Executive summary
AlphaSense is a subscription to other people’s documents. ArcaLabs is where your own work gets built.
- Different products. AlphaSense sells search across a library of filings, broker research and expert transcripts, with add-ins that push output into PowerPoint and Excel. ArcaLabs is the workspace where the deal runs, and the files come out in your firm’s template as versioned deal files.
- Checks that stop the file. ArcaLabs finds hardcoded numbers where a formula should be and converts them, recalculates the workbook, and checks it for errors. Decks are rendered and compared against your template. A failed check stops delivery. An add-in that drops content into a slide has nothing equivalent.
- Where the citation ends up. AlphaSense cites into its own library. ArcaLabs puts the note on the cell and writes it into the workbook, so a reported figure links to the company’s filing and the trail survives the email.
One answers what is known. The other produces what you send, and stands behind every number in it.
What you are actually buying
This comparison is unusual because the two products are priced against different things.
AlphaSense
A search subscription over filings, broker research and expert transcripts, with a research agent and a deep research mode over the top. AlphaSense puts its own library at 500 million-plus documents. Add-ins push output into PowerPoint and Excel. Cancel it and you lose access to documents, not to a piece of software.
ArcaLabs
A deal workspace. The agent in the chat, live files in the editor, the deal tree on the right. Files are built from your own templates and your firm’s definitions, saved as versioned deal files, and checked before you get them. There is no proprietary research library, and we do not claim one.
AlphaSense answers a research question. ArcaLabs produces the file that goes to the client and stands behind every number in it. If your team is judged on what it sends, that is the budget line that matters.
Sourcing and audit trails
AlphaSense cites at the sentence level, back into its library. That is the right standard for research. It answers where a claim was read, not where a number in your model came from.
In ArcaLabs every number carries its own source. What a reviewer does:
- Click a figure in the model.
- The filing opens in the app, scrolled to that number.
- Work through the tagged figures, marking each one reviewed.
- Sign off. The record of the review is kept.
- If a company reported the number, the tag links to the filing, not to a data vendor’s copy of it. Diluted shares, total debt, cash, the LTM actuals under an EV bridge.
- Numbers that only exist on a data vendor, like a share price or a consensus estimate, name the vendor and the date instead, and are never dressed up as coming from a filing.
Because the notes are written into the workbook, they are still there after you email the file. A citation that only resolves inside a subscription your client does not have is not much use to your client.
From research to a finished file
An add-in moves content into a slide or a cell. Someone still has to build the model around it, apply your firm’s conventions, and make the deck look like your firm’s deck.
In ArcaLabs that step is the product. Files are built from your golden-copy templates and your recorded definitions, so adjusted EBITDA means what your firm has said it means. Then three checks run on their own:
- Hardcoded numbers where a formula should be are found and converted.
- The workbook is recalculated and checked for errors.
- The deck is rendered and compared against your template.
Anything short of a pass stops delivery.
The deal record
A research platform has no reason to keep your deal record, and AlphaSense does not claim to.
In ArcaLabs the deal log works with the email you already use. Connect Gmail or Outlook and correspondence is matched to the right deal automatically, so the record builds itself without anyone forwarding anything. Each deal also gets its own address that counterparties can write to directly, and the agent drafts the reply there for you to approve. Every email, meeting and agent action lands in one deal log you can export.
Where they differ
| Area | ArcaLabs | AlphaSense |
|---|---|---|
| What you buy | A workspace that produces the file you send | A subscription to a research library |
| Content | Your files, your connected drives, and licensed market data | Third-party filings, broker research and expert transcripts |
| Output | Excel, PowerPoint and Word as versioned deal files in your template | Cited answers and reports, plus Office add-in output |
| Checks before delivery | Live formulas, workbooks recalculated and checked, decks compared against your templates | Not applicable |
| Where citations land | On the cell, inside the workbook, linked to the filing | Sentence level, into the AlphaSense library |
| After you export | The notes are inside the workbook, so they survive the email | Citations resolve for AlphaSense subscribers |
| Deal record | An email address per deal, drafted replies, one deal log you can export | Not applicable |
Conclusion
Research tells you what is known. It does not produce the model, and it does not answer for the numbers in it once the file is out of your hands.
Files fail review in four places. A number was pasted in rather than calculated. The template drifted. An estimate was footnoted as if a company had reported it. Or someone asked where a figure came from and the answer took four minutes to find. A search subscription does not close any of them.
ArcaLabs checks all four before the file reaches you, and keeps the sourcing inside the file so it holds up after you send it. Give it three files from a deal you have already closed, ask for the workbook and the deck, then export them and click a number.
Run the same test on your own deal.
Bring three files from a closed deal. Ask for the workbook and the deck, export them, and click a number.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between ArcaLabs and AlphaSense?
AlphaSense sells search across a library of filings, broker research and expert transcripts, with add-ins that push output into PowerPoint and Excel. ArcaLabs is the workspace where the deal runs: it builds the model, the deck and the memo in your firm’s template as versioned deal files, and checks them before you send them.
Where do AlphaSense citations end up?
AlphaSense cites at the sentence level, back into its own library, so citations resolve for AlphaSense subscribers. ArcaLabs puts the note on the cell and writes it into the workbook, so a reported figure links to the company’s filing and the trail survives the email.
Is AlphaSense a replacement for ArcaLabs?
They are priced against different things. AlphaSense is a subscription that finds information. ArcaLabs is the workspace that produces the deliverable and stands behind every number in it. The question is which budget line the work in front of you belongs to.
Sources
What AlphaSense does is described here from that company’s public material, read from alpha-sense.com on August 5, 2026, and put in our own words. Vendor material changes often, so check anything that will decide your choice with them directly. ArcaLabs statements are verified against the platform before publication; single-tenant VPC deployment is available on request rather than standard.
AlphaSense: alpha-sense.com · ArcaLabs: arcalabs.ai