InsiderBeacon vs Finviz
Finviz is one of the most used stock screeners, with an insider table on every stock. InsiderBeacon is an alert service for insider filings. One is where you screen; the other is what tells you.
The InsiderBeacon team · October 26, 2026
A disclosure first. We make InsiderBeacon, one of the tools below. We have tried to describe every tool fairly, including where the others do more than we do, and to show each price as its maker lists it. Prices are as the vendors listed them in October 2026; check their pages before you buy.
In short
Finviz is a screener with an insider table on every stock; InsiderBeacon is an alert service for insider filings with public pages per stock and insider. Finviz's alerts are for screens and prices, not filings; InsiderBeacon's are for filings, within about a minute, including planned sales.
Side by side
| InsiderBeacon | Finviz | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free during early access (every Pro feature, no card); then a Free plan with filings 24 hours behind, and Pro at $29 a month ($14 for early members) | Free; Elite $24.96 to $39.50 a month |
| How you find out | Alerts within about a minute of the SEC accepting a filing; the median time is on the status page | You look at the insider table; Elite has email and push alerts on screens and prices, not insider-specific |
| Planned sales (Form 144) | The Form 144 notice the minute it's accepted, typically 34 hours before the sale is reported | Listed in the insider table as "Proposed Sale" rows; its alerts are for screens and prices, as it describes them |
| Interpretation | Every buy scored out of 100 by a published formula; cluster buys flagged; plan sales and option exercises labelled | A plain table of transactions; no score |
| Alert channels | Phone push, Telegram, Discord, email and webhooks; a minimum size, a daily cap and quiet hours | Email and push on Elite, for screens and price levels |
| Congress | Every trade with how late it was filed, moves since it was reported, and a copy-the-member replay against the S&P | Not covered |
| Screening and charts | Public pages per stock and insider; no general screener | Its core: a screener across hundreds of filters, charts, maps, news |
| API | API keys, webhooks and a Discord bot on every plan; the head-start study and the pulse are open endpoints | Elite exports; no public API |
| Ads | No ads on any plan | Free plan carries ads |
Each tool is described from its own site as of October 26, 2026; the quotes under "what people say" are about this kind of tool in general, not about any one of them. Prices are as the vendors listed them in October 2026; check their pages before you buy. We make InsiderBeacon.
Where Finviz does more
Finviz is a screener first and a very good one: hundreds of filters, charts with patterns drawn in, the market map, news. Its insider table is a side feature, but it is on every stock page and the site-wide insider list is a quick way to see what was filed today. InsiderBeacon is not a screener and does not try to be; its public stock pages and insider pages exist so a search leads to the filings, and the app exists to tell you about the next one.
What people say about this kind of tool, and what we did about it
“By the time you find out, the move has already happened.”
You hear about a sale before it's reported.
The insider's notice, the minute the SEC accepts it, typically 34 hours before the sale is on the record. Buys about a minute after the filing lands. Congress reports minutes after they're posted, with how late each one was.
“It doesn't tell you whether it's a buy or a sell.”
It says so before anything else.
Buy or Sell, Long or Short, in the title of the alert, on the card, on the share image. Insider sales say what share of their stake went, and whether it was a scheduled plan.
“No mobile app, a cluttered site, and ads everywhere.”
One app, on your home screen, no ads.
The same app on a phone and a computer, installable on the home screen with push notifications, and not one ad on any plan.
“$1M is normal for a huge company and huge for a small one; the scanner uses flat numbers.”
Sized against what they already own.
The score weighs a buy against the insider's existing stake and the company's size, so a director doubling a small holding ranks above a routine top-up at a giant.
“I'm sifting through hundreds of meaningless filings to find the ones that matter.”
Open-market buys of $25,000 or more, scored.
Option exercises, gifts and plan sales are labelled or left out; cluster buys are flagged; each buy gets a score out of 100 from what the filing says.
The one claim we measure
The head start is not a slogan. Every Form 144 notice is matched to the Form 4 that reported the sale and the gap between the SEC's two acceptance times is kept, pair by pair, both filings linked. The median, the share that arrived first and every pair are on the study page, live, and the numbers for your own stocks are a paste away on the portfolio check.
Which should you use?
- You screen stocks and want the insider table as one more column: Finviz.
- You hold or follow stocks and want to be told when an insider files, or plans to sell: InsiderBeacon.
- Both: screen in Finviz, follow in InsiderBeacon.
Questions
Does Finviz alert on insider buys?
Finviz Elite's alerts are for screener results and price levels, as it describes them, not for insider filings. The insider table on a stock page shows the filings when you open it.
Can I check my portfolio for planned sales without an account?
Yes: the portfolio check takes a pasted list of tickers and shows every Form 144 notice of the last 90 days in them, whether each sale has been reported and how long the notice was public first. No account, nothing stored.
Is the insider data the same?
Both read SEC Form 4 filings, so the transactions are the same public record. InsiderBeacon also reads the Form 144 notice and Schedule 13D/13G stake filings, labels plan sales and option exercises, scores each open-market buy and tells you when one lands.
For information only, from public SEC and congressional filings. Not investment advice. Disclaimer