Acorns bills $3, $6, or $12 a month and, for that, decides what the account holds. Robinhood charges no management fee and decides nothing: the order ticket is yours, options contracts and 18 cryptocurrencies included. Both run on a phone, both open without a big deposit, and both pull in people who found traditional brokerages tedious. The asset lists, the fee math, and the amount of work expected of the account holder all part ways from there.
Acorns Charges $3, $6, or $12 a Month; Robinhood Charges Nothing to Trade
Acorns runs on a flat subscription: $3, $6, or $12 per month, depending on the plan. That charge is the same dollar amount no matter what the balance is, which matters most when the account is going to hold small sums for a while. A flat fee doesn't shrink alongside a small balance the way a percentage-based fee would.
Robinhood charges no management fee and no commissions on stock, ETF, options, or crypto trades. There's no account minimum to open, and $1 is enough to invest. Acorns asks for $5 to start.
Robinhood does sell an optional upgrade, Robinhood Gold, at $5 per month. Gold includes margin investing, Level II market data, which shows the outstanding buy and sell orders sitting at each price rather than a single quoted price, higher deposit limits, and a larger match on IRA contributions, up to 3%.
| Robinhood | Acorns | |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum to invest | $1 | $5 |
| Ongoing cost | No management fee; Gold is $5/month | $3, $6, or $12/month |
| What you can hold | Stocks and funds, options, crypto | ETFs |
| Account types | Taxable; Traditional and Roth IRA | Taxable; Traditional, Roth and SEP IRA; custodial |
| Who picks the holdings | You | Acorns recommends a mix based on your goals |
| Built for | Active investors | Hands-off investors |
Robinhood Expects You to Choose; Acorns Asks a Few Questions First
Robinhood is closer to a conventional brokerage with a friendlier interface: it lists securities, and you decide what to buy and when to sell. Acorns hands you a short questionnaire at signup and then recommends a mix of ETFs pointed at the goals you described.
Robinhood markets itself to newcomers, and it does carry lists of popular stocks plus educational material. But the model still asks you to know something about what you're buying, including how crypto trading works, if you go that route. Acorns is built for the opposite temperament: someone who wants money invested and diversified without researching individual companies.
Options, Fractional Shares, and 18 Coins on Robinhood
Robinhood's menu is the wider one. Alongside stocks and ETFs, it supports options and cryptocurrency, and fractional shares let you buy a slice of a stock rather than a whole share, so the $1 minimum still buys into a stock whose full share price runs far higher.
On the crypto side, a Robinhood cryptocurrency account covers 18 coins, including Bitcoin, Ether, and Cardano. Funding comes from a deposit. After that, a holder can take whatever the price happens to be, or name a price instead, since limit and stop orders sit alongside market orders. Custody is a separate choice: coins can stay parked in the Robinhood account indefinitely, move out to an external wallet, or arrive from another platform.
Acorns Portfolios Hold Nothing but ETFs
No individual stocks, no options, no crypto. Acorns portfolios are built entirely from ETFs, spanning real estate, government bonds, large companies, emerging markets, small companies, and corporate bonds.
An all-ETF lineup spreads money across company sizes, countries, and both stocks and bonds. What it can't do is hold one company's shares on their own, and it doesn't reach options or crypto.
Round-Ups Fund the Account While Rebalancing Happens in the Background
Acorns' best-known feature is Round Ups: link a credit or debit card, and purchases get rounded up to the nearest dollar, with the spare change swept into the investment account. Money goes in continuously without any decision on your part.
The automation doesn't stop at funding. Acorns also handles recurring investments, portfolio rebalancing, and dividend reinvesting on its own. The app additionally offers bonus investments through 10,000+ partner offers.
In practice, someone who buys lunch and gas on a linked card will see small amounts drift into the portfolio all month without ever opening the app. The flat monthly fee applies whether that adds up to a lot of round-ups or a few, which is why the size of the balance matters more than the number of transactions.
One wrinkle applies to any automated taxable account: rebalancing means selling, and sales in a taxable account can produce reportable gains. Inside an IRA, that isn't an issue.
Margin Needs Gold, an Approval, and $2,000 in the Account
Only Robinhood offers margin, which means borrowing against your account to buy more than your cash covers. Three conditions apply: a Robinhood Gold subscription, approval for margin investing, and at least $2,000 in the account.
Borrowed money magnifies losses as well as gains, and margin is usually a feature for experienced investors rather than a starting point. Acorns has no margin option at all.
Custodial Accounts, a SEP IRA, and Mighty Oak Checking Sit on the Acorns Side
Both apps offer retirement accounts. Robinhood has traditional and Roth IRAs; Acorns adds a SEP IRA for self-employed savers. Beyond that, Acorns covers ground Robinhood doesn't:
- Custodial accounts, which an adult opens and funds for a child. The child takes control at 18, and friends and family can add gift contributions.
- Banking, paired with the investing side: a tungsten metal debit card, 2.18% (as of 12/11/25) APY on Mighty Oak Checking, 3.35% (as of 12/11/25) APY on the Mighty Oak Emergency Fund, pay up to two days early, automatic investing from each paycheck, and no account fees.
- Acorns Early, included with Acorns Gold.
Robinhood keeps its focus on the brokerage side, though it does offer the Robinhood Cash Card and instant deposits.
How Much You Can Withdraw, and What Gets Taxed
Robinhood allows withdrawals of up to $50,000 per day straight to a linked bank account. Acorns lets you move funds to a linked account or pull cash at an ATM.
Taxes look similar on both platforms: dividends are taxable, and so are gains when you sell, with the exception of assets held inside an Acorns IRA. Retirement money comes with its own catch, though. IRA withdrawals can trigger early distribution penalties before age 59 1/2, on either platform's retirement accounts.
Account Insurance, Simple Order Screens, and Free Libraries on Both Sides
Acorns is Securities Investor Protection Corp.-protected, and Acorns Spend is Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.-insured, meaning federal backing up to certain limits if the company fails. The limits and terms are set out in each account's own documents, and what they cover is company failure, not investments losing value.
Past that, the two apps resemble each other in ways the pricing pages don't show. Retirement accounts sit on both, as noted above. Both keep the order screen short and the menus few, so placing a trade doesn't require specialist knowledge. And each maintains a sizable free library on investing and personal finance basics.
Hands-Off Investing for a Monthly Fee, Hands-On for Free
Robinhood fits the investor who wants to make the calls: a wide asset menu, no management fee, options and crypto in the same app, and margin available for those who clear the requirements. Acorns fits the person who would rather not make those calls at all: a recommended ETF mix, funding that runs off card round-ups, rebalancing handled in the background, and custodial and checking accounts sitting alongside it, in exchange for a monthly charge.
Market risk doesn't care which app placed the order; balances rise and fall on both. The rest is preference: how much of the choosing you want to do, and what a monthly bill for automation is worth against doing that work yourself.
