M1 Finance vs Firstrade Comparison: Fees, Features, and More (2025)

M1 Finance 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: M1 Finance vs Firstrade (2025)
Feature M1 Finance Firstrade
Website https://www.m1finance.com/ https://www.firstrade.com/
Broker Type Discount Discount
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 No fee
Bond Trading Available? No Yes
Pays for Order Flow (PFOF)? Yes Yes
Interface: Web trading? Yes Yes
Desktop trading? No No
API Trading? No No
Mutual Funds: Offered? No Yes
Total Mutual Funds None Over 4,000
NTF Mutual Funds None Over 700
Non-NTF Fund Fee not applicable $19.95
Early Redemption Fee? not applicable Yes
Redemption Hold (Days) not applicable 90 days
Early Redemption Fee not applicable $19.95
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 No
Robo-Advisor Service none none
Robo-Advisor Fes not applicable not applicable
Basics: Headquarters Chicago, IL Flushing, NY
Year Founded 2015 1985
Clearing Firm Apex Clearing Apex Clearing
Local Branches? No No
New Account Minimum $100 $0

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