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With so many different market intelligence software solutions available, figuring out which is right for you is tough. You know you want a tool to make informed decisions by providing insights into market dynamics, identifying opportunities and threats, and understanding customer behavior—but now need to figure out which platform is best. I've got you! In this post, I'll help make your choice easy, sharing my personal experiences using dozens of different market intelligence tools with brands of all sizes, with my picks of the best market intelligence software overall.

What Is Market Intelligence Software

Market intelligence software is a digital tool designed to collect and analyze data about market trends, competitor activities, and consumer preferences. The purpose is to automate the process of gathering relevant market information, providing businesses with actionable insights. This software helps in identifying market opportunities, understanding competitive landscapes, and making data-driven decisions.

Overviews Of The 10 Best Market Intelligence Software

Here are my assessments of the best market intelligence software that helps businesses understand markets and what their competitors do to stay profitable.

Best for real-time competitor analysis

  • 14-day free trial
  • From $97/month

HighLevel is a marketing automation platform that helps businesses manage customer relationships, engagement, and market intelligence. Marketing teams can use it to track competitor data and market trends in real-time.

Why I picked HighLevel: The software allows your team to monitor competitors in real time, offering insights that can help you adjust your strategies quickly. The platform offers tools to track market changes, so you can stay ahead of the competition. You’ll also get access to analytics that show how your competitors’ moves impact your market share. With everything in one place, your team can make faster decisions based on current data. This makes it easier to stay agile in a competitive market.

HighLevel Standout Features and Integrations

Features include real-time market tracking, competitor performance analysis, and trend monitoring. Your team can analyze competitor data, track market shifts, and gain insights from industry trends all in one place. You’ll be able to adjust marketing strategies based on competitor movements and market changes.

Integrations include Google My Business, Facebook Messenger, Twilio, Stripe, QuickBooks, Mailgun, Gmail, Outlook, WordPress, and Zoom.

Pros and cons

Pros:

  • Easy-to-use performance analytics
  • Centralized data for quick analysis
  • Customizable market trend reports

Cons:

  • Initial setup complexity
  • Limited customization in reports

Best for website analytics

  • Free trial available
  • From $125/month (billed annually)
Visit Website
Rating: 4.4/5

SimilarWeb is a trusted market intelligence tool that helps businesses get information regarding the top websites in their industry. The software helps analyze websites to view their ranking, traffic, demographic targeting, and other vital details.

Why I picked SimilarWeb: With SimilarWeb, your business can analyze competitors’ websites and understand how they acquire customers. The information from SimilarWeb will help you know who your competitors are, what their customers look for, and how you compare to them. You can also get a lot of customer insight you can use to enhance marketing strategies and find out what niche your competitors are attracting.

SimilarWeb Standout Features and Integrations

Standout features include behavioral analysis and audience insights tools that help you uncover where your target audience is spending their time online. The platform’s consumer journey analysis tools help you understand complete customer journeys and provide information about competitors’ strategies.

Integrations include connections with popular organizational tools, such as Adverity, Biscience, Data Virtuality, Desktop.com, EXADS, Google Analytics, Netpeak Checker, Salesforce, Shift, Syfter, and other software options. SimilarWeb provides an API that allows you to make custom integrations if necessary.

Pros and cons

Pros:

  • Comprehensive market intelligence
  • Assesses consumers' usage pattern information
  • Provides significant website intelligence

Cons:

  • Steep learning curve
  • Pricing isn’t suitable for small businesses

Best for B2B companies

  • Free demo available
  • Pricing upon request
Visit Website
Rating: 4.3/5

6sense helps B2B businesses collect predictive intelligence about prospective buyers, analyze their needs, and predict their actions across different stages of their buying journey.

Why I picked 6sense: If you’re operating in a B2B organization, I added 6sense to this article because I believe it’s worth consideration. 6sense offers a predictive intelligence engine that gives your marketing team the details everyone needs regarding where your prospects are in their buying journey, identifies which accounts and contacts to target, and understands which campaign activities encourage prospects down sales cycles. The high-qualified leads you generate can be assigned to sales teams, allowing them to offer valuable products or services to these prospects.

6sense Standout Features and Integrations

Standout features include intent data to help you discover hidden demand and identify who’s ready to buy. 6sense also uses artificial intelligence and real-time data to eliminate the guesswork from developing quality marketing pipelines.

Integrations include connections with multiple business tools, such as Alyce, Bombora, Bound, Clari, Drift, HubSpot CRM, LeanData, Marketo, Microsoft Dynamics 365, Salesforce, and other software options. You can also use 6sense’s API to create custom integrations with your systems.

Pros and cons

Pros:

  • Excellent customer support
  • Fits B2B businesses
  • Significant predictive insights

Cons:

  • Reporting could be more granular
  • Steep learning curve

Best for media monitoring and analysis

  • Free demo available
  • Pricing upon request
Visit Website
Rating: 3.9/5

Meltwater is a robust market intelligence software that provides extensive information through media monitoring and analysis features.

Why I picked Meltwater: The platform excels in monitoring multiple media channels, including social media, broadcast outlets, online news, and print publications. Meltwater helps you monitor these sources, allowing you to track your business’s mentions, identify industry trends, and analyze customer sentiment. With customizable dashboards and real-time alerts, Meltwater can easily update you on relevant information.

Meltwater Standout Features and Integrations

Standout features include competitive intelligence tools that empower you to monitor your competition’s activities across multiple channels while giving you actionable insights regarding their strategies. Meltwater also offers social listening and engagement capabilities that help you understand what your audiences say about your brand across multiple social media channels - and you can directly engage with your audience from the platform.

Integrations include connections with various systems and platforms that allow you to share and centralize data according to your needs, such as Audiense, Data Virtuality, Desktop.com, Intelligence2day, Netino, Rippling, and Semeon Analytics. Meltwater also offers an API you can use to make custom integrations with your company’s tools.

Pros and cons

Pros:

  • Broad range of media sources
  • Simple user interface
  • Excellent customer support
  • Broad range of media sources
  • Simple user interface
  • Excellent customer support

Cons:

  • No clear pricing
  • Database needs more regular updates
  • No clear pricing
  • Database needs more regular updates

Best for monitoring competitors’ activities

  • Free demo available
  • Pricing upon request

Crayon is a comprehensive market intelligence tool that enables businesses to track their competitors’ activities. The platform allows companies to analyze activities surrounding their performance and their launched marketing campaigns.

Why I picked Crayon: The platform allows you to keep tabs on your competitors’ every move and monitor more than 100 data types associated with them. Crayon combines human and artificial intelligence to give you insights to help your teams create winning strategies. Crayon enables you to monitor and assess everything from pricing changes to marketing campaigns.

Crayon Standout Features and Integrations

Standout features include a collaborative workspace that allows your team members to discuss findings, share details, and work together. Crayon also offers customizable alerts, reports, and digests to help activate competitive intelligence throughout your company.

Integrations include connections with popular third-party systems that help your teams get more information without changing their work, such as ClickUp, Freshsales, Gong, Highspot, HubSpot, Microsoft Teams, Notion, Salesforce, Showpad, Slack, and other software options.

Pros and cons

Pros:

  • Dedicated customer success reps
  • Easy to gather information on competitors’ activities
  • Digestible automated insights
  • Dedicated customer success reps
  • Easy to gather information on competitors’ activities
  • Digestible automated insights

Cons:

  • Bit of a learning curve
  • Doesn’t track LinkedIn
  • Bit of a learning curve
  • Doesn’t track LinkedIn

Best for identifying competitors’ strengths and weaknesses

  • Free demo available
  • Pricing upon request

Klue is designed to provide teams with a comprehensive understanding of their competition’s strengths and weaknesses. It enables departments across any industry to gain a competitive advantage through market intelligence with insight into the competitive environment.

Why I picked Klue: This market intelligence platform stands out because it allows you to gather and analyze data from multiple sources, like websites, news articles, social media networks, and more. The details you receive from Klue will help you identify your competition’s strengths and weaknesses, allowing you to make effective strategic decisions. By leveraging Klue’s artificial intelligence algorithms, you’ll automatically identify data patterns and trends from the information it collects, empowering you to gain actionable insights quickly without having to search through significant amounts of data manually.

Klue Standout Features and Integrations

Standout features include a collaborative workspace area teams can share notes, insights, and documentation related to their competitors, promoting cross-functional collaboration and ensuring everyone is updated on new developments in the industry. Klue also offers customizable battlecards that help teams understand the competition and how to effectively position products and services against them, tailored to suit a company’s specific needs.

Integrations include connections with the tools you likely use daily, simplifying access to content and contributing information without constantly changing platforms. These integrations include systems such as Gong, Highspot, HubSpot, Microsoft Dynamics, Microsoft Teams, Okta, Salesforce, Seismic, Showpad, Slack, and other software options.

Pros and cons

Pros:

  • No tracking limit
  • Real-time competitor alerts
  • Provides comprehensive competitor insights
  • No tracking limit
  • Real-time competitor alerts
  • Provides comprehensive competitor insights

Cons:

  • User interface isn’t intuitive
  • Setting up the system is time-consuming
  • User interface isn’t intuitive
  • Setting up the system is time-consuming

Best for Amazon sellers

  • 14-day free trial
  • From $58/month

Viral Launch helps businesses selling products on Amazon confidently discover items that are selling well.

Why I picked Viral Launch: The platform provides significant product data to help your business find what items are selling well on the Amazon marketplace. Viral Launch enables you to validate your product ideas by helping you source money-makers through its custom algorithm. The information you can get from the Viral launch platform will help you better understand your market and where it’s going so you can take advantage of new opportunities.

Viral Launch Standout Features and Integrations

Standout features include competitor intelligence tools that empower you to reverse engineer your competition’s success for your success. The platform also offers keyword research tools that provide historical search volume trends to show you what’s gaining or losing popularity, helping you see what to target.

Integrations include the ability to connect with your tools through the platform’s API.

Pros and cons

Pros:

  • Helpful customer service
  • Many intelligence tools for Amazon
  • Simple setup
  • Helpful customer service
  • Many intelligence tools for Amazon
  • Simple setup

Cons:

  • Can be more intuitive
  • Lowest tier has limited features
  • Can be more intuitive
  • Lowest tier has limited features

Best for social data intelligence

  • Free demo available
  • Pricing upon request

Talkwalker helps businesses collect social data intelligence across all social media channels and measure their impact against the competition. The information derived from the platform allows companies to monitor their online presence, analyze data, and make smarter decisions.

Why I picked Talkwalker: One of the key strengths that makes Talkwalker a relevant option for this list is its real-time social data intelligence. Tracking conversations across multiple platforms through Talkwalker enable you to identify trends measure consumer sentiment, and get an overview of your campaigns’ effectiveness. The platform can also help you identify your industry's critical players, influencers, followers, and fans for a specific brand or topic.

Talkwalker Standout Features and Integrations

Standout features include AI-powered analytics that provides in-depth details about your data, helping you identify insights by analyzing components such as text, images, and videos from various sources. Talkwalker also provides customer feedback analytics tools that help you get actionable insights to improve customer retention, loyalty, and satisfaction.

Integrations include connections with a wide range of business applications, such as Adverity, Audiense, Domo, Google Data Studio, Hootsuite, Khoros, Medalia, Onclusive, Salesforce, Zendesk, and other software options. You can also use Talkwalker’s API or a paid Zapier account to make custom integrations.

Pros and cons

Pros:

  • High-quality data visualizations
  • Excellent brand presence monitoring
  • In-depth social media data
  • High-quality data visualizations
  • Excellent brand presence monitoring
  • In-depth social media data

Cons:

  • Customer support needs work
  • Updating tags is slow
  • Customer support needs work
  • Updating tags is slow

Best for AI-based market intelligence

  • Free demo available
  • Pricing upon request

AlphaSense is an enterprise market intelligence software that uses artificial intelligence to help businesses scan public and private data sources.

Why I picked AlphaSense: You might be used to researching markets and competition on Google, but using AlphaSense AI can enhance your research process and get you better results. You can efficiently perform a keyword or company search on AlphaSense to find premium data from sources such as SEC filings, industry journals, earnings transcripts, broker research, and regulatory content. The platform’s AI can also help you identify sentiment and key mentions inside call recording transcripts.

AlphaSense Standout Features

Standout features include intelligence workflow tools that help you turn your research into action and share it with your team. The platform also provides a visual dashboard to help you monitor insights effectively.

Pros and cons

Pros:

  • Significant AI-powered search analysis
  • Responsive customer support
  • Easy-to-use interface

Cons:

  • Some search results can be irrelevant
  • The amount of data provided can be overwhelming

Best company profile database

  • Free plan available
  • From $39/month (billed annually)

Owler provides a comprehensive database of enterprise information of more than 15 million companies. The platform uses a unique crowdsourcing approach to collecting and delivering business details to users.

Why I picked Owler: I wanted to add Owler to this list because it provides businesses with a comprehensive list of over 15 million international brands created from multiple sources and communities. The platform sources this business information and delivers them to users as news alerts, company profiles, and community polls. With these details, you can get competitive information about an organization’s earnings, employee count, and likely business outcomes.

Owler Standout Features and Integrations

Standout features include real-time, curated insights delivered to your inbox that detail the latest information about your competitors. Owler also allows users to track the market and industry trends most relevant to their business by enabling simple media coverage, allowing them to act quickly on crucial news.

Integrations include connections with various business tools that allow you to share valuable company details without leaving the applications, such as ChatGPT, HubSpot, Microsoft Teams, Salesforce, and Slack. Owler also offers an API so that you can make custom integrations with your toolset.

Pros and cons

Pros:

  • Real-time news alerts
  • Accurate competitor information
  • User-friendly platform
  • Real-time news alerts
  • Accurate competitor information
  • User-friendly platform

Cons:

  • Custom list creation is available at an extra cost
  • Executive information can use more details
  • Custom list creation is available at an extra cost
  • Executive information can use more details

The Best Market Intelligence Software Summary

Tools Price
HighLevel From $97/month
SimilarWeb From $125/month (billed annually)
6sense Pricing upon request
Meltwater Pricing upon request
Crayon Pricing upon request
Klue Pricing upon request
Viral Launch From $58/month
Talkwalker Pricing upon request
AlphaSense Pricing upon request
Owler From $39/month (billed annually)
Compare Software Specs Side by Side

Compare Software Specs Side by Side

Use our comparison chart to review and evaluate software specs side-by-side.

Compare Software

Other Options

There are many market intelligence software options to consider so I added more options here:

  1. Brandwatch

    For consumer intelligence

  2. NetBase Quid

    For monitoring consumer perspective

  3. Semrush

    For market research

  4. Brand24

    For social listening

  5. Contify

    For tracking key intelligence topics

  6. Ahrefs

    For competitor website analytics

  7. Databook

    For uncovering future pipelines

  8. Critical Mention

    For monitoring broadcast media

  9. Geopointe

    For geographic market data

  10. Google Looker

    For website audience analytics

  11. CI Radar

    For competitive intelligence accuracy

  12. Kompyte

    For competitive intelligence automation

  13. ZoomInfo SalesOS

    Up-to-date corporate information database

  14. Crunchbase

    For private-company prospecting

  15. Foundry Intent

    For buyer intent intelligence

Selection Criteria For Market Intelligence Software

Here’s a short summary of the main selection and evaluation criteria I used to develop my list of the best market intelligence software for this article:

Core Functionality

Although the various market intelligence software options have unique features compared to everything else available, these tools offer the same foundation. To make it on this list, I focused on market intelligence solutions that serve the following core functionality:

  • Collects data from various sources such as websites, social media, industry reports, customer feedback, competitor information, and more. It automates the process of data collection
  • Employs advanced analytics and data processing techniques to analyze and interpret the information

Key Features

Market intelligence software can offer specific features, some are common, and the rest are unique to the platform. However, since market intelligence technology is constantly evolving, I added options to this article that at least have the following features.

  • Real-Time Alerts and Updates: These tools provide real-time alerts and updates on recent market trends, competitors’ actions, regulation changes, and more; using this information is critical for staying ahead in a fast-paced industry.
  • Customization and Personalization: Customizing and personalizing aspects of market intelligence software, such as filters, taxonomies, and tags, is crucial - and you can also use these solutions to tailor personalized alerts and data presentations.
  • Collaboration Tools: Market intelligence tools providing collaboration features support employee teamwork by implementing capabilities such as newsletter generation and management, shared dashboards, information dissemination, and commenting.
  • Advanced Search: Sophisticated search tools are essential for digging deeper into your data, finding specific information, and exploring different market and competition aspects.
  • Data Visualization: Market intelligence software offers data visualization capabilities, such as dashboards and widgets, to help your teams understand complex data patterns, trends, and correlations.

Usability

An intuitive platform that’s easy to use is essential. I looked for software that enables your teams to easily navigate the tool, understand the data it presents, and create reports. Your teams will be able to accomplish these tasks without needing extensive training.

Software Integrations

Any tool you implement in your business should easily integrate with your existing systems and workflows; market intelligence software is no different. For example, if you’re currently using Salesforce for customer relationship management, market intelligence solutions that offer simple integration with the platform will prevent your teams from experiencing data silos and ensure straightforward operation. I look for software that offers multiple native integrations or allows you to make custom creations through an API or tools like Zapier.

Scalability

As your business grows, your market intelligence needs to evolve too. I look for solutions that are capable of scaling alongside your company. For example, small businesses might initially need fundamental market trend analysis. As the company expands, it’ll need more comprehensive capabilities, such as predictive modeling and customer behavior analysis.

People Also Ask

Searching for new market intelligence software for your business can be a challenging process – and you might have some questions that need answering before narrowing down your choices. I did some extra research to find the most common questions people have when looking for market intelligence tools and provided some answers to help.

How much does market intelligence software cost?

The final cost of implementing market intelligence software in your business can vary depending on what features it offers, the size of your company, and the amount of data you’re processing. Some vendors provide tiered subscription payment plans based on these factors, whereas others charge a flat monthly or annual fee. As a way to help you see whether the platform will give you what you need for the price you’ll pay, some vendors offer a free version or trial, typically with limited features.

What are the 4 types of market intelligence?

The more information market intelligence offers, the more you’ll be able to analyze and understand your business’s environment – and you’ll identify potential risks and discover growth opportunities. Many market intelligence tools help with this by providing these four types of data:

  1. Competitor Analysis: Analyzing the competition’s strengths and weaknesses can provide valuable details regarding your business and why customers choose them over you.
  2. Product Evaluation: Evaluating your products will help your business get an extensive overview of how they stack up in your market; the information will help you better understand the differentiators and competitive advantages of your products – and you can better align products to your customers’ unique interests and problems to increase conversions.
  3. Market Analysis: Understanding your market gives you a sense of where you’re selling products or services and helps you see how well your company performs in those markets and whether you could expand into additional markets.
  4. Customer Understanding: Your current customers can provide information to help you understand why they buy from you and identify any satisfaction improvement and customer retention rate challenges – and you can use this information for future marketing campaigns.

What are the benefits of market intelligence software?

In today’s competitive business environment, staying ahead of the curve requires informed and data-driven decision-making. Market intelligence software emerges as a game-changing solution, offering multiple benefits that empower your business to succeed – from gaining valuable insights into market trends to achieving a unique competitive advantage, let’s explore the transformative advantages of leveraging market intelligence software:

  • Enhanced Decision-Making: Market intelligence software empowers businesses with real-time data and actionable insights, improving decision-making accuracy.
  • Competitive Advantage: By tracking competitor activities, businesses utilizing market intelligence software gain an increase in their competitive advantage.
  • Market Trend Identification: With advanced analytics and trend analysis, market intelligence platforms enable companies to identify market trends faster.
  • Customer Insights: Market intelligence tools provide deep customer insights, contributing to a 15% rise in customer retention rates.
  • Optimal Pricing Strategies: Businesses leveraging market intelligence tools experience an increase in profit margins through implementing optimal pricing strategies.
  • Risk Mitigation: With proactive monitoring and risk assessment capabilities, market intelligence software helps reduce business risk.
  • New Market Opportunities: By identifying untapped markets, these tools aid in discovering new revenue streams, leading to an average of 12% growth in market share.
  • Data Centralization: Market Intelligence platforms simplify data management, decreasing data-related errors and redundancies.
  • Sales Performance Improvement: Companies using market intelligence tools experience increased sales performance.
  • Business Agility: Market intelligence software fosters agility, with businesses experiencing a reduced response time to market changes.

Other Marketing Intelligence Software Reviews

During your search for market intelligence software, you might discover you may need a more specific intelligence tool. So you can check out the following software reviews to help you find something that better fits your needs.

The Takeaway

Regardless of your industry, market intelligence is essential for your business. This article will give you the information you need to implement market intelligence software in your business. With the amount of data generated and analyzed for your needs, you can create an accurate picture of your competitive landscape detailing what’s happening and how to bring your business to the top. Whether you’re just getting started with market intelligence or have used it for a while, make sure to keep this article in mind. 

If you need extra help and other helpful software suggestions, sign up for The CMO newsletter to get the latest marketing advice and tool lists.

Stephanie Hood
By Stephanie Hood

Stephanie Hood is an experienced marketing professional and Editor of The CMO. With nearly a decade spent as Marketing Manager at Discover Holidays and Executive Editor at VIVA Lifestyle & Travel, she built her career leading editorial and marketing teams and strategies that turn six-figure budgets into seven-figure profits. She now enjoys connecting with the world's top executives to learn their secrets to business success, and shares those insights right here with her community of like-minded professionals. Curious what she’s uncovered? Be sure to sign up for The CMO newsletter.