Competitors TD Ameritrade, E*TRADE, and Charles Schwab all charge higher margin rates but offer measurably better stock research, trading tools, customer service, etc. Robinhood Gold costs $5 per month to gain access to Morningstar reports, Level II streaming quotes, and margin trading (which charges 5% annual interest). Robinhood Gold: In our testing, we found Robinhood Gold to be a bad deal. That said, in today's world of $0 trades, nearly all brokers, less Fidelity, engage in the same practice of accepting payment for order flow (PFOF). However, instead of selling ads, Robinhood sells your order flow (the right to fill your order) to wholesale market makers. In Robinhood's case, it too is a free service. To offset not charging a subscription fee, it generates revenue from collecting your user data and selling ads. How Robinhood makes money: Facebook (FB) is a free service.

Like many other $0 commission-free brokers, Robinhood charges no commission for trading stocks, ETFs, options, or cryptocurrency. See 'Robinhood Gold' under Commissions and Fees below.

At $5/month ($60 per year), Robinhood Gold is not a good deal unless you have a large account balance, frequently place trades, and consistently use margin.

Lastly, Robinhood offers limited phone support via a call-back option for customer service. Also, Robinhood's stock research tools are severely lacking when compared to $0 brokers such as TD Ameritrade, Charles Schwab, and Fidelity.

Robinhood provides a bare-bones trading experience, making it a poor choice for investors seeking the best trading platform.

Combined with the Robinhood Snacks newsletter and podcast, our staff favorite for daily market recaps, Robinhood made our list of best brokers for beginners.

Thanks to a clean design that focuses on the basics, Robinhood's mobile app is again our top pick for Ease of Use in 2021.

After spending three months testing 11 of the best online brokers for our 11th Annual Review, here are our top findings on Robinhood:

What is robinhood app