The stock market has delivered strong returns recently, and you’re researching stock analysis tools. That tells me you’re not content to just buy an index fund and forget about it — you want to understand what you own. But here’s the problem: most financial data looks like it was designed by accountants for accountants. Income statements, balance sheets, cash flow analysis — it’s all important, but it’s also overwhelming. Simply Wall St promises to change that by turning complex financial data into visual infographics. The question is whether those pretty charts actually help you make better decisions, or if they’re just lipstick on a spreadsheet.
Quick Verdict: Is Simply Wall St Worth It?
Yes, Simply Wall St is worth it for visual learners who want to understand stocks without drowning in spreadsheets. At $120/year for Premium, you get access to visual analysis of 120,000+ stocks across 90 global markets, portfolio tracking with true return calculations, and stock screeners that actually make sense. The platform has 7+ million users and a 4.6 rating on app stores for a reason — it genuinely makes stock research more accessible.
Simply Wall St is ideal for long-term investors who want to quickly understand a company’s financial health, valuation, and risks without spending hours in Excel. It’s not for day traders or quants who need real-time data and custom models. If you’ve ever stared at a 10-K filing and thought “I have no idea what I’m looking at,” this platform was built for you.
What Makes Simply Wall St Different
Most stock research tools assume you already know how to read financial statements. Simply Wall St assumes you don’t — and that’s not an insult. The platform was founded in 2014 in Sydney, Australia by Al Bentley, an engineer who was frustrated by the complexity of existing investment tools while learning to invest himself. He built what he wished existed: a way to understand companies without a finance degree.
The core innovation is visual. Instead of tables of numbers, Simply Wall St uses:
- Snowflake charts that show a stock’s strengths and weaknesses across 5 dimensions at a glance
- Sankey diagrams that visualize how revenue flows through a company to profit
- Color-coded health checks that flag potential risks immediately
This isn’t just aesthetic — it’s functional. When you can see that a company’s debt-to-equity ratio is in the red zone, you don’t need to know what the “ideal” ratio is. The visual tells you there’s a problem worth investigating.
The platform covers 120,000 stocks across 90 global markets, using data from S&P Global Market Intelligence — the same institutional-grade data that professional analysts use. The difference is presentation: Simply Wall St makes that data accessible to everyone.
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What You Actually Get
Portfolio Tracking That Goes Beyond Price Changes
Most portfolio trackers show you whether your stocks are up or down. Simply Wall St shows you why — and whether you should be concerned.
The portfolio tracker calculates true returns including:
- Realized and unrealized gains
- Dividend income
- Currency gains (for international holdings)
- Internal rate of return (IRR)
You can link 2,000+ brokerages via Plaid integration for automatic syncing, or upload trade statements manually. The platform then provides diversification analysis, sector allocation breakdowns, and portfolio health scores.
Visual Stock Reports
Each stock gets a comprehensive visual report covering:
- Past Performance — How the stock has performed vs benchmarks
- Valuation — Fair value estimates based on discounted cash flow analysis
- Financial Health — Debt levels, interest coverage, cash position
- Growth Forecasts — Analyst expectations for revenue and earnings
- Dividends — Yield, payout ratio, growth history, reliability score
- Management — Insider ownership and executive compensation
- Insider Transactions — Recent buying and selling by insiders
- Risks & Rewards — Key factors that could move the stock
The signature “snowflake” chart summarizes all this into a single visual. A healthy, undervalued growth stock with strong dividends looks like a full snowflake. A risky, overvalued company with weak financials looks like a shriveled one.
Stock Screener
The screener lets you filter 120,000+ stocks by fundamentals, valuation metrics, dividends, and more. Premium users get 3 custom screeners; Unlimited users get 10.
What makes Simply Wall St’s screener different is the output: instead of a spreadsheet, you get visual cards showing each stock’s snowflake and key metrics at a glance.
Investing Ideas
Simply Wall St curates 100+ stock collections across strategies and themes, updated weekly. These include:
- Undervalued dividend stocks
- High-growth tech companies
- Stocks with insider buying
- Companies with strong balance sheets
These aren’t recommendations — they’re starting points for research. The platform is clear that it provides “general advice only” and users should make their own decisions.
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How Simply Wall St Works
The Methodology Behind the Visuals
Simply Wall St’s analysis is built on institutional-grade data from S&P Global Market Intelligence. The platform applies several analytical frameworks:
Fair Value Calculation: Uses discounted cash flow (DCF) analysis based on analyst forecasts to estimate intrinsic value. If a stock trades below fair value, it’s flagged as potentially undervalued.
Financial Health Checks: Evaluates debt levels, interest coverage, cash position, and other metrics against industry benchmarks. Companies in trouble get red flags.
Dividend Reliability: Analyzes payout ratios, earnings coverage, and historical consistency to score dividend sustainability.
Growth Analysis: Compares analyst forecasts for revenue and earnings growth to identify companies with strong or weak outlooks.
The Limitations You Need to Know
Simply Wall St is honest about its limitations — and you should be too:
Analyst forecasts can be wrong. The fair value calculations are only as good as the analyst estimates they’re based on. In volatile markets, those estimates can be wildly off.
Visual simplicity can mask complexity. A green checkmark on financial health doesn’t mean a company is bulletproof. It means it passed certain metrics. You still need to understand the business.
It’s general advice only. Simply Wall St is not personalized financial advice. The platform explicitly recommends seeking professional advice for your specific situation.
Pricing: What Each Tier Gets You
| Plan | Price | Portfolios | Holdings/Portfolio | Reports/Month | Screeners |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 1 | 10 | 5 | Limited |
| Premium | $120/year | 3 | 30 | 30 | 3 |
| Unlimited | $180/year | 5 | Unlimited | Unlimited | 10 |
The Math on Value
At $120/year for Premium, you’re paying $10/month — roughly $0.33/day. For that, you get:
- Visual analysis of any stock in under 5 minutes
- Portfolio tracking with true return calculations
- 30 stock reports per month
- 3 custom screeners with alerts
Compare that to alternatives:
- Morningstar Investor review: $249/year — deeper analysis, but more traditional presentation
- Koyfin review: $468/year — Bloomberg-style data for serious analysts
- Stock Rover review: $179/year — powerful screeners, but steeper learning curve
Simply Wall St is the most accessible option. It won’t give you the depth of Morningstar or the raw data of Koyfin, but it will get you to “I understand this company” faster than any of them.
The Guarantee
Simply Wall St offers a 14-day money-back guarantee for new subscribers. That’s enough time to connect your portfolio, run through a dozen stock reports, and decide if the visual approach works for you.
Try Simply Wall St Premium — $120/Year
The Trade-Offs: Pros and Cons
What Simply Wall St Does Well
- Removes friction from research. You can understand a company’s financial health in 5 minutes instead of 5 hours.
- Global coverage. 120,000 stocks across 90 markets means you can research international opportunities most platforms ignore.
- Portfolio tracking that matters. True return calculations including dividends and currency gains give you an accurate picture of performance.
- Affordable. At $120/year, it’s cheaper than most research tools and provides genuine value.
- Mobile-first design. The iOS and Android apps are highly rated (4.6 stars) and fully functional.
What Simply Wall St Doesn’t Do
- Real-time data. This is for long-term investors, not day traders. Data updates daily, not by the second.
- Deep customization. You can’t build custom models or export raw data for your own analysis.
- Personalized advice. The platform provides general analysis, not recommendations tailored to your situation.
- Options or derivatives. Stock-focused only — no options chains or complex instruments.
Who Simply Wall St Is For
The Visual Learner: You understand concepts better through pictures than spreadsheets. When someone shows you a chart, you get it immediately. When they show you a table of numbers, your eyes glaze over.
The Overwhelmed Beginner: You’ve been told to “do your own research” but don’t know where to start. You want to make informed decisions but find traditional financial analysis intimidating.
The Portfolio Drifter: You own stocks but have lost track of what you actually own. You want a tool that shows you your portfolio’s health at a glance and flags potential problems.
The Global Investor: You want to diversify beyond US mega-caps but don’t know where to start researching international stocks.
Who Simply Wall St Is NOT For
Day Traders: You need real-time data, Level 2 quotes, and fast execution. Simply Wall St updates daily — that’s an eternity in day trading.
Quants and Data Scientists: You want raw data to build custom models. Simply Wall St is opinionated about presentation — you can’t export everything to Excel and do your own thing.
Spreadsheet Lovers: You actually enjoy digging through 10-K filings and building DCF models from scratch. Simply Wall St’s visual approach might feel like training wheels you don’t need.
If you’re a day trader: Consider TradingView for charting or Trade Ideas for real-time scanning.
If you want deeper fundamental analysis: Consider Morningstar Investor for comprehensive research or Koyfin for Bloomberg-style data.
Best Alternatives to Simply Wall St
Morningstar Investor — $249/year
Morningstar Investor is the gold standard for fundamental analysis. You get access to Morningstar’s analyst reports, fair value estimates, and the famous “star” ratings. The analysis is deeper than Simply Wall St, but the presentation is more traditional — expect more text and tables, fewer infographics.
Choose Morningstar if: You want analyst opinions and don’t mind reading detailed reports.
For the full breakdown, see our Morningstar Investor review.
Stock Rover — $179/year
Stock Rover is a powerful screening and research platform with extensive customization options. You can build complex screeners, backtest strategies, and export data. The learning curve is steeper than Simply Wall St, but the ceiling is higher.
Choose Stock Rover if: You want maximum screening power and don’t mind investing time to learn the platform.
Check our Stock Rover review for the full analysis.
Koyfin — $468/year
Koyfin provides Bloomberg-style data and analysis at a fraction of Bloomberg’s price. It’s built for serious analysts who want comprehensive financial data, charting, and screening. The interface is clean but assumes financial literacy.
Choose Koyfin if: You want professional-grade data and already know how to read financial statements.
See our Koyfin review for more details.
Final Verdict
Simply Wall St solves a real problem: making stock research accessible to people who aren’t financial analysts. At $120/year for Premium, it’s affordable. With 7+ million users and a 4.6 app store rating, it’s proven. And with data from S&P Global Market Intelligence, it’s credible.
The visual approach isn’t for everyone. If you love spreadsheets and want maximum customization, you’ll find Simply Wall St limiting. But if you’ve ever felt overwhelmed by financial data and wished someone would just show you what matters, this platform was built for you.
In a market where the spread between winners and losers is over 575 percentage points, understanding what you own has never been more important. Simply Wall St won’t pick stocks for you — but it will help you understand them. And in investing, understanding is the first step to conviction.
Bottom line: For visual learners who want to do their own research without drowning in complexity, Simply Wall St is the best tool available at this price point.
Explore all your research options in our guide to the best stock research websites.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Is Simply Wall St worth the money?
Yes, for visual learners who want accessible stock research. At $120/year for Premium, Simply Wall St provides visual analysis of 120,000+ stocks, portfolio tracking with true returns, and stock screeners. The platform turns complex financial data into easy-to-understand infographics. It’s not for day traders or quants who need real-time data and custom models, but for long-term investors who want to understand what they own, it’s excellent value.
What are the best alternatives to Simply Wall St?
Morningstar Investor ($249/year) offers deeper fundamental analysis with analyst reports and star ratings. Stock Rover ($179/year) provides more powerful screening and customization. Koyfin ($468/year) delivers Bloomberg-style data for serious analysts. Simply Wall St is the most accessible option; alternatives offer more depth but require more financial knowledge.
Simply Wall St vs Morningstar: Which is better?
Simply Wall St is better for visual learners; Morningstar is better for depth. Simply Wall St ($120/year) excels at making financial data accessible through infographics and covers 120,000 global stocks. Our Morningstar Investor review ($249/year) provides deeper analyst reports, star ratings, and fair value estimates but presents data more traditionally. Choose Simply Wall St if you want to understand stocks quickly; choose Morningstar if you want comprehensive analyst opinions.
How do I cancel Simply Wall St?
You can cancel your Simply Wall St subscription at any time through your account settings. Navigate to your account, select subscription management, and follow the cancellation prompts. Your access continues until the end of your billing period. Note that Simply Wall St does not provide partial refunds for mid-cycle cancellations, though they may grant refunds at their discretion.
Is Simply Wall St good for beginners?
Yes, Simply Wall St is one of the best research tools for beginners. The platform was specifically designed to make stock analysis accessible to people without finance backgrounds. Visual infographics, color-coded health checks, and the signature “snowflake” charts help beginners understand companies quickly. The free tier lets you try the platform before committing, and the 14-day money-back guarantee on paid plans reduces risk.
Is Simply Wall St data accurate?
Simply Wall St uses data from S&P Global Market Intelligence, the same institutional-grade data source used by professional analysts. The data is accurate, but fair value estimates are based on analyst forecasts which may be wrong. The platform is transparent about this limitation and recommends users seek professional financial advice for their specific situations. Data updates daily, not in real-time.
Does Simply Wall St have a mobile app?
Yes, Simply Wall St offers highly-rated mobile apps for both iOS and Android. The apps maintain a 4.6-star rating across app stores and provide full access to portfolio tracking, stock reports, snowflake visualizations, and screeners. You can link your brokerage accounts, receive alerts on portfolio changes, and research stocks on the go. The mobile experience mirrors the desktop platform, so you’re not sacrificing functionality for convenience.
How many stocks does Simply Wall St cover?
Simply Wall St covers over 120,000 stocks across 90+ global markets. This includes major exchanges in the US, Canada, UK, Europe, Australia, Japan, Hong Kong, and dozens of other countries. Coverage spans large-cap blue chips to small-cap companies, giving investors access to international opportunities that many US-focused platforms ignore. Each stock receives the same visual analysis treatment with snowflake charts, financial health checks, and fair value estimates based on S&P Global Market Intelligence data.
Can I track multiple portfolios on Simply Wall St?
Yes, Simply Wall St supports multiple portfolio tracking across all paid plans. The Free plan allows 1 portfolio with up to 10 holdings. Premium ($120/year) expands this to 3 portfolios with 30 holdings each. Unlimited ($180/year) provides 5 portfolios with unlimited holdings per portfolio. You can connect over 2,000 brokerages via Plaid integration for automatic syncing, or manually upload trade statements. Each portfolio receives its own diversification analysis, sector allocation breakdown, and health score.