What’s the Difference Between Stash and Acorns?

Micro-investment apps have become a trendy way for millennials to take part in investing. These smartphone-based investment apps allow you to invest small amounts of money in growing a portfolio over time. Both Stash Invest and Acorns are popular apps in this category. However, the two apps take a vastly different approach to investing.

Acorns – Investing Spare Change

The Acorns app allows you to invest your spare change by linking your bank account and credit cards to the service. The application will then look at your transactions and round them up to the nearest dollar, investing the difference for you. Acorns has no limit to the number of bank accounts and credit cards you can link, so you can make minute investments with every purchase you make. The investments are less than a dollar and are taken from every purchase you make. This passive method of investment can happen without the user noticing it.

Stash Invest – Automated Investment

Stash Invest works a little bit differently, but still with micro-savings. Stash Invest makes investment recommendations and leaves it up to the user to make actual investments. This Stash Invest review helps explain the concept a little better. Stash investment portfolios are made up of several investment themes based on exchange-traded funds with creative names like Delicious Dividends. Stash Invest only allows a single bank account to be linked to the app, but it can be accessed through the mobile app or on your desktop. Stash also allows you to put your investments on auto-pilot and invest in the categories and themes you like with pre-established rules. Since Stash is designed to be a more hands-on approach to investing compared to Acorns, the website also provides financial education tools to teach new investors the basics of investing.

So Which Service Should You Use?

That depends on your investment goals. If you prefer to be hands-off with your investment but still want to have something in the market, Acorns is a good fit. Linking both your debit and credit cards will cover all purchases you make, and you would be surprised at how much rounded-up change accumulates at the end of a year. Stash offers tools to help beginning investors learn more about what they’re doing, so it’s tailored towards people who want to learn. It does have an automated, hands-off feature that can be set up to invest automatically, but it’s based on a predetermined amount instead of rounding up purchases.

Acorns has no minimum deposit required to create an account, but you will need at least $5 to start investing. Stash also has a $5 minimum deposit. As for the monthly cost, Acorns is $1 a month for accounts under $1 million and 0.25% per year for those above. Stash Invest’s monthly fee is a bit more limited. It’s $1 a month for accounts under $5k, while those over will pay 0.25% per year. Stash is a great way for beginners to learn about investing, but Acorns is designed to be completely hands off.