FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data) vs OpenBB comparison

FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data) focuses on Inflation Rates, Unemployment Rates, and GDP while OpenBB specializes in Data APIs, APIs & SDKs, and Sheets / Excel Add-ins. They overlap in 4 categories, so choose based on your preferred workflow and pricing.

Good news—both FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data) and OpenBB offer free plans. You can try each platform without commitment and only pay when you need premium features.

FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data) is more beginner-friendly with an approachable interface. Both can work for intermediate users.

Yes, both platforms offer API access for developers and quants who want to build custom integrations or automate their workflows.

Choose FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data) if you need 800,000+ economic data series from 100+ sources, covering topics such as GDP, prices/inflation, employment, exchange rates, and interest rates., and Browse and track data via categories, releases, sources, and tags; series pages show metadata like units/frequency and “last updated / next release” fields.. Go with OpenBB if Open Data Platform (ODP): open-source (AGPL) unified financial & economic data access; runs locally., and ODP supports multiple interfaces, including Python and REST API (plus Notebook/Workspace/Excel listed by OpenBB). better fits how you invest.

Both cover common asset types. FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data) also includes Other. OpenBB adds coverage for Stocks, ETFs, Cryptos, Currencies, Commodities, Bonds, Options, and Futures.

FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data) supports data exports to Excel, Image, JSON, and XML. OpenBB has more limited export options.

OpenBB includes a stock screener for finding investment ideas. FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data) focuses on other analytical tools.