Alternative data providers by category

Each category is an editorial hub for one family of alternative-data signals. Use it to understand how the data is collected, why investors use it, the main caveats, and which providers and datasets are available in that category.

Signal families in detail

Free & Open Data

Free, openly licensed datasets published by governments, space agencies and international organizations: statistical series, satellite imagery, geographic layers and administrative records released without access fees. The category is the substrate on which much of the commercial alternative-data industry is built.

36 providers · Datasets · Signal overview, methods and caveats

Card & Transactions

Aggregated, anonymized panels of card payments that measure consumer spending by merchant, brand and sector in near real time. The signal approximates company revenue between reporting dates, replacing modeled guesswork with observed transactions.

15 providers · Datasets · Signal overview, methods and caveats

Web & Pricing Data

Structured collection of product-level web data: prices, availability, catalogs, reviews and promotions captured from retailer and marketplace sites on a fixed schedule. The signal answers questions official statistics cannot, such as what a specific SKU costs at a specific merchant today and how online assortment is shifting week by week.

31 providers · Datasets · Signal overview, methods and caveats

News & Sentiment

NLP scoring of news, press releases, filings, earnings-call transcripts and social posts into machine-readable tone, novelty and event signals per company. The category converts unstructured text flow into quantitative inputs that investment models can consume at scale.

38 providers · Datasets · Signal overview, methods and caveats

Foot Traffic & Mobility

Foot-traffic datasets estimate visits to physical locations such as stores, restaurants and malls. Products may combine sampled device observations, location data and point-of-interest records. A visit estimate is not a transaction, a headcount census or proof of customer intent; collection and aggregation methods must be checked for the specific product.

23 providers · Datasets · Signal overview, methods and caveats

ESG & Climate

Environmental performance data spanning corporate disclosures of emissions and resource use plus independent measurement of physical emissions from assets worldwide. The category combines self-reported baselines with sensor- and satellite-derived ground truth to quantify climate exposure.

7 providers · Datasets · Signal overview, methods and caveats

Satellite & Geospatial

Processed satellite and aerial imagery converted into counts and measurements of physical economic objects: vehicles in parking lots, ships at ports, volumes in storage tanks, crop condition and construction activity. The signal turns remote sensing into site-level time series that estimate stocks and activity before official statistics appear.

24 providers · Datasets · Signal overview, methods and caveats

Supply Chain & Shipping

Customs manifests, bills of lading and official trade statistics describing what physically crosses borders, by shipper, consignee, product and vessel. The category turns public filings and commercial aggregation into a near-real-time map of global goods flows.

19 providers · Datasets · Signal overview, methods and caveats

Jobs & Workforce

Jobs and workforce data covers job advertisements, professional-profile histories and estimates of organizational change. These sources observe different things: an advertisement is not a confirmed vacancy or hire, and a profile update is not a payroll record. The BLS JOLTS definitions explicitly distinguish job openings, hires and separations; web-derived series should not be assumed to measure the same quantities.

16 providers · Datasets · Signal overview, methods and caveats

Weather & Agriculture

Meteorological observations, seasonal outlooks and agricultural statistics that connect weather realizations to crop yields, harvest timing and commodity supply. The category pairs official statistical series with gridded reanalysis and station data to quantify growing conditions.

9 providers · Datasets · Signal overview, methods and caveats

App Usage & Downloads

Mobile app intelligence datasets describe app-store and usage activity such as estimated downloads and revenue, active users, sessions, time spent, retention signals, rankings, ratings and reviews, often split by country, category and platform. These figures are not the same as a publisher's internal analytics or audited financial results; products may model a wider market from sampled and public inputs.

14 providers · Datasets · Signal overview, methods and caveats

Email Receipts

Digitized purchase receipts collected from consenting consumers through rewards apps and connected inboxes, normalized into line-item purchase records. The signal provides basket-level truth, exact items, quantities and prices actually paid, that card panels see only as merchant totals.

5 providers · Datasets · Signal overview, methods and caveats

Credit & Lending

Aggregated credit and lending data tracking consumer debt health: originations, balances, utilization and delinquency across mortgages, cards, autos and personal loans. The signal turns loan-book dynamics into an early read on the consumer credit cycle and lender fundamentals.

13 providers · Datasets · Signal overview, methods and caveats

Public Records & Filings

Government-mandated disclosures: securities filings, patent and trademark registrations, court records, corporate registries, lobbying reports and procurement contracts. The category converts legal transparency obligations into structured, searchable intelligence about companies and their principals.

28 providers · Datasets · Signal overview, methods and caveats

Expert Networks & Surveys

Structured primary research obtained from practitioners: one-to-one expert calls, searchable transcript libraries covering public and private companies, and quantitative surveys of industry insiders or consumers. The category converts qualitative market knowledge into evidence a diligence process can cite.

24 providers · Datasets · Signal overview, methods and caveats

Sensors & IoT

Telemetry and readings from networked physical devices, meters, fleet trackers, industrial controllers, environmental sensors and connected vehicles, aggregated into measures of real-world machine activity. The category observes what equipment actually does rather than what companies report.

11 providers · Datasets · Signal overview, methods and caveats

Crypto & On-Chain

On-chain analytics fused with exchange market data for digital assets: wallet flows, network activity, supply dynamics and derivatives positioning across venues. Blockchains publish every transaction publicly, so the category offers total-transparency measurement of holder behavior that equities markets cannot replicate.

13 providers · Datasets · Signal overview, methods and caveats

Healthcare & Clinical

Clinical and health data at scale: aggregated medical claims, electronic health records, pharmacy transactions and trial-registry information organized around patients, providers and molecules. The signal measures real-world care flows, diagnoses, prescriptions, procedures, that anticipate pharmaceutical revenue and healthcare utilization before companies report them.

14 providers · Datasets · Signal overview, methods and caveats

Private Markets Signals

Data on companies that are not publicly listed: fundraising by venture capital and buyout funds, deal activity, valuations, exits and portfolio company performance. The category aggregates voluntary disclosures from fund managers and regulatory filings into benchmarks for an asset class without centralized reporting.

16 providers · Datasets · Signal overview, methods and caveats

Auto & Vehicle Data

Vehicle-level data covering registrations, sales, production, telematics and vehicle histories across the global car parc. The category tracks what is built, sold, insured, repaired and driven, making it a high-frequency read on consumer durables and industrial supply chains.

5 providers · Datasets · Signal overview, methods and caveats

Estimates, Events & Fund Flows

Derivatives positioning, options-implied expectations and fund flow data that reveal how investors are positioned and what probabilities markets assign to future events. The category reads the book of bets rather than the assets themselves.

12 providers · Datasets · Signal overview, methods and caveats

Technographics & Tech Stacks

Detection of technology stacks per company: which technologies each business uses, with evidence and date of observation, plus adoption-change events.

4 providers · Datasets · Signal overview, methods and caveats