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

SoFi Invest 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: SoFi Invest vs Merrill Edge (2025)
Feature SoFi Invest Merrill Edge
Website https://www.sofi.com/invest/ 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? No No
Crypto Trading? Yes No
Crypto Fees 1.25% 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 Over 6,000 Over 2,300
NTF Mutual Funds Over 6,000 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 SoFi Automated Investing Merrill Guided Investing
Robo-Advisor Fes 0.00% to 0.25% 0.30% to 0.45%
Basics: Headquarters San Francisco, CA Charlotte, NC
Year Founded 2011 2010
Clearing Firm Apex Clearing Merrill Lynch Pierce Fenner & Smith
Local Branches? No Yes, about 2,800 locations
New Account Minimum $0 $0

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