The End of Free Competitor Insights on LinkedIn

Smart 360

09 Oct 2025 — 1 min read

LinkedIn is quietly reshaping how businesses access their own performance data. Starting October 15, the platform’s Competitor Analytics tool — once freely available — will move behind a paywall.

Until now, every company page could benchmark against multiple competitors for free, tracking their follower growth, engagement rates, and top-performing posts. But going forward, non-paying pages will only be able to compare themselves to one competitor.

A Premium Wall for Performance Insights

LinkedIn’s message is clear: if you want deeper insights, you’ll have to upgrade.
For $99 per month, Premium Company Pages will unlock access to data from up to nine competitors, along with visibility into their three top trending posts.

This shift isn’t random — it’s part of LinkedIn’s broader push toward subscription-based business tools, which have reportedly grown by nearly 80% quarter over quarter since their launch last year.

Why It Matters for Marketers

Competitor tracking has become one of the most valuable parts of LinkedIn analytics. It helps brands spot engagement shifts, identify content patterns, and benchmark performance across industries.
Restricting that visibility means marketers will now need to decide:
Do we pay for deeper data, or do we rely on limited comparisons and external tools?

For brands that use LinkedIn as a lead-generation or employer-branding hub, this limitation could mean flying a little more blind — unless they invest.

The Bigger Picture: The Subscription Shift

LinkedIn isn’t alone. Across social platforms, we’re seeing a steady move toward monetizing insights — advanced analytics, AI-powered content recommendations, and trend prediction tools are increasingly becoming premium-only features.

While advertising remains the primary revenue driver, social networks are clearly experimenting with new income streams.
For marketers, that means rethinking budgets: not just for ads, but for data access itself.

Smart Takeaway

If data is power, social platforms are learning to sell it.
As LinkedIn walls off its Competitor Analytics, one thing becomes clear: the future of social growth may depend not only on how good your content is — but on how much visibility you’re willing to pay for.

Co-Sourcing: The Hybrid Model For Brand–Agency Collaboration

The long-standing debate between in-housing and outsourcing may finally have a third answer — and it’s called co-sourcing. When PepsiCo and VaynerMedia recently revealed their new partnership structure, it wasn’t about choosing one side. Instead, they’ve built a shared ecosystem that merges the speed and proximity of in-house

Instagram Adds Downloadable Stats for Creators

Instagram is giving creators a new way to turn their content performance into business opportunities — and it’s surprisingly practical. The platform is reportedly testing downloadable PDF summaries that showcase your key account stats, engagement rates, and content performance — essentially a one-click media kit ready to share with brands. For

How Absolut Uncovered the AI Search Gap

Generative AI is not just reshaping how people search — it’s rewriting what they find. And Absolut Vodka is one of the first brands to take this shift seriously. When the team behind Absolut discovered that nearly 70% of ChatGPT’s mixology answers didn’t mention a single brand, they

Sephora Launches “My Sephora Storefront” to Empower Beauty Creators

Sephora is deepening its ties with creators through the launch of My Sephora Storefront, a new affiliate program designed to let beauty influencers build curated, shoppable spaces inside Sephora’s own ecosystem. The move positions Sephora at the forefront of creator commerce, reinforcing how much trust consumers — especially younger ones