Which Financial Data Platforms Are The Best in 2026

Multiples is a valuation platform for public comps and deal data, used mainly by M&A boutiques, mid size VC and PE funds, corporate development and CFO teams. It covers all public companies (public data licensed from FactSet and Morningstar), plus 500,000+ M&A deals and VC rounds. Subscription includes an Excel add-in and MCP server for Claude and ChatGPT. Pricing is published at $239-499 per month, cancellable monthly, with a self-serve trial. API access is available from $1,499 per month.

PitchBook is a private-market database, used mainly by large funds and investment banks. It covers VC and PE deals, fund returns, LP commitments, patent data and investor contacts. Typical use cases include deal sourcing, fundraising and investor targeting. Pricing is quote-only: buyers report annual contracts of $25k-$70k+ per year. PitchBook provides public company data with estimates (but in more limited capacity vs. Capital IQ, FactSet or Multiples). The reason to buy PitchBook is its private data depth: funds, LPs and contacts.

FactSet is an investment research workstation for public markets, sold mainly to investment banks and mega funds. It has the deepest consensus estimates of the major platforms, including full history, plus ownership data and analytics. Analysts use it for equity research and portfolio reporting, and it integrates well with Excel and PowerPoint through plug-ins. Reported pricing is $12-40k per seat per year, and there is no self-serve trial. M&A and VC data are sold separately as add-on modules.

Capital IQ Pro is S&P Global’s research workstation most commonly used in investment banking. It covers all global public companies across all metrics, including analyst estimates. The typical use case is building financial models and comps tables in Excel. Reported pricing is $13-30k per seat per year on annual contracts, and there is no self-sign-up trial. Similar to FactSet, M&A and VC data are sold separately as add-on modules.

Bloomberg Terminal is a real-time market data platform, bought mainly by trading firms, banks and large funds. It covers every asset class with live prices and news, includes fundamentals with consensus estimates and deal data, and runs the IB chat network used across the industry. Used mainly for ultra-live market monitoring and trading rather than modelling or discovery workflows. Pricing is widely reported at $31,980 per seat per year, or $28,320 per seat on multi-seat contracts.

Mergermarket is an M&A intelligence service from ION Analytics, used mainly by investment banks and large PE firms. It's an extensive deal database reporting on mandates, sale processes and rumoured deals (even before they are announced), on top of a database of 400,000+ deals going back to 1998. Reported pricing starts around $30k per year, annual contract only. There is no public company data, no contact data, no MCP, no Excel plugin.

CB Insights is a market intelligence platform focused on tech. VCs, growth equity firms, corporate strategy and governments are its main customers. The core products are market maps, industry briefs and proprietary metrics like "Mosaic" company scores, built on 12M company profiles. CB Insights integrates with Excel, Snowflake and other data tools. It's an expensive platform - reported contracts run $40k-100k per year on annual terms. Public company data comes with very limited consensus estimates.

Crunchbase is a startup database used by startups, angel investors and BD teams. It covers a claimed 4M+ companies with funding rounds, investors and news, and has saved searches and alerts for tracking. The typical use case is discovery: finding companies, following their rounds and enriching a CRM. Cheapest platform of all at $49-199 per month with a free tier and monthly billing. There is no public company data, no valuations or deal multiples, no estimates and no Excel add-in.

LSEG Workspace is the successor to Refinitiv Eikon, sold mainly to banks and trading desks. It has Reuters news, deep FX and fixed income coverage, public company data with I/B/E/S consensus estimates, deal data and an Excel add-in. It is strongest on macro desks; FX and fixed income are the historical core. Reported pricing is $12-24k per seat per year on annual contracts. Trials require a demo.

Tracxn is a startup database organised into curated sector feeds, used by M&A, PE and VC firms and by governments, with a strong customer base in India. It covers a claimed 3M+ entities, with stronger coverage of India and Southeast Asia than the US-centric platforms. It includes deal data. Reported pricing is around $550 per month per user on annual contracts; team licenses run $6.5k-$15k per year. Public company data comes without consensus estimates and sophisticated analytics.

Harmonic is a startup discovery platform built around its API, used by VC and growth funds to find companies "before rounds are announced". It tracks a claimed 35M companies and 195M people for founder moves, headcount changes and stealth activity, with REST, GraphQL and warehouse delivery. Reported pricing is $10-30k per year. There is no public company, public multiples or fund data.

Preqin is an alternatives database, part of BlackRock since 2024, used mainly by LPs, family offices and large funds. It covers fund performance, LP commitments and fundraising pipelines across PE, VC, credit and real assets. Biggest use case: allocation research, comparing fund track records and tracking who commits to what. Reported pricing is $15k-75k+ per year depending on asset-class scope. Deal multiples are sold as an add-on, and there is no public company data.

Koyfin is a market data platform for charting and monitoring, aimed at individual investors. It covers public companies with consensus estimates, but the data is not licensed from any of the institutional providers. Pricing is published on Koyfin's website, from a free tier to $299 per month for the Advisor plans, with monthly billing. There is no deal data, no Excel add-in, no MCP server, and no API.