Competitive Intelligence by Industry
Turn the records your competitors leave in your industry into decisions: which deals to fight, which bids to enter, which prices to answer. The complete guide for go-to-market leaders, industry by industry.
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- 44%
- of CEOs planning a big acquisition expect to buy outside their industry PwC Global CEO Survey, 2026
- €329 million
- EU fine on two delivery companies, partly for sharing prices and strategy European Commission, 2025
By industry
Competitive intelligence guides by industry
Each guide is built around one industry's records, rules and calendar.
Cybersecurity companies
Answer a competitor's flaws, test results and free bundles with facts, and see its next certification before it lands.
- Deliverable
- Competitor proof sheet
- Paced by
- The security calendar
At a glance
Where competitors leave records, in 19 industries
Every industry has a place where competitors must publish facts about themselves. A security vendor's exploited flaws land in a government catalogue. A defense contractor's wins are listed in a contract database. A restaurant chain's menu prices sit on delivery apps for anyone to read. Find your row: it names the records, the decision they feed and the dates that set your year.
| Industry | Where competitors leave records | The decision it feeds | The yearly clock |
|---|---|---|---|
| SaaSBusiness software, vertical SaaS and AI apps | Pricing pages, changelogs, status pages, integration marketplaces, sub-processor lists | What to charge per seat or per use, what to build and which ecosystem to back | Each competitor's launch event, annual price changes, buyers' fiscal year-end |
| CybersecuritySecurity vendors | Lists of exploited flaws (CISA, ENISA), MITRE evaluations, lab tests, government cloud certifications | How to answer a competitor's flaw or certification in a live deal | RSA in spring, Black Hat in August, government budget year-ends |
| FintechPayments, lending and banking software | Licence registers, enforcement orders against partner banks, consumer complaint databases | Which markets to enter, and how to sell against a competitor's partner bank | Licence renewals, regulator rule deadlines |
| Deep techQuantum, robotics, chips, materials, climate hardware | Research papers, patents, public grants, specialist job ads | Which technical path to fund, and which partners to sign first | Grant deadlines, the field's main conferences, funding rounds |
| GamingGame studios and publishers | Store pages, player counts, age ratings, trademark filings | When to announce, launch and discount your game | Summer Game Fest in June, Gamescom in August, The Game Awards in December |
| BankingRetail, commercial and challenger banks | Capital and risk disclosures, deposit rate data, branch openings and closures, complaint data | What to pay on deposits, and where to open or close branches | Quarterly results, each central bank rate decision |
| Financial servicesAsset and wealth managers, brokers, lenders | Adviser and fund registrations, holdings reports, fund fee disclosures, broker records | How to price funds and advice against competitors' fees | Quarterly holdings reports, annual fund reports |
| InsuranceCarriers, MGAs and insurtechs | Rate and product filings with regulators, complaint data, comparison sites | Where to price, which products to file and how to rank on comparison sites | Rate filing cycles, renewal seasons, annual reports |
| HealthcareHealthtech and medical device companies | Device approvals and recalls, certified health IT listings, hospital and payer tenders | How to win a hospital evaluation against a cleared device or certified system | Hospital budget cycles, health tech trade shows, regulatory deadlines |
| DefenseGovernment and defense contractors | Contract awards, bid protest decisions, government price lists, tender portals | Whether to bid, who to team with and at what price | Each government's fiscal year, with US spending peaking before 30 September |
| AerospaceCommercial aviation suppliers and space companies | Launch and spectrum licences, type certificates, airshow orders, supplier awards | Which programmes to bid on, and how to price against a qualified competitor | Paris Air Show in odd-year Junes, Farnborough in even-year Julys |
| Professional servicesConsulting, accounting and managed IT firms | Auditor databases, auditor-change filings, public contract awards, peer review reports | Which clients to pitch, and when a client is about to replace its firm | Audit tenders, annual shareholder meetings in spring, public-sector budget cycles |
| Law firmsBusiness development, marketing and practice leaders | Court records, filings that name counsel, lateral hire announcements, legal directory rankings | Which clients and practices to pitch, and which lateral partners to hire | Legal directory submission deadlines, the firm's financial year-end |
| Legal servicesALSPs, eDiscovery and legal tech providers | Law firm technology announcements, product changelogs, event agendas, review sites | How to win a law firm's or legal department's platform or panel choice | Legal tech conferences, law firm budget cycles |
| AgenciesMarketing, creative, dev, recruiting and sales agencies | Client case studies, award entries, review directories, job ads | Which pitches to chase, and how to price and position against rival agencies | Client budget planning each autumn, award season in spring and June |
| EcommerceOnline brands and marketplace sellers | Reviews, ad libraries, marketplace best-seller ranks, trademark filings | Which promotion, shipping threshold or product launch to answer | Prime Day in July, Black Friday and Cyber Monday |
| RetailMulti-store and omnichannel chains | Weekly circulars, store opening and closing notices, loyalty terms, retail media offers | Which promotions to answer, and where to open, close or refit stores | Back to school, the holiday quarter, the retail year-end in January |
| RestaurantsRestaurant chains and franchisors | Reviews, delivery app menus and prices, permit and liquor licence filings, franchise disclosure documents | Which menu items and prices to answer, and where to open next | Limited-time offer seasons, delivery app promotions, annual franchise disclosures |
| MediaPublishers, broadcasters, podcasts and B2B media | Audience rankings, subscription prices, ad rate cards, media kits | What to charge readers and advertisers, and which shows or titles to launch | Upfront ad sales each spring, audience ranking releases, year-end subscription offers |
Each record runs on its own delay. In the EU, a public contract award notice must be sent for publication within 30 days of signing. A patent application stays unpublished for 18 months. A private UK company can file its yearly accounts up to nine months after its year-end. Know the delay of each record you read, and you know how far behind, or ahead, it puts you.
Track your industry's competitors automatically
Flares follows each competitor's prices, product pages, claims, reviews and hiring, and sends you what changed each week.
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What changes
What changes from one industry to the next
The method is the same everywhere: know your competitors, watch what they change, act before your buyers notice. Four things change with the industry, and they decide where your hours go.
Who you really compete against
A security vendor loses deals to a platform that bundles its product for free. An agency loses work to the client's in-house team. A game competes with the other games launching that week. And new names keep arriving from other sectors. PwC surveyed 4,454 CEOs in 95 countries for its 2026 report: 44% of those planning a major acquisition expected to buy outside their own industry. Start your list with what your buyers actually chose instead of you.
Where the records live
Regulated industries publish more about competitors than any vendor will tell you. Banks publish capital and risk disclosures several times a year. In many markets, insurers must file their rates with a regulator. A medical device maker may cite a competitor's device as equivalent to get its own approved. Inventors filed 3.7 million patent applications worldwide in 2024, and each one names the company behind it. Where regulators publish little, reviews, ads and job postings carry more of the weight.
What you may collect and say
All industries ban lying and stealing secrets. Many add their own lines. Competitors may not swap prices, plans or costs, even through a shared pricing tool. In 2025, the European Commission fined two food delivery companies €329 million, partly because they had exchanged information on prices, strategy and capacity. Defense bidders may not obtain a rival's bid before the award. Lawyers follow bar rules on soliciting clients. Medical device makers may only promote the uses their approval covers.
How fast things move
A software competitor can change its pricing page on a Tuesday. A bank changes deposit rates after each central bank decision. A defense program moves with the fiscal year, an aircraft part with a certification that takes years. Rules move too: governments reported a record 5,206 new or changed product rules to the WTO in 2025. Set your routine on your industry's clock, not on a weekly habit borrowed from software.
Your industry
Map competitive intelligence for your own industry
If your industry has no guide yet, or you sell into several, map it yourself. It takes an afternoon, and the result is a page you can hand to anyone who joins the team.
- 1
List who you lose to
First hour- Pull your last 20 lost deals and note who won each one
- Add the options buyers choose without a vendor: in-house, a spreadsheet, doing nothing
- Keep the five names that come up most
- 2
Find the records they must publish
Second hour- Ask which regulator licenses, inspects or certifies your competitors
- Search its public register for each competitor's name
- Add the marketplaces, app stores and tender portals where buyers compare vendors
- 3
Write down the legal lines
Half an hour- Note what your industry bans beyond lies and theft: price talks, bid information, client solicitation
- Ask your legal team which contacts are off limits
- Share the list with everyone who talks to competitors' customers or staff
- 4
Build the yearly calendar
Last hour- Mark your industry's trade shows, filing deadlines and buying seasons
- Note when each record updates: daily, quarterly or yearly
- Plan your busiest review weeks around those dates
Small private competitors are the hardest to map, because they publish so little. Even they appear in company registries, which list their owners, officers and addresses and, in many countries, their yearly accounts.
Automation
Automate competitor monitoring, check the records yourself
Whatever your industry, part of the watching never stops. Pricing pages, product pages, messaging, reviews, ads, social media and job ads change weekly, and checking them by hand eats the hours your industry's records need. Watching those pages is the job of a competitive intelligence platform. Flares follows it for each competitor and sends what changed in a weekly digest, with an AI report on each one. With Gong or Modjo connected, it also catches each competitor named on your recorded sales calls. It does not read court dockets, contract awards, rate filings or regulator registers. Those stay on your own calendar.
Automated competitor monitoring
Prices, product pages, claims, reviews and hiring, checked for each competitor.
Weekly competitive digest
Each Monday, what each competitor changed, ranked by what it means for you.
AI competitive analysis reports
Each competitor's prices, features, positioning and latest moves, ready before a pitch or a bid review.
Get a weekly digest of your industry's competitors
Flares reports your competitors' pricing, product and messaging changes each Monday, so your team acts first.
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FAQ
Competitive intelligence by industry FAQ
Does competitive intelligence work differently in each industry?
Yes, in four ways. Who you compete against changes, from look-alike companies to platforms and in-house teams. Where competitors leave records changes, from company filings to rate filings, court records and app stores. The legal lines change, and so does the yearly clock. Competitive intelligence itself, gathering public facts about competitors and turning them into decisions, works the same in any market.
Which industries use competitive intelligence the most?
No recent survey ranks industries, but some have used competitive intelligence for decades. Pharmaceutical companies track rivals' clinical trials to see which new drug will reach the market first. Defense contractors read a rival's past contract awards before bidding to replace it. Large law firms check court records to see which rival firm a target client hired for its last case. Banks compare their savings rates with competitors' before each pricing decision. Retailers read competitors' weekly flyers to decide which promotions to match. In B2B software, product marketing usually runs the work, starting with competitors' pricing pages.
What does competitive intelligence look like in different industries?
A security vendor checks whether a competitor's product sits on a government list of exploited flaws before a deal review. A defense contractor reads the incumbent's contract award and price list before deciding to bid. A bank compares its deposit rates with the national averages each month. A restaurant chain reads competitors' delivery menus before changing its prices. Each time, a public record changes a decision.
Where do competitors leave public records in each industry?
Competitors mostly leave them with whoever licenses, certifies or buys from them. Regulators publish filings and registers: rate filings for insurers, risk disclosures for banks, device approvals for medical technology. Buyers publish awards, in government contract databases and tender portals. Platforms publish rankings and review sites publish what customers say. The table on this page names the main records for 19 industries.
How do you collect competitive intelligence in a regulated industry?
Start with the regulator's public register: search each competitor's name, save the filings and note when the next one is due. Add the records buyers publish, such as contract awards and tender results. Then add what your own teams hear in deals. Keep a dated log, because the change from one filing to the next tells you more than any single filing.
Is competitive intelligence legal in every industry?
Yes, when it relies on public records, your own data and what buyers share freely. Each industry adds its own lines. Competitors may not share current prices or plans, directly or through a shared tool. Defense bidders may not obtain a rival's bid or the buyer's evaluation before the award. Lawyers follow bar rules on soliciting clients. Health and finance add privacy rules for personal data. Ask your legal team for your industry's list, and share it once.
How is competitive intelligence different from industry analysis?
Industry analysis studies a market as a whole: its size, growth, suppliers, buyers and the forces that shape profits. Competitive intelligence studies the companies in it, one by one: what each sells, charges and claims, and what it will do next. You need the first to choose a market and the second to win in it. A market's structure changes over years, while competitor facts change every week.
Do competitive intelligence tools work in every industry?
For what competitors publish on the web, yes. A competitor's pricing page, product pages, reviews, ads and job ads can be watched automatically, whatever it sells, and that is what most competitive intelligence software does. The records that set regulated industries apart are different. Court dockets, contract awards, rate filings and regulator registers sit in their own databases, and they need a specialist service or a person who checks them on a schedule.
Which industry guide fits a company that sells to several industries?
Find your company in the line under each industry's name in the table. Healthcare covers companies selling to hospitals and payers. Legal services covers vendors selling to law firms, while law firms covers the firms themselves. If you match two rows, read the one whose buyers bring most of your revenue first, then compare the two calendars.
How often should you review competitors in your industry?
Review them as often as your industry's records change, and no more. Pricing pages and reviews move weekly in software and ecommerce, so a weekly scan pays there. Bank rates follow central bank decisions, insurance rates follow filing cycles and defense contracts follow the fiscal year. Keep a light weekly check for the web, then add each record on its own date: quarterly for bank disclosures and fund holdings, yearly for licence renewals.
What if my industry is not listed?
Answer the four questions each guide answers: who you really lose to, where those competitors must publish records, which lines your industry draws and which dates set your year. That takes an afternoon, and the four steps on this page walk through it. The rest, from pricing pages to reviews and job ads, works the same in any industry.
Ready? Your competitors won't wait for you.
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