The 5 Best Investing Apps for Beginners and Young People

Choosing your first investing app is a big decision. The right platform can make your journey smooth and educational, while the wrong one can be confusing, expensive, and intimidating. There are many options out there, but they aren't all created equal.

This guide will look at some of the most popular apps for beginners, highlighting what they do well and—more importantly—where they fall short. We'll show you how Elivo is being built to provide a more complete, supportive, and truly beginner-friendly experience.

What to Look For in a Beginner Investing App

When you're starting out, here's what matters most:

• True Simplicity: The app should be genuinely easy to use, not just a simplified version of a complex trading tool.
• Transparent Costs: Fees should be clear, low, and predictable. No surprises.
• Real Education: The platform should teach you *why* you're investing, not just let you press buttons.
• Smart Automation: Features that help you invest consistently without relying on willpower.
• Safe On-Ramp: It should guide you toward proven, long-term strategies, not encourage risky behavior.

A Look at the Top Contenders (and Their Flaws)

Here are some of the platforms that have paved the way, along with a look at what they do and where they could be better.

1. Acorns

The Good: Acorns pioneered the "round-up" feature, making it incredibly easy to start micro-investing. They automatically build a portfolio for you using ETFs.

The Catch: The monthly subscription fee can be high relative to a small account balance, eating into your returns when you're just starting out. Their educational resources are also quite basic.

2. Robinhood

The Good: Famous for its commission-free trades and slick interface, which made buying individual stocks accessible to millions.

The Catch: The platform's design can subtly encourage frequent, speculative trading—more like gambling than investing. It has faced criticism for a lack of educational guardrails, which can lead beginners to take on too much risk.

3. Public

The Good: Public combines investing with a social network, allowing you to see what others are investing in and learn from the community.

The Catch: The social feed can create a "fear of missing out" (FOMO) mentality, pushing users toward trendy stocks rather than sound, long-term strategy. It can be more distracting than educational.

4. Stash

The Good: Stash makes it easy to buy fractional shares of stocks and ETFs that align with your interests, using themes like "Clean & Green" or "Tech Titans."

The Catch: Like Acorns, their subscription fees can be costly for small accounts, and the focus on thematic investing can sometimes lead to less-diversified portfolios than a core, market-wide strategy.

5. Betterment / Wealthfront

The Good: These "robo-advisors" are excellent at building and managing sophisticated, diversified portfolios based on your goals. They are built on proven, passive investing principles.

The Catch: They are typically designed for people who already have a lump sum to invest. Their interfaces can feel more clinical and less engaging for a young beginner, and they lack the powerful, habit-forming tool of automated micro-investing from daily spending.

How Elivo Aims to Be the Best of All Worlds

We've studied what makes these apps great and where they fail beginners. We're building Elivo to be the ultimate co-pilot by combining their best features and fixing their flaws:

We're not just another app; we're aiming to be your all-in-one guide to building wealth and financial confidence. Join the waitlist to be part of the next evolution in investing.