---
title: "FundFacts API vs stock market data APIs for funds and ETFs"
description: "Popular market data APIs are built around equity tickers and prices. See what they return for ETFs and funds, and where an ISIN-keyed factsheet API fits."
canonical: https://fundfactsapi.com/compare/fundfacts-api-vs-stock-market-data-apis
published: 2026-09-04
updated: 2026-10-06
publisher: FundFacts API
---

# FundFacts API vs stock market data APIs for funds and ETFs

> Popular market data APIs are built around equity tickers and prices. See what they return for ETFs and funds, and where an ISIN-keyed factsheet API fits.

Developer-friendly market data APIs are excellent for what they were designed for: equity prices, fundamentals and tickers. Funds are a different domain — keyed on ISIN, documented in KIDs and factsheets, with share classes and monthly disclosure. This page explains the gap and where each tool fits.

## At a glance

| Criterion | FundFacts API | Equity market data APIs (Alpha Vantage, Financial Modeling Prep, Twelve Data, EODHD and similar) |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Primary key | Any fund or ETF ISIN, one REST call | Exchange ticker (often US-centric); ISIN support varies by provider |
| Universe | UCITS funds and ETFs with public document sets, US products progressively | Listed equities and ETFs, mostly US exchanges; unlisted mutual funds partially or not at all |
| Prices | Daily NAV series where the issuer publishes one; no intraday | Intraday and end-of-day prices, the core product |
| Fund-specific fields | KID risk indicator, ongoing charges, distribution policy, share class, benchmark, calendar returns vs benchmark | Generally not available or limited to expense ratio and top holdings for US ETFs |
| Holdings | Largest positions (ten for most funds, up to 50 for some issuers) with the position count, and sector and country tables for the whole portfolio | Top holdings for major US ETFs on some plans; European ETFs often missing |
| Refresh | Reloaded from the issuer's current documents every 24 hours; response carries dataAsOf | Real-time to daily for prices |
| Onboarding | Self-serve: free key in a minute, no contract, card only for paid plans | Self-serve API keys with free tiers |
| Pricing | Published: Free $0 (5 lookups/month), Starter $9.99/month, Pro $49/month, Scale $249/month, metered enterprise $0.01/request | Published tiers, typically priced by requests per minute or day |

## Why funds do not fit a ticker-first API

A ticker identifies a listing. An ETF listed on Xetra, the LSE and Borsa Italiana has three tickers and one [ISIN](https://fundfactsapi.com/glossary/isin) per share class; a mutual fund has no ticker at all in most of Europe. The facts users ask about — [TER](https://fundfactsapi.com/glossary/ter), [risk indicator](https://fundfactsapi.com/glossary/srri), [replication](https://fundfactsapi.com/glossary/replication-method), Acc or Dist, benchmark, holdings — live in regulatory documents, not in exchange feeds. Equity APIs can add an ETF profile endpoint for large US products, but the long tail of UCITS share classes is outside their model.

## Where the equity APIs are better

- Intraday and historical prices for listed ETFs, including volume and corporate actions.
- Equity fundamentals for the companies inside a fund, if you want to enrich [look-through](https://fundfactsapi.com/glossary/look-through) results.
- Broader coverage of US-listed products and crypto.

## Where FundFacts API fits

```python
import os, requests

r = requests.get(
    "https://fundfactsapi.com/api/v1/funds/IE00B3RBWM25",
    headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {os.environ['FUNDFACTS_API_KEY']}"},
    timeout=180,
)
data = r.json()["data"]
print(data["keyFacts"]["distribution"], data["headlineMetrics"]["ter"], data["riskRating"])
```

The response is the fund's own disclosure as JSON. Combine it with a price API for charts and you have both halves of a fund page: what it is, and what it trades at.

## Verdict

Use an equity market data API for prices and company fundamentals. Use FundFacts API when the question is about the fund itself — fees, risk indicator, share class, holdings, exposures — keyed on the ISIN your users actually have.

_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.