Based on our analysis Wealthsimple is a good alternative to Questrade for its cost effectiveness and Qtrade is a good alternative for Questrade for its customer services and research tools.
What is Questrade?
Questrade is one of the oldest and largest online trading platforms in Canada. This trading and investing platform was founded in 1999 and is headquartered in Toronto. As such, the brokerage account has nearly $30 billion assets under its management and nearly $250,000 new accounts are opened with Questrade every year. Let’s see what features Questrade offers before we find out its alternatives.
Features of Questrade
- Offers both self-directed and robot portfolios
- You can open registered accounts such as a Tax-Free Savings Account, Registered Retirement Savings Plan, Registered Educational Savings Plan and non-registered trading accounts. Of this, TFSA and RRSP do not incur annual maintenance fees.
- You can trade in shares, Exchange Traded Funds, managed funds, foreign exchange assets, options, Initial Public Offers, Contract for Differences, Guaranteed Investment Certificates, bonds, precious metals, international equities etc.,
- There are no fees to open an account.
- You can purchase ETFs free of cost.
- You receive news notifications, insights, and research of Canadian and US shares.
- If you are a day trader, there is a tool called intraday trader that analyses your preferences and matches the opportunities based on your watchlist.
- Canadian and US dollars are available.
- Low commission rates.
- Customer service through phone, chat or email.
- No inactivity or account closing fees.
Questrade Trading platforms offered:
- Questtade Trading web-based platform
- Quest Mobile to trade on the go
- Questrade Edge for advanced traders
- Questrade Edge Mobile
- Questrade Global for FOREX and CFD trading
What are the best Questrade alternatives in Canada?
Some of the popular Questrade alternatives are:
Wealthsimple
Wealthsimple is a good alternative as it also offers both manual and robot-directed portfolios. The accounts it offers are RRSP, TFSA, RESP, RRIF, LIRA, cash account etc., Like Questrade Wealthimple, it offers socially responsible investment options. You get access to professional advisers.
You can open an account for free, with no minimum account balance and an easy sign-up process. It also does not charge any inactivity or account closure fees. There are 5 major investment products:
- Wealthimple Invest, which is a robot advisor
- Wealthsimple Trade, which is for manual trading
- Wealthismple cash, which is a high interest savings account
- Wealthsimple Crypto
- Wealthsimple tax for automated tax filing services.
Qtrade Direct Investing
This platform was established in 2001 and is headquartered in Vancouver. It offers multiple account views, in-depth research, reports, screening tools, access to the market and its information. There is no minimum balance and if offers the best customer service in Canada.
You can trade in web and mobile apps both on android and iOS. The accounts it offers are TFSA, RRSP, RESP, LIRA, cash and margin accounts. It also offers corporate accounts.
Questrade and its alternatives
It is important that you do a complete analysis of Questrade and its alternatives and open an account with the platform that best meets your needs.