tastytrade was founded by two industry veterans, Scott Sheridan and Tom Sosnoff, former Cboe traders, best known for building another award-winning options platform, thinkorswim, which they sold to TD Ameritrade (now owned by Charles Schwab). The two then used their deep knowledge of options trading to create tastytrade in 2017. It offers stocks, futures, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), and cryptocurrencies. Forex trading is now available for customers with tastytrade accounts.

tastytrade has integrated user feedback into its platform to create a highly functional user interface. Its liquidity rating indicator lets traders scour options markets for the best prices. tastytrade has also created analytical tools that go beyond basic options chains and allow users to compare various trades and strategies. The platform even offers backtesting, allowing users to test out their strategies on historical data. Strikes can now be selected based on criteria including delta, percentage OTM, underlying price offset and premium.

tastytrade offers competitive pricing, especially for options trading. They charge $1.00 to open an options contract and $0.00 to close it, with per-trade fees capped at $10, potentially offering significant savings for higher-volume traders. The pricing also compares favorably with most other brokers, who generally charge $0.65 per contract per each side of an options trade, meaning $0.65 to open and then $0.65 to close.

Read our Full tastytrade Review.

Founded by Charles Schwab in 1971, the brokerage firm is considered to be both the industry’s veteran and pioneer. Within its first ten years, the company grew to almost 100 branches and became “America’s largest discount broker.” In 1980, it became the first to offer 24-hour quotation services. As of May 2025, it has 37.3 million customer accounts with $9.89 trillion in assets. 

Schwab’s acquisition of TD Ameritrade in 2023 gave it control over the award-winning thinkorswim trading platform. Widely regarded for its advanced charting and analysis tools, the platform is a true powerhouse and a strong asset for options traders. As of February 2025, Schwab and thinkorswim even offer 24-hour trading to all of its clients, although not for options trading.

At $0.65 per contract per side, Schwab’s options fees are average, but the sheer power of its thinkorswim platform, coupled with industry-leading education, make the broker a strong choice for beginning and advanced options traders alike.

Read our full Schwab Review.

Interactive Brokers was founded by its current chair, Thoman Peterffy, in 1977 and is headquartered in Greenwich, Connecticut. Technology-focused from its very first day, the company has grown into a true trading powerhouse, catering to both individual traders and some of the world’s largest financial institutions. As of May 2025, it has 3.81 million client accounts and a total client equity of nearly $590 billion.

Interactive Brokers has two core offerings: IBKR Lite, designed for retail trading clients, which comes with lower pricing but fewer bells and whistles, and IBKR Pro – its more expensive, advanced platform aimed at professional traders and institutions.

Both IBKR’s mobile apps and its desktop platforms are packed with advanced options analysis and trading capabilities and will suit even the neediest traders. The company is hard at work to stay one step ahead of the competition. For example, IBKR Mobile supports six-leg option strategies, whereas most online brokers only provide up to four-leg option strategies. They regularly release new features, such as the recent addition of AI News Summaries or the updates to the Options tab in IBKR Desktop, underscoring the company’s commitment to offering the most advanced platform on the market. 

Read our full Interactive Brokers Review.

Webull was founded in 2016 and is owned by Hunan Fumi Technology, a Chinese holding company. It primarily caters to beginners and intermediate traders and offers zero-commission trades on shares, ETFs, and options. Though it is common for brokers to offer zero-commission stock and ETF trades, Webull is quite unique in offering no-fee options trades, making it our top pick for low-cost options trading.

Between zero-commission trades, a user-friendly platform, and the fact that it pays solid interest on uninvested cash (a high of 4.10% as of May 2025), Webull has a lot going for it. In March 2025, the company also launched Webull Premium – a $3.99/month or $40/year membership program that offers an even greater APY on uninvested cash, lower margin rates, and a better IRA match rate. Prospective clients should be aware that the company does receive payment for order flow, which may impact the quality of trade execution.

Read our full Webull Review.

E*TRADE is an online trading platform founded by William A. Porter and Bernard A. Newcomb. Their vision was to make online trading a reality. The first online trade was placed in 1983, marking the beginning of the online revolution. Morgan Stanley bought E*TRADE for $13 billion in 2020 in an all-stock deal. The combined company now serves millions of client accounts with trillions in customer assets.

E*TRADE’s mobile app offers a powerful yet easy-to-navigate platform that beginners and experts will appreciate. E*TRADE charges $0.65 for options contracts, which is pretty standard, but if you trade more than 30 options in a quarter, you get the discounted rate of $0.50 per trade. While these costs are not the lowest in the industry, they are reasonable, and casual traders shouldn’t find them offputting.

Read our full E*TRADE Review.