Webull vs Wealthsimple Trade — which broker is better?

Pros

• USD 0 commission on US-listed stocks, ETFs and equity options, with no per-contract fee — index options are the only equity-derivative exception at USD 0.50 per contract
• A real desktop terminal for Windows, macOS and Linux, with multi-monitor layouts, depth-of-market and a script editor — rare at this price point
• Publicly listed on Nasdaq as BULL since April 2025, so financials and risk disclosures are in the public record
• Free paper trading with the same charts and order tickets as the live account, which makes the options approval process much less punitive
• Futures on CME and Coinbase Derivatives at a reported USD 1.25 per side (E-mini) and USD 0.25 per side (micro), plus fixed income at a 0.1% principal mark-up
• Six top-tier licences across the group — SEC/FINRA, CFTC/NFA, FCA, ASIC, MAS and the Dutch AFM
• No account maintenance fee and no minimum deposit; ACH in and out is free

Cons

• Customer support is the standing complaint: Trustpilot sits at roughly 1.3–1.4 out of 5, with transfers and account access the most common themes
• Crypto costs a 1% spread on each side — about 2% round trip — which is expensive next to a dedicated exchange
• Margin rates are not published on the public pricing page and start around 8.74% at the standard tier, well above brokers such as Public.com
• USD 75 to transfer your securities out, and 1.75% to withdraw to a debit card
• A 2023 FINRA settlement over options-approval due diligence and complaint handling is on the record
• No spot forex, no CFDs, no traditional mutual fund supermarket, and non-US clients get a materially different product depending on which entity they land in

Pros

• CAD 0 commission on Canadian and US stocks and ETFs, plus USD 0 per equity and ETF options contract on every tier, including free assignment
• Futures at USD 1 per contract with free real-time futures market data — no Canadian competitor matches that combination
• CAD 0 to transfer your account out, where Questrade, Qtrade and the banks all charge CAD 150
• Best-rated broker app in Canada at 4.6 on the App Store across roughly 130,000 ratings, with real-time streaming quotes free to everyone
• 24/5 trading on eligible US stocks and ETFs and 24/7 on gold and crypto — the longest trading hours available in Canada
• Margin at prime + 0.5% on Core and prime − 0.5% on Generation, well under the big banks
• CIRO-regulated with CIPF coverage of CAD 1,000,000 per account category, backed by Power Corporation of Canada with a 52.4% stake
• Interest on chequing balances of 1.25% to 2.25% by tier, against effectively 0% on idle cash at most brokers

Cons

• The 1.5% CAD/USD conversion is the same as Questrade's. A USD account (CAD 10 a month on Core, free on Premium from CAD 100,000) removes it on the US trades themselves but not on the CAD you convert into it, which still costs 1.5% per transaction under CAD 10,000 and falls to 0% only from CAD 100,000; journalling at CAD 9.95 is the other way round it
• Crypto costs 2.0% per trade at the Core tier — a round trip is 4% — and the advertised 0.05% requires CAD 10 million of 30-day volume; staking takes 30% of rewards before validator fees
• No bonds, no GICs and no mutual funds anywhere in the self-directed account, so a fixed-income allocation has to be built entirely from ETFs
• No desktop platform, no Level 2 depth, no API and no paper-trading account; the research stack is news and basic charts rather than screeners and analyst coverage
• The crypto assets themselves sit outside CIPF protection and are held in trust instead — only the cash balance in a crypto account is covered, and the cold-storage insurance cited is USD 75 million per custodial partner, not per client
• Meaningful benefits are gated behind CAD 100,000 and CAD 500,000 balances, so the sticker price a small account actually pays is the least attractive version of the offer