Public vs Robinhood: which $0 app actually fits you?

Most head-to-heads on this site pit two serious platforms against each other. This one is a modern-app question with a genuine fork in it. Public and Robinhood are both $0-commission, mobile-first apps built for the same person — someone who wants investing to be clean and approachable, not a Bloomberg terminal. The real decision isn’t which app looks nicer. It’s what you actually want to hold, and how you feel about the way a “free” broker gets paid.

Robinhood scores 4.2 on our scorecard; Public a 3.9. That gap is real but narrow, and it hides the more interesting truth: these two apps are strong at different things. Robinhood is the better all-round broker. Public is the only one of the two that can put an individual Treasury in your account — and the only one that hands part of the order-flow payment back to you.

What everyone compares vs. what actually matters

The usual framing is “both are free, both have fractional shares, both are easy — pick the prettier one.” That skips the two questions that actually decide it.

What do you want to hold? This is the cleanest dividing line between them. Robinhood gives you stocks, ETFs, options, and crypto — a well-chosen mobile menu with two conspicuous gaps: no mutual funds and no bonds. Public gives you all of that plus a genuinely broad fixed-income shelf: 100+ individual bonds and Treasuries, investable from about $100. If bonds or Treasuries are anywhere in your plan, the comparison is already over — only one of these apps can do it.

How does the “free” broker make money? Both use payment for order flow, but they’ve made opposite marketing choices about it. Robinhood is paid to route your orders and keeps the payment; it’s legal and small per trade, but it’s a real conflict, and it can mean slightly worse fills than a broker that routes purely for price improvement. Public rebates part of the options order-flow payment back to you per contract and leans on cash yield and bond fees instead. That’s a philosophical fork as much as a financial one, and it’s worth understanding before you pick.

What you can trade: Public’s decisive edge

Start here, because it’s the argument most likely to end the whole thing. Robinhood covers stocks, ETFs, options, and crypto with fractional shares — a tidy menu that scores 3.9 on assets. Public covers the same ground and adds the thing incumbents usually bury and apps usually omit: 100+ individual bonds and Treasuries from about $100, plus a yield-focused Bond Account. It scores 3.8 on assets — a hair lower on the raw number, because its trading menu around that fixed-income shelf is a touch less developed — but the capability itself is one Robinhood simply doesn’t have.

They share the same ceiling, though: neither offers mutual funds. If you’re building a diversified long-term portfolio on funds, both are the wrong tool, and you should see the full field on our stocks and ETFs hub. But for someone who wants to ladder a few Treasuries next to their stocks in one approachable app, Public is the only answer here. Edge: Public, decisively, on fixed income; a wash on the equity menu; both lose on mutual funds.

Cost: Robinhood wins the line items, Public wins the model

On stocks and ETFs, both are $0 with fractional shares — Robinhood starts fractional at any dollar amount, Public the same for equities. Call the core even.

Options is where their two philosophies show up as pricing. Robinhood charges no per-contract options fee at all, which makes it one of the cheapest options venues among major brokers, period — a real, recurring saving if you trade contracts. Public’s answer is different: it rebates part of the order-flow payment back to you per contract, lowering your effective cost while making a point of transparency. Robinhood is the better options platform on tooling and cost-at-volume; Public’s rebate is the more honest mechanism. Reasonable traders will weight those differently.

Cash is close and competitive on both. Public pays ~3.3% APY on uninvested cash with no minimums or membership. Robinhood’s comparable ~3.35% cash sweep is a Gold perk, gated behind the monthly subscription — as is its 3% IRA match (1% without Gold) and its low margin rates. So Robinhood’s best cash-and-retirement economics are real but conditional; Public’s cash yield is competitive and unconditional. For an engaged user who’ll pay for Gold and contribute to an IRA, Robinhood pulls ahead; for someone who won’t, Public’s no-strings APY is the cleaner deal. Fees score 4.6 for Robinhood, 4.3 for Public. Edge: Robinhood on the headline line items and Gold economics; Public on simplicity and the rebate model.

Platform and tools: both light, Robinhood deeper

Neither is built for heavy analysis, and both are honest about it. Public’s app is clean, modern, and social, with increasingly capable AI-assisted research — but charting and advanced order types are light, and it scores 3.9 on platform. Its standout is how easily it surfaces bonds and Treasuries, which most apps hide. Robinhood remains the benchmark for mobile simplicity and has grown a web platform and a desktop offering for more active users, scoring 4.2. If you might outgrow “keep it simple,” Robinhood gives you somewhere to go. Edge: Robinhood, on headroom.

Trust: close, and shaped by track record

Both are legitimately safe and regulated the same way: SEC and FINRA with SIPC protection (up to $500,000 in securities, $250,000 cash — which covers broker failure, never market losses). The difference is history and maturity. Robinhood (founded 2013) is now a publicly traded company with a long trading-specific track record, though its early controversies — the 2021 trading restrictions, past regulatory settlements — and the PFOF model are part of the story; it scores 4.1. Public (founded 2019) is the newer brand with a shorter track record, which is the main reason it scores 4.0. Different stories, nearly the same score. Edge: Robinhood, slightly, on track record.

Support and the day-to-day

Both onboard fast and run lighter on human support than the century-old incumbents. Robinhood’s support was historically its weak spot and has climbed to 24/7 availability with in-app help, scoring 3.9. Public offers functional chat and email support with a beginner-friendly setup, scoring 3.6 — competent, but a step behind. Neither has branch networks. Edge: Robinhood.

Who should pick which

Choose Public if you want fixed income made simple. It’s the rare approachable app where you can buy individual bonds and Treasuries from about $100, next to your stocks and a competitive no-strings cash yield — and it rebates part of the options order-flow payment back to you instead of pocketing it. If you value that transparency, or you actually want to hold Treasuries in the same place as your stocks, nothing about Robinhood’s higher score changes the fact that it can’t do this. That’s Public’s 3.9.

Choose Robinhood if you want the stronger all-round starter brokerage and don’t need bonds. It’s cheaper on options with no contract fee, adds a 3% IRA match and a ~3.35% cash yield through Gold, keeps improving support, and gives you a web and desktop path if you get more active. For a first brokerage judged as a brokerage, it does more for the same $0 — provided you’re comfortable that part of the bill is paid by payment for order flow. That’s the 4.2.

Consider that neither is a forever home for a serious portfolio. Both skip mutual funds; Robinhood also skips bonds; neither is built for active trading or deep research. Plenty of people start on one of these and later add a full-service broker for funds and retirement depth. If that’s the horizon, see the full field on our stocks and ETFs page and the weightings behind these scores on how we rate.

Bottom line

Judged as an all-round broker, Robinhood is the stronger app — cheaper options, a bigger match and competitive cash through Gold, deeper tooling, and a longer track record, which is why it earns a 4.2 to Public’s 3.9. But Public wins the one argument Robinhood can’t answer: it’s the only one of the two that lets an approachable, $0 app hold individual bonds and Treasuries, and it hands part of the order-flow payment back to you rather than keeping it. Pick Robinhood for the better standalone starter account and cheap options; pick Public if you want fixed income in the mix and prefer its more transparent economics. And know going in that neither is where a fund-based long-term portfolio ultimately belongs.