Competitive analysis, one of the oldest practices in the book, has taken on new dimensions in the digital age. These days, staying ahead of the competition is not just an advantage but a necessity.
Knowing what’s working well in your market, and being able to anticipate your opponents’ next move, can make a world of difference.
Why? Because every click, every search, every social media post by your competitor holds valuable insight, and understanding these patterns is like having a map to guide you towards smarter, data-driven decisions. With it, you’ll say goodbye to aimless shots in the dark and hello to hitting the bullseye 
However, getting your hands on that juicy competitive insight is no easy task – you’ll need an arsenal of top notch competitive analysis tools to help you collect (and analyze) the data for it to have true impact on your own strategies. Here, we go through the very best ones out there in 2024.
What is a competitive analysis tool?
Competitive analysis tools are specialized software that help you identify and analyze your competitors’ digital strategies and performance – a bit like a high-tech spyglass 
While competitive analysis tools typically delve into multiple facets of your competitors’ digital operations, they can also specialize in certain things like traffic analysis, SEO, content, social or email performance.
These tools, however, are not just about observing and gathering competitive data, but translating this information into actionable insights and strategies.
You must use what you learn to optimize your own marketing strategies, identify gaps in the market, and make informed, data-backed decisions that naturally lead to better engagement, more conversions and a brand that customers love and trust.
When you choose the right competitive analysis tools, you gain a strategic edge that ensures you’re not just keeping up with the competition, but setting the pace.
The best competitive analysis tools in 2024:
1) Similarweb
Similarweb is an all-in-one competitive analysis software that makes competitor research unbelievably simple and fast. It does this by harnessing the world’s most up-to-date data (fresh from the last 28 days!), delivering rich insight into your industry landscape while analyzing website traffic and performance.
Stand-outs
Similarweb is the only competitive analysis tool that shows you what’s happening right now in your/your rivals’ digital world. It does this by revealing traffic data, detailed visitor behavior, plus paid advertising, affiliate, social, and SEO content strategies.
With Similarweb, you can:
- Review your competitors’ website performance and see what channel mix delivers the most traffic to their sites
- Hone in on actionable keyword insights thanks to a wide range of filters, including organic and paid, branded and non-branded, and search by keyword difficulty, search intent or topic
- Harvest fresh insights on your traffic and keywords vs. your rivals’ with competitor keyword reports
- Access geographic and demographic data to discover your competitor’s audience, and understand how and where to meet them
- Spark fresh PPC and Display creative ideas by spying on your competitors’ most successful search/product ads and landing pages
How much does Similarweb cost?
The plugin is free, and your subscription would be customized based on what your business needs.
Free trial? Yes 
2) SpyFu
SpyFu is an SEO and PPC research and analytics tool that lets you, as the name suggests, spy on competitor behavior at a detailed level. Put a domain into the tool and you’ll see every single place they’ve shown up on Google, Bing, and Yahoo.
Stand-outs
- Hyper-clear picture of the organic and paid status of any one of your competitors, as well as broad keyword metrics
- Advanced SEO and PPC reports give you a full picture of each channel so you can improve your own organic and paid strategies
- Through keyword and content analysis, plus backlink research, you see every keyword your competitor has bought on Google Ads, every organic rank, and every ad variation from the last 16 years
- Special shout out to the Kombat feature, which reveals details on how you’re working differently to competitors
How much does SpyFu cost?
Basic:
Monthly plan: $39/month
Annual plan: $33/month
Professional:
Monthly plan: $79/month
Annual plan: $58/month
Free trial? No 
3) Surfer
When it comes to optimizing content for search engines, Surfer is a powerhouse in the field. This tool analyzes and compares your content with top-ranking pages in real-time, providing actionable insights for on-page optimization.
Stand-outs
- Advanced content editor that suggests real-time changes for SEO improvements
- A unique scoring system that rates your content against competitors, giving clear guidance on what to tweak for better rankings
- Detailed analysis of keyword usage, structure, and other on-page elements to outperform competitors in search engine results
- A comprehensive audit feature that identifies SEO issues on your website, offering suggestions to fix them and improve overall site performance
How much does Surfer cost?
Essential:
Monthly plan: $139
Annual plan: $119
Advanced:
Monthly plan: $279
Annual plan: $239
Max:
Monthly plan: $499
Annual plan: $419
Enterprise: Custom
Free trial? No
4) BuzzSumo
BuzzSumo is a content analysis tool that allows you to detect what competitor content within your market is performing well. Discover the best engagement, content, and outreach gaps across both social media and search.
Stand-outs
- Easy to discover what content (competitors’ and your own) is resonating with your target audience online. You can use these insights to elevate your social media storytelling and search strategy
- Content Alerts point you to keyword mentions and relevant influencers
- Data on content going viral in your industry through insights on high-performing posts, niche keywords, trending stories, and customer questions.
- A clearer view of your own content opportunities to increase social engagement
- Segmentation of influencers makes discovering effective influencer strategies used by competitors easy
How much does BuzzSumo cost?
Content Creation:
Monthly plan: $199/month
Annual plan: $159/month
PR & Comms:
Monthly plan: $299/month
Annual plan: $239/month
Suite:
Monthly plan: $499/month
Annual plan: $399/month
Enterprise:
Annual plan: $999/month
Free trial? Yes
5) Majestic
Speaking of BuzzSumo, Majestic (integrated with the former) is one of the top competitor analysis tools for link intelligence. Majestic scans the internet to create the world’s largest link database — delivering a comprehensive analysis of your competitors’ backlink ecosystem, as well as your own.
Stand-outs
- A huge database of over 8 trillion URLs
- Broad view of which links bring in the most traffic to every one of your competitors – spying on competitors’ backlink strategies gives you the chance to better your own with less trial and error.
- Insights on referring domains, new and lost links, and anchor text to sharpen your domain authority against rivals
- An exhaustive list of sites similar to yours. With it, you can confirm which competitor domains appear often around links to your search term. Then you can finesse your keyword strategy to send more clicks your way instead
How much does Majestic cost?
Lite:
$49.99/month
Pro:
$99.99/month
API:
$399.99/month
Free trial? No
6) Feedly
Feedly, another purpose-specific tool, stands out as the best option for automated tracking of content and insights across the web. It’s a content aggregator that uses machine learning (called AI Feeds) to read through millions of content pieces across the web and determine if they’re relevant to the topics you’re tracking.
Stand-out features
- An expansive content reach, utilizing AI to scan and filter relevant articles, blogs, research journals, and social media updates
- A streamlined search and tracking interface that eliminates the need for manual keyword list updates, ensuring the delivery of highly relevant content directly to you
- The ability to centralize and organize content related to your specific topics in one place
- An advanced understanding of keyword context, where the AI recognizes and delivers updates on topics in your industry, even when an exact phrase isn’t mentioned – invaluable for uncovering new competitors and industry trends with minimal effort
- A comprehensive, yet precise, overview of your competitors’ digital movements, empowering you to refine your strategies based on up-to-date, relevant market intelligence
How much does Feedly cost?
Pro: $6/month, billed annually
Pro+: $12/month, billed annually
Enterprise: Customized plan
Free trial? No
7) Competitive Intelligence Alliance
Something a little different, the Competitive Intelligence Alliance is a comprehensive platform that offers a wide range of tools and resources to support competitive intelligence professionals. It’s a community that brings together experts from lots of different industries to foster collaboration, knowledge sharing and professional development.
Stand-outs
- Tailored membership packages that give access to exclusive content, learning resources and career development tools
- Curated insights and regularly updated resources like podcasts, newsletters and in-depth industry reports to keep members abreast of industry trends and new competitive intelligence strategies
- Global summits and networking events that offer opportunities for face-to-face interactions and professional networking
- Professional development courses that cover a range of topics relevant to competitive intelligence and strategic intelligence, designed to boost career growth
How much does the Competitive Intelligence Alliance cost?
The Competitive Intelligence Alliance operates under a membership model, with different tiers catering to varying needs of professionals. Detailed information about the pricing and specific benefits of each membership tier can be found on their website.
Free trial? No
8) Owletter
Signed up for hundreds of competitor email lists? We feel you. When you’re drowning in a sea of competitor emails, Owletter will be your lifeboat. This tool is specifically designed to streamline the monitoring of competitor email strategies, transforming a cluttered inbox into a source of valuable marketing insights.
Stand-outs
- Automatically captures, monitors, and stores newsletters from countless sources, organizing them into a comprehensive and accessible database.
- Sophisticated analytics for email content, providing in-depth insights into what works (and what doesn’t) in your competitors’ email marketing.
- Includes unlimited alerts based on custom keyword filters, ensuring you’re always up to date on relevant topics and trends.
- Refined keyword filters, coupled with seasonality and trend analytics, help you stay abreast of the most pressing email topics, allowing you to tailor your content more effectively.
- The star of the show: it’s ability to declutter your inbox by storing every competitor’s email in a neatly organized collection, freeing up your time and mental space for more strategic tasks
How much does Owletter cost?
Starter:
$19/month
Pro:
$39/month
Unlimited:
$79/month
Free trial? Yes
Why choose Similarweb?
How to perform a competitive analysis with Similarweb
The case is closed, guys. There’s no other competitive analysis tool quite like Similarweb. But, let’s dig a little deeper into the platform so you have a chance to see it in action.
Here’s a brief step-by-step of how to run a thorough competitive analysis using Similarweb:
1) Find your true competitors
Before you jump straight into analyzing your competitors, be sure you’re focusing on the right ones.
Similarweb’s Organic Competitors feature draws on various traffic and search factors to illustrate the search overlap between you and your closest competitors. They may not be what you expect.
Fiddle with the metrics to gauge the degree of overlap between you and your rivals based on various factors such as search overlap, total traffic and paid traffic. With each different metric you compare, the landscape of competitors may shift.
2) Analyze their website performance
Once you’ve got your closest competitors nailed, head to Similarweb’s Website Analysis > Website Performance for a comprehensive overview of their traffic and engagement data:
Check out their monthly visits, traffic trends over time and engagement metrics like visit duration, pages per visit and bounce rate to take the measure of your rivals
3) Look at their keyword strategy
Next, find out how they got that traffic in the first place. Do they have a killer keyword strategy? Find out using Similarweb’s Keyword Analysis feature.
Type in your competitor’s site to reveal their top traffic-driving keywords. Filter by branded, non-branded, organic or paid to refine your search and then dig deep into analysis with metrics like search volume, keyword difficulty, search intent and cost-per-click (CPC). We even offer a sneak peek into the SERP features for each of their top keywords.
4) Find their best-performing pages
After delving into their juicy keyword data, move on to their top organic pages to see which URLs are driving the most traffic to their site. To do this, go to Similarweb’s Organic Pages and enter your competitor’s site:
Here, you can view the top landing pages sorted by traffic share. Check out each page’s traffic trend over the last 12 months to catch seasonal shifts, and then view the top keywords driving traffic to the page for a bank of keyword inspiration.
5) Review their PPC strategy
Now, turn your attention to their PPC performance. How much are they spending to achieve results? And, how much traffic and engagement are they getting as a result?
You’ll find the answers to these questions (and more) using our Paid Website Analysis module. With our PPC Spend tool, you get a quick overview of their PPC spend, traffic, visit duration, pages per visit and bounce rate for a snapshot of how well they’re doing:
Want to know how they’re getting all that traffic and engagement? We’ve got just the thing – our Search Ads and Product Ads feature.
Select which competitor to analyze and we reveal their top performing PPC search and product ads, exactly as they appear in search results. All that’s left to do is scrutinize the titles, ad copy, keywords, imagery and CTAs that are clearly working for your rivals:
6) Set up Competitive Tracking
We’ve left one of our best tools for last – our Competitive Tracker.
To stay truly competitive over time, competitive analysis must be an ongoing process, but this can be a bit of a drain on your time and resources.
Our Competitive Tracker automates and simplifies the repetitive process of competitive analysis so you don’t miss out on any important and impactful insights. All without lifting a finger.
Simply create your set of competitors to track and get monthly updates on their performance across multiple channels.
Here’s a sneak preview:
Here, you get regular updates of the competitive set’s overall traffic and engagement performance, so you can compare it to your own. This will help you see areas where you and your competitors are gaining or declining so you quickly spot opportunities and address any issues.
Be kept in the loop of your competitors’ PPC activity with updates on their paid search traffic data each month:
Be alerted to any new ad creatives they publish so you can analyze them straight away and change your own ad strategy accordingly:
Like what you see? There’s a lot more competitive data to be found with our Competitive Tracker across multiple channels (organic, paid, display, social and referral) so you can keep on top of your rival’s most lucrative traffic sources.
A little bonus before you go…
Whenever you’re in need of some instant competitive insights (let’s be honest, when are you not?), look no further than our AI-assistant, SimilarAskTM
Our new intuitive tool combines the power of artificial intelligence with competitive analysis, to make you a truly unstoppable force, with answers to all your burning questions right at your fingertips.
Want to know who Nike’s closest competitors are in an instant? Or, how much traffic Adidas drives from ‘sneaker’ terms compared to Nike? You just have to ask:
And, we’re done!
That’s a wrap on the best competitive analysis tools in 2024. After delving deep into the world of digital espionage, Similarweb stands out as a clear winner when looking for an all-in-one competitive intelligence tool.
Why? Because it does more than just scrape the surface – it dives into the depths of your competitors’ digital performance, delivering real-time, actionable insights that are simply unmatched by others.
Want to put Similarweb’s competitive analysis prowess to the test? Start your free trial today.
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What is competitive analysis?
Competitive analysis is the process of evaluating your competitors’ strategies to determine their strengths and weaknesses relative to your own. It involves assessing various aspects of their digital efforts, including their marketing strategies and engagement tactics.
What is a competitive analysis tool?
A competitive analysis tool is software designed to help businesses identify and analyze their competitors’ digital strategies and performance. These tools offer a high-tech approach to understanding the competition, providing data on aspects like traffic analysis, SEO, content effectiveness, social media engagement and email marketing strategies. They not only assist in gathering competitive data but also help in translating this information into actionable insights for more strategic planning.
What are the best tools for competitive analysis?
Similarweb is an all-in-one competitive analysis tool. It offers the most up-to-date data on the planet to improve your competitive strategy. Alongside this, SpyFu is exceptional for competitive intelligence and Majestic’s backlink database means seeing competitors’ backlink strategies is easy.
What is the best free competitive analysis tool?
The Similarweb plugin offers great competitive analysis data for traffic and engagement metrics.
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