AlphaSense vs. S&P Capital IQ

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
AlphaSense
Score 9.5 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 7.8 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
No answers on this topic
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
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 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
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
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
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 makes it easy to get to the right info quickly. The coverage of industries and companies for broker research is much more than the other products. AlphaSense also includes detailed financial info for companies and its AI-based summaries are helpful.
Chose AlphaSense
Capital IQ has more data but capital IQ is very clunky to use (it is very slow). Capital IQ lacks expert insight calls but has other data to offer including credit analytics
BamSEC only has SEC documents and has integrated with Tegus expert calls. It is lighter on data and …
Chose AlphaSense
AlphaSense is one tool I have in my analyst toolbox that helps me dive deep into the research process. It isn't the first place I go when I begin the research process, but it's one area where I spend more time the deeper I get into the process.
Chose AlphaSense
Much better
Chose AlphaSense
AlphaSense is my go to for market intelligence. Capital IQ is my go to for financial data - mainly because I am use to it. PitchBook is my go to for private investment round / private company data
Chose AlphaSense
Nothing else had the platform capabilities nor the level of access to information that AlphaSense does. Everything else I tried had one area or type of information it aggregated, but none of them were able to integrate information the way AlphaSense does, and most of them …
Chose AlphaSense
AlphaSense's search engine for filings is powerful/more UI friendly than its competitors.
Chose AlphaSense
AlphaSense provides a much more user-friendly UI/UX than S&P's Capital IQ. It has the same, if not more content, and is much easier to jump in and use without needing months of training to know where everything is. There are a few features like stock price tracking that CapIQ …
Chose AlphaSense
AlphaSense has hands down greater coverage of analyst reports. AlphaSense's search and filter capabilities also look superior and more easy to use.
Chose AlphaSense
Not much compares to AlphaSense, it's my go to for research on public companies CapIQ is a comparator for analyst reports but they are easy to pull on AlphaSense
Chose AlphaSense
AlphaSense is much better at searching qualitative information (e.g., analyst reports); CapIQ is still better for getting historical financial data.
Chose AlphaSense
Stronger in terms of 3rd party reports. Weaker in terms of the depth of financial information available.
Chose AlphaSense
I have not used any other platform like AlphaSense.
Chose AlphaSense
AlphaSense is a little cleaner than Refinitiv and S&P since it does not house financial information.
Chose AlphaSense
As compared to Refinitiv, AlphaSense is easier to use off the shelf (has less of the codes to find exactly what one's looking for) and provides more detailed insights a lot quicklier.
Chose AlphaSense
AlphaSense is more user-friendly. Keyword search is way better and table explorer feature makes it easier to collate data.
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 …
Features
AlphaSenseS&P Capital IQ
Financial Research
Comparison of Financial Research features of Product A and Product B
AlphaSense
7.7
185 Ratings
5% above category average
S&P Capital IQ
6.4
3 Ratings
14% below category average
Private Company Data5.4151 Ratings6.03 Ratings
Industry-Specific Information7.9178 Ratings7.73 Ratings
Independent Research Access8.4170 Ratings8.52 Ratings
M&A Analysis7.0141 Ratings5.33 Ratings
Supply Chain Data7.396 Ratings5.01 Ratings
ESG Data7.395 Ratings5.52 Ratings
Credit Ratings Reports8.283 Ratings7.33 Ratings
Macroeconomic News8.4132 Ratings6.33 Ratings
Search Tools9.0172 Ratings6.33 Ratings
Best Alternatives
AlphaSenseS&P Capital IQ
Small Businesses

No answers on this topic

No answers on this topic

Medium-sized Companies
S&P Capital IQ
S&P Capital IQ
Score 7.8 out of 10

No answers on this topic

Enterprises
S&P Capital IQ
S&P Capital IQ
Score 7.8 out of 10
Factiva
Factiva
Score 7.3 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
AlphaSenseS&P Capital IQ
Likelihood to Recommend
9.7
(253 ratings)
7.0
(10 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.6
(20 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Usability
8.8
(249 ratings)
7.0
(3 ratings)
Availability
8.8
(22 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
7.6
(22 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
8.3
(17 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
In-Person Training
9.1
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Online Training
6.7
(8 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
9.1
(5 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Configurability
6.1
(5 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
9.0
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
8.2
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
7.4
(22 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Professional Services
8.2
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
8.2
(5 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
8.3
(5 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
AlphaSenseS&P Capital IQ
Likelihood to Recommend
AlphaSense
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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S&P Global Inc.
Cap IQ is well suited for analyzing security pricing and valuation, tracking stock performance over time, looking up comparable transactions, and analyzing valuations on an industry basis. The service is also well suited for charting and data analysis purposes.
Read full review
Pros
AlphaSense
  • 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.
Read full review
S&P Global Inc.
  • On-demand reliable financial data either through the platform or through the Excel Plug-In
  • Great user interface, intuitive to use
  • Great help desk function, quick and responsive
  • Excellent auditability of financial data with easy traceback to source documents
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Cons
AlphaSense
  • I believe the AI agent could be improved to answer more detailed questions and provide better data.
  • Access to real time financial data in a similar vein to Koyfin.
  • The ability to easily search across all company decks to be able to quickly gather all relevant slides for a specific topic, similar to what Quartr offers.
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S&P Global Inc.
  • The scope and depth of the collected data can be increased.
  • The UI with little icons and buttons may be difficult at first but may become intuitive. The UI isn't horrible but might be better.
  • Global data coverage, but US and UK markets have the greatest details. MENA and APAC lack.
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Likelihood to Renew
AlphaSense
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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S&P Global Inc.
[It's the] best ever.
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Usability
AlphaSense
AlphaSense has a very intuitive user interface, and I can tell they have been focused on expanding their product breadth and continuing to innovate on current products. Some basic features are missing or I can't find (I can't just sort expert calls by only the ones that are applicable to that ticker, most relevant is the one that works best, but I want just the ticker)
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S&P Global Inc.
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
AlphaSense
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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S&P Global Inc.
No answers on this topic
Performance
AlphaSense
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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S&P Global Inc.
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
AlphaSense
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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S&P Global Inc.
No answers on this topic
In-Person Training
AlphaSense
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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S&P Global Inc.
No answers on this topic
Online Training
AlphaSense
Our online training was led by a AlphaSense representative. The training is always good. The bigger issue is our time availability to remember the training and utilize it. The trainers will show us examples and then ask us for real industries or companies of interest to use so that the training is most relevant.
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S&P Global Inc.
No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
AlphaSense
use friendly UI made the transition seamless
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S&P Global Inc.
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
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 platform by world’s leading corporations and financial institutions - AlphaSense’s proprietary AI stack has been meticulously engineered over a decade so that their AI accelerates speed-to-insight so clients can act with confidence when making critical decisions - Private and public companies, therapeutic areas and products can be monitored - Datalog is available up to 15 years, and advanced search is supported for them - Curated newsfeed is available from more than 3,500 top news publications, client requests and hand-picked vendors for premium subscription - Very advanced company profiles are available by default with newsfeed, original company documents, expert calls and reports - Newsfeed and alerts can be also set by admins and individual users
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S&P Global Inc.
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 can in Capital IQ.
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Contract Terms and Pricing Model
AlphaSense
It has been very simple. Contract terms are standard for an online portal. Of course, I would like unit pricing to be lower so I could get more users on the license or to rotate seats to get more value out of each license. Billing frequency has been standard as well. This could be more significant for a larger customer.
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S&P Global Inc.
No answers on this topic
Scalability
AlphaSense
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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S&P Global Inc.
No answers on this topic
Professional Services
AlphaSense
Very professional and knowledgeable team. Easy to work with and communicates in a way that's helpful for users who aren't experts on the platform
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S&P Global Inc.
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
AlphaSense
  • AlphaSense has allowed us to generate deeper competitive insights. For example, we conducted an in depth analysis of the aerial data analytics (drone) industry, and AlphSense helped us narrow in on the market leaders and their various strengths / weaknesses.
  • AlphaSense has improved our team's overall efficiency. With Stream in particular, we are able to pinpoint insights in a matter of minutes through the transcript feature as opposed to having to conduct a series of calls ourselves. This is a significant time saver.
  • AlphaSense has allowed us to make more informed decisions on our public holdings by providing us with unfettered access to equity research analyst reports.
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S&P Global Inc.
  • S&P Capital IQ contributes to a more comprehensive analysis of companies when making decisions on how best to market them to potential buyers.
  • S&P Capital IQ has enabled my company to be more efficient in learning about and valuing companies.
  • Due to the quality and reliability of information S&P Capital IQ has, it is saving my company large amounts of time.
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.