Interactive Brokers vs Firstrade Comparison: Fees, Features, and More (2025)

Interactive Brokers and Firstrade are two leading discount brokerages offering commission-free stock and ETF trading. Use this head-to-head comparison table to evaluate fees, features, trading tools, and account options to help you decide which broker is right for you in 2025.

Head-to-Head Comparison: Interactive Brokers vs Firstrade (2025)
Feature Interactive Brokers Firstrade
Website https://www.interactivebrokers.com/ https://www.firstrade.com/
Broker Type Discount Discount
Trading: Stock & ETF? Yes Yes
ETF & Stock commission $0 for IBKR Lite, $0.005 per share for IBKR Pro (minimum $1) No fee
Fractional Shares? Yes No
Percent Allocations? Yes; Portfolio Builder or "Rebalance Portfolio" window in Trader Workstation No
Crypto Trading? Yes, via providers No
Crypto Fees 0.18% not applicable
Options Trading? Yes Yes
Options Fee 15 to 65 cents No fee
Bond Trading Available? Yes Yes
Pays for Order Flow (PFOF)? No Yes
Interface: Web trading? Yes Yes
Desktop trading? Yes; Trader Workstation No
API Trading? Yes; Trader Workstation API No
Mutual Funds: Offered? Yes Yes
Total Mutual Funds Over 43,000 Over 4,000
NTF Mutual Funds Over 19,000 Over 700
Non-NTF Fund Fee $14.95 or 3% of trade value (whichever is lower) $19.95
Early Redemption Fee? Yes Yes
Redemption Hold (Days) 0 days (but fund company fees may apply) 90 days
Early Redemption Fee $0 (but fund company fees may apply) $19.95
Accounts: Margin Accounts? Yes Yes
IRAs Offered? Yes Yes
HSAs Offered? No No
Money Market Sweep? Yes No
CDs Offered? Yes Yes
Robo-Advisor: Offered Yes No
Robo-Advisor Service PortfolioAnalyst none
Robo-Advisor Fes 0.08% to 1.50% not applicable
Basics: Headquarters Greenwich, CT Flushing, NY
Year Founded 1978 1985
Clearing Firm Self-clearing Apex Clearing
Local Branches? Yes, about 2 locations No
New Account Minimum $0 $0

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