What competitive intelligence costs in the UK depends on how you buy it. UK Data Services publishes £2,500 for a one-off competitor report and £3,500 a month for a retainer. CI software is mostly quoted privately: Vendr's buyer data puts the median Crayon and Klue contract at $30,000 a year. ORRJO Intelligence is a retainer from £2,500 a month.
Competitive intelligence (CI) is sold in four forms, and they are not the same product. A software licence, from a self-serve monitoring tool to a full platform, gives your team a tool to run. A retainer buys analysts doing the research every month. A project buys one report. A hire buys a person. This guide prices each one from the providers' own pages, adds the cost of an in-house hire, and sets out what ORRJO's retainer includes. Every outside figure links to its source, checked on 13 October 2026. Prices are shown in the currency each provider publishes; we have not converted them.
How much does competitive intelligence cost in the UK?
In sterling, UK Data Services publishes £2,500 for a one-off competitor report and £3,500 a month for a retainer, and ORRJO Intelligence starts from £2,500 a month. The software prices we found are in US dollars: website monitoring has a free tier, and Vendr's buyer data puts the median paid for Crayon and for Klue at $30,000 a year. The useful number is the one for the way you plan to buy, so these are the published figures we found for each buying model.
| Buying model | Published prices we found | Who does the analysis |
|---|---|---|
| Self-serve monitoring tool | Visualping: free tier, then from $14 a month. Similarweb Competitive Intelligence plan: $125 a month billed annually. Competitors App: $29.80 per competitor a month (list price) | You |
| CI software platform | Crayon and Klue quote privately. Vendr's buyer data: median $30,000 a year for each (Crayon, Klue). Feedly Market Intelligence: $1,600 a month billed annually | Your team, using the platform |
| Agency or managed retainer | UK Data Services: £3,500 a month. CI Radar: "just over a thousand dollars per month" to start. ORRJO Intelligence: from £2,500 a month (publisher's entry) | The provider's analysts |
| One-off project | UK Data Services: £2,500 for a competitor report, £5,000+ for a market intelligence project | The provider's analysts |
| In-house hire | Glassdoor, via the Competitive Intelligence Alliance: UK average CI analyst salary £39,057. IT Jobs Watch: median salary £62,500 a year for UK jobs citing competitive intelligence (8 salaries). Both before employer costs | Your hire |
UK Data Services also gives its own view of the market in its FAQ: UK CI services typically range from £2,500 for a focused competitor analysis report to £5,000 to £25,000 for comprehensive market research projects, and ongoing retainers typically cost £3,500 to £10,000 a month, depending on scope, the number of competitors monitored and the depth of analysis. That is one provider's statement, with no survey cited behind it, so treat it as a guide rather than a benchmark.
Which competitive intelligence providers publish a price?
Few do. Of the 19 providers in the two tables below, eight publish a price on their own site, and among agencies and consultancies with a UK base or office, only UK Data Services and ORRJO publish one. Each description and location is taken from the provider's own pages.
| Provider | What it is | Published price | Based, as stated |
|---|---|---|---|
| ORRJO Intelligence (publisher's entry) | Named analyst research retainer | From £2,500 a month | Headquartered in Glasgow, registered office in London |
| UK Data Services | Competitor reports, market intelligence projects and a retainer | Competitor Report £2,500 one-time; Market Intelligence £5,000+; Strategic Retainer £3,500 a month | Hickling, Norfolk |
| CI Radar | Cloud-based CI service, sold as a fixed price subscription | "Just over a thousand dollars per month" to start; minimum contract quarterly (3 months) | Peachtree Corners, Georgia, US |
| Feedly Market Intelligence | Market intelligence monitoring | $1,600 a month billed annually (up to 10 seats); $2,400 a month billed annually (up to 25 seats) | Not stated on the pages checked |
| Similarweb | Web intelligence and website traffic analytics | Competitive Intelligence plan $125 a month billed annually, or $199 billed monthly (1 user seat, 3 months of historical data); enterprise quoted | Not stated on the page checked |
| Competitors App | Competitor monitoring software | $29.80 (Business AI) or $39.80 (Business Plus AI) per competitor a month, paid monthly, at list price; a 50% October offer was showing when we checked | Sibiu, Romania |
| Visualping | Website change monitoring | Free for 150 checks a month across 5 pages; Personal from $14 a month; Business from $140 a month or $1,200 a year | Vancouver, Canada |
| Wynter | On-demand B2B market research, not CI software | Pro $20,000 a year; Elite $40,000 a year; Wynter Black $100,000 a year | Austin, Texas, US |
The other eleven quote on request. This is what each site says about price, in its own words where it gives any.
| Provider | What it is | What the site says about price | Based, as stated |
|---|---|---|---|
| Octopus Intelligence | Competitive intelligence agency | "We don't use fixed rate cards." Three indicative bands, with no figures | Nottingham, UK |
| Cognosis | Boutique strategy consultancy offering competitor benchmarking | No price on the page | London |
| Advantage Market Intelligence | Market research and market intelligence, including competitor analysis | No price on the page | Nottingham |
| B2B International | B2B market research, including competitive intelligence research | No price on the pages checked | Offices listed in London, Manchester and Edinburgh, plus the US, Germany, Singapore, Australia and China |
| Fuld | Competitive intelligence and strategy firm | No price on the pages checked | Offices listed in San Francisco, London, New York, Singapore and India |
| Aqute Intelligence | Competitive intelligence from primary fieldwork and secondary research | A focused study "might cost a few thousand dollars"; a multi-competitor, multi-country analysis costs more | Not stated on the pages checked |
| Crayon | Market intelligence platform | "Crayon's pricing is tailored to the needs of your competitive intelligence program." Estimate on request | Not stated on the pages checked |
| Klue | Competitive intelligence and win-loss platform | No pricing page; its pricing address redirects to the homepage | Vancouver, Canada |
| Kompyte (Semrush) | Competitive intelligence platform with sales battlecards | Three annual plans (Essentials, Professional, Unlimited) with no prices shown | Semrush Inc., Boston, US |
| Contify | Market and competitive intelligence platform | Its pricing address redirects to the contact page | Offices listed in the US, London and India |
| AlphaSense | AI business insights platform | "Connect with our sales team for scalable pricing"; annual subscriptions | New York, US |
What does competitive intelligence software cost?
Crayon and Klue do not publish a price, and the public figure we found is Vendr's buyer data: a median of $30,000 a year for Crayon and the same for Klue. Vendr, a software buying service, bases these on its own purchase data, not on list prices.
| Platform | Median paid a year | Low to high | Purchases in Vendr's data |
|---|---|---|---|
| Crayon | $30,000 | $12,700 to $46,000 | 93, buyers saving 20% on average |
| Klue | $30,000 | $16,000 to $60,000 | 106, buyers saving 18% on average |
Both Vendr pages were last updated in February 2026. Three things move what CI software costs you in total.
- Onboarding. Vendr says Crayon may charge separately for onboarding, training and initial setup, and that these fees can range from a few thousand dollars to 10 to 15% of the annual contract value for complex deployments. For Klue, Vendr says onboarding fees are often quoted separately and range from low-to-mid five figures depending on deployment complexity.
- Scale. Kompyte says its price is set by the number of competitors tracked, the number of licences you need, and whether you require SSO and advanced permission management. It sells annual plans, says shorter subscription periods may be available for a premium, and says all plans include customised setup, onboarding and ongoing support.
- A person to run it. Klue's own build-vs-buy calculator, a three-year cost model on US and EU big-tech loaded cost assumptions, defaults to a $120k enterprise CI platform licence a year and still counts 0.30 of a full-time programme owner at $200k a year: "still need someone running the program".
Several monitoring tools do publish prices. Feedly Market Intelligence costs $1,600 a month billed annually for up to 10 seats, Similarweb's Competitive Intelligence plan $125 a month billed annually, and Visualping's Business plans from $140 a month. In Wynter's 2026 survey of 101 B2B SaaS product marketers, more use AI chat tools than dedicated CI software: 21% use ChatGPT, Claude or other LLMs as a source of competitive intelligence, and only 14% rely on dedicated CI tools.
What does a competitive intelligence agency retainer cost?
Among UK providers that publish a retainer price, UK Data Services charges £3,500 a month and ORRJO Intelligence starts from £2,500 a month; the other agencies we checked quote on scope.
- UK Data Services, Strategic Retainer, £3,500 a month: monthly intelligence briefings, real-time competitor alerts, quarterly deep-dive reports, ad-hoc research requests, dedicated analyst support and strategic advisory calls. The same page describes its competitor tracking as a weekly brief on price moves, range changes, stock-outs, promotions, reviews and job adverts, with collection running daily by default.
- CI Radar, from "just over a thousand dollars per month": a fixed price subscription from a US firm founded in 2004, with a quarterly (3 month) minimum contract. For qualified companies it offers intelligence samples or a 90 day pilot.
- Octopus Intelligence, quoted: its pricing page says ongoing programmes "usually require a higher but more predictable investment and often deliver longer-term value."
- Wynter Black, $100,000 a year: Wynter's top research plan, whose inclusions list "Periodic competitive and market insights". Its Pro ($20,000 a year, 20,000 credits) and Elite ($40,000 a year) plans buy credits for on-demand B2B market research, where 1 credit is 1 dollar.
- ORRJO Intelligence, from £2,500 a month: see the publisher's entry below.
ORRJO's published starting price is lower than UK Data Services' published retainer, but the scopes are different. Theirs lists monthly briefings, real-time alerts and quarterly deep dives; ours is five research modules with a quarterly refresh. Compare what each retainer delivers, not only the monthly figure.
What does a one-off competitive intelligence project cost?
UK Data Services publishes the only UK project prices we found: £2,500 for a competitor report and from £5,000 for a market intelligence project. No other agency or consultancy in our tables publishes a project price: Aqute Intelligence says a focused study might cost a few thousand dollars, and the rest quote on request.
| Project | Published price | Scope, as listed | Delivery |
|---|---|---|---|
| UK Data Services Competitor Report | £2,500 one-time | Up to 5 competitors, a SWOT for each, pricing and positioning review, digital presence audit, executive summary | 2-3 weeks |
| UK Data Services Market Intelligence | £5,000+ | 10+ competitor deep-dives, industry trend analysis, customer sentiment insights, strategic recommendations | 4-6 weeks |
| Aqute Intelligence focused study | "A few thousand dollars" | A focused study, such as pricing or go-to-market motion | Typically 3 to 6 weeks for a CI project, depending on complexity |
A project costs less up front, and Octopus Intelligence says ad hoc projects cost less than continuous daily monitoring with weekly and monthly summaries. The catch is shelf life. In Wynter's 2026 survey, 47% of B2B SaaS product marketers said their battlecards go stale within 3 months, and 82% within 6 months.
ORRJO does not sell a one-off CI project. ORRJO Intelligence runs as a monthly retainer, there is no standalone sprint, and a 3-month paid pilot is available to start. If you are pricing a single go-to-market research project rather than ongoing competitive intelligence, our guide to go-to-market research cost covers that.
What does an in-house competitive intelligence analyst cost?
Glassdoor puts the average UK CI analyst salary at £39,057, as reported by the Competitive Intelligence Alliance, while UK job adverts citing competitive intelligence or competitor analysis skills carry median salaries that come to £49,508 to £72,446 a year once employer National Insurance and pension are added. Both are before recruitment, tools and management time. The advert medians are for any permanent job that cites the skill, not only analyst roles, and they depend on whether the advert says competitor analysis or competitive intelligence.
| Cost line | Jobs citing competitive intelligence | Jobs citing competitor analysis | Product marketing manager |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median salary (IT Jobs Watch, 6 months to 13 October 2026) | £62,500 (8 salaries) | £42,750 (42 salaries) | £70,000 (40 salaries) |
| Employer National Insurance, 15% above £5,000 a year (HMRC) | £8,625 | £5,663 | £9,750 |
| Employer pension, 3% minimum on earnings between £6,240 and £50,270 (GOV.UK) | £1,321 | £1,095 | £1,321 |
| Salary and statutory employer costs, a year | £72,446 | £49,508 | £81,071 |
| The same, a month | £6,037 | £4,126 | £6,756 |
The totals are our own arithmetic from the cited inputs, rounded to the nearest pound. They exclude recruitment, software, equipment, benefits and management time, and they assume no Employment Allowance. The competitive intelligence median rests on only 8 salaries; outside London, IT Jobs Watch's median for the same jobs is £47,500. Glassdoor's figures, as reported by the Competitive Intelligence Alliance on 5 June 2026, are salary only: a UK average CI analyst salary of £39,057, a typical range between £29,490 and £51,727, and a London average of £43,851.
Most B2B SaaS companies do not hire for it. Wynter's survey found only 21% of B2B SaaS companies have a dedicated competitive intelligence person or team, 15% in the mid-market and 29% in enterprise; in 52%, product marketing runs CI as a side job. That is why the product marketing manager column is there: if CI sits with your product marketer, you are paying for it in their time.
A hire and a retainer are not the same unit. A hire gives you one person full time. A retainer gives you an agreed scope of research and the analysts behind it, without the employment.
What changes the price of competitive intelligence?
Scope sets the price: how many competitors, how much primary research, how often the work is refreshed, and how fast you need it. Octopus Intelligence lists these cost drivers on its pricing page:
- Number of competitors. Two SaaS competitors are easier to track than ten industrial players across different regions.
- Primary versus secondary research. More interviews, mystery shopping and fieldwork expand the scope.
- Monitoring cadence. Ad hoc projects cost less than continuous daily monitoring with weekly and monthly summaries.
- Integration and enablement. Pricing playbooks, CRM integration and sales training add effort.
- Timeline. Short deadlines, such as a deal or a board decision, may demand more effort.
Software is priced on similar levers. Kompyte names competitors tracked, licences and SSO, and Vendr notes that onboarding fees can sit outside the licence. UK Data Services says UK retainers typically vary with scope, the number of competitors monitored and the depth of analysis. Before you compare quotes, write down the competitors in scope, who will use the output, and how often it needs refreshing, and give every provider the same brief.
Software, agency or in-house: which should you choose?
Choose by who will do the analysis: software needs an owner, an agency or project brings its own analysts, and a hire gives you a person but not a team.
| Option | Published cost example | Who does the analysis | Fits when |
|---|---|---|---|
| Self-serve tools | Free, then from $14 a month (Visualping); $125 a month billed annually (Similarweb) | You | You want alerts on a short list of competitor pages and have time to read them |
| CI platform | Median $30,000 a year for Crayon and for Klue (Vendr) | Your CI owner, with the platform collecting and sharing | Someone already owns CI and your sales team needs battlecards kept current |
| Agency retainer | £3,500 a month (UK Data Services); from £2,500 a month (ORRJO, publisher's entry) | The agency's analysts | You want research every month without hiring |
| One-off project | £2,500 to £5,000+ (UK Data Services) | The provider's analysts | One decision needs evidence, such as a pricing review or a new market |
| In-house hire | £39,057 average CI analyst salary (Glassdoor, via the CI Alliance); £49,508 to £72,446 a year with employer NI and pension for job adverts citing CI or competitor analysis (IT Jobs Watch medians, our arithmetic) | Your hire | CI is a full-time job at your company and you can manage the role |
These are not exclusive. Klue's calculator assumes a platform still needs part of a person, and an agency's output is only useful if someone inside the business acts on it.
What does ORRJO Intelligence cost, and what do you get each month?
ORRJO Intelligence starts from £2,500 a month, bought on its own or included in a full ORRJO engagement. ORRJO publishes this page, so read this section as the publisher's entry and check it against the providers above.
| Item | ORRJO Intelligence |
|---|---|
| Price | From £2,500 a month |
| How it is bought | A monthly retainer, standalone or included in a full ORRJO engagement. There is no standalone sprint |
| Term | A 3-month paid pilot is available to start. Engagements typically run 6 to 12 months, and committing to 12 months earns a discounted rate |
| Refresh | Your Intelligence is built once, then validated against live execution data every quarter |
| Sign-off | Named analyst signature on every report |
Win-loss, ICP research, voice of customer, buyer interviews and competitive intelligence are all delivered inside ORRJO Intelligence. The retainer includes:
- Competitive intelligence and positioning research
- ICP definition and named account targeting
- Buyer voice research and verbatim quote bank
- Market opportunity and channel playbook
- Named analyst signature on every report
The work is organised in five modules: 01 Market Opportunity Analysis, 02 ICP Deep Dive, 03 Competitive Intelligence Brief, 04 Channel and Campaign Playbook and 05 Ready to Execute Assets. The Competitive Intelligence Brief covers positioning maps, pricing verified from primary sources, messaging gaps, and white space analysis. The Ready to Execute Assets are outbound email sequences, LinkedIn templates, a named account list (CSV and CRM ready) and a positioning brief for sales.
The research method has five parts: halt rules, a validation layer, an audit trail, three confidence tiers (High, Moderate, Lower) and one named analyst. Our methodology page sets them out. In a recent engagement: 220 verified sources, 2 factual errors caught and fixed before client delivery.
It's included in every full ORRJO engagement, because the outbound and the brand work both depend on it. If you run it alongside another ORRJO service, bundling comes at a discounted combined rate. About one in four discovery calls end with us recommending you build in house instead. ORRJO is headquartered in Glasgow, with its registered office in London. The full service is on the ORRJO Intelligence page, and every ORRJO price is on our pricing page.
Questions buyers ask
How much does competitive intelligence cost?
It depends on how you buy it. UK Data Services publishes £2,500 for a one-off competitor report and £3,500 a month for a retainer. CI software is mostly quoted privately, and Vendr's buyer data puts the median Crayon and Klue contract at $30,000 a year. Self-serve monitoring tools start free. ORRJO Intelligence is a retainer from £2,500 a month.
Is CI software cheaper than an agency?
Not always, and it does a different job. Vendr's buyer data puts the median Crayon and Klue contract at $30,000 a year, and onboarding can be charged on top. The software still needs someone to run it: Klue's own build-vs-buy calculator budgets 0.30 of a full-time person. An agency retainer buys the analysis itself. UK Data Services publishes £3,500 a month, and ORRJO Intelligence starts from £2,500 a month.
What do I get each month from ORRJO Intelligence?
The retainer covers competitive intelligence and positioning research, ICP definition and named account targeting, buyer voice research and a verbatim quote bank, a market opportunity and channel playbook, and a named analyst signature on every report. Your Intelligence is built once, then validated against live execution data every quarter.
Can we start with a one-off project?
Not with ORRJO. ORRJO Intelligence runs as a monthly retainer and there is no standalone sprint, but a 3-month paid pilot is available to start. If a single report is all you need, UK Data Services publishes a competitor report at £2,500 covering up to 5 competitors, with 2-3 week delivery, and Octopus Intelligence prices each project on its scope.
How much do Crayon and Klue cost?
Neither publishes a price. Crayon's pricing page is a request form, and Klue's pricing address redirects to its homepage. Vendr, a software buying service, reports a median of $30,000 a year for each: from 93 Crayon purchases, with a low of $12,700 and a high of $46,000, and from 106 Klue purchases, with a low of $16,000 and a high of $60,000. Both Vendr pages were last updated in February 2026.
What does an in-house competitive intelligence analyst cost?
Glassdoor, as reported by the Competitive Intelligence Alliance, puts the average UK CI analyst salary at £39,057. Job adverts that cite the skill carry higher medians: on IT Jobs Watch, UK permanent jobs citing competitive intelligence had a median salary of £62,500 in the six months to 13 October 2026, from only 8 quoted salaries. Add employer National Insurance at 15% above £5,000 a year and an employer pension contribution of at least 3% of qualifying earnings.
How long does a competitive intelligence project take?
UK Data Services quotes 2-3 weeks for a competitor report covering up to 5 competitors, and 4-6 weeks for a market intelligence project with 10+ competitor deep-dives. Aqute Intelligence says a competitive intelligence project typically takes 3 to 6 weeks, depending on complexity. ORRJO Intelligence is a monthly retainer, not a one-off project: your Intelligence is built once, then validated against live execution data every quarter.
Sources
Every page below was fetched and checked on 13 October 2026. Prices are as published on that date, in the currency shown.
- UK Data Services, Competitive intelligence services (no date on page) and About, checked 13 October 2026. Report, project and retainer prices, scope, delivery times, FAQ market range and location.
- Octopus Intelligence, Competitive intelligence pricing, updated 24 July 2026, checked 13 October 2026. Rate card statement, cost drivers and ongoing versus one-off investment.
- Vendr, Crayon software pricing and plans, last updated February 2026, checked 13 October 2026. Median, low, high, purchase count and onboarding fees.
- Vendr, Klue software pricing and plans, last updated February 2026, checked 13 October 2026. Median, low, high, purchase count and onboarding fees.
- Crayon, Pricing inquiry, checked 13 October 2026.
- Klue, homepage and Build vs. Buy Calculator (modified 16 April 2026), checked 13 October 2026. Pricing redirect, location and calculator defaults.
- Kompyte, Pricing plans and terms and conditions, checked 13 October 2026. Plans, price factors, term and owner's address.
- Feedly, Feedly Market Intelligence pricing, checked 13 October 2026.
- Similarweb, Web Intelligence pricing and packages, checked 13 October 2026. Prices taken from the page's description and price markup; the visible price table loads by script.
- Competitors App, Pricing (modified 14 September 2026), checked 13 October 2026. List prices, the October offer and address.
- Visualping, Pricing, checked 13 October 2026.
- CI Radar, Frequently asked questions (published 22 September 2025) and Contact us, checked 13 October 2026.
- Aqute Intelligence, FAQs on competitive intelligence, checked 13 October 2026. Focused study cost and project length.
- Wynter, Pricing and homepage, checked 13 October 2026. Plan prices and location.
- Wynter, The State of Competitive Intelligence in B2B SaaS, published 26 May 2026, survey of 101 B2B SaaS product marketers, checked 13 October 2026.
- Cognosis, Competitor benchmarking services, checked 13 October 2026.
- Advantage Market Intelligence, homepage, checked 13 October 2026.
- B2B International, Competitive intelligence research and Contact us, checked 13 October 2026. Service description and office list.
- Fuld, homepage and Locations, checked 13 October 2026.
- Contify, homepage and Contact us, checked 13 October 2026. Description, office list; its pricing address redirects to its contact page.
- AlphaSense, Pricing, checked 13 October 2026.
- IT Jobs Watch, Competitive Intelligence, Competitor Analysis and Product Marketing Manager, permanent job vacancies in the 6 months to 13 October 2026, checked 13 October 2026.
- Competitive Intelligence Alliance, Competitive Intelligence Analyst: Job Description and Salary, published 5 June 2026, reporting Glassdoor figures, checked 13 October 2026.
- HM Revenue and Customs, Rates and thresholds for employers 2026 to 2027, last updated 1 September 2026, checked 13 October 2026.
- GOV.UK, Workplace pensions: what you, your employer and the government pay, checked 13 October 2026.
ORRJO figures come from our pricing page, the ORRJO Intelligence page and our methodology.