SoFi review

Pros and cons

Who it suits

• Beginners, which the audience fact lists as beginners, who want to start small with a $0 minimum deposit.
• Retirement savers who want an IRA, a Roth IRA or a joint account at $0 in account fees.
• Fractional share buyers who want crypto and equities in the same app, as the feature list crypto, fractional shares and mobile app shows.

Who should look elsewhere

• Traders after forex, CFDs or futures, since eToro lists stocks, etfs and forex and SoFi lists stocks, etfs and options.
• Investors who want a broader spread of instruments than shares, ETFs, options and crypto, since CFI lists stocks, etfs and forex.
• Readers who need a UK or EU regulated provider, because the licences named are SIPC member 68389 and FDIC cert 26881.

Who regulates it

SoFi's US registrations are listed as SIPC member 68389 for the securities side and FDIC cert 26881 for the bank side, and those are the only regulators named for the group. A securities membership and a bank certificate in the same group matters for how money is held, because brokerage cash and bank deposits do not sit inside the same arrangement, so it is worth knowing which side of the account a balance is on before you move money across. Investor protection is stated as SIPC cover with a ceiling set by the scheme, which makes it a backstop on missing property rather than a cushion against market losses. For a UK or European reader the practical point is simpler: neither registration reaches beyond the US, and no domestic regulator is named in the terms above.

Account opening and funding

The account list is narrow: ira, roth ira and joint means individual retirement, Roth and joint accounts, and a general taxable account is not among them. That shapes who this suits, because a saver who wants a general investment account for shares held outside a pension wrapper has to look elsewhere. Funding is not the obstacle, since the minimum deposit is $0 and the account fee is $0, so a small opening transfer can start a retirement account without a setup charge. The joint option also lets a household hold the same wrapper in two names. Decide which type fits your tax treatment before you fund it, because the listed types do not overlap and moving later means opening another account.

Markets and platforms

Traded markets are stocks, etfs and options, so the choice covers individual shares, ETFs, options and crypto in the same place. That is a narrower list than CFI, whose markets are stocks, etfs and forex, or eToro, whose markets are stocks, etfs and forex, and the gap is not cosmetic, since forex, CFDs and futures sit outside what you can trade here. Options are the only leveraged instrument on the list, which suits a saver comfortable with expiry dates and margin, and matters less to a buy and hold investor. The same account types, ira, roth ira and joint, wrap all of it, so the retirement structure stays intact whatever you trade, and crypto sits alongside equities rather than in a separate account.

Fees and costs

Cost is the strongest part of the offer. A stock trade costs $0 on a commission free model, the account fee is $0 and the inactivity fee is $0, and these are the published account level figures that apply across the individual retirement, Roth and joint accounts. The minimum deposit is also $0, so there is no threshold to clear before trading. For context, the site records account fees as high as €219.24 and inactivity fees as high as €105.24 elsewhere, so a small balance left for years is treated very differently across the market. Read the account type before funding it, because the figures above are account charges rather than a trading cost for every instrument.

The company behind it

The brokerage entity is SoFi Securities LLC, a group headquartered in the United States and founded in 2011. Its registrations read SIPC member 68389 and FDIC cert 26881, which is the clearest sign of how the business is built: a bank and a brokerage under the same roof, with the two sides carrying separate schemes. That structure is why cash and securities can sit in the same brand without sharing the same protection, and it is worth holding in mind when deciding where to park uninvested money. The other side of the picture is geography, since the group's home market is the US and the licences named here are US registrations, so a reader in the UK or Europe is dealing with a foreign provider.

How SoFi compares

• 

  Nexo

  9.3 vs 9.0
• 

  MC Prime

  9.3 vs 9.4
• 

  Simply Wall St

  9.3 vs 8.7
• 

  MarketScreener

• 

  ActivTrades

  9.3 vs 9.4
• 

  CORUM Vastgoedfondsen

  9.3 vs 8.7
• 

  DKB (Deutsche Kreditbank)

  9.3 vs 9.0
• 

  XTB

  9.3 vs 9.3
• 

  NAGA

  9.3 vs 8.7
• 

  UNest

  9.3 vs 8.6
• 

  eToro

  eToro lists stocks, etfs and forex, the widest market set of the listed brands, while copy trading sits outside the feature list crypto, fractional shares and mobile app here.

  9.3 vs 9.2
• 

  Linxea

  9.3 vs 8.7
• 

  Kitco

• 

  Mintos

  9.3 vs 9.1
• 

  The Best Prop

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  EBC Financial Group

  9.3 vs 9.0
• 

  Instant Funding

  9.3 vs 9.0
• P

  Pepperstone

• 

  Vaulted

• 

  wikifolio.com

• I

  Intellectia

• W

  Winvest

• LI

  Libertex International

• XV

  XM VN

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• sipc.org/list-of-members checked September 26, 2026

  Backs: Investor protection, Licences, Regulators, Legal entity

  “reportingFileNumber=68389; name=SOFI SECURITIES LLC”

• banks.data.fdic.gov/bankfind-suite/bankfind/details/26881 checked September 26, 2026

  Backs: Headquarters

  “CERT=26881; NAME=SoFi Bank, National Association; WEBADDR=www.sofi.com; ACTIVE=1”

• en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SoFi checked September 26, 2026

  Backs: Founded, Features, Markets, Portfolio types, Audience, Account types

  “SoFi was founded in 2011”

• sofi.com checked September 26, 2026

  Backs: Inactivity fee, Minimum deposit, Pricing model, Stock trade fee, Account fee