Should I Build It Should I Build It
21 Aug 2025
E-Commerce

“Should I Buy It?” Price Tracker. Users paste Amazon/eBay URL → app ...

...shows historical price trend and buy-now advice.

Confidence
Engagement
Net use signal
Net buy signal

Idea type: Swamp

The market has seen several mediocre solutions that nobody loves. Unless you can offer something fundamentally different, you’ll likely struggle to stand out or make money.

Should You Build It?

Don't build it.

Your are here

You're entering a crowded space with your price tracker idea. The "Swamp" category description fits well: many similar solutions exist, but none have truly captured the market. With 17 similar products already out there, standing out will be tough. The average engagement, measured by comments, is low across these existing products, so, while competition is high, maybe there is room for a much better solution. While we didn't have enough data to generate use or buy signals, the fact that other similar products exist proves at least some demand for this category. Because of this, and because of the competition, differentiating your product is key, and you need to be 10x better than the alternatives to achieve product market fit.

Recommendations

  1. First, deeply research the existing price trackers. Why haven’t they become ubiquitous? What are their shortcomings? Read user reviews, analyze their features, and identify unmet needs. Focus on understanding their failures before building anything. Competitor analysis will be key, and the provided similar products and discussions should be a great starting point.
  2. If you decide to proceed, identify a specific niche within the broader online shopping market. Don't try to be everything to everyone. Perhaps focus on a specific product category (e.g., electronics, books, clothing) or a specific type of shopper (e.g., budget-conscious students, luxury goods buyers). This will help you tailor your features and marketing efforts.
  3. Explore building tools or features that could integrate with or enhance existing price tracking platforms. Instead of directly competing, consider how you could support and improve the current ecosystem. Perhaps this means developing a powerful API for other apps to use.
  4. Consider expanding into adjacent problems that are related to price tracking but less saturated. For example, could you build a tool that automatically applies coupons or negotiates prices with sellers? Could you build tools that help sellers find optimal pricing on marketplaces? Think beyond simple price monitoring.
  5. Given the competitive landscape, carefully evaluate whether this is the best use of your time and resources. It might be wiser to explore alternative startup ideas with less direct competition and a clearer path to profitability. Do a careful and honest assessment of the opportunity costs.
  6. Based on the criticism for similar products, pay extremely close attention to certificate issues and make sure to use HTTPS. Security is of primary concern, and any security vulnerabilities can kill a product quickly. Also, do not include affiliate links without FTC disclosures or you will be in legal trouble.
  7. Look into automating price drop notifications, compatibility with international sites, and the number of items tracked in the pro plan. This is a recurring ask from users of similar products, which means it's an unmet need and an opportunity to differentiate.

Questions

  1. What is your unique value proposition? What can your price tracker do that others can't, and why should users switch from existing solutions?
  2. How will you acquire users in such a crowded market? What is your go-to-market strategy, and how will you differentiate yourself from competitors in terms of marketing and branding?
  3. What is your plan to achieve profitability? Can you build a sustainable business model with enough recurring revenue to support the development and operations costs of your price tracker?

Your are here

You're entering a crowded space with your price tracker idea. The "Swamp" category description fits well: many similar solutions exist, but none have truly captured the market. With 17 similar products already out there, standing out will be tough. The average engagement, measured by comments, is low across these existing products, so, while competition is high, maybe there is room for a much better solution. While we didn't have enough data to generate use or buy signals, the fact that other similar products exist proves at least some demand for this category. Because of this, and because of the competition, differentiating your product is key, and you need to be 10x better than the alternatives to achieve product market fit.

Recommendations

  1. First, deeply research the existing price trackers. Why haven’t they become ubiquitous? What are their shortcomings? Read user reviews, analyze their features, and identify unmet needs. Focus on understanding their failures before building anything. Competitor analysis will be key, and the provided similar products and discussions should be a great starting point.
  2. If you decide to proceed, identify a specific niche within the broader online shopping market. Don't try to be everything to everyone. Perhaps focus on a specific product category (e.g., electronics, books, clothing) or a specific type of shopper (e.g., budget-conscious students, luxury goods buyers). This will help you tailor your features and marketing efforts.
  3. Explore building tools or features that could integrate with or enhance existing price tracking platforms. Instead of directly competing, consider how you could support and improve the current ecosystem. Perhaps this means developing a powerful API for other apps to use.
  4. Consider expanding into adjacent problems that are related to price tracking but less saturated. For example, could you build a tool that automatically applies coupons or negotiates prices with sellers? Could you build tools that help sellers find optimal pricing on marketplaces? Think beyond simple price monitoring.
  5. Given the competitive landscape, carefully evaluate whether this is the best use of your time and resources. It might be wiser to explore alternative startup ideas with less direct competition and a clearer path to profitability. Do a careful and honest assessment of the opportunity costs.
  6. Based on the criticism for similar products, pay extremely close attention to certificate issues and make sure to use HTTPS. Security is of primary concern, and any security vulnerabilities can kill a product quickly. Also, do not include affiliate links without FTC disclosures or you will be in legal trouble.
  7. Look into automating price drop notifications, compatibility with international sites, and the number of items tracked in the pro plan. This is a recurring ask from users of similar products, which means it's an unmet need and an opportunity to differentiate.

Questions

  1. What is your unique value proposition? What can your price tracker do that others can't, and why should users switch from existing solutions?
  2. How will you acquire users in such a crowded market? What is your go-to-market strategy, and how will you differentiate yourself from competitors in terms of marketing and branding?
  3. What is your plan to achieve profitability? Can you build a sustainable business model with enough recurring revenue to support the development and operations costs of your price tracker?

  • Confidence: High
    • Number of similar products: 17
  • Engagement: Low
    • Average number of comments: 2
  • Net use signal: 31.9%
    • Positive use signal: 34.5%
    • Negative use signal: 2.6%
  • Net buy signal: 0.6%
    • Positive buy signal: 3.2%
    • Negative buy signal: 2.6%

This chart summarizes all the similar products we found for your idea in a single plot.

The x-axis represents the overall feedback each product received. This is calculated from the net use and buy signals that were expressed in the comments. The maximum is +1, which means all comments (across all similar products) were positive, expressed a willingness to use & buy said product. The minimum is -1 and it means the exact opposite.

The y-axis captures the strength of the signal, i.e. how many people commented and how does this rank against other products in this category. The maximum is +1, which means these products were the most liked, upvoted and talked about launches recently. The minimum is 0, meaning zero engagement or feedback was received.

The sizes of the product dots are determined by the relevance to your idea, where 10 is the maximum.

Your idea is the big blueish dot, which should lie somewhere in the polygon defined by these products. It can be off-center because we use custom weighting to summarize these metrics.

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