VOL. XCIV, NO. 247

★ FINANCIAL TOOLS & SERVICES DIRECTORY ★

PRICE: 5 CENTS

Sunday, October 5, 2025

Head-to-head

QuantRocket vs Unusual Whales comparison

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

Quick takeaways

QuantRocket adds Quant, Backtesting, Auto-Trading & Bots, Advanced Order Types, and Broker Connectors coverage that Unusual Whales skips.

Unusual Whales includes Options & Derivatives, Portfolio, Dark Pool & Off-Exchange, Alerts, News, US Government Trades, Insider Data, 13F, APIs & SDKs, Education, Calendar, and Dividends categories that QuantRocket omits.

QuantRocket highlights: Includes survivorship-bias-free US minute-bar data (from 2007 onward) for Zipline backtests and live trading, with optional real-time feeds from brokers like IBKR and Alpaca., Supports point-in-time screening and ranking pipelines, and integrates with Alphalens and Pyfolio for in-notebook analysis inside Jupyter., and Global coverage through Interactive Brokers’ historical and real-time data across 60+ exchanges, plus optional feeds like EDI global EOD, Sharadar fundamentals, and Brain sentiment datasets..

Unusual Whales is known for: Live options flow across all US options exchanges, with a status indicator so you know the feed is healthy., Dark-pool tape plus ‘Dark Pool Levels’ to surface recent prints and ticker-specific liquidity zones., and Options and stock screeners with filters for premium, volume, open interest, IV rank, and common technicals..

Unusual Whales offers mobile access, which QuantRocket skips.

QuantRocket logo

QuantRocket

quantrocket.com

A Docker-based research, backtesting, and live-trading platform built around Jupyter. The free tier is limited to research, while paid plans unlock live and paper trading along with bundled US minute-bar data. Broader global datasets are available via third-party providers. Its tight IBKR integration brings advanced order types, while real-time market data can be streamed from IBKR, Polygon, or Alpaca.

Platforms

Web
API

Pricing

Free
Subscription

Quick highlights

  • Includes survivorship-bias-free US minute-bar data (from 2007 onward) for Zipline backtests and live trading, with optional real-time feeds from brokers like IBKR and Alpaca.
  • Supports point-in-time screening and ranking pipelines, and integrates with Alphalens and Pyfolio for in-notebook analysis inside Jupyter.
  • Global coverage through Interactive Brokers’ historical and real-time data across 60+ exchanges, plus optional feeds like EDI global EOD, Sharadar fundamentals, and Brain sentiment datasets.
  • Deep IBKR integration enabling advanced order types such as algorithmic, parent-child, and bracket orders, as well as combos/spreads, margin 'what-if' checks, option greeks, and auction imbalance data.
  • Streams tick-level data into TimescaleDB with WebSocket access, and allows flexible bar aggregation.

Community votes (overall)

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Unusual Whales logo

Unusual Whales

unusualwhales.com

Editor’s pick Hands-on review

Real-time options flow and dark-pool analytics built for active traders. Free plans view delayed data; paid tiers stream live flow, with annual plans unlocking data downloads. The public API is sold separately, and “Periscope” (market-wide SPX exposure) is available as an add-on.

Platforms

Web
Mobile
API

Pricing

Free
Subscription

Quick highlights

  • Live options flow across all US options exchanges, with a status indicator so you know the feed is healthy.
  • Dark-pool tape plus ‘Dark Pool Levels’ to surface recent prints and ticker-specific liquidity zones.
  • Options and stock screeners with filters for premium, volume, open interest, IV rank, and common technicals.
  • Options Profit Calculator to model multi-leg strategies, Greeks, and payoff P/L.
  • Paper trading for both stocks and options to test ideas without risk.

Community votes (overall)

0% upvotes 0% downvotes
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Overlap

Shared focus areas

3 overlaps

Mutual strengths include Screeners, Paper Trading, and Data APIs.

Where they differ

QuantRocket

Distinct strengths include:

  • Includes survivorship-bias-free US minute-bar data (from 2007 onward) for Zipline backtests and live trading, with optional real-time feeds from brokers like IBKR and Alpaca.
  • Supports point-in-time screening and ranking pipelines, and integrates with Alphalens and Pyfolio for in-notebook analysis inside Jupyter.
  • Global coverage through Interactive Brokers’ historical and real-time data across 60+ exchanges, plus optional feeds like EDI global EOD, Sharadar fundamentals, and Brain sentiment datasets.
  • Deep IBKR integration enabling advanced order types such as algorithmic, parent-child, and bracket orders, as well as combos/spreads, margin 'what-if' checks, option greeks, and auction imbalance data.

Unusual Whales

Distinct strengths include:

  • Live options flow across all US options exchanges, with a status indicator so you know the feed is healthy.
  • Dark-pool tape plus ‘Dark Pool Levels’ to surface recent prints and ticker-specific liquidity zones.
  • Options and stock screeners with filters for premium, volume, open interest, IV rank, and common technicals.
  • Options Profit Calculator to model multi-leg strategies, Greeks, and payoff P/L.

Feature-by-feature breakdown

AttributeQuantRocketUnusual Whales
Categories

Which research workflows each platform targets

Shared: Screeners, Paper Trading, Data APIs

Unique: Quant, Backtesting, Auto-Trading & Bots, Advanced Order Types, Broker Connectors

Shared: Screeners, Paper Trading, Data APIs

Unique: Options & Derivatives, Portfolio, Dark Pool & Off-Exchange, Alerts, News, US Government Trades, Insider Data, 13F, APIs & SDKs, Education, Calendar, Dividends

Asset types

Supported asset classes and universes

Stocks, ETFs, Futures, Currencies, Options

Stocks, ETFs, Options

Experience levels

Who each product is built for

Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced

Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced

Platforms

Where you can access the product

Web, API

Web, Mobile, API

Pricing

High-level pricing models

Free, Subscription

Free, Subscription

Key features

Core capabilities called out by each vendor

Unique

  • Includes survivorship-bias-free US minute-bar data (from 2007 onward) for Zipline backtests and live trading, with optional real-time feeds from brokers like IBKR and Alpaca.
  • Supports point-in-time screening and ranking pipelines, and integrates with Alphalens and Pyfolio for in-notebook analysis inside Jupyter.
  • Global coverage through Interactive Brokers’ historical and real-time data across 60+ exchanges, plus optional feeds like EDI global EOD, Sharadar fundamentals, and Brain sentiment datasets.
  • Deep IBKR integration enabling advanced order types such as algorithmic, parent-child, and bracket orders, as well as combos/spreads, margin 'what-if' checks, option greeks, and auction imbalance data.
  • Streams tick-level data into TimescaleDB with WebSocket access, and allows flexible bar aggregation.
  • REST API ('Houston') with Python client and CLI tools; endpoints return CSV or JSON for easy downstream use.

Unique

  • Live options flow across all US options exchanges, with a status indicator so you know the feed is healthy.
  • Dark-pool tape plus ‘Dark Pool Levels’ to surface recent prints and ticker-specific liquidity zones.
  • Options and stock screeners with filters for premium, volume, open interest, IV rank, and common technicals.
  • Options Profit Calculator to model multi-leg strategies, Greeks, and payoff P/L.
  • Paper trading for both stocks and options to test ideas without risk.
  • Portfolio Manager with broker linking for IBKR, tastytrade, Fidelity, and Robinhood.
Tested

Verified by hands-on testing inside Find My Moat

Not yet

Yes

Editor pick

Featured inside curated shortlists

Standard listing

Highlighted

Frequently Asked Questions

Which workflows do QuantRocket and Unusual Whales both support?

Both platforms cover Screeners, Paper Trading, and Data APIs workflows, so you can research those use cases in either tool before digging into the feature differences below.

Do QuantRocket and Unusual Whales require subscriptions?

Both QuantRocket and Unusual Whales keep freemium access with optional paid upgrades, so you can trial each platform before committing.

Which tool has mobile access?

Unusual Whales ships a dedicated mobile experience, while QuantRocket focuses on web or desktop access.

What unique strengths set the two platforms apart?

QuantRocket differentiates itself with Includes survivorship-bias-free US minute-bar data (from 2007 onward) for Zipline backtests and live trading, with optional real-time feeds from brokers like IBKR and Alpaca., Supports point-in-time screening and ranking pipelines, and integrates with Alphalens and Pyfolio for in-notebook analysis inside Jupyter., and Global coverage through Interactive Brokers’ historical and real-time data across 60+ exchanges, plus optional feeds like EDI global EOD, Sharadar fundamentals, and Brain sentiment datasets., whereas Unusual Whales stands out for Live options flow across all US options exchanges, with a status indicator so you know the feed is healthy., Dark-pool tape plus ‘Dark Pool Levels’ to surface recent prints and ticker-specific liquidity zones., and Options and stock screeners with filters for premium, volume, open interest, IV rank, and common technicals..

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.