Where Acorns shines
Where Acorns falls short
What Acorns is best for
Acorns at a glance
More details about Acorns' ratings
Is Acorns right for you?
How we review robo-advisors: our methodology
Where Acorns shines
Roundups: In addition to adding lump sums to your investments, Acorns lets you round up your purchases on linked credit or debit cards, then sweep the change into a computer-managed investment portfolio.
Cash back: Acorns offers cash back at over 450 retailers.
Where Acorns falls short
No tax strategy: Unlike many of its competitors, Acorns does not offer a tax strategy.
High fees on small balances: Because of its pricing structure, Acorns can have high fees on small account balances.
Acorns is best for:
Hands-off investors.
People who struggle to save.
Earning cash-back rewards.
Acorns at a glance
Reviewed: Oct. 2022
Period considered: Aug. - Oct. 2022
Account minimum | $0 to open account; $5 required to start investing. |
Account management fee | Personal: $3 a month for an investment account plus an IRA and a checking account. Family: $5 a month for all of the above plus investment accounts for kids. |
Investment expense ratios | 0.05% to 0.18%. |
Account fees (annual, transfer, closing) | $35 per ETF to have them transferred to another broker when you close your taxable Acorns account; no charge to sell your investments and have the resulting cash transferred. |
Portfolio mix | Well-diversified portfolio with exposure to domestic and international stocks, bonds, REITs and a Bitcoin-linked ETF. |
Socially responsible portfolio options | Sustainable portfolio built with ESG ETFs available for no extra cost. |
Accounts supported | Individual non-retirement accounts. Roth, traditional and SEP IRAs. UTMA/UGMA accounts available at the $5-per-month tier. |
Tax strategy | Not available. |
Automatic rebalancing | Free on all accounts. |
Human advisor option | Not available. |
Bank account/cash management account | Acorns Checking provides a checking account with no minimum balance or overdraft fees and access to 55,000+ fee-free ATMs. This checking account does not offer an interest rate. |
Customer support options (includes how easy it is to find key details on the website) | Customer support is available 7 days/week from 5:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. PT via live chat, phone and email. |
More details about Acorns' ratings
Account minimum: 5 out of 5 stars
There’s no minimum to open an account, but the service requires a $5 balance to start investing.
Account management fee: 5 out of 5 stars
Acorns charges $3 a month for a taxable brokerage account, Acorns Later (an IRA account) and Acorns Checking, or $5 a month to include those benefits plus Acorns Early, investment accounts for kids.
Whether Acorns' fee is a pro or a con depends entirely on your account balance. Flat fees like this are less common among robo-advisors, which typically charge a percentage of your assets under management per year. A fee of only $3 or $5 a month sounds cheap, but it can be a high percentage of assets for investors with small balances. If you only contribute by rounding up your spare change, one of Acorns’ signature features, your fee relative to your account balance will be fairly high.
Account balance | Personal $3/month ($36/year) | Family $5/month ($60/year) |
|---|---|---|
$100 | 36% | 60% |
$500 | 7.2% | 12% |
$5,000 | 0.72% | 1.2% |
$10,000 | 0.36% | 0.60% |
For context, Acorns’ competitors like Wealthfront and Betterment charge 0.25% per year, and generally offer a higher level of service including tax assistance and more diversified portfolios.
Investment expense ratios: 4 out of 5 stars
An expense ratio is an annual fee charged by mutual funds, index funds and exchange-traded funds, as a percentage of your investment in the fund. If you invest in a mutual fund with a 1% expense ratio, for example, you’ll pay the fund $10 per year for every $1,000 invested. If high, these fees can significantly drag down your portfolio returns. The expense ratios of the funds used in Acorns’ portfolios range from 0.05% to 0.18%. Expense ratios are paid in addition to your Acorns account management fee.
Account fees: 2 out of 5 stars
If you decide to move your investments out of Acorns to another provider, you'll pay a steep fee for that convenience. Acorns charges $35 per ETF to transfer investments. Acorns isn't alone in charging this type of fee, but theirs is on the high side. If you have, say, five ETFs, you're looking at a $175 fee. A more common scenario among providers is to charge $75 to transfer all investments out, and some don’t charge a fee at all.
Still, you can always choose instead to sell your investments and transfer your cash to a bank account. There's no charge for that.
Portfolio mix: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Like other robo-advisors, Acorns takes the investing reins from the user. The app considers your data — including age, goals, income and time horizon — and then recommends one of five portfolios that range from conservative to aggressive. You can accept the recommendation or choose a different portfolio that takes more or less risk.
The portfolios themselves are made up of low-cost iShares and Vanguard exchange-traded funds that cover between four and six asset classes, depending on the portfolio, including: large, medium and small company stocks, international company stocks, a variety of bonds and REITs. The sustainable portfolio also offers emerging market stocks and even more bonds.
Acorns also allows investors to allocate up to 5% of their investments toward a Bitcoin-linked ETF.
Socially responsible portfolio options: 4 out of 5 stars
Acorns offers a sustainable portfolio made up of ETFs graded using ESG (environmental, social and governance) criteria. The platform makes it easy for existing customers to switch their portfolios over from the core portfolio to the sustainable one, but also recognizes that clients may experience tax complications if they do so.
Accounts supported: 4 out of 5 stars
The Family tier includes Acorns Early, which makes it easy to create UTMA/UGMA accounts for your kids. These custodial accounts allow parents to invest on behalf of a minor child, and use the money for expenses that benefit the child. Once the child reaches the age of transfer (this will depend on where they live), they gain ownership of the account and can use the money for any reason.
Custodial accounts are not the same as 529 college savings accounts. 529 accounts are less flexible, as they’re designed for education expenses, but they also offer more tax advantages and are generally considered a better way to save for college. Be sure to do your research or consult a financial advisor to determine the best account for you.
Tax strategy: 1 out of 5 stars
Acorns does not offer any form of tax strategy. Many other robo-advisors offer tax-loss harvesting, which is an investment strategy that can reduce the amount of tax you may have to pay when you sell your investments.
» Want to check out other providers? Here are our top picks for best robo-advisors.
Automatic rebalancing: 5 out of 5 stars
Your portfolio allocation, or how much of your portfolio is in stocks versus bonds or other investments, depends on factors such as your age and investing timeline. Acorns will automatically adjust your portfolio in response to market fluctuations or other factors that shift your portfolio out of its intended investment allocation.
Human advisor option: 1 out of 5 stars
Some robo-advisors offer access to a financial advisor, either for free or for an added fee. Unfortunately, Acorns does not offer its clients access to financial advisors.
Savings account/cash management options: 4 out of 5 stars
Acorns offers an online checking account and debit card. The checking account offers real-time roundups to your investment account, mobile check deposits and access to more than 55,000 fee-free ATMs around the world. It requires no minimum balance, but pays no interest rate.
Customer support options: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Customer support is available 7 days a week from 5 a.m. to 7 p.m. PT by live chat, phone and email. Some robo-advisors provide more comprehensive customer service, such as 24/7 phone support.
Other features you should know about
One feature Acorns is known for is its automated savings tool. Acorns sweeps excess change from every purchase using a linked account into an investment portfolio. You can connect as many cards as you want, though all roundups are taken from the same linked checking account. With each purchase, Acorns rounds up to the nearest $1 and gives you the option to transfer that change into an investment portfolio. You can do that either automatically, so every purchase is rounded up and the change transferred, or manually, by going through recent purchases on the app and selecting which roundups to transfer.
You can also invest lump sums manually or set up recurring deposits on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. Lump-sum transfers may be as small as $5.
To help flesh out your accounts, Acorns has partnered with nearly 450+ companies through its app — including Apple, Stitch Fix, Walmart, Nike and Sephora — to give you cash back when you use a linked payment method at one of the partners. If you use the Acorns Google Chrome and iOS Safari browser extension you can earn rewards when you shop online. In most cases, you get the cash automatically, without any additional steps. You simply use a card linked to an active Acorns account to make the purchase, and the rewards will usually land in your account in 60 to 120 days.
Acorns also has a Job Finder feature powered by ZipRecruiter. The tool gives clients access to career development content and lets them set up job alerts for new opportunities.
Is Acorns right for you?
If you want to make the most of your spare change and get the occasional retailer kickback, there’s really no better place to do that than Acorns. The automatic roundups at Acorns make saving and investing easy, and most investors will be surprised by how quickly those pennies accumulate.
The downside? At small balances, Acorns fees can cut into or completely wipe away investment returns.
How do we review robo-advisors?
NerdWallet’s comprehensive review process evaluates and ranks the largest U.S. robo-advisors. Our aim is to provide an independent assessment of providers to help arm you with information to make sound, informed judgements 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 16 factors. The final output produces star ratings from poor (one star) to excellent (five stars).
For more details about the categories considered when rating robo-advisors and our process, read our full methodology.
