is buying IPOs the same as buying stocks?

As what Clarence has mentioned the key difference is that IPO's has not been traded yet whereas stocks are traded.

Think of it as buying a sneaker from an Adidas store as opposed to buying it from another seller from let's say, Carousell.

In an IPO, you can apply 10,000 shares of a particular IPO but you aren't guaranteed the entire amount. You are not required to pay broker fees if you subscribe to an IPO HOWEVER you are required to fork out a $2 admin charge.

IPOs can be considered risky as underwriters pricing may not necessarily be viewed as the optimal price of the stock as how investors view it. Hence the first few trading days are always the most volatile of a new listing i.e. Lyft.

Warren Buffet has this notion that retail investors should never purchase IPOs and based on 2018 alone, that is for good reason.

Looking at SIngapore's 2018 IPO performance (https://sbr.com.sg/markets-investing/in-focus/s...)

and when you read further down

However, there definitely are some success stories of IPOs when one holds the stock for longer period of time to ultimately allow the company to actualise it's true potential i.e. FANG stocks

TLDR - Purchase stocks on the stock market instead of subscribing to IPOs

An IPO is the first stage when a company offers its company shares to the public.
Stocks that are listed have to undergo an IPO and that the stocks are traded regularly.
In an IPO, however, the value of the stocks is set by the company, of course this is done through a brokerage etc. While if you were to buy stocks through an exchange, the value is determine by the “market”