M1 Finance vs Robinhood 2024

M1 Finance vs Robinhood: Determining Factors?

M1 Finance and Robinhood are interesting to compare because they are both 5-star platforms at the top of their respective industries. While they are both online commission-free stock trading platforms, the similarities end there.

Modest Money gives a slight overall advantage to M1 Finance over Robinhood, but this is mainly due to our preference for diversified investment based on modern portfolio theory.

There is no better way to be diversified than to have a computer algorithm investing in multiple securities and periodically rebalancing your account to meet your target allocations. This is where M1 Finance shines.

On the other hand, Robinhood is appropriate for investors who want to trade individual securities and crypto in a taxable account.

The appropriate platform for you depends on your preferred investing style.

Factor 1: Investment Fees

The thing about M1 Finance and Robinhood is that though their investment platforms are very different, they both have cheap fees.

M1 Finance Fees

Unlike other automated portfolio managers, M1 Finance does not charge a management fee. There are also no fees if you want to trade stocks, although there are fees associated with some optional transactions.

For M1 Invest accounts, you get hit with fees for paper trading. Depending on how you manage your account, you will also have to pay certain account maintenance fees like inactivity fees. You may also be subject to wire transfer fees, termination fees, and fees associated with paper checks.

M1 Finance’s fees are mostly structured around optional account transactions, so this should not necessarily deter you from getting an account. The good news is that M1 Finance is transparent about these extra account fees and lists them all in one place on their page.

And the best news is that, unlike most managed portfolios, M1 Finance does not charge you an Assets Under Management (AUM) fee. M1 Finance also does not charge commission or trading fees, although certain mandated regulatory fees are passed on to investors.

These fees are extremely low and can be calculated with the following formula:

• SEC (Securities Exchange Commission) Fee = Transaction price x $5.10 / $1 million
• TAF (Trading Activity Fee) Fee = shares sold x $0.000119 up to $5.95

So, on a $10,000 stock market trade involving 100 shares, the SEC fee would be $0.05 and the TAF fee would be $0.01.

Click here to open an M1 Finance-managed automated portfolio account without paying management fees. You can also get up to $500 free when you deposit $1000 or more in the first 14 days.

Robinhood Fees

Robinhood does not have portfolio management options, so we will look at the fees associated with maintaining an account and actively trading stocks and securities on the platform.

Robinhood states on its website that it offers zero-commission trading “now and forever.” There are no fees associated with opening, maintaining, or transferring funds to your account.

Like M1 Finance, Robinhood will charge fees associated with certain optional actions you may undertake with your account. For instance, paper confirmations and statements will cost you the same as they do with M1 Finance, $2 and $5 respectively, but you won’t have to pay for wire transfers or inactivity fees.

Robinhood charges for fewer extra account actions than M1 Finance and are equally transparent in the fees they do charge.

When it comes to regulatory fees, the calculation is the same, but Robinhood does not pass these fees along to investors trading small amounts. There is no SEC fee for trades of $500 and less and no TAF fee for trading less than 50 shares.

Robinhood also offers fee-free cryptocurrency purchasing with Robinhood Crypto.

You can click here to open a low-fee Robinhood account.

Robinhood Has the Cheapest Fees

Both M1 Finance and Robinhood have cheap fees, but Robinhood’s fees are slightly lower.

A second factor to look at when evaluating whether M1 Finance or Robinhood is better for you are the variety of securities available at each. With Robinhood, you can buy more asset classes than you can with M1 Finance.

Depending on your investment strategy, this is not necessarily better, however. For people who are interested in less risky, robo-managed portfolios, having access to crypto and options does not create more value.

M1 Finance Securities

M1 Finance offers its investors access to more than 6,000 stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETFs). This offers plenty of opportunities for diversified investing.

While two asset classes may not seem like a lot compared to other brokerages, you can easily build a well-hedged position with stocks and ETFs. The fact that M1 Finance offers stocks at all is unique compared to other robo-managed accounts, many of which only offer access to ETFs.

Robinhood

With Robinhood, you can invest in more than 5,000 U.S.-listed stocks and ETFs, options contracts, and 650 American Deposit Receipts (ADR) for foreign-listed stocks.

You can also set up a cryptocurrency trading account with Robinhood, where you can trade Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dogecoin, Litecoin, Ethereum Classic, Bitcoin Cash, and Bitcoin SV. Unlike virtually every other crypto exchange, including Coinbase, your crypto trades with Robinhood are fee-free.

Robinhood will also allow you to participate in Initial Public Offerings (IPOs). Robinhood uses a random allocation process to sell available IPO shares.

Robinhood Has More Available Securities

With its cryptocurrency and options, Robinhood offers investors more asset classes for a more diversified portfolio.

Factor 3: Account Types

Different account types allow you to take advantage of different tax breaks. For most investors, it is advantageous to have both taxable and individual retirement accounts.

M1 Account Types

M1 Finance offers individual and joint accounts, plus traditional, Roth, and SEP IRAs. You can also set up trust accounts with M1 Finance, as well as custodial accounts if you sign up for their premium membership.

With these accounts, you can manage your portfolio by going with their fully automated robo-managed options or by customizing your investment “pies.” You can also choose from a selection of expert-created pies. You can read more about how M1 Finance pies work here.

M1 Finance also makes cash accounts available to investors in the form of its M1 Spend checking account. Money deposited into this account does not earn an annual percentage yield (APY) unless you sign up for a premium account.

Robinhood Account Types

Robinhood only has taxable investment accounts. Robinhood doesn’t offer retirement or other tax-advantaged accounts.

Robinhood does not have specific cash accounts, but you can add the cash management feature to your brokerage account. With this feature, Robinhood will temporarily “sweep” any non-invested cash from your brokerage account into partner banks, where it will be protected by FDIC insurance and earn an 1.5% APY on standard accounts.

With the cash management option, you can get a debit card to withdraw cash from your account and make debit card purchases as you need it. Even though the cash is technically “swept” into a partner bank, Robinhood has controls in place to make sure you don’t inadvertently overdraft your account.

M1 Finance Beats Robinhood in Account Types

M1 Finance has more account types than Robinhood, making them the preferred choice for people who need more than individual taxable investment accounts which is pretty much everyone.

Factor 4: Account Minimums

When trying a new platform for the first time, many people don’t want to lock up a lot of their money at first. Additionally, beginner investors might not have that much money to sink into an account in the first place.

M1 Finance Account Minimums

You can begin investing in M1 Finance for as little as $100. You will need to start with $500 for retirement investing.

Robinhood Account Minimums

Robinhood does not have minimum deposit requirements for its accounts. As they note on their website, “You only need 1 cent to start earning interest.” Robinhood’s cryptocurrency trading accounts also have no minimums. You don’t have to buy whole coins either, you can purchase fractional shares for as little as $1.

Robinhood is Better for Account Minimums

With its no minimum balances, Robinhood is better for people who don’t want to start investing a lot of money.

Factor 5: Premium Options

An emerging feature of many robo-advisors and investing apps is they usually offer premium options and subscriptions. This allows them to keep the cost of basic accounts low while preserving the option for investors to add more advanced features and financial products as they become more confident.

M1 Finance and Robinhood are no exceptions. M1 Finance has M1, while with Robinhood you can enroll in Robinhood Gold.

M1

M1 offers morning and afternoon trading windows for investors, as well as a better rate on borrowing funds against your investments (2% vs 3.5%).

For M1 Spend, you get considerably better terms on your checking account with a 1% APY and 1% cash back on purchases. If you get the M1 Spend credit card along with your checking account, having M1 will waive your $95 annual fee and you will earn 1.5%-10% cashback on purchases.

Best of all, if you click here, you can get the first year for free. After that, it will cost you $125 annually.

Robinhood Gold

Robinhood’s premium service is known as Robinhood Gold.

With Robinhood Gold, you will be able to access up to $50,000 of your deposits as soon as you make them, without waiting for them to clear or post to your account. You will also have access to professional Morningstar research on more than 1,700 stocks and Nasdaq Level II market data, which can help you understand which way the market for a particular security might move next.

Robinhood Gold will also give you access to margin trading, which will allow you to leverage your securities purchases to achieve greater gains (or losses).

Robinhood Gold costs $5 per month, but if you click here, you can get the first month free.

Robinhood Beats M1 Finance for Premium Services

M1 is no slouch when it comes to the overall usefulness of its premium service to the average person, but Robinhood’s suite of features for active investors cannot be beaten. Apples to apples, M1 costs $125 annually while Robinhood will cost you $60.

M1 Finance vs Robinhood: The Bottom Line

Modest Money rarely gets to compare two 5-star user-friendly platforms. M1 Finance and Robinhood are both worthy investing platforms.

Even though Robinhood leads M1 Finance in four of the five categories we evaluated, Modest Money still recommends M1 Finance over Robinhood for most investors. With its retirement accounts and dynamic rebalancing, M1 Finance has features that every investor needs.

No matter how good their platform is, not everyone needs or wants to trade individual securities with a platform like Robinhood. Though if they do, Robinhood is one of the best.

M1 Finance

M1 Finance is a category-leading robo-advisor with excellent automated portfolio choices.

Unlike many robo-advisors, it does allow a significant level of customization when it comes to choosing which “pies” will make up your custom portfolio. You can choose fully automated, self-customization, or allocate all or part of your portfolio to Model Portfolios.

M1 Finance also allows you to create tax-advantaged retirement and custodial accounts, which can save you tens of thousands of tax dollars over the lifetime of your investments.

Every investor needs a service like M1 Finance that allows you to combine tax-advantaged accounts with low-risk portfolio investing.

To open an account with a top-tier robo-investor that has multiple account options, click here. You can also sign up for a year of M1 for free.

Learn More

Robinhood

No matter how much we follow modern portfolio theory and try to diversify our investments with managed accounts, there will always be those of us who want to allocate at least part of our net worth to investing in individual stocks and other securities.

Robinhood is also ideal if you want to invest in cryptocurrency. Robinhood’s no-fee crypto trading structure helps it beat out virtually every other crypto exchange.

Robinhood is also your best choice for access to premium research, including Morningstar and advanced Nasdaq data.

If these advantages sound good to you, click here to open a Robinhood account.

And if you, like many investors, fall into both categories, you should consider opening accounts with both M1 Finance and Robinhood. The services they offer don’t overlap in any kind of meaningful way, and you could cover all your investing bases by having these two accounts.

Both are stellar offerings at the top of their respective classes.

Learn More