Comparison with Other SEC EDGAR Clients#
edgar-sec is a modern, typed, and async-compatible alternative to existing Python clients for the SEC EDGAR® API. Below is a side-by-side comparison highlighting key differences.
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Feature Comparison Table
Feature |
edgar-sec |
sec-edgar-downloader |
sec-api-python |
|---|---|---|---|
Async Support |
Yes |
No |
No |
Caching |
Yes (file-based) |
No |
No |
Rate Limiting |
Yes |
No |
No |
Typed Models |
Yes |
No |
No |
Error Handling |
Yes |
No |
Limited |
CIK/Ticker Resolution |
Yes |
Manual CSV |
Manual Lookup |
Documentation Quality |
Full Sphinx |
Minimal |
Basic |
License |
AGPL |
MIT |
MIT |
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Key Differences Explained
Async Support
edgar-sec uses httpx.AsyncClient and supports async methods natively via .Async, allowing concurrent submissions, filings, and concept retrieval.
Built-in Caching + Throttling
No need to externally install rate-limiters or memcache — edgar-sec includes file-based caching and timestamp-driven request throttling.
Typed Dataclass Models
Returns objects like edgar_sec.objects.Filing or edgar_sec.objects.CompanyFacts, enabling auto-completion and schema validation in IDEs.
Helper Utilities
EdgarHelpers.get_cik(…) simplifies ticker/company lookups without manual CSVs or web scraping.
Designed for Developers
Clear docs, async + sync parity, typed responses, built-in error messaging, and modular architecture make edgar-sec ideal for robust systems.
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Summary#
edgar-sec is the most complete and developer-friendly choice for:
SEC data pipelines
Filing history monitoring
Financial modeling workflows
High-frequency document ingestion
It embraces modern Python: asyncio, dataclasses, httpx, and tenacity — with a complete test suite and Sphinx docs.
➔ Check real-world examples in :ref:use-cases. ➔ Explore the internal structure at :ref:architecture.
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