11+ Best Robo-Advisors of 2023

It used to be so expensive to get your investment portfolio managed. Now, thanks to robo-advisors, anyone with a few dollars can start investing.

Just like human advisors, robo-advisors can help you minimize your risk and manage your tax losses while maximizing your rewards. Robo-advisors use computer algorithms to manage your portfolio and ensure your money is invested efficiently.

Each year, several new robo-advisors join the market. I recommend all 16 of the following platforms for a variety of reasons.

11+ Best Robo-Advisors of 2023

Here are the best robo advisors of 2023:

• M1 Finance
• Betterment
• Ally Invest
• Vanguard Digital Advisor
• Axos
• Acorns
• SoFi Invest
• E*TRADE
• Wealthfront
• Ellevest
• Charles Schwab
• Fidelity Go
• Stash
• Interactive Advisors

1. M1 Finance

• 🏆 Best For No Management Fee
• Fees: None unless you use M1 Borrow (a lending service) or let your account fall below $20.
• Minimum: $0 to get started, $100 before investing starts

M1 Finance can offer investors the best of both worlds: a full-service robo-advisor with no management fees to invest your money or auto-balance your portfolio.

You don’t even need a minimum balance to open an account, though M1 will wait until you have $100 in your account before beginning to invest. *note: accounts with less than $20 for 90 days are subject to fees.

Even though the service is free, M1 Finance is not a discount or lightweight option for robo-advising. You’ll have access to plenty of features and a user-friendly interface.

You can set up a retirement or taxable account, invest in individual stocks or ETF shares, and even invest in fractional shares to keep more of your money in the market.

M1 does lack a few peripheral features some users may like such as access to a human financial advisor and the ability to import data from your other accounts, which would place your investments in context.

Customer support is available only by phone or email and only during business hours (Central time).

Pros:

• No fees for trading or managing your account
• Low account minimums to start investing
• Can borrow against your portfolio

Cons:

• No access to a human financial advisor
• No online customer service or chat support

M1Finance

:

Free automated investing. Create your own portfolio with any stock and/or ETF, for free. Users can also get access to lines of credit. Try M1Finance Today!

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2. Betterment

• 🏆 Best Intuitive Platform
• Fees: 0.25% for the digital service, 0.40% for the premium service
• Minimum: $0, $10 before investing starts

Betterment was one of the first robo-advisors, and it remains one of the largest robos measured by assets under management. This investing platform is incredibly intuitive and designed to make investing simple and fluid.

I invested with Betterment for over a year. While I decided to make the switch to Vanguard (see Betterment vs. Vanguard), Betterment is a great option for both beginning and experienced investors who want a best in class robo-advisor.

Betterment’s features include weekday customer service, personalized, goal-based retirement planning; and the premium service gives access to a financial advisor. Betterment also offers a high-interest savings account called Betterment Everyday™ and a new checking account.

Pros:

• Low account minimum
• Easy-to-use tools for meeting goals
• 13 asset classes to construct your portfolio

Cons:

• Customer service only available on weekdays
• High deposit ($100k) required for the premium plan

Betterment

Price: Varies

Betterment can help grow your money by making saving and investing easy. Invest in a tailored portfolio, set buckets for your goals, and earn rewards.

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3. Ally Invest

• 🏆 Best Syncing Banking & Investing
• Fees: 0%
• Minimum: $100

Ally Bank has launched one of the top robos within its new Ally Invest platform. If you can make the minimum deposit of $100, you can invest without paying any advisory fees.

I also recommend Ally Bank’s high-yield savings account which syncs up perfectly with Ally Invest’s robo, “Managed Portfolios,” as opposed to Self-Directed Trading.

This connection between banking and investing lets Ally offer a unique feature: 30% of your portfolio will be allocated in cash which creates a nice buffer for new investors who haven’t developed a high risk tolerance yet.

Since Ally pays an interest rate that far surpasses the national average for savings accounts, this cash component won’t be sitting idle.

When it comes to investment management, this robo gives you four options: socially responsible investing, tax-optimized investing, a strategy to enhance your income, and a core plan you can customize.

I’ve been an Ally Bank customer for almost 10 years. They have great customer service. They’ve never tried to up-sell me on anything.

Pros:

• Most trades are commission-free
• Allocates a portion of your portfolio to a high-yield savings account
• Intuitive online platform

Cons:

• No fractional share trading
• Charges fees for terminating an IRA or transferring an account

4. Vanguard Digital Advisor

• 🏆 Best Full-Service Robo-Advisor
• Fees: approximately 0.15% for advice
• Account Minimum: $3,000

Vanguard Digital Advisor® is an all-online robo-advisor from Vanguard, one of the most respected financial institutions in the world with $8.1 trillion in assets under management as of 2023.

Unlike some of the other products on this list, with their tool, you can play around with different scenarios — changing things like when you want to retire, how much you want to save, and your future income or expenses. Once your goal is set, Digital Advisor automatically invests your money for you, allocating in a similar but more personalized way as target-date funds.

Digital Advisor also helps you consider your full financial situation by offering tools like a debt payoff calculator, which informs your payoff plan using the “avalanche” method (debt with the highest interest rates first).

It’s important to note that, compared to Vanguard Personal Advisor Services® and some of the other robos on the list, Digital Advisor does not give you access to a human financial advisor. The trade-off, however, is incredibly low fees.

Pros:

• Has a debt payoff calculator
• Low fees
• Interactive retirement planning tools

Cons:

• No access to a human financial advisor
• High account minimum for investing

6. Axos Invest Managed Portfolios

• 🏆 Best for Customization
• Fees: 0.24% 
• Minimum: $500

With more than two dozen investment types – including socially responsible options – Axos Invest Managed Portfolios is by far the most customizable robo advisor on our list. Through a quick questionnaire, Axos will create a profile for you based on the level of risk you want to take. Or you can opt for one of the several pre-made choices.

You can set up multiple “buckets” to save for certain goals, like buying a car or retirement. There is no limit on how many buckets you can set for your savings goals.

Axos Invest has relatively low fees and offers tax-loss harvesting to help you reduce taxes on investment gains. 

Since you only need $500 to get started, Axos Invest may be a good fit for first-time or beginner investors who want to test the waters without making a large investment. 

Pros:

• 32 investment types
• Socially responsible investment options
• Tax-loss harvesting

Cons:

• Limited account types
• Website and mobile app can be hard to navigate

7. Acorns

• 🏆 Best for Micro-Investing
• Fees: $1-$5 per month
• Minimum: $5

If you can spare some pocket change, you can start investing with Acorns. Acorns is a micro-investing app that rounds up your purchases to the nearest dollar and then invests the change. For example, if you buy a cup of coffee for $2.75 then the app would invest $0.25.

Acorns does this every time you buy anything, so you’re able to invest money without having to think about it. I’ve been using Acorns for a couple of years and the money definitely adds up quickly.

It’s different than a traditional robo-advisor because it’s less geared toward big financial goals like saving for retirement. Instead, it focuses on smaller targets like building an emergency fund or taking a trip.

It’s a great first step if you haven’t started saving or investing, or if you are investing and just to add a little bit more money to your investments without having to think about it. The basic plan costs $1 a month. The premium plan adds a lot of features and costs $3 a month.

You can pay $5 per month and get all the benefits in the premium plan, plus Acorns Early, which is an investment account for kids.

Pros:

• Automatically rounds up purchases and invests spare change, so you don’t have to think about it
• Offers free accounts to students up to age 24
• Has investment accounts for kids

Cons:

• Fees can be high if your balance is small
• No tax-loss harvesting

Acorns

Price: $3 per month

Easily save & invest in the background of life. Invest your spare change, save for retirement, spend smarter, earn more, and grow your knowledge.

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8. SoFi Invest

• 🏆 Best for Automated Investing
• Fees: 0%
• Minimum: $100

You probably know SoFi is a student loan refinance company. This lender has expanded its offerings to include SoFi Invest, where you can buy individual stocks or invest through an Automated Investing robo-advisor.

SoFi Automated Investing gives you all the features of a more expensive robo advisor with no minimum investment.

These features include goal planning tools (where you can set life goals and get recommendations for how to best save for them), automatic portfolio rebalancing (so you can make sure you stock/bond asset allocation is maintained), as well as help building a diversified portfolio (to help minimize your investing risk while maximizing your returns).

You’ll also get great customer support with access to certified financial planners if needed.

Pros:

• Automatic portfolio rebalancing
• Standout customer service, including access to financial planners
• Free management

Cons:

• No tax-loss harvesting
• Portfolio construction is basic compared to other robo advisors

SoFi

:

All-in-one investing that's easy to use.

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9. E*TRADE Core Portfolios

• 🏆 Best Mobile App
• Fees: 0.30%
• Minimum: $500

E*TRADE is already a well-known discount brokerage leader, and its robo advisor is a robust and easy-to-use option. It has one of the best-automated platforms, particularly when it comes to its mobile app. 

The app is designed to make setting up and managing your investments from your phone quick and easy, avoiding lengthy questionnaires or customization of your goals.

E*TRADE’s ease of use and low account minimum make it another good choice for beginning investors or those who just want a straightforward approach to investing.

Pros:

• Sophisticated mobile app
• No minimum deposit required
• Comprehensive online educational library

Cons:

• No foreign exchange trading
• No fractional shares

9. Wealthfront

🏆 Best for Financial Planning

Wealthfront was one of the original robo-advisors, and it offers very similar features, including tax-loss harvesting, low expense ratios on exchange-traded funds, and more.

Wealthfront is definitely one of the best robo advisors and gives you access to financial advisors and individual help.

• Fees: 0.25% asset management fee
• Minimum: $500
• Benefits: Tax-loss harvesting that can add 2% to annual investment performance, good interest rates on FDIC insured cash accounts, and automatic rebalancing.

Pros:

• Has automatic portfolio rebalancing
• Daily tax-loss harvesting
• Advanced financial planning tool

Cons:

• No online chat feature for customer support
• Doesn’t let you buy fractional shares in your portfolio

10. Ellevest

• 🏆 Best for Women Investors
• Fees: 0.25% – 0.50% depending on service level
• Minimum: $0 (some portfolios have minimums of $1 – $240)

Ellevest is a robo with financial advisor support, designed around the unique needs of women. Its goal-focused investing strategies factor in gender-specific considerations like pay and life expectancy.

There are three levels of Ellevest: the base plan (digital), premium plan, and private wealth management, each with its own fee level and services.

At the digital level, you get access to a simple online investing tool with an annual fee of 0.25%. The premium plan includes career coaching and financial planning with an annual fee of 0.50%. There’s also a private wealth level, where you get a dedicated team if you invest $1 million or more.

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Pros:

• Factors Women’s needs in Strategies
• Can purchase planning sessions with financial advisors and CPAs
• Has a supportive network of users through its social media

Cons:

• No APY on the cash management account
• Can only get retirement accounts in the top two plans

12. Charles Schwab Intelligent Portfolios

• 🏆 Best for Automatic Tax-Loss Harvesting
• Fees: $0 for standard; $300 set-up fee and $30 per month with a $25,000 minimum at the premium level.
• Minimum: $5,000

Charles Schwab, the world’s largest brokerage firm, has entered the world of robo-advising with its simple but robust product that resembles Wealthfront and Betterment but charges no fees.

So why isn’t Schwab higher on this list? Because you’d need to invest a minimum of $5,000 to use this service.

But if you have $5K to get started, Intelligent Portfolios seamlessly integrates with other Charles Schwab products and is available in a range of different account types, including a brokerage, IRA, and custodian.

There is also a premium plan where you get one-on-one access to a Certified Financial Planner® for a one-time setup fee of $300 and then $30 per month. You’d need $25,000 to invest in order to join the premium plan.

Pros:

• Can opt for one-on-one sessions with a CFP (for an additional cost)
• Wide selection of ETFs
• 24/7 live customer support

Cons:

• Account minimum is high compared to some other robo advisors
• Tax-loss harvesting only available on accounts with at least $50k

13. Fidelity Go

• 🏆 Best for Free Automated Rebalancing
• Fees: $0 on balances < $10,000; $3 / mo from $10,001 – $50,000; 0.35% annual management fee on balances $50,000+
• Minimum: $0

Schwab’s main competitor, Fidelity, now has its own robo-advisor, Fidelity Go. This service now charges no annual management fees on balances up to $10,000.

There is no account minimum to open, but you’d need at least $10 to invest — making Fidelity Go an accessible tool for new investors. And, this platform does not charge individual investment expense ratios.

Unfortunately, there’s no tax-loss harvesting which could cost you more at tax time in some scenarios. And, Fidelity could make it easier to transfer in other securities. As of now, you’d have to deposit cash. You couldn’t even transfer funds from another Fidelity account.

But if you already use Fidelity — which I recommend as an online stock broker for self-directed accounts — you can benefit from adding a Fidelity Go account.

Pros:

• No management fees on smaller accounts
• Can be integrated with other Fidelity accounts
• Portfolio options are available to view before opening an account

Cons:

• Account types are limited
• Only has retirement and “other” goals

15. Stash

• 🏆 Best for Beginners
• Fees: $3 or $9/mo (depending on the services and account types you choose)
• Minimum: $0; $5 to start investing

While many of the robo advisors in our review – including Axos and E*TRADE – are well-suited for new investors, Stash is certainly the best. 

There’s no minimum to open an account and it only takes $5 to get started with investing. With Stash, you can be as involved – or as hands-off – as you want to be, since the company uses a hybrid DIY and automated investing approach. 

Although Stash’s fees are a little higher than some competitors, the company’s online educational resources and tools lend support to investors who want a little more help getting started or managing their portfolios. 

Pros:

• Has easy-to-understand educational content on its website
• Offers DIY and automated investing
• Includes online banking and budgeting tools

Cons:

• IRA portfolio management is not automated
• No tax optimization strategies

16. Interactive Advisors

• 🏆 Best for Socially Responsible Investors
• Fees: 0.08% – 0.75% (depending on portfolio selection)
• Minimum: $100 

Geared more toward sophisticated investors, Interactive Advisors is a great choice for those looking to build a socially responsible portfolio. Interactive Advisors has sustainable products, mindful business, environmental, and other socially responsible investment options.

Fees can be high depending on which managed portfolio you prefer, but Interactive Advisors has lots of low-fee options. Interactive also stands out as a robo advisor that offers fractional shares, so you can deposit small amounts to get started. 

Pros:

• Wide selection of socially responsible portfolio options
• Unlimited no-cost investment support from financial professionals
• Most portfolios only require a $100 minimum to invest

Cons:

• Higher minimums and fees for actively managed portfolios
• Doesn’t have automatic tax-loss harvesting

Summary of The Best Robo-Advisors

Why Robo Advisors Are A Good Option

Investing requires solid strategies to maintain and grow wealth while minimizing risks.

Robo-advisors can help you find this balance while giving you a hands-off approach by:

• minimizing risk through tax-loss harvesting in taxable accounts
• doing automatic account rebalancing in high-growth portfolios
• paying strong interest rates on insured cash management accounts
• steering your ship towards higher growth potential within your risk tolerance.

How Do You Choose The Best Robo-Advisor?

The right robo advisor for you has the tools to meet your investment goals and a fee you don’t mind paying.

If you’re just having fun and would like to experiment with a few robo-advisors, you’ll find several free options in the list above. Keep in mind these free services aren’t really free. They earn interest on the non-invested cash in your account.

If you’re looking for a permanent solution that protects your tax liability and matches your growth strategy, you’ll probably want a management fee-based robo. Some of these paid platforms even pay interest on your non-invested cash.

As you shop around, consider these factors:

• Management Fees: As I just said, a lot of the best robos charge no management fees. Be wary of flat-fee plans which get costly on low balances.
• Expense Ratios: These fees pay for the actual index funds and ETFs your robo invests your money in. These fees keep the funds you’re buying into up and running.
• Rebalancing: This should be a core feature for any robo-advisor. Otherwise, the different growth rates of different types of funds will throw off the ratios of your asset classes.
• Tax-Loss Harvesting: Most robos will optimize your account to minimize tax losses within taxable accounts.
• Account Types: If you’re investing for retirement, make sure the robo you’re considering offers IRAs and any other planning tools you’d like to use.
• Human Advisors: You don’t have to have built-in support from a human financial advisor. After all, robo-advisors are defined as algorithm-based investing. But if you’d like to talk to someone, make sure the robo you’re considering offers this option. (And don’t confuse technical support with financial advice.)

Learn More:

• Robo-Advisor vs. Financial Advisor

Should You Use a Robo-Advisor?

Here’s the bottom line: Robo-advisors are hands-off investment tools. You open an account, identify your goals and risk tolerance, deposit money, and then let the computer do the work.

If you crave a more hands-on approach, you may want an online stock broker. Many of the services above offer both.

And, of course, there’s no rule against having multiple kinds of accounts. Why not put a portion of your portfolio in a robo and then self-direct the rest?

Since robo-advisors offer mutual funds, ETFs, and index funds, they could add some stability to your investment strategy and help you grow your wealth even if you have a few missteps in your self-directed accounts.

All this at a very low cost.

Vanguard Digital Advisor is an all-digital service.  Digital Advisor’s annual net advisory fee is approximately 0.15% across your enrolled accounts for a typical investment portfolio, although your actual net fee will vary depending on the specific holdings in each enrolled account. Vanguard Digital Advisor charges a 0.20% annual gross advisory fee to manage Vanguard Brokerage Accounts. However, we’ll credit you for the revenues that The Vanguard Group, Inc. (“VGI”), or its affiliates receive from the securities in your Digital Advisor managed portfolio (i.e., at least that portion of the expense ratios of the Vanguard funds held in your portfolio that VGI or its affiliates receive). Your net advisory fee can also vary by enrolled account type. The combined annual cost of Vanguard Digital Advisor’s annual net advisory fee plus the expense ratios charged by the Vanguard funds in your managed portfolio will be 0.20% for Vanguard Brokerage Accounts. For more information, please review Form CRS and the Vanguard Digital Advisor brochure.

Vanguard Digital Advisor’s services are provided by Vanguard Advisers, Inc. (“VAI”), a federally registered investment advisor. VAI is a subsidiary of VGI and an affiliate of VMC. Neither VAI nor its affiliates guarantee profits or protection from losses.