Acorns Invest creates predefined portfolios tailored to specific investors. Your money is placed in a combination of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and your investment allocation changes according to your risk tolerance.

This reduces your investment risk, but you relinquish control of your investments and cannot buy shares of individual companies or invest in cryptocurrencies. If you want to explore the best robo-advisors, it’s worth a look.

Robinhood does not offer a robo-advisory service, but rather lets you choose how you want to invest and offers many investment options. You can select ETFs yourself, but you can also buy stocks, options, and even invest in cryptocurrencies with Robinhood Crypto. Robinhood is also one of the best options trading platforms because it does not charge any contract fees for options trading, unlike many other brokerage firms.

Fractional stock trading is also an option with Robinhood’s investment platform, allowing you to invest with very little money and buy partial shares of companies you want to own. This feature, along with the $0 account maintenance fee, earns Robinhood a place among the best online brokers for beginners.