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M1 Finance vs. Folio Investing Brokerage Comparison (2023)

Last Updated: March 22, 2022 No Comments – 6 min. read

NOTICE: Folio Investing is now closed as of January, 2021, with the option to transfer your account to Interactive Brokers. I compared M1 Finance and Interactive Brokers here.

m1 finance vs folio investing

M1 Finance and Folio Investing use “pies” and “folios” respectively, allowing granular control of investment selection and allocation. Here we’ll compare the two platforms. I wrote a separate comprehensive review of M1 Finance here if you’re interested in seeing the specifics of the platform.

Disclosure:  Some of the links on this page are referral links. At no additional cost to you, if you choose to make a purchase or sign up for a service after clicking through those links, I may receive a small commission. This allows me to continue producing high-quality, ad-free content on this site and pays for the occasional cup of coffee. I have first-hand experience with every product or service I recommend, and I recommend them because I genuinely believe they are useful, not because of the commission I get if you decide to purchase through my links. Read more here.

M1 Finance vs. Folio Investing – Summary Comparison

M1 Finance

Folio Investing

Commissions

$0

$4*

Account Fees

$0

$5-29/mo.**

Order Fees

$0

$3-10***

Account Types

3/5
4.5/5

Investment Products

3/5
3.5/5

Customer Service

4/5
4/5

Research Tools

3/5
3.5/5

Margin

5/5
3/5

Mobile App

5/5
1.5/5

Interface/Usability

5/5
2.5/5

Checking Account

Yes

No

Fractional Shares

Yes

Yes

Auto Rebalancing

Yes

Yes

Dividend Reinvestment

Yes

Yes

Order Control

No

Yes

Summary Score

4/5

4.2

3/5

3.2

Summary Review

M1 Finance is great for beginner and experienced investors alike, and everyone in between. Their fees and commissions (zero) pale in comparison to Folio's. They offer complete control in the selection of investments, but simultaneously offer expert-built, set-and-forget Expert Pies in which you can invest for free. M1 also offers extremely cheap margin. If you don't need more exotic account types or order control, M1 seems to clearly win out over Folio.

Folio Investing was one of the first on the scene with fractional investing and customized portfolios, but they haven't innovated much since then. Their fees and commissions are pretty obnoxious in my opinion for a modern broker, and they have a notoriously bad mobile app and a lacking interface. I would suggest only going with Folio if you absolutely need access to their additional account types and order control.

Learn More

Learn More

*Folio Investing has a $4 trade commission for its Basic Plan, and 2,000 commission-free trades per month for its Unlimited Plan.
**Folio Investing has a $5/mo. fee for the Basic Plan if the account has less than 3 trades per quarter, and a $29/mo. fee for their Unlimited Plan.
***Folio Investing has $10 order fees on their Basic Plan and $3 order fees on their Unlimited Plan.

M1 Finance

Commissions
Fees
Account Types
Investment Products
Customer Service
Research Tools
Margin
Mobile App
Interface/Usability
Checking Account
Fractional Shares
Auto Rebalancing
Order Control

Summary

M1 Finance is great for beginner and experienced investors alike, and everyone in between. Their fees and commissions (zero) pale in comparison to Folio’s. They offer complete control in the selection of investments, but simultaneously offer expert-built, set-and-forget Expert Pies in which you can invest for free. M1 also offers extremely cheap margin. If you don’t need more exotic account types or order control, M1 seems to clearly win out over Folio.

4.2

Folio Investing

Commissions*
Fees**
Account Types
Investment Products
Customer Service
Research Tools
Margin
Mobile App
Interface/Usability
Checking Account
Fractional Shares
Auto Rebalancing
Order Control

Summary

Folio Investing was one of the first on the scene with fractional investing and customized portfolios, but they haven’t innovated much since then. Their fees and commissions are pretty obnoxious in my opinion for a modern broker, and they have a notoriously bad mobile app and a lacking interface. I would suggest only going with Folio if you absolutely need access to their additional account types and order control.

3.2

*Folio Investing has a $4 trade commission for its Basic Plan, and 2,000 commission-free trades per month for its Unlimited Plan.
**Folio Investing has a $5/mo. fee for the Basic Plan if the account has less than 3 trades per quarter, and a $29/mo. fee for their Unlimited Plan. Folio Investing has $10 order fees on their Basic Plan and $3 order fees on their Unlimited Plan.

Contents

  • M1 Finance vs. Folio Investing – Summary Comparison
  • M1 Finance vs. Folio Investing – Commissions and Fees
  • M1 Finance vs. Folio Investing – Account Types
  • M1 Finance vs. Folio Investing – Investment Products
  • M1 Finance vs. Folio Investing – Margin
  • M1 Finance vs. Folio Investing – Mobile App
  • M1 Finance vs. Folio Investing – Interface/Usability
  • M1 Finance vs. Folio Investing – Extra Features
  • M1 Finance vs. Folio Investing – Summary and Conclusion

M1 Finance vs. Folio Investing – Commissions and Fees

M1 Finance has commission-free trades and zero account fees.

Folio Investing has 2 different plans with commissions and fees as follows:

  • Folio Investing Basic Plan:
    • $4 trade commissions
    • $10 fee per order
    • $5/mo. account fee for accounts with fewer than 3 trades per quarter (3-month period)
  • Folio Investing Unlimited Plan:
    • 2,000 commission-free trades per month, and $0.50/trade after that
    • $3 fee per order
    • $29/mo. account fee

Both platforms have the usual miscellaneous fees for things like paper statements, outbound transfers, etc.

M1 clearly wins out on fees.

M1 Finance vs. Folio Investing – Account Types

M1 Finance offers Individual, Joint, Traditional IRA, Roth IRA, Rollover IRA, SEP IRA, Trust, and Custodial (M1 Plus members) accounts. They currently do not offer SIMPLE IRA, 401(k), Solo 401(k), 529, HSA, or Non-Profit accounts.

Folio Investing has basically most account types you can think of. They offer all of M1’s account types plus SIMPLE IRA, Beneficiary IRA, Business accounts, and more specialty accounts.

If you need any of the latter accounts, Folio Investing would be the better choice.

M1 Finance also offers an optional FDIC-insured checking account. Folio Investing does not offer a checking account.

M1 Finance vs. Folio Investing – Investment Products

Both M1 Finance and Folio Investing offer most ETF’s and individual stocks that are traded on major exchanges.

Folio also offers some no-load mutual funds.

Neither platform has forex, crypto, options, futures, and over-the-counter (OTC) stocks aka “penny stocks.”

M1 Finance vs. Folio Investing – Margin

M1 Finance wins on margin rates. Margin rates are as follows for a $100,000 margin loan:

  • Folio Investing – 5.75%
  • M1 Finance – 3.50%
  • M1 Plus – 2.00%

M1 Plus is a $125/year premium membership that gets you access to a lower margin rate as shown, as well as a second afternoon trading window.

You can use that cheap margin loan from M1 Finance for whatever you want – major purchases, refinancing higher-interest debt, unexpected expenses, etc.

M1 Finance vs. Folio Investing – Mobile App

M1 Finance has a sleek, intuitive, user-friendly, robust mobile app for both Apple iOS and Android:

m1 finance mobile app

Folio Investing’s mobile app, called FolioFirst, is notoriously bad according to user reviews complaining of it being cumbersome, antiquated, and buggy. Here are some screenshots of it:

folio investing mobile app screenshots

M1 Finance vs. Folio Investing – Interface/Usability

Like the app, the Folio Investing desktop web interface is still somewhat antiquated. The Folio user interface looks like this:

folio interface screenshot 3
folio interface screenshot 1
folio interface screenshot 2

The M1 Finance interface is modern, simple, and intuitive with its pie-based visualization. It is great for novice and experienced investors alike:

m1 custom pies
m1 finance research filters screenshot

M1 Finance vs. Folio Investing – Extra Features

Since it’s better suited for day trading, Folio Investing has a few more research tools than M1. Folio obviously has an all-day trading window and order control. Since M1 Finance is built for long-term, buy-and-hold investing, and not for day trading, M1 has a once-daily trading window and no order control.

Both M1 Finance and Folio Investing allow full portfolio customization. M1 calls them “pies” and Folio calls them “folios.” Both platforms offer pre-built expert portfolios and target date funds in which you can invest. M1 Finance calls theirs “Expert Portfolios” and Folio Investing calls theirs Ready-to-Go Folios™ or “RTGs.”

Both M1 Finance and Folio Investing feature automatic rebalancing – this feature automatically directs new deposits to specific assets to maintain your portfolio’s target asset allocation.

Both M1 Finance offer fractional shares for all investment products, which allows every dollar to work for you and allows you to buy small pieces of high-share-price stocks. This is especially important for beginner investors with a small amount of capital.

M1 Finance also brings a cool social aspect to investing, allowing you to share your Custom Pies via a hyperlink.

M1 Finance vs. Folio Investing – Summary and Conclusion

  • M1 Finance offers zero-commission trades and zero account fees. Folio has various order fees, account fees, and commissions that are higher than most.
  • Folio has a few more account types than M1 Finance, but I’d imagine most average retail investors won’t need or utilize that difference.
  • Both M1 Finance and Folio Investing offer most ETF’s and individual stocks. Folio also offers some no-load mutual funds.
  • M1 Finance offers much lower margin rates than Folio Investing.
  • Folio Investing has a more antiquated desktop web user interface. M1 Finance has a simple and intuitive desktop interface.
  • Folio Investing has an antiquated, unintuitive, and buggy mobile app. M1 Finance has a sleek, modern, user-friendly mobile app.
  • Both M1 Finance and Folio Investing offer fractional shares, automatic rebalancing, and dividend reinvestment.
  • Folio Investing has the typical order control and all-day trading window that we’d expect from a traditional brokerage platform. M1 does not offer order control and only uses one trading window per day.
  • Both M1 and Folio feature pre-built portfolios, respectively called “Expert Pies” and Ready-to-Go Folios™.
  • M1 Finance brings a social aspect to investing, allowing you to share your Custom Pies (such as a lazy portfolio) via a hyperlink.

Your choice between these two platforms should depend on how you want to invest and what account types you need, since they have largely the same investment products and features. Folio Investing was one of the first on the scene with fractional investing and customized portfolios, but they haven’t innovated much since then. Their fees and commissions are pretty obnoxious in my opinion for a modern broker, and they have a notoriously bad mobile app and a lacking interface. I would suggest only going with Folio if you absolutely need access to their additional account types and order control. Otherwise, I believe M1 Finance is clearly the better choice and is likely the closest alternative to Folio Investing with its pie-based visualization and customization. I wrote a separate comprehensive review of M1 Finance here if you’re interested in seeing the specifics of the platform.

Update May 15, 2020: Folio Investing has entered an agreement to be acquired by Goldman Sachs, the closing of which is expected to take place in Q3 2020.

M1 Finance currently has a promotion for up to $250 when initially funding an investment account, as outlined below:

m1 seed promo 2022

They also currently have a transfer bonus promotion for up to $2,500 when transferring an existing account from another brokerage, as outlined below:

m1 transfer bonus 2021
Learn More

Disclaimer:  While I love diving into investing-related data and playing around with backtests, I am in no way a certified expert. I have no formal financial education. I am not a financial advisor, portfolio manager, or accountant. This is not financial advice, investing advice, or tax advice. The information on this website is for informational and recreational purposes only. Investment products discussed (ETFs, mutual funds, etc.) are for illustrative purposes only. It is not a recommendation to buy, sell, or otherwise transact in any of the products mentioned. Do your own due diligence. Past performance does not guarantee future returns. Read my lengthier disclaimer here.

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