Finance · head-to-head
Alpaca vs CongressInvests
Alpaca's Market Data API v2 delivers realtime and historical quotes, trades, and bars for US equities and ETFs over REST and WebSocket, requiring an Alpaca brokerage/API-key account. The free plan gives 200 API calls/minute with 15-minute-delayed IEX-exchange data and 30-symbol WebSocket streams; the $99/month Algo Trader Plus tier removes the call cap, adds true realtime data from all US exchanges (plus real-time OPRA options quotes), and unlimited streamed symbols. Both tiers include 7+ years of historical data.
CongressInvests tracks U.S. congressional stock trades from official Senate EFD and House Clerk disclosures, refreshed every six hours, with per-ticker trade history, a global feed, and a Pro-only AI-generated trend narrative (sentiment plus notable member patterns, cached 24 hours per ticker). The core REST API is keyless for up to 100 requests/day; a $29/month Pro plan adds an X-Api-Key header for webhook alerts, the AI trend endpoint, and higher limits. It ships official Python and Node.js SDKs and markets itself against paid-only competitors like QuiverQuant and Unusual Whales.
| Alpaca | CongressInvests | |
|---|---|---|
| Authentication | API Key | None |
| Pricing | freemium | freemium |
| Formats | JSON, WebSocket | JSON |
| CORS | yes | yes |
| HTTPS | Yes | Yes |
CongressInvests needs no API key, while Alpaca requires API Key — pick CongressInvests to start without signup.