For US company research, start by evaluating Equibles: it combines filing search, financial statements, earnings-call transcripts and ownership disclosures through a hosted MCP server, REST API and browser portal. If your priority is global fundamentals, earnings-event documents, tick data or broker execution, other providers deserve a place on the shortlist.
Disclosure: we build Equibles. This is a comparison of documented capabilities, checked on 5 October 2026, rather than a hands-on performance benchmark. A listed API dataset does not prove that every MCP tool, subscription or client exposes it. Test the exact questions, transport and plan you intend to use.
Update to the July version: this article replaces the earlier numerical ranking and unsupported exclusivity claims. It corrects Equibles' free and paid price entitlements and recognises competitors' documented filings, transcripts and ownership coverage. The older descriptions of IEX-only self-serve quotes and delayed-only self-serve option chains should not be used to determine today's Equibles plan access.
Choose the workflow before the server
A stock-price lookup, an earnings review and an order submission are different jobs. The most useful comparison starts with the work you need to finish.
| Your main job | Providers to evaluate | What to check |
|---|---|---|
| Research US filings, earnings and disclosure activity in one workflow | Equibles; Financial Datasets; Financial Modeling Prep; Alpha Vantage | Document access, source references, disclosure dates and actual tool coverage |
| Compare company financials, operating KPIs and business segments across markets | Fiscal.ai; Financial Modeling Prep | Company coverage, standardized versus as-reported values and plan restrictions |
| Work through earnings events, transcripts, slides and company documents | Quartr; Equibles; Fiscal.ai | Event coverage, document retrieval, transcript access and subscription eligibility |
| Build applications needing trades, quotes and market-data history | Massive; EODHD; Databento | Feed, delay, venue, history, licensing and the connector publisher |
| Analyse options flow, dark-pool activity and positioning | Unusual Whales | API subscription, flow definitions and freshness |
| Submit paper or live broker orders | Alpaca | Trading permissions, account requirements and enabled toolsets |
These are shortlists by use case, not promises that every provider covers every dataset in a row. Start with a few representative companies and verify the returned evidence.
Equibles: joined US equity research with a hosted portal, API and MCP
Equibles connects company financial statements, SEC filing search, earnings-call transcripts, institutional holdings, insider and congressional trading disclosures, short data and market tools. Its ALVIS assistant provides a browser-based research workflow alongside the developer interfaces.
The hosted MCP endpoint uses Streamable HTTP. Compatible clients can sign in through OAuth or use an API key. Begin with the MCP setup guide or the REST reference.
The current pricing page distinguishes the data available through connected apps:
- Free: 100 shared REST/MCP requests per day and end-of-day stock prices. Research tools cover reported financials, filings and ownership. Option-chain market data requires a paid plan.
- Plus: stock quotes delayed 15 minutes and option chains with delayed, indicative quotes, with higher research and request limits.
- Pro: real-time stock and option prices, higher limits, advanced screening and scheduled Web Data Feeds.
Plus is currently $9.99 per month. Pro is $19.99 for the first month for eligible new customers, then $49.99 per month. Check the plan page for current allowances and terms.
Hosted versus self-hosted matters. The open-source build runs on your own infrastructure; its source coverage, sync responsibilities and capabilities differ from the hosted commercial service. A hosted earnings or market-data entitlement should not be read as a promise about the self-hosted build.
Limits: Equibles' core equity-research focus is US-listed companies. It does not replace a venue-level tick or order-book feed or a broker execution interface. Some portfolio tools create or modify a user's tracked portfolio, so the server is not entirely read-only; portfolio record keeping is separate from placing broker orders.
Fiscal.ai: global fundamentals, KPIs and source-linked financial analysis
Fiscal.ai, formerly FinChat, is a direct alternative for analysts who need standardized and as-reported statements, operating KPIs, segments, ratios and filing references. Its documentation describes source links for financial data and a hosted MCP connector with OAuth or API-key authentication.
Evaluate it when international company coverage and detailed financial modelling are central to the job. Its documented workflows also cover ownership activity, earnings research and company filings, so it should not be reduced to a price feed or a chat interface.
The API free trial currently permits 250 calls per day for a restricted list of 100 companies, with the same restrictions through MCP. That trial is distinct from terminal subscriptions and broader paid API access. Check whether your company and required dataset are included.
Source check: Fiscal.ai API Introduction, API Reference, MCP / Connectors, MCP Skills and Free Trial documentation.
Financial Datasets: an API-first research alternative for agents
Financial Datasets documents statements, operating KPIs, SEC filings, insider trades, institutional ownership, prices and earnings-related data, along with a hosted MCP service. Its pricing page describes request-credit purchases and recurring API plans.
Consider it for applications that need a financial research API alongside an AI connector. Evaluate filing retrieval and the provenance returned for the particular endpoint instead of assuming extracted financial values are the only available output.
Its documentation and product positioning overlap meaningfully with Equibles. Compare actual coverage, authentication, request costs and redistribution terms using your own research questions.
Source check: Financial Datasets Pricing and Agent Connectors documentation.
Quartr: earnings-event and company-document research
Quartr Pro's official MCP documentation includes companies, earnings events, documents, summaries and financials, plus research organisation features such as watchlists and workspaces. It is a relevant alternative when earnings-event materials are the starting point.
The connector requires an eligible Quartr Pro subscription; its documentation excludes student plans. Quartr also directs builders creating products or integrations to its Public API rather than the individual subscriber MCP service.
Test the exact transcript, slide deck or filing you need and distinguish personal research access from the rights needed to distribute data in an application.
Source check: Quartr Pro MCP Documentation, Getting Started and tools reference.
Financial Modeling Prep: a broad financial-data catalog
Financial Modeling Prep's official hosted MCP service wraps its REST endpoints and uses the caller's existing API key and limits. Its documentation covers financial statements, transcripts, 13F holdings, SEC filings, insider trades and congressional trading.
The earlier claim that it has no congressional data or no route to filing sources was too broad. Evaluate the specific filing output and source links alongside its computed metrics.
It is a strong candidate for broad financial-data applications. The practical limit is the dataset and usage entitlement attached to your API plan, rather than the mere existence of an MCP tool.
Source check: FMP AI Agent (MCP Server) documentation and API dataset catalog.
Alpha Vantage: multi-asset data plus earnings and ownership features
Alpha Vantage publishes an official MCP server and API documentation covering equities, options, FX, crypto, economic series and technical indicators. The current catalog also includes earnings-call transcripts, insider transactions, congressional trades and institutional holdings.
Those documented research datasets correct the earlier table's blanket “No” entries. An API returning a transcript or holdings record is still different from a general full-text filing-search workflow; evaluate the task you need, not just the dataset name.
Check free-key restrictions, premium endpoint access, freshness and commercial-use terms before relying on the connection.
Source check: Alpha Vantage API Documentation and official MCP Quickstart.
Massive, formerly Polygon: market data with fundamentals and SEC coverage
Massive remains a natural candidate for applications built around trade and quote data, aggregates and market history. Its official documentation also describes financial statements and SEC endpoints, including filing indexes, 10-K sections, 8-K text and ownership-related forms.
The earlier statement that it has “no fundamentals, no filings, no disclosure” was incorrect. Those capabilities should be evaluated under the relevant data subscriptions and add-ons.
The stock plan page distinguishes end-of-day, delayed and real-time access. A low-cost historical plan is not a promise of real-time trades and quotes, and stock and options entitlements should be checked separately.
Source check: Massive Stocks plan page and Changelog, including Fundamentals and SEC coverage updates.
EODHD: international market coverage and newer SEC endpoints
EODHD's MCP documentation covers prices, fundamentals, news, screening and other financial tools. Its API documentation now includes parsed SEC 10-K, 10-Q and 8-K filings, alongside a richer SEC Form 4 endpoint with derivative and non-derivative transactions and footnotes.
That makes the older claim that US disclosure data is absent unsuitable for the current comparison. Verify which SEC endpoints the current MCP toolset exposes, and which require a separate REST call or plan.
Evaluate EODHD when international price history and market breadth matter. Confirm freshness, options add-ons, history and licensing for each selected market.
Source check: EODHD MCP Server documentation, SEC Filings announcement and Insider Transactions API documentation.
Unusual Whales: options flow, positioning and congressional activity
Unusual Whales' official API and MCP material describes options flow, dark-pool activity, Greek exposure, volatility and congressional trading, alongside stock fundamentals and other market data.
It is a useful shortlist candidate for positioning and flow analysis. Compare its API subscription and definitions with the data available in its consumer product; access to one interface should not be assumed to grant access to all others.
Source check: Unusual Whales Public API and MCP documentation.
Alpaca: broker execution and trading workflows
Alpaca's Trading MCP service supports market-data queries, account information and paper or live order operations. Its V2 release documents configurable toolsets, including expanded options and market functionality.
Evaluate it when the workflow ends in an order or account action. Check the selected account, paper versus live environment, enabled capabilities and market-data feed. Research coverage and broker execution are separate requirements even when an assistant can call both.
Source check: Alpaca Trading MCP V2 announcement and Building AI Trading Applications documentation.
Databento: a data source for tick and order-book workflows
Databento documents live and historical data, trades, quotes and order-book schemas across equities, futures and options. It is a relevant data source when the research requires venue-level events or market microstructure.
Evaluate any MCP wrapper separately: establish who publishes and supports it, which schemas it exposes, and how it handles authentication and entitlements. Databento's data API documentation alone does not establish that a particular wrapper is an official, supported connector.
Check the selected dataset's historical and live pricing and licensing; one advertised price cannot describe every venue and use case.
Source check: Databento Documentation, schemas and pricing guidance.
A practical evaluation before you subscribe
Use the same small set of tasks for each candidate:
- Find the evidence. Ask for a specific passage in a company's latest filing. Check whether the result opens the original document or only returns a value or metadata.
- Explain a reported change. Combine a financial metric with the relevant management commentary. Confirm the company, period, units and source.
- Read a disclosure correctly. Keep transaction dates separate from filing dates; distinguish a reported holding from a trade that happened today.
- Check price freshness. Read the returned timestamp and session status. A connected server can still return delayed or end-of-day data.
- Inspect access and permissions. Confirm authentication, request limits, data rights and any tools that change records or submit orders.
This comparison is based on public documentation, not a test result for those tasks. Tool counts and descriptions alone do not establish answer quality.
Which financial MCP should you choose?
Choose Equibles for a joined US company-research workflow across its portal, hosted MCP and REST API. Evaluate Fiscal.ai for global fundamentals and detailed financial modelling, Financial Datasets for API-first research, and Quartr for earnings-event materials.
For broader catalog needs, compare FMP, Alpha Vantage and EODHD against your exact dataset requirements. For market-data depth consider Massive or a verified Databento integration; for options flow evaluate Unusual Whales. Use Alpaca when broker execution is part of the job.
The best choice is the one that completes your workflow with the evidence, freshness, permissions and data rights you need. Connect Equibles to your AI client to try the research workflow, or use the comparison hub for focused head-to-head evaluations.