M1 Finance vs Vanguard Comparison: Fees, Features, and More (2025)

M1 Finance 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: M1 Finance vs Vanguard (2025)
Feature M1 Finance Vanguard
Website https://www.m1finance.com/ https://investor.vanguard.com/
Broker Type Discount Full-Service
Trading: Stock & ETF? Yes Yes
ETF & Stock commission No fee No fee
Fractional Shares? Yes No
Percent Allocations? Yes; M1 Pies No
Crypto Trading? No No
Crypto Fees not applicable not applicable
Options Trading? No Yes
Options Fee not applicable 0 to 100 cents
Bond Trading Available? No Yes
Pays for Order Flow (PFOF)? Yes No
Interface: Web trading? Yes Yes
Desktop trading? No No
API Trading? No No
Mutual Funds: Offered? No Yes
Total Mutual Funds None Over 3,000
NTF Mutual Funds None Over 1,800
Non-NTF Fund Fee not applicable $50
Early Redemption Fee? not applicable Yes
Redemption Hold (Days) not applicable 60 days
Early Redemption Fee not applicable $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 Yes Yes
Robo-Advisor Service none Vanguard Digital Advisor
Robo-Advisor Fes not applicable 0.20% to 0.25%
Basics: Headquarters Chicago, IL Valley Forge, PA
Year Founded 2015 1975
Clearing Firm Apex Clearing Vanguard Brokerage Services
Local Branches? No Yes, about 5 locations
New Account Minimum $100 $0

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