Helium 10 vs Jungle Scout in 2026, and the Amazon Data You Get Free
Compare helium 10 vs jungle scout on price and eligibility first, not feature counts. On 28 August 2026, Helium 10 lists Platinum at $129 a month, or $99 billed yearly, with no free plan card on its pricing page. Jungle Scout Catalyst lists Starter at $29 a month. Amazon gives every Professional seller Product Opportunity Explorer free, and every brand registered seller Brand Analytics free, including Search Query Performance. Many sellers already own the data they are about to buy.
First, the disclosure
This page carries no affiliate links. We earn nothing if you subscribe to either tool. Nearly every other result on this search page earns a commission on its recommendation, and that shapes what gets written.
We pay for some of these tools and have cancelled others.
We pay for some of the tools named here and have dropped others when they stopped earning the subscription. Ask us on a call and you get the current list rather than a page that sells you a link.
We have managed marketplace accounts since 2019, so the tool budget question comes up in almost every onboarding call. The advice below costs us goodwill with vendors when it says buy nothing.
What Amazon hands you free
Start with the free layer, because it decides how much software you actually need.
Product Opportunity Explorer sits inside Seller Central. Any Professional selling account can open it. Brand Registry is not a requirement. It reports search volume, search volume growth, click share, unit conversion rate, seasonality and return activity for niches Amazon builds from real customer behaviour. Amazon refreshes it weekly. Amazon describes the tool on Product Opportunity Explorer.
Brand Analytics needs Brand Registry and costs nothing after that. It carries Search Query Performance, Search Catalog Performance, Top Search Terms, Market Basket Analysis, Repeat Purchase Behavior and Demographics. Amazon describes it on Amazon Brand Analytics.
Search Query Performance matters most in this comparison. For each query it shows how many shoppers searched, how many impressions your ASIN earned, and how that traffic moved through clicks, cart adds and purchases. That is first party Amazon data about your own listings, and no third party can match it.
Here is the part affiliates skip. Helium 10 puts its Search Query Performance integration in the Diamond tier. Diamond costs $359 a month, or $279 billed yearly. Amazon gives brand registered sellers the same dashboard for nothing.
The advertising search term report is the third free source. Run any sponsored campaign and Amazon reports the exact customer search terms that spent your money, with clicks, orders and sales attached.
| Job | Amazon free tool | Eligibility | Helium 10 tier | Jungle Scout tier |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Query volume and funnel by ASIN | Search Query Performance | Brand Registry | Diamond, $279 to $359 | Not listed on the Catalyst plans page |
| Niche demand, growth and seasonality | Product Opportunity Explorer | Professional account | Platinum, $99 to $129 | Starter, $29 |
| Top search terms and click share | Brand Analytics Top Search Terms | Brand Registry | Platinum | Starter |
| Products bought together | Market Basket Analysis | Brand Registry | Not listed on the plan page | Not listed on the plan page |
| Search terms that converted in ads | Advertising search term report | Any active campaign | Diamond, after the April 2026 change | Brand Owner plus CI, $129 |
| Reverse ASIN keyword lookup | No Amazon equivalent published | Not applicable | Platinum, capped at 100 searches a month | Growth Accelerator, $49 |
| Historical price and rank history | No Amazon equivalent published | Not applicable | Platinum | Starter |
| Return reasons on your niche | Product Opportunity Explorer return activity | Professional account | Platinum | Not listed on the Catalyst plans page |
Four of those eight jobs have a free Amazon answer. That is the real starting position for any tool decision. We treat Amazon SEO tools as a layer on top of Seller Central, not a replacement.
Current pricing for both tools, checked 28 August 2026
We opened both vendor pricing pages on 28 August 2026 and copied what they showed. Prices change, promotions run, and tiers get renamed. Check the vendor page before you buy.
| Tool | Tier | Monthly | Annual, per month | Key limits shown |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Helium 10 | Platinum | $129 | $99 | 20 ASINs lifetime, 3 markets, 1 login, 2 connected accounts |
| Helium 10 | Diamond | $359 | $279 | 1,000 ASINs lifetime, 5 markets, 5 logins, 10 connected accounts |
| Helium 10 | Enterprise | From $1,499, billed annually | Not listed separately | Up to 5,000 ASINs, 10 or more users, 15 or more seller accounts |
| Jungle Scout | Catalyst Starter | $29 | $29, billed as $348 a year | 50 product tracker slots, 500 sales estimates a month |
| Jungle Scout | Growth Accelerator | $49 | $49, billed as $588 a year | 150 tracker slots, 500 rank tracker keywords, supplier database |
| Jungle Scout | Brand Owner plus CI | $129 | $129, billed as $1,548 a year | 2,000 tracker slots, 5,000 rank tracker keywords, 3 seats |
Two details deserve a note. The Helium 10 plan page shows three cards today, Platinum, Diamond and Enterprise. No free plan card appears in that list. Jungle Scout sends sellers above roughly $1M in revenue to Cobalt, which it quotes rather than prices in public.
Source pages: helium10.com/pricing and junglescout.com/pricing/catalyst-plans, both fetched 28 August 2026.
What changed in Helium 10 Platinum in April 2026
EcomCrew reported on 1 April 2026 that Helium 10 reduced what the Platinum tier includes. We report their account of the change rather than the vendor’s, because the vendor did not publish a change log entry that we can point you to.
| Entitlement | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Cerebro and Magnet | No monthly search cap reported | 100 searches a month |
| Listing Builder AI | No lifetime cap reported | 5 uses for the life of the account, no reset |
| Alerts | No lifetime ASIN cap reported | 5 ASINs for the life of the account |
| Helium 10 Ads | Included in Platinum | Removed from Platinum |
| Month to month price | $99 | $129 |
Read the caps as unit economics, not as a complaint. One hundred Cerebro searches a month covers a seller researching two or three products. It does not cover an agency screening a catalogue, and it does not cover weekly rank audits across a wide range. Five lifetime uses of a writing feature is closer to a demo than a working entitlement.
The alerts cap has the sharpest edge. Five ASINs for the life of the account means a seller with thirty listings cannot monitor hijackers across the catalogue from Platinum. That pushes real usage toward Diamond, which triples the monthly cost.
The entry tier compared honestly
The entry price gap is the single clearest fact on this page. Jungle Scout opens at $29 a month. Helium 10 opens at $99 a month, and only if you commit to a year. Month to month, the gap is $29 against $129.
Helium 10’s own comparison content does not state that gap in those terms. Neither does most affiliate coverage, because the higher priced subscription usually pays the larger commission.
What you get differs, and the price gap is not arbitrary. Jungle Scout Starter gives product research, the browser extension and 50 product tracker slots. Helium 10 Platinum gives a wider tool set, including Cerebro, Magnet, Black Box, Frankenstein, Scribbles and Refund Genie, now inside the April caps. Platinum also allows 20 ASINs and three marketplaces for the life of the account.
For a seller testing a first product, Starter answers the question. For a seller running keyword work across dozens of listings, Platinum’s caps will bite before the ASIN limit does.
Where each tool genuinely wins
Compare by job, not by tool count. Both vendors ship more features than any single seller uses.
Helium 10 wins on keyword depth. Cerebro reverse ASIN lookups and Magnet expansions return a larger raw keyword universe than most competitors, and its historical keyword tracking runs deeper. If your work is building the term list behind a launch, that depth earns its price. Our own keyword research process starts from Search Query Performance. Then we add a paid reverse ASIN tool to find competitor terms Amazon never shows you.
Helium 10 also wins on operational alerts and reimbursement checks, at the tiers where those features stay usable.
Jungle Scout wins on product screening speed. The browser extension and Opportunity Score give a fast first filter across a search page, which suits sellers reviewing many candidate products a week. That fits the early stage of product research better than a keyword suite does.
Jungle Scout also wins on entry price and on sales analytics for smaller catalogues. Cobalt, its enterprise product, targets brands that want category level market share reporting rather than single ASIN research.
Neither wins on first party data about your own listings. Amazon holds that, and gives it away.
Search volume, and why it never matches Amazon
Sellers ask why Helium 10 shows 40,000 searches while Search Query Performance shows a different figure for the same term. The answer is units, not accuracy.
Helium 10 has publicly explained that Amazon exposed internal search volume to tools starting in 2018, then withdrew that access. Since then the tool estimates volume from other signals. Helium 10 also states that its numbers are normalised, while Amazon’s Search Query Performance numbers are denormalised.
Those are two different measurements. Comparing one against the other is a category error, like comparing a temperature in Celsius against one in Fahrenheit and calling the difference an error rate.
Use tool volume for ranking terms against each other. Use Search Query Performance for absolute numbers on your own ASINs. Never mix them inside one forecast.
The alternatives worth a look
Keepa tracks price and rank history across a long window, and its data feed underpins parts of the sourcing decision for many resellers. It is narrow and cheap, and it answers a question neither suite answers as well.
DataDive and SmartScout serve different needs. DataDive leans into keyword and listing analysis for teams already comfortable with spreadsheets. SmartScout maps brands and categories, which suits wholesale sourcing more than private label launches.
The strongest free alternative stays the same one. Product Opportunity Explorer, Brand Analytics and your advertising search term report cover demand, competition, seasonality and query level funnels. All three cost nothing and use Amazon’s own numbers.
Sellics, Viral Launch and similar suites still exist and still get compared to Helium 10. Test them against the job you need done, not against a feature grid.
A decision tree, including buying nothing
Three questions settle most cases. Do you hold Brand Registry? How many new products do you screen in a quarter? How many ASINs need monitoring?
| Your situation | What we would do | Why |
|---|---|---|
| One or two products, no expansion plan | Buy nothing | Explorer and the ad search term report cover the work |
| Brand registered, stable catalogue under 20 ASINs | Free Amazon tools only, revisit in 90 days | Search Query Performance already answers the ranking question |
| Brand registered, testing 3 to 5 products a quarter | Free tools plus Jungle Scout Starter at $29 | Research volume is the only real gap |
| No Brand Registry, screening products weekly | Jungle Scout Growth Accelerator at $49 | Explorer covers demand, but not reverse ASIN work at volume |
| Deep keyword work across 50 or more listings | Helium 10 Diamond at $279 to $359 | Platinum caps and ASIN limits bind first |
| Multi market brand with an in house team | Helium 10 Diamond or Enterprise, plus Cobalt if you need share data | Seat and marketplace limits drive the tier, not features |
The buy nothing row is not a rhetorical trick. A seller with two ASINs and a working ad campaign gets more from reading the search term report every Monday than from any subscription.
If an agency runs your account, who pays for the tools
Keep the licence where the work happens. If we run keyword and advertising work, the tool sits on our licence and our cost, and you never see a markup. If your in house team does research, put the licence in your name so the history stays with you.
Two clauses matter more than the invoice. First, the Brand Analytics and advertising data always lives in your Seller Central account, so it stays yours by default. Second, agree in writing that keyword lists, research exports and reporting files transfer to you when the relationship ends.
Our own Amazon account management terms say it plainly. Every file and login stays yours, there is no lock in, and there is no setup fee.
Frequently asked questions
Is Helium 10 worth it in 2026?
It depends on volume. If you research keywords across many listings every week, the Diamond tier earns its cost. If you sell two products and hold Brand Registry, Amazon’s free Search Query Performance and Product Opportunity Explorer likely cover the same ground. The April 2026 Platinum caps make the entry tier a weaker fit for heavy users than it was.
How much does Helium 10 cost?
On 28 August 2026 the pricing page shows Platinum at $129 a month or $99 billed yearly. Diamond costs $359 a month or $279 billed yearly, and Enterprise starts at $1,499 a month billed annually. No free plan card appears in that list. Prices and promotions change, so check helium10.com/pricing before you buy.
How much does Jungle Scout cost?
On 28 August 2026 the Catalyst plans page shows Starter at $29 a month and Growth Accelerator at $49. Brand Owner plus Competitive Intelligence costs $129 a month. Annual billing works out at the same monthly figures, charged as $348, $588 and $1,548 a year. Cobalt, for larger brands, is quoted rather than publicly priced.
Which is cheaper, Helium 10 or Jungle Scout?
Jungle Scout, at the entry point. Its Starter tier costs $29 a month against Helium 10’s $99 a month on annual billing, or $129 month to month. At the top of the published range the two get closer, since Jungle Scout Brand Owner plus CI costs $129 and Helium 10 Diamond costs $279 to $359.
Does Helium 10 still have a free plan?
The pricing page we checked on 28 August 2026 shows three plan cards, Platinum, Diamond and Enterprise. No free plan card sits in that comparison. Helium 10 has offered limited free access and trials at various times, so check the vendor page directly. Amazon’s own free tools remain the reliable no cost option.
What changed in the Helium 10 Platinum plan?
EcomCrew reported on 1 April 2026 that Platinum entitlements were reduced. Their report lists a 100 search monthly cap on Cerebro and Magnet, five lifetime uses of Listing Builder AI with no reset, and alerts limited to five ASINs. It also reports Helium 10 Ads removed from Platinum, and the price moving from $99 to $129.
Can I use Amazon’s free tools instead of Helium 10?
For many sellers, yes. Product Opportunity Explorer covers niche demand, click share, conversion rate, seasonality and returns with a Professional account. Brand Analytics adds query level data with Brand Registry. The gap is reverse ASIN keyword lookup and historical rank tracking at scale, which Amazon does not publish. That gap is what a paid tool actually buys.
Is Search Query Performance free?
Yes, for brand registered sellers. Search Query Performance sits inside Brand Analytics in Seller Central and costs nothing beyond Brand Registry enrolment. Helium 10 charges for its Search Query Performance integration at the Diamond tier, which lists at $359 a month or $279 billed yearly. The underlying Amazon dashboard remains free either way.
Why does Helium 10 show different search volume than Amazon?
Different units. Helium 10 has publicly explained that Amazon exposed internal search volume to tools in 2018, then withdrew it. The company also states its figures are normalised, while Search Query Performance is denormalised. The two numbers measure different things. Rank keywords against each other with tool data, and use Amazon data for absolute figures.
What is Cerebro and what does it do?
Cerebro is Helium 10’s reverse ASIN tool. You enter a competitor ASIN and it returns the keywords that product ranks for, with estimated volume and rank position. Sellers use it to build launch term lists and to find gaps. Since April 2026, reporting indicates Platinum accounts get 100 Cerebro and Magnet searches a month.
What is a good free Helium 10 alternative?
Amazon’s own stack. Product Opportunity Explorer gives niche demand and seasonality with a Professional account. Brand Analytics gives query data with Brand Registry. The advertising search term report gives converting terms from live campaigns. Keepa’s free tier adds basic price history. Together these cover most of what an entry tier subscription provides.
Do I need a paid tool if I am brand registered?
Often not. Brand Registry gives you Search Query Performance, Top Search Terms and Market Basket Analysis at no cost. That answers most ranking questions for an existing catalogue. A paid tool earns its place when you research new products at volume, or when you need competitor keyword data that Amazon never shows you.
Should my agency pay for the tools or should I?
Whoever does the work should hold the licence. If the agency runs keyword and ad work, the cost belongs on their side, with no markup passed to you. Ask for one clause in writing. Research exports, keyword lists and reports transfer to you when the contract ends, and your Seller Central data stays yours throughout.
Before you renew, get a second opinion
If a renewal is coming up, send us the plan you are on and what you use it for. We will tell you which parts Amazon already gives you free, and where a paid tier still earns its keep. The audit costs nothing and carries no affiliate link, because we do not run any.
