When making cutting-edge investment decisions or conducting in-depth market research, the right intelligence tool can make all the difference. Most business professionals are inundated with information overload. Even if they have access to all the right data, the task of analyzing it and extracting the right insights is often a manual one, fraught with fragmented data from consumer grade search engines.k.
Market intelligence tools are designed to shorten the time to insight and expedite the research process without sacrificing quality or comprehensiveness. Ideally, they should provide both the data you need and the technology to analyze that data, eliminating the need to toggle between multiple platforms and making the entire research process more streamlined.
However, market intelligence platforms are not all made equal, and not every platform will work for every business. The breadth and depth of content, how advanced the search technology is, and how the features and capabilities align with your unique business needs and budget are all important factors in selecting the right platform.
Below, we compare Koyfin with Bloomberg, exploring who each platform works best for and where each falls short. We also compare the two with our all-in-one market intelligence platform to show how AlphaSense shortens time to insight and meets research and business needs in a more comprehensive, robust way.
The platform comparisons are based around the following criteria:
- Features
- Customer service & support
- Ratings and reviews
- Pricing
Here is an overview of each platform:
Bloomberg
Bloomberg Terminal is one of the oldest and most widely used market research and analysis tools in the financial services industry. Launched in 1981—well before individual computers or the internet were common at firms—Bloomberg led the way in democratizing access to financial market data.
Since then, Bloomberg has become one of the highest-rated market research tools giving users access to unique market data, news, and insights and enabling professionals to turn intelligence into a competitive advantage.
Many hedge funds and institutional investors consider Bloomberg Terminal a top choice for qualitative research. However, the market has changed, and plenty of competitors have emerged over the past few decades.
Multiple platforms with comparable features are now available to users at more affordable prices. These tools are web-based platforms with cloud-native features and intuitive user interfaces. Initially a part-hardware solution, Bloomberg now has to play catch-up with modern user needs.
Bloomberg Terminal itself is a powerful research insights tool that has some top-notch features, including:
- Independent and sell-side research from over 1600 sources
- Over 2700 professionals who offer news coverage of companies, industries, and markets across 120 cities worldwide
- Charts, monitors, and alerts
- Unlimited access to Bloomberg terminal from smartphone and remote computers
- Collaboration tools for internal use
Bloomberg Terminal is one of the higher-priced options in the market, with subscription fees at $2000 per month—or $24K annually—well outside the reach of many small or mid-sized firms. Bloomberg also bundles multiple services into its product, making it clunky and complex for the average user. Its highly technical user interface is ideal for financial services professionals, but there is a steep learning curve for new users.
Bloomberg Pros:
- Proprietary news, research and analytics from internal and external sources
- Tools for internal collaboration opportunities
- Market execution and order management tools
- Access to stock markets and other asset classes
- Custom charts, monitors, and alerts for market information
Bloomberg Cons:
- An expensive option, costing about $2000 a month
- A steep learning curve for new users
- No sentiment analysis or synonym recognition
- No expert calls and transcripts
- Lack of broker research access for corporates
Related Reading: Bloomberg Terminal Alternatives
Koyfin
Koyfin is a solution built for investors at every experience level—professional, individual, and student. Known for its user-friendly features and in-depth qualitative data, the Koyfin platform is a great budget alternative to Bloomberg Terminal. While the qualitative research access is relatively basic, the platform makes investing more accessible without sacrificing the sophistication and accuracy needed by firms managing real client portfolios.
Koyfin offers in-depth coverage of stocks, currencies, fixed-income assets, ETFs, bonds, mutual funds, and news, giving its users a complete overview of the markets and their movements. Its most prominent features include:
- Advanced graphing features which enable users to create custom graphs to spot trends and investment opportunities
- Financial analysis tools that provide an in-depth analysis of company metrics, including financial statements, historical overviews, valuations, and viability analyses
- Stock screener and charting tools to help users find and match with companies that fit their trading styles
- Customizable market dashboard templates that give users a complete overview of the markets over a given period
- Custom watchlists to live-track market trends, companies, stocks, and other assets
- Portfolio tools that help users track all their investments from one place
Koyfin Pros:
- Excellent graphs and charting features
- Access to high-quality data points from multiple sources
- Affordable for small businesses and individual investors
- Access to the web and mobile apps
- Access to expert call transcripts
- Access to global macro insights
Koyfin Cons:
- Basic qualitative search functionality with no AI search features
- No APIs
- Lacks collaborative tools
- Limited technical analysis tools
AlphaSense
As the top alternative to both Koyfin and Bloomberg, AlphaSense is one of the most comprehensive market intelligence tools on the market. Consistently rated by G2 as the market leader in both financial research and market intelligence, this platform is built for organizations looking to implement a full-scale research strategy rooted in AI technology and smart automation capabilities.
AlphaSense provides access to more than 10,000 content sources, including news and trade journals, SEC filings, and company filings.
From over 10,000+ content sources, AlphaSenses provides all the information needed to make sound investment decisions. That includes valuable insights from expert call transcripts, company and SEC filings, trade journals, broker research, and news journals.
AlphaSense also has two unique content offerings users may find valuable:
- AlphaSense Expert Insights – A 40,000+ expert call library with transcripts of interviews with former and current executives, professionals, industry experts, competitors, and customers.
- Wall Street Insights® – A curated collection of indexed and searchable equity research covering companies, industries, and global sector themes, from more than 1,000 sell-side and independent firms.
AlphaSense is also powered by smart search capabilities that ensure users can find the exact insights they need for their research, allowing you to always be the first to know. They include:
Smart Synonyms™
Smart Synonyms™ technology is an AI-based feature exclusive to AlphaSense, which recognizes the user intent behind every search and delivers results for both the exact search terms and related keywords.
At the same time, this technology recognizes when results are not relevant to the search intent and automatically filters them out, removing unnecessary noise and eliminating hours wasted on combing through potentially fruitless sources.
Automated Monitoring
With AlphaSense, users can access real-time notifications and alerts that keep them updated on new trends, emerging news, and market and company movements. Alphasense generates and sends frequent snapshots of companies, keeping users abreast on intelligence, critical insights, and market changes.
Instant Company Insights
Using Search Analytics and Company Tearsheets, users get quick and in-depth information on any public or private company. That way, users enhance the reach of their search queries across multiple industries, regions, and document types. AlphaSense focuses on and anchors users’ research capabilities, providing critical insights needed to upscale market analysis and decision-making.
Sentiment Analysis
Sentiment analysis is a natural language processing (NLP)-based feature that mines content and identifies the sentiment behind the language in a given document, most notably earnings and expert calls. The text is then color-coded for users to indicate positive, neutral, and negative sentiments.
AlphaSense also gives each search term and document a sentiment score, illustrating how positively or negatively a company or the market at large feels about a particular topic, as well as how sentiment has evolved over time. Sentiment analysis enables users to pick up on shifts in tone that could signal upcoming market movements and gain a deeper understanding of an industry or trend.
AlphaSense Pros:
- All-in-one research and intelligence platform
- Extensive content database that spans the four key perspectives of market research, including broker research and expert calls
- Incorporates sentiment analysis, NLP, generative AI, and AI search technology
- Automated and customizable alerts
- User-friendly interface
- Internal messaging and collaboration features
- Support for APIs and integrations
AlphaSense Cons:
- Visualization tools are limited to financial data at this time
Features
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Customer Service & Support
Bloomberg
Bloomberg has top-notch customer support teams available at all times. Users can access customer support via phone or live chat through the Blomberg Professional app or the terminal.
Customers can also contact their dedicated account representatives and receive professional assistance for their platform-related issues.
Koyfin
Koyfin takes a slightly different approach to customer support, prioritizing customer self-help through its knowledge base. From here, users can read through multiple guides and articles to get up to speed with the platform and troubleshoot themselves.
Although there are no dedicated customer support agents or open lines to call, Koyfin allows users to leave support tickets through its contact page. Users that prefer personalized customer support may find Koyfin’s approach unsatisfactory.
AlphaSense
AlphaSense has dedicated customer support and education teams that offer hands-on training and demonstrations for new users. Additionally, users can contact AlphaSense through a dedicated account representative. The product specialist team provides guidance and helps professionals create searches and custom tabs to streamline workflows.
For users who prefer live chat, AlphaSense has a Help button on the website, through which users can access 24/7 chat with product specialists and receive instant support as needed.
Ratings & Reviews
Bloomberg Terminal
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 on G2, 8.8 out of 10 on TrustRadius
Popular positives:
- Availability of financial market data from multiple high-quality sources
- Ability to export data to Microsoft Excel
- Multifunctionality
- Ideal for multiple use cases, including portfolio management, risk analysis and trading
Popular negatives:
- Automatic logoff can be a problem
- Fingerprint recognition on the B-Unit sometimes fails
- Poor user interface
Koyfin
Rating: Unrated on both G2 and TrustRadius
AlphaSense
Rating: 4.8 out of 5 on G2, 9.4 out of 10 on TrustRadius
Popular positives:
- Comprehensive data and analysis on public and private markets
- Real-time data availability
- Easy-to-find relevant and high-quality results
- Intuitive interface and great customer support
- Smart AI-powered search leads to quicker, more accurate insights
Popular negatives:
- Visualization tools are limited to financial data at this time
- Lack of collaborative tools for knowledge management
Pricing
Bloomberg Terminal
Bloomberg Terminal is quite costly, available for about $2000 per user per month or about $24,000 annually.
Koyfin
Koyfin markets itself as the affordable Bloomberg Terminal alternative. It’s an ideal platform for retail investors. New users can sign up for free and later upgrade to a basic plan for $15 per month, the Plus plan for $35 per month, and a Pro for $70 per month.
AlphaSense
An AlphaSense user can access smarter features, a better user experience, and an extensive content universe, eliminating the need for multiple tools. With AlphaSense, you get an all-in-one platform that is guaranteed to enhance, speed up, and streamline your research process. You can pay by enterprise or by seat, depending on your unique business needs. Contact us for more information on pricing options, or start a free 2-week trial here.
A Better Alternative to Bloomberg Terminal and Koyfin?
For market intelligence, research, and analysis, Bloomberg Terminal and Koyfin are excellent options for business and professional use. You can use both to gain a competitive market advantage and enhance your research workflow.
However, both Bloomberg and Koyfin have limitations. They lack essential features and data sets that could prove crucial to your business strategy and decision-making. And neither possess the advanced AI search technology of AlphaSense.
AlphaSense is the best choice for you if:
- You are looking for a platform that can be utilized across your organization for various strategic goals, not just market research and intelligence.
- You need a platform that removes the tedious, manual parts of research and surfaces relevant, real-time insights, saving you precious time for deeper analysis and strategy.
- You are interested in accessing an expansive content universe of proprietary, premium, private, and public content inaccessible to the general public and many of your peers.
- You want a platform that will replace all your other research avenues and be the one-stop shop for all your market intelligence needs.
- You want a platform that will work behind the scenes to ensure you stay caught up and get all critical information, with customizable real-time alerts, watchlists, and dashboards.
