🔍 Similar Sites Scraper - Discover Competitor & Alternative Websites

Find similar and competitor websites for any domain using SimilarWeb data. Get similarity rankings, traffic estimates, category classifications, related mobile apps, website tags, and more — all without needing a SimilarWeb account!

📋 Table of Contents

• 🚀 Features
• 🎯 Use Cases
• ⚡ Quick Start
• 📊 Input Parameters
• 📤 Output Format
• 🔍 Data Fields Extracted
• 📈 Performance & Reliability
• 💡 Best Practices
• ❓ FAQ
• 🔗 Related Actors

🚀 Features

🔍 Similar Sites Discovery

• ✅ No Login Required — Find competitor websites without a SimilarWeb account
• ✅ Up to 20 Similar Sites — Get a ranked list of the most similar websites for any domain
• ✅ Similarity Score — Each result includes a grade (0-1) showing how similar it is
• ✅ Traffic Estimates — Monthly visit estimates for every similar site
• ✅ Real-Time Data — Access the latest similarity data powered by SimilarWeb

📊 Comprehensive Data

• ✅ Site Title & Description — Full metadata for the queried domain
• ✅ Category Classification — SimilarWeb category and category rank
• ✅ Country Rankings — Top country rank for each similar site
• ✅ Website Tags — Related keywords and tags associated with the domain
• ✅ Related Apps — iOS and Android apps related to the website
• ✅ Thumbnails & Favicons — CDN-hosted site screenshots and favicons

🎯 Use Cases

Use Case	Description	Benefits
🏆 Competitive Analysis	Discover your top competitors by domain	Understand your competitive landscape instantly
📈 Market Research	Analyze industry players and their traffic	Identify market leaders and emerging players
🔗 SEO Link Building	Find relevant websites for outreach	Discover high-quality backlink opportunities
🔄 Alternative Discovery	Find alternatives to any tool or service	Help users discover similar products
🎯 Ad Targeting	Identify similar audiences across sites	Expand your advertising reach to competitor audiences
💰 Investment Research	Evaluate market positioning of digital businesses	Assess traffic and category rankings for due diligence
📱 App Discovery	Find related mobile apps for any website	Discover iOS & Android apps in the same space

⚡ Quick Start

1️⃣ Find Similar Sites for X (Twitter)

{
  "domain": "x.com"
}

2️⃣ Discover Competitors of Amazon

{
  "domain": "amazon.com"
}

3️⃣ Find Alternatives to Notion

{
  "domain": "notion.so"
}

4️⃣ Analyze a News Website

{
  "domain": "bbc.com"
}

5️⃣ Find Sites Similar to YouTube

{
  "domain": "youtube.com"
}

📊 Input Parameters

Configuration Options

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
domain	String	"x.com"	The website domain to find similar sites for (e.g., google.com, amazon.com)

💡 Tip: Use bare domains like google.com, not full URLs like https://www.google.com/. The scraper automatically cleans URLs if provided.

📤 Output Format

🌐 Result Data Structure

{
  "domain": "x.com",
  "status": "success",
  "siteTitle": "X. It's what's happening",
  "siteDescription": "From breaking news and entertainment to sports and politics...",
  "siteCategory": "Computers_Electronics_and_Technology/Social_Networks_and_Online_Communities",
  "siteCategoryRank": 3,
  "siteTotalVisits": 4461796618.74737,
  "siteThumbnail": "https://site-images.similarcdn.com/image?url=x.com&t=1&h=...",
  "siteFavicon": "https://site-images.similarcdn.com/image?url=x.com&t=2&h=...",
  "siteRedirect": "x.com",
  "similarSitesCount": 20,
  "similarSites": [
    {
      "site": "instagram.com",
      "description": "Create an account or log in to Instagram...",
      "category": "Computers_Electronics_and_Technology/Social_Networks_and_Online_Communities",
      "topCountryRank": 6,
      "totalVisits": 6647043715,
      "similarityRank": 1,
      "grade": 0.7715,
      "thumbnail": "https://site-images.similarcdn.com/image?url=instagram.com&t=1&h=..."
    }
  ],
  "tags": ["commerce", "science", "developer", "paypal", "developers"],
  "relatedApps": [
    {
      "title": "X",
      "type": "IOS",
      "ranking": 1,
      "icon": "https://is1-ssl.mzstatic.com/image/...",
      "url": "https://apps.apple.com/us/app/id333903271"
    }
  ]
}

🔍 Data Fields Extracted

🌐 Site Overview

Element	Description	Details
Site Title	Title of the queried website	From SimilarWeb metadata
Site Description	Brief description of the domain	Meta description from SimilarWeb
Category	SimilarWeb category classification	e.g., Social_Networks_and_Online_Communities
Category Rank	Rank within the category	Position among category peers
Total Visits	Estimated monthly total visits	For the queried domain
Thumbnail	Website screenshot URL	CDN-hosted site thumbnail
Favicon	Site favicon URL	CDN-hosted favicon image

🔍 Similar Sites Data

Element	Description	Details
Site	Similar website domain	e.g., instagram.com
Description	Brief description of the similar site	Meta description
Category	Similar site's SimilarWeb category	Category classification
Top Country Rank	Rank in the site's top country	Country-level popularity
Total Visits	Estimated monthly visits	Traffic volume indicator
Similarity Rank	Position by similarity	1 = most similar to the queried domain
Grade	Similarity score (0-1)	Higher = more similar, 0.77 = very similar
Thumbnail	Site screenshot URL	CDN-hosted thumbnail image

🏷️ Tags & Keywords

Element	Description	Details
Tags	Related keywords/tags	Array of relevant topic tags

📱 Related Apps

Element	Description	Details
Title	App name	Name of the related application
Type	Platform	IOS or ANDROID
Ranking	App relevance rank	Position by relevance (1 = most relevant)
Icon	App icon URL	CDN-hosted app icon image
URL	Store listing URL	Direct link to App Store or Google Play

📊 Dataset Views

The scraper provides 4 organized views in the Apify dataset:

View	Description
🌐 Overview	Domain info, title, category, total visits, similar sites count
🔍 Similar Sites	Full ranked list of similar websites with similarity scores
🏷️ Tags	Website tags and keywords
📱 Related Apps	Related iOS & Android mobile applications

📈 Performance & Reliability

🔄 Reliability Features

• ✅ Auto-Retry & Backoff — Handles temporary connection hiccups gracefully
• ✅ Error Handling — Clear error messages with status codes for failed lookups
• ✅ URL Cleaning — Automatically strips https://, http://, and trailing slashes

💡 Best Practices

✅ Recommended Usage

1. Use Bare Domains — Enter google.com instead of https://www.google.com/ for best results.
2. Popular Domains Work Best — Well-known websites with high traffic produce the most comprehensive results.
3. Check Similarity Grades — Sites with grade > 0.5 are strongly similar; those > 0.7 are very close competitors.
4. Use Tags for SEO — The extracted tags reveal how SimilarWeb categorizes the site, useful for keyword research.
5. Download Thumbnails Promptly — CDN-hosted thumbnail URLs may expire after some time.
6. Export Your Data — Download results as JSON, CSV, XML, or Excel from the Apify dataset.

⚠️ Important Notes

• The API returns up to 20 similar sites per domain.
• grade values range from 0 to 1, where 1.0 means identical and 0.0 means completely unrelated.
• similarityRank of 1 indicates the most similar site to the queried domain.
• Some similar sites may not have a description field if SimilarWeb hasn't indexed their metadata.
• Related apps include both iOS (App Store) and Android (Google Play) listings.
• siteTotalVisits represents the estimated monthly traffic for the queried domain (not the similar sites).

❓ FAQ

Q: Do I need a SimilarWeb account?

A: No, this tool uses specialized API endpoints and does not require a SimilarWeb login or subscription.

Q: What does the similarity grade mean?

A: The grade is a score from 0 to 1 indicating how similar a site is to the queried domain. A grade of 0.77 (like Instagram to X.com) means very high similarity. Grades above 0.5 indicate strong similarity.

Q: How many similar sites are returned per domain?

A: The API returns up to 20 similar websites ranked by similarity score.

Q: What domain format should I use?

A: Use bare domains like google.com, amazon.co.uk, or bbc.com. The scraper automatically removes https://, http://, www., and trailing slashes.

Q: Can I use this for any website?

A: Yes, but results are best for established websites with reasonable traffic. Very new or low-traffic sites may return limited or no results.

Q: What are Related Apps?

A: These are mobile applications (iOS and Android) that SimilarWeb associates with the queried domain. For example, querying x.com returns the official X app on both App Store and Google Play.

Q: What data is included in tags?

A: Tags are keywords that describe the domain's content and industry. For example, x.com returns tags like commerce, developer, forums, marketplace.

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🔗 Related Actors

Actor	Description
🌐 SimilarWeb Scraper Pro	Get detailed traffic analytics, rankings, keywords, and traffic sources for any website
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🌐 Semrush Global Keyword Scraper	Get detailed traffic analytics, rankings, keywords, and traffic sources for any website
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🏷️ Keywords & Tags

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