A UX competitive analysis answers a simple question before you design: how do other products already solve this? Done well, it saves weeks of reinventing patterns and shows you exactly where you can be better. Done badly, it is a 60-slide deck nobody opens twice. Here is how to do it well.
Step 1: Define the question
Do not analyse "the competition". Analyse one experience. Good scopes:
- How do competitors handle onboarding for a new team?
- How do they present pricing and plan upgrades?
- How does search work when results are empty?
A narrow question produces a useful answer.
Step 2: Pick three to six products
- Two or three direct competitors, which your customers compare you with.
- One or two indirect competitors, which solve the same problem a different way.
- One best-in-class example from any industry for this specific flow. The best checkout might be in retail, not your market.
Step 3: Capture every step
Go through each flow as a new user and screenshot every screen, including errors, empty states, emails and loading states. Record a short video for anything animated. Note the date: products change.
Capture screens with their link and a short note. For web flows, a full page capture often helps; see how to take a full page screenshot. For apps, see saving UI from mobile apps.
Step 4: Use a simple template
For each product and each step, record:
- Screen: the screenshot.
- What happens: one sentence.
- Strength: what works.
- Weakness: what is confusing or slow.
- Score: 1 to 5 against two or three agreed criteria, such as clarity, speed and trust.
Then add one row per product summarising the whole flow: number of steps, time to complete, and the single best idea worth borrowing.
Step 5: Look for patterns, not winners
Lay the flows side by side.
- Conventions: what everyone does. Users will expect it. Break it only for a good reason.
- Differentiators: what one product does that others do not. Is it better?
- Gaps: what nobody does well. That is your opportunity.
Step 6: Turn it into decisions
End with a short list of recommendations, each tied to evidence: "Show the price before account creation, like three of five competitors, because the two that hide it have the most complaints in reviews." Three clear decisions beat thirty observations.
Step 7: Keep the evidence alive
The most wasted part of most competitive analyses is the screenshots. They end up in a slide deck and are lost. Instead, store them in a shared library tagged by competitor and flow, so anyone on the team can search "competitor X pricing" next quarter and find them.
GetRef works well for this: screenshots keep their link and date, the text inside them is searchable, and a shared collection holds the whole analysis. See how to build a shared design reference library for teams. For pricing pages specifically, see pricing page design best practices, and for first-run flows, onboarding UX best practices.
Common questions
- What is a UX competitive analysis?
- A UX competitive analysis is a structured review of how competing or comparable products handle the experiences you are designing, such as onboarding, pricing or search. It identifies patterns users already expect, gaps you can exploit and mistakes to avoid.
- What should a UX competitive analysis template include?
- A list of competitors, the specific flows to review, screenshots of each step, a short description of what happens, strengths and weaknesses, a simple score against agreed criteria, and the implications for your own design.
- How many competitors should I analyse?
- Three to six is usually enough: two or three direct competitors, one or two indirect ones that solve the same problem differently, and one best-in-class product from another industry for the specific flow.
- How do I keep a competitive analysis up to date?
- Store the screenshots in a shared, searchable library tagged by competitor and flow, date them, and re-capture key flows every quarter or after a competitor launch.
