Our templates compared with robo-advisors
Jul 16, 2025
Robo-advisors make automated investment decisions for you – it's convenient, but often costs control and fees. Our investment plan templates give you back full control: with ready-made ETF portfolios, low costs, and the necessary starting aid for beginners – directly in your neon app.
What is a robo-advisor?
A robo-advisor is a digital asset manager that automatically creates and manages an investment portfolio for you – based on your answers about your risk tolerance and desired investment horizon.
Our alternative: templates
Our investment plan templates are deliberately kept simpler: You choose one of three ready-made ETF portfolios – depending on your risk profile: cautious, balanced, or ambitious. They consist of affordable, globally diversified ETFs that you can tailor to your needs with a sustainable or Switzerland-focused emphasis. The templates are therefore ideal if you're not quite sure where to start. Find out more about each template in our blog article.
Unlike robo-advisors, the decision-making power is yours: You get a clear, solid foundation – but without automation or ongoing adjustment (so-called «rebalancing») by a digital asset manager. And if you want, you can completely personalise your template later, add or remove individual securities – more flexibility is hardly possible. And the best part: Our templates are cheaper compared to robo-advisors.
At a glance – robo-advisor vs. investment plan templates
Robo-advisor | Investment plan templates | |
|---|---|---|
Portfolio content | Predefined based on risk questions and not individually adjustable | We provide a suggestion – but you decide what's in the portfolio |
Management | Regular & automatic rebalancing, mostly no individualisation possible | Flexible adjustments possible anytime, changes can only made by you |
Costs | 0.5 - 1% management fee annually |
|
Minimum amount | 500 - 10'000 CHF | 50 CHF |
App & usage | External app, registration required | All in your neon app |
Full flexibility despite starting aid
The good thing about the templates: You remain flexible. You can adjust your template at any time, add or remove individual securities – or even partially or fully transfer your portfolio. No commitments, no hidden restrictions. And if you ever want to switch, we will be sad – but your freedom of choice is more important than our tears.
Maximum transparency at minimal costs
As with our account offers, you also get a top price-performance ratio with the investment plan templates – transparent and without hidden fees. You pay:
No custody fees
0.5% trading fee for ETFs – some ETFs even with 0% purchase fee
Swiss stamp duty (0.075% – 0.15%) and TER (annual ETF costs)
On the other hand, Robo-Advisors usually incur an additional management fee of 0.5% to 1% annually – which you completely save with us.
Start with little money
We believe that investing should be possible for everyone – no matter how much money someone has. That's why you can start with our investment plan templates from just 50 CHF. For many robo-advisors, the minimum amount is significantly higher – often in the hundreds or even thousands of francs. We make the entry fairer and more accessible.
All in your neon app
Lastly, it can be quite annoying to have your financial activities spread across multiple apps. Because, to be honest, our smartphones are already overstuffed with apps. With our templates, you don't have to resort to another provider, create a new profile again, and adapt to a new app – instead, you have everything in your neon app.
Your investments – your decision
With our investment plan templates, you invest independently but not alone: You get a clear starting aid, full flexibility, and transparent, fair costs – directly in your neon app. Give it a try!
