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Betterment vs. Wealthfront: 2026 Comparison

Betterment and Wealthfront both charge 0.25% for digital portfolio management. But Wealthfront also offers digital financial planning tools, while Betterment offers access to financial advisors for an upgraded fee.

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Arielle O'Shea

Head of Content, Investing & Taxes

---

19 years of experience

Expertise

• Retirement planning
• investment management
• investment accounts

Arielle O’Shea leads the investing and taxes team at NerdWallet. She has covered personal finance and investing for nearly 20 years, and was a senior writer and spokesperson at NerdWallet before becoming an editor. Previously, she was a researcher and reporter for leading personal finance journalist and author Jean Chatzky, a role that included developing financial education programs, interviewing subject matter experts and helping to produce television and radio segments. Arielle has appeared on the "Today" show, NBC News and ABC's "World News Tonight," and has been quoted in national publications including The New York Times, MarketWatch and Bloomberg News. She is based in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Published in

Head of Content, Investing & Taxes

Arielle O’Shea leads the investing and taxes team at NerdWallet. She has covered personal finance and investing for nearly 20 years, and was a senior writer and spokesperson at NerdWallet before becoming an editor. Previously, she was a researcher and reporter for leading personal finance journalist and author Jean Chatzky, a role that included developing financial education programs, interviewing subject matter experts and helping to produce television and radio segments. Arielle has appeared on the "Today" show, NBC News and ABC's "World News Tonight," and has been quoted in national publications including The New York Times, MarketWatch and Bloomberg News. She is based in Charlottesville, Virginia.

The robo-advisor industry was pioneered by Betterment and Wealthfront, and while the companies started out with very similar models, they’ve slowly made changes to differentiate themselves.

Betterment vs. Wealthfront: Which is right for you?

The biggest deciding factor between these two robo-advisors: If you want to work with a human, you’ll find that option only at Betterment, with a premium tier that charges more for access to a team of financial advisors. (Note: Betterment discontinued the ability to purchase a la carte financial planning sessions in 2024.) If you’re after only digital advice, Wealthfront’s financial planning tools are more robust, as are its tax optimization options.

Other considerations include the type of account you plan to open, investment portfolios and key features. Here’s a quick look at both services to help you choose the best match for your money.

on Betterment's website

Betterment Digital offers automated investment management for a 0.25% fee. Betterment offers a wide range of portfolio options, including a crypto portfolio, fractional shares, decent tax strategy and goal-based financial planning tools. Betterment does not have direct indexing and only offers weekday customer service hours.

Betterment is best for:

Hands-off investors.

Retirement investors.

Those who want automatic rebalancing.

Users who like goal-based tools.

Betterment at a glance

Reviewed: Oct. 2025

Period considered: Aug. - Oct. 2025

Paid non-client promotion.

Account minimum

$0 ($10 to start investing).

Account management fee

0.25% annual fee on balances over $24,000 or if you set up recurring monthly deposits totaling $200 or more. Otherwise, $5 per month.

Investment expense ratios

Expense ratios of 0.04% to 0.17% for Betterment Core Portfolio.

Account fees (annual, transfer, closing)

$75 fee to transfer investments out of Betterment. No fee for cash withdrawals.

Portfolio mix

Core Portfolio uses ETFs from 12 asset classes.

The portfolio mixes are well-diversified. Clients who want exposure to non-market correlated assets like real estate investment trusts (REITs) and commodities can obtain access through Flexible Portfolio.

Crypto ETF portfolio consisting of Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs.

Betterment clients can now buy and sell individual stocks and ETFs.

Socially responsible portfolio options

Three socially responsible investing portfolio options: Broad Impact, Climate Impact, and Social Impact.

Accounts supported

Individual and joint taxable brokerage accounts. Roth, traditional, inherited, rollover and SEP IRAs. Trusts. Ability to link external accounts for better-informed advice (but not direct management).

Tax strategy

Tax-loss harvesting*.

Tax-Coordinated Portfolio (asset location) tool.

Tax Impact Preview tool.

Charitable giving tool.

Human advisor option

Betterment Digital doesn't offer access to financial advisors and no longer offers an advice package for purchase. Betterment Premium includes access to a team of financial advisors.

Savings / cash management option

Cash Account** with no fees or minimum balance requirements, unlimited transfers and FDIC coverage of up to $4 million in individual accounts or up to $8 million in joint accounts on eligible cash at program banks.

Customer support options (includes how easy it is to find key details on the website)

Phone support Monday-Friday 9 a.m. - 8 p.m. Eastern time. Email support and questions also answered through social media.

IRA match

No IRA match offered.

* Betterment does not provide tax advice. TLH is not suitable for all investors. Learn More.

** Cash Reserve offered by Betterment LLC and requires a Betterment Securities brokerage account. Betterment is not a bank. Learn More. FDIC insurance provided by Program Banks, subject to certain conditions. Up to $8 million for joint accounts and $4 million for individual accounts applies to eligible cash.

» Read our full review of Betterment

on Wealthfront's website

Wealthfront offers investment management for a 0.25% management fee. Wealthfront gives customers access to excellent tax-optimization services, DIY and automated investing, well-diversified portfolios, several account types (including 529 college savings plans) and high-yield cash management accounts. Unfortunately, Wealthfront does have a $500 minimum for investment accounts.

Wealthfront is best for

Hands-off investors.

Taxable accounts.

Free financial tools, even if you don't have a Wealthfront account.

529 college savings plan management.

Both DIY and automated investing.

Wealthfront at a glance

Reviewed: Oct. 2025

Period considered: Aug. - Oct. 2025

Account minimum

$500 for automated investment accounts; $1 for cash accounts and the stock investing account. Other minimums may apply.

Account management fee

0.25% for automated investing.

No management fee or commissions for the stock investing account.

S&P 500 Direct Portfolio fee is 0.09% instead of 0.25%. The Nasdaq-100 Direct Portfolio fee is 0.12% instead of 0.25%.

The fee for the Automated Bond Ladder is 0.15%, which was lowered from 0.25% in 2025.

Investment expense ratios

ETF expense ratios average 0.08%.

Account fees (annual, transfer, closing)

None.

Portfolio mix

Automated investment portfolios:

ETFs from 12 asset classes (portfolios generally consist of 6 to 8), including two cryptocurrency trusts (Bitcoin, Ethereum).

Clients can customize their Wealthfront portfolio by adding or deleting certain ETF holdings or building their entire portfolio from scratch.

Portfolios over $500,000 are eligible for smart beta.

Fractional shares are available, a feature Wealthfront added in 2025.

S&P 500 Direct and Nasdaq-100 Direct portfolios:

Directly purchases S&P 500 stocks or Nasdaq 100 stocks; customization available.

Fractional shares available.

Bonds:

Automated Bond Portfolio offers a collection of Treasury bond and corporate bond ETFs with automatic rebalancing, dividend reinvestment and tax-loss harvesting.

Automated Bond Ladder is a portfolio made up of bonds that mature at different times. This allows an investor to lock in current yields.

Wealthfront stock investing account:

Offers access to curated collections of stocks, or over 1,500 stocks, ETFs or REITs that can be traded individually (including as fractional shares).

Socially responsible portfolio options

Automated investing clients can choose to invest in Wealthfront’s SRI portfolio or customize any other Wealthfront portfolio to include socially responsible options for no additional fee.

Accounts supported

Individual, joint and trust taxable investment accounts.

Roth, traditional, rollover and SEP IRAs.

529 college savings plans.

High yield cash account (not charged management fee).

Note: Investing in individual stocks is only available through individual taxable accounts.

Tax strategy

Daily tax-loss harvesting free for all taxable accounts.

S&P and Nasdaq-100 Direct Portfolios offers additional tax-loss harvesting opportunities by purchasing individual stocks.

Stock level tax-loss harvesting (direct indexing) available at no cost for taxable accounts with $100,000 or more. Balances under $100,000 will hold a particular ETF, VTI.

TurboTax customers can easily import tax-loss harvesting data from Wealthfront.

Human advisor option

None.

Savings account/cash management account

The Wealthfront Cash Account is a high-yield cash management account. It offers a competitive yield through Wealthfront partner banks and is covered up to $8 million in FDIC insurance.

Customer support options (rating includes how easy it is to find key details on the website)

Phone support Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Pacific. All emails are responded to within one business day.

» Read our full review of Wealthfront

Disclosures

** Cash Reserve offered by Betterment LLC and requires a Betterment Securities brokerage account. Betterment is not a bank. Learn More. FDIC insurance provided by Program Banks, subject to certain conditions. Up to $8 million for joint accounts and $4 million for individual accounts applies to eligible cash. 

How do we review robo-advisors?

All NerdWallet reviews and lists of the best investing products are created by our editorial team of full-time writers and editors, independent of any business relationships. In this case, our investing team's comprehensive review process evaluates and ranks the largest U.S. robo-advisors. Our aim is to provide an independent, balanced assessment of providers to help arm you with information to make sound, informed judgements on which ones will best meet your needs. Our highest priority is maintaining editorial integrity.

We collect data directly from providers through detailed questionnaires, and conduct first-hand testing and observation through provider demonstrations. The questionnaire answers, combined with demonstrations, interviews of personnel at the providers and our specialists’ hands-on research, fuel our proprietary assessment process that scores each provider’s performance across 16 factors. The final output produces star ratings from poor (one star) to excellent (five stars).

For more details about the categories considered when rating robo-advisors and our process, read our full methodology.

Helpful resources