Best 5 Jungle Scout Alternatives | Free & Paid options
Jungle Scout has long been the most popular and best-known Amazon FBA product research software offering. They were first to market, but now there are competitors and good competitors at that. Which software is the best for you? Let’s find out.
For those who don’t fancy reading about the finer details, the best alternative to Jungle Scout is Helium 10 – don’t take my word for it though – get a free trial here.
For you brave souls still reading, buckle up, the best 6 Jungle Scout alternatives are:
I will analyse each alternative with reference to three main criteria and whether you should use it over old favourite Jungle Scout:
- Accuracy – Comparing one of my own product’s actual sales to their estimates.
- Features – What you get for your money/for free.
- Price – Total costs to you and is it reasonable?
- Should you use it?
I will discuss the clash of the titans, Jungle Scout and Helium 10, in glorious detail in a separate post. However, for now, this will summaries my experience with all platforms and what advice I can offer you.
Helium 10 vs Jungle Scout
The biggest and most capable alternative, Helium10 offers a complete solution to all your Amazon FBA needs. Well, not all, but most. I might suggest that the primary function of all these software products is to interrogate product results pages on Amazon for data.
Helium 10 does that remarkably well using its tool, Xray; however, it also offers solutions for keyword research, reverse ASIN lookups, inventory management, reimbursement management, trend analysis and buy box monitoring to name a few.
Helium 10 Accuracy
The sales estimation tool, Xray looks like this:
How accurate is it?
My actual sales for one of my products over the past 30 days were: 482 units
| Helium 10 Xray estimate | 225 units | 47% accurate | |
| Jungle Scout Chrome Extension estimate | 460 units | 92% accurate | WINNER |
Conclusion: Jungle Scout’s Chrome extension provides the most accurate sales data at 92% accuracy. However, others find more accurate results with Helium10’s X-ray. It may be due to the fact that I am UK based. I have found that consistent and realistic estimates can be found by doubling the given figure.
Both tools underestimate sales.
Personally, although it’s not necessary, I use Jungle Scout’s Chrome extension AND Xray’s figures doubled to give me a realistic sales estimate. Knowing that this figure will be an underestimate by about 10%, it gives me a conservative figure to crunch my numbers with.
Helium 10 Features
- Black box – Product research tool which combes the Amazon database using user selected filters to find products (similar to Jungle Scout’s web app, now called Product Database).
- Xray – Browser extension for product research as I’ve just discussed. Open on results pages to see important data like sales estimates and revenues (similar to JS chrome extension).
- Scribbles – Listing optimiser, helps you to optimise your listing for titles, descriptions, bullet points and keywords (very handy!).
- Cerebro – Reverse ASIN search, allows you to research your competitors for keyword search volumes and strategies.
- Refund Genie – Finds where you are due reimbursements in your inventory for lost or damaged items. (I’ve moved from other tools to this).
- Inventory Protector – Allows you to set maximum order limits, no different from doing in seller central.
- Trendster – For researching trends.
- Magnet 2.0 – Keyword research including search volumes.
- Frankenstein – Keyword processor for removing duplicates, letter and word counts etc, useful when creating a listing.
Helium 10 Price
Many variations of pricing are available which offer numerous combinations of their tools. I would suggest you look at their website for the complete picture.
However, I recommend using one of their full plans which will include all features at the cheapest price.
The above image shows monthly pricing, you can save some money if you are bold enough to pay annually. I used their free plan to start, once I was convinced, I swapped over to a paid plan.
I love Helium 10 so much, that I wrote to them and they gave me a discount code for my followers – amazingly:
Helium 10 Discount codes
If you’d like 50% off your first month use DOM50 at checkout.
If you’d like 10% off for life use DOM10 at checkout.
Check out how to redeem Helium 10 discount codes below:
Should you use it?
If you haven’t already guessed (I may have given it away…), I’m a big fan of Helium 10. It is hands down the best product available for your Amazon FBA business.
The only drawback is Xray’s 50% underestimation of sales. I put this down to me being in the UK. As I mentioned, double the figures and you will get a realistic value every time. If you are in US, I believe it will be accurate – let me know what you find?
You should categorically use Helium 10, it’s incredible and has more features than my old favorite Jungle Scout.
Helium 10 free trial can be found here
Viral Launch vs Jungle Scout
Another large competitor that sprung from the woodwork and attempted to dethrone Jungle Scout is Viral Launch.
It offers an all-in-one Amazon FBA solution with comparable tools to Jungle Scout and Helium 10. Viral Launch became popular for their giveaway service. A launch technique that isn’t widely used today.
Their sales estimation tool is called Market Intelligence. It’s again, a browser extension that you can run on product results pages and product pages to scrape important data. It looks like this:
Viral Launch Accuracy
How accurate is Market Intelligence?
Actual product sales over past 30 days: 482 units
| Viral Launch Market Intelligence | 410 units | 85% accurate | |
| Jungle Scout Chrome Extension estimate | 460 units | 92% accurate | WINNER |
Conclusion: Jungle Scout’s Chrome Extension was again the most accurate at 92%. However, Market Intelligence came a close second with 85% accuracy.
Market Intelligence regularly underestimates too – however, I would still consider it accurate enough in gauging a market’s viability. We are after all, only estimating.
Viral Launch Features
They have recently updated and grown their software suite in an attempt to compete with Helium 10/Jungle Scout. They offer:
- Product Discovery – Product research using filters and queries to uncover new products (JS equivalent: Product Database).
- Market Intelligence – Product research used for sales estimates and revenues etc (JS equivalent: Chrome Extension).
- Keyword Research – Trends, reverse ASIN, search volumes etc. (JS equivalent: Keyword Scout).
- Competitor Intelligence – reverse ASIN, keyword volumes and scores etc.
- Listing Builder – Bullet points, description, title etc.
- Listing Analyser – Inspects competitors and compares your listing using a SWOT framework.
- Keyword Manager – Manage keywords including CPC bid, organic rank and rank with ads etc.
Viral Launch Price
If Viral Launch has taken your fancy, I would recommend starting with their free trial here, then progressing onto their ‘Beginner’ package and seeing how you like it.
Should you use it
Viral Launch offer a comprehensive and capable solution. If you are just interested in their software features, I would use Helium 10 instead.
However, if you would be interested in using their other services too, like product photography, product launches and PPC management, then they may be more suitable for you!
AMZ Scout – Jungle Scout Alternative?
AMZ Scout have been around for a long time, they offer good tools but don’t quite have the all-in-one package. I used their software when it was free however, now their useful tools are a paid commodity. I must say that I was always impressed with the accuracy of their sales estimations and as such, they deserve comparison to the big boys.
AMZ Scout Accuracy
The AMZ Scout Pro browser extension bares resemblance to the rest, with important metrics for products on search results pages:
Accuracy results please!
Actual product sales over past 30 days: 482 units
| AMZ Scout Pro extension | 539 units | 89% accurate | |
| Jungle Scout Chrome Extension estimate | 460 units | 92% accurate | WINNER |
Conclusion: There’s a theme occurring here, Jungle Scout wins yet again. The two were very evenly matched with only a 3% accuracy differential between them.
HOWEVER
AMZ Scout overestimates the sales data. Consider this when drawing your conclusions on market and product viability.
Top tip: use their Sales Estimator (free tool) on an individual product to get the same data for free. Then use the average of Jungle Scout (or Helium 10’s) data and the Sales Estimator’s data to arrive at a pretty accurate sales estimation.
AMZ Scout Features
- AMZ Scout Pro – Product research extension as discussed.
- Product Database – Search the Amazon product database to find your next niche using filters and queries (JS equivalent: Product Discovery)
- Keyword Tracker – Track keywords to keep an eye on your competitors.
- Keyword Explorer – Keyword research to optimize your listings with (JS equivalent: Keyword Scout).
AMZScout Price
For their Pro extension, the costs are:
However, if you would like to use their other features you will need to fork out an additional $15 to $30 a month. This makes AMZ Scout moderately priced, but you don’t get the full suite of tools like other competitors.
Should you use it?
Yes, you should use AMZ Scout’s Sales Estimator for free to get sales estimates for individual products. It’s free so you can’t use it on a complete search results page, but useful for when you want to know individual product sales.
Then, use Helium 10 or Jungle Scout to get an average sales figure and you’re good to go.
I don’t recommend paying for their other features with more complete offerings available in the market.
Scope vs Jungle Scout
Scope is a now paid alternate offered by Seller Labs, a respected company that owns Feedback Genius and many other widely used tools.
They offer a chrome extension and web app in a similar fashion to Jungle Scout.
Note: only currently available for the US marketplace. Sellers from different counties can use it, but only if selling on Amazon.com.
Scope Accuracy
Their chrome extension follows the same format:
How accurate?
Actual product sales over past 30 days: 482 units
| Scope Chrome Extension | 410 units | 85% accurate | |
| Jungle Scout Chrome Extension estimate | 460 units | 92% accurate | WINNER |
Conclusion: While it doesn’t beat Jungle Scout’s estimates – it’s not terrible with 85% accuracy. It also underestimates which is the lesser of two evils.
Scope Features
The chrome extension features are largely the same as Jungle Scout. But Scope also has a web app, its core function being keyword research. What do you get for your money?
- Product Tracker – Track changes in price, sales, reviews, BSR etc (JS equivalent: Product Tracker).
- Keyword Generator – Keyword research aid builds a list of related keywords with associated search volumes, CPC bid etc.
- Other features – Reverse ASIN lookups, search Amazon database using keywords modified by filters etc similar to JS’s Product Discovery,
Scope Price
There is no free trial with Scope, I think this is a mistake. New users must sign up for one whole year for $390. This comes with a measly 7-day moneyback guarantee if you don’t like it.
Broken into monthly figures it looks like this:
Should you use it?
The sales estimation is reasonably accurate which makes them a credible competitor. However, the fact that you can’t try the software without throwing $390 at the problem is a drawback.
Furthermore, often you only need to sign up for software suites like Helium 10 or Jungle Scout for one or two months at a time. You can smash out everything you need over the next few months in the short period, before suspending your subscription. This is a lot cheaper than paying for Scope for a year without flexibility.
Conclusively, you should only use Scope if you have fallen in love with their UI or have an odd, deep-seated lust for Seller Labs products.
Unicorn Smasher vs Jungle Scout
Unicorn Smasher is free. It offers a basic interface in a similar style utilising a chrome extension. I first used Unicorn Smasher when I started selling on Amazon nearly 3 years ago. I also learned that it was inaccurate and swapped within days to Jungle Scout.
However, I’m interested to see if they’ve cleaned up their act and improved their algorithm – let’s see.
Unicorn Smasher Accuracy
The chrome extension looks like this:
Drum roll please…
Actual product sales over the past 30 days: 482 units
| Unicorn Smasher Chrome Extension | 698 units | 69% accurate | |
| Jungle Scout Chrome Extension estimate | 460 units | 92% accurate | WINNER |
Conclusion: Unicorn Smasher still doesn’t get within touching distance, barely even loud shouting distance. Additionally, it overestimates which is troublesome. I will not be going back to it and would advise you to steer clear.
Unicorn Smasher Features
Being a free tool, naturally, the list of features is going to be shorter. Their chrome extension includes the majority of features you will get with a paid tool. However, the sales estimate is not accurate which largely makes these other features irrelevant.
Unicorn Smasher have recently introduced the Unicorn dashboard, which allows you to manage your research in a list of your saved products.
Unicorn Smasher Price
Free – it would be criminal to pay money for such inaccuracy.
Should you use it?
No, you should not use it. Steer clear and pay for Jungle Scout or Helium 10. If you really, really don’t want to spend any money. You can use either AMZ or Jungle Scout’s single product Sales Estimator tools that can be found on their respective websites.
Nevertheless, if you aren’t willing to spend a few bob on one of the most important data collecting and market analysis software, you will struggle to get your business off the ground.
Parting thoughts
So that’s that. I hope this has presented you with a decent range of Jungle Scout alternatives for your consideration. To summarize:
- Helium 10 – The current ultimate all-in-one Amazon FBA solution. While I seem to experience an oddity in their sales estimation, their other features far outweigh the price of me doing my 2x tables and sometimes checking with Jungle Scout.
- Viral Launch – A worth competitor, consider using them if you are interested in their other services like product photography and PPC management.
- AMZ Scout – Moderately priced but I don’t recommend paying for their other features with more complete offerings available in the market.
- Unicorn Smasher – Free but inaccurate, please avoid – the damage you could do to your business is not worth the miniature savings.
- Scope – A reasonable competitor however, their offering is soured by the massive annual fee being the only form of payment – get it together Scope!
I well and truly hope this has been helpful! If you are just getting started with Amazon FBA read our post about FBA courses here!
Take care,
Find out how to solve Amazon Pending Orders here.
