Micro-investing apps are one of the many recent products aimed at making investing more accessible for would-be investors.
With features like auto-investing, fractional shares, round-ups and more, micro-investing is suitable for anyone looking for a convenient and affordable way to start building an investment portfolio.
These are the notable micro-investing apps on the market in Australia in 2024:
While other trading platforms and brokers offer low-fee investing options, we're focusing on platforms that are specifically designed around making small investments and aimed at beginner or hands-off investors.
You can read our guide to the best share trading platforms if you're looking for a fully-featured investing app.
Raiz is a mobile app that rounds up the spare change from your daily purchases and invests the excess into one of several investment portfolios. There are 9 different portfolios to choose from based on your appetite for risk and it lets you set up recurring payments or make lump sum instalments.
There are no minimum account balances and deposits and withdrawals are free. All you need to do to get started is provide your bank account number, BSB number and online banking login details.
Depending on which portfolio you select, you'll need to pay a monthly maintenance fee of between $4.50 - $5.50. Balances of $20,000 and above attract a monthly fee equal to 0.275% of your balance.
Spaceship Voyager is a robo-advice platform that lets you transfer small amounts into an investment portfolio without the need to pay for a financial adviser.
There are 5 portfolios to choose from – Spaceship Earth, Universe and Origin, Explorer and Galaxy – with all 5 investing your funds into a mix of Australian shares, global shares and cash.
You can set up regular top-ups each week, fortnight or month, plus there are no contribution, brokerage, withdrawal or exit fees charged on your portfolios.
There is a 0.15-0.50% management fee on each portfolio, as well as a $2-3 a month fee on portfolios with a balance of $100 or more.
CommSec Pocket isn't a traditional micro-investment app, but it does let you invest smaller amounts into the stock market than you'd normally be allowed. When you invest in Australian ETFs or stocks, there's usually a $500 minimum initial trade requirement and brokerage fees upwards of $10–$30.
However, with the CBA's CommSec Pocket, you can invest as little as $50 at a time into an ETF of your choice with a brokerage fee of just $2.
There are 10 investment themes to choose from – each is an individual listed ETF. This means it lets you directly invest in an ETF of your picking.
Like the others, you can either set it to make regular monthly or fortnightly payments, or you can make one-off payments as you like.
Sharesies says it aims to democratise investing by allowing you to invest from as little as $5.
Through its app, you can invest in a variety of stocks and ETFs on the Australian Securities Exchanges (ASX), New Zealand Exchange (NZX), New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), the Nasdaq and Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE).
However, Sharesies is not like its rivals as it doesn't have pre-set portfolios and won't charge you a monthly fee. Instead, it charges brokerage fees based on your trades.
You'll need to pay a brokerage fee and 1.9% transaction fee each time you buy or sell shares on the pay-as-you-go account, but can have these fees waived up to certain values on the 3 paid account tiers.
One of the relatively new players to the market, Pearler is now going beyond traditional share trading and into micro-investing.
With the aim of "boring, long-term investing", Pearler allows you to invest in 8 pre-determined ETFs.
Pearler charges its customers $1.70 per month if they select 1 fund, or $2.30 per month should they have multiple funds after balances reach $100.
Doough offers share-trading, auto-investing and portfolio-based investments with minimum investments of just $1.
Depending on how you choose to invest, you'll need to pay a $3.99-5.99 fee every 28 days, as well as a 0.99 FX fee when buying US stocks. However, there's no management fees on its 6 pre-built portfolios, and you won't pay any fees on portfolios under $50.
Bloom says it is the simplest way to invest in clean technology. And that is kind of what it delivers.
The micro-investing app has the simple goal of helping investors directly invest in climate change solutions. You'll get the chance to invest in a fund that offers a diversified range of climate solutions, from solar farms, energy storage and green bonds to clean energy loans.
On the downside, you've only got a single option to invest in.
| Platform | Fees | Minimum investment | Investment options |
|---|---|---|---|
| Raiz Invest |
| $5 | Choose from 9 portfolios containing a mix of ETFs, property, Bitcoin and stocks based on risk level. |
| CommSec Pocket |
| $50 | Invest directly in a selection of 7 ETFs. |
| Spaceship Voyager |
| $0 | Choose from 5 portfolios that have a different mix of Aussie and global shares, cash and bonds. |
| Sharesies |
| $5 | Buy shares in over 2,300 companies and ETFs listed on the ASX. |
| Pearler |
| $0 | Invest directly in over 2,000 ASX and 5,000 US shares. For its micro-investing product, choose from 8 different ETFs. |
| Doough |
| $1 | Invest in 6 pre-built portfolios, or buy shares directly, including fractional shares and autopilot investing. |
| Bloom |
| $500 | Invest in an actively managed fund with 53 international companies, 5 green ETFs, 24 Australian listed businesses, green infrastructure and green bonds. |
| Response | |
|---|---|
| Easy to use app | 67.14% |
| Auto-investing | 51.43% |
| Available markets (e.g. Australian or US stocks or ETFs) | 34.29% |
| Spare change round ups | 32.86% |
| Good range of available products or portfolios | 21.43% |
| Risk profiling | 20% |
| Ethical options | 12.86% |
| Security and regulation | 11.43% |
| Budgeting or savings tools | 10% |
| Real advice | 10% |
| Other | 2.86% |
| None of the above | 1.43% |
Fractional share trading apps don't fall under the traditional banner of "micro-investment", but they do allow you to invest as little as a few dollars at a time into stocks (depending on the platform you use).
Fractional share trading is where you invest in fractions of shares rather than whole shares. For instance, instead of buying a single Facebook stock for $260, you could buy one-tenth of a stock for $26 or even one-hundredth of a stock for $2.60.
While it's a popular trading feature in the US, only a few share trading apps offer the service in Australia.
Among online brokers that offer fractional share trading are eToro (minimum $10), Stake (minimum $10), Interactive Brokers (no minimum) and Douugh ($1 minimum).
Important: Share trading can be financially risky and the value of your investment can go down as well as up. “Standard brokerage” fee is the cost to trade $1,000 or less of ASX-listed shares and ETFs without any qualifications or special eligibility. If ASX shares aren’t available, the fee shown is for US shares. Where both CHESS sponsored and custodian shares are offered, we display the cheapest option.
Be aware that there are costs to micro-investing which may eat into what you're saving or getting back in returns. It's important to double-check fees with the performance of the app's chosen investment portfolio. For example, if you're only investing $5 per month, the total fees are $2.50 per month and the returns are less than 1% per month, you might be better off sticking to a savings account.
The fees. There is any number of fees that a micro-investment app may charge. Some of the most common include:
That said, you don't need to be a millennial to take advantage of the benefits of micro-investing. Anyone who thinks they might benefit from the convenience of an automatic investment plan should consider the benefits of this approach.
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