Winners Summary
Best stock broker - Charles Schwab
| Company |
Minimum Deposit |
Stock Trades |
Options (Per Contract) |
 Charles Schwab
|
$0.00 |
$0.00 |
$0.65 |
Charles Schwab takes the crown as the #1 Overall Broker of 2025, and for good reason — it offers a tailored solution for every type of investor, no matter your experience level or investment goals. From beginner investors to active traders, Schwab doesn’t just provide a high-level answer; it delivers a solution designed specifically for your needs.
A perfect match in TD Ameritrade: Any gaps in its offering were seamlessly filled with the acquisition of TD Ameritrade, resulting in a platform that scores top marks in almost every category we evaluate. For beginners, Schwab’s Investor Starter Kit and Investing 101 programs bridge education and application, making it easy to learn while building a portfolio. For goal-oriented investors, Schwab offers robust tools to set, track, and maintain financial goals, all supported by practical, contextually placed research and education that help guide decision-making.
Portfolio building: What truly sets Schwab apart is its ability to grow with you. If you start as a passive investor, Schwab has everything you need to succeed. But as you evolve in your investing journey, Schwab keeps pace. Active traders gain access to the thinkorswim suite, one of the most advanced trading platforms on the market, offering desktop and mobile tools for technical analysis, position pairing, and multi-leg options strategies. Schwab integrates useful features like in-depth analyst reports, valuation metrics, and fixed-income research with “how to use this” sections that ensure even complex data is actionable.
Advanced tools and insights: Whether you’re scalping gamma, trading iron condors, or diving deep into fundamental analysis, Schwab can handle it. It’s rare to find a broker that not only meets investors where they are but stays with them as they grow. Schwab is that broker, offering unmatched tools, education, and support for every stage of your investing journey.
Visit my comprehensive Charles Schwab review to learn more about the thinkorswim platform and find out more about its offerings.
thinkorswim gallery
Best for advanced tools and global markets - Interactive Brokers
| Company |
Minimum Deposit |
Stock Trades |
Options (Per Contract) |
 Interactive Brokers
|
$0.00 |
$0.00 |
$0.65 |
Interactive Brokers (IBKR) secures the number two spot for 2025 in what was an incredibly tight race. While IBKR is best known for catering to advanced traders and professionals, it also offers features that make it surprisingly accessible to a broader audience.
Platforms & tools: Whether you’re managing a multi-million-dollar portfolio or just starting your investing journey, IBKR has a platform tailored to your needs. Tools like the multisort screener allow you to filter and rank investments with intuitive data visualizations, making complex decisions easier for new investors to understand. Add in its robust goal-planning tools, offering asset allocation guidance, expense tracking, and cash flow projections, and IBKR proves it excels at both institutional-grade trading and long-term financial planning.
Advanced tools and insights: Advanced traders can harness powerful analytics like Sharpe ratio, beta, and correlation metrics, while socially conscious investors can customize portfolios to align with their values. Beginners, meanwhile, benefit from IBKR’s retirement planner and free account consolidation tools, which provide a centralized view of all financial assets.
Educational resources: Although the platform’s learning curve may feel steep, its CFA-accredited courses and other educational resources ensure that investors at any level can grow into its capabilities. IBKR’s ability to serve the most sophisticated traders while offering beginner-friendly tools and global market access makes it a standout choice for any investor, proving that you don’t need a massive portfolio to take advantage of one of the industry’s most robust brokerage platforms.
Visit my full review of Interactive Brokers to learn more about its entire offering.
Best for customer support and financial planning - Fidelity
| Company |
Minimum Deposit |
Stock Trades |
Options (Per Contract) |
 Fidelity
|
$0.00 |
$0.00 |
$0.65 |
Fidelity earns its spot as the third-best brokerage for 2025 and stands out as one of the most versatile platforms I’ve tested.
Research: Its research tools are exceptional — Fidelity’s economic calendar is my go-to for tracking key market events, offering context that explains the "why" behind market movements. The thematic stock screener, highlighting trends like AI or biotech, is another favorite, making it easy to uncover tailored investment opportunities.
Platforms & tools: Fidelity’s widgetized dashboard adapts seamlessly to different investor needs, simplifying navigation for beginners while offering robust customization for advanced users. As an options trader, I found the OptionsPlay integration invaluable, presenting strategies in an intuitive format, offering income-focused ideas, and flagging potential risks like exercises or earnings announcements.
Tax and retirement planning: While Fidelity excels in retirement planning, its offerings go far beyond that. With tax-advantaged business plans, specialty accounts for charitable giving, and custodial accounts for minors, Fidelity provides solutions for nearly every financial goal. The fixed-income dashboard is another standout, delivering detailed insights like cash flow views and tax-exempt comparisons for bond investors. Fidelity’s portfolio management tools, including external account linking and contextual education, make managing investments straightforward and efficient.
Customer support: Their customer support is equally impressive, with specialized teams for beginners, active traders, and options investors, ensuring expert assistance at every level. Fidelity ranked #1 in our exhaustive customer service testing for 2025.
Whether you’re planning for retirement, exploring global markets, or refining advanced strategies, Fidelity’s innovative tools and reliable platform make it a superb choice. Check out my full review of Fidelity to get all my thoughts about this broker and explore more of its offerings.
Fidelity Mobile app gallery
Fidelity research gallery
Best online brokers comparison
FAQs
Are brokerage accounts FDIC insured?
No, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation does not insure brokerage accounts. However, brokerage accounts are protected for up to $250,000 in cash/$500,000 per customer against a broker’s insolvency by the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC). Unlike the FDIC, the SIPC is not backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government and is instead a non-profit corporation with a mission to protect customer assets.
What is the best online broker?
Charles Schwab is the best online broker for most people due to its strong overall rankings across key categories, particularly in its ease of use and mobile trading apps. That said, there will often be specific concerns for you as a trader or investor that'll make a different broker an even better fit. The brokerage testing team at StockBrokers.com maintained live accounts at 16 brokers in 2025 and used them to evaluate each broker’s tools, ease of use, data, design, and content. Here are the five top-scoring brokerage firms and the accolades won in the StockBrokers.com Annual Awards for 2025:
- Charles Schwab – 5 stars – Our pick for #1 Overall Broker, including Best for Research, Platform & Tools, Mobile Trading Apps, Education, and Ease of Use. We also found it to be Best for Beginners, Passive Investors, and Casual Investors. Schwab also won industry awards for #1 Investor App, #1 Desktop Trading Platform, #1 Client Dashboard, #1 Stock Trading Platform, #1 Bond Trading Platform, and #1 Overall Client Experience.
- Interactive Brokers – 5 stars – Best Range of Investments and Best for Active Traders. It also won industry awards for #1 International Trading, #1 Ethical Investing, #1 Professional Trading, #1 Margin Trading, and #1 Trader App.
- Fidelity – 5 stars – Best for Customer Service, Retirement Accounts, and High Net Worth Investors.
- E*TRADE – 5 stars – Industry award for #1 Web Trading Platform.
- Merrill Edge – 4.5 stars – Best Bank Brokerage and industry awards for #1 New Tool, and #1 Bond Research
Does it matter which broker I use?
Yes, the broker you choose to use will greatly impact the kind of markets you have access to, the sort of trading tools you can use, the cost of trading, the amount of fees you pay, and the quality of the research and educational resources you can leverage when making trading decisions.
- Consider your experience and knowledge. Do you want a broker that focuses on tools and features, or would you prefer a broker that is easy to use?
- Know what you want to invest in. Some brokers do not offer mutual funds or cryptocurrencies, while others allow global trading.
- Consider whether you want a practice account. Some brokers let you practice with paper trading.
Our testing
Why you should trust us
Sam Levine, CFA, CMT, formerly a lead writer for StockBrokers.com, has over 30 years of investing experience and actively trades stocks, ETFs, options, futures, and options on futures. He's held roles as a portfolio manager, financial consultant, investment strategist and journalist. He holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and the Chartered Market Technician (CMT) designations and served on the board of directors of the CMT Association.
Blain Reinkensmeyer, co-founder of StockBrokers.com, has been investing and trading for over 25 years. After having placed over 2,000 trades in his late teens and early 20s, he became one of the first in digital media to review online brokerages. Today, Blain is widely respected as a leading expert on finance and investing, specifically the U.S. online brokerage industry. Blain has been quoted in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and Fast Company, among others. Blain created the original scoring rubrics for StockBrokers.com and oversees all testing and rating methodologies.
How we tested
- We used our own brokerage accounts for testing.
- We collected multiple data points for each broker.
- We tested each online broker's website and mobile app, where applicable.
- We maintained strict editorial independence; brokers cannot pay for inclusion or a higher rating.
Our research team meticulously collected data on features with particular importance to those saving for retirement, such as trading costs, management fees, availability of fee-free funds, ease of website and app use, and retirement planning tools and resources.
At StockBrokers.com, our reviewers use a variety of computing devices to evaluate platforms and tools. Our reviews and data collection were conducted using the following devices: iPhone SE running iOS 17.5.1, MacBook Pro M1 with 8 GB RAM running the current MacOS, and a Dell Vostro 5402 laptop i5 with 8 GB RAM running Windows 11 Pro.
Each broker was evaluated and scored in seven key categories: retirement account types, IRA fees, self-directed investment options, managed investment options, retirement planning tools, rollover experience, and ease of use. Learn more about StockBrokers.com
Charles Schwab
Interactive Brokers
Fidelity
E*TRADE
Merrill Edge
TradeStation
tastytrade
eToro
