In this Zacks review, we look at its pricing, research tools, long-term investing system, and premium memberships to see if the Zacks Rank strategy still delivers value.
Len Zacks formed Zacks Investment Research in 1978. Zacks.com is the home of Zacks Investment Research, a website dedicated to investment-related content. Like many great investors, Len believed he could find patterns in stock market data. Patterns that would lead to superior profit results. As a result, he developed his stock picking system called Zacks Rank.
You may have to spend some money first to maximize what Zacks offers. Hence, this is Zacks review. The premium service costs $249 per year. Among other things, it’ll give you access to their special stock screeners.
Zacks Premium offers a 30-day free trial and a 90-day money-back guarantee. However, that may not be enough time to learn how or if it works.
What Is Zacks Investment Research? (2026 Review)
Zacks Investment Research Premium service uses the Zacks Rank proprietary system to identify the best-performing stocks to invest in. It’s certainly worth a try when you look at their claim. $10,000 invested 30 years ago with their methodology would have produced over $3 million! Over 10 million dollars if you compounded your profits. This is a hypothetical scenario.
Naturally, those results were generated by using a backtesting procedure. However, they don’t give the results of real investors’ portfolios. It’s unlikely that anyone would follow the whole system to the letter for 30 years. It’s a key with any investment alerts and recommendations like these. You can’t cherry-pick among their recommendations if you want to achieve the same results.
So, while Zacks’ website claims a huge return for investors, there is a chance you don’t see that level of return. Copying any trades or investments from anyone comes with risk!
Zacks Rank uses earnings surprises as a predictive tool. His research made him think, “Earnings estimate revisions are the most powerful force impacting stock prices.”
Who Is Zacks Best For?
Granted, this company is better known for its long-term investors’ breakthrough tools. Popular ones are the consensus earnings per share (EPS) estimates and the Price Response Indicator (which shows what a stock price is likely to do after an earnings report). Then there’s the Earnings ESP (not Extra Sensory Perception, but close), the Expected Surprise Prediction.
The Earnings ESP sounds like something short-term traders could use as it determines the likelihood of an earnings surprise BEFORE it’s reported. Savvy day traders could use the information to prepare the trade and be ready to execute upon confirmation of the prediction.
Even if you are exclusively a day trader, there are times when you need to research your stock’s hot list of the day. As a result, Zacks offers comprehensive data for more than 5,000 companies, including sales and earnings estimates, revisions, and past surprises.
Pros & Cons
- Pros
- Reputable company with a proven track record
- Variety of investing tools
- Diverse research offerings
- Free and paid options available
- Cons
- Lack of education and research tools
- High-tier memberships are expensive
- Platform interface is outdated
Zacks Pricing (2026 Subscription Costs)
- Zacks Premium membership: $249 for a one-year subscription, and offers a 30-day trial for free.
- Zacks Investor Collection: $59/month or $495/year
- Zacks Ultimate membership: $299 per month and $2,995 per year, and offers a 30-day trial for free.
- Research Wizard: Two-week free trial
- Zacks Method for Trading: $39 for the course
You can visit Zacks Investment Research website for updated pricing here. (Updated 3/26).
What’s Included in Zacks Premium
- ETF Investor — Zacks ETF Rank rides emerging trends without buying stocks individually.
- Home Run Investor — Targets under-the-radar companies.
- Zacks Confidential — To see what the best strategists are up to.
- Income Investor — Income through selected high-dividend stocks.
- Zacks Premium — Provides professional-grade tools to individual investors.
- Stocks Under $10 — For growth potential.
- Value Investor — Tracks undervalued companies.
- Zacks’s Top 10 Stocks — The best ten stocks to buy and hold annually.
Whatever you do, never forget that, regardless of whether you’re a long-term or short-term investor, just like day and swing traders, following without learning and understanding what you are doing rarely works, if at all.
Whether you follow alerts, using proper money management techniques to preserve your capital would be best.
Zacks Features and Research Tools
If you have a sizable amount to invest and don’t have the time or inclination to do all the research, the $299 per month Zacks Ultimate subscription does it for you.
Again, the portfolio generated is grounded in the Zacks Rank system. You can try the Zacks Ultimate subscription for 30 days for the modest sum of $1. However, the examples given on their website show double and triple-digit gains over periods ranging from 2 months (with options) to 15 months.
You may not have enough time to evaluate the program. Nonetheless, for $1, it may be worth a try. Here’s what you get for $1 during the 30-day trial of Zacks Ultimate:
- Black Box Trader
- Blockchain Innovators
- Counterstrike
- ETF Investor
- Healthcare Innovators
- Home Run Investor
- Income Investor
- Insider Trader
- Large-Cap Trader
- Options Trader
- Short List
- Stocks Under $10
- Surprise Trader
- TAZR
- Technology Innovators
- Value Investor
- Zacks Confidential, Premium, and Zacks Top 10 Stocks
Long-Term Investment Strategies
The system is for longer-term investments. It’s almost certain that trading all their recommendations will require more than $10,000. For example, Zacks Investment Management is an offshoot of Zacks Investment Research. Hence, this Zacks review. They work with individual investors, emphasizing individuals who don’t have a high net worth.
Yet, the minimum required to open an account is $500,000. I’m just mentioning this to point out that a system designed for longer-term investments typically demands a sizable amount of money to invest. On the other hand, day traders who’ve mastered their craft can generate high returns, too, with much less capital or without the big drawdowns often associated with long-term investments.
Our Zacks review found that its Investor Collection and Ultimate plans give you access to the firm’s famous Zacks Rank, Earnings ESP, and stock screeners used by serious long-term investors.
Zacks Alternatives
- Morningstar
- Seeking Alpha
- Stock Rover
- Koyfin
- AlphaSense
- The Motley Fool
- TradingView
Zacks Customer Reviews
Zacks has approximately 143 customer reviews on Trustpilot with a 1.8 TrustScore (Poor as of March 2026).
Bottom Line: Is Zacks Worth It?
Short-term traders may use their website to take the market’s pulse. However, day traders may use free tools to generate trading ideas. There is a free registration option to access quotes, charts, news & basic research, portfolio tracker & email alerts. You can even consult the famous Zacks Rank scoring for stocks, mutual funds & ETFs.
If you register with Zacks, you agree to receive communications, i.e., you will be on their mailing lists (plural). As a result, you will probably receive more offers than you’d like to.
Remember that, ultimately, to be a successful trader, it is best to learn what to do rather than being told what to do. As American novelist Alice Walker says, “The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.”
Our Zacks review concludes that it isn’t cheap, but the research and long-term tools deliver real value if you want data-driven insights without the Wall Street noise.
Frequently Asked Questions
According to Zacks.com, the Zacks Rank stock-rating system would have produced an average gain of over 25% per year over the last 30 years.
