--- title: "FundFacts API vs Morningstar for fund data" description: "Morningstar is the reference for fund research and ratings. How a self-serve ISIN-to-JSON API built from issuer documents compares: scope, onboarding, cost" canonical: https://fundfactsapi.com/compare/fundfacts-api-vs-morningstar published: 2026-09-04 updated: 2026-09-09 publisher: FundFacts API --- # FundFacts API vs Morningstar for fund data > Morningstar is the reference for fund research and ratings. How a self-serve ISIN-to-JSON API built from issuer documents compares: scope, onboarding, cost Morningstar built the vocabulary the fund industry uses: star ratings, the style box, category peer groups. FundFacts API does not attempt any of that. It returns the facts a fund house publishes about its own product, as JSON, from an ISIN. Here is how the two fit together. ## At a glance | Criterion | FundFacts API | Morningstar Direct and Morningstar data feeds | | --- | --- | --- | | Scope | Fund and ETF factsheet data only: key facts, fees, holdings, exposures, risk indicator, performance, risk metrics | Fund and ETF research and analytics: proprietary ratings, categories, style analysis, peer groups, portfolio holdings, performance, plus equities and indexes | | Proprietary analytics | None. A transparent profile (profile.*) recomputable from the payload with published rules | Star Rating, Medalist Rating, Morningstar Category, Style Box, Sustainability Rating and other proprietary measures | | Source of figures | The management company's own factsheet, KID, holdings files and product page | Morningstar's own database, built from fund company filings and its analysts' work | | Input key | Any fund or ETF ISIN, one REST call | Morningstar identifiers (SecId) as well as ISIN and tickers | | Refresh | Reloaded from the issuer's current documents every 24 hours; response carries dataAsOf | Daily updates for prices and periodic updates for holdings and analytics | | Delivery | REST JSON, OpenAPI spec, TypeScript types | Morningstar Direct desktop and web, data feeds and APIs licensed to institutions | | Onboarding | Self-serve: free key in a minute, no contract, card only for paid plans | Sales-led licence; Direct is a per-seat subscription; feeds and APIs are contracted | | Pricing | Published: Free $0 (5 lookups/month), Starter $9.99/month, Pro $49/month, Scale $249/month, metered enterprise $0.01/request | Quoted by Morningstar sales; not published as a self-serve price list | | AI tooling | AI companion kit (AGENTS.md, Cursor rule, Claude Code skill, OpenAPI, TypeScript types) on paid plans | Morningstar's own AI research assistant inside its products | ## What Morningstar gives you that this API does not Ratings, categories, peer-group rankings and analyst opinion are Morningstar's product. If your users expect a star rating next to every fund or a category average to benchmark against, you need a licence for that data, and no document-based API can substitute for it. ## What this API gives you instead Everything a fund house says about its own product, normalised into one JSON shape: - [Key facts](https://fundfactsapi.com/glossary/aum): size, inception, currency, distribution policy, benchmark. - Fees: the [ongoing charges](https://fundfactsapi.com/glossary/ongoing-charges) figure from the KID. - The 1–7 [SRRI](https://fundfactsapi.com/glossary/srri) / [SRI](https://fundfactsapi.com/glossary/sri) risk indicator as printed, not a proprietary risk score. - [Holdings](https://fundfactsapi.com/glossary/top-holdings), [sector](https://fundfactsapi.com/glossary/sector-exposure) and [country](https://fundfactsapi.com/glossary/country-exposure) weights. - Calendar, cumulative and annualised returns, and a NAV series where published. The `profile` object adds a classification (region, valuation, credit quality, rate sensitivity) computed with published, versioned rules from the same payload, so a compliance reviewer can reproduce every label. It is deliberately not a rating. ## Onboarding and cost The practical difference for a small team is the buying process. FundFacts API is self-serve with a free tier, so a prototype costs nothing and a production screener runs on a published monthly plan. Institutional research platforms are sold by contract, sized to the organisation. ## Using both Many advisory platforms display issuer facts and third-party ratings side by side. If you already license ratings, a document-based API is a cheap way to add current holdings, exposures and KID figures without expanding the research licence. ## Verdict Choose Morningstar when ratings, categories and analyst research are part of what you sell. Choose FundFacts API when you need the fund house's own disclosed facts as structured JSON, keyed on ISIN, with self-serve onboarding and a published price. _Descriptions of other providers are based on their public websites and documentation as of September 2026 and may be out of date; check the vendor for current features and pricing. All product names are trademarks of their respective owners. FundFacts API is not affiliated with any of them. Nothing here is investment advice._ ## About FundFacts API FundFacts turns any fund or ETF ISIN into one dated factsheet (fees and KID costs, the 1–7 risk indicator, holdings, sector and country exposure, returns) read from the fund house's own documents: as a client-ready PDF under your firm's name for advisers and wealth managers, as JSON through its API for developers, or inside ChatGPT and Claude through its MCP server. FundFacts works inside ChatGPT and Claude as a connector (a remote MCP server): ask about any fund or ETF by ISIN, ticker or name and the assistant answers from FundFacts' dated figures, fees, risk, holdings, exposure and returns, with fund cards, side-by-side comparisons, holdings overlap and portfolio look-through. - Free API key, no card: https://fundfactsapi.com/signup - Documentation: https://fundfactsapi.com/docs (OpenAPI: https://fundfactsapi.com/openapi.json) - MCP server: https://fundfactsapi.com/api/mcp (set-up for every client: https://fundfactsapi.com/mcp-server) - Pricing: https://fundfactsapi.com/pricing - Site index for AI assistants: https://fundfactsapi.com/llms.txt - Informational data, not investment advice.