Fidelity vs Charles Schwab 2026: Which Brokerage Actually Wins?

Here's a bold claim to start: picking the wrong brokerage won't ruin your financial life, but picking the right one could save you tens of thousands of dollars over a 30-year investing horizon. Choosing between Fidelity vs Charles Schwab in 2026 isn't easy — and honestly, it shouldn't be. Both are genuinely excellent brokerages with decades of track records, zero-commission stock trades, and enough features to satisfy everyone from a first-time Roth IRA opener to an active options trader running multi-leg strategies. The real question isn't "which one is good?" It's "which one is good for you?" This breakdown will answer that precisely.

Who Should Use What (Read This First)

Before we get into the technical weeds, here's the fast answer:

• Choose Fidelity if you're focused on long-term investing, want the best index funds with zero expense ratios, or need a solid all-in-one platform for retirement and taxable accounts.
• Choose Charles Schwab if you want a more polished desktop trading platform (thinkorswim, now fully integrated after the TD Ameritrade merger), prefer branch access, or you're an active trader who needs advanced charting and derivatives tools.

Simple enough? Good. Now let's dig into the actual specs.

Quick Comparison Table

Fidelity Overview

Fidelity

Fidelity has been around since 1946, and at this point they don't need to prove anything to anyone. What's remarkable — and honestly kind of impressive for a company that's nearly 80 years old — is that they've actually kept up with fintech challengers rather than resting on their legacy. Their ZERO index funds (literally 0.00% expense ratio) still represent some of the most cost-efficient investing vehicles on the market in 2026. No marketing gimmick, no fine print. Just zero.

Key Features

• Fidelity ZERO Index Funds — FZROX, FZILX, and friends carry 0% expense ratios. Full stop, nothing beats this.
• Active Trader Pro — A downloadable desktop platform with Level 2 quotes, real-time analytics, and customizable dashboards.
• Fidelity Go — Their robo-advisor is genuinely free for accounts under $25,000. Above that, it's 0.35% annually.
• Full-service retirement accounts — Traditional IRA, Roth IRA, SEP-IRA, SIMPLE IRA, Solo 401(k)s. They cover everything.
• Cash management — The Fidelity Cash Management Account functions like a checking account with ATM fee reimbursements worldwide. (Honestly, I think this feature alone is underrated and more people should be using it.)
• Basket trading — Build custom portfolios of up to 50 stocks/ETFs and trade them as a single unit.

Best For

Long-term investors, retirement savers, beginner to intermediate traders, and anyone who wants to minimize fund costs to an almost comical degree.

Pricing

• $0 stock/ETF trades
• $0.65 per options contract
• $0 for Fidelity mutual funds; $49.95 for outside fund purchases
• No account minimums

Charles Schwab Overview

Charles Schwab

Look, Schwab in 2026 is a fundamentally different company than it was even three years ago. The full absorption of TD Ameritrade's technology — particularly thinkorswim — has transformed Schwab into arguably the most technically capable mainstream brokerage available to regular retail investors. thinkorswim was already legendary among options traders and technical analysts, and now it's backed by Schwab's institutional stability and balance sheet. That's a powerful combination.

Key Features

• thinkorswim — The crown jewel. A professional-grade trading platform with advanced charting (over 400 technical studies), options analytics, futures trading, and paper trading mode for practice.
• Schwab Intelligent Portfolios — Robo-advisor with no advisory fee and no minimum (though it requires $5,000 to start). There's a "Premium" tier at $30/month with unlimited CFP access.
• StreetSmart Edge — A secondary desktop platform that's more approachable than thinkorswim for casual users.
• Extensive branch network — With roughly 400 branches across the U.S., you can actually sit down with a human being.
• Schwab Bank — Full-featured banking integration including checking accounts, mortgages, and the famous Schwab Investor Checking with unlimited ATM fee rebates worldwide.
• Futures and Forex — Schwab supports futures trading through thinkorswim; Fidelity doesn't offer futures at all.

Best For

Active traders, options enthusiasts, technical analysts, investors who want branch access, and anyone who needs futures trading capability.

Pricing

• $0 stock/ETF trades
• $0.65 per options contract
• $74.95 for outside mutual fund purchases
• No account minimums for brokerage accounts

Feature-by-Feature Comparison

User Interface & Ease of Use

Fidelity's web platform got a significant redesign in recent years and it's genuinely clean now. Navigation is intuitive, account dashboards load fast, and research integration is well-organized. Active Trader Pro (the downloadable platform) is powerful but has a steeper learning curve — though I'd argue it's nowhere near as steep as what awaits you on the Schwab side.

Schwab's main web interface is similarly polished. But thinkorswim — while absolutely incredible for advanced users — will overwhelm a beginner on first launch. Imagine opening a Boeing 747 cockpit when you just wanted to buy 10 shares of Apple. Schwab knows this, which is why they still maintain StreetSmart Edge as an intermediate option. Smart move on their part.

Winner: Fidelity for everyday usability. Schwab if you're ready to invest serious time in learning thinkorswim.

Core Features

Both platforms cover the basics comprehensively: stocks, ETFs, mutual funds, bonds, CDs, options, and IRAs. The meaningful differences show up at the edges.

Schwab supports futures trading. Fidelity doesn't. That's a hard line for certain traders — no workaround, no alternative. Schwab also supports forex through thinkorswim. On the crypto front, both are limited: Fidelity offers Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs but not direct crypto trading, and Schwab is in the same boat through standard accounts.

Fidelity's basket trading feature is genuinely useful for systematic investors who want to rebalance custom stock portfolios without placing 30 individual orders. Schwab doesn't have a direct equivalent, though thinkorswim's order staging gets close for active traders.

Winner: Schwab on breadth of tradeable assets. Fidelity on long-term portfolio management tools.

Integrations

Fidelity integrates with TurboTax for tax reporting (they export directly, which is a legitimate time-saver come April), Mint via manual import, and various financial planning tools. They also have an open API for institutional clients, but retail customers don't get direct third-party app connections the way you'd expect from a fintech platform.

Schwab connects well with financial planning software like eMoney and MoneyGuidePro — most relevant if you're working with a financial advisor who uses those tools. Fun fact: thinkorswim's thinkScript language actually lets you build custom indicators and automate alerts. It's essentially a light scripting environment baked into a retail trading platform, which is kind of wild when you think about it.

Honestly, neither brokerage is winning awards for third-party API integrations at the retail level. Both operate more like walled gardens than open ecosystems, which is a mild frustration if you like connecting everything to a tool like Personal Capital or Copilot.

Winner: Tie — with a slight edge to Schwab if you use thinkorswim's customization capabilities.

Pricing & Value

On commissions, they're identical: $0 for stocks/ETFs, $0.65 per options contract. Both charge $0 for their own mutual funds. No surprises there.

The key difference is fund costs. Fidelity's ZERO funds at 0.00% expense ratio are genuinely unbeatable — and I don't say that lightly. Schwab's equivalent index funds (like SCHB or SCHX) typically run 0.03%, which is still phenomenal by any historical standard. But it's not zero. On a $500,000 portfolio over a 30-year investment horizon, even that 0.03% gap adds up to real money — we're talking potentially $4,500 or more in cumulative costs, depending on your returns.

Schwab also charges $74.95 for outside mutual fund purchases versus Fidelity's $49.95. Not a dealbreaker for most people, but worth knowing if you regularly buy funds outside the core Schwab family.

Winner: Fidelity on long-term cost efficiency. Both win on commissions.

Customer Support

Both offer 24/7 phone support, and in my experience both are better than most brokerages at actually picking up within a reasonable time. Fidelity's chat support has improved significantly over the past couple of years — responses are faster and more accurate than they used to be.

Schwab's branch network of roughly 400 locations is a genuine differentiator for investors who want face-to-face interaction. Need to sort out a complex IRA rollover with a human in the room? Schwab's physical presence makes that possible in most major metro areas. Fidelity has around 200 branches, which is solid, but it's half of Schwab's footprint.

Winner: Schwab on in-person support. Fidelity on digital chat responsiveness.

Mobile App

Both apps score 4.8/5 on iOS and perform similarly on Android — so on paper it's a dead heat. Dig a little deeper, though, and the story gets more interesting.

Fidelity's mobile app is arguably more polished for everyday account management: checking balances, placing basic orders, reviewing holdings. It's snappy and doesn't feel like someone just shrunk a desktop interface down to phone size.

Schwab's main app is fine for standard use, but thinkorswim Mobile is where active traders actually live. It's one of the best mobile trading apps available in 2026 — real-time options chains, full charting with technical indicators, and watchlist customization that actually syncs with the desktop platform seamlessly.

Winner: Schwab for active traders via thinkorswim Mobile. Fidelity for casual investors who just want simplicity.

Security & Compliance

Both are SIPC-insured up to $500,000 ($250,000 for cash). Both offer two-factor authentication, biometric login on mobile, and excess SIPC coverage through private insurers — Fidelity uses Lloyd's of London, while Schwab has its own excess program.

Neither has had a major security breach affecting customer accounts. Both are SEC and FINRA regulated. One interesting wrinkle: Fidelity is privately held, owned by the Johnson family since 1946, which some investors genuinely prefer — it means there's no quarterly earnings pressure pushing business decisions in weird directions. Schwab, by contrast, is publicly traded on the NYSE under the ticker SCHW.

Winner: Tie — both meet the highest industry standards.

Pros and Cons

Fidelity

Charles Schwab

Who Should Choose Fidelity?

Fidelity makes the most sense if:

• You're building a long-term retirement portfolio and want to minimize costs obsessively. Those ZERO funds compound that advantage every single year for decades.
• You're a beginner or casual investor who wants a clean, straightforward experience without getting lost in trading tools you'll never use.
• You need a cash management account that actually functions as a real checking account — Fidelity's version is arguably the best non-bank banking option out there, and it's weirdly underrated.
• You're using a robo-advisor and don't want to pay fees on smaller balances. Fidelity Go's free tier under $25K is genuinely hard to beat.
• You prefer a privately held company where quarterly earnings reports aren't influencing decisions about your account features or fee structures.

Who Should Choose Charles Schwab?

Schwab's the right call when:

• You're an active trader or options trader who needs thinkorswim's full technical capabilities, custom scripting, and multi-leg options order flow.
• You want futures or forex exposure — Schwab offers both through thinkorswim; Fidelity simply doesn't, end of story.
• You value branch access and like the option of walking into a physical location to talk through complex questions with a real person.
• You're working with a financial advisor — Schwab's institutional infrastructure and planning software integrations make it a natural fit in that context.
• You want to practice trading before risking real money — thinkorswim's paper trading mode is one of the best in the business, and it's completely free to use.

Verdict

Here's my honest take: Fidelity wins for most long-term investors, and Schwab wins for active traders. That's not a hedge — it's actually a clean answer once you know which category you fall into.

If you're contributing to an IRA, building a diversified index fund portfolio, and planning to hold for decades, Fidelity's ZERO funds and retirement tools give you a structural cost advantage that compounds meaningfully over time. The platform is also just cleaner for people who don't need or want advanced charting tools cluttering up their screen.

If you're trading options regularly, want futures exposure, or you're going to actually use thinkorswim to its full potential, Schwab is the better technical choice. The platform depth — post-TD Ameritrade integration — is genuinely impressive and isn't matched by Fidelity's Active Trader Pro. Honestly, I think Active Trader Pro is a bit overrated at this point; thinkorswim is in a different league for serious traders.

One more thing worth saying: there's nothing stopping you from having accounts at both. Plenty of serious investors do exactly that — Fidelity for their IRA and long-term holdings, Schwab for their active trading account. Both have no account minimums and no inactivity fees, so keeping both open costs you nothing.

• 🏆 Best for long-term/retirement investors: Fidelity Fidelity
• 🏆 Best for active traders: Charles Schwab Charles Schwab

FAQ: Fidelity vs Charles Schwab 2026

Is Fidelity or Charles Schwab better for beginners?

Fidelity, and it's not particularly close. The interface is cleaner, the educational resources are well-organized, and the ZERO funds make it almost trivially easy to start a low-cost index portfolio without overthinking it. Schwab's thinkorswim is powerful, but walking a beginner through that platform on day one is a recipe for confusion.

Does Charles Schwab still have thinkorswim in 2026?

Yes — and it's better than ever. thinkorswim is fully integrated into the Schwab platform and remains one of the most capable retail trading platforms available anywhere. The integration with Schwab's banking and brokerage infrastructure is noticeably smoother now than it was in the immediate post-merger chaos of 2020-2021.

Which brokerage has better index funds — Fidelity or Schwab?

Fidelity wins, full stop. Their ZERO fund lineup sits at 0.00% expense ratio, which is simply unmatched. Schwab's index ETFs like SCHB are excellent at 0.03% — that's a phenomenal rate in any historical context — but on a $500,000 portfolio held for 30 years, that 0.03% gap isn't nothing.

Can I trade futures at Fidelity?

No. Fidelity doesn't offer futures trading, period. If futures are part of your strategy, Schwab via thinkorswim is your best option among the major full-service brokerages.

Is my money safe at both Fidelity and Charles Schwab?

Yes. Both are SIPC-insured up to $500,000 and carry additional excess coverage on top of that. Both are regulated by the SEC and FINRA, and neither has experienced a significant customer account security breach. Your money is as safe at either as it can realistically be at any brokerage — this is not a factor that should drive your decision between the two.

What happened to TD Ameritrade — is it fully part of Schwab now?

Yes, completely. The TD Ameritrade acquisition by Charles Schwab closed in 2020, and the full technology and account integration — including thinkorswim — has been completed as of 2026. Former TD Ameritrade customers are now Schwab customers, and thinkorswim is available to all Schwab brokerage account holders. If you were a TD Ameritrade loyalist who was nervous about the transition, the good news is that thinkorswim survived the merger intact and arguably got better with Schwab's resources behind it.