The User Experience of Onboarding: A Comparative Study of Brokerage Account Creation

Price: $3,995

Report | October 2025 TITLE

A Comparative Study of Brokerage Account Creation

RESEARCH TEAM

Kyrsten Greenfield, Jeff Anberg, Hannah Smith 

REPORT LENGTH

29 pages

BROKERS

Charles Schwab, E*TRADE, Fidelity, Robinhood

Purchase Report

How the best brokers turn compliance into great user experience.

Account creation is the first impression of a brokerage platform—and often one of the hardest to get right. With strict Know Your Customer (KYC) requirements and multiple verification steps, onboarding can easily become a source of frustration and abandonment.

Our new User Experience of Onboarding study reveals how the top U.S. brokers—Charles Schwab, E*TRADE, Fidelity, and Robinhood—tackle this challenge. Conducted in Q3 2025, this comparative analysis dissects each broker’s mobile onboarding flow step-by-step, identifying where they excel, where users encounter friction, and how design choices impact trust, efficiency, and completion rates.

What’s inside

This study delivers practical insights for brokerage product teams, UX designers, and digital strategists seeking to optimize account creation. Use it to benchmark your platform, inspire design improvements, and strengthen the link between compliance and customer experience.

• Side-by-side benchmarking
  A structured comparison of four leading brokerage mobile apps, evaluated across onboarding flow, form design, interface, and user experience factors.

• Deep broker analysis
  Detailed findings for each brand, including screen-by-screen visuals, standout UX patterns, and the friction points that drive drop-off.

• Design framework for improvement
  Actionable guidance on three core UX pillars—form efficiency, interface resilience, and progress orientation—showing how to turn compliance into clarity.

• Key industry takeaways
  Discover common UX gaps, such as missing progress indicators and fragile modal structures, that even top brokers struggle to solve.

• Visual and annotated examples
  Each section includes annotated screenshots and layout comparisons highlighting the specific UI and messaging techniques used.

• Full raw screenshots
  Receive a downloadable ZIP folder containing every original, full-screen, fully stitched image captured from the onboarding flows of all four brokers.

More information

For questions or support, contact molly@reinkmedia.com.

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