Money Management Product Reviews
Robinhood App Review
Over the past several years, Robinhood has grown in prominence and notoriety — for better or worse. Missteps and controversies aside, there’s no question that the app helped revolutionize the industry and make investing more accessible. What’s more, the service only continues to expand.
If you’re not familiar, Robinhood is an app that allows users to buy and sell stocks without any fees or commissions. As noted, as the app has grown, they’ve also added some new features, including the ability to buy cryptocurrencies, trade options, and much more.
So, in 2025, what does Robinhood have to offer and is it still a good option? Let’s take a closer look at the platform.
Robinhood App Review
Robinhood: Still an Easy Way to Get Started with Investing
4
Monthly fee
Free ($5 a month for Robinhood Gold)
Investments supports
Stocks, ETFs, options, cryptocurrencies
Other features
Robinhood Retirement, Robinhood Cash Card, and more
Setting aside past controversies and scandals, there’s no doubt that Robinhood changed the brokerage industry for the better and remains one of the most accessible options for new traders. Plus, the app now also offers a wider variety of features, including retirement accounts for long-term investing. All in all, Robinhood is an easy-to-navigate and use investment tool. However, some downsides include their “payment for order flow” model and the inability to invest in some other assets such as bonds.
Pros
- No account minimum
- Commission-free trading
- Offers dividend reinvestment (DRIP)
Cons
- Uses “payment for order flow”
- Doesn’t offer bonds trading
- Past controversies continue to surround the brand
Signing Up for Robinhood and Funding Your Account
While most of the finance apps I review involve a bit of a sign-up process, joining Robinhood was the most intensive experience I’ve had so far. Of course, this is completely understandable as the app must adhere to various regulations and needs to ensure that shareholders are properly documented. Because of this, it took me a few days from my first attempt at signing up until I was ready to trade.
To be fair, part of the problem with my sign-up process and the delay I experienced may have been my fault (and this was many years ago now). For example, while the app allows you to upload a photo of your government-issued I.D. easily, the photo I took was apparently not readable. There was also a problem with my Social Security number not matching, which probably means I typed it wrong and didn’t catch my error until it was too late. In any case, I was eventually able to send a photo of my SS card in order to move forward with the approval process.
Another issue I encountered during the application process was that I had forgotten to unfreeze my credit file. Like many people, I elected to freeze my credit reports after the Equifax hack a while back and had completely forgotten that Robinhood would need to access my information. This must be something the app runs into fairly often as the team at Robinhood made it really easy to proceed. Once I put a temporary lift on my credit account, all I had to do was respond to their email to let them know. In both cases (the unfreezing request and the social security card issue), the folks at Robinhood were very quick to respond and push my application through. So while it took a few extra steps along the way, within a few days I was ready to fund my account.
Speaking of funding your account, I found this part of the process to be much easier. For select banks, connecting your account is as simple as logging into your bank’s online service (via the popular Plaid service) as you would from their app or website. Alternatively, you can manually enter your account and routing numbers in order to link them to Robinhood. I ended up trying both options as my Wells Fargo was available to link, while my Discover Bank account had to be added manually.
One nice thing about Robinhood is that, once you initiate a transfer from your bank, it allows you to access your funds right away (up to $1,000, that is). You also have the option to set up recurring transfers so that you’re automatically adding to your investment funds. While I haven’t tried out that automation just yet, I’ve definitely been impressed with the speed at which money is transferred, allowing me to snag a good price on a stock instead of waiting around for funds to clear.
Finally, I should also mention that Robinhood has a unique referral program that incentivizes users to share with their friends. When you invite people to join Robinhood using your special link, you’ll both earn a free stock when their application is approved. The type of stock you earn is random, with 98% of people receiving a stock valued between $5 and $10 — although some may receive stocks worth up to $200. If you are opening an account, feel free to use my link.
Get a Free Share of Stock
Not a Robinhood user? If you haven’t signed up yet just click the button to create an account and get a free share of stock just for opening an account with this Fioney link.
Buying Stocks on Robinhood
When it comes to buying stocks on Robinhood’s platform, I’m really not sure it could be any easier — even for a newbie. All you need to do is enter how many shares you’d like to purchase, review the order, and submit. Moreover, if you don’t have the funds available to make the trade, it will prompt you to make a transfer for the difference.
As a long-time Disney fan, I knew what stock I wanted to buy before I even downloaded Robinhood. At the same time, I didn’t necessarily just want to pay the going rate to own a small piece of the Mouse House. That’s why I decided to give Robinhood’s limit order option a try.
Simply put, placing a limit order allows you to state what price you’re willing to buy a stock at and have the app execute your order should it become available. You can elect to have these orders expire the next day or keep them open indefinitely. In my case, I entered a limit order for a couple of dollars below the current market price, set it to expire only when canceled, and was surprised to find I had become a Disney shareholder the next day. Incidentally, I set a second order to buy if $DIS fell below $100 a share and so this eventually led to me buying another share.
Robinhood also offers the ability to set Stop Loss and Stop Limit orders, allowing users to set buy prices above the current trading price. Likewise, you can also set similar triggers to have the app sell your stock positions when the price reaches certain lows or highs. I won’t pretend to understand all the intricacy and exceptions to these tools but they’ve worked pretty
Fractional shares
Like several digital brokerage accounts, Robinhood allows users to purchase fractional shares of stocks or ETFs instead of needing to buy a full share. To do this, you’ll just need to enter the amount you want to buy in U.S. dollars (as opposed to putting the number of shares). While this is a great option for more expensive stocks or for users who want even greater diversification, there are a couple of small drawbacks. First, fractional shares aren’t available for all stocks — although most major companies are available. Additionally, you can only do market orders for fractional shares. So, if you prefer a limit buy option, you’ll need to stick to full shares.
Voting rights for your stocks
After buying stocks through Robinhood, you’ll be afforded the same treatment as any other shareholder. This not only means you receive dividend payments but also entitles you to vote in various matters. According to their website, Robinhood utilizes both ProxyVote and Mediant in addition to its own system to allow customers to cast their ballots. Interestingly, while previous ballots sent to me had been via ProxyVote, a later Walt Disney Company proxy utilized Mediant’s ProxyPush.com. Personally, I have to say I preferred the experience of the latter a tad more but both platforms are easy to use and navigate.
Other Robinhood Features — Robinhood Crypto, Options, and More
Robinhood Crypto
A few years ago Robinhood first introduced support for buying and selling major cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin and Ethereum. Since then Robinhood has also added support for trading a long (and growing) list of coin. As someone who’s had a passing interest in crypto but not enough to dive in further, I was delighted to gain access to Robinhood Crypto soon after the beta began way back in the day.
While it originally sported some fun 80s Tron-esque backgrounds, Robinhood’s crypto trading is now much more similar to its stock trading platform. Just like with stocks, you can either buy coins at market price or set limit orders (the same goes for selling). You can also monitor your position and see how much your crypto is currently worth.
Robinhood Options Trading
Not long after the unveiling of Robinhood Crypto, the app also introduced support for options trading. This includes the ability to buy and sell puts and calls. To access these features, simply tap “Trade” when viewing any stock and the “Trade Options” button will appear above “Sell” and “Buy.”
To the app’s credit, Robinhood’s options trading platform does a commendable job at explaining the concept of options for beginners. For example, it will first ask you if you want to bet that a stock is going up or down. Selecting the former will display various calls you can buy while selecting the latter will show puts. From there it will also offer a few special options for purchase, noting both term length and risk level for each listing. Meanwhile, more experienced traders can access a far more expansive list of puts and calls by selecting an expiration date at the top and toggling between puts and calls as well as selecting whether they want to buy or sell.
Despite all of this, I have yet to trade any for myself. Still, I do definitely appreciate the option (see what I did there?) should I choose to enter that world in the future. On that note, Robinhood has put a few more restrictions in place, making it so only more experienced users can make more advanced options trades. I won’t pretend to know whether these restrictions are effective but hopefully they prevent users from making risky mistakes.
Robinhood Gold
As we get to the next few features, you’ll notice that I’ll be bringing up benefits that apply to Robinhood Gold customers. So what is Robinhood Gold?
In short, it’s a paid membership that unlocks additional features and perks. As of this writing, a subscription comes at a cost of $5 a month.
Personally, I joined Gold one year ago. In that time, I managed to get more from the membership than it cost me — mainly due to a retirement account perk we’ll talk about shortly. So, while it’s not necessary to upgrade, it may be worth it depending on how much you plan on investing with the app.
Robinhood’s Cash Card
After a long delay, Robinhood eventually launched a banking-esque service it called Cash Management. This account included a debit card and also featured a high-yield savings component. Since then, however, Cash Management has been discontinued. In its place, Robinhood introduced the Cash Card — although it may not be long for this world either.
As it stands, the Robinhood Cash Card allows customers to round-up their purchases and invest the “spare change,” earn cashback on select purchases, and more. Customers can also unlock other cashback offers by enrolling in direct deposit. Plus, when you do have direct deposit, you can automatically invest a portion of your paycheck.
So why do I think that the Cash Card may be on the way out? Well, Robinhood has been downgrading the card lately and the option doesn’t even seem to be featured on its homepage. On top of that, Robinhood just announced a brand new Banking platform will be rolled out this fall. With that, I wouldn’t be surprised if Cash Card went away. In the meantime, though, it’s not a very exciting product, but could be useful for some.
Robinhood Retirement
One of the larger additions in recent years has been Robinhood Retirement. Now, customers can create and fund traditional or Roth IRAs in the app and create custom portfolios.
Even better, Robinhood Retirement offers an IRA Match bonus. For non-Gold members, this bonus is 1% of your contribution while Gold customers can earn 3%. In the past, Robinhood has also offered 401(k) rollover bonuses from time to time.
You can read more about Robinhood Retirement in my full review — but, overall, I think this feature is a great addition to the platform. Moreover, the 3% IRA Match I get as a Gold member has allowed me to earn back more than the membership cost me. So, if you’re looking to invest for the future, this could be a good option for getting started.
Upcoming features
Finally, I want to mention a few new features that Robinhood has announced.
The first of these is Robinhood Strategies. These managed accounts will be available as taxbale or retirement accounts and provide diversified portfolios tailored to investor needs. As of this writing, Gold members have access to Strategies while other users will be added next month.
Elsewhere, Robinhood has teased new AI-powered insights coming soon.
In recent months, the app has also been experimenting with event contracts. So far, these have been used for the presidential election, the NCAA basketball tournement, and more — although a planned Super Bowl one was canceled. This particular feature does lean into the perception some people have of Robinhood, which is as a betting app. Personally, while I’d disagree with that assessment overall, it’s basically true in this instance. That’s why I wouldn’t recommend these event contracts on the whole.
Robinhood Controversies
Before we get to my final thoughts on Robinhood, we need to discuss some of the controversies the company has found itself in. In general, the platform has been accused of “gamifying” stock trading and making it too easy for users to get themselves into financial trouble. Tragically, this point was made all too clear when a 20-year-old user took his own life after mistakenly believing he owed hundreds of thousands of dollars (in reality, it seems that the displayed amount was only the result of an options trade that hadn’t been fully settled).
Most infamously, Robinhood was criticized by users and lawmakers alike when it decided to temporarily halt the ability for users to buy shares of companies such as GameStop and AMC at a time when these stocks were involved in what’s called a short squeeze.
On top of that, the platform has experienced several instances of unplanned downtime, which also may have impacted customers’ ability to trade during volatile market days. It should also be noted that the company reached a settlement with the SEC after the agency accused Robinhood of misleading customers about how it makes money and even costing users money by not seeking the best terms when executing trades — although the company says that these practices “do not reflect Robinhood today.”
Ultimately, while these controversies and missteps may not affect all current users, they do raise questions about Robinhood’s decision-making and viability. As a result, some users may wonder if they can really trust the app with their money. Personally, as a long-term investor, these issues haven’t impacted me and, thus, I don’t feel a need to move my money. Nevertheless, these concerning incidents do require me to qualify my recommendation with the fact that I can only speak from my personal experience.
Final Thoughts on Robinhood
For the longest time, I’ve known I should start investing but wasn’t sure where to start. On that note, Robinhood has proven to be an extremely easy way to start buying stocks without having to pay commissions or fees. Furthermore, as I do learn the ropes and am ready to take my portfolio to the next level, it’s nice to know that Robinhood continues to expand its offerings. I also love that Robinhood continues to expand, offering retirement accounts and now managed accounts as well. While the addition of features that do charge fees does complicate the original pitch of the app, I think it’s worth it overall.
Compared to other beginner-friendly investing apps like Acorns, I prefer Robinhood as it allows me to buy specific stocks instead of a bundle of investments.At the same time it’s important to note that this means it’s on you to diversify your own investments — although that’s where purchasing ETFs on Robinhood may come in handy.
With all of that said, given Robinhood’s mistakes and controversies, it’s understandable that some would-be investors might prefer to try other options. For them, I’d recommend checking out SoFi Invest among many other platforms that have taken Robinhood’s core concept and made it their own.
In any case, I’m excited to have purchased my first stocks via Robinhood and continue to look forward to learning more about the world of investing. If you are too then use this link to sign up and get started by getting a free share of stock today!
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