Guide
A competitor analysis framework: five things to compare
By coExploro · Published
Reviewed and edited by coExploro · Independent, not affiliated · Public methodology · Corrections: support@coexploro.com
A competitor analysis framework is a fixed set of steps and questions for one comparison, applied to every competitor the same way. This one asks about positioning, pricing, the first step a visitor can take, UX and proof, and each answer needs its source, its date and the quote or screenshot detail behind it. Its worked comparison restates our live reading of Linear’s and Atlassian’s pages on 31 October 2026, and its evidence lesson uses coExploro’s samples of both, captured on 28 October 2026.
- Choose products for the buyer’s task — the products a buyer would weigh for one task, not every company in the market.
- Read the same pages on the same day — the page a buyer lands on and the pricing page, for every product in the set.
- Ask the five questions of each product — positioning, pricing, first step, UX and proof, with one short answer each.
- Check the evidence behind each answer — its source first, then whether both answers in a row cover the same question for a comparable product, with their dates noted.
- Write the difference and what stays open — one sentence per row, and a question for every gap.
The five questions of a competitor analysis framework
Each of the five questions asks for something a public page can show. Positioning is what the product says it is, starting with the homepage headline. Pricing is the unit a price is counted in, the billing period the page has selected, and any plan that sends a buyer to sales instead of showing an amount. The first step is what a visitor can start without a call: the button, link or form for it, the words around it and where it sits, which sets where onboarding begins in this comparison. UX is how the page leads a visitor from the opening section, the hero, to that step, and what competes with it on the way; a UX audit goes deeper on that question for one product. Proof is the figure, customer logos or quote a page shows to win trust, and what it refers to. Ask all five of every product in the set, in the same order, and write each answer in a few words with the quote or the screenshot detail that shows it. How to tear down a rival’s product reads one product in depth; this framework compares several products on the same questions.
Which steps coExploro does
coExploro captures the pages for the second step and drafts findings you use for the third. Enter a competitor’s homepage address, and coExploro captures that page and the pricing and features pages it finds, with their date. Its four AI analysts, PM, Marketing, UX and Designer, then write findings from that capture; a teardown usually takes 2–4 minutes. Check that every teardown in the set holds the same kinds of pages before you compare them. In a teardown you run, a finding opens the screenshot it was read from when one is attached; otherwise it is marked as having no evidence attached. Compare, included with Pro, runs 2 to 5 product teardowns in one batch, so the set is captured together. Choosing the set, checking the evidence and writing the difference stay with you. One run a day per network needs no account. A free account gives you 3 teardowns a month, and paid plans start at $16 a month billed yearly.
Check the evidence behind each answer
An answer in a comparison is a claim about a page, so check the evidence under it before you trust the row. On coExploro’s samples, the receipt under a finding ends with an evidence label. The label says how directly the quoted words support that finding, and the two sample receipts further down the page show two kinds. Direct evidence is the finding’s point in the page’s own words: Linear’s receipt quotes ‘per user/month’ for the finding that Basic and Business state one per-user unit. Indirect evidence supports the point without stating it: Atlassian’s receipt quotes ‘Join the 350,000+ teams’, which places the closing banner, while the finding is that the banner repeats the hero’s Jira button. Page context only shows where on the page the finding was read. A label belongs to its finding, so when you rewrite a finding as a comparison cell, check the cell against the page again.
Linear and Atlassian on the five questions
Suppose a team is choosing between Linear and Jira for planning and building products. Linear’s homepage sells Linear, while Atlassian’s covers more products than Jira and leads with it. So the pricing row compares Linear’s pricing page with Jira’s, and the other rows compare Linear’s product homepage with Atlassian’s company homepage. coExploro’s samples captured both homepages on 28 October 2026 but no Jira pricing page, so we read the four pages live on 31 October 2026 and filled the table from that reading; the observations sit under it.
Linear and Atlassian on five questions, read on 31 October 2026
Linear
- Positioning
- ‘The product development system for teams and agents’
- Pricing
- Basic and Business: per user a month, ‘Billed yearly’ on; Enterprise: ‘Custom’
- First step
- ‘Sign up’ in the top bar and no button in the hero
- UX
- The hero links to the Loops announcement; ‘Get started’ and ‘Contact sales’ come in the closing section
- Proof
- Seven customer logos above ‘POWERING THE COMPANIES BUILDING THE FUTURE’
Atlassian
- Positioning
- ‘Discover the power of knowing’
- Pricing
- Jira Standard and Premium: per user a month, ‘Monthly’ selected; Enterprise: ‘Contact sales’
- First step
- ‘Get started with Jira’ in the hero, beside ‘Contact us’
- UX
- ‘Get started with Jira’ in both the hero and the closing banner
- Proof
- ‘Join the 350,000+ teams’, a count for the whole Atlassian platform
coExploro
- Positioning
- The captured homepage headline
- Pricing
- The plan cards of each pricing page the capture holds
- First step
- The top of the captured homepage, up to the click
- UX
- The order of the captured page, from headline to footer
- Proof
- The logos and figures the capture shows, as the page states them
| Linear | Atlassian | coExploro | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Positioning | ‘The product development system for teams and agents’ | ‘Discover the power of knowing’ | The captured homepage headline |
| Pricing | Basic and Business: per user a month, ‘Billed yearly’ on; Enterprise: ‘Custom’ | Jira Standard and Premium: per user a month, ‘Monthly’ selected; Enterprise: ‘Contact sales’ | The plan cards of each pricing page the capture holds |
| First step | ‘Sign up’ in the top bar and no button in the hero | ‘Get started with Jira’ in the hero, beside ‘Contact us’ | The top of the captured homepage, up to the click |
| UX | The hero links to the Loops announcement; ‘Get started’ and ‘Contact sales’ come in the closing section | ‘Get started with Jira’ in both the hero and the closing banner | The order of the captured page, from headline to footer |
| Proof | Seven customer logos above ‘POWERING THE COMPANIES BUILDING THE FUTURE’ | ‘Join the 350,000+ teams’, a count for the whole Atlassian platform | The logos and figures the capture shows, as the page states them |
Linear and Atlassian cells restate the dated observations below, and the last column says what to check in your own teardown. coExploro reads public pages only.
Observed by us
Linear’s homepage opened with ‘The product development system for teams and agents’, showed ‘Sign up’ in the top bar and no button in the hero, and gave the hero one link, ‘New Loops →’, to its Loops announcement.
verified · Source: linear.app (opens in a new tab)
Observed by us
Linear’s homepage showed seven customer logos above the line ‘POWERING THE COMPANIES BUILDING THE FUTURE’ and closed with ‘Get started’ and ‘Contact sales’ buttons.
verified · Source: linear.app (opens in a new tab)
Observed by us
Linear’s pricing page showed Basic and Business ‘per user/month’ with their ‘Billed yearly’ switches on, and Enterprise as ‘Custom’ with ‘Annual billing only’.
Observed by us
Atlassian’s homepage opened with ‘Discover the power of knowing’ above a ‘Get started with Jira’ button and a ‘Contact us’ link, and closed on ‘Join the 350,000+ teams’, a line about teams across the Atlassian platform, with the same Jira button.
verified · Source: atlassian.com (opens in a new tab)
Observed by us
Atlassian’s Jira pricing page priced Standard and Premium ‘per user / month’ with ‘Monthly’ selected under ‘Bill me’, offered a Free plan ‘Free forever for 10 users’ and showed ‘Contact sales’ on Enterprise.
verified · Source: atlassian.com/software/jira/pricing (opens in a new tab)
What the comparison shows, and what stays open
On positioning, Linear’s headline names its category and its audience, while Atlassian’s names neither and leaves the product to the button, ‘Get started with Jira’. The first step differs the same way: Atlassian puts its start button in the hero, and Linear keeps ‘Sign up’ in the top bar and gives its hero a link to product news instead. On UX, Atlassian places ‘Get started with Jira’ in both the hero and the closing banner, while Linear keeps ‘Sign up’ in the top bar and its ‘Get started’ and ‘Contact sales’ buttons in the closing section. On pricing, Linear’s Basic and Business and Jira’s Standard and Premium price per user a month, but Linear had ‘Billed yearly’ switched on and Atlassian’s Jira page had ‘Monthly’ selected. Match the billing period, the team size and the plan before comparing amounts. On proof, Linear shows chosen customer logos and Atlassian states a team count for its whole platform; neither says what share of a market Linear or Jira holds. The open questions are what Linear asks a new team after ‘Sign up’ and what follows Jira’s start button; this reading stops before both. A closer look at Jira alone would start from its own product page. The Linear sample shows the findings of its 28 October 2026 capture. Copy the competitor analysis template and add a UX field for this framework, or use the product teardown template for one product. SaaS competitor analysis works through another pair, and coExploro’s methodology explains the limits of a capture.
Limits
What a comparison of public pages cannot settle
- The first-step cells stop at Linear’s ‘Sign up’ and Jira’s start button; neither follows a new team into setup.
- These observations do not explain why a buyer picks one product; customer interviews, customer stories and won and lost deals can.
- The observations here do not establish traffic, market share or revenue, so this comparison cannot say which product is winning.
- A sample’s evidence label belongs to its own finding; a comparison cell rewritten from that finding needs its own check.
See it on a real product
Basic and Business state one per-user unit and a yearly billing switch · Linear
Evidence:
per user/month
· Seen on linear.app/pricing, pricing page plan grid, under the Basic and Business names · Captured · Direct evidenceThe closing banner repeats the hero's Jira button · Atlassian
Evidence:
Join the 350,000+ teams
· Seen on www.atlassian.com, dark closing banner above the footer · Captured · Indirect evidence
Linear
Issue tracking and product operations
Overall score 72 · Captured
Linear's homepage, features and pricing pages: a hero for teams and agents, one hero link to Loops, and Basic and Business priced per user a month.
Atlassian
Team collaboration software
Overall score 68 · Captured
Atlassian's homepage and Product Collection page: a Jira-first hero, the Teamwork Graph with study figures, and a Contact Us button above a waitlist form.
Questions
What should a competitor analysis framework include?
The set of competitors and the buyer’s task they share, the pages to read for each, the questions every product is asked, and a way to check the evidence behind each answer. This one asks five questions of public pages: positioning, pricing, the first step, UX and proof.
Is a competitor analysis framework the same as a SWOT analysis?
No. A SWOT groups evidence and judgments into strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. This framework first collects observations of public pages that can be compared, each with its source and date; they can support some SWOT points, and the others need other sources.
How do you choose which competitors to compare?
Start from the task the buyer needs done, not from a market map: list the products a buyer would seriously weigh for that task. Note separately how the buyer would get it done without buying anything new; the five questions apply to the products. An offer for a different task belongs in a separate comparison.
How do you check a competitor comparison?
Check each answer against its own source first: the quote or the screenshot detail that shows it, the page, the place on it and the date. Then check that the two answers in a row answer the same question for the same scope, and note any difference in page type or date. Read a source again when such a difference leaves the row unclear.
Can coExploro run this framework for me?
It supplies the captures and the first findings. A product teardown captures a competitor’s homepage and the pricing and features pages it finds, and four AI analysts write findings from that capture. For 2 to 5 products at once, Pro includes Compare. Choosing the products, answering the five questions and writing the difference stay with you.
Run your own
Start with one product.
See how a competitor's homepage and pricing page are built to convert. Paste its address: coExploro captures its public pages, such as the homepage and pricing page, and four AI analysts read them for calls to action, pricing and trust signals. It takes 2–4 minutes.