ORATS Alternatives: Options Analytics and Volatility Data Providers

ORATS Alternatives: Options Analytics and Volatility Data Providers

When you need implied volatility surfaces, earnings analytics, or Greeks — and ORATS is not the right fit.

What ORATS Provides

ORATS has built one of the most comprehensive options analytics platforms accessible to non-institutional users. Their product suite includes historical implied volatility surfaces, earnings-related volatility estimates, dividend forecasts, skew analytics, and a proprietary fair-value options pricing model. For researchers building volatility arbitrage strategies, earnings plays, or any workflow that requires deep understanding of the options pricing surface, ORATS is often the default choice.

The platform delivers data through both a REST API and flat-file downloads, with historical depth spanning over 15 years. Pricing starts at roughly $100 per month for individual researchers, with institutional tiers for heavier usage.

Why Users Explore Alternatives

The most common reasons are pricing and scope. At $100-plus per month, ORATS is a meaningful expense for researchers who are still in the exploratory phase. Some users also find that they need raw options data (trades, quotes) rather than derived analytics, which ORATS does not focus on. Others need data for non-U.S. options markets, where ORATS coverage is limited.

Alternatives

OptionMetrics

OptionMetrics is the academic standard for historical options data. Their IVY database is used extensively in published research. The data includes clean implied volatilities, Greeks, and standardized formatting across U.S. equity and index options. The limitation is accessibility: OptionMetrics primarily serves institutions and universities through annual licensing, and individual access can be difficult to arrange.

IVolatility

IVolatility provides historical and real-time options data with a focus on implied volatility metrics. Their database includes options prices, implied volatilities, Greeks, and open interest. Pricing is more accessible than OptionMetrics, starting around $50 per month for basic access. For researchers who need IV data without the full ORATS analytics suite, IVolatility offers a middle ground.

CBOE DataShop

CBOE DataShop provides data directly from the CBOE exchanges, including historical options quotes, VIX data, and market statistics. As the exchange operator, CBOE is the authoritative source for their listed products. For researchers focused on index options or VIX-related strategies, CBOE DataShop provides the most direct path to exchange-sourced data.

Databento

Databento provides raw options tick data at institutional quality. If your need is for the underlying trades and quotes rather than derived analytics, Databento fills a different niche than ORATS — raw data versus computed analytics.

Comparison Table

Research-Layer Datasets for Options Strategies

All of the providers above focus on options data itself — prices, analytics, and exchange data. There is a separate category of data that addresses the structural questions around options strategies: which underlyings to trade, under what market conditions, and how to construct point-in-time universes.

Alphanume provides several datasets in this category. Their historical optionable tickers dataset records which equities had listed options (including weekly expirations) on each historical date — essential for survivorship-bias-free backtesting. Their S&P 500 risk regime and 0-DTE strike band datasets are designed specifically for options researchers who need to condition strategies on market environment and implied probability distributions.

These are complementary to ORATS and similar providers. ORATS tells you what the volatility surface looks like; Alphanume helps you determine which underlyings to analyze and whether the current regime supports your strategy.