Acorns vs. Stash: How Two Beginner Investing Apps Compare on Fees, Accounts, and Control

Round up your card purchases, buy fractional shares, start with a few dollars: that description fits Acorns and Stash about equally well. Price is where they separate.

Acorns runs $3, $6, or $12 a month depending on the plan you pick, while Stash sells a single plan at $12. The differences worth studying are what you can hold, what the funds cost on top of the subscription, and how much say you have over the portfolio.

Fees, Minimums, and Account Types Side by Side

Sign-up incentives have been part of the pitch for both. Acorns has advertised a $20 bonus after your first investment, and Stash has advertised $25 to make a first investment with a $5 minimum deposit. Promotions like these change and carry their own terms and conditions.

Three Acorns Tiers Against One Stash Plan

Acorns splits its subscription three ways. Bronze runs $3 per month and includes the IRA options and a debit account. Silver is $6 per month and adds custodial accounts on top of everything in Bronze. Gold is $12 per month for the full set of saving, learning, and investing tools for you and your family, including Acorns Early, the custodial and kids' debit card feature.

Stash has one price. The Stash Plan is $12 per month and covers a basic taxable investing account, retirement accounts, the Smart Portfolio robo-advisor option, a Stash banking account, and access to two custodial accounts.

The two overlap exactly at the top, then: $12 a month either way. The gap opens at the bottom, where Acorns has a $3 entry point and Stash does not.

Flat Monthly Fees Weigh Heaviest on Small Balances

A flat subscription behaves very differently from the percentage-of-assets fee most investment managers charge. The dollar amount doesn't move as your balance grows, which means it shrinks in relative terms over time and looms largest at the start.

Picture two people on the same $3 Bronze plan. One is rounding up coffee purchases and adding a few dollars a week. The other has been contributing steadily for years. They pay the same monthly fee. For the first person, that fee is a meaningful slice of what's in the account; for the second, it's a rounding error. This is the main structural tradeoff of micro-investing apps, and it applies to both.

Fund Expense Ratios Come On Top of the Subscription

The monthly fee isn't the only cost. The ETFs inside your portfolio charge their own annual expense ratio, which covers the fund's management and operating costs and is taken out inside the fund rather than billed to you. You'll find the figure in each fund's prospectus.

Acorns' ETFs generally come in lower, with expense ratios running from .03% to .18%. Stash's ETFs average .23%, and its socially responsible funds average closer to .34%. Individual funds on either platform may land above or below those figures.

Stock Picking at Stash, Preset ETF Portfolios at Acorns

Acorns is the more hands-off of the two. You answer questions about risk tolerance and timeline, and Acorns assembles a preset portfolio of ETFs: a mix of small- and large-cap stocks, government and other bonds, and real estate. You can buy fractional shares of those ETFs, but individual stocks aren't on the menu.

Stash centers on ETFs too, and adds a limited selection of individual stocks and organizes investments around themes such as clean energy, defense, and real estate. Fractional shares are available for both stocks and ETFs. For investors who'd rather not choose, Stash offers Smart Portfolios, discretionary managed accounts that Stash rebalances and where dividends are reinvested. Diversification and asset allocation don't guarantee a profit or remove the risk of losing principal, and Stash doesn't promise any level of performance.

In practice, Acorns gives you less to decide and Stash gives you more control. Neither carries the more advanced features you'd find at a full robo-advisor like Betterment or Wealthfront, tax-loss harvesting among them.

Round-Ups, and the Multiplier Option at Acorns

Both apps turn spare change into contributions. Acorns connects to a bank account or credit card and rounds purchases up to the next dollar, moving the difference into your Acorns account. You can also multiply the round-up. At a 3X setting, a $1.80 purchase that would normally produce a 20-cent round-up produces 60 cents instead.

Stash's version is Stock Round-ups, which rounds up purchases made with the Stock-Back Card and invests the difference. Those funds come out of your Stash banking account, and the program has its own eligibility requirements and terms.

One thing worth watching with any round-up feature, especially with a multiplier turned on: the money leaves your spending account on its own schedule, so the balance you thought you had for bills may be smaller than expected.

Cash Back at Acorns, Fractional Shares at Stash

Acorns Earn pays cash back when you shop with partners (more than 10,000 partner offers), and the money lands in your Acorns account to be invested. A browser extension flags sites that participate, and swiping the Acorns debit card earns a 10% bonus that's also invested automatically.

Stash's Stock-Back program pays rewards to debit account customers in the form of fractional shares of a stock or fund. If you buy from a merchant that isn't publicly traded or available on Stash, the reward comes as an ETF or other investment you choose from a list. Cash withdrawals, money orders, prepaid cards, and P2P payments don't qualify. Those rewards are held in your Stash Invest account, aren't FDIC insured or bank guaranteed, and may lose value. You also bear the standard fees and expenses built into whatever investments you earn.

Only Acorns Offers a SEP IRA

Both platforms cover individual taxable accounts, custodial accounts, traditional and Roth IRAs, and a banking product. The one gap is the SEP IRA, which Acorns offers and Stash does not, and which matters mainly to self-employed people and small business owners. Acorns has also advertised the ability to earn up to a 3.00% match on new contributions to an Acorns Later IRA.

On the banking side, Acorns includes a personal checking account with a debit card. Stash's banking account comes with the Stock-Back debit card and no overdraft or minimum balance fees; it's provided by Stride Bank, N.A., Member FDIC, and requires a taxable brokerage account on Stash. Investment products at Stash come from Stash Investments LLC, not the bank, and are not FDIC insured.

Support Is Self-Service on Both Platforms

Neither app connects you with a human advisor for personalized financial advice, on any plan. Acorns leans on a large FAQ and knowledge base, with chat support for anything more specific. Stash publishes educational articles and a detailed FAQ, and you can submit a question for a reply; its iOS and Android apps don't include chat support.

Cheaper Entry at Acorns, More Control at Stash

Acorns is the cheaper way in at $3 a month, carries lower fund expense ratios, is the only one of the two with a SEP IRA, and routes shopping rebates straight into your portfolio. What you give up is choice, since the ETF portfolios are assembled for you.

Stash has no tier below $12. In exchange it hands over more of the decisions: a wider ETF lineup, individual stocks, themed investing, and Smart Portfolios for anyone who'd rather delegate. Its rewards arrive as investments rather than cash.

The flat fee is the piece that behaves differently from one account to the next. Against a balance of a few hundred dollars, $3 or $12 a month is a visible share of it; against a balance built up over years, the same charge barely registers. That arithmetic sits next to the more obvious matter of how much of the portfolio a person wants to pick. Both platforms carry market risk, and neither guarantees a return.