Are you someone who’s interested in investing or wants to continue building a portfolio that will help you reach your financial goals? If so, then you should consider subscribing to an investment research and/or stock picking platform.
For example, Motley Fool Stock Advisor’s picks have delivered an amazing return to investors over 23 years, while beating the S&P 500 by about 800%. That’s more than 5x the earnings for investors who’ve bought every stock recommended by Stock Advisor.
It can be a bit overwhelming to choose among them all, and that’s why we’ve written this Zacks vs Morningstar vs Motley Fool vs Seeking Alpha review: to help you choose the right platform for your needs and start making informed decisions about which investments deserve a spot in your portfolio. And hopefully help you beat the market!
So Whose Stock Picks are Better?
Let’s get right down to what you want to know. I don’t want to waste your time.
Bottom line is you want to make money in the stock market, right? Well here is our best table to show you how you could have beat the market by over 40% the last 3 years.
The Best Stock Newsletters as of May 31, 2025
Ranking of Top Stock Newsletters Based on Last 3 Years of Stock Picks
We are paid subscribers to dozens of stock and option newsletters. We actively track every recommendation from all of these services, calculate performance, and share our results of the top performing stock newsletters whose subscriptions fees are under $500. The main metric to look for is "Excess Return" which is their return above that of the S&P500. So, based on last 3 years ending May 31, 2025:
Rank
Stock Newsletter
Stock Picks
S&P500 Return
Excess Return
Percent Profitable
Max % Return
1.
Alpha Picks
64
70.4%
47.0%
73%
969%
Summary: 2 picks/month based on Seeking Alpha's Quant Rating; Retail Price is $499/yr. See details in our Alpha Picks Review.
Summary: 2 picks/month and 2 Best Buy Stocks lists focusing on high growth potential stocks over 5 years; Retail Price is $199/yr. Read our Motley Fool Review.
Summary: 2 picks/month focusing on disruptive technology and business models; Lifetime average return of 355% vs S&P500's 149% since 2005; Now part of Motley Fool Epic. Read our Motley Fool Epic Review.
Summary: About 1 pick/week focusing on short term trades; Lifetime average return of 355% vs S&P500's 149% since 2015. Retail Price is $379/yr. Read our TipRanks Review.
Top Ranking Stock Newsletters based on their last 3 years of stock picks' performance through May 31, 2025 as compared to S&P500. S&P500's return is based on average return of S&P500 from date each stock pick is released. NOTE: To get these results you must buy equal dollar amounts of each pick on the date the stock pick is released. Investor Business Daily Top 50 based on performance of FFTY ETF.
Key Differences Between Zacks, Morningstar, Motley Fool, and Seeking Alpha
The best way to compare Zacks vs Morningstar vs Motley Fool vs Seeking Alpha is to look at them side by side. Here’s our overview to help you get a handle on what each of these services offers and how they might benefit your investing journey.
Zacks
Morningstar
Motley Fool
Seeking Alpha
Key Features
In-depth research; real-time market news and prices; Zacks Rank; preset watchlists including Zacks #1.
Portfolio management tools; in-depth research and insights, Portfolio X-ray; investment insights for stocks, mutual funds, and ETFs.
Interface is cluttered and navigation may be confusing for beginners.
Nice, clean interface; simple navigation from top menu.
Clean interface; easy to navigate
Customizable interface; simple navigation
Investment Strategies
Zacks doesn’t endorse or recommend any particular investment strategy.
Best suited for value investors who want to find investments that deliver consistent returns.
Best for long-term investors who embrace a “buy and hold” strategy”, buying every recommendation and holding for at least 5 years.
Doesn’t recommend any one strategy; instead, subscribers have tons of resources to do their own research.
Pricing
$249 per year
$249 per year
$199 per year for first year; $299 per year on renewal
$299 per year
Trial
30 days for $1
14 days free trial
No, but there’s a 30-day money-back guarantee
Free account with limited features; 30-day premium trial for $4.95
Best For
Advanced investors who want to make data-driven investment decisions.
Advanced investors looking for objective analysis; investors doing research on mutual funds or ETFs.
Beginning investors who want reliable stock picks and a user-friendly interface.
Intermediate to advanced investors who like to do their own research.
It’s also important to note that Zacks, the Motley Fool, and some Morningstar subsidiaries are considered Registered Investment Advisors and are regulated by the SEC, while Seeking Alpha remains exempt due to its policy of providing mostly investment news and community opinions.
Seeking Alpha has become so successful in the last few years that they rarely discount their service, so when you see a sale you should take advantage of it. They just launched their biggest discount of the year on June 11th that runs for a limited time.
Here's you chance to save 20% on all of their services AND get access to their Top Stocks for the 2nd Half of 2025 report.
Save $60 on Seeking Alpha Premium; was $299 now only $239/year — Learn more.
Save $100 on Alpha Picks; was $499 now only $399/year — Learn more.
Save $160 on their Bundle to get both; was $798 only $639/year — Learn more.
Detailed Feature Comparison
Let’s take a deeper dive into each platform. In this section, we’ll run through the most important features, review the user experience, and give you the pros and cons of each platform as we see them.
Zacks
Zacks doesn’t make stock picks, but they offer several features that are useful to investors.
Zacks Rank scores, updated daily
Access to the Zacks #1 Rank List
Premium screeners
Equity research reports
Focus list portfolio of 50 longer-term stocks to buy
Real-time market news and prices
The user experience for Zacks could be better. There’s a lot of information on the home page and no option to customize what you see. We think the interface could be cleaner and the navigation more intuitive, although we should note that Zacks has made some significant improvements in this area.
Here are some pros and cons to consider before subscribing to Zacks.
Pros: tons of research and news; Zacks Rank scores; premium screeners; has information about crypto when many research platforms don’t.
Cons: Cluttered interface; may be overwhelming for beginners.
We like that Zacks offers a 30-day trial for just $1. That makes it easy for investors at any level to check out the platform and decide if it’s right for them.
Morningstar
Morningstar is a popular investment research platform for a reason. Here are some of the key features.
Investment trackers
High-level market and investment news
Investment insights for stocks, mutual funds, and ETFs
Access to Morningstar ratings on stocks, bonds, and individual managers, plus things like environmentally-conscious investments
Portfolio management and analysis tools
Custom portfolio views
Portfolio X-ray
As you can see, Morningstar has an attractive interface that includes lots of information without being overwhelming. Navigation is simple using the menu at the top.
Here are some pros and cons to consider.
Pros: Clean interface, expert investment insights, top-notch portfolio management tools, Portfolio X-ray, useful information to make investment picks
Cons: Screeners could be more intuitive, some of Morningstar’s ratings only look at past performance, cost is higher if you choose to pay monthly
Morningstar is the only service in this review that offers a truly free trial, which lasts for 14 days. We strongly recommend taking advantage of the free trial to play with Morningstar’s features and see if it’s right for you.
Motley Fool Stock Advisor makes stock picks (2 per month) and you can get additional picks by upgrading your subscription to the Epic bundle. It’s not regulated by FINRA, but its affiliates, Motley Fool Asset Management and Motley Fool Wealth Management, are.
Here are some key features.
2 stock picks per month
Access to historical picks
Portfolio management tools
Monthly stock rankings
Guidance for cautious, intermediate, and aggressive investment styles
Daily news
Video library
The user experience for Motley Fool is excellent. The home page is neat in its layout and navigation is simple from its side menu.
As you might expect, there are pros and cons to consider.
Pros: Clean interface, proven track record of beating the S&P 500, portfolio management tools and alerts, screeners, access to historical picks, first year price is lower than other services
Cons: Need money to invest every month, can’t link to brokerage account, renewal price is higher than other services
Motley Fool is a good choice for beginners, particularly those who are just starting to build a portfolio.
Seeking Alpha
Seeking Alpha is a stock research platform that provides subscribers with tons of information and data that they can use to make their own assessments. Here are some of the key features. Our Seeking Alpha Review goes into great detail but here is what you need to know.
Proprietary Quant Ratings with a proven record of beating the market
Link to brokerage portfolio
Portfolio Health Score
Portfolio management tools
Access to 10 years of financials
Access to Earnings Call Transcriptions
Preset and custom screeners and watchlists
Custom alerts based on ratings and prices
Expert and community-created analysis
Access to investment communities
They basically offer 2 services:
Seeking Alpha Premium (retail Price is $299 a year) is for investor who want to do their own research and see Seeking Alpha’s Quant Rating on thier stocks. They allow you do this by linking your portfolio and then you can see something that looks like this:
and Seeking Alpha Picks is their stock picking service for those investors that just want to know the 2 best stocks to buy each month based on their Quant Ratings. This service has done extremely well since its launch in 2022.
Alpha Picks Update as of May 31, 2025: Since its launch in July, 2022, the 64 Alpha picks from 2022 thru 2024 are up an average of 70% and are easily beating the S&P500's return of 24% by 47%. But most impressively, their picks that are at least 12 months old are up 84% vs 29% for 55% ALPHA and 76% of those picks are profitable. Yes, these picks are tripling the SPY. Their November picks are already up 77% and 42% vs the market's 2%, June 2024 pick of SFM is already up 118%, their April, 2024 pick EAT is up 237%, their March pick RCL is up 99%. Oh yea, their November 2023 pick of APP is up 826%! See our full Seeking Alpha Picks Review for further analysis.
Here are the pros and cons of Seeking Alpha Premium as we see them.
Pros: Access to extensive financials and research, community analysis, investment groups, portfolio management tools, Quant ratings.
Cons: Information may be too much for beginner investors, no information about mutual funds or crypto.
We like how easy it is to find financials and earnings call transcriptions on Seeking Alpha. It may be too much for beginner investors, but intermediate and advanced investors will benefit from the extensive information that’s available.
Take Advantage of this Limited Time Offer
Seeking Alpha has become so successful in the last few years that they rarely discount their service, so when you see a sale you should take advantage of it. They just launched their biggest discount of the year on June 11th that runs for a limited time.
Here's you chance to save 20% on all of their services AND get access to their Top Stocks for the 2nd Half of 2025 report.
Save $60 on Seeking Alpha Premium; was $299 now only $239/year — Learn more.
Save $100 on Alpha Picks; was $499 now only $399/year — Learn more.
Save $160 on their Bundle to get both; was $798 only $639/year — Learn more.
When you choose an investment research platform, it’s important to keep certain things in mind.
Your investment experience level (beginner, intermediate, or advanced)
Your investment horizon (short, medium, or long-term)
Your risk tolerance (low, medium, or high)
Your investment goals (build a portfolio, maximize earnings, etc.)
Your investment style (do you want done-for-you picks? A platform to do your own research?)
Your budget
Only you can decide how to weigh these things and what’s most important to you.
For Beginners
The platform we like most for beginners is Motley Fool Stock Advisor. It offers done-for-you picks with an excellent track record overall, making it a good choice for people who don’t want to do their own research.
Another thing that makes Stock Advisor a solid choice for beginners is its user-friendly interface. There’s plenty of information for people who want the option to do some research, plus intuitive portfolio tools and access to financials and real-time market information.
For Long-Term Investors
Long-term investors may be best served by either Motley Fool, which promotes a “buy and hold” investment strategy that works for long-term investors, or by Seeking Alpha, which offers the tools needed to identify growth stocks.
Both these platforms have intuitive user interfaces and navigation, making them accessible to beginners and advanced investors alike.
For Short-Term Traders
Short-term traders may be drawn to Zacks, which offers a huge amount of information in return for the price of a subscription. It’s got information that’s tailored to several investor personas, including day traders – something that Motley Fool and Seeking Alpha don’t focus on.
Keep in mind that short-term trades can be risky and don’t always pay off. If you’re going to try these trades, make sure to do it within a balanced portfolio to ensure you don’t lose more than you can afford to.
For Data-Driven Investors
Zacks is the ideal platform for data-driven investors, followed by Seeking Alpha and Zacks. All three platforms offer access to a huge amount of research and analysis.
Some of the things data lovers can find include financial reports, Earnings Call Transcripts, ratings, and expert-level analysis to help them choose investments.
Value Investors
We recommend Morningstar for value investors. Their platform strives to identify stocks with the potential to provide ongoing value.
Morningstar’s star ratings and other factors make it easy to review any asset you want to buy and make an informed decision.
The key takeaway from this Zacks vs Morningstar vs Motley Fool vs Seeking Alpha review is that there isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution when you’re looking for an investment research platform.
Our final recommendations are that beginners and those seeking simplicity should go with Motley Fool Stock Advisor. Zacks is best for data-driven decisions, Morningstar is best for value investors, and Seeking Alpha has the most variety plus a unique community element.
FAQ
How reliable is Morningstar’s star rating?
Morningstar’s star ratings have received mixed reviews. While some investors praise their willingness to constantly revise ratings as needed, that approach may not be ideal for investors who are nervous about riding out volatility. In the end, rating systems vary and that’s why we recommend doing at least a little independent research before buying an investment based on a rating.
Can I use more than one of these platforms for investing?
Yes, but it’s important to make sure you aren’t spending more than you can afford – or more than you’re earning from your investments. If you want Motley Fool’s picks but also want access to in-depth research, you might benefit from two subscriptions.
Are these platforms worth the cost?
That depends. On average, they cost about $20 per month, but most require an annual payment. If you can afford that amount and you use the platform as it’s intended, you’ll probably get your money’s worth.
How accurate are stock picks?
Stock picks can vary a lot in terms of their accuracy. For example, the overall performance of Motley Fool Stock Advisor picks is excellent. That said, recent picks have yet to prove themselves. Picks can be made for a variety of reasons and with a variety of investment styles in mind. It’s always a good idea to do a bit of reading on your own before buying a pick, and to keep in mind that past success with picks isn’t a guarantee of future performance.
Which platform is best for beginners?
We like Motley Fool Stock Advisor for beginners. It provides done-for-you stock picks every month, and their track record is good.
