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

Merrill Edge and ZacksTrade 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 ZacksTrade (2025)
Feature Merrill Edge ZacksTrade
Website https://www.merrilledge.com/ https://www.zackstrade.com/
Broker Type Full-Service Discount
Trading: Stock & ETF? Yes Yes
ETF & Stock commission No fee $0.01 per share (minimum $1)
Fractional Shares? No No
Percent Allocations? No No
Crypto Trading? No Yes, via Paxos
Crypto Fees not applicable 0.18%
Options Trading? Yes Yes
Options Fee 65 cents 50 to 75 cents
Bond Trading Available? Yes Yes
Pays for Order Flow (PFOF)? Yes Yes
Interface: Web trading? Yes Yes
Desktop trading? No Yes; ZacksTrader
API Trading? No No
Mutual Funds: Offered? Yes Yes
Total Mutual Funds Over 2,300 Over 12,000
NTF Mutual Funds Over 800 Over 4,000
Non-NTF Fund Fee $19.95 $27.50
Early Redemption Fee? Yes Yes
Redemption Hold (Days) 90 days 180 days
Early Redemption Fee $39.95 1%
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 Zacks Advantage
Robo-Advisor Fes 0.30% to 0.45% 0.25% to 0.70%
Basics: Headquarters Charlotte, NC Chicago, IL
Year Founded 2010 2014
Clearing Firm Merrill Lynch Pierce Fenner & Smith Interactive Brokers
Local Branches? Yes, about 2,800 locations No
New Account Minimum $0 $0

Once you’ve chosen a broker, find high-performing, investable model portfolios at RecipeInvesting.com


Compare Merrill Edge to All Brokers