Webull vs Robinhood 2024 (Trading Hours, Margin Rates & Account Fees)

Webull is a brokerage platform with a well-designed mobile app experience, where you can buy and sell stocks. The company has been around since 2017—starting as a portfolio consolidation and research company, then shifting into the brokerage world. While they’re still fairly new, they’ve already become a powerhouse in the trading community—and it looks like they’re here to stay.

Robinhood is another brokerage company where you can buy and sell funds—they’ve been around since 2013 and have since reached 15.9 million users in 2022. The company gives you access to commission-free stocks, EFTs, options, and cryptocurrency—and is easy to use, especially for beginners.

Webull is a pretty standard investment account, so its selection of offerings probably won’t blow your mind. But what it does, it does well—and those new to the game can benefit from its basic account types.

Here’s the breakdown for Webull:

• Cash account: a standard brokerage account that gives you the chance to pay the full amount for any securities purchased.

• Margin account: this lets you use the funds and securities you already own to buy additional securities—with an average margin interest rate of 6.17%.

• IRA accounts: you can get your hands on a few different IRA accounts—Webull offers a traditional IRA, a ROTH IRA, and a Rollover IRA—all with $0 account fees.

No, you’re not seeing double—like Webull, Robinhood sticks to the basics with its standard brokerage accounts:

• Cash account: you’re free to trade stocks, options, and ETPs—with unlimited day trades.

• Margin account: margin investing lets you access borrowed funds for trading, spending, and withdrawing—with a standard margin interest rate of 7.75%.

• Retirement account: Robinhood only offers a traditional IRA and a ROTH retirement account—but sets itself apart with a 1% match and a custom recommended portfolio.

Neither Webull nor Robinhood provides any out-of-the-box account offerings, but if you’re on the hunt for a standard brokerage account—both come with the basics with little to no fees. While Webull provides a Rollover IRA, Robinhood just beats them out with its 1% match and a chance to earn extra cash.

Webull is a top contender for costs—with no commissions on stocks, cryptocurrencies, or options. You don’t need a minimum balance either—and there are no annual fees, inactivity fees, or additional costs for the range of tools.

But watch out—while most of their features are commission-free, there’s an outgoing ACAT (Automated Customer Account)$75 transfer fee, which is charged when you transfer stocks to another broker out of your Webull account.

Robinhood prides itself on being commission-free too—which means no annoying charges for maintenance, foreign transactions, inactivity, or card replacements.You’ll have to fork outone cent to open the account—but we doubt that will break the bank.

Be careful, though—there’s a$100 outgoing ACAT fee that didn’t escape our notice. And if you’re keen to stay up-to-date on the latest research, you’ll need to spend a monthly fee of $5 for a Robinhood Gold account—with access to Morningstar research reports and Level II Nasdaq data.

Being offered free samples of cheese at the mall sounds awesome until you realize it smells of feet and tastes even worse—don’t let commission-free suck you in unless what they’re offering keeps you coming back for more. So, let’s see if what they’re offering really is the brie’s knees—

Stock and shares

With Webull, you can take your pick from 7,000 US traded stocks and EFTs. For those who’d rather start with a slice—you can opt for fractional shares, which let you purchase a portion of the share rather than the whole thing.

Taking tips from the outlaw himself—Robinhood also offers fractional shares, so people who can’t afford the full price can pay as little as $1. Robinhood falls behind Webull with its trading options—with only 5,000 stocks and EFTs available.

Cryptocurrency

Webull has an impressive 44 cryptocurrencies, but there’s a catch—you can't send or receive coins to or from your Webull account. Trading and converting into fiat currency is still an option—but Webull will keep control of the keys to your crypto assets.

You can still keep control of your purse strings, though—Webull charges just $1 for trading and currently has a crypto wallet in beta testing.

Robinhood puts the power back in your hands and has already launched its self-custody Robinhood Wallet—which lets you take full control of your keys and crypto on the Polygon and Ethereum networks.Robinhood offers 15 coins in 48 states—and you’ll also be able to transfer crypto in and out of your account whenever you want.

But nothing is perfect (except a perfectly grilled cheese sandwich). Like Webull,Robinhood loses points—as customers can only buy and sell crypto in USD. (Anyone in Spain, China, the UK—and basically the rest of the world—might want to look elsewhere.)

Read more:

Best App to Buy Crypto: Top 10 Options

Key Cryptocurrency Statistics & Facts for 2024 and Beyond

Homework was my least favorite thing about school—usually half-completed on the way to class. But if I was learning how to make some extra cash—it might have been a different story (with better grades).

If you want to brush up on your knowledge,Webull offers in-depth charts, advanced orders, market data, and a bunch of technical indicators. Sounds complex? You’re right—many of these tools are targeted at more advanced active traders.

Sorry, beginners—there aren’t many educational tools to teach you the basics (especially compared to other brokerages). Still, Webull easily trumps its rival with its research and data.

WhileRobinhood has made some effort to provide educational tools to help with the basics in their Learn section—there’s still no sign of stock screeners or research tools (unless you’re a Robinhood Gold member).

If I asked you to draw stock trading—it‘d probably look like a lot of numbers, charts, and squiggly lines that neither one of us would understand. This doesn’t tend to attract customers.

That’s whyWebull makes sure its navigation is clear and easy to use. The five-year-old company gives off the cool, new kid on the block feel—with a modern platform and a user-friendly website, desktop, and app.There are also a bunch of up-to-date features—likepaper trading, watchlists, price alerts, and voice command (because lifting a finger is so last year).

But if you’re looking forbeginner-friendly usability, Robinhood is winning the race. Their mobile-first attitude breaks down complex trading strategies, like charting and options trading—and simplifies them for those starting out.

Even for old-school desktop users—their web-based platform is easy-to-use and has the same look as its cell phone counterpart.

Having all the top-notch tools and a ton of crypto is great—until you lose it all to some 17-year-old hacker living in their parents’ basement. So when you’re looking for a trading app—don’t skimp on security.

Webull offers 128-bit encryption, firewalls, and two-step user authentication. (All transactions are made through Plaid—so your bank information is kept a closely guarded secret.) They insure all accounts with Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC)—which offers coverage up to $500,000 (with a $250,000 limit for cash).

Robinhoodhas a bunch of pretty solid security features, too (despite some recent breaches), like two-factor authorization and authentication of trusted devices. Just like with Webull, SIPC protects your funds up to $250,000 in cash (and $500,000 in securities). Robinhood is also regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).