In a survey of over 4,200 Kiplinger readers earlier this year, Charles Schwab was the overwhelming favorite among respondents for internet banks. It's won the annual Kiplinger Readers' Choice Awards in this category three times and it's not hard to see why readers love it.

"Schwab bank is perfect," raved one Kiplinger reader, adding that the internet bank "goes above and beyond and is absolutely the best in customer service hands down."

Whether you've been considering Schwab bank specifically or you're just exploring your options for moving your money away from your current bank, find out why Kiplinger readers voted Charles Schwab the best internet bank for the third time.

1. Manage all of your wealth in one place

One of the most cited reasons Kiplinger readers keep choosing Schwab as their favorite internet bank: the convenience of being able to manage all of their accounts at one institution.

"I like housing our checking, savings, brokerage and IRAs in the same place," wrote one reader. Alongside all the typical checking and savings account options you expect from any bank, Charles Schwab also offers various loan products, retirement accounts, brokerage accounts, money market funds and even a trading platform.

With all of your finances on one dashboard, it's easy to move money around and monitor your complete financial picture.

2. No unnecessary fees

No one likes getting nickel-and-dimed by their bank. At a time when just about every major financial institution seems to be charging everything from "maintenance fees" to ATM withdrawal fees, Schwab's fee-free checking accounts are a breath of fresh air.

A Schwab account "costs nothing and works well," said one reader. Not only will you not have to worry about getting hit with maintenance or inactivity fees at Schwab, but the internet bank also covers fees you might be charged elsewhere.

"They pay any fee on any ATM that I use," said one enthusiastic Kiplinger reader. Schwab is one of the few banks to offer unlimited ATM fee rebates. That's a relief when you need cash. There's no need to track down a Schwab location for a withdrawal. You can head to whatever machine is closest to you and grab the cash you need without worrying about fees.

Those fee rebates apply to any ATM fee anywhere in the world. Between that and the zero transaction fees, Schwab checking accounts are just as great for travelers as they are investors.

3. FDIC insurance and robust security features

When it comes to your cash, you don't want to cut corners with security. That's one area that sets Schwab apart from others. Many internet banks are technically fintech companies that partner with brick and mortar banks to offer banking services. As the 2024 bankruptcy of Synapse Financial Technologies revealed, fintech companies aren't FDIC insured because they aren't technically banks. That can leave your money vulnerable if the company goes under.

You don't have to worry about that here because Charles Schwab is a true member FDIC bank, so your checking account is insured up to the standard $250,000.

In addition to being FDIC insured, Schwab accounts come with other security features like fraud alerts, travel notifications and the ability to quickly and easily lock or unlock your debit card as needed to prevent theft.

Where you bank is just one piece of your financial picture. If you're looking for help bringing your savings, investments and retirement strategy together, a financial adviser can help you build a plan around your goals.

Use the tool below to connect with a vetted financial professional today:

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Fidelity has won the Kiplinger Readers' Choice Awards four years in a row for their brokerage services and their popularity among readers shows no sign of waning. One reader even called it, "The best of the many that I have used. I have suggested it to family and friends."

Countless readers have stayed with Fidelity for decades and have multiple accounts with the broker and wealth management service. With so many lifelong loyal customers, the company must be getting something right.

Find out the top three reasons readers cited when explaining why they continue to name Fidelity Kiplinger Readers' Choice Awards best broker.

1. Responsive customer service

Among the most talked about reasons for choosing Fidelity was the brokerage's unparalleled customer service. "I can always access customer service even on weekends," one reader says. Not only are representatives available 24/7, but readers say wait times to get someone on the phone are typically short.

More importantly, the representatives you reach are likely to be knowledgeable, friendly and capable of finding the answers you need quickly, according to many Kiplinger readers.

2. An easy to use website with both analytic and educational tools

After its unmatched customer service, Fidelity's online and mobile experience were the second most-mentioned features that Kiplinger readers appreciated. One reader called the website and mobile app "awesome," stating that both were "easy to navigate, easy to understand, easy to complete whatever I need to do."

The intuitive investing platform "can be used by beginners as well as seasoned investors," says one reader. That's because Fidelity provides a wealth of resources to meet the needs of investors at any level of experience.

For traders and self-directed investors, Fidelity Trader+, the broker's trading platform, provides advanced tools including market research, real-time quotes, customizable alerts, charting and technical indicators to help you analyze your trades.

Meanwhile, for beginner investors, Fidelity provides an always-growing database of educational guides, webinars and other learning resources to help you become a stronger, more confident investor.

3. A wide variety of products and services

According to one Kiplinger reader, "Fidelity has every kind of product that anyone could want." That's not an overstatement. In terms of which assets you can trade, you'll find all the stocks, bonds and ETFs you expect. But you'll also be able to invest in options, crypto, CDs and mutual funds.

Beyond the wide variety of assets, readers like the even wider variety of products and services Fidelity offers. Fidelity is "always introducing new products," one reader says.

In addition to a standard self-directed brokerage account, Fidelity also offers a crypto trading account, a full range of retirement accounts and HSAs. For investors who want to find that balance between managing your investments and getting expert support, you can explore products like Fidelity Go, a robo advisor service, and Basket Portfolios, which include prebuilt models designed by experts that you can play around with and tailor to your own goals.

Beyond investing, Fidelity also offers a range of cash management accounts, a rewards credit card with cash back that can be deposited directly into your eligible Fidelity account, mortgages and loan products. These include a securities-backed line of credit, which works somewhat like a HELOC but uses your investment portfolio as collateral rather than your home.

For kids, investors have access to custodial accounts, 529 plans and even Fidelity Youth accounts, which are teen brokerage accounts that help kids learn and practice investing in the real world, but with parental oversight.

Because Fidelity also offers a full suite of wealth management and financial adviser services, many readers enjoy the ability to create their own mix of self-directed accounts and professionally managed portfolios. Customers have the flexibility to have some accounts professionally managed (say, your 401k or IRA) while self-directing other accounts, like your brokerage account–all while keeping everything in one place.

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If you follow technology news, you've likely noticed a steady rise in large-scale data breaches and cyber incidents.

These attacks are becoming more significant for both personal data exposure and financial loss.

The growing use of AI and modern technologies has made it easier for criminals to create and automate malware, impersonate employees and exploit weaknesses in systems quicker than before.

Investors need to be alert. Even if you practice great cyber hygiene at home — updating devices, using secure passwords, limiting online exposure — your personal data might still be at risk because it's held by banks, insurers, medical providers and investment platforms.

Explore several key areas to pay attention to and steps you can take to help protect yourself, your friends, and your family.

Maintain good data hygiene

Protecting personal data starts with everyday habits. Review privacy settings on smartphones, computers and apps to limit third-party access.

Social media platforms — including Facebook and LinkedIn — offer privacy controls, but they typically default to sharing more information than necessary; 68% of social media users have changed their privacy settings to be more restrictive.

Adjusting these settings is crucial if your profile includes contact details, birthdays, employment or family. While sharing those details may seem harmless, scammers can use them to impersonate individuals.

The Federal Trade Commission reported that financial fraud reached $12.5 billion in 2024, a 25% increase on the prior year, with imposter schemes accounting for many.

Criminals have been targeting older Americans more aggressively, as they're less likely to recognize fraudulent communication. This makes proactive protection even more critical; maintaining strong privacy can make you less visible and a more challenging target.

Remove your data from the web and close old accounts

Every new account you create online stores your data in a system. While you might stop using the platform, your emails, phone numbers, addresses and other identifiers can remain active.

Even if the company storing this data has strong security practices, its third-party processors may not — which is where breaches often occur.

While some of this is beyond your control, you can hire a company to remove your data from the internet. Providers such as Incogni, DeleteMe or Optery handle this process for you. I used Incogni, and it eliminated hours of manual submissions.

Despite growing concerns about data privacy, only 6% of American adults have ever used a data-removal service, which means most people still have personal information circulating online without realizing it.

These sites don't guarantee full protection, but they do help minimize your personal information's footprint online. Websites should respond to valid requests to delete your data from their systems, which is where such services come in.

You might also want to close accounts you no longer use. The fewer inactive profiles linked to your identity, the fewer places hackers can gather data points. This is increasingly critical, as AI data-scraping systems can now rapidly compile and analyze personal details, making it even more important to limit what is publicly accessible.

Choose institutions carefully

Although evaluating data governance policies might be difficult in practice, choosing institutions with strong security protocols can make a difference.

Companies are governed by different data privacy laws depending on where they are, and those in Europe — or doing business there — are subject to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), one of the strictest frameworks. GDPR requires clear policies for how customer information is collected, stored, used and disposed of, creating higher expectations for data handling.

Some large Fortune 500 companies voluntarily adopt GDPR-level standards and might state that in their compliance policies.

Most institutions publish their customer use and data privacy policies online, outlining what they maintain, such as names, addresses, account numbers and history, and how that information is used. Reviewing these disclosures can be daunting, but for investors, these policies can serve as a differentiator and an informed decision point.

In the financial industry, the updated Regulation S-P is creating more consistent expectations around safeguarding client data. These rules will apply to covered institutions such as broker-dealers, investment companies and SEC-registered investment advisers.

While firm-level compliance efforts might be substantial, striving for higher standards can help ultimately benefit investors. A notable feature of Regulation S-P requires service providers to notify covered institutions within 72 hours of discovering unauthorized access to customer information.

This is expected to push firms to strengthen incident responses and system monitoring so breaches are communicated quickly. This can give investors more time to respond, change access to credentials and help prevent further exposure.

The digital landscape is evolving

Cybersecurity risks will continue to evolve rapidly, especially as criminals automate attacks using AI tools and data scraping. Recently, Anthropic disclosed that criminals attempted to use Claude AI to orchestrate a large-scale automated cyberattack, signaling where the threat environment is headed.

Investors don't need to become cybersecurity experts, but awareness matters. Your financial adviser can help you interpret risks, monitor updates and understand when personal information might be vulnerable.

Protecting your financial life today is no longer just about managing investments — it now includes protecting personal data.

Maintaining good data hygiene, reducing exposure, and working with institutions that take data privacy seriously are increasingly part of responsible financial planning.

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This article was written by and presents the views of our contributing adviser, not the Kiplinger editorial staff. You can check adviser records with the SEC or with FINRA.

You’re probably used to getting (and ignoring) lots of information from your brokerage, mutual fund, or investment adviser. But here’s one notification you should pay attention to: a request to designate a trusted contact.

What’s a trusted contact? It’s a person 18 or older who can tell your financial institution where you are — and how you are — if you can’t be reached or there’s something suspect about your financial requests or instructions.

Suppose, for example, your financial institution notices unusually large withdrawals from your retirement account, or that someone in Brussels has charged the down payment on a BMW to your debit card. Normally, your bank or brokerage will simply call you and ask what on earth you’re doing (in so many words).

But what if your financial rep can’t reach you because you’re out of town, or you’re sick, or you’re simply letting your mail pile up? In that case, your trusted contact can tell the bank where you might be, or if there could be some other reason you’ve been out of touch, such as travel or a natural disaster.

Or what if your actions are suddenly out of character? For financial advisers, there’s a clear reason why clients should have a trusted contact.

“Suppose you had a conservative client — he’s paid off his house, doesn’t use credit cards — and one day he calls and says, ‘I need $100,000 and I need it now,’” says Mary Ballin, partner and wealth adviser for Perigon Wealth Management in Walnut Creek, California. “It’s a sensitive situation,” she says. “You want to make sure he’s okay.”

Vanguard, the Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, mutual fund giant, has a team dedicated to calling attention to accounts whose owners may be having cognitive difficulties or are potentially being taken advantage of, says John Ginelli, head of investor protection at Vanguard.

The company uses a mix of surveillance methods, ranging from computer algorithms to referrals from telephone representatives, to flag unusual activity. Only members of the team may reach out to a trusted contact, he says.

Even though you’re not legally required to appoint a trusted contact, you probably should. Here’s what a trusted contact might do:

Confirm contact information

Contacts need to be able to verify the client’s home and cell phone numbers, and possibly the client’s e-mail address. If the client has changed his or her residence or phone number, a trusted contact should know that, too.

Know who can speak for the client

Contacts should be able to inform the financial institution of any legal guardian, executor, trustee or holder of a power of attorney on the client’s account. These individuals can also be helpful in tracking someone down.

Speak to whether there is a health or other crisis

Is the customer in the hospital perhaps, or showing signs of dementia? For example, if a customer inquires repeatedly about a transaction and seems confused, the company may call a trusted contact to see whether they have noticed any difference in behavior.

Trusted contacts should also be able to say whether they think someone is being manipulated or abused.

If you’re the trusted contact, you might have to consider proactively getting in touch with the financial institution and the client to discuss a concern.

For example, victims of fraud may refuse to believe that they’re being conned, says Ginelli. “A trusted contact might help that client to see the light.”

What trusted contacts can’t do is access a client’s accounts or make transactions. And if you’re asked to be a trusted contact, don’t worry about sharing your information with the financial institution — it may not use information about a trusted contact for marketing purposes, so agreeing to be one won’t result in sales pitches for investment products.

Choose your trusted contact carefully

Typically, your trusted contact won’t be your financial planner or broker. Barry Glassman, a certified financial planner with Glassman Wealth Services, agrees.

“I’ve never been asked to be a trusted contact, nor would I accept that role. It seems like a conflict. It should be someone who interacts with the client beyond a financial planning relationship.”

Clearly, your trusted contact needs to be relatively easy to reach. For married couples, the obvious candidate is a spouse, Ballin says.

Older couples might also consider an adult child, or the executor of their will, Ginelli says. You may establish more than one trusted contact.

And don’t forget to ask your contact first.

“Before adding their information to your accounts, it’s a good idea to discuss this with your chosen trusted contact so they’re aware of the responsibility should your financial institution need to reach out,” says Leanna Devinney, vice president, branch leader at Fidelity Investments.

If you have already named a trusted contact, review that designation periodically. People drift apart — or die. In either case, they won’t make a good trusted contact.

The trusted contact form is optional, even though the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority endorsed the policy in 2018. If you’ve never seen one, you’re not alone. “I haven’t received one yet,” says Patrick Chu, editor at the Wall Street Journal.

What percentage of investors have a trusted contact? “Like every firm out there, I can say that we don’t have enough,” Vanguard’s Ginelli says. “The more the better. The law requires us to solicit people to have trusted contacts and have a method for doing so, but it doesn’t require clients to have one.”

If you’re interested in naming a trusted contact, call someone at your broker, financial adviser, or mutual fund company. They should be able to provide you with the proper forms. You may also be able to find a trusted contact form on your financial representative’s website.

Ginelli says that some clients have reached out to Vanguard after getting a diagnosis of cognitive disability, for example. The trusted contact form is probably the easiest financial form you’ll ever fill out, he says. “We just need a name, a phone number, a street address, or an e-mail address.”

Other ways to protect your financial account

If you’re worried about becoming the victim of fraud or making unwise actions on your own because of cognitive disability, be sure to designate someone with power of attorney in case you’re disabled or otherwise unable to take care of your own affairs, even temporarily.

Setting up joint financial accounts with a spouse or an adult child can ensure that someone is watching your money — although a joint account will let the co-owner make withdrawals, too. Authorizing someone (often called an agent) can give them permission to make transactions in your account, but the authorization can also be drawn up to allow only account monitoring or inquiries.

Finally, make sure you’re doing what you can on your own to protect your accounts. Use strong passwords, multifactor identification and secure Wi-Fi.

Note: This item first appeared in Kiplinger Personal Finance Magazine, a monthly, trustworthy source of advice and guidance. Subscribe to help you make more money and keep more of the money you make here.

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Ever since Charles Schwab launched the first real discount brokerage in 1974, the trend has been toward lower and lower trading commissions and fees, culminating in 2019 when virtually every major retail broker switched to zero-commission trading. 

Earlier this year, that appeared to be going in reverse after Fidelity Investments announced plans to introduce a $100 "surcharge" on certain ETF trades. It wasn't, strictly speaking, a trading commission, but for all intents and purposes, it might have been considered one. 

Investors likely wouldn't have noticed a difference, as the charge was going to being levied on only nine ETF issuers, none of which are in the top 50 by market share. These are smaller, more obscure ETFs that you probably weren't likely to buy anyway. The ETF issuers affected were Adaptive, AXS Investments, Cambiar, Day Hagan, Rayliant, Regents Park, Running Oak, Simplify Asset Management and Sterling Capital.

However, Fidelity has since reached agreements with these issuers and dozens of other providers of exchange-traded funds. The firm is also in constructive dialogue with many others. As a result, no service fees will be incurred at this time.

As a Fidelity spokesperson told Kiplinger, "Fidelity remains committed to providing clients choice through an open architecture investment platform. The arrangements we have with asset managers help us uphold the platform and the exceptional value it provides for all products, including customer service, research tools, technology capabilities, and security measures to drive a positive experience for investors."

Fidelity adds that the "decision to harmonize some of our fee policies comes as our level of support and service for ETFs across the industry is growing rapidly. We continue to work closely with asset managers, as we've always done, to engage in constructive dialogue and reach outcomes that reflect a more consistent approach across mutual funds and ETFs. Fidelity provides transparency to investors for commissions, margin rates, and fees at Fidelity.com."

Still there are implications here for investors, and the incident reveals a lot about the "pay to play" incentive structure of the brokerage industry. 

Let's dig deeper.

 Why would Fidelity consider a surcharge?  

Mutual funds have always paid for the privilege of being available on brokerage platforms. Whether by sales loads or 12b-1 fees, mutual funds have traditionally incentivized brokerage firms to carry their offering and individual stock brokers and advisers to sell them. 

A sales load is a commission that comes off the top of an investment. For example, if a mutual fund charges a 5% load, you're really only investing 95 cents on the dollar, with the other 5% going into the broker's pocket. Loaded mutual funds have really fallen out of favor. Recent research from the Investment Company Institute found that 92% of mutual fund sales by dollars invested went into no-load funds. 

Another industry trick is the 12b-1 fee. This is, in effect, a trailer the broker gets for every year the client continues to hold the fund. In theory, this incentivizes the broker to hold on to the fund instead of churning the account in pursuit of new commissions. But it's still money flowing out of the pocket of the investor and into the pocket of the broker. 

ETFs have long been touted as cheaper alternatives to traditional mutual funds, and for the most part this is true. There are no loads for ETFs, as they trade like stocks and thus enjoy free or nearly free trading commissions at most brokerage houses. And because ETFs are often index funds and have very limited trading expenses, they can' charge very low internal expenses. The expense ratio on the popular iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (IVV) is just 0.03%, for example, meaning that for every $1,000 you invest, you lose just 30 cents in fees per year. 

And here's where pay to play comes into effect. 

Despite the fact that ETFs trade on stock exchanges just like stocks, some brokers have "maintenance arrangements in place" in which the ETF managers share a portion of their management fees with the broker for the privilege of having the ETFs available at the broker. In the case of Fidelity, the company is asking for 15% of the fees collected by the managers. For the ETF managers that didn't take the deal, any service fee would be limited to 5% of a buy, up to $100.

 What does this mean for investors? 

It seems that no matter how many fiduciary rules the regulators put in place, there are always going to be incentives for brokers and managers to act against the interests of their investors. Management fees on mutual funds and ETFs have really come down over the past few decades to the point that a large ETF like IVV can charge just 0.03% and still turn a profit for the manager. 

But if fees are the start of a new trend in the industry, then it's likely that the overall cost to clients could rise. If the ETF managers have to pay the broker a cut, they will have less revenue to cover their costs and pay their staff. As a practical matter, that likely means they'll need to charge higher fees.

Another unintended consequence is that fees could strengthen the large, existing players in the industry and penalize smaller upstarts. This would potentially reduce the available options to the investor and reduce competition.

In the bigger picture, the takeaway may be that the great, multi-decade trend toward lower and lower fees to investors could hit the end of the line at some point in the near future. This doesn't mean we'll be going back to the pre-1974 days of ridiculously expensive fixed commissions, of course. But at the margin, it does mean a little less money in investors' pockets. 

Editor's Note: This article initially stated that based on a hypothetical $100 service fee, "you could buy a single share of an ETF for $50 and then pay a 200% commission on that purchase in the form of the $100 surcharge" and that ETFs of issuers who did not reach an agreement with Fidelity would be "subject to a $100 surcharge." This is not accurate. Any service fee would be limited to 5% of a buy, up to $100. This article has also been updated to reflect that Fidelity has reached agreements with these issuers and dozens of other ETF providers.

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And just like that, Black Friday and Cyber Monday came and went. However, several deals from various retailers are sticking around a bit longer. So, if you missed your chance to score top deals over the past several days, or you simply forgot to purchase a gift for someone on your list — you’re in luck. You still have a chance to shop for holiday gifts without having to pay full price.

Ongoing discounts are offered on a variety of products, including appliances, electronics, clothing and home goods.

While shopping, keep in mind that just because an item is on sale, doesn't necessarily mean you should buy it. Many Black Friday retailers trick shoppers, so make sure you follow these holiday shopping strategies to keep yourself in check.

Here’s a list of holiday deals still available from several big-name retailers.

Costco deals

• Whirlpool 19.2 cu. ft. Counter Depth 4 Door Refrigerator with Easy Shelves: Save $1,050, pay $1,299.99
• Round Brilliant 12.00 ctw Diamond Platinum Bracelet: Save $300, pay $19,999.99
• All-Clad d3 12-Piece Stainless Steel Cookware Set: Save $150, pay $549.99
• Sealy Posturepedic 12" Hybrid Mattress/ King size: Save $110, pay $419.99
• Bose SoundLink Flex SE Bluetooth Speaker: Save $30, pay $99.99
• Philips Sonicare DiamondClean Connected Rechargeable Electric Toothbrush, 2-pack: Save $100, pay $179.99

Target deals

• Apple AirPods 2 with Noise Cancellation: Save $60, pay only $189.99
• Costway Accent Chair Upholstered Linen Armchair Sofa Chair w/Waist Pillow: Save $216, pay $143.99
• Ninja 4qt Air Fryer: Save $10, pay $79.99
• Keurig K-Mini Single-Serve K-Cup Pod Coffee Maker: Save $30, pay $59.99
• iRobot Roomba Combo i5+: Save $100, pay $449.99
• Ninja Professional Blender: Save $20, pay $79.99

Amazon deals

• Beats Solo3 Wireless On-Ear Headphones: Save 50%, pay $99
• Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 Lite 10.4" 64GB Android Tablet: Save 30%, pay $239.99
• Bulova Men's Marine Star Gold Chronograph Stainless Steel Watch: Save 20%, pay $396
• Fitbit Inspire 3 Health & Fitness Tracker: Save 20%, pay $79.95
• Bose QuietComfort Bluetooth Headphones: Save 43%, pay $199

Walmart deals

• Lacoo 2 Pack Patio Zero Gravity Chair Outdoor Lounge Chair: Save $90, pay $89.99
• Dyson V8 Absolute Cordless Vacuum: Save $220, pay $299.99
• Nicebay Hair Straightener: Save $50.10, pay $39.89
• Hart 20V 3-Tool Combo Kit, Drill, 6-1/2" Circular Saw and LED Light: Save $100, pay $59

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And just like that, Black Friday and Cyber Monday came and went. However, several deals from various retailers are sticking around a bit longer. So, if you missed your chance to score top deals over the past several days, or you simply forgot to purchase a gift for someone on your list — you’re in luck. You still have a chance to shop for holiday gifts without having to pay full price.

Ongoing discounts are offered on a variety of products, including appliances, electronics, clothing and home goods.

While shopping, keep in mind that just because an item is on sale, doesn't necessarily mean you should buy it. Many Black Friday retailers trick shoppers, so make sure you follow these holiday shopping strategies to keep yourself in check.

Here’s a list of holiday deals still available from several big-name retailers.

Costco deals

• Whirlpool 19.2 cu. ft. Counter Depth 4 Door Refrigerator with Easy Shelves: Save $1,050, pay $1,299.99
• Round Brilliant 12.00 ctw Diamond Platinum Bracelet: Save $300, pay $19,999.99
• All-Clad d3 12-Piece Stainless Steel Cookware Set: Save $150, pay $549.99
• Sealy Posturepedic 12" Hybrid Mattress/ King size: Save $110, pay $419.99
• Bose SoundLink Flex SE Bluetooth Speaker: Save $30, pay $99.99
• Philips Sonicare DiamondClean Connected Rechargeable Electric Toothbrush, 2-pack: Save $100, pay $179.99

Target deals

• Apple AirPods 2 with Noise Cancellation: Save $60, pay only $189.99
• Costway Accent Chair Upholstered Linen Armchair Sofa Chair w/Waist Pillow: Save $216, pay $143.99
• Ninja 4qt Air Fryer: Save $10, pay $79.99
• Keurig K-Mini Single-Serve K-Cup Pod Coffee Maker: Save $30, pay $59.99
• iRobot Roomba Combo i5+: Save $100, pay $449.99
• Ninja Professional Blender: Save $20, pay $79.99

Amazon deals

• Beats Solo3 Wireless On-Ear Headphones: Save 50%, pay $99
• Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 Lite 10.4" 64GB Android Tablet: Save 30%, pay $239.99
• Bulova Men's Marine Star Gold Chronograph Stainless Steel Watch: Save 20%, pay $396
• Fitbit Inspire 3 Health & Fitness Tracker: Save 20%, pay $79.95
• Bose QuietComfort Bluetooth Headphones: Save 43%, pay $199

Walmart deals

• Lacoo 2 Pack Patio Zero Gravity Chair Outdoor Lounge Chair: Save $90, pay $89.99
• Dyson V8 Absolute Cordless Vacuum: Save $220, pay $299.99
• Nicebay Hair Straightener: Save $50.10, pay $39.89
• Hart 20V 3-Tool Combo Kit, Drill, 6-1/2" Circular Saw and LED Light: Save $100, pay $59

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Robo-advisers, those automated investment services offered by banks, brokerages and other financial firms, promise low-cost, computer-driven investment management geared to your goals.

Although $1,000 is not enough to get started at Charles Schwab (it’s a heavy-weight competitor in robos, but its Intelligent Portfolio service requires $5,000 to open an account), it’s plenty for SoFi.

The fintech company’s digital advice service, called SoFi Invest, has a $1 minimum and no annual management fee. What’s more, SoFi’s digital service wins top marks as the best robo-adviser for first-time investors from the Robo Report, a quarterly publication from Condor Capital, a Martinsville, N.J.-based advisory firm, that measures the performance, among other things, of robo-adviser services.

SoFi’s program is similar to other robo services. You answer a quick online survey that touches (lightly) on your goal, financial situation and risk tolerance. Then an algorithm spits out a recommended diversified portfolio for you that holds a smattering of exchange-traded funds that are appropriate to your investment timeline.

SoFi competitor Wealthfront has a $500 entry minimum and charges 0.25% in annual management fees. Wealthfront’s robo portfolios have performed better than peers in recent years, according to the Robo Report, thanks in part to a 10% allocation to energy stocks, the best-performing sector in the U.S. stock market over the past two years.

At Fidelity, the price of entry and costs are low in the beginning for its Fidelity Go digital advisory service — there’s no minimum to open an account and no advisory fees for accounts with balances under $25,000.

That’s in part why the Robo Report names Fidelity Go as the best robo-adviser overall. Once balances exceed certain levels, annual fees apply; for balances above $25,000, it's a 0.35% advisory fee. But Robo Report also like Fidelity Go for its additional features, including live operational support and licensed advisers, as well as retirement planning features.

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Brokerage start-ups such as Robinhood, M1 Finance and SoFi are tiny compared with the trillions of dollars in brokerage assets at the likes of Schwab and Fidelity. But they've already made a big dent in the way things work: These small online brokers pioneered commission-free stock trading and fractional-share purchases, and now those services are standard fare at the bigger firms.

And that's one of the reasons we keep an eye on smaller brokerage firms – because they're shaking up the industry. If not for Robinhood, for instance, we might still be paying commissions on stock and ETF trades.

For investors who just want a handy phone app or online platform where they can trade stocks, exchange-traded funds, options or cryptocurrencies on the cheap, these brokers will do the trick. We refer to these firms as "smaller" shops for the sake of this article, but in terms of customer counts, that's not always the case anymore (we're looking at you, Robinhood).

These smaller firms don't qualify for our annual review of the best online brokers because they don't offer mutual fund or bond trading. But they may be worth a look by investors who want to be on the bleeding edge of innovative offerings at rock-bottom fees. We evaluated four firms: Moomoo, Robinhood, Tastytrade and Webull. (M1 and SoFi did not respond to our invitations.) Here is how the four stack up.

Best small online brokers for investment choices

None of these brokers offers mutual funds, corporate bonds or municipal bonds. Only Tastytrade allows you to buy and sell Treasury securities.

Robinhood and Tastytrade offered the broadest selection of investment choices, with the biggest inventories of fractional shares of stocks and ETFs, for example. They're the only two that trade cryptocurrencies – Robinhood offers 11; Tastytrade, four.

Moomoo pays the highest rate on its "sweep" account: 5.1%. Webull pays 5%.

Best small online broker for mobile apps and desktop tools

Most of the brokers here started with a mobile-first mindset, so there is little difference between their mobile and desktop functionality.

Moomoo and Webull's robust apps include stock and ETF screeners, chart-drawing tools and cost-basis calculators. Tastytrade has highly sortable lists rather than screening tools.

Best small online broker for advisory services 

Webull's Smart Advisor is the only advisory service offered in this group. Its computer algorithms will create a portfolio of ETFs for an annual fee of 0.2% of your portfolio. You can choose among six options tailored to your risk appetite and goals.

Best small online broker for customer service 

None of these brokers have brick-and-mortar locations, and all have limited customer service. Moomoo has humans answering chat requests. Robinhood says a staffer will call or email you back upon request. Tastytrade offers a chatbot that it says will eventually connect you to a human if you ask.

Best small online broker for fees

Robinhood, which launched the no-commission price war, charges no fees for options trading. It's experimenting with another pricing innovation: For $75 a year, investors can enroll in "Robinhood Gold," which entitles them to perks including 3% matching contributions to a Robinhood IRA and 5% interest on a sweep account.

Moomoo stands out for its $0 fees to trade options on stocks and $5 for 10 index option contracts.

Note: This item first appeared in Kiplinger Personal Finance Magazine, a monthly, trustworthy source of advice and guidance. Subscribe to help you make more money and keep more of the money you make here.

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It's a good time to be an investor. We're not just talking about the multiyear bull run that has made most market participants wealthier. It's a good time to be a customer of an online brokerage, too.

Fees have fallen sharply over the years, but most firms keep adding to their offerings — particularly in their mobile-phone apps, where younger and tech-savvier customers often head first. In short, brokerages are giving you more bang for your buck.

Yet there are real differences in the offerings. Some have a wide variety of investment choices, perfect for an investor who is, say, comfortable buying individual bonds. Others are better for newer investors with less money and less knowledge. Some target investors who focus only on stocks and options.

How we chose the best online brokers and trading platforms

Enter the 2026 best online brokers list. We surveyed nine firms in all: Charles Schwab, E*Trade from Morgan Stanley, Fidelity, Firstrade, Interactive Brokers, J.P. Morgan Self-Directed Investing, Merrill Edge, Robinhood and WellsTrade. Ally Invest, Citi Self Invest, T. Rowe Price and Vanguard declined to participate.

The biggest, best-known firms score better overall, but each broker excels in one area or another. We also include information on the best brokers for different types of investors and some smaller firms not included in our rankings.

We designed our rankings to reward the firms that offer the most to the broadest group of investors. For years, we've limited the field to brokers that offer trading in stocks, mutual funds, exchange-traded funds and individual bonds.

That has excluded the upstart brokerage Robinhood, which doesn't offer bond or mutual-fund trading. But take a bow, Robinhood — you're too big to ignore. Started in 2013, the firm is pushing $400 billion in assets. That's not the nearly $850 billion that Schwab hosts on its platform for self-directed investors, but Robinhood has garnered a large following in a short time.

That said, Robinhood debuts in last place in our overall rankings. That's to be expected, though, because our questions still survey the breadth of investment choices and tools for bonds and mutual funds, where Robinhood can't score points. But the firm has much to offer for investors who are focused on trading stocks, exchange-traded funds and options.

Best online broker overall

There's a new number one. Interactive Brokers has claimed the crown this year, displacing longtime champ Fidelity.

In years past, Interactive Brokers has been a top or competitive finisher in important categories — mobile applications, for one, and tools and education, to name another. This year, its edge stems from improved showings in investment choices, advisory services and fees. The firm has also continued to expand its research offerings, and it remains at the top in access to international markets.

Our survey combines objective and subjective criteria. We rely on the information that each firm provides and vet the data as best we can. We ask for the state of their platforms as of May 31, so some firms may be introducing features after that date that aren't counted here. We weigh each data point and then each category to arrive at our scores.

Below, we present the highs and lows of how the brokers performed, with categories listed in order of significance to the final score.

Online brokers with the best investment choices

The broader the range of investment offerings, from corporate bonds to mutual funds, ETFs and even cryptocurrencies, the better the broker ranked in this category.

For the first time, Interactive Brokers wins this category, one of the most heavily weighted, accounting for 20% of the final score. Fidelity is a close second.

Interactive Brokers is big on bonds; it offers a competitive number of corporate bonds traded in the secondary market (in other words, not new issues), but its robust roster of municipal bonds available to investors — more than 1 million unique issues — crushed the rest of the field by a wide margin.

Interactive continues to offer a healthy roster of mutual funds, and it gained this year by adding new features, including automated investing for ETFs.

Schwab and E*Trade make up the second tier in this category, earning points for offering access to a wide range of investment products: mutual funds, Treasuries, newly issued municipal bonds, cryptocurrencies, and fractional trading of both stocks and ETFs.

Fractional trading enables you to buy a fraction of a publicly traded stock or ETF. So instead of coughing up roughly $1,000 for a single share of Costco (COST), for example, you can buy a slice for a few dollars or less.

This is a plus for investors just getting started. Every firm but Merrill Edge offers fractional purchases of both individual stocks and ETFs, with most of those firms requiring a minimum purchase of $10 or less. But this year, Schwab and Interactive Brokers lowered their minimums even more, with Schwab trimming its minimum fractional-share purchase to $1 from $5, and Interactive Brokers cutting its minimum to one penny from $1. Every broker offering the service has thousands of choices — but Interactive Brokers, offering 11,000 stocks, is tops.

Our survey shows that the biggest online brokers have realized they have to offer cryptocurrency trading to keep customers happy. In 2025, only Interactive Brokers and Fidelity offered direct trading of crypto (not just crypto ETFs). This year, Schwab and E*Trade join the list, as does newcomer Robinhood.

Investors who tend to hold a lot of cash should be pleased with Fidelity and WellsTrade. As of May 31, they paid interest rates that top 3% in their sweep accounts, which transfer your extra cash to interest-bearing investments. Several of the brokers, including E*Trade, Merrill Edge and Schwab, pay close to nothing.

Robinhood, Merrill Edge and J.P. Morgan lagged in this category, for different reasons. Robinhood doesn't offer mutual funds and bonds, giving it a zero score on multiple questions. Merrill Edge has a below-average mutual fund count and limited bond inventory, particularly municipal IOUs, compared with peers in our survey. Similarly, J.P. Morgan offers fewer choices and higher minimums for fractional share purchases and fewer corporate bonds as well.

Online brokers with the best tools and education

Whaddya know? Investors hunger for knowledge that'll help them make more money and retire well. In this category, which accounts for 20% of the final score, we asked firms whether they offered certain tools or calculators that assist in a variety of financial goals: How much should I save for college tuition? How am I doing on retirement savings? How much should I withdraw each year?

We also asked about tools that can help with the selection of stocks, bonds, mutual funds, ETFs and the like — things such as portfolio analyzers, as well as screens for stocks, ETFs and mutual funds. And we asked about investor education, delivered via articles, educational videos, webinars, podcasts and live events.

Schwab and Interactive Brokers triumph in this category. The two offer a wide range of calculators and tools, from the most common — stock, ETF, mutual fund and bond screeners — to ones that several other firms we surveyed do not offer, such as risk-management resources.

Schwab stands ahead of Interactive Brokers on one measure in this category: It has a bond-laddering tool, and Interactive does not. Bond laddering is an investing strategy that involves buying multiple bonds of staggered maturities — it's a good way to build and maintain a simple bond portfolio. Of note, however, is that Schwab's tool is limited to certificates of deposit and Treasuries. (E*Trade and Fidelity also offer bond-laddering tools, for CDs, Treasuries, muni bonds and corporate bonds.)

Education was a big part of this category's score, too. Here, Interactive Brokers floods the zone, counting more than 3,000 articles and 3,000 videos on its site. But if podcasts are your thing, both E*Trade and Schwab produce more, with E*Trade up to more than 400 episodes. (E*Trade's count includes podcasts from parent company Morgan Stanley.)

Though not as voluminous as Interactive Brokers' collection, the libraries of materials at Fidelity and Schwab offer strong educational resources. Schwab is one of only two brokers in the survey to offer live in-person educational events to customers; Merrill Edge is the other.

WellsTrade, Firstrade and Robinhood all produce educational content to some degree, but the quantity of their offerings pales in comparison to the other firms. None offer podcasts, and WellsTrade has no video, either.

Online brokers with the best mobile app

Once upon a time, mobile apps were an afterthought. Brokerages only rolled out new mobile features after launching them on the web platform. Now, many firms are introducing new features app first, desktop second, because many of their customers use the app almost exclusively for trading, research and planning. For example, WellsTrade has deployed new features such as fractional trading and the reinvestment of dividends on the app first.

As a result, apps are getting better — and we should expect more from them. That's why this category makes up 20% of the final score. Stock or fund trades on your smartphone are table stakes. We dug deeper, asking whether the tools on the brokers' web platform are available in the mobile app. Increasingly, with the exception of large, complex charts, the answer is yes.

Interactive Brokers holds the gold medal in mobile. It answered "yes" to nearly every query we asked. The firm says its app allows customers to compare their portfolio performance to 354 benchmarks, but many of those are actually ETFs that represent sectors — sometimes narrow ones — against which you can measure your portfolio. The median number of traditional indexes among the other firms we queried is three. Firstrade, Robinhood and WellsTrade don't offer any benchmarking.

Interactive Brokers also offers a tool to calculate annual IRA required minimum distributions and a debt-management tool in its smartphone app. Merrill Edge is the only other broker to offer an RMD tool in-app; WellsTrade is the only other broker to offer a debt-management tool.

E*Trade and J.P. Morgan are next in mobile. They both allow trading of stocks, bonds, ETFs, options and mutual funds. They're two of only three apps that allow in-app bond trading; Interactive Brokers is the other. They also shine in screening tools, offering predefined filters across asset classes.

E*Trade has a stock screener giving users the ability to choose their own criteria. J.P. Morgan has that, and one for bonds, too.

Schwab ranks sixth in the mobile category, but the firm has been improving its app over the past 12 months, adding the ability to compare your portfolio's performance against a benchmark, a tool to graph portfolio performance, and access to stock research reports.

Any changes to settings and layout preferences you make in the app automatically apply to your account on the web platform, too. (Schwab, E*Trade and Interactive Brokers are the only firms to offer automatic syncing between the two platforms.) Still, Schwab lags the competition for the breadth of tools available on the mobile app.

Robinhood's mobile app won plenty of points for stock-trading tools, but it lagged in this category largely because it doesn't allow you to trade mutual funds or bonds (we know, it's a recurring refrain), and questions about those investments made up a chunk of the category score.

Online brokers with the best advisory services

We focus our survey on do-it-yourself investors, but also recognize there may come a time when folks want some help. Most brokerages offer different tiers of service, largely based on how much money you bring to the table for them to manage.

At the low end, you can get a digital, automated service, often called a robo adviser. You can blend that digital offering with a little human advice — we call that a hybrid offering.

Then, there's a more full-service account, which at the top end can get you customized portfolios as well as a dedicated investment adviser.

The advisory category accounts for 12.5% of the final score in total. But the category score comprises three different parts: one score each for digital, hybrid and full-service offerings. Digital or robo advisory services make up half of the overall category score; hybrid, one-third; and full-service, one-sixth. (Our scoring system evaluated only the services at each firm, not the portfolio returns.)

The range of advice varies at each firm. Firstrade doesn't offer any investment advice at all, while Robinhood offers only a robo adviser. J.P. Morgan doesn't have a robo product, but it offers a hybrid service as well as full-service-type plans through J.P. Morgan Wealth Management. Merrill Edge has a robo (Merrill Guided Investing) and a hybrid (Merrill Guided Investing with Advisor). But it doesn't offer full-service advice through Merrill Edge itself.

Fidelity, which has offerings in all three tiers, takes the prize in our advisory category. It's helped by some of the lowest account minimums. The firm's Fidelity Go digital-only adviser requires just $10 to get started, and it's free for balances under $25,000. Exceed that amount, and you pay 0.35% a year, but you get what Fidelity describes as "unlimited one-on-one coaching calls."

A second digital-only service, Fidelity Managed FidFolios, has a $5,000 minimum balance and allows investors to choose among three actively managed strategies and four direct indexing portfolios. With direct indexing, you buy shares in the individual stocks that make up a benchmark — unlike buying shares in an index fund. The approach allows investors to better capture tax losses in individual stocks to offset capital gains elsewhere.

Even Fidelity's hands-on advisory services have accessible investment minimums. The firm requires just a $50,000 minimum balance to open an account managed by a team of advisers. And a relatively low $100,000 will get you a dedicated adviser in its Fidelity Strategic Disciplines service, but those portfolios are limited to single-asset strategies — either all stocks or all bonds. Other firms require balances of $500,000 to $1 million for a dedicated adviser; some don't offer one at all.

Merrill Edge takes second place in the overall category. Its robo service, Merrill Guided Investing, was competitive with the digital advisory services that scored best in this subset (Fidelity, Interactive Brokers and Schwab). But in the subset of hybrid advisory products, Merrill's offering stood out and ranked first in large part because its $20,000 minimum to invest was the lowest for a hybrid advisory in our survey.

Schwab placed third here. Its robo product, Schwab Intelligent Portfolios, offers a whopping 81 ETF portfolios to choose from. The minimum is $5,000, however — the highest for any digital-only adviser. It doesn't offer a hybrid product, but its full-service advisory offering includes the use of bond and options specialists and estate-planning experts.

WellsTrade finished fourth in this category, in part because it doesn't directly offer dedicated advisory services. Its $500 minimum requirement for its robo service, Intuitive Investor, is neither cheap nor steep. But compared with other robo services, Intuitive Investor also lost a bit of standing because its robo portfolios hold only ETFs; at E*Trade, Fidelity and Robinhood, digital advisory portfolios can also hold mutual funds and stocks. WellsTrade's robo-human hybrid offering expands the investment options and has a minimum investment of $25,000 (also in the middle of its peers).

Interactive Brokers finishes fifth almost entirely on the strength of its digital advisory product, as it has no offering of human-only advisers. Its $100 minimum to invest is the lowest aside from Fidelity ($10) and Robinhood ($50). Interactive's robo also has the second-highest number of standard portfolios to choose from: 69 (behind Schwab's 81).

J.P. Morgan, ranked sixth in the category overall, requires a minimum balance of $100,000 for its highest level of advisory service, and that comes with a dedicated human adviser, as well as access to bond and options specialists and estate-planning experts. (E*Trade and Schwab offer similar breadth of expertise at their highest level of service.)

Customers of J.P. Morgan Personal Advisors, the firm's hybrid product, can get remote advice from advisers via video and phone. It has a $25,000 account minimum, a typical hybrid balance requirement.

E*Trade's full-service advice offering, from Morgan Stanley Wealth Management, also has plenty of bells and whistles, such as access to bond and options specialists and estate-planning experts. The minimum balance is $5,000, and to get a dedicated adviser you need $500,000.

Online brokers with the best research

To make the best investing decisions, it helps to have access to data and analysis. That might mean fundamental analysis, such as examining a company's financial statements and industry trends to evaluate its potential as an investment. Or it could be technical analysis, the practice of identifying a stock's trends or patterns in price charts to inform investment decisions. Often, it's a combination of both.

For this category, which represents 12.5% of the final score, we asked the brokers to list the research sources they offer their customers for specific single stocks and funds. Our wish list included analyst reports for a smattering of widely held stocks and funds, including Apple (AAPL), Honeywell International (HON), Alibaba Group Holdings (BABA) and Fidelity Contrafund (FCNTX).

We also asked about how many reports the brokers offered each year to customers that provided forward views on the stock and bond markets, and general market commentary or analysis.

Firms that offered all that as well as proprietary research scored the best in this category. Merrill Edge, E*Trade and Schwab are all bunched at the top. E*Trade draws on the analyst team from parent company Morgan Stanley; Merrill Edge can offer reports from the securities firm owned by parent Bank of America. Schwab has developed its own Schwab Equity Ratings. All three offer proprietary stock and bond market outlooks and market commentary. The combination of outside reports and research from their own squads allows the three to offer a breadth of voices.

As in other categories, Interactive Brokers offers a multitude of resources, providing outside research on individual stocks from myriad providers. It also offers ample amounts of economic outlooks and market commentary. That helps it place fourth in this category, even though it doesn't have its own research department and doesn't offer any proprietary research.

J.P. Morgan and WellsTrade offer some proprietary research, particularly market outlooks. But they trail the pack because they offer fewer outside research reports than their peers. WellsTrade relies on Wells Fargo Investment Institute commentary, which is robust in general market outlooks and commentaries for stocks, bonds and other assets, but WellsTrade doesn't offer views from other firms on any of that.

Although Fidelity offers a host of outside reports and authors' market commentary, it has no in-house research on individual stocks or funds to provide its customers, so it ranks below average in this category. Firstrade and Robinhood are at the bottom, with just a handful of outside reports and no proprietary research.

Online brokers with the best customer service and security

As online brokerages offer more bells and whistles, there's a good chance you'll have a question. You may be willing to chat with a bot, or you may want a little human touch, whether via messaging, email or a good old-fashioned phone call.

For this category, which makes up 10% of the final score, we asked about the average telephone hold time for a customer service representative and average response time for email and chat. We also asked how often a customer was able to get an answer at the first point of contact.

Our category winner: Schwab. It's one of just two firms to offer 24/7 phone and chat service (Firstrade is the other). Schwab boasts a faster-than-average phone hold time, and it competes well on response times for chat and emails: 56 seconds for chat responses (below average) and 24 hours for email responses (roughly average). The firm's only weakness: It lags peers in the percentage of calls that are resolved at first contact — 68%, compared with a median of 86% among the firms that responded.

Merrill Edge and Fidelity ranked second and third, respectively, for customer service. Merrill leads in first-contact resolution and the speed at which it executes trades. Its weakness: Merrill doesn't offer email support. Fidelity has the longest training program for employees among firms that disclosed that information to us (not all did). It provides 24/7 phone support but only operates its live chats for half that time (84 hours a week). Fidelity does not disclose its rate of first-contact resolution.

WellsTrade improved a number of its metrics. Its average chat response time of 30 seconds was second-best, as was its 91% rate of first-contact resolution. But for average phone hold time, an area where most firms clocked in around 30 seconds or less, WellsTrade reports 96 seconds, one of three firms to exceed one minute. Interactive Brokers came in at 122 seconds; E*Trade, 68 seconds.

Firstrade supplements its 24/7 service by reporting the fastest email response time of all the brokers at 9.5 hours. But its phone hold time and chat response time are middling to below average.

We also give credit to brokers for physical offices. That helps bank-affiliated brokers such as J.P. Morgan Self-Direct, which counts its JPMorgan Chase Bank offices, and Merrill Edge, which includes Bank of America branches. Schwab and Fidelity have offices, but far fewer than the bank-brokers. Firstrade, E*Trade, Interactive Brokers and Robinhood have few to none.

Security accounts for one-tenth of this category's score. All the brokers offer two-factor authentication, combining a password with extra verification, such as your fingerprint or a code sent to your smartphone. At this point, we'd be worried if a brokerage firm didn't do that. But only E*Trade, Interactive Brokers and J.P. Morgan make that step mandatory.

All brokerage customers are covered by SIPC insurance, which protects your cash and securities up to $500,000 (with a $250,000 cash limit) per type of account if a brokerage firm fails. Six of the brokers go further and guarantee 100% of a customer's losses from unauthorized activity; Interactive Brokers, Robinhood and WellsTrade do not.

Online brokers with the best commissions and fees

Fierce competition has flattened a lot of online-brokerage fees, so this category counts for just 5% of the final score. One of the least-visible costs to investors is the profit a firm makes on bond transactions, often found in the markup, or the difference between the price a broker-dealer pays for a bond and the price at which it sells the bond to an investor.

J.P. Morgan leads the fees category, but the competition was extremely tight. Its win doesn't mean the firm charges the lowest fees for everything — in some cases, its levies were more middle of the pack. But in the aggregate, relative to the firms we surveyed, J.P. Morgan's low costs stand out.

The firm doesn't charge a markup on corporate or Treasury bonds, although it does on municipal bonds. It also doesn't charge to buy or sell mutual funds online, and it has relatively low interest rates on margin accounts, used by investors who borrow money to purchase securities. J.P. Morgan does, however, have the most expensive fees in the group for sending domestic or overseas wire transfers — something few investors may have to worry about.

E*Trade, a close second in this category, also charges no mutual-fund transaction fees and no markups or commissions on bonds. Its rates on margin accounts, however, lag peers.

Robinhood got dinged in this category because it doesn't sell bonds or mutual funds, and many of our questions are specific to those investments. But where it does compete, it fares well. A broker-assisted trade of stocks or ETFs is free; every other broker charges at least $19.95 for the service. The fee to buy or sell 10 options contracts is free at Robinhood, too (and at Firstrade). Other brokers levy a $6.50 fee to trade 10 contracts. Robinhood also has some of the best margin-account interest rates.

Brokerage firms may get a small payment for order flow, money they receive for routing trades to certain securities dealers. That may result in slightly less favorable prices when you buy and sell. Six of the nine firms say they accept payment for order flow; Merrill Edge, J.P. Morgan and WellsTrade say they do not.

Fidelity, long a low-cost leader among online brokers, told us this year it's accepting payment for order flow for stock trades, and it charges a markup on corporate and municipal bond trades. That's a key reason the firm ranked in the bottom half of this category.

Best online brokers for your specific needs

Best for investors who want to set it and forget it. At Fidelity and Interactive Brokers, investors can set up automated investing plans to buy both stocks and ETFs that designate a certain amount of money to invest at a regular interval. Merrill Edge and E*Trade have automated investing for ETFs, but not stocks.

Best bank-and-broker benefits. The benefits program at Merrill Edge has been rechristened BofA Rewards. Merrill counts combined balances at the bank and brokerage to qualify for extras. It takes a $30,000 balance to earn some rewards, such as a 0.10 percentage- point discount on digital advisory fees with Merrill Guided Investing. Customers with a combined minimum balance of $100,000 or more get a 0.15 percentage-point discount on advisory fees.

There are other perks, such as discounts on mortgages and extra rewards on credit card purchases, that get better with higher balances.

Best for individual-bond buyers. Interactive Brokers offers the greatest number of municipal bonds of any firm in our survey. E*Trade has the best selection of corporate bonds, however, offering nearly twice as many as any competitor. Those two firms, along with J.P. Morgan Self-Directed, are the only ones who let you trade bonds on the go, via their mobile app.

Avoid hidden costs with E*Trade, which doesn't charge any markups or commissions on corporate and municipal bonds and Treasuries.

Best for mutual-fund investors. Firstrade, Interactive Brokers and Schwab offer a robust selection of mutual funds with no transaction fee. E*Trade and J.P. Morgan Self-Directed Investing don't charge a fee to buy or sell mutual funds but offer fewer of them.

Best for options traders. Active options investors have two choices for the best pricing: Firstrade and Robinhood. Contracts are fee-free at each firm. The other firms we surveyed charge a 65-cent fee per contract.

Best for cash hoarders. Some of the firms in our survey offer a measly 0.01% yield on idle cash sitting in brokerage accounts. But Fidelity and WellsTrade each paid more than 3% interest as of May 31.

Best for margin traders. For investors who like a little leverage, Robinhood charges 4.8% interest on a margin-account balance of $99,999. For the same balance, seven of the nine firms in our survey charge between 10.4% and 12.2%. Among smaller brokers, Public bests Robinhood, with a 4.75% margin rate.

Best for ESG investors. If you prioritize environmental, social and governance issues, Merrill Edge, Interactive Brokers and E*Trade are the only firms in our survey that say they offer ESG reports for both individual stocks and funds.

Best for expats and night owls. Interactive Brokers, catering to citizens and residents of nearly every country, enables clients in faraway time zones to trade eligible U.S. stocks and ETFs nearly 24 hours a day, five days a week (there's a 10-minute break at 3:50 a.m. Eastern Standard Time). For round-the-clock investors in the U.S., Schwab and Robinhood also offer "24/5" trading (with pauses), and Firstrade offers trading from 8 am to 4 am EST on weekdays.

Next-gen brokers to watch

The last time we looked at firms that were outside our rankings, we put Robinhood at the little kids' table, even though it had likely outgrown it. We've promoted Robinhood, but there are other up-and-coming firms that merit consideration, particularly if you don't need a full suite of investment choices and advisory offerings.

Most of the online brokerages we rate are owned and operated by investment firms that started in the pre-internet (or even pre-computer) era. By contrast, the firms here are digital natives, allowed to build their offerings from scratch, with a focus on what younger, more tech-savvy investors prefer, including artificial intelligence tools.

eToro provides access to U.S. stocks, exchange-traded funds, options and more than 100 cryptocurrency assets. Appropriate for a company born in an era of social media, it highlights opportunities to learn from other customers' strategies. Investors can see thoughts, opinions and even portfolios of other eToro customers in a "social feed." Its "CopyTrader" feature allows a user to automatically replicate the investment strategies of others on the platform. (Investors can stop copying and begin to manage their own portfolio at any time.)

Public is trying to position itself between the big, legacy brokers and newer digital-first firms. The company says it has customers who trade hundreds of times a day as well as customers who trade once a year. Unlike other young firms, Public allows customers to buy U.S. Treasuries and corporate bonds.

The company recently rolled out "Generative Assets," a tool that uses AI to produce portfolio recommendations based on quantitative data — say, free cash flow — as well as qualitative considerations, such as CEO attributes. Public also boasts some of the lowest interest rates on margin borrowing: 4.75% on a $99,999 balance.

TastyTrade says it's a platform that was "built by traders, for traders" and caters to active investors. Many of its customers make trades every day and frequently buy and sell options tied to their longer-term core positions, according to the firm. Customers can trade options 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

To help investors manage risk, TastyTrade says it provides a visual risk-analysis tool that provides real-time portfolio stress tests on existing positions and potential trades. It also offers options backtesting to simulate how potential trades have performed in the past.

Webull tries to serve both newbies and experienced traders. The firm is all-in on AI, first introducing an AI-powered investing assistant called Vega that summarizes company reports and financial news and provides personalized portfolio insights. Webull then opened up its platform to outside AI applications including ChatGPT, Claude and others so investors can use those programs to analyze their portfolios.

Note: This item first appeared in Kiplinger Personal Finance Magazine, a monthly, trustworthy source of advice and guidance. Subscribe to help you make more money and keep more of the money you make here.

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Stock trades are free these days at most online brokers. But where and how your trade is filled can impact your purchase price. And “it all happens in a flash,” says Jeff Chiappetta, vice president of trade and education at Schwab. It takes just 0.08 seconds, on average, at Schwab, from the time you submit your trade to validation of execution. Here’s a step-by-step look at what happens when you place a market-order stock trade.

Step 1: You click “buy”

After you submit a trade but before it is routed to the next step, your brokerage firm will review your trade for certain factors. The size of the company and the size of your trade can influence where and how the order is filled and the price you pay. Fractional orders or oversized orders (say, more than 10,000 shares), for instance, may be filled in multiple transactions. Some firms may scrutinize a trade for whether it could impact the stock’s trading price. An exceptionally large order “could drive the price of a stock up or down,” says Chiappetta, “and we don’t want that.” Some firms also check to see that you have the cash or margin in your account to cover the trade; others may give you leeway to fund the account over the next two business days.

Step 2: Routing

Your broker has a duty to deliver the best possible execution price to you for your trade, which means it must meet or beat the best price available in the market. To do so, it can choose to send your order to one of four venues:

■ Market makers, including firms such as Citadel and Virtu Financial, “act like car dealers” for buyers and sellers, says James Angel, a professor at Georgetown’s McDonough School of Business. These firms will pay a fraction of a penny for every share that your broker sends their way in a practice called payment for order flow. Although some brokers don’t accept payment for order flow, it’s not necessarily a bad thing: In exchange for the order flow, the market maker also promises to beat the best quoted price you see flashing on your quote page. Say the current market price for XYZ stock is $50. The market maker may fill your order at $49.98 a share. That’s price improvement.

Brokerages must disclose how much they receive in payment for order flow every year. Firms like to tout their price improvement. Fidelity “passed back $650 million in price improvement” in 2019, says Gregg Murphy, senior vice president of Fidelity’s retail brokerage division. This year, the figure may double. Schwab’s Chiappetta says the firm passes back $8 of price improvement for every $1 it receives for payment for order flow. “Net-net, our clients are saving money,” he says.

■ An exchange, such as Nasdaq or the New York Stock Exchange, can fill the order, too. But the exchanges charge your broker roughly 30 cents for every 100 shares traded, says Angel. “Doesn’t sound like a lot, but every penny adds up,” he adds.

■ Some brokers (but not all) may fill the trade from their own inventory. The broker makes money on the “spread”—the difference between the purchase price and the sale price.

■ Alternative trading systems are a last option. Most trades don’t end up here, says Chiappetta, but these systems match buyers with sellers. In some cases, there’s little transparency. “That’s why they’re called dark pools,” says Chiappetta.

Step 3: Confirmation

You’ll get a notification that the order was filled, at what price and what time. If the order was small (fractional, for example) or oversized (for more than 10,000 shares, say), you might see multiple executions, says Murphy.

Every year, following the publication of our brokerage rankings, we receive an in-boxful of e-mails asking the same question: Where’s Robinhood? This year, as in previous iterations of the Kiplinger ranking, we left Robinhood off the list because the mobile-first brokerage doesn’t offer trading of bonds or mutual funds—key investment vehicles for many of our readers.

That doesn’t mean that we haven’t understood the appeal. Robinhood offered free trades on stocks and exchange-traded funds when other brokerages were charging $10 a pop. And you can’t argue with the magnetism of their offering. Even as every other brokerage has shifted to commission-free trading, Robinhood’s attractive app and easy-to-use platform has continued to attract fans. Robinhood said it had 13 million accounts in May, putting it behind only Fidelity and Schwab among firms that participated in our survey.

But Robinhood’s stylish and intuitive platform can make trading feel like a game for customers, and that has led to controversy for the firm. The New York Times recently reported that in the first three months of 2020, Robinhood users traded nine times as many shares as E*Trade customers and 40 times as many as Schwab customers, with an even greater disparity of high-risk options trades. That kind of volume has created problems for the brokerage and its customers. Amid March’s most volatile trading days, Robinhood suffered a number of high-profile outages—up to 17 hours, in one case—drawing the ire of customers.

More troubling was the news in June of the death of a 20-year-old user of the site, who reportedly committed suicide after accruing what he thought was a negative $730,000 account balance trading options on the platform. He acknowledged his inexperience in this kind of trading in a note. Following the tragedy, a group of six members of Congress wrote a letter to Robinhood’s cofounders, questioning the firm’s functionalities and approval processes for options trading, among other things. As of this writing, the legislators say they haven’t received an answer from Robinhood. Robinhood execs say they are rolling out changes to their options-trading process and will work with legislators to address their questions and concerns.

If you're an investor looking for a deal, it's hard to go wrong with an online brokerage these days. Virtually all of firms in our brokerage rankings offer free trades on stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETFs), along with ample research and tools to help investors make educated financial decisions.

With so many reasonably priced offerings, however, investors might gravitate toward firms that offer a few additional features and freebies to sweeten the pot.

Here, we look at some of the most-overlooked broker promotions and perks.

For investors who can't afford sky-high share prices, Charles Schwab, Fidelity and Interactive Brokers have joined smaller, app-based brokers such as Robinhood and Stash in offering partial shares of stock to investors.

Schwab's feature allows investors to buy "slices" of stocks in the S&P 500 for as little $5 apiece.

Fidelity and Interactive Brokers let customers trade partial shares of virtually any stock for as little as $1.

Dividend-paying firms typically disburse cash every three months. If you invest for income, you might have a diverse portfolio of stocks – but if many of them pay out on the same schedule, you might find yourself going through long spells with little cash flowing in.

Four brokers – E*Trade, Interactive Brokers, Merrill Edge and TD Ameritrade – have income estimator tools that can help you keep on top of future payments. Each tool uses recent payout data to project the value and timing of your portfolio's dividend payments over the next 12 months.

TD's tool shows dividends from stocks, mutual funds and ETFs only. E*Trade, Interactive Brokers and Merrill Edge factor in income from bonds as well.

Fidelity brokerage customers have access to four mutual funds with no minimum investment and 0% expense ratios:

• Fidelity Zero Total Market Index (FZROX), which tracks the U.S. stock market
• Fidelity Zero Large Cap Index (FNILX), which tracks large-company U.S. stocks
• Fidelity Zero Extended Market Index (FZIPX), which tracks small- and midsize company stocks
• Fidelity Zero International Index (FZILX), which tracks foreign stocks

To avoid paying licensing fees to index makers such as Standard & Poor's, Fidelity's funds track indexes assembled in-house. That means the funds might outrun or lag ETFs that track traditional indexes. Still, it's easy to see the benefits of free funds with no investment minimum, especially when the savings are compounded over a lifetime of investing.

Including the four funds above, Fidelity offers 28 funds that have no investment minimum.

Nearly every brokerage tries to entice investors to open new accounts or add substantial sums to existing accounts by offering free trades or cash bonuses. Broker promotions come and go among the firms; here are some recent offers:

• Firstrade will reimburse up to $200 in transfer fees when you transfer money from another firm's account. You'll also get a free share of stock (chosen by an algorithm) if you refer a friend who opens an account – your friend gets a share as well.
• Interactive Brokers will give you a bonus of up to $200 if you refer a friend that opens an account and maintains a balance of at least $10,000 for one year.
• Schwab is running a referral promotion, too. However, the reward – between $100 and $500 – goes to the friend you refer, not to you.
• Merrill Edge will give you a bonus of up to $600 when you open a new self-directed investing account.
• TD Ameritrade will give you between $350 and $2,500 when you open a new account with a balance of at least $250,000.
• Depending on how much you deposit, new account holders at E*Trade can earn from $25 up to $2,500.
• Customers who sign up at Ally can earn from $50 to $3,500.
• New accountholders at TradeStation can get a cash bonus between $50 and $5,000.

Opening a credit account linked to your brokerage can help you earn cash back to beef up your investments. Here's a look at some current broker promotions tied to credit card rewards:

The Fidelity Rewards Visa Signature card comes with no annual fee, and all purchases earn 2% cash back, which can be divided and deposited into up to five Fidelity accounts whether they're your accounts or not.

All purchases on the TD Ameritrade Client Rewards Visa come with 1.5% cash back. Deposit your rewards into your TD Ameritrade brokerage account and you'll receive a 10% bonus on the cash-back.

The Schwab Investor Card from American Express offers a $100 credit if you spend $1,000 in the first three months. After that, you'll get 1.5% cash back automatically deposited into your Schwab account.

Merrill Edge customers who sign up for Bank of America's Preferred Rewards program receive a 25%, 50% or 75% boost on the cash-back reward from eligible Bank of America credit cards, depending on the combined assets in your accounts (the 25% level requires $20,000). Say you hold a Bank of America credit card, which offers 3% on a particular purchase. A $100 purchase would earn $3.75, $4.50 or $5.25, rather than $3. Similarly, a purchase that earns the buyer 100 points would actually earn 125, 150 or 175 points.

Whether you set up a cash-management account or just take out a debit card linked to the cash balances in your brokerage account, several brokers will reimburse your fees when you withdraw cash at any ATM.

Fidelity and TD Ameritrade will reimburse ATM fees nationwide. Schwab does that too, plus waives the 3% foreign transaction fee most debit issuers charge to make purchases abroad.

E*Trade and Ally offer more traditional banking services, such as checking and savings accounts. Ally accountholders can use more than 43,000 Allpoint ATMs for free, and the bank will reimburse up to $10 in ATM fees each statement cycle. E*Trade's Max Rate Checking Account comes with unlimited ATM reimbursements on charges that other financial institutions levy (though you may be subject to charges from the owner/operator of the ATM).

Merrill Edge investors who have $50,000 in assets (combined at Merrill Edge, Merrill Lynch and Bank of America) and who have joined the Preferred Rewards program can get 12 ATM-fee reimbursements per year at non-Bank of America ATMs in the U.S. (Bank of America ATMs are free).

Investors increasingly want to do brokerage business on the go. In response, all of the brokers in our survey offer mobile apps that you can use to do just about anything you could do on your desktop, such as trading stocks, accessing research, paying bills and transferring funds.

But tech-savvy investors will be pleased to know that some brokers' platforms extend beyond websites and mobile apps.

Investors can interact with their Fidelity, Interactive Brokers, Schwab and TD Ameritrade accounts by chatting with Alexa, Amazon's digital assistant. Schwab users, for instance, can ask Alexa for market information, stock quotes and updates on personalized watch lists.

TD Ameritrade customers can ask questions or even execute a trade through direct messages on Twitter, on Facebook Messenger or through the iPhone Messages app as well. If TD's computer-generated responses don't satisfy you, you'll be automatically connected with a live representative. TD Ameritrade customers can access broker information in their car through Apple Car Play, Android Auto and Echo Auto.

Interactive Brokers and TradeStation customers might be able to earn a little extra cash by authorizing that firm to lend stocks you hold to traders interested in paying you interest to borrow your shares and sell them short.

Each brokerage will pay cash they earn from lending your shares directly into your account. You'll earn more money on long positions in thinly traded stocks than you will holding widely available names. Each firm will give you half of whatever income they earn on your stocks.

You'll need $25,000 or one year of trading experience to get into the program at TradeStation. At Interactive Brokers, you'll need approval for a margin account or $50,000 to enroll.

As investor needs and preferences change, brokerages must adapt. Brokerages’ mobile apps have grown more sophisticated as more clients have demonstrated that they like to do business on the go. And as investors have demanded lower costs, brokerages have trimmed commissions and fees across the board.

But brokerages also need a keen ear for clients’ particular needs. Some clients want to be left alone to do their own thing, while others want their hand held. Some want to pay as little as possible to invest, and others are willing to pony up enough in assets to gain access to their own personal planner

Our 2019 online broker ranking recognizes that no brokerage can hit the bull’s-eye for every type of client, and that the firm with the broadest appeal may not meet your specific needs. But ultimately, we favored firms that could do the most for most investors.

Check out our rankings. We also note special perks each broker offers.

Brokers’ overall score depends on the weight we assigned to seven categories. The weighting: commissions and fees, 10%, investment choices, 20%, mobile app, 25%, tools and research, 12.5% each, and advisory services and user experience 10%.

• Stock/ETF commissions: $6.95*
• Commissions and fees: 6th
• Investment choices: 2nd
• Mobile app: 3rd
• Tools: 7th
• Research: 4th
• Advisory services: 3rd
• User experience: 2nd

*E*Trade charges $4.95 per trade after the first 30 trades per quarter.

• Overall score: 82.3 (out of 100)
• Stock/ETF commissions: variable, per share
• Commissions and fees: 2nd
• Investment choices: 4th
• Mobile app: 1st
• Tools: 6th
• Research: 7th
• Advisory services: 4th
• User experience: 7th
• Best for: Margin traders. Investors with $100,000 in an account looking to trade with borrowed money will pay 3.89% on margin loans. The nine other firms in our survey levy between 7.7% and 9.5%.
• Perks: Interactive Brokers customers can chat with Alexa, Amazon’s digital assistant, to access their accounts. If you maintain a balance of at least $10,000 at Interactive Brokers, you can get up to $200 for referring a friend if that friend accrues more than $666.67 in trading commissions. And Interactive Brokers discounts commissions deeply if you trade a lot.

Interactive Brokers is also a top choice for mutual fund investors, with more than 4,000 mutual funds offered.

• Overall score: 82.2 (out of 100)
• Stock/ETF commissions: $4.95
• Commissions and fees: 8th
• Investment choices: 1st
• Mobile app: 2nd
• Tools: 5th
• Research: 6th
• Advisory services: 2nd
• User experience: 4th
• Best for: Investors who hold cash. Fido offers the highest interest rates among brokers in our survey on “sweep” accounts (the accounts that hold clients’ uninvested cash). The default account, Fidelity Government Money Market (symbol SPAXX), yields 1.82%. Investors can also use Fidelity Treasury Money Market (FZFXX), yielding 1.81%, as their sweep account or a cash account called FCASH, which pays 1.07% in interest.
• Perks: Fidelity brokerage customers have access to four mutual funds with no minimum investment and 0% expense ratios, as well as 23 additional funds that have no investment minimum. A rewards card with no annual fee is also available. All purchases with the Fidelity Rewards Visa Signature card comes earn 2% cash back, which can be divided and deposited into up to five Fidelity accounts, whether they’re your accounts or not. Also, ATM fees are waived nationwide for Fidelity debit cardholders.

Also, mutual fund investors, with more than 3,900 mutual funds you can buy with no sales fee or fee to trade.

• Overall score: 79.8 (out of 100)
• Stock/ETF commissions: $4.95
• Commissions and fees: 9th
• Investment choices: 5th
• Mobile app: 5th
• Tools: 3rd
• Research: 1st
• Advisory services: 1st
• User experience: 3rd
• Best for: Mutual fund investors. Schwab offers more than 3,900 mutual funds you can buy with no sales fee or fee to trade.
• Perks: In addition to waiving ATM fees nationwide, Schwab lets its cardholders make purchases abroad without the usual 3% foreign transaction fee. Schwab is running a referral promotion as well – though the $100 cash reward goes to the friend you refer, not to you.

• Overall score: 75.0 (out of 100)
• Stock/ETF commissions: $6.95
• Commissions and fees: 3rd
• Investment choices: 9th
• Mobile app: 4th
• Tools: 2nd
• Research: 2nd
• Advisory services: 6th
• User experience: 1st
• Best for: Beginning investors. The “story” features on this easy-to-use platform walk investors through investment analysis and decision-making. The “Stock Story” mode leads the investor to questions, for instance, about a company or its shares. The answers are full of digestible analysis and actionable advice.
• Perks: Merrill Edge is owned by Bank of America, so its perks tend to be tied to the bank’s products. For example, Merrill Edge customers who sign up for Bank of America’s Preferred Rewards program receive a 25%, 50% or 75% boost on the cash-back reward from eligible Bank of America credit cards, depending on the combined assets in your accounts (the 25% level requires $10,000).

Also, active traders. Preferred Rewards customers with a combined $100,000 balance at Bank of America and Merrill Edge earn 100 free trades per month at Merrill Edge.

• Overall score: 73.3 (out of 100)
• Stock/ETF commissions: $6.95
• Commissions and fees: 10th
• Investment choices: 6th
• Mobile app: 7th (tie with WellsTrade)
• Tools: 1st
• Research: 3rd
• Advisory services: 5th
• User experience: 5th
• Best for: Mutual fund investors. TD Ameritrade offers more than 4,000 mutual funds you can buy with no sales fee or fee to trade.
• Perks: In addition to using Alexa to check on their account, TD Ameritrade customers can ask questions or even execute a trade through direct messages on Twitter, on Facebook Messenger or through the iPhone Messages app as well. If TD’s computer-generated responses don’t satisfy you, you’ll be automatically connected with a live representative. And since July, TD Ameritrade customers can access broker information in their car through Apple Car Play, Android Auto and Echo Auto.

• Overall score: 57.5 (out of 100)
• Stock/ETF commissions: $4.95*
• Commissions and fees: 4th
• Investment choices: 7th
• Mobile app: 9th
• Tools: 8th
• Research: 8th
• Advisory services: 7th
• User experience: 9th
• Perks: Ally, which got its start as an online bank, lets accountholders use over 43,000 Allpoint ATMs for free. Investors who sign up and fund an Ally Invest account with at least $10,000 qualify for up to 90 days of commission-free trades and a cash bonus of up to $3,500.

• Stock/ETF commissions: $0.00Commissions and fees: 1stInvestment choices: 3rd
• Mobile app: 10th
• Tools: 10th
• Research: 9th
• Advisory services: NA
• User experience: 6th
• Perks: Firstrade will reimburse up to $200 in transfer fees and $25 in wire fees when you transfer money from another firm’s account. You’ll also get a $50 bonus if you refer a friend who opens an account and funds it with $2,000. And, of course, totally free trades are a big deal.

• Overall score: 48.5 (out of 100)
• Stock/ETF commissions: $5 per trade, or per share*
• Commissions and fees: 5th
• Investment choices: 8th
• Mobile app: 6th
• Tools: 4th
• Research: 10th
• Advisory services: NA
• User experience: 10th
• Best for: Active traders. TradeStation offers tons of tools geared toward active traders and commissions as low as fractions of a cent per share.
• Perks: Open an account at TradeStation before August 31, and the firm will give you commission-free trading until the end of the year, provided you make six or more trades per month.

* TradeStation offers a $5 per-trade plan or a per share plan for frequent traders; pricing starts at one cent per share.

• Overall score: 47.0 (out of 100)
• Stock/ETF commissions: $5.95
• Commissions and fees: 7th
• Investment choices: 10th
• Mobile app: 7th (tie with TD Ameritrade)
• Tools: 9th
• Research: 5th
• Advisory services: NA*
• User experience: 8th

*WellsTrade declined to compete in this category.

Not every broker provides all of the amenities that the firms in our rankings offer. To qualify, a firm had to allow clients to trade stocks, bonds, mutual funds and exchange-traded funds; deliver at least a modicum of investment advice; and offer an array of investment tools and research resources.

The firms below don’t cover all of those bases, but each serves a niche.

You won’t find everything at Robinhood, for instance, but you will find a handsome, easy-to-use platform that offers stock, ETF and option trading commission-free. Investors can trade stocks and ETFs for free at TradeZero America as well, provided they trade for at least $1 per share.

Investors just starting out may favor investing apps such as Stash or Acorns. Stash users fill out a short questionnaire to determine their goals, investing preferences and risk profile, then Stash recommends ETFs and individual stocks (allowing investors to purchase fractional shares) that will help investors achieve their goals. Both apps can round up purchases on a linked spending account and automatically invest the “spare change” in an investing account. At Acorns, you’ll be placed into one of five diversified ETF portfolios based on your time horizon and tolerance for risk.

At the other end of the spectrum, investors with proverbial PhDs in trading might prefer a platform built for active traders. Lightspeed Trading clients have to trade a ton to qualify for the lowest commissions, but they can get access to the type of automated, algorithmic trading favored by hedge fund managers. Frequent traders of stock options and futures may opt for Tastyworks, which offers bargain prices to buy and sell them.

It’s hard to go wrong choosing an online brokerage these days. Just about all of the firms in our recent broker ranking allow investors to trade stocks, bonds, mutual funds and exchange-traded funds online, and all provide ample research and tools to help users make educated financial decisions. With so many brokers offering similar services (and at reasonable prices), your choice may depend on one or two features. Read on to see all the perks our top 10 choices offer.

Dividend-paying firms typically disburse cash every three months. If you invest for income, you may have a diverse portfolio of stocks, but if many of them pay out on the same schedule, you may find yourself going through long spells with little cash flowing in. Four brokers – E*Trade, Interactive Brokers, Merrill Edge and TD Ameritrade – have income estimator tools that can help you keep on top of future payments. Each tool uses recent payout data to project the value and timing of your portfolio’s dividend payments over the next 12 months. TD’s tool shows dividends from stocks, mutual funds and ETFs only, while E*Trade, Interactive Brokers and Merrill Edge factor in income from bonds and as well.

Fidelity brokerage customers have access to four mutual funds with no minimum investment and 0% expense ratios: Fidelity Zero Total Market Index (FZROX), which tracks the U.S. stock market, Fidelity Zero Large Cap Index (FNILX), which tracks large-company U.S. stocks, Fidelity Zero Extended Market Index (FZIPX) which tracks small- and midsize company stocks, and Fidelity Zero International Index (FZILX), which tracks foreign stocks. To avoid paying licensing fees to index makers such as Standard & Poor’s, Fidelity’s funds track indexes assembled in-house. That means the funds may outrun or lag ETFs that track traditional indexes. Still, it’s easy to see the benefits of free funds with no investment minimum, especially when the savings are compounded over a lifetime of investing. Including the four funds above, Fidelity offers 27 funds that have no investment minimum.

No other brokerage can touch Firstrade when it comes to commissions. The firm offers free online trading for stocks, ETFs, options and mutual funds. Fidelity ($4.95), Schwab ($4.95) and TD Ameritrade ($6.95) all charge a fixed rate for trading, but some other firms charge lower commissions for frequent traders or those with high balances. E*Trade’s $6.95 commission drops to $4.95 for clients who make 30 or more trades per quarter, and Ally Invest’s fee drops a dollar, to $3.95, if you trade 30 times per quarter or have a daily balance of $100,000 or more. WellsTrade shaves $3 off its standard $5.95 charge if you link a Portfolio by Wells checking account. Merrill Edge customers with a minimum of $20,000 in combined assets at Merrill Edge, Merrill Lynch and parent company Bank of America qualify for at least 10 free stock and ETF trades per month if they sign up for the bank’s Preferred Reward program. A note for ultra-active traders: customers at Interactive Brokers and TradeStation can trade for as little as a fraction of a penny per share depending on how frequently they trade.

Investors increasingly want to do brokerage business on the go. In response, all of the brokers in our survey offer mobile apps that you can use to do just about anything you could do on your desktop, such as trading stocks, accessing research, paying bills and transferring funds.

But tech-savvy investors will be pleased to know that some brokers’ platforms extend beyond websites and mobile apps. Investors can interact with their Fidelity, Interactive Brokers, Schwab and TD accounts by chatting with Alexa, Amazon’s digital assistant. Schwab users, for instance, can ask their Alexa for market information, stock quotes and updates on personalized watch lists.

TD Ameritrade customers can ask questions or even execute a trade through direct messages on Twitter, on Facebook Messenger or through the iPhone Messages app as well. If TD’s computer-generated responses don’t satisfy you, you’ll be automatically connected with a live representative. And since July, TD Ameritrade customers can access broker information in their car through Apple Car Play, Android Auto and Echo Auto.

Nearly every brokerage tries to entice investors to open new accounts or add substantial sums to existing accounts by offering free trades or cash bonuses. Promotions come and go among the firms; here are some recent offers.

Firstrade will reimburse up to $200 in transfer fees and $25 in wire fees when you transfer money from another firm’s account. You’ll also get a $50 bonus if you refer a friend who opens an account and funds it with $2,000.

If you maintain a balance of at least $10,000 at Interactive Brokers, you can get up to $200 for referring a friend if that friend accrues more than $666.67 in trading commissions. Schwab is running a referral promotion as well – though the $100 cash reward goes to the friend you refer, not to you. Fidelity customers who deposit at least $50,000 in new or eligible existing accounts receive 300 to 500 commission-free trades over the next two years.

Merrill Edge will give you a $600 bonus when you open and fund a new investment account or IRA. TD will give you up to $600 when you open a new account as well, depending on how much you deposit, along with 60 days of free stock, ETF and option trading.

Depending on how much you deposit, new account holders at E*Trade can earn from $200 up to $2,500 in cash and 500 commission-free stock and option trades. Customers who sign up at Ally can earn from $50 to $3,500 to go along with 90 days of commission-free trades. Open an account at TradeStation before August 31, and the firm will give you commission-free trading until the end of the year, provided you make six or more trades per month.

Whether you set up a cash-management account or just take out a debit card linked to the cash balances in your brokerage account, several brokerages will reimburse your fees when you withdraw cash at any ATM. Fidelity and TD Ameritrade will reimburse ATM fees nationwide. Schwab does that too, as well as waiving the 3% foreign transaction fee most debit issuers charge to make purchases abroad. E*Trade and Ally offer more-traditional banking services, such as checking and savings accounts. Ally accountholders can use over 43,000 Allpoint ATMs for free, and the bank will reimburse up to $10 in ATM fees each statement cycle. E*Trade’s Max Rate Checking Account comes with unlimited ATM reimbursements on charges that other financial institutions levy (though you may be subject to charges from the owner/operator of the ATM). Merrill Edge investors who have $50,000 in assets (combined at Merrill Edge, Merrill Lynch and Bank of America) and who have joined the Preferred Rewards program can get 12 ATM-fee reimbursements per year at non-Bank of America ATMs in the U.S. (Bank of America ATMs are free).

When Secretariat won the Belmont Stakes in 1973, securing his place in racing history as a Triple Crown champion, he beat the competition by a whopping 31 lengths, or about 248 feet. The results of this year’s online broker survey aren’t as clear-cut. In a photo finish, TD Ameritrade beat Charles Schwab by less than a nose, with Fidelity and then E*Trade fast on their heels.

As the world of online brokers continues to evolve, it has become increasingly difficult for firms to stand apart from one another. Their fees and commissions are generally low, their online tools are plentiful, they provide generous access to low-cost investments, and the firms’ websites and mobile apps are crammed with research reports, charts and videos. Overall, the contest for best online broker is a neck-and-neck horse race.

But zoom in, and you’ll find that each firm has something different to offer—a niche that lets it shine in one way or another. This year, we surveyed eight firms: Ally Invest, Charles Schwab, E*Trade, Fidelity, Firstrade, Merrill Edge, TD Ameritrade and WellsTrade. With commissions about $7 or less at most firms this year, that category carries less weight. Because the firms we surveyed told us that investors increasingly interact with them on smartphones or tablets, we assigned more importance to mobile apps. The biggest, best-known firms, you’ll notice, score better overall in our survey. But almost all of the firms let you trade stocks, exchange-traded funds, mutual funds and individual bonds online, as well as offer some online advisory services.

There are a couple of exceptions: Firstrade’s online robo adviser may launch later this year. And although WellsTrade offers individual bond investing, which we factored into its ranking, trades must be made over the phone. Finally, we approached T. Rowe Price and Vanguard, but both firms declined to participate in our survey this year. Read on to find out which brokers did best­—and why—in each category.

Commissions & fees

Plenty of brokerages offer reasonable fees and commissions, thanks to the decades-long brokerage price wars. The latest salvo from Fidelity eliminated all account fees, including fees to wire money domestically, among others. The final scores in this category, which are based mostly on fees to trade stocks, mutual funds, bonds and options, fall within a narrow range. Five firms earn three stars out of five, but E*Trade, Firstrade and Merrill Edge top the others by super-slim margins. In the end, the best low-cost firm for you may depend on what you invest in, how actively you trade, and in some cases, how much money you have in your account.

Consider stock and ETF commissions, for example. Firstrade leads the way among firms that charge a fixed rate, at $2.95 per trade, followed by Fidelity and Schwab ($4.95) and TD Ameritrade ($6.95). The rest of the firms employ variable pricing that depends on how often you trade or on the size of your average monthly balance. E*Trade’s standard $6.95 commission drops to $4.95 for clients who make 30 or more trades per quarter. Ally Invest shaves a dollar off its fee, to $3.95, for investors with a daily balance of $100,000 or more or who trade at least 30 times per quarter.

At WellsTrade, which is affiliated with Wells Fargo, and Merrill Edge, which is the brokerage arm of Bank of America, you can get a break on stock and ETF commissions if you have money in a checking or savings account at the associated bank. For instance, WellsTrade customers who link their brokerage account with a Portfolio by Wells Fargo checking account can get their stock commissions knocked down to $2.95 from the typical $5.95 charge. At Merrill Edge, the deal is even better: The firm’s standard $6.95 commission falls to $0 for up to 30 stock and ETF trades per month for investors who have $50,000 in combined assets at Merrill and parent company Bank of America and who join the bank’s Preferred Rewards program. Nearly half of all Merrill Edge customers have snagged that bonus, and as a result, “about 80% of trades on our platform are commission-free,” says Merrill Edge’s David Poole.

Fees to trade bonds have become more transparent in recent years. Most of the firms in our survey charge $1 per security to buy and sell corporate and municipal bonds. So if you, say, buy 10 General Electric bonds, you’ll pay a $10 commission at those firms, with a maximum fee of $250. The exceptions are WellsTrade, which charges a flat $50 for bond trades, and Firstrade, which trades bonds on a “net yield” basis. That means the price of the bond includes a mark-up that represents the dealer’s profit. This pricing model is generally more expensive and is certainly less transparent.

Investment choices

Every broker in our survey gives investors access to thousands of stocks, bonds, mutual funds and ETFs. To top the list in this category, firms had to offer not only a wide variety of investments but also deep rosters of ETFs that trade commission-free and no-load or load-waived mutual funds that trade with no transaction fees.

When it comes to the breadth of investment options, Firstrade reigns supreme. That doesn’t mean it offers more of everything compared with other firms in the survey, however. Firstrade’s lineup of no-transaction-fee mutual funds falls several hundred funds short of Schwab, TD Ameritrade and Fidelity, all of which surpass 4,000. But Firstrade wins on the ETF front. It offers 703 ETFs commission-free. The number of ETFs offered with no sales charge at Fidelity, E*Trade, Schwab and TD Ameritrade ranges from 265 to 313. (It’s worth noting that Vanguard now charges nothing to buy and sell 1,800 ETFs on its platform.) Firstrade also offers access to more corporate and municipal bonds than any broker in our survey, with E*Trade close behind.

Fidelity is the best choice for investors who want access to initial public offerings. Over the past two calendar years, Fidelity has made 397 IPOs available to customers, compared with 64 for E*Trade and 48 for TD Ameritrade. In each case, gaining access to shares comes with eligibility requirements. TD Ameritrade customers, for instance, must have $250,000 in assets in their account, place 30 trades per quarter, or be a customer of the firm’s private client services.

Mobile apps

Investors increasingly want to manage their brokerage business on the go. In response, brokers have rolled out mobile apps for smartphones and tablets that allow clients to make trades, read analyst reports on stocks, pay bills, transfer money to outside accounts, and even check on how they are doing with regard to their retirement savings with the touch of a button (or in some cases, after a facial recognition scan).

Fidelity’s mobile app wins the highest marks for checking all the essential boxes. You can buy or sell stocks, ETFs, mutual funds and bonds on Fidelity’s app. No other firm in our survey can say the same. But Fidelity also excels in this category because its app offers virtually all of the other conveniences that brokerage clients now expect, such as mobile bill pay and check deposit, as well as the ability to set up watch lists and view educational videos.

Schwab, TD Ameritrade and E*Trade score well in this category, too. Active traders may appreciate the stock charts available on the mobile apps of E*Trade and TD Ameritrade. The charts can be customized with dozens of indicators used in technical analysis—for example, those based on price momentum. The apps of both E*Trade and TD also allow investors to scan product barcodes and instantly receive stock information on their smartphone about the product’s manufacturer (assuming the company has a publicly traded stock). But TD Ameritrade, unlike Schwab and E*Trade, doesn’t allow mobile users to pay bills from brokerage accounts.

Finally, Merrill Edge’s app is worth a mention. Its intuitive interface, particularly when it comes to stock research, makes it one of the most engaging apps on our list. The app lost a few points, however, because it doesn’t offer bond trading or let you transfer money electronically between other banks. (Transfers between Bank of America and Merrill Edge, however, are instantaneous.)

On the whole, most of the apps we checked out allow investors to easily trade, deposit money and transfer funds. Ally Invest and Firstrade, the laggards in the mobile app category, fell behind because their apps don’t offer mutual fund or bond trading, mobile check deposits, or bill pay. Firstrade’s mobile users can’t make electronic fund transfers in the app, either.

User experience

To evaluate our only truly subjective category, three Kiplinger investing staffers test-drove the brokers’ websites and mobile apps in search of the most in­tuitive and user-friendly platforms for all types of investors. Wells­Trade was unable to provide us with a test account. But among the others, two firms stand out: Merrill Edge and TD Ameritrade.

Merrill’s platform transforms the sometimes-daunting work of analyzing your portfolio and researching stocks into an engaging experience. In “Portfolio Story” mode, the site poses eight questions that investors should ask about their portfolio, from “How is my portfolio performing?” to “What could I potentially earn?” It even examines how your investments rank on certain environmental, social and corporate governance measures. “We wanted Portfolio Story to feel like sitting down with an expert, with users learning what questions they should ask about their portfolio,” says Merrill Edge’s Steve Lucas.

As you work through each step, you’re presented with colorful graphics and digestible data that you can act on. If the tool tells you that a particular stock makes up an outsize portion of your portfolio, for instance, you can sell some shares with just a few clicks. Merrill’s platform uses the same approach for stock research with “Stock Story,” a similarly engaging tool that investors can use to work through four essential questions of stock analysis.

TD Ameritrade scores points for meeting clients where they spend their time—texting on their smartphones or browsing Twitter or Facebook on a computer, tablet or smartphone. Anyone can contact TD through direct messages on Twitter, on Facebook Messenger, through the iPhone Messages app or by talking to their Amazon Alexa–equipped device. “We want the brokerage experience to be part of the existing tapestry of your life,” says TD’s Sunayna Tuteja. For example, you might use Facebook’s messaging feature to ask a broad investing question, get a stock quote, or even buy or sell shares—all without leaving the Facebook app. TD uses artificial intelligence to generate automated responses to your query; if that doesn’t satisfy you, TD will automatically connect you with a live representative.

Most of the firms score well for their easy-to-navigate platforms. Both E*Trade and Fidelity lose points for their sprawling and sometimes lumbering websites. We found inconsistencies, for example, in the way the trade window pops up on different pages on Fidelity’s site and the way graphics show up (or don’t) on E*Trade’s site.

Ally Invest’s platform is almost too basic, with what seems like acres of white space that makes the site feel sparse. And although Firstrade’s website is zippy when it comes to loading pages, its retirement-and-planning section isn’t as robust as others. And the site offers limited research on stocks, funds and bonds.

Tools

Are you on track to retire when you want? Are you getting the steady payments you need from your income portfolio? Ideally, brokerages should make it easy to find promising investments, but they should also provide you with the tools to help with life’s other financial issues.

TD Ameritrade distinguishes itself with its commitment to investor education. The website’s education center is a treasure trove of short explanatory videos on everything from the basics of money market accounts to the ins and outs of cryptocurrency. Longer and more detailed online courses are also available, with titles such as “Trading Options” and “Fundamental Analysis.” The firm held nearly 6,000 webinars on online-trading education in 2017 alone. TD is one of two brokers, along with Fidelity, to offer some form of virtual trading. Fidelity allows users to see how a hypothetical trade might affect their portfolio’s asset allocation, among other things. TD’s version is available on its downloadable trading software and lets investors practice trading with virtual money on the platform before diving in with the real thing.

Other standouts at TD include a tool that breaks down the fees you pay in your 401(k) account and another that charts your portfolio’s expected dividends for the next 12 months. Merrill Edge and E*Trade offer tools that track future dividend payouts, too.

Kudos go to Merrill Edge and Schwab in this category for an abundance of offerings. Calculators abound in Merrill’s toolbox. Retirement planners, for example, can get help figuring out annuity payouts, 401(k) contributions, Roth IRA conversions and estimated required minimum distributions in retirement. Schwab stands out for its robust collection of investing screens for stocks, options, ETFs and mutual funds. Users can search for investments based on their own criteria, select from the firm’s list of predefined strategies, or pick stocks from rosters from CFRA and S&P Capital IQ, including CFRA’s recommended “Five-Star” stocks and those screened for exceptional earnings growth.

Research

These days, investors don’t have to look very hard to find basic information about stocks and mutual funds online. Brokers that score well in this category go the extra mile to keep their clients informed, offering investment information that goes beyond summaries and snapshots.

With the exception of Firstrade, every broker on our list provides some form of bond market commentary or analysis. But research on individual stocks, mutual funds and ETFs varies from broker to broker. Fidelity earns high marks for the range of research available on its site. The firm boasts more independent sources of investment research than any other broker in our survey, and indeed, its stock pages are packed with reports from the likes of Thomson Reuters and Zacks Investment Research. But much of Fidelity’s research is quantitatively focused and lacks in-depth analysis of individual stocks, mutual funds or ETFs. Fidelity lost points for that, but the sheer number of sources it offers, combined with the mix of broad stock and bond market commentary, lifted it to the top in this category.

TD Ameritrade and Merrill Edge end up in a virtual tie with Fidelity for research, with Schwab posting strong results, too. Each provides individual stock reports from investment research firm CFRA. TD Ameritrade and Merrill also offer breakdowns of individual funds and ETFs by Morningstar analysts. All three include input from analysts at major financial institutions. Merrill Edge provides reports from Bank of America Merrill Lynch; TD Ameritrade and Schwab (as well as E*Trade and WellsTrade) feature individual stock reports from analysts at investment bank Credit Suisse. Fidelity, Firstrade and Ally Invest lack research from a big bank.

Advisory services

All of the brokers in our survey except Firstrade offer clients some level of financial guidance, from computer-generated robo advice to access to ded­icated financial planners. Depending on the size of your account, you can get help with calibrating your investment mix, creating a retirement plan or even doing some estate planning.

Schwab’s advisory service stands out for the breadth, quality and price of its offerings. Schwab’s robo adviser, Intelligent Portfolios, does not charge an asset-management fee, which sets it apart from others. You need $5,000 to open an account at Intelligent Portfolios, which is on the high end of minimums (but not the highest). Clients can start investing with just $10 at Fidelity’s “Fidelity Go” digital adviser, for instance. But once funded, Schwab’s Intelligent Portfolios use low-cost ETFs to tailor dozens of portfolios. One caveat: Schwab’s most aggressive Intelligent Portfolio holds 7% in cash. Such a large cash position could hamper returns. But according to The Robo Report, which tracks the performance of digital advisory portfolios, Schwab’s portfolios don’t disappoint. Over the past two years, a moderate-risk portfolio at Schwab that held 62% of assets in stocks, 23% in bonds, 10% in cash and 5% in other assets returned 13.6% annualized through June 30. That beat the nearly 10% return of a hypothetical portfolio of broad-market indexes held in similar proportions over the same period.

TD Ameritrade and Fidelity also post high scores thanks to their digital advisory services. Each keeps investor expenses to a minimum: TD charges 0.30% of assets, and Fidelity charges 0.35%. At Fidelity, that includes the expenses of the portfolios’ underlying investments. Among firms dinged in our survey for high-cost robos: Merrill Edge, which charges a management fee of 0.45% of assets, and WellsTrade, which levies a 0.50% fee (although that is lowered to 0.40% for clients who link a Portfolio by Wells Fargo checking account). But the biggest knock on WellsTrade’s digital offering, Intuitive Investor, is its $10,000 minimum to open an account.

Schwab and TD Ameritrade both offer a hybrid service that combines algorithm-based advice with help from a human adviser for clients with more than $25,000 in assets. Fees on such an account will run you 0.28% of assets at Schwab, and they range from 1.25% to 0.75% at TD Ameritrade. Investors looking for professionally managed accounts will find the most-robust services at Schwab, Fidelity, TD Ameritrade and WellsTrade. Each offers access to specialists in trading, options and estate planning.

Finally, a word about Ally Invest. Its digital advisory service, Advisors Managed Portfolios, charges a 0.30% management fee and requires just $2,500 to get started. But the firm suffers in this category ranking because it doesn’t offer as hearty an array of planning advice (estate planning specialists, for example) as other firms.

Find the right broker for you

All types of investors can find standouts in a niche they care about.

Best for exchange-traded fund investors. Firstrade slays the competition in our survey with its roster of 703 commission-free exchange-traded funds. It includes 15 of the Kiplinger ETF 20, our favorite ETFs, including iShares Core S&P 500 (symbol IVV), Vanguard Dividend Appreciation (VIG) and Pimco Active Bond (BOND). Vanguard, which opted not to participate in our survey, charges nothing to buy or sell 1,800 ETFs on its platform.

Best for mutual fund investors. Fidelity, Schwab and TD Ameritrade all offer customers access to more than 4,000 no-fee mutual funds on their no-transaction-fee networks. That means you pay no sales load and no fee to trade. Schwab, as it has in past years, topped the list, with 4,121 no-fee funds. It’s worth noting that Fidelity has debuted the first index funds with a 0% expense ratio.

Best for bond investors. Firstrade wins by a nose, followed by E*Trade. These firms offer their clients access to tens of thousands of corporate and municipal bonds, leading their peers in both categories.

Best robo adviser services. Schwab’s Intelligent Portfolios wins. The service is free, and it offers more portfolios than any other firm. There are 43 in all, tailored to your goals, tolerance for risk and stage in life. Intelligent Portfolios has a couple of downsides: It requires $5,000 or more to start, and its most aggressive portfolio currently holds a hefty 7% cash position, a potential drag on returns. But according to The Robo Report, which tracks the performance of digital advisory portfolios, Schwab has achieved good results over time.

Best for active traders with high balances. Customers with deep pockets can pay $0 in commissions at Merrill Edge. If you have an active Bank of America checking account and a three-month average balance of $50,000 at Bank of America, Merrill Edge or Merrill Lynch investment accounts (singly or in combination), you can join a rewards program and qualify for no commissions on up to 30 stock and ETF trades per month. Investors with a $100,000 average balance can get 100 free trades every month.

Best for students of investing. E*Trade and TD Ameritrade have made it a priority to teach and inform customers about investing, each in its own way. “Our goal is to make investing easier for people,” says E*Trade’s Rich Messina. E*Trade caters to beginner investors with “All Star” lists of recommended ETFs, stocks and mutual funds, plus ready-to-go ETF portfolios. TD Ameritrade’s website is chock full of short videos and longer online courses for investors of all experience levels. The firm also does a good job of defining and explaining key investing terms on its site, from “earnings per share” to “annual dividend yield.”

Update: Since our story went to press, Firstrade announced it would offer free online trading for stocks, ETFs, options and mutual funds (down from $2.95 per trade). Also, Ally Invest announced it would offer more than 100 exchange-traded funds commission-free (in other words, there is no sales charge to buy or sell shares) to customers on its online trading platform. (Previously, all ETFs purchased on the Ally Invest platform incurred a $4.95 commission; $3.95 for active traders or customers with high balance.)

With additional reporting by Kyle Woodley

However you invest, it’s a great time to shop for an online broker. Firms have been trimming commissions, expanding their online tools, offering more transaction-free mutual funds and enhancing their mobile apps.

To help you choose the best broker, we surveyed seven major firms that offer online trading of stocks, exchange-traded funds, mutual funds and individual bonds, while also providing some retirement-planning tools and advisory services.

We weighted the categories based on what our readers consider vital: commissions, 15%; investment choices, 15%, tools, 15%; research, 20%; ease of use, 15%; mobile, 10%; advisory services, 10%. But remember that the best broker for you will depend on your priorities: Are you a frequent trader? Do you like to rely on your mobile device? Are low fees paramount? We’ve called those factors out, too.

Take a look at our reviews of seven of the biggest brokers to find the right fit.

To be included, firms had to offer online trading of stocks, ETFs, funds and individual bonds. T. Rowe Price declined to participate. We also excluded some brokers that focus primarily on active traders. Scottrade wasn’t included because TD Ameritrade recently purchased the firm (and is in the process of absorbing Scottrade’s clients).

• OVERALL:

• Total commissions:

• Investment choices:

• Tools:

• Research:

• Ease of use:

• Mobile:

• Advisory:

Fidelity made news when it launched a price war early this year by cutting its stock commissions to $4.95 per trade. The result, though, is that you shouldn’t pay more than a few bucks to trade anywhere, and others even offer some free trades.

What put Fidelity at the top of our rankings was not just the lowest overall commissions, but strong scores in all categories.

If you like to use your brokerage more like a bank, Fidelity also shines as the best for managing cash. Customers can easily pay bills and see a complete picture of their financial life on Fidelity’s site, including mortgages and balances in non-Fidelity accounts. Plus, Fidelity’s Visa Rewards card pays 2% back on all purchases, which beats the cash rebates from cards of most other brokers.

Evaluate Merrill Edge for Yourself »

• OVERALL: Total commissions: Investment choices: Tools: Research: Ease of use: Mobile: Advisory:
  

  BEST FOR: Active stock traders

We had a tie for first place this year. Merrill Edge did as well as Fidelity this year in overall scoring, and is only listed second thanks to the alphabet.

Merrill’s standout qualities are its research and tools. Investors can see details on more than 1,300 companies covered by Bank of America Merrill Lynch analysts. And along with top-notch screeners for funds and stocks, Merrill provides Morningstar’s powerful Portfolio X-Ray, a tool that can dig into your fund holdings and individual stocks and, among other things, analyze areas of overlap and market factors affecting your returns. As a bonus, these tools are easy to find, too.

That helps make Merrill Edge our favorite broker for active stock traders. Also helping: Low commissions. Investors can qualify for 30 free trades per month by having at least $50,000 in combined balances at Merrill and parent Bank of America. Maintain at least a $100,000 balance and you get 100 free trades per month. So don’t get hung up on Merrill’s relatively high base rate of $6.95 per trade; most clients aren’t paying that.

Evaluate Charles Schwab for Yourself »

• OVERALL: Total commissions: Investment choices: Tools: Research: Ease of use: Mobile: Advisory:
  

  BEST FOR: Mutual fund and ETF investors

In a tight contest, Charles Schwab came in third, posting the highest score available for the breadth of investment choices.

It’s our pick for those whose primary interest is investing in mutual funds and ETFs. Offering 3,976 funds with no loads, no transaction fees and investment minimums of less than $50,000, Schwab edges the competition. Need some help? Pick from Schwab’s “select list” of 168 no-transaction-fee mutual funds, a roster that includes many solid performers with reasonable expense ratios.

The firm offers the most commission-free exchange-traded funds as well: 231. Many of these ETFs have wafer-thin expense ratios, enabling investors to build a low-cost portfolio without paying a penny in trading commissions. And for clients with at least $25,000, Schwab offers tailored portfolios of ETFs, with an annual advisory fee of 0.28% (capped at $900 per quarter for high-value accounts).

Evaluate E*Trade for Yourself »

• OVERALL: Total commissions: Investment choices: Tools: Research: Ease of use: Mobile: Advisory:
  

  BEST FOR: Investors on the go

All brokers we surveyed let customers trade stocks and deposit checks from their mobile devices. But there’s a lot of variance among them in how much more business can be transacted by app.

If you want to do it all from the palm of your hand, E*Trade is for you. Packed with handy features, E*Trade’s app lets you buy or sell stocks, mutual funds and options, as well as run screens, deposit checks and pay bills. Stock research is also available, something most brokers exclude from their apps.

E*Trade also scores high for its substantial roster of no-fee funds (3,887). For ETFs, it emphasizes higher-fee ETFs in niche investment areas, such as Global X S&P 500 Catholic Values (symbol CATH) and WisdomTree Managed Futures Strategy (WDTI).

Evaluate TD Ameritrade for Yourself »

• OVERALL: Total commissions: Investment choices: Tools: Research: Ease of use: Mobile: Advisory:

TD Ameritrade ranks high for its research offerings and ample lineup of no-transaction-fee (NTF) mutual funds and ETFs, many of which can be purchased without trading commissions. Customers can find plenty of investing ideas, thanks to access to Credit Suisse’s U.S. stock "focus list."

It’s also easy to find (in the physical world): The firm is expanding its branch network from about 100 locations to more than 400, now that it's purchased Scottrade.

Evaluate Vanguard for Yourself »

• OVERALL: Total commissions: Investment choices: Tools: Research: Ease of use: Mobile: Advisory:
  

  BEST FOR: Retirees

There’s a lot to love about Vanguard’s fund offerings and low-cost approach to investing, but it’s harder to say good things about its usefulness as an online broker, particulary if you lean to trading stocks. Commissions and fees can get pricey. You also won’t find user-friendly tools to trade like real-time streaming quotes.

But customers can load up on all Vanguard mutual funds and ETFs without having to pay sales charges — a good deal if you invest mainly in the low-cost index funds that are Vanguard’s bread and butter.

If you’d like some guidance with your investments, Vanguard is eager to help. Vanguard customers can get into a managed account with a $50,000 minimum investment. Annual fees are 0.30%, no matter what investing strategy you choose. These accounts hold Vanguard ETFs and the Admiral share class of its mutual funds, which charge some of the lowest expense ratios in the industry.

Evaluate Ally for Yourself »

• OVERALL: Total Commissions: Investment choices: Tools: Research: Ease of use: Mobile: Advisory:

Here’s the story: Ally Financial, which got its start as an online-only bank, bought the Trade King platform in 2016.

The brightest spot in its rankings? Commissions. Ally’s base rate of $4.95 lands it on the leader board for stock trades, and the firm trims that rate to $3.95 for clients who make at least 30 trades a quarter. Ally also charges a relatively low $9.95 to buy or sell mutual funds. Those fees are much less than what the completion charges. But Ally doesn’t offer any no-transaction-fee mutual funds or ETFs—a big drawback that could cost you quite a bit in fees if you buy and sell a lot of funds. “No-fee funds are something we’re starting to look at,” says Rich Hagen, president of Ally Invest.

However you invest, it’s a great time to shop for an online broker. Firms have been trimming commissions, expanding their online tools, offering more transaction-free mutual funds and enhancing their mobile apps. Eager to win your business, brokers are also offering signing bonuses, such as a $1,000 bounty from TD Ameritrade, and up to 500 free trades for two years at Fidelity Investments and Charles Schwab.

To help you choose the best broker, we surveyed seven major firms: Ally Invest (which acquired TradeKing last year), E*Trade Financial, Fidelity, Merrill Edge, Schwab, TD Ameritrade and Vanguard. Why this lineup? To be included in our survey, brokers had to offer online trading of stocks, exchange-traded funds, mutual funds and individual bonds, as well as provide some retirement-planning tools and advisory services. We excluded brokers that primarily focus on active traders—those catering to day traders, for instance. T. Rowe Price declined to participate. Scottrade wasn’t included because TD Ameritrade recently purchased the firm (and is in the process of absorbing Scottrade’s clients).

And the winners are…

In a tight contest, Fidelity and Merrill Edge tie for first place, squeaking past Schwab. All three firms rank high in key categories, such as commissions and fees, tools, and customer service. But we found some important differences. For example, Merrill ranks best for research, but Fidelity and Schwab offer many more mutual funds that can be bought without transaction fees, along with a larger selection of corporate and municipal bonds. Fidelity and Schwab also rack up points for their wide range of advisory and financial-planning services.

Of course, the right broker for you may not be one of our top-ranked firms. If you like to trade stocks, particularly on a mobile device, E*Trade may be your best bet, thanks to excellent screening tools and charts, as well as comprehensive information about individual stocks, all available on its app. TD Ameritrade ranks high for its research offerings and ample lineup of no-transaction-fee (NTF) mutual funds and ETFs, many of which can be purchased without trading commissions. Ally may appeal to young investors who want a low-cost, no-frills broker joined to an online bank with competitive interest rates on certificates of deposit and savings accounts.

Vanguard falls behind the leaders in almost every category, losing points for its bare-bones website, its basic mobile app and its lack of stock research. But these drawbacks don’t make the fund giant a bad choice for investors who buy and hold for the long term. Vanguard brokerage customers don’t pay a penny in commissions to access the firm’s low-cost mutual funds and ETFs, many of which can save you money over the long run compared with funds that have higher ongoing fees.

For a deeper dive, check out the results in each category below. To find the best broker for you, see the box on the facing page, where we name the winners for several types of investors.

Commissions and fees

Fidelity launched a price war early this year when it cut its stock commissions to $4.95 per trade. The move prompted Schwab to match Fidelity’s rate, and it led other brokers, such as E*Trade and TD Ameritrade, to lower commissions, too. The upshot: You shouldn’t pay more than a few bucks to trade stocks or ETFs, and you can get lower prices and even free trades at some brokers. E*Trade, for instance, trims its commission from $6.95 to $4.95 for clients who make at least 30 trades a quarter.

Merrill’s base rate of $6.95 for stock trades looks pricey at first glance. But customers who have at least $50,000 in combined balances at the brokerage firm and Bank of America (Merrill’s parent) qualify for up to 30 free trades a month, and they also receive such perks as a cash-back bonus on credit cards and discounted rates on auto loans. Stash at least $100,000 with Merrill and BofA (combined) and you’ll earn up to 100 free trades per month and higher levels of “preferred rewards.” “Most of our clients aren’t paying for stock trades,” says David Poole, head of Merrill Edge Advisory & Client Services.

At Schwab, customers with a gripe can get a refund on all fees, if they ask. The firm recently expanded its “satisfaction guarantee” to cover all commissions, advisory fees and other charges. “If a client does any business with us and isn’t satisfied, we’ll refund the fees, no questions asked,” says Terri Kallsen, head of Schwab Investor Services.

Ally’s base rate of $4.95 lands it on the leader board for stock trades, and the firm trims that rate to $3.95 for clients who make at least 30 trades a quarter. Ally also charges a relatively low $9.95 to buy or sell mutual funds. Those fees are much less than what Schwab levies for trading funds outside its NTF network ($76 to buy but no charge to sell). Fidelity and TD Ameritrade both charge about $50 to buy mutual funds outside their NTF networks (no charge to sell at Fidelity), while E*Trade, Merrill and Vanguard levy $20 per transaction. But Ally doesn’t offer any NTF mutual funds or ETFs—a big drawback that could cost you quite a bit in fees if you buy and sell a lot of funds. “No-fee funds are something we’re starting to look at,” says Rich Hagen, president of Ally Invest.

Unlike the other brokers, Vanguard’s commission structure doesn’t encourage trading. The firm charges $7 for the first 25 stock trades per calendar year and a steep $20 after that. Transaction-fee funds also cost $20 per trade. But customers can load up on all Vanguard mutual funds and ETFs without having to pay sales charges—a good deal if you invest mainly in low-cost index funds. One small nuisance: Customers must hold at least $10,000 in Vanguard mutual funds or ETFs or sign up for electronic statements to avoid a $20 annual account “service” fee.

Investment choices

Aside from Ally, every broker surveyed here offers thousands of funds without a transaction fee. Schwab tops the list with 3,976 no-transaction-fee funds, all with minimum investments below $50,000 (our cutoff to be included in this category). Schwab also offers 231 commission-free ETFs, the most of any broker in our survey. The lineup includes many low-fee index funds sponsored by Schwab, along with ETFs from such firms as Guggenheim, PowerShares, State Street and Wisdom­Tree. Schwab’s vast number of no-fee mutual funds and ETFs vaulted it to first place in this category.

E*Trade also scores high for its substantial roster of no-fee funds (3,887), as does TD Ameritrade (3,749). Both firms also offer more than 100 commission-free ETFs. But TD’s lineup includes more low-cost funds from sponsors such as iShares and Vanguard; E*Trade emphasizes higher-fee ETFs in niche investment areas, such as Global X S&P 500 Catholic Values (CATH)and WisdomTree Managed Futures Strategy (WDTI).

Fidelity ranks competitively, too, with 3,532 NTF mutual funds and 85 commission-free ETFs, including dozens of iShares ETFs with low-to-minuscule expense ratios. Investors at Merrill have fewer choices in NTF funds (2,251). Vanguard also looks weak in this arena, with just 2,531 NTF mutual funds, although that includes all of the firm’s proprietary funds (whose expense ratios undercut those of most of its rivals). The firm also offers its 70 Vanguard ETFs without commissions.

Beyond funds and ETFs, each broker sells individual bonds, including Treasuries, municipal and corporate issues, and high-yield “junk” bonds. TD’s lineup of more than 28,000 corporate IOUs exceeds the others’ offerings. But if you want bonds issued by giants such as AT&T or General Electric, you can find them anywhere.

One note: Bonds don’t trade on an open market, and prices tend to be opaque. Most brokerage firms charge commissions of $1 per bond with a $1,000 face value, passing on the same prices that they get when they acquire the bonds from other dealers (which include the dealer’s markup). Merrill and TD, however, sell bonds on a “net yield” basis, with the broker’s profit built into the prices. Some studies have found that customers tend to pay more for these net-yield bonds than they would with a flat-rate commission.

Research

With commissions at rock bottom these days, a big distinguishing feature among brokers is the breadth and quality of research they furnish. Every firm provides snapshot reports on stocks, including basic data such as revenues and earnings. Most brokers also offer reports on bonds from ratings agencies, such as Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s. But a few firms go further, supplying in-depth market analysis and research on companies, along with all sorts of investing ideas.

Scoring best in this category, largely for its stock research, is Merrill Edge. Customers can see detailed research on more than 1,300 companies covered by Bank of America Merrill Lynch analysts, including missives on giants such as Microsoft and Wal-Mart Stores, as well as a slew of smaller companies, real estate investment trusts and master limited partnerships. Merrill also includes more than a dozen lists of recommended stocks, including “Warren Buffett Stocks” and “Earnings Turnarounds.” And the firm produces pieces on big themes, such as a recent report titled “Uberfication: Global Sharing Economy Primer Picks.”

Schwab, E*Trade and TD Ameritrade earn high scores, too, supplying stock research from well-established firms such as Credit Suisse and CFRA. Schwab throws in 1,600 Morningstar stock reports, along with its own ratings, which gives its score in this category a slight bump.

For avid stock traders, though, E*Trade may be best. The firm jams its site with analyst recommendations, charts, data and investing ideas, including dozens of stock screens. Customers at TD Ameritrade and Schwab can find plenty of investing ideas, too, such as Credit Suisse’s U.S. stock “focus list,” available on both sites. If you want in-depth mutual fund research, though, you won’t find it on any broker’s site.

The other three outfits—Ally, Fidelity and Vanguard—don’t score well in this area. At Ally, CFRA provides the only in-depth stock research. Fidelity lists more than a dozen research reports for big companies, such as Apple. But most of them are just technical analysis—evaluating stocks based on trading patterns or other data—and lack detail about corporate business developments and industry trends.

Tools

Online calculators and tools can help you track your portfolio’s performance, screen for funds, plan for retirement and generally keep tabs on your financial life. Some sites get an edge in this category by supplying handier and more comprehensive tools than others.

Merrill earns the highest score, with Fidelity coming in a close second. Along with top-notch screeners for funds and stocks, Merrill provides Morningstar’s powerful Portfolio X-Ray, a tool that can dig into your fund holdings and individual stocks and, among other things, analyze areas of overlap and market factors influencing your returns. Most of these tools are easy to find, too, by using the drop-down menus on Merrill’s home page.

Finding tools on Fidelity’s site takes more poking around. But Fidelity’s portfolio-analysis tools are robust and easy to use, and you can configure them in multiple ways (to track your performance against not just traditional indexes but also blended market benchmarks, for example). Fidelity also provides top-notch budgeting and retirement-planning tools. And you can see a comprehensive picture of all your finances, including accounts held at other firms, your mortgage balance and your home’s market value.

As you might expect, E*Trade excels with tools for stocks, ETFs and options. TD Ameritrade offers a “Premier List” of top-rated mutual funds selected by Morningstar (all available without transaction fees). Schwab makes it easy to find tools, too. We especially like the firm’s preferred-stock screener, which includes credit ratings from Moody’s and S&P Capital IQ, as well as key data points, such as dividend yields and upcoming “call” dates, when issuers may redeem the securities.

Vanguard’s tools focus on nuts-and-bolts planning—things such as setting up an investment mix and creating a retirement plan. Customers won’t find targeted stock screens, though, and can only import outside account data if they’re customers of Vanguard’s advisory service. Ally furnishes a few stock screeners but doesn’t offer retirement-planning tools. Ally says it plans to roll out more screeners and tools over the next year.

Ease of use

Finding what you want on a broker’s site can feel like wandering through a maze of charts, data and jargon-filled reports.

Overall, Fidelity’s relatively intuitive site helps you avoid information overload. The firm recently redesigned its ETF research center, added voice recognition at its call centers to identify customers without a passcode, and enhanced its “quick quote bar” to facilitate trading. Fidelity also wins points for its 2% cash-back Visa card—with direct deposit of cash rebates into brokerage accounts—along with services such as FidSafe, a free online vault where customers can store valuable documents. (Merrill is the only other firm that offers a similar safe-like service.)

With access to Bank of America offices, Merrill provides the most branches (4,600) for its clients to meet with a financial adviser. Customers can easily transfer money to Bank of America with one-click convenience, and they can see all of their savings, checking and investment accounts at both the bank’s and the brokerage’s websites. Schwab also blends brokerage and banking services well, pro­viding high-yield checking and other bank services, as well as mortgages through Quicken Loans. One drawback: Schwab’s American Express cash-back card rebates just 1.5% of the amount of your purchases, and fewer merchants accept Amex.

Also competitive in this category is TD Ameritrade. The firm is ex­panding its branch network from about 100 locations to more than 400 (including Scottrade’s shops). New features on TD’s site include a revamped ETF research center and an upgraded “dock” with news from Yahoo Finance. E*Trade’s site, packed with technical tools, news and data, may not be as easy to navigate for novices. Cust­omers can do some banking through E*Trade, but the firm doesn’t provide a cash-back card or services such as a digital vault.

Because they are purely online brokers, Ally and Vanguard aren’t as convenient, losing points for their lack of physical branches. Ally’s cash-back Visa card, which rebates a base rate of 1%, isn’t as competitive as cards from Fidelity or Schwab. Also, Ally’s cash rewards aren’t automatically deposited into a brokerage account, and customers can’t import account data from other firms. Vanguard doesn’t offer a cash-back card or many banking services. Its site lacks real-time streaming quotes and other user-friendly tools to trade stocks and ETFs.

Mobile apps

Brokers’ apps are be­coming handy enough to allow customers to conduct almost all of their business via a mobile device, whether it’s buying stocks, trading options or depositing checks. E*Trade’s app scores best. It includes a full suite of trading features, as well as stock research reports, lists of “all-star” funds and multiple ways to screen for stocks, ETFs and funds.

Merrill’s app includes several calculators and tools for college savings and retirement planning, along with research from CFRA and Morningstar. Cust­omers can’t screen for stocks or funds, though. Fidelity and Schwab both win points for their apps’ user-friendliness: Trading, transferring money and depositing checks all work seamlessly. Fidelity customers can screen for ETFs, too, and Schwab supplies useful stock ratings, along with an “Idea Hub” for trading options.

Apps from Ally and TD fall short in one big area: They lack the ability to trade mutual funds. Vanguard’s app doesn’t let you buy and sell non-Vanguard funds—also a drawback. Customers can deposit checks, but they can’t transfer money on Vanguard’s app, limiting its usefulness.

Investment advice

Brokers are so keen to handle your money that most will set up a financial plan and review your portfolio at no charge. They can also manage your investments, for a fee, or help with things such as estate plans and insurance.

Taking the lead in this category are Fidelity, Schwab and Vanguard. Fidelity and Schwab score well for a wide array of planning services and managed accounts, such as a Fidelity portfolio dedicated to indi­vidual municipal bonds and one at Schwab focused on dividend-growth stocks. At Fidelity, fees for separately managed accounts start at 1.20% annually but are reduced by “credits” for some of the costs in the portfolios’ fund holdings. For clients with at least $25,000, Schwab offers tailored portfolios of ETFs, with an annual advisory fee of 0.28% (capped at $900 per quarter for high-value accounts).

Vanguard customers can get into a managed account with a $50,000 minimum investment. Annual fees are 0.30%, no matter what investing strategy you choose. These accounts hold Vanguard ETFs and the Admiral share class of its mutual funds, which charge some of the lowest expense ratios in the industry.

E*Trade, Merrill and TD offer managed portfolios, starting at 0.75% annually at TD, 0.85% at Merrill and 0.90% at E*Trade. All three firms provide plenty of choices, though, such as a “supplemental income” portfolio at TD and an aggressive-growth package at E*Trade.

If you don’t have much to invest, you could opt for a “robo” service, which should cost less and may be just as effective as brokers’ higher-fee accounts. These portfolios of ETFs and mutual funds are automatically adjusted to maintain a fixed mix of stocks and bonds. Investment minimums are as low as $2,500 at Ally but typically start at $5,000, with annual management fees of 0.30% at Ally, E*Trade and TD. Fidelity charges a bit more, 0.35% to 0.40%. But its fees include underlying fund expenses. Vanguard doesn’t offer a robo, but its Personal Advisor service is essentially the same thing. Plus, Vanguard will tailor the investment mix to your specific situation, following a consultation with a Vanguard adviser. (For more on automated investing services, see Robo Advisers Get the Human Touch.)

Schwab offers a similar service, charging a management fee of 0.28% for a personalized portfolio of ETFs, constructed with the help of a client’s dedicated financial adviser. Customers can also opt for Schwab’s Intelligent Portfolios—baskets of ETFs that the firm selects and rebalances without charging a separate management fee. The downside of these portfolios is that even the most aggressive ones—with hefty amounts of stock—hold 6.9% in cash (and much more in conservative portfolios). Maintaining that much cash can drag down returns in a strong market.

At the opposite end of the cost spectrum is Merrill, which charges a 0.45% management fee for its robo service. Merrill says that the accounts aren’t just based on algorithms, however, and that customers “have access to a human being whenever they need help.”

A Broker for Every Investor

Best for mutual fund investors: Schwab. Offering 3,976 funds with no loads, no transaction fees and investment minimums of less than $50,000, Schwab edges the competition. Need some help? Pick from Schwab’s “select list” of 168 no-transaction-fee mutual funds, a roster that includes many solid performers with reasonable expense ratios.

Best for ETF investors: Schwab. The firm’s 231 commission-free exchange-traded funds put it on top in this category. Many of these ETFs have wafer-thin expense ratios, enabling investors to build a low-cost portfolio without paying a penny in trading commissions.

Best for active stock traders: Merrill Edge. Investors can qualify for 30 free trades per month by having at least $50,000 in combined balances at Merrill and parent Bank of America. Maintain at least a $100,000 balance and you get 100 free trades per month. Runner-up: Ally Invest. The firm trims commissions from $4.95 to $3.95 for investors who make at least 30 trades a quarter, with no investment minimums.

Best for investors on the go: E*Trade. Packed with handy features, E*Trade’s app lets you buy or sell stocks, mutual funds and options, as well as run screens, deposit checks and pay bills. Stock research is also available, something most brokers exclude from their apps.

Best for managing cash: Fidelity. Customers can easily pay bills and see a complete picture of their financial life on Fidelity’s site, including mortgages and balances in non-Fidelity accounts. Fidelity’s Visa Rewards card, which pays back 2% on all purchases, beats the cash rebates from cards of most other brokers.

Best for retirees: Vanguard. Low fees throughout its lineup of mutual funds and ETFs make Vanguard a top choice for retirees (or anyone trying to save a few bucks). The firm charges 0.30% a year to manage accounts, one of the lowest fees in the business.

Investors can pocket a few hundred bucks just by opening an account with an online broker these days. But don’t let a signing bonus sway you.

Low commissions to trade stocks or exchange-traded funds can save you more money in the long run. Whether you’re a stock jockey, a saver or a retiree, finding a firm that suits your needs is far more valuable than even a $600 bonus (Merrill Edge’s current inducement if you open an account with at least $200,000).

What makes for a first-rate broker? It depends on what you value. Low fees may be critical for active traders, but buy-and-hold types may want an array of no-transaction-fee mutual funds. Brokers with unbeatable prices may lack the retirement-planning tools or advisory services you need. We weighted the categories based on what our readers consider vital: commissions and fees, 15%; investment choices, 15%, tools, 15%; research 20%; 15% mobile; advisory, 10%.

Take a look at our reviews of seven of the biggest brokers in the industry to see which is the best fit for you.

To be included, firms had to offer online trading of stocks, ETFs, funds and individual bonds. Capital One, T. Rowe Price and USAA all declined to participate. We also excluded some brokers that focus primarily on active traders and lack a full suite of investment choices and services.

• OVERALL: Total Commissions: Invest. choices: Tools: Research: Ease of use: Mobile: Advisory:
  

  BEST FOR: Managing cash

Fidelity offers the best overall mix of investment products, retirement-planning tools and services. Fidelity’s commissions aren’t the lowest, especially if you want a mutual fund for which you must pay a transaction fee. But its prices are close enough in other areas to be competitive with lower-cost brokers. Furthermore, Fidelity wins points for its full range of retirement and advisory services, along with top-notch investing tools and customer service.

If your priority is investing in mutual funds, you’ll do well with Fidelity. It offers more than 3,700 no-transaction-fee, no-load funds, almost all of which have minimum investment levels under $50,000.

Fidelity also shines for helping clients manage their cash. Customers can pay bills and track spending on all of their external accounts. Plus, sign up for a Visa Rewards card and you'll get 2% back on all purchases, cash that goes right into your brokerage or savings account (so you'll invest it, right?).

Evaluate Fidelity for Yourself>>

• OVERALL: Costs: Invest. choices: Tools: Research: Ease of use: Mobile: Advisory:
  

  BEST FOR: Active stock traders

If you like to trade stocks, Merrill is your best bet. It’s the runway winner in this category, charging $6.95 per stock trade, the lowest flat rate per transaction. Investors with a bank account at Bank of America, Merrill’s parent company, may qualify for up to 100 free trades per month, depending on their combined balances. Merrill also charges the lowest rate, $19.95, to buy or sell mutual funds outside its no-transaction-fee fund network.

Merrill is also a standout for research on which stocks to buy. Customers can see Bank of America Merrill Lynch stock reports on more than 1,400 companies, along with stock research from Morningstar and S&P Capital IQ. Merrill’s big economic reports and thematic pieces, such as a recent report on stock picks for an aging global population, are also available. And customers get access to Merrill’s lists of recommended stocks.

If you want bond research, though, you’ll have to look elsewhere. Ratings reports on individual companies aren’t accessible on Merrill’s site. By contrast, E*Trade, Schwab, Scottrade and TD Ameritrade furnish company reports from credit-ratings agency Moody’s.

Evaluate Merrill Edge for Yourself>>

• OVERALL: Costs: Invest. choices: Tools: Research: Ease of use: Mobile: Advisory:
  

  BEST FOR: ETF investors

We gave both Merrill Edge and Charles Schwab four stars, but in the underlying scoring, Merrill ranked ahead by a whisker. Where Schwab stands out – both against Merrill and all other contenders – is its wide range of commission–free exchange-traded funds offerings. You can choose from 226, including funds from iShares, PowerShares, State Street and WisdomTree. No other broker has nearly as many commission-free ETFs; E*Trade (118), TD Ameritrade (101) and Fidelity (85) take the next three spots.

Schwab also offers help picking those funds; you need just $25,000 to get into a managed portfolio of mutual funds or ETFs – one of the lowest bars in the business. Schwab also offers robo ETF accounts, free of charge, with only a $5,000 minimum (see slide 9 to learn more about “robo” services).

Evaluate Charles Schwab for Yourself>>

• OVERALL: Costs: Invest. choices: Tools: Research: Ease of use: Mobile: Advisory:
  

  BEST FOR: Investors on the go

All brokers we surveyed let customers trade and conduct other business on a mobile device. All except Vanguard let you log in with a fingerprint. And the apps can be handy for banking: Investors can pay bills, transfer funds and more.

E*Trade’s smartphone app scores best in this category. Along with standard trading and account tools, it’s the only one with a screening feature for stocks, funds and ETFs. The app also shows E*Trade’s “all star” roster of funds. And investors can scan a product barcode to pull up stock information (a feature TD provides, too).

Of course, smartphone apps can’t handle everything. None shows a detailed analysis of your portfolio or lets you trade bonds. Stock and fund research remains sparse on phone apps, too, although E*Trade and Merrill make some stock reports available.

Another example of how E*Trade justifies the E in its name decades after its launch: you can track social media sentiment – what bloggers have to say — on individual stocks.

Evaluate E*Trade for Yourself>>

• OVERALL: Costs: Invest. choices: Tools: Research: Ease of use: Mobile: Advisory:

TD Ameritrade offers a healthy range of no-fee mutual funds (3,587) and commission-free ETFs (101) to choose from. Helping you pick is TD’s handy fund screener, which lets you see how ETFs, mutual funds and closed-end funds with similar holdings stack up against one another. Another cutting-edge feature (that it shares with Fidelity) – you can use the site to see how a stock is trending on Twitter and similar social-media sites.

Evaluate TD Ameritrade for Yourself>>

• OVERALL: Costs: Invest. choices: Tools: Research: Ease of use: Mobile: Advisory:

If being able to visit a bricks-and-mortar location and interacting with a real, live human matters to you, consider Scottrade. With 495 offices, it scores well for availability, second only to Merrill (which gets to piggyback on the 2,000 Bank of America branches its corporate parent has nationwide).

Evaluate Scottrade for Yourself>>

• OVERALL: Costs: Invest. choices: Tools: Research: Web site: Mobile: Advisory services:
  

  BEST FOR: Retirees

  At Kiplinger's, we’re big fans of many of Vanguard’s low-fee funds. But for those who want to invest in stocks, bonds and mutual funds outside the Vanguard family, the brokerage site it runs doesn’t measure up.

However, retirees are a group who can do right by Vanguard. Customers with at least $50,000 in assets can tap into the firm’s Personal Advisor Services, which lets you slide into a managed account that charges just 0.3% in annual fees. That low rate, coupled with Vanguard’s ultra-cheap index funds, is a great recipe for pocketing more money in the long run.

Evaluate Vanguard for Yourself>>

E*trade and Fidelity are now rolling out “robo” services, joining Schwab in selling managed ETF accounts that are automatically adjusted to maintain a steady asset mix. Which one is best?

On the surface, Schwab’s Intelligent Portfolios look unbeatable for one big reason: The firm doesn’t charge a management fee. Customers pay only the low fees of the underlying ETFs. But Schwab doesn’t let customers stay fully invested in stock and bond funds, requiring at least 6% in cash for aggressive investors—climbing to 29.4% for the most conservative portfolios. Held at Schwab Bank, that cash earns just 0.08% in interest, and it can weaken long-term returns.

E*Trade says cash in its new Adaptive Portfolios won’t top 1%. But all-in annual costs are 0.50% for ETF portfolios and 0.75% for accounts with both ETFs and mutual funds. Conversely, Betterment (one of the first robo advisers) charges a management fee of 0.25% a year for portfolios between $10,000 and $100,000 and 0.15% above that. Betterment holds only low-cost Vanguard and iShares ETFs, while E*Trade includes some pricier mutual funds and ETFs.

Fidelity was slated to launch its robo service, Fidelity Go, in July. The firm says all-in fees will be 0.35% to 0.39%, which would beat E*Trade’s. And Fidelity says Go portfolios will hold 0.5% in cash, much less than Schwab. That could give Fidelity portfolios a performance edge over the long term.

Ultimately, though, your results will depend on whether the robots do a better job of managing your money than a human.

1. Fidelity

2. Charles Schwab

3. Merrill Edge

4. E*Trade

5. TD Ameritrade

6. Scottrade

7. TradeStation

8. TradeKing

9. Firstrade

Kiplinger updates many of its best rankings regularly. Above is our 2014 ranking of best online brokers. Keep in mind that ranking methodologies can change from year to year based on what data was available at the time of publishing, changes to how the data was gathered, switches to new data providers and tweaks to the formulas used to narrow the pool of candidates.

TOOL: Compare Leading Online Brokers

1. E*Trade

2. Fidelity

3. Scottrade

4. TD Ameritrade

5. TradeStation

6. Firstrade

7. Charles Schwab

8. Merrill Edge

9. Just2Trade

10. ShareBuilder

Kiplinger updates many of its best rankings regularly. Above is our 2012 ranking of best online brokers. Keep in mind that ranking methodologies can change from year to year based on what data was available at the time of publishing, changes to how the data was gathered, switches to new data providers and tweaks to the formulas used to narrow the pool of candidates.

TOOL: Compare Leading Online Brokers