Betterment vs Wealthfront: Which Robo-Advisor Wins for You?

When you’re choosing between Betterment, a robo-advisor that focuses on simplicity, goal-based investing, and transparent pricing and Wealthfront, a platform built for tax efficiency and automated investing with advanced features, you’re not just picking a tool—you’re picking a strategy. Both are designed for people who want to invest without the stress of picking stocks or timing markets, but they go about it in very different ways. Betterment leans into clarity: you pick a goal—retirement, a house, a vacation—and it builds a portfolio around it. Wealthfront leans into math: it uses algorithms to minimize taxes, optimize asset location, and rebalance automatically, often with more precision than most humans can manage.

The biggest difference? Tax-loss harvesting, a strategy that sells losing investments to offset capital gains taxes. Wealthfront offers this for all accounts, even those under $100,000. Betterment only gives it to accounts over $100,000. If you’re investing in a taxable account and care about keeping more of your gains, that’s a huge deal. Wealthfront also offers direct indexing, a way to hold individual stocks instead of ETFs to unlock even deeper tax savings—but only if you have $50,000 or more. Betterment doesn’t offer it at all. On the flip side, Betterment makes it easier to manage multiple goals in one place, like saving for college while also building retirement wealth. It’s simpler to understand, especially if you’re new to investing or don’t want to dig into portfolio details.

Fees are close—both charge 0.25% annually for their standard plans—but Wealthfront waives fees on the first $15,000, which can help beginners get started with zero cost. Betterment has no minimum to open, while Wealthfront requires $500. If you’re just starting out with a few hundred dollars, Betterment lets you begin immediately. If you’ve got $10,000+ and want to squeeze every bit of tax advantage out of your portfolio, Wealthfront gives you more tools. Neither offers human advisors as a default, but both connect you to financial planners for an extra fee. You won’t find personalized advice like you would with a traditional advisor, but you also won’t pay 1% or more in management fees.

So who wins? If you’re looking for a no-brainer, set-it-and-forget-it experience with clear goals and easy navigation, Betterment is the calmer choice. If you’re tech-savvy, care about taxes, and want to optimize every dollar, Wealthfront gives you the edge. Neither is right for everyone—but both are better than letting your cash sit in a savings account earning 0.01%. Below, you’ll find real comparisons, user experiences, and hidden details that most reviews skip. You’ll see which one actually saves more money over time, which one trips people up with confusing interfaces, and which one you should pick based on your income, account type, and long-term goals.