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

Merrill Edge 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: Merrill Edge vs Firstrade (2025)
Feature Merrill Edge Firstrade
Website https://www.merrilledge.com/ https://www.firstrade.com/
Broker Type Full-Service Discount
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 No fee
Bond Trading Available? Yes Yes
Pays for Order Flow (PFOF)? Yes Yes
Interface: Web trading? Yes Yes
Desktop trading? No No
API Trading? No No
Mutual Funds: Offered? Yes Yes
Total Mutual Funds Over 2,300 Over 4,000
NTF Mutual Funds Over 800 Over 700
Non-NTF Fund Fee $19.95 $19.95
Early Redemption Fee? Yes Yes
Redemption Hold (Days) 90 days 90 days
Early Redemption Fee $39.95 $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 Merrill Guided Investing none
Robo-Advisor Fes 0.30% to 0.45% not applicable
Basics: Headquarters Charlotte, NC Flushing, NY
Year Founded 2010 1985
Clearing Firm Merrill Lynch Pierce Fenner & Smith Apex Clearing
Local Branches? Yes, about 2,800 locations No
New Account Minimum $0 $0

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