Mintel is one of the leading market research databases and competitive intelligence platforms used by businesses across the globe. Known for its extensive database of consumer insights, industry trends, and market analysis, Mintel provides in-depth data to support strategic decisions.
However, Mintel may not be the right solution for every organization’s needs and budget. The high pricing and limited user access have led many companies to seek alternatives to Mintel for market intelligence.
In this comprehensive guide, we compare the top 10 Mintel competitors on key factors like data coverage, report types, pricing models, and ease of use. Whether you need global insights, competitor intelligence, or more flexibility, we have you covered with the best Mintel alternatives for your business.
We will provide an in-depth feature comparison of platforms like Euromonitor, Forrester, GfK, Nielsen, and more. You will get insights into the pros and cons of each provider and recommendations based on your needs and budget. This will allow you to make an informed decision when choosing a market research database.
Comparison Table of Top Mintel Alternatives
To get an overview of the top alternatives, we have created the following comparison table highlighting the key features and offerings of each platform:
| Platform | Data Coverage | Competitive Intel | Ease of Use | Pricing | Reports Offered |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Euromonitor | Global | Extensive | Moderate | Expensive | PDF reports, Excel data |
| Forrester | US/Global | Strong | Simple | Premium | Interactive dashboards, analyst access |
| GfK | Europe/US | Moderate | Moderate | Mid-range | PDF reports, Excel data |
| Nielsen | Global | Strong | Complex | Expensive | APIs, custom analysis |
| MSCI | Global | Weak | Complex | Expensive | Indexes, ESG data |
| Statista | Global | Limited | Simple | Mid-range | Dashboards, downloads |
| Kantar | Global | Strong | Moderate | Premium | Dashboards, custom consulting |
| NPD Group | US | Strong | Simple | Mid-range | Dashboards, API access |
| IRI | US | Strong | Complex | Expensive | Retail data feeds, analysis |
| Fitch Solutions | Global | Moderate | Complex | Premium | PDF reports, data feeds |
This table gives you a quick overview of how the top Mintel competitors stack up across key criteria. You can see their areas of strength and weakness at a glance before diving into a more detailed analysis.
For a more detailed analysis of market research databases tools and comparison, you can read our in-depth article at Trending Topics
In-Depth Analysis of The Top 5 Mintel Alternatives
Based on the comparison, we have identified the top 5 leading alternatives to Mintel to explore further:
1. Euromonitor
Euromonitor is one of the closest competitors to Mintel in terms of market intelligence offerings. Key strengths of Euromonitor include:
- Extensive global data coverage with insights on countries and consumers worldwide
- Comprehensive reports on industries, categories, and trends
- Ideal for companies looking for insights across international markets
- Robust competitor intelligence and analysis
- Expensive pricing but different bundled plans available
- User experience and platform require some learning curve
With its vast database of global insights and competitor analytics, Euromonitor is a leading alternative for organizations seeking worldwide market data.
Euromonitor provides market research reports and analysis on over 400 industries across 100 countries. This extensive coverage allows companies to understand consumer insights, market trends, and opportunities across the globe.
For multinational organizations, Euromonitor is an ideal source of international competitive intelligence. Its Passport database delivers an in-depth analysis of leading competitors across countries and regions. Companies can benchmark performance and identify areas of weakness through Euromonitor’s competitive analytics.
In terms of content, Euromonitor offers industry forecasts, company profiles, category analysis, consumer survey data, and more. Its key report types include:
- Country Reports – Analysis of consumer, economic, and industry trends for over 100 markets. Helps understand regional growth opportunities.
- Category Reports – Deep dives into specific product/service categories and consumer behaviors. Useful for product innovation and new market entry.
- Competitor Profiles – Assessment of a company’s positioning, performance, portfolio strength, and more compared to rivals. Critical for competitive intelligence.
- Surveys – Consumer insights and usage surveys across industries providing marketing and brand insights.
- Risk Briefings – Analysis of political, economic, and regulatory risks by country for risk management.
Euromonitor provides this vast market data primarily through PDF reports that can be downloaded as needed. It also offers Excel data exports and APIs for integration into business intelligence systems.
The main downside is that Euromonitor’s access and pricing are oriented towards large enterprises. Subscription plans typically start at $15,000 annually for limited data access. And its Passport platform has some learning curve in terms of usability and navigating its extensive content.
For organizations seeking worldwide coverage and willing to pay premium prices, Euromonitor provides deep insights that can drive international growth and market success.
2. Forrester
Forrester is a great option for tech companies looking for customer and marketing insights:
- Strong focus on technology, CX, and digital disruption
- Experienced analysts provide guidance through reports and inquiries
- User-friendly research platform and visualization tools
- Robust content for tech decision-makers and marketers
- More expensive pricing aimed at large enterprises
- Primarily US-focused data and coverage
Forrester sets itself apart through its experienced analyst team that provides advisory services and custom consulting to enterprise clients. Companies have direct access to Forrester’s analysts to get answers to pressing technology, marketing, and CX questions.
Forrester’s key offerings for tech firms include:
Technology Research: Forrester has extensive coverage of emerging technologies like AI, cloud, and quantum computing, and their business impact. Its prescriptive reports help technology leaders with technology strategy and selecting the right solutions.
Customer Experience (CX): Reports, models, and frameworks to guide CX improvements and optimize the customer journey across touchpoints. Useful both for B2C and B2B firms.
Digital Business & Strategy: Research on digital transformation, e-commerce, customer experience design, and driving growth through digital capabilities.
Tech Marketing: Expert guidance on B2B marketing, account-based marketing (ABM), customer insights, events, and measuring marketing success in the digital age.
Forrester delivers this intelligence through analyst reports, data snapshots, predictive models, frameworks, and more. It provides interactive dashboards to visualize technology trends and benchmark performance. All content is accessible through its intuitive research platform.
Forrester’s level of custom advisory comes at a premium cost, with contracts starting at $50,000 per year. However, for technology leaders, the analyst access and domain expertise provide high value. It gives companies a partner to navigate digital disruption, adopt innovative tech, and strengthen competitive positioning.
3. Nielsen
Nielsen is known for its consumer goods data and retail analytics:
- Expansive coverage of CPG, retail, media, and consumer insights
- Advanced analytics and modeling capabilities
- Custom surveys and data analysis options
- Challenging platforms and toolsets require training
- High pricing reflective of advanced analytics
- Primarily focused on US regional insights
As an analytics powerhouse, Nielsen offers CPG, retail, and media companies unparalleled data and insights into consumer behavior. Its data assets include:
Consumer Panels: Nielsen has detailed purchase data on over 300 million consumers globally through panels and metering. This powers insights into shopper habits, brand affinity, price elasticity, and promotion effectiveness across retail channels.
Retail Measurement: Nielsen tracks weekly sales data from over 100,000 stores across retailers like Walmart, Costco, and Target. This granular view of SKU velocity and retail execution allows for the optimization of assortment, pricing, and promotions.
Media Measurement: Nielsen’s digital and TV viewership data helps media firms provide competitive audits of their performance and optimize ad targeting.
Proprietary Data: Nielsen produces its own datasets on promotions, pricing, media spending, and more to enrich insights. It also integrates unique data like weather and economic indicators.
These expansive datasets feed Nielsen’s advanced analytics solutions for:
- Assortment and price optimization
- Promotion measurement and planning
- Performance benchmarking and forecasting
- Targeting and segmentation
However, deriving these insights requires navigating Nielsen’s complex suite of analytics software including Nielsen Answers, Nielsen Compass, and Nielsen Ad Intel. The toolset is powerful but requires expertise to operate.
Nielsen also provides fully custom consulting and insights services. But this comes at a premium cost with high six-figure contracts.
The breadth of Nielsen’s data assets and science-driven analytics makes it invaluable for CPG and retail process improvement. However, the tailored focus on US retail requires supplementing it with other research as needed.
4. Kantar
Kantar offers comprehensive consumer intelligence across industries:
- Expertise in shopper behavior and consumer panels
- Proprietary market datasets across sectors
- Consumer consultancy and customized projects
- User-friendly Insights Platform and dashboards
- Upper mid-range pricing aimed at large companies
- Strongest in European and Latin American markets
Kantar’s depth of expertise in understanding consumer insights, behaviors, and preferences is what sets it apart. For brands seeking to win shopper loyalty and preference, Kantar provides unmatched consumer intelligence.
Kantar’s specialized consumer panels power its core offerings:
- Shopcom Panel – Insights on shopper behaviors across retail channels
- Target Group Index – Media consumption and brand preferences
- Brand Footprint – Brand affinity, penetration, and loyalty analysis
- Retail IQ – Mystery shopping data on in-store experiences
Beyond consumer panels, Kantar provides rich datasets covering:
- Media Ad Spend: Competitive ad intelligence across media channels
- Product and Brand Data: Sales, pricing, distribution and launch data
- Retail Sales: Point of sale and inventory data for retail optimization
These datasets feed Kantar’s analytics dashboards on its Insights Platform. Marketers can visualize key performance metrics like market share, ad recall, purchasing funnels, and brand equity tracking. The flexible platform allows custom analysis without IT support.
For strategic decisions, companies can leverage Kantar’s consulting expertise through custom research projects. These cover areas like new product testing, brand positioning, shopper insights, and go-to-market strategy.
Kantar’s focus on consumer attitudes and behaviors provides a nuanced understanding of total market dynamics beyond sales data. Its expertise in Latin America and Europe also helps supplement US-focused providers.
5. Statista
Statista is a leading consumer inisghts data and statistics portal:
- Vast market research databases of consumer survey data and statistics
- Covers 400+ industries across 80 countries
- User-friendly interactive dashboards and graphs
- Affordable pricing options for SMBs
- Limited forecasting capabilities and analyst insights
- APIs and data exports cost extra
Statista is designed as a self-service market data portal any business can leverage. For SMBs seeking quick access to consumer insights without analyst support, Statista provides an affordable solution.
Key features include:
Consumer Surveys: 600k+ survey datasets covering consumer preferences, usage, attitudes, lifestyles, and demographics. Allows analysis by location, age, income, and other variables.
Industry Reports: 25k concise industry reports providing key statistics, trends, outlooks, revenues, and analysis on 400+ sectors.
Country Data: Macroeconomic, social, and demographic data across 80 countries help identify growth opportunities.
Dashboards: Interactive dashboards to analyze survey data and industry KPIs. Customized overviews can be shared across the organization.
Downloadable Data: All survey, industry, and country data can be downloaded for further analysis and integration.
For SMBs, Statista provides a tremendous breadth of consumer insights that can be quickly searched and analyzed through its portal. However, larger enterprises may require more customizable solutions.
Statista also has limited forward-looking market analysis. And it charges additional fees for API-level data access. But overall it provides an easy entry point to leverage market data at reasonable pricing tiers.
Key Factors to Consider When Choosing Mintel Alternatives
Beyond the high-level comparison, you need to weigh a few key factors when deciding on the right Mintel alternative for your needs:
Geographic Coverage
Do you need global insights or is regional data sufficient? Some alternatives like Euromonitor and Nielsen offer worldwide coverage, while others focus on North America or Europe.
If your business has international operations or expansion plans, consider platforms with extensive worldwide data like Euromonitor, MSCI, and Nielsen. They provide insights into consumer behavior, competitive forces, and growth potential across developed and emerging markets.
On the other hand, companies focused on domestic US opportunities can look to options like Forrester, NPD Group, and IRI that provide greater regional depth. Just be aware of any blind spots in your geographic understanding.
Budget
Mintel competitors range from free to expensive enterprise platforms. Consider your budget constraints and willingness to pay for premium data.
Typically, the level of data exclusivity, customization, and analyst access increases with pricing. Entry-level options like Statista and GfK provide self-serve market data access at under $10k per year.
Mid-tier providers like Kantar and Forrester offer consulting support and proprietary datasets for $15k to $50k annually. At the top end, intensive platforms like Nielsen and Euromonitor run well over $100k per year for enterprise access.
Weigh the potential business impact of market insights against cost when investing. Having the right partner can pay dividends.
Data Formats
How will you be using the data? Some alternatives provide API access or customizable dashboards while others focus on PDF reports and flat data exports.
Understand whether your teams need interactive self-serve platforms, fully customized analytics, or simply report downloads for periodic review.
Solutions like Kantar, Nielsen, and Statista emphasize online access through portals and dashboards. While Euromonitor, GfK, and Fitch rely more on content libraries and PDF deliverables. Forrester offers a blend of formats tailored to user needs.
Select information delivery models that align with your insights workflow and data integration requirements.
Competitor Intelligence
If analyzing specific competitors is important, ensure the platform provides robust competitive analytics.
Certain alternatives excel at monitoring competitors and providing actionable competitive intelligence:
- Euromonitor provides in-depth competitor profiling across countries.
- Nielsen enables benchmarking against rivals on retail KPIs.
- Kantar delivers competitive ad spend tracking and brand equity analysis.
- Forrester helps evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of technology vendors.
Understand gaps in competitor coverage and supplement as needed based on your priorities. Competitive intelligence is key to staying ahead.
Ease of Use
More complex platforms have learning curves but offer advanced analytics. Consider your team’s capabilities and needs.
Some alternatives like Statista, Forrester, and Kantar are designed for business users without advanced data science skills. They emphasize usability through search, dashboards, and support resources.
On the other hand, robust analytics tools like Nielsen and MSCI require training to leverage fully. But they enable deep statistical modeling beyond DIY research.
Assess your team’s data literacy when choosing a solution. Balance functionality against ease of use based on capabilities. Leverage support and training opportunities to maximize value.
By weighing these key criteria against your business requirements, you can determine the best fit from the Mintel alternatives reviewed.
Conclusion and Recommendations
In summary, when evaluating alternatives to Mintel, you have several leading options to consider including:
- Euromonitor – For in-depth global consumer and industry data
- Forrester – For tech marketing and CX insights
- Nielsen – For quantitative retail, CPG, and media analytics
- Kantar – For understanding consumer behavior
- Statista – For affordable access to consumer surveys and stats
The right option depends on your specific business needs, budget, required data coverage, and capabilities.
If you need worldwide insights on consumers and competitors, Euromonitor and Nielsen are strong choices albeit expensive. Forrester excels at tech-focused research while Kantar provides behavior analytics and consulting. For SMBs, Statista offers great value with its breadth of data.
We recommend starting with free trials for the shortlisted providers. Evaluate if the data coverage, usability, and formats meet your needs. Then choose the platform that aligns closest with your goals and provides maximum value for your investment.
With the right market intelligence platform, you can unlock strategic insights, track competitors, and identify new opportunities to fuel your business growth. The investment is well worth improving your strategic planning and minimizing risk.
Hopefully, this guide has provided a comprehensive overview of the top alternatives to consider when choosing a market research database beyond Mintel. Leveraging the right platform for your needs will empower your team with strategic insights and drive better business decisions.
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