If you are managing your own investments through a discount brokerage, you may be spending a good amount of time on the brokerage’s mobile application.
In a survey by Investment Executive, 64% of discount brokerage clients indicated that they do not use the mobile app offered by their firm, and only 31% completely understand their firm’s mobile services.
For investors that are frequent mobile app users, the quality of the platform may be a key concern before choosing a discount broker.
We will provide a Questrade mobile app review below and outline the application’s major features as well as how clients rate their experiences.
Trade Investments on the Go
Questrade’s mobile application for accessing the brokerage
- View transaction history
- Move money across accounts
- Place stock, ETF, and options trades in real-time
- Simple interface
- Long loading times
- Difficult-to-read charts
- Constant crashing
- Log-in issues
What is the Questrade Mobile App?
Questrade’s mobile app allows you to access the brokerage through your phone. It aims to provide most of the functionality of the platform’s web portal. The application is available through both the Apple App Store as well as on the Google Play Store.
Questrade Trading Fees
The trading commissions on the Questrade App are the same as anywhere else on the platform.
Standard commissions at Questrade are:
- Stocks: 1 cent per share, with a minimum cost of $4.95 per trade and a maximum cost of $9.95 per trade
- ETFs: Buy for free, Sell for 1 cent per unit, with a minimum cost of $4.95 per trade and a maximum cost of $9.95 per trade
- Options: Buy or Sell for $9.95 per trade plus $1 per options contract
- Mutual Funds: $9.95 per trade
Purchasing an Advanced US or Canadian Streaming package (for $89.95 US or Canadian per month) unlocks active trader pricing. These lower trading costs are broken down into a fixed or a variable plan.
Fixed Plan
- Stocks: $4.95 per trade flat fee
- Options: $4.95 per trade plus $0.75 per contract
- ETFs: Buy for Free, Sell for $4.95 per trade
Variable Plan
- Stocks: 1 cent per share, with a minimum cost of $0.01 and a maximum cost of $6.95
- Options: $6.95 per trade plus $0.75 per contract
- ETFs: Buy for Free, Sell for 1 cent per share, with a minimum cost of $0.01 and a maximum cost of $6.95
Questrade compares favourably in terms of cost to major bank discount brokerages that charge significantly higher fees per trade. Questrade’s trade commissions are relatively high when compared to cost leaders in the brokerage space, namely:
- Wealthsimple Trade
- Interactive Brokers
- National Bank Direct Brokerage
Questrade App Features
Questrade’s mobile application allows you to do several things. Clients can use the mobile app for all-in-one account management and trading. Outside of regular trades, the platform also supports more complex trades, such as multi-leg option strategy orders.
The mobile app offers clients some built-in research from sources such as Trading Central and TipRanks. This is made available under the platform’s News tab.
Investors can use the app to look up stock symbols or ETFs and get the latest prices by clicking on the snap quote button. Watchlists are also easy to create, which allows clients to easily stay up-to-date on investments that interest them the most.
Whether Questrade’s mobile app can replace the desktop platform depends on how you choose to invest. While the application offers a simple way to trade, you will have more in-depth experience trading on a desktop.
Questrade App: Customer Reviews
Questrade’s mobile application has fairly poor reviews on both the Apple App Store as well as the Google Play Store. It may be the case that users are only leaving reviews when they are unsatisfied with the platform, although errors with the app seem to be fairly common.
Questrade App on the Google Play Store
The application on the Google Play Store has a rating of 2.1 stars out of 5, with 2,650 reviews currently submitted. The application has over 500,000 downloads.
The majority of reviews give the application a 1-star rating. Critics are fairly polarized, with fewer reviews of 2 or 4 stars.
Reviews outline that the application takes a long time to load and frequently crashes. The application’s fingerprint feature also seems to have issues when verifying users. A lot of users also mention that the application has crashed in the past, especially when there is a lot of user activity (due to market events).
Questrade App on the Apple App Store
Questrade’s mobile application has even lower reviews on the Apple App Store. Here, the application has an average of 1.7 stars out of 5, with approximately 2,000 reviews currently submitted.
Reviews here mention that the application logs you out automatically after a short period of inactivity (possibly a security feature). Other users have complained about the application’s lack of usability and updates to fix common bugs. Some users have gone as far as to use different platforms to check investment prices and only use the mobile application for placing buy or sell orders.
From a user experience perspective, Questrade’s mobile app is poorly received by both iOS and Android users. If you are looking for a well-received discount brokerage application, consider Qtrade.
Qtrade consistently wins awards for its platform and brokerage, and signing up for an account is very straightforward.
Questrade Vs Other Discount Brokerages: Do they have an App?
Questrade Vs Wealthsimple Trade
Wealthsimple Trade is currently one of the cost leaders of discount brokerages in Canada. It also offers investors on both Android and iOS a mobile application.
Wealthsimple Trade’s mobile app has much higher reviews than Questrade’s. It has a 4.7-star review average on the Apple App Store (123,500 reviews) and a 4.3-star review average on Google Play Store (65,200 reviews).
You can open a Wealthsimple Trade account by clicking here.
Questrade Vs Interactive Brokers
Interactive Brokers is another discount brokerage that is widely used in Canada by seasoned investors and traders. Interactive Brokers’ more complex platform may seem intimidating for newer investors.
Interactive Brokers’ mobile app also has higher reviews than Questrade’s. It has a 3.0-star review average on the Apple App Store (1,500 reviews) and a 4.2-star review average on Google Play Store (9,060 reviews).
You can open an Interactive Brokers account by clicking here.
Our Final Verdict
Although Questrade offers Canadians a competitive platform (especially against major bank discount brokerages), the brokerage’s mobile application comes with many bugs and issues.
Since Questrade is not one of the Canadian cost leaders when it comes to discount brokerage trade commissions, the poor app reviews make it difficult to recommend the platform.
Peers exist that have lower fees and costs as well as a more highly rated mobile application.
If you are looking to explore Canadian discount brokerages further, make sure to read our comprehensive guide on the best online trading platforms in Canada.
