401kHunter vs FreeERISA: Free Lookups, Paid Prospecting

Source: FreeERISA product page, 401kHunter FAQ, and 401kHunter pricing (as published, read 2026-10-05).

"FreeERISA vs 401kHunter" — or "free erisa vs 401k hunter," as it is often typed — is usually a budget question in disguise: do I need to pay for Form 5500 data at all? It is a fair question. The filings are public, and the Department of Labor publishes them as free downloadable datasets. Both of these tools give something away on top of that. This page sorts out exactly what each one gives away, what each one charges for, and the point at which paying starts to make sense. One disclosure first: we sell FiduciarySignal, a paid tool in the same category, so every vendor fact below carries the page we read it on and the date.

401kHunter vs FreeERISA: the short answer

Use FreeERISA when a sponsor's name comes up and you want to read its recent filing for nothing. Its owner's product page says free access covers Form 5500s filed with the Department of Labor over the past two years, and the paid Deluxe tier adds Top Hat and Form 5310 filings — useful if you work with executive deferred compensation or plan terminations. It has been running since 1999 and, per the same page, has 625,000 registered users.

Use 401kHunter when you are working a list rather than a name. Its free search shows a fee grade for plans with filed fee data, a first sort, and credits buy the plan financials and decision-maker contacts you need to make the call. Its own comparison page reaches a similar split: FreeERISA for the occasional single lookup, 401kHunter once you are researching many plans.

Source: FreeERISA product page; 401kHunter FAQ, pricing, and 401kHunter vs FreeERISA (as published, read 2026-10-05).

What you get free on each

Source: FreeERISA product page; 401kHunter FAQ and pricing (as published, read 2026-10-05).

What paying gets you on each

Source: FreeERISA product page and Judy Diamond store; 401kHunter pricing and FAQ (as published, read 2026-10-05).

Two cautions on the FreeERISA column. First, the product page gives the Deluxe price without saying whether it is monthly, annual, or one-time. Second, the FreeERISA app itself now lives on another domain — www.freeerisa.com answered our request with a 301 redirect to freeerisa.benefitspro.com — and the app's pages returned HTTP 403 to our automated reader on 2026-10-05. So the FreeERISA facts here come from the product page Judy Diamond Associates publishes, not from inside the app. Confirm the current price and billing terms there before you pay.

Source: our requests to freeerisa.com (HTTP 301) and FreeERISA product page (as published, read 2026-10-05).

Data depth and freshness

A two-year window is plenty for reading a plan's latest filing before a meeting. It is thinner for trend work — asset growth, participation, or fee movement across several years — so if your pitch leans on a plan's trajectory, check how many years each tool will show you for that plan. 401kHunter refreshes monthly as the Department of Labor publishes, and its methodology page lists more than 15 public sources joined to the filings. Its FAQ also states the limit every Form 5500 tool shares: the most recent year is typically 12 to 18 months old, because sponsors generally file seven months after the plan year ends and can extend, per the IRS Form 5500 Corner.

The two also screen plans differently. 401kHunter grades plans with filed fee data A to D on administrative expenses divided by end-of-year assets — A at 0.5% or less, D above 1.5% — and its methodology says fund expense ratios are not in the grade, because Form 5500 does not report them. On Judy Diamond's side, scoring tools such as Red Flags and the Plan Score Card are features of its paid Prospector+ product rather than the free FreeERISA search.

Source: FreeERISA product page; 401kHunter methodology and FAQ; Prospector+ product page; IRS Form 5500 Corner (as published, read 2026-10-05).

Who runs FreeERISA

FreeERISA is a Judy Diamond Associates product: its product page sits on judydiamond.com, and the Judy Diamond login page lists FreeErisa beside Retirement Plan Prospector+. Those pages carry the footer "© 2026 Touchpoint Markets. All Rights Reserved." Arc announced on 1 July 2025 that it had acquired Touchpoint Markets, listing BenefitsPRO among the brands — the domain the FreeERISA app now runs on — though the announcement does not name Judy Diamond or FreeERISA itself. Why it matters to a buyer: FreeERISA is the free front door of a commercial data business, and the upgrade path above it, Deluxe and then Prospector+, is the same company's product line. That is an ordinary model, and worth knowing when you weigh the upgrade.

Source: FreeERISA product page, Judy Diamond login, and Arc Acquires Touchpoint Markets (as published, read 2026-10-05).

Which one should you use?

• FreeERISA, if you look up a handful of plans a month, want to spend nothing, or need Top Hat and Form 5310 filings.
• 401kHunter, if you want a fee-graded list to sort, a way to buy the contact for the plans worth calling, and CSV export on a month-to-month plan.
• Neither, for raw bulk data. If you are building your own analysis, the Department of Labor's datasets are free to download.

Source: FreeERISA product page; 401kHunter pricing; DOL Form 5500 Datasets (as published, read 2026-10-05).

A third option: free to test, paid to run

Both tools here answer "show me this plan." FiduciarySignal, which we build, answers a later question in the same process: among the plans in my territory, which are most likely to change providers, so I know where my calling hours go? Its Change Predictor ranks those plans. It was back-tested against the next year's Form 5500 filings, is strongest at the top of the list, and never claims certainty about any single plan. Its 401(k) Report Card grades a plan from its own filing against comparable peers and includes the Form 5500 signer's contact details.

FiduciarySignal does not offer free search. FiduciarySignal is paid software: $90 a month after a 7-day free trial, or $900 a year billed today with no trial. If you want to judge it before a card comes out, the free signal page takes a ZIP code and looks for one live signal near you, unlocked with your name and email and no card. Look the same plan up on FreeERISA or 401kHunter and compare what each one tells you. Full terms are on our pricing page.

Related guides

• 401kHunter: Pricing, What It Does, and a Fair Comparison
• FreeERISA: What It Covers, What Deluxe Costs, and When Free Runs Out
• Free 401(k) Prospecting Tools: What Each One Gives You, and the One Job None of Them Do