ZonGuru vs Jungle Scout: A Head-to-Head Software Comparison

Jungle Scout’s one of the biggest names in the FBA market. Does it provide your business with the most value for your money, though? Well, we decided to find that out once and for all with an in-depth, head-to-head comparison of each platform! An FBA toolset is a big investment. We’re here to make sure you have all the facts. 

Let’s get this out of the way, first. Yes, we’re ZonGuru. No, that doesn’t mean this is a completely biased comparison. At ZonGuru, we believe in letting the data speak for itself no matter what. The only thing you’ll find here are head-to-head comparisons of cold, hard facts. With that out of the way, let’s get started!

What Services Should Every Tool Provider Offer You?

Before we jump straight into it, let’s step back and think about the absolute essentials every Amazon seller needs to succeed. If you want to put up a fight you need to have these 5 areas mastered:

1. Product Research & Validation
2. Listing optimization and keyword strategy
3. Business monitoring and health
4. Constant alerts and monitoring tools
5. Tools to get your customers fully engaged

A lot of sellers don’t think about these 2 seemingly small but hugely important factors as well:

6. Customer support and training resources
7. The true value you receive compared to your membership cost

Both platforms will be judged on the above criteria so you have everything you need to make an informed choice.

Finding And Validating Products: Which Tools Provide The Most Accurate Niche Data?

Everything starts with reliable product validation tools. In order to bring in the sales you want, you need accurate, reliable sales figures to guide your choices. 

Jungle Scout has four product research tools, including a Chrome Extension that runs concurrently with the Amazon website. It provides a snapshot of the listings on each search page and average niche data such as monthly sales, average sales rank, average price, and average ratings. 

The most powerful research tool in the Jungle Scout collection is Opportunity Identifier. This tool provides product niches based upon user-entered filter settings.  Niches can be filtered by category, average units sold, average price, search volume, competition, and overall niche score. Disappointingly some of the more important metrics are absent, such as launch budget, PPC cost, and keyword revenue. 

Something that I hadn’t seen elsewhere was the ability to ‘exclude top brands’ from search results. However, I’m doubtful of its effectiveness. While trialing the tools, I consistently saw big-name brands appearing within the results. 

Where Opportunity Identifier stands out is with its ability to provide historical trends for each metric without having to navigate to another tool. The historical trend data goes back up to two years and allows users to determine if the niche is seasonal or subject to volatility in demand and price. 

Overall the biggest downside with Opportunity Identifier is the number of results provided are lacking compared to other research tools on the market. For example, in our head-to-head comparison, Jungle Scout returned 139 results vs. ZonGuru’s 500+ results for the exact same search filters! Furthermore, Jungle Scout’s inability to save results or send a favorite niche to another tool for further analysis creates a disappointing user experience. 

It’s worth noting that Jungle Scout also has a supplier module designed to help connect users with suppliers. Unfortunately, this tool leaves a lot to be desired. The results appeared haphazard, with little to no link to the underlying product search and no visuals of the types of products the supplier manufactures. 

ZonGuru has five different product research and validation tools designed to seamlessly move users through the crucial first steps of niche selection, validation, and product sourcing starting with the heavy-hitting Niche Finder. This tool is an ideas generating machine that consistently delivers 100’s of product niches with just a few clicks of a button. It has preset filters for different business models or advanced filter options so you can customize results to your heart's content. The results provide everything you need to know about a niche, including visuals, launch budget, search volume, PPC bid cost, sales, and so much more.  Users can easily favorite niches or send them to other tools for further analysis.

On top of this, ZonGuru provides a Chrome Extension that integrates with your browser. Just navigate to Amazon and start searching for listings, and the ZonGuru Chrome Extension will generate live, up-to-the-moment data metrics. It also has a Niche Rating which provides a percentage value of the niche’s earning potential for a quick reference. This percentage is based on 4 key metrics: buyer demand, revenue potential, competition, and upfront investment requirements.

Once a potential niche has been identified, users can delve into seasonality and historical sales trends using Sales Spy. There is also the Love-Hate tool, which data mines thousands of reviews within a niche to instantly provide key insights into what customers love and hate about a product. Armed with this information, ZonGuru users can quickly and easily design products that are sure to create raving fans. 

Last but not least, Easy Source connects users with a curated list of Alibaba.com suppliers based upon user requirements. As a verified partner of Alibaba.com, ZonGuru can provide you with critical supplier information directly within the platform, such as estimated costs, minimum order quantities, lead times, and even product photos. 

Whilst both platforms deliver robust product research tools, it’s clear that ZonGuru provides more relevant niche metrics and 100’s more niche ideas to boot. ZonGuru supports the entire product selection and validation phase and provides a logical progression between each tool from product idea generation, seasonality testing, customer feedback to sourcing. Follow this link to find out more about the ZonGuru Easy Source tool.

Keyword Finder & Listing Optimization Tools That Convert

After locking down a product, it’s time to list it in a way that sets you up for the biggest chance of success. That’s where keyword research begins. If you don’t have quality keywords inserted in the right spots, you risk getting buried by superior listings.

Jungle Scout’s Keyword Scout tool is a keyword generator that works by inputting a search phrase or individual ASIN’s. Multiple data points are available for each keyword, including search volume, PPC costs, relevancy, and organic vs. sponsored product counts. Something I hadn’t seen before was an inbuilt historical search volume graph for each keyword. Unfortunately, I was left with a feeling of wanting more. Keyword Scout doesn't provide the average revenue data or metrics to assess market share, ratings, or which keywords competitors were ranking for or potentially overlooking. It was most definitely PPC focused which is important, but certainly not the sole deciding factor of a keyword’s relevance. 

Listing Builder is Jungle Scout’s main listing optimization tool. Listing Builder provides a handy listing optimization score and keyword search volume and sync to Amazon button. A frustrating limitation with this tool is users must continuously move between tabs if they want to add a keyword after the initial optimization has begun. It would be nice to simply type the keyword into the sidebar and the data to populate. Also, Listing Builder doesn’t take into account competitor listing strength or allow the user to export listing copy to CSV. 

ZonGuru’s keyword and listing optimization tools are Keywords on Fire, Keywords Spotlight, and Listing Optimizer. Keywords on Fire is ZonGuru’s flagship tool, giving sellers everything they need to find long-tail keywords that convert. Key pieces of data such as search volume, revenue, daily launch sales, estimated PPC bids, and more are clearly spelled out for you. Similar to Jungle Scout, all you have to do is enter in the product ASINs you want to look at.

Keywords on Fire’s search options lets users create and save custom filters and import the results directly into Listing Optimizer.

Listing Optimizer helps you craft product listings that have high earning potential thanks to search volume and revenue figures based on which keywords you insert. As new keywords are entered, the figures automatically update so you always know what’s happening. 

On top of this, Listing Optimizer identifies which keywords are broad-matched and which are exact-matched and clearly indicates them in your keyword list.

This last feature is something we’re proud of: the ability to compare your listing’s effectiveness against the competition. Import up to 8 ASINs in a session and we’ll show you your listing optimization score and search volume compared to them. You can also use it to find keywords you may not have thought of. Once you’ve finished your listing, publish it straight to Amazon with the click of a button.

In summary, ZonGuru jumps ahead in this category for its additional keyword data points and outstanding listing optimization functionality. ZonGuru users know how well their listing copy stacks up at all times, and handy metrics make sure no keyword opportunities are left behind.  Click here to read more about the new supercharged Listing Optimizer tool from ZonGuru. 

Monitoring Your Business’ Sales

Getting a full picture of your business’ health is harder than you think. There’s a lot of things to keep track of. However, you absolutely need to be on top of your numbers so you know where to improve. Both services provide tools that make this a lot easier. Let’s take a look.

Jungle Scout provides a profit & loss report for any customized time period. Tick! Unfortunately, it’s not possible to view the profit & loss per product; it’s a company overview only. Also, you can’t export the profit & loss report meaning you would need to screenshot this if wanting to send data to a third party. Okay, maybe this should only be a half tick?

The platform also provides a profit overview dashboard, including summary data, visual graphs, and PPC analysis. Also, there is an inventory management toolset that allows bulk COGS uploads and inventory alerts. I can see how the bulk COGS upload function would be a timesaver for sellers with big SKU catalogs. 

Overall, Jungle Scout has the basics but right but seems to have overlooked all flexibility and customization features. The only variable users may change is the date range. Even the display currency is fixed. In addition, it would have been a nice feature to have all data points on one graph. Currently, users must flick between individual tabs to see separate graphs for net profit, revenue and costs. 

ZonGuru’s Business Dashboard gives you important figures such as your profits and losses along with sales graphs charting your sales trends. Filter your results by date, market, and product if you need specific results. You also have the option of displaying results in whatever currency you want.

It also provides a downloadable financial report covering any stage of your business so you have strong sales figures to show any potential investors. Much like Jungle Scout, you can enter in your COGS for accurate reporting and stock management.

Business Dashboard also provides breakdowns of paid vs. organic sales along with ACOS and inventory alerts. Every sales graph features historical event tracking, which plots any changes you make to a listing so you see how it has affected your sales.

ZonGuru is hands down the winner in this category with flexible display options and all the important data points front and center. While Jungle Scout has the basics covered, its lack of functionality makes for a frustrating user experience. 

Adjusting Quickly With Monitoring And Alerts

In order to stay agile and adapt, you need up-to-the-minute alerts and precise monitoring tools. These help keep you current with any changes your competitors make, protect you from black-hat sellers, and alert you to any unwanted changes to your listings.

Jungle Scout has an inbuilt alert feature for eight different listing events. Three of these events allow the user to set a benchmark rate for the alert; for example, if you only want to be notified when the price changes by more than 20%, you can do this. Furthermore, the alerts may be set for competitor products.

However, like so many other alert tools on the market, this one seems to fall short on dimension and weight changes. Jungle Scout also misses the mark with no alerts for category changes or image updates. All-in-all I would not feel comfortable relying solely on Jungle Scout’s alerts as they don’t cover common events that can quickly impact the bottom line.  

ZonGuru’s two monitoring/alert tools, Product Pulse and IP Monitor, keep you up to date with you and your competition’s listings. Product Pulse alerts you when any changes are made to an ASIN. Each alert can be turned on/off to give you more control of what data you need. IP Monitor guards your listing by alerting you whenever someone tries to steal assets from your listing.

Product Pulse’s historical event tracking lets you choose which changes you make to a listing appear on your Business Dashboard and Sales Spy graphs.

Again, Jungle Scout has the basics covered but not much more. The Jungle Scout benchmark slider is a nice touch but nowhere near makes up for its lack of alert coverage. ZonGuru goes all out in this category to give users peace of mind with a robust list of alert options and functionality features. 

Customer Engagement Solutions

Customer ratings are incredibly important. They help instill trust and let other buyers know you’re a reliable seller. Rock-solid social proof can significantly increase your sales. In order to cultivate an engaged, happy customer base you need automation tools that help you stay in constant communication.  

Jungle Scout has an Email Campaign tool designed to connect sellers with buyers. This tool allows users to design custom email templates with full formatting capabilities and quick insert fields. Although Email Campaigns provides statistics on a campaign’s performance, the most obvious metric appears to be missing: the open rate! In addition, users don’t have the ability to prevent the campaign from being sent to refunded orders. This seems like a pretty major design flaw as refunded orders are more likely to leave negative ratings. 

In addition to the above, Jungle Scout has a ‘Review Automation’ tool that is perfect for set and forget users. This tool automatically sends review requests to eligible orders directly from the Amazon Seller Central platform.

Email Automator and Review Automator are ZonGuru’s customer engagement solutions. Both these tools let you customize and automate follow up emails and stay in touch only with customers who are likely to get you a 5-star review. Unlike Jungle Scout’s options, ZonGuru makes sure you don’t request reviews from refunded orders and lets you schedule the time of day emails go out in order to increase open rate. 

Like Jungle Scout, ZonGuru also has a Review Automator tool that utilizes the Amazon Seller Central platform. Review Automator bulk messages buyers to request reviews in line with Amazon's terms of service. 

Both platforms offer robust customer engagement platforms. However, ZonGuru once again wins because of features that Jungle Scout does not provide such as email open rates, delivery preferences, and refunded order exclusions. These features give an edge to the ZonGuru reviews tools.

Keeping Your Customers Educated With Support And Training Resources

Sometimes, Amazon selling feels overwhelming. It happens to everyone. That’s why a dedicated customer support team and library of educational resources are worth their weight in gold. A regular schedule of live training webinars and Q&A’s are also important for keeping up with current market trends.

Jungle Scout regularly holds webinars for both new and experienced sellers. There is an extensive blog library on their website and a training course embedded within the platform called the ‘Academy’.  The ‘Academy’ content is provided in English and Chinese.

A BIG negative is that there isn’t a live chat feature on the platform. Jungle Scout users must submit a request which the support team emails back to. This feels frustratingly time-consuming as more often than not the email response creates a whole host of additional questions that could be quickly answered on a live chat. 

ZonGuru features weekly live training sessions with their team of experienced sellers and a large library of tool tutorials and breakdowns ofAmazon selling strategy. Their customer support team is on call to answer any questions you have as well.

Both services have a ton of selling experience that they share with sellers. ZonGuru wins,, however, thanks to its live chat function that puts you in touch with an experienced seller right away. Check out one of their live training sessions to see for yourself!

Which One Provides The User With The Most Value?

Sure, no one likes to pay a lot in membership fees, but it’s important to weigh that against how much value they provide your business.

Jungle Scout’s entry-level plan is called ‘basic’ and is $39 per month. However, this basic plan doesn’t cover all the tools a product researcher would need, making the pricing misleading for someone just starting out. Access to the keyword tool and supplier database is only available on ‘Suite’ plans ($69 per month) and above. Also, Jungle Scout doesn't provide a free trial meaning users must commit to a plan and rely on the 14 day money-back guarantee if they find the platform isn’t a good fit. This can be a costly exercise for overseas users paying bank conversion fees. 

ZonGuru pricing options offer flexible subscription plans that grow alongside your business. Entry level researcher plans are $39 a month, while seller plans are $49 a month. The researcher plan provides access to all of the product research tools and add-on options let you increase your session limits. Seven-day free trials are included in each plan, and both platforms provide regular promotions and discounts.

The big difference is that ZonGuru doesn’t keep its product research tools behind any paywalls, and its seven-day trial. Jungle Scout does not provide a trial, and users find themselves having to pay more to access the tools they need.

ZonGuru vs. Jungle Scout: The Final Verdict

So, we’re finally back to the big question: ZonGuru or Jungle Scout?

ZonGuru and Jungle Scout are both extensive tool sets that have helped thousands of FBA sellers achieve success. If we’re looking at the facts, though, ZonGuru takes the prize. 

Jungle Scout has a solid offering; however, it drops the ball in key areas such as listing optimization, business metrics, alerts, and customer communications. The user experience throughout Jungle Scout isn’t as streamlined, nor are the number of niche results as robust. 

ZonGuru’s constant evolution, user experience, extensive tool set, and flexible membership options make it the clear choice for Amazon sellers of all experience levels. 

Still not 100% convinced? Sign up for your seven-day free trial now to see for yourself!