Comparison of the week: Raiz Invest vs Spaceship Voyager
Raiz Invest and Spaceship Voyager both offer easy ways to invest in the share market, but what are the differences?
We compare virtually everything at Finder and our Comparison of the Week isn't afraid to tackle the big questions. This week we take a look at the two popular investment apps Raiz Invest and Spaceship voyager.
Raiz Invest and Spaceship Voyager are both popular investment apps that allow Australians to start building an investment portfolio from as little as $5. Both apps offer users an instantly diversified portfolio with exposure to hundreds of different shares both listed on the ASX and globally.
The essentials
Raiz Invest, previously named Acorns, launched in 2016 and quickly became popular for its round-up feature, allowing users to round up loose change from daily purchases like cups of coffee and add it to an investment portfolio. Raiz now has more than 175,000 active customers and $254 million in funds under management.
Spaceship Voyager is well-known as a tech-focused fund that "invests where the world is going, not where it's been". Launched in April 2018, it now has more than 39,000 users, with more than $27 million in funds under management.
The comparison
Let's dive in and compare the two investment apps side by side, so you can see which one might be right for you.
| Raiz Invest | Spaceship Voyager | |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum investment amount | There's no minimum balance requirement, and you only need $5 or more to start investing. | Spaceship Voyager has no minimum deposit requirement. |
| Portfolio options | Raiz offers six investment portfolios to choose from. The following portfolios range from low risk to high risk: Conservative, Moderately Conservative, Moderate, Moderately Aggressive and Aggressive. There's also an Emerald portfolio that invests ethically. | Spaceship Voyager offers two investment portfolios to choose from: Spaceship Index Portfolio and Spaceship Universe Portfolio. The Index Portfolio invests in 200 of the world's largest companies comprising the most popular household brands. The Universe Portfolio invests in 100 companies around the world with a strong focus on high-growth technology stocks. |
| Investment strategy | Each investment portfolio invests in seven different local and international exchange traded funds (ETFs). ETFs trade on a public exchange like regular shares, and they track a particular market index, which means they each offer access to a large number of underlying assets. You don't own the individual stocks that the ETF tracks, you own units in the ETF itself. | Spaceship Voyager does not invest using ETFs like Raiz. Instead, its investment managers actively hand-pick each individual stock that each portfolio holds. The portfolios themselves are operated as managed funds, so when you invest with Spaceship Voyager, you own units in the fund rather than owning any of the underlying stocks. |
| Fees | If your account holds $5000 or less you'll be charged $1.25 a month in fees. So if your balance was $5000 for the year, you'd be charged $15. Balances above $5000 are charged 0.275% a year in fees. If you had $10,000 invested for the year, you'd be charged $27.50 in fees. | There are no fees for balances below $5000. The Index Portfolio charges 0.05% per year for the portion of your balance above $5000, and the Universe Portfolio charges 0.10% per year for the portion above $5000. If you invested $10,000 for one year, you'd pay just $2.50 in fees for the Index Portfolio and $5 for the Universe Portfolio. |
| Risk level | Each of the six portfolios offers a different risk level, starting from very low risk all the way up to high risk. This means you can select the appropriate portfolio based on how much risk you're comfortable taking on. | Both available investment portfolios offered with Spaceship Voyager are considered high risk due to their heavy weighting of listed companies and the focus on technology companies like Amazon and Netflix. |
| International investing | Each investment portfolio invests in seven different ETFs from Australia and international markets including Asia, Europe and the US. | Both investment portfolios include a mix of Australian companies listed on the ASX and global companies listed on international exchanges. |
| Ethical investing | The Emerald portfolio is an ethical investment option that invests in socially responsible companies in Australia and international markets. | Spaceship Voyager doesn't offer an ethical investment option. |
| Payment options | The Round-Ups feature links to your bank account and rounds up your daily transactions to the nearest $1, with the spare change added to your investment portfolio. You can also set up automatic recurring payments from your bank account or invest a lump sum amount whenever you'd like. | You can set up regular deposits from your Australian bank account into the account weekly, fortnightly or monthly, and you can choose an amount to deposit that suits you. You can also simply open the account and deposit one lump sum, and you can top up your account at any time. Spaceship does not offer round-ups. |
| Do you earn dividends | If the underlying stocks that the ETF tracks pay dividends, these will be given to you. Your dividends will be automatically reinvested into your account to help your portfolio grow, rather than sent to your bank account. There's a section in the app that allows you to see your past dividend payments. | You can earn dividends, but this is at the discretion of the Spaceship Voyager fund managers. The fund managers will decide annually whether any dividends and capital gains will be passed onto investors in the fund and, if they are, they'll usually be paid to you annually along with a summary of the dividends you've received that year. |
| Withdrawal options | You can withdraw money from your investment account at any time. There are no withdrawal fees, but keep in mind that your balance could be less than your initial deposit depending on how the portfolio has been performing. Or, it could be worth more! | You can sell your units in the fund at any time without paying any exit fees; however, your units might be worth less (or more) than they were to begin with, depending on how the portfolio has been performing. |
| How to download | The Raiz Invest app is free to download from the App Store and Google Play store. | The Spaceship Voyager app is free to download from the App Store and Google Play store. |
The lowdown
Raiz Invest offers more portfolio options to choose from, including an ethical investment option that isn't offered with Spaceship Voyager. Also, if you're uncomfortable taking on too much risk, Raiz Invest might be better as it offers low-risk and moderate-risk portfolios as well as a high-risk option.
However the fees are a lot lower with Spaceship Voyager, so if keeping your costs low is your main priority, then this is a good option.
Either way, if you're new to investing both apps offer the opportunity to have a go without risking large sums of money. The technology used makes it super easy to set up from your phone, so if you are keen to give it a go you can set it up without moving from your couch.
Keen to know even more? Jump in here for an in-depth reviews of Spaceship Voyager and Raiz Invest.
We're all about helping you make better decisions. Do your own comparison by heading to the Finder home page to compare credit cards, savings accounts, shopping deals and much, much more. Go on, be a Finder.
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