7 places where you may find competitors' pricing
Sources of competitor pricing information
Sources of competitor pricing information differ between industries, and the sources below come from the IT hardware and software industry. So, they might not work for everybody. However, they may help you learn more about your competitors' pricing.
Competitors' websites
Competitors' websites are the simplest and fastest way to find competitors' pricing, assuming you have a bit of luck!
Competitors' main website may have a page detailing their licensing and sometimes pricing.
Also, look for competitors' e-commerce websites. It might be separate from their main website but typically contains a lot of pricing information.
Finally, search competitors' technical support websites for user guides. They regularly contain a licensing section (but no pricing).
Online marketplaces
Visit the marketplaces where your competitors sell their products, like, AWS and Azure markeplaces.
Vendors typically document their licensing options and price points on their marketplace product pages.
Price list vendors
Depending on your industry, you may be able to subscribe to a price list vendor's services to receive competitors' pricing once or twice a year.
Ask your industry's top analyst firms for a reputable price list vendor.
Competitor partners' websites
Find your competitors' top partners, like distributors, aggregators, Alliances, resellers, or service providers.
Then search these Partners' core websites, e-commerce websites, and marketplaces for your competitors' pricing.
Note that the pricing listed on competitor partners' websites might differ slightly from competitors' list pricing.
Government procurement websites
Public organizations, like states and federal institutions, typically require vendors to disclose their price lists during the purchasing process.
So, check your competitors' success stories for public organizations, and check these organizations' procurement websites. You may find bits of competitors' pricing documented there.
Remember that many vendors' government pricing is slightly lower than their corporate pricing.
Search engines
With a bit of luck, you may find competitors' pricing information by doing plain searches on your favorite search engine.
For instance, by using a known SKU of one of your competitors' products in your search, you might find a price list published online.
Advanced search operators may help you a lot. For instance, searching for "PDF:[SKU number]" may show you a list of public PDF documents that contain competitors' SKUs and prices.
Other
There are several other ways to research competitors' pricing but they may require more time, skills, or money.
For instance, you may interview customers, partners, or industry experts, but that will take time, you might get only anecdotal information, and you must be careful not to gather confidential information.
Pricing information to consider
When researching competitors' pricing, consider documenting:
Licensing units
License editions
Contract types (perpetual, annual subscription, ...)
Contract length options
List discounts (volume discount, customer type/industry discount, contract length discount, ...)
Price variation by currency
Discounting practices
Always cross-check each price point across 3 independent sources, or 2 reputable sources, to ensure that you found accurate information.
Little bonus
You can also use Wayback Machine to see if and when competitors change their licensing and pricing. It is manual but free!
You can use more sophisticated tools to track changes on competitors' websites, but we will keep that for another day!
Calls to action
Give the sources listed above a try and tell me which other pricing sources you use!
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