AlphaSense vs. S&P Capital IQ

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
AlphaSense
Score 9.7 out of 10
N/A
AlphaSense is a market intelligence platform used by companies and financial institutions. Since 2011, their AI-based technology has helped professionals make business decisions by delivering insights from public and private content—including company filings, event transcripts, news, trade journals, and equity research. The platform boasts users among 4,000 enterprise customers. Headquartered in New York City, AlphaSense employs over 1,000 people across offices in the U.S., U.K., Finland, and…N/A
S&P Capital IQ
Score 8.2 out of 10
N/A
Capital IQ is a market intelligence software solution offered by S&P Global Market Intelligence, which is the result of McGraw Hill Financial's acquisition of SNL Financial.N/A
Pricing
AlphaSenseS&P Capital IQ
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
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Offerings
Pricing Offerings
AlphaSenseS&P Capital IQ
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
AlphaSenseS&P Capital IQ
Considered Both Products
AlphaSense
Chose AlphaSense
Actually have both AlphaSense and FactSet. Each has its uniqueness but all depends on nature of the task or project at hand.
Chose AlphaSense
We use both CB Insights and AlphaSense for our work. While CB Insights is better suited for private companies, especially startups, AlphaSense is unmatched in its data for large, typically public companies and broader industry research.
Chose AlphaSense
Alphasense has a much broader coverage breadth, as it includes financial data, market data, private research, and expert interviews, while the others are more limited.
Chose AlphaSense
Compared to FactSet and PitchBook, AlphaSense is a good tool to fill my suite of financial analysis. Pitchbook is superior for private company and transaction data, as well as screening for similar companies (the sourcing feature of the job). FactSet is superior for financial …
Chose AlphaSense
I inherited AlphaSense access by joining my current role. AlphaSense's financial and deal information can not match pitchbooks. It does have better summarization for financial than pitchbook though.
Chose AlphaSense
AlphaSense have less financial information than Evaluate
Chose AlphaSense
I am not sure why you won't let me select EMIS Next, but that is a great tool with a lot of very good data that does not seem to be on your platform:
Frost & Sullivan
Mordor Intelligence
Chose AlphaSense
AlphaSense is simply the best software when it comes to finding information from publicly available documents and their access to sell-side research. While it has some room to go in terms of their access to financials, they've already made significant improvements and I'm …
Chose AlphaSense
I prefer to use both in conjunction; AlphaSense generally provides deeper insights, but I'm unsure if it is readily available or the newest (Market cap).
Chose AlphaSense
Search and analysis of public market data - analyst feedback and management commentary: I would prefer AlphaSense over other
Quant analysis of market data / charting: I would prefer S&P for Excel Plugins
PItchbook: Proprietary private market and VC data
Chose AlphaSense
Special features of AlphaSense that made us decide on this CI platform:
- US-based market and competitive intelligence platform with various premium content (broker information, expert calls, earning transcripts, original company documents etc.)
- AlphaSense is a trusted CI …
Chose AlphaSense
I liked AlphaSense more than Tegus because the UI was better.
Chose AlphaSense
I use TBR for totally different research. I use them for news about corporate direction, investment in technologies and executive leadership changes; M&A and corporate ventures; technology partnerships; and recent contract awards.
AlphaSense gives deeper insights with Expert …
Chose AlphaSense
Alphasense is way better than GlobalData; the AI search word is like magic, and the grid view is constructive.
Chose AlphaSense
Experts calls can help you to decide whether or not invest in a company. can give you insights on culture which is not easy to find in Annual reports.
Tegus is much better in summarizing experts calls as well as give you a summary of experts calls called TOP INVESTORS QUESTIONS …
Chose AlphaSense
Other platforms are not as user friendly nor have useful data outputs and sentiment analysis
Chose AlphaSense
Alphasense has available information from analysts, which is difficult to get from platforms like Factset unless you pay additional fees.
Chose AlphaSense
All of them are better than AlphaSense. However, Bloomberg is over twice as expensive, and people are just paying a premium for Chat (which I don't want). I have not used Factset for over three years. When I last used it, I would say that it was slightly better than AlphaSense …
Chose AlphaSense
AlphaSense has better document search but is otherwise vastly inferior in every other way. If doc search isn't important to you, I wouldn't bother with AlphaSense.
Chose AlphaSense
I did not do a competitive analysis of the product - was sold on it immediately
Chose AlphaSense
AlphaSense is largely complementary to CapIQ or Eikon. CapIQ and Eikon do offer research capabliities for an additional fee, though it's currently more cost effective to use AlphaSense. Pitchbook is still a must have if you need to evaluate start-ups/private companies
Chose AlphaSense
One integrated platform. Modern user interface, unlike Bloomberg Terminal.
S&P Capital IQ
Chose S&P Capital IQ
S&P Capital IQ is great for bringing market data into Excel. It is also fantastic for finding older public market data / screening assets
Chose S&P Capital IQ
S&P Capital IQ is one of the best value products from a cost / benefit perspective. The Excel add in function is also unrivaled. For accessing public company data on demand (both operational and financial) it is a must have. The other tools are great but tend to be more …
Chose S&P Capital IQ
I think Eikon is a close substitute. It doesn't have as many features as S&P Capital IQ, but unless you're working for a bank, hedge fund, or in corporate treasury, you probably won't notice it.

In my opinion, FactSet is another good alternative. It comes with more features …
Chose S&P Capital IQ
Analysis of a wide variety of public firms is a breeze with S&P Capital IQ. Specifically, the program is great for valuing businesses by analysis of comparable businesses and transactions or by uploading corporate financials into Excel for use in a discounted cash flow. …
Chose S&P Capital IQ
bureau van dijk, Bloomberg Terminal and Mergermarket
Chose S&P Capital IQ
It's ease of use and customer support is superior to anything that is in the market. It also seems a lot more accurate than the other tools I have used.
Chose S&P Capital IQ
We had Capital IQ in addition to Bloomberg. It was much easier for a new person to use Capital IQ than Bloomberg. The ease of use was a huge selling point for us. Yahoo finance on the other hand is free, but you cannot gather all the data you may need in one location like you …
Chose S&P Capital IQ
They provide very detailed information, that is industry specific. You cannot find a better provider for bank website data than SNL. The ease of customization on the website program is unparalleled.
Chose S&P Capital IQ
While Bloomberg has a much more comprehensive view of the markets and typically has more up-to-date information in terms of overall news, Cap IQ is easier to integrate into existing financial models, and the formula builder included with the Excel plugin makes it easy to pull …
Features
AlphaSenseS&P Capital IQ
Financial Research
Comparison of Financial Research features of Product A and Product B
AlphaSense
6.9
Ratings
3% below category average
S&P Capital IQ
6.4
Ratings
10% below category average
Private Company Data5.20 Ratings6.00 Ratings
Industry-Specific Information7.40 Ratings7.70 Ratings
Independent Research Access8.40 Ratings8.50 Ratings
M&A Analysis5.70 Ratings5.30 Ratings
Supply Chain Data6.60 Ratings5.00 Ratings
ESG Data6.00 Ratings5.50 Ratings
Credit Ratings Reports6.70 Ratings7.30 Ratings
Macroeconomic News7.70 Ratings6.30 Ratings
Search Tools8.30 Ratings6.30 Ratings
Best Alternatives
AlphaSenseS&P Capital IQ
Small Businesses

No answers on this topic

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Medium-sized Companies
S&P Capital IQ
S&P Capital IQ
Score 8.2 out of 10

No answers on this topic

Enterprises
S&P Capital IQ
S&P Capital IQ
Score 8.2 out of 10
Factiva
Factiva
Score 5.1 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
AlphaSenseS&P Capital IQ
Likelihood to Recommend
9.7
(0 ratings)
7.1
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.7
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Usability
8.2
(0 ratings)
7.0
(0 ratings)
Availability
9.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
8.2
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
8.7
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
In-Person Training
9.1
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Online Training
6.4
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
9.1
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Configurability
5.9
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
8.2
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
6.8
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
8.2
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
8.2
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
AlphaSenseS&P Capital IQ
Likelihood to Recommend
AlphaSense is very well suited to investing teams that need a research management system that has a robust database behind and rich content management features for note-taking. AlphaSense may not be well-suited to individual investors who want data access but don't need to be sharing notes to a wider team. The sharing features are what make AlphaSense most useful.
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Best in class tool to source financial data from public companies. Great integration with Excel. Must-have tool for anyone performing financial analysis on a regular basis. Easy to use interface with excellent product support to answer questions about functionality and capabilities. Tool has continued to grow in features over the years and expect to continue in the future.
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Pros
  • Summarizing information across multiple company documents via their new Generative Grid tool.
  • Aggregating the latest insights from diverse sources - broker research, expert insights, company documents, and news.
  • Providing a repeatable way to query information.
  • Smart keywords to help you search, e.g., car = auto = automotive.
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  • S&P Capital IQ's blackline tool allows for the effortless comparison of changes in company filings over time.
  • The screening tool when searching for comparable companies and/or transactions is very comprehensive and customizable.
  • It allows users to customize their dashboards and tearsheets in any number of ways.
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Cons
  • The whole platform should be much faster with less lag.
  • The layout of the document search isn't great. Often, I find it hard to expand sources or dates.
  • Financials sections should be customisible, i.e. bolden certain ratios, remove others etc.
  • "Error loading documents, please refresh the widget" should be seen fewer times than often.
  • Why can't I export events dates to my Outlook calendar?
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  • Sources. In Bloomberg, when you click on a figure anywhere it leads you to the source. That is a great feature, as in finance everything has to be backed with the original source.
  • Cannot always find the needed information, the menu is too complex.
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Likelihood to Renew
AlphaSense is a very useful tool and is reasonably priced for our organization. While I may not be a hyper-active user, it's a great resource when I need to quickly do a competitive landscape survey, review publicly available documents (transcripts, etc.), or review Wall Street research
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[It's the] best ever.
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Usability
For my daily work AlphaSense is inevitable, as it holds a real added value compared to most of the CI platforms. It really makes my work more efficient and contributes to better strategy and decision making in the company. Datalog is
available up to 15 years, which is a real advantage compared to other CI platforms that can only start competitor monitoring following the signature of the agreement.
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S&P CIQ Pro has great data, however, the new pro version is currently difficult to use given how slow the data is to process
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Reliability and Availability
The availability of Alphasense is great. I have used the software for multiple years and cannot remember ever having an outage issue. This is surprising actually, as I use other software applications that do not have regular outages, but still have outages periodically. Alphasense, on the other hand, never seems to have any outages. Good sign if I can't remember the software not working :).
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Performance
Loading or performing searches on AlphaSense platform is reasonably fast for most of the time. However, it is sometimes unacceptably long for me to load PDF files (earnings presentation, supplementary financial report) on AlphaSense. Certain features might also take very long time, such as loading for "similar tables" across EDGAR filings, or downloading tables from EDGAR filings
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No answers on this topic
Support Rating
Customer support is very prompt. I get personalized support for search recommendations and content that I could not find in my own search. Support checks in with me on a bi-monthly basis to keep me informed of the many different feature additions, I cannot find a more kind, understanding, and supportive team.
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No answers on this topic
In-Person Training
The person was prepared, attentive, understood the nature of my questions, was willing to work through any difficulties or misunderstandings, was patient, and super pleasant to work with. Great customer service.
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No answers on this topic
Online Training
Trainers address the basics, and such training was meant for new users. Instructions are really helpful by providing scenarios that our team will face in our daily tasks. It will be more thoughtful if the training is conducted by case studies so as to allow new users to get first-hand experience during the training.
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No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
seamless integration
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Alternatives Considered
Compared to FactSet and PitchBook, AlphaSense is a good tool to fill my suite of financial analysis. PitchBook is superior for private company and transaction data, as well as screening for similar companies (the sourcing feature of the job). FactSet is superior for financial analysis for public companies, as well as charting data. AlphaSense is superior in research for documents and deep dive industry research (mostly qualitative) and grabbing data from financial documents
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While Bloomberg has a much more comprehensive view of the markets and typically has more up-to-date information in terms of overall news, Cap IQ is easier to integrate into existing financial models, and the formula builder included with the Excel plugin makes it easy to pull relevant financial data as well as update it based on a specific time frame.
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Scalability
The sharing features provides by AlphaSense mean that it can be readily scaled for teams within an organization and, subject to compliance requirements, with client organizations. The ability to share annotations of transcripts and investor releases is valuable, and facilitates collaboration between analysts.
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Return on Investment
  • Research speed has now increased to a single day, allowing us to find everything we want about an industry, compared to 3-5 days before with Alphasense.
  • Comps analysis, gathering detailed financial information, is now seamless and can be completed in less than 1 hour, compared to 1-2 days.
  • Expert interview access, before Alphasense, we had no way of including this into our analysis. This has significantly improved the quality of our decisions and research.
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  • The breadth and depth of the company's financial data set are what sets it apart as the finest in the industry.
  • Having the ability to pay the monthly fee online is a major benefit. Neither is it very high, but I wouldn't characterize it as low, either. It's quite economical.
  • Data quality and accuracy are what set it apart from competitors.
Read full review
ScreenShots

AlphaSense Screenshots

Screenshot of AlphaSense's AI search, available across 2,000+ premium business data sources including SEC filings, earnings calls, broker research, business journals, and news. It can be used to stay ahead of market-moving trends and instantly surface critical information buried within millions of documents.Screenshot of a single view of the industries, companies and themes within a fully-customizable dashboard, that can be tailored to fit any research process.Screenshot of a purpose-built generative AI that offers insights from a premium content universe.