The Best Investing App in Europe: Find Out Which One is Right for You

Introduction

‍If you're looking for the best investing app in Europe, you've come to the right place. In this blog post, we'll discuss the different options available to you and help you decide which one is right for you. Each of these apps has its own unique set of features, so it's important to choose the one that best suits your needs. We'll also talk about some of the benefits of using an investing app and how it can help you grow your portfolio. So without further ado, let's get started!

The benefits of using an investing app

1. Transparency, which leads to control<br>The old school way of investing (brick &amp; mortar, suit &amp; tie bankers) does the exact opposite to the aforementioned. By having a portion of your investments on a mobile application, it gives you a greater sense of visibility and control over your finances.<br>
2. Stay in-sync with the market<br>Investing apps, at least the good ones, continue to iterate and innovate - providing you with up-to-date products, features and information. Furthermore, it encourages you to check on your investments and relevant news so you stay informed with your investments.<br>
3. Increased utility and speed<br>Simply put - you could just do more, faster with an investing app than you could with a traditional brokerage platform. Todays' investing apps provide a wealth of tools/features. From copying other people's trades to trading options across multiple markets, the best investing app in Europe will give you more tools to execute trades and investments at your fingertips.

How to choose an investing app

There are several factors to consider when choosing the best investing app in Europe for you. However, a methodical approach to determining which investing app could be assessed by asking the following questions:

1. What is my objective / why will I invest?
2. Which will increase upside potential?
3. Which will decrease downside risk?

For the first part, it's important to understand why you're investing. The knee-jerk answer is likely, "To make more money." But why? How much do you actually need? Want? Money serves as a means to an end and it's important to understand what that end is. Of course plans/objectives always change but having a north star will reduce significant financial detours in the future.

Apps that increase upside potential hinge primarily on the features that they provide as well as how much you simply like the app. You'll want to have enough financial products to invest in in order to have access to assets that suit your needs throughout your investing journey. In addition, there are complimentary features that improve your learnings and give you tools to make better financial decisions. Finally, which is a feat that I think incumbent banks have neglected over the decades, is user interface. What experience do you have while using the investing app? Do you enjoy it? Is it easy to use? Old school platforms are archaic, clunky, and buggy.

Lastly, a major killer in one's financial portfolio is fees. Depending on portfolio size, fees of as little as 0.5-1% per annum can shave off hundreds of thousands of dollars from your pot over the course of a lifetime! Several studies have found how these fees do not provide significant value as there are very few fund managers that actually beat the market. So if you're looking to sign up to an investing app, it'll be important to look at fees and security to ensure that your investment is protected.

For the sake of simplification, I focused primarily on points 2 and 3. Point number 1 is something that you need to sit down with a nice cup of tea at your local cafe to map out your financial goals (we'll write another blog on this later). For now, we'll go through the following points to assess 5 apps to help you pick the best investing app in Europe.

1. User friendliness (super critical)
2. Fees (trading and non-trading)
3. # of products/assets
4. Security/licenses/reputation
5. Minimum deposit

Based off these criteria, we reviewed several apps in the European market in order to narrow down what the best investing app in Europe would be!

Here we go...

How do these apps work, and what are their features?

‍All of these apps have one primary purpose: make investing easier for you. They do a great job at it and provide different approaches/features that cater to each individuals' needs. It is difficult to say which is the best investing app in Europe due to each persons' unique needs. But the criteria set out above highlights how each app reduces the constraints, which are usually encountered in traditional investment brokers. Thus based on the reduction of each constraint and the addition of several unique features, I categorised each app based off use cases.

So what is the best investing app in Europe?

All of these investing apps are good at various stages of ones financial journey so I'll categorise it as such:

For beginners: Etoro
Why? User friendly interface and high level of engagement with a community to learn from. It offers access to the US market and popular products and has this "learn as you go" approach to investing.

No frills, straight to the point: Interactive Brokers
Why? They offer a wide range of products in an user friendly way. Fees are transparent and provides all the necessary features for beginners and even advanced investors.

Advanced Investors: Plus 500
Why? They offer a wide range of complex investment products like options and CFD's. They are on the higher end in terms of fees, but that comes with the breadth of their product offering + financing options to trade on margins.

If you're looking to trade: IG Markets
Why? It's a fairly user-friendly web and mobile application that makes it easy to get into day trading. Fees are transparent and the spreads are quite slim. You can also access over 17,000 markets across the globe.

Great intermediate app: DeGiro
Why? It's a great app for beginners that segue into becoming an intermediate investor. It provides a nice user interface and access to multiple markets across the globe.

Conclusion

The growth of investing apps have led to a saturated market with too many to choose from that it can be overwhelming. Whichever app you choose, an important question to ask prior to signing up to an investing app is to ask yourself, "what is my objective?" What and why are you investing in the first place? There should always be a clear objective and goal in mind prior to investing. Based off this objective and your particular style, you'll be able to not only find the best investing app in Europe for you, but also accurately plan for your financial future.