Webull Review 2024: Pros, Cons and How It Compares

What we love about Webull

Webull is a well-reviewed, mobile-first trading app that has continually improved its offering year after year. It is one of the few brokers NerdWallet reviews that, as of 2024, earned the full five-star rating, along with Fidelity and Interactive Brokers. Here's what makes Webull stand out:

Its low costs: Webull ranks among the best in terms of costs, with free stock and options trades and no equity options contract fee.

The advanced tools: Webull was built to be user-friendly for a mobile-first generation, but that doesn’t come at the expense of advanced charting and screener tools.

The high interest rate on uninvested cash: Webull users can currently get 5% APY on their uninvested cash, which is among the highest of any brokerage.

Webull is a great fit for the following types of investors:

Intermediate traders: Webull isn't as advanced as Interactive Brokers, but you can do more than you can on Robinhood.

Active traders: If you're hoping to get more out of your investing than a buy-and-hold strategy, Webull could be a good choice.

Options traders: With no cost to trade equity options, this is a solid choice.

What the Nerds think 🤓

Webull at a glance

Full details about Webull

Account minimum:

There is no account minimum at Webull.

Account fees:

Account fees are one area in which Webull has improved over the years; it has dropped its old transfer fee and joined the exclusive ranks of brokers that charge no account fees at all.

Stock trading costs:

Webull ranks high in terms of cost, with no account minimum and free trades on stocks, exchange-traded funds and American depository receipts.

Options trades:

Webull no longer offers completely-free trades on all options — they still do not charge a commission, and equity options are still no-contract-fee, but they do now charge a per-contract fee of $0.55 on index options. However, that's still lower than the fees charged by many other brokers.

Interest rate on uninvested cash:

Webull investors get their uninvested cash swept into a network of accounts at partner banks that accrue interest daily and pay it out monthly. Webull's 5% APY on uninvested cash is available to all users, and is one of the best cash interest rates among any broker.

Tradable securities:

Despite a robust offering for active traders, Webull lacks access to some common securities, such as mutual funds. Bonds are only available in the form of bond ETFs. For investors interested in saving for retirement in an IRA, this could make it harder to truly diversify across assets traditionally found in a retirement portfolio.

On the upside, Webull offers fractional shares — and provides cheap credit to advanced investors via some of the lowest margin rates in the business. It also recently launched commodities and futures trading.

Crypto offering: Webull's sister app Webull Pay gives investors the ability to trade 8 cryptocurrencies for USD. Webull Pay offers investors a smooth, easy-to-use trading interface. However, like many crypto offerings from stock brokers, it has fewer features than many pure-play crypto brokers. There are no crypto-crypto trading pairs, staking features, or third-party wallet compatibilities on Webull Pay, for example.

Number of no-transaction-fee mutual funds: Not rated.

Webull does not offer any mutual funds.

Trading platform:

Webull excels at marrying the minimalist look and feel the mobile-first generation is accustomed to with the capabilities of a more advanced product. This also helps Webull achieve the somewhat unique feat of creating a platform that bridges intermediate level trading and advanced trading, ushering users along their investment journey as they gain more experience. The extended trading hours — 4:00 a.m. Eastern time to 8:00 p.m. on weekdays — are a nice touch, as well.

Webull offers investors access to initial public offerings (IPOs), as well as over-the-counter (OTC) stocks for an additional commission. That puts it ahead of some brokers in terms of the capabilities of its trading platform — but behind those that offer free OTC stock trades.

But in trying to appeal to both beginner and advanced investors, Webull delivers a less-than-perfect product for both groups. New investors might struggle to find the "buy" and "sell" buttons amidst all the chart widgets and screeners, while advanced investors might find those widgets and screeners somewhat disappointing compared to what's available from other trading-oriented brokers.

Webull also accepts payment for order flow (PFOF), which can result in orders being executed slightly slower or at slightly worse prices than at non-PFOF brokers — although its effects will be negligible for most investors. The PFOF business model involves routing customer orders through trading firms for execution, and the trading firms can use the customer order data to inform their own trading decisions. Webull says its execution quality is 99.43%.

Mobile app:

Webull has a highly rated mobile app, which makes sense, considering it’s targeting mobile-first customers. Within the app, users can access advanced features, like charts and indicators, a paper trading account and voice command functionality.

Research and data:

Webull's third-party research and data offerings feel significantly more limited than those of their competitors. Investors get access to data from Refinitiv and news from Bloomberg. A handful of other services are available — but less than most other brokers offer.

Customer support options:

Webull offers customer support via phone during market hours, by email 24/7, and an easily-navigable website. Its educational support offerings, however, are limited.

Is Webull right for you?

If you’re a true beginner, or if you’ve yet to build a well-diversified, long-term portfolio, there may be other brokers better suited for you. However, if you’ve got an intermediate level of experience, are interested in active trading or are hoping to improve your trading skills through advanced orders and technical analysis, Webull could be a good fit — especially considering its low price point compared with brokers with similar offerings.

How do we review brokers?

NerdWallet’s comprehensive review process evaluates and ranks the largest U.S. brokers by assets under management, along with emerging industry players. Our aim is to provide an independent assessment of providers to help arm you with information to make sound, informed judgments on which ones will best meet your needs. We adhere to strict guidelines for editorial integrity.

We collect data directly from providers through detailed questionnaires, and conduct first-hand testing and observation through provider demonstrations. The questionnaire answers, combined with demonstrations, interviews of personnel at the providers and our specialists’ hands-on research, fuel our proprietary assessment process that scores each provider’s performance across more than 20 factors. The final output produces star ratings from poor (one star) to excellent (five stars).