Robinhood vs Fidelity vs Vanguard: Which Brokerage Is Best for You?

Choosing a brokerage is one of the first decisions new investors face — and it matters more than most people realize. Fees, available investment options, account types, and platform design all affect your long-term returns and experience. Here's an honest comparison of three of the most popular platforms: Robinhood, Fidelity, and Vanguard.

The Short Version

• Robinhood: Best for casual investors, fractional shares, and simple stock/ETF trading. Not ideal as a primary retirement account platform.
• Fidelity: Best overall brokerage for most investors — zero-fee index funds, excellent retirement account tools, strong educational resources, no minimums.
• Vanguard: Best for committed index fund investors who prioritize the lowest-cost fund options and don't need a flashy interface.

Robinhood

Robinhood launched in 2013 with a mission to democratize investing by eliminating trading commissions. It succeeded — and forced most other brokerages to go commission-free in response. Today it's known for its clean mobile interface and options for fractional shares.

Robinhood Pros

Fractional shares: Buy as little as $1 worth of any stock or ETF. This makes expensive stocks (like Amazon or Tesla) accessible to investors with small amounts.

Simple interface: Clean, intuitive mobile app. Easy to navigate for beginners.

No account minimum: Open an account with $0.

Cryptocurrency: Robinhood offers cryptocurrency trading if that interests you.

Robinhood Gold: $5/month subscription adds margin investing, premium research (Morningstar), higher instant deposit limits, and an IRA with a 1% contribution match (3% for Gold subscribers).

Robinhood Cons

Limited fund selection: Fewer mutual fund options compared to Fidelity or Vanguard. No Fidelity Zero funds (obviously) and no Vanguard-exclusive funds.

No retirement account depth: Robinhood added IRAs recently, but the retirement account tools, educational resources, and planning features lag significantly behind Fidelity and Vanguard.

No human advisor access: No ability to speak with a financial advisor.

Customer service: Customer service has historically been criticized. Limited phone support; most communication is through the app.

Payment for order flow: Robinhood makes money partly by routing orders through market makers (PFOF). This practice is controversial because it may not always achieve the best execution price for your trades. For long-term index fund investors this is largely irrelevant; for active traders, it's worth knowing.

Limited research and analysis: Compared to Fidelity's deep research tools, Robinhood's research features are basic.

Best for: People who want to trade individual stocks and ETFs with a clean mobile experience. Casual investors. Not recommended as your primary retirement account platform.

Fidelity

Fidelity is the largest brokerage in the US by assets under management and is widely considered the best all-around brokerage for most individual investors, particularly those focused on retirement.

Fidelity Pros

Zero-expense-ratio index funds: Fidelity offers four mutual funds with 0% expense ratios — FZROX (US Total Market), FZILX (International), FZIPX (Extended Market), and FZROX's small-cap equivalent. These are literally free to hold — no annual fees. Unique in the industry.

No account minimums: No minimum to open an account or maintain it. No minimum to purchase Fidelity's index funds.

Fractional shares: Fidelity supports fractional share purchases on most stocks and ETFs.

Excellent retirement account tools: IRAs, 401ks, HSAs, 529s. Excellent planning tools, calculators, and goal-tracking. The go-to platform for retirement accounts.

Strong education: Extensive educational content for all experience levels, accessible within the platform.

Customer service: 24/7 phone support plus hundreds of physical branch locations. You can speak to a human if needed.

Research tools: Detailed research, screeners, and analysis tools for active investors alongside simple index fund access.

Workplace retirement plans: Fidelity manages 401(k) plans for many major employers. If your 401(k) is at Fidelity, keeping your IRA there too simplifies your financial picture.

Fidelity Cons

Interface: Slightly more complex than Robinhood's ultra-clean design. More features = more to navigate. The mobile app has improved significantly.

No Vanguard-exclusive funds: You can access Vanguard ETFs (VOO, VTI) at Fidelity, but not Vanguard mutual funds (VTSAX, VFIAX) without buying through Vanguard directly.

Best for: Most investors, especially anyone opening an IRA or prioritizing retirement savings. Those who want excellent customer service and educational resources. People who value zero-fee index funds.

Vanguard

Vanguard is the company that invented the retail index fund in 1976 (founder John Bogle launched the first S&P 500 index fund available to ordinary investors). It's structured as a mutual company owned by its fund shareholders — meaning profits are returned to investors through lower fees rather than extracted by outside shareholders.

Vanguard Pros

The gold standard of index funds: Vanguard's index funds (VTSAX, VFIAX, VBTLX, VTIAX) and ETFs (VTI, VOO, BND, VXUS) are among the most respected in the industry. Expense ratios are 0.03-0.05% — slightly above Fidelity's zero-fee funds but still extremely low.

Ownership structure: Because fund shareholders own Vanguard, there's an inherent alignment of interests. There's no profit motive to charge higher fees or sell you products you don't need.

ETF access: Vanguard ETFs (VTI, VOO, etc.) can be purchased at Fidelity, Schwab, and most other brokerages — you don't need a Vanguard account to buy them.

Institutional credibility: Trusted by institutional investors, pension funds, and retirement plan administrators worldwide.

Vanguard Cons

Mutual fund minimums: Vanguard mutual funds require $1,000-$3,000 minimum investments. This matters for IRAs and taxable accounts. (Vanguard ETFs have no minimum — you buy as little as one share.)

Older interface: Vanguard's website and app are functional but less polished than Fidelity or Robinhood. Multiple redesigns have improved it, but it's still not the smoothest experience.

Customer service: Limited hours and fewer physical branches than Fidelity. Wait times can be long.

No fractional shares: Vanguard doesn't offer fractional share purchases on stocks or ETFs (though they have automatic investment options for mutual funds).

Best for: Investors committed to long-term index fund investing who are comfortable with a less polished interface. People who want to buy Vanguard's own mutual funds directly. Those who prefer Vanguard's ownership structure.

Head-to-Head Comparison

Which Should You Choose?

Choose Fidelity if:

• You're opening a Roth IRA or Traditional IRA
• You want the best retirement account experience
• You want zero-fee index funds
• You value customer service and educational resources
• You're a beginner who might need to call for help

Choose Vanguard if:

• You're already committed to Vanguard's specific mutual funds (VTSAX, VFIAX)
• You prefer Vanguard's shareholder-owned structure
• You're comfortable with a less polished interface
• You're already using Vanguard through a workplace plan and want to consolidate

Choose Robinhood if:

• You primarily want to trade individual stocks and ETFs
• You love the mobile-first, clean interface
• You want easy fractional share access for a small amount
• You understand you should open a separate Roth IRA at Fidelity for serious retirement saving

The recommendation: For most people, especially those focused on retirement savings and long-term wealth building, Fidelity is the best overall choice. The zero-fee index funds, excellent retirement account tools, and strong customer service are hard to beat.

You can also use both: open a Roth IRA at Fidelity for long-term retirement savings, and use Robinhood for smaller individual stock purchases if you enjoy that aspect of investing. Many investors successfully run this split.

What matters most isn't which brokerage you choose — it's that you're investing consistently in low-cost index funds over a long period of time.