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Bloomberg Terminal vs FactSet

Bloomberg wins trading desks with real-time depth and its chat network; FactSet wins research teams that live in Excel and Python.

Side by side

Bloomberg Terminal FactSet
Vendor Bloomberg L.P. FactSet Research Systems Inc.
Pricing model Quote only Quote only
Free tier No No
Deployment Cloud Cloud
Open source No No
Best for Trading desks, portfolio managers and sell-side research teams who need real-time cross-asset data and a counterparty chat network in one terminal. Buy-side research teams and IB analysts who want deep Excel/API workflows alongside cross-asset data.
Pricing

Sold per seat under an annual contract negotiated directly with Bloomberg sales; no public price list.

Checked on the vendor's own page on September 21, 2026: no prices are published. Expect to be quoted.

Sold per seat/workstation under a negotiated enterprise contract; no public price list.

Pricing has not been verified yet — see the vendor's site.

Features
  • Real-time quotes and depth across equities, fixed income, FX, commodities and derivatives
  • Bloomberg News and curated wire feeds
  • Fundamental data, estimates and company financials
  • Fixed-income and derivatives analytics (YAS, OVML, PORT)
  • Portfolio and risk analytics (PORT)
  • Order and execution management (EMSX, TOMS)
  • Bloomberg Messenger for counterparty communication
  • Excel add-in for pulling terminal data into spreadsheets
  • Fundamentals, estimates and ownership data across global companies
  • Portfolio analytics and attribution
  • Screening and company/industry research workflows
  • Excel and Office add-in for live data
  • FactSet Python/REST APIs for programmatic access
  • M&A, private equity and deal data (via FactSet BQuant/Revere)
  • Fixed income and multi-asset analytics

Verdict

Bloomberg Terminal and FactSet are the two names every institutional buyer in this category compares first, and both are sold under negotiated, unpublished enterprise contracts rather than self-serve pricing. The decision usually comes down to workflow rather than raw data coverage. Bloomberg's function-code terminal is built around real-time depth across every asset class plus the Bloomberg Messenger network traders use to communicate with counterparties — a genuine network effect that keeps trading desks on it regardless of cost. FactSet leans the other way: it's built around a workstation-and-API model with strong Excel and Python integration, and is often chosen specifically for its data normalization and portfolio-analytics depth by research teams building their own models rather than reading data off a fixed terminal screen.

Choose Bloomberg Terminal if

  • You're on a trading desk and need real-time cross-asset pricing plus the counterparty chat network other market participants are already on.
  • Fixed-income liquidity and analytics are central to your workflow — a traditional Bloomberg strength.
  • Order and execution management (EMSX, TOMS) needs to live in the same platform as your data and analytics.

Choose FactSet if

  • Your team lives in Excel or Python and needs deep, reliable API access to build and maintain your own models.
  • You want strong portfolio analytics and attribution as a first-class feature, not an add-on.
  • You do investment banking or buy-side research work where FactSet's data normalization across companies is a known strength.

The honest caveat

Neither publishes pricing, and the real cost difference between them shows up in negotiation, not on a comparison page — budget for a genuine proof-of-concept with your own workflow before signing either multi-year contract. Both also compete directly with LSEG Workspace and, for narrower comps and private-company work, S&P Capital IQ — see choosing a market data terminal for how the full institutional tier compares.

Last reviewed September 22, 2026

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