VOL. XCIV, NO. 247

★ BEST INVESTING TOOLS COMPARISON ★

NO ADVICE

Tuesday, January 6, 2026

Tool Comparison

CB Insights vs FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data) comparison

Compare pricing, supported platforms, categories, and standout capabilities to decide which tool fits your workflow.

CB Insights logo

CB Insights

cbinsights.com

PricingSubscription
PlatformsWeb, Mobile, API
FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data) logo

FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data)

fred.stlouisfed.org

PricingFree
PlatformsWeb, Mobile, API

Comparison highlights

  • Tool score: the chart below shows community vote sentiment over the last 8 weeks. Use it as a signal, not a verdict.
  • Overlap: both cover Data APIs, Sheets / Excel Add-ins, and Data Visualizations.
  • Coverage tilt: CB Insights has 4 categories you won't get in FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data); FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data) has 7 unique categories.
  • Pricing: CB Insights is Subscription; FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data) is Free.

Category leaders

  • Screeners: CB Insights is tagged for this workflow; FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data) has no category votes yet.
  • Data Visualizations: not enough category votes yet to call a leader.

Vote sentiment comparison

Cumulative positive vote share. Loading fresh totals...

CB InsightsFRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data)

Side-by-side metrics

AttributeCB InsightsFRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data)
Asset types

Supported asset classes and universes

Stocks, Other

Other

Experience levels

Who each product is built for

Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced

Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced

Platforms

Where you can access the product

Web, Mobile, API

Web, Mobile, API

Pricing

High-level pricing models

Subscription

Free

Tested

Verified by hands-on testing inside Find My Moat

Not yet

Not yet

Editor pick

Featured inside curated shortlists

Standard listing

Standard listing

Coverage overlap

Shared categories

Categories where both tools offer overlapping coverage.

CB Insights strengths

Categories covered by CB Insights but not FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data).

FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data) strengths

Categories covered by FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data) but not CB Insights.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which workflows do CB Insights and FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data) both support?

Both platforms cover Data APIs, Sheets / Excel Add-ins, and Data Visualizations workflows, so you can research those use cases in either tool before digging into the feature differences below.

Which tool offers a free plan?

FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data) offers a free entry point, while CB Insights requires a paid subscription. Review the pricing table to see how the paid tiers compare.

How can you access CB Insights and FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data)?

Both CB Insights and FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data) support web and mobile access, making it easy to keep tabs on research away from the desk.

What unique strengths set the two platforms apart?

CB Insights differentiates itself with Global company intelligence platform covering private and public companies, investors, deals, and M&A activity., APIs and enterprise data feeds providing structured access to company, funding, and investor datasets., and Microsoft Excel add-in to pull in CB Insights company data, Mosaic Scores, and taxonomies directly into spreadsheets., whereas FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data) stands out for 800,000+ economic data series from 100+ sources, covering topics such as GDP, prices/inflation, employment, exchange rates, and interest rates., Browse and track data via categories, releases, sources, and tags; series pages show metadata like units/frequency and “last updated / next release” fields., and Graphing and sharing options include embeddable graphs and graph-image links..

Curation & Accuracy

This directory blends AI‑assisted discovery with human curation. Entries are reviewed, edited, and organized with the goal of expanding coverage and sharpening quality over time. Your feedback helps steer improvements (because no single human can capture everything all at once).

Details change. Pricing, features, and availability may be incomplete or out of date. Treat listings as a starting point and verify on the provider’s site before making decisions. If you spot an error or a gap, send a quick note and I’ll adjust.