UX Competitor Analysis: A Template, an Example and How to Do It Step by Step

Below are the three kinds of competitors, a six-step method, a competitor analysis template you can copy and a UX competitor analysis example for a meal-planning app.

What Is UX Competitor Analysis?

It is research that looks outward. You walk through the same task in several products and record the steps, the words, the defaults and the moments people get stuck. A market report counts players and revenue; a UX competitor analysis reads the decisions behind each product and the trade-off each team accepted.

Think of it as a map of the area before a hike. You see the neighboring trails, the shortcuts locals use and the people who decided to stay home, and each of them changes the route you pick.

Direct, Indirect and Substitute Competitors

• Direct competitors: products that do the same job for the same people in the same way, such as two meal-planning apps.
• Indirect competitors: products that solve the same problem differently, such as a grocery app with saved shopping lists.
• Substitutes: what people do with no product at all, such as a note on the fridge or cooking the same five dinners.

Michael Porter counted the threat of substitutes among the five forces that shape an industry (Harvard Business Review, 1979). April Dunford calls the same idea competitive alternatives: what customers would use if your product didn't exist. For a new product, that column is often the most important one, because it sets the bar for the first session.

How to Do a Competitor Analysis in UX

1. Pick one task and one question: for example, “How do people plan meals for the week, and where do they give up?”
2. List three to five rivals: two or three direct, one indirect and at least one substitute.
3. Walk the same task in each: time it, count the steps and note the first thing each product asks for.
4. Record the same columns for every rival: who it serves, its strongest choice and the trade-off behind it.
5. Go deep on one rival: pricing, messaging, features and reviews. Three-star reviews often describe the gap most clearly.
6. Write one move: “Because rival A chose X, we will do Y.” The research is finished when this sentence exists.

If you can, add a small competitive usability test. Jakob Nielsen's research found that about five users uncover roughly 85% of usability problems in a design, so five people on a rival's live flow give you a benchmark before you draw anything.

Competitor Analysis Template

Use one row per competitor and keep the questions identical for each, so the comparison stays fair. Our glossary describes the same competitor analysis template in short form.

UX Competitor Analysis Example

Here is the template filled in for a meal-planning app aimed at busy parents. The task: plan five dinners and get a shopping list.

The move from this map: open with a ready-made week the parent can edit, because the real rival is a note that takes ten seconds. Checkout flows deserve the same treatment in e-commerce, where Baymard Institute documents an average cart abandonment rate of about 70% across 50 studies.

Common Mistakes in Competitor Analysis

• A gallery of screenshots: screens without the reason behind them answer nothing in a review.
• Only direct rivals: the substitute column is where many users still are.
• A feature checklist with ticks: a tick hides who the feature serves and what it cost.
• Fifteen rivals and no depth: five rows and one deep teardown are easier to act on.
• No final move: research that ends with a summary changes nothing in the product.

To check your own product against usability principles after the comparison, pair it with a heuristic evaluation.

Where to Start

Do you know which substitute your users rely on today? Could you name the strongest choice of your main rival in one line? Is there a sentence that starts with “because rival A chose”?

Start with the free course Competitor Analysis: four short lessons and a 40-minute practice that ends with a one-page competitive landscape. Then read the glossary terms UX competitor analysis and product differentiation, turn the map into a positioning statement, and see where strategy fits on your personalized UX design learning path. Want feedback on your map? Book a free UX mentorship session.