Robinhood vs Tastytrade in 2026

Robinhood vs. TastyTrade Introduction

TastyTrade has cut its stock commission to $0 to match Robinhood’s pricing. Does that mean the two broker-dealers are about even? There’s only one way to find out.

Cost

Services

Promotions

TastyTrade: Get $100 for opening an account with this referral link.

Robinhood: Free stock up to $200 and 3% match when you open an account.

First, Let’s Look at Available Investments

Robinhood clients can trade stocks, ETFs, ADRs, option contracts, and cryptocurrencies. TastyTrade offers the same lineup and also adds futures, options on futures, and closed-end funds.

For crypto, Robinhood currently offers 12 coins, while TastyTrade offers 25. But Robinhood has $0 commissions on crypto trades, while tasty charges 1% of trade value. Robinhood also offers wallet transfers, which tasty does not.





TastyTrade customers can open many account types, including trusts, custodial accounts, foreign accounts, business accounts, joint accounts, and retirement accounts (cryptocurrencies cannot be traded in retirement accounts). Robinhood offers only individual taxable and Traditional/ROTH IRA accounts.

Winner: TastyTrade

Second, We Need to Inspect Margin Services

Robinhood customers can trade on margin through Robinhood Gold. This has a $5 monthly fee, and Robinhood charges it whether you borrow on margin that month or not. Still, it may be worth it because Gold also includes perks like Morningstar research.

The first $1,000 in margin borrowing is included in the monthly fee. Amounts above that cost 5% annually.

TastyTrade has a traditional margin program. That means you pay nothing unless you actually borrow. tasty’s tiered schedule starts at 10.25% and drops as low as 7.25%.

A cash account at Robinhood can be upgraded to margin on the broker’s website. tasty does not offer this convenience. There is no way to upgrade later, so customers with cash accounts must open a new account if they want margin.

Winner: Robinhood

Third, It’s Website Trading

Robinhood’s website is very easy to use. The stock trade ticket sits in the upper-right corner of an asset’s profile. It offers 6 order types, including stop, trailing, and recurring. Cryptocurrencies have 3 order types (market, limit, and recurring).





Recurring orders are a nice feature, but Robinhood falls short on charting. There are only two plot styles (line and candlestick) and four technical indicators.

On the TastyTrade website, users must click a button at the top to launch the trading platform. It’s easy to do, but it is one extra step compared with Robinhood.





Once the platform opens, the trade button is in the upper-left corner. The order ticket has four order types (market, limit, stop, and stop limit). It also has “curve” and “table” tabs that add tools for finding and analyzing securities, especially options. Contracts can be adjusted on a graph, which is a unique approach that Robinhood’s site doesn’t offer.

The issue we found is that tasty’s web platform has very poor charting. It is actually worse than Robinhood’s because charts can’t expand to the full width of the monitor, and there are no technical indicators.

Winner: Pretty close overall

Fourth, We Will Investigate Desktop Software

TastyTrade also offers a desktop program. It looks a lot like the web platform and includes many of the same tools. It works on Windows, Mac, and Linux. One nice feature is automatic updates, so there’s no need to manually install updates later.





Here, TastyTrade delivers much better charting. Charts include drawing tools, technical indicators, and multiple plot styles. Clicking a bid or ask at the top of a chart can fill in a trade ticket.

The trade ticket includes profit-loss diagrams for stocks, although there are still only 4 order types, the same as on the web platform.

Robinhood does not have a desktop platform, but it really should.

Winner: TastyTrade

Fifth, We Need to Explore Mobile Apps

Robinhood’s mobile app has a bottom menu that makes it fairly easy to use. The trade ticket has the same order types as the website. But charting is weaker: there are no tools and no horizontal mode.





News articles show up on asset profiles, but there is no streaming video news or on-demand video.

The TastyTrade app is on a different level. In the bottom menu, there is a tastytrade icon that opens a page with streaming videos from tasty’s in-house network. This section also shows recent trades by tasty employees and customers.





Charts on the tasty app can be displayed horizontally, which is another advantage over Robinhood’s app. But there are no chart tools. The same 4 order types from tasty’s other platforms show up here, too.

Winner: TastyTrade

Sixth, Let’s Consider Day Trading

A tasty account with pattern day trader status can be reset once every rolling 90 days. To find the tool, click My Accounts at the top of the site and select Trading Preferences from the drop-down menu.

Robinhood has a tool that helps prevent trades that would trigger PDT status. On the website, click: Account -> Settings -> Investing.

Shorting: One major weakness at Robinhood is that it does not allow short selling. TastyTrade does.

Routing Fees and Rebates: Maker-taker fees are not offered by either broker.

Extended Hours: Robinhood and TastyTrade both offer pre-market and after-hours trading. Robinhood has longer sessions.

Level II Quotes: Available at Robinhood with a $5/month Gold subscription. TastyTrade does not offer Level II quotes at any price.

Direct-access Routing: Not offered by either broker.

Winner: Robinhood

Seventh on Our List Is Miscellaneous Services

DRIP Service: Automatic dividend reinvesting is available at both broker-dealers at no cost.

Fractional-Share Trading: Robinhood customers can trade fractional shares. TastyTrade customers cannot.

Banking Tools: The Robinhood Cash Card can round up purchases and use the spare change to buy fractions of stocks and coins. TastyTrade has no similar card.

Individual Retirement Accounts: TastyTrade offers several IRA types, including Beneficiary and SEP accounts. Robinhood offers a free 1% IRA match.

Initial Public Offerings: Robinhood traders, but not TastyTrade clients, can sign up for upcoming IPOs.

Winner: Robinhood

Finally, Our Recommendations

Small Accounts: Because Robinhood offers fractional shares, we recommend it here.

Beginners: Robinhood is a bit easier to use, although tastytrade can still be helpful for learning.

Stock & ETF Trading: TastyTrade offers closed-end funds and a desktop platform, while Robinhood offers fractional shares. Take your pick.

Long-Term Investors & Retirement Savers: Robinhood offers a free 1% match, while TastyTrade does not.

Mutual Fund Trading: Neither firm offers mutual funds, but Firstrade has thousands of them.

Robinhood vs TastyTrade Verdict

Overall, TastyTrade and Robinhood are fairly close. TastyTrade does offer $0 stock trades, but it charges commissions on many other products, which is not the case at Robinhood.