Tool: Perplexity
Time: 5 minutes
Result: A cited, side-by-side table of competitors' features, pricing, and gaps…ready to paste into a spreadsheet.
Twelve open tabs, a half-finished spreadsheet, and you still can't remember which plan had the API access.
AI Win #9
Paste a few competitor URLs into Perplexity and get one side-by-side table with pricing tiers, features, integrations, and what each product offers that the others don't. Unlike asking a chatbot from memory, Perplexity fetches the actual pages and cites its sources, so you can click through and verify any cell that matters.
How To Do It
Grab the URLs you want compared. Use each product's pricing or features page, not just the homepage. Why? Pricing pages hold the real details, and Perplexity reads them more reliably (it can't see behind logins, and some script-heavy homepages come back empty).
Go to perplexity.ai and paste the prompt below with your URLs filled in. The free tier works; Pro Search digs through more sources if you have it.
Scan the table and spot-check the cells that matter most. Perplexity cites each source, so click the reference to confirm a price or feature before it goes in a deck.
The prompt ends by asking for a Markdown version of the table. Copy that block and paste it into Google Sheets or Excel. It lands as clean rows and columns.
Why This Is Useful
The usual failure mode of AI competitor research is confident guessing. A chatbot "remembers" a feature that was removed two years ago. This prompt closes that gap twice: Perplexity fetches the live pages instead of relying on memory, and the "Not stated, never guess" rule forces empty cells instead of invented ones. What's left is a table where every claim traces back to a page you can open.
Copy / Paste Prompt
You are a competitive analyst. Compare these products using only their own websites:
Product 1: [URL — use the pricing or features page, not just the homepage]
Product 2: [URL]
Product 3: [URL]
My context: [WHAT YOU SELL OR ARE DECIDING — e.g., "I run a scheduling tool for salons" or "I'm choosing a CRM for a 5-person team"]
Visit each URL and build one comparison table:
Columns: one per product.
Rows: pricing (every tier with exact price and plan name), free plan or trial, the 5–8 features that matter most for my context, integrations, platforms (web / mobile / desktop), support options, and a final row for anything one product offers that the others don't.
Rules:
Use only what the pages actually say. If a page doesn't state something, write "Not stated" — never guess or fill in from general knowledge.
Quote exact prices and plan names.
If you can't load a page, tell me instead of working around it.
After the table, add:
The three biggest differences between these products.
The questions I'd still need a sales call or free trial to answer.
Finally, output the same table again in Markdown format so I can paste it into a spreadsheet.Pick three competitors you've been meaning to size up and run this before your next planning meeting.
