Same SEC data. Complete platform. About half the price.
They give you raw JSON; we give you a filing intelligence platform — web UI, REST API, MCP server, AI Sentinels, and bulk datasets in one subscription.
sec-api.io is an API-first filings layer. If you need a web UI, AI analysis, real-time event inboxes, or an MCP server for your AI agent — you'd build them yourself, or pay 2× the price elsewhere. edgar.tools ships them in one platform from $24.99/month.
sec-api.io starts at $49/month billed annually ($55 month-to-month) for Personal and $199/month ($239 monthly) for Business; the free tier is 100 API calls total — lifetime, not monthly (verified June 2026). The free alternative is twofold: the open-source edgartools Python library (5M+ PyPI downloads) is free forever, and edgar.tools — from the same maintainer — has a permanent free tier with 100 API calls per day plus a full web UI. Paid edgar.tools tiers run $24.99–$79.99/month, roughly half of sec-api.io tier for tier, and add what sec-api.io doesn't sell: an MCP server (23 tools) for Claude, ChatGPT, and Cursor, AI-analyzed event inboxes, and bulk datasets.
No marketing-speak. Gold check on whichever platform genuinely leads on a given dimension. If you need what sec-api.io does best, the table will show it.
| Dimension | edgar.tools | sec-api.io |
|---|---|---|
| Web UI | Full app — filings, companies, screens, Sentinels | No UI; API only |
| AI event inboxes (Sentinels) | AI-analyzed 8-Ks in your inbox in seconds | Not offered |
| MCP server (for AI agents) | 23 tools + 5 recipe prompts — Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor | Not offered |
| Open-source library | edgartools Python · 5M+ PyPI downloads | Closed |
| Bulk datasets | Parquet/DuckDB subscriptions + one-time SKUs | Not offered |
| Free tier | 100 API calls/day (resets) + full web UI | 100 total. Ever. No reset. |
| Entry price | $24.99/mo Pro | $49/mo Personal |
| Analyst-tier price | $79.99/mo | $199/mo Business |
| Form ADV / adviser data | Full Form ADV graph · 40K+ advisers | Limited |
| Prospectus deal data (424B) | Pricing, underwriting, dilution, cap-table | Raw filing only |
| Form-type coverage | 400+ | 800+ |
| API throughput | Standard rate-limits per tier | 40 req/sec sustained |
| SDKs | Python (edgartools) | Node.js, C++ |
| Enforcement actions data | Not yet covered | Yes |
sec-api.io prices verified June 2026: $49/mo Personal and $199/mo Business billed annually ($55 and $239 month-to-month). edgar.tools is less at every tier.
Filing browser, company dashboards, financial analysis, real-time stream, screens, Sentinels, exports. sec-api.io ships raw JSON; the rest you build yourself.
AI-analyzed event inboxes (Sentinels) deliver 8-Ks to your inbox in seconds. Our MCP server exposes 23 tools + 5 recipe prompts to Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, and any MCP client.
Parquet/DuckDB subscriptions for XBRL, insider, 13F, material events, cyber incidents. Full Form ADV graph with 40K+ advisers, executives, private funds, related persons.
We're not the right pick for every workflow. sec-api.io has real wins on infrastructure and breadth dimensions. Honest list:
No hedging. If you're optimizing for the dimensions below, sec-api.io is the right tool.
edgar.tools is a full-stack SEC filing intelligence platform with 19 filing viewers, XBRL financials, insider trading sentiment, and an AI plugin (23 tools) for Claude, ChatGPT, and other AI agents. sec-api.io is a raw data API focused on full-text search and XBRL-to-JSON conversion. edgar.tools includes a visual web app and an AI plugin; sec-api.io is API-only with no AI integration.
Yes. edgar.tools has a permanent free tier with 100 API calls per day (resets daily), 5 tracked companies, company search, filing browsing, and profitability ratios. The Professional tier at $24.99/month adds full financials, insider trading, exports, and disclosure search.
sec-api.io's free tier provides 100 API calls total (lifetime, not monthly). The Personal plan is $49/month billed annually ($55 month-to-month) and Business is $199/month billed annually ($239 monthly), with custom Enterprise pricing. All plans are API-only with no web interface, rate-limited at 10–40 requests/second depending on API and tier. Prices verified from sec-api.io's pricing page, June 2026.
Yes. edgar.tools ships an AI plugin (MCP server) with 23 tools — Free accounts see 4 tools (account_status, search_companies, company_filings, company_brief), Pro sees 17, Analyst sees all 23 tools plus 5 recipe prompts (position_thesis, peer_comparison, portfolio_pulse, earnings_postmortem, filing_red_flags). See app.edgar.tools/ai-plugin for the full ladder. sec-api.io does not offer MCP or any AI agent integration.
Yes, two. The open-source edgartools Python library (5M+ PyPI downloads) gives you SEC EDGAR data access in Python, free forever with no API key. For a hosted alternative, edgar.tools has a permanent free tier with 100 API calls per day (resets daily — sec-api.io's free tier is 100 calls lifetime), 5 tracked companies, and a full web UI. Both come from the same maintainer.
edgartools is a free, open-source Python library (5M+ PyPI downloads) that fetches and parses SEC EDGAR data directly from the SEC — no API key or subscription required. sec-api.io is a commercial REST API with paid plans from $49/month. If you work in Python, edgartools covers most of the same ground for free; if you want a hosted REST API, web UI, or AI/MCP integration built on the same engine, that's edgar.tools.