Jungle Scout vs ASINspector Review: Which One is Better?

In this post I’ll be comparing Jungle Scout vs ASINspector Amazon product research tools.

Updated: January 2016

Jungle Scout vs ASINspector – Which One is Better?

I hadn’t even planned on putting together a post comparing the two products, but because I spend so much time doing product research I decided to spend some time really trying to figure out which one I should be using more often.

Each has their benefits, but I’ll give you the spoiler now: Jungle Scout Pro is my tool of choice.

#	NAME	RATING	Details	LINK
1	Jungle Scout	Read review	Features 90 Functionality 85 Price 80	Learn More
2	ASINspector	Read review	Features 75 Functionality 80 Price 85	Learn More

So now let’s find out why!

Jungle Scout vs ASINspector: Features

Both tools offer similar features in the sense that they provide you with factual details and estimated sales information for Amazon products at a glance.  With either tool, you’ll get the following:

• Brand
• Category
• Best Seller Rank
• Estimated Sales (Month)
• Estimated Revenue (Month)
• Number of Reviews
• Review Rating
• Product Pricing and Sales History Information

The Lite version of Jungle Scout only provides what’s listed above, so I’d say ASINspector is a little more robust as their Standard version also provides you with information on Amazon fees, product dimensions/weight and sourcing tools (see more details below or in my complete ASINspector review).  ASINspector also provide information that may be useful to book sellers, but that’s of little value for private label sellers like myself.

However, even though Jungle Scout Lite has fewer features, it still provides most of what you’d need and it’s also better than ASINspector Standard in two important areas: (1) dealing with Sponsored Products; and (2) handling product variations.  For example, let’s say I’m researching Silicone Spatulas.  Here are the results for both ASINspector and Jungle Scout:

 

The first difference I’d like to point out is that the first three listings under the ASINspector results (Brands: StarPack Home, Underground Toys, Polar Pantry) don’t show up in Jungle Scout.  That’s because these are Sponsored products and not organic search results.  While I would generally like to see these, the fact that ASINspector Standard doesn’t clearly highlight them as ads makes it more difficult to really understand what’s happening in the market at a glance.  I believe the Pro version of ASINspector does a better job of differentiating between organic and sponsored results, but this is a big disadvantage for the Standard version.  I’d rather the Sponsored Ads just not show up at all as with Jungle Scout.

The other disadvantage for ASINspector is how it handles variations.  To be more specific, it can’t handle variations.  Let’s take a closer look at the first OXO product using each tool:

ASINspector shows only the target product itself – just one result.  While it might not be obvious, it’s only showing details for the default variation, which is the Large size.

According to ASINspector, this product has a rank of 280 and is selling 899 units per month.  So, if you were doing product research, you might assume that’s a  reasonable estimate of sales for this product.

However, there is also a Small variation that has it’s own BSR of 976.  ASINspector doesn’t capture this at all.

If you take another look at the Jungle Scout screenshot below, you’ll see that it includes information on both variations together, with the Small variation highlighted in yellow so it’s easy to identify.  This is a BIG advantage for Jungle Scout as it’s important to look at aggregate data for all variations when doing product research.

 

 

Now, you may notice that the sales estimates are pretty different between the two tools, but we’ll get to that in a moment.  Let’s continue focusing on the difference in features…

There’s an “Actions” column in ASINspector that doesn’t show in the screenshot I provided earlier, but you’d see it if you scrolled to the right.  This column provides sourcing resources and some additional market research information from Alibaba, AliExpress, eBay, Walmart and Target.  There is also a link to the product’s CamelCamelCamel page.

To be honest, the ones listed above are cool features in theory, but I don’t find them too practical and don’t really make use of them when doing real research.  I’d say the most valuable aspects are the last three columns which show the following:

• Net Payout – if you click on this button it will bring up a window that allows you to enter your delivered cost.  Once entered, you can see the expected net profit and ROI after Amazon fees. 
• Compare Price with Competitors – this will compare the price of the product on Amazon against prices on eBay, Target and Walmart. It’s not usually something a private label seller will need, but can be helpful if you use other business models.
• Frequently Bought Together – this will show you some of the Frequently Bought Together products on Amazon, which is nice to be able to see at a glance.

The last thing worth mentioning that is unique to ASINspector is that the Standard version provides information on FBA fees and product dimensions/weight that you can’t get with the Lite version of Jungle Scout.  I do find the information very helpful, but you’d have to purchase the Pro version to get it from Jungle Scout.

Both tools offer Price/Rank history information.  ASINspector does it in the form of a “Click to see” column, which you can see in the earlier screenshot of search results.  It would pull up something like this, which basically shows you historical information for the product:

Jungle Scout offers similar information if you click on the blue highlighted Price or Rank number in the results.  This works well with both products, but I prefer how Jungle Scout incorporated the feature since it doesn’t require another column that takes up horizontal space.

Looking at all the features together, providing information on Amazon fees and product weight/dimensions is the only thing of value that ASINspector Standard really does better, but you can get this from Jungle Scout if you purchase the Pro version.  Otherwise, Jungle Scout has the definitive edge in terms of features.

[EDIT: A reader added comments about ASINspector Pro that I think are very helpful, so I’ve copied it below:]

The Pro version has a couple of functions that I think are noteworthy:

– There is a button that reveals the amount of inventory on hand for any product. I’ve found it to be very accurate. I just tested this on one of my products and it predicted my exact number of inventory. It wasn’t just close, it was on the money. One limitation, however, is that for any number over 1,000 it simply shows “over 999” and not the actual number.

-Asinpector Pro has a useful function for anyone doing retail arbitrage. There’s a button that allows the user to upload a .csv file (a manifest). It estimates the selling prices, Amazon fees, and profitability for a lot. While I haven’t used this myself, I can imagine this could be really impactful for analyzing the profitability of different lots for anyone buying wholesale lots to sell on Amazon.

At the end of the day, is Asinpector Pro worth the premium vs. Asinpector? Probably only if retail arbitrage is part of your business model.

Jungle Scout vs ASINspector: Functionality

With respect to functionality, I also prefer the Jungle Scout interface.  I just find it a little easier to read and I also like the fact that Jungle Scout overlays the data on top of your existing browser page.  ASINspector actually opens up a new tab, which may not sound like a big deal, but it requires more mouse clicks and can feel a little tedious at times.  I suppose this is probably a personal preference, but I definitely like the way Jungle Scout works better.  It’s also worth noting that if you’re doing research with ASINspector in Private Mode with Chrome, the new tab opens up in a non-Private window, so it’s a little more annoying to access.

Ultimately though, sales/revenue estimates are probably the most important feature to compare.  I’d say neither one is consistently accurate, but they are both good enough for general guidance on a market.  Based on my own personal experience, I’d say Jungle Scout generally seems to provide more accurate estimates to me, but both can be way off sometimes.

While this isn’t a scientific comparison, I decided to check a single product that I sell and compare it to each tool.  Below you’ll find data on a product (without variations) as of the evening of January 19, 2016.

ASINspector

 

Jungle Scout

This probably isn’t a fair comparison for either product because the BSR is higher than my recent trend for this product, which is typically between 6,000 – 8,000.  Over the last 30 days, I sold 526 units for $9,614 in revenue (and I know I was out of stock for a few days during that period).  After noticing that the BSR increased, I almost decided to choose another product for this example, but chose to still go with it because it illustrates the uncertainty you have to deal with when doing product research.

So let’s also take a look at actual sales for the day I pulled the data (Jan 19, 2016) and multiply that times 30 to estimate monthly sales.  That’s the same process the tools use, so it’s only fair to judge them on this basis.  On January 16th I only sold 2 units for 39.94 in revenue [Grrr…].  If we extrapolate that to one month of data, that would come to 60 units sold for $1,198 in revenue.

Both tools were pretty far off based on my sales for the last day as well as for the last 30 days.

• ASINspector:  121 Units; $2,416 Revenue
• Jungle Scout: 173 Units; $3,455 Revenue
• Actual (Last 30 Days): 526 Units; $9614 Revenue
• Actual (Last Day x 30):  60 Units; $1198 Revenue

However, the fact they were both off is largely due to the fact that sales can jump around, but BSR is a representation of sales at a single moment in time.  The tools base their estimates on BSR, so it’ll always be based on a data from a snapshot in time. Had I gone through this exercise last week, the results may have been very different.

This shows that there can be a significant difference in results depending on  when you actually pull the data, but this is also why it’s nice to have access to BSR history through these tools.

Jungle Scout vs ASINspector: Price

To be honest, I have issues with the pricing of both tools.

• ASINspector Standard: $67
• ASINspector Pro: $97/year
• Jungle Scout Lite: $87
• Jungle Scout Pro: $147

The only one that seems reasonable to me is the Standard version of ASINspector, even though it’s weak in some areas.  I don’t like the fact that the Pro version requires an annual fee. Even though there are some tracking features in the Pro version that make sense for a subscription model, I think they should have added a couple more of the basic product research features (like showing sponsored links) to the Standard version.

I like the fact that the Pro version of Jungle Scout is a one time purchase, both both versions seem a little expensive to me.  This is nothing more than my gut feeling about what feels like the right price, so it probably doesn’t carry much weight considering how popular the product is and I know absolutely nothing about their cost structure.  Part of me just feels like I was taken advantage of at those price points.  However, Jungle Scout does exactly what it promises (and it does it very well), so I can’t really complain about the price when I made the conscious decision to purchase the product and would do it again.

Jungle Scout vs ASINspector: Conclusion

Ultimately, Jungle Scout Pro is the clear winner because of how they handle variations and their user interface is nicer.  While ASINspector handles a few things a little better, it’s just not a practical tool if it can’t handle variations well.  It’s less expensive than Jungle Scout Pro and the things it does better are neat, but just not that valuable. It all comes down to functionality and Jungle Scout Pro is really my tool of choice.

Now, the decision gets a little more complicated if you don’t want to spend $147 for Jungle Scout Pro.  In that case, you’ve got three other options:

• Jungle Scout Lite
• ASINspector Standard
• ASINspector Pro

I haven’t even tried ASINspector Pro because they just haven’t outlined the benefits well enough for me to even try it.  Plus, I’d much rather pay $147 once rather than $97 per year.  So, if you’re comparing the standard versions of Jungle Scout vs ASINspector, which is better?

Well, I personally think both are limiting, but I would recommend Jungle Scout Lite over ASINspector Standard.  Even though the Lite version doesn’t give you information on Amazon fees (which I think is very helpful), as long as you’re able to accomplish basic research, you can always do a manual deep dive once you find a market that shows potential.  On the other hand, the fact that ASINspector doesn’t provide variation details makes it very difficult to perform proper market research on a significant number of items.

For that reason, I find it difficult to recommend ASINspector for any reason unless you’re ONLY focused on price.  At $67, ASINspector Lite is less expensive than both versions of Jungle Scout and it’s still better than doing research manually.  However, with a difference of only $20 between ASINspector Standard and Jungle Scout Lite, I think Jungle Scout Lite is worth the extra money.

If you’d like more information on either product, you can check out my full review or the official sales page:

Jungle Scout

• Jungle Scout Review
• Jungle Scout Official Sales Page

ASINspector

• ASINspector Review
• ASINspector Official Sales Page