Best Stock Research Platforms

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Stjepan Kalinic
Contributor, Benzinga
January 4, 2024

Benzinga readers often choose Benzinga Pro or eToro as the best stock research platforms.

Every responsible investment starts with research. In the past, investors relied on a few sources and performed calculations and chart drawing on their own.  Today, they find the best stock brokers for research.

Technology has changed this, and the information you need is accurate, fast and often free. As the retail market surges, the cloud access security broker market is projected to grow at a rate of 20% by 2025.

Learn more about the best stock research tools in place of stock brokers for research and how you can inform your investment planning now.

Quick Look: Best Stock Research Platforms

Table of Contents

Best Stock Research and Trading Platforms

There are a number of stock research platforms on the market. Get started with our top picks, and find a service that meets your individual needs. 

1. Best for Active Day Trading: Benzinga Pro

Price: Free trial, $99 to $177 per month

Benzinga Pro is a real-time financial news trading platform designed for active traders. The interface is web-based and fully modular. With the options like many workspaces, split screens or pop-out windows, you will easily adjust it for your own style.

Beyond news, you will have access to other actionable data – unusual options activity, block trades, opening gaps and others.

Benzinga Pro is focusing on the speed and accuracy of the information. If you are a day trader who needs to stay on top of the latest news but can’t afford to watch the feed, you will appreciate the audio alerts. Through a “Squawk” service you can set an audio news feed to alert you for investment opportunities through the day.

Pros

  • All information coming from Benzinga is timely
  • The platform also hosts courses on investing
  • You can even listen to your news feed while driving, walking, running or exercising

Cons

  • Benzinga might not pinpoint the unusual activity you were looking for

2. Best for Real-Time Market Coverage: CNBC Pro

CNBC Pro offers an exclusive digital experience, providing subscribers with comprehensive access to premium content, including live discussions with CNBC hosts and industry experts, as well as an extensive Video On Demand library. With CNBC Pro, users gain valuable insights into stock markets, business news, and financials, empowering them to make informed investment decisions. Subscriptions offer an affordable option for individuals seeking in-depth financial analysis and real-time market coverage.

Pros:

  • Full interviews and coverage of the biggest names in business and investing
  • Analyst & insider expertise on what's moving the market
  • Early access to analyst calls before the market opens
  • Affordable monthly subscription fee
  • 24-Hour coverage of the global stock market

Cons:

  • Annual subscription cost may be prohibitive for some users.
  • Limited availability of certain features or content depending on subscription tier.

3. Best for Fundamental Analysis: Stock Rover

Stock Rover is a cloud-based investment research platform that provides research tools, expert analysis, financial education and portfolio management. Since retail investors built the platform, you can expect the user experience to be of the highest level.

Stock Rover offers a free basic service and 3 different paid plans. Even the free plan includes valuable features like newsfeed and broker access integration.

The interface is well-organized and intuitive to use. If you are an investor who likes charts and graphics, you will love Stock Rover’s streamlined data visualization tools.

Advanced features are where this platform reaches the full potential. Even if you rely on advanced metrics like Piotroski F-Score or Altman Z-score, you can still expect to find them all there, along with hundreds of others.

Although Stock Rover might be overwhelming for new users, it’s among the leading services for stock analysis.

Pros

  • The newsfeed is helpful for those who don’t want to crawl the internet for trends
  • Visualization tools are helpful for those who need to see information in one more than one format

Cons

  • Advanced metrics and tools could be confusing for newer investors

4. Best for Advanced Suite of Trading Tools: ChartPrime

ChartPrime is a cutting-edge suite of trading tools that helps guide you when you invest in crypto, forex, stocks and much more. You can use this platform to access several types of toolkits that will likely match when you prefer to do with your portfolio. The platform lets you set up a TradingView account, and then you can also access algos and a Discord community to get even more information and actionable alerts.

Pros

  • The Discord community helps you make friends in the sector and learn
  • The toolkits are designed to match your needs, giving you the customization you need

Cons

  • Unfortunately, not all traders will want to use these specific toolkits

5. Best for Scalpers, Swing Traders and Pattern-Day Traders: BigShort

When you want to research stocks and begin to build your portfolio, you need a partner that can offer more than just a few bits of data. You need a comprehensive source that allows you to leverage big data and see the totality of how the markets are performing. 

At BigShort, you can sign up at any time and take advantage of the platforms unique mixture of data science and the advanced analytics that make trading simpler. You can review colorful charts that are easy to interpret, use the platform to analyze market quotes in mere seconds, gather insights into the most popular exchanges and build upon your personal strategy.

Perfect for pattern-day traders, scalpers and swing traders, you can start to maximize profits, diversify your portfolio, plan to generate dividend income and learn more about the markets every day. 

Pros

  • Unlimited stock pricing alerts
  • Real-time and comprehensive charting capabilities 
  • Live data on all NYSE and Nasdaq tickers

Cons

  • Lacks independent reviews
  • Relatively pricey or costly

6. Best for Intraday Stock Traders: VectorVest

Finding stock information can be difficult, but this is where VectorVest comes into the fold and provides you with automated stock analysis. Use VectorVest whether you are buying, selling or holding, get a fundamental and technical analysis of every asset in your portfolio and enjoy these benefits:

  • Ranking and graphing for over 16,000 stocks
  • Safety and timing ratings
  • Pre-built systems
  • Stock scans
  • Data-driven features throughout the site

Because it integrates with TradeStation, IBKR and QuestTrade, you can manage your entire portfolio in one place and learn about the markets as you grow your portfolio.

Pros

  • Integration with other trading platforms make the research you see much easier to use
  • Mathematical and statistical models drive this platform
  • Costs are quite low

Cons

  • Non-intraday traders may find the site to be a bit overwhelming

7. Best for Mixed Portfolios: eToro

  • eToro Stocks
    Read Review
    Best For:
    Social Investing
    securely through eToro Stocks's website

    eToros securities trading offered by eToro Securities, Inc, (“the BD”), member of FINRA and SIPC. Investing involves risk.

eToro is a platform known for its cryptocurrency options, stocks and ETFs. While you can research your stocks within the platform, you also get the benefit of a powerful trading experience that includes:

  • Full or fractional stocks
  • Trade with as little as $10
  • Mix crypto and stocks in one portfolio
  • Zero commissions

When you use eToro, you also have access to a massive amount of data from detailed price charts to technical analyses of every stock. You can review current events, compare the risk presented by a stock to your current holdings and invest with wisdom.

Pros

  • Fractional investing is perfect for those on a budget
  • The platform makes it easy to trade internationally

Cons

  • There are certain fees that might add up depending on what you’re investing in

8. Best for Stock Screening: Finviz

Price: Free, $24.96 to $39.50 per month

Finviz is a web-based stock research platform. Since its launch in 2007, the platform has kept its simple yet functional interface.

Finviz is known for its excellent stock screening capabilities. You can easily filter stocks based on the various parameters:

  • Fundamental: Price/earnings, price/free cash flow, debt/equity and many others
  • Technical: Beta, average true range, below/above moving averages
  • Descriptive: Sector, market cap, dividend yield

Advanced features like customized filters, portfolio alerts or data export are available in a premium plan.

The only downside is the platform offers data only for U.S. markets – NYSE, the Nasdaq and Amex.

Pros

  • Because the platform is more descriptive than most, it appeals to all types of investors and learners
  • You can see quite a lot of information and uncover indicators and their meanings

Cons

  • Technically, the amount of information you can access is limited

9. Best for Niche Research: Seeking Alpha

Price: Free, $19.99 to $299.99 per month

Seeking Alpha (SA) is a crowd-sourced investment research platform. It provides news, analysis and data to financial market investors through its website and mobile app.

SA operates a Freemium business model, offering the basic service for free and more advanced features like dividend grades, quant ratings or short ideas through a monthly subscription.

The crowdsourcing model draws a lot of interest to the platform, and you can find research on almost every niche. You will have to read through a lot of material to gain a broad perspective and find the quality authors that match your interests.

Pros

  • Crowd-sourced information helps you see where trends are going
  • The Freemium idea behind this platform is very helpful for those who are still learning or just cannot spend the money on a trading or research platform

Cons

  • Crowdsourcing could lead to some inaccuracies from time to time

10. Best for Technical Analysis: TradingView

Price: Free, $14.95 to $59.95 per month

TradingView is a cloud-based platform that focuses on advanced charting and the social aspect of trading. If you rely on technical analysis, you’ll find useful tools on TradingView regardless of your strategy. 

Beyond the advanced charting technology, the platform is also known for:

  • Free and accurate market data: Even on the free plan you will have access to numerous data feeds from 40+ exchanges.
  • Active community: TradingView has an active community of traders and analysts. You will find fresh ideas every day, conveniently classified by type and asset class. You can easily follow and interact with your favorite authors.
  • Mobile app: If you are often on the move, you’ll love the mobile app. Due to the full account sync, all the work you do on the web platform will be automatically accessible from your mobile device (and vice-versa).

Pros

  • Infinitely connecting to exchanges or brokerages can help you get more timely information for your assets
  • You can research anywhere, especially because the mobile app and the desktop version look the same

Cons

  • As attractive as TradingView is, you cannot invest on this platform

11. Best for Saving, Investing & Spending: Fierce

While Fierce is an excellent platform to get a free checking account, debit card and savings account, you can also research assets and invest using this app. This is a simple way to funnel your money from one place to another, meaning that you can quickly invest, earn dividends or returns and transfer that money back to your account.

Because Fierce offers you so many options, you can easily research stocks and keep your wits about you because you don’t need to open multiple accounts to achieve these results.

Pros

  • Allowing your finances to converge all in one app is much simpler for the average consumer
  • Because you can research on Fierce, you can actually use that information elsewhere, if you like

Cons

  • Fierce is not an unlimited clearinghouse of assets, so there might be assets you prefer that simply are not available

What is a Stock Research Platform?

The stock research platform is a financial information provider. It can take various forms, but the most common is a cloud-based web platform. While some platforms provide you with elaborate opinions, others give you the tools to gather information and make your own conclusions.

Here are few questions to guide your comparison of platforms:

  • Do you need real-time data?
  • Are you focusing on descriptive or diagnostic analytics?
  • Do you need advanced charting features?
  • Do you need broker access?
  • Are you investing in a small niche or foreign markets?

Best Online Stock Brokers for Research

To purchase stocks, you need to open a brokerage account. If you need a broker, check our list of favorite online brokers and the table below.

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How Research Platforms Help Investors

Investing without research is investing blindly. Modern research platforms help you by delivering fast and accurate data in a convenient format.

Regardless of your experience, budget or investing style, you will be able to find a platform that suits your needs. However, remember not to spend too much time on it. Like everything in economics – research also has diminishing returns.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q

Can I invest without a broker?

A

Yes. You can through a direct stock plan (DSP), but it is limited to companies that offer it. Also, you would deal with every individual company whose stock you want to buy. Using an online brokerage account is a more streamlined process allowing you to buy or sell any security from anywhere.

Q

Can brokers steal your money?

A

Yes. But now it is rare since it is much easier to follow the digital print that money leaves. However, regulation has played layers of security that protect you from such scenarios. Brokers have to keep your funds separated from their capital so you don’t lose the funds in case of their insolvency. Your funds are protected through the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC) up to the sum of $500,000 ($250,000 for cash).

Q

Which stock brokers for researsch are best?

A

Check out Benzinga’s guide to the best stock brokers for research above.

About Stjepan Kalinic

Forex, Equity Analysis, and Financial Education