Acorns and Robinhood are both online investing platforms aimed at younger, inexperienced investors, but they are somewhat different. Acorn is a Robo-advisor platform that helps people invest by skimming the spare change from their digital transactions.
This surplus is then invested based on the platform’s algorithms and recommendations, resulting in a “set-it-and-forget-it” portfolio.
Robinhood is a standardized platform that strives to make investing as quick and straightforward as possible. Robinhood makes portfolio interaction easy and engaging, with a design that has been compared to Twitch gaming or Tinder’s fast reactions.
Acorns vs. Robinhood In terms of the fees
Fees: Robinhood vs acorns
When it comes to online investment sites, there are four categories of fees to be aware of:
Trading Fees: These can be in the form of a flat fee (relatively rare), or the broker can charge you what is known as the “spread.” This is the disparity, if any, between the asset’s purchase and sale prices.
Trading Commissions: When a broker charges you a portion of the transaction depending on each trade’s amount or value, this is known as a commission.
Inactivity Fees: Any fees charged by the exchange for not selling, such as holding funds in your investment account.
Robinhood commissions free platform
This is one field where Robinhood has a distinct advantage. There are almost no fees in Robinhood. There are no commissions, no trading fees, and no inactivity fees. Putting money in and taking money out of your account, as well as moving assets around inside your account, are all secure.
Only if you want to sell on margin or with borrowed funds will you incur fees. In this scenario, you will be charged an interest rate of 5% or higher, and you must sign up for Robinhood Gold at a monthly rate of $5 to use this service.
Fees, on the other hand, have been a problem for Robinhood. One of “Robinhood’s selling points to customers [between 2015 and late 2018] was that trading was ‘commission-free,’ but due in large part to its exceptionally high charge for order flow volumes, Robinhood customers’ orders were executed at prices that were inferior to other brokers’ prices,” according to the Securities and Exchange Commission in December 2020.
Robinhood agreed to a cease-and-desist order and a $65 million civil penalty without acknowledging or denying the SEC’s findings.
Acorns Charges
In comparison, Acorns charges a monthly fee to use its service. Acorns Lite, which provides the platform’s essential investment services, is available for $1 per month. Acorns Personal, which includes a bank account and tax-advantaged savings plans, costs $3 per month. Finally, Acorns Family, which adds savings accounts for dependents, costs $5 a month. (These payments escalate to $100 a month for every account with more than $1 million in it.)
Acorns charge a $50 per asset fee to move shares out of its network, which is a niche aspect of its operation.
Services and Features of Acorns vs. Robinhood
Acorns come up with a unique pitch. Its service acts as a user’s automatic investor and counselor. When you make a purchase, the platform rounds up to the nearest dollar. It invests the difference in your Acorns account. Acorns are connected to your bank accounts, such as debit and credit cards.
For example, if you pay $2.80 for a cup of coffee, your credit card will display a $3 charge, and Acorns will add $0.20 to your portfolio.
You can also manually invest by depositing funds into your account.
Acorns investment structure
Acorns invest your money in one of five pre-built portfolios, ranging from conservative to aggressive, based on your risk tolerance and desire for growth. These portfolios are made up of a weighted combination of exchange-traded funds or ETFs. The platform automatically balances these ETFs based on how well they complement the portfolio’s risk and growth management strategy.
The concept behind Acorns is simple: small contributions can accumulate over time to produce significant results.
On the other hand, Acorns provides a forum that is severely lacking in features to accomplish this aim.
Acorns asset feature
Specific investments or even asset groups are not open to investors.
Your assets are locked into the automatically controlled portfolio you want, which invests solely in exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
As a result, Acorns is more of a money management tool than an investment tool.
Users who want to track their portfolio or make active investment decisions will be disappointed. Still, those who want help with saving and investing will find a lot to like.
Robinhood investing approach
Robinhood is a trading site that focuses on its mobile application (although it offers a web presence).
Users can trade a few of the most common assets on the market today through Robinhood: stocks, options, ETFs, and American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) (ADR). Robinhood crypto, a portion of the website, has recently extended its service to include cryptocurrencies.
Robinhood has a limited set of investment management tools. Each asset gives a small amount of information, such as price history, trade volume, and other statistics and purchasing data.
Assets organize by the business sector (for example, technology stocks). You can find similar goods to invest in easily. Users can easily invest by making transactions with money they’ve transferred to their Robinhood account or by selling properties and redistributing the proceeds.
Robinhood’s greatest strength and weakness are its ease of use. There are few advanced tools or technical research available on the investment site. Pricing data only goes back five years, and more advanced tools like bar charts aren’t usable.
This makes the platform simple to comprehend, avoiding some of the more complicated mechanisms that can turn off potential investors. However, it limits the platform’s functionality, leaving few options for investors who have progressed beyond their initial investments.
Online and Mobile Experience: Robinhood vs. Acorns
A young man makes an online investment. Both of these platforms are based on the idea of providing a positive customer experience. Acorns create a largely hands-off environment that requires consumers to interact with them as least as possible.
The app sums up your transactions and deposits the difference into one of its few managed accounts. The entire design procedure is to run in the context of the user’s daily activities. And to a large degree, this works.
Robinhood Extended-Hours Trading
What happens when you buy the stock after hours on Robinhood. On regular trading days, the markets are open from 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. EST. You’ll be able to trade during pre-market and after-hours sessions if you use extended-hours trading.
Starting at 9:00 a.m. EST, the Pre-Market opens 30 minutes earlier.
Trading in the after-hours continues for another two hours, until 6:00 p.m. EST.
Every day, that’s an additional two and a half hours of market access.
Here’s how it works:
Hours of the Pre-Market: 9 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. EST
Business Hours: 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. EST
After Hours: 4–6 p.m. EST
