The user experience with TD Ameritrade vs. Robinhood is very different, which is down to their different business models.
We'll start with Robinhood, which doesn't offer a fully-featured trading platform. Robinhood's mobile app and web browser platform are designed to be simple. Log in toyour account and you'll see a straightforward chart for any stock and ETF, a summary of key metrics, a breakdown of analyst ratings, and a list of headlines about the stock or fund.
Robinhood's clutter-free design makes it really easy to navigate and use, but its simplicity is also a byproduct of its limited number of features. You won't find full analyst reports or any financial data that goes beyond a stock's earnings per share in recent accounting periods. To sum it up, Robinhood offers everything you'd need, just not everything you might want.
One recent addition to Robinhood is its "Robinhood Gold" account, which offers investors access to Morningstar research reports, the ability to trade with top margin rates (including up to $1,000 in margin interest free, an industry rarity), and a few other features. However, it costs $5 per month.
TD Ameritrade is almost on the opposite end of the spectrum. It offers far more features in its mobile apps and browser platforms than Robinhood does. In addition, TD Ameritrade's desktop trading platform, thinkorswim, is a perennial favorite among active traders, investors, and professional reviewers alike.
From complex charting tools to live video feeds, Level II quotes, and economic data from the Federal Reserve, you can find just about anything you'd need within the thinkorswim platform. Best of all, it's completely customizable, so you can move windows around as you see fit. That way the details that are most important to you are always front and center.
And unlike many other trading platforms, thinkorswim is available to all TD Ameritrade customers -- no matter how much you keep in your account, or how much you trade. Put simply, if there is one thing that separates TD Ameritrade from the pack, it's that it has one of the most powerful trading platforms out there and doesn't charge you anything to use it.
TD Ameritrade vs. Robinhood: International stocks and ADRs
TD Ameritrade and Robinhood don't offer access to foreign markets. TD Ameritrade clients can purchase American Depositary Receipts (ADRs), which trade on U.S. stock exchanges.
Robinhood introduced ADRs on its platform in 2018, and you can't access all of them. It offers "over 250" ADRs, which it says includes companies like "Tencent, Nintendo, and Adidas." It seems to be moving country by country to add the largest ADRs. In a blog post, it said that it will "expand the global list with stocks from France, including most frequently searched companies Ubisoft Entertainment, LVMH, and Michelin."
If being able to trade ADRs is important to you, TD Ameritrade is likely the better pick, since not every ADR is available on Robinhood. As for trading directly on international markets, Fidelity and Charles Schwab may be worth studying more closely, as both offer online access to foreign markets that Robinhood and TD Ameritrade do not. (However, Charles Schwab has recently acquired TD Ameritrade, so this feature will likely be available eventually.)
TD Ameritrade has a wide range of third-party and proprietary research tools, such as Morningstar, S&P Capital IQ, and Thomson Reuters research. In addition, clients can access proprietary research and tools to screen stocks and funds by fundamental performance. It even tracks social-media sites like X (formerly known as Twitter) for investor sentiment.
Robinhood does not currently offer third-party or proprietary research to its clients unless they pay $5 per month for Robinhood Gold. Robinhood Gold comes with Morningstar research access. Its research suite consists primarily of news feeds from free publications and average sell-side research estimates. As it's a no-frills brokerage, saving on commissions does come with some trade-offs in the research department.
TD Ameritrade vs. Robinhood: How to decide
There are a few "make-or-break" features that make it easy to decide between TD Ameritrade vs. Robinhood. First, if you want to open any account other than a taxable account or basic IRA (SEP IRA, health savings account, college savings plan, etc.) then TD Ameritrade is the best way to go. Robinhood doesn't offer those types of accounts.
Secondly, TD Ameritrade is the only broker to offer a full list of American depositary receipts and mutual funds. Robinhood offers only select ADRs and doesn't offer any mutual funds. TD Ameritrade is the only one of the two to offer a full-featured desktop trading platform, too.
Robinhood has its place for investors who prioritize the cost of making a trade over everything else. It may not give much in the way of research or supplemental features, but it does feature no-commission trading of both stocks and options.
When comparing TD Ameritrade vs. Robinhood, your decision will ultimately come down to the type of investing you want to do. New investors who want to start small and place trades for a handful of shares (or even a fraction of a share) at a time might be better off with Robinhood. More experienced investors should take a closer look at TD Ameritrade.