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US · Country profile

Best brokers in the United States

The US is the only market where commission-free stock and ETF trading is effectively universal. So the question is no longer what an order costs but how the broker earns instead — payment for order flow, interest margin on idle cash, or securities lending. For options traders the per-contract fee remains the dominant cost. For most US investors, tax-advantaged accounts are the single biggest lever.

The ranking

Risk warning: CFDs and leveraged products are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly. Investments can fall in value. Past performance is not an indicator of future results.

Brokers available
16of 72
With a local licence
15
Tier-1 regulated
16
Avg. score
4.0

Market in figures

United States: the broker market in figures

16 of the 72 brokers in our dataset accept clients resident in the United States. The figures below count only what a record documents — a missing entry never counts as a yes.

USD as an account currency
16of 16
Customer support in English
16of 16
Commission on a €5,000 share order
€0 – €12.5013 providers with a comparable price
No custody fee (documented)
12of 16

Run your own numbers

Country profile

Market profile

Supervision, investor protection and tax — the three points that decide the account.

United States

US · Country profile

Local currency
USD
Local regulator
SECFINRACFTCNFA
Recorded providers
16 of 72

Investor protection

SIPC — up to USD 500,000, of which no more than USD 250,000 in cash

The part that decides

Tax notes

Short-term gains (under one year) are taxed at ordinary income rates, long-term gains at preferential rates. Tax-advantaged accounts such as 401(k), traditional IRA and Roth IRA defer or eliminate taxation. The wash sale rule limits loss harvesting.

Brokers that withhold tax locally

Our dataset records these providers as tax withholding agents for this country. Whether that removes the need to declare the income yourself is something we have not checked for this country. The country's tax law decides.

Orientation based on the general legal position — not tax advice. Your personal situation and the legislation in force at the time govern.

Available here

The ranking

Ranked by our overall score across ten weighted criteria. Only providers that accept clients resident here.

See all brokers
Where you live decides which brokers and promotions are open to you. The page language is independent of it.

Advertising disclosure: where a partnership is active, we may earn a commission through broker links. The provider’s terms apply. Commissions do not influence our ratings; paid placements are separately labelled as sponsored.

Rank 1

Charles Schwab

The full-service US giant that also owns thinkorswim, a professional-grade trading platform.

  • US long-term investors
  • Options and futures traders
Stocks (per order)
Free
Minimum deposit
None
FX conversion
1 %
StocksETFsOptionsFutures+5
  • Pros: USD 0 commission on every online listed US stock and ETF order, with no share cap and no proprietary-fund restrictions
  • Cons: No spot cryptocurrency trading — only ETFs, futures and crypto-adjacent equities, which puts Schwab behind Fidelity and well behind Robinhood
Group index 93/100
SECFINRA, FDIC
Protection depends on your legal entity
Visit brokerRead review

Risk warning: CFDs and other leveraged products are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. You should consider whether you understand how these products work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

Rank 2Fidelity Investments logo

Fidelity Investments

The research-and-education benchmark for US investors, with the cheapest funds in the industry attached.

  • US long-term investors
  • Index fund and ETF buyers
Stocks (per order)
Free
Minimum deposit
None
FX conversion
1 %
StocksETFsOptionsCrypto+3
  • Pros: USD 0 online US stock and ETF commissions, and Fidelity does not accept payment for order flow on equity orders
  • Cons: No futures, no futures options and no retail forex — a hard stop for macro and commodity traders
Group index 73/100
SECFINRA, FDIC
Protection depends on your legal entity
Visit brokerRead review

Risk warning: CFDs and other leveraged products are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. You should consider whether you understand how these products work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

Rank 3Interactive Brokers logo

Interactive Brokers

The cheapest serious route to almost every market on earth — if you can live with the learning curve.

  • Active and professional traders
  • Multi-currency investors

Up to USD 1,000 in stock — Referral programme with share credit

Note: this button leads to the Interactive Brokers home page and is not a referral link. The share credit is only available if you open the account through an invitation from an existing Interactive Brokers client.

Stocks (per order)
0.05 %
Minimum deposit
None
FX conversion
0 %
StocksETFsOptionsFutures+8
  • Pros: US stocks from USD 0.0035 per share on the Tiered plan, minimum USD 0.35 per order and capped at 1% of trade value
  • Cons: Customer support is the most common complaint: many requests go through the ticket system, and public reviews (e.g. on Trustpilot) often cite slow replies and template answers
Group index 90/100
SECFCA, CBI, ASIC, MAS
Protection depends on your legal entity
Visit brokerRead review

Risk warning: CFDs and other leveraged products are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. You should consider whether you understand how these products work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

Rank 4

moomoo

One of the most data-rich free trading platforms on the market — if you happen to live in one of the seven countries it serves.

  • Data-driven active traders
  • US options traders
Stocks (per order)
Free
Minimum deposit
None
FX conversion
n/a
StocksETFsOptionsFutures+3
  • Pros: Free Nasdaq TotalView Level 2 depth on the US platform — Webull charges USD 3.99 per month for comparable data
  • Cons: Available to residents of only seven countries — the United States, Canada, Singapore, Australia, Japan, Malaysia and New Zealand — with no EU, UK or DACH entity
Group index 86/100
FINRAMAS, ASIC, CIRO, SC
Protection depends on your legal entity
Visit brokerRead review

Risk warning: CFDs and other leveraged products are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. You should consider whether you understand how these products work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

Rank 5tastytrade logo

tastytrade

An options-specialist US broker: USD 1 per contract to open, closing commission-free — built by people who trade premium for a living.

  • Options premium sellers
  • High-volume multi-leg traders

USD 0 to close — No commission to close options positions

Stocks (per order)
Free
Minimum deposit
None
FX conversion
n/a
StocksETFsOptionsFutures+5
  • Pros: Equity options are USD 1 per contract to open, USD 0 to close and capped at USD 10 per leg — large multi-leg orders scale for free
  • Cons: FINRA censured and fined tastytrade USD 850,000 in 2026 for failing to run adequate best-execution reviews on equity orders routed to five payment-for-order-flow market makers between 2020 and 2023
Group index 82/100
FINRASEC, NFA
Protection depends on your legal entity
Visit brokerRead review

Risk warning: investing in securities involves risk. You may lose some or all of the capital you invest.

Rank 6Kraken logo

Kraken

The most heavily licensed venue in crypto — and the only one that is also a chartered US bank.

  • Traders who prioritise regulatory quality
  • Crypto derivatives and margin traders
Stocks (per order)
Free
Minimum deposit
€1
FX conversion
n/a
StocksETFsOptionsFutures+3
  • Pros: Wyoming SPDI bank charter through Kraken Financial — a full-reserve institution required to hold 100% unencumbered liquid assets against customer fiat, with a Federal Reserve limited-purpose master account
  • Cons: Entry-tier spot pricing of 0.40% maker and 0.80% taker is the most expensive base rate among major regulated venues, and you need USD 10,000 of 30-day volume before it drops below 0.40% taker
Group index 78/100
CBIFCA, SEC, CFTC, WY DoB, CySEC, VARA, BVI FSC
Protection depends on your legal entity
Visit brokerRead review

Risk warning: CFDs and other leveraged products are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. You should consider whether you understand how these products work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

Rank 7

OANDA

Thirty years, six top-tier licences and one of the strongest mobile apps in FX - attached to spreads you have to work around.

  • Beginners
  • Mobile-first traders
Stocks (per order)
0.06 % (CFD)
Minimum deposit
None
FX conversion
1 %
StocksETFsForexCFDs+6
  • Pros: Regulated by six tier-1 authorities - CFTC/NFA, FCA (542574), CIRO, ASIC (AFSL 412981), MAS and the JFSA - a licence footprint almost nobody in retail FX matches
  • Cons: The default spread-only account is expensive: EUR/USD has been measured at 1.4 to 1.7 pips against roughly 0.8 pips all-in at raw-spread competitors
Group index 89/100
CFTC/NFAFCA, ASIC, CIRO, MAS, JFSA, KNF, BVI FSC
Protection depends on your legal entity
Visit brokerRead review

Risk warning: CFDs and other leveraged products are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. You should consider whether you understand how these products work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

Rank 8

Webull

A desktop-grade trading terminal wrapped in a zero-commission app — with a support desk that lags badly behind the software.

  • US options traders
  • Chart-driven active traders
Stocks (per order)
Free
Minimum deposit
None
FX conversion
n/a
StocksETFsOptionsFutures+5
  • 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
  • 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
Group index 86/100
FINRACFTC/NFA, FCA, ASIC, MAS, AFM
Protection depends on your legal entity
Visit brokerRead review

Risk warning: CFDs and other leveraged products are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. You should consider whether you understand how these products work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

Rank 9eToro logo

eToro

One of the most complete copy-trading products in Europe, wrapped in a notably simple broker app - and paid for through conversion charges rather than commissions.

  • Copy trading
  • Crypto plus stocks in one account

USD 100,000 virtual — Demo account with USD 100,000 in virtual funds

Stocks (per order)
US$1
Minimum deposit
US$50
FX conversion
0.75 %
StocksETFsForexCFDs+4
  • Pros: CopyTrader is one of the most mature copy-trading products in Europe: no separate fee on top of normal trading costs, a USD 200 minimum per copied trader, and up to 100 traders copied at once.
  • Cons: Currency conversion costs 0.75% each way between a European local-currency account and USD, before Club discounts whose size eToro's own pages state differently - for a broker whose core product is USD-denominated, that is the one number you most need.
Group index 91/100
FCAASIC, MAS, SEC, CySEC, FSRA, MFSA, FSAS
Protection depends on your legal entity
Visit brokerRead review

Risk warning: CFDs and other leveraged products are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. You should consider whether you understand how these products work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

Rank 10TradeStation logo

TradeStation

The systematic trader's terminal — elite backtesting and automation, priced for people who use it hard.

  • Systematic and algo traders
  • Active futures traders
Stocks (per order)
US$5
Minimum deposit
None
FX conversion
n/a
StocksETFsOptionsFutures+3
  • Pros: EasyLanguage plus tick-level historical data gives retail traders genuine strategy development, backtesting and optimisation — not a toy backtester
  • Cons: USD 10 monthly inactivity fee unless the account placed at least ten trades or held a USD 5,000 average end-of-month equity balance during the previous 90 days
Group index 94/100
FINRASEC, NFA, FCA, AFM
Protection depends on your legal entity
Visit brokerRead review

Risk warning: investing in securities involves risk. You may lose some or all of the capital you invest.

Rank 11Public.com logo

Public.com

The only US broker in this comparison that pays you to trade options — plus fractional corporate bonds and Treasury ladders in the same app.

  • US options income traders
  • Bond and Treasury investors
Stocks (per order)
Free
Minimum deposit
None
FX conversion
0.3 %
StocksETFsOptionsCrypto+2
  • Pros: Options Rebate Program pays USD 0.06–0.18 per stock or ETF contract, typically more than the roughly USD 0.05 per contract of regulatory fees — a net-negative transaction cost that no competitor here matches
  • Cons: US residents only — no international entity, so European, UK or DACH investors cannot open an account
Group index 76/100
FINRASEC, NYDFS
Protection depends on your legal entity
Visit brokerRead review

Risk warning: CFDs and other leveraged products are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. You should consider whether you understand how these products work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

Rank 12Robinhood logo

Robinhood

Equity options with no per-contract fee and one of the highest-rated trading apps in our comparison — paired with a thin research offering and penalties from the SEC, FINRA and NYDFS since 2020.

  • Active options traders
  • Mobile-first investors
Stocks (per order)
Free
Minimum deposit
None
FX conversion
n/a
StocksETFsOptionsFutures+3
  • Pros: Equity and ETF options carry no commission and no per-contract fee — only about USD 0.04 per contract of pass-through, against USD 0.65 at Schwab and Fidelity
  • Cons: Four significant regulatory settlements since 2020 — SEC USD 65m in 2020, FINRA USD 57m in 2021, NYDFS USD 30m in 2022 and FINRA USD 26m plus USD 3.75m restitution in 2025 — covering order-flow disclosure, supervision, AML and reporting failures
Group index 78/100
SECFINRA, CFTC, FCA, Bank of Lithuania
Protection depends on your legal entity
Visit brokerRead review

Risk warning: CFDs and other leveraged products are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. You should consider whether you understand how these products work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

By trading style

Best broker per category

Every category weights the rating criteria differently — which is why the same provider rarely wins everywhere.

Transparency

Not available here

Transparency means showing the gaps too. These recorded providers do not accept clients resident here.

Head to head

The top 8, row by row

Fees apply to retail accounts under normal market conditions. Each provider's data date is on its review.

The top 8, row by row — United States
Rank#BrokerOverall scoreStocks (per order)Minimum depositFX conversionLocal licenceTax withheldAsset classesAction
1Charles SchwabSEC · FINRA · FDIC4.6FreeNone1 %Local licenceTax withheld9Visit broker

Risk warning: CFDs and other leveraged products are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. You should consider whether you understand how these products work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

2Fidelity Investments logoFidelity InvestmentsSEC · FINRA · FDIC4.6FreeNone1 %Local licenceTax withheld7Visit broker

Risk warning: CFDs and other leveraged products are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. You should consider whether you understand how these products work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

3Interactive Brokers logoInteractive BrokersSEC · FCA · CBI4.50.05 %None0 %Local licenceTax withheld12Visit broker

Risk warning: CFDs and other leveraged products are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. You should consider whether you understand how these products work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

4moomooFINRA · MAS · ASIC4.3FreeNonen/aLocal licenceTax withheld7Visit broker

Risk warning: CFDs and other leveraged products are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. You should consider whether you understand how these products work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

5tastytrade logotastytradeFINRA · SEC · NFA4.2FreeNonen/aLocal licenceTax withheld9Visit broker

Risk warning: investing in securities involves risk. You may lose some or all of the capital you invest.

6Kraken logoKrakenCBI · FCA · SEC4.1Free€1n/aLocal licenceTax withheld7Visit broker

Risk warning: CFDs and other leveraged products are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. You should consider whether you understand how these products work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

7OANDACFTC/NFA · FCA · ASIC4.10.06 % (CFD)None1 %Local licenceTax withheld10Visit broker

Risk warning: CFDs and other leveraged products are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. You should consider whether you understand how these products work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

8WebullFINRA · CFTC/NFA · FCA4.1FreeNonen/aLocal licenceTax withheld9Visit broker

Risk warning: CFDs and other leveraged products are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. You should consider whether you understand how these products work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

Provider holds a licence from a supervisory authority of this country. Our dataset records the provider as a tax withholding agent for this country.

Advertising disclosure: where a partnership is active, we may earn a commission through broker links. The provider’s terms apply. Commissions do not influence our ratings; paid placements are separately labelled as sponsored.

Countries

Frequently asked questions

16 of the 72 providers recorded in our dataset accept clients resident in the United States. The highest rated right now are Charles Schwab, Fidelity Investments and Interactive Brokers. The full ranking with fees and regulation is at the top of this page.

Content on Brokaro is for information purposes only and is not investment, legal or tax advice.

Read on

Guides and calculators for investors in the United States

Background on tax, fees and regulation — and calculators for your own amounts.

Guides

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