Coinbase vs Robinhood | Which one is Best for You?

Coinbase is operating as one of the biggest and most reliable crypto exchanges in various countries worldwide. On the other hand, Robinhood is a giant trading platform for buying and selling cryptocurrencies along with stocks and other commodities. 

However, while choosing the one which will suit you the best can be a tedious job. So to help you through this, we bring forward a comparison between the two exchanges.

Summary (TL;DR)

• Coinbase is one of the most popular crypto trading exchanges offering its services in the USA.
• Robinhood provides various trading options such as stocks, options, crypto exchange, etc.
• You can only use Robinhood if you are the US or Puerto Rico resident. Whereas, Coinbase is available in many countries. 
• Coinbase offers you free crypto assets through Learn and Earn window. You can use these assets to trade in your initial trading days.
• Both exchanges have intuitive and easy-to-use user interfaces; however, Coinbase offers a better mobile app.
• Robinhood does not charge any commission fees, and you can trade freely without paying any extra fees.
• Coinbase has its fixed and very high charges for trading.
• Both the exchanges have friendly and 24×7 customer support.

What is Coinbase?

Coinbase is a crypto exchange that was established in 2012 by Brian Armstrong and Fred Ehsom. The exchange allows its users to deal in their FIAT currency, offering a simple user interface.

The exchange also gains the title of the first crypto exchange to be legally allowed by the US government. The reason behind this is apparent its policies are transparent and accountable to the laws.

What is Robinhood?

Robinhood came into existence in the year 2013. You can use Robinhood from almost all the countries, with a few exceptions. However, only a US citizen owning an SSN can open an account at Robinhood.

The exchange offers features like cash management which describes transparency and efficiency to its brokers, users, and partners. The exchange also claims to be a zero fees broker.

Robinhood did not support trading in cryptocurrency until 2018. Bitcoin and Ethereum were the first two crypto assets available on the platform in their early days. Apart from this, Robinhood is not just trading in crypto but also stocks. It occupies a vast space in the financial industry of the USA.

Coinbase vs Robinhood: Trading Features

Both the trading platforms hold their terms and conditions. Coinbase just deals with crypto assets, while Robinhood deals in stocks as well as cryptocurrency. Let us review both in detail below.

Robinhood Trading Features

Cash management

Going ahead the limits of free stock trading Robinhood allows cash management on the uninvested money in your account. You can use both savings and checking accounts linked with a debit card for this purpose. In this, you can spend your cash in groceries or anywhere. Secondly, you can sweep or move your money into a network of banks. The banks then pay you interest for the same.

Stocks and Funds

As already discussed earlier, you can also deal with a company’s stocks or groups of stocks on Robinhood. Robinhood does not charge any commission fees for trading in stocks(ETFs). You can access the stock market right from the comfort of your phone through the Robinhood mobile app.

Options Contract

Robinhood charges no commission fee when you are using options trading. When you sell an options contract, it simply means you are selling the contract to a buyer to collect premiums. Whereas, buying options contract means you’re buying back what you sold.

Robinhood Crypto exchange

On Robinhood, you can trade in significant crypto assets like Bitcoin, Dogecoin, etc. Yes, you can not forget that it charges no fee while you are trading in cryptocurrencies. Apart from this, Robinhood is a safe and secure platform.

Gold

With Robinhood, you can supercharge your gold. Through this, you can trade on margin with your gold investments. Investing like this provides you with higher extra buying power, flexibility, and sooner access to your deposit funds. Also, it gives access to in-depth stock research reports for over 1,700 stocks.

Coinbase Trading Features

Buy and Sell Crypto

You can buy and sell digital currencies on Coinbase. Apart from this, you can manage all your crypto assets in one place. Coinbase offers a different platform to buy and sell crypto assets which is called Coinbase Pro. 

Coinbase Pro

With Coinbase pro, you can trade in cryptocurrency. Coinbase Pro exists for institutional and pro-level investors, and the exchange also mitigates the charges for its users. The pro version offers bundles of information with higher functionality. 

Coinbase Prime

Coinbase Prime comes into existence for fintech, brokerages, and exchanges. This platform helps financial institutions to deliver efficient crypto to their clients. It holds some exciting features like multiple alternatives for liquidity, custody cold storage solutions, and institutional-grade APIs.

Learn and Earn Crypto

Above all, Coinbase delivers you with some amount of cryptocurrency for free. It works in this way; there are some courses related to some select crypto assets. After completing a particular course, you earn some amount of the crypto asset to test and analyze how it works out in the practical market.

Coinbase vs Robinhood: User Interface

As this world is full of rivals, it becomes pretty vital how accessible the exchange website is for the audience to comprehend. So let us understand which exchange is the best when it comes to a decent user interface.

Coinbase is the simplest to understand, especially if you are a beginner. The website makes it easy to register, buy and sell crypto assets. Apart from this, the advanced and learning options available on the exchange provide you with free crypto assets to trade in the market. It is just a matter of a few minutes to sign up and start trading on Coinbase.

Robinhood continuously strives and updates its platform to create a more secure environment for its users. However, both the website and mobile application of Robinhood have an impactful and easy-to-use user interface. Within a few seconds, you can sign up to create an account and very quickly verify it.

In short, when it comes to UI, both Coinbase and Robinhood have an impressive and easy to comprehend approach. So you will never get distracted because of the bad user interface while using any of these exchanges.

Robinhood vs. Coinbase: Wallets

Wallets play an essential role when it comes to storing and sending your crypto assets. Wallets are necessary for every trading platform; hence, let’s look at both of these exchanges’ wallets.

Robinhood wallet

Robinhood wallet accepts fiat currencies and is secure as AON insures it. The wallet has been a matter of controversy at some point in the past. However, Robinhood has undoubtedly learned from its mistakes and offers one of the best services.

Coinbase wallet

This exchange has a separate application dedicated to serving the purpose of the wallet. Using this, you can decentralize all your digital assets in one place and very quickly pay to your friends and family. Also, the exchange takes the edge in terms of insurance as Coinbase wallet is FDIC insured.

Moreover, Coinbase is better than Robinhood when it comes to security and intuitive wallets for managing your digital assets.

Coinbase vs. Robinhood: Mobile App

It is not wrong to say that the number of mobile users is multiplying day after day. It is the sole reason why we cannot skip mobile applications while comparing two digital exchanges.

Robinhood Mobile App

Robinhood’s mobile app is easy to use and demonstrates helpful charts and meaningful information on the application. The UI is decent and intuitive and is available on both google play and the App Store.

Coinbase Mobile App

Coinbase’s application for mobile is also available for both Android and iPhone. The app is secure, easy to use, and the UI seems to be intuitive. The app is excellent and beginner-friendly.

Coinbase offers a better UI than Robinhood, which gives it an edge over the platform.

Coinbase vs. Robinhood: How to Buy Bitcoin?

Bitcoin is the most prominent and widely used digital asset, making it super important to understand the procedure of buying bitcoin on both exchanges. Below are the step-by-step instructions to buy bitcoins from Robinhood and Coinbase. 

How to buy Bitcoin at Robinhood?

You can buy Bitcoin on Robinhood just by following the few easy steps mentioned below-

• Download their app from Google Play Store or App Store.
• Now open the application on your device.
• Search for the bitcoin or BTC option.
• Now click on the trade button and then click on the buy button.
• Then enter the amount in USDT to buy the desired bitcoins.
• Tap and confirm the review option.
• Finally, swipe up to submit your order.

How to buy Bitcoin at Coinbase?

Here are a few simple steps you need to follow for buying bitcoins on Coinbase.

• Scroll up on its website and click on the buy and sell option.
• A pop-up will appear. Enter the amount of USDT you wish to spend for buying bitcoin.
• Now you’ll be able to see the number of bitcoins you will receive after the order executes.
• You will see the order to buy bitcoin with added Coinbase fee. Coinbase charges a taker fee between 0.04% and 0.5%.
• Click on the confirm buy option to complete your bitcoin purchase.

Coinbase vs Robinhood: Fees

Fees always play a crucial role when it comes to trading on crypto exchanges. Robinhood, on the one hand, has no or very few cost charges on various trading frameworks. Coinbase, on the other hand, is purely dedicated to assets related to cryptocurrency has a reasonable amount of charges.

Robinhood Fees

Robinhood is a commission-free trading platform, for now and forever. Robinhood charges you nothing while opening an account, or maintaining your account, or transferring your funds. 

• Self-regulatory organizations (SROs) such as the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) demand small charges to sell orders. They impose charges for selling orders, irrespective of brokerages. Nevertheless, in the case of Robinhood, there are no such charges from customers. They can remit themselves to apply for SROs.
• No cash for Account: For transaction purposes, there is no rate present for an account.
• Crypto Trading fees: Robinhood claims to be entirely commission-free, i.e., they do not charge you anything for their profit. However, there are charges added to the original price of assets. That is roughly around 0.1%, and to know more about it, click here.

Coinbase Fees

Coinbase allows you to make withdrawals using online transaction applications. You can quickly secure your transaction using a debit card or credit card. The fee structure at Coinbase is 1.49%, and the minimum withdrawal fee is $0.55. Below are some other charges that you might have to pay:

• US Bank Account: You can use this to perform various activities through your account. Coinbase gives you a rate of accounting in a US bank. It has a rate of 1.49 percent of the total account money. 
• Wallet: Want assets in your wallet? Then Coinbase furnishes you with a heavy amount of support which makes 1.49 percent of the total amount. 
• Card option: You can link your debit or credit cards on the platform. The exchange charges an amount of 3.99% on transactions through cards. To learn more about fees at Coinbase, click here.
• Crypto Trading Fees: There are no fees for makers; for takers, it is 1.49 percent of the total amount, and for spread, it approximately equals 1.00 percent of crypto. You can look at the US’s fee structure in the below table, and for the learning fee structure for other countries, click here. 

You can opt for Coinbase as it is more secure and reliable to use. However, if you wish to save a couple of bucks, Robinhood should be your first choice.

Coinbase vs Robinhood: Security

Security is very important for any crypto trading platform. Therefore, let’s compare these crypto exchanges from a security point of view.

Robinhood Security

Some of the security features offered by Robinhood are as follows:

• Authentication process: Robinhood offers a 2FA system of authentication with SMS and email verification.
• Cold Storage: Robinhood stores all of your assets in offline cold storage vaults, protecting them from hackers. 
• FDIC Insurance: Can make insurance at a certain level which is a minimum of up to 250K.
• Identity Verification: You can only create an account on coinbase if you have a permanent US residential address and own an SSN.

Coinbase Security

Some of the security features offered by Coinbase are as follows:

• Authentication process: Coinbase offers you a two-factor authentication process. You can verify yourself either through SMS or using Google Authentication App. Both of these require a case-sensitive passcode to access your account.
• Cold Storage and Crypto vaults: Coinbase reserves 98 percent of your assets in cold storage.
• FDIC Insurance: Like traditional banks, Coinbase also has an option to take assets through multiple insurances. FDIC insures Coinbase, and it owns a good reputation in the financial space.
• Identity Verification: Coinbase uses KYC verification to verify your details. You’ll have to upload all the necessary documents to trade on the platform.

Coinbase vs Robinhood: Customer Support

You can access Coinbase customer support with the help of email. You can, however, call Coinbase if you urgently wish to disable your account. You can also them using Twitter.

Robinhood extends customer support service to emails, and you can expect a response to your queries within 48 hours. The exchange also offers an exclusive collection of FAQs to help you out.

Coinbase vs Robinhood: Conclusion

Many of us go under dilemma while choosing the trading platform between Robinhood and Coinbase. Both platforms offer almost identical services. However, the thing that matters most is the user interface, fees, and security. In these fields, Robinhood dominates over Coinbase. However, if you are one of those people who want to go further in cryptocurrency, then Coinbase might be a better choice.

Coinbase	Robinhood
Coinbase allows you to trade only in crypto assets.	Through Robinhood, you can trade in stocks, gold, crypto, options, etc.
The exchange charges 3% to 3.99% fees on deposits and withdrawals.	It does not charge any withdrawal fees and the trading fees are also negligible.
Coinbase is more secure when it comes to trading in crypto as FDIC ensures it.	Robinhood does not lack behind Coinbase in terms of security.
There are over 328 varieties of cryptocurrency available to trade.	Only 16 different types of crypto assets are available to trade.
You can create an account from most of the countries.	You can open an account only if you are a US citizen.

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