Alinea Invest Review: Investing for Gen-Z

Alinea is a mobile investing app designed specifically for first time investors who are looking for an easy way to invest. 

You can invest in stocks, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), and cryptocurrencies, and even choose portfolios based on themes that match your investment objectives and interests. 

But while it doesn't charge any trading fees, Alinea Invest charges a hefty $120 annual membership fee. Is it worth the cost? Find out in this full review. 

What Is Alinea Invest?

Alinea Invest is a mobile-only investing app geared to newer first time investors, with marketing that heavily targets young women through platforms like TikTok.

The fintech, which was founded in 2020 by then Columbia students, Eve Halimi and Anam Lakhani, makes it easy to invest in stocks, ETFs, and even cryptocurrencies. It offers fractional shares, with no account minimums or trading fees. There is an annual membership fee (more on that below). 

What Does It Offer?

Automated Investing

As with any investing app, upon signup, you'll be required to complete an investing questionnaire. The information you provide will determine your investment objectives, risk tolerance, etc. This allows Alinea Invest to provide you with personalized investment recommendations. You can pick your own investments, or choose from pre-built portfolios. 

You can also build an "investing playlist", much like you would a playlist on Apple Music or Spotify, but with stocks. You can invest in portfolios created by other Alinea Invest users and ETFs based on themes such as climate change, women's leadership, or artificial intelligence. 

Alinea Community

When you sign up for Alinea, you'll have an opportunity to join a community focused on financial education. Users can share their "playlists" - curated collections of stocks, ETFs, or crypto, with the community, which can make it easier to explore or potentially copy others investment ideas (more on that later). 

Are There Any Fees?

Yes. After signing up for a 7-day free trial, Alinea Invest charges $120 for an annual membership. For the fee, members get access to its automated investing platform, educational tools, and an AI tool called AI Allie. It's important to note that Alinea does not offer refunds, and you will continue to be charged a monthly or yearly fee until you cancel your membership. 

It is frustrating that you can't get past the payment screen to even try the app for free without connecting an account. And there are some complaints on Reddit about their cancellation setup. So, if you do test it out and don't like it, make sure you cancel and don't get charged!

How Does Alinea Invest Compare?

Alinea Invest is not the only investing app designed for beginners. Acorns is very popular app that includes a round-up savings feature, ETF investing, Roth, Traditional, or SEP IRA retirement accounts, banking accounts, including a debit card for kids and a high-interest savings account, and more. It's more affordable than Alinea Invest, with plans starting at $3/month. 

Origin is a new investment and savings platform that is very similar to Alinea. However, Origin feels more robust, in that is offers more than investing - they have budgeting tools and a savings account built in. It's also slightly cheaper when you sign up for their annual plan, at $99 per year.

How Do I Open An Account?

You can open an account by downloading the Alinea Invest app from the Apple App Store. You must be at least 18 years old, living in the U.S., and be a U.S. citizen, permanent resident, or have a select visa type, to open an account. 

Is It Safe And Secure?

Alinea takes it's users security seriously, and you should be considered safe to use. It employs bank-level security, protecting your information with SSL and 256-bit encryption. Your financial accounts are linked to Alinea using Plaid, a secure, third-party platform used by financial institutions to send and receive financial information.

Alinea is also a member of the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC), which insures member accounts up to $500,000 if Alinea fails. 

How Do I Contact Alinea Invest?

You can contact Alinea by email at [email protected] or via customer support chat. There is no phone support available. 

Is It Worth It?

While any app that gets young people investing early, and makes the process simple and easy, deserves some credit, we don't think that Alinea Invest is worth the price today.

At $120/year, it's one of the more expensive options out there, yet it only offers a basic taxable brokerage account. There are no retirement account options, no checking features, and no high-yield savings. You can find all of these features and more on lower-cost platforms like Acorns, Robinhood, or Betterment, which provide more bang for your buck. 

However, if you've followed us for a while, you'll know were not fans of products that charge monthly fees to invest. You can get the same fundamental investment options at lower costs by simply opening a brokerage account at Fidelity, Schwab, Robinhood, or Vanguard. Yes, you won't get the fancy onboarding and community features (well, Robinhood is compelling in that regard), we've found most investors don't need that and don't want to pay for that.

Furthermore, Alinea's social investing features introduce real risks. When you can see what others are buying and copy their portfolios, it encourages herd behavior. This has a tendency to cause users to invest in things they don't fully understand.

While Alinea Invest is not the only tool offering these features, these platforms tend to amplify wins and downplay losses, which can distort your perception of risk versus reward, and build overconfidence in inexperienced investors. This can lead new investors to make decisions based on emotion, which can lead to costly mistakes. 

Hopefully Alinea continues to innovate, and we'll be watching to see if they become a challenger in the investing space. 

Check out Alinea Invest here>>

Alinea Invest Features