Competitor Teardown

Structured competitive analysis with research and screenshots via inference.sh CLI.

Quick Start

curl -fsSL https://cli.inference.sh | sh && infsh login

# Research competitor landscape
infsh app run tavily/search-assistant --input '{
  "query": "top project management tools comparison 2024 market share"
}'

# Screenshot competitor's website
infsh app run infsh/agent-browser --input '{
  "url": "https://competitor.com",
  "action": "screenshot"
}'

Teardown Framework

The 7-Layer Analysis

Layer	What to Analyze	Data Source
1. Product	Features, UX, quality	Screenshots, free trial
2. Pricing	Plans, pricing model, hidden costs	Pricing page, sales call
3. Positioning	Messaging, tagline, ICP	Website, ads
4. Traction	Users, revenue, growth	Web search, press, funding
5. Reviews	Strengths, weaknesses from users	G2, Capterra, App Store
6. Content	Blog, social, SEO strategy	Website, social profiles
7. Team	Size, key hires, background	LinkedIn, About page

Research Commands

Company Overview

# General intelligence
infsh app run tavily/search-assistant --input '{
  "query": "CompetitorX company overview funding team size 2024"
}'

# Funding and financials
infsh app run exa/search --input '{
  "query": "CompetitorX funding round series valuation investors"
}'

# Recent news
infsh app run tavily/search-assistant --input '{
  "query": "CompetitorX latest news announcements 2024"
}'

Product Analysis

# Feature comparison
infsh app run exa/search --input '{
  "query": "CompetitorX vs alternatives feature comparison review"
}'

# Pricing details
infsh app run tavily/extract --input '{
  "urls": ["https://competitor.com/pricing"]
}'

# User reviews
infsh app run tavily/search-assistant --input '{
  "query": "CompetitorX reviews G2 Capterra pros cons 2024"
}'

UX Screenshots

# Homepage
infsh app run infsh/agent-browser --input '{
  "url": "https://competitor.com",
  "action": "screenshot"
}'

# Pricing page
infsh app run infsh/agent-browser --input '{
  "url": "https://competitor.com/pricing",
  "action": "screenshot"
}'

# Signup flow
infsh app run infsh/agent-browser --input '{
  "url": "https://competitor.com/signup",
  "action": "screenshot"
}'

Feature Matrix

Structure

| Feature | Your Product | Competitor A | Competitor B | Competitor C |
|---------|:---:|:---:|:---:|:---:|
| Real-time collaboration | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ |
| API access | ✅ | Paid only | ✅ | ❌ |
| SSO/SAML | ✅ | Enterprise | ✅ | Enterprise |
| Custom reports | ✅ | Limited | ✅ | ❌ |
| Mobile app | ✅ | iOS only | ✅ | ✅ |
| Free tier | ✅ (unlimited) | ✅ (3 users) | ❌ | ✅ (1 project) |
| Integrations | 50+ | 100+ | 30+ | 20+ |

Rules

• ✅ = Full support
• ⚠️ or "Partial" = Limited or conditional
• ❌ = Not available
• Note conditions: "Paid only", "Enterprise tier", "Beta"
• Lead with features where YOU win
• Be honest about competitor strengths — credibility matters

Pricing Comparison

Structure

| | Your Product | Competitor A | Competitor B |
|---------|:---:|:---:|:---:|
| **Free tier** | Yes, 5 users | Yes, 3 users | No |
| **Starter** | $10/user/mo | $15/user/mo | $12/user/mo |
| **Pro** | $25/user/mo | $30/user/mo | $29/user/mo |
| **Enterprise** | Custom | Custom | $50/user/mo |
| **Billing** | Monthly/Annual | Annual only | Monthly/Annual |
| **Annual discount** | 20% | 15% | 25% |
| **Min seats** | 1 | 5 | 3 |
| **Hidden costs** | None | Setup fee $500 | API calls metered |

What to Look For

• Minimum seat requirements
• Annual-only billing (reduces flexibility)
• Feature gating between tiers
• Overage charges
• Setup/onboarding fees
• Contract lock-in periods

SWOT Analysis

Create a SWOT for each competitor:

### Competitor A — SWOT

| Strengths | Weaknesses |
|-----------|------------|
| • Strong brand recognition | • Slow feature development |
| • Large integration ecosystem | • Complex onboarding (30+ min) |
| • Enterprise sales team | • No free tier |

| Opportunities | Threats |
|--------------|---------|
| • AI features not yet shipped | • New AI-native competitors |
| • Expanding into mid-market | • Customer complaints about pricing |
| • International markets untapped | • Key engineer departures (LinkedIn) |

Positioning Map

A 2x2 matrix showing where competitors sit on two meaningful dimensions.

Choose Meaningful Axes

Good Axes	Bad Axes
Simple ↔ Complex	Good ↔ Bad
SMB ↔ Enterprise	Cheap ↔ Expensive (too obvious)
Self-serve ↔ Sales-led	Old ↔ New
Specialized ↔ General	Small ↔ Large
Opinionated ↔ Flexible	—

Template

                    Enterprise
                        │
           Competitor C │  Competitor A
                ●       │       ●
                        │
  Simple ──────────────────────────── Complex
                        │
            You ●       │  Competitor B
                        │       ●
                        │
                      SMB

Generating the Visual

# Create positioning map with Python
infsh app run infsh/python-executor --input '{
  "code": "import matplotlib.pyplot as plt\nimport matplotlib\nmatplotlib.use(\"Agg\")\n\nfig, ax = plt.subplots(figsize=(10, 10))\n\n# Competitors\ncompetitors = {\n    \"You\": (-0.3, -0.3),\n    \"Competitor A\": (0.5, 0.6),\n    \"Competitor B\": (0.6, -0.4),\n    \"Competitor C\": (-0.4, 0.5)\n}\n\nfor name, (x, y) in competitors.items():\n    color = \"#22c55e\" if name == \"You\" else \"#6366f1\"\n    size = 200 if name == \"You\" else 150\n    ax.scatter(x, y, s=size, c=color, zorder=5)\n    ax.annotate(name, (x, y), textcoords=\"offset points\", xytext=(10, 10), fontsize=12, fontweight=\"bold\")\n\nax.axhline(y=0, color=\"grey\", linewidth=0.5)\nax.axvline(x=0, color=\"grey\", linewidth=0.5)\nax.set_xlim(-1, 1)\nax.set_ylim(-1, 1)\nax.set_xlabel(\"Simple ← → Complex\", fontsize=14)\nax.set_ylabel(\"SMB ← → Enterprise\", fontsize=14)\nax.set_title(\"Competitive Positioning Map\", fontsize=16, fontweight=\"bold\")\nax.grid(True, alpha=0.3)\nplt.tight_layout()\nplt.savefig(\"positioning-map.png\", dpi=150)\nprint(\"Saved\")"
}'

Review Mining

Where to Find Reviews

Platform	Best For	URL Pattern
G2	B2B SaaS	g2.com/products/[product]/reviews
Capterra	Business software	capterra.com/software/[id]/reviews
App Store	iOS apps	apps.apple.com
Google Play	Android apps	play.google.com
Product Hunt	Launches	producthunt.com/posts/[product]
Reddit	Honest opinions	reddit.com/r/[relevant-sub]

What to Extract

Category	Look For
Most praised	What features do happy users mention most?
Most complained	What do unhappy users say? (= your opportunity)
Switching reasons	Why do users leave? What triggers switching?
Feature requests	What's missing that users want?
Comparison mentions	When users compare, what do they say?

# Mine G2 reviews
infsh app run tavily/search-assistant --input '{
  "query": "CompetitorX G2 reviews complaints issues 2024"
}'

# Reddit sentiment
infsh app run exa/search --input '{
  "query": "reddit CompetitorX alternative frustration switching"
}'

Deliverable Formats

Executive Summary (1 page)

## Competitive Landscape Summary

**Market:** [Category] — $[X]B market growing [Y]% annually

**Key competitors:** A (leader), B (challenger), C (niche)

**Our positioning:** [Where you sit and why it matters]

**Key insight:** [One sentence about the biggest opportunity]

| Metric | You | A | B | C |
|--------|-----|---|---|---|
| Users | X | Y | Z | W |
| Pricing (starter) | $X | $Y | $Z | $W |
| Rating (G2) | X.X | Y.Y | Z.Z | W.W |

Detailed Report (per competitor)

1. Company overview (size, funding, team)
2. Product analysis (features, UX screenshots)
3. Pricing breakdown
4. SWOT analysis
5. Review analysis (top praised, top complained)
6. Positioning vs. you
7. Opportunity summary

Comparison Grid Visual

# Stitch competitor screenshots into comparison
infsh app run infsh/stitch-images --input '{
  "images": ["your-homepage.png", "competitorA-homepage.png", "competitorB-homepage.png"],
  "direction": "horizontal"
}'

Common Mistakes

Mistake	Problem	Fix
Only looking at features	Misses positioning, pricing, traction	Use the 7-layer framework
Biased analysis	Loses credibility	Be honest about competitor strengths
Outdated data	Wrong conclusions	Date all research, refresh quarterly
Too many competitors	Analysis paralysis	Focus on top 3-5 direct competitors
No "so what"	Data without insight	End each section with implications for you
Feature-only comparison	Doesn't show positioning	Include pricing, reviews, positioning map

Related Skills

npx skills add inferencesh/skills@web-search
npx skills add inferencesh/skills@prompt-engineering

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