The Bloomberg Terminal has been around for close to five decades now and has, over time, come to be known as the go-to tool for investors looking for crucial financial information. However, much as the platform remains wildly popular, it has its fair share of shortcomings. For instance, it is often faulted for being complex and expensively priced.
Luckily, we’re no longer in the 80s anymore and this means newer and probably smarter alternatives to the Bloomberg Terminal are available and easier to access.
How To Choose the Perfect Bloomberg Terminal Alternative
They come in all shapes, colors, and sizes; however, no two analysis tools are built exactly the same. As such, it is important to be extremely keen when choosing a replacement for the Bloomberg Terminal. Some of the key factors to consider include:
- Quality of Data: The Bloomberg Terminal is known for its high-quality data. You don’t want to compromise by settling for a lower-quality source of data.
- Ease of Use: The last thing you want to end up with is a complicated system that leaves you even more confused than before.
- Customer Support: It’s important to find an alternative that offers great customer support ensuring any queries you have are dealt with promptly.
Koyfin
Koyfin is a web-based financial data and analytics platform designed to provide investors with tools for research, analysis, and tracking of stocks and market trends.
Factset
FactSet is a leading global provider of financial data and analytics for investment professionals, offering comprehensive solutions for research, analysis, and decision-making in the financial industry.
Alpha Sense
AlphaSense is a sophisticated AI-powered platform that provides financial professionals with advanced search capabilities to streamline access to market data, company information, and research documents.
YCharts
YCharts is a financial research platform that offers investors tools for analyzing and visualizing market data, including stock charts, financial indicators, and economic trends.
S&P Capital IQ
S&P Capital IQ is a financial research platform that provides essential data, analysis, and insights on companies, industries, markets, and investment opportunities for financial professionals.
MorningStar Premium
Morningstar is a financial services company offering investment research, analysis, and ratings on various assets, funds, and stocks to help investors make informed decisions.
TradingView
TradingView is a popular online platform that provides advanced charting tools, technical analysis, and real-time market data for traders and investors to analyze and share trading ideas.
Our List of the Best Bloomberg Terminal Alternatives in 2024
Without further ado, here is our list of some great alternatives to the renowned Bloomberg Terminal.
1. Koyfin
Known for its highly user-friendly design and quality data, Koyfin is a service suitable for users at different levels of experience starting from the beginner level all the way to the advanced level.
One thing there is to love about Koyfin is that it offers in-depth coverage of various securities ranging from currencies and stocks to ETFs, bonds, and mutual funds. As such, this is a superb tool to use especially if you’re looking for a good overview of the markets.
Koyfin is also known for its advanced graphing features. One can easily use its built-in tools to create custom graphs and identify emerging opportunities.
According to the company’s website, this tool is used by 500,000+ users making it almost twice as popular as Bloomberg Terminal with its claimed 300,000+ users. If those numbers are anything to go by, it is fair to say that Koyfin is really growing fast – perhaps a testament to its quality of services.
To start using Koyfin you simply need to sign up for a 7-day free trial – and NO, you won't be required to provide your credit card details for that.
Pros
Cons
2. Factset
This is yet another stocks research tool that has been around for several decades now. Estimated to hold a client base of more than 170,000 users and 7000+ firms, FactSet stands out as a potential replacement for the Bloomberg Terminal.
One of the key highlights of this tool is its expansive data library. The library comprises more than 200 datasets designed to provide support to folks in different financial sub-sectors including:
- Corporate investors
- Asset management
- Hedge fund management
- Private equity & venture capitalists
Whichever way you look at it, FactSet is a forward-thinking tool that anyone can use. The guys behind it are constantly sprucing it up to make sure it keeps up with the changing times.
Unfortunately, just like its competitor (Bloomberg Capital), it is quite expensive. One is required to part with a whopping $12,000 per year.
What’s more, its qualitative data search feature is not as effective as the one you’ll find on Koyfin.
Pros
Cons
3. Alpha Sense
Alpha Sense is a market intelligence platform that has been there since 2011. It boasts more than 4,000 corporate users, a vast majority of those drawn from the S&P 500 clique. With over 10,000 datasets and 4,000+ trade journals, the platform offers what most consider to be an all-round platform for traders and investors.
One of the most outstanding features of this system is its advanced search technology. The system is based on natural language processing (NLP) and artificial intelligence (AI) enabling it to sift through large quantities of data with remarkable ease.
Another crucial feature that comes with Alpha Sense is its built-in tracking and alerting aspect. With this functionality, Alpha Sense is capable of handling market trends and major business developments for you – ensuring you get a major vantage point in the world of trading.
Unfortunately, Alpha Sense is exclusively designed for corporate traders. They do not create products for individual investors. As such, if you’re a retail investor this won’t work for you.
Also, a sales call has to be made for one to find out about the product’s pricing. This makes the whole platform quite clumsy and unsuitable for small-scale traders compared to say Koyfin which offers transparent pricing and proactive support.
Pros
Cons
4. YCharts
YCharts is yet another amazing platform designed for anyone looking for high-quality data. One thing this platform excels at is the way it presents the data to you. Everything is so well laid out and you'll find it easy to digest complex information even if you're a complete greenhorn in this space.
The platform boasts 4000+ financial metrics with historical data spanning as far back as 3 decades ago. What’s more, instead of presenting this data in the usual quantitative approach, YCharts converts this data into easy-to-digest bits of information making the task of analyzing such data really simple.
What’s more, the platform is fully cloud-based meaning its data is fully exportable and extremely easy to access even when you’re on the move.
Another notable feature on this platform is the built-in YRatings tool. This tool grades different securities based on key considerations such as revenue and earnings yield. This tool can be invaluable especially if you run a small firm that lacks a dedicated team of analysts.
On the flipside, though, just like Alpha Sense YCharts is designed for institutional investors. They don’t even have a monthly pricing plan.
Pros
Cons
5. S&P Capital IQ
We all know S&P Global for their data, research as well as the popular Dow Jones indices. In pretty much the same way, the S&P Capital IQ offers a wealth of data but this time solely focusing on the stock markets.
The tool has been around since 1999 and is widely believed to analyze over 135 billion data points. According to Investopedia, the platform is home to over 4 million private firms as well as 62,000 public companies.
Capital IQ is particularly good at facilitating peer analysis, company valuations, and acquisition research. Thanks to its advanced screen features and easy-to-customize alerts, the platform stands out as a great choice for investment gurus and professionals. And to add icing to the cake, Capital IQ offers a wide variety of API solutions all of which come in handy for professional and corporate traders.
On the flipside, though, S&P Capital IQ does not disclose its pricing. This lack of transparency in terms of pricing makes it less desirable especially if you’re a small-scale trader looking to start small. Credible sources suggest that the actual cost of Capital IQ is northward of $30,000 per year.
Pros
Cons
6. Morningstar Premium
Known for its in-depth analyses and advanced investment ratings, Morningstar is a one-stop-shopping platform for investors from all walks of life. Whether you are looking for information, analytical tools, or simply advice, MorningStar Premium offers you that opportunity with remarkable ease.
The basic version of the program is available absolutely free although to get the kind of advanced features that can rival Bloomberg you’ll need to opt for the premium package.
Under the premium package are two products namely MorningStar Direct (designed for corporate investors) and MorningStar Investor (designed for individual investors). The former costs well above $15,000 per year and comes with all the perks you'd need namely custom scorecards, client proposal tools, and risk analytics among others. The latter, on the other hand, is priced at $34.95 per month and provides access to screening tools, portfolio tools as well as the analysis and ratings that Morningstar is known for.
As you can imagine, MorningStar Direct offers features that are more advanced compared to MorningStar Investor. Yet, unfortunately, the price of MorningStar Direct is well beyond the reach of most individual investors.
Pros
Cons
7. TradingView
Known for being among the largest platforms for social trading, TradingView is home to more than 30 million traders and investors drawn from across the globe. Designed specifically for large, medium, and small-scale professional investors, the platform is available on mobile and personal computers.
With its offices in London, England, the platform specializes in providing advanced technical analysis tools targeting a wide variety of asset classes. These include funds, stocks, crypto, forex, futures, macro, and bonds among others.
What's more, the platform offers extensive charting capabilities thanks to its wide variety of indicators, real-time data, and fantastic drawing tools.
Above all, as a community-driven platform, TradingView remains one of the most user-friendly Bloomberg Terminal substitutes available out there currently.
However, much as Trading View has a wide variety of asset class coverage and data, it is primarily designed around charting functionalities. So, this is indeed the kind of tool to go for if you’re after a system that comes with advanced charting functionalities. That said, compared to other AI-based systems, some argue that the TradingView user interface takes a bit of learning to get used to.
Pros
Cons
Is There a Cheaper Way to Get Bloomberg?
Bloomberg does not come cheap. With prices estimated to be northward of $24,000 per year, there is absolutely no cheaper way to legally access its features. If you’re an avid investor looking for a potential alternative to the Bloomberg Terminal, check out the likes of Koyfin, FactSet, TradingView, and Alpha Sense.
Conclusion
Bloomberg is widely considered the gold standard thanks to its comprehensive data and advanced tools. However, it comes with its fair share of limitations. For instance, it is primarily designed for corporate traders and its pricing largely remains out of reach for many.
Fortunately, we live in a world where options exist. Thanks to the ongoing innovation in this space, systems that are equal to or even better than the Bloomberg Terminal have started emerging. This means you don't necessarily have to break the bank or settle for a steep learning curve to take advantage of the best financial analysis tools available!
Platforms like Koyfin are specifically designed to meet or even exceed expectations. And most of all, they are made with beginner (individual) traders in mind. Settling for such alternatives means working with lower costs and dealing with better-made user interfaces.
If you have always been looking for a smart tool to take your trading strategy to another level, it’s our hope that some of the products featured above help you achieve that objective.
