Interactive Brokers vs. Schwab

Interactive Brokers and Schwab offer similar products aimed at two very different segments of the market. With Interactive Brokers you will get a full-featured trading platform designed for professional and institutional investors. Schwab also offers a full-featured trading platform, but one designed with individuals and retail investors in mind. Here’s how they stack up.

If you prefer hands-on investing advice, a financial advisor could help you create a financial plan for your investment goals.

Overview: Interactive Brokers vs. Schwab

Interactive Brokers and Schwab both offer full-service investment platforms. This means that each allows you to invest and manage your portfolio independently, rather than having your portfolio managed by a third party or an algorithm. With both services, you can invest in all mainstream financial assets, and both support taxed and tax-advantaged portfolios (such as an IRA).

The main difference between these products is their complexity and audience. Interactive Brokers was originally designed for professional traders. While the company has made some attempts to reach the retail investor market, it remains an extremely sophisticated product.

For technical traders and experienced investors, this is one of the better trading platforms that you can find. Retail investors, however, will likely find its sheer volume of information confusing and somewhat overwhelming.

Schwab, on the other hand, is a full-service trading platform built for the upper end of the individual market. Charles Schwab’s pedigree is as a financial advising firm with brick-and-mortar locations, and that design philosophy continues.

This is a solid trading platform that provides you with a broad range of both technical indicators and fundamental information about your assets, while also offering access to its broker services. While professional investors will likely find its interface limiting, it is a good option for sophisticated investors who don’t quite need to pay for a professional suite.

Interactive Brokers vs. Schwab: Fees

Schwab offers a fee structure in line with most brokerage accounts. The firm has no minimum balance and does not charge regular fees for keeping an account; for example, there are no monthly maintenance fees. It costs nothing to trade stocks or ETFs and $0.65 per option to trade options contracts, according to Schwab’s website.

Like most online brokerages, Schwab offers a list of no-fee mutual funds. For foreign funds, Schwab charges up to $74.95 fee per trade. While this is a relatively high fee, Schwab’s no-fee mutual fund list has several thousand options. Most individual investors will find mutual funds on this no-fee list that meet their needs.

Interactive Brokers has a different fee structure, which matches the platform’s different audiences and is tied to an individual user’s activity level. Investors who trade more often will get lower fees based on this increased activity.

For example, you can trade options contracts for between $0.15 and $0.65 per contract, with tiered pricing based on your activity. Investors who use the firm’s Interactive Brokers Lite pricing plan pay nothing for stock and ETF trades. Also, the firm offers more than 50,000 mutual funds, including more than 20,000 no-transaction-fee funds.

Investors can also choose fixed-price plans, which tend to set prices at higher rates and are usually good for lower-volume traders.

Interactive Brokers vs. Schwab: Services and Features

Interactive Brokers offers a professional trading environment built on the mosaic-window interface common to sophisticated traders. With this product you can create your own trading interface, building windows based on the assets and technical information that’s relevant to your own investment portfolio and financial needs.

And there is little that you cannot access through Interactive Brokers. This platform supports all forms of technical indicators familiar to this reviewer and trades all mainstream financial assets including stocks, ETFs, bonds, mutual funds, options and futures contracts, as well as FOREX.

Specifically, its IB Trader Workstation lets investors trade an array of securities in over 160 markets worldwide. Further, the company offers its web-based Client Portal application and IBKR GlobalTrader, its flagship desktop platform, which are less complex than Trader Workstation.

While Interactive Brokers offers a Lite pricing plan, this isn’t a strong option for most investors. If you’re an Interactive Brokers user, its Lite pricing plan is a nice feature, but it doesn’t provide anything that you can’t get with an ordinary full-service brokerage.

Schwab, on the other hand, is built as a web-based trading platform. In this regard, the product that it offers is very similar to other major online brokerages. This brokerage supports most mainstream financial assets, including stocks, ETFs, bonds, mutual funds, options contracts, futures contracts and some FOREX markets. The platform stands out in this regard, as most trading platforms do not support futures, commodities or currencies.

You can find a full suite of technical indicators on Schwab’s brokerage. While not as comprehensive as the data available through Interactive Brokers, it is more than enough for even well-informed investors. High-volume investors can also use the firm’s companion platform called Street Smart, which is built with tools, particularly for that category of investors.

Online and Mobile: Interactive Brokers vs. Schwab

An investor using a trading platform to make a trade.

Interactive Brokers does have a web-based option, but it is most often thought of as a companion to the firm’s flagship desktop software. This platform is meant as a standalone trading environment. The app has similar ratings on the Apple App Store (4.5 rating) and Google Play (4.6 rating).

The desktop environment is an extremely well-designed professional platform. The Interactive Brokers trading screen is fully customizable, allowing you to pull out windows based on the technical indicators, fundamental data and financial assets relevant to your portfolio. However, this is also an overwhelming experience for anyone who is not familiar with it. Even highly experienced investors will likely find Interactive Brokers both intimidating and, likely, more complex than necessary.

Finally, the firm’s Client Portal and IBKR GlobalTrader mobile app trading platforms are simpler and less complex than Trader Workstation.

Schwab also offers a well-designed trading experience and one that will also primarily benefit more sophisticated investors. This is a web-based trading platform. It does have an app, which works very well, but you can find and manage information more easily through the full website. The app is highly rated with a 4.8 rating on the Apple App Store and a 2.6 rating on Google Play.

Among the full-service trading platforms, Schwab stands out for the depth of its technical information and research. You can more easily find complex data, and can more easily customize your trading screen, with Schwab than with most other platforms. The Schwab All-In-One Trading Ticket lets you create a snapshot of your trades before executing them. While this trading ticket adds a potentially unnecessary step to making simple trades, it’s a great tool for building multi-step financial positions.

Interactive Brokers vs. Schwab: Account Types Offered

When choosing a brokerage platform, it’s important to make sure it supports the type of account you need — whether you’re investing for retirement, education, or general purposes. Both Interactive Brokers and Schwab offer a wide range of account options, but there are some differences in focus and flexibility.

Interactive Brokers

Designed primarily for professional and active traders, Interactive Brokers supports a variety of account types, including:

Individual taxable accounts (standard brokerage)
Joint accounts
Traditional, Roth, and Rollover IRAs
SEP and SIMPLE IRAs for small business owners and self-employed individuals
Trust accounts
Custodial accounts (UGMA/UTMA) for minors
Solo 401(k) accounts for self-employed individuals
Corporate and institutional accounts for businesses and hedge funds

Interactive Brokers also accommodates international clients, with account structures tailored to non-U.S. investors.

Schwab

With its strong roots in retail investing and financial planning, Schwab offers an equally comprehensive set of account options, ideal for both beginners and experienced investors. These include:

Individual and joint taxable accounts
Traditional, Roth, and Rollover IRAs
SEP and SIMPLE IRAs
Solo 401(k) accounts
Custodial accounts (UGMA/UTMA) for minors
Trust and estate accounts
529 college savings plans and education savings accounts (ESAs)
Charitable giving accounts

For investors looking to combine investing with long-term financial planning, such as saving for college, managing trusts, or donating to charity, Schwab offers more robust support and guidance than Interactive Brokers in these areas.

Interactive Brokers vs. Schwab: Which Should You Use

Interactive Brokers and Charles Schwab can both work well for self-directed investors, but they tend to appeal to different types of users. Interactive Brokers stands out for global market access, sophisticated trading tools and pricing geared toward active traders, while Schwab combines advanced trading capabilities with a broader investing, planning and customer-service experience.

Interactive Brokers may be the better fit if you trade frequently, use margin or want access to markets outside the U.S. Its Trader Workstation supports stocks, options, futures, currencies, bonds and funds across more than 170 markets, along with advanced order types and algorithmic trading tools.

Investors who value in-person assistance may lean toward Schwab, which says it has more than 400 branch locations in addition to specialized trading support. Interactive Brokers is more focused on digital tools and sophisticated trading infrastructure, which may appeal to experienced investors but could involve a steeper learning curve for beginners.

Neither platform is automatically the better choice for everyone. Interactive Brokers may make more sense if advanced trading, international markets and potentially lower trading or borrowing costs are priorities, while Schwab may be a stronger fit if you value a broad investing platform, extensive support and a mix of beginner-friendly and professional-grade tools.

Bottom Line

An investor compares Interactive Brokers vs. Schwab.

Interactive Brokers and Charles Schwab both offer strong brokerage platforms, but they serve somewhat different investors. Interactive Brokers may be a better fit for active traders who want advanced tools, global market access and competitive margin pricing, while Schwab may appeal more to long-term investors who value straightforward pricing, retirement resources and extensive customer support. Comparing each broker’s fees, investment options and trading features can help you decide which platform better matches your investing style.

Tips for Investing

A financial advisor can help you develop an investment strategy that works for you. Finding a financial advisor doesn’t have to be hard. SmartAsset’s free tool matches you with vetted financial advisors who serve your area, and you can have a free introductory call with your advisor matches to decide which one you feel is right for you. If you’re ready to find an advisor who can help you achieve your financial goals, get started now.
It’s important to know where your investments will stand over time. SmartAsset’s free investment calculator can help you get an estimate to keep your goals on track.