Questrade vs Wealthsimple (2026): which costs less to invest?

Questrade vs Wealthsimple is a closer race than it was a few years ago. Both now charge $0 to buy and sell Canadian and US stocks and ETFs, both sell fractional shares, and both give you real-time quotes for free. Questrade costs less if you buy US stocks or want a managed portfolio, because its accounts hold US dollars at no charge and its robo-advisor charges half as much. Wealthsimple is the better pick if you want investing, chequing and crypto in one simple app, and it costs nothing to leave.

What’s the difference between Questrade and Wealthsimple?

Both are Canadian online brokers. At either one you can open a TFSA, RRSP or FHSA, buy stocks and ETFs for $0 a trade, or have a portfolio built and managed for you. What separates them is the rest of the price list. Questrade charges less for US stocks and managed portfolios. Wealthsimple charges less for Canadian options and for leaving, and adds banking and crypto to the same app.

Questrade is built for people who invest on their own. It has more tools for active traders, sells GICs, bonds and mutual funds, and lets every account hold US dollars for free. Wealthsimple started with managed portfolios and now runs chequing, savings, crypto and trading from one app. Its prices drop as you hold more with it, on plans called Core (under $100,000), Premium (from $100,000) and Generation (from $500,000).

Questrade: how it works, and what it really costs

Questrade charges $0 to buy and sell Canadian and US-listed stocks and ETFs, with no account fees and no inactivity fees, according to its pricing page (opens in a new tab). Fractional shares are available on Canadian and US stocks, and real-time quotes are free.

Its biggest advantage is how it handles US dollars. Every Questrade account, TFSA and RRSP included, can hold US dollars at no extra cost. You pay 1.5% once to convert, then buy and sell US stocks in US dollars with no conversion on each trade. On bigger amounts there’s a cheaper route called Norbert’s gambit: buy a stock listed in both currencies, have Questrade move it to the US-dollar side of your account for $9.95 (it calls this journaling), and sell it there for US dollars.

The rest of Questrade’s prices, from its fee schedule (opens in a new tab):

• Options: no contract fee on US equity options, and $0.99 a contract on Canadian-listed ones.
• Managed portfolios: Questwealth charges 0.25% a year on balances from $250 to $99,999 and 0.20% from $100,000, plus ETF fees of 0.09% to 0.12% on its standard portfolios (Questwealth fees (opens in a new tab)).
• Other products: GICs at no cost, mutual funds at $9.95 a trade and bonds at $24.95.
• Leaving: $150 to transfer an account to another institution, and $100 to close an RRSP by withdrawing all of it (administrative fees (opens in a new tab)).

Questrade Plus is an optional plan at $19.99 a month. It adds a 1% match on RRSP deposits, free journaling, more market data and 5 cents back on each US options contract. Questrade has no chequing or savings account, and it doesn’t sell crypto directly. For how your account is protected, see is Questrade safe?

Wealthsimple: how it works, and what it really costs

Wealthsimple charges $0 to trade Canadian and US stocks and ETFs on every plan, sells fractional shares and includes real-time streaming quotes, according to its pricing page (opens in a new tab). Its fee schedule (opens in a new tab) lists $0 to close an account, $0 for an inactive one and $0 to transfer an account out.

The US dollar is where Wealthsimple costs more. Buy a US-listed stock from a Canadian-dollar account and you pay 1.5% to convert each time, on the purchase and again on the sale. A US-dollar account avoids that, but it costs Core clients $10 a month, and moving money into it costs 1.5% below $10,000, 1% from $10,000 and 0.5% from $25,000. Once you hold $100,000 at Wealthsimple you’re on the Premium plan, where the US-dollar account is free, and a single conversion of $100,000 or more costs nothing.

The rest of Wealthsimple’s prices:

• Options: no contract fee on US-listed equity and ETF options, and $0.04 a contract on Canadian-listed ones.
• Managed portfolios: 0.5% a year on Core, 0.4% on Premium and 0.2% to 0.4% on Generation, plus the funds’ own fees. Tax-loss harvesting starts at Premium.
• Crypto: 0.5% a trade, plus a spread.
• Moving in: Wealthsimple repays one transfer-out fee (opens in a new tab) charged by your old institution for every $25,000 you bring over, starting at $25,000.

The same app holds a chequing account that pays 1.25% on Core, 1.75% on Premium and 2.25% on Generation. Your investments are covered by CIPF, and the chequing cash is CDIC-eligible through partner banks. Is Wealthsimple safe? goes through both.

Which is cheaper for a TFSA or RRSP of ETFs?

If your TFSA or RRSP holds Canadian-listed ETFs, the trades cost the same at both: $0 to buy and $0 to sell. For most people that makes Wealthsimple the better home. The app is simpler, your chequing and investing sit in one place, and if you ever move the account, it costs $0 to leave instead of Questrade’s $150.

The answer changes if the account holds US-listed ETFs or stocks. Then Questrade wins, for the reasons in the next section. And if you’d rather not pick ETFs at all, the managed portfolios further down are where Questrade costs half as much.

Which is better for buying US stocks?

Questrade, unless you already hold $100,000 or more at Wealthsimple.

Say you put $10,000 into US stocks from Canadian dollars. At Questrade you convert once, for $150 at 1.5% or $9.95 with Norbert’s gambit, and later trades stay in US dollars with no conversion fee. On Wealthsimple’s Core plan, buying from a Canadian-dollar account costs $150 on the way in and 1.5% again when you sell. You can avoid that with a US-dollar account, but you pay $120 a year in fees plus $100 to convert the $10,000.

At $100,000 in assets, the two get close. Wealthsimple’s US-dollar account becomes free, and bigger conversions get cheaper, down to nothing on $100,000 at a time. Questrade still charges 1.5% on a straight conversion, though Norbert’s gambit keeps the cost near $9.95.

Which is cheaper for a managed portfolio?

Questwealth costs about half as much. Questrade’s managed portfolios charge 0.25% a year, or 0.20% from $100,000. Wealthsimple charges 0.5%, or 0.4% from $100,000. Here’s what the management fee alone comes to:

Both also charge the funds’ own fees on top, which aren’t in these numbers. Questwealth’s standard portfolios hold ETFs costing 0.09% to 0.12% a year.

What Wealthsimple’s higher fee gets you is convenience. Your portfolio sits in the same app as your chequing, and from $100,000 it adds tax-loss harvesting, which means selling an investment at a loss and buying a similar one to lower the tax on a non-registered account. Moving an account worth less than $25,000 is cheaper at Questrade, though. It repays up to $150 in transfer fees for each account you move into Questwealth, with no minimum balance, while Wealthsimple repays them only on transfers of $25,000 or more.

Which is better for options trading?

Wealthsimple, on price. Neither charges a contract fee on US-listed equity options. On Canadian-listed options, Wealthsimple charges $0.04 a contract and Questrade $0.99, so trading 20 Canadian contracts a month costs about $230 a year more at Questrade. Questrade’s advantage is its tools. The Questrade Pro platform is free, and Questrade sells deeper market data, such as the full list of waiting buy and sell orders, to people who trade on it.

Can you use both?

Yes. Neither charges account fees, so holding both costs nothing extra. One way to use what each does best is Questrade for an account holding US stocks, where its free US-dollar side saves the most, and Wealthsimple for chequing and a TFSA of Canadian-listed ETFs.

What about the money you don’t invest?

Money you might need in the next year or two, like an emergency fund, usually sits in a savings or chequing account rather than in the market. We make Lodavo, a free app that rewards you for saving it. You get a free ticket in a weekly cash draw for every $25 in the savings or chequing account you connect, and every week someone wins at least $100.

Lodavo works with virtually any Canadian bank or credit union, and Wealthsimple Chequing connects too. Only Canadian-dollar savings and chequing balances earn tickets, so your Questrade account, any Wealthsimple investing account and any US-dollar account won’t count.

Neither Questrade nor Wealthsimple paid to appear in this comparison.

So which one should you open?

Open Wealthsimple if you want one simple app, mostly hold Canadian-listed ETFs or trade Canadian options. Open Questrade if you buy US stocks, want the cheapest managed portfolio, or want GICs and bonds next to your stocks. Fees and plans change often, so check both pricing pages before you move an account. Every figure here is as of October 2026.

Terms and conditions apply. No purchase necessary (alternate method of entry available). Skill-testing question required. Open to legal residents of Canada who are the age of majority. Odds depend on the number of eligible entries received. Full rules and odds at our contest rules.