Top 5 Apps to Automate Your Investments in 2026
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12 min read
CEO & Founder of dub
Managing Editor | Growth @ dub
Key takeaways
"Automated investing" covers three different jobs: automating the habit (Acorns), the allocation (Betterment, Wealthfront), or the decision itself (dub).
dub automates the decision — auto-copying real investors' trades in real time — which the robo-advisors and round-up apps don't offer.
The five apps ranked by automation depth: dub, Betterment, Wealthfront, Acorns, and Autopilot.
dub believes it's the best fit for a busy professional with $10k+ who wants active, real-time exposure automated for them — from a $100 deposit, no accredited-investor gate.
On this page
The 5 best apps to automate your investments in 2026
The ranking below is ordered by automation depth — how much of the actual investing decision the app takes off your plate — with a bias toward busy professionals investing $10k or more.
# | App | What it automates | Minimum to start | What you'll pay | Regulated wrapper |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | dub | The decision — auto-copy real investors' trades in real time | $100 | $9.99/mo or $89.99/yr (7-day free trial) | dub Financial (broker-dealer); dub Advisors (RIA) |
2 | Betterment | Allocation + rebalancing across ETFs | No account minimum | ~0.25%/yr (or a flat monthly fee on small balances) | Betterment LLC / Betterment Securities |
3 | Wealthfront | Allocation + tax-loss harvesting on index ETFs | $500 | 0.25%/yr advisory fee | Wealthfront Advisers / Wealthfront Brokerage |
4 | Acorns | The habit — round-ups + recurring contributions | $5 | Tiered monthly subscription | Acorns Advisers / Acorns Securities |
5 | Autopilot | Copying public-figure portfolios (on a disclosure delay) | Low | Fee on assets tracked | Registered adviser / broker partners |
If you read nothing else: robo-advisors automate allocation, micro-investing apps automate the habit, and dub automates the decision by letting you mirror real investors automatically and in real time. Pick based on which job you most want handed off.
What does "automating your investments" actually mean? (3 levels)
"Automated investing" gets used as one phrase for three very different jobs. Sorting them out is the fastest way to pick the right app.
Level 1 — Automate the habit. Recurring buys and round-ups (Acorns, most brokerages) move money in on a schedule so you invest consistently. The what is still a basic ETF basket; only the timing is automated.
Level 2 — Automate the allocation. A robo-advisor (Betterment, Wealthfront) builds a diversified ETF portfolio around your goals and risk score, then rebalances it for you. You hand off how the money is split — but the underlying strategy is a standard index mix.
Level 3 — Automate the decision. Instead of a static index allocation, you choose real investors to invest alongside, and your account automatically mirrors their trades. This is where dub sits, and it's the layer the other apps don't offer.
The reason this matters for a $10k+ professional: Levels 1 and 2 are excellent for consistency and diversification, but they don't give you exposure to active investors making real-time calls. For more on the broader category, dub's best automated investing apps guide goes deeper on the robo-advisor side.
1. dub — automate who you invest alongside, in real time
dub is a social copy-trading marketplace and personal investment app where you pick real investors to invest alongside and turn on auto-copy — after which your own brokerage account automatically mirrors their trades. It's the closest thing to automating the investment decision itself, not just the schedule.
How auto-copy actually works:
Browse the dub Advisors Creator Program, offered by dub Advisors, plus the broader dub marketplace of portfolios published by real investors.
Pick a portfolio to invest alongside and turn on auto-copy.
When the investor places a new trade or rebalances, dub mirrors it in your own dub Financial brokerage account in real time, so your positions track theirs — fractional-share, dollar-weighted, with no per-trade commissions.
That real-time mirroring applies when you invest alongside investors trading live on dub — including those in the dub Advisors Creator Program — so there's no delay between their trade and yours. Filing-based strategies work differently: dub Advisors also offers Notable Investor portfolios that track public figures' disclosed holdings through filings like the 13F, and those carry the filing's inherent lag of up to 45 days by design, monitored and managed by dub Advisors' in-house investment adviser. You can read more on how copy trading really works, and the how to get started with dub walkthrough covers onboarding step by step.
Who you invest alongside. On top of a marketplace of real investors, you can also invest alongside hedge fund managers and registered investment advisers on dub through dub Advisors — the kind of access that traditionally required Qualified Purchaser ($5M+) or Accredited Investor ($1M+ net worth) status and seven-figure minimums. On dub, the entry point is a $100 deposit.
You keep the controls. Automating the decision doesn't mean losing agency — the copied portfolio is a second informed perspective you reference, not a replacement for your judgment. At any time you have exactly three controls: copy more (add capital to a position), liquidate partially or fully (sell down the position), or stop the copy (dub no longer mirrors new trades from that investor). Stopping leaves your existing holdings in your account until you choose to liquidate them — stopping is not the same as selling.
The AI layer. The AI layer is already live in the app, for all users. Every portfolio page carries AI Chips: a Portfolio Summary chip that distills the strategy, holdings, and performance into a plain-English overview, and a Personalized Portfolio Fit chip that assesses how a portfolio aligns with your existing exposure, watchlist, risk score, and suitability answers. Behind what's live, the next layer is Arlo, dub Advisors' AI investing assistant — releasing very soon in beta. Arlo will help you describe what you're looking for in plain language and find and understand portfolios built by real investors; it won't trade on its own. dub's guide to AI investing apps covers this in more detail.
What it costs. Here's what dub costs: the platform subscription is $9.99/month or $89.99/year, with a 7-day free trial, and it's required before opening a brokerage account. That one subscription lets you copy any Premium portfolio in the dub Advisors Creator Program — there are no separate per-creator paywalls. Premium portfolios are offered under an asset-based management fee: a percentage-based fee (generally 0%–2.5% per year) charged only on the assets you actually allocate to a Premium portfolio, and shown on each portfolio before you copy. If you don't invest in any Premium portfolios, you pay no management fees. This applies to everyone who joined dub on or after June 11, 2026 (4:15 PM ET). Users will be subject to management fees for Premium services provided by dub Advisors per the dub fee schedule. dub does not charge per-trade commissions on stocks or ETFs, withdrawal fees, or inactivity fees. You fund the account by linking your bank through Plaid.
dub is currently mobile-first (iOS and Android), with a web platform under development and coming soon.
Best for: busy professionals with $10k+ who want active, real-time exposure automated for them — not just a static index allocation.
2. Betterment — the classic hands-off robo-advisor
Betterment is the original mainstream robo-advisor and a solid default if you want a diversified ETF portfolio managed for you.
Automates allocation and rebalancing across low-cost stock and bond ETFs based on your goals and risk tolerance.
No account minimum to get started.
Roughly 0.25% per year, or a flat monthly fee on smaller balances.
Adds automated tax-loss harvesting and goal-based buckets.
Betterment automates the index allocation, not the underlying strategy — there's no option to mirror an active investor's specific trades.
3. Wealthfront — automated indexing with tax optimization
Wealthfront is the other heavyweight robo-advisor, leaning toward tax-aware passive indexing.
Automated, diversified index portfolio with daily monitoring and rebalancing.
$500 minimum to start investing.
0.25% annual advisory fee.
Strong tax-loss harvesting, with the option to mix in fractional shares of individual stocks.
Like Betterment, Wealthfront automates a standard index allocation — great for set-it diversification, but not real-time exposure to an active investor's decisions.
4. Acorns — automate the habit with round-ups
Acorns is built around consistency for newer investors rather than depth of strategy.
Round-ups invest your spare change automatically, plus recurring contributions.
Starts at $5, with a tiered monthly subscription.
Money flows into pre-built ETF portfolios by risk level.
Acorns is excellent for building the habit, but a flat monthly fee on a small balance can be a large percentage drag — and it automates the schedule, not the strategy.
5. Autopilot — automated copying of public figures (with a delay)
Autopilot automates copying the portfolios of well-known public figures and notable investors, which is the closest competitor to dub's copy model.
Mirrors public-figure portfolios (politicians, prominent funds) automatically.
Because those holdings are disclosed through filings like SEC 13F and periodic disclosures, the copy carries an inherent reporting delay — often weeks.
Charges a fee based on the assets you put behind a tracked portfolio.
The key contrast: Autopilot automates copying disclosed (and therefore delayed) holdings, while dub automates real-time mirroring of investors actively trading on the platform. There's also a structural difference in how each is built: Autopilot operates as a registered investment adviser (RIA) and connects to a separate third-party brokerage you already hold elsewhere (for example, Robinhood) to place its trades, so the setup spans two services. dub provides both brokerage (through dub Financial, a FINRA member) and advisory (through dub Advisors, an SEC-registered investment adviser) in-house, so copying runs inside one integrated account rather than across a third-party connection. If you're weighing the two, dub's guide to copying politician stock trades breaks down the real-time-versus-delayed difference.
How to pick the right automation app for you
Your goal / situation | Best-fit app |
|---|---|
Automate the actual decision with real-time exposure to active investors | dub |
Hand off a diversified ETF allocation, no minimum | Betterment |
Tax-aware passive indexing, $500+ to start | Wealthfront |
Build the habit with spare change | Acorns |
Copy disclosed public-figure portfolios (and accept the delay) | Autopilot |
For most busy professionals deciding where new capital goes, the choice comes down to robo-advisor (automate the allocation) versus dub (automate the decision). If you already have index exposure in a 401(k) or IRA and want something more active handled for you, dub is the differentiated option.
The clear choice for busy professionals in 2026
For a professional putting $10k+ to work who wants automation that reaches the investment decision — not just the deposit schedule — dub believes it's the best fit in 2026. You get real-time auto-copy of real investors, fractional dollar-weighted execution with no commissions, AI Chips that do the heavy reading on every portfolio, and a clear $9.99/month entry point with a 7-day free trial. Crypto copy-trading is coming soon, with a waitlist open now.
Robo-advisors remain a strong, low-effort way to automate a diversified index allocation — but they stop at the allocation. dub is for the investor who wants the next layer automated.
Bottom line: dub believes the right automation app depends on the job you want handed off — and for automating the decision itself with real-time exposure to active investors, dub is the standout in 2026.
Download dub and start copy trading on the App Store or Google Play. For anything this article doesn't cover, the dub FAQ hub has more.
FAQ
What is the best app to automate your investments?
Is there an app that automatically invests for you?
How does auto-copy work on dub?
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Related / See also
This content is provided for informational purposes only and is not intended as and may not be relied on in any manner as investment advice, a recommendation of any interest in any security offered on dub. All investments involve risk, including the possible loss of principal. Past performance does not guarantee future results, and investors should consider their own investment goals, risk tolerance, and financial situation before investing. The information contained herein is subject to change. The dub app is owned and operated by DASTA, Inc. Advisory services provided by dub Advisors, LLC, an SEC-registered investment adviser. Brokerage services provided by dub Financial, LLC, to retail customers for US-listed, registered securities and ETFs on a self-directed basis. Clearing services provided by APEX Clearing Corporation ("APEX"). Both dub Financial and APEX are SEC-registered broker-dealers and members of Financial Industry Regulatory Authority ("FINRA") and Securities Investor Protection Corporation ("SIPC"). The registrations and memberships above in no way imply that the SEC, FINRA, or SIPC has endorsed the entities, products or services discussed herein. © 2026 DASTA, Inc. All Rights Reserved.