The Alternative Data Encyclopedia
Alternative data is data generated outside the traditional financial-reporting and market-data system, used alongside filings and prices to inform investment decisions. It is usually granular, large-scale and sourced from digital exhaust or physical sensors: card transactions, store visits, job postings, scraped prices, satellite imagery, shipping records or on-chain activity.
Research alternative data by dataset, provider, marketplace and signal category. Compare sources used by investors, from transactions and geolocation to jobs, web data, sentiment and on-chain activity, with licensing, delivery, coverage and editorial context in one open catalog.
4,477 datasets · 378 providers · 22 signal categories.
Explore by signal
All categories →Free & Open Data
36 providersCard & Transactions
15 providersWeb & Pricing Data
31 providersNews & Sentiment
38 providersFoot Traffic & Mobility
23 providersESG & Climate
7 providersSatellite & Geospatial
24 providersSupply Chain & Shipping
19 providersNotable datasets
All datasets →Every job posting collected since 2021: who is hiring, for what, where and at what salary. One row per posting with title, full description, location, salary and company; closed postings ship as their own file with the day each one went offline. Companies file included for firmographic joins.
A worldwide repository of startup financing information, tracking funding rounds, backers, and exit events.
More than 800,000 US and international economic time series from roughly 100 official sources: GDP components, employment, inflation, rates, money supply, housing and regional series, downloadable as CSV or XLSX or via the FRED and ALFRED APIs, with vintages preserved for point-in-time research.
A recurring dataset tracking pedestrian visits and store rankings across leading premium retail brands operating in the United States.
Indicators of retail investor mood and posting activity are drawn directly from the StockTwits community.
Transaction records tied to specific points of interest.
Explore providers
Compare providers →Guides & research
All guides →What is alternative data?
A starting point for understanding sources, signals and their limitations.Choosing a data provider
Evaluate coverage, methodology, historical data and access terms.State of Alternative Data 2026
Explore the sources and products represented in the catalogue.Signal families in this catalogue
Alternative data is usually grouped by the economic signal it carries. This catalogue indexes 22 families, each with an article on how the signal is created, how it is collected and where it misleads:
- Free & Open Data36 providers
- Card & Transactions15 providers
- Web & Pricing Data31 providers
- News & Sentiment38 providers
- Foot Traffic & Mobility23 providers
- ESG & Climate7 providers
- Satellite & Geospatial24 providers
- Supply Chain & Shipping19 providers
- Jobs & Workforce16 providers
- Weather & Agriculture9 providers
- App Usage & Downloads14 providers
- Email Receipts5 providers
- Credit & Lending13 providers
- Public Records & Filings28 providers
- Expert Networks & Surveys24 providers
- Sensors & IoT11 providers
- Crypto & On-Chain13 providers
- Healthcare & Clinical14 providers
- Private Markets Signals16 providers
- Auto & Vehicle Data5 providers
- Estimates, Events & Fund Flows12 providers
- Technographics & Tech Stacks4 providers
How alternative data is collected
Most products are built from a handful of methods. Panels observe a sample of consumers, cards or devices and extrapolate. Web collection reads prices, catalogues, listings and reviews at scale. Public records cover filings, registries, tenders and court documents. Sensors and imagery measure physical activity, from satellites to vessel transponders. Employment and corporate signals come from job postings, technographics and people data. Each method trades coverage against precision and introduces its own bias, which is why the source of a dataset matters more than its size.
How to evaluate a dataset or provider
Six questions decide whether a product is usable: what population the sample actually represents; how the data is generated and whether the method is documented; how far back the history goes and whether it has been restated; how often it refreshes and how quickly it becomes available; what the licence permits, including redistribution and derived work; and how it is delivered, whether by file, API, warehouse or feed. Records here list the licence, delivery, coverage and source listing where the provider publishes them, so you can compare before contacting a vendor.
What this catalogue contains
4,477 dataset records from provider websites, public marketplaces and open repositories, covering 378 providers. Records are never the data itself: each one links to the original listing for files, samples, pricing and terms. Datasets are tiered as featured (first-party), premium (commercial) and open (free). Listings are informational and are not investment advice. The same catalogue is available to machines through the documented API, an MCP server and llms.txt.