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

Merrill Edge and Interactive Brokers 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 Interactive Brokers (2025)
Feature Merrill Edge Interactive Brokers
Website https://www.merrilledge.com/ https://www.interactivebrokers.com/
Broker Type Full-Service Discount
Trading: Stock & ETF? Yes Yes
ETF & Stock commission No fee $0 for IBKR Lite, $0.005 per share for IBKR Pro (minimum $1)
Fractional Shares? No Yes
Percent Allocations? No Yes; Portfolio Builder or "Rebalance Portfolio" window in Trader Workstation
Crypto Trading? No Yes, via providers
Crypto Fees not applicable 0.18%
Options Trading? Yes Yes
Options Fee 65 cents 15 to 65 cents
Bond Trading Available? Yes Yes
Pays for Order Flow (PFOF)? Yes No
Interface: Web trading? Yes Yes
Desktop trading? No Yes; Trader Workstation
API Trading? No Yes; Trader Workstation API
Mutual Funds: Offered? Yes Yes
Total Mutual Funds Over 2,300 Over 43,000
NTF Mutual Funds Over 800 Over 19,000
Non-NTF Fund Fee $19.95 $14.95 or 3% of trade value (whichever is lower)
Early Redemption Fee? Yes Yes
Redemption Hold (Days) 90 days 0 days (but fund company fees may apply)
Early Redemption Fee $39.95 $0 (but fund company fees may apply)
Accounts: Margin Accounts? Yes Yes
IRAs Offered? Yes Yes
HSAs Offered? No No
Money Market Sweep? Yes Yes
CDs Offered? Yes Yes
Robo-Advisor: Offered Yes Yes
Robo-Advisor Service Merrill Guided Investing PortfolioAnalyst
Robo-Advisor Fes 0.30% to 0.45% 0.08% to 1.50%
Basics: Headquarters Charlotte, NC Greenwich, CT
Year Founded 2010 1978
Clearing Firm Merrill Lynch Pierce Fenner & Smith Self-clearing
Local Branches? Yes, about 2,800 locations Yes, about 2 locations
New Account Minimum $0 $0

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