Interactive Brokers vs Robinhood: Complete Platform Comparability


Buying and selling platforms are straightforward to seek out. Deciding on the proper buying and selling platform for you and your wants could also be a trickier proposition. However don’t fear, we’ve obtained the data you must make the proper choice.
Evaluating Interactive Brokers vs Robinhood includes taking a look at each buying and selling platforms, together with who they’re meant for and what options they provide.
We’re evaluating them as a result of each have buying and selling apps with some comparable options which will attraction to you as a person investor.
Which platform must you use? Is one higher for newbies? Preserve studying to study all about each Robinhood and Interactive Brokers and determine if certainly one of these two funding platforms is best for you.
Overview: Interactive Brokers and Robinhood
We’ll begin with a broad overview of Interactive Brokers and Robinhood.
Interactive Brokers (IBKR)

Interactive Brokers, or IBKR for brief, is a licensed broker-dealer and a member of FINRA. Headquartered in Greenwich, Connecticut, the corporate was included in 1993 by founder Thomas Peterffy.
The corporate’s mission is to make funding expertise obtainable to each skilled brokers and informal traders to help them in investing and buying and selling quite a lot of asset lessons. In 2018, they launched IKBR Lite, a commission-free buying and selling platform.
The corporate has a cellular app, so traders have the selection between utilizing the online platform or going cellular to handle their investments.
As of 2023, Interactive Brokers operates in over 150 market locations. IKBR and its associates execute greater than 2.7 million trades per day.
Interactive Brokers customers can commerce a big selection of belongings, together with shares, ETFs, bonds, mutual funds, choices, futures, cryptocurrencies, Foreign exchange, and commodities similar to gold. In addition they present a big selection {of professional} funding instruments, together with superior charting and margin buying and selling.
Total, the Interactive Brokers buying and selling platform is extra suited to traders and foreign exchange merchants who’re skilled and wanting to undertake extra complicated and assorted trades with superior buying and selling instruments than a newbie would.
Robinhood

Robinhood Markets, Inc. was based in 2013 by Vladimir Tenev and Baiju Bhatt. Their objective was to make investing as accessible as attainable, so that they got down to create a commission-free buying and selling app that may very well be utilized by anyone.
By the point the app was launched in 2015, there was a ready listing of over 200,000 individuals who have been keen to start out their cellular buying and selling journey. Simply three years later, there have been two million individuals ready for Robinhood to launch cryptocurrency as an obtainable asset.
In the present day, Robinhood has over 24 million funded accounts and 10 million energetic month-to-month customers, making it one of the common buying and selling apps on this planet.
Robinhood is a member of the securities investor safety company, SIPC.
Robinhood’s listing of accessible belongings is smaller than Interactive Brokers’ listing. Customers can commerce shares, ETFs, futures, choices, and cryptocurrencies. Lacking from the listing are bonds, mutual funds, Foreign exchange, and commodities.
In the end, Robinhood is designed for use by newbies and informal traders who don’t have a number of expertise or preferring a streamlined interface, though they do have margin buying and selling.
Professional Tip:
Enroll with Robinhood immediately! You’ll be able to refer associates to earn as much as $1500 per yr in FREE STOCK!
IBKR vs Robinhood: Key Options In contrast
Listed below are a number of the key options of IBKR vs Robinhood and the way they evaluate.
Expertise
Interactive Brokers was first designed with skilled brokers and skilled merchants in thoughts. For that motive, the online interface is complicated and could also be tougher to navigate than Robinhood. The cellular app has a far easier interface and is in some ways much like different funding apps.
Robinhood is a mobile-first firm that was designed with newbies in thoughts. The app interface and menus are user-friendly and tremendous easy to navigate. Trades may be initiated and accomplished in only a few seconds. There aren’t as many bells and whistles as IBKR, however some newbies and informal traders might desire that.
Ease of Use
Interactive Brokers’ internet interface comes with a little bit of a studying curve. It looks like there are a few hurdles to clear, together with repeated questions on whether or not you’re a professional dealer searching for superior buying and selling methods. For that motive, some informal traders might really feel like there’s a barrier to entry or be overwhelmed by the variety of choices which might be obtainable.
Against this, Robinhood’s interface is very simple, with only a few choices on each the web site and the cellular app. You’ll be able to select the kind of funding you wish to make and execute your first commerce in lower than a minute. There aren’t as many belongings obtainable and general, the minimal variety of commerce choices make it a extra streamlined, if restricted, expertise.
Analysis High quality
The analysis choices on IBKR are in depth and embrace detailed info and charts that will help you consider potential investments. You’ll be able to have a look at pre-set charts or customise to fit your wants.
IBKR offers a number of instruments and calculators that will help you analysis investments and perceive what you’re shopping for. One of many coolest options is their buying and selling thought generator. You need to use the generator to get artistic along with your investments, and it’s a device that’s extraordinarily useful for portfolio diversification and balancing.
Robinhood presents customers some restricted analysis choices. You’ll get reside market costs and a choice of articles in regards to the market, each of which might help you consider shares and ETFs..
As well as, there’s a studying library with movies and different academic supplies. These are largely geared towards starting traders and are more likely to be too simplified for extra skilled merchants to learn from.
Professional Tip:
Enroll with Robinhood immediately! You’ll be able to refer associates to earn as much as $1500 per yr in FREE STOCK!
Funding Choices

Interactive Brokers has a protracted listing of funding choices that goes far past what you’ll discover on Robinhood and lots of different buying and selling platforms. These embrace:
- Shares
- ETFs
- Bonds
- Mutual funds
- Cryptocurrencies
- Choices
- Commodities
- Futures
- Foreign exchange
IBKR provides customers entry to greater than 40 markets worldwide, which is way over most funding apps.
Robinhood presents a smaller choice of belongings, together with these which might be most attention-grabbing and accessible to newbies. These embrace:
- US shares
- US ETFs
- 20 cryptocurrencies, together with Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin
- Choices for US Change-Listed shares & ETFs
- ADRs for greater than 500 globally-listed corporations
Individuals who wish to have interaction in additional complicated trades or who don’t wish to have to make use of multiple app to diversify their portfolios might not like Robinhood’s limitations..
Charges
Interactive Brokers doesn’t cost fee for trades, however merchants incur sure regulatory and exercise charges as follows.
- Regulatory charges
- Choices charges
- Future charges
- Mutual fund charges
For instance, the mutual fund price is 3% of the transaction quantity as much as a most of $14.95 per commerce. You’ll be able to take a look at their full price schedule on this web page.
Robinhood presents commission-free buying and selling, however there are some charges that you simply’ll should pay while you make trades. Listed below are a number of the charges you’ll want to contemplate.
- Regulatory charges
- Buying and selling exercise charges
- American depositary receipt (ADR) price
- Choices price
- Index choices buying and selling price
Most of those charges are calculated primarily based on the dimension of your commerce, and most are beneath a penny. Buying and selling exercise charges are waived for trades of fewer than 500 shares. ACH transfers are free and there’s a $25 price for outgoing wire transfers. You’ll be able to take a look at the total price schedule right here.
Robinhood vs Interactive Brokers: Who Ought to Select Which Platform?
Must you use Robinhood or Interactive Dealer? All of it comes down to those questions.
- What sorts of belongings do you wish to put money into?
- How skilled are you as a dealer?
- Do you wish to do in-depth analysis on potential investments?
- How a lot do you wish to pay?
Let’s begin with Interactive Brokers. It’s most fitted for individuals who wish to put money into a broad array of asset lessons, because it presents not simply shares and ETFs, but in addition bonds, mutual funds, choices, futures, crypto, and Foreign exchange. It’s the higher selection for individuals who have already got some expertise buying and selling.
Interactive Brokers presents much more in the way in which of analysis choices for individuals who wish to get into the nitty gritty of financials and different metrics earlier than executing a commerce. On the flip facet, the charges are increased than they’re on different platforms, together with Robinhood.
Robinhood is designed to be user-friendly and enticing to newbies. It has a smaller listing of accessible asset lessons, largely restricted to shares, ETFs, and cryptocurrencies.
Should you don’t care an excessive amount of about digging into the numbers, Robinhood presents restricted analysis choices. The charges are considerably decrease than the charges for Interactive Brokers.
Professional Tip:
Enroll with Robinhood immediately! You’ll be able to refer associates to earn as much as $1500 per yr in FREE STOCK!
Interactive Brokers vs Robinhood: Person Expertise Comparability
Each of those platforms have labored to make the consumer expertise good. Interactive Brokers is aiming its companies as a extra subtle and skilled viewers. That mentioned, IBKR Lite presents a streamlined expertise which may be interesting to traders who don’t have a number of expertise. The net platform just isn’t as easy to make use of and navigate, and is extra appropriate for knowledgeable traders who don’t thoughts a little bit of a studying curve.
Robinhood’s consumer expertise is much easier and extra streamlined than IBKR’s. Trades may be accomplished in only a few faucets. With fewer buying and selling choices, it’s not laborious to pick a commerce, select an asset, and totally execute the transaction in beneath a minute.

Who Ought to Select Interactive Brokers?
Interactive Brokers is the platform we’d suggest for knowledgeable traders. We’re speaking about individuals who have already got a robust understanding of various asset lessons and the position they play in a portfolio. It’s uncommon for an digital buying and selling platform or app to supply issues like mutual funds, bonds, commodities, and Foreign exchange, however IBKR has all of those.
An inexperienced investor may discover the analysis and buying and selling choices to be overwhelming. That’s to not say {that a} newbie couldn’t navigate the platform, however there’s undoubtedly a studying curve and it might be too steep for some.
Professional and skilled traders gained’t thoughts paying the upper charges on Interactive Brokers due to the options they get in return. There’s a ton of analysis obtainable, plus evaluation instruments that embrace charting and calculators.
Total, we predict that skilled traders will get essentially the most out of Interactive Brokers. Should you determine to attempt it as a newbie, we suggest IBKR Lite, which presents an easier and extra streamlined expertise.
Conclusion
Total, we really feel that Robinhood is the higher selection for brand spanking new or informal traders. It presents easy buying and selling, an easy-to-navigate interface, and minimal charges. These items mix to create a user-friendly expertise that’s preferrred for people who find themselves simply getting began with investing.
Interactive Brokers is the selection for extra educated and superior traders, and should even be proper for skilled traders. Its extra complicated buying and selling choices, intensive analysis, and wider vary of asset lessons make it preferrred for people who find themselves severe about investing.
In the end, you need to select the platform that aligns along with your private buying and selling targets, funding type, and finances.
FAQs
Normally, we’d suggest Robinhood for newbies. It’s a extra easy and simple platform with restricted buying and selling selections and low charges. Nonetheless, newbies ought to remember that as they transfer via their funding journey, they might want one other platform to permit for portfolio diversification.
Sure and no. Robinhood doesn’t supply shares that commerce solely on overseas exchanges. Nonetheless, you possibly can put money into ADRs for globally-listed corporations.
Robinhood’s charges are decrease than IBKR’s charges general. A part of that’s as a result of IBKR presents extra asset lessons and trades, and a number of the charges for issues like mutual funds are increased than something Robinhood costs.