As millions of sellers flock to Amazon, chasing the dream of freedom and seven-figure incomes, the competition has become fierce. The low-hanging fruit has long since been picked, and people are becoming smarter about finding opportunities, sourcing products, and competing to win.
If you’re relying solely on tools like Google Trends and trying to reverse engineer demand by tracking Amazon’s BSRs (best seller ratings), it’s going to be tougher for you to get an edge and maintain a lead. Not only are those manual processes time consuming, but they’re not going to give you the depth and breadth of information you need to make a sharp decision.
Today there are numerous product research tools that make your job easier and increase your chances of success. By using these tools, you’ll be able to find profitable niches, do keyword research, and get competitive insights. At first glance, these tools all look pretty similar, so we’ll help you differentiate them by comparing two current market leaders: Jungle Scout vs Helium 10.
Jungle Scout
Pricing
One of the things we appreciate most is Jungle Scout’s transparency and simplicity when it comes to pricing. For one low monthly (or annual) price, you get all of the features Jungle Scout has, and your fee is based on how many orders you get per month.
You can choose to pay for either the web-based software or the Chrome extension, though we recommend buying both because they’re stronger when used together. Jungle Scout also discounts them significantly if you bundle them.
If you’re brand new to selling on Amazon, you can get the entire Jungle Scout suite for just $69 per month. The company also offers a 14-day money-back guarantee, so you can get a full refund if you try Jungle Scout and decide later that it’s not for you.
Pros
- Simple
- Great supplier base
- The best product selection tool
- Affordable
Cons
- Not as many tools as Helium 10
- Limited outside of product selection and sourcing
- No mobile app
Helium 10
Pricing
Helium 10’s pricing allows new entrepreneurs to get a sample of the features for free. The only problem is that your searches are limited, so you’ll max out pretty quickly. This is especially true if you’re in heavy research mode, so we don’t recommend the free plan unless you want to simply test drive Helium 10 and its features.
Helium 10 also has an a la carte plan where you pay only for the features you need. The issue here is that a lot of these features work together, so you could end up paying a couple of hundred dollars per month and still not have access to everything.
Typically, we would love the idea of only paying for what you need, but in a product research tool, each feature works together, and buying tools one by one is costly and suboptimal. In order to get access to all of Helium 10’s tools, including multi-user log-in (which is essential if you have a VA), you would have to purchase the Diamond Plan at $197 per month.
Pros
- All-in-one of every tool you need to grow a profitable store
- Amazon training
- Networking
- Workshops
Cons
- Expensive
- Complicated