At a glance
Robinhood and Horizon are not either-or. Robinhood is the broker: it holds your account and fills your orders for stocks, ETFs, options and crypto, and you place every trade yourself. Horizon is the automation that runs inside a Robinhood account: a strategy you describe in plain English, or one you copy from a creator, that places its own trades through Robinhood's Agentic trading interface. This page compares what each does on its own.
Side by side
| Question | Horizon | Robinhood |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | HorizonAn investing platform. Copy strategies that creators are running live, or describe your own idea in plain English and run it through your own broker. | RobinhoodA commission-free US brokerage app for stocks, ETFs, options and crypto, with Robinhood Legend for desktop charting. |
| How you build a strategy | HorizonDescribe the idea in plain English. Horizon turns it into rules you can read, edit and test. No code. | RobinhoodNo strategy builder. You place each trade yourself, or set recurring buys and limit orders. |
| Where strategies run | HorizonIn your own account at Binance, Bybit, Coinbase, Hyperliquid, Kraken, Robinhood, Webull, TradeStation, Tradier, E*TRADE, tastytrade and moomoo, or on Horizon Paper with simulated money. | RobinhoodIn your Robinhood account, by hand. Automated trading comes from an app you authorise on a dedicated Agentic account, which is how Horizon connects. |
| Markets | HorizonUS stocks and ETFs through the stock brokers; crypto spot and derivatives through the exchanges. No forex or CFDs. | RobinhoodUS stocks, ETFs, options and crypto. Horizon's connection covers stocks and ETFs. |
| Backtesting | HorizonEvery strategy is backtested on historical data before it runs, and you see the rules it tested. | RobinhoodNo. |
| Paper trading | HorizonYes. Horizon Paper runs any strategy with simulated money at real market prices. | RobinhoodNo simulated account. A pre-trade simulated-returns view for options. |
| Copying other people's strategies | HorizonYes. Discover lists creators' strategies with live track records. Creators keep 80% of what subscribers pay. | RobinhoodNo. |
| Pricing model | HorizonDiscover is free. The Builder plan is a subscription, monthly or yearly, with a 14-day money-back guarantee. | RobinhoodNo commission on stocks, ETFs and options; Robinhood Gold is an optional subscription. Current terms on robinhood.com. |
| Holds your money? | HorizonNever. Funds stay with your broker. Horizon can place trades for a strategy but cannot withdraw money. | RobinhoodYes. Robinhood is the broker holding your account. |
Add Horizon if
- You want a rule to trade for you while you are not watching the market.
- You want to test an idea on history and on paper before it touches your money.
- You want to copy a strategy a creator is running live, in your own account.
- You want the same strategy to run on your crypto exchange too.
Keep Robinhood on its own if
- You buy and hold, or trade a few times a month by hand.
- You trade options or crypto on Robinhood, which Horizon's connection does not cover.
- Your account does not have Agentic trading yet; it is US-only and still rolling out.
