Webull vs. Robinhood: Which One Is Better for You?

Webull and Robinhood are two of the top online brokers offering commission-free trading. Each of these brokers allows investors to trade stocks in addition to a wide selection of investment products, an easy-to-use trading platform, and a well-built trading app. And while this is a good thing, it can be a bit tricky to choose between the two.

To help you decide, this Webull vs Robinhood review will show you the key differences between the brokers. We’ll compare the various features, including available investment options, applicable fees, platform usability, and more.

Webull vs Robinhood: Overview

What is Webull?

Webull entered the online investment scene in 2017, making it a relatively new online investment broker. The investment platform is one of the major Robinhood competitors, attracting millennials because of its mobile-friendly approach. Still, it offers several features available on many traditional brokerage platforms.

Webull Financial LLC is regulated by the US Securities and Exchange Commission and has a highly secure trading environment. It has a mobile trading app that has become very popular among young traders.

The platform is an ideal choice for active trading and short-term investing. Also, fractional share trading is available to investors with small budgets. Webull has both a desktop platform and mobile app.

What is Robinhood?

Robinhood started operations in 2013. The U.S.-based broker has a user-friendly investing app where investors can trade stocks, ETFs, and options. While it might seem a bit barebones compared to Webull, it offers easy commission-free trading in crypto, stocks, and more.

Any trader on Robinhood Crypto can tap into the cryptocurrency market. However, only seven cryptocurrencies are currently listed on the Robinhood investment platform.

Further reading: How to Invest in Cryptocurrency

Webull vs Robinhood: Key Features

Webull Unique Features

Webull's unique features include:

In a nutshell, Webull features make it a better choice for investors looking to diversify their investment portfolio.

Check out: Our full Webull review

Robinhood Unique Features

Robinhood also has a lot going for them, including:

Robinhood's features makes it a good choice for low-cost options trading and margin trading.

Read on: Is Robinhood Safe? 

Webull vs Robinhood: Available Investment Products

Webull and Robinhood each support stocks, ETFs, options, and crypto. And since neither broker charges commissions on options, they're both very popular options trading platforms versus competitors that often charge $0.65 per contract.

Both brokers also allow margin trading – a feature that’s not available with all brokers.  Webull and Robinhood both have the same $2,000 account minimum for margin accounts.

But things are a little different in terms of fractional shares. While both brokers allow fractional share trading, you can buy fractional shares as small as 1/1000000 on Robinhood. In contrast, there's a $5 minimum investment to buy fractional shares on Webull.

Webull currently supports far more cryptocurrencies than Robinhood. Robinhood users can only trade 7 coins as of writing, while Webull now has just over 35 currencies on its digital asset list. You can still trade major cryptos like Bitcoin and Ethereum with Wellbull or Robinhood, but Webull has way better altcoin variety.

Unfortunately, investors looking for more asset classes to build a more diversified portfolio may have to look for another broker. This is because Webull and Robinhood do not provide several other types of investment products, such as CDs, currencies, futures, mutual funds, and bonds.

Read more: Best Online Stock Brokers

Here's a list of the available investments on both platforms.

Read: How to Choose Between a Full-Service Broker and a Discount Broker

Webull vs Robinhood: Trading Platform and Usability

Both investing platforms are user-friendly but work differently. Robinhood is probably the best choice for beginners. Webull, on the other hand, better suits the intermediate investor with its stock screening tools, watchlists and customizable alerts.

However, Robinhood is starting to compete more closely with Webull now that it's unrolled advanced charts to its platform. This lets more experienced investors conduct more technical analysis and use more data to inform their trading decisions. It's basically a tie now between Robinhood and Webull for how the mobile apps function.

When it comes to trading on the go, both Webull and Robinhood both make it easy to trade stocks, margin, and other options via their respective mobile apps.

Webull vs Robinhood: Account Types

In addition to taxable brokerage accounts, Webull allows investors to open Traditional and Roth IRAs. Retirement accounts aren't currently available on Robinhood. This is one of Webull's main advantages over Robinhood, although Robinhood has plans to allow retirement accounts in the future.

However, Robinhood has Webull beat when it comes to offering a linked debit card. The recently-announced Robinhood Cash Card offers weekly bonuses of 10% – 100% on round-ups ($10 cap), early and split paychecks, instant savings opportunities, and no monthly fees.

Neither brokerage currently supports custodial accounts or 529 plans.

Here’s a list of the various account types available on both platforms.

Webull vs. Robinhood: Margin Trading

One of the reasons Robinhood and Webull have become so popular in recent years is for their low margin rates. Both brokers require you to have at least $2,000 in your account to enable margin trading. But there are some differences in rates that might sway your decision:

• Robinhood Margin: Robinhood charges a standard margin rate of 9% for non-Gold customers and a 5% rate on margin over $1,000. Your first $1,000 of margin is covered by your Robinhood Gold membership.
• Webull Margin: The annual margin rate is 6.99% for debit balances between $0 and $25,000. Your rate can get as low as 3.99% for debit balances over $3 million.

Webull technically has lower margin rates than Robinhood, but it takes a $500,000+ debit balance to reach 4.99% margin. This means most traders are better off paying $5 per month for Robinhood Gold to lock in the 5% margin rate.

Webull vs. Robinhood: Fees

You won’t pay any commission when buying options, crypto, ETF, and stock on either Webull or Robinhood. In this regard, both brokers live up to their promise of being fee-free and commission free trading platforms. In addition, both brokerage firms do not charge any account maintenance fees.

That said, a $5 monthly fee is necessary if you want to trade margin on Robinhood using the Robinhood Gold account. Also, a $75 fee applies on both platforms if you want to transfer your assets out of either account.

Finally, all crypto trade will involve a spread. That spread is 1% (100 basis points) with Webull. Robinhood, however, doesn't disclose the spread that it charges on crypto trades.

Here is a summary of the fees and commissions available on both platforms.

Webull vs Robinhood: Customer Service

Where both Webull and Robinhood may be lacking is with their customer service. Webull only provides email and phone support. It does not offer 24/7 support, and there is no live chat for both current and prospective customers. Investors have also reported experiencing difficulties getting through to customer support.

Robinhood’s customer service provides a faster response time compared to Webull. And it recently launched 24/7 phone support. However, it's still unlikely to be on par with many full-service online brokers and trading platforms.

Pros and Cons of Webull

Pros and Cons of Robinhood

Read more: Best Crypto Wallets

Bottom Line: Which Is the Best for You?

Webull could be a better choice than Robinhood for investors who want more market data and charting capabilities out of the gate. Webull is also superior to Robinhood if you're looking to invest in retirement accounts or you want access to a larger list of cryptocurrencies. Overall, it has much better crypto support and similar support for other assets, and it's great for trading options like Robinhood.

On the other hand, beginner traders or investors may find the Robinhood app easier to understand and use. It could also be the better choice if you want access to a rewards debit card or rock-bottom margin rates. And Robinhood Gold provides some impressive perks like more market data and premium Morningstar research for a very low monthly price.

Whichever you end up with, both investing platforms are excellent choices for the mobile-first investor looking for quick and easy stock trading opportunities.