Best Competition Research Tools for Startups

March 22, 2021

Karl Hughes

5 min read

tools

TL;DR: Competition research tools help startups analyze competitors’ strategies, traffic sources, and market positioning. Top recommendations:

SimilarWeb – Best for analyzing competitor traffic sources and audience overlap
SpyFu – Most comprehensive for tracking competitor keywords, ads, and backlinks
CrunchBase – Essential for researching competitor funding, leadership, and company history

These tools reveal how competitors attract customers, which marketing channels they use, and where market gaps exist. Most offer free tiers for basic competitive intelligence.

You may think that your startup stands alone – that it’s truly unique in the market – but that’s rarely true. In fact, having no competition might mean that your startup just isn’t necessary. If there’s a market of people willing to buy your product, they’re probably spending their money elsewhere today. Your job is to find out where.

Why Research Your Competition?

Getting a lay of the competitive landscape can help you in many ways. Not only will you be prepared to compete better against established players, but you’ll also learn how your rivals market their products, who their customers are, and how successful they’ve been.

Researching your competition can also help you discover new niches that may be underserved, and if your startup starts to gain traction, your competitors may end up being partners or even acquisition targets.

That said, where do you start on this path to knowing your competition? What tools can you use to find and learn about your competitors? That’s where this list can help you.

Startup Competitor Research Tools

In this list, I’ve included several of the tools I use to find and research similar startups and products. You can use these tools to come up with ideas for your blog, figure out how they’re doing, and learn more about their customers.

Alexa ($0) – Alexa’s similar site tool uses audience overlap rather than site content to determine similarity.

AlternativeTo ($0) – If you know your product is similar to at least one other site, you can use AlternativeTo to find dozens of alternatives to that site.

Competeshark ($89) – Imagine being able to see details on your competitors’ marketing campaigns. That’s the premise of Competeshark’s service.

CrunchBase ($0) – See when companies were started, how much financing they received and who is leading them.

Google Alerts ($0) – Keeping up with mentions of your competitors in the news or blogs is easy with Google Alerts.

Internet Archive ($0) – Want to see what your competitors’ websites looked like last month? A year ago? The Way Back Machine from archive.org has been storing old versions of websites since the 90’s.

Keyhole ($149) – Great for tracking social mentions, brand names, or hash tags over time so you can quickly respond or catch emerging competitors.

Linkedin ($0) – Just about everyone has a Linkedin account, so it’s a great way to research your competition’s company, founders, employees, and even open job listings.

Product Hunt ($0) – If you’re into startups, you have probably heard of Product Hunt. It helps you find new products by emailing newly submitted products every day (or week) and does a pretty good job categorizing submissions.

Serpstat ($15) – Serpstat compiles historical data on keywords, allowing you to easily see how a keyword’s popularity has changed and how strong the competition is for it.

SimilarSites ($0) – SimilarSites’ search is pretty good at identifying competing sites in a specific niche.

SimilarWeb ($0) – SimilarWeb can show you how your competition is getting traffic (eg: from social, SEO, or advertising).

SocialMentions ($0) – SocialMention offers real-time social media search for keywords including domain names.

SpyFu ($33) – Use SpyFu to keep up with backlinks, keywords, and ads your competitors are using to attract visitors.

The Search Monitor – This tool will help you keep up with who is buying ads on which search terms. Great if you’re in an industry that does a lot of paid advertising.

How to run your own Keyword Audit and Creating Topic Clusters.

Trade Journals ($0) – For more traditional businesses, there is probably a trade journal out there. In new media, you might be more likely to find competitors mentioned in industry blogs or news sites.

Visual Ping ($0) – Monitors webpages by letting you select an area of text to watch.

Wachete ($0) – Track a website, get notified of changes

WebWire ($0) – WebWire hosts a list of trade journals by industry that could be very helpful if you’re exploring a new market and want to know what the major news sources are.

Whois Lookup ($0) – This might be helpful for smaller competitors who don’t include much information about the company’s founders or structure on their site. Whois lookup allows you to see who owns the domain name, when it was bought/sold, and any other domains they own.

WooRank ($49) – Good for ranking your competitors’ websites and looking for ways you can outperform them.

Did I miss a tool that you love? Submit your suggestions here

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is competitor research important for startups?

Competitor research helps startups understand market positioning, identify underserved niches, and learn proven marketing strategies. By analyzing how established competitors attract customers, where they advertise, and what content performs well, startups avoid costly trial-and-error and can differentiate their offerings strategically. Research also reveals potential partnership opportunities and acquisition targets as your startup grows.

Which free competitor research tools are most effective?

SimilarWeb, Google Alerts, CrunchBase, LinkedIn, and AlternativeTo offer robust free features for competitor analysis. SimilarWeb shows traffic sources and audience overlap. Google Alerts tracks competitor mentions across the web. CrunchBase reveals funding history and company structure. LinkedIn provides insights into team composition and hiring patterns. AlternativeTo identifies alternative products in your category.

How do I find out what keywords my competitors rank for?

Tools like SpyFu and Serpstat reveal competitor keyword rankings and search visibility. SpyFu shows historical keyword performance and paid search campaigns. Serpstat provides keyword difficulty scores and ranking trends over time. MonitorBacklinks identifies valuable backlinks driving competitor search rankings. These insights help you target high-value keywords and build competitive SEO strategies.

How often should startups conduct competitor research?

Conduct comprehensive competitor analysis quarterly, with ongoing monitoring of key metrics monthly. Set up automated alerts through Google Alerts, Keyhole, and ScoutZen for real-time competitor mentions, product launches, and marketing campaigns. Review competitor website changes, content strategies, and traffic patterns monthly to identify emerging threats or opportunities before they significantly impact your market position.

What competitor metrics matter most for early-stage startups?

Focus on traffic sources (organic vs. paid), content strategy and publishing frequency, pricing models and positioning, target customer profiles, and funding history. Tools like SimilarWeb reveal traffic acquisition channels. Content analysis shows messaging strategies that resonate. CrunchBase provides funding context for competitive spending capacity. Understanding these metrics helps startups compete effectively with limited resources against better-funded competitors.

How can I track competitor social media performance?

Keyhole and SocialMention monitor competitor social media activity and engagement. Keyhole tracks hashtag performance and brand mentions across platforms over time. SocialMention provides real-time social search for competitor domains and keywords. ScoutZen monitors Twitter followers, following patterns, and automated advanced searches. These tools reveal which social strategies drive engagement and audience growth for competitors.