8 Top Competitive Intelligence Companies (2024)

Whether you want to conduct primary research surveys or subscribe to a library of desk research reports, the eight competitive intelligence companies on this list are a great place to start.

1. QualtricsXM

QualtricsXM is a versatile competitive and market intelligence platform.

Business owners, marketers, and corporate researchers typically use the QualtricsXM platform to conduct primary research and uncover actionable intelligence metrics.

The platform’s tools are useful when you need to:

• Assess aided and unaided brand awareness in a market
• Evaluate the competitive landscape in a variety of industries
• Better understand consumer motivations and preferences
• Explore what employees are seeking from their employers
• Get feedback on new product development
• Establish competitor benchmarks
• Track changing market trends
• Improve marketing decision-making through A/B testing

If you don't already have an audience or panel to use with QualtricsXM, the company can provide you with a sample audience that's representative of your target market or consumer. They’ll even run the study and report survey reports back to you.

This makes QualtricsXM a nice option for companies that may not have the bandwidth to coordinate their own research studies and surveys.

How Much Does Qualtrics Cost?

There are several tools available to QualtricsXM users, so all pricing is customized to your needs—you'll need to request a price quote.

2. Best Mark

Best Mark is a consumer intelligence and competitor research firm.

The company helps its clients develop studies and strategic plans for evaluating:

• In-store and e-commerce experiences
• Product placement and pricing
• Customer satisfaction
• Purchase motivation (and reasons for customer churn)
• User journeys

You can use Best Mark to evaluate these factors at your own company or at a competitor's physical and online stores. This makes the service great for understanding what kind of competitive advantage you need in a new market or region.

While the methods that Best Mark uses to gather data vary by project, they typically rely on paid participants who:

• Collect data in retail stores
• Make purchases online or in person
• Run employee surveys
• Interview customers as they leave a store
• Dial in to call centers
• Order from and evaluate home delivery services

There are varying levels of transparency to this process, too. A competitor may not know you're using Best Mark mystery shoppers to evaluate their pricing, but a customer that's interviewed as they leave your store will know what's happening.

How Much Does Best Mark Cost?

Best Mark’s process is unique to each client's needs, so you'll need to get in touch with the company to discuss options and get a price quote.

3. Exploding Topics

Exploding Topics is a trend spotting platform.

We use a mix of AI technology and human data analysis to collect and review information about trending topics consumers are discussing online.

While some competitive intelligence or social media listening tools focus on one or two sources of information, we monitor discussion topics across Reddit, LinkedIn, TikTok, Instagram, blogs, media outlets, and more.

Our team of data experts identify the trends that are most important and impactful across 60+ categories, including:

• Business
• Technology
• Beauty
• Health & wellness
• Home
• Entertainment
• Fashion
• Finance
• Food & beverage
• Lifestyle & culture

You can then use our trend library to see:

• How popular a trend is now
• Forecasted trend popularity over the next 12 months
• Where the most chatter about a topic is happening online

This information is useful as secondary research when you want to:

• Conduct competitor analysis on up-and-coming brands in your industry
• Track shifts in consumer interests in and behavior
• Learn about new products launching in your market

Plus, we make easy to closely analyze a market by providing a curated list of trending startups and products to watch.

And because we update our trend library daily, you'll always have access to the most up-to-date information.

How Much Does Exploding Topics Cost?

Exploding Topics is free to use. You can see basic trend data about many topics in our trend library at any time—you won't even need an account.

To see more data points about each trend, and access our trending startups list, you'll need an Exploding Topics Pro subscription. Plans start at just $39 per month, billed annually, and always start with a 14-day trial for just $1 so you can try us out.

4. NewtonX

NewtonX is a B2B market research firm.

Unlike Best Mark, which focuses heavily on B2C consumer interactions, NewtonX evaluates the impact of products, services, and competitors on business audiences.

The company provides both quantitative and qualitative primary research services. You can use NewtonX to:

• Build custom survey audiences representative of your target market
• Evaluate potential sales opportunity for new products in a market
• Assess customer pain points and competitor sentiment
• Understand key factors in the B2B customer lifecycle
• Test brand messaging and marketing strategies

NewtonX also allows its customers to get industry insights through interviews with business experts that have experience in relevant markets.

How Much Does NewtonX Cost?

NewtonX customizes its pricing based on your needs, so you'll need to get in touch with the firm for a quote.

5. Dynata

Dynata is a first-party data provider and competitive intelligence service.

It’s like QualtricsXM in that you can use Dynata to survey audiences that represent your or your competitors' customers. But you don't need to bring your own audience when using Dynata.

The company maintains a database of information collected directly from B2B and B2C purchasers. After you provide Dynata with information about the people you'd like to analyze, they'll put together an audience.

From there, you can build a survey yourself or engage the Dynata team to do so for you. This makes the Dynata platform especially useful for:

• Combining your audience data with insights from test panels
• Accessing first-party data from an array of sources
• Gathering metrics for data visualizations

Dynata does indicate that their first-party data is collected in compliance with privacy regulations.

How Much Does Dynata Cost?

Dynata uses a custom pricing model, so you'll need to request a price quote based on how you plan to use the platform.

6. AIM Research

AIM Research is an intelligence company focused on AI and machine learning.

You can turn to AIM Research for help with primary data collection and secondary data research.

The firm publishes information about AI studies and developments on their website, which is useful for keeping tabs on what other companies in your industry are doing. You can also pay AIM to conduct original research and develop custom reports for your company.

Unlike some of the other competitive analysis companies on this list, AIM offers a variety of supplemental services including:

• Hands-on training webinars and workshops on AI industry topics
• Hackathons to tackle data challenges
• Insights from a panel of industry leaders
• Customized corporate training to improve internal use of AI technologies

Overall, AIM is a good choice for businesses that want to assess how they should be using AI to remain competitive—and then get help to make the changes happen.

How Much Does AIM Research Cost?

You can get access to AIM Research's reports and datasets for $499 per year. However, you'll need to request a price quote directly if you're interested in AIM's bespoke research services.

7. Similarweb

Similarweb is a do-it-yourself competitive analysis tool.

You can enter any website—your own domain or a competitor's—into Similarweb to reveal insights about market share, audience demographics, and more.

For example, if you're a newer company, you could use Similarweb to get a better understanding of what other websites and topics your audience is interested in.

You could then repeat this process for one of the competitors on the list in order to learn more about their business, services, and website traffic.

When compared to some of the other competitive intelligence companies on this list, Similarweb delivers very top-level insights—but this makes it a good place to start if you're trying to get the lay of the land in a new market or industry.

How Much Does Similarweb Cost?

You can see limited metrics about website traffic and market share for free when using Similarweb. To unlock higher usage limits and more data points, you'll need a paid plan.

Options start at $125 per month when billed annually.

8. Proactive Worldwide

Proactive Worldwide is an AI-powered competitive intelligence and consulting firm.

The company offers done-for-you research services that can help you uncover actionable insights and:

• Evaluate current competitors
• Develop industry profiles
• Create benchmarks for internal capabilities
• Make strategic decisions around pricing and marketing

Proactive Worldwide's researchers use both primary and secondary research in their work, giving you a complete picture of your industry, competitive landscape, and more.

The firm also offers services for market analysis, customer intelligence, and stakeholder training. Its full-service model makes Proactive Worldwide a good choice for companies in need of guided, strategic intelligence support.

How Much Does Proactive Worldwide Cost?

Like many other competitive intelligence companies, Proactive Worldwide uses a custom pricing model—you'll need to get in touch with them to request a quote.

Conclusion

Any one of the competitive intelligence companies on this list can help you get better, more actionable insights about your market and positioning. If you'd like to dig deeper into your research, though, take a look at the top market analysis tools and competitor intelligence tools you should know about this year.

And to learn more about how you can leverage competitive intelligence research to strengthen your brand or products, check out our complete guide to identifying market trends.