A competitor analysis template you will actually finish
A one page template with the fields that change decisions, the ones to skip, and a worked example filled in.
Most competitor analysis templates ask for thirty fields. You fill in eleven, leave the rest blank, and nobody reads it.
This one has nine fields. Every one of them changes a decision.
The template
Copy this per competitor. One page. Put the date at the top.
Competitor: [Name] · Reviewed: [date] · By: [who]
1. Their one sentence. Their homepage hero, word for word.
2. Our one sentence. Ours, word for word, directly underneath. If they read the same, that is finding number one.
3. Price. Their tiers and what is in each. Note anything that changed since last review.
4. Who they beat us with. The buyer type where they win. Be specific: not "enterprise" but "companies with an in house SEO team who want raw data".
5. Who we beat them with. Same standard.
6. Their three loudest claims. What they repeat across their homepage, ads and sales pages. This is what they think wins.
7. Their three most common complaints. From three star reviews, support forums and Reddit. This is where they are actually weak.
8. What they did this period. New pages, new ads, price changes, launches, hires. Facts with dates.
9. So what. Two or three sentences. What we change because of the above, who owns it, by when.
Field 9 is the only one that matters. Fields 1 to 8 exist to make field 9 honest.
A worked example
Filled in for a fictional rival, so you can see the standard.
Competitor: Northwind Analytics · Reviewed: 19 Sep 2026 · By: ND
1. Their one sentence. "Everything your competitors do, in one dashboard."
2. Our one sentence. "See what your competitors are doing every week, in plain English."
Finding: theirs promises completeness, ours promises interpretation. Different promise, which is good. Ours is weaker on completeness, which is where they will attack.
3. Price. $79, $149, $399. Entry tier covers 5 competitors. Raised from $69 in March, per the Wayback Machine. Annual discount 20%.
4. Who they beat us with. Teams with an analyst who wants raw exports and API access. Their API is on the $149 tier, ours is enterprise only.
5. Who we beat them with. Small teams with nobody to interpret a dashboard. Our Monday briefing is the product; their dashboard is homework.
6. Their three loudest claims. Most data sources in the category. Real time alerts. Used by 4,000 companies.
7. Their three most common complaints. Alert noise, repeatedly, across G2 and Reddit. Setup takes a week. Support slow on the entry tier.
8. What they did this period. Published 14 comparison pages targeting competitor names, all in the last 30 days, per their sitemap. Started 6 Google Ads on category terms on 2 Sep. Added a free tier on the pricing page.
9. So what.
- The 14 comparison pages are aimed at us among others. We need our own comparison page live within two weeks. Owner: ND, by 3 Oct.
- Alert noise is their consistent complaint and our weekly briefing is the direct answer. Lead with it. Owner: ND, this week.
- Their free tier changes the entry conversation. Decide whether we answer it by 15 Oct. Owner: ND.
That is a competitor analysis. It fits on a page, took ninety minutes, and produced three dated actions.
Fields deliberately left out
Estimated revenue and headcount. Modelled numbers for private companies, wrong often enough to mislead, and they change no decision you will make this quarter.
SWOT. Four columns of adjectives. If you must, derive it after the fact.
Full feature matrix. Tempting and almost always self serving. You will tick your own boxes generously and theirs meanly, and everyone reading it will know.
Social follower counts. Vanity, and easily bought.
Keeping it alive
A template is a snapshot. The value comes from field 8 being true every month, and field 8 is the one that rots first.
The manual version: re download their sitemap, check the three ad libraries, screenshot their pricing page, read new reviews. About thirty minutes per competitor per month.
The automated version: a monitoring tool fills field 8 for you. Competitors App at $14.90 a month does change detection and email tracking. Ours, Figo, is $49 a month for three competitors and produces exactly field 8 as a written briefing every Monday, across pages, ads on three networks, rankings, content, social, reviews and AI answers.
Either way, keep fields 1 to 7 and 9 human. A tool can tell you they published fourteen pages. Deciding that those pages are aimed at you, and what to do about it, is the job.
Questions people ask
How long should a competitor analysis be?
One page per competitor. Anything longer stops being read, including by the person who wrote it.
Should I use a SWOT?
SWOT produces four lists of adjectives and no decisions. If your organisation requires one, do this template first and derive the SWOT from it.
How often should I update it?
Monthly for the facts, quarterly for the judgement. Put the date on it, because a competitor page with no date gets quoted long after it went stale.
Who should write it?
Whoever talks to customers most. Marketing usually owns the document, but sales has the information, and a competitor profile written without sales input is guesswork in a nice format.
See it on your own competitors
Figo checks their ads, pages, rankings, reviews and AI answers every week, then tells you what to do in plain words. Set up in two minutes.
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