Merrill Edge vs Vanguard Comparison: Fees, Features, and More (2026)

Merrill Edge 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 2026.

Head-to-Head Comparison: Merrill Edge vs Vanguard (2026)
Feature Merrill Edge Vanguard
Website https://www.merrilledge.com/ https://investor.vanguard.com/
Broker Type Self-directed discount/online brokerage Full-Service
Trading: Stock & ETF? Yes Yes
ETF & Stock commission $0 online commissions (ETF sales $0.01–$0.03 per $1,000 principal) $0 online
Fractional Shares? No Yes; eligible Vanguard ETFs/dollar-based trading
Percent Allocations? No Yes; Vanguard Digital Advisor/asset-allocation tools
Crypto Trading? No No
Crypto Fees N/A Not applicable
Options Trading? Yes Yes
Options Fee $0 + $0.65 per contract online; $0 exercise/assignment. Broker-assisted extra. $1/contract
Bond Trading Available? Yes Yes; Treasuries, bonds, and CDs
Receives payment for order flow (PFOF)? No; limited options-exchange payments No
Interface: Web trading? Yes Yes
Desktop trading? No (MarketPro is browser-based, not a downloadable desktop app) No
API Trading? No (no public retail trading API) No
Mutual Funds: Offered? Yes Yes
Total Mutual Funds Thousands Over 3,000
NTF Mutual Funds Many NTF (exact count unpublished) Over 1,800
Non-NTF Fund Fee $19.95 per online transaction (buys, sells, exchanges) for no-load TF funds $20 online for transaction-fee funds; $0 for NTF funds
Early Redemption Fee? No ($39.95 short-term redemption fee on NTF funds held <90 days) No
Redemption Hold (Days) 90 days (NTF funds) 60 days
Early Redemption Fee $39.95 (NTF funds held <90 days) $50
Accounts: Margin Accounts? Yes Yes
IRAs Offered? Yes (Traditional, Roth, SEP) Yes; Traditional, Roth, SEP, Rollover, and Custodial
HSAs Offered? Yes (Individual HSA) No
Money Market Sweep? Yes Yes; settlement-fund/cash-deposit sweep
CDs Offered? Yes (brokered CDs) Yes
Robo-Advisor: Offered Yes Yes
Robo-Advisor Service Merrill Guided Investing Vanguard Digital Advisor
Robo-Advisor Fees 0.45% AUM online; 0.85% with advisor (monthly in advance). Preferred Rewards discounts 0.05-0.15%. Fund expenses extra. 0.20% all-index; 0.25% active/index mix
Basics: Headquarters New York, NY Valley Forge, PA
Year Founded 2010 1975
Clearing Firm Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Inc. (self-clearing) Vanguard Brokerage Services
Local Branches? Yes (~3,530 Bank of America financial centers, U.S., as of Q2 2026) No; phone/online service
New Account Minimum $0 (self-directed)

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