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

M1 Finance and Merrill Edge 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 Merrill Edge (2025)
Feature M1 Finance Merrill Edge
Website https://www.m1finance.com/ https://www.merrilledge.com/
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 65 cents
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 2,300
NTF Mutual Funds None Over 800
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 $39.95
Accounts: Margin Accounts? Yes Yes
IRAs Offered? Yes Yes
HSAs Offered? No No
Money Market Sweep? No Yes
CDs Offered? Yes Yes
Robo-Advisor: Offered Yes Yes
Robo-Advisor Service none Merrill Guided Investing
Robo-Advisor Fes not applicable 0.30% to 0.45%
Basics: Headquarters Chicago, IL Charlotte, NC
Year Founded 2015 2010
Clearing Firm Apex Clearing Merrill Lynch Pierce Fenner & Smith
Local Branches? No Yes, about 2,800 locations
New Account Minimum $100 $0

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