Webull Overview
Vault Verified
If you want to trade stocks and like getting access to news, company financial data, analyst takes and company metrics, Webull gives you that better than many other online brokers. But Webull only offers a limited set of investment options. Long-term investors who want access to fixed-income securities or mutual funds will want to look elsewhere.
Pros
- Commission-free trading
- Extensive research data and news within the app
- $5 minimum to trade fractional shares
Cons
- No access to mutual funds or bonds
- High margin rates for smaller accounts
- $75 outgoing stock transfer fee
Vault’s Viewpoint on Webull
What is Webull? On its face, Webull offers something similar to Robinhood and many other top trading apps: zero-commission stock trades in an easy-to-use app. Like other brokerages, Webull makes money by selling its order flow to high-frequency market-maker firms, which may result in small hidden transaction costs.
Webull stands out because of the sheer amount of data available through the app. In our Webull review, we tried out the Webull app and found it gave us more data to drive stock picking than many other apps.
If you’re a data-driven trader who wants to invest in stocks, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), options trading and over-the-counter (OTC) securities, you’ll find enough data to make your picks using only the Webull app. After a trial, some data becomes available only if you pay an additional fee to access it, but the news, metrics and analysis available for free are sufficient for most traders—and more than you’ll get with competing apps.
Investors who take a more conservative approach to building their portfolios will find the app’s lack of investment options like mutual funds and bonds disappointing. And the app’s data presentation can be distracting for investors who don’t care about daily price fluctuations because their investment time horizons are measured in decades. If you’re not into picking individual stocks and trading often, the offerings from traditional and online brokerages like Charles Schwab and Fidelity are likely a better fit.
About Webull
Webull is a financial services company offering the Webull stock trading app. The company offers data-driven trading to individual investors at low costs. Webull’s app features zero commission trades, real-time quotes, extended hours trading and 24/7 online support.
Webull’s brokerage services are provided by Webull Financial LLC. Webull Financial LLC is owned by Fumi Holding, Inc., a China-based holding company.
Is Webull Safe?
Webull Financial Services LLC is registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission and is a member of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), Security Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC) and several stock exchanges. As a member of the SIPC, investor balances are protected up to $500,000. Additionally, Webull’s clearing firm has an insurance policy that protects securities and cash up to an aggregate limit of $150 million.
| Fees | $0 commission on stocks and ETFs: -SEC regulatory transaction fee of $0.000008 * total amount of your trade (minimum $0.01) on stock and ETF sales. |
| Account Minimum | $0 to open an account. -$5 minimum to trade stocks. |
| Promotion | Get up to 75 fractional shares when you open and fund a Webull brokerage account. -Receive 6 fractional shares when you fund any amount. |
| Pricing | $0* *Margin annual rates currently range from 9.74% with a $25,000 or lower balance to 5.74% with a balance greater than $3,000,000. |
Who is Webull Best For?
Webull is a solid option if you’re looking for a low-cost trading platform with advanced features to help research, track and trade individual stocks and ETFs without commission charges. And if you enroll in Webull’s cash management program, you can earn an annual percentage yield of 5% on uninvested cash.
The app gives you easy access to charts, news, an AI-generated feed, analyst ratings and company data. While most of this information is publicly accessible online, Webull wraps it up in a mobile-friendly format.
Webull offers premium services that give you access to more data and analysis if you want access to its proprietary data. Webull’s Sage Tracker plan offers data on more than 9,000 institutions and is $2.99 per month or $35.98 per year.
Webull can also be an attractive option for margin investors with a larger than $500,000 debit balance. At that point margin interest rates are lower than what competitors like Robinhood Gold offer.
Who Should Consider an Alternative to Webull?
Webull is built for people who want to dig into data and invest in stocks. Long-term, passive investors who want access to mutual funds, bonds and other asset classes should look elsewhere. Webull only offers stocks, options, ETFs, OTC securities and fractional shares. And even if you use ETFs for index investing, the data offered on the Webull app might be more distracting than helpful.
Low-balance margin traders may be better off with an alternative like Robinhood. You’ll save a significant amount on interest if you pay for Robinhood Gold if your margin balance is below half a million dollars.
Webull lets you track cryptocurrency markets in the app. But to trade cryptocurrency directly, you’ll need to download Webull Pay, which is a separate app that currently supports trading eight crypto assets, including:
- Bitcoin (BTC)
- Ethereum (ETH)
- Dogecoin (DOGE)
- Litecoin (LTC)
If you’re interested in cryptocurrency, there are better options available. Crypto exchanges like Coinbase offer more cryptocurrencies to trade and enhanced features to help beginners and advanced crypto traders.
How Does Webull Stack Up to Its Competitors?
Depending on your investment style and strategy, you might prefer another brokerage platform to manage your investments. Here’s how Webull stacks up to a few other popular investing apps.
Webull vs. Robinhood
Robinhood is one of the best-known stock trading apps. Both Robinhood and Webull offer commission-free stock trades, which are paid for by a combination of security lending, interest on margin balances and payment for overflow. And both offer a mobile-first experience. But when you start using the apps, you quickly discover that Webull is built for a more analytical type of investor.
Robinhood dramatically simplifies the trading experience, which is helpful for beginning investors. A few clicks on the app will let you buy or sell stocks in a basic trading interface that shows only the minimum amount of information you need to complete your trade. The app does offer some news and statistics like earnings per share, but the data you can access is more limited than you’ll find on Webull. Morningstar reports and other data sources are available, but you must pay for Robinhood Gold to access those services.
If you want to compare your investment options using the data behind the companies, you’ll want to stick with Webull. But if you prefer to keep things simple and trade based on market trends or follow the news of the companies you invest in, Robinhood might be a better choice.
Webull vs. Fidelity
Fidelity is one of the largest brokerages in the U.S. It offers a full suite of investment products and, like all other major brokerages, Fidelity has a mobile app that lets you manage your investments. Fidelity’s app offers a clean interface that is easy to use, and it offers a trading wizard that makes trading more approachable to new investors.
Webull beats Fidelity when it comes to research and information. With Webull, you can access news, analyst predictions, trading data, press releases, and key performance indicators. Fidelity offers only basic information about a stock and access to Trefis valuation estimates. You can get additional data through Fidelit’s desktop website, but that same information is not available on the app.
The biggest advantage of Fidelity over Webull is that Fidelity offers several types of investment products that aren’t available on Webull. As a full-service brokerage, Fidelity offers mutual funds, bonds, CDs, and many other types of investments. These simply aren’t available on Webull’s platform. Fidelity also services many workplace retirement plans. If your workplace savings plan is already with Fidelity, you can manage your retirement savings and your investment accounts in a single app.
Webull vs. SoFi Active Investing
SoFi offers a wide variety of financial services, but its Active Investing product directly competes with Webull. Active Investing offers self-directed trading through a mobile app. Both apps offer zero-commission trades of stocks, ETFs, options and fractional shares. Webull and SoFi both offer margin trading, but Webull’s margin rates are lower than SoFi’s 10% margin rate.
SoFi’s app interface is clean and simple. The upshot is that trading stocks is easy with SoFi, but the app doesn’t offer much data. When you research a stock using SoFi, you can find basic charts, details like market cap and price/earnings ratio and news highlights. This pales in comparison to the wealth of data, news and analysis you’ll find on Webull. If you’re a data-driven stock picker, Webull is clearly a better choice.
What SoFi offers over Webull is its social features and resources for newer investors. If you use Venmo and make your payments public, you might like how SoFi lets you share your stock purchases and sales with the world. But perhaps more interesting are SoFi’s member experiences and events that are available if you use the app. SoFi offers everything from personal financial advice to courses on the basics of investing, making it a better choice for beginning investors looking to learn how investing works.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is It Better To Use Webull or Robinhood?
Webull and Robinhood offer a similar suite of investments on their respective mobile-first platforms. For most investors, which app is better comes down to how much research you want to do on your investments. Webull offers extensive information such as news, analytics, analyst ratings and KPIs on investments offered through its platform. If you want to access the data behind your investments, Webull is better; if you want simplicity, choose Robinhood.
Do I Actually Own My Shares on Webull?
If you purchase a share of stock on Webull, you actually own the shares. But not all types of transactions will result in stock ownership. When you trade options, for example, you are purchasing the right to buy or sell a stock at a specific price until the option’s expiration date.
How Much Money Do You Need To Use Webull?
You can get started with Webull even if you don’t have much to invest. You don’t need any money to download the Webull app and open your account. Investing in fractional stocks requires at least $5. To invest on margin, you’ll need at least $2,000 of cash or marginable equities in your margin account.
