Questrade vs Wealthsimple: Which Broker Fits You in 2026
Last updated: September 11, 2026.
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Questrade vs Wealthsimple stopped being a price question. Both brokers charge $0 to buy and sell stocks and ETFs, Canadian and US-listed, at every account size. Most comparisons still cast Questrade® as the paid platform and Wealthsimple as the free one, and against what the two firms publish today that framing is simply dead.
What is left is fit, and fit comes down to three things. The first is how each broker handles US dollars and US stocks, which is the single largest cost difference between them and the one most people discover after they have already funded an account. The second is what you are allowed to hold: one of these brokers sells bonds, GICs and mutual funds, and the other does not. The third is how much platform you want in front of you, because a busier, deeper interface is an advantage to one investor and an obstacle to another.
Everything below comes from Questrade’s own pricing page and from the Wealthsimple Help Centre, both captured September 11, 2026. There is no flat winner at the end of it. There is a description of who each broker suits, and a plain list of what each one is worse at. If you want the wider field rather than these two, our investing apps hub covers the rest of the Canadian market.
Questrade® is where we hold our own research accounts: $0 commissions on Canadian and US-listed stocks and ETFs, TFSA, RRSP and FHSA accounts, and CIPF coverage as a CIRO member. Open a Questrade account.
Commissions and fees: both of them start at zero
Questrade’s Standard plan costs $0 a month and carries $0 commissions on stocks and ETFs, on both sides of the trade, Canadian and US-listed. Wealthsimple’s Help Centre puts it just as flatly: trading accounts have no fees or trading commissions for buying and selling stocks, with the caveat that currency conversion fees apply to USD investments. Wealthsimple’s own status table confirms the $0 applies at Core, Premium and Generation alike, so there is no asset level at which the commission changes.
Options are close but not identical. Questrade lists $0 commissions on US equity options contracts and assignment fees, with cashback for Questrade Plus subscribers. That is a specific claim and worth reading precisely: the $0 covers US equity options contracts and assignment fees rather than every contract type in existence. Wealthsimple prices options at $0 USD per contract at every client status, with no minimum account balance required to trade them, though you do have to apply for options approval first. The catch on the Wealthsimple side is what the options cover, and we come back to that below.
Where the two diverge is in the products beyond stocks and ETFs. Questrade charges $24.95 per bond trade, nothing at all to buy or sell GICs, and $9.95 per mutual fund trade. Wealthsimple’s trading account does not offer any of those three.
| Questrade | Wealthsimple | |
|---|---|---|
| Stock and ETF commissions | $0, Canadian and US-listed, buy and sell | $0 at Core, Premium and Generation |
| Options | $0 on US equity options contracts and assignment fees | $0 USD per contract, US securities only |
| Monthly subscription | $0 on the Standard plan, Plus optional at $19.99/mo | $0, though USD accounts cost $10/mo at Core |
| Currency conversion | No published percentage, conversion carries a spread | 1.50% under $10,000, 1.00% to $24,999.99, 0.50% to $99,999.99, 0% at $100,000 and over |
| Holding USD in registered accounts | Yes, dual-currency enabled for free | Yes, through USD accounts at $10/mo, or free by opting in at Premium or Generation |
| Bonds, GICs, mutual funds | $24.95 per bond trade, GICs free, $9.95 per mutual fund trade | Not offered in the trading account |
| Account fees and minimums | No annual account fees, no inactivity fees | No minimum to open or trade |
| Investor protection | CIRO member, CIPF coverage | CIRO member through Wealthsimple Investments Inc., CIPF coverage |
Data as of September 11, 2026, verified against questrade.com/pricing and the Wealthsimple Help Centre the same day. Confirm current pricing with each broker before opening an account.
One more fee line belongs in this section because it is easy to miss. Questrade charges a flat $9.95 for each online journaling request, and journaling is free and unlimited on Questrade Plus at $19.99 a month. Journaling is the step that moves shares between the Canadian-dollar and US-dollar sides of an account, which is the mechanism behind Norbert’s Gambit. It is a currency tool rather than a trading fee, and it is the hinge of the next section. Full pricing is published on Questrade’s pricing page.
The USD question, which is the real difference
If you buy US-listed stocks or ETFs in any quantity, this is the section that decides the page for you.
Wealthsimple charges a published, tiered conversion fee. Per the Wealthsimple Help Centre, converting between CAD and USD costs 1.50% on conversions under $10,000, 1.00% from $10,000 to $24,999.99, 0.50% from $25,000 to $99,999.99, and 0% at $100,000 and over. The tier is set by the size of each individual conversion, not by your account balance, and the fee sits on top of the WSII corporate exchange rate, which the Help Centre describes as a live rate including a spread. The virtue here is transparency. You can calculate the cost before you press the button.
Wealthsimple’s answer to that fee is a USD account, which costs $10 CAD a month at Core status after a 30-day free trial, or comes free by opting in at Premium ($100,000 in net deposits or total assets) or Generation ($500,000). With a USD account open, you pay no FX fees and no commissions on buying and selling US equities, and conversion costs apply only when you actually move money between currencies. You can also deposit US dollars into it directly from another Canadian institution, which matters if USD already arrives in your life from somewhere. USD accounts are eligible for TFSA, FHSA, RRSP, Spousal RRSP, LIRA, RESP, non-registered, corporate, margin and crypto accounts. They are not available for RRIF, LIF or chequing, which is a real limitation for a retiree drawing from a RRIF.
Questrade does not publish a flat conversion percentage at all, and we will not invent one. Conversion carries a spread, and the platform’s structural answer to currency cost is different from Wealthsimple’s: dual currency is enabled for free, so you can hold US dollars directly inside registered accounts and then trade US stocks and ETFs with no forced conversions and no exchange fees once the USD is in there. Getting USD into the account without paying a conversion spread is what the $9.95 journaling fee is for, and it is unlimited and free on Plus.
Put the two structures side by side and the shape of the decision appears. Wealthsimple gives you a known percentage and a $10 monthly escape hatch. Questrade gives you a free USD-capable account and a per-request fee on the manoeuvre that fills it. Neither is free in an absolute sense, because a spread is a cost even when nobody prints it as a percentage.
Two practical readings follow. If you convert occasionally in small amounts, Wealthsimple’s 1.50% under $10,000 is a visible tax on every trip, and $10 a month for a USD account is $120 a year you only recover if you trade US names regularly. If you convert in size, the tiering works in your favour and reaches zero at $100,000. On the Questrade side, free dual currency costs nothing to maintain, which suits an investor who holds USD for years rather than cycling in and out, but the journaling route has a real fee attached unless you are paying $19.99 a month for Plus. We walk through the mechanics of that manoeuvre in more detail in our full Questrade review.
Accounts and products
Wealthsimple’s trading account is eligible for TFSA, FHSA, RRSP, Spousal RRSP, RRIF, LIRA, LIF, RESP, non-registered and business accounts. That is the mainstream Canadian account map, and for most people it is complete. Note the asymmetry we flagged above: RRIF and LIF accounts can hold a Wealthsimple trading account but cannot be upgraded to USD accounts.
Inside that account you can hold stocks, options and ETFs on major Canadian and US exchanges, with extended-hours orders and recurring buys available. What you cannot hold there is anything else. No bonds, no GICs, no mutual funds. If you want a five-year GIC ladder or a specific bond alongside your equities in one place, Wealthsimple’s trading account does not do it, and Questrade does: GICs at no cost to buy or sell, bonds at $24.95 a trade, mutual funds at $9.95.
The options gap is the other product limitation worth stating plainly. Wealthsimple’s options are US securities only. The Help Centre’s wording is direct: options are not available for Canadian securities or indices yet. If you write covered calls on Canadian bank shares or hedge a TSX position, that is not something the account currently does. Questrade’s $0 pricing covers US equity options contracts and assignment fees, with per-contract cashback of five cents on US equities contracts for Plus subscribers.
On the Questrade side, there are no annual account fees and no inactivity fees, and dual currency is enabled for free across registered accounts. Wealthsimple has no minimum to open or trade at Core status. Neither broker is putting a balance gate in front of a beginner.
If the account you are opening is a TFSA, the holdings question matters more than the broker question, and our guide to the best TFSA stocks in Canada is the better place to start on that.
Platforms, apps and what each experience feels like
This is the part of the comparison that no pricing page settles, so we will keep it to what the two firms actually document.
Questrade is the fuller platform, and that cuts both ways. Market data is tiered: snap quotes are free, Level 1 streaming is free, expanded US streaming runs CAD $9.95 a month and is included at $0 with Plus, and a USD $44.95 a month tier exists for full US options data. Questrade Plus at $19.99 a month bundles the expanded market data including OPRA, unlimited free journaling, options cashback, and a 1% RRSP deposit match up to the CRA annual limit. That is a coherent package for someone who trades US options, converts currency often, and contributes seriously to an RRSP. It is overhead for someone who buys one ETF a month.
The honest cost of that depth is that a first-time investor faces more surface area on day one: more data choices, more account plumbing, more decisions before the first trade. If the goal is to open an account tonight and own an index fund by the weekend, the busier platform is a friction, not a feature. Questrade also runs no cash sign-up incentive and no promo code, so there is no bonus offsetting the learning curve, and its support hours are thinner than what a bank’s branch network offers.
Wealthsimple’s trading account is built around the app, and the documented feature set fits an investor who wants to set something up and let it run: recurring buys for automatic contributions, extended-hours orders for people who cannot trade at 10am, and an options approval application for those who want it. The trade-off is the one this whole page keeps returning to. The simpler experience is simpler partly because fewer things exist inside it. Our full Wealthsimple review goes through the account in more detail.
Safety: both are CIRO members with CIPF coverage
Neither broker asks you to take a risk on the institution itself. Questrade’s own site describes Questrade, Inc. as a registered investment dealer, a member of the Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization and a member of the Canadian Investor Protection Fund. Questrade, Inc. appears on the CIPF current-member directory, which we checked on September 11, 2026.
On the Wealthsimple side, the dealer entity is Wealthsimple Investments Inc., and that is the name listed on the same CIPF current-member directory. When you read coverage claims about Wealthsimple, the entity matters, because the brand covers several businesses and the CIRO and CIPF membership attaches to the investment dealer.
CIPF coverage protects client property if a member firm becomes insolvent. It does not protect you from a stock going down. That distinction gets blurred in marketing more often than it should be.
Who each broker fits
Questrade fits the investor who holds US dollars. Free dual currency in registered accounts, no forced conversions once the USD is there, and no monthly cost to keep that capability open is a genuinely different structure from paying $10 a month for the same ability. It also fits anyone who wants bonds, GICs or mutual funds beside their stocks, anyone trading US equity options at volume, and anyone whose RRSP contributions are large enough that a 1% deposit match on Plus outruns the $19.99 monthly fee.
What Questrade is worse at: simplicity for a first-time investor, because the platform is fuller and busier. There is no cash sign-up incentive. Journaling costs $9.95 a request unless you pay for Plus. Support hours are thinner than a bank branch network.
Wealthsimple fits the investor starting from zero or close to it. No minimum, $0 commissions at every status, a published conversion fee you can calculate in advance, recurring buys that automate contributions, and the mainstream registered accounts all present. For a Canadian buying Canadian-listed ETFs inside a TFSA, the USD question barely arises and the simpler account is the better account.
What Wealthsimple is worse at: no bonds, GICs or mutual funds in the trading account, which holds stocks, options and ETFs only. USD accounts cost $10 a month at Core status. Conversions under $10,000 cost 1.50% unless you upgrade. Options are US securities only, with no Canadian securities or indices. And the USD upgrade does not extend to RRIF or LIF accounts.
The verdict
There is no winner here, and a page that declared one would be telling you about its own affiliate economics rather than about your situation.
The decision resolves on currency and product breadth. If you buy US-listed securities in meaningful size, or you want bonds, GICs and mutual funds in the same place as your equities, or you trade options on Canadian names, Questrade’s structure is built for that and Wealthsimple’s is not. If you are opening a first account, contributing monthly to Canadian-listed ETFs inside a TFSA or RRSP, and you would rather not think about market data tiers and journaling requests, Wealthsimple removes work that you would otherwise be doing for no return.
There is also a legitimate answer that is neither. Nothing stops a Canadian investor from holding a simple account at one broker and a USD-heavy or product-heavy account at the other, and at $0 commissions and no annual account fees the cost of running both is close to nothing. Investors who have outgrown a single account often end up there without planning to.
Open a Wealthsimple Account and Get $25
If you are starting from zero, Wealthsimple is the simplest place to open a first account, and opening it through our link pays you $25. Four steps:
- Click here to sign up for a Wealthsimple account
- Fund your account with at least $100 in the first 30 days
- Receive $25 cash for free
- Start investing and compounding your gains
How to open an account at either broker
The mechanics are similar at both, and neither takes an afternoon.
Questrade opens online at questrade.com. You choose the account type, complete the application, and fund it. The Standard plan is the $0 per month default, so nothing obliges you to start on Plus, and you can hold US dollars in a registered account from the beginning because dual currency is enabled at no cost.
Wealthsimple opens through the app. You select the trading account you want from the eligible list, which covers TFSA, FHSA, RRSP, Spousal RRSP, RRIF, LIRA, LIF, RESP, non-registered and business accounts, then fund it and place your first order. There is no minimum. If you intend to trade options, the approval application is a separate step. If you intend to hold US dollars, the USD upgrade is its own decision with a 30-day free trial attached.
Both applications ask the same identity, residency and suitability questions that every Canadian brokerage is required to ask, and the paperwork stage is where most people stall. Our walkthrough of how to open a brokerage account in Canada covers what to have ready before you start.
Frequently asked questions
Is Questrade or Wealthsimple cheaper for stocks and ETFs? Neither. Both charge $0 commissions on stocks and ETFs, and at Wealthsimple that holds at Core, Premium and Generation status alike. The cost difference between them shows up in currency conversion and in the products each one offers, not in the commission.
Which one is better for buying US stocks? It depends on how you get your US dollars. Wealthsimple charges a tiered conversion fee starting at 1.50% under $10,000 and falling to 0% at $100,000 and over, and a USD account removes FX on trades for $10 a month at Core status. Questrade enables dual currency for free in registered accounts and charges $9.95 per online journaling request, free and unlimited on Plus, but it publishes no flat conversion percentage.
Can I buy bonds or GICs at Wealthsimple? Not in the trading account, which holds stocks, options and ETFs. Questrade charges $24.95 per bond trade and nothing to buy or sell GICs.
Can I trade options on Canadian stocks at Wealthsimple? No. Wealthsimple’s options are US securities only, and its Help Centre states that options are not available for Canadian securities or indices yet. Approval is required before you can trade them, and there is no minimum account balance.
Are both brokers covered by CIPF? Yes. Questrade, Inc. and Wealthsimple Investments Inc. both appear on the CIPF current-member directory, checked September 11, 2026, and both are CIRO members. CIPF protects client property if a member firm becomes insolvent. It does not protect against investment losses.
Do I need a minimum balance? Wealthsimple has no minimum to open or trade. Questrade’s pricing page does not state a minimum, and it lists no annual account fees and no inactivity fees.
Is Questrade Plus worth $19.99 a month? That depends entirely on use. It includes unlimited free journaling, expanded market data including OPRA, cashback of five cents per US equities options contract, and a 1% RRSP deposit match up to the CRA annual limit. A frequent currency converter or a large RRSP contributor gets more from it than a buy-and-hold ETF investor does.
Questrade® is a registered trademark and/or service mark of Questrade, Inc. Questrade, Inc. is a member of CIRO and a member of CIPF.
Disclaimer: The content on bestcanadianstocks.ca is for informational and entertainment purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Always consult a qualified financial advisor before making investment decisions. Broker pricing data as of September 11, 2026.