General FAQ

What does Contend do?

Contend is how you stay ahead of what your competition is doing — without being the one doing the watching. Point it at your website and Contend identifies who actually competes with you, tracks their moves, and surfaces what matters. Strategy, pricing, and roadmap decisions get made on today's reality — not last quarter's snapshot.

How does Contend find competitors?

During onboarding, you enter your website URL. Contend reads your site and builds a structured company model (what you do, who you serve, how you differentiate). It then runs AI research agents that propose candidate companies, evaluate each in parallel against your category and buyer, and return a ranked list with a plain-language rationale for every match — including the competitors that don't show up on page one of Google. You can add optional guidance to steer them (for example: "Focus on real-time monitoring tools. Exclude general SEO platforms.").

You review every discovered prospect before it enters your monitored list.

Can I add competitors manually?

Yes. From Competitors → Prospects, click Add Competitor and supply the name, website URL, and optionally a note on how you found them. Contend enriches the prospect the same way it does for discovered prospects and lets you confirm, lightly monitor, or dismiss it.

What signals does Contend track?

Anything material a competitor does. Grouped by what it tells you:

• Pricing and packaging — pricing page changes, tier additions, feature repackaging
• Features — launches, changelog entries, beta programmes, deprecations
• Content — blog posts, press releases, case studies
• News — press coverage, industry articles, analyst mentions
• Messaging and positioning — homepage copy changes, product page rewrites, strategic language shifts
• Hiring — job postings, especially senior roles
• Funding — rounds, stages, announced amounts
• Integrations — new partner integrations and ecosystem moves
• Site and structure — new pages, site architecture changes, content-feed updates

Every signal is classified by type and by how much it actually matters (high, medium, low). A new product launch and a footer copy tweak are not the same event.

What data sources does Contend use?

Everywhere material competitive signal lives — competitor websites, pricing and changelog pages, press releases and news coverage, job boards, funding databases, content feeds, integration listings, and licensed third-party data providers for depth where it matters. Contend uses whichever source gives the strongest read on a given signal, and every signal we surface traces back to the URL or record it came from. No black-box scoring, no "trust us."

How do I get briefings?

Two ways:

• Pulse — a filterable activity feed inside the app. Filter by importance, signal type, competitor, action, or date.
• Email digest — configurable in Settings → Notifications. Choose daily or weekly, set the send hour, pick recipients (team members and external email addresses), and filter by signal type, importance level, and which competitors to include (all, top N, or a specific list).
• Slack — on Pro and Enterprise plans. Connect your workspace in Settings → Integrations and briefings land in the channel of your choice on the same cadence as the email digest.
• MCP (Model Context Protocol) — for LLM clients like Claude Desktop and Cursor. See Connect Contend via MCP for setup.

Does Contend produce comparison matrices?

Yes — two, both auto-generated:

• Feature comparison. Contend builds a feature taxonomy from your website, then classifies each competitor against it. View modes include All, Differences, Gaps, and Strengths. Useful for roadmap prioritisation and competitive positioning.
• Pricing comparison. Pricing is extracted from competitor pricing pages as they are monitored. Toggle between monthly and annual billing.

How fresh is the data?

Signals are captured as Contend detects them. For high-change sources (pricing, changelog, blog), that is close to real-time. The email digest cadence is up to you (daily or weekly). Pulse is always live.

How many competitors can I track?

• Starter — 5 competitors
• Pro — 15 competitors
• Enterprise — unlimited

Most teams find that 10–15 is the right upper limit regardless of plan. Tracking too many competitors produces a firehose rather than useful briefings.

Do you offer a free trial?

Yes — the free competitive landscape report. Enter your website, confirm the prospects Contend discovers, and see a structured view of your landscape without committing. Paid plans start at $24/month. See the pricing page.

How long does setup take?

Roughly:

• Website analysis: 15–30 seconds
• Reviewing and confirming the first 10 discovered prospects: 10–15 minutes
• Initial signal capture across confirmed competitors: typically within 24 hours

Most teams have a useful, current view of their competitive landscape within their first session.

Can Contend deliver to Slack?

Slack delivery is available on Pro and Enterprise plans, configured from Settings → Integrations.

Is there an API?

Yes, on the Enterprise plan.

How do I cancel?

From the billing settings page inside the app. Plans are month-to-month with no long-term commitment.

Still have a question?

Contact the team via the contact page.