Best for beginners

Betterment

Betterment

Betterment was one of the first robo-advisors and has stood the test of time to become one of the most popular financial planning robo-advisors.

With Betterment, you only pay one fee: 0.25% annually on your balance (or $25 for every $10,000 you have). Betterment also offers a premium tier: a 0.40% annual fee, which includes unlimited access to certified financial planners and advice on all your investments — even those that aren’t with Betterment. Thanks to automatic rebalancing and tax-loss harvesting, you won’t hang on to assets that aren’t working their hardest for you. Tax-loss harvesting is when a security is sold at a loss and a similar one is bought to replace it, offsetting taxable gains and income. Along with that, the $0 minimum balance means you can get started right now with this robo-advisor choice.

Best robo-advisor with the lowest fees

Wealthfront

Wealthfront

Wealthfront and Betterment are two of the biggest robo-advisors available. I’ve had an investment portfolio account with Wealthfront for years and I’m happy with what its asset allocation platform offers. I signed up quickly and easily moved money in, and I love the monthly reports about how my portfolio is doing. I can make asset adjustments as necessary, like if I want to have more conservative investments or riskier ones.

Wealthfront offers stock-level tax-loss harvesting where individual stocks that are losing you money get moved around for more favorable ones. This is good news for stock investors because you get the benefit of minimizing your taxable gains with your higher-risk stock investments. This, plus many of the enhanced features are available if your account is over $100,000. For example, digital advisor Smart Beta (for portfolios $500,000 and up) uses many different risk factors to determine the weight of investments in your portfolio. It analyzes value, dividend yield and volatility, among others. But you don’t need to pay a higher annual fee to access them, just have more money in your investment account.

Best for extra investing perks

SoFi

SoFi

The SoFi robo-advisor is best known for handling loans, but it’s recently gotten into financial investments as well.

SoFi doesn’t charge any fees for automated investing and you have access to financial experts anytime by email, phone or chat. Like Betterment and Wealthfront, SoFi is a fiduciary, which should mean it won’t sell you unnecessary products or give you financial advice that doesn’t work for you. You can start with this digital advisor by investing with as little as a minimum investment of $1 right now. With no advisory, administrative or other account fees, your investment money goes to your investments — not to someone or something managing it. No matter your account portfolio balance, you have free, unlimited access to human certified financial planners in case you need specific financial planning help. With Betterment, that comes with an extra fee.

Best for goal-based investing

Ellevest

Ellevest

Ellevest was created by women especially for women — although anyone can sign up. Having launched with a fee-based model, Ellevest has now shifted to a flat monthly membership fee. For $1 a month, the Essential plan gives you access to investing and banking tools, educational materials and a 20% discount on the company’s coaching service (sessions start at $125). The Plus plan, which costs $5 a month, adds personalized retirement account planning. And the $9-per-month Executive tier accommodates multigoal investing and management of up to six investment accounts.

The Ellevest robo adviosr platform algorithm bases your asset allocation investments on your salary, gender and expected life span. Since women historically earn less than men do — and live longer — an Ellevest portfolio brokerage acount reflects that. You have the option to select impact portfolios, or companies that match your investment goal. Not every investment management company offers sustainable, responsible and impact investing. You could see it as a way for women to invest in women, furthering their economic growth and sustainability.

Best for microinvesting

Acorns

Acorns

Acorns is a microinvestment platform. You don’t need a lot to get started or to keep your investments growing.

If all you have is a little spare change, consider Acorns. This automatic investing robo-advisor has no minimum account balance or fees for trading, which some of our picks have. But a basic account is $1 a month and you’ll start investing your leftover money through its automatic Round-Ups program. When you make a purchase on a linked card, your transaction is rounded up to the nearest dollar and your leftover change goes into your Acorns investment account. This automated-investing robo-advisor platform makes investing so hands-off you don’t even need to worry about logging in to make minimum investment contributions to a brokerage account. It’s great if you don’t have a lot of cash to devote to investing right now but still want to get started.

There’s also a $3-a-month personal account that’s many accounts in one, including investing, retirement, checking and a physical debit card. The $5-a-month family plan gives you investment accounts for kids plus investing, retirement and checking accounts.

Best for traditional investors

TD Ameritrade

TD Ameritrade

Essential Portfolios from TD Ameritrade is the investment company’s robo-advisor option. The $500 minimum balance and 0.30% annual fee are similar to those of competing digital advisor robot investing platform offerings (Wealthfront and Betterment charge 0.25%) and the traditional brokerage gets you a host of investment portfolio asset allocation options. For instance, you get a robo-advisor but still have access to financial investment manager experts to help you sort out your investment questions and concerns.

You can also choose socially aware investing, similar to Ellevest’s impact portfolios. When you go with TD Ameritrade, you have your pick from more than a dozen different types of financial planning investment accounts, including:

Individual brokerageTraditional IRARoth IRARollover IRAMinor IRAMinor Roth IRASEP IRASIMPLE IRABeneficiary IRAIndividual 401(k)529 college savings planUniform Transfers to Minors Act/Uniform Gifts to Minors Act

Plus a slew of other types of investment accounts, like joint and minor accounts. The wide variety of portfolio options means you can open nearly any account you want with only a few hundred dollars. If you want the comfort of having a longstanding investment company while still taking advantage of a robo-advisor, TD Ameritrade is a solid choice.