Best Apps to Buy Gold and Silver
TL;DR: The strongest apps for buying gold and silver split into two useful groups: platforms that vault allocated, insured metal in the buyer’s name (Vaulted, BullionVault, OneGold, Glint, Kinesis) and dealer storefronts that ship a coin or bar to the door (APMEX, JM Bullion). Vaulted and BullionVault are the only two that publish an exact fee schedule, which makes them the easiest to compare. Price-tracking apps such as Kitco Gold Live! never process a purchase. Brokerage and CFD apps such as Robinhood, Interactive Brokers, eToro, and Plus500 give price exposure through ETFs, futures, or derivatives, not ownership of physical bullion. Two names worth knowing before a search: the GoldMoney mobile app was pulled from Google Play in 2018 and has no confirmed 2026 listing, and SD Bullion has no native app at all.
Readers searching for the best apps to buy gold and silver are usually looking for one of four different things, and mixing them up is the most common mistake in this category. Some apps sell allocated, vaulted bullion. Some are dealer storefronts that ship a physical coin or bar. Some only report the spot price and cannot process a purchase. And some deliver gold or silver exposure through a brokerage account or a derivative contract, with no bullion changing hands at all. This page sorts the real, verified apps into those groups, states each one’s published fee where a primary source discloses one, and flags the products that no longer function as live apps so a reader is not sent toward a dead download. All ratings and store dates below were observed on August 17, 2026, and change continuously, so treat each figure as a point-in-time snapshot.
The Four Types of Gold and Silver Apps
The market for gold and silver apps splits into four functionally distinct groups, and no single app spans all four, so the first question is not which app is best but which of the four jobs you actually need it to do before you compare anything else.
Physical-bullion apps sell or vault metal that becomes the buyer’s property. Price-tracking apps report the spot price and nothing else. Brokerage and futures platforms trade ETFs, mining stocks, and futures contracts tied to gold and silver. CFD and derivative apps offer price exposure with no ownership claim on metal at all.
The first group is physical-bullion ownership. It includes vaulted-bullion trading platforms such as Vaulted, BullionVault, OneGold, Glint, and Kinesis, which sell allocated or vaulted metal that is legally the buyer’s property, and dealer storefront apps such as APMEX and JM Bullion, which sell a coin or bar for direct shipment. The distinction inside this group matters. Vaulted, BullionVault, Glint, and Kinesis give allocated metal, meaning specific bars or serial numbers held in the buyer’s name. OneGold gives a claim on vaulted, insured metal that can be redeemed for physical delivery through APMEX. A dealer storefront app skips the vault step and ships the product to the buyer’s address, leaving storage as a separate decision.
The second group is price-tracking. Kitco Gold Live! and Gold Price Live from goldprice.org report live spot prices, charts, and alerts. Neither one processes a purchase.
The third group is brokerage and futures. Interactive Brokers, Robinhood, and Webull give exposure to gold and silver through ETFs, mining stocks, options, and futures contracts. None of the three delivers physical bullion to a standard retail account by default, though Interactive Brokers separately offers an unallocated US Spot Gold claim and physically deliverable COMEX futures for qualifying account holders.
The fourth group is CFD and derivative trading. eToro, Plus500, and IG let a trader take a position on the gold or silver price through a contract for difference, which tracks the price but confers no ownership of metal at any point.
Best Apps for Buying and Vaulting Physical Gold and Silver
Vaulted and BullionVault are the only two apps in this category that publish an exact fee schedule, which makes them the easiest to compare head to head, while APMEX carries the highest app-store rating of any dealer storefront.
The rest of this section covers each verified app’s function, published fee where one exists, and custody model, so a reader can match the product to what they actually want, a specific allocated bar or a redeemable claim on vaulted metal.
APMEX
APMEX, built by American Precious Metals Exchange, Inc., is a dealer storefront rather than a vaulting platform. The app lets a buyer browse and purchase APMEX’s full catalog of gold, silver, platinum, and palladium coins and bars, track live spot charts, set price alerts, and use a mail-in “Sell to Us” buyback kit. As of August 17, 2026, it holds an iOS rating of 4.9 from roughly 63,000 ratings (current version 3.1.57) and an Android rating of 4.7 from roughly 25,200 reviews, last updated March 25, 2026. Pricing is set product by product rather than through a single published spread, so premiums vary by coin or bar. A buyer takes physical delivery and title at shipment, and APMEX separately offers storage and IRA arrangements through partner programs rather than in-app vaulting. It suits a buyer who wants the broadest US catalog and is comfortable managing storage themselves.
JM Bullion
JM Bullion is a second dealer storefront, functionally similar to APMEX: shop the catalog, track live prices, set alerts, and follow order status. As of August 17, 2026, it carries an iOS rating of 4.8 from roughly 29,000 ratings, last updated May 16, 2026, and an Android rating of 4.5 from roughly 8,320 reviews, last updated July 16, 2026. Like APMEX, pricing runs per product rather than as a published spread, and the app is a delivery-only dealer with no in-app vaulting. It is a reasonable second option for deal-seeking US buyers who want to compare pricing against APMEX before ordering.
Vaulted
Vaulted, operated by McAlvany Financial Group, sells allocated, serial-numbered bars rather than a generic claim. The App Store listing states the company charges a 0.8% premium on gold and a 2.0% premium on silver over its wholesale acquisition price, plus a 0.4% annual maintenance fee billed semi-annually in January and July, with no stated minimum maintenance charge.
Gold is allocated to 99.99%-pure kilo bars stored at the Royal Canadian Mint, and silver is allocated to 99.9%-pure 1,000-ounce London Good Delivery bars stored at HSBC Bank in London, both insured and independently audited, with physical delivery available on request. As of August 17, 2026, the app holds an iOS rating of 4.8 from roughly 1,000 ratings and an Android rating of 4.7 from roughly 564 reviews, last updated May 26, 2026. Company launch materials cite a purchase minimum as low as $10.
Vaulted suits a cost-conscious buyer who wants genuinely allocated metal with a published, if not fully reconciled, fee structure.
BullionVault
BullionVault, operated by Galmarley Ltd. of London and founded in 2005, is a full member of the London Bullion Market Association and an associate member of the London Platinum and Palladium Market, and its listing notes a Queen’s Award for Enterprise. The app runs a peer-to-peer, 24/7 order-board where users buy and sell gold, silver, platinum, and palladium at their own set price or at the London Daily Price, with a choice of allocated vaults in Zurich, London, New York, Toronto, or Singapore. Its published dealing commission runs from a maximum of 0.5% down to a minimum of 0.05%, with volume discounts starting at $75,000 in annual trading (the first $75,000 at 0.5%, the next $750,000 at 0.10%, and everything above that at 0.05%). Custody is billed separately at 0.12% per year for gold, with a $4-per-month minimum, and 0.48% per year for silver, with an $8-per-month minimum, per the company’s published tariff page. Bar purity standards are 99.5% for bars and 90% for coins. As of August 17, 2026, the app holds an iOS rating of 4.7 from 94 ratings and an Android rating of roughly 4.8 per its own store description, with over 250,000 downloads. BullionVault suits a buy-and-hold investor who wants the lowest published all-in cost on genuinely allocated metal and is comfortable funding the account by bank transfer.
OneGold
OneGold, built jointly by APMEX and Sprott, sells a redeemable claim on vaulted, insured gold, silver, and platinum rather than a specific serial-numbered bar. Metal is held at Loomis, Brink’s, the Royal Canadian Mint, CNT, or APMEX, fully insured through Lloyd’s of London and subject to regular third-party audits. The app supports 24/7 buying and selling, AutoInvest dollar-cost averaging, and redemption for physical delivery, typically shipped from the vault within one business day. As of August 17, 2026, it holds an iOS rating of 4.8 from roughly 3,200 ratings and an Android rating of 4.4 from roughly 5,180 reviews, last updated May 12, 2026. OneGold markets its pricing as a “fraction of retail premiums” without publishing an exact spread. It suits a fractional or dollar-cost buyer who wants a redeemable claim on insured, vaulted metal without committing to a specific bar.
Glint
Glint, operated by Glint Pay Services Ltd. as an authorized card program manager rather than a bank, lets a buyer hold gold and silver and spend it directly through a Mastercard that converts metal to local currency at the point of sale, accepted across roughly 210 countries and territories. Gold and silver are fully allocated to the user and held in a Brink’s vault in Switzerland, insured through Lloyd’s of London. The Glint Mastercard itself is issued by Sutton Bank, a member of the FDIC, but that protection covers only the USD wallet balance, not the gold or silver holdings. As of August 17, 2026, the app holds an iOS rating of 4.8 from roughly 4,600 ratings (version 3.7.1, updated July 9, 2026) and an Android rating of 4.4 from roughly 2,200 reviews, last updated August 11, 2026. It suits someone who wants to hold gold as spendable money rather than as a long-term vaulted position.
Kinesis
Kinesis, operated by Kinesis AG, allocates physical gold and silver through its own ABX vaulting network and lets a user spend that metal or earn a monthly yield through a virtual card. Per the Kinesis support page, the app charges a 0.22% exchange or trade fee and a 0.45% wallet or international transfer fee, advertises “zero storage fees” through the ABX network, and applies a $25 flat fee on fiat withdrawals or a 1.99% fee on US ACH withdrawals processed through Banxa. The iOS listing is live, but the Google Play listing could not be loaded to confirm a current rating or review count as of August 17, 2026. Kinesis suits a buyer specifically looking for a yield feature layered on top of allocated metal, understanding that its fee and yield mechanics are more complex than a straightforward vaulted-bullion app.
How the physical-ownership apps compare
| App | What it sells | Published fee | Custody | Rating (as of Aug 17, 2026) |
| APMEX | Physical delivery, dealer catalog | Product-level premium, not a single spread | Buyer takes delivery, storage via partners | iOS 4.9 / 63K, Android 4.7 / 25.2K |
| JM Bullion | Physical delivery, dealer catalog | Product-level premium, not a single spread | Buyer takes delivery | iOS 4.8 / 29K, Android 4.5 / 8.32K |
| Vaulted | Allocated serial-numbered bars | 0.8% gold / 2.0% silver premium plus 0.4% annual maintenance (per App Store listing; differs from vaulted.com, see note above) | Royal Canadian Mint (gold), HSBC London (silver) | iOS 4.8 / 1K, Android 4.7 / 564 |
| BullionVault | Allocated bullion, peer-to-peer order board | Commission 0.5% to 0.05%, custody 0.12%/yr gold, 0.48%/yr silver | Zurich, London, New York, Toronto, Singapore | iOS 4.7 / 94, Android ~4.8 |
| OneGold | Redeemable claim on vaulted metal | Not published, marketed as “fraction of retail premiums” | Loomis, Brink’s, Royal Canadian Mint, CNT, APMEX | iOS 4.8 / 3.2K, Android 4.4 / 5.18K |
| Glint | Allocated gold and silver, spendable via Mastercard | Not published, FX fee conflicts across sources | Brink’s Switzerland vault | iOS 4.8 / 4.6K, Android 4.4 / 2.2K |
| Kinesis | Allocated gold and silver via ABX network, plus yield | 0.22% trade fee, 0.45% transfer fee, zero storage | ABX vaulting network | iOS live, Android unverified |
Best Price-Tracking Apps for Live Gold and Silver Spot Prices
Kitco Gold Live! is the best-featured dedicated price tracker, and neither it nor its main competitor, Gold Price Live, can process a purchase.
These apps exist to answer one question, what is gold or silver trading at right now, and they do it well, but a reader looking to actually buy metal needs one of the apps in the section above.
Kitco Gold Live!
Kitco Gold Live!, built by Kitco Metals Inc. of Montreal, delivers live spot prices, charts, alerts, and news across precious metals, base metals, crypto, and foreign exchange, along with home-screen widgets and the Kitco Gold Index. It does not process purchases of any kind. As of August 17, 2026, the app shows an iOS rating of 4.8 from roughly 7,900 ratings and an Android rating of 4.2 from roughly 5,140 reviews, with the iOS build (version 4.6.7) last updated April 21, 2026, and the Android build last updated May 14, 2026. It is free on iOS and ad-supported on Android, and some Android reviewers cite price-sync inconsistencies between the widget, notifications, and chart. Kitco also publishes a free desktop ticker for Mac and Windows, plus two niche utilities, ScrapIt! for calculating scrap-metal value and Metalynx for calculating the dimensions and weight of metal items.
Gold Price Live (goldprice.org)
Gold Price Live, published by Gold Price Group, tracks live gold and silver charts in more than 40 currencies with up to 46 years of price history. The app is free but contains ads, and some reviewers report that display settings reset after an app update. As of August 17, 2026, its Android build carries a 4.4 rating from roughly 5,460 reviews. Like Kitco Gold Live!, it does not process purchases. It suits a reader who wants a longer price history and multi-currency display more than Kitco’s broader feature set.
Brokerage and Trading Platforms With Metals Exposure
Interactive Brokers, Robinhood, Webull, eToro, Plus500, and IG all give a way to trade gold or silver price movement, but only Interactive Brokers offers anything close to a physical claim, and even that claim is unallocated unless a trader specifically arranges COMEX delivery.
These platforms are not a substitute for the physical-ownership apps above if the goal is to actually hold metal.
Interactive Brokers
Interactive Brokers lets an account trade metals ETFs, mining stocks, options, and futures, alongside a product called US Spot Gold and access to LME over-the-counter metals trading. US Spot Gold carries a published minimum commission of $2.00 per trade plus a monthly storage fee of $0.15 per ounce, with tiered commission running roughly 0.7 to 1.5 basis points of trade value, and it functions as an unallocated claim rather than a specific bar. Interactive Brokers separately supports COMEX futures with physical delivery available through a warrant or Accumulated Certificate of Exchange mechanism, subject to a one-ounce minimum. It suits an advanced or active trader who wants integrated metals access inside a broader brokerage account and is comfortable with the platform’s steeper learning curve and permission requirements.
Robinhood and Webull
Robinhood offers commission-free access to gold and silver ETFs such as GLD, SLV, and GLTR, along with mining stocks, options, and gold futures contracts under the /GC ticker. Webull offers a similar menu, metals ETFs, mining stocks, options, and futures where available, also with commission-free stock and ETF trading. Neither app delivers physical bullion under any circumstance. Both suit a beginner who wants the cheapest, simplest exposure to the gold or silver price without ever taking possession of metal.
CFD platforms: eToro, Plus500, and IG
eToro offers a gold CFD alongside gold ETFs and mining stocks, plus its CopyTrader feature, and its US entity separately offers ETFs where CFDs are restricted. Plus500 offers gold and silver CFDs along with a sentiment tool called Insights. IG offers the widest single range of gold instruments among the three, spot CFDs, futures, options, and mining stocks, plus some exchange-traded products. None of the three provides physical ownership. All three price their CFD products through the spread plus an overnight financing charge rather than a single published premium, and all three carry the standard CFD risk that leverage can amplify losses beyond the initial deposit. These apps suit a short-term trader taking a directional view on price, not an investor who wants to hold metal.
Apps and Products to Verify Before You Download
Two names that still circulate in gold and silver app searches no longer function the way a buyer would expect, and sending a reader toward either one risks a dead download or a mismatched expectation.
The GoldMoney mobile app is delisted and should not be recommended as a live download. Its Android build, published under the package name com.bitgold.mobileapp, was unpublished from Google Play on July 31, 2018, after being rated 4.00 from roughly 1,100 ratings, with a last update dated October 22, 2016. No confirmable live Apple App Store listing exists in 2026. The GoldMoney web platform, operated by the Toronto-listed Goldmoney Inc. under the ticker XAU, may still function separately from the app, but the mobile app itself is not something a reader can currently download and use.
SD Bullion has no native app on either the Apple App Store or Google Play. The company directs shoppers to its website, with an “add to home screen” shortcut standing in for a dedicated app. It markets a low-premium position on its products, though it does not publish a single spread figure the way Vaulted or BullionVault do. A reader searching for an “SD Bullion app” should be told plainly that no such app exists, only the mobile website.
How to Choose Between These Apps
The right app depends on whether the goal is to own a specific piece of metal, hold a redeemable claim on vaulted metal, track the price, or trade price movement, and confusing these four goals is where most buyers go wrong.
A reader who wants a specific coin or bar in hand should look at APMEX or JM Bullion and plan for their own storage. A reader who wants allocated metal held professionally, with the option to redeem it later, should compare Vaulted and BullionVault on their published fee schedules, since those two are the only apps in this category that disclose an exact number. A reader who wants a redeemable claim without picking a single bar should look at OneGold. A reader who wants to spend gold like currency should look at Glint, understanding that FDIC protection covers only the cash wallet, not the metal. A reader who only wants to watch the price should use Kitco Gold Live! or Gold Price Live and skip the rest. A reader who wants price exposure inside an existing brokerage account should use Robinhood, Webull, or Interactive Brokers, and a reader specifically looking for leveraged, short-term price trades should look at the CFD platforms, with the understanding that none of these last five options delivers physical metal.
Fee context matters when comparing across categories. Dealer-app premiums for common one-ounce gold coins, such as the American Gold Eagle, the Canadian Gold Maple Leaf, or the Krugerrand, and for generic gold bars, typically run from about 3% to 8% over spot, according to APMEX, while generic gold bullion bars specifically average closer to 1% to 2% over spot, according to JM Bullion. Silver carries a much wider premium because fabrication cost is a larger share of its lower per-ounce value, with one-ounce silver coins and rounds commonly running 8% to 30% over spot and the American Silver Eagle toward the higher end of that range, according to APMEX. Vaulted’s published 0.8% gold and 2.0% silver premiums, and BullionVault’s commission scaling down to 0.05%, sit well below typical dealer-coin premiums, which is the core trade-off of a vaulted platform: lower entry cost against ongoing custody fees and less flexibility in which specific product you own. Always weigh these fee structures against your own plan, and consult your own financial and tax professionals before choosing an app or a purchase amount.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which app is best for buying physical gold and silver?
It depends on what “buying” means to the reader. For a specific coin or bar shipped to your door, APMEX carries the highest app-store rating among dealer storefronts. For allocated, professionally vaulted metal with a published fee schedule, Vaulted and BullionVault are the two apps that disclose exact numbers.
What is the difference between a vaulted-bullion app and a price-tracking app?
A vaulted-bullion app, such as Vaulted, BullionVault, OneGold, Glint, or Kinesis, lets you buy and hold allocated or claimed metal. A price-tracking app, such as Kitco Gold Live! or Gold Price Live, only reports the spot price and cannot process a purchase.
Can I buy physical gold and silver through Robinhood or Interactive Brokers?
Not in the way a dealer or vaulted-bullion app sells it. Robinhood and Webull offer ETFs, mining stocks, and futures with no physical delivery. Interactive Brokers additionally offers an unallocated US Spot Gold claim and physically deliverable COMEX futures, subject to a one-ounce minimum and account permissions.
Is the GoldMoney app still available in 2026?
No. Its Android app was unpublished from Google Play on July 31, 2018, and no confirmable live Apple App Store listing exists in 2026. The separate GoldMoney web platform may still operate.
Does SD Bullion have a mobile app?
No. SD Bullion has no native listing on the Apple App Store or Google Play. The company offers a mobile-website shortcut instead of a dedicated app.
Are CFD apps like eToro or Plus500 the same as owning gold?
No. A CFD is a derivative contract that tracks the gold or silver price without any ownership claim on physical metal. eToro, Plus500, and IG all price these products through a spread plus overnight financing rather than a bullion premium.
This page is for general education on gold and silver apps and is not financial, investment, or tax advice. App ratings, fees, and features are point-in-time figures that change frequently, and a reader should confirm current terms directly with each provider before buying.
About Sean Webster
Certified Public Accountant specializing in retirement planning, alternative investments, and tax-advantaged investment strategies. Reviews investment content for accuracy and regulatory compliance.