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

Firstrade and Vanguard 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: Firstrade vs Vanguard (2025)
Feature Firstrade Vanguard
Website https://www.firstrade.com/ https://investor.vanguard.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 No fee 0 to 100 cents
Bond Trading Available? Yes Yes
Pays for Order Flow (PFOF)? Yes No
Interface: Web trading? Yes Yes
Desktop trading? No No
API Trading? No No
Mutual Funds: Offered? Yes Yes
Total Mutual Funds Over 4,000 Over 3,000
NTF Mutual Funds Over 700 Over 1,800
Non-NTF Fund Fee $19.95 $50
Early Redemption Fee? Yes Yes
Redemption Hold (Days) 90 days 60 days
Early Redemption Fee $19.95 $50
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 No Yes
Robo-Advisor Service none Vanguard Digital Advisor
Robo-Advisor Fes not applicable 0.20% to 0.25%
Basics: Headquarters Flushing, NY Valley Forge, PA
Year Founded 1985 1975
Clearing Firm Apex Clearing Vanguard Brokerage Services
Local Branches? No Yes, about 5 locations
New Account Minimum $0 $0

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