Free Fintel Alternative for Developers
Fintel charges $400/year for insider trading data, institutional ownership, and short interest analytics. SecuritiesDB provides equivalent data — insider transactions, passive float ownership, SEC filing catalysts — through a free REST API with no authentication required.
Feature Comparison
| Feature | Fintel | SecuritiesDB |
|---|---|---|
| Insider Transactions (Form 4) | ✅ Full history | ✅ Full history |
| Insider Cluster Detection | ✅ Pre-built screener | ✅ Raw data + tutorial |
| Passive Float / Index Ownership | ✅ Fund ownership | ✅ Passive float % |
| SEC Filing Analysis | ◐ Basic | ✅ AI-summarized catalysts |
| Earnings Evasiveness Score | ❌ No | ✅ NLP-scored |
| Risk Factor Analysis | ❌ No | ✅ Lawyer Panic Index |
| REST API | ❌ No public API | ✅ Full REST API |
| Price | $400/year | Free |
| Short Interest Data | ✅ Comprehensive | ❌ Not available |
Note: Fintel excels at short interest data. If that's your primary need, Fintel is the better choice. For insider trading, SEC analysis, and quant scores, SecuritiesDB offers more for free.
Insider Trading — Side by Side
Both platforms source from SEC EDGAR Form 4 filings. Key differences:
- Fintel: Web dashboard with screener UI. No API for external applications.
- SecuritiesDB: Raw JSON via REST API. Build your own screener, bot, or alert system.
# One call gets you all insider transactions
GET /api/v1/stocks/AAPL/insider-trading
→ transactions: [{insider_name, role, type, shares, value, date}, ...]Quick Start — Insider + Passive Float Combo
import requests
ticker = "AAPL"
# 1. Insider transactions (Fintel equivalent)
insider = requests.get(
f"https://securitiesdb.com/api/v1/stocks/{ticker}/insider-trading"
).json()["data"]
buys = [t for t in insider["transactions"] if t["type"] == "purchase"]
print(f"{ticker} Insider Buys (last 12 months):")
for b in buys[:5]:
print(f" {b['date']} | {b['insider_name']:20s} | ${b['value']:,.0f}")
# 2. Passive float (Fintel calls this "fund ownership")
passive = requests.get(
f"https://securitiesdb.com/api/v1/stocks/{ticker}/passive-float"
).json()["data"]
print(f"\nPassive Float: {passive['passive_pct']:.1f}% locked in index funds")
# 3. SEC catalysts (not available on Fintel)
catalysts = requests.get(
f"https://securitiesdb.com/api/v1/stocks/{ticker}/sec-catalysts"
).json()["data"]
print(f"\nRecent SEC Catalysts:")
for c in catalysts["events"][:3]:
print(f" {c['date']} | {c['type']} | {c['summary'][:60]}...")