High 8 Free Similarweb Options | JP

Similarweb is a digital intelligence platform that provides web analytics services to help businesses understand their competitors, industry trends, and digital market dynamics. It tracks and analyzes data across websites, apps, and online platforms, offering insights into the digital world.

Similarweb also believes in democratizing data, which is why they offer a bunch of free tools on their website…but are they any good?

That’s why I decided to put Similarweb’s free tools to the test and see how useful they really are for competitive intelligence. From traffic data on websites and apps, to keyword data, backlink data, and even website technologies data. I had to check how actionable they are, and what I found was surprising, so let’s dig in, shall we?

How to use free Similarweb features for competitive insights

To see how useful these free tools really are, I rolled up my sleeves and put them to work. Here’s what I found:

1. Analyze any website’s traffic and engagement

When it feels like a competitor is everywhere, you want to know why. Instead of guessing, Similarweb’s Website Traffic Checker helps you analyze the exact strategy they use, so you can learn what works and adapt your own strategy.

How this feature works:

• Enter any competitor’s website (e.g., expedia.com)
• Instantly see estimated monthly visits, bounce rate, traffic sources, top keywords, and top referring sites
• Compare with up to four competitors to benchmark performance

Example: Analyzing Expedia.com’s web traffic vs a competitor

A travel deals website wants to see how Expedia.com is performing. Using the tool, they found that Expedia got 64.9 million monthly visits in February 2029, mostly from organic search, with users worldwide predominantly being in the US (89%).

Other insights include audience interests, such as the top categories and topics that get the most visits based on Expedia visitors, as well as other travel websites that also get traffic from the same visitors.

You can also look at the marketing mix, which shows that Expedia and its top competitor (hotels.com) both get around 20% of traffic from organic search and that other key traffic sources are direct (46%) and paid search (23%).

The Traffic Checker has many more metrics and views, including the ability to add one competitor site for a side-by-side analysis. In this example, that’s Priceline.com, another leading OTA site. You’ll need to sign up for the 7-day trial to add more competitors to your mix.

2. Check any mobile app’s engagement and usage

For app marketers, understanding user engagement is critical. Similarweb’s Free App Analytics provides insights into monthly active users (MAU), retention rates, and download trends for any app.

How this feature works:

• Enter an app name (e.g., Tinder) or publisher (e.g., Match Group)
• View rankings, installs, retention, and engagement metrics
• Compare performance with competitors like Bumble, Hinge, or OkCupid

Example: Analyzing OkCupid app Stats vs Bumble

A new dating app wants to understand OkCupid’s market position, especially compared to Bumble.

The app comparison tool shows that in the last 28 days (as of March 13), OkCupid had a usage rank of 10, while Bumble ranked higher at 3, indicating that users in the dating category slightly prefer Bumble. This trend aligns with Google Play’s store rankings, where OkCupid is ranked #11, while Bumble holds the #2 spot.

Interestingly, the data also shows that for a short period last month, Bumble was ranked #1 in the category, whereas OkCupid dropped as low as #17 before steadily improving its position.

Why is this important? Understanding these shifts helps you refine your app growth strategy – whether by adjusting acquisition efforts, optimizing app store presence (organically or through paid efforts), or identifying when competitors gain an edge.

3. Find keyword opportunities

In 2025, keyword research is important for both SEO and PPC. Similarweb’s Free Keyword Generator gives you data on what people are searching for, historically and in near real-time, with the freshest keyword data. This can easily help you identify and pick the keywords you should target to rank on Google’s first-page SERP.

How this feature works:

• Enter a keyword (e.g., flower delivery) or a competitor’s domain (1800flowers.com)
• Discover related keywords, search volume, and keyword difficulty
• Filter by intent (informational vs. transactional) and compare SEO vs. PPC data

Example: Keyword research for a flower shop website

An online flower shop in NYC searches for “flower delivery” and finds that “same day flower delivery” has a high search volume (25.9K) and a relatively competitive cost-per-click (CPC) of $4.57, with a keyword difficulty score of 74. On the other hand, “flower delivery NYC” has a much lower keyword difficulty score of 34, but is more expensive to bid on at $6.98.

Other keyword suggestions help the business identify the most relevant terms to create organic content for. By checking the Related Keywords tab, they discover that “send flowers” is a great term to compete on: it has a high search volume of 81.3K while the CPC is under $4, making it a cost-effective choice.

Signing up for an account lets you access more keyword stats and even export data to Excel so you can work with it more freely. Plus, you can create custom keyword lists. That way, you can focus on the terms that matter most to your business.

4. Perform a range of competitor analyses with Similarweb’s 7-day free trial

The 7-day free trial lets you explore Similarweb’s competitive analysis, keyword research, and business benchmarking tools. It gives you a hands-on look at the platform’s capabilities, helping you decide which paid plan works best for you.

3 things you can do with the 7-day free trial of Similarweb

1. Competitor analysis

Once inside, you can use Similarweb’s competitor analysis tools to dig into your competitors’ SEO, PPC, affiliate, and advertising strategies, all in one place. Here’s what you can explore:

• See where competitors get their traffic: Get a breakdown of their website visits, engagement, and market share to understand how they attract and keep visitors
• Check out their top marketing channels: Find out whether they rely more on organic search, paid ads, social media, or other channels to drive traffic
• Track up to 24 competitors at once: Instead of bouncing between reports, keep an eye on multiple rivals in one view and quickly spot trends
• Compare organic vs. paid performance: See which keywords they rank for and where they’re spending money on ads
• Get inspired by their ads: Browse actual ad creatives and messaging that competitors are using to attract customers

Here’s an example of what a typical competitor analysis looks like:

You can see how using the Competitive Tracker, gardenworld.com, a plants ecommerce site, can see a detailed view of up to 24 competitor sites’ marketing channels, including leaderboards and examples of ads and creatives other plant providers are using.

2. Run media buying analysis to find the best publishers to partner with

If you own a business that relies on paid advertising, knowing where to place your ads is priceless. With Similarweb’s 7-day free trial, you can spy on competitors’ display and search strategies to gain a competitive edge. Find the best publishers to work with, no guesswork, just real data on which publishers drive high-quality traffic and how they perform across industries.

How this feature works:

• Enter a referral website (e.g., top10reviews.com) or a publisher (e.g., CNN.com)
• View active ad campaigns, platforms (Google Ads, Facebook), and top-performing creatives
• Analyze which publishers generate the most ad clicks
  • Example: Ecommerce company driving traffic to publisher

A tech review site is considering publishing Google Ads on Forbes.com. Using Similarweb’s free tools, they can get data on the top domains receiving traffic from this leading news site.

From March 2024 to February 2025, the top advertisers on Forbes.com included:

• Lowes.com: 6.7% traffic share
• Booking.com: 5.3%
• BankofAmerica.com: 5.2%
• HomeDepot.com: 5.0%

Interestingly, most top domains saw a month-over-month decline, except for Booking.com, which grew 27% MoM, and Wayfair.com, which ranked #6 and experienced an impressive 152% increase in traffic. This suggests that Wayfair has been running highly effective ads on Forbes.com, resulting in strong performance gains.

If I focus only on ad networks to determine which ones drive the most traffic or provide the best ROI, the data shows that CJ Affiliate dominates with a 30.4% traffic share, followed by Paid Referrals at 3.8%. Interestingly, Google Display Network (GDN) accounts for only 16.8% of the ad network share, indicating that affiliates provide the best ROI for advertisers on Forbes.com.

3. Perform ad research to see what competitors are doing

Successful ad campaigns start with knowing what works for your competitors. With a free Similarweb account, you can get key insights into their advertising strategies and use that intel to refine your own campaigns.

The tool lets you:

• Spot top-performing display ads and analyze campaign strategies: Get a sneak peek at competitors’ best creatives, publisher placements, and partner networks to make smarter media-buying decisions
• Track display traffic & engagement: Monitor paid media campaigns, analyze what’s driving results, and optimize your strategy for maximum ROI

Here’s a look at what you can access inside Similarweb’s ad intelligence tool:

5. Find the most visited websites or apps by country

Understanding global digital trends is crucial. Similarweb’s free website and app analysis tools allow you to explore top-ranking websites and apps across different countries, providing valuable insights into potential markets and user behavior. 

While these are technically three separate tools, they work best when used together to create a holistic view of your (or your competitor’s) digital marketing strategy. That’s why we’ve combined them into one section. These tools offer a quick snapshot of digital popularity, helping you see where different platforms and apps are gaining traction.

1. Web Category Leaders

The website ranking tool provides a snapshot of the top-ranking domains in the world, ranked by traffic and engagement for every web category and country, along with key metrics. With a free trial account, you can access a much larger list of websites and use the country filter to focus on the markets that matter most to you.

You can view metrics like rank change, average visit duration, and pages per visit to better understand website performance and benchmark against competitors.

As of March 1, 2025, in the “All Categories” and “Worldwide” view:

• Google.com, the #1 ranking website, has a visit duration of 10 minutes 46 seconds and a bounce rate of 27.83%
• YouTube.com, the #2 site, has an average visit duration of 20 minutes 47 seconds and 13.55 pages per visit, indicating strong user engagement
• Facebook.com, the third most visited site, has 13.42 pages per visit and a bounce rate of 29.59%

2. See the top iPhone apps

This tool lets you quickly discover the leading iOS apps in various countries.

Filters include country, free vs. paid apps, and device type (iPhone vs. iPad, since rankings differ based on user preference). The ranking reflects App Store performance, with an additional column for monthly ranking changes to track app popularity trends.

For example, filtering by the highest monthly ranking change in the US (March 2025) shows:

• Whatnot now ranks #29, jumping an impressive 52 spots
• Bus Escape: Traffic Jam climbed 45 spots to #41
• Good Coffee, Great Coffee rose 42 spots to #37

3. View the top apps on Android

Similarweb’s app data also powers a robust Android app ranking tool, helping you explore the most downloaded and used Android apps globally.

You can toggle between the Google Play Store and Apple App Store at the top, making it easy to compare app rankings across platforms. This tool offers similar ranking metrics, including categories, countries, and top free vs. top paid apps, helping you understand the global Android market and pinpoint where specific apps are trending.

Here, when filtering by change in store ranking in the last month, we see that:

• DramaBox saw the biggest leap, jumping 35 spots to rank #47 in the “All Categories” view in the US
• Microsoft’s Copilot climbed 14 places to land at #27

6. Track industry trends and SERP volatility

This is another great free tool that Similarweb developed specifically for search marketers. Google’s algorithm updates can significantly impact rankings, and Similarweb’s SERP Seismometer helps you track these fluctuations, so you can stay ahead of major shifts.

The free SERP Seismometer provides daily monitoring of ranking fluctuations and Google algorithm changes. That way, you don’t have to rely on news outlets to know when an update has occurred. 

It measures SERP fluctuations for 10K+ domains and keywords that are tracked daily, covering both Google Desktop and Google Mobile. With it, you can analyze volatility over the past 30 and 90 days to get a complete view of SERP trends.

How this feature works:

• The tool monitors daily SERP volatility for key industries, assigning scores from 1 to 100
• It helps you detect ranking shifts caused by Google updates, which is crucial if you notice a sudden drop in your own rankings and need to determine whether it’s an industry-wide change
• A high or very high volatility score may indicate that a Google core update is in progress. If that’s the case, it’s best to hold off on making drastic SEO adjustments until you have more clarity

If I see a sudden spike in volatility in the health and wellness industry, for example, I can investigate potential algorithm updates affecting rankings. This tool works for both Google Desktop and Google Mobile, across different versions and timeframes.

To stay prepared for ranking fluctuations, you can use Similarweb’s Rank Tracker to track and get alerts on changes to all your keywords and topics in one place. This premium tool is especially useful for competitive SEO, helping you maintain and grow your keyword market share.

7. Analyze any company’s market, audience, and digital footprints

Similarweb’s free company analysis tool provides you with a holistic view of any company’s digital presence, market share, and audience.

How this feature works:

• Enter a company name (e.g., Wix)
• View total traffic stats, subsidiaries, competitors, stock performance, and audience interests
• Analyze the company’s entire business portfolio, including digital performance, revenue, and growth signals
• Access historical data to track traffic and engagement trends over time

Example: Analyzing Uber Technologies Inc. market share

By analyzing Uber, you can see that it has subsidiaries like Postmates.com (a leading food delivery platform) and Careem.com (an EMEA-focused transportation app).

The tool surfaces trends like Uber.com’s total visits, which declined from 78 million in December 2024 to 70 million in February 2025.

Additionally, you can gain insights into audience behavior, such as Postmates.com’s longer average visit duration compared to Uber.com and Careem.com. The Top Technologies analysis also reveals Uber’s tech stack, which shows that they use technologies like PayPal and Google Analytics. 

This tool, which was recently rolled out as a free offering, is incredibly useful for competitor analysis, so we highly recommend bookmarking it or signing up for a full account to get even more out of it.

8. Search for any technology and reveal its market share and usage stats 

Beyond just understanding a competitor’s tech stack, Similarweb’s Website Technology Checker allows you to analyze the broader market share and usage of any technology. This transforms competitive analysis into a powerful lead-generation tool. Imagine instantly seeing which websites use WordPress, React, Shopify, or any other technology.

How this feature works:

• Enter a technology name (e.g., PayPal)
• Analyze the technology’s market share, top industries, and countries of usage
• Generate lists of websites using specific technologies, including company details and contact information
• See alternative technologies used

With Similarweb’s Website Technology Checker, you can see any technology’s usage statistics and create a full market profile, including company contact details. This is incredibly valuable for businesses looking to target specific technology users.

Example: Checking WordPress CMS market share

You can instantly see the market share of any technology. For instance, if you’re a competitor to WordPress, you can analyze how top sites like Canva, Zoom.us, and TikTok contribute to a significant share of WordPress’s overall traffic. This level of detail helps you understand the major players within a technology’s ecosystem.

Understanding where a technology is most widely used is also crucial. For example, WordPress’s primary market is the U.S., followed by India and Japan. With this data, you can focus your marketing efforts on the most relevant regions.

You can also analyze the top industries where a technology is commonly used. For WordPress, these include news & media publishers and computer electronics & technology. These insights help you better understand the target audience for a given technology.

And that’s a wrap on our top 8 free Similarweb features!

Conclusion: Using Similarweb can be your (free) marketing advantage

In a world where data is power, Similarweb’s free tools give you an edge. If budget is one of your concerns, don’t be afraid to use these tools to access the data you need to achieve growth. Whether you’re a senior marketer or just starting out, these insights can upgrade your strategy without costing a dime.

We’ve shown you how to:
✅   Spy on competitors’ traffic and ad strategies
✅   Track and identify keyword opportunities
✅   Optimize mobile app performance
✅   Monitor SERP volatility
✅   Analyze the tech stacks behind successful businesses

Now it’s your turn to turn this free guide into a real marketing impact. Don’t let budget constraints hold you back. Start using the power of free digital intelligence today!

Sign up for a free Similarweb account here.

FAQs

What are the key free features available in Similarweb?

Similarweb offers several powerful free features, including:

• Website Traffic Checker: Analyze website traffic, sources, and engagement
• Free App Analytics: Track mobile app performance, downloads, and user engagement
• Free Keyword Generator: Discover valuable keywords for SEO and PPC
• SERP Seismometer: Monitor Google SERP volatility
• Website Technology Checker: Break down a website’s technology stack
• 7-Day Free Trial: Gain access to premium features for a limited time

How accurate is the data provided by Similarweb’s free tools?

Similarweb uses advanced data aggregation and machine learning algorithms to provide accurate estimates. While free tools may have limitations compared to paid versions, they still offer valuable insights for competitive analysis and market research.

Can I use Similarweb’s free tools for my own website analysis?

Yes, you can use Similarweb’s free tools to analyze your own website’s performance, but keep in mind that the free features may have usage limitations. For a more comprehensive analysis of your own site, a paid subscription provides deeper insights and more detailed data.

How often is the data updated in Similarweb’s free tools?

The data update frequency varies depending on the specific tool and data type. Similarweb strives to provide up-to-date information, but real-time data may only be available in paid versions.