Mobile apps have become very popular. They are making your life easier. You can buy flight tickets, book accommodations or trade on the stock exchange.
There are a lot of trading apps out there so we save your time and selected the best free trading apps. Trading apps providing free stock and ETF trading have become very popular, so it worth to take a look at them if you don't want to spend fortunes on your trading fees.
What are trading apps great for in general?
Trading apps can be used for trading, learning, charting, finding trading ideas, and also for market data and news. Some of the apps offer all of these features, while some of them only a couple. Don't worry, we will provide a trading app top list for all of these features.
The trading apps are usually offered by financial companies such as online brokers or banks. These apps can be a great add on for the web or desktop trading platform or they can be also the main product of a company, such as in the case of Robinhood or Revolut.
We see the trading apps as great complementary tools to the web-based trading platform and other financial portals. For example, when you want to find a great stock, you can make fundamental or technical analyses via a computer more conveniently, but follow the price of your bought stock via a trading app. You can also intervene very fast via an app whenever your position needs it, like selling your stocks.
And now, let's see the best free trading apps in 2020:
| App | Approves clients from | App score | US stock trading fee |
|---|---|---|---|
| Robinhood | US | 5.0 | $0.0 |
| Webull | US | 5.0 | $0.0 |
| eToro | Globally | 5.0 | $0.0* |
| Fidelity | US | 5.0 | $0.0 |
| Revolut | Europe | 4.0 | $0.0 |
*eToro offers free stock trading only for European clients.
Just to clarify it again: with these apps, you can trade stocks and ETFs for free.
Besides the best apps with free trading functionality, we have also collected the best trading apps for charting, trading ideas, market data, news, and learning.
| Name | Best app in | Score |
|---|---|---|
| Best apps for charting and trading ideas | ||
| TradingView | Best app for charting | 5.0 |
| Stocktwits | Best app for trading ideas | 5.0 |
| Best apps for market data and news | ||
| Investing.com | Best app for market data | 5.0 |
| Bloomberg | Best app for market news | 5.0 |
| Best apps for learning | ||
| Invstr | Best app for learning to trade | 5.0 |
| Trading game | Best app for learning forex trading | 4.0 |
The best trading apps are the above listed ones in 2020. Now, let's go ahead and look deeper into them.
Best free trading apps
Best apps for trading
Mobile trading apps are key for staying up-to-date when you are on the go. The best trading are great both in functionalities and user-friendliness and they also provide commission-free stock and ETF trading.
We have tested the mobile trading apps of almost 60 online brokers. We have selected those providing free trading for stocks and ETFs on the US market, being user-friendly and having great functionalities. If you are interested in comparing all the analyzed trading apps, visit our comparison page.
When we tested the mobile applications we looked for:
- User-friendliness
- Good product and market search function
- Great variety of order types
- Price alert and order confirmation availability
- Two-step (safe) login
Now let's see the five best trading apps.
Robinhood
The Robinhood mobile platform is one of the best we've tested. It is safe, well designed and user-friendly.
| OUR RATING: | 5.0 |
|
AVAILABLE ON: |
Android, iOS |
|
PRICE: |
Free stock and ETF trading |
| FUNCTIONS: |
Two-step (safer) login Biometric authentication Order types:Market, Limit, Stop, Stop Limit, Trailing Stop Great search function Price alerts Order confirmation User-friendly Languages: English |
| PROs | CONs |
|---|---|
| User-friendly Two-step (safer) login Good search function |
None |
Robinhood optimized its brokerage service for millennials, so it has a very intuitive and well-designed mobile trading platform.
We also liked the additional security features, such as the use of fingerprint sensors for accessing the app.
Webull
Webull mobile trading is great, one of the best on the market. It's user-friendly, well-designed, and provides all important features, like advanced order panel, price alerts or two-step login.
| OUR RATING: | 5.0 |
|
AVAILABLE ON: |
Android, iOS |
|
PRICE: |
Free stock and ETF trading |
| FUNCTIONS: |
Two-step (safer) login Order types: Market, Limit, Stop, Stop limit, Bracket Great search function Price alerts Order confirmation User-friendly Languages: English, Chinese |
| PROs | CONs |
|---|---|
| User-friendly Two-step (safer) login Good variety of order types |
None |
The Webull mobile trading platform is user-friendly, has a clear structure and well-designed.
It provides a two-step login besides one-step login. You can activate this feature in the "Menu" / "Settings" / "Account&Security" menu. After the activation, you will get security codes in text messages for each login. The search functions are great. You can search by typing both the ticker and name of the assets.
eToro
eToro's mobile platform is well-designed and intuitive. It is a pleasure to use.
| OUR RATING: | 5.0 |
|
AVAILABLE ON: |
Android, iOS |
|
PRICE: |
Free for real stock and ETF (CFD and social trading has a trading fee) |
| FUNCTIONS: |
Two-step (safer) login Order types: Market, Limit, Stop-loss, Trailing stop-loss Great search function Price alerts Order confirmation User-friendly Languages: English, Spanish, Italian, German, Russian, Chinese (traditional), Chinese (simplified), French, Arabic, Polish, Dutch, Norwegian, Portuguese, Swedish, Czech, Malaysian, Danish, Romanian, Vietnamese, Finnish, Thai |
| PROs | CONs |
|---|---|
| User-friendly Two-step (safer) login Good search function |
No Touch/Face ID login Free stock and ETF trading only for EU clients |
eToro mobile trading platform is one of the most user-friendly apps we have tested.
It has the same design and almost the same functionality as their web platform. To read more about the web trading platform check the full eToro review.
We also liked the social trading function which is eToro's unique feature. By using the social trading feature you can automatically copy the trades of other traders.
Beyond social trading, there are other social features. E.g. you can write posts or comments.
Fidelity
Fidelity has a great mobile trading platform. It is user-friendly and well-designed, however, it lacks a two-step login.
| OUR RATING: | 5.0 |
|
AVAILABLE ON: |
Android, iOS |
|
PRICE: |
Free stock and ETF trading |
| FUNCTIONS: |
Biometric authentication Order types: Market, Limit, Stop, Stop limit, Stop trailing ($, %), Stop limit trailing ($, %) Great search function Price alerts Order confirmation User-friendly Languages: English |
| PROs | CONs |
|---|---|
| User-friendly Good search function Good variety of order types |
No two-step (safer) login |
Fidelity mobile trading platform is user-friendly. In design, it is more up to date than its web trading platform.
The search functions are good. It's easy to use and you can find the relevant options for the stocks easily. You can search for international stocks using the country syntax. Without the country code, the search is conducted within the US. We liked the wide research functions, we were able to see third-party evaluations in many equity categories.
On the negative side, it provides only a one-step login, a two-step authentication would be safer. The biometric authentication is available which is a convenient feature.
Revolut
Revolut offers a great mobile trading platform, as it is very user-friendly and you can log in using a Touch/Face ID. The search function also works well. On the other hand, there is no two-step login.
| OUR RATING: | 4.0 |
|
AVAILABLE ON: |
Android, iOS |
|
PRICE: |
Free |
| FUNCTIONS: |
Biometric authentication Order types: Market Great search function Order confirmation User-friendly Languages: English, French, Greek, German, Italian, Japanese, Lithuanian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian and Spanish, Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Estonian, Finnish, Hungarian, Latvian, Norwegian, Slovakian, Slovenian and Swedish |
| PROs | CONs |
|---|---|
| User-friendly Good search function Touch/Face ID login Modern design |
No two-step (safer) login Limited order types No price alerts |
Revolut offers a mobile trading platform they built on their own. With the advance of mobile-first services and an increased attention to user experience in the last few years, Revolut does a great job offering a mobile trading platform with a superb interface catered mostly for everyday people. It's available in 24 languages.
The mobile trading platform is user-friendly and well-designed. You'll get familiar with the platform within a few minutes. The search functions are also good, it is easy to use by typing an asset's name or ticker. One thing we missed is the categorization. It would better if you could filter companies based on their industry, capitalization, price level, etc.
You can only use a market order. No limit, stop-loss or other order types are accepted.
We hope you found the best app for your trading needs. Remember to visit our full broker reviews for more trading app reviews.
Best free trading apps
Best trading apps for market data and news
Both using the right sources of information and building your trade strategy on the right data is really important. It is important and is not easy to do.
It's not an exaggeration to say that in the past two decades information was one of, if not the most important resource. In recent years, the data became another important factor beyond information.
For being up-to-date you can read news portals, watch videos, follow investors, analyze data and so on. We tested 9 apps providing these kinds of services, considering the following three criteria:
- User-friendliness
- Design
- Watchlists and alerts
- Special features, like stock screener or chart analysis
The 9 evaluated apps are: Benzinga, Bloomberg, CNBC, Finimaze, Investing.com, MSN Money, Seeking Alpha, Simply Wall Street, Yahoo! Finance.
If you are interested in market data and news the best trading apps are the following ones:
Investing.com
Best for: researching and analyzing market news and market data.
| OUR RATING: | ★★★★★ |
|
AVAILABLE ON: |
Android, iOS |
|
PRICE: |
Free |
| FUNCTIONS: |
News Economic calendar Detailed charts Tools for technical analysis Trading ideas Webinars Stock screener Watchlist Alerts Live trading |
| PROs | CONs |
|---|---|
|
Wide variety of functions Useful filter function for news Services for professionals and beginners as well Nice design |
None |
Investing.com is really unique as it has all features what can ease your decision-making in trading.
The number of functions is outstanding, you can use this app from reading news to a very detailed stock analysis. The news is categorized based on asset classes, so if you are interested in stocks you can read news relating to that. Economic calendar shows you all important events coming. If you prefer technical analysis, you can use the main technical indicators or the detailed charts. Furthermore, you can read trading ideas provided by professional analysts. Not only professional will find this app useful, but also the beginners since learning videos, webinars are provided. Watchlists and alerts are applicable, so you can follow up the big events impacting on your trades. After you made analysis and detailed research, you don’t have to open another app to execute, you can do it through Investing.com’s platform. The application's interface is really user-friendly and well-designed.
Bloomberg
Best for: high-quality market news and data on a well-designed platform.
| OUR RATING: | ★★★★★ |
|
AVAILABLE ON: |
Android, iOS |
|
PRICE: |
Free |
| FUNCTIONS: |
News Videos, audio Product overviews Financial data Watchlist and alerts |
| PROs | CONs |
|---|---|
|
Nice and clean design High-quality news You can filter at the news and markets page |
The app is sometimes slow |
Bloomberg is a high-quality app which provides news and market data on a clean and well-designed platform.
At the main page, you will find news, videos, and audios. News can be filtered by categories, like markets or technology. News usually contains videos, audios, and illustrative pictures. Products are categorized based on asset classes, i.e. you will find indices, stocks, currencies and other asset classes. When you select a product, the overview contains basic market data, like market capitalization or volume and the product's performance in comparison with similar products. Beyond market data, you will see the related news and the main financial data, like income statement or balance sheet. Finally, you can set watchlists and you will get alerts about the important happenings.
On the flip side, the app usually works slowly.
You can also get market news and data from online brokers. On our broker comparison table you can check which broker has a great research.
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Best free trading apps
Best trading apps for learning
The ancient Greek philosopher Plato said that "The beginning is the most important part of the work". It's not different in the world of finance.
If you don't have a clue what a stock is and how it works, firstly you better to deepen your knowledge. You are lucky because you have countless opportunity to do that. You can see films, read books, watch videos, take part in webinars, and of course use apps. Furthermore, we think the learning more efficient if it is combined with gamification.
We tested 7 apps providing learning services considering the following three criteria:
- Gamification
- Availability of educational texts
- Availability of virtual trading
The 7 evaluated apps are the following: Best Brokers, ForexHero, Invstr, Learn, Stock trainer, Tradehero, Trading Game.
From this group, we selected our two top picks. There's nothing left but to see the two best apps for learning.
Invstr
Best for: practicing the trading on a nice and easy-to-use platform.
| OUR RATING: | ★★★★★ |
|
AVAILABLE ON: |
Android, IOS |
|
PRICE: |
Free |
| FUNCTIONS: |
Compiling your virtual portfolio Account summary Feeds from third-party providers Charts and feeds at each product Comparing products Competition among users Social functions |
| PROs | CONs |
|---|---|
|
Nice and easy-to-use platform Real-time news from prominent third-party providers You can trade virtually with almost all asset classes Available social functions |
Missing educational texts |
Investr is an app which combines the practical learning with gaming.
We really liked the app's nice and easy-to-use design. Beyond the design, you can use many interesting and useful functions. When you start compiling your trading portfolio, an account summary shows your profit & loss and your capital allocation, i.e. the share of your money in the different asset classes. Furthermore, you will have news from prominent third-party providers, like Financial Times or Reuters. When you click on a product, you will see a not detailed chart and the related feeds, and you can compare its performance with other products. There is also a competition among the users and the bests are awarded every week. Moreover, the users can follow each other, and they can also use different social functions, e.g. comments, share or like.
The app is suitable for practicing trading, but the educational texts are really missing.
Trading Game
Best for: learning the basics of forex trading.
| OUR RATING: | ★★★★☆ |
|
AVAILABLE ON: |
Android, IOS |
|
PRICE: |
Free |
| FUNCTIONS: |
Educational texts Educational quizzes Collecting virtual money Virtual trading with different assets Competition among users |
| PROs | CONs |
|---|---|
|
Quizzes and educational texts Questions in different levels Easy-to-use and clean design Illustrative pictures |
Focusing on forex trading Few products available at the virtual trading |
With Trading Game you will learn the basics of forex trading and have fun at once.
The app provides educational texts about the different aspects of forex trading. At the end of each text, you have to answer to a quiz, and your knowledge is your wealth as correct answers give you virtual money. You can also set the difficulty of the questions. Furthermore, you can grow the amount of your virtual money with virtual trading as well. At trading section only a few assets, like EURUSD or gold are available. Trading Game's users can compete with each other, the goal is to collect the most money. Finally, the app has an easy-to-use and clean design.
On the flip side, Trading Game mainly focuses on forex trading.
Online brokers also provide education. On our broker comparison table you can check which broker has a great education function.
Best free trading apps
Best apps for charting and trading ideas
If you want to invest or trade, the first thing is to find a trade idea. Then you can take a look at the chart and do a technical analysis.
To do this, you need a great interactive chart tool with sufficient tools and technical indicators. The handier the interactive chart is, the more opportunity you have to find the right trading patterns.
We tested the following 8 charting and trading ideas apps: Market Trends, NetDania Stock & Forex Trader, StockMarkets, StockSpy, StockTracker, Stocktwits, TradingView, Webull.
From this group, we selected the best charting apps based on:
- User friendliness
- Design
- Availability of technical indicators
- Trading ideas
There's nothing left but to see our top two trading apps for charting and trading ideas.
TradingView
Best for: interactive charting and trading ideas community.
| OUR RATING: | ★★★★★ |
|
AVAILABLE ON: |
Android, iOS |
|
PRICE: |
Free |
| FUNCTIONS: |
Interactive chart with technical indicators Watchlist Trading ideas Trading forum |
| PROs | CONs |
|---|---|
|
Superb design Awesome interactive charting Tons of trading ideas generated by users |
None |
TradingView is a really great app for charting. We enjoyed it a lot.
The interactive charting function is amazing. It is unbelievably user-friendly and it has an amazing design.
Another great part of the community around it, which shares tons of trading ideas and you can join forum channels for trending topics like cryptos.
On the flip side, you should be careful with following other's trading ideas. Even when each user has a reputation score and the number followers.
Stocktwits
Best for: sharing and watching trading ideas.
| OUR RATING: | ★★★★★ |
|
AVAILABLE ON: |
Android, iOS |
|
PRICE: |
Free |
| FUNCTIONS: |
Following people Sharing charts, trends, and trading ideas Make your watchlist Basic charts |
| PROs | CONs |
|---|---|
|
Countless trading ideas Nice and clean design Getting to know the market sentiment Social functions, like comments or sharing |
Missing chart analyzing function |
As the Stocktwits' name suggests this app is like the traders’ Twitter.
The financial and investing community can publish a maximum of 140 characters messages containing trading ideas, trends, charts and whatever trading-related content. Then the users can share, comment or like the published messages. You can tag these messages as bearish and bullish, i.e. you decide if the content has a negative or a positive overtone. The bearish-bullish tagging clearly shows how the market sentiment changes. We liked the design as it was really clean and user-friendly. Furthermore, you can search for a given product and you will see all the related tweets and basic data, like P/E, EPS, 50 days moving average or average volume. You can also add the selected products to your watchlist which helps you to find those more easily. On the flip side, we missed the chart analyzing function.
We liked Stocktwits as it is really unique and fulfills its purposes: making a financial and investing community.
We are sure you could find your app for charting and trading ideas.
You can also get trading ideas from online broker research pages. You can check which broker has a great research on our broker comparison table.
Best free trading apps
Bottom line
If you are still uncertain which are the best trading apps in 2020 for you, this little summary may provide further clarity.
Best trading apps:
- Saxo's app is the best for stock trading, and it has a great search function, a large variety of order types, customizable charts and personalized portfolio overview.
- Robinhood's mobile app is the best for free stock trading. It is extremely intuitive and well-designed.
- IG's mobile app is the best for forex trading. It has a great design, provides a superb technical analysis tool and a great research support.
- eToro mobile platform is the best for social and CFD trading. It offers a very user-friendly and nice looking platform.
- Plus500's app is the best for CFD trading. It has a well-designed platform with a good search function and a clear asset classification.
Best apps for charting and trading ideas
TradingView and Stocktwits are our top picks for best apps for charting and trading ideas.
- TradingView is great for charting and analyzing functions, it has a great design.
- Stocktwits is a great app for sharing and watching others trading ideas.
Best apps for market news and data
Investing.com and Bloomberg are our top picks for best apps for market news and data.
- Investing.com is a really diverse app offering a wide range of market data and news.
- Bloomberg provides high-quality news and you can also watch videos or listen to audios.
Best apps for learning
Invstr and Trading Game are our top picks for best apps for learning.
- On Invstr's great and easy-to-use platform, you can easily learn the basics of trading.
- Trading Game provides well-illustrated educational texts.
