Public vs Fidelity

Public and Fidelity can both support a diversified portfolio, but their strongest capabilities come from different histories. Fidelity is built around long-term financial infrastructure: retirement accounts, mutual funds, fixed income, HSAs, managed portfolios and cash management. Public is a newer multi-asset platform emphasising bonds, Treasuries, cash, direct crypto, options, AI-assisted research, generated portfolios, direct indexing and royalties.

Every fact below is drawn from the two canonical ROIStreet review records. Where a fact is absent from a record, it is stated as not established rather than borrowed from the other platform.

Stock commissions provide little separation

Both charge $0 online commission on U.S. stocks and ETFs. Public adds $2.99 per trade on extended-hours and OTC trades for non-Premium members, waived with Premium. The more meaningful categories are funds, fixed income, retirement, crypto and portfolio tools.

Options economics do differ. Public charges $0 commission and $0 contract fee on stock and ETF options with disclosed rebates of $0.06 to $0.18, and index options at $0.50 standard or $0.35 with Premium. Fidelity charges a $0 base commission plus $0.65 per contract, with no contract fee on qualifying online buy-to-close orders priced at $0.65 or less.

Fidelity has the deeper mutual-fund ecosystem

Fidelity is itself a fund manufacturer. Its record includes Fidelity mutual funds at a $0 transaction fee, Fidelity zero-expense-ratio funds, index funds, non-Fidelity NTF funds at $0 to purchase and transaction-fee funds at $49.95 to buy, with a $49.95 short-term redemption fee on non-Fidelity NTF funds redeemed within 60 days.

Public's record states that mutual funds are not offered. For an investor building portfolios primarily from mutual funds, that is decisive.

Both take fixed income seriously, in different shapes

Fidelity provides a broad inventory of new-issue and secondary bonds and CDs: $0 on new issues under the current schedule, $1 per bond or CD on secondary, and $0 online for Treasury auction and secondary purchases, with dealer compensation possible in principal transactions.

Public packages fixed income into consumer-facing products: individual corporate and municipal bonds, Treasuries, fractional bonds, a Bond Account (10 bonds, $1,000 initial minimum, $3.99 per month non-Premium and $0 with Premium) and a Treasury Account with marginal tiers from 0.29% down to 0.09% and maturities from 3 months to 30 years.

Direct crypto is live at both, with different custody

Fidelity provides crypto through Fidelity Digital Assets, National Association — a national trust bank, not Fidelity Brokerage Services LLC — with a 1% fee on buys and sells, a $0 standard custody fee and five supported assets: Bitcoin, Ethereum, the Fidelity Digital Dollar, Litecoin and Solana.

Public's crypto is executed and custodied by Zero Hash LLC, with Public providing the interface and funding facilitation only, priced in fixed tiers from $0.49 up to $6.29 by order size and 1.25% of the order amount above $500. Crypto transfers are not available in New York and staking is not supported.

Crypto at neither platform is SIPC protected or FDIC insured.

Crypto IRAs exist on both sides, structured differently

Fidelity supports direct crypto in traditional, Roth and rollover IRAs as well as taxable accounts, through Fidelity Digital Assets. Public supports crypto IRAs through Zero Hash with a 0.05% custody fee accrued daily and charged monthly and a 1.25% minimum dynamic trading fee.

Automated and advisory products are not equivalent

Fidelity Go is a conventional automated-investing service: $0 minimum to open, $10 to begin investing, no advisory fee under $25,000 and 0.35% annually at $25,000 and above, with automatic rebalancing, financial coaching at $25,000 and tax-loss-harvesting eligibility for taxable accounts at $25,000 and above, invested primarily in Fidelity Flex or zero-expense-ratio Fidelity funds.

Public Advisors LLC offers Generated Assets at 0.49% annually, Direct Indexing at 0.19% annually and the Treasury Account. Those are advisory products with different structures and should not be described as a conventional robo-advisor.

Retirement and specialty accounts favour Fidelity's breadth

Fidelity's record includes traditional, Roth, rollover, inherited, SEP and SIMPLE IRAs, solo 401(k) and small-business retirement plans, 529 accounts, custodial UGMA/UTMA, youth accounts, estate and trust accounts, and a retail HSA with a $0 individual account fee, $0 minimum, self-directed investing and a managed option.

Public's record establishes traditional and Roth IRAs, rollovers, Roth conversions, entity accounts, a crypto account, a crypto IRA, the Bond Account, the Treasury Account and a high-yield cash subaccount. An HSA is not established at Public, so the HSA row belongs to Fidelity alone.

Cash products are date sensitive

Public's High-Yield Cash Account is stated at 3.30% APY as of 2026-08, variable, with a headline $5 million FDIC pass-through subject to program rules. Fidelity's cash management account is a brokerage account rather than a bank account, with SPAXX or the FDIC-Insured Deposit Sweep Program as core positions, ATM fee reimbursement, bill pay, checkwriting and a debit card; its record notes SPAXX is a money market fund and is not FDIC insured. Neither yield should be treated as a permanent platform conclusion.

Research identities differ

Public integrates AI into the customer-facing research experience through Alpha AI research and AI Agents, with the record stating that Agents do not provide investment advice, alongside analyst insights and institutional research. Fidelity's research runs through independent research providers, screeners, options analysis, Level II quotes and the Fidelity Trader+ platform family, with international trading across 25 markets. AI branding is not evidence of better research outcomes.

Alternatives sit only on Public's side

Public's record includes royalties and Reg A securities with Dalmore Group, LLC as the applicable broker, offering-specific fees, an initial true-up range of 0% to 10%, a possible 2% annual management fee on non-cash-flowing assets, possible 10% profit carry and a 2.5% secondary-market fee each side, with limited liquidity. Fidelity's record does not establish an alternative or private-market product set, so no equivalent is claimed.

How to read the difference

Fidelity's breadth is difficult to ignore for a conventional long-term investor consolidating retirement, funds and specialty accounts. Public is the more distinctive option for an investor drawn to packaged fixed income, cash, AI-assisted research and alternative assets.