# Competitor Intelligence Briefing (`ivizaai/competitor-intelligence`) Actor

Monitor competitor websites for pricing, messaging, and hiring changes. Get a plain-English weekly briefing every Monday.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/ivizaai/competitor-intelligence.md
- **Developed by:** [Iviza](https://apify.com/ivizaai) (community)
- **Categories:** AI, Automation, Lead generation
- **Stats:** 1 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

Pay per usage

This Actor is paid per platform usage. The Actor is free to use, and you only pay for the Apify platform usage, which gets cheaper the higher subscription plan you have.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store#pay-per-usage

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).

# README

## SaaS Competitor Change Monitor — Weekly AI Briefing by BriefEdge

![BriefEdge Banner](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mindweaveai-ui/briefedge-assets/main/briefedge_banner.png)

**Stop manually checking competitor websites. Get a plain-English intelligence briefing every Monday morning.**

Point this actor at your competitors. It scrapes their homepage, pricing, jobs, blog, and changelog — then uses Claude AI to write you a focused briefing on what changed and what it means for your product.

***

### Who this is for

Product managers and founders who need to stay on top of competitors but don't have time to check 5–10 websites every week. Built for SaaS, but works for any business with competitors that have a web presence — ecommerce, agencies, media, fintech, and more.

If you've ever been blindsided by a competitor's pricing change or missed a hiring signal that predicted a new feature launch — this actor is for you.

***

### What you get

Each run produces a structured briefing covering:

- **Messaging & positioning** — has their homepage copy shifted? New angle, new ICP?
- **Pricing changes** — new tiers, removed plans, pricing page restructure
- **Partnership & integration signals** — new integrations often signal a strategic pivot
- **Hiring signals** — what roles they're hiring tells you what they're building next
- **Product updates** — latest from their blog, changelog, and release notes
- **Watch list** — early signals that don't fit a category but are worth tracking
- **So what?** — the AI's plain-English take on what all this means for you

The briefing is delivered to your inbox in a clean, readable format from `briefing@briefedge.co.uk`.

***

### How to use it

#### Input

| Field | Required | Description |
|-------|----------|-------------|
| `myCompany` | Yes | One sentence about what your company does. Helps the AI write a briefing relevant to *you*. |
| `competitors` | Yes | Array of competitors to monitor (see format below) |
| `email` | Yes | Where to send the weekly briefing |

#### Competitor format

```json
[
  {
    "url": "https://www.notion.so",
    "relationship": "direct",
    "note": "Our main competitor — they just launched a similar AI feature"
  },
  {
    "url": "https://www.linear.app",
    "relationship": "watching",
    "note": "Moving into our space, watching their pricing changes"
  }
]
```

`relationship` can be `direct`, `partial`, or `watching`. This affects how the AI frames the briefing for each competitor.

#### Required API keys

Add these as actor environment variables (or in your `.env` for local runs):

- `ANTHROPIC_API_KEY` — get one at [console.anthropic.com](https://console.anthropic.com)
- `RESEND_API_KEY` — get one at [resend.com](https://resend.com)

***

### What it monitors

For each competitor URL, the actor scrapes up to 6 pages:

- Homepage
- `/pricing`
- `/jobs` or `/careers`
- `/partners` or `/integrations`
- `/blog` or `/news`
- `/changelog` or `/updates`

Only publicly accessible pages are scraped — no login required, no paywalls bypassed.

***

### Scheduling

For a true weekly briefing, schedule this actor to run every Monday morning via the Apify scheduler. Set it once and forget it.

***

### Pricing tiers (via BriefEdge)

This actor is the engine behind [BriefEdge](https://briefedge.co.uk), a managed competitive intelligence service:

- **Pro — $19/month**: up to 5 competitors, weekly briefing
- **Team — $49/month**: up to 15 competitors, multiple recipients

You can also run this actor directly on Apify and pay only for compute.

***

### Example output

```
### Notion — Week of 2 June 2025

**Messaging & positioning**
Homepage headline changed from "The all-in-one workspace" to "The connected workspace for teams that move fast." 
Shift toward team/collaboration angle, away from individual productivity.

**Pricing changes**
No changes detected.

**Hiring signals**
3 new open roles: Senior ML Engineer, Head of Partnerships (EMEA), Growth PM.
ML hire suggests AI features are still a priority. EMEA partnerships role is new — possible European expansion push.

**So what?**
The messaging shift toward teams is a direct response to tools like Linear eating into their project management use case. 
Worth watching whether they announce team-specific features at their next launch.
```

***

### Built with

- [Apify SDK](https://docs.apify.com/sdk/js)
- [Crawlee](https://crawlee.dev/) + [Cheerio](https://cheerio.js.org/) for scraping
- [Claude AI](https://anthropic.com) (claude-haiku-4-5) for briefing generation
- [Resend](https://resend.com) for email delivery

***

### Support

Questions or issues? Open a GitHub issue or email <support@briefedge.co.uk>.

# Actor input Schema

## `myCompany` (type: `string`):

One sentence about what your company does. Helps the AI write a briefing relevant to you. Example: 'We make project management software for remote design teams.'

## `competitors` (type: `array`):

List of competitors. Each needs a URL, relationship type (direct/partial/watching), and a one-line note on why you're watching them.

## `email` (type: `string`):

Where to send your weekly intelligence briefing.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "myCompany": "We make project management software for remote design teams.",
  "competitors": [
    {
      "url": "https://www.notion.so",
      "relationship": "direct",
      "note": "Our main competitor — they just launched a similar AI feature"
    },
    {
      "url": "https://www.linear.app",
      "relationship": "watching",
      "note": "Moving into our space, watching their pricing changes"
    }
  ],
  "email": "you@yourcompany.com"
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `briefingResults` (type: `string`):

No description

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "myCompany": "We make project management software for remote design teams.",
    "competitors": [
        {
            "url": "https://www.todoist.com",
            "relationship": "direct",
            "note": "Used for automated actor testing"
        }
    ],
    "email": "briefing@briefedge.co.uk"
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("ivizaai/competitor-intelligence").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {
    "myCompany": "We make project management software for remote design teams.",
    "competitors": [{
            "url": "https://www.todoist.com",
            "relationship": "direct",
            "note": "Used for automated actor testing",
        }],
    "email": "briefing@briefedge.co.uk",
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("ivizaai/competitor-intelligence").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print("💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/" + run["defaultDatasetId"])
for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "myCompany": "We make project management software for remote design teams.",
  "competitors": [
    {
      "url": "https://www.todoist.com",
      "relationship": "direct",
      "note": "Used for automated actor testing"
    }
  ],
  "email": "briefing@briefedge.co.uk"
}' |
apify call ivizaai/competitor-intelligence --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "mcp-remote",
                "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=ivizaai/competitor-intelligence",
                "--header",
                "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR_API_TOKEN>"
            ]
        }
    }
}

```

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/RQAigR6ErljiWYYlv/builds/wklyy4trbs8jEa4xn/openapi.json