Webull vs Robinhood: both are commission-free, so the question is where the money comes from
Neither broker charges commission on US stocks, ETFs or options. Both say so on their own pricing pages, and one of them says plainly what replaces the commission. That sentence is the useful part of the comparison.
Every comparison of these two opens with the same finding, which is that both are commission-free. That is true, both firms publish it, and it settles nothing.
Robinhood: “Investing with a Robinhood investing account is commission free for stocks, ETFs, and their options.” Webull: it “does not charge commissions for trading stocks, ETFs and options listed on U.S. exchanges.”
So the comparison has to start one step further in.
Webull says out loud where the money comes from
On its own pricing page, Webull writes that it makes “money the same way every other broker makes money, but with one less revenue line item: commissions.”
That is a more candid sentence than the industry usually produces, and it is the honest frame for both firms. A brokerage that removed its most visible charge did not stop needing revenue. It moved the revenue somewhere the customer does not see on a statement: order flow, margin lending, interest on uninvested cash, securities lending, and paid tiers.
None of that is hidden or unusual. But it does mean “commission-free” describes the price list, not the cost.
Where the two differ on published fees
Both pass through the charges neither controls. Robinhood’s fee page lists the regulatory transaction fee that FINRA is required to pay to the SEC, and notes the OCC’s options regulatory and exchange fees. Webull lists the equivalents.
The difference we could find on their published pages is narrow and specific:
| Robinhood | Webull | |
|---|---|---|
| US stocks and ETFs | no commission | no commission |
| US-listed equity options | no commission | no commission |
| Index options | see Robinhood’s fee schedule | $0.50 per contract |
| Regulatory and exchange fees | passed through | passed through |
Webull charges $0.50 per contract on certain index option trades, stated on its pricing page. If index options are what you trade, that line is the comparison; if they are not, it is irrelevant, and the two price lists are close to identical.
What is the same, and matters more than the fees
Both are US brokers, and both accounts sit under the same protections. SIPC covers up to $500,000 per customer, including a $250,000 limit for cash, and covers neither market losses nor futures positions. That ceiling and its exclusions apply identically whichever app you pick.
That is worth more attention than a per-contract fee. The compensation regime behind an account is what decides what happens if the firm fails, and it is the part people compare least. Our page on what actually separates trading platforms goes through why the licensed entity matters more than the interface.
What actually differs, and what you can test yourself
Once the fee lists converge, the remaining differences are things a comparison table cannot settle for you: order types available, how fast the app is on your phone, what data you get without paying, how each handles extended hours, and how support behaves when something goes wrong.
Those are testable in an afternoon with small size, and they are the only part of this comparison where your own answer beats anyone’s review.
What we did not do
We have not opened accounts at either firm, routed orders, or measured execution quality, fills or slippage. Everything above comes from the two firms’ own published fee pages and from SIPC.
That limits what this page can honestly claim. Any comparison that reports tested execution across both brokers is reporting one account, at one size, on one set of days, and that is a smaller fact than it appears. The published fee schedules and the compensation limit hold for as long as you hold the account.