Competitive analysis is an integral part of a successful business strategy, regardless of the company's size and industry. It allows you to obtain valuable data on the marketing campaigns and SEO strategies of your main competitors. With this information, you can identify their strengths and weaknesses and use this knowledge to boost your own position in the market. In this article, we will explore what are the best tools for conducting competitor analysis and explain the features they provide.
Ahrefs
Ahrefs is one of the best SEO competitor analysis tools free to use that has earned the trust of marketers around the world. It is actively used by 44% of Fortune 500 companies, which speaks to its reliability and effectiveness. The platform offers extensive capabilities for deep competitive analysis. It also supports strategic search and content marketing, website auditing, and reporting. A large database and precise Ahrefs algorithms help identify competitive advantages, find new growth points, and strengthen business positions in search results.
Key features:
- The service's algorithms determine the differences between your content and your competitors' materials based on keyword ranking. This will help you find original ideas for new publications, ensuring an influx of additional traffic.
- The Site Explorer tool offers an in-depth look at competitor websites and any online resource, allowing users to examine site structure, organic versus paid traffic distribution, backlink quality, and more.
- Ahrefs maintains a database tracking over 14 trillion active backlinks and more than seven years of historical data. This enables detailed analysis of backlink metrics, such as URL and domain authority, traffic, referring domains, and outbound links.
- The service helps you identify keywords promoted by competitors, study their advertisements, and identify web pages to which they direct paid traffic.
Ahrefs can be considered one of the competitor analysis tools free to use, as it offers free access through its Webmaster Tools plan. It is worth noting that access to the Site Explorer and Site Audit tools is limited. In addition to this, the platform offers a wide range of paid tariff plans:
- Starter: For $29 per month, this plan grants complete access to essential tools such as Site Explorer, Keywords Explorer, and Site Audit.
- Lite: Priced at $129 monthly, this package supports up to 5 projects, includes 6 months of historical data, and allows tracking of 750 keywords.
- Standard: At $249 per month, users can manage up to 20 projects, access 2 years of data history, and monitor 2,000 keywords.
- Advanced: For $449 monthly, this tier expands capacity to 50 projects, offers 5 years of historical data, and supports tracking of 5,000 keywords.
- Enterprise: Costing $1,449 per month, this comprehensive plan encompasses all Advanced features plus API access, single sign-on (SSO), advanced permission controls, unlimited analytics, and forecasting capabilities.
Annual subscriptions offer up to a 17% discount.
SimilarWeb
SimilarWeb is one of the most well-known PPC competitor analysis tools for digital marketing. It integrates analytics, competitive intelligence, and business insights. This combination provides users with tools for market research, audience analysis, trend tracking, benchmarking, lead generation, and sales optimization. Its user-friendly interface and deep analytics empower marketing and product teams to make data-driven decisions and monitor brand performance effectively.
Key features:
- The service provides a complete overview of all your competitors' current traffic sources: direct clicks, organic and paid traffic, referrals, media advertising, email newsletters, and more.
- Users can simultaneously monitor traffic and other important metrics for up to 25 competitor sites on a single dashboard.
- The service collects and analyzes data on competitors' advertising campaigns, including search and display advertising. This helps you find opportunities to optimize your own campaigns.
- SimilarWeb allows users to select up to 200 competitor sites within a specific industry for keyword analysis and to monitor emerging competitors gaining traction.
SimilarWeb offers 4 tariff plans:
- Starter: 1 user, 1,000 keywords per table, 3 months of data history collection, global search – $199 per month or $1,500 per year.
- Team: 5 users, 50,000 keywords per table, 15 months of data history collection, advanced SERP analysis, and more – $14,000 per year.
- Business: 5 users, 100,000 keywords per table, 25 months of data history collection, market research, API, and more – $35,000 per year.
- Custom: 10 users, unlimited keywords per table, 37 months of data history collection, all Business features, as well as corporate security level – the cost is calculated individually and is provided upon request.
Before subscribing to one of the tariff plans, you can use the 7-day free trial period. During this time, tools for analyzing site traffic, audience behavior, traffic sources, competitive analysis, and market reports will be available.
Semrush
Semrush is a comprehensive digital marketing suite that offers over 50 integrated tools for SEO, paid advertising, content marketing, competitor analysis, and web analytics. Its broad functionality benefits marketers, agencies, and businesses. These features make it indispensable for organizations aiming to boost their online presence. Semrush is particularly valued for its competitor analysis capabilities, enabling users to adapt strategies based on real-time market intelligence.
Key features:
- The service offers various SEO competitor analysis tools. One of the primary features is the analysis of website traffic. It allows you to compare your site's traffic with that of competitor sites, viewing total traffic volume per day, week, and month, as well as the main traffic sources and more.
- The Organic Research tool reveals where competitors rank in search results and highlights the keywords they target, as well as potential missteps.
- Advertising Research provides granular insights into competitors’ ad campaigns, helping you spot optimization opportunities for your own ads.
- PR monitoring tracks all online and social media mentions of your competitors.
- Competitive SEO analysis tools allow you to explore a range of parameters for promoting your competitors' websites: keyword review, backlink analysis, SERP tracker, and more.
Semrush is available for free with significant limitations (e.g., 10 analytics reports per day, one project, and 10 tracked keywords). Paid plans include:
- Pro: 5 projects, 500 tracked keywords, 10,000 results per report, site audit, keyword and backlink analysis for $139.95/month.
- Guru: 15 projects, 1,500 keywords, 30,000 results per report, all Pro features plus content marketing tools, historical data, and device/location tracking for $249.95/month.
- Business: 40 projects, 5,000 keywords, 50,000 results per report, all Guru features plus API and PLA analytics for $499.95/month.
Annual subscriptions save up to 17%. Each plan includes a 7-day free trial.
SpyFu
SpyFu is a specialized SEO competitor analysis software focused on the in-depth analysis of competitors' search and advertising activities. The platform is especially valued by marketers and small to medium business owners. Its primary benefit is the ability to quickly access critical data on competitors' PPC and SEO strategies. With its help, you can study keywords and backlinks and build your promotion strategy based on real data covering the long-term marketing activities of competitors.
Key features:
- The PPC Competitor Research tool lets you track every competitor domain buying ads through Google Ads. It allows you to download their PPC keywords, view bid history, see full campaign history, track your own ranking progress, and more.
- SEO Competitor Research uncovers competitors’ organic rankings, keyword lists, ranking history, and backlink profiles.
- SpyFu helps you create a custom list of competitive domains, filtering them by industry, location, advertising costs, traffic, social media, and other criteria.
- Keyword research tools will sort your keywords into groups and find the most profitable ones in a specific niche. With them, you can evaluate the quality of sites and backlinks for specific keywords, as well as conduct detailed SERP analysis.
SpyFu offers 2 tariff plans:
- Basic: 10,000 search results/export, 6 months of data, 250 leads for $39/month.
- Professional: Unlimited search/export, 10+ years of data, 500 leads, API for $79/month.
The prices listed are valid on the condition that payments are made monthly. Purchasing an annual subscription will allow you to save up to 30%.
BuzzSumo
BuzzSumo is consistently ranked among the most sought-after competitor analysis tools, especially in the content marketing and PR industries. The platform delivers a comprehensive suite of tools for competitor analysis and brand monitoring. It also supports social media tracking and managing presence across various media channels. It helps identify successful content strategies, track competitor mentions, analyze their social media engagement, and find missed opportunities for growth. BuzzSumo is actively used by marketers, PR specialists, and digital teams to improve the effectiveness of their campaigns.
Key features:
- The Domain Comparison tool allows you to select up to 5 competitor sites to examine their overall performance, types of content published, audience activity, and other important metrics.
- The Facebook Page Analyzer tool helps you compare key metrics of 10 Facebook pages belonging to your competitors. You can analyze data on likes, reposts and comments, as well as the type, volume, and time of posting.
- BuzzSumo monitors all mentions of competitors' brands and products and sends notifications accordingly. The service tracks their online activity and generates insights about the mistakes they made.
- Content Alerts lets you drill down into how your competitors' content is performing, while Content Gap lets you see what topics and keywords they're covering that you're missing.
BuzzSumo offers 4 pricing plans:
- Content Creation: Designed for a single user, this plan includes unlimited searches and two types of alerts, along with comprehensive content analysis capabilities, priced at $199 per month.
- PR & Communications: Supporting up to five users, this option adds five alert types, access to a media persona database, and integration with Slack, costing $299 monthly.
- Suite: Suitable for teams of ten, it encompasses all PR & Communications features plus YouTube analytics, the ability to download articles, and a Chrome browser extension, available for $499 per month.
- Enterprise: Tailored for larger organizations with up to thirty users, this plan offers fifty alert types, all Suite functionalities, plus RSS feed access and location-based search features, with a price tag of $999 per month.
The prices shown are valid for monthly payments. An annual subscription will save you 20%. Each plan comes with a 7-day free trial.
Kompyte
A well-deserved place among the best tools for competitor analysis is the Kompyte service. It equips marketing and sales professionals with a powerful range of features. This platform automates the competitive analysis process. It allows companies to quickly identify competitors' tactics, track their digital activity, and make strategic decisions based on accurate data in real time. Kompyte is especially useful for B2B teams looking to improve sales efficiency and stay one step ahead of the competition.
Key features:
- The platform automatically tracks all online activity of competitors using hundreds of sources and millions of data points. These include websites, reviews, content, social media, advertisements, vacancies, and more.
- Kompyte GPT generates rich, informative summaries of all your competitors' updates, including site changes, successful or unsuccessful campaigns, and more.
- The service library contains many ready-made templates for various types and formats of competitive analysis. With these templates, you can measure sales metrics, analyze pricing, individual products, or prepare a general overview of the selected competitor.
The following tariff plans are available to Kompyte users:
- Essentials: Analyze up to 10 companies, with access for 25 users, unlimited battlecards, reports, and notifications.
- Professional: Allows tracking of 20 companies, up to 100 users, unlimited battlecards, reports, notifications, and access to a full company database.
- Unlimited: Grants unrestricted use of all features, including SSO and advanced permission management.
Pricing for each plan is tailored to the client’s needs and can be obtained by contacting Kompyte’s sales team directly.
Rival IQ
The Rival IQ platform completes our review of the best competitor analysis tools. This platform is aimed at marketers, agencies, and brands who need to track and compare competitor activity, the effectiveness of their own campaigns, and general market trends in SMM. By automatically collecting and analyzing data from popular social networks, Rival IQ helps to quickly make decisions based on relevant digital metrics.
Key features:
- The platform collects detailed data on competitors and automatically generates insights with the most important data for a certain period of time.
- With Rival IQ, professionals can compare the effectiveness of their promotional activities with both their main competitors and the business sector as a whole.
- Pre-built dashboards with deep customization options allow companies to quickly and easily assess their competitiveness in social media.
- Monitoring your competitors' posts and profiles on social networks in real time enables you to instantly receive notifications about any changes in their social media activity.
Rival IQ offers 3 pricing plans:
- Drive: Track up to 10 companies, access 6 months of historical data, 1 user, and a suite of standard monitoring and analytics tools for $239/month.
- Engage: Monitor 20 companies, access 12 months of data, 2 users, all Drive features, plus Facebook Ads analytics, instant brand/product mention search, and more for $349/month.
- Engage Pro: Track 40 companies, 24 months of history, 5 users, all Engage features, plus private data collection, API access, and additional advanced tools for $559/month.
These rates are based on monthly payments. Opting for a yearly subscription provides a 15% savings. All plans include a complimentary 14-day trial period.
Conclusion
Analyzing competitors is a crucial component of an effective business strategy, no matter the company's size or the industry in which it operates. Modern tools allow you to gain an in-depth understanding of your competitors' marketing and SEO strategies. With this knowledge, you can identify their strengths and weaknesses and improve your own competitiveness.
Many platforms offer a wide range of capabilities, from backlink and keyword analysis to monitoring advertising campaigns and social media activity. The cost of such services can vary significantly, from SEO competitor analysis tools free to expensive professional packages with advanced functionality.
All platforms considered in our review provide powerful tools for analyzing and monitoring competitors. Using them helps businesses not only track current trends and competitors’ actions but also create more thoughtful and effective marketing campaigns, strengthening their position in the market. The selection of an appropriate tool depends on your specific objectives and available budget.
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