Yes. The whole toolkit is free to use right now. No card, no trial clock. If a paid tier arrives later, the core screener stays free.

How do you make money with no ads or affiliates?

Today, we don't. Beacon is an independent indie project. No broker pays to be recommended; no issuer pays to rank higher. That independence is a founding constraint we built in on purpose, so it can't be quietly sold off later.

Passive, long-term investors who'd rather pick well once and keep buying on a schedule than chase the next clever product. If you live in your broker's options chain, this isn't for you, and that's fine.

How are ETFs classified?

Every fund is sorted by the job it does for your money: growth, income, inflation protection, safety. We don't sort by the industry's category labels. When a fund's design serves the issuer more than you, Beacon says so. The classification is the opinion.

How fresh is the data?

Daily. Prices, classifications, and metrics are recomputed every morning, so what you compare is current to the last close.

The goal-first ETF toolkit

5,400+ ETFs. You need maybe five.

Beacon sorts every fund by the job it does for your money (growth, income, inflation, safety), switches on sane defaults, and flags the ones that earn fees without earning you a return. You leave knowing what to buy, and why.

Start for free →See how it works

Or start from a goal

Grow my money Get income Beat inflation Stay safe Diversifier Take a bet

Independent, no affiliates·5,400+ ETFs·Refreshed daily

Grow my money

1,240 funds

Long-only3y+ recordTER ≤ 0.20%

VTI

Vanguard Total Stock Market

0.03%Beacon pick

VXUS

Vanguard Total International

0.05%Beacon pick

SCHD

Schwab US Dividend Equity

0.06%5y track record

TQQQ

ProShares UltraPro QQQ · 3×

0.84%Leveraged

Beacon hides the funds working against you, by default.

The problem

The market got crowded. Most of it isn't built for you.

55%

of thematic ETFs launched in the last 15 years have already closed.

70%

of the survivors still trailed a plain S&P 500 index fund.

5,400+

funds to wade through, and a blank filter bar wishing you luck.

Anything can be wrapped in an ETF now and sold as “passive investing”: thematic bets, options income, single-stock leverage. Meanwhile every other screener speaks the industry's language and dumps the whole list on you. Nobody walks you from “I have money to invest” to “I know exactly what to buy, and why.”

What Beacon does differently

An opinion on every fund.

Goal-first

Organized around what your money should do: grow, earn income, beat inflation, stay safe. Your situation leads; the asset-class label comes second.

Opinionated by default

Sane expense limits, real track records, leveraged junk kept out of your growth bucket. Override anything you like; you just don't start from chaos.

The classification is the opinion

When a fund's design serves the issuer more than you, Beacon says so. You get the verdict; you make the call.

The toolkit

One place, from a goal to the order.

A screener is where most tools stop. Beacon keeps going: screen, shortlist, build, and know exactly what to buy.

01 · Screen

A screener that already has an opinion

Pick a goal and the sane defaults are already on: long-only, real track records, low fees, junk hidden. Every metric explains itself inline, so you're never staring at “distribution yield” wondering what it means.

Filters

Opinionated defaults

Long-only3y+ recordTER ≤ 0.20%Hide ones to avoid

Showing long-only · sorted by AUM · 3y+ · TER ≤ 0.20%

Compare

2 of 5 watched

Expense ratioVTI 0.03% · ITOT 0.03%

Holdings3,600 · 2,500

Overlap~99%

02 · Shortlist

Save a shortlist. Compare what matters.

Star the funds that fit and put them side by side on the two things that actually move your outcome: what they cost, and what they really hold. Near-identical twins get caught before you buy both.

03 · Build

From a goal to the exact shares to buy

Turn a goal and a horizon into a diversified mix of six passive allocations, conservative to aggressive. Beacon works out how many shares to buy for the amount you're investing. The robo logic, minus the yearly fee.

Balanced

Investing $5,000

VTI · US equity40%

VXUS · International20%

BND · US bonds40%

Shares to buy: VTI ×7 · VXUS ×9 · BND ×14

The founding constraint

Independent, on purpose.

No affiliates. No kickbacks. No ads. No paywalled data. The moment we take money from the industry we exist to decode, we stop being a tool and start being a channel. We'd rather build slowly and stay honest.

No affiliatesNo adsNo kickbacksNo paywalled data

Don't want to choose? Start from a model.

Six pre-built passive portfolios, from conservative to aggressive. Fork one and make it yours.

Conservative Defensive Balanced Growth Dynamic Aggressive

Honest answers

The questions you'd actually ask.

Is it really free?: Yes. The whole toolkit is free to use right now. No card, no trial clock. If a paid tier arrives later, the core screener stays free.
How do you make money with no ads or affiliates?: Today, we don't. Beacon is an independent indie project. No broker pays to be recommended; no issuer pays to rank higher. That independence is a founding constraint we built in on purpose, so it can't be quietly sold off later.
Who is Beacon for?: Passive, long-term investors who'd rather pick well once and keep buying on a schedule than chase the next clever product. If you live in your broker's options chain, this isn't for you, and that's fine.
How are ETFs classified?: Every fund is sorted by the job it does for your money: growth, income, inflation protection, safety. We don't sort by the industry's category labels. When a fund's design serves the issuer more than you, Beacon says so. The classification is the opinion.
How fresh is the data?: Daily. Prices, classifications, and metrics are recomputed every morning, so what you compare is current to the last close.

The whole point

Get it right once.
Then mostly leave it alone.

Pick funds that fit your goal, buy on a schedule, and ignore the products built to talk you out of a plan that already works. Beacon helps you do the first part well.

Start for free →

Independent · No affiliates · 5,400+ ETFs · Refreshed daily