MarketBeat vs. Benzinga Pro Comparison

Retail investors are always looking for an edge in their investing or trading decisions. And it’s easier than ever for those investors to find that information. And, to be fair, there are many quality sites that investors can choose from. In fact, the sheer volume of investment services can make it hard to distinguish what is truly different about each service.

In other words, are you getting what you’re paying for? Are you making better investment decisions because of the information you receive.

We’re here to help. In this article, we’re going to compare MarketBeat to Benzinga Pro. A common feature of both sites is access to extensive free information. In some cases, the sites give you free access to information that other sites keep behind a pay wall. But is there a difference beyond price?

The purpose of this comparison is for you to better understand what each service provides, particularly if investors choose to access the company’s premium services. Here are the topics this article will cover:

MarketBeat Overview

Benzinga Pro Overview

How Are MarketBeat and Benzinga Pro Alike

The Key Difference

Review of Premium Services

Conclusion

MarketBeat Overview

MarketBeat was founded in 2011 with the mission of creating high-quality stock research tools and making them available to investors at all levels. The site uses the latest technology to provide proprietary, comprehensive, accurate, and up-to-the-minute financial data including information about analyst recommendations, dividend declarations, and earnings announcements.

All of this information, and more, was made available for free on the company’s website and via the company’s daily newsletters. MarketBeat aims to be a go-to resource for both retail and institutional investors. Currently over 15 million individuals visit MarketBeat.com every month.

Benzinga Pro Overview

Benzinga Pro launched in 2010 by Jason Raznik as a site that would deliver real-time news to day traders and investors. The service has since evolved into a financial news hub with its own staff of reporters and a dedicated news center. Benzinga Pro is the company’s premium upgrade to the base news service. Benzinga Pro supplies fresh market data to TD Ameritrade, TradeStation, Bloomberg and MarketWatch.

According to Benzinga, the Benzinga Pro platform is different from its competition because it can be customized and can be run on multiple windows and multiple monitors. On the dashboard, you’ll see your watchlist, vital news, and instant company details. Subscribers also get one-click access to premium features such as the Squawk box, Stock Screener, Custom Alerts, and Chat. Subscribers also have The Benzinga Calendar which displays the upcoming macro-economic news. And, The Security SnapShots feature give members an overview of their stock’s profile.

How Are MarketBeat and Benzinga Pro Alike?

Both MarketBeat and Benzinga Pro compete with Bloomberg Terminal. However, whereas Bloomberg is clearly priced, and targeted, for institutional investors, both MarketBeat and Benzinga are accessible to retail investors. As you’ll see, both sites have many of the same features. The original content on both sites provides stock-specific news that largely drives investor sentiment. 

Both sites provide an extensive amount of free content on their websites. For example, users can search for specific stocks and they’ll get similar information such as earnings information, analyst ratings, dividend history, and interactive price charts. Both sites get high marks for ease of navigation.  And both MarketBeat and Benzinga Pro have mobile apps so you have access to the services wherever you are.

Here’s a closer look at some of the key features.

Market Insight & Stock Picks

MarketBeat provides subscribers with the Early Bird which is delivered every morning before the market opens as well as the Night Owl which is delivered every evening.

• These newsletters give readers insight on stocks that MarketBeat analysts are tracking as well as a curated selection of investment articles from other financial outlets.
• These newsletters do not directly make stock picks.
• In addition to these newsletters, the MarketBeat site is refreshed every day in real-time with Top Stories including Most Read Stories and the Most Recent Stories. Many of these articles provide exclusive content from MarketBeat analysts.

Benzinga Pro provides subscribers with a dedicated newsfeed that features customizable filters, real-time notifications, and the “Why Is It Moving” (WIIM) feature that gives investors a one-sentence description of why a particular stock is moving. 

Portfolio Services

Both sites offer free portfolio tracker tools. Subscribers receive daily email alerts, earnings estimate revisions, analyst recommendation changes, and real-time updates. .

Ticker Search

Both sites have an easy-to-use search tool that allows subscribers to get more information on the holdings in your portfolio, or to look at new trades. Both sites give you earnings data, analyst ratings, and other features. And both sites make it easy to quickly add those stocks to your portfolio. MarketBeat provides information about quarterly earnings including links to transcripts of the earnings call and the SEC Form-4 filings.

Stock Screeners

Both sites offer stock screening tools that let investors screen based on attributes and trading style.

Investment Ideas

The “heart” of MarketBeat is the My MarketBeat tab. This provides subscribers with access to information such as Research Tools, Stock Screeners, Top-Rated Analysts, Stock Lists, Trending Stocks and Premium Reports.

Benzinga Pro offers users its Movers tool that provides an up-to-the-minute feed of the biggest gainers and losers in the stock market. Users can easily find the top market movers and take advantage of news that affects stocks in their portfolio or watchlist.

The Key Difference

Benzinga Pro has two proprietary features that MarketBeat does not offer. The Audio Squawk Box reduces the amount of time investors have to spend in front of a screen by delivering real-time audio feeds of the latest market events. The commentary is picked up by other sources, including by Bloomberg.

Another feature that separates Benzinga Pro from MarketBeat is the NewsDesk chat feature. With this feature, subscribers have the company’s staff of personal stock experts available to answer questions and provide insight as to what is happening with a particular investment.

Review of Premium Services

For buy-and-hold investors who simply want to have instant information regarding the equities in their portfolio, these free services may be adequate. However active traders will typically need access to more detailed insights. For that, both companies offer several premium services. For the purpose of this article, premium services are defined as services for which customers have to pay to access.

MarketBeat Premium Services

MarketBeat Momentum Alerts - $97 per year

• This service provides short-term trading opportunities identified by MarketBeat editors using trading momentum, market sentiment, and specific financial triggers.
• Subscribers receive approximately 3 to 5 new ideas each month through MarketBeat Momentum Alerts.

MarketBeat Daily Premium – $199 per year/$19.97 monthly

• MarketBeat Daily Premium is delivered 30 minutes before the market opens and provides actionable news, analyst upgrades and downgrades, dividend payout changes, insider buying and selling disclosures, earnings reports and technical data.
• Subscribers get information that is personalized to their My MarketBeat stock portfolio and watchlist, giving them the latest information for the stocks they care about the most.
• Investors can also choose to receive email or SMS alerts for their stocks so they don't miss major shifts in the market.
• Their daily newsletter contains a summary of key analyst ratings, earnings and dividend announcements, insider transactions of the day.

MarketBeat All Access – $399 per year/$39.97 monthly

• MarketBeat All Access is the company’s premier research platform.
• Subscribers receive all the information included in MarketBeat Daily Premium, plus a Sunday market preview, advanced portfolio monitoring tools (via My MarketBeat), access to MarketBeat’s full suite of research tools and stock screeners, a real-time news feed including email and SMS alerts.
• Subscribers also get access to the MarketBeat Idea Engine, trending stock lists, proprietary brokerage rankings, extended data export tools, and more.

Benzinga Pro Premium Services

Benzinga refers to Benzinga Pro as “The New Face of Financial Research” – it provides an intuitively designed workspace for delivering powerful market insight. Benzinga currently has three versions of this service:

Benzinga Pro Basic - $948 per year (20% off monthly plan) or $99 per month/free trial available

Benzinga Pro Basic offers features that are not available in the free service including:

• Nasdaq basic delayed quotes
• Watchlist alerts
• Details tool with key stock statistics
• Movers
• Newsfeed access – (Benzinga headlines and articles, press releases, SEC filings, partner content, etc.)
• Calendar suite

Benzinga Pro Essential - $1,404 per year (34% off monthly plan) or $177 per month/free trial available

This is Benzinga’s most popular service. It includes all the features of the “Basic” package, plus these additional features:

• Nasdaq Basic Real-Time Quotes
• Audio Squawk
• Newsdesk Chat
• Sentiment Indicators
• Signals (Options Activity Available for an Additional Fee)

Benzinga Pro Annual Options Mentorship - $3,372 per year (19% off monthly plan) or $347 per month/free trial available

This package includes all the features of the “Basic” package, plus these additional features:

• Trading Mentorship & Education from Leading Trader, Nic Chahine
• Access to the Options Inner Circle Chat Room led by Nic Chahine
• Regular Market Overview to Match Nic's Winning Trading Strategy

Conclusion

Why would we do this? For starters, we’re confident in the value that your MarketBeat subscription provides.  Second we realize that, as with streaming services, investors may have different sites that they use for different purposes. And while we certainly believe that MarketBeat can be your one-stop site for all things investing, we want to provide the information so you can decide for yourself.

As you can see, both MarketBeat and Benzinga Pro offer many tools for investors of all types. What may be right for you will depend on a combination of factors. Objectively, MarketBeat’s premium services cost less and may satisfy the information needs of most traders. The site is a one-stop resource that will provide most investors with the information they need to execute a trade.