Acorns Vs Stash
You want investing to be hands-off and easy. You set a recurring deposit or round up, and then occasionally you check your account and WOW – You’re doing great, sweetie!
There are plenty of investing apps to choose from.
Let’s take a closer look at two of the more popular apps, Acorns vs Stash.
Understanding the nuances and differences between these platforms is important to see which one aligns best with your investment objectives and preferences.
In this blog post, we’ll delve into the features, pricing, investment options, user experience, and more of Acorns vs Stash to help you make an informed decision.
What is Acorns?
- Founded in 2012, Acorns aims to simplify investing for beginners by rounding up everyday purchases and investing the spare change.
- Acorns offers a variety of investment portfolios, ranging from conservative to aggressive, allowing users to align their investments with their risk tolerance.
- The platform also provides additional features such as Acorns Later for retirement investing and Acorns Early for custodial accounts.
What is Stash?
- Stash, established in 2015, focuses on educating users and providing them with personalized investment options.
- Stash offers thematic investing, allowing users to invest in ETFs that align with their interests and beliefs, such as renewable energy or socially responsible companies.
- Additionally, Stash provides educational content, including articles and tips, to help users improve their financial literacy and make informed investment decisions.
Investment Options: Acorns
- Acorns primarily offers a selection of diversified ETF portfolios managed by experts.
- Users can choose from portfolios based on their risk tolerance and financial goals, ranging from conservative to aggressive.
- Acorns also provides options for retirement investing and custodial accounts for minors.
Investment Options: Stash
- Stash offers a unique approach to investing by providing thematic investment options.
- Users can invest in ETFs that align with their interests and values, such as technology, healthcare, or environmental sustainability.
- Stash’s thematic approach appeals to users looking to invest in companies or industries they believe in while diversifying their portfolios.
Fees and Pricing: Acorns
- Acorns offers three subscription plans: Personal, Personal Plus, and Premium.
- Personal costs $3 per month and includes an investment account with an expert-built, diversified portfolio, saving and investing spare change everyday with Round-Ups and an IRA retirement account
- The Personal Plus plan, priced at $5 per month, adds features and has the Mighty Oak Banking. Some things that catch our eye about these accounts are a 3% APY on Checking and 5.00% APY on Emergency Fund. Not bad, considering a lot of banks charge hidden bank fees.
- Premium costs $9 per month (first month free) and includes everything in the Personal Plus plan plus custodial accounts for kids and the ability to customize your portfolio with individual stocks
Fees and Pricing: Stash
- Stash offers Growth and Stash+.
- The Growth plan, priced at $3 per month (with one free month), has features like retirement and custodial accounts, as well as access to more investment options.
- The Stash+ plan, costing $9 per month (with one free month), includes everything in the Growth plan plus additional perks like Stash+ Market Insights and kids’ portfolios.
User Experience: Acorns
- Acorns offers a user-friendly interface with a focus on automation and simplicity.
- The Round-Up feature automatically invests spare change from everyday purchases, making investing effortless for users.
- You have other options besides Round-Ups, like making contributions
- The platform provides educational content to help users understand investing concepts and make informed decisions.
User Experience: Stash
- Stash provides a user-friendly app interface with a strong emphasis on education.
- The platform offers personalized recommendations based on users’ financial goals, interests, and risk tolerance.
- Stash’s educational content, including articles and guides, helps users improve their financial literacy and confidence in investing.
Customer Support and Security: Acorns
- Acorns offers customer support via email and a comprehensive FAQ section on its website.
- The platform employs bank-level security measures to protect users’ personal and financial information
Customer Support and Security: Stash
- Stash provides customer support via email and phone during business hours, as well as an extensive help center on its website.
- Similar to Acorns, Stash prioritizes the security of users’ information by implementing encryption and other security protocols.
Customer support is paramount when it comes to your hard-earned cash. We put each of these apps to the test to see actually how fast and how helpful each would be.
Calling Acorns
As you can see above, when we called Acorns an actual human being named Ben picked up the phone after five minutes and six seconds. We called and asked about particular investments in our portfolio. Ben had a pleasant disposition, was eager to help, and got us to the right place to get our answer quickly.
Calling Stash
Stash was even quicker on the customer service response, with Tarcy answering in 37 seconds. We asked Tarcy details about Stash’s referral program. We refer to both Stash and Acorns, and would earn a commission on either if someone decided to sign up through us. You will also get a sign-up bonus when you use either our Acorns or Stash referral links.
Tarcy was personable and said she didn’t know the answer to our question. She put us on a brief hold and came back with a thorough explanation. We also received a follow-up email with some helpful information.
Customer Service: Acorns vs Stash
Both Stash and Acorns had excellent customer service. They also both have a chat option via the app. We always like to know, however, that you can call and speak to an actual human being, just in case something ever happens with your money and you are panicked.
Acorns and Stash both passed the FundsSavvy.com personal customer service check.
What Now?
Choosing between Acorns and Stash ultimately depends on your investment preferences, financial goals, and level of comfort with automation and thematic investing.
If you prefer a hands-off approach with automated investing and diversified portfolios, Acorns may be the better choice.
On the other hand, if you’re interested in thematic investing and value financial education, Stash could be the right fit.
Acorns and Stash share the common goal of making investing more accessible.
Their approaches are different. They also vary in investment options, pricing, and user experience.
Just Get Going
Look, you’re not going to go wrong with either app. Don’t spend too much time stressing over which app to use. If you let hours, days, then months go by deciding which one to use, you will have missed another month of making contributions.
Just get started with small deposits or round ups and get the ball rolling on your investment journey.
Try both Acorns and Stash if you want to and compare for yourself. You can always start with Acorns Personal or Stash Growth and decide if you even need any of the upgraded plans. Acorns Personal and Stash Growth are both $3/month.
If you try either app and don’t like it, you can always cancel and switch.
Just think about how much fun it will be to open your investing app on your phone and see how much your portfolio has grown. Sooooo much better for your mental health – and your wallet – than doom scrolling TikTok and looking and randoms from high school making lasagna.
