Competitive intelligence companies — the definitive list (2024 update)

Every now and then, we publish a list of competitive intelligence companies. Our criteria include that competitive intelligence has to be their primary, or at least significant, focus. Other agencies graze the edges of competitive intelligence, but it's not their main service. All the companies we listed carry out primary or secondary research for their clients (usually both), and they all have competitive intelligence-focused websites. Some provide additional services such as customer research and marketing strategy. Or they may focus less exclusively on competitive analysis, instead providing business intelligence, market intelligence, traditional market research or analysis of industry trends in addition to competitor intelligence. Aqute only does competitive intelligence analysis (and the same goes for other companies on this list).

We have updated the list again based on customer feedback and changes to some of the competitive intelligence companies on the list. A few have shut down, a few have moved away from competitive intelligence research, and so on.

These are mainly competitive intelligence research companies - not competitive intelligence tool companies. The market for competitive intelligence tools is different and mostly dominated by SEO analytics companies who have nothing to do with our work. Some companies do offer a competitive intelligence platform for the kind of competitor research that we do, although we have yet to find one that we would recommend to clients. 

Here is our current directory of competitive intelligence specialists. If we have missed anyone out, please tweet @aquteintel

1. Affinis, France

2. AIM, USA

3. Aqute Intelligence, USA, UK, @AquteIntel

4. Aurora WDC, USA, @AuroraWDC

5. AWARE, UK, @awareci

6. Blue Ocean, India, @blueoceanmi

7. China Institute of Competitive Intelligence, China

8. Competia, Canada/Switzerland, @Competia

9. DC Analytics, USA

10. Die Denkfabrik, Germany, @think2know

11. Fletcher/CSI, USA, UK, @FletcherCSI

12. Fuld & Co, USA, UK, Philippines, @FuldCompany

13. Global Intelligence Alliance, Finland HQ, global offices

14. I-Intelligence, Switzerland, @i_intelligence

15. Info+Daten, Germany, @ipd+kg

16. Inovis, USA

17. Intelligentsia, UK HQ, global offices

18. Ivy, Switzerland

19. Kirk Tyson, USA

20. MindShifts, Australia, @BabetteBen

21. Octopus Intelligence, UK, @Octopusintell

22. Proactive Worldwide, USA/China, @PWW

23. Rauch Associates, USA, UK, @RauchAssociates

24. RivalScape, USA

25. Sedulo, USA,

26. Sharp Market, USA, @SeenaSharp

27. The Business Intelligence Source, USA, @EllenNaylor

You may be asking, why are we highlighting our own competitive landscape? There aren't many service providers who cheerfully list their rivals on their websites. Primarily, we maintain this list because it is useful to companies that are looking for a competitor research company to conduct a competitor analysis project. Most competitive intelligence agencies are small, and their websites may get lost among general business and academic content devoted to competitive intelligence. In any case, competitive intelligence buyers are typically investigative types, who will find relevant agencies soon enough - the above list just saves time. And we like to think of our fellow competitor research companies as healthy competition rather than business threats - there are good reasons why you would choose Aqute Intelligence for competitor intelligence, and good reasons why you would choose someone else.

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