11 Apps That Offer Free Stocks and Cash Bonuses in 2024
Many investing apps and brokerages are offering free stocks or other incentives when you sign up for their platforms.
This is a list of the companies offering the best sign-up bonuses for 2024, either free stocks or cash bonuses (which you can then use to buy stock).
I've ranked the apps based on the number of free shares or size of the cash bonus.
The ranking also incorporates whether it is easy to receive the bonus, for example whether a deposit is needed or not.
Summary of the best free stock promotions
- Moomoo (up to 16 free stocks)
- Webull (up to 12 free stocks)
- Robinhood ($5–$200 in free stock)
- Plynk (up to a $75 cash bonus)
- M1 Finance ($75–$500 cash bonus)
- Public ($150–$10,000 cash bonus)
- TradeStation ($50–$5,000 cash bonus)
- Stash ($20 in free stock)
- Acorns ($20 cash bonus)
- SoFi Invest ($5–$1,000 in free shares)
- TradeUP (up to 5 free stocks)
Disclaimer: Offers may vary or rotate over time and may be based on your location; not all offers may be live at all times.
1. Moomoo: up to 16 free shares
Moomoo is a good brokerage for active traders. You can buy stocks, ETFs, options, ADRs, and OTCs across the U.S., Hong Kong, and China-A-shares markets.
Stock and ETF trading is commission-free and there are no account minimums.
Moomoo has a very well-designed user interface and a broad suite of useful tools. It also offers free real-time and Level 2 data.
Moomoo has an incentive program where you can earn up to 16 free shares.
Here's how to get them:
- Open a Moomo account
- Get 5 free stocks with a deposit of $100
- Get an additional 10 free stocks with a deposit of $1,000
- Get an additional free share of Tesla (TSLA) or Google (GOOGL) with a deposit of $5,000 or more
That means, if you deposit $5,000, you will receive a minimum of ~$160 in free stocks.
2. Webull: up to 12 free shares
Webull is a brokerage that is popular for its mobile app and offers trading in stocks, ETFs, options, and cryptocurrencies.
If I didn't own a computer and was set on being a day trader, I would choose Webull's app to place my trades.
Webull runs one of the only promotions where you can get free stock with no deposit. However, they require a deposit to become eligible for the full 12 shares.
Here's how to get them:
- Get 2 free stocks by opening a new brokerage account
- Get an additional 4–10 free stocks with a deposit of $100
3. Robinhood: Free shares worth $5–$200
Robinhood is a popular investing app that is known for zero commission trading.
They offer stocks, ETFs, cryptocurrencies, options and give you relatively high interest rate on cash savings.
Robinhood's sign-up bonus does not require a deposit, all you need to do is link your bank account.
Here's how it works:
- Open a new brokerage account
- Get 1 stock slice valued between $5–$200 by linking your bank account
These are the odds for the value of the stock you'll receive:
- 99% of rewards are worth $5
- 1-in-100 customers can get at least $100
- 1-in-1,000 can get $200
4. Plynk: up to a $75 cash bonus
Plynk was built to make investing simple for new investors.
It has educational materials, simple explanations, investment questionnaires, and how-to articles to get you started investing.
It also has tools to help with dollar-cost averaging, the process of making recurring investments regardless of whether the market is up or down. This helps you build a habit of investing and may reduce the stress of building long-term wealth.
You can earn up to $75 in cash by following a few steps:
- Get $10 cash by downloading the app, opening a new account, and linking your bank account
- Get up to $75 by depositing $75
Plynk will match up to $75 in deposits, but you must deposit at least $25. If you deposit $25, you will receive $25. If you deposit $75, you will receive $75. If you deposit $20, you will receive $0.
Plynk also offers a $25 referral bonus for each referred new account that deposits at least $25.
5. M1 Finance: $75–$500 cash bonus
M1 Finance is different from most other brokerages.
In addition to stock and ETF investing, it also offers various banking features like high interest savings.
The app is well known for offering automations, like assigning percentage targets to your investments and letting the app handle the rebalancing.
You can earn a sign-up bonus from M1 Finance by opening a new account and making a deposit:
- Earn $75 when depositing between $10,000–$29,999
- Earn $150 when depositing between $30,000–$49,999
- Earn $250 when depositing between $50,000–$99,999
- Earn $500 when depositing $100,000 or more
This offer from M1 Finance is not always active, so you will need to check their site to confirm.
6. Public: $150–$10,000 cash bonus
Public is my most recommended brokerage for long-term investors.
They have a well-designed website and app that you can use to invest in tons of different asset classes, including alternative assets.
Public's promotional offer is pretty straightforward.
Here's how it works:
- Earn $150 when transferring between $5,000–$24,999
- Earn $250 when transferring between $25,000–$99,999
- Earn $600 when transferring between $100,000-$249,999
- Earn $1,000 when transferring between $250,000-$499,999
- Earn $2,000 when transferring between $500,000-$999,999
- Earn $4,000 when transferring between $1,000,000-$4,999,999
- Earn $10,000 when transferring $5,000,000 or more
7. TradeStation: $50–$5,000 cash bonus
TradeStation offers very fast trade executions and powerful charting tools.
They also provide a free trading simulator, which makes it one of the best brokerages for serious traders.
Like M1 Finance, you can earn a sign-up bonus from TradeStation by opening an account and making a deposit.
TradeStation's deposit schedule is as follows:
- Earn $50 when depositing $500 in qualifying assets
- Earn $250 when depositing $25,000 in qualifying assets
- Earn $400 when depositing $100,000 in qualifying assets
- Earn $800 when depositing $200,000 in qualifying assets
- Earn $3,000 when depositing $1,000,000 in qualifying assets
- Earn $5,000 when depositing $2,000,000 in qualifying assets
8. Stash: up to $20 in free shares
Stash is an investing app geared towards building your net worth over time.
Unlike most of the brokerages in this article, they aren't free and require a paid subscription.
Stash offers many similar features as M1 finance, such as automatic rebalancing of your portfolio.
Stash has a simple process for earning its free stock bonus:
- Open a new brokerage account
- Get $20 in free shares with a deposit of at least $5
9. Acorns: up to $20 cash bonus
Acorns was the first platform to introduce "round-ups," which allow you to invest spare change on autopilot.
When you link your credit card to your account, every time you buy something, Acorns will automatically round up your purchase to the nearest dollar and invest the difference.
For example, if you buy a coffee for $3.52, Acorns will round up your purchase to $4.00 and automatically invest the extra $0.48 in your portfolio.
In addition to round-ups, Acorns offers recurring investment options and robo-advisory services.
You can earn a $20 cash bonus by following the steps below:
- Open an account
- Get $20 cash by setting up a recurring investment of $5 or more
10. SoFi Invest: up to $5–$1,000 of free shares
SoFi Invest offers various investment and finance solutions.
They offer commission free investing, plus different services related to banking and retirement.
You can earn up to $1,000 in free shares. Here's how to get them:
- Open a new brokerage account
- Get between $5–$1,000 in free shares with a deposit of $10 or more
11. TradeUP: up to 5 free stocks
TradeUP is another mobile-first brokerage for active traders (very similar to Webull and moomoo). You can trade U.S. stocks, ETFs, and options commission-free.
You can sign up and deposit any amount to enter TradeUP's draw system for a chance to win five free stocks valued at up to $1,800.
Here's how it works:
- Get 1 draw by opening a new account and depositing any amount
- Get 2 draws with a deposit of $100–$2,500
- Get 3 draws with a deposit of $2,500–$10,000
- Get 4 draws with a deposit of $10,000–$100,000
- Get 5 draws with a deposit of $100,000+
The value for each free stock draw will be between $10 and $1,800.
That means, with a deposit of $100,000 or more, you could receive up to $9,000 in free shares. However, the odds would indicate your likely award would be valued in the $50–$100 range.
What to look for when claiming free stock
Although most of the bonus offers on this list are relatively straightforward, all of them come with certain terms and conditions.
Be sure to read the fine print before signing up for any of these offers, as it will spell out everything you need to know about the requirements.
For the offers with free shares that vary in value (such as Robinhood's $5–$200 bonus), the terms and conditions will include how likely you are to receive the different levels of bonuses.
For example, Robinhood's terms and conditions show these are the odds of the value of the stock you'll receive from its sign-up bonus program:
- 99% of rewards are worth $5
- 1-in-100 customers can get at least $100
- 1-in-1,000 can get $200
Obviously, your odds of receiving a stock worth about $5 are very high, while your odds of receiving a stock worth $200 are very low.
Most of the other companies on this list will follow a similar format for their payouts.
How we ranked the offers
We considered the following factors when ranking the offers in the article:
- Bonus offering: How good is the bonus itself?
- Ease of earning the bonus: Are there many hoops to jump through to qualify? Are the terms and conditions straightforward? Do most users actually earn the bonus? Is it worth the hassle?
- Platform quality: How good is the platform or app that is offering the bonus? How likely are people to use it after earning the bonus? How reputable is it?
Final verdict
Those are the 11 best free stock and cash offers from investment apps available right now.
A few of them (Webull, Robinhood and Plynk) do not even require any deposits. But the best offers all require some sort of initial deposit or transfer.
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