Opening a TD Ameritrade account isn't possible anymore. Charles Schwab completed the acquisition in 2020 and absorbed TD Ameritrade's accounts, though thinkorswim, the platform TD Ameritrade was best known for, is still around for those customers.
So, a Robinhood-versus-TD-Ameritrade comparison is really a comparison of two models of brokerage rather than two brands you can sign up with today.
The full-service model, with more than 45 years of history and over $1 trillion in assets behind it, now answers to Schwab. Robinhood, founded in 2013 and holding an estimated $80 billion of customer money, is the one of the two still taking new accounts.
What the Schwab Acquisition Changed for TD Ameritrade Accounts
The 2020 deal moved former TD Ameritrade account holders under Schwab, where they manage their investments today. thinkorswim, the platform TD Ameritrade was best known for among active traders, remained operational through the transition.
So the TD Ameritrade side of this comparison describes the kind of experience a traditional, full-service brokerage offers, meaning many account types, many asset classes, and live humans on the phone. It isn't a separate company you can open an account with now.
Neither One Charges Commissions or Requires a Minimum
On the two numbers most people check first, there's little daylight between them.
| Robinhood | TD Ameritrade | |
|---|---|---|
| Account minimum | $0; margin accounts require $2,000 | $0; margin accounts require $2,000 |
| Management fees | None | None |
| Commissions | $0 on stock, ETF, options, and crypto trades | $0 on online stock, ETF, and options trades |
| Fractional shares | Yes, from as little as $1 | Whole shares only, except through a DRIP |
| Live phone support | No | Yes |
| Physical branches | None | Over 175 nationwide |
TD Ameritrade also advertised no platform or data fees and no trade minimums, with account opening in under five minutes. Robinhood notes that other fees may apply alongside its commission-free trading, which is standard language across the industry, since regulatory and transfer fees usually sit outside the "commission" label.
Fractional Shares From $1, and the Catch on Transfers
Robinhood lets customers buy a fraction of a share and invest with as little as $1. TD Ameritrade investors buy whole shares, with one exception: a dividend reinvestment program (DRIP), which can put partial shares into an account automatically.
For a lot of small-balance investors, that single difference settles the question. Someone dollar-cost averaging a set amount into the same handful of stocks every month can do that on Robinhood no matter what those shares cost, because the dollar figure drives the purchase instead of the share price.
Neither platform advertises the wrinkle. Fractional shares generally can't be moved in-kind when you transfer a brokerage account elsewhere. Partial positions typically have to be sold first, which can create a taxable event in a regular brokerage account. Worth checking before building a large portfolio out of slivers.
TD Ameritrade Covers Far More Asset Classes
Robinhood's investment menu is focused: U.S. stocks, options, ETFs, cryptocurrency such as bitcoin and ether, American depositary receipts of select international stocks, and gold. Margin trading is available through a Robinhood Gold account.
TD Ameritrade's list runs much longer: stocks, options, ETFs, cryptocurrency, mutual funds, futures, forex, managed portfolios, bonds and fixed income, annuities, and collateral lending. CDs sit in that mix too. If a specific product like a mutual fund, futures contract, or forex pair is the reason for opening an account, only one of these two has ever offered it.
Robinhood Stops at IRAs; TD Ameritrade Added Custodial and Solo 401(K) Accounts
Robinhood offers individual taxable accounts (brokerage, crypto, and margin), an FDIC-insured spending account, a traditional IRA, and a Roth IRA. The Robinhood Cash Card is part of the spending side.
TD Ameritrade's list included individual and joint taxable accounts, traditional and Roth IRAs, UTMA/UGMA custodial accounts, a Solo 401(k), trust accounts, and more. A household juggling a taxable account, a retirement account, and a custodial account for a child can keep all of them under one login at a full-service firm.
Robinhood Gold Adds an IRA Match, Cash Yield, and Morningstar Research
Robinhood Retirement includes a 1% match on qualified deposits, and the company advertises up to a 3% match on Robinhood Gold IRA contributions, which is uncommon among brokerage IRAs. Gold, which carries a subscription fee, also advertises 3.35% APY (as of 02/11/26) on uninvested cash. Interest requires an actual cash balance: a margin balance means there's no cash sitting there to earn it, and rates on cash sweep and margin can change at any time.
Gold subscribers also get more detailed research reports from Morningstar, the independent research firm. Without the subscription, that research amounts to five indicators and no Morningstar reports.
Robinhood's "24 Hour Market" allows buying and selling stocks 24 hours a day, five days a week. That's a different trading window from the standard session, and prices can behave differently there than during regular hours.
TD Ameritrade Built Research Tools, Robinhood Built Education
TD Ameritrade's research suite came at no extra charge and ran across web, desktop, and mobile: real-time streaming quotes on stocks, bonds, and ETFs, live help through in-app chat, access to Federal Reserve data, and educational material for beginners through advanced traders. thinkorswim sat at the top of that stack, fully customizable and built for active trading.
Robinhood's answer is education rather than analytics. Its daily podcast runs through three of the day's top stories in 15 minutes. The Snacks newsletter condenses financial news. The learning portal handles beginner questions, including how to buy cryptocurrency and what an index fund is. All of it is aimed at people learning the vocabulary, and none of it substitutes for the analytics a traditional brokerage puts in front of you.
Phone Support and 175 Branches, or a Contact Form
TD Ameritrade customers could reach a live person by phone, through in-app chat, or by walking into one of over 175 branches, with 24/7 support advertised. Robinhood has no live phone service; its support runs through a website contact form and in-app messaging.
How much that matters depends on the situation. A mistyped order, a locked account, or a transfer that stalls mid-process is the kind of problem where the wait for a written reply feels a lot longer than it is.
Robinhood's Outage History and Its FINRA Penalty
Robinhood's platform has a documented record of downtime. Its service went down at least twice in March 2020, while markets were falling on coronavirus fears, leaving customers who wanted to sell unable to place orders. FINRA later ordered Robinhood to pay almost $70 million over those outages and for misleading consumers; the company neither admitted nor denied wrongdoing.
TD Ameritrade's record on that front is awards rather than penalties. Its customer service, its platform and tools, and its investor education each drew recognition from Investor's Business Daily and Stockbrokers.com.
Tax Treatment Follows the Account Type
Which forms arrive at tax time is a function of the account, not the app. Certain retirement accounts can grow tax free; a regular brokerage account can't, so the year's realized gains and losses get reported, and so do any dividends paid along the way. That holds whichever of the two firms is holding the account.
Who Each Platform Is Built For
The fits break along fairly clean lines:
- Robinhood points toward newer investors and small-dollar investing: no minimum, fractional shares from $1, a straightforward mobile app, crypto and gold in the same place as stocks, and a steady stream of educational material.
- TD Ameritrade, now Schwab, points toward investors who want breadth: several account types under one roof, mutual funds and futures and forex alongside stocks, deep research tools, and a person to talk to by phone, chat, or in a branch.
Holding accounts at both is also possible, and some investors do exactly that, using one for a specific feature and the other for everything else.
Nothing here is a promise of results. Investing can lose money, and past performance doesn't predict what comes next.
When a Portfolio Outgrows the Simpler Platform
These two were never chasing the same customer. Rates, fees, subscription terms, and available features all change, so the disclosures posted on each platform are the version that counts. A portfolio that starts as $1 slices of a few familiar stocks and later takes on retirement accounts, mutual funds, and a custodial account for a kid tends to outgrow the first model and end up at something like the second.
