Best robo advisors for beginners in November 2024

Robo advisors use automation to manage your money for you. This guide picks out the best platforms available and explains how to choose between them.
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Updated on Aug 29, 2024
Reading time 16 minutes

Robo advisors are perfect for wannabee investors who don’t have the time or the desire to create their own investment portfolio.

You can set up a robo advisor that’s designed to meet your goals and preferences in just a few minutes. Even with a small amount of money and without much effort, you can create a diverse portfolio, invest regularly, and save for the future.

Our team of investing experts have compared the best robo advisors, to allow you to make the best choice for your specific needs. Between them, our panel has more than six decades of experience in finance and they judge each robo investor according to 160+ data points, with a particular focus on cost, convenience, and security. Find out more about our panel, their experience, and how we test in our review process.

Read on to find the best robo advisors and compare their performance.

Our picks: best robo-advisors overall for 2024

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  1. Acorns: Best for simple investing with a small starting pot
  2. eToro: Best for beginners, copy-trading & demo-account
  3. Public: Best for AI analysis

What are the best robo advisors?

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These are the best robo investors on the market right now. They offer a variety of different investment products to suit different budgets and different risk profiles. Use the links in the table to get started, or read on to compare those robo investors in detail.

Acorns review
4.3
Acorns
Min. Deposit n/a
Fees -
No. assets n/a
Demo account No

Acorns review

eToro review
4.6
eToro
Min. Deposit $100
Fees 1%
No. assets 50+
Demo account Yes

eToro review

51% of retail CFD accounts lose money. Your capital is at risk.

Public.com review
4.4
Public
Min. Deposit $20
Fees 1-2%
No. assets 9000+
Demo account No

Public.com review

Cryptocurrency execution and custody services are provided by Apex Crypto LLC (NMLS ID 1828849) through a software licensing agreement between Apex Crypto LLC and Public Crypto LLC. Crypto trading on Public platforms is served by Public Crypto LLC and offered through APEX Crypto. Please ensure that you fully understand the risks involved before trading.

Top robo advisor reviews

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We found 10 online brokers for users based in

1. Acorns: Best for simple investing with a small starting pot

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4
Ratings

$-

Min. deposit

...

Fees

-

No. assets

No

Demo account

Overview

We love Acorns because it makes investing accessible to everyone. Acorns rounds up your purchases to the nearest dollar and invests the difference into a diversified portfolio of ETFs. This innovative approach helps you grow your investments incrementally without needing to make large initial deposits, making it an ideal platform for new investors or those with limited funds.

In addition to its core micro investing services, Acorns provides a suite of educational resources through Acorns Grow, which includes articles, tutorials, and financial literacy content designed to help you improve your understanding of personal finance and investing.

The platform’s emphasis on simplicity, automation, and education makes it particularly attractive to beginners looking to start their investment journey with minimal effort. With its user-friendly app, low fees, and innovative round-up feature, Acorns stands out as a convenient and effective robo advisor & investing tool for building your wealth over time.

The fees: Acorns charges a monthly subscription fee that varies depending on the account you sign up to. The most basic package starts at $3, while the other options are either $5 or $9 per month. There are no additional trading or management fees.

Highlights

Pros & Cons

2. eToro. Best for beginners, copy-trading & demo-account

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4.5
Ratings

$100

Min. deposit

0% commission

Fees

50

No. assets

Yes

Demo account

Overview

We love eToro because it’s a trading platform built with beginners and casual traders in mind. The platform combines an interactive, social trading experience with an easy-to-use interface, making it ideal for novice traders.

The far-reaching catalog of more than 5,500 stocks, ETFs, and crypto tokens, includes big names like Apple, Tesla, and Bitcoin, as well as smaller companies or tokens with high growth potential. You can start trading with as little as $10 using fractional shares if you’re on a tight budget.

One feature we particularly appreciate is the ability to interact with eToro’s 35 million users on any asset, market, or portfolio page. If you find traders whose strategies match your risk tolerance, you can copy their portfolios automatically using eToro’s flagship copy trading functionality. This is a great way to learn and potentially benefit from the expertise of more experienced traders.

If you don’t feel comfortable investing your cash straight away, you can use a free demo account, credited with $100,000 virtual dollars. This offers plenty of opportunities to try out a trading strategy that works for you across stocks, crypto, and options trading markets.

Highlights

Fees & Costs

Pros & Cons

51% of retail CFD accounts lose money. Your capital is at risk.

3. Public. Best for AI analysis

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public.com logo
4
Ratings

$20

Min. deposit

Spreads

Fees

9,000

No. assets

No

Demo account

Overview

We love Public because it makes use of cutting-edge AI technology to enhance your trading and investing experience. Public’s AI-powered feature, Public Alpha offers personalized insights and recommendations through its natural language interface in real time. 

Public’s AI technology helps you make more informed decisions by analyzing massive amounts of data and providing actionable insights. These AI-driven insights are easily accessible and give users access to the latest advancements in financial analysis and trading. 

Not only do can you use AI to help your investments, Public is one of the lowest cost brokerage firms out there. You can invest in stocks and ETFs commission free. You can also buy and trade fractional shares and if you want to diversify, you can explore a range of alternative investments including music and film royalties. There’s even a selection of the biggest cryptocurrencies available.

The fees: There are no fees for investing in stocks during regular trading hours in the US – 9.30am-4pm EST. There is a $2.99 fee for trades outside of regular hours. Alternative investments, including cryptocurrency, are charged a 2.5% fee per transaction.

Highlights

Fees & Costs

Pros & Cons

Cryptocurrency execution and custody services are provided by Apex Crypto LLC (NMLS ID 1828849) through a software licensing agreement between Apex Crypto LLC and Public Crypto LLC. Crypto trading on Public platforms is served by Public Crypto LLC and offered through APEX Crypto. Please ensure that you fully understand the risks involved before trading.

What is a robo advisor?

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A robo advisor, robo investor, or robot investor, is a digital investment platform that offers managed portfolios using advanced software and algorithms to decide which assets to invest in. This is in opposition to a traditional investment account that’s controlled by a human financial advisor who picks the best stocks to buy and sell.

Robo advisors are typically ideal for beginners as they do almost all of the work for you. They’re cheap, require virtually no maintenance, and often don’t have any minimum investment so you can get started with as much or as little money as you like.

How does a robo advisor work?

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Robo investing uses a piece of software to gauge your investment principles, goals, and risk tolerance, then chooses how to invest your money.

When you sign up, you are asked a set of questions focused on these themes, such as how quickly you want to see returns, what sort of sectors you want to invest in or avoid, and how many risks you’re prepared to take with your money.

The robo advisor uses this information to select an option from a preset list of investment strategies. These almost always involve investing in various ETFs (exchange-traded funds) and funds, as these are low-cost ways to gain exposure to an entire sector or index.

In this way you can tailor the robo investor to invest your money in the way you would do yourself. If you’re a cautious investor who only wants to invest in socially responsible investing options, for example, the robo advisor invests your money into low risk, ESG or ethical funds.

How should I choose a robo investor?

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The main things to consider when choosing a robo financial advisor are cost and performance. Ultimately, these are how you would judge the success of a human financial manager and the same criteria apply to robot investors as well.

Here are some more key considerations to help you compare the top robo advisors.

Past portfolio performance

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Every platform should allow you to compare the performance of each of its robo advisors before you sign up. While this is no guarantee of future results, it gives you an idea as to how successful each investing strategy has been during different market conditions.

It is also a good way to visualise the difference between a low-risk investment portfolio and one that is more aggressive. You are likely to see greater and more frequent fluctuations in the more high risk portfolios.

Think about how you would cope with this mentally and use it to influence how you decide to tailor your own robo investor account.

Low fees 

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One big advantage of robo advisors compared to a traditional portfolio managed by a person is that they are cheaper. Rather than lots of trading fees, most robo advisors charge management fees, which are paid as a percentage of the total value of your investment.

The absolute most you should be willing to pay is 1% per year but most advisors are cheaper than that, with 0-0.5% acting as a good guideline.

Along with the account maintenance fee, there are other fees as well depending on the sort of assets your money is invested in. You might be charged each time the advisor moves your money into a different asset, or if it’s putting money into a fund, those funds might come with their own fees as well. Add all these fees together to get a full understanding of how much your investment costs.

Design and ease of use

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The top robo advisors offer convenience so that you can navigate around, invest money, and compare your portfolio performance without much trouble. The design and user experience of a platform where there is no human interaction is of paramount importance.

You may want to be able to access the robo advisor and all its services from your phone as well, so consider downloading a few robo advisor apps and comparing them.

Minimum investment

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You can usually set up a robo advisor account with any amount of money. However, some have an account minimum which you must deposit in order to use it.

This can vary quite considerably by platform, we have seen investment accounts that require as little as $5 to get started, while most blue chip providers ask for tens of thousands. Those are outliers, however, and about $500 is at the higher end of the scale for most accounts.

Types of investment

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Many robo advisors work by investing money into the best exchange-traded funds (ETFs) or mutual funds. These are low cost, diverse pools of related stocks that serve to give you broad exposure to the stock market without relying too heavily on any one company for results.

However, that’s not the only way a robo advisor can build diversified portfolios. If you use a platform that has its own in-house funds (like Vanguard, for example) then it may invest money into those as well. Make sure the provider is clear about how they make the decisions about what to invest in.

Please note that robo-advisors are typically suitable for long-term investing rather than short-term trading. For automated trading strategies and taking advantage of volatile markets, you are better off using tools like forex trading robots or crypto trading robots.

Account types

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Ensure the robo advisor supports the types of accounts you need, such as individual or joint taxable accounts, IRAs (Traditional, Roth, SEP), and 401(k) rollovers. This can be important for tax purposes if you’re saving for retirement, as IRAs and 401(k)s offer tax breaks on money you don’t access until you’re 60.

Account type Acorns accounts
View more > Acorns >

Reputation and regulation

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You want to be sure that you pick a robo advisor platform with a good reputation so that your money is always safe. All robo advisors should be regulated by a respected financial authority, such as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A license with the SEC (or equivalent international body) provides insurance so that your money is protected in case the investment platform becomes insolvent.

The best way to check a firm’s reputation is to search its license number through Investor.gov, which is an arm of the SEC. This is the fastest way to find out if it really does hold the appropriate license to offer investing services and financial planning tools.

Another option is to look on the internet for customer reviews, as other people’s experiences can be a good guide. Use the reviews here on Invezz to get a better feel for what to expect from each advisor. Here’s a look at the regulatory status of the top 3 robo advisors in 2024:

Region Acorns regulators
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Additional services

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Picking the best robo advisor isn’t just about finding the one with the lowest fees. There are other features as well that can tip the balance.

You should look to see if the advisor offers things like automatic rebalancing, which is when it adjusts the assets in your portfolio so it isn’t weighted too heavily towards one asset class, or tax loss harvesting, which helps save tax for individual and joint investment accounts.

Here’s a look at some of the additional features offered by the best robo investment advisors:

Trading tool Acorns tools
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Quick answers to key questions

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How much does a robo advisor cost to use?

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Robo advisors charge an annual management fee, which is usually no more than 0.75% per year. The fee is often lower if you invest a significant amount in the platform, so it’s possible to get very low fees if you have a lump sum to invest with. Below are the fees charged by the best robo advisor platforms:

Asset Acorns fees
View more > Acorns >

There may be a couple of extra additional fees, in the form of a maintenance fee/account fee, and a spread fee. These are usually small, and may be about 0.2% and 0.09% per year, respectively.

Overall, the fees are significantly lower than those you would pay with a traditional financial advisor. Human financial advisors cost money in man hours and experience, whereas robo advisors tend to automate a lot of the process.

Asset Acorns fees
View more > Acorns >

Something else to consider is the minimum investment that you need to get started. Even if a robo advisor charges lower fees, it might be out of your immediate price range if it requires an initial deposit of a few hundred pounds.

Do I have to verify my identity?

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Yes, you will have to provide your contact details and usually, the service requires bank details and a form of ID as well. This is because these platforms have to abide by anti-money laundering regulations and it’s how you are entitled to protection from the financial authorities in case anything nefarious were to happen to your money.

Are robo advisors safe to use?

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They are as safe as any other investment as they’re provided by regulated platforms that invest in assets that are also governed by strict rules laid down by the stock market. Just remember that there’s no guarantee you will make money as the value of any investment can go down as well as up.

Do I need any extra software to use a robo advisor?

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No, one of the benefits of using a service like this is that someone else takes care of the investing for you. All you need to do is sign up, answer a few questions, and fund the account. After that, it can be left to its own devices.

Should I invest with a robo advisor?

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It’s a great tool for beginners in particular and for anyone who wants a low-cost, low-maintenance way to invest. The best ones let you set the guidelines so that you can decide the direction your money goes in. If you want to have a more hands-on role in your wealth management then you might want to create your own investment strategy instead.

Benefits of using a robo advisor

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The benefits of a robo advisor revolve around the way it appeals to even the newest investors, as you don’t need much experience at all to get started. It’s a great first step on your investing journey.

Here are some of the positives of using a robo investor.

  • The best robo advisors let you invest at low cost and with professional help. It doesn’t cost much to use a robo advisor, and they combined advanced software algorithms with a track record of investing experience.
  • They offer a hands-off investing option that doesn’t require a lot of time or effort. Robo advisors are ideal for people with no investing experience or no time to choose their own investments, but who still want to build their wealth over time.
  • You can create your own personalised financial plan to save for the future. By answering the questions on your robo advisor account when you start, you can create an investment plan that’s geared towards your needs and goals.
  • Robo investors often earn higher returns than people managed funds. Passive investments such as ETFs that simply track the performance of a group of stocks can often generate better returns than a person who tries to pick and choose which stocks are going to be successful.

Risks of using a robo advisor

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Like any form of investment, robo advisors have their drawbacks. There is no guarantee of success, and the value of your investments can go down as well as up.

Here are some more of the risks of using a robo financial advisor.

  • There are limited ways to invest. A robo advisor only has a small number of predetermined investment strategies. You can’t pick your own stocks, nor can you pick and choose which assets to invest in.
  • Your returns are more limited compared to investing in individual stocks. Pooled investments like funds and ETFs limit your downside by investing in lots of different stocks and sectors. However, this also serves to limit your upside, as an individual company only makes up a small part of each portfolio.
  • They aren’t good at meeting complex investing goals. Robo advisors are great for long term investing, such as saving for retirement, or regular monthly investing. They are less good if you have more complicated goals or a timeline which requires results very quickly.
  • Your investments can fall in value. There is no guarantee that your portfolio will increase in value. Past performance is no guarantee of future results, and even a portfolio based around advanced algorithms and careful risk management can perform poorly.

How to open an account with a robo advisor

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Follow these simple steps to start using a robo financial advisor today.

Create an account and add a payment method

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To start using a robo advisor, you need to create an account and add a means of sending money to it. Most people simply connect their robo advisor to their bank account, and doing it this way means you can round up any purchases and deposit the extra money directly into your account on a regular basis.

Take the onboarding quiz

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Once you’ve created an account, you must fill out a short quiz. This quiz is designed to assess your investment preferences, your goals, and your risk profile. Think about your answers carefully, as these dictate how the robo advisor invests your money.

Confirm your investment portfolio

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From the results of the quiz, the robot investor provides a recommended portfolio based on your investment profile. You can tweak this, or choose an alternative option, but if you’re going to use a robo advisor then it makes sense to use its recommendation.

Start investing automatically

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Now, you’re all set to start investing. The final step is to decide how often you want to add money to your portfolio, which can be set to a regular automatic deposit, or a manual deposit which you manage yourself.

A regular automatic deposit is a good option to drip-feed money into your portfolio, an investment strategy that’s known as ‘dollar-cost averaging’ (DCA). With DCA, you invest at regular intervals, regardless of how the market is performing. In this way, you naturally buy more when prices are lower and less when prices are higher.

What is a hybrid robo advisor?

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A hybrid robo advisor combines the benefits of automated investment platforms and human financial advisors. It uses technology to provide efficient portfolio management and low-cost diversified investment portfolios, while also offering access to certified financial planners for personalised guidance and advice.

These services blend the best of both worlds – the convenience, accessibility, and low management fee of robo advisors with the expertise and customisation of traditional advisors. Hybrid robo-advisors typically use algorithms and AI to create and manage diversified portfolios based on factors like risk tolerance and investment goals. 

Users also have the option to consult with human financial advisors for more complex financial planning needs, such as retirement accounts, tax strategies, and estate planning.

Firms like Vanguard Digital Advisor, Personal Capital, and SoFi Automated Investing have emerged as prominent players in the robo advisor space, catering to a diverse range of investors, including younger investors who prefer a mix of technology and human expertise. 

Bottom line

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Choosing the right robo-advisor is a pivotal step in your investing journey. It’s important to compare leading services before you invest any money, taking care to understand the nuances of each and evaluate the risks and rewards. Remember that your individual financial goals and circumstances are key.

Investing, by its nature, involves risk, and robo-advisors offer a streamlined, often cost-effective way to manage these risks through diversified portfolios and automated strategies. However, it’s crucial to weigh factors such as fees, investment options, and the level of personalisation against your investment objectives.

Methodology: How we choose the best robo advisors

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Helping people make better financial decisions is at the heart of our mission at Invezz. 

We periodically test more than 63 robo advisors to provide our users with clear, accessible guidance on the investing options available. All testing is carried out by our panel of stock market experts, analysts, and active traders who sign up to each advisor, conduct research, and score each service.

Our tests are designed to find robo investors that offer a beginner-friendly, secure investing experience at a fair price. To supplement our practical testing and experience, we research each robo advisor to gather any further relevant information. We read online customer reviews, app reviews on the Play Store and App Store, and conduct user surveys to get feedback from real people about what works, and what doesn’t.

Each advisor is awarded a final score based on 130+ data points across 8 ranking categories: cost, reliability, user experience, deposit & withdrawals, investing options, range of products/markets, research & analysis tools, and the availability of educational & learning resources.

We work closely with individual brands to ensure all factual information displayed here is accurate. All data is then fact-checked by an independent reviewer. You can learn more about our expert panel and how we test, rate, and review platforms in our review process.

FAQs

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01

Do robo advisors really work?

02

Is a robo advisor good for beginners?

03

Do I need a robo advisor?

04

Can a robo advisor beat the market?

05

How much do I need to start using a robo advisor?

06

How do robo-advisors get paid?

07

Is a robo advisor better than a human financial advisor?

08

Are there free robo advisors?

09

Do robo investors beat the market?


Sources & references

James Knight

James Knight

Editor of Education

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James is the Editor of Education for Invezz, where he covers topics from across the financial world, from the stock market, to cryptocurrency, to macroeconomic markets. His main focus is on improving financial literacy among casual investors. He has been with Invezz since the start of 2021 and has been...