Disclosure: We scrutinize our research, ratings and reviews using strict editorial integrity. In full transparency, this site may receive compensation from partners listed through affiliate partnerships, though this does not affect our ratings.
Seeking Alpha's
Alpha Picks
3.9
50% discount: $99 for first year;
$199 per year thereafter
Motley Fool
Rule Breakers
4.0
$99 for 1st year;
$299 renewal
Motley Fool
Stock Advisor
4.7
$79 for 1st year; $199 renewal
Swendstone
Asset Management
4.8
Subscription
$50-$Unlimited
Being a discerning investor is, for better or worse, all about the homework.
If you’re “doing it right,” you’re culling through useful information regularly on stock analysis websites, stock news apps, research reports and other valuable information.
Being a data-driven investor myself, I have my favorite investment research software, stock research websites and informational apps I use to source my best stock picks—and I plan to share many of these tools with you today.
By leveraging these powerful investment tools, you should gain an investing edge and make more informed decisions with how you deploy your capital.
Among my personally tested picks are Seeking Alpha’s Premium service and Motley Fool’s Stock Advisor and Rule Breakers services, three of my top recommendations.
I subscribed to them during graduate school, and they pointed me toward some “diamonds in the rough,” which allowed me to buy at low prices, hold for a few years, and eventually sell these appreciating assets to buy my first place: a condo in downtown New Orleans.
I still utilize these services for reliable data, opinions and stock ratings to select the individual stocks I choose to hold outside of my portfolio of index funds.
So, let’s dig in. Today, I’ll highlight some of the best stock research websites on the web. Importantly, I’m taking a broad approach so there’s something here for every investor. Some are laser-focused on DIY stock research, others also help you select exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and mutual funds, still others provide more stock market news, and a few are all about providing you with stock picks.
What matters most is finding the best fit for you.
Best Investing Websites—Top Picks
Best for Investment Management Firm
Best Introductory Stock Newsletter
Best Growth Stock Newsletter
Data-Driven Stock Picking Service
What Are Investment Portfolio Websites And Why You Need To Invest In An Investment Firm?
A portfolio investment is a type of passive investment in an asset that is acquired with the expectation of earning income or capital appreciation or both. This investment approach involves selecting a range of assets that are believed to have high potential for growth or returns, which may range from stocks and bonds to mutual funds and real estate. Unlike active investments, portfolio investments are managed passively, with the aim of generating long-term returns by avoiding excessive buying and selling. Ultimately, the success of a portfolio investment depends on the individual investor's risk tolerance, investment goals, and market conditions.
Investing with a professional investment firm is a significant benefit as they handle all the trades and analyses while you focus on your daily routine. By having a plan with them, you can trust in their expertise to make informed decisions on buying and selling. This saves you time and effort, allowing you to concentrate on other tasks or interests while still growing your portfolio. Their knowledge and experience can also help minimize risks and maximize returns, making it a smart choice for those looking to invest.
Based on our analysis, we recommend the following:
1. Swendstone Asset Management (Best Asset Management Firm)
Available: Sign up here
Swendstone, an established asset management firm, has a history of successfully turning around the finances of their clients. With an experienced team of professional traders, they are widely recognized as one of the best in the market.
Swendstone is an exclusive platform that requires a referral to join as they prioritize their community's integrity and trust. As they see themselves as a tightly-knit community, having someone vouch for a new member ensures that they align with the platform's values and norms. Swendstone is a professional and collaborative financial management platform that focuses on making profitable investments for its members. By keeping membership exclusive, Swendstone can maintain a high standard of quality in their community, making it a valuable platform to invest with.
To sign up for Swendstones, you can visit their website and contact their support team. Once you complete the necessary verification steps, they will provide you with a referral link to complete your signup process. This option is available most times, and you can receive assistance from the support team as needed.
What Are the Best Stock Market Websites?
If you’re looking to make an informed investment with upside potential (which, aren’t we all?), you’ll want to consult stock research websites to gather information and develop investment rationales. This means using trusted sources that gather information, provide news, display data, and maybe even make investment recommendations.
The best stock research websites will provide a combination of important features: stock analysis tools, stock and fund screeners, real-time data, even investing advice. (For the record, a site doesn’t need all of these to rank among the best investment resources, but the best stock market websites are typically going to be feature-rich.)
The following list of the most indispensable stock market research sites, software, and apps should help you narrow your search.
1. Seeking Alpha (Best Stock Analysis Website for Investment Research + Stock Recommendations)
Available: Sign up here
Even the free version of Seeking Alpha ranks among the best stock research websites. But we’re going to specifically highlight Seeking Alpha Premium, which caters to intermediate and advanced investors looking for an affordable, all-inclusive, one-stop shop for their investing needs.
Seeking Alpha itself has more than 16,000 active contributors sharing stock analysis. In-house editors vet these pieces before they’re read and discussed by millions of people. Reading different opinions about the same stock helps investors develop their own informed opinions on the likelihood a stock will rise or fall. I recommend this approach when learning how to research stocks.
SA also offers stock research tools, real-time news updates, crowdsourced debates, and market data. Users can create their own portfolio of favorite stocks, see how they perform, and receive email alerts or push notifications about their investments.
However, while the basic SA website has a significant amount of information, some features remain reserved for the Premium Plan and Pro Plan members.
Seeking Alpha Premium
With a Seeking Alpha Premium subscription, you will enjoy unparalleled access with an ad-lite user experience.
SA Premium is an all-in-one investing research and recommendation service that offers insightful analysis, financial news, stock research, and more—all designed to help you make better investing decisions.
Seeking Alpha Premium can help you manage your stock portfolio by putting you in touch with a large investing community—one that can help you research stocks and understand the financial world and provide you with ideas for your next great investment.
Premium plan members can see the ratings of authors whose articles they read. (After all, it’s useful to know whether you’re reading the opinion of someone with a top record, or someone who’s whiffing a lot.) And Premium subscribers unlock analyses from SA-designated “experts.”
Among the other benefits:
A stock screener that lets you filter by average analyst rating
Earnings conference call transcripts
10 years’ worth of financial statements
Ability to compare stocks side-by-side with peers
Access to dividend and earnings forecasts
How Has Seeking Alpha Premium Performed?
SA’s Premium subscription provides full access to the service’s Stock Quant Ratings. These are collections of the best (to the worst)-rated stocks according to three independent investment resources provided on Seeking Alpha’s website. These cross checks and validations come from: (1) the Seeking Alpha Quant Model, (2) independent SA contributors, and (3) Wall Street analysts. The list of best stock recommendations gets further vetted by quantitative and fundamental analysis.
Look at the dramatic market outperformance seen by these quant-fueled “Strong Buy” stock picks as compared to the S&P 500 (total return with dividends reinvested):
Seeking Alpha Pro
A Seeking Alpha Pro subscription includes all of the features offered by Seeking Alpha Premium, then packs on additional services, such as:
The Top Ideas recommendation list
Exclusive newsletter subscriptions and interviews
VIP Editorial Concierge
Seeking Alpha Pro stock screener for investing ideas
A completely ad-free experience
In short: The Pro tier, which is geared toward professional investors, is more expensive than the Premium tier—but it comes with more goodies.
Why Subscribe to Seeking Alpha?
Seeking Alpha distills relevant financial information for you so you don’t have to—making it easy for anyone interested in self-directed investing to have a chance at outperforming the market.
Consider starting a 14-day free trial to take advantage of SA’s Premium services and see if they make sense for your needs.
2. Motley Fool Rule Breakers (Best Stock Market Website for Growth Recommendations)
Available: Sign up here
Motley Fool has long been regarded as one of the best stock research websites you’ll ever come across. And its Motley Fool Rule Breakers service focuses on aggressive investors who are most interested in growth.
Rule Breakers aims to help you discover market-beating growth stocks and learn which businesses will become tomorrow’s market leaders. The service famously recommended Amazon, Tesla, and Netflix, among others, before they became the household names we know today. They targeted these companies early and continued to recommend them over time as more investors joined their service.
This stock advisor website typically sends out its emails on Thursdays, with their newest recommendations coming on a set schedule:
Second Thursday of the month: One specific, detailed New Stock Recommendation where the Rule Breakers team outlines the full case for their latest stock recommendation
Third Thursday of the month: 5 Best Buys Now—a short listing of previous Motley Fool recommendations the service feels still provide upside appreciation potential
Fourth Thursday of the month: New stock recommendation, just like on the second Thursday (two new stocks per month)
How Has Motley Fool’s Rule Breakers Performed?
Over the past 15 years, Rule Breakers has almost doubled the S&P 500, beating many leading money managers on Wall Street. Their results speak for themselves and easily justify the affordable price tag of $99 for the first year.
Consider signing up for the Rule Breakers service and investing in these growth companies with a paper trading account.
If you’re not satisfied with the service after signing up, they offer a full-membership-fee back guarantee within 30 days of purchase.
3. Seeking Alpha’s Alpha Picks (Best Data-Driven Stock Recommendation Service)
Available: Sign up here
Are you looking for a way to beat the market consistently? Consider Seeking Alpha’s Alpha Picks.
Alpha Picks is a stock selection service that provides you with two of the best stock picks each month that SA determines have the greatest chance for price upside. They base their selections on fundamentals such as valuation, growth, profitability, and momentum—not hype.
The stock selection process relies on Seeking Alpha’s proprietary, data-driven computer scoring system to screen and recommend stocks for more conservative “buy-and-hold” investors.
And if results from their backtest (run from 2010 to 2022) are any indication, historical simulations of the methodology behind their strategy prove it has worked: Alpha Picks’ recommendations outperformed the S&P 500 Index by 180 percentage points (+470% for SA vs. +290% for the S&P 500).
A bit more detail about how this works: Alpha Picks relies on the existing Seeking Alpha Quant model available to Seeking Alpha Premium and Pro users, but with a bit of modification. Namely, all recommendations must meet the following criteria:
Hold a Strong Buy Quant rating for a minimum of 75 days
Market cap greater than $500 million
Stock price greater than $10
Is a publicly traded common stock (no American Depository Receipts [ADRs])
Be the highest-rated stock at the time of selection that has not been previously recommended within the past year (Alpha Picks releases one pick at the start of the month, another in the middle)
If you sign up for the service, you can expect the following:
Two long-term stock picks to buy and hold for at least two years, delivered every month
Detailed explanations from Seeking Alpha behind why they rate each stock pick so highly
Notifications when a recommendation changes
Regular updates on current Buy recommendations
The service, designed for busy professionals interested in building a portfolio that outpaces the market but without the time to commit to finding these opportunities, is worth considering. If you’re interested, you can sign up for a discounted first-year price of $99.
4. Motley Fool Stock Advisor (Best Market Website for Steady-Performer Recommendations)
Available: Sign up here
Motley Fool, like Seeking Alpha, has earned multiple spots among the internet’s best stock research websites. Motley Fool’s signature product, Stock Advisor, aims to provide you with one thing: top picks for market-beating stocks from the site’s co-founders.
The service espouses my favorite, plain-vanilla trading style: buy-and-hold.
Of the two services offered by Motley Fool (Rule Breakers, previous), Stock Advisor is my pick of the bunch if you want consistent performance with less volatility.
The investment newsletter and service sends recommendations for “Steady Eddies” and potential high-flying stocks the service believes provide financially sound fundamentals.
Preferring to stick with companies that outperform steadily over time, Stock Advisor offers stock picks with investment rationales, research, and information to educate you about your investments.
How Has Motley Fool Stock Advisor Performed?
As a subscriber, you’re granted access to their history of recommendations and can see for yourself how they have done over the years.
According to their website, the Motley Fool Stock Advisor stock subscription service has returned 356% since its inception in February 2002 when you calculate the average return of all their stock recommendations over the last 17 years.
Comparatively, the S&P 500 only had a 117% return during that same timeframe.
What to Expect from Motley Fool Stock Advisor
The Motley Fool Stock Advisor service provides a lot of worthwhile resources to subscribers.
“Starter Stocks” recommendations to serve as a foundation to your portfolio, whether you’re a new investor or experienced
Two new stock picks each month
10 “Best Buys Now” chosen from more than 300 stocks the service watches
Investing resources with the stock picking service’s library of stock recommendations
Access to community of investors engaged in outperforming the market and talking shop
The service charges a discounted rate for the first year and has a 30-day membership-fee refund period. Consider signing up for Stock Advisor today.
Read more in our Motley Fool Stock Advisor review.