Bloomberg Terminal Alternatives: Refinitiv vs Koyfin vs o11

The Bloomberg Terminal. It’s the status symbol of finance. The glowing amber text. The dedicated keyboard. The $24,000+ annual price tag.

For a Sales & Trading desk, it’s non-negotiable. But for Investment Banking, Private Equity, and Corporate Strategy, the calculus is changing. Do you really need a dedicated machine for execution? Or are you paying for a chat app with expensive market data attached?

in 2026, the “Modular Terminal” stack is rising. It combines specialized tools like Refinitiv, Koyfin, and o11 to outperform the monolith.

The Contenders

1. Refinitiv Eikon (LSEG Workspace)

The Closest Rival. If you strip away the Bloomberg Chat (IB), Refinitiv Eikon offers 95% of the data coverage for a significantly lower price point.

• Pros: deeply integrated into the LSEG ecosystem. Excellent Excel add-in (Datastream). Great for FX and Fixed Income.
• Cons: UI can feel clunky compared to modern web apps. Still expensive.
• Verdict: The corporate standard alternative.

2. Koyfin

The Modern Challenger. Koyfin is what happens when you build a financial terminal with 2026 web technology. It is beautiful, fast, and incredibly affordable.

• Pros: amazing charting. Slick UI. Zero installation (browser-based). Costs a fraction of Bloomberg.
• Cons: No trading execution. Qualitative data (transcripts/news) is good but not disparate-source deep.
• Verdict: The best “pure research” tool for analysts who value UX.

3. o11: The “Action” Terminal

Here is where the comparison gets interesting. Bloomberg, Refinitiv, and Koyfin are all about Input (getting data). o11 is about Output (creating deliverables).

Most bankers use Bloomberg like this:

1. Look up WACC for a peer set.
2. Type it manually into Excel.
3. Look up a stock chart.
4. Screenshot it and paste into PowerPoint.

This is a waste of $24,000.

The “Modular Terminal” Strategy

Smart firms are moving to a “Best-of-Breed” stack:

1. Market Data: Koyfin or Refinitiv (for the raw numbers).
2. Private Data: PitchBook or Tegus.
3. Execution Layer: o11.

How o11 Completes the Stack

With o11, you don’t need the Bloomberg Excel add-in to be a modeling wizard.

• Instant Charting: Instead of screenshotting Koyfin, tell o11 in PowerPoint: “Draw a price volume chart for AAPL over the last 12 months, matching our corporate color palette.”
• Model Building: Don’t rely on pre-baked Bloomberg templates. Ask o11 to “Build a DCF template flexible for a retail company,” then fill it with data from your data provider.
• News Synthesis: Bloomberg News is great, but it’s a firehose. o11 can read your specific news feeds and generate a Daily Briefing Word Doc for your VP, summarized and formatted.

Conclusion

If you are a trader executing billion-dollar block trades, keep the Bloomberg.

But if you are a Banker, PE Investor, or Strategist, stop paying for the status symbol. Build a stack that actually helps you create value, not just watch it scroll by.

Koyfin + o11 is the secret weapon of the modern lean deal team.

See o11 in action.