Best investing apps to learn with

First, be honest about which job you need done

"Investing app" covers at least two completely different products, and conflating them is the most common mistake beginners make when choosing one.

• An execution app holds your money and buys things. What matters here is fees, the account types it supports (a TFSA or retirement annuity, a normal taxable account, offshore access), regulation, and reliability. Learning is not its job.
• A learning app helps you understand what you own, what the news means, and what you should be looking at. It does not need to hold a cent of your money to be useful.

Most people eventually use one of each, and there is nothing odd about that. You would not expect your bank's app to teach you accounting. The question is not "which single app is best" but "which app is best at the job I need right now".

The five types of investing app

Almost every app a South African beginner will come across falls into one of these categories. Knowing which one you are looking at tells you immediately what it is good at and what it will never do well.

We have deliberately not published a ranked list of named South African platforms. Fees, features and account types change constantly, a ranking is out of date within months, and we are not neutral - we build one of these things. What does not go out of date is knowing what to look for, so that is what the rest of this guide gives you.

Eight features that actually teach you something

If you are judging an app on how much you will learn from it, these are the things worth checking. Very few apps have all eight. Three or four is already a good app.

1. Plain-language explanations attached to real data. A price-to-earnings ratio on its own teaches nothing. A P/E with one sentence explaining what it implies about expectations teaches you something every time you look at it. The explanation has to sit next to the number, not three menus away in a help centre.
2. News that gets translated, not just listed. Every app has a news feed. Almost none of them tell you why a headline moved the market or which of your holdings it touches. That translation step is where the learning happens - see our guide to following financial news without the noise.
3. A glossary you can reach in one tap. Financial language is the single biggest barrier for beginners. Being able to tap an unfamiliar word and get a definition, in context, without losing your place, compounds faster than any course. Ours is free and public: the EZvest investing glossary.
4. Portfolio analysis that explains concentration and risk. A good app tells you that 60% of your money is effectively in one sector, and why that matters. A weak one just shows you a green or red percentage.
5. The ability to ask a question in your own words. The classic learning blocker is not knowing the term for the thing you are confused about, which makes searching impossible. Being able to ask "why did this drop when the results were good?" and get a real answer removes that blocker entirely.
6. Fee transparency. An app that shows you the full cost of a trade - brokerage, forex spread, ongoing fund fees - is teaching you the most valuable lesson in investing, which is that costs compound against you exactly as returns compound for you.
7. South African context. Most investing education online is American. TFSA limits, Regulation 28, the two-pot retirement system, securities transfer tax, dividends withholding tax and the rand's behaviour are not covered by a US app, and they change your decisions materially.
8. Structured learning, not just a feature dump. A path that takes you from "what is a share" to "how do I read results" in a sensible order beats an unsorted pile of articles, because the hardest part of self-teaching is knowing what to learn next.

Red flags: apps built to make you trade

Some design choices exist to increase trading volume, not understanding. They are easy to spot once you know the pattern.

• Confetti, streaks and celebration animations when you buy something. Buying a share is not an achievement. Treating it as one is a deliberate behavioural nudge.
• "Most traded today" or "trending" lists on the home screen. Popularity is not a reason to buy anything, and these lists reliably point at whatever is most volatile this week.
• Push notifications about price moves. A notification that a share is down 4% has exactly one purpose: to get you to open the app and do something. Long-term investors should turn these off everywhere.
• Leverage, CFDs or margin offered to beginners. These are trading instruments with a very high rate of retail losses. An app that surfaces them to new users is not optimising for your education.
• A default chart view of one day. It sounds trivial. It frames investing as a daily game. Apps that default to a five-year view are quietly telling you something true.
• Tips, signals or "top picks". If it is a licensed advisor giving personalised advice, that is one thing. If it is an unlicensed app pushing a stock list, that is a problem - and possibly a regulatory one.

Ask what the app wants you to do. If the answer is "trade more often", its interests and yours are not aligned, no matter how good the design looks.

How to check an app is legitimate in South Africa

This part is not optional, particularly for anything that will hold your money.

1. Find the FSP number. Any app giving advice or providing intermediary services in South Africa should display a Financial Services Provider licence number, usually in the footer or the legal page. You can check it against the FSCA's register.
2. Work out who actually holds your money and your shares. Locally that usually means a regulated custodian; offshore it may be a foreign broker with its own protections. Know which, before you deposit.
3. Read the fee schedule, not the marketing page. "Zero commission" almost always means the money is made somewhere else - typically the currency conversion spread or the bid-offer spread.
4. Check how you get your money out, how long it takes and what it costs. Deposits are always easy. Withdrawals are where the friction hides.
5. Be sceptical of guaranteed returns. Guaranteed high returns are the single most reliable marker of a scam anywhere in the world.

A sensible setup for a beginner

If you want a concrete starting point rather than a framework, this combination works for most people:

• One execution platform, chosen for low fees on a tax-free savings account and access to a broad, cheap index-tracking ETF. That is where your monthly debit order goes.
• One learning tool, used two or three times a week for fifteen minutes, to understand what you own and what the news means.
• Optionally, a simulator for the first month, purely to get comfortable with order types and the mechanics before real money is involved - covered in how to practise investing without risking real money.

Notice what is not on that list: three trading apps, a crypto exchange and a tip group. Adding apps does not add understanding. If you want a curriculum to follow alongside them, our 90-day plan for learning investing lays it out week by week.

The honest summary

The best investing app to learn with is the one you will actually open in six months, that explains things instead of just displaying them, and that is not quietly nudging you toward your next trade. Almost everything else - the chart styles, the widget layouts, the dark mode - is decoration.

And the app matters less than the habit. Someone who spends fifteen minutes a week on a mediocre app for three years will comfortably out-learn someone who downloaded a brilliant one and opened it twice. The same is true of the money itself: automating a small monthly amount beats waiting until you feel expert enough to start.

Where EZvest fits

We build the second kind of app, and we should say so plainly. EZvest is an educational tool, not a broker: it does not hold your money or place trades. It brings market news into one feed, lets FinBot explain any headline, term or holding in plain language, and gives you a Learning Hub and a 152-term glossary built for South African context. You sign up with 10 free credits and decide for yourself whether that is a job you need done.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best investing app to learn investing as a beginner?

There is no single best investing app for everyone, because apps do different jobs. The best app to learn with is the one that explains what you are looking at rather than just showing you a price, lets you practise without risking money, and does not push you to trade. The best app to invest through is the one with low fees on the account type you actually need. Those are often two different apps, and using both is perfectly normal.

Do I need an investing app to learn investing?

No, but it helps. Reading about investing in the abstract is slow because nothing sticks until you see it applied to a real company or a real portfolio. An app that shows live market data with plain-language explanations turns passive reading into something closer to practice, which is how people actually learn.

Are free investing apps any good for learning?

Many are, but understand how a free app makes money. If it earns from order flow, spreads or subscription upsells tied to trading activity, its interface is likely designed to encourage more trades. Free apps that make money from a subscription or from education tend to have incentives that line up better with a learner's.

Can an investing app give me financial advice?

In South Africa, giving financial advice is a regulated activity under the FAIS Act and requires an FSP licence. Most educational apps, including EZvest, are explicitly not advice providers: they explain concepts and information, and you make the decisions. If an app tells you what to buy, check whether it is licensed to do that.

How long does it take to learn investing with an app?

Roughly three months of consistent, low-intensity use is enough to become comfortable with the vocabulary, understand what moves prices and build a simple plan. Becoming genuinely good at judging individual companies takes years. The good news is that you do not need to be good at that to invest sensibly.

Is EZvest a broker?

No. EZvest is an educational tool. It does not hold your money, execute trades or give advice. It explains markets, news and portfolios in plain language so that you understand what you are doing on whichever platform you actually invest through.

Educational content only. This article is general information, not financial advice, and no platform, product or provider is endorsed or recommended. Nothing here is a recommendation to buy or sell any security. EZvest is an educational tool and not a licensed financial services provider. Consult a licensed financial professional before making decisions. How we research and review these guides.