There are many different ways to buy ada, so I'm sure this is not a complete list. The most interesting question is usually how to turn “fiat money” like dollar or euro to ada at all.

Please remember that none of what we write on adatainment.com is financial advice or should be taken as such. I wrote this compact article mainly to have it handy as an answer when someone asks how to buy ada. None of the following links are affiliate links.

Kraken.com
I can recommend Kraken, especially for the European area. You can deposit fiat via a free SEPA bank transfer. They have ADA/USD and ADA/EUR pairs which means that you can directly buy ada without going through Bitcoin.

Kraken is especially interesting for Germans with a Fidor bank account because Kraken also has a bank account with Fidor. Transfers from Fidor to Kraken often take less than 1 hour, and the bank is based in Germany.

Coinbase.com
Coinbase is very popular in the USA. If Coinbase supports your country, it's a convenient method to buy crypto for fiat.

You will have to buy Bitcoin first and transfer it to another exchange (i.e., Binance), as Coinbase does not currently list ada.

Binance.com
One of the biggest exchanges with high liquidity. Since recently, you can even buy cryptocurrencies there with a credit card. I never tested it myself, and the fees are not cheap. Binance uses simplex.com as a partner for credit card deposits.

In my opinion, Binance works best if you already have Bitcoin and send it there to exchange it in ada.

Anycoindirect.eu / Coinswitch.co
Instant exchanges like Anycoin, Coinswitch, Changelly and Shapeshift advertise with the fact that you can exchange almost every cryptocurrency directly into another one.

It works by sending an amount of, for example, Bitcoin and specifying a destination address and then they will transfer desired currency to the destination address. Of course, they take a fee for this service.

Anycoin and Coinswitch are legitimate, but I wouldn't use them personally because they are often accompanied by "hidden" fees in the form of poor exchange rates. In particular, you notice this with fiat to crypto transfers. (so-called fiat on-ramp)

You will often find advertisements and recommendations for this on websites as they offer a good affiliate program.

More Exchanges
You can buy and sell ada at over 100 exchanges. See coinmarketcap.com for a complete list of exchanges and trading pairs.

Withdraw
Don't forget to withdraw your ada from the exchange. Check our wallet comparison page if you need a Cardano wallet.