# Best Financial Data Platforms Compared (2026)

> PitchBook, Capital IQ, FactSet, Bloomberg, LSEG, CB Insights and Crunchbase compared on coverage, cost, contract terms and API access.

- Canonical: https://multiples.vc/compare
- Facts last verified: 2026-08-14
- Method: https://multiples.vc/compare/methodology (estimates labelled *; corrections: hi@multiples.vc)

## Key takeaways

- **What are the best alternatives to PitchBook, FactSet or Capital IQ?:** Modern financial data providers include Multiples, Harmonic or Tracxn. Only Multiples provides both public comps with analyst estimates, M&A and VC data.
- **Which financial data providers offer AI features?:** Most institutional platforms like PitchBook, FactSet and Multiples offer MCP servers to connect to Claude, ChatGPT and other AI tools.
- **Which platforms offer consensus estimates?:** All big providers (FactSet, Capital IQ, Bloomberg etc.) and Multiples. Public comps data on Multiples is licensed by FactSet and Morningstar.
- **What is the pricing?:** Capital IQ, FactSet and PitchBook pricing is quote-only. Most sell long-term contracts at reported $30k-$100k per year per seat. Across vendors providing licensed public comps, only Multiples has open pricing ($239-$499/mo).
- **What platforms offer flexible, month-to-month contracts?:** None of the legacy ones. Across institutional players, only Multiples offers flexible subscription. Otherwise, Crunchbase and Koyfin (though these lack investment-grade data).
- **TLDR - what provider is the best?:** There is no one answer. For valuation and comps data - choose Multiples, as a flexible alternative to FactSet, MergerMarket and Capital IQ combined, without compromising on quality.

## All platforms compared

|  | Multiples | PitchBook | FactSet | Capital IQ Pro | Bloomberg | Mergermarket | CB Insights | Crunchbase | LSEG Workspace | Tracxn | Harmonic | Preqin | Koyfin |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Best for | Small to mid-size M&A boutiques, VC/PE firms, corp dev teams and CFOs | Enterprise clients, bulge bracket investment banks, mega funds | Enterprise clients, bulge bracket investment banks, mega funds | Enterprise clients, trading firms, mega funds, bulge bracket IBs | Enterprise clients, bulge bracket investment banks, mega funds | Enterprise clients, bulge bracket IB, large PEs, large corp dev teams | VC and growth capital firms, startups, governments | VCs, startups, angel investors, individual users | Enterprise clients, bulge bracket investment banks, mega funds | M&A, PE and VC firms, governments, in particular India-focused | VC and growth funds sourcing startups programmatically | Enterprise clients, LPs, family offices, mega funds | Individual equity investors |
| Price per seat | $239-499/mo | $25k-$70k+/yr* | $12k-$40k/yr* | $13k-$30k/yr* | $31,980/yr* | $30k+/yr* | $40k-$100k/yr* | $49-$199/mo | $12k-$24k/yr* | ~$550/mo* | $10-30k/yr* | $15k-$75k+/yr* | $0-$79/mo |
| Contract | Monthly or annual | Annual | Annual | Annual | Annual | Annual | Annual | Monthly or annual | Annual | Annual | Annual | Annual | Monthly or annual |
| Free trial | Yes (Self sign-up) | Partial (Needs demo) | Partial (Needs demo) | Partial (Needs demo) | Partial (Needs demo) | Partial (Needs demo) | Partial (Needs demo) | Yes (Self sign-up) | Partial (Needs demo) | Partial (Needs demo) | Partial (Needs demo) | Partial (Needs demo) | Yes (Self sign-up) |
| Public comps | Yes (With estimates) | Yes (With estimates) | Yes (With estimates) | Yes (With estimates) | Yes (With estimates) | No | Partial (No estimates) | No | Yes (Included) | Partial (No estimates) | No | No | Yes (With estimates) |
| M&A multiples | Yes (Included) | Yes (Included) | Partial (Add-on) | Partial (Add-on) | Yes (Included) | Yes (Included) | Yes (Included) | No | Yes (Included) | Yes (Included) | No | Partial (Add-on) | No |
| VC multiples | Yes (Included) | Yes (Included) | Partial (Add-on) | Partial (Add-on) | Yes (Included) | Yes (Included) | Yes (Included) | No | Yes (Included) | Yes (Included) | No | Partial (Add-on) | No |
| Fund & LP data | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | No |
| Contact data | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | No | Yes | No | No |
| Real-time stock data | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | Yes |
| Excel add-in | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| API | Yes (From $1,499/mo) | Yes (Enterprise pricing) | Yes (Enterprise pricing) | Yes (Enterprise pricing) | Yes (Enterprise pricing) | Yes (Enterprise pricing) | Yes (Enterprise pricing) | Yes (Enterprise pricing) | Yes (Enterprise pricing) | Yes (Enterprise pricing) | Yes (Enterprise pricing) | Yes (Enterprise pricing) | No |
| MCP server | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | No |

_* = reported figure, vendor does not officially publish pricing. Published prices and reported ranges are stated as they stand in August 2026._

## Financial data platforms at a glance

### Multiples

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.

- **Best for:** Small to mid-size M&A firms, VCs, PEs, corp dev and CFO teams.
- **Use cases:** Portfolio valuation, deal sourcing, financial modelling, target valuation, fairness opinions
- **Skip if:** You need LP data, email contacts, real-time stock data.

### PitchBook

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.

- **Best for:** Large funds, investment banks, enterprise customers.
- **Use cases:** Deal sourcing, LP fundraising, contact discovery, niche data needs.
- **Skip if:** You don’t need contact data, you are budget-conscious.

### FactSet

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.

- **Best for:** Large investment banks and funds, trading firms
- **Use cases:** Equity research, portfolio reporting, advanced investment analytics
- **Skip if:** You don’t need the full workstation, advanced stock analysis, you are budget-conscious.

### S&P Capital IQ Pro

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.

- **Best for:** Investment banks, corporate finance and equity research teams.
- **Use cases:** Financial modelling, comps building, company screening.
- **Skip if:** You need private-market data, you are budget-conscious.

### Bloomberg Terminal

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.

- **Best for:** Trading firms, banks, hedge funds and institutional asset managers.
- **Use cases:** Trading, live market monitoring, news, cross-asset analysis, chat.
- **Skip if:** You mainly do research and comps, you are budget-conscious.

### Mergermarket

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.

- **Best for:** Investment banks, PE firms and corp dev teams.
- **Use cases:** Early M&A intelligence, M&A advisor mandates
- **Skip if:** You need public companies data and more integration (Excel, MCP, etc.)

### CB Insights

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.

- **Best for:** VCs, growth equity, corporate strategy, governments.
- **Use cases:** Market maps, vendor scouting, tech trends.
- **Skip if:** You need consensus estimates, valuation data.

### Crunchbase

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.

- **Best for:** Startups, angel investors, BD and sales teams.
- **Use cases:** Startup discovery, funding rounds tracking, CRM enrichment.
- **Skip if:** You need public comps, valuation data, multiples.

### LSEG Data & Analytics

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.

- **Best for:** Banks, trading firms, treasury and macro teams.
- **Use cases:** FX and fixed-income analysis, news monitoring, equity research.
- **Skip if:** You need private markets data, don't need FX or fixed income, you are budget limited.

### Tracxn

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.

- **Best for:** M&A, PE and VC firms, governments, especially India-focused.
- **Use cases:** Sector mapping, emerging-markets research, startup landscaping.
- **Skip if:** You need high-quality public company data with consensus estimates.

### Harmonic

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.

- **Best for:** VC and growth funds with technical teams.
- **Use cases:** Automated deal sourcing, stealth-startup detection, CRM enrichment.
- **Skip if:** You need a more structured platform and public company data.

### Preqin

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.

- **Best for:** LPs, family offices, funds of funds and large funds.
- **Use cases:** Fund benchmarking, LP research, fundraising preparation.
- **Skip if:** You need company-level data, or classic comps.

### Koyfin

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.

- **Best for:** Individual investors, students and (very) small teams.
- **Use cases:** Charting, watchlists, portfolio monitoring, transcripts.
- **Skip if:** You need higher-quality data, deal data, Excel plugin, or an API.

## Which financial data platform should I choose?

| Platform | I need public comps with consensus estimates | I need M&A and VC valuation data | I need people contact data | I need a flexible contract | I have a limited budget |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Multiples | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| PitchBook | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| FactSet | Yes | Partially (Paid add-on module) | Partially (Paid add-on module) | No | No |
| S&P Capital IQ Pro | Yes | Partially (Paid add-on module) | Partially (Paid add-on module) | No | No |
| LSEG Data & Analytics | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
| Bloomberg Terminal | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Mergermarket | No | Yes | No | No | No |
| CB Insights | No | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Preqin | No | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Tracxn | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| Harmonic | No | Yes | No | No | No |
| Crunchbase | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Koyfin | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |

## FAQ

### How much does PitchBook cost?

PitchBook pricing is quote-only, there is no public price list. Reported PitchBook cost is $25,000-$40,000 per year for standard team licenses, and $70,000+ for enterprise packages with API. Annual contracts only, quarterly payments possible.

### How much does FactSet cost per year?

FactSet pricing is not published. Reported FactSet cost runs $12,000-$40,000 per seat per year (depending on the package). Annual contract only.

### What is Capital IQ pricing?

Similar to legacy competition, Capital IQ cost is also custom-quoted per seat, there is no public price list. Reported figures run $13,000-$30,000 per user per year depending on modules.

### How much does a Bloomberg Terminal cost?

Bloomberg pricing is about $31,980 per seat per year, or $28,320 per seat on multi-seat contracts (widely reported as of 2026), on two-year minimum terms. Data License and B-PIPE feeds are priced separately from the terminal.

### What is Mergermarket pricing?

Mergermarket cost is not published. Reported contracts start around $30,000 per year, minimum two seats required to purchase.

### Which financial data platforms publish pricing?

Multiples ($239-499/mo), Crunchbase ($49-199/mo) and Koyfin ($0-299/mo) have public price lists with monthly billing. Out of these, only Multiples offers institutional data quality and valuation data.

### What is the cheapest alternative to PitchBook, FactSet or Capital IQ?

True legitimate alternative: Multiples. It starts at $239 a month with annual billing ($299 monthly), with public comps, consensus estimates, M&A and VC multiples included.

### Is there a free alternative to Capital IQ or FactSet?

Not with matching quality. Across free tools, Koyfin has a free tier that covers general stock analysis, but that's targeted at individual investors. Multiples is the only institutional data platform with investment-grade public comps, consensus estimates, M&A and VC data that is available at more affordable cost ($239-$499/mo).

### Which financial data platforms connect to ChatGPT or Claude via MCP?

Multiples includes an MCP server on its published plans, so Claude, ChatGPT and other AI tools can query its comps and deal data directly. Several other platforms, including PitchBook and FactSet also offer MCP access.

## Keep comparing

### Compare alternatives

- [PitchBook alternatives](https://multiples.vc/compare/pitchbook-alternatives)
- [FactSet alternatives](https://multiples.vc/compare/factset-alternatives)
- [Capital IQ alternatives](https://multiples.vc/compare/capital-iq-alternatives)
- [CB Insights alternatives](https://multiples.vc/compare/cb-insights-alternatives)
- [Crunchbase alternatives](https://multiples.vc/compare/crunchbase-alternatives)

### Compare APIs

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- [LSEG / Refinitiv API alternatives](https://multiples.vc/compare/lseg-api-alternatives)
- [PitchBook API alternatives](https://multiples.vc/compare/pitchbook-api-alternatives)
- [Crunchbase API alternatives](https://multiples.vc/compare/crunchbase-api-alternatives)
- [Harmonic API alternatives](https://multiples.vc/compare/harmonic-api-alternatives)
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### Compare pricing

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- [Multiples pricing](https://multiples.vc/pricing)
- [Comparison methodology](https://multiples.vc/compare/methodology)