Commercial datasets for finance & economics research

Not free. Commercial data is obtainable by anyone who pays a vendor or holds a licence (including WRDS-gated feeds), which is what separates it from the openly available set and from the confidential tier, which cannot be purchased at all.

WRDS / CRSP / Compustat / IBES / OptionMetrics are subscription-gated, but most universities license WRDS for affiliated researchers. See WRDS / CRSP / Compustat for the academic-access path and exactly which openly available sources substitute for which paid ones.

These pages document the access path and the gotchas, but carry no provenance badge: they were not exercised here (no vendor credentials), so they read as unverified per the Verified discipline.

Dataset	What it is	Page
WRDS / CRSP / Compustat	The paywalled core; academic access	WRDS
RavenPack	News and event analytics (sentiment, relevance)	RavenPack
FactSet LionShares	Global institutional and fund holdings	FactSet LionShares
Revelio Labs	Workforce / human-capital panel	Revelio Labs
I/B/E/S	Sell-side analyst estimates, consensus and actuals	I/B/E/S
SDC Platinum	M&A and new-issues deal-level data	SDC Platinum
CoreLogic	US property, deeds, repeat-sales, foreclosure	CoreLogic
DealScan	Syndicated and large corporate loan deals	DealScan
PitchBook	Venture, private-equity, and M&A deal data	PitchBook
Preqin	Private-capital and hedge-fund data	Preqin
RepRisk	ESG risk-incident feed (28 issue categories)	RepRisk
Trucost	Firm-level carbon and environmental data	Trucost
TRACE	Corporate bond secondary-market transactions (Enhanced, via WRDS)	TRACE
Thomson 13F (s34)	Institutional equity holdings from 13F filings	Thomson 13F (s34)
CRSP Mutual Funds	Survivor-bias-free fund returns, fees, flows, holdings (+ Thomson s12, MFLINKS)	CRSP Mutual Funds
TAQ	NYSE intraday trade and quote microstructure data	TAQ
Orbis (BvD)	Global public and private firm financials and ownership	Orbis (BvD)
Markit bond pricing	Composite dealer quotes for individual bonds	Markit bond pricing
Markit CDS	Single-name credit default swap spreads	Markit CDS
CoStar	Commercial real estate transactions and characteristics	CoStar
Bloomberg	Cross-asset terminal market data	Bloomberg
NETS	Establishment-level employment and location panel	NETS
Crane Data	Money market fund holdings and assets	Crane Data
OptionMetrics IvyDB	Daily option prices, implied vols, and Greeks	OptionMetrics
Compustat Global	Non-US company fundamentals	Compustat Global
Compustat Segments	Business- and geographic-segment financials	Compustat Segments
Datastream	Global multi-asset and macro time series	Datastream
Worldscope	Global company fundamentals	Worldscope
Capital IQ	Company, capital-structure, and transactions data	Capital IQ
Audit Analytics	Auditor, disclosure, and restatement data	Audit Analytics
NielsenIQ	Retail scanner and Homescan consumer-panel data (via Kilts)	NielsenIQ
Morningstar	Fund, ETF, and fund-sustainability data	Morningstar
KLD / MSCI ESG	Firm-level ESG strength/concern and ratings	KLD / MSCI ESG
Cboe options	Index/equity option quotes, trades, and VIX	Cboe options
FactSet Revere	Inter-firm supplier/customer/competitor links	FactSet Revere
Global Financial Data	Long-run cross-country stock, bond, and macro series	Global Financial Data
Crunchbase	Startup characteristics, funding rounds, investors	Crunchbase
CSMAR	Chinese listed-firm prices, financials, ownership	CSMAR
MSCI Real Estate	Property total-return indices and rental yields (IPD)	MSCI Real Estate
Refinitiv transcripts	Earnings-call transcripts for textual analysis	Refinitiv transcripts
Markit Securities Finance	Stock borrow fees, utilization, lendable supply	Markit Securities Finance
Markit quanto	Cross-currency quanto quotes (FX-equity covariance)	Markit quanto
Blue Chip Forecasts	Professional forecaster rate/GDP survey	Blue Chip Forecasts
Consensus Economics	Cross-country macro & FX forecast surveys	Consensus Economics
Cerved	Italian company financials (incl. private firms)	Cerved
Clarity Services	Subprime/alternative-credit bureau (payday, installment)	Clarity Services
Equifax	Traditional consumer credit-bureau records	Equifax
InfoUSA / Data Axle	Establishment listings: location, industry, employment	InfoUSA / Data Axle
Lipper eMAXX	CUSIP-level bond holdings by insurer/fund/ETF	Lipper eMAXX
Eurodollar futures	Intraday CME prices for policy-surprise windows	Eurodollar futures
FTSE All-Share	UK equity index membership, market cap, returns	FTSE All-Share
Siblis Research	S&P/Nasdaq index addition-deletion dates and values	Siblis Research
Optimal Blue	Mortgage rate-locks and real-time lender offers	Optimal Blue
RateWatch	Branch-level posted deposit and CD rates (weekly)	RateWatch
BvD Zephyr	Global M&A, IPO, and PE/VC deals, linked to Orbis	BvD Zephyr
VentureSource	VC funds, financing rounds, startup locations	VentureSource
NYT archive	Full-text New York Times corpus (text-as-data)	NYT archive
LexisNexis court	U.S. court filings and public records	LexisNexis court
Ancestry records	Death indexes and genealogical records	Ancestry records
Getty CEO photos	Dated executive press photos for facial measures	Getty CEO photos
AHA Annual Survey	U.S. hospital services, beds, operations, system affiliation	AHA Annual Survey
Moody’s URD	Creditor recovery rates at resolution of corporate defaults	Moody’s URD
Rystad Energy	Asset-level global oil and gas production, costs, reserves	Rystad Energy
SteelBenchmarker	Biweekly reference prices for steel products	SteelBenchmarker
StockTwits	Ticker-tagged retail social-media messages and sentiment	StockTwits
Titlon (OSE)	Oslo Stock Exchange prices, returns, accounting (Nordic academic)	Titlon (OSE)
ZTRAX	Zillow property deeds and assessor records (discontinued 2023)	ZTRAX