By Lemma Analysis · Prices checked · Next review
Disclosure: we build Lemma Analysis, a research tool for US stocks, so we are not a neutral party here. Every other tool’s price was read from its own pricing page on the date shown beside it, each tool gets its limitations as well as its strengths, ours included, and the method is set out under “How we tested”.
The short answer: for a free DCF on any stock with no sign-up, use Stock Analysis; to learn the method with every formula in view, download Damodaran’s spreadsheets; for one editable DCF with alerts on global stocks, Stock Unlock; for a ready-made DCF and multiples with scenarios, Alpha Spread; for many models per company, ValueInvesting.io; for the DCF inside a large value-investing platform, GuruFocus. Lemma Analysis, which we build, is the paid option that runs four models side by side on US companies. Below: one table, then each tool with its price, what it does well and where it falls short.
The order is not a ranking. Free tools come first, then paid ones by price, and each line says who the tool is genuinely the right choice for.
| Tool | Free to use | What you can change | Models | Coverage | Cheapest paid plan | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stock Analysis | Yes — no account needed | FCF per share, two growth stages, terminal growth, discount rate | 10-year FCF DCF; a separate earnings-multiple fair value | Global | $9.99/mo · $79.00/yr Pro · checked | A quick, free DCF on almost any stock, without making an account. |
| Damodaran’s valuation spreadsheets | Yes — Excel files | Everything, including the formulas | FCFF, FCFE and dividend models in two- and three-stage forms, and variants | Any company — you type in the numbers | Free download checked | Learning valuation properly, with every formula in view and nothing hidden. |
| GuruFocus | Calculator usable; saving needs Premium | Earnings or FCF base, growth and terminal stages, discount rate | Two-stage discounted earnings or FCF, with a reverse mode; GF Value and about a dozen other figures | Global | $549.00/yr Premium, US region · checked | Value investors who also want guru portfolios and decades of data, and will pay for the whole platform. |
| Stock Unlock | 3 DCFs a week | Base metric, growth and its decay, years, exit multiple, discount rate | One DCF on a base metric you choose, with an exit-multiple terminal value | Global, 70+ exchanges | $9.00/mo · $90.00/yr Pro · checked | One editable DCF with buy-target alerts, on stocks worldwide, at a low price. |
| Alpha Spread | 3 stock reports a week | Revenue growth, net margin, cash conversion, period, discount rate, exit multiple | DCF plus 10 multiples, averaged; bear, base and bull; reverse DCF | Global | $144.00/yr Premium · checked | A ready-made DCF and multiples valuation on global stocks, with scenarios already set up. |
| ValueInvesting.io | 10 stocks a month | Each model’s assumptions, in the browser or in an exported spreadsheet | 10, including DCF on growth and on EBITDA, EPV and two DDMs | Global | $19.99/mo · $179.88/yr US & Canada region · checked | Many models per company with spreadsheet export, if you are happy to pay per region. |
| Lemma Analysis our product | No — part of Ultimate, 7-day free trial included | Every assumption of all four models | 4 side by side, plus a reverse DCF | US-listed only | $8.99/mo · $79.99/yr Ultimate · 7-day free trial included | Valuing a US company several ways at once and seeing where the methods disagree. |
A tool made the list if it met all three of these:
Within that, we looked for the tools that come up when people ask a search engine or an AI assistant for a DCF calculator, and that each serve a different kind of reader.
A DCF is a chain of assumptions, and the answer is only as useful as your ability to see which link moves it. Four things separate a calculator you can reason with from a number generator:
Our guide on how to value a company walks through the same chain step by step.
Pro · $9.99/mo · $79.00/yr · checked · stockanalysis.com
Best for: A quick, free DCF on almost any stock, without making an account.
Strengths
Limitations
Free download · checked · pages.stern.nyu.edu/~adamodar
Best for: Learning valuation properly, with every formula in view and nothing hidden.
Strengths
Limitations
Premium, US region · $549.00/yr · checked · gurufocus.com
Best for: Value investors who also want guru portfolios and decades of data, and will pay for the whole platform.
Strengths
Limitations
Pro · $9.00/mo · $90.00/yr · checked · stockunlock.com
Best for: One editable DCF with buy-target alerts, on stocks worldwide, at a low price.
Strengths
Limitations
Premium · $144.00/yr · checked · alphaspread.com
Best for: A ready-made DCF and multiples valuation on global stocks, with scenarios already set up.
Strengths
Limitations
US & Canada region · $19.99/mo · $179.88/yr · checked · valueinvesting.io
Best for: Many models per company with spreadsheet export, if you are happy to pay per region.
Strengths
Limitations
Ultimate · $8.99/mo · $79.99/yr · 7-day free trial included
Best for: Valuing a US company several ways at once and seeing where the methods disagree.
Strengths
Limitations
On the check date at the top of the page we opened each tool’s pricing page, product pages and help documentation, ran the free version where it needs no account, and wrote down what each one says it does. Prices are the cheapest paid plan at list price in US dollars, before tax and promotions; where a vendor sells only yearly billing, only the yearly figure is shown, never a monthly number divided out of it.
We did not buy the paid plans for this comparison, and we did not test accuracy — whether any calculator’s value turned out right is a question about its inputs, not the calculator. Where a vendor’s pages did not settle a point (how many free runs one allows, whether a free account can save an edit), the entry leaves it out rather than guessing. Our own entry was written from the product, and its limits are stated the same way as everyone else’s. The page is re-checked every quarter.
For a company with figures filled in for you, Stock Analysis: its DCF is free and needs no account. For learning the method, Aswath Damodaran’s spreadsheets are free and show every formula, though you enter the numbers yourself. GuruFocus’s calculator can be used on a free account without saving, Stock Unlock allows three runs a week, Alpha Spread three reports a week and ValueInvesting.io ten stocks a month. Lemma Analysis is not free for valuation: the four models are part of Ultimate after a seven-day trial.
A calculator is arithmetic; the accuracy is in the inputs. Small changes to the growth rate, the discount rate or the terminal value can move the result by a third or more, which is why a range across bear, base and bull cases — or a reverse DCF that shows what the current price already assumes — is more honest than a single figure.
Both show a fair value computed by someone else — Simply Wall St’s from its own fixed model, Morningstar’s from an analyst — rather than a DCF whose inputs you change. Simply Wall St does let you write your own fair value beside its figure through its Narratives. Both are compared with Lemma Analysis on our alternatives pages.
A spreadsheet such as Damodaran’s shows every formula and costs nothing, but you collect and type in the figures yourself and nothing updates them. An online calculator fills in the company’s data and keeps it current, at the cost of seeing only the inputs its designer chose to expose.
Stock Analysis, Stock Unlock, Alpha Spread, ValueInvesting.io and GuruFocus all cover international listings, and Damodaran’s spreadsheets work for any company whose figures you can find. Lemma Analysis covers companies listed on NASDAQ and NYSE, including the ADRs of foreign companies, and nothing else.
Lemma Analysis gives independent investors both lenses in one terminal — a stock screener and an intrinsic value tool for the fundamentals, alongside price history and charts for timing.