If you’ve done some light internet research on the question of Amazon seller research tools, you’ve probably heard two names come up again and again: Jungle Scout and Helium 10. And the question is which should you choose?
💡 Our take: We think they’re both great tools and don’t think you can go wrong with either. We think Jungle Scout is best for smaller brands where price is the number one concern, and Helium 10 is best for bigger more established brands looking for more features. Brands can start on Jungle Scout and migrate to Helium 10 as they are looking for more features.
At the end of the day, these tools are very similar. They do two core things really well: Amazon product and keyword research. They will help you come up with product ideas and validate demand for products. Each tool offers additional benefits, but in terms of core functionality, they are both similar. Don’t be swayed by people who try to argue that these two tools are vastly different.
Jungle Scout is best for:
Smaller brands and those on a tight budget looking for the most cost efficient option.
Helium 10 is best for:
Larger brands who will take advantage of its more advanced features and justify its higher price.
For this guide we’ve interviewed both Amazon FBA experts and Shopify brands that sell on Amazon. We've spoken to operators of smaller eCommerce brands and those running 9 figure brands. We’ve spent way too much time lurking Reddit and watching YouTube videos made by FBA gurus. All told we’ve done over 100 hours of research that we’ve summarized into this guide.
Both Helium 10 & Jungle Scout have lots of similar features.
Similarly strong data quality
Both brands have internal research studies that say that their data is more accurate (Helium 10’s research & Jungle Scout’s research). So who has more accurate data? We think it’s a tie. At the end of the day, both tools are taking data inputs from Amazon to estimate sales. The key word is estimate. No tool will be 100% accurate all the time. But that's okay. We think both tools are directionally accurate enough. The goal of both tools is to reduce uncertainty when making decisions, and no tool will be able to completely eliminate uncertainty. People on Reddit will vocally argue for one tool’s accuracy over the others, but in our testing we haven’t seen a meaningful difference in data accuracy. Other third party tests have shown similar results (data).
Product Research Tools (Sales Estimator)
Both tools have features that let you research competitors’ products and source product ideas. Helium 10 has their Black Box tool and Jungle Scout has their Product Database tool. These tools will give you sales estimates, review summaries, historical pricing data, number of sellers and more. Both have huge databases of Amazon products that you can filter based on your specific criteria (e.g., products with at least 10k units per month in sales with less than 400 reviews). We’ll cover below that Helium 10 has more advanced filtering options, but we think both tools are great for product research.
Keyword Research Tools
Helium 10 and Jungle Scout both have tools that help you estimate Amazon keyword search volumes. This can be extremely useful for evaluating new potential products to launch. Helium 10 has two tools for this. One called Cerebro which uses the unique Amazon product identification number (ASIN) to show the keyword searches that led to that product's purchase. The other tool is called Magnet where a user can enter a keyword or phrase and get the estimated search volume. Jungle Scout offers similar functionality with their Keyword Scout product. Some articles we’ve read incorrectly say that Jungle Scout does not have the reverse ASIN search functionality, but they do.
Listing Optimizer & Creator
Both have listing graders with ideas for optimization and tools for creating listings from keywords. Helium 10’s tool is called Listing Analyzer and Jungle Scout’s houses their Listing Optimization Score in their Listing Builder. Both tools also help you automatically create keyword optimized listings using AI. Helium 10 has the slight edge on listing optimization as it will give more insights for listing improvement than Jungle Scout.
Chrome Plugins
Both tools have chrome plugins. Helium 10’s chrome plugin is available here, and Jungle Scout’s is available here. We recommend you download them both and play around with them. They’re a great free starting place. By upgrading to paid plans you will make both plugins more powerful.
Educational Resources
Both have great resources to learn about the art of selling on Amazon and getting maximum value out of the tools. We give the slight edge to Helium 10 for their access to the Freedom course in all price tiers (discussed below), but we think they both have great training resources.
Automated emails
Emailing your customers and encouraging them to leave reviews is crucial for the success of your Amazon listing. Both tools offer automated emailing capabilities. Helium 10 includes it in their Platinum and Diamond plans and Jungle Scout includes it in their basic plan.
Jungle Scout has an edge when it comes to pricing. Jungle Scout’s tools will be cheaper than Helium 10’s. They both offer three pricing tiers with more features added as you go up the pricing tiers. The pricing is comparable in their least expensive tiers, but Helium 10 gets more expensive than Jungle Scout in their more advanced tiers.
Jungle Scout Pricing:
Basic - $49/mo Billed Monthly ($29/mo Billed Annually)
Suite - $69/mo Billed Monthly ($49/mo Billed Annually)
Professional - $129/mo Billed Monthly ($84/mo Billed Annually)
Cobalt (Enterprise) - Pricing for their enterprise plan isn’t publicly disclosed, but we have heard that pricing starts at $2,500 per month per seat.
Helium 10 Pricing:
Starter - $39/mo Billed Monthly ($29/mo Billed Annually)
Platinum - $99/mo Billed Monthly ($79/mo Billed Annually)
Diamond - $279/mo Billed Monthly ($229/mo Billed Annually)
👉 Both companies offer a 7 day money back guarantee so if you’re not happy with either simply contact them in the 7 day window to cancel your subscription and get your money back.
Jungle Scout has all of the key features needed in an Amazon research tool at an affordable price.
Pricing
For those whose primary concern is pricing, Jungle Scout has the edge. It will be cheaper than Helium 10 especially in the higher tier plans.
Supplier Database
Jungle Scout offers a much more robust supplier database. You can use this database to find the suppliers that your competitors are using to source their products. Some people subscribe to both Helium 10 and Jungle Scout just for this feature. It can be extremely helpful in sourcing products.
Giveaway / Promotions platform
We think this feature is more of a nice to have, but Jungle Scout offers the ability to manage product gifting in their platform. This can help seed products for reviews when you launch a product. The performance of your product launch is critical to the performance of your listing overall, so we do recommend focusing on it.
Helium 10 has more advanced features than Jungle Scout and its higher price will be justified for larger brands.
Helium 10 offers lots of features that aren’t available with Jungle Scout. We cover the most important below.
Walmart Data
If you’re planning to sell on Walmart.com in addition to Amazon, then we recommend Helium 10. It’s the only one of the two that offers Walmart data in addition to Amazon data (on the Platinum and Diamond plans).
Refund Genie
Helium 10 has a unique product called Refund Genie. Although Amazon has a world class fulfillment network, they sometimes make mistakes and lose or damage your inventory. When this happens you are entitled a refund, but the typical Amazon seller refund process is confusing and time consuming. With Refund Genie, Helium 10 automatically tracks 4 different reasons for inventory reimbursement (lost / damaged inventory etc.) and gives you pre-written messages to send along with your Amazon seller reimbursement requests. This ensures that you are paid all of the refunds that are owed to you. Some people find that this feature alone is enough to pay for the cost of their subscription.
More robust dashboards, filters, alerts, and reverse ASIN search
Jungle Scout offers dashboards, filters, alerts, and reverse ASIN search, but they are more robust with Helium 10. Some articles incorrectly state that Jungle Scout doesn’t offer these features. They do. However, Helium 10 gives you more features in all of these categories.
Educational Resources
Both tools have great educational resources but we give the edge to Helium 10. Helium 10 has put together an entire Amazon selling course called Freedom Course which is available to subscribers on all plans. Amazon gurus might charge hundreds or thousands of dollars for a similar course. Jungle Scout charges $999 for their course.
Keyword and Product Research
Price Trackers
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