Robinhood and Webull both offer easy-to-use trading platforms that are geared towards new retail traders. I have used both brokers and I have a clear preference for one over the other for many reasons. But, let’s take a side-by-side look at both so you can which might fit your trading and investing goals best.
Basic Features
Here are some of the very basic offerings of Webull and Robinhood. As you can see, the two brokers offer many of the same basic features.
| Webull | Robinhood | |
| Commission-Free Trading | ✓ | ✓ |
| Full Premarket/After Hours Trading | ✓ | Limited |
| Fractional Shares | ✓ | ✓ |
| IRAs | ✓ | X |
| Options Trading | ✓ | ✓ |
| Short Selling | ✓ | X |
| Referral Incentives | ✓ | ✓ |
| Crypto Trading | ✓ | ✓ |
| Mobile App | ✓ | ✓ |
| Desktop App | ✓ | ✓ |
| Technical Indicators | ✓ | Limited to Desktop |
| Paper Trading | ✓ | X |
The biggest takeaway from this is that Robinhood is obviously not suitable for anyone looking to have a self-directed IRA or for anyone interested in short selling stocks. If I had to bet on it, I’d say Robinhood will likely expand its offerings in the future, but that’s just a guess and there is no indication as of now that Robinhood will offer IRA trading accounts or short selling on stocks.
Webull wins me over with its full access to all-hours trading. From 4:00am EST to 8:00pm EST, you can place trades on Webull. Robinhood does allow some premarket and after-hours trading, but it is limited. You can place orders starting at 9:00am EST and ending at 6:00pm EST on Robinhood. While the most important trading hours are arguably regular hours from 9:30am to 4:00pm, I prefer to have the freedom to sell my positions at any time. Some of my best profits on $SPCE in the last few months have happened well before Robinhood’s trading window opens.
Chart Features
Since both brokers have a lot of the same basic offerings, let’s compare some of the chart features for WeBull and Robinhood. This is important if you rely on charting and technical analysis in your trading, and this is a place where Robinhood and WeBull differ greatly.
At a glance, you can see that the charts offered on each broker’s mobile app look very different. These charts are for the same stock on the same day and there are several major differences in how they are displayed. Both platforms offer an easy-to-find Trade button so you can open an order window straight off of the chart.
Both Robinhood and WeBull offer line and candlestick charts. Webull does have more options on chart type than Robinhood. If you prefer a chart that is not a simple line or candlestick chart, WeBull is definitely going to be your choice of broker. For most people, a standard candlestick chart works just fine for trading which both brokers offer.
Time frames are a really important chart feature for traders. Robinhood’s mobile app falls very short in this category. If you press and hold on a specific candle in Robinhood, you’ll get some information about what time frame a single candle represents. Webull, on the other hand, allows you to select the time period you would like each candle to represent. You can easily switch from 1 minute to 5 minute to up to 4 hours on Webull.
You will also notice that Webull has indicators such as VWAP, RSI, and others available to you on the mobile app. Robinhood does not offer these on its mobile app. On Robinhood Web, there are five indicators available: Volume, Moving Average (MA), Exponential Moving Average (EMA), Relative Strength Index (RSI), and Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD). The Webull mobile app and desktop app offer a much larger number of indicators, including VWAP (Volume Weighted Average Price) which is a really commonly used indicator for traders.
Robinhood or Webull? Which is Better?
For anyone who trades using technical analysis, Webull is clearly the superior choice. The broker simply offers more to its customers and has the same zero-commission trading benefits as Robinhood. I previously used Robinhood for its fractional share feature, but Webull has finally introduced fractional share trading on its platform.
A lot of people really like the Robinhood user interface. It is much simpler than Webull so new traders don’t feel quite so overwhelmed. While I understand the feeling, I think the simple platform is detrimental to developing as a trader in the long run. People describe Robinhood as the “training wheels” of trading but I see it more as a handicap because I like to have more information about the complex movement of stock prices versus less.
There is nothing preventing a person from having accounts with both brokers. You may like the charting options of WeBull but the order experience of Robinhood. I have an account with Interactive Brokers but really dislike the platform in general (this is simply a way around PDT for me) so I will use Webull’s charts on my desktop and place trades on Interactive. You can do the same with Robinhood and Webull if you prefer one aspect of one interface over the other.
For me, Webull is 100% the clear winner. I like having a Roth IRA I can trade with in Webull. Premarket is a great time for me to sell swing trades at crazy highs that sometimes never present themselves during regular hours. And, I really like being able to manipulate my charts. I feel completely blind when I look at a Robinhood chart.
If you’re uncertain about using Webull because it seems too complex, you can practice trading with Webull paper trading option. Trade with a fake account so you can become accustomed to the way Webull works. Check out this post about paper trading on Webull if you’re interested.
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Happy trading!
Unraveled Teacher 