FilingPulse

sec-api.io alternatives in 2026

Facts last verified 2026-08-19.

sec-api.io is the incumbent for commercial EDGAR data, and its coverage is genuinely the broadest available — full-text search, XBRL, 13F, and dozens of form types. The usual reasons people look at alternatives are concrete ones: the free tier is a one-time 100-call allowance rather than a monthly quota, the $49–55/mo entry plan is license-restricted (startups under 5 employees, individual developers, university researchers) and excludes full-text search, and business use starts at $199/mo billed annually. (Source: sec-api.io/pricing, read 2026-08-19.)

Who is writing this: we build FilingPulse, so we have an obvious interest. To keep this useful anyway, every factual claim about another provider below was read from that provider's own public pages on the date shown, each section links its source, and we say plainly where a competitor is the better choice. If you find something out of date, email keys@filingpulse.io and we will fix it.

The alternatives

FilingPulse (that's us)

What it is: three EDGAR datasets — Form 4 insider trades, 8-K corporate events classified by item code, and the S-1/F-1 registration lifecycle — normalized to one frozen JSON schema, with HMAC-signed webhooks on new filings and a hosted MCP server for AI agents. Values stay strings exactly as filed; every documented field is always present. The full contract is public at GET /v1/schema.

Choose it when: you want complete normalized filing objects (footnotes, derivative legs, holdings — not flattened rows), push delivery the minute a filing lands, and a free tier you can actually build on: 2,500 requests/month with no card. Paid tiers ($19/$49/$99) buy volume, not access — the schema and data are identical on every tier.

Know going in: we cover three verticals, not all of EDGAR — no full-text search, no XBRL financials, no 13F (yet). Form 4 history is backfilling continuously and the live coverage window is published at /v1/health; S-1 tracking is live-forward since August 2026. We launched in July 2026 — young, and we'd rather say so than pretend otherwise. HMAC-signed webhooks on new filings carries a per-subscription secret and a fixed retry ladder.

SEC EDGAR (official APIs)

Choose it when: The source of truth, free forever, and the right choice whenever raw documents or XBRL financial-statement facts are all you need. Every provider on this page, us included, is built on it.

Know going in: Normalization, ticker lookup on filings, 8-K item classification, historical assembly, and any push delivery are yours to build and operate.

Facts: https://www.sec.gov/search-filings/edgar-application-programming-interfaces, read 2026-08-19.

Financial Modeling Prep

Choose it when: A broad financial-data platform — fundamentals, statements, quotes, news — where SEC filings are one dataset among many; good when you want financials and filings from one vendor.

Know going in: Filings endpoints return metadata and links rather than complete normalized filing objects, and delivery is poll-only.

Facts: https://site.financialmodelingprep.com/pricing-plans, read 2026-08-19.

Finnhub

Choose it when: A generous free market-data tier at 60 calls/min that includes filings metadata — hard to beat for hobby projects that mostly need quotes and fundamentals.

Know going in: Insider data is flattened rows without footnotes, derivative detail, or holdings, and the jump from free to paid is $3,500/mo.

Facts: https://finnhub.io/pricing, read 2026-08-19.

edgartools (open source)

Choose it when: The best self-hosted option: actively maintained, parses insider filings, 13F, XBRL and more into Python objects, and costs nothing but your time.

Know going in: You operate everything — polling, storage, backfill, uptime — inside the SEC's 10 req/s budget, and there is no API for non-Python consumers without building one.

Facts: https://github.com/dgunning/edgartools, read 2026-08-19.

Massive (formerly Polygon.io)

Choose it when: A major market-data platform (formerly Polygon.io) that has recently added SEC filings endpoints — attractive if you already use it for market data.

Know going in: Filings recency is documented as daily, so it is not a fit for reacting to filings the minute EDGAR accepts them.

Facts: https://massive.com/docs/rest/stocks/filings/form-4, read 2026-08-19.

When sec-api.io is still the right answer

If your workload depends on full-text search across all EDGAR filings, XBRL-to-JSON conversion, 13F institutional holdings, or the long tail of form types, none of the alternatives above — including us — replaces it today. The honest move is to pay for the tier that carries the feature you need.

Sources

Competitor facts were read from these pages on the dates shown. Pricing and limits change; the linked page always wins over this one.

More comparisons: Best SEC EDGAR API in 2026 · FilingPulse vs sec-api.io · Free SEC EDGAR API options