood – Investment Products
  • Acorns vs. Robinhood – Customer Service
    • Robinhood Outages and Other Issues
  • Stash vs. Robinhood – Mobile App
  • Stash vs. Robinhood – Extra Features
  • Stash vs. Robinhood – Summary and Conclusion

Stash vs. Robinhood – Commissions and Fees

Neither Stash nor Robinhood has commissions on trades. With both platforms, you will still have to pay the unavoidable expense ratios on the ETF’s (exchange traded funds) in which you’re invested.

Stash has 3 tiered account levels with different fees and different features:

  • All 3 account levels have a taxable investment account and a bank account.
  • Their Beginner plan at $1/mo. is just a taxable investment account.
  • The Growth plan at $3/mo. includes access to retirement accounts in the form of a Traditional or Roth IRA.
  • The Stash+ plan is $9/mo. and adds access to custodial accounts to invest for 2 kids, a metal card for the bank account, and a monthly market insights report.

Robinhood has no account fees aside from obvious miscellaneous one-time fees for things like paper statements, outbound account transfers, etc.

Robinhood does have a premium account option called Robinhood Gold that costs $5/mo. ($60/year) and gets you access to professional research reports, deeper market data, margin, and instant deposits.

Stash vs. Robinhood – Account Types

Stash offers these account types:

  • Individual (Taxable)
  • Traditional IRA
  • Roth IRA
  • Rollover IRA
  • Custodial

Note that Stash’s Custodial account is only available on their premium Stash+ plan at $9/mo.

Robinhood only offers a standard individual taxable accounts, Roth IRA, and Traditional IRA at this time. They do not offer joint, trust, or custodial accounts. They have stated that they hope to offer some of these in the future.

Neither platform offers:

  • Joint
  • SIMPLE IRA
  • Solo 401(k)
  • 529
  • HSA
  • Non-Profit

Stash vs. Robinhood – Investment Products

Stash is not a true robo-advisor, but I’d call it a semi-robo-advisor. You can choose your own individual stocks and ETF’s, or you can also invest in pre-built expert portfolios in the form of 4 ETF’s from iShares that they call “Diversified Mixes.” These 4 are called Aggressive Mix, Conservative Mix, Long-Term Mix, and Moderate Mix. The respective tickers are AOR, AOK, AOA, and AOM. You can read about these funds on the iShares website if you’re curious. In this sense, Stash allows you to be hands-off if you want. You can view the full list of ETF’s from Stash here.

Robinhood is not a robo-advisor at all and is more like a “normal” online brokerage. Robinhood allows you to invest in individual stocks, ETF’s, and options contracts of your choosing and does not offer any expert portfolios or advising. Robinhood also recently added cryptocurrency trading.

Acorns vs. Robinhood – Customer Service

Stash seems to have great customer service.

Robinhood has somewhat of a reputation for being slow or unresponsive at times with their customer service, and famously doesn’t have a published phone number.

Robinhood Outages and Other Issues

Robinhood experienced outages on 3 days in one week in March 2020, which they stated was caused by “stress on our infrastructure—which struggled with unprecedented load.” One outage lasted an entire trading day. This was obviously very frustrating and concerning for users, especially because these were high-volume, highly-volatile days in the stock market.

Robinhood users have since filed a class-action lawsuit against the platform, alleging that “Robinhood had a duty to provide a system and platform ‘robust enough’ to handle that trading volume and have a backup system to handle outages.”

In December 2020, the SEC fined Robinhood $65 million for misleading users about its selling of order flow between 2015 and 2018, meaning users got worse trade execution prices than the platform claimed. Robinhood maintains that these were “historical practices that do not reflect Robinhood today.”

In the same week, the Massachusetts Securities Division filed a lawsuit against Robinhood, alleging that the broker uses “gaming strategies to manipulate customers” to execute more trades in order to boost fees, thereby taking advantage of inexperienced investors.

There are also many user complaints such as these of the site being “frozen,” orders not going through, inability to login, etc.

One could argue that these events may cause Robinhood to improve their infrastructure going forward to make sure these type of things never happen again in the future. On the other hand, it is concerning considering other brokers did not experience these outages and problems during that same time period. I’ve already seen many users running from Robinhood in droves and finding alternatives in platforms like Stash, Acorns, M1 Finance, etc. It will be interesting to see how the future plays out for Robinhood.

Perhaps most importantly, Robinhood users have been fleeing en masse after the broker’s recent stance on temporarily blocking users from buying stocks like GameStop ($GME) and AMC Entertainment ($AMC) during the massive short squeeze event. As of February 1, 2021, over 33 federal lawsuits have been filed against the platform across the country, citing securities trading and consumer protection violations, which add insult to injury after Robinhood hid the fact that it sold order flow and gave users worse trade execution prices.

The name of the platform now seems ironic, considering Robinhood seems to be placating hedge funds and Wall Street hotshots – at the expense of retail investors – at every turn.

Stash vs. Robinhood – Mobile App

Stash and Robinhood both have a sleek, modern, intuitive, robust mobile app for both Apple iOS and Android. Stash and Robinhood also both appear to have Android user bases who complain about problems with their Android apps.

Here are some screenshots of the Stash app:

stash mobile app screenshots

Here are some screenshots of the Robinhood app:

robinhood mobile app screenshots

Stash vs. Robinhood – Extra Features

  • Both Stash and Robinhood offer an optional FDIC-insured checking account with debit card. Stash’s bank account earns you additional shares of stock as part of their Stock-Back® program. Robinhood does not offer cash back but has a 0.30% APY.
  • Robinhood Gold, at $5/mo. ($60/year), gets you access to professional research reports and deeper market data. In terms of user education, Robinhood’s articles will likely be a little more technical in nature. Stash offers some basic educational resources via their blog. Stash’s premium Stash+ plan at $9/mo. also gets you a monthly market insights report.
  • Both Stash and Robinhood offer fractional shares, a feature that allows every penny to go to work for you faster. This means you can buy a fraction of a share of your investments. For example, if one single share costs $100 and you only have $10 to invest, you can buy 1/10 of a share with your $10 instead of having to wait to buy a whole share for $100. This is especially important for young investors with a small amount of capital.
  • Being a full-fledged trading platform, Robinhood obviously offers an all-day trading window and order control. Stash is a passive, buy-and-hold investing platform, so there’s no trading or order control.
  • Robinhood has a margin rate of 5.00%. Margin refers to a collateralized loan where your investments act as the collateral. In order to access margin with Robinhood, you must pay for the $5/mo. Gold account and have a minimum invested balance of $2,000. Stash does not offer margin.
  • Both platforms offer dividend reinvestment. A dividend is just a return of value to shareholders as a periodic cash payment by a company. Dividend reinvestment means that when your investments pay a dividend, that payment can be automatically reinvested instead of sitting idly as a cash balance.

Stash vs. Robinhood – Summary and Conclusion

  • Stash is a “semi-robo-advisor” investing and saving platform built for passive, long-term, set-and-forget, buy-and-hold investing. Robinhood is geared more toward traders but can still be used for passive, long-term investing. Neither platform charges commissions.
  • Stash has several account options ranging from $1 to $9 per month. Robinhood does not have account fees.
  • Stash allows you to invest in ETF’s and stocks of your choosing. Robinhood offer stocks, ETF’s, options, and crypto.
  • Stash offers individual taxable, Custodial, and retirement accounts. Robinhood offers a taxable account and retirement accounts at this time.
  • Stash has solid customer service. Robinhood’s customer service and overall stability seem questionable.
  • Stash and Robinhood both has a great mobile app for both Apple iOS. The Android versions of the app for both of these platforms seem to be lacking.
  • Stash does not offer margin. Robinhood has a 5.00% margin loan rate. If you want access to cheaper margin, consider M1 Finance.
  • Both Stash and Robinhood offer an optional FDIC-insured checking account.
  • Neither platform supports automatic rebalancing.
  • Both Stash and Robinhood support fractional shares and dividend reinvestment.

Your choice between these two investing platforms should come down to your experience level, what account type(s) you need, what you want to invest in, and how you want to invest.

Novice investors will likely feel more comfortable with Stash. Robinhood will require a little more knowledge and effort, and is likely better suited for experienced traders. Stash offers some ETF’s and most stocks, while Robinhood gives you control to trade stocks, ETF’s, options, and crypto. Again, this greater control comes at the cost of greater time and effort.

Learn More About Stash

Robinhood is definitely the better choice for active traders and/or those wanting to invest with margin. Perhaps most importantly, the customer service and overall stability of Robinhood as a broker seem questionable to say the least, given the widespread user complaints and pending lawsuit over its March 2020 outages. If you want an alternative on which to day-trade stocks but don’t need fractional shares, consider Webull.

Learn More About Robinhood

Disclaimer:  While I love diving into investing-related data and playing around with backtests, I am in no way a certified expert. I have no formal financial education. I am not a financial advisor, portfolio manager, or accountant. This is not financial advice, investing advice, or tax advice. The information on this website is for informational and recreational purposes only. Investment products discussed (ETFs, mutual funds, etc.) are for illustrative purposes only. It is not a recommendation to buy, sell, or otherwise transact in any of the products mentioned. Do your own due diligence. Past performance does not guarantee future returns. Read my lengthier disclaimer here.


Don't want to do all this investing stuff yourself or feel overwhelmed? Check out my flat-fee-only fiduciary friends over at Advisor.com.

77 percent of millenials report their finances are a source of anxiety

Related Posts

  • The 10 Best Large Cap Value ETFs (4 From Vanguard) for 2023
  • The 7 Best Value ETFs To Buy Value Stocks in 2023
  • VB vs. VIOO vs. VTWO – Vanguard Small Cap ETF Showdown
  • The 3 Best Corporate Bond ETFs (2 From Vanguard)
  • Roth IRA vs. Traditional IRA – Which Is Better for You? (2023)

About John Williamson

Analytical and entrepreneurial-minded data nerd, usability enthusiast, Boglehead, and Oxford comma advocate. I lead the Paid Search marketing efforts at Gild Group. I'm not a big fan of social media, but you can find me on LinkedIn and Reddit.

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Reddit
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Patreon

Email Newsletter

Sign up to receive email updates when a new post is published.

Don't worry, I hate spam too. No ads.

Most Popular

Ray Dalio All Weather Portfolio Review, ETFs, & Leverage (2023)

HEDGEFUNDIE’s Excellent Adventure (UPRO/TMF) – A Summary

Golden Butterfly Portfolio Review and M1 Finance ETF Pie

David Swensen Portfolio (Yale Model) Review and ETFs To Use

Harry Browne Permanent Portfolio Review, ETFs, & Leverage (2023)

Corporate Bonds vs. Government Bonds (Treasuries) – The Showdown

VIG vs. VYM – Vanguard’s 2 Popular Dividend ETFs (Review)

Warren Buffett ETF Portfolio (90/10) Review and ETFs (2023)

The 60/40 Portfolio Review and ETF Pie for M1 Finance

Bogleheads 3 Fund Portfolio Review and Vanguard ETFs (2023)

m1 sidebar

rocket money

m1 sidebar

visor sidebar

retirable

Paul Merriman Ultimate Buy and Hold Portfolio Review, M1 Pie (2023)

Lowest Margin Rates Brokers (2023 Comparison)

M1 Finance vs. Vanguard Brokerage Comparison [2023 Review]

M1 Finance vs. Fidelity Brokerage Comparison [2023 Review]

The Best M1 Finance Dividend Pie for FIRE & Income Investors

Portfolio Asset Allocation by Age – Beginners To Retirees

The 5 Best Stock Brokers Online for Investing (2023 Review)

The 4 Best Investing Apps for Beginners (2023 Review)

The 7 Best Small Cap ETFs (3 From Vanguard) for 2023

The 6 Best REIT ETFs To Invest in Real Estate for 2023

The 6 Best Tech ETFs To Buy Tech Stocks in 2023

9 Best Clean Energy ETFs To Go Green in Your Portfolio (2023)

The 13 Best Small Cap Value ETFs (3 From Vanguard) for 2023

Why, How, & Where To Invest Your Emergency Fund To Beat Inflation

VOO vs. VTI – Vanguard’s S&P 500 and Total Stock Market ETFs

9 Best International ETFs To Buy (6 From Vanguard) in 2023

Ben Felix Model Portfolio (Rational Reminder, PWL) ETFs & Review

Factor Investing and Factor ETFs – The Ultimate Guide

Gone Fishin’ Portfolio Review (Alexander Green) & ETFs (2023)

TQQQ – Is It A Good Investment for a Long Term Hold Strategy?

Recent Posts

Roth IRA vs. Traditional IRA – Which Is Better for You? (2023)

VXUS vs. IXUS – Vanguard or iShares International ETF?

Tail Risk – What It Is and How To Hedge Against It

I Bonds Explained (US Savings Bonds) – Ultimate Guide (2023)

JEPI ETF Review – JPMorgan Equity Premium Income ETF

Sharpe Ratio vs. Sortino vs. Calmar – Risk Adjusted Return

Portfolio Risk Explained – How To Think About Risk and Volatility

HNDL ETF Review – Is HNDL a Good Investment? (7HANDL™ ETF)

NUSI ETF Review – Is NUSI a Good Investment?

3 Best SPAC ETFs To Invest in SPACs in 2023 – But Should You?

VOO vs. VOOV vs. VOOG – Vanguard S&P 500, Value, or Growth?

VXUS vs. VEU – Which Vanguard Total International ETF?

VT vs. VTI – Global Stock Market vs. Total U.S. Stock Market

RPAR Risk Parity ETF Review – An All Weather Portfolio ETF?

PSLDX – A Review of the PIMCO StocksPLUS® Long Duration Fund

View All...

Footer

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Reddit
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Patreon

Amazon Affiliate Disclosure

OptimizedPortfolio.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

Email Newsletter

Sign up to receive email updates when a new post is published.

Don't worry, I hate spam too. No ads.

About - My Toolbox - Privacy - Terms - Contact


Copyright © 2023 OptimizedPortfolio.com

This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Ok, Got ItReject Read More
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Non-necessary
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
SAVE & ACCEPT