Best Websites to Research Stocks

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Serious investors looking for the next Netflix, Amazon, or Apple must have access to reliable data and analytical tools to be able to separate the wheat from the chaff in an increasingly complex stock market. The good news is there is no shortage of stock research sites on the internet. The bad news is the number of research sites has reached a saturation point, making it difficult to choose the best for your investing style.

The best stock research websites offer a range of analytical tools, including research reports, stock screening, charting, and portfolio analysis tools. As an investor, it’s essential to determine the type of data and tools you need, and which platform best suits your investing style and objectives.  That’s ultimately what it will take to make money in the stock market.

Many times, stock trading apps offer solid resources for doing stock research.  But for the most part, they aren’t as in-depth as companies specializing in providing investors with stock research.

We evaluated nearly two dozen top stock research sites in side-by-side comparisons to select the best in five categories.

Best for Researching Stock Picks: Zacks

Best for Researching Buy/Hold Stocks: Motley Fool

Best for Stock Screeners: FINVIZ

Best for Researching Stock News and Quote Data: Benzinga Pro

Best for Researching Day Trades: TradingView

Best Website for Researching Stock Picks: Zacks

Zacks’ stock research is based on its highly coveted stock scoring system has outperformed the market by more than two to one over the last three decades.

Pros

• Transparent investment research
• Tutorials and portfolio management tools for beginning and advanced investors
• Appropriate for multiple investing styles
• 100% money-back guarantee if your portfolio underperforms
• 5 rating from Trustpilot

Cons

• Research approach promotes frequent buying and selling

Founded by MIT economist Len Zacks in 1978, Zacks is this list’s most established stock research site. His unique stock-picking system is based on a proprietary statistical model using crowdsourced estimates from stock analysts to predict future stock prices.

At its simplest, anyone using the Zacks website can plug in a stock symbol and receive a score ranking indicating whether the stock is a strong buy, buy, hold, sell, or strong sell. Or, they can call up a list of Zacks’ Strong Buys, which, past and present, over the last 30 years have generated an astounding average annual return of 25%. That’s compared to the average annual return of approximately 10% for the S&P 500.

But there’s much more to Zacks than its scoring system (though that’s reason enough to use the service). In addition to Zack Rank, which gives you a Zacks recommendation on a particular stock, the free service provides a daily newsletter with market commentary, a knowledgebase of educational content, access to basic research, portfolio tracking, and email alerts on stocks in your portfolio.

For $59 per month ($495 per year), the Zacks Investor Collection service offers everything in the free membership package adding real-time buy and sell signals from Zacks’ long-term investor portfolios. Subscribers can also access strategies for investing in stocks under $10.

For $299 per month ($2,995 per year), the Ultimate package allows you to drill down on stock analysis, including earnings estimate revisions, negative and positive earnings surprises, and broker-recommended changes. Subscribers also have access to Zacks “investment approaches,” consisting of strategies and portfolios designed for various investing styles.

Zacks offers a 30-day free trial on its premium services. Also, Zacks is so confident in the performance of its stock picks it provides a 100% money-back guarantee if your portfolio underperforms the S&P 500 during the prescribed holding period.

For investors who want to put Zacks’ research to the test, Zacks offers a low-cost trading platform with comprehensive services.

Zacks is best suited for investors looking for premium stock picks and are less inclined to do their own stock analysis. And, because Zacks makes both buy and sell recommendations, this service may not be suitable for investors focused on long-term, buy and hold strategies.

Best Website for Researching Buy/Hold Stocks: The Motley Fool

For investors with a long-term investment horizon, the Motley Fool delivers market insights and buy-and-hold stock recommendations based on premium research.

Pros

• Premium investment research
• Solid track record on portfolio recommendations
• Research and recommendation target a range of investment themes and styles
• Community form with active interaction on stock recommendations
• Tutorials on the basics of stock trading

Cons

• Newer offerings lack track records
• Lots of upselling

Founded in 1993 mainly as an investment newsletter, The Motley Fool has emerged as a premier investment research site with more than a million loyal subscribers who refer to themselves as “Fools.” The Motley Fool unapologetically touts its long-term, buy-and-hold investment strategy backed by its proprietary fundamental research analysis. Using The Motley Fools stock picks, subscribers are encouraged to create a portfolio of ten to 25 stocks to be held for three to five years.

Investors can follow Motley Fool’s individual stock recommendations or portfolio recommendations centered around various themes, such as entertainment, disruptors, and retirement. Most of its stock recommendations focus on U.S.-based “next-gen” web-based companies.

While investors can access free content on The Motley Fool (fool.com) website, including a vast library of articles, YouTube videos, and podcasts, the free site portion does not include official recommendations. Buy and sell recommendations are only available through one of two premium services, including Fool Stock Advisor and Rule Breakers. Both services provide bi-weekly stock recommendations with in-depth analyses justifying them. The Motley Fool’s stock recommendations have outperformed the S&P 500 by a wide margin for the last twenty years.

Fool Stock Advisor is its flagship service. For $39 a month ($199 a year), users have access to bi-weekly stock recommendations along with a host of features, including a stock screener, message boards, instant alerts on your stocks, market commentary and news, live customer service, and a list of historical stock picks. If you’re a beginner investor, the platform includes a current list of ten recommended stocks for starting a new portfolio. The Motley Fool typically offers a discount of 50% or more for first-time subscribers.

For $299 a year, the Rule Breakers service includes everything in Stock Advisor but doubles the number of monthly stock recommendations focusing on early-stage growth companies.

Fool Stock Advisor and Rule Breakers are both offered with a 14-day free trial and a 30-day money-back guarantee.

The Motley Fool is best suited for investors with a long-term investment orientation with no inclination to perform the analysis necessary to pick stocks on their own.

Best for Stock Screeners: FINVIZ

FINVIZ offers a robust platform for stock screening, fundamental stock research, and stock market visualization for investors who want to screen stocks and watch them on the move.

Pros

• Excellent for sector and industry visualization
• 24-year backtesting for 102 stock chart patterns
• Robust free platform
• One-minute intraday data with Elite service
• Offers dozens of stock screening metrics

Cons

• No auto-save
• Few chart overlays and indicators
• No Android or iPhone app
• No pre-built screeners

FINVIZ’s core feature is its stock screener, which allows users to scan more than 8,500 stocks and ETFs with 67 different filters, including fundamental, technical, and descriptive. Investors can choose from an extensive list of criteria to narrow searches based on price, beta, market cap, RSI, volume, and even specific chart patterns. Any scan can be saved for easy retrieval for future use.

It’s a highly intuitive tool, allowing users to simply type in a stock’s ticker symbol to quickly gain access to a multitude of functions, including advanced charts with 17 indicators, heatmaps, insider trade information, and backtesting. Users also gain access to real-time news feeds for their stocks as well as email alerts (good for swing trading), keeping them informed of significant changes in the market.

FINVIZ offers a free ad-supported version that includes most of the information a beginner investor needs to research stocks and check on the market. Users can scan and screen nearly 9,000 stocks with access to stock data, delayed charts, and a news stream.

You can also register to the site for free, giving you access to more features, including the ability to track up to 50 portfolios, use up to 50 screener presets, and save scan settings.

For $39.50 per month ($299.50 per year), users can unleash the full capabilities of FINVIZ Elite, with access to real-time data, advanced and fundamental charts, backtesting, and the ability to customize screen ranges. Elite users can track up to 100 portfolios, and access 200 screener presets.

While FINVIZ does not offer a free trial, it does offer a 30-day money-back guarantee if you’re not satisfied with the service. FINVIZ typically offers a one-year discount for new users.

Swing traders and long-term investors would get the most value from FINVIZ, while active day traders may find its lack of instant data limiting.

Best Website for Stock News and Quote Data: Benzinga Pro

Benzinga Pro is a financial news feed on steroids, providing investors with a plethora of real-time news and information to help them get and stay ahead of the market.

Pros

• Robust free membership platform
• Reasonable pricing
• Up-to-the-second stock market news
• Live audio squawk box
• 14-day free trial
• 5 Trustpilot rating

Cons

• Limited charting
• Squawk box not available 24/7
• Limited to stock investing
• No moneyback guarantee

Benzinga is a renowned financial news platform designed to level the playing field for individual investors by connecting them to market-moving news, data, and education. Benzinga is the power source for Benzinga Pro, which is one of the most comprehensive resources for investors offering real-time exclusive financial news, tickers, stock scanning and screening, watchlists, signal tracking, and detailed analysis for most publicly traded securities.

In addition, Benzinga Pro is a source of education and training with a comprehensive knowledge base of articles, courses, podcasts, and training on investing topics. Users also have access to a community trading chat room for more learning opportunities.

Benzinga Pro offers four membership tiers:

The Free Tier is remarkably full of valuable features, including Nasdaq Basic 15-minute delayed news quotes, Bazinga BZ Wire newsfeed (with no search or filters), a watchlist, charts, and key stock data.

The Basic Tier costs $27 per month (no annual option) and adds a chat feature, watchlist alerts, the ability to track movers, and a full newsfeed with no advanced filtering.

Serious investors can opt for the Essential Tier for $197 per month ($1,997 annually), which adds Nasdaq Basic real-time quotes, a full newsfeed with advanced filtering, an audio squawk box, an events calendar, signals, an options trading newsletter, and alerts for unusual options activity (additional $27,97 per month).

The two premium services offer a 14-day free trial, but there is no money-back guarantee.

There’s also a 14-day free trial you can take advantage of if you want to test-drive the platform before signing up for a monthly or annual subscription.

Investors of all levels need an information edge for making informed investment decisions. The free and basic tiers will suffice for beginner investors, while seasoned investors and active traders will thrive on the essentials tier.

Best for Researching Day Trades: TradingView

You know TradingView must be an excellent research tool if it is integrated with top stock research sites such as Zacks and Benzinga.

Pros

• Wide variety of charting tools
• Screeners for stocks, forex, and crypto
• Active trader community and live streams
• Commission-free stock and ETF trades
• 30-day free trial

Cons

• Limited broker support
• No moneyback guarantee

As a standalone technical research tool, TradingView has few peers with more than 30 million monthly users spanning 180 countries.

TradingView is loaded with all the tools and resources day traders of all experience levels need, including real-time data, indicators, complex charting capabilities, screeners, and watchlists. But where TradingView stands out is its clean, intuitive, fast, and reliable interface for creating a highly efficient workflow.

TradingView users can take advantage of the active trading community where traders discuss ideas and collaborate on strategies. It’s especially valuable for novice traders who can be a fly on the wall initially and then start engaging with the community as they learn.

Equally valuable are TradingView’s investor live streams, where you can watch and learn from professional traders as they apply their craft. A chat feature enables direct interaction with the host and traders. All live streams are recorded and archived so that you can watch them on your schedule.

TradingView offers four pricing levels:

The free version’s market data is somewhat limited, generating only end-of-day updates. Users are allowed one chart per layout with one alert and no customer support.

For $14.95 monthly, the Pro version is ad-free with ten alerts and five indicators per chart, with the ability to save five charts at a time. Users have limited access to customer service and can only work on one device at a time.

Pro+ adds more value at $29.95 monthly with four chart layouts and more alerts. Users have access to Renko, Line Break, Figure, and Kagi charts with the ability to create customized charts, saving up to ten at once. Users may use the tools on two devices simultaneously, and they gain full customer service access.

At $59.95 per month, the best value is the Premium plan which unlocks all TradingView’s tools and features that can be used on five devices, including eight charts per layout, 200 alerts, and 25 indicators on every chart. The package includes unlimited saved charts, and Premium users have priority access to customer service.

Investors considering the TradingView platform can take advantage of a 30-day free trial.

Novice traders may get by with TradingView’s free or Pro plan, while casual traders may benefit more with the Pro+ plan. For the best return on investment, advanced traders should only consider the feature-rich Premium plan.

Bottom Line

Finding the right stock research platform for your particular needs and investing style can be crucial in determining your success as an investor. Many investors make the critical mistake of confusing value with low prices. The best value doesn’t always equate with the lowest price. Whatever your style or objectives, you need accurate and reliable data with the appropriate tools and analysis for your needs. If you have to pay for a service, you want one that can generate the best return on your investment.

Most importantly, you need a service that matches your needs and investing style. You need to assess both before considering any stock research website.

• If you prefer to let an expert do your stock picking, Zacks is the premier site.
• Motley Fool is your best bet if you have a long-term investment orientation and need help putting together a growth portfolio.
• If you want to be able to visualize your stock research, FINVIZ does it best.
• Benzinga Pro is your best option if you are an information junkie aiming to stay on top of the market.
• Finally, if you are a day trader—beginning, intermediate, or advanced—the TradingView platform can give you the edge you need for making profitable trades.