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Acorns might be for you if: You're interested in easy, automated investing. Acorns is a robo-advisor that automatically invests users' spare change. The platform has more than 8 million members and offers an easy-to-use app, along with straightforward pricing. If you're looking to simplify your investing, our Acorns review will help you decide if it's right for you.
Acorns is a top-tier robo-advisor ideal for hands-off investing. The bigger your account balance, the more competitive you'll find Acorns' fees. You may want to open an account for the simple fee structure or the variety of account options, including custodial accounts for kids. Join Acorns to quickly open a diversified portfolio that manages itself.
$3-$9 monthly
$0
On Acorns' Secure Website.
We recommend comparing brokerage options to ensure the account you're selecting is the best fit for you. To make your search easier, here's a short list of our best trading platforms of 2024.
Author's note: My favorite brokers are those that make investing in stocks and ETFs easy and affordable. I've been investing for four years, and I plan on holding my investments for decades. Robinhood is my go-to platform. Top perks include IRA match and a no-frills interface. I don't day trade or dabble in mutual funds, but I do invest in Bitcoin; it's a must-have option.
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Acorns offers five Acorns Core portfolios and four Acorns ESG Portfolios, plus a Bitcoin ETF. You can pick the one you prefer, and if you're a Premium user, you can add individual stocks to your portfolio. Acorns offers individual (taxable) investment accounts, as well as traditional and Roth IRAs, SEP IRAs, and UGMA/UTMA accounts for minors.
Acorns charges transparent subscription fees instead of transaction fees, breaking from the typical robo-advisory model. It's cheaper for large accounts to use the platform because fees remain flat regardless of how much money you add. But smaller accounts will pay more than typical expense ratios, which range from 0.03% to 0.18% per year.
Account type | Cost |
---|---|
Acorns Personal subscription fee | $3 monthly |
Acorns Personal Plus subscription fee | $5 monthly |
Acorns Premium subscription fee | $9 monthly |
Acorns sometimes offers promotions that could save you money. Click below to go to our dedicated page covering current Acorns promotions:
Acorns offers over 100 educational articles on common financial topics like investing and retirement. These are short, two-to-three minute reads well-suited to beginner investors. You can find these under the "Learn" tab on the Acorns website. They're easy, informative reads.
For more educational content, you need to be a higher-paying Acorns member. Personal Plus subscribers can access live Q/A with investing experts, and Premium subscribers get education courses and GoHenry, a debit card platform designed to help parents teach kids how to spend.
Acorns offers little in the way of individual stock research compared to full-service brokers like E*TRADE and even discount brokers like Robinhood. This makes sense -- Acorns only offers ETFs anyway, and the full-service robo-advisor is expected to handle the details.
Beginners might be satisfied with Acorns' educational content. Advanced users who want to deep-dive into individual stock analyses or earnings reports should look elsewhere.
Acorns is an app-based investment platform. It has a user-friendly app with high ratings. On the App and Google Play stores, the Acorns app has 4.7 and 4.6 out of 5-star ratings. That's top-tier.
Recent reviews indicate that customers like how the app works as advertised. Some customers wish you could direct Round-Ups to your savings instead of your investing account. Others are disappointed that Round-Ups round up to the next dollar on exact dollar amounts.
On the app, you can access all your Acorns accounts in one place, including checking and brokerage accounts. Premium users can access their GoHenry accounts from the app. You can also read and watch education content directly from the app's Learn tab.
Acorns has no desktop platform.
Acorns has middling customer service reviews. Its 2.4 / 5 rating on Trustpilot is better than Fidelity and worse than SoFi. Critical reviews indicate people struggling to withdraw money from Acorns or earn their referral bonuses. Acorns is online-only; there are no physical branches.
You can contact Acorns customer service via:
Acorns is very secure. It is a member of the SIPC, meaning your investments are insured for up to $500,000 in the event Acorns goes bankrupt. Your data is encrypted, and you can set up multi-factor authentication to further secure your account from thieves. These are all pretty standard features for regulated brokers, including big ones like Fidelity.
Acorns started as a way for users to invest their spare change by rounding up purchases made with credit and debit cards to the nearest dollar and investing those small amounts. It still does this, but Acorns has evolved quite a bit since its early days. It's now a full-featured robo-advisor that lets you put your investments (including retirement accounts) on auto-pilot.
Keep reading about Acorns on these pages:
At The Motley Fool Ascent, brokerages are rated on a scale of one to five stars. We primarily focus on fees, available assets, and account types; however, we also take into account features like research, education, tax-loss harvesting, and highly rated mobile apps. Our highest-rated brokerages generally include low fees, a diverse range of assets and account types, and useful platform features.
See our full methodology here: Ratings Methodology
No robo-advisor offers completely safe investments, but Acorns is a legitimate broker and investments are protected through the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC) for up to $500,000. Your investments in an Acorns account can go up and down over time, but it invests clients' money in high-quality exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
Acorns is purely a robo-advisor, meaning that you can't simply buy whatever stocks and ETFs you want, like in a standard brokerage account. The platform also has a fee structure that can be higher than its peers, especially for lower-balance accounts, as Acorns charges a flat monthly fee as opposed to a percentage of invested assets.
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We're firm believers in the Golden Rule, which is why editorial opinions are ours alone and have not been previously reviewed, approved, or endorsed by included advertisers. The Ascent, a Motley Fool service, does not cover all offers on the market. The Ascent has a dedicated team of editors and analysts focused on personal finance, and they follow the same set of publishing standards and editorial integrity while maintaining professional separation from the analysts and editors on other Motley Fool brands.
Robinhood disclosure
All investments involve risk and loss of principal is possible.
Securities are offered through Robinhood Financial LLC, member FINRA/SIPC. Cryptocurrency services are offered through an account with Robinhood Crypto, LLC (NMLS ID 1702840). Robinhood Crypto is licensed to engage in virtual currency business activity by the New York State Department of Financial Services. Cryptocurrency held through Robinhood Crypto is not FDIC insured or SIPC protected. For more information see the Robinhood Crypto Risk Disclosure.
Trades of stocks, ETFs and options are commission-free at Robinhood Financial LLC. Other fees may apply. Please see Robinhood Financial’s Fee Schedule to learn more.
Fractional shares are illiquid outside of Robinhood and are not transferable. Not all securities available through Robinhood are eligible for fractional share orders. For a complete explanation of conditions, restrictions and limitations associated with fractional shares, see the Fractional Shares section of our Customer Agreement.
Robinhood Gold is an account offering premium services available for a $5 monthly fee. Not all investors will be eligible to trade on Margin. Margin investing involves the risk of greater investment losses. Additional interest charges may apply depending on the amount of margin used. Bigger Instant Deposits are only available if your Instant Deposits status is in good standing.
Fidelity disclosure
Fractional share quantities can be entered out to 3 decimal places (.001) as long as the value of the order is at least $1.00. Dollar-based trades can be entered out to 2 decimal places (e.g. $250.00)