Public Review: One App for Stocks, Bonds, and Beyond

Public set out to build an investing app for people who wanted more than just stock tickers, and that ambition now spans asset classes most brokers keep separate. Stocks, ETFs, options, bonds, Treasuries, and crypto all sit side by side in the same portfolio view, letting investors diversify across asset types without juggling multiple apps or logins.

What separates Public from a typical trading app is how deliberately it’s built for investors who want context, not just a buy button. Every holding comes with company snapshots and a research assistant, while asset classes that are usually hard to access individually — corporate bonds, Treasuries, event contracts — are fractionalized and available with just a few dollars, a structure that makes previously institutional-only asset classes approachable for everyday investors.

Who is Public?

Public launched as a social-investing app and has since rebuilt itself around a broader mission: giving everyday investors access to the same breadth of asset classes that institutions take for granted. The platform operates as Public Investing, a member of FINRA and SIPC, and has layered in AI tools, a trading API, and even a way to trade through chat-based agents.

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Today’s lineup includes individual and margin brokerage accounts, Traditional and Roth IRAs with a contribution match, a High-Yield Cash Account, a Bond Account, Treasury accounts, and business and trust accounts for more complex needs. Public Concierge extends the platform further for clients with larger portfolios, pairing dedicated support with the same multi-asset toolset available to every account. Public also built options rebates into its pricing, an unusual structure that pays investors back a portion of their trading costs instead of charging a flat fee.

What Public does best

A few things set Public apart from a typical brokerage app:

Genuinely diversified asset access

Stocks, ETFs, options, crypto, bonds, Treasuries, and prediction markets all live in one portfolio, so investors can diversify beyond equities without opening a second account.

Options rebates instead of fees

Rather than charging a per-contract fee, Public pays investors a rebate on eligible options trades, a structure that rewards active options traders instead of charging them.

A high-yield cash account with no catches

The High-Yield Cash Account pays a variable APY with no subscription requirement, no account fees, and no minimum or maximum balance, with funds eligible for FDIC insurance through partner banks.

Built-in bond and Treasury access

The Bond Account builds a portfolio of ten fractional investment-grade and high-yield corporate bond positions from a modest minimum, giving investors fixed-income access that’s traditionally been hard to fractionalize.

AI-powered research tools

Public layers AI directly into the investing experience, with tools like Generated Assets that turn an investment thesis into a tradable index and a research assistant that summarizes earnings calls and company fundamentals, giving investors more context before they commit capital.

Products and pricing at a glance

What customers say

Customers point to the breadth of the platform as its biggest draw, saying the ability to hold stocks, bonds, and crypto in one account made it easier to build a properly diversified portfolio without spreading their money across several apps.

Investors who use the High-Yield Cash Account frequently mention how simple it is to set up, with no minimum balance or subscription required to start earning a competitive rate, and traders highlight the options rebate program as a rare example of a broker that pays users back rather than charging for every contract.

Options traders also mention that the rebate program changes how they think about frequency, since contracts that would typically cost money elsewhere instead return a small credit, making it easier to justify more active strategies without worrying about fees eating into results.

Who Public is best for

Public suits investors who want one account for a genuinely diversified portfolio — stocks, bonds, crypto, and cash all included — rather than piecing one together across multiple platforms. It’s also a strong option for options traders who want to earn rebates instead of paying per-contract fees, and for anyone who wants a high-yield cash account without a subscription or balance requirement attached. Investors curious about newer markets also have a low-risk way to explore prediction markets and AI-generated assets without leaving their core brokerage account.

Price and value

Core trading is commission-free across stocks, ETFs, and options, and the rebate structure on options means active traders can actually earn money back on contracts rather than paying for them. The Bond Account’s markup is modest relative to the fixed-income access it unlocks, and Premium members get added perks like a waived Bond Account fee.

The High-Yield Cash Account rounds out the value proposition with a competitive APY and zero account fees, making it easy to keep cash working while deciding where to deploy it next. Combined with the 1% IRA match, Public gives long-term investors several ways to earn more without paying more, including a Premium tier that waives certain account fees for more active members.

Verdict

Public brings an unusually wide range of asset classes into one well-designed account, backed by SIPC protection and a rebate structure that rewards rather than penalizes active trading — as always, all investing involves risk.