Hatch vs Stake - Which one is best for you?

Read, learn, and compare Hatch and Stake with help from MoneyHub's financial experts. Let us help you pick the best investment platform.

Updated 10 August 2023

If you’re comparing New Zealand-operated online brokerage Hatch with Australian-based newcomer Stake, our guide walks you through the differences that matter. In this guide, we explain:

What is Hatch?
What is Stake?
Similarities
Fees: Who is Cheaper - Stake or Hatch?
Key differences
Final thoughts

Know this first:

Hatch was established in 2018 and is owned by FNZ, a Wellington-based fintech company. As a background, FNZ provides the back-end financial infrastructure for many investment platforms such as Vanguard, Barclays, Jarden, Lloyds Bank, AMP, ANZ, and BNZ. Hatch's fees are US$3 per trade to buy or sell (up to 300 shares, $0.01 per share from there) and a 0.50% foreign exchange fee. There are no subscription fees.The Wellington-based firm offers a web-only platform (that can be pinned to your home page like an app) and has already had over New Zealanders join as at June 2021.
Stake originally offered 'free trading' but in January 2023 it announced this would end and US$3 per trade would apply. The foreign exchange fee is 1.00%.
All dollar ($) values below are expressed in USD, which is the functional currency of Hatch and Stake by way of trading and fees.

Be aware: Hatch and Stake only offer trading in US stocks and not any other country. If you're looking to make an investment in New Zealand companies, please read our guide to Sharesies, InvestNow and our general how to invest in shares guide.

Want to compare Sharesies with Hatch and Stake for US Shares? Visit our Sharesies vs Hatch vs Stake Guide

Related Comparison: Sharesies vs Tiger Brokers (NZ)

Read our comprehensive Hatch Review

Best For

Long-term investors
Large, place and hold investors
Those wanting to use a New Zealand-based platform

Open a Hatch Account

Read our comprehensive Stake Review

Best For

Investors with both long-term and short-term investment goals who require data and tools to support their decision-making process.
Investors and traders needing app-based functionality that includes comprehensive graphs and analysis to help build out diversified portfolios.

Open a Stake Account

What is Hatch?

Hatch is the first New Zealand-owned web platform to offer easy access to US-listed stocks and ETFs through your own individual US brokerage account, meaning you directly own your shares. The platform has grown in popularity, with a surge during the COVID-19 lockdown, recently reaching a milestone of over 100,000 New Zealand-based customers. Hatch has also released a Kids Investment Accounts with a reduced fee structure. Hatch offers 4,100+ investing opportunities, fully supported by its Wellington team, via email, live chat and phone support. Hatch charges simple fees that are easy to follow, and they don’t take a percentage cut of your profits - it’s always 3 USD to buy or sell up to 300 shares (0.1c each share thereafter).

Hatch is providing a full featured and intuitive investing experience for beginners through to experienced investors, with a useful investor FAQ section explaining complex investing terms and making financial jargon easy to understand, as well as a Getting Started Course which helps beginner investors learn everything they need to know to get started in only 10 minutes a day for 10 days.

What is Stake?

Stake is a full suite brokerage with app and web. It serves anyone accessing the US market with full functionality (all order types, day trading) and has over 500,000+ customers worldwide. It offers 6,000+ shares and ETFs. Per Stake's founding team, 77% of their investors have bought and sold shares before, so it appears to appeal to experienced investors.

Launched in 2017 in Sydney, Stake was created by a small team, one of whom has worked as an equities trader in the US. From releasing version 1.0 of Stake to Australians in 2017, Stake originally grew on the back of promoting its fee-free trade feature. Today, it's a serious player but from March 2023 onwards charges the same 3 USD fee Hatch does per trade.

Hatch vs Stake: The Similarities

Both platforms only allow funding from your NZD bank account. Hatch requires a bank transfer, whereas Stake accepts bank transfers, credit card, debit card, Google Pay, Apple Pay and POLi transfers. You can't fund your trading account with a debit or credit card.
Both use the same broker: Both access the US share markets via their partner DriveWealth, a US-regulated broker-dealer.
Investing opportunities: Stake has 6,000+ more stocks and ETFs than Hatch.
NZ Financial Services Provider Registrations: Stake and Hatch are both registered.
Both offer protection. If either Hatch or Stake decide to shut down, you’d be given significant notice to sell up and get your money out, or transfer your shares from DriveWealth to a different US broker. In the case of a DriveWealth insolvency, under US regulation, your cash and securities flow back to you in the event of a liquidation. DriveWealth also has protections in place in the US, such as Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC). Each customer account is insured for up to $500,000 (with a maximum of $250,000 in cash).

Fees: Who is Cheaper - Stake or Hatch?

It’s hard to directly compare the fees because of the different price structures. This table compares Hatch and Stake's fee schedule side by side.

Fee	Hatch	Stake
Ongoing Membership Fee	None	Optional $9/month for additional features such as day trading on unsettled funds, priority customer support, analyst ratings and price targets
Deposit FX fee	0.5% on the interbank rate, no minimum	1% on the interbank rate, $2 minimum fee
Withdrawal FX fee	0.5% on the interbank rate, no minimum	1% on the interbank rate, $2 minimum fee (with a minimum $10 withdrawal amount)
Brokerage fee	$3 flat fee to buy and sell up to 300 shares (then it’s $0.01 a share) for all order types (limit, market, stop-loss)	$3 per US trade up to $30,000, or 0.01% per US trade $30,000 or greater
Customer support	Free and unlimited - phone call back, and online	Free and unlimited - local phone number and email
Regulatory fees	$0 - Hatch absorbs these	SEC fee: $0.231 per US$10,000 of sale proceeds, TAF fee: $0.0001119 per share with a per-transaction cap of $5.95
W-8BEN filing fee	$1.50	$5

Know this first: The fees charged by Hatch increase the more shares you trade (after 300 shares, the fee is 1 cent/share). Our examples explain the costs in detail (we have excluded the SEC and TAF fee, which for most trades won't be more than a few cents). The most popular stocks aren’t penny stocks, so we’ll use top traded stocks to compare the pricing differences:

If you trade in Apple (APPL) at $126.85 a share, a $1,000 trade buys you 7.88 shares. With Hatch you’d pay $8 to buy this based on a 3 USD order and a 0.5% exchange fee. With Stake you’d pay $13, with a $3 trade fee and a 1% exchange fee.
If you trade Microsoft (MSFT) at $200/share, a $600 trade buys 3 shares. With Hatch, the trade fee is $3. If you sell them again for $200/share, you'll incur another $3. This is the same with Stake, but if you exchange your USD to NZD then Stake's foreign exchange fee is 1.00% whereas Hatch's is 50% lower at 0.50%.
If you take a $10,000 position in Meta (META), you'll hold around 75 shares. Hatch's and Stake's trade fee are both $3.
Important: Hatch does not allow penny stock investing; companies on their platform must reach certain requirements before being listed, such as: the company or ETF is listed on the NYSE or NASDAQ, the share price must be above USD 1. For companies, the market capitalisation should be greater than USD 1 billion; if market capitalisation is below USD 1 billion, Hatch may be able to request the company if the 3-month average daily dollar volume is greater than USD 0.5 million. Therefore it’s rare that normal long-term investors would significantly be affected by the 1c per share cost over 300 shares (after the USD 3 per trade fee) unless you were trading large volumes of shares from smaller priced companies.

Going head to head:

The 1% FX fee charged by Stake is double what Hatch charges. This makes Stake far less competitive when funding USD from NZD and then on the translation back to NZD.

Our view: It's an easy comparison to make. With the trade fees the same, Hatch is cheaper.

Hatch vs Stake: The Key Differences

Monthly charge: Hatch doesn't have any ongoing membership fee. Stake has two 'packs' (plans) - Starter ($0/month) and Black ($9/month). The fee-based Stake pack has additional features.
Stock selection: Both Hatch and Stake run on similar infrastructure, and the number of available investment opportunities are fairly equal between platforms.
Funding and FX rates: Stake has twice the FX fee that Hatch does (and a $2 minimum fee), however they allow customers to fund via Wise and other FX companies. Hatch does not allow that. Furthermore, Stake also shows you the exact spot FX rate you get. With Hatch, you get an estimate FX rate as it's done offline, and your money arrives two days after you deposit.
Avoid FX fee altogether: With Stake, you can fund your account directly with another FX service (and avoid Stake's FX service and fee). This means you won't pay the 1% on top of the spot rate. This is not possible with Hatch.
Investing opportunities: Stake has 800+ more stocks and ETFs than Hatch (3,700+ vs 2,900+)
Ownership: Hatch is owned by FNZ, a Wellington-based Fintech company. Stake is Australian-based and privately owned, having raised A$40m in May 2021 to expand.
Financial Services Provider Register: This is a contentious point, as Hatch is registered while Stake isn’t. Stake has advised they are working with the FMA to ensure compliance with regulatory framework and we will update this guide when more news in announced.
Sign-up bonus: Stake offers a free share when new investors sign up and fund their account within 24 hours. The share will either be Nike, Dropbox or GoPro. Hatch also offers a sign up bonus of a $20 top-up if you make an initial deposit of $100 NZD of more (sign up using this link).
Features: The platforms are fairly similar; both offer market orders and fractional shares free of charge. Hatch offers limit orders as part of their $3 trade fee whereas Stake offers Limit and Stop orders free of charge.
Website vs App: Hatch doesn't offer an app but instead directs users to its HatchInvest.nz website, which offers live trading functionality. It works exactly the same, and the website can be ‘appified’. Stake offers both a website and an app for Android and Apple.
Functionality and market data: Both Hatch and Stake present live share price information when the US markets are open, as well as research tools and sorting functionality. Stake goes deeper, providing company news, candlestick charts and displays related shares. It also covers all the markets movers, which can be sorted by a number of factors. Top tip: As both platforms offer zero account fees, a good idea is to register and validate your ID with both and see which one you prefer. Best of all, you don't need to fund your account to experience the functionality.
Portfolio transfers bonus: In a bid to attract new customers, Stake offers a free share in Dropbox when transferring your existing portfolio into Stake. Hatch doesn't offer any freebie stocks but allows you to transfer existing holdings into its platform and will help out with the fees your existing broker charges for the move. Our guide to portfolio transfers has more details.
Portfolio transfer fees: Hatch states 'a fee to transfer shares out of Hatch depends on your new broker and fractional shares can’t be transferred' but have confirmed they will help out with the fees your existing broker charges for the move. Stake does not charge a fee for such transfer via ACAT, or $15 if it is made using DTC. To know your options you would need to talk to your existing broker. A sufficient cash balance is required in your Stake account to commerce the transfer.
Express Funding: Hatch exchanges money every business day around 2pm – so if you deposit before 12pm, your money usually hits your Hatch account first thing the following morning – often before the US markets open. Stake offers 'Express Funding', at a 0.50% surcharge, which lets investors get into the market immediately. This is useful if there is there a big move to take advantage of.
Stop Orders: Hatch offers all order types (market, limit and stop). Stake offer market and limit, however the stop order feature only comes with paid plans. These order types let you manage your portfolio dynamically while you sleep. For example, you can elect to to buy or sell a share once the price of the share reaches a specified price. If markets move overnight, you don't need to be awake to take advantage.
Connection to Sharesight: Hatch partners with fellow Wellington based company, Sharesight, to make portfolio and tax reporting super simple and easy, for both under and over $50,000 USD invested. Including FIF rule implications. Stake also partners to Sharesight.
Support: Hatch has support online and via phone between the hours of Monday to Friday, 9am to 5:30pm. Their FAQs/help centre are thorough and in our experience the live chat and email replies were very responsive. Hatch has notified our research team that their New Zealand-based team is commonly found to be monitoring support channels well outside of those hours too). Stake offers 24/5 support (timed with the US markets), phone and email support.
Access to new listings: Hatch and Stake make new listings available to all customers immediately.
Day trading: Hatch prohibits day trading, whereas Stake's 'Black' pack members can day trade as much as they like.
Interest earned on uninvested balances: Hatch states that the money market account you invest in pays interest in the form of dividends. Hatch investors currently receive around 1.8% annual dividends on their uninvested money. Stake makes it clear that interest cannot be earned.

Final thoughts

Unsure still which is right for you? We believe the numbers suggest Hatch is cheaper when you take into account the foreign exchange fees. However, both are free to use, you can register for both and see which one is right for you.

Our Thoughts on Hatch:

The FX fee is half what Stake charges (0.50% vs 1.00% - and no $2 minimum fee) which is a significant benefit.
Hatch offers a simple way to keep fee percentages low by allowing auto-investments into all 2,700+ companies and ETFs. Passive investors can deposit small amounts when it suits, then set a timeframe and amount to invest at regular, automated intervals without paying fees.
Best for: Investors looking to deposit regularly and trade a few times a month and investors looking to grow long-term wealth through “set-and-forget” investing.
Visit Hatch

Our Thoughts on Stake:

With $3 trading fees and a 1.00% foreign exchange rate applied to funding and withdrawing USD means Stake isn't as cheap as Hatch. It passes on the SEC and TAF costs to traders, so these fees (as small as they are) are deducted from qualifying trades.
Best for: Existing investors looking to continue to take long positions.
Visit Stake

Do you have experience with Hatch and/or Stake that you'd like to share? Email our research team today.