Seeking Alpha Review: Is Seeking Alpha Worth It? Updated March 14, 2025

SeekingAlpha.com promotes itself as “the world’s largest investing community powered by the wisdom and diversity of crowdsourcing.”

Since their launch in 2004 they have become one of the most popular stock research sites with over 20 million visits per month. Given that amount of growth and traffic, it’s safe to say they’re doing something right.

I was a free member of Seeking Alpha for over 10 years before upgrading to Seeking Alpha Premium in 2020. I also became a subscriber to their stock recommendation service “Alpha Picks” when that was launched in July 2022. In this review, I’ll explain both of these premium services in detail and share my experience with each. This will help you answer the question of whether Seeking Alpha is worth it.

Hint: We just updated our rankings of the best performing stock newsletters for 2025. Seeking Alpha is at the top for 2024 and is on top for the best performer over the last 3 years of ALL the newsletters we follow.

For starters, you need to know that Seeking Alpha’s analytical model “Quant Rating” was recently validated by finance professors at the University of Kentucky:

Academic Study of Seeking Alpha’s Quant Rating: On April 19, 2024 an independent study by professors at a major university found that Seeking Alpha’s proprietary rating system Seeking Alpha Quant Ratings “strongly predict” future returns and offer “pronounced benefits” to investors.

Dr. Jame and Ph.D. Candidate Yuling Guo, Gatton College of Business & Economics, University of Kentucky

That’s impressive as I don’t recall ever seeing an academic study support any stock recommendation service.

Like most sites these days, some of Seeking Alpha’s information is available for free; but the valuable information like their Quant Rating and the ability to link your portfolio is only available to paid or Premium users.

They have 3 paid products. Here is a brief summary of each:

1. Seeking Alpha Premium — This was their first paid service and allows you full access to all of their features, including their proprietary “Quant Rating” on any stock you choose. You can also link your brokerage account so that when you login to Seeking Alpha Premium you can see the Quant Rating on all of your stocks AND get alerts when the Quant Ratings drop. I have found this service to be super valuable to help me get out of positions before they start to decline in value. Keep reading to learn more about this “Quant Rating” and see their “proof” that it is a very reliable indicator, and see the research by the University of Kentucky professors verifying the Quant Rating works. This Seeking Alpha Premium service is for investors who want to do their own stock research and better manage their own stock portfolios.
2. Seeking Alpha Pro — This is Seeking Alpha’s top-tier paid service designed for experienced and serious investors. You’ll get access to all Premium features, plus coverage from analysis and access to top analyst insights, both extremely helpful if you’re looking for expert analysis. You’ll also get daily access to upgrades and downgrades to help you stay on top of changes in the market. Finally, you’ll get access to short ideas from Seeking Alpha analysts.
3. Alpha Picks — This service is their stock recommendation newsletter service for those investors that are looking for ideas of stocks to buy. It is for people that don’t want to do their own research on stocks and would rather just get specific stock recommendations and analysis.
   • Twice a month they release a stock recommendation that has one of their highest “Quant Ratings.”
   • This service is performing extremely well since its launch (see the ALPHA PICKS’ PERFORMANCE chart below) and is easily beating the S&P 500. If you want to see our detailed analysis of Alpha Picks, see our Alpha Picks Review.
   • In just a little over 2 years, 10 of their 64 stock picks have doubled or more:
     • 1 (SMCI) was picked and sold when it was up over 900%
     • 1 (APP) is only 13 months old (November 2023) and is already up 726%
     • 1 (MOD) is up over 495%
     • 1 (POWL) is up over 350%
     • 2 (MHO, CLSL) are up over 200%
     • 4 others (STRL, ANF, EAT, MOD picked 2x) have more than doubled, including their April, 2024 pick of EAT is already up 175%
     • They have sold 25 of their 64 picks
     • And 77% of all these 64 picks have been profitable

The Seeking Alpha platform is powered by information, ideas, research, analysis, and opinions crowdsourced from its users.

This means that their users submit their thoughts and research on U.S. stocks, ETFs, mutual funds, commodities and cryptocurrencies.  But this is no simple “message board” – their posts are well thought-out, detailed research reports that are reviewed by the Seeking Alpha editorial staff to make sure the content passes a quality review.

They have over 7,000 writers and publish 10,000 stock opinions per month. Each author is carefully vetted by the Seeking Alpha team to make sure that they are credible and don’t have any conflicts of interest with the stocks they’re discussing.

In addition to all their crowdsourced stock research, Seeking Alpha also provides a variety of stock ratings. These ratings include a Quantitative Analysis Rating, a Seeking Alpha Author Rating, and a Wall Street Rating. These ratings have proven to be valuable at predicting future performance. But here’s the catch. The Wall Street Ratings are available to free members, while the Quant and the Author Ratings are only available to Premium members.

I have become such a believer in Seeking Alpha that I started buying every Alpha Picks each month in my ETrade account. My personal results of these trades, which I share below, gave me proof that their model works, just like the academic study found. Keep reading our Seeking Alpha review 2025 to get all the information you need to choose the right Seeking Alpha subscription for your needs.

Seeking Alpha Paid Services Summary

Here’s a quick comparison of the major characteristics of the two services and their bundle:

	Seeking Alpha Premium	Alpha Picks	Seeking Alpha Bundle
Overall Rating:	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Service Type & Strengths:	Full access to all their research; link your brokerage account to get Quant Ratings on your stocks and alerts of when to sell.	2 stock picks a month that have highest Quant Rating and most likely to outperform the market.	Includes both services.
Strengths:	Strong Buy Quant Rating stocks have 5x the market since 2010. Quant Rating now verified by academic study. 250,000+ Premium members.	Beating the market by 47.8% in just 2+ years; 10 picks have already doubled; 77% of picks are profitable.	Get both to monitor your portfolio & get the best picks to buy.
Best for:	Self-directed investors who want to easily optimize their portfolio’s return.	Investors wanting specific stock recommendations each month.	Both.
Retail Cost:	$299 a year	$499 a year	$798 a year
Current Promotion:	MARCH PROMO: Save $30, get 7-day free trial & get access to their TOP STOCK FOR 2025	MARCH PROMO: Save $50 & get access to all their recent stock picks. Next pick comes out March 17.	MARCH PROMO: Get Premium AND Alpha Picks for just $639
Link to Promo Page:	Save $30, access to TOP STOCKS OF 2025, & get 7-day free trial to Alpha Premium on THIS promo page!	Save $50 on Alpha Picks on THIS promo page.	Try Both for $639 and save $159 now.

As mentioned above, I subscribe to both of these Seeking Alpha services, and many more from other stock services. I don’t plan on canceling either of my Seeking Alpha’s subscriptions any time soon. For me, both Seeking Alpha Premium and Alpha Picks are absolutely worth the membership fee. Here’s why.

How Does Seeking Alpha Perform?

Now, let’s break down Seeking Alpha’s performance and see how Seeking Alpha stock picks have performed.

Stock Picks Recent Performance

Let me get right to the key data that most of you want to know–Will Seeking Alpha help you make more money in the stock market?

The week ending January 4, 2025 saw their 64 picks reach an average return of 72% vs 24% for S&P500 (so their picks are beating the market by 48% in just 2.5 years). Their recent picks of SFM, EAT, MOD, APP, CLS, ANF, POWL, and STRL all surged in recent weeks. Yes, they recommended SMCI in November 2022 when it was only $85 and then sold it when it was over $900.

What is really impressive is that their 40 stock picks that are at least 12 months old are extremely profitable as they are up 100% and beating the market by 68%.

So between their marketing data, the University of Kentucky study, and my personal experience, it seems their “Quant Rating” is definitely valid and working to help find stocks that are most likely to outperform the market (AND telling you which ones to avoid).

Or more specifically, how are the top Quant Rated stock picks performing lately?

Like I said above, I subscribe to a both of their services. Alpha Picks was launched in July, 2022 and this service releases 2 stock picks a month–on the 1st and the 15th of each month. Here is my summary of Alpha Picks’ recent performance as of
January 4, 2025 (yes, I try to update this weekly or at least monthly):

As you can see above, Seeking Alpha’s Alpha Picks are doing exactly what they are supposed to: they are up 71.7% and providing EXCESS return (ALPHA) of 47.8% which means they are easily beating the S&P500 and all the other newsletters and most mutual funds over this time period. In fact, since inception, they are almost tripling the SPY return.

What this means is if you saved $1,000 a month and bought just $500 of each of those 64 picks your $32,000 would now be worth $54,932. If you bought the SPY ETF you would have only $39,637.

So Alpha Picks gave you a profit of $22,932 and an EXCESS profit over the SPY of $15,295 in just 30 months on your $1,000 a month investment. No other newsletter comes close to this.

So is Alpha Picks worth $449 a year? The answer is YES–as long as you are investing at least $200 a month and investing equal amounts in each of their stock picks you should build a portfolio that beats the market.

Notice that any way I look at the Alpha Picks’ performance–by results of their 2024 picks, by their 2023 picks, by their 2022 picks, by their last 12 months of picks, and by picks at least 12 months old….their picks are profitable AND they are easily beating the market. Eleven of these picks have already doubled; and picks at least 12 months old have an average return over 115% and are BEATING the market by over 81%. These picks are more than tripling the SPY.

Also, they have sold 25 of their stock picks already. Several because of acquisitions and several as stop losses.

Their picks are doing so well, I started buying about $1,500-$2,000 of each of their Alpha Picks. Here is my ETrade account (June 29, 2024) with their UBER pick that is up 69% for me since they recommended it in June 2023. I have a $1,183 profit already on my $1,700 investment. So is it worth $449? Since their picks are easily beating the market the answer is clearly ‘yes’.

Here is another screenshot of my ETrade account just to prove it. Their ANF pick from October 2023 is up 186% (June 29, 2024) for me for $2,893 profit on a $1,600 investment in just 8 months. Note I bought it on October 19 after they recommended it on October 15 so my return is not as high as it would be had I bought it on October 15:

My favorite feature of Seeking Alpha, and the reason their Alpha Picks are doing so well, is their Quant Rating. This is their key component (ie, their “secret sauce”) of both of their paid services. This is why it is worth paying for. What’s so special about it?

HOW TO GET THE LOWEST PRICE: Their Alpha Picks service is $499 per year, but there is a MARCH SALE.

Make sure you visit THIS Alpha Picks promotion page to SAVE $50.

How Does Seeking Alpha Compare to Other Newsletter Services?

You may be asking yourself “well, that is impressive, but how are they doing against other stock newsletters the last 3 years?”

I asked myself that too. And here is my analysis of a dozen services that I subscribe to, as of the date below, ranked by average performance vs the S&P over the last 3 years.

I am getting more and more confidence in their Quant Rating because of its consistent performance, especially compared to other popular services.

If you’re interested in learning about how Seeking Alpha stacks up against Benzinga Pro check out our article Seeking Alpha vs Benzinga Pro!

Here is my analysis of all my newsletters based on January 3, 2025 performance for their 2022-2024 stock picks listed in descending order of average return of all their picks from over the last 3 years:

So, as you can see, not only are their picks crushing the market, on average, for the last 3 years, they are also beating their nearest competitor by a WIDE margin.

Their picks are outperforming the Motley Fool, Moby, Zacks, Cramer’s Action Alerts Plus, Investors Business Daily, TipRanks, and even the Dogs of the Dow strategy.

Based on this data, it appears that Seeking Alpha’s Quant Rating really works.

If you are unsure about how Seeking Alpha actually works and how to best use it, check out my latest article on how to use Seeking Alpha for beginners.

Seeking Alpha Quant Rating Back-Tested Results

Here’s the most compelling data point about Seeking Alpha Quant Rating. Since 2010, stocks that have had their “Strong Buy” rating have outperformed the market by nearly 5x. (If you want to do a deep, deep, deep dive into this read our Seeking Alpha Quant Rating Review).

Do you see that? Investing just $10,000 in Seeking Alpha’s Strong Buy stocks would give you a $277,019 Total Return in mid October, 2024 compared to the S&P 500’s return of $57,238. That is almost a factor of 5x the market’s return; and an average annualized return of 26%.

And this is exactly what I am experiencing with their Seeking Alpha Picks subscription service.

From their webpage, they explain their Quant Rating system as follows:

• Seeking Alpha’s ‘Strong Buy’ quant ratings are the result of powerful computer processing and our special ‘Quantamental’ analysis.
• From nearly all U.S. securities, our quant algorithm picks stocks with the strongest collective value, growth, profitability, EPS Revisions, and price momentum metrics vs. the peer sector.
• These attributes are assigned grades that are then weighted to maximize the predictive value. The best stocks are awarded a ‘Strong Buy’ rating.
• Over the last 14 years, the backtested strategy has delivered very impressive returns, beating the S&P 500 every single year.
• What’s more, if we look at the performance since inception (December 2009 onwards), our ‘Strong Buy’ stock picks have delivered a staggering return, as you can see above.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. I provide more information on Quant Ratings below, but let me backup for a minute first and tell you why I think Seeking Alpha is worth it and provide more context about Seeking Alpha’s platform.

Features of Seeking Alpha Premium

Seeking Alpha Premium is essentially the “upgraded” version of the platform’s Basic membership. 

You get access to lots of features you don’t get with a basic plan, plus extra capabilities on other features. 

What You Get with Seeking Alpha Premium

Here are some of the highlights of the features you’ll get if you pay for Seeking Alpha Premium.

Top Rated Stock Screeners

The Top Rated Stocks screener is a special tool for Premium users that automatically finds you the most promising stocks by applying filters for the best quant ratings, Seeking Alpha author ratings, Wall Street analyst ratings, and several factor ratings.

When you use the Top Rated Stocks screener, you’re getting evaluations of a stock from three different perspectives, all with different motives and methods.

Seeking Alpha authors are independent investors who spend hours searching through news and financial statements in order to get a good read on the fundamentals of a stock.

Wall Street analysts are financial professionals who have access to expensive tools and research that help them build thorough financial models such as discounted cash flow (DCF) models that can provide a good estimate on the valuation of a company.

The quant, or quantitative analysis, system is an objective, unemotional stock evaluation system that is executed entirely through computer algorithms.

When you have a stock that is rated highly by all three of these sources, it will appear on the Top Rated Stocks screener, making it easy to know that you can be confident in the stocks on the list!

Market Analysis and Earnings Call Transcripts

With a Premium subscription to Seeking Alpha, you can read transcripts and listen to audio recordings of earnings and conference calls for stocks that aren’t covered anywhere else.

Earnings calls help us see if there were any surprises by comparing the last quarter’s earnings to what they were expected to be.

We can also use information given in earnings forecasts to make educated guesses on whether a stock’s price will rise or fall.

Dividend Grades & Metrics

Seeking Alpha has its own unique dividend grading system that helps you evaluate the strength, growth, and reliability of a stock’s dividend.

Dividend Grades give you a different score for a company’s dividend safety, growth, yield, and consistency.

If you’re looking to balance your portfolio out with a big-name, dividend producing company, or you want to pursue an income investing strategy, Seeking Alpha’s dividend grades can get you there.

Stock Comparison Tool

Seeking Alpha’s quant system has a stellar history of beating the market, making it a valuable tool for deciding which stocks to invest in.

The Seeking Alpha quant system gives stocks a rating based on value, growth, profitability, momentum, and EPS (earnings per share) revisions.

With a Premium subscription, you can see all quant ratings and underlying metrics that determine what quant rating stocks receive. They’re a useful tool when comparing stocks and work well with Seeking Alpha Premium’s comparison tool, which allows you to compare 7 different stocks at the same time.

This level of depth is extremely useful if you have a specific investing strategy in mind and you want to get to the bottom of a stock’s quant rating.

Let’s say you want to add an up-and-coming tech stock to your portfolio, but you’re stuck between a few different options.

Seeking Alpha will let you compare stocks side-by-side to help you decide which stock is the best by whatever standard is important to you.

You can compare a stock to its peers as well as a stock’s Wall Street ratings vs. its Seeking Alpha ratings.

Verified Performance History & Data Accuracy

Based on the fact that their “Strong Buy” rated stocks have drastically outperformed the market by 5x, the answer is absolutely YES, they are definitely worth it and providing the “alpha” they promise. My personal experience of buying their Alpha Picks stocks confirms it.

If you want to buy stocks that are mostly likely to outperform the market, and avoid those stocks that are likely to underperform, then YES, it is definitely worth it. 

If you are curious about how Seeking Alpha stacks up against a financial news source like Yahoo Finance, check out our new review: SEEKING ALPHA VS YAHOO FINANCE!

Pros and Cons of Seeking Alpha (Compared to Competitors)

Here are some Seeking Alpha pros and cons to assist you in your investment research comparison to find the best stock research tools.

Some of Seeking Alpha’s key competitors include Morningstar, Motley Fool, and Zacks. Here’s how they compare.

	Seeking Alpha	Morningstar	Motley Fool	Zacks
Cost	$299/yr (Premium)	$249/yr	$199/yr	$495/yr
Features	Stock screeners, Quant ratings, expert analysis, verified results	Watchlists, stock screeners, independent analysis, ratings, active investor community	2 stock picks/month, watchlists, screeners, monthly rankings, analysis, and news	Access to Zacks Rank, up-to-the-minute news & prices, weekly market analysis.
Picks	Quant “Strong Buy” picks consistently outperform the market	Based on undervalued stocks; results are mixed and not as good as other services.	Picks consistently outperform the S&P 500	Picks based on earning surprises; historically have performed well
Research	Verified and in-depth	Independent and verified research	Access to up-to-the-minute news, financials and more	Current news and market prices; expert analysis
User Experience	Easy-to-use interface; strong customer support	Users have noted an array of technical issues and the interface may be confusing for beginners	User-friendly interface, strong customer support	Interface could be less cluttered and more beginner-friendly

Here are some pros of Seeking Alpha to consider:

• Top-notch portfolio management tools make it easy to keep an eye on your investments
• Interface is easy to use and beginner-friendly
• Active community is a great resource for investment advice
• Quant ratings are reliable and useful when choosing investments
• The service is affordable compared to some other stock picking and research services

A few potential cons to keep in mind:

• The volume of information may be overwhelming to some
• User analysis is not always vetted

Who Should Subscribe to Seeking Alpha?

So, who should use Seeking Alpha? Is Seeking Alpha good for beginners?

Mostly, it’s long-term investors, active traders, and dividend investors. If you want to dig into the research, get access to investing tools for traders, and join an active community, then Seeking Alpha will be a good choice for you.

On the other hand, if you’re a casual investor, someone who doesn’t want to get into the weeds with research, or a passive ETF holder, then you probably won’t get enough value out of Seeking Alpha to make the cost of a subscription worthwhile.

Real User Reviews and Testimonials

We always like to look at online reviews before spending money, so let’s look at some Seeking Alpha user reviews, aka, real investor opinions on Seeking Alpha.

Seeking Alpha gets:

• Capterra: 4.3 out of 5 stars
• Apple Store: 4.8 out of 5 stars
• Trustpilot: 3.9 out of 5 stars

Some of the things that users praise include Seeking Alpha’s research tools, charting options, active community, and in-depth analysis.

Some reviewers took issue with slow customer service response times (although many had good experience), a less-than-ideal portfolio linking process, and the fact that it can be challenging to separate truly expert analysis from user analysis that isn’t vetted.

How Much Does Seeking Alpha Cost?

The cost of Seeking Alpha is something you’ll need to consider. Is the Seeking Alpha premium price worth it?

• Basic: Free, comes with limited features
• Premium: $299 per year
• Alpha Picks: $499 per year
• Bundle (Premium + Picks): $798 per year
• Pro: $2,400 per year

If you’re a new investor and looking for the best value investing tools for your buck, then we recommend Premium. It has plenty of features for most investors. Our second choice would be the bundle because there are usually discounts available that give you access to all Premium features plus the picks.

Most investors don’t need to (and shouldn’t) opt for the Pro plan, which is for extremely active investors with large portfolios.

All plans except Picks and the Basic plan come with a trial, but they’re not free. For example, the Premium trial is $4.95 for a month and the Pro plan trial costs $99.

There are almost always coupons and discounts available, so use one of our links to save some money!

Is Seeking Alpha Worth It?

Seeking Alpha is absolutely worth the money, if you use it the right way. Stocks rated “STRONG BUY” on their Quant Rating have outperformed the S&P 500 1,754% to 385%; and stocks rated “VERY BEARISH” have underperformed miserably. So only buy stocks rated “STRONG BUY” and avoid all “VERY BEARISH” stocks!

If you’re still not convinced, here are 5 more of my favorite features of my Premium membership. You can also check out: our review of Seeking Alpha Premium here!

Try Seeking Alpha Premium Free for a Week

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Remember: Stocks rated “STRONG BUY” by Seeking Alpha’s “Quant Rating” are up 1,754% compared to the S&P 500’s 385% over the last 10 years.

Bottom line: You should only buy stocks that are rated “STRONG BUY” and don’t own any stocks rated “VERY BEARISH!”

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Seeking Alpha Conclusion

Given the above graphs that show the Seeking Alpha STRONG BUY’s crush the market and their VERY BEARISH drastically underperform the market, given the 2024 study by professors at the University of Kentucky, and given my own personal results, it is safe to conclude that their Quant Rating works and Seeking Alpha is definitely worth it. Plus, those five features above also provide extra reasons to upgrade from their free service.

And my chart comparing the performance of the Seeking Alpha Picks to various Motley Fool and Zacks services shows they truly are providing ALPHA and beating the competition since the launch of this service in July 2022. I even showed you screenshots of my ETrade account to prove it. So if you are looking for stock recommendations and have at least a few $100 to invest each month, then you should try Alpha Picks.

Remember: Even if you had bought just $100 of those 60+ picks, your return would give you a profit well above the SPY return and the subscription easily pays for itself–if you try to buy equal dollar amounts of all of their picks as the are released. Now keep in mind, with their growing subscriber base, their stock picks to rise immediately so you need to get their picks as soon as they are released.

Save $50 on Alpha Picks

And if you are the type of investor that likes to do their own research or wants feedback on your existing portfolio to know what Seeking Alpha’s quant rating is on each of you stock, then at the price of $299 per year ($269 through our link), I find Seeking Alpha Premium to be a no-brainer investment for anyone that wants to increase their odds of beating the S&P 500. However, if you are the type of investor that just wants their 2 top rated stocks each month and you don’t need all their research, then a subscription to their Alpha Picks newsletter might be better for you.

Try Seeking Alpha Premium for FREE for 7 Days

Additionally if you wan the full suite of alerts from Seeking Alpha, their Pro service is $2,400 a year. Check out our Seeking Alpha Premium vs Seeking Alpha Pro Review.

If you can’t decide, then they let you try both Seeking Alpha Premium AND Alpha Picks for $639, a savings of $159.

Get both and save even more!

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