Interest to know how does Fidelity compare to TD Ameritrade? Read this Fidelity vs TD Ameritrade comparison review, check out all the stats we have collected, and choose the broker that better suits your needs.
Fidelity vs TD Ameritrade: Popularity
| Query | Fidelity | TD Ameritrade |
| Number of users (approximate) | 32m | 12m+ |
| Website traffic (estimated) | 85m+ | 25.2m |
| # results on web | 147m | 7.3m |
| Search volume Google | 4.2m | 673K |
| Twitter followers | 271K | 141K |
| FB followers | 263K | 375K |
| How popular on mainstream media? | High | High |
| Negative media? | Low | Medium |
| Notable awards | Best Online Broker 2020, Best Online Broker | Best Broker for Stock Trading Platform and Research |
In almost all the stats Fidelity is the winner. But for many, to understand the size of a brokerage firm, the number of active clients is the most important metric. Fidelity has 32 million customers and TD Ameritrade has “only” 21 million accounts.
Fidelity vs TD Ameritrade: User Rating
| Query | Fidelity | TD Ameritrade |
| # users rated on user platforms | 2 on TrustPilot, 17 on SiteJabber | 69 on TrustPilot, 17 on SiteJabber |
| Percentage of positive reviews out of user reviews | 26% | 20% |
| Common compliments | Great customer support and research reports | Easy to use platform, great interface, good tools. |
| Common complaints | The system and user interface antiquated | Bad customer service, long wait to speak to support |
| Positive feedback on Twitter? | People appreciate the charts, research ideas and feeds | Great features and powerful tools |
| Negative feedback on Twitter? | Lately the support seems overwhelmed and is hard to respond | Complaints about the thinkorswim platform |
| App rating (summary) | Over 1.36m reviews with an average 4.65 / 5 rating | Over 45K ratings and 4.5/5 score on Apple store |
Very few reviews posted for Fidelity on TrustPilot and SiteJabber (19 in total) which is surprising because their mobile users have left over 1.3 million reviews on the app stores. The positive feedback percentage is just slightly better than the one for TD Ameritrade.
Fidelity vs TD Ameritrade: Background Information
| Query | Fidelity | TD Ameritrade |
| Company public/private | Private | Public |
| Revenue Data | $20.9 billion in 2019 | $1.48 billion on Q2 of 2020 |
| CEO and bio | Abigail Johnson – completed an MBA at Harvard Business School and since 2014, she has been the president and CEO. | Steve Boyle, He is a professional member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants that worked previously for Banknorth and Barnett Banks |
| Number of employees | 50,000+ | 9,183 |
| Notable investors (private companies) | None | None |
Fidelity is clearly the bigger company in terms of revenue data and number of employees. Even though, for TD Ameritrade, we have only data for the Q2 of 2020, we can clearly see the Fidelity is generating way bigger numbers overall.
Fidelity vs TD Ameritrade: Security
| Query | Fidelity | TD Ameritrade |
| HTTPS Certificate | Yes | Yes |
| 2FA ? | Yes | Yes |
| Device monitoring? | Yes | Yes |
| New device extra security? | Yes | Yes |
Fidelity vs TD Ameritrade: Fees & Offering
| Query | Fidelity | TD Ameritrade |
| Account minimum | None | None |
| Account fixed fees | None | None |
| Fractional shares? | Yes | No |
| Margin costs | Varies | Varies |
| ETF buying fees | None | None |
| Stock buying fees | None | None |
| Option buying fees | $0.65 per contract with commission-free trades | $0.65 per contract |
| Short selling fees | 6% to 10% | None |
| Futures buying fees | Not available | $2.25 fee per contract |
| Future options buying fees | Not available | $2.25 fee per contract |
| Cryptocurrency fees | Not available | Not available |
| Fixed income fees | $19.95 per trade | $1 per bond or CD on secondary transactions |
| Mutual funds fees | None | $49.99 per trade for no-load mutual funds and $0 for load mutual funds. |
ETF and stock buying is free on both platforms. The main difference is on two points:
- Fidelity allows for buying of fractional shares but doesn’t support futures trading.
- TD Ameritrade doesn’t provide fractional shares but allows its customers for trade in the futures market.
Fidelity vs TD Ameritrade: Trading App
| Query | Fidelity | TD Ameritrade |
| Android app # installs | 1m+ | 1m+ |
| Android app # reviews | 66K | 7K |
| iPhone app # reviews | 1.3m | 47.6K |
| Android app rating | 4.5 / 5 | 3.4 / 5 |
| iPhone app rating | 4.8 / 5 | 4.5 / 5 |
| Common compliments on app | Easy to navigate and use. Simple and direct explanations and directions. | Easy to understand and operate, lots of useful functions |
| Common complaints on app | Recently the new update is creating problems for some users trying to login and/or use it. | Laggy, buggy platform |
| Weighted average app rating | 4.65 / 5 | 4 / 5 |
The two brokers have a similar number of downloads for their mobile trading apps, but the number of reviews is clearly in favor of Fidelity. The company has almost 1.4 million reviews combined from the Android and iOS mobile store. Also, the average rating is higher than the one for TD Ameritrade.
Final conclusions:
As we can see from the numbers and conclusions stated above, Fidelity seems to come out as the clear winner from this Fidelity vs TD Ameritrade comparison.