Public.com vs Fidelity Investments — which broker is better?

Pros

• Options Rebate Program pays USD 0.06–0.18 per stock or ETF contract, typically more than the roughly USD 0.05 per contract of regulatory fees — a net-negative transaction cost that no competitor here matches
• Cheapest margin of the three: 5.15% base (Fed Funds Target Rate + 1.15%, with FFTR at 4.00% as of 17 September 2026), tiering to 4.20% above USD 50 million
• A real bond desk — fractional corporate bonds at 0.35%–0.50% of par, Treasuries at 0.10%–0.25%, plus customisable Treasury ladders and a 6-month T-bill account from USD 100
• Genuinely multi-asset in one login: stocks, ETFs, options, bonds, Treasuries, 60+ crypto assets, IRAs, Crypto IRAs and a high-yield cash account quoted at 3.30% APY in mid-2026
• Free ACH in and out, free incoming wires and free incoming ACAT transfers, with no minimum deposit
• Transparent, well-maintained public fee schedule — the version used for this record was updated 17 September 2026 and states every line item including the awkward ones
• Index options at USD 0.35 per contract for every customer, plus the exchange fees Public passes on

Cons

• US residents only — no international entity, so European, UK or DACH investors cannot open an account
• USD 100 to transfer securities out, plus USD 115 per security for a DRS transfer; both are the highest in this comparison
• No futures, no spot forex, no mutual funds and no desktop application — active traders will find the charting and depth-of-market shallow next to Webull or moomoo
• The options rebate is funded by payment for order flow, so you are accepting a routing model in exchange for the payment; the free Wholesale route is the default, and choosing Smart Order or Lit-Exchange routing costs USD 0.003 per share
• A USD 3.99 monthly inactivity fee applies to accounts under USD 70 with no six-month activity, and there is no paper-trading environment to practise in

Pros

• USD 0 online US stock and ETF commissions, and Fidelity does not accept payment for order flow on equity orders
• Zero-expense-ratio index mutual funds (the FZROX family) — no other major US broker matches this on fund cost
• Options exercise and assignment cost USD 0, and buy-to-close orders at USD 0.65 or less are free
• No outgoing account transfer fee, no domestic wire fee and no inactivity or maintenance fee
• Idle cash defaults into the SPAXX money market fund rather than a near-zero bank sweep, so uninvested balances earn a market-linked yield without manual intervention
• International trading in 25 markets with settlement in 16 currencies, at GBP 9 for the UK and EUR 19 for euro-zone markets
• Best-in-class research: roughly seven third-party report providers plus the proprietary Equity Summary Score, and consistently rated first for research and education
• Fractional share investing from USD 1 across a broad US universe, not just large-cap index constituents

Cons

• No futures, no futures options and no retail forex — a hard stop for macro and commodity traders
• No paper trading or simulator, so there is no way to rehearse a strategy inside the platform
• Crypto is limited to Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin with a spread of up to 1% built into the price, and is not SIPC-protected
• New accounts are effectively US residents only; Fidelity states it does not open accounts for customers residing outside the United States and restricts existing accounts when clients move abroad
• Charting and drawing tools in Trader+ are weaker than thinkorswim's, and there is no backtesting engine
• The FX markup on international trades settled in USD starts at a full 100 basis points below USD 100,000 — expensive for small foreign orders