There are many things I stand by as an online seller but product research and having the right tools are two of the most important. Without having a clear picture of what your competitors are doing and what the market wants, you’re pretty much crawling around in the dark.
I have discovered a number of useful tools over the years that fulfill the need for thorough product research. For this review though, I will be looking at Unicorn Smasher vs Jungle Scout.
Both these product research extensions work with the Chrome browser. Once installed, you simply navigate to Amazon, browse to a product you’re interested in and click on the Unicorn Smasher or Jungle Scout icon.
Once activated, the extensions will provide you with detailed data on the products you’re interested in. Whether or not the data that’s generated by these two extensions is equally useful is the question I will be answering here.
Let me show you the key differences between the two amazon seller tools, this comparison table is based on my own independent research.
Basic Suite Of Tools (Acquired by Amztracker)
One Of The Best All Round Tools
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Jungle Scout Coupon Code
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Also whilst you are here, if you do want to learn more about becoming a better seller on Amazon, I would highly recommend looking into our Amazon FBA training.
Anyway, sorry that’s the selfish plugs out of the way, let’s get on with the comparison review.
Unicorn Smasher vs Jungle Scout: The Main Differences
To help you better decide which of these extensions is the best fit for you, I’ve compared some of the most essential features.
Availability
The Amazon sites that you plan to sell on will determine which of these extensions you can use.
Unicorn Smasher
Unfortunately, Unicorn Smasher only works on Amazon USA, so if you’re planning on targeting other markets, this extension won’t work for you.
If you are looking for another alternative on this side of things you could consider Merchant words, let me know if you are looking for more options on this side of things.
Jungle Scout
This extension works in almost all major global Amazon markets, which is a bonus if you want to expand into specific countries.
Jungle scout wins this area hands down, obviously.
Price
Next, let’s look at what each of these product research tools will cost you as an online seller.
Unicorn Smasher
The Unicorn Smasher Chrome extension is owned by AMZ Tracker and it’s absolutely free.
However, it seems that because the extension asks for more permissions than Jungle Scout, they might be using data to market their paid tool: AMZ Tracker to unicorn smasher users.
When you aren’t paying for a product, it often means you are the product. Facebook selling advertising opportunities to brands is a prime example of this – Facebook users are the product. Unfortunately, this is almost always the case when a product is free.
Once you install the extension, it will ask for the usual general permissions. However, it will also ask for additional permissions thereafter.
Unicorn Smasher asks about collecting and using Google Analytics data to bring you the best ways to grow your business. This is basically just a nice way of asking whether they can market to you.
Fortunately, you can decline and still use the extension for free.
Jungle Scout
With our discount code, you can get the Jungle Scout Chrome extension and the app for considerably less than their advertised price.
Jungle Scout is far more than just an extension, their web app is something we use a lot within our business.
You can save a little bit more if you decide to purchase both together using our link.
*Remember, if you do use our discount link we will earn a small commission, it’s how we keep the free content coming*
If you want to understand more about their web-based software solution, read my jungle scout review.
What many online sellers tend to do is try out the Chrome extension first and explore the features of the Jungle Scout software later on – it all depends on your needs.
If you’re looking for more than just sales and revenue estimates, you may want to consider the software.
If you want an alternative to Jungle scout on the app side of things you might want to look into Helium 10. We use a lot of different tools so we will keep writing about them and sharing our verdicts with you.
When installing the Jungle Scout extension, it will only ask for the general permissions, so nothing extra to worry about there.
Key Features
Both Unicorn Smasher and Jungle Scout function in a similar way.
Once installed, each extension will highlight sales opportunities on Amazon by looking at specific data, including prices, reviews, and estimated sales.
Unicorn Smasher
- Access real-time data. Take a closer look at thousands of product prices, reviews, ratings, bestseller ranks, and estimated sales to plan your strategy.
- Filter results. Not many people know this, but the Unicorn Smasher extension allows you to filter your results based on different criteria. This can really speed up the research process.
- Save search results. The Add to Dashboard feature allows you to save your search results, making it easier to access that data anytime you use the extension. No need to run the same search again.
- Export to CSV. Prefer to save and explore your research in Google Sheets or Microsoft Excel? Simply export your search results to a CSV file.
Jungle Scout
- Instant access to accurate data. Gain access to sales and revenue estimates and keyword data for thousands of products. Their Niche hunter tool is especially useful.
- Determine product seasonality. The Jungle Scout extension works with Google Trends, which means you can easily see the demand for a specific product over time.
- Discover more opportunities. Using associated word clouds, the extension highlights which keywords and search terms are associated with a product to help you broaden your search and possibly your offering.
- Explore product history. With the help of Amazon Sales Rank and product price history data, you can pick up on trends and determine potential profits.
I thought it was also worth mentioning that both extensions have an easy-to-use interface. However, Jungle Scout’s interface is definitely better designed.
A little while ago I thought I’d put a number of the jungle scout alternatives (including Unicorn Smasher) to the test, I’ll leave a link to the article towards the end.
Speed
While extensions are designed to make certain tasks easier, you still don’t want them to slow down your browser. Here’s how they compare.
Unicorn Smasher
The Unicorn Smasher extension has a fair speed, but it can be better if you have a fast internet connection.
I think what bugs me more is the 5-second advertisement screen that pops up before I can see my data.
What’s more, the extension doesn’t even load the results until after the advertisement disappears, which does decrease overall speed in general. Unfortunately, advertising is something you need to put up with if you want to use this tool for free.
I’ve also noticed that the extension doesn’t always load the data in the correct order, which can also be annoying.
Jungle Scout
If there’s one good reason to pay for the Jungle Scout Chrome extension, it’s that it loads data quickly and in the correct order.
Something else I really appreciate is that it tells me when all the results have loaded.
Naturally, a faster internet connection will also make your experience with the Jungle Scout extension more pleasant. If you are looking for another extension with speed and similar features look into Viral Launch, it’s one of our top three tools no doubt.
Data Accuracy & Integrity
Speed and price are nothing if you can’t trust the data. How accurate each extension’s data is will determine how profitable your online business will be.
When I performed a search using both extensions, I found that on average, Unicorn Smasher’s sales and revenue figures were less accurate than those on Jungle Scout (this is shown in the case study I mentioned earlier).
What sways me though is the fact that Jungle Scout has been around for longer than Unicorn Smasher, which means their product database is far more extensive.
To prove this, I performed the same search using Jungle Scout’s software. The results ended up being a very close match to their extension, with Unicorn Smasher figures still being the lowest.
I will also say that since using the Unicorn Smasher extension, there have been several instances where the data was several similar to Jungle Scout in several categories.
Then there’s Jungle Scout’s AccuSales™ announcement.
They claim that their new AccuSales™ Algorithm provides the world’s most accurate sales estimates during the product research process.
The algorithm processes hundreds of millions of data points daily and requires a warehouse of servers and several data scientists to run and maintain – pretty impressive to say the least.
In terms of data accuracy, it’s clear that Jungle Scout is investing far more than Unicorn Smasher is. This paired with their rigorous testing process makes me think that their data can be trusted more too.
Customer Service
Once you start using a tool, it’s not uncommon to run into issues. Fortunately, both Chrome extensions offer some user support.
If you navigate to the Unicorn Smasher help center, you’ll see that the majority of their help articles and how-to guides haven’t been updated in a while. These are either still accurate, or their support isn’t up to scratch.
Jungle Scout, on the other hand, seems to update their help-related content constantly, Jungle scout is a huge company in comparison so their customer service levels aren’t comparable.
Since Unicorn Smasher is run by AMZ Tracker, they also handle their support. If you can’t find the answer you’re looking for within the help center, you can complete a contact form and wait for someone to get back to you.
The Jungle Scout help center has a lot more information, their customer support is actually very good… As the old saying goes; You get what you pay for.
Jungle Scout also has a Facebook page & group that you can use to make queries – Unicorn Smasher does not have a social media presence.
Do You Need More Than an Extension?
In my opinion, both the Jungle Scout and Unicorn Smasher extension can be useful, they help you quickly compile and analyze sales data.
However, when it comes to product research we prefer to leave nothing to chance.
Sales data is an important part of the research process, but before we decide on a product we will want to look at a few other points of interest.
Another tool to consider is Keepa, some think it’s a bit outdated now but it’s another alternative to Jungle Scout.
One of the most important areas is the keyword side of things, before we make any decisions we want to know which keywords are bringing in the traffic and subsequent sales to that particular product.
To give you an example, if a product is pulling in most of it’s traffic through a branded search term for us it would be one to avoid…
To start looking at this you’d need Jungle scouts software suite, unicorn smasher don’t offer anything that could do this.
Jungle scout also have an insane tool that can help you find the suppliers that your competitor is using, the video below explains more.
With Jungle scout, you’ve got everything you need to reverse engineer the success of your competitor.
Alternative Software Options
I’ve actually put together a guide to run through all of the jungle scout competitors if you are interested in more detail give it a read.
As you are probably starting to see, unicorn smasher and jungle scout aren’t exactly comparable, one company is far bigger than the other.
If you would like to consider two other software options for product research and more, I suggest you read my Viral Launch and Helium 10 reviews. I have mentioned them both throughout this review so I thought I’d share the full review articles on them also.
If you are a regular reader of this blog you’ll know that I favor one of these options in particular.
Unicorn Smasher vs Jungle Scout: Which One Is Best?
Overall, these tools do have similar functionality, which is providing sellers with estimates and data on the products they potentially want to sell. However, price and data accuracy are two factors that stand out when comparing Unicorn Smasher and Jungle Scout.
If you’re still weighing up your options and deciding whether selling on Amazon is right for you, you may want to go with Unicorn Smasher. The data is useful, the extension is easy enough to use, and you won’t need to add an additional expense to your budget. Just a pity about the speed and advertising.
If you are planning on taking your Amazon business seriously use Jungle Scout if you don’t but your competitors do, you’ll be at a clear disadvantage.
You don’t need to invest in any software, if you are just starting out i’d recommend learning more about the process of selling on Amazon.
If you fully understand the process and you know how you are going to be using the software, jump right in!
I hope that you found this review useful. Please let me know if you have any questions in the comments section.
Tags: amazon seller tools, Amazon Software Comparison, jungle scout, unicorn smasher
