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

Ally 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: Ally Invest vs Merrill Edge (2025)
Feature Ally Invest Merrill Edge
Website https://www.ally.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? No No
Percent Allocations? No No
Crypto Trading? No No
Crypto Fees not applicable not applicable
Options Trading? Yes Yes
Options Fee 50 cents 65 cents
Bond Trading Available? Yes Yes
Pays for Order Flow (PFOF)? Yes Yes
Interface: Web trading? Yes Yes
Desktop trading? No No
API Trading? Yes; Ally Invest API No
Mutual Funds: Offered? Yes Yes
Total Mutual Funds Over 12,000 Over 2,300
NTF Mutual Funds Over 8,000 Over 800
Non-NTF Fund Fee $9.95 $19.95
Early Redemption Fee? Yes Yes
Redemption Hold (Days) 30 days 90 days
Early Redemption Fee $9.95 $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 Ally Invest Managed Portfolios Merrill Guided Investing
Robo-Advisor Fes 0.00% to 0.30% 0.30% to 0.45%
Basics: Headquarters Charlotte, NC Charlotte, NC
Year Founded 2005 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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