Trading News Terminal, SquawkIQ, FXMacroData or Helious: Which Is the Best Value?
For trading US rates, index futures and the dollar around the economic calendar, Helious gives you the most for the money: every US release scored the second it prints, every Treasury auction read with its tail, a live squawk, and an API and MCP server in the same subscription, from $0 to $39.99 a month. Trading News Terminal is the closest all-round rival at EUR 40 a month and has the fresher free plan. SquawkIQ is the cheapest audio if you follow single stocks. FXMacroData is the one to pick if you need 26 currencies through an API.
1. What does each one cost?
List prices from each provider's own site, read in November 2026.
| Provider | Free plan | Paid, by the month | Paid, by the year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Helious | Yes, no card | Starter $14.99, Pro $39.99, Ultimate $99 | Squawk on its own is $99 a year |
| Trading News Terminal | Yes, no card | Pro EUR 40, plus VAT where it applies | EUR 360 |
| SquawkIQ | Yes | Premium $19 | $190 |
| FXMacroData | Yes, 100 requests a day with no key | Individual $50, Business $250 | $500 and $2,500 |
On the monthly price alone, Helious Pro and Trading News Terminal Pro are level: $39.99 against EUR 40. SquawkIQ is cheaper than both at $19. The difference is what the money buys, which is the rest of this page.
2. What do you get on each free plan?
This is where Helious is not the best, so it comes first. Trading News Terminal's free plan carries its news feed five minutes behind. FXMacroData's free access holds every release back fifteen minutes. The Helious free plan shows news, releases and prices an hour behind, and its squawk ten minutes behind. SquawkIQ's free plan gives a searchable news feed and up to ten audio squawks a day from your watchlist.
If you want the freshest free headline, Trading News Terminal wins. What the Helious free plan gives that the others do not list is the full product an hour late: the scored releases, the Treasury auction results with the tail, the curve, the calendar, and an API key with 100 credits a month.
3. Which one scores the economic release for you?
Helious. Every US release arrives with the actual, the forecast and the surprise in standard deviations against that release's own history, so a CPI miss and a payrolls beat sit on the same ruler. Trading News Terminal colours its calendar results as a beat or a miss. SquawkIQ Premium shows the result with the estimate and the previous reading. FXMacroData joins consensus and other forecasts to the realised number through its API. None of the three lists a standard deviation score on its site.
4. Which one reads Treasury auctions?
Helious. Each bill, note and bond auction is published within seconds with the high yield, the tail against the when-issued yield, the bid to cover against the last twelve auctions, the bidder split and a verdict of strong, in line or weak. The tail is the number that says whether an auction went well, and the Treasury does not publish it. Trading News Terminal has a Macro and Bonds Hub. FXMacroData carries government bond yields. None of the three lists auction results or the auction tail on its site.
5. Trading News Terminal or Helious?
They are the two closest products here, at nearly the same price. Trading News Terminal Pro at EUR 40 a month gives a real-time news feed, a live squawk, a Macro and Bonds Hub, a central banks tracker, market sentiment, seven live TV channels, a stock screener, insider trades, AI news analysis and Telegram alerts, with an interface in six languages. If you want live TV, a screener and stock tools beside your news, it has more of that than Helious does.
Helious Pro at $39.99 a month gives the live squawk and feed, every US release scored on print, Treasury auctions with the tail, the live Treasury curve with its regime named, Fed rate odds and the rate path, Fed speakers flagged as they speak, and custom alerts. It also includes an API, a live WebSocket stream and an MCP server with 27 tools for Claude, ChatGPT and Cursor. Trading News Terminal does not list an API or an MCP server on its site. If you trade the data itself, or you want the numbers in your own code, Helious covers more of that ground for the same money. The full side by side is here.
6. SquawkIQ or Helious?
SquawkIQ is a stock news app for the web and iPhone. You build a watchlist from tickers, companies or topics, and it reads those headlines to you. Premium is $19 a month, with push alerts on iPhone. If you follow a list of single stocks and want audio on your phone, it is cheaper than Helious Pro and built for that job.
Helious is built for macro. Its squawk calls the releases, the auctions and the central bank speakers that move index futures, yields and the dollar. If the squawk is all you want, Helious sells it on its own for $99 a year, against $190 a year for SquawkIQ Premium. If you want the screen as well, Pro adds the scored feed, the calendar, the auctions and live prices. SquawkIQ does not list Treasury auctions, yield curve data or an API on its site. The full side by side is here.
7. FXMacroData or Helious, for an API?
FXMacroData is a macro data API across 26 currencies, at $50 a month for one person. That plan includes a million requests a month, point-in-time history, MCP tools, and real-time releases by stream and webhook. If you trade many currencies, or you need a very high request volume, it does more than Helious, whose calendar covers the US, the euro area, the UK, Japan and Germany and whose plans are metered in credits: 100 a month on a free key, 1,500 on Starter, 3,000 on Pro and no cap on Ultimate.
Helious is the better value when your work is US rates and releases. A free key costs nothing and needs no card. Starter is $14.99 and Pro is $39.99. Every answer opens with a finished sentence, each US release is scored against its own history, each Treasury auction carries its tail and verdict, and the same subscription includes the terminal and the squawk. FXMacroData does not list auction results or a standard deviation score on its site. The full side by side is here.
8. Where is Helious the wrong choice?
If you trade single stocks off company news, SquawkIQ or a stock terminal fits better. If you want live TV, a screener and insider trades on the same screen as your news, Trading News Terminal has them and Helious does not. If you need macro data for twenty or more currencies, or a million API calls a month, FXMacroData is built for that. And if the freshest free headline matters most, Trading News Terminal's five minute delay beats the Helious hour.
9. So which should you use?
For single stocks by audio, SquawkIQ. For an all-round news screen with TV and stock tools, Trading News Terminal. For multi-currency macro data in code, FXMacroData. For US futures, Treasuries and the dollar traded around the calendar, Helious: the release scored, the auction read, the squawk live, and the same data in your own code, for $39.99 a month or less. All four have a free plan, so you can run them side by side before you pay for any of them.
Helious is a trading news terminal for US markets: every release scored on arrival, Treasury auctions within seconds, Fed speakers as they speak, a live squawk and the market reaction on one screen. Free to start; Pro is $39.99 a month.
Competitor names are the trademarks of their respective owners. Prices and features are from each provider's own site as of November 2026. Where this page says a provider does not list a feature, that is what its site showed on that date; it may offer it elsewhere. Prices change; check each provider. This is our honest view, offered as general information and not financial advice.
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