M1 Finance vs E*Trade Comparison: Fees, Features, and More (2025)

M1 Finance and E*Trade 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: M1 Finance vs E*Trade (2025)
Feature M1 Finance E*Trade
Website https://www.m1finance.com/ https://us.etrade.com/home
Broker Type Discount Full-Service
Trading: Stock & ETF? Yes Yes
ETF & Stock commission No fee No fee
Fractional Shares? Yes No
Percent Allocations? Yes; M1 Pies No
Crypto Trading? No No
Crypto Fees not applicable not applicable
Options Trading? No Yes
Options Fee not applicable 50 to 65
Bond Trading Available? No Yes
Pays for Order Flow (PFOF)? Yes Yes
Interface: Web trading? Yes Yes
Desktop trading? No Yes; E*TRADE Pro
API Trading? No Yes; E*TRADE Developer Platform
Mutual Funds: Offered? No Yes
Total Mutual Funds None Over 6,000
NTF Mutual Funds None Over 4,300
Non-NTF Fund Fee not applicable $50
Early Redemption Fee? not applicable No
Redemption Hold (Days) not applicable 0
Early Redemption Fee not applicable $50
Accounts: Margin Accounts? Yes Yes
IRAs Offered? Yes Yes
HSAs Offered? No No
Money Market Sweep? No No
CDs Offered? Yes Yes
Robo-Advisor: Offered Yes Yes
Robo-Advisor Service none Core Portfolios
Robo-Advisor Fes not applicable 0.30%
Basics: Headquarters Chicago, IL New York, NY
Year Founded 2015 1996
Clearing Firm Apex Clearing Morgan Stanley
Local Branches? No Yes, about 30 locations
New Account Minimum $100 $0

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