10 Best Competitor Analysis Tools Under $300

Looking for a rival investigation instrumentality that does it all? Well, they’re a spot pricey. They tin outgo astir $1000 per spot oregon $10000 per yearly contract, positive set-up fees use successful immoderate cases. I’m definite these tools are great, and that terms tag is perfectly tenable for enterprise-level businesses, but for galore businesses retired there, that’s retired of reach. 

So what are the rival investigation tools for the “rest of us”? Here’s a enactment of fantabulous tools that connection the aforesaid functionalities arsenic these enterprise-level solutions, and more, for nether $300 each oregon adjacent for free:

1. Competitors App — champion fund instrumentality for all-in-one rival monitoring. This instrumentality volition support you notified of contented published by your competitors, and each contented astir your competitors, each successful 1 place. Price: $19.9/mo.
2. Ahrefs — champion for SEO and SEM rival tracking and analysis. Use it for a heavy dive into SEO and hunt advertisement investigation and bargain postulation from your competitors’ astir palmy content. Price: $129/mo (Starter program disposable astatine $29).
3. Visualping — champion UX, CRO, and website rival monitoring. Whenever the rival changes thing connected their site, you’ll beryllium the archetypal to know. Price: $10/mo (free program available).
4. Brand24 — champion for societal media competitory tracking and analysis. See what radical similar and dislike astir your competitors and usage it to marque improvements successful your merchandise oregon service. Price: $99/mo.
5. SparkToro — champion for rival assemblage analysis. If you privation to scope your competitors’ audience, this is however you’ll find them. Price: $50/mo, escaped program available.
6. Mailcharts — champion for email and SMS rival monitoring. Copy competitors’ champion ideas for newsletters, email workflows, and email blasts, and marque your enactment easier. Price: $149/mo.
7. vidIQ — champion for YouTube rival analysis. Grow your YouTube transmission by reverse-engineering your competitors’ success. Pricing: $10/mo, escaped program available.
8. Official advertisement libraries — champion for societal media PPC rival intelligence. Snoop connected your competitors’ campaigns to marque your ads basal out. Free.
9. BuiltWith — champion for website tech stack investigation tool. Interestingly, you tin besides spot who uses your competitors and get a database of imaginable leads. Price: $295/mo.
10. ChatGPT — does the dense lifting of information analysis, information cleaning & visualization for reports and analyzing competitors’ content. Can compensate for immoderate AI features of endeavor solutions. Price: 20$, escaped program available.

How I tested the tools

I wanted to find the champion tools for tiny and mean businesses (i.e., affordable and flexible pricing) and, astatine the aforesaid time, collate a database of tools that screen each selling channels you whitethorn privation to show (SEO, societal media, email, etc.).

I personally besides tested each of these tools to spot if they unrecorded up to their committedness and immoderate I’ve been relying connected for years. So successful the remaining portion of the article, I’ll stock a fewer coagulated ideas connected however to marque bully usage of these tools and item 1 handpicked awesome diagnostic from each.

Finally, I update this nonfiction from clip to clip to spot if determination caller tools, amended tools, updated pricing, oregon caller noteworthy features. So, what you spot is the latest mentation of this evolving guide.

Competitors App monitors a agelong database of your competitors’ selling channels, including emails, newsletters, blog posts, societal media posts, website changes, integrated search, ads, and serves it to you connected a bully competitory investigation dashboard.

This instrumentality is similar having a dedicated regular paper exclusively astir your competitors. So, if you’re looking for a azygous level to log into each greeting to spot what your competitors person been up to — without breaking the slope — this is the solution for you.

While it’s an all-in-one solution for virtually each selling channel, don’t expect the robust investigation capabilities recovered successful much specialized tools connected our list. However, for entry-level rival monitoring to assistance you enactment informed, it’s hard to find thing much cost-effective.

How to use it:

• Use the dashboard to gain regular top-level insights connected your competitors activity connected the web and comparison them to yours. Look for spikes successful societal media engagement, higher publishing output, trends successful integrated traffic, oregon movements successful the astir important keywords. The reviews diagnostic besides allows you to spot online enactment about your rival specified arsenic reviews.
• Never miss a caller blog post, an email, oregon an important societal media post from your competitors. No request to leap betwixt apps.
• Document noteworthy rival activity. When you spot thing interesting, you tin adhd a enactment connected the spot and notify your teammates close from the app.

Standout feature: Monitoring each selling channels for publications and mentions

Competitors App has a diagnostic called Activity which works similar an RSS provender for everything your competitors accidental online and everything that is said about them.

The database of things you tin spot successful the Activity provender is rather impressive:

• Social media posts.
• Ads (live and archive).
• Website changes (such arsenic a caller leafage published oregon a alteration successful the rubric of a page)
• Online mentions.
• Reviews (you tin filter for circumstantial ratings).
• Email.
• Keywords.
• Backlinks.

Thanks to this, you’ll enactment informed astir each determination your competitors marque crossed assorted selling channels, and you prevention clip and effort connected jumping betwixt antithetic tools and sources.

For example, you tin rapidly spot caller contented oregon campaigns launched by your competitors and gauge their interaction connected their audience. For example, if you announcement a rival gaining traction with a peculiar benignant of contented oregon societal media post, see however you tin accommodate and amended upon that attack for your audience.

To marque it adjacent easier, the Competitors App features a newsletter that delivers this enactment provender straight to your inbox.

Pricing

Competitors App offers a inexpensive introduction constituent astatine $19.9 per month, but that terms is based connected the fig of sites you track. So, for monitoring 2 competitors, you’ll wage astir $40, for three, astir $60, and truthful on. To entree each monitoring features, you’ll wage $29.90 per competitor. This is inactive precise competitory compared to what endeavor solutions ask.

If I were you, I’d beryllium funny astir the Custom tier. Since the instrumentality is rather affordable, you whitethorn get immoderate premium features similar customized transmission tracking, human-curated reports, and conflict cards and inactive save money.

Ahrefs is an all-in-one SEO toolset that provides best-in-class data astir your competitors’ content, backlinks, keywords, PPC ads, and much more.

Ahrefs has a estimation for best-in-class information and robust functionality, making it 1 of the industry’s favorites (see what the manufacture says astir Ahrefs). So, if you request to dive heavy into SEO data, you can’t spell wrong here.

How to use it:

• Identify contented gaps betwixt you and your competitors to make caller contented ideas. A contented spread consists of keywords that your competitors fertile for, but you bash not. By filling these gaps, you tin not lone summation your ain postulation but besides perchance trim your competitor’s postulation by outranking them.
• See wherever your competitors get their backlinks from to replicate their tactics oregon spell aft their links. For example, you mightiness observe that your rival has breached pages connected their site, providing you with an accidental to seizure those links.
• Monitor your integrated share of voice to summation it comparative to your competitors. Share of dependable is simply a utile metric due to the fact that it ever shows you if a alteration successful postulation has been caused by competitors and not a alteration successful hunt request oregon a alteration successful however Google shows the SERPs.

Standout feature: Finding contented gaps betwixt you and your competitors

This diagnostic shows keywords for which your competitors rank, but you don’t. As I already mentioned, these are called contented gaps and tin springiness you proven contented ideas for your content planning.

With Ahrefs, you tin comparison full domains and get caller taxable ideas. Or, you tin comparison pages and spot what subtopics your contented whitethorn beryllium missing — a imaginable crushed for little rankings.

Go to the Competitive Analysis instrumentality and participate your domain and competitors.

The much competitors you enter, the much keywords you will get.

If, astatine immoderate point, the database gets excessively large to manage, you tin constrictive it down utilizing filters. For example, you tin absorption connected keywords wherever astatine slightest 2 of your competitors fertile successful the top 10.

Here are a fewer absorbing keywords Mailchimp could usage to capable the contented gap:

Pricing

Ahrefs equipped with the Competitive Analysis instrumentality (along with different keyword, backlink and SERP investigation tools for competitory analysis) starts astatine $129 per month, oregon $108 if you wage annually — spot pricing.

You tin besides effort retired immoderate of our free SEO rival quality tools. They’re large for speedy spot checks similar checking your competitor’s integrated postulation oregon checking apical backlinks of the contented you’re competing with connected Google. Find retired much successful 10 Things You Can Do successful Ahrefs for Free.

Visualping is simply a website rival investigation instrumentality that notifies you anytime your competitors alteration thing connected their sites. It uses AI to summarize the web leafage changes, and it’ll adjacent archer you whether the alteration is important oregon not, truthful you tin prevention clip reviewing rival changes.

This means you nary longer request to acceptable reminders to cheque their websites play oregon strain your eyes searching for the smallest updates, wondering if they were determination last week.

How to use it:

• Get inspired by UX and CRO tweaks connected competitors’ websites. These tweaks tin animate improvements connected your ain site, helping you heighten idiosyncratic engagement and summation conversions.
• Monitor competitor’s pricing to pass your pricing strategy. By tracking terms changes, discounts, and promotions, you tin set your prices to amended pull customers. For instance, if a rival drops their prices, you mightiness determine to connection a impermanent discount oregon adhd other worth to your products to support your marketplace position.
• Keep tabs connected caller occupation openings to spot wherever your competitors are investing their budgets. Job postings tin uncover wherever they are expanding, what skills they are prioritizing, and which departments are receiving much resources. For example, if a rival is hiring extensively successful their selling department, it mightiness bespeak a planned summation successful selling efforts, prompting you to measure and perchance bolster your ain selling strategies to enactment competitive.

Standout feature: Monitoring UX and CRO tweaks connected competitors’ websites

Visualping is large for observing however your competitors effort to compression much retired of each visitant to their website. In different words, you tin look for idiosyncratic acquisition (UX) and conversion complaint optimization (CRO) tweaks that you tin follow without having to bash each the probe and A/B testing.

All you request to bash is acceptable up tracking for the web leafage you attraction about, and you’ll get an alert erstwhile there’s a noteworthy change. This tin see thing from caller merchandise launches and property releases to much subtle website changes, similar updated CTA buttons and colors.

The alerts diagnostic a screenshot of the page, with the changes highlighted. They besides see an AI summary of each the changes, truthful you tin rapidly recognize what was updated.

I chatted with the Visualping team, and I’ve been told that you tin enactment with their punctual engineering squad to customize the AI for your usage case. That way, you’ll cognize if the alteration is important based connected your preferences.

Keep successful caput that you shouldn’t blindly transcript your competitors’ actions. Ideally, the alteration has to marque consciousness to you, and you should cognize that the rival does A/B investigating (checking with BuiltWith is simply a bully commencement — much connected this below).

Pricing

Visualping offers a escaped program with up to 150 checks a month, which would astir apt beryllium capable to screen your competitors’ homepage, pricing page, proceedings page, and different important pages weekly.

If you’re much superior astir keeping way of your competitors’ websites, past effort retired the paid plans. Those commencement astatine $10 a period for 1000 checks — spot pricing.

With Brand24, you tin way mentions of competitors successful societal media, quality oregon online publications to reverse technologist their backlink strategies.

They’re champion known for their societal media monitoring features, truthful if your strategy is powerfully reliant connected societal media, you’ll decidedly privation to trial retired this tool.

How to use it:

• See however effectual your competitors’ messaging is successful presumption of reach, engagement, and sentiment. This volition assistance you recognize what resonates with your shared audience, allowing you to refine your ain messaging to amended reach, engagement, and wide sentiment.
• Monitor marque mentions to spot what radical similar and dislike astir your competitors. Look astatine reviews, societal media posts, and discussions to find retired what radical emotion and what they kick about. This tin springiness you ideas connected what to bash amended and however to debar the aforesaid mistakes, helping you marque your marque much appealing

My favourite functionality: Monitoring competitors’ marque mentions

Set up a abstracted task (or projects) with the names of rival brands and products. You tin spell wide oregon beryllium arsenic circumstantial arsenic you like. For example, if your competitor’s marque sanction has aggregate meanings, you tin filter retired irrelevant keywords with the Excluded keywords field. To illustrate:

Here’s an absorbing notation of the task absorption instrumentality Asana. This could mean that if you were to vie with them, you could see clip tracking successful 1 of your little costly plans to get an borderline implicit your competitor.

This benignant of rival monitoring allows you to:

• Adjust your connection by adopting the astir engaging formats and the phrasing your competitors usage to beforehand akin features.
• Get merchandise insights based connected the astir fashionable and well-received releases.
• Assess however radical comprehend your marque and your competitors via sentiment analysis.
• Benchmark your societal media scope and share of voice against your competitors.

Pricing

Plans commencement astatine $99 a period for tracking 3 keywords. Tracking your marque and your competitors volition necessitate a higher program for $179 a period that offers 7 keywords. You tin get 2 months escaped disconnected immoderate program if you wage annually — see pricing. Brand24 besides offers a 14-day free trial.

SparkToro is an assemblage probe instrumentality that tin supply accusation astir what your competitors’ visitors read, watch, perceive to, and follow.

As a competitory investigation tool, it is invaluable for caller brands that privation to amended recognize the assemblage they’d similar to reach. With Sparktoro’s insights, you tin make much targeted and engaging selling campaigns, amended your contented strategy, and link with your assemblage connected a deeper level.

If you’re already acquainted with this tool, marque definite to cheque retired the revamped V2 mentation launched successful April 2024. See a implicit database of caller features and wholly caller things you tin bash with Sparktoro V2 here.

How to use it:

• Find the champion places to advertise by checking retired the websites and societal media profiles your competitor’s assemblage visits. This helps you take wherever to enactment your ads to scope much people
• Make amended lawsuit profiles by looking astatine the societal media profiles of radical who travel your competitors. Learn astir their interests and hobbies to recognize them amended and amended your marketing.
• Get caller contented ideas by seeing what topics your competitor’s assemblage talks astir often. Use this to make contented that interests them and grabs their attention.

Standout feature: Discovering wherever a competitor’s assemblage hangs retired online

Let’s find caller sponsorship opportunities by looking for podcasts that radical visiting sparktoro.com perceive to.

All you request to bash is click connected “Podcasts” successful the left-hand menu, and determination you have it.

So, successful this example, the Search Engine Journal Show is doubly arsenic “popular” with Sparktoro’s assemblage arsenic Marketing Smarts. You tin archer that from the Affinity Score metric, which tells you however overmuch behavioral/demographic overlap a fixed podcast has with Sparktoro’s assemblage (this people tin beryllium recovered successful different reports as well).

With information similar this, you tin easy spot caller advertizing and sponsorship opportunities crossed galore antithetic channels. All you request to cognize is your competitors’ URL oregon the keyword your assemblage is apt to usage successful Google, and Sparktoro does the rest.

Price

SparkToro is escaped for 20 searches a period with constricted study capabilities. Paid plans commencement astatine $50 a period (three months escaped if you wage annually) — spot pricing.

Mailcharts holds a immense postulation of email and SMS campaigns, helping you survey tactics of brands akin to yours. It’s a alternatively absorbing competitory quality instrumentality arsenic it allows you to show the hidden automation and flows competitors usage arsenic portion of their lawsuit acquisition journey.

How to use it:

• Discover email and SMS campaigns by types oregon competing brands and get inspired by the transcript and (in the lawsuit of emails) ocular plan they use.
• Understand the sending behaviour of your competitors (cadence, taxable lines, discounts, etc.). Copy what you like, oregon bash thing wholly antithetic to marque your marque stand out.
• Study email selling automation techniques successful your industry. See what features competitors absorption connected to onboard their users, oregon however different brands effort to marque customers travel backmost to their buying carts.

Standout feature: Studying email selling automation techniques

Thanks to Mailchart’s Journeys feature, you tin survey the automated emails that brands nonstop whenever their subscribers trigger a definite action, specified arsenic abandoning the cart oregon creating a task wrong an app.

It’s a large diagnostic due to the fact that it truly takes the manual labour retired of analyzing 1 of the astir important types of email marketing; ideate trying to find an email trigger manually.

Here’s an example: Mailchart captured a subscription abandonment travel from Masterclass.

Based connected the transcript of the emails, you tin usage the aforesaid persuasion techniques to marque the idiosyncratic reconsider oregon usage the aforesaid clip interval betwixt the emails.

Pricing

Mailcharts offers a escaped program with 1,000 email samples and a fistful of different adjuvant features. Premium plans commencement astatine $149 — spot pricing.

vidIQ is simply a instrumentality that helps you recognize what makes palmy YouTube channels tick. It shows you what your competitors are doing right, similar which keywords they’re utilizing and which topics are popular.

How to use it:

• Compare your transmission with competitors to spot however often they post, what topics they choose, and however they edit their videos. This helps you larn what works good for others truthful you tin amended your ain channel’s performance.
• Get caller contented ideas by looking astatine the keywords different channels usage and checking vidIQ’s views per hr metric. This shows you which videos are presently popular, truthful you tin make contented that attracts much viewers.

Standout feature: Analyzing show information close wrong YouTube

vidIQ offers an hold to the Chrome web browser that allows you to get information close wrong YouTube. In my opinion, immoderate of the astir invaluable information points provided here are:

• Video tags: You tin spot which keywords your rival is trying to people and wherever they rank. You tin usage the aforesaid ones for your transmission oregon get akin keyword ideas.
• Views Per Hour (VPH) metric: If you spot a video older than a twelvemonth but inactive gets a precocious VPH, this could beryllium an evergreen topic.

Pricing

The supra functionality comes with the escaped vidIQ plan. But if you’re superior astir video selling and monitoring your competitor’s YouTube channels, decidedly see paid plans that commencement from $10 ($7.50 if paid annually) — spot pricing.

Some advertisement networks let you to spot each ads presently moving connected their platforms (and sometimes adjacent archived ads). You tin simply look up your rival and survey their ads astatine nary cost. Such libraries are the champion PPC rival tools you tin adhd to your toolkit.

At the clip of writing, this benignant of work is officially supported on:

• Meta (Facebook, Messenger, and Instagram)
• TikTok
• Google Ads
• X
• LinkedIn (no abstracted library: you request to find your competitor’s illustration and past spell to Posts/Ads).

How to use them:

• See if your rival is moving immoderate ads successful the archetypal place. Establishing that tin assistance you negociate your selling budget; if they are investing heavy successful ads, you mightiness see expanding your fund to enactment competitive.
• Look for the features oregon deals they beforehand the astir to animate your ain deals. For instance, if a rival is offering a peculiar discount oregon highlighting a peculiar merchandise feature, you tin make akin deals oregon item antithetic features that marque your merchandise stand out.
• Study the connection and ocular plan of the ads and landing pages. You tin either make thing wholly antithetic to basal retired oregon usage their benignant arsenic inspiration if you request a speedy mode to motorboat your ain campaign. For example, if their ads are colorful and bold, you mightiness spell for a sleek and minimalist look to differentiate yourself. Or, if their attack seems effective, you tin follow akin strategies to pull attraction quickly.

Standout feature: Studying competitors’ campaigns to stand out

Let’s accidental you’re trying to beforehand your task absorption software, and Asana is 1 of your competitors. A speedy hunt for this advertiser connected the Meta advertisement room reveals a wide pattern: they’re presently utilizing minimalistic ocular plan to beforehand their content. Using akin imagery successful your ads whitethorn not beryllium the champion thought due to the fact that your marque mightiness get confused with theirs oregon adjacent beryllium seen arsenic a copycat.

Tip

To get other information connected your competitors, look for ads shown successful the EU. Due to transparency laws successful the EU, the platforms are required to supply further accusation specified arsenic age, sex and location.

Pricing

All authoritative advertisement libraries are free.

BuiltWith is simply a instrumentality that helps place the technologies immoderate website is using, similar advertizing platforms, outgo systems, web servers, and CDNs.

Whereas the erstwhile tools amusement you “what” competitors are doing, this instrumentality helps to reply the question “how” they are doing it.

How to use it:

• Find niche advertizing platforms your competitors usage and spot if you tin advertise determination too. By identifying the circumstantial platforms wherever your competitors are placing their ads, you tin scope akin audiences.
• Discover companies that usage your competitors’ products — perchance a bully root of prospects for your income squad to pursue. If a institution is already utilizing a merchandise akin to yours, they mightiness beryllium funny successful switching to your offering if you tin supply amended features, pricing, oregon lawsuit service. Reach retired to these companies with tailored pitches to pull their business.
• Monitor your competitor’s marketplace stock to recognize however their strategy whitethorn beryllium impacting their business. If they are gaining marketplace share, analyse what they are doing close and see incorporating akin tactics into your ain strategy. If they are losing marketplace share, look for opportunities to capitalize connected their weaknesses and seizure much of the marketplace for your business.

Standout feature: Finding niche advertizing platforms

Since astir advertizing platforms usage tracking codes and pixels for retargeting, analytics, and attribution purposes, you’ll spot which platforms your competitors are contiguous on.

Finding retired that your competitors usage Google, Facebook, and Twitter ads isn’t a astonishment for anyone, though. But you tin find immoderate niche platforms oregon show networks that whitethorn beryllium worthy looking into. Here’s an illustration of what BuiltWith tin uncover successful its “Analytics and Tracking” section. This institution advertises connected Reddit:

Pricing

BuiltWith is escaped for the usage lawsuit I depicted above. Paid plans commencement from $295/mo and whitethorn beryllium worthy it for businesses that request a deeper dive into tech stacks — spot pricing.

Surprised to spot ChatGPT here? The information is that AI tin beryllium incredibly utile successful rival analysis. Advanced AI features, which are often seen successful high-end tools, show this potential:

But since these tools are for those who tin spend them, you tin usage ChatGPT on with 1 of the tools successful this nonfiction to get akin functionality astatine a fraction of the cost.

How to use it:

• Ask ChatGPT for contented ideas based connected fashionable topics wrong your industry. You tin input rival blog titles oregon trending topics, and ChatGPT tin assistance brainstorm caller contented that resonates with your audience.
• Analyze rival societal media strategies by feeding ChatGPT with their posts. It tin assistance place palmy engagement tactics, communal themes, and contented that generates the astir interaction.
• Ask for advertisement transcript suggestions. If you announcement competitors moving effectual ads, you tin input their advertisement transcript into ChatGPT to make similar, high-impact advertisement transcript tailored to your marque and audience.
• Analyze lawsuit feedback. Input lawsuit reviews and feedback from your competitors into ChatGPT. It tin assistance summarize communal praises and complaints, giving you insights into areas.
• Crunch numbers and visualize data. Use ChatGPT to process and construe numerical information from your competitors. You tin input income figures, engagement metrics, oregon different applicable data, and ChatGPT tin assistance you analyse trends, make forecasts, and make visualizations to amended recognize the competitory landscape.

Standout feature: Analyzing ample sets of idiosyncratic reviews to find competitors’ beardown and anemic points.

I ran this benignant of investigation successful my guide to competitory analysis. You request information from a reappraisal tract similar Capterra oregon Trustpilot (you tin adjacent manually copy/paste the reviews, it lone takes a fewer minutes) and past this prompt.

As a result, you volition get 2 charts with the apical 10 affirmative and antagonistic things mentioned successful the reviews. It volition look thing like this:

How you tin usage this information depends connected the findings. Generally, you’d privation to adjacent immoderate superior diagnostic gaps and usage complaints to triumph implicit your competitor’s customers. For example, if radical kick astir the UX aspects, you tin devise a run astir the superiority of your product’s look and feel.

Final thoughts

Before you go, fto maine item a fewer much competitory investigation resources (not needfully tools) that are ace adjuvant and chiefly free:

• IPO reports (aka S-1 reports) and fiscal reports of publically traded companies. Two tips here: effort to spot if idiosyncratic already analyzed the insubstantial (example) and spot if AI tools similar Documind oregon PDF.ai tin assistance you spell done the documents.
• Surveys and absorption groups to get quantitative and qualitative information astir your marketplace and competitors.
• Ghost buying to get nonstop lawsuit experiences from your competitors and perchance uncover their income tactics.
• Review platforms similar G2, TrustPilot, Yelp, oregon Google My Business to cheque what your competitors’ customers say.

So that’s it. If you’re conscionable uncovering retired astir competitory quality tools but are unsure what’s the close mode to behaviour a competitory analysis, we besides person a simple usher (including a template).

Got questions oregon comments? Ping maine connected X oregon LinkedIn.