FMP vs Alpha Vantage: Fundamentals Depth vs Global Symbols

FMP vs Alpha Vantage sets Financial Modeling Prep, a fundamentals-and-filings API, against Alpha Vantage’s broader global-symbol and indicator catalog. FMP (Financial Modeling Prep) wins for cheap statements, DCF models and a bigger free tier; Alpha Vantage wins for international symbol reach and built-in technical indicators. Options split them further. FMP sells none at all, and Alpha Vantage’s thin endpoint has no chain filtering.

FMP vs Alpha Vantage: the feature comparison

FMP’s free tier allows 250 calls a day, ten times Alpha Vantage’s 25, and both are end-of-day only with no card required. FMP’s paid entry tier is $22 a month billed annually for claimed real-time US data, five years of history and 300 calls a minute; Alpha Vantage’s entry tier is $49.99 a month, $41.58 annually. FMP’s core strength is depth most APIs skip: full financial statements, DCF models, 13F institutional holdings and insider-trade search, plus a first-party MCP server and native Sheets and Excel add-ins.

Alpha Vantage answers with reach instead. Over 100,000 global symbols, 50-plus technical indicators, and its own hosted MCP server, though it has no dedicated SEC-filings endpoint at all. FMP has no options product of any kind; Alpha Vantage’s REALTIME_OPTIONS endpoint is real but has no chain filtering by strike or expiration.

Does FMP or Alpha Vantage have better free access?

The FMP free tier wins on raw allowance: 250 calls a day against Alpha Vantage’s 25, both end-of-day only with no card required. Alpha Vantage answers with breadth instead, reaching more asset classes and every technical indicator, so the better free plan depends on whether you need volume or reach first.

A Financial Modeling Prep vs Alpha Vantage decision on price alone favors FMP. Its entry paid tier is cheaper too, at $22 a month against Alpha Vantage’s $49.99.

Financial Modeling Prep

FMP is the deeper research tool: statements, ratios, analyst estimates and 13F filings reach back up to 30 years on its highest self-serve tier, and a first-party MCP server bills calls against the same plan with no separate account. Its own pricing pages disagree on two tier names for identical prices, worth a screenshot before you commit to one. Websocket delivery for stocks, forex and crypto exists too, but it needs that same top plan, a signed User Declaration Form, and one connection per account. Trustpilot rates it 3.8 out of 5 on 98 reviews, a bimodal spread: 64% five-star praising price and support, 23% one-star over data-accuracy audits and undocumented endpoint changes.

Alpha Vantage

Alpha Vantage is the wider net outside fundamentals: 100,000-plus symbols, forex, crypto and news sentiment scoring bundled in, with a REST-only REALTIME_OPTIONS endpoint that has no chain filtering by strike or expiration. Its Excel add-in exists too, but it is still a Windows-only beta, where FMP’s has shipped as a full release. Its Trustpilot rating is 2.4 out of 5 on 11 reviews, with complaints about stale “real-time” data and slow support on paid plans.

Why can prices from FMP and Alpha Vantage differ from ours on the same day?

Usually because one source adjusts past prices for later splits and corporate actions and the other does not. Adjusted history changes whenever a new corporate action lands, so a value you fetched last month can come back different today.

That default cost us. In April 2026 an institution valuing donated stock told us our highs and lows disagreed with other quote sites, and it withheld a subscription payment for five weeks while we investigated. A donation is valued at the price that traded that day, so it needed unadjusted candles: two query parameters removed all five discrepancies it reported. The same review found a real bug that dropped the third decimal from some prices, and we fixed it.

What if you need a commercial license for FMP and Alpha Vantage?

We refer you to our partner Intrinio. We made that change in February 2025, after IEX ended free redistribution of real-time stock prices for business use, because exchange compliance for business customers was more than our small team could handle.

The volume is steady: from 1 to 25 September 2026 we passed on 22 commercial enquiries. Each one described a product that would show prices, or something built from them, to other people.

Should you choose FMP or Alpha Vantage?

Choose FMP for statements, DCF models, filings or a cheap MCP-connected agent. Choose Alpha Vantage for global symbol reach or built-in technical indicators, and accept a thinner free tier and no filings product at all.

Market Data covers neither job: commercial plans begin at $333 per month through our partner Intrinio rather than a self-serve checkout, and our own fundamentals stop at earnings, with no statements, ratios or 13F data to compete with FMP. Where we outdo both is options. Real-time options cost one credit per contract returned, on the Trader plan and above, and the 30-day trial never includes them. FMP has nothing to compare, and Alpha Vantage’s unfiltered options endpoint is not a serious alternative to a full chain. Our options data API page lines up that chain pricing in full.

Both providers appear in our ranking of financial data providers, and the best stock API comparison scores FMP and Alpha Vantage, alongside Market Data, on the same six criteria.