Public.com Review

Public is easy to use and offers a fascinating array of investment options. Along with stocks, ETFs, and crypto, there are managed Treasury bill accounts and alternative investments, such as shares in comic books and Banksy art. On the downside, Public uses its refusal to accept payment for order flow as justification for some startlingly high fees and spreads.

Pros & Cons

Overall summary

Investment options

You can invest in stocks, Treasury bills, ETFs, cryptocurrency, and alternative investments on Public. Margin, mutual funds, futures, foreign currency, and options aren’t available, nor can you short a stock.

Penny/OTC stocks: Public allows trading in approximately 300 OTC stocks. Almost all of them are foreign companies and only four were under $5. That means, for all practical purposes, no penny stocks. There’s a $2.99 fee for OTC trades, which can be avoided by subscribing to their Premium membership tier.

Cryptocurrency: Public partners with Bakkt Crypto (formerly Apex Crypto) to trade Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin, Dogecoin, Ether, Ethereum Classic, Litecoin, and Shiba Inu. New York residents may only trade Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin, Ether, and Litecoin.

Alternative assets: The investment choices on the alternatives pages (Public calls them “Alts”) are fractional shares of drool-worthy physical assets, such as mint condition trading cards, vintage video game cartridges, a rare sneaker portfolio, an Incredible Hulk comic book, a Banksy work, and a Birkin bag. There were 28 assets on offer mid-September 2023.

Before buying into Public’s alts, be very aware of what you’re getting into. The offerings are managed by a subsidiary of Public and can only be traded on Public, which means they aren’t that liquid. During my test, shares of the Hermes Birkin bag asset could be sold for $5.62 and, at the same moment, bought for $9.09. If you bought a share at $9.09, you would instantly be down by 38%, at least until a more aggressive buyer puts in an offer.

The alt manager, Otis Wealth (owned by Public), also takes a 0-5% sourcing fee, a management fee of 2% annually, a fee of 10% on any profits upon the sale of an issuer’s asset(s), and 5% of any cash flow. If an asset does not generate cash flow, Otis may take a management fee of 2% paid in shares. There’s also a transaction fee of 2.5% on each side of a trade, and, lastly, the manager has full discretion when to sell the underlying asset. This structure might lead to Otis selling an asset to capture a profit on the offering, even when some investors have losses on their shares.

Treasury bill account: Customers can invest as little as $100 into a managed Treasury bill account. The yield quoted on the Treasury bill does not include the management fee of 0.05% per month. The annual charge of two-thirds of a percent is higher than many short-term bond ETFs and money markets, but those don’t lock in a yield for a year, either. I’d prefer to see yields quoted net of management fees instead of before fees, but it is prominently disclosed.

Investment plans: Public has a very convenient feature that allows you to systematically invest in a portfolio of stocks instead of setting up several recurring investments. There are dozens of prebuilt portfolios to choose from and they can be customized. It’s a smart idea. There is an additional fee for each investment into or withdrawal from a plan that ranges from $0.49 to $1.99. The fee is waived for Premium subscribers.

Commissions and fees

Public has an unusual pricing model, and by “unusual,” I mean that Public created a new type of charge, wants you to subscribe to a premium tier for many account and research services that are free at other brokers, and it charges a fee on small, inactive accounts.

Stocks and ETFs: There are extended-hour trading fees, OTC trading fees and transaction fees for investment plans. These can be avoided by signing up for the Public Premium plan.

Cryptocurrencies: The cryptocurrency transaction fees are unclear. The fees are tiered according to trade size, but only the maximum fee is listed. It seems the minimum fee is $0.49 for a $.01 trade and, at $500.01 and above, the fee is 1.25%.

Alternative asset costs and fees: There’s a 2.5% fee on each side of an alt share trade, and the shares may only be traded on Public. There are also initial and ongoing expenses along with shares in revenue and profit, detailed above. TL;DR: Think hard before investing in Public’s alts.

A not-so-hot tip from a broker: Public states on its site that it does not accept payment for order flow (PFOF). Brokers often steer customer orders to exchanges and other trading venues in return for a few pennies per trade. If you remember the money-making scheme in the movie “Office Space,” you’ll get the idea behind PFOF: Take a few pennies, but do it millions of times.

Instead of accepting PFOF, Public solicits “tipping” on equity orders. The tips Public hopes for are far higher than what PFOF would have generated. According to one 2022 study, brokers earn $.08 for a $1,000 order of a $25 stock. I don’t like paying eight cents on a trade. But Public asked me for a $10 tip for a $1,000 order on a stock trading at $26.81. That’s 125 times what the study estimated my order would have generated in PFOF. Public is asking a lot of customers’ generosity. We recommend turning the default tip setting to heck no off.

Inactivity fee: U.S. brokers rarely charge inactivity fees, but Public does. It’s $5 every six months once the account is $20 or less and there’s been no activity in 90 or more days.

Public Premium: The charge for the premium tier is $10 per month ($96/year) after a 90-day trial. Benefits include asset allocation comparisons, custom price targets and alerts, customizable portfolio groupings, fee-free extended hours trading, systematic portfolio investing, a personal account manager, and Morningstar research.

Most of these services are available at other brokers at no additional charge. Robinhood also offers a premium tier (Robinhood Gold) with Morningstar research, but Robinhood charges only $5 per month and Gold comes with attractively low margin rates and high sweep account interest.

Other fees: If you are in a rush for cash, Public offers instant transfer of available funds for 3.5%, which is twice what Venmo charges. Paper account statements are $5 each (also higher than what many other brokers charge, so make sure you have signed up for e-delivery).

Mobile app

The mobile app ran very well on my iPhone 12 Pro and seems better implemented than the website. Though first-time stock buyers will find Public’s app an easy way to start investing, traders and long-term-oriented investors will find it skimps on common features and tools, and some are only available with the premium tier subscription.

Like Public’s peer Robinhood, the app loads up with a chart that made a nine-cent daily move in my $1,000 test account look far more dramatic than it should. That sort of chart scaling seems intended to spur unnecessary trading. The dashboard is straightforward, but it’s cluttered with items that won’t work until you subscribe to Premium.

Stock quotes and watch lists are real time and updated every five seconds. The stock order ticket is quick and easy for small investors, as you can enter orders by either dollar amounts or shares. Limit and stop orders are supported, but only for whole shares, and there aren’t stop-limit orders. It’s easy to miss those settings; the order type button is small and set to default to a market order. There is no good-until-canceled option.

The chart is as basic as you can get: an X-axis, a Y-axis, a squiggly line, and the price scale. Other than changing the time frame, there’s nothing you can customize. There aren’t candlestick charts, bar charts, volume plots, technical studies… you name it, and it’s not there.

Ask Alpha: Public has a beta trial of a GPT-4 powered chatbot, Alpha. It’s restricted from giving investment advice and recommended I subscribe to Public’s premium service when I asked for the sector weighting of the S&P 500. Alpha was able to answer whether Apple is a growth stock and summarize the latest product rollout (neat), but it wasn’t able to tell me the top-performing S&P sector because it didn’t have access to the data.

Tap for a demo of Public's mobile app.

Other platforms and tools

The experience on Public’s browser platform is very similar to the mobile app; user-friendly, but thin in features. As noted above, the mobile app seems better implemented. I noted distracting flickering issues on Chrome that didn’t appear on Safari and ran into a few minor bugs.

User experience

Opening an account is easy and I was able to deposit with instant credit so I could invest quickly instead of waiting for a deposit to clear. Navigation is simple. It would be even easier if Public didn’t have quite so many buttons that only work once you’ve signed up for the premium plan.

Opening an account opened the floodgates to a tsunami of marketing-oriented emails and banner notifications. Most of the notifications were marketing messages, and some were about stocks I researched briefly but decided not to pursue. You can turn notifications off, but the app and the browser site implement it differently, so you may want to check that setting on both mobile and web.

User community: Public has an active social community. Users can share their watch list changes and buys and sells (quantity and dollar amounts aren’t shared). Public also puts a badge on a post for trades that tipped. Why that’s done mystifies me; users will quickly realize that tipping is optional, and a sign of a novice investor.

Users may also post, reply, follow and direct message each other. I find that to be dangerous. I shared a quick trade on the stream and was immediately followed by a user with the handle of “TEACHER,” who wanted to sell me on investing outside Public on an unsecured website. Direct messaging seems like a risky opportunity for clients to be scammed.

Research

News feed: The good news on Public’s news feed is that it sources headlines from industry standards such as the Wall Street Journal, Barron's and CNBC. The bad news is that many of these sources require a subscription to read the full articles, and there are also many headlines from less reliable sources.

Public Live: Public’s “The Open” podcast, streamed right before the market opens, is rapidly becoming my favorite market podcast. Host Ann Berry is insightful, enjoyable to listen to, and exceptionally credible.

YouTube channel: Public’s very well-stocked YouTube channel can be found under the handle “Public App.” Some videos are exceptionally high quality. Look for the ones hosted by Ann Berry.

Education

Public’s education is a work in progress, and there’s room for improvement. There is a huge amount of content on interesting and important topics, but it’s not as engaging as Robinhood’s class-leading beginner material, nor is it as thorough as what you’ll find on Fidelity’s website. In some cases, I found alarming inaccuracies and marketing fluff masquerading as education.

There are a few educational videos in the mobile app. The video player on my iPhone 12 was buggy, and the videos, though attractively produced, are very basic. Check out this example from the “Researching Investments video,” which was only a minute and a half long:

“The best part of your research will be with companies that you already know, use, and are familiar with. When it comes to long term investing, it’s important that you only invest what you can afford to lose.”

Does that mean short-term investors should invest all their money into stocks? I hope not. The presenter also recommended watching YouTube videos and podcasts without mentioning any specific ones. Advising anyone to learn investing from random content on YouTube or a podcast is sloppy advice.

Public also offers webinars — apparently. I got a system error when I tried to register with my email address, so I can’t speak to their quality. Some prior webinars are listed. The recordings weren’t available on the site.

Quality of the articles also did not impress. Here’s a quote from “Exploring the Potential of Utility Market”:

"Waste Management: Utility stocks in waste management undertake tasks related to the collection, processing, and disposal of solid waste and recyclables. By promoting environmental sustainability and effective waste management practices, these companies contribute to maintaining a clean and healthy environment."

Yes, waste management companies do perform an important service when compared to the alternative of emptying chamber pots onto the street or in a river. Still, this was the first time I’ve heard anyone outside the waste industry position landfill operators as socially responsible. Interesting.

Another “educational” article was “Why Is Charizard So Popular Among Pokémon Collectors?” It’s unlikely to be a coincidence that Public members can trade shares of a vintage Charizard card. Though most brokers provide content centered around their investment choices, puff pieces sow distrust in readers. I hope Public’s future content strikes a reasonable balance between potential risks and rewards.

There’s an investment glossary, but that also shares the same poor recipe as their other educational material. The definition of “yield,” a critical investing concept, is flat-out wrong: “A bond’s yield is what you get when you divide the bond’s coupon by the bond’s changes in value.” Unfortunately, no. If a 5% coupon bond’s price changes by 5% (5%/5%), the yield is not 100%, and it certainly wouldn’t be -100% if the bond’s price went down by 5%.

Banking services

Public does not offer traditional banking services, but its managed Treasury bill program can serve as a savings vehicle.

Final thoughts

Public offers some novel features, including alternative investments, investment plans, and managed Treasury bill programs, but its nuisance-fee-laden pricing structure needs to become more rational and its educational content needs a reboot. We look forward to following Public’s new feature rollouts, pricing changes, content improvement, and bug-stomping in future reviews.

Here are our top takeaways for Public:

1. Public is a relatively new broker on the scene, and many of its features and much of its content comes across as if it was rushed out the door (Ann Berry’s terrific podcast is a notable exception).
2. The managed Treasury bill account offers a high-yielding and convenient way to build a rainy day fund.
3. Public is likely handicapping its growth potential by offering illiquid products and offering an uncompetitive pricing structure.

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Does Public.com give free stocks?

Public.com offers a free fraction of stock to new clients who fund their accounts with $20 or more. The randomly determined reward can range anywhere from $1 to $300. According to Public.com’s New Member Reward Program page, 95% of recipients will receive a fractional share worth $1, 0.9% will be awarded $5 of stock, and 0.1% will get the full $300.

Is Public.com safe?

Public is the trade name of Open to the Public Investing, Inc. and is a member of FINRA, the regulatory body that oversees U.S. brokers. Accounts are insured up to $500,000 by the Securities Investor Protection Corporation, but only for broker insolvency, not for market losses, as with any brokerage. Public maintains customers’ accounts and executes trades at Apex Clearing Corporation.

How much does Public.com cost per month?

Though opening a Public.com account is free, many desirable features and better pricing require subscribing to a paid tier, Public Premium, which is $10/month after a 90-day free trial. There’s also an annual plan with additional savings.

Is my money safe on the Public app?

As noted, Public is a member of FINRA and accounts are insured against broker insolvency for up to $500,000 by the SIPC. This, however, doesn’t protect you against losses from either your investment decisions or defaults from individual investments, as is true for all brokers.

About Public.com

Public.com is the trade name for Open to the Public Investing, Inc. and is headquartered in New York, NY. The broker was initially registered in 2004.

Here’s a fun fact: Public has accumulated a roster of celebrity investors since 2019, including Sean “Diddy” Combs, Will Smith (Dreamers VC), Maria Sharapova, Tony Hawk, the Chainsmokers’ Mantis VC, and NFL star J.J. Watt.

2023 Review methodology

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