Mission

Analyse one competitor

Find a real competitor, use it once if you can, and fill in exactly where it beats us and where it does not.

Why this matters

Every one of these apps has free competitors somewhere in its category.

Knowing exactly where a competitor is better is how our pricing and our listing survive contact with a real choice.

What you need to know first

A finished competitor read has five parts.

Promise

What the listing says it will do for you.

Price

What it actually costs today, read off the store, not remembered.

Proof

Its rating and review count, and what the one-star reviews say.

Gaps

Where it falls short of its own promise.

Compulsory

What they do better than us

Say it plainly. An analysis without this is not finished.

Five parts to a finished competitor read. The fifth, what they do better than us, is compulsory: leaving it out is the most common way this analysis fails.

It is tempting to write a read that only says why we are better. That read is not finished.

The steps

  1. Find a real competitor

    Search the app's category on either store, not a name from memory.

  2. Read the listing and the one-star reviews

    The one-star reviews usually say more than the description does.

  3. Install it, if it is free

    Use it once, the way a first-time person would.

  4. Fill the five-part frame

    Promise, price, proof, gaps, and what they do better.

A worked example

Voff competes with apps like Rocket Money that track subscriptions by linking to your bank.

Promise

Link your bank once, and it finds every subscription automatically, with nothing to add by hand.

Price

Read this off the listing on the day you do the analysis; do not carry a number over from memory.

Proof

A large, established user base. Read the one-star reviews for what those users actually complain about.

Gaps

Every one of them asks for a bank connection to work at all.

What they do better

Convenience. A linked bank catches every charge the moment it happens; Voff only knows what you add by hand.

Voff's answer is not "we do everything they do." It is "we never ask for your bank, so there is nothing to leak."

Hand it in

Link to the competitor's listing. Optional, but strongly preferred here.

If you get stuck

Too many competitors to choose from? Pick the one closest in price and audience, not the biggest name.

Competitor is paid on both platforms? Read its reviews and its screenshots instead of guessing at the experience.

Stuck on what they do better? Look again. There is almost always something, even if it is only convenience.