Merrill Edge vs E*Trade Comparison: Fees, Features, and More (2025)

Merrill Edge 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: Merrill Edge vs E*Trade (2025)
Feature Merrill Edge E*Trade
Website https://www.merrilledge.com/ https://us.etrade.com/home
Broker Type Full-Service Full-Service
Trading: Stock & ETF? Yes Yes
ETF & Stock commission No fee No fee
Fractional Shares? No No
Percent Allocations? No No
Crypto Trading? No No
Crypto Fees not applicable not applicable
Options Trading? Yes Yes
Options Fee 65 cents 50 to 65
Bond Trading Available? Yes 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? Yes Yes
Total Mutual Funds Over 2,300 Over 6,000
NTF Mutual Funds Over 800 Over 4,300
Non-NTF Fund Fee $19.95 $50
Early Redemption Fee? Yes No
Redemption Hold (Days) 90 days 0
Early Redemption Fee $39.95 $50
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 Yes
Robo-Advisor Service Merrill Guided Investing Core Portfolios
Robo-Advisor Fes 0.30% to 0.45% 0.30%
Basics: Headquarters Charlotte, NC New York, NY
Year Founded 2010 1996
Clearing Firm Merrill Lynch Pierce Fenner & Smith Morgan Stanley
Local Branches? Yes, about 2,800 locations Yes, about 30 locations
New Account Minimum $0 $0

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