The Motley Fool vs Morningstar 2023

When investing in the stock market, your investment research choice is critical. You can choose to do your own research or rely on free stock picks from questionable services. Or you can spend a few dollars a month on premium research and analysis from the same names that provide professional investors the research to power their informed decisions. Check out our Motley Fool vs Morningstar comparison to see which service might be right for you.

The Motley Fool and Morningstar are two companies that make professional-level research available to retail investors. In this article, Modest Money will take you through a comparison of the services provided by these companies to help you decide which one is optimal for you.

Annual Subscription Fees	Motley Fool Stock Advisor $199 ($89 for the first year with Modest Money)	$249 for Morningstar Investor ($199 first year price with Modest Money plus 7 days free)
Securities Analyzed	Stocks	Stocks, Mutual Funds, ETFs
Investment Strategies	Conclusions that merge quantitative and qualitative approaches	Quantitative (starred) and qualitative (gold, etc.) approaches distinctly separated by different ranking systems
Base Results	Moderately diversified portfolio of high-performing stocks	Excellent diversification of self-built portfolio with multiple asset classes and risk tolerance levels
Base Use	Moderate Risk Investing	Low-Risk Investing
Current Promotion	More Info	More Info Save $50 on an annual membership with coupon code MM50
Modest Money Overall Rating	4.9 rating based on 5 ratings	5.0 rating based on 5 ratings

What is The Motley Fool?

Motley Fool, founded in 1993 by David and Tom Gardner, is a stock research platform. Originally centered around their Stock Advisor newsletter, the company now offers various newsletters, including Rule Breakers and Everlasting Stocks.

Subscribers receive weekly stock recommendations, with the advice typically geared towards long-term holdings. They claim an impressive 575% return as of January 29, 2021, significantly outpacing the S&P 500’s 116%. While they provide premium content, there’s also a substantial amount of free resources available on their website.

Motley Fool Pros & Cons

Pros:

• Offers top-notch investment research, elevating the standard.
• Provides an array of specialized products catering to different investing needs.
• Affordability is a significant perk.
• Their operations stand out due to the transparency they offer.
• Established history of solid returns, especially evident in their Stock Advisor and Rule Breakers picks.
• Outshines the S&P 500 in terms of returns.
• A paradise for those with their eyes set on long-term gains and retirement goals.

Cons:

• Some of their newer offerings still need time to establish a proven track record.
• Premium plans can put a dent in your pocket, with costs potentially being prohibitively high.

What is Morningstar?

Founded in 1984 by Joe Mansueto, Morningstar has become a leading name in investment research. Morningstar has over 5,000 employees who cover more than half a million investments. Originally known for its mutual funds rating scale, which is widely used by many brokerages, Morningstar has expanded its ratings to include stocks, ETFs, and credit ratings.

Here’s how Morningstar works: They offer their paid subscribers a range of tools and reports. One standout feature is their extensive research on up to 600,000 securities. They also curate a “Best Investments” list, which regularly features a mix of 15 mutual funds, ETFs, and stocks.

Their main service, Morningstar Premium, provides comprehensive investment tools, ratings, and reports. They also offer a range of educational resources, both free and premium. While you can find ratings and top picks on Morningstar, tracking their performance against the broader market isn’t as straightforward due to their wide-ranging focus.

Morningstar Pros & Cons

Pros:

• Offers picks for a range of investors, from novices to seasoned experts.
• Perfect fit for those leaning towards a buy-and-hold strategy.
• Dives deep with its stock analyses, providing rich insights.
• Boasts an impressive educational resource collection, catering to all knowledge levels.
• Allows subscribers to view historical stock prices.
• User experience is enhanced by a user-friendly interface.
• A 7-day free trial lets you test the waters.

Cons:

• Tends to favor long-term investors, leaving day traders or aggressive strategists empty handed.
• One-size-fits-all: every subscriber receives identical picks without any personalization.
• It’s DIY-centric; if you’re not prompt, potential opportunities might slip.
• Basic members might find access to ratings and tools somewhat limiting.
• A yearly subscription to the Monthly Investor membership can be pricey, even with the post-trial discount.

Morningstar VS The Motley Fool: Determining Factors?

When it comes down to Motley Fool vs Morningstar, both have their unique features, benefits, and drawbacks. Let’s see how they measure up in some of the most important factors:

Factor 1: Cost

Costs factors into the decisions of even the wealthiest people. That’s probably the primary reason why they are the wealthiest people.

After all, if you save an extra $20 per month in fees and invest it well, after ten years, your contributions will equal more than $3,300, assuming a 6% return. That’s how modest amounts of money grow into thousands: never underestimate the power of small amounts.

For the first factor, we’ll look at the respective costs of Motley Fool versus Morningstar.

Morningstar Subscription Cost

Morningstar does not have as many premium services geared towards individual investors as Motley Fool, but Morningstar Investor is a powerful tool. Morningstar Investor will cost you $199 annually, slightly more than Stock Advisor.

This is what you’ll get with a Morningstar Investor subscription:

• Theor Portfolio X-Ray Tool is a great tool that provides analysis of the diversification of your portfolio, including recommendations on how you can further diversify your risk. It also ranks your investment portfolio by risk level and shows your expenses for your assets and other vital data.
• Medalist Funds contain new investment ideas and ranks of mutual funds, stocks, and ETFs.
• Quote Pages are deep dives into individual stocks, ETFs, and mutual funds.

You can read more about Morningstar Investor services here.

Independent analysis shows that Morningstar is more often right than not about its ratings. But since they are not limiting their picks to two stocks per month, you must read their reports thoroughly and decide which assets are the best match for your portfolio. This analysis is easier for intermediate or advanced investors.

You can get $50 off your first year with Morningstar Investor and a free 7-day trial by clicking here.

The Motley Fool is Cheaper

The Motley Fool offers Stock Advisor for $50 less than Morningstar Investor. This is a cost differential of only $4.17 per month, so it shouldn’t be the sole deciding factor when choosing between Motley Fool and Morningstar.

Factor 2: Strategy

A second factor to consider is strategy. The strategy a research firm uses to make its stock recommendations should fall in line with your investment goals in order to have the most significant positive impact on your investments.

Morningstar Strategy

Morningstar’s analysis can enable multiple investment styles. It includes qualitative and quantitative analysis in its reports.

The “Morningstar Analyst Rating” is stylized in terms like “gold” and “silver” or “bronze.” These are qualitative ratings from their more than 150 independent analysts.

“Morningstar Ratings” are quantitatively driven. Morningstar derives them from proprietary models and data analysis.

Morningstar’s quantitative conclusions are denoted by starred ratings. The Morningstar Risk-Adjusted Return (MRAR), the foundation of their global quantitative research, uses expected utility theory to predict assets that are less likely to produce a poor outcome than an unexpectedly good one.

In other words, Morningstar’s ratings are pretty risk-tolerant. You have less chance of losing significant money than you do of making outsized gains.

In combination with Morningstar’s X-Ray portfolio feature, this strategy will help you build a well-diversified portfolio all by yourself.

If you are familiar with modern portfolio theory, you already realize the importance of diversifying risk in an investment portfolio. If not, take our word for it. Building a portfolio with the right mix of diversification can help you earn positive returns while minimizing the risk of losing significant amounts of money.

Morningstar’s Strategy is Preferable to the Motley Fool

Overall, Modest Money prefers Morningstar’s diversification strategy to Motley Fool’s, especially with Morningstar’s X-Ray portfolio option, which allows you to see how well your portfolio is diversified and how you could make it better.

The Motley Fool does have its place, however. For example, suppose you are only looking for targeted stock picks and supporting analysis because the rest of your portfolio is passively invested. In that case, Motley Fool’s strategy is not bad at all, and in those circumstances, it might even be preferable.

Factor 3: Aggressive Marketing Tactics

Modest Money finds aggressive marketing tactics somewhat of a turn-off. When you are already paying money for a premium plan, the last thing you want is emails urging you to buy something else.

The Motley Fool’s Marketing

The Motley Fool sends marketing emails even after you’ve signed up for Stock Advisor. While these often contain good deals and promos for their other offerings, they can seem a bit spammy. If you already get tons of emails and are used to it, this might not be an issue at all. And, of course, you can adjust your email settings to screen them out.

You can also opt out of marketing emails from your “My Fool” account under “Email Settings.”

Morningstar Marketing

Morningstar won’t send you nearly as much clickbait as Motley Fool will. Whether valid, this adds to the credibility of the Morningstar premium platform.

One reason that Morningstar does not try to sell you so many add-on products is that they don’t have many. Investment research services geared towards retail investors include only Morningstar’s basic and premium options.

Morningstar’s Marketing Approach is Preferable to the Motley Fool’s

In Modest Money’s opinion, the Motley Fool does a bad job by over-promoting itself in constant email barrages. Sending spammy emails is the worst approach it could take when informing customers of its other products such as Rule Breakers. It needs to find another way.

Motley Fool is outstanding at what it does: finding and analyzing two stock picks per month. Take the steps early to screen out the additional emails, and its marketing will not even be a minor blip on your radar.

Factor 4: Performance

Cost, strategy, and marketing – these are all critical factors when selecting a stock-picking service. But how these picks perform is the ultimate factor.

So how does the performance of the Motley Fool’s Stock Advisor and Morningstar Investor compare?

The Motley Fool Stock Advisor Performance

Since its inception 20+ years ago, the Motley Fool’s Stock Advisor picks have generated an average return of around four times that of the S&P 500.

If future results hold up to its record, choosing Motley Fool’s Stock Advisor will earn you four times the money you would make investing in an S&P index fund, well worth the $199 annual cost.

In Modest Money’s analysis, Motley Fool can achieve these results by maintaining its specific focus of picking two stocks per month. Anyone who subscribes to Stock Advisor can quickly and thoroughly understand what Stock Advisor is recommending you do monthly.

Stock Advisor’s sell notices should not be underestimated either. Too often, stock investors overly concentrate on what they should buy instead of what they should sell. Selling stocks that are or will be underperforming is even more critical than picking ones that will grow in value. You can lose all the money you have invested in a company if stock prices crash to zero.

The Best Buys Now is another high-performing Stock Advisor feature allowing new subscribers to do some catch-up investing on Stock Advisor’s previous picks, as well as enabling investors who passed on a stock initially not to make the same mistake twice.

Morningstar Performance

What can Modest Money say about the long-term performance of the Morningstar premium Investor service? As one of the most respected and beloved investment research services globally, it can shake markets with its recommendations.

Morningstar’s investment analysis is pervasive and thorough but is geared toward helping people take an active role in their investing journey. It will not tell you what stock to buy. Instead, it will only show you the assets which are currently performing well according to its mostly quant-driven analysis.

For that reason, the average return of Morningstar’s analysis as it compares to the S&P 500 cannot be quantified as it can with Motley Fool.

Morningstar covers a broader amount of assets. As the dominant investment research firm globally, professional analysts and funds continue to factor their ratings into their decisions.

Recently, Morningstar has been facing criticism about its mutual fund ratings. Some analysts and financial advisors claim that they have recently overrated mutual funds that subsequently underperformed.

It is an essential reminder that investment research firms are not always right, which is why diversification is needed to protect yourself and your investments.

The Motley Fool and Morningstar Both Perform Admirably

Since the Motley Fool focuses on picks and Morningstar provides a broader breadth of analysis, it is difficult to compare their performance.

Modest Money awards the ultimate category of performance to both companies in this case.

The Motley Fool vs. Morningstar: The Bottom Line

The bottom line when choosing between the Motley Fool’s Stock Advisor and Morningstar Investor is that they are both top competitors providing investment research services.

Motley Fool is better for investors with an already diversified portfolio who want to buy individual stocks separately to beat the market with some of their investments.

Morningstar is better for the hands-on investor who wants to build their own well-diversified portfolio of stocks, mutual funds, and ETFs.

Overall, Modest Money awards 5.0 stars to Morningstar, but Motley Fool is a close second at 4.9 stars.

Who is The Motley Fool Best For?

The Motley Fool Stock Advisor is designed for long-term investors who plan to hold stocks for 5 years or more. It’s particularly suitable for those who prefer individual stocks over mutual funds and aim to outperform the market. If you’re looking to add new stocks to your portfolio regularly, either monthly or annually, this service offers guidance.

It’s especially useful for newer investors because of its clear and easy-to-understand information. The service emphasizes growth stock investing with moderate risk. One significant advantage is its affordability, and it consistently aims to beat S&P returns. Overall, it’s an excellent choice for those seeking reliable investment advice.

Who is Morningstar Best For?

Morningstar primarily caters to value investors interested in understanding the core fundamentals of their investments. Initially, the firm only analyzed mutual funds, but they’ve since expanded to include stocks. Their rating system is widely recognized in the investment sector. Ideally suited for experienced investors, Morningstar provides detailed analysis on stocks, ETFs, and mutual funds. One of its advantages is that users won’t be inundated with marketing emails. It’s particularly valuable for those aiming to build a low-risk portfolio, offering extensive information to minimize investment risks.

The Motley Fool

Building a portfolio of 25 stocks that you hold for at least five years is the goal and the best use of Motley Fool. If past achievements predict future market performance, you could beat the return of the S&P 500 by four times if you go with Motley Fool’s subscription service.

This investing style is especially ideal if you already have access to diversification in your current portfolio through other investment advisory plans.

The Motley Fool’s pros include its easy user experience, targeted picks, and low price.

The Motley Fool free trial is great, but to get Stock Advisor’s monthly stock picks for an introductory price of $89 per year, click here to open your account for a Motley Fool discount.

Learn More About the Motley Fool

Morningstar Investor

Our Morningstar review is a favorable one as well. Suppose you are a modern investor that is into building your own well-diversified portfolio that includes multiple asset classes and making your own stock investing choices. In that case, Morningstar Investor is probably a better fit.

As a premium service, Morningstar’s approach to providing subscribers will thorough and well-vetted information is unbeatable.

Morningstar’s pros include its reputation and historically correct analysis. Morningstar’s X-Ray Portfolio service helps you achieve optimal asset allocation.

Morningstar Investor pricing is slightly higher than that of Stock Advisor.

With its 7-day free trial, you lose nothing by trying Morningstar Investor out. Additionally, you can click here to get Modest Money’s special Morningstar subscription discount of $100 off the first year.

Learn More About Morningstar

FAQs

Is there a free membership to Morningstar?

There are no free memberships to Morningstar. Previously, Morningstar offered a free, limited basic membership. The free membership in no longer offered.

Is there a free membership to Motley Fool?

The Motley Fool offers a wealth of free content on their website, but an account or membership is not required to access this information. Motley Fool also offers paid premium investment services.

Does Morningstar Have A Mobile App?

Morningstar does have a mobile app available for both Google Play and the Apple App store. The Morningstar App currently has a 4.2 rating out of 6,550 reviews in the App store.

Does Motley Fool Have A Mobile App?

Motley Fool has an app available for Mac or Android users through Google Play. At the time of writing this, Motley Fool’s App had a rating of 3.1 out of 164 votes.