Micro-investing and robo-adviser apps have made financial management easy and accessible for beginners and those focused on building long-term wealth. Acorns pioneered the “spare change” investing model, and now several competitors offer similar automatic investing features, appealing fee structures and user-friendly interfaces.
Here are the five best Acorns app alternatives to consider.
5 Best Acorns App Alternatives
How We Chose The Acorns App Alternatives
We evaluated the best Acorns app alternatives based on their automatic investing features, particularly the presence and destination of round-up capabilities. Key considerations also included fee structures and ease of use for new investors. We assessed their suitability for long-term passive investing through portfolio diversification and tax optimization features.
5 Best Acorns App Alternatives
Betterment — Best for Tax-Loss Harvesting
For investors who want to maximize after-tax returns, Betterment offers advanced and automated tax-loss harvesting through a tool that constantly monitors your portfolio for opportunities to sell investments at a loss. The losses can be used to offset capital gains and a limited amount of ordinary income. It also excels at building diversified portfolios of low-cost exchange-traded funds (ETFs) tailored to a user’s risk tolerance and financial goals, whether it’s saving for retirement or a down payment on a house.
Key Features:
- Fees: Accounts The base price for investing accounts is $4 per month. That switches to 0.25% of the account balance when you set up a recurring monthly deposit or transfers totaling at least $250 or by reaching a balance of at least $20,000.
- Automated Investing: Strong automated recurring deposits, goal-based investing and smart rebalancing to keep portfolios aligned with targets.
- Round-Up Capabilities: Betterment doesn’t have a direct round-up feature like Acorns, but its automated deposits and goal-setting tools allow consistent, disciplined investing that can replace the round-up concept. Users can set up micro-deposits at any frequency.
- Ease of Use for New Investors: Betterment has a user-friendly interface with clear explanations, intuitive goal setting and diversified portfolios that are easy to understand.
- Long-Term Passive Investing: Betterment’s sophisticated portfolio management, tax efficiency and focus on diversified ETF portfolios make it ideal for long-term, passive investors.
- Drawbacks: Betterment lacks Acorns’ round-up micro-investing feature, requiring more intentional deposits. For small balances, Acorns’ flat fee may be cheaper annually than Betterment’s percentage-based fee, and Betterment doesn’t offer custodial accounts like Acorns Early.
Who It’s Best For: Investors with larger balances or consistent contributions, which result in its percentage-based fees becoming more cost-effective. It’s also well-suited for those who want sophisticated automated portfolios, goal-based planning and features like automated tax-loss harvesting for taxable accounts.
Wealthfront — Best for Financial Planning
Wealthfront’s technology-driven, automated approach to financial planning provides financial guidance traditionally offered by human advisers but at a lower cost. Its flagship planning tool Path is an AI-powered engine designed to create a comprehensive financial plan that connects all aspects of your financial life. Wealthfront offers tax-loss harvesting strategies, direct indexing for larger portfolios and a high-yield cash account.
Key Features:
- Fees: Wealthfront charges an annual advisory fee of 0.25% annually for its Automated Investing Account.
- Automated Investing: Fully automated portfolio management, including rebalancing and dividend reinvestment. It offers recurring deposit options and automatically links to your external bank accounts, credit cards, mortgages and other investments.
- Round-Up Capabilities: Does not offer a direct round-up feature.
- Ease of Use for New Investors: The user-friendly interface has a clear onboarding process that assesses risk tolerance and suggests diversified portfolios. Its financial planning tools are intuitive.
- Long-Term Passive Investing: Excellent for long-term passive investors because of its strong tax optimization, broad investment offerings and automated management. It helps you plan for specific goals such as retirement, buying a home or taking time off for travel as well as general wealth-building.
- Drawbacks: Wealthfront lacks Acorns’ round-up micro-investing feature, which can be a barrier for people who rely on automated spare-change investments. It also requires a higher minimum initial investment compared to Acorns’ low or no minimum, making it less accessible for beginners with little capital. It doesn’t offer custodial accounts for investing for children.
Who It’s Best For: Investors with a larger initial sum or those who want to consolidate their financial life. Users who prioritize automated tax-efficient investing with a holistic financial view, including excellent planning tools.
Qapital — Best for Gamified Automation
Qapital makes saving and optional investing fun and automated through its rule-based system and focus on achieving specific financial goals. You can tie your personal fitness goals to your financial goals by rewarding yourself with a few dollars every time you take a walk or ride your bike. Say you always spend $50 at the grocery store. You can set Qapital’s Spend Less Rule and spend $40 the next time you shop, and the extra $10 is automatically deposited in your savings account.
Key Features:
- Fees: Qapital offers a 30-day free trial. After that, you can choose from three plans: Basic for $3 per month, Complete for $6 per month or Premier for $12 per month.
- Automated Investing: Qapital offers automated investing in prebuilt ETF portfolios based on risk tolerance. Users can set up recurring deposits or use various “Rules” such as the 52-Week Rule that automates the process of saving $1 on week one, $2 on week two, $3 on week three for an entire year. You’ll end up with an extra $1,378.
- Round-Up Capabilities: Features a round-up rule that rounds up purchases to the nearest dollar and transfers the difference to a chosen goal. Qapital users save an average of $44 per month by rounding up their change.
- Ease of Use for New Investors: User-friendly with an intuitive interface, especially for setting up goals and rules. Its gamified approach can make saving and investing feel less daunting for beginners.
- Long-Term Passive Investing: Suitable for long-term passive investing through its automated ETF portfolios. Its investment options are simpler compared to more dedicated robo-advisers, focusing on broad diversification rather than advanced tax strategies or specific asset class customization.
- Drawbacks: While offering round-ups, Qapital’s focus is on saving, with investment features locked behind plans with more expensive monthly fees than some competitors. Its investment options are less sophisticated than dedicated robo-advisers, lacking features like tax-loss harvesting or individual stock and ETF selection.
Who It’s Best For: People who struggle with consistent saving and benefit from a highly automated, rule-based and gamified approach to reaching financial goals. It’s ideal for people who are saving for specific short-to-medium-term objectives.
Chime — Best for Fee-Free Banking
Chime is a financial technology company that offers mobile-first banking services with an emphasis on fee-free accounts and features designed to help users save automatically. It’s a solid choice for people who want a seamless, low-cost banking experience with integrated saving tools.
Key Features:
- Fees: Chime appeals to cost-conscious investors. It doesn’t charge monthly fees or overdraft fees, and there’s no minimum balance required.
- Automated Investing: Chime does not offer direct investment accounts like brokerage or robo-adviser accounts for stocks or ETFs. Its automated features are focused on saving money in its high-yield savings account.
- Round-Up Capabilities: Chime offers a save-when-you-spend feature that automatically rounds up debit card purchases to the nearest dollar and transfers the difference from your checking account to your Chime Savings Account.
- Ease of Use for New Investors: Chime offers a straightforward mobile app with clear banking features. The automatic savings features are intuitive for those new to setting money aside.
- Long-Term Passive Investing: Chime is not designed for long-term passive investing in the traditional sense because it doesn’t offer investment accounts for stocks, ETFs or mutual funds. It focuses on banking and saving.
- Drawbacks: Chime is primarily a banking service and does not offer investment accounts for stocks or ETFs, making it unsuitable for direct long-term investment growth. The funds from its round-up feature go into a savings account, not an investment portfolio like Acorns. It lacks the portfolio diversification, rebalancing and tax optimization features of a dedicated robo-adviser.
Who It’s Best For: People who prioritize fee-free banking, easy-to-use mobile money management and automated saving features like round-ups and automatic paycheck transfers into a high-yield savings account. It’s good for people who want to improve their financial habits and build an emergency fund.
SoFi Automated Investing — Best for Human Advice
SoFi Automated Investing offers a modern robo-adviser experience with competitive fees and the benefit of integrated banking services and access to human financial planners. It caters to people looking for a hands-off approach to investing in a broader financial ecosystem.
Key Features:
- Fees: SoFi charges a management fee of 0.25% on your account balance.
- Automated Investing: SoFi provides fully automated investment management, where portfolios are constructed and managed based on your risk tolerance and goals. It supports recurring deposits for consistent investing.
- Round-Up Capabilities. SoFi offers a round-up feature in its SoFi Money banking product, which rounds up debit card purchases to the nearest dollar and transfers the difference to a chosen savings goal. The round-ups are for saving, not directly for investment accounts.
- Ease of Use for New Investors: The user-friendly platform’s clear onboarding process helps beginners determine their risk tolerance and choose a suitable portfolio. The low minimum investment makes it accessible. If you want help from a registered human financial planner, just log into the SoFi App, select your profile avatar, click on membership and rewards and select financial planning. You have the option to speak with the same financial planner every time you call if they’re available.
- Long-Term Passive Investing: SoFi is excellent for long-term passive investors because of its low management fees, diversified ETF portfolios, automated rebalancing and access to financial planning advice.
- Drawbacks: The round-ups feature deposits funds into a savings account rather than directly into an investment account. SoFi does not offer automated tax-loss harvesting, a feature common among other leading robo-advisers that can benefit taxable accounts. It also does not offer custodial accounts for investing for children.
Who It’s Best For: People who want a straightforward, automated investing solution with competitive fees and access to human financial planners.
Choosing The Best Acorns App Alternatives
Micro-investing and robo-adviser apps offer a path to long-term wealth-building.
Alternative apps to Acorns, like Betterment and Wealthfront, stand out for their automated investing and tax-optimization features and are best for those with larger balances who want sophisticated financial planning. Qapital provides gamified automation for goal-oriented saving, while Chime focuses on fee-free banking and automated saving into a high-yield account. SoFi Automated Investing appeals with competitive fees, human financial advice and integrated banking.
Aligning your choice with your investing goals — whether it’s micro-investing, tax efficiency, gamified saving or comprehensive financial management — is key to successful long-term wealth-building.
Frequently Asked Questions
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A good alternative should offer easy-to-use automated investing or saving features, competitive fees, and tools that align with your financial goals, like round-ups, diversified portfolios, or integrated financial planning.
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Qapital offers a direct round-up feature that lets you round up purchases and send the spare change to an investment goal. Chime and SoFi also offer round-up features, but they send funds into savings accounts rather than investment portfolios.
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Yes. Both Betterment and Wealthfront offer automated tax-loss harvesting, which can help offset taxable gains and improve after-tax returns in taxable investment accounts.
