Webull Review 2021 – Is this broker good?

Webull Review 2021 - Is this broker good?

General Information & First Impressions

Webull is a US-based crypto broker that also offers different online brokerage services. It operates directly from the center of financial happenings, at 44 Wall Street Suite 501 New York, NY 10005 United States. Webull has been around since 2017, meaning it’s an experienced company already and not a novice broker. However, we believe it’s vital to have current insight into online brokers you might potentially use. So our Webull review will let you look at the broker and how it looks and its present state.

Unlike many other crypto brokerages, Webull takes on the form of a more traditional online broker. That means it has a broader range of services as well as better security features. However, Webull does a very poor job at presenting that to first-time visitors.

Namely, the landing page has barely any relevant information regarding trading specifications beyond the accessible materials. The website sections are strange, and each individual one contains too much info so that they become overbearing. However, at the same time, there’s a lack of information regarding the overall trading conditions and specifications across webull.com. Because of that, the broker gives out a strange first impression.

We assume Webull tried to take the minimalistic route that’s popular in online brokerage design. However, it’s very easy for that to go wrong, and then you end up with a website that leaves more questions than it answers. That looks like exactly what happened with Webull since it lacks basic information about trading and investing specifications. That vagueness makes it unfriendly towards beginners who might not know where to find the necessary information. However, it also makes the experience frustrating for more experienced traders, since learning about Webull takes longer.

Fund and Account Security

fund and account security

Security is one of Webull’s undoubtedly strongest specifications. In its four years of working, it hasn’t had a single major data breach or hacking controversy. That means your funds are extremely unlikely to move once you deposit them at Webull. However, that’s not all, as the broker is one of the few that doesn’t hinge on their reputation for trustworthiness.

Instead, Webull is among the few crypto brokers that manage to get licensed by official financial regulators. And Webull’s list is quite long, containing the US’ top financial regulatory bodies. Webull operates under Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC), and The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). That ensures fair play on the broker’s part and promises heavy punishment if the firm missteps.

With such strong regulation, there’s not much else to say about Webull’s security. The customer support seems a tad underwhelming, but that’s a problem most bigger brokerages face. Webull hasn’t had any major controversies and was there to pick up the pieces when Robinhood dropped the ball. Overall, if there’s one place where Webull really stands out, it’s definitely the security it provides customers.

Registration at Webull

registration

The signup at Webull unfortunately requires your phone number and verification straight away. That means you can’t sign up just to look around, and you can’t register from unsupported countries. That makes the broker more difficult to explore thoroughly, as you can’t check out the exact features.

That’s made even worse by the fact that Webull is relatively vague about its exact trading specifications. Regarding many features, you’ll go in either half-informed or uninformed and need to find out during the time of using the service.

Webull manages to somewhat alleviate the problem via the Trade button on the webull.com landing page. It lets users take a peek at the platform and its functionality. However, they can’t use it, so it still leaves a lot to the imagination.

Webull’s Trading Platform

As we mentioned in the previous part of our Webull review, the broker offers a free look at its platform. You don’t even need to register and can even open the software as a guest on the website.

The software is quite nifty, having most of the functionality similar brokerage platforms do. A feature we especially liked was the screener, which shows you the assets that had interesting developments recently. However, the interface is a bit confusing and new traders might need a while to grasp it.

trading platform

For example, stocks and paper trading are in different tabs, and users might be unsure of which one to select. Furthermore, we failed to locate a comprehensive asset list. There is a search bar, so you can find assets if you know exactly what you’re looking for. However, we’d have liked to see an extensive list that lays out all options in front of you.

Our next complaint comes from the fact that only stocks have their own separate tab. That means new traders might not know how to access crypto or other trading instrument classes. Lastly, the platform seems functionally pretty basic, lacking the analytical capabilities of other similar tools.

So in many ways, the platform is a complete miss, with vague features and an overly complicated interface. Keep in mind that we’re talking about the Web version, which is the only one we could access. There’s a slim chance the Mobile and downloadable variations are better, but it’s unlikely.

Funding and Pricing

funding and pricing

Webull’s pricing is decent but nothing to write home about. Their fees are slightly higher than the average brokerage, and there seem to be charges on deposits and withdrawals as well. So while they aren’t the most expensive crypto broker, they’re far from the cheapest too. At least Webull doesn’t seem to add spreads on top of that, so the charges are transparent.

One nice thing we have to say about the funding is that the broker seems to have no minimum deposit requirement. That makes it significantly friendlier to newer users than most brokers are. However, as we said earlier in our Webull review, it has other features which make it fairly unfriendly towards beginners. That creates a conflict and makes the $0 deposit requirement way less significant than it would be otherwise.

Overall, the broker did do the funding properly, but we don’t find it great enough to consider it a particular advantage. For most traders, there are better brokers out there pricing-wise, and as we know, pricing most directly impacts trading success.

Trading Products at Webull

As we said earlier, in our Webull review, it has a broader selection than most crypto brokerages. However, that still doesn’t mean the broker is perfect because it does a poor job at presenting the selection. Most assets are difficult to locate with them straight-up not being on the platform unless you search for them.

That doesn’t take away from the selection too much, as it is still fairly broad, but the broker is so unfriendly that it’s frustrating. Even with that, there are important asset classes missing, meaning that the selection isn’t fantastic. Here’s a list of the asset classes at webull.com:

Stocks
Options
ETFs
ADRs
Crypto

Customer Service at Webull

As we said earlier in our Webull review, bigger companies often have issues communicating with their customers. Webull seems to be suffering from that exact same issue, as it likely expanded beyond its customer service team. That creates sluggishness in responding to questions and resolving issues overall.

There’s no need to explain how negatively that can impact the experience of an average user. In the end, it might not impact you too much, but poor customer support has the chance to end up extremely negatively for users.

Phone: +1 (888) 828-0618

Email: customerservices@webull.us

Conclusion

The best thing about Webull is that you know that you’re safe while using the brokerage. That alone makes it a decent consideration for people with limited brokerage choices. Unfortunately, a lot of EU brokers don’t serve US customers, so for people in the USA, there aren’t a lot of brokerages to choose from. That means Webull is competing in a limited market, which makes it look better than it actually is.

But looking at it factually, it doesn’t really stand out from the grain in any particular way besides safety. It’s confusing to learn about and explore, turning away some users before they even start trading. Furthermore, the brokerage has very little personalization, with only one account type available to customers. The asset variety is also limited, meaning the entire experience isn’t very than skill-expressive.

Unfortunately, that doesn’t translate to a great brokerage. The pricing isn’t on the user-friendly side, and it’s challenging to get used to. As such, while we had high hopes for Webull after learning about its security, we can’t really commend it too much.

If you have few other choices, Webull is a fine brokerage that’ll get the job done decently well. However, to conclude our Webull review, we’d like to suggest putting in a little extra effort an exploring your other options.

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