Datum vs. Morningstar Investor
Published 2026-10-25
If you are searching for a Morningstar Investor review or alternative, you are probably deciding whether a paid portfolio tool is worth it, and which one. This page compares the two on facts. It includes the places Datum loses, because those are the places that may decide it for you.
A note on sources. We make Datum, and we have not used Morningstar Investor ourselves. Morningstar's prices and trial terms below come from Morningstar's own Investor page. Its feature list comes from that page and from a published review (Wall Street Survivor, updated July 2026). Check Morningstar's current page before you decide; both companies can change prices at any time.
The short version
Morningstar describes Investor as "trusted research, data, and tools from Morningstar's investment experts." It is, first, a research subscription: analyst fair-value estimates, ratings and reports, a screener with more than 200 data points, plus a portfolio tool that includes a Portfolio X-Ray.
Datum is the other way round. It is built around one job: showing what your funds actually hold across every account, and what they cost you each year in dollars. That is the look-through and fees part of an X-Ray, with a few research tools alongside it.
So the useful question is not which one is "better." It is whether you are paying for the research or for the look-through. If you mostly hold index funds and want the look-through and the fee number, the research is the part you may never open. If you pick individual stocks or read analyst reports, it is the part you came for, and Datum does not have it.
Side by side
Prices checked on Morningstar's own page on 2026-10-25.
| Morningstar Investor | Datum | |
|---|---|---|
| Price, billed yearly | $249 a year. Its page also shows $199 for the first year with a promotional code. | $120 a year |
| Price, billed monthly | $34.95 a month | $12 a month |
| Trial | 7-day free trial | 7-day trial, no card required |
| Look-through into what your funds hold | Portfolio X-Ray (per the review) | X-Ray: sector, geography and single-stock exposure, plus fees in dollars |
| Analyst research, fair values, star ratings | Yes. 120+ analysts, fair value estimates, 1,600+ funds and ETFs analysed (per the review) | No |
| Screener | 200+ data points | A smaller set of published metrics |
| Getting your accounts in | Connects to multiple brokerage accounts (per the review) | Paste or type any account. |
| Mobile | iOS and Android apps (per the review) | Web only |
Where Datum does the job differently
It shows your fees in dollars
Datum multiplies each fund's published expense ratio by what you hold in it, adds up every account, and shows one number: dollars per year. For each fund you hold, it also shows the lowest published expense ratio among funds whose holdings are nearly the same, and roughly what that difference is in dollars a year on your balance. It shows the arithmetic. It does not tell you what to do with it.
You can try the idea before you sign up
The fund overlap calculator is public. Enter two to five tickers and a portfolio value, and it shows how much those funds overlap, your largest single holding once the funds are looked through, and what their expense ratios cost per year. No account, no card.
You can check the numbers
Datum prints the formula behind its fund rating on the rating itself:
0.7 × Sharpe percentile + 0.3 × (1 − expense percentile). A missing input shows a dash
rather than an estimate.
It does less, on purpose
Datum is one plan with a handful of screens built around one job. That is a design choice, and it is also a limit: see the next section.
Where Datum loses
These are real, and for some people they settle the question.
- Analyst research and fair values. Datum has no analyst reports, no fair-value estimates and no analyst ratings. If your process depends on them, Morningstar has them and Datum does not.
- Mobile apps. Morningstar has iOS and Android apps. Datum is a website, with no app.
- Track record. Morningstar has been publishing investment research for more than four decades, by its own account. Datum is new, has no long track record, and asks you to paste or type your holdings. That is a fair reason to hesitate. It is why the calculator is free and needs no login, and why we show our formulas and sources.
- Past performance. Datum's returns start on the day you add a holding and do not import your earlier transactions.
You can paste or type holdings from any brokerage. Datum also does not cover crypto or technical analysis, and does not suggest what to buy or sell. Those are not gaps we are trying to close.
Which one fits
- Morningstar Investor may fit if you pick individual stocks, want analyst reports and fair values, or want a mobile app.
- Datum may fit if you hold mostly funds across several accounts and want to see what they hold in common and what they cost you in dollars, and a $120 yearly price matters.
- Either way, try the free trial of whichever you are considering before you pay. Both offer seven days.
Try the part that is free
Datum shows you what you own. It is not an investment adviser, broker-dealer or tax adviser, and nothing on this page is investment advice or a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Morningstar is a trademark of Morningstar, Inc., which is not affiliated with Datum.