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

Tradestation and Firstrade 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: Tradestation vs Firstrade (2025)
Feature Tradestation Firstrade
Website https://www.tradestation.com/ https://www.firstrade.com/
Broker Type Discount Discount
Trading: Stock & ETF? Yes Yes
ETF & Stock commission No fee No fee
Fractional Shares? No No
Percent Allocations? No No
Crypto Trading? Yes No
Crypto Fees 0.25% not applicable
Options Trading? Yes Yes
Options Fee 60 cents No fee
Bond Trading Available? Yes Yes
Pays for Order Flow (PFOF)? Yes Yes
Interface: Web trading? Yes Yes
Desktop trading? Yes; TradeStation No
API Trading? Yes; TradeStation WebAPI No
Mutual Funds: Offered? Yes Yes
Total Mutual Funds Over 2,000 Over 4,000
NTF Mutual Funds Around 2,000 Over 700
Non-NTF Fund Fee $14.95 $19.95
Early Redemption Fee? Yes Yes
Redemption Hold (Days) 60 days 90 days
Early Redemption Fee $50 $19.95
Accounts: Margin Accounts? Yes Yes
IRAs Offered? Yes Yes
HSAs Offered? No No
Money Market Sweep? Yes No
CDs Offered? Yes Yes
Robo-Advisor: Offered No No
Robo-Advisor Service none none
Robo-Advisor Fes not applicable not applicable
Basics: Headquarters Plantation, FL Flushing, NY
Year Founded 1982 1985
Clearing Firm Pershing LLC Apex Clearing
Local Branches? No No
New Account Minimum $0 $0

Once you’ve chosen a broker, find high-performing, investable model portfolios at RecipeInvesting.com


Compare Tradestation to All Brokers