MarketBeat vs. MarketWatch Comparison

Investors are always looking for information they can use to make better investment decisions. The good news is that the internet allows financial publishers to provide content that can be accessed with just a few clicks. The bad news is that many sites have similar features. That can make it difficult to decide which source is the best value, particularly since many sites have premium services that do require a subscription. 

We’re here to help. In this article, we’re going to compare MarketBeat to MarketWatch. 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. In fact, at a high level, there may not be much that distinguishes the two sites. 

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 

MarketWatch Overview

The Key Difference

How Are MarketBeat and MarketWatch Alike

Review of Premium Services

Criticisms of the Two Sites

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. 

MarketWatch Overview

MarketWatch is a subsidiary of Dow Jones & Company, which itself is a property of News Corp. As such a good bit of the curated content on the site comes from other Dow Jones brands such as The Wall Street Journal, Investor’s Business Daily and Barron’s. In fact, you can read the best of Barron’s on the MarketWatch platform. This also means that the site does contain a lot of “branded” content. That doesn’t mean the information is inaccurate, but investors should be aware of the relationship with News Corp. 

The Key Difference

MarketWatch is known as a news source, which may work against it in terms of being viewed as a one-stop resource for investors. However, you can find features such as a Stock Screener, ETF Screener, Earnings Calendar, IPO Calendar, and more. The site also contains an educational section titled “How to Invest” that is populated with content from MarketWatch and Barron’s. 

MarketWatch offers more value to investors who are looking both investment and personal finance information. That may not be that unusual as the two can go hand-in-hand. However, that also does give the site a bit of a “jack of all trades” feel. 

While MarketBeat does offer some personal finance content, the site’s predominant focus is on investors and traders. The emphasis of the MarketBeat site is to provide investors with the opinion of the analyst community. It is the position of MarketBeat that stock price movement has a high correlation with analyst opinion. 

How Are MarketBeat and MarketWatch Alike?

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 MarketWatch have mobile apps so you have access to the services wherever you are. 

The bottom line is that from forex tracking to curated information about a particular stock, both MarketBeat and MarketWatch offer investors with many features including:

Watchlist 

Both sites give you access to your watchlist. MarketBeat allows you to input several watchlists and choose one of them to be your default watchlist. 

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. 

MarketWatch offers up to 17 different newsletters that subscribers can opt into through its Newsletter Center. This is how MarketWatch describes their newsletters:

• Need to Know - guides investors to the most important, insightful items required to chart a course ahead of each trading day.

• Distributed Ledger – provides a weekly look at the most important moves and news in crypto and what’s on the near-term horizon in digital assets.

• How to Invest - An introductory email series providing expert guidance on how to get started — and succeed — investing.

• Bulletin - Get breaking news notifications via email.

• Barron's Update - Stay informed with Barron's as we follow major news events and other timely developments.

• Personal Finance Daily - Top stories in personal finance.

• The Moneyist - The Moneyist provides answers to life's tricky money issues. Subscribe to have the latest Moneyist column sent to your inbox.

• Review & Preview - Every weekday evening we highlight the consequential market news of the day and explain what's likely to matter tomorrow.

• Tech Daily - Top stories in the technology sector.

• The Barron's Daily - A morning briefing on what you need to know in the day ahead, including exclusive commentary from Barron's and MarketWatch writers.

• ETF Wrap - Every week we highlight the most timely exchange-traded fund news, from new launches to inflows and performance.

• MarketWatch First Takes - Exclusive commentary and analysis on breaking news.

• Mutual Funds Weekly - The week’s top mutual funds and ETF stories. Delivered on Thursdays.

• Weekend Reads - Our roundup of the best MarketWatch articles of the week. Delivered on Fridays.

• Midday Report - An email summary of the top stories leading MarketWatch at midday.

• Europe Daily - A roundup of market news out of Europe.

• After the Bell - An email summary of the top stories leading MarketWatch after the market close.

Portfolio Services

Both sites offer free portfolio tracker tools. Subscribers receive daily email alerts, earnings estimate revisions, analyst recommendation changes, and more. The MarketBeat site provides real-time updates for subscribers. .

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. MarketWatch offers a Premarket Screener, After Hours Screener, and Mutual Fund Screener.

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. Yahoo Finance offers similar features under its My Portfolio tool. 

Virtual Stock Exchange

One feature that is unique to MarketWatch is a Virtual Stock Exchange. This simulation allows investors to experiment with different trades and trading strategies without putting capital at risk. 

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. 

MarketWatch Premium Services

MarketWatch has only recently launched a premium service. The company offers two packages. The MarketWatch & Barron’s All-Access Digital package is $22.99 per month. The MarketWatch All-Access Digital is $19.99 per month. Both packages give subscribers a four-week trial period for $1. 

The additional features you receive include:

• Unlimited access to MarketWatch across platforms and devices
• Unlimited access to Barron's across platforms and devices (only for MarketWatch & Barron’s subscribers)
• Member-exclusive content
• Watchlists and Newsletters
• Faster site speed due to fewer ads

Criticisms of the Two Sites

An online review of the two sites finds both sites to receive a generally favorable response with one specific criticism being applied to each site. 

For MarketBeat, some subscribers feel that the site pushes too much content by way of e-mails. So while they appreciate that the experience isn’t taken over by ad content, they don’t like receiving so many e-mails that attempt to sell additional services.

For MarketWatch the criticism is centered around the company’s recent decision to move their content behind a paywall. Individuals can still read a limited amount of articles for free, but after that they have to get a subscription. 

Conclusion

We believe that MarketBeat provides investors with tremendous value and insightful commentary that can truly make it a one-stop resource. However, we realize that investors have many sites to choose from and we want to provide you with the information so you can decide for yourself. 

MarketBeat and MarketWatch offer similar features. Investors looking for both investing and personal finance information may find MarketWatch to be a suitable solution. For investors that want actionable information that is based on recent analyst sentiment, MarketBeat may be a better choice.