HOW THE ONLINE BROKERS STACK UP

We compared investment offerings, tools, apps, advice and more to find the best broker for you.

- NELLIE S. HUANG

INVESTING has become more accessible to more people, but that hasn't made finding the right broker any easier. If anything, brokerage firms look more alike. Low commissions, for instance, are no longer a differentiator-all firms have low costs now.

Figuring out which broker is right for you depends on what you need and what you value. You may want a broker that has an array of no-transaction-fee mutual funds at the ready. Maybe you need technical reports on stocks or charting tools that let you slice and dice a stock's moves. If you're just getting started, you may want the ability to invest in partial shares of stocks. Or if you don't know much about investing, a firm with a good robo adviser may suit you best.

To help you choose, we rounded up data from 10 brokers who agreed to participate in our annual survey. Every year we invite a number of firms, but to be included, a broker must offer online trading in stocks, exchange-traded funds, mutual funds and individual bonds. Half of this year's participants are well known: E*Trade, Fidelity, Merrill Edge, Charles Schwab and TD Ameritrade. Three are online brokers with affiliated banks: J.P. Morgan Self-Directed Investing (Chase Bank), Wells Trade (Wells Fargo) and Ally Invest (the online-only Ally Bank). The remaining two, Firstrade and Interactive Brokers, focus more on trading and are popular with active investors. Siebert didn't respond to our invitations; T. Rowe Price and Vanguard declined to participate.

Each participant answered dozens of questions in seven categories: commissions and fees; investment choices; smartphone app; tools; research; advisory services; and user experience. The user experience category measures how well a company interacts with customers, including via its website or mobile app. Scores in each category depend on information provided to us by the brokerages, vetted to the best of our abilities.