Research & analysis · Data providers
Financial data providers: market data providers compared on coverage, cost and fit
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Thesis, bull and bear case, key metrics, comparables and risk flags, synthesized into one structured tear-sheet.
Sample output is illustrative. Not financial advice.
Thesis
Bull case
Bear case
Key metrics
illustrative
Comparables
Risk flags
Informational only · sample output, not live market data · not financial advice.
Every shortlist of financial data providers you will find online has the same problem. The vendors do not publish prices, the review sites recycle each other's estimates, and the comparison tables describe products in the vendor's own marketing language, which is designed to make nine different companies sound like they all do the same thing. They do not.
This page takes a different approach to the money question. Federal contract awards in the United States are public records, so we pulled what US government agencies actually paid these vendors from USAspending.gov and annualized each award across its stated period of performance. Those are real, audited, negotiated US dollar figures rather than estimates. They are institutional licenses, not list prices, and federal buyers negotiate under their own rules, so read them as evidence of scale and structure rather than as a rate card you can quote back to a salesperson.
Investables.ai is at the small end of this market on purpose, at $29 to $249 per month. Enter a ticker and you get a structured research card: what the business does, the metrics that matter with peer context, the bull case, the bear case, comparables and labeled risk flags. It is not a market data feed, it carries no real-time prices and no redistribution rights, and it is informational research only rather than investment advice.
Both sides bull and bear
Risk flags on every card
The short answer
Who are the major financial data providers?
The major financial data providers are Bloomberg, LSEG (formerly Refinitiv), S&P Global Market Intelligence, FactSet, Moody's Analytics, Morningstar, and in private markets PitchBook, Preqin and CB Insights. Bloomberg and LSEG dominate real-time market data; S&P, FactSet and Moody's lead in company fundamentals and credit; PitchBook, Preqin and CB Insights cover private companies and funds. US federal contract awards show agencies paying roughly $21,000 to $6.9 million per year depending on the provider and the scope.
Last updated August 2026
Why it works
How to read this market before you shortlist
Market data and company data are different purchases
The expensive thing in a Bloomberg or LSEG contract is licensed real-time exchange data and the right to use it, priced per named user by the exchanges themselves and passed straight through. Company fundamentals, credit models and private market records carry no exchange fees at all. If you do not need intraday prices, you are shopping in the wrong half of this market and paying several times over for it.
Nearly every provider prices per named user, with bands
The one published rate card in this market, Moody's for Orbis, shows the pattern clearly: a single named user costs more than eleven times what a seat costs inside a hundred user deal. Every vendor here works the same way. That is why a two person team often pays close to what a ten person team pays in total, and why sitting one seat above a band boundary is one of the most expensive mistakes in a renewal.
Modules and add-ons move more money than the headline rate
Providers quote a base and then attach entitlements. Orbis modules are priced as a percentage of base, from 5% for news up to 40% for risk flags, so unused modules get more expensive every time you add a seat. The same logic runs through Capital IQ Pro focus packs and FactSet configurations. Audit what your team actually opens before you argue about the base rate.
What you get
A structured first pass on every name
Enter any ticker or asset and the research card synthesizes the thesis, lays out the bull and bear case, surfaces the key metrics and comparables, and flags the risks, so your own diligence starts further along.
- Turns any US ticker into a structured research card in seconds
- Costs $29 to $249 per month against $23,000 or more for a single professional seat
- Puts the bull case and the bear case side by side with explicit risk flags
- Covers small and mid caps that get little or no sell-side coverage
- Needs no procurement cycle, no seat minimum and no multi-year commitment
- Complements a data provider rather than replacing the feed
Thesis
Dominant AI accelerator supplier. The debate is the durability of data-center demand versus a cyclical capex peak.
Bull
CUDA moat, near-monopoly share
Bear
Customer concentration, cycle risk
Side by side
Financial data providers compared, with what US federal agencies actually paid
Dollar figures are real US federal contract awards from USAspending.gov, retrieved August 2026, annualized across each stated period of performance. These are negotiated institutional licenses rather than published list prices, and the low and high ends usually reflect scope and seat count rather than discounting.
| Provider | What it actually sells | US federal awards, per year | Best fit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bloomberg | Real-time cross-asset market data, news, Bloomberg Chat, analytics, delivered through the Terminal and Anywhere licenses | About $459,000 to $3.46 million. Commerce paid $3,019,940 for twelve months of Anywhere licenses and terminals | Trading desks and anyone who needs intraday prices and the chat network |
| LSEG (formerly Refinitiv) | Real-time cross-asset data, fixed income and FX depth, Datastream history, Workspace desktop. Eikon was retired in June 2025 | About $485,000 to $4.56 million. The SEC market information data and analytics system ran $4.56 million a year | Cross-asset and fixed income desks pricing against Bloomberg |
| S&P Global Market Intelligence | Public and private company financials, Capital IQ Pro screening, transaction comps, SNL industry data, RatingsDirect | About $459,000 to $6.9 million. The DOJ paid $515,081 a year for Capital IQ financial data access | Investment banking, private equity and corporate development |
| FactSet | Global fundamentals, portfolio analytics, performance attribution, ownership data, Office add-ins | About $21,000 to $503,000. Treasury paid $408,765 for up to seven premium workstations from October 2023 to March 2026, roughly $23,600 per seat per year | Asset managers, hedge funds and sell-side research |
| Moody's Analytics | Orbis global company database, CreditView credit research, CreditEdge, CreditLens, RiskCalc, REIS commercial real estate, Economy.com | About $17,000 to $4.85 million. It is the only provider here with a published rate card, filed for Orbis on the UK Digital Marketplace | Credit risk teams, lenders, compliance and private company research |
| Morningstar | Fund and manager data, equity research, Direct analytics, Investment Research Center, data APIs | About $179,000 to $1.06 million. The SEC paid $582,000 a year for Morningstar API data alone | Wealth managers, advisors, retirement plans and fund selectors |
| PitchBook | Private market deal terms, valuations, cap tables, VC and PE fund and LP intelligence. Owned by Morningstar | About $258,000 to $1.01 million. The State Department renewal for 2025 alone was $719,822 | Venture capital, private equity and corporate development |
| Preqin | Alternative assets: fund performance, LP commitments and GP benchmarking across private asset classes. Owned by BlackRock since March 2025 | About $31,000 to $175,000. The SEC paid $175,288 a year for private equity fund data | LPs, fund of funds, placement agents and allocators |
| CB Insights | Private company, startup and technology market intelligence, funding rounds, tech landscapes | About $60,000 to $174,000. The NSF paid $60,000 for a twelve month team license on the core analytics plan | Corporate strategy, innovation teams and venture scouting |
| Investables.ai | A structured AI research card per public ticker: thesis, bull case, bear case, key metrics, comparables and risk flags | $29, $79 or $249 per month, published. No real-time data and no redistribution rights | Investors and analysts who need the written analysis rather than a data feed |
Federal award figures are annualized by dividing the obligated amount across the stated period of performance, which is our arithmetic rather than a vendor disclosure. Award scope varies widely between agencies, so the range within a single provider mostly reflects how much was bought. Investables.ai pricing is our own published rate. Investables.ai is informational research only, not personalized investment advice.
Why Investables.ai
One research card that compresses the reading
Not a wall of raw data, not a one-sided opinion, and not a six-figure terminal. The thesis, both sides of the argument and the risks, in one structured tear-sheet you can act on. You stay in control of every decision.
Both sides, every time
The bull case and the bear case sit side by side, so you weigh the argument instead of reading a single take. Informational only, never a recommendation.
Risks on the page
Valuation, concentration and regulatory risks are flagged explicitly, so the downside is visible up front rather than buried in a footnote.
Faster diligence
A structured first pass in seconds means you spend your time on judgement, not on gathering, across stocks, ETFs, crypto and startups.
Good questions
Questions about data providers
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Informational only, not financial advice · past performance does not guarantee future results