Robinhood Markets, founded in 2013, has benefited from booming popularity in self-directed investing, especially among young adults. This rising generation of investors has largely driven Robinhood's 12-year record of strong growth and now has helped it to become an IBD Best Online Broker for 2025.
The pandemic helped bring even more first-time investors to Robinhood's trading platform. Armed with federal stimulus checks and stuck at home with fewer opportunities to spend their money, a new wave of young people became Robinhood customers.
Robinhood cofounder and Chief Executive Vlad Tenev has said from the start that his mission is to liberate information that's been locked up with professionals and give it to the people.
"Our customers skew a little younger (than other brokerages)," said Steve Quirk, Robinhood's chief brokerage officer. "Our customers are closer to 30 while the average age of (the largest brokerage firms' customers) is around 55."
The 2025 list of Best Online Brokers spotlights perennial leader Fidelity Investments, frequent winner Merrill Edge (owned by Bank of America) and mobile-trading favorite Robinhood. Robinhood placed first in mobile trading platforms/apps and pre-market and after-hours trading.
Fidelity has ranked among the top Best Online Brokers every year the survey has been conducted.
Charles Schwab has been honored among IBD's Best Online Brokers for 12 years of the survey. Other online brokers that qualified for analysis in this year's list are Interactive Brokers, E-Trade (owned by Morgan Stanley) and Vanguard.
IBD's annual list of the best online brokers is derived from the results of an extensive survey of thousands of brokerage customers.
Read Our Full Special Report On The Best Online Brokers For 2025
Robinhood Focuses On Customer Needs
"We're so aligned with our customers," Quirk said. "That alignment helps us understand what they need. Many of our associates are the same age" as our customers.
Robinhood, based in Menlo Park, Calif., introduced commission-free stock trading. Its ever-expanding business powers its growth: In its latest quarterly results, it reported 36% year-over-year revenue growth.
For Quirk, a key to Robinhood's success as an online brokerage is its ability to design a trading platform from scratch. Its goal was to democratize access to the markets for a range of investors.
"We had a strong advantage because our platform was built from the ground up with a blank canvas," he said.
Some older and larger brokerages, by contrast, evolved through mergers, acquisitions and consolidations.
"When you cobble technology together (after a merger), there's a lot of tech death," Quirk said. "There's a forced migration of technology that customers aren't always happy about."
Robinhood Caters To Investors On The Move
From the outset, Robinhood had another advantage, Quirk says. It began as an online platform without retail branches.
"It's always been mobile," he said, with more than 90% of Robinhood trades executed through its mobile app. "With other (competitors), it's closer to 50%. We are the dominant player. It's not even close."
As a result, Robinhood has built its online brokerage with on-the-go customers in mind.
"Mobile trading has continued to grow," he said. "We are where the world is going."
Its customers have told Robinhood that they want the ability to trade around the clock. So the company has responded by providing pre-market and after-hours trading on four asset classes: nearly 1,000 equities, native crypto, futures and index options.
"We've acquired more than 20 million customers in four years," Quirk said. "So we have to grow with our customers" by rolling out new offerings that reflect what they want.
In December, for instance, the company sought to help customers manage their tax bill and give them flexibility when selling stocks. It introduced "Tax Lots" to let them choose specific assets to sell — whether those held long term, with the lowest or highest cost basis or that might have experienced the greatest loss.
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Robinhood Hosts In-Person Customer Events
Robinhood didn't build its trading platform in a vacuum. It listened to customers every step of the way.
The company seeks innovative ways to stay close to its customers. In 2024, for example, it hosted its first-ever Hood Summit. Roughly 500 active traders — among the firm's key customers — attended the Miami event.
"We got a wide swath of customer feedback," said Quirk, who added that the best input comes from in-person conversations rather than client responses to written surveys. "We set up booths in Miami where our customer service associates could hear from (attendees). People are very blunt at these events."
In serving a younger demographic, Robinhood has tailored its online brokerage to appeal to their preferred learning style. For instance, it offers seamless access to relevant educational resources that fit individuals' interests.
"The way (younger) people learn is different," Quirk said. "They want it in a pathway, on demand," versus sifting through separate chunks of content.
Paying Attention To Customer Demographics
As Robinhood grows, it also seeks to expand its market and woo older investors. To simplify its onboarding process, for example, it's streamlined how new customers can get up and running on its platform.
"We removed the friction to make the setup more intuitive," Quirk said. In unveiling the new process at Hood Summit 2024, Robinhood featured Tenev's father configuring his account in just three minutes, Quirk says.
