EFEarnings Feed

Oct 7, 2025 · 8 min read

5 Free SEC Filing Tools Every Investor Should Know in 2025

The best free tools for tracking SEC filings, insider trades, and company research. No subscriptions required.

Professional investors spend thousands of dollars on SEC filing tools. Bloomberg Terminal costs $24,000+ per year. AlphaSense runs $10,000+ per seat. Even "affordable" options like BamSEC cost $828 annually.

But here's the thing: the SEC makes all this data public for free. You just need the right tools to access it.

This guide covers the five best free SEC filing tools in 2025—what each does well, where they fall short, and how to combine them for a complete research workflow.

The Quick Comparison

Tool Best For Real-Time Watchlists Insider Trading Mobile
Earnings Feed Live monitoring, company profiles ✅ Instant ✅ Yes ✅ Yes ✅ Excellent
SEC EDGAR Official source, complete archive ❌ Delayed ❌ No ✅ Yes ❌ Poor
OpenInsider Form 4 insider transactions ⚠️ Near real-time ❌ No ✅ Specialized ⚠️ Basic
Last10K Financial ratios, Excel exports ❌ Daily updates ❌ No ❌ Limited ❌ Desktop
QuiverQuant Alternative data, Congress trades ⚠️ Varies ❌ No ✅ Yes ✅ Good

Now let's dive into each tool.

1. Earnings Feed

Website: earningsfeed.com

Best for: Real-time filing alerts, tracking companies, mobile research

Earnings Feed is a modern SEC filings tracker designed for investors who want to know what's happening right now. The live feed shows every SEC filing within seconds of publication—no refreshing required.

Key Features

  • Live filings feed: Stream every SEC filing as it hits EDGAR
  • Company profiles: All filings, stock data, and company info in one place
  • Watchlists: Track specific companies and see their filings together
  • Form type hubs: Browse all 10-Ks, 8-Ks, or insider trades in one view
  • Industry and exchange filtering: Find filings by sector or listing venue
  • Mobile-first design: Full functionality on any device

Strengths

  • Completely free: No trials, no credit cards, no paywalls
  • Real-time updates: Fastest free option for new filings
  • Clean interface: Easy to navigate compared to EDGAR
  • Great for monitoring: Watchlists make portfolio tracking simple

Limitations

  • No document search: Can't search within filing text (yet)
  • No document comparison: Can't redline between versions
  • Newer platform: Smaller community than established tools

Best Use Case

Set up a watchlist with your portfolio companies and check it daily. When something files, you'll know within seconds.

Try it: Create a free watchlist →

2. SEC EDGAR

Website: sec.gov/edgar

Best for: Official source, complete historical archive

EDGAR (Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis, and Retrieval) is the SEC's official database. Every public company filing since 1996 lives here. It's the authoritative source—if it's not on EDGAR, it didn't happen.

Key Features

  • Complete archive: Every SEC filing ever submitted electronically
  • Full-text search: Search across all filings (though clunky)
  • Company search: Look up any company by name, ticker, or CIK
  • Filing history: See every document a company has ever filed
  • RSS feeds: Subscribe to new filings (technical setup required)

Strengths

  • The official source: 100% complete and authoritative
  • Free forever: Government-funded, always accessible
  • Historical depth: Filings going back to 1996

Limitations

  • Terrible interface: Looks like it was designed in 1999 (because it was)
  • Slow navigation: Multiple clicks to find anything
  • No alerts: You have to check manually or set up RSS
  • Mobile-unfriendly: Nearly unusable on phones
  • No analysis tools: Just raw documents

Best Use Case

When you need the definitive original document or historical filings from decades ago. Also useful when other tools are down or you want to verify data.

3. OpenInsider

Website: openinsider.com

Best for: Tracking insider buying and selling

OpenInsider specializes in Form 4 filings—the reports that company insiders (executives, directors, large shareholders) must file when they buy or sell stock. If you want to follow what insiders are doing with their own money, this is the tool.

Key Features

  • Insider transaction feed: All Form 4 filings in one place
  • Cluster buy alerts: Highlights when multiple insiders buy
  • Insider profiles: Track specific executives across companies
  • Screening tools: Filter by transaction type, size, role
  • Historical data: Years of insider transaction history

Strengths

  • Specialized depth: More insider-focused features than general tools
  • Cluster detection: Finds when multiple insiders act together
  • Transaction details: Shows prices, shares, remaining holdings
  • Established community: Active users share insights

Limitations

  • Only insider filings: No 10-Ks, 8-Ks, or other forms
  • Basic interface: Functional but dated design
  • No watchlists: Can't save companies for monitoring
  • Limited mobile: Desktop-focused experience

Best Use Case

Screening for significant insider buying—especially when multiple executives buy simultaneously. That's often a bullish signal worth investigating.

4. Last10K

Website: last10k.com

Best for: Financial data, ratio analysis, Excel exports

Last10K extracts financial data from SEC filings and presents it in analyst-friendly formats. Instead of reading through a 10-K to find revenue, you get clean tables you can export to Excel.

Key Features

  • Financial data tables: Revenue, margins, EPS extracted from filings
  • Ratio screeners: Filter companies by financial metrics
  • Excel/CSV exports: Download data for your own models
  • Company profiles: Fundamentals alongside filings
  • API access: Developers can pull data programmatically

Strengths

  • Data extraction: Numbers pulled from filings, ready to use
  • Excel integration: Easy export for financial modeling
  • Screening capability: Find companies matching criteria
  • Historical fundamentals: Multi-year financial data

Limitations

  • Not real-time: Data updates daily, not instantly
  • Limited free tier: Some features require payment
  • US focus: Primarily domestic companies
  • No alerts: No notifications for new filings

Best Use Case

Building financial models or screening for companies with specific characteristics. Export the data and do your analysis in Excel.

5. QuiverQuant

Website: quiverquant.com

Best for: Alternative data, political trading, unusual datasets

QuiverQuant aggregates alternative data that most investors overlook—including Congressional trading disclosures, government contracts, corporate lobbying, and patent filings.

Key Features

  • Congress trading: What politicians are buying and selling
  • Government contracts: Federal spending by company
  • Lobbying data: Corporate political activity
  • Insider transactions: Form 4 filings with context
  • Patent tracking: Innovation signals
  • Wikipedia trends: Unusual article traffic

Strengths

  • Unique datasets: Information most tools don't cover
  • Political insight: Follow the smart money in Washington
  • Visualization: Charts and trends, not just raw data
  • Regular updates: Active development and new features

Limitations

  • Not SEC-focused: Broader scope means less depth on filings
  • Data lag: Some datasets update slowly
  • Quality varies: Not all data sources equally reliable
  • Learning curve: Many datasets to understand

Best Use Case

Researching what Congressional members are trading (they must disclose within 45 days) or tracking government contract winners. Useful for macro insights beyond traditional filings.

How to Combine These Tools

No single free tool does everything. Here's how to build a complete research workflow:

Daily Monitoring

Primary tool: Earnings Feed

  • Check your watchlist for new filings
  • Scan the live feed for market-moving 8-Ks
  • Review any new insider transactions

Deep Research

Primary tool: SEC EDGAR + Last10K

  • Pull historical filings from EDGAR when needed
  • Export financial data from Last10K for modeling
  • Compare fundamentals across competitors

Insider Analysis

Primary tool: OpenInsider

  • Screen for cluster buying
  • Check insider activity before earnings
  • Track specific executives across their career

Alternative Research

Primary tool: QuiverQuant

  • Monitor Congressional trading disclosures
  • Track government contract awards
  • Watch for lobbying activity changes

What About Paid Tools?

Free tools cover most retail investor needs. But there are reasons to pay:

Consider BamSEC ($828/year) if you:

  • Need to search within SEC documents
  • Compare filings side-by-side (redline view)
  • Do professional due diligence work

Consider Bloomberg/AlphaSense if you:

  • Need real-time market data alongside filings
  • Want expert transcripts and research reports
  • Work at an institution that requires it

Stick with free tools if you:

  • Monitor a personal portfolio
  • Research occasionally, not daily
  • Care more about timely alerts than deep search

The Free Research Stack for 2025

Here's our recommended free tool combination:

Purpose Tool Why
Real-time monitoring Earnings Feed Fastest alerts, clean interface, mobile-friendly
Official documents SEC EDGAR Authoritative source, complete archive
Insider tracking OpenInsider Specialized depth, cluster buy detection
Financial data Last10K Easy exports, ratio screening
Alternative data QuiverQuant Congress trades, unique datasets

This stack costs $0 and covers 90% of what retail investors need. Save the subscription fees for actually investing.

Get Started with Free SEC Research

Ready to track SEC filings without paying hundreds of dollars?

  1. Create a free Earnings Feed watchlist to monitor your portfolio companies
  2. Bookmark SEC EDGAR for when you need original documents
  3. Check OpenInsider when you want to follow insider activity

The information is free. The tools are free. The only cost is your time learning to use them effectively.

Start tracking SEC filings now: Browse the live feed →