Coinbase is a digital currency exchange (Coinbase Pro) and crypto-oriented software solution suite for businesses, including hosted checkout pages, payment buttons, invoicing, and multiple ecommerce integrations (Coinbase Commerce), a turnkey solution for brokerages, exchanges, and fintechs enabling them to offer customers crypto (Coinbase Prime), crypto asset custody (Coinbase Custody), and a wallet to self-store crypto (Coinbase Wallet).
Coinbase is well suited to the beginning investor, or someone who wants to learn more about Crytpo. While not all forms of Crypto are available for purchase outside of Coinbase Wallet, the variety is great. Also, the way their graphs display performance over time is so convenient, we do not have to do excessive outside research, because Coinbase is great at keeping relevant information in one place.
Vanguard is a tried and true investment platform. They hold a large portion of people's wealth in the United States, so they have experience and the reputation to go along with it. Their customer service via phone is top-of-the-line, which is helpful for any retirement or investing-related questions. However, their website and app sometimes lack functionality, and it can be difficult to navigate. For users looking for an easy-to-use platform for investing, Vanguard might not be it.
The fees coinbase charges on top of the crypto networks are relatively high, compared to the rest of the industry
Under load/high volume, the site and application become unresponsive
Customer support is lacking. It's hard to talk to a human and get a real response to your questions/concerns. This is particularly irritating since we're dealing with money.
I haven't needed to contact support for Coinbase yet—it's probably because it is super easy to use and very intuitive. If I were to use the support, it would probably be better than these other companies because most of the other ones come from foreign markets or aren't as big as Coinbase.
Coinbase and robinhood both offer crypto trading and investing. Coinbase, however, also offers to stake along with sending and receiving crypto. It's also nice that Coinbase focuses on crypto rather than also offering the purchasing and selling of stocks. Coinbase also does a better job of trying to educate their users about each crypto and often offers free crypto with that education. I use Coinbase for crypto trading/purchasing for those reasons.
I thought I would need Vanguard Predictive Planning, but the robot-investor style tool like that didn't fit my current needs. I have availability to learn and explore so I took the plunge to handle it myself without predictive planning in place. I do review quarterly, but I didn't need a separate tool for that.
I have been interested in investing. But certain stocks are high. Cryptocurrency is open to whatever amount you have unlike stash or e-trader that only you a small amount to ownership
I get the benefits to be educated on a few currencies and blockchains. They even give you a starting amount to get you trading
To withdrawal, coinbase ask which currency to withdraw from. Then give a QR code to point at a bitcoin ATM or service.
