Vanguard vs Tradestation Comparison: Fees, Features, and More (2025)

Vanguard and Tradestation 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: Vanguard vs Tradestation (2025)
Feature Vanguard Tradestation
Website https://investor.vanguard.com/ https://www.tradestation.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 Yes
Crypto Fees not applicable 0.25%
Options Trading? Yes Yes
Options Fee 0 to 100 cents 60 cents
Bond Trading Available? Yes Yes
Pays for Order Flow (PFOF)? No Yes
Interface: Web trading? Yes Yes
Desktop trading? No Yes; TradeStation
API Trading? No Yes; TradeStation WebAPI
Mutual Funds: Offered? Yes Yes
Total Mutual Funds Over 3,000 Over 2,000
NTF Mutual Funds Over 1,800 Around 2,000
Non-NTF Fund Fee $50 $14.95
Early Redemption Fee? Yes Yes
Redemption Hold (Days) 60 days 60 days
Early Redemption Fee $50 $50
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 No
Robo-Advisor Service Vanguard Digital Advisor none
Robo-Advisor Fes 0.20% to 0.25% not applicable
Basics: Headquarters Valley Forge, PA Plantation, FL
Year Founded 1975 1982
Clearing Firm Vanguard Brokerage Services Pershing LLC
Local Branches? Yes, about 5 locations No
New Account Minimum $0 $0

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