Competitor website audit: what it compares

A competitor website audit shows how that site holds up on the same points as yours: security, speed, SEO, accessibility, cookies and trackers, domain, hosting, content, reliability. It does not tell you its traffic, its revenue or its rankings in Google.

We audit it like any other site, with the same method and the same scoring as yours. Ordered together, the two reports can be read side by side, pillar by pillar.

A passive audit: only what the site shows

The audit only looks at what the site shows any visitor: its public pages, opened in a browser, what its server returns, its certificate, its domain name and DNS records. No access attempts, no forms sent, no accounts created, nothing added to a cart.

That is why we can audit a site you don't own: nothing on it is changed, and nothing is asked of its owner. The trade-off is that a customer area or an app behind a login is not examined, and walking a checkout, which requires the merchant's permission, is not part of it.

What compares from one site to the other

Two reports only compare if they measure the same things the same way.

The 9 pillars, each scored out of 100 on a documented, stable scoring system applied to the facts recorded during the audit.
The weights, which depend on what the site is for: two online stores are weighted the same way, and the report states the weights for each pillar.
The method version, printed on the cover of each report.
The scope: the report lists every page analyzed. The same plan for both sites gives the same page cap.
The measurements themselves: load time on phone and desktop, trackers loaded before consent, security headers, domain expiration date, hosting providers and their country.

Each site gets its own report. A gap in scores tells you which pillar one site does better on, and the report tells you why, with the pages and measurements behind the score.

What the audit adds to competitive analysis tools

Competitive analysis tools estimate a site's traffic, its keywords and the links pointing to it. The audit does none of that. It measures the state of the site itself, on points those tools don't cover, such as compliance, accessibility, the domain or dependencies. Our guide on tools vs audits explains what each one gives you.

The approach is the same as for your own site. Our guide on how to audit a website walks through it pillar by pillar.

What stays invisible from outside

An external audit only sees what the site publishes, so several things you would like to know about a competitor are not in it.

Traffic and where it comes from, conversion rate, revenue.
Search rankings and ad campaigns.
Anything behind the login: customer area, admin, orders.
Contracts, internal processes and source code, which the site doesn't show.

Every limit of the review is stated in the report. A point we could not verify is never presented as compliant.

Two audits, two orders

Each site is its own audit, ordered with its URL and its plan. Plans start at €200 excl. VAT and are listed on the pricing page; our guide to website audit pricing explains what drives the cost. Each one is paid separately, payment collected on delivery.

To see what a report contains before you order, two real reports are published in full.

What this check doesn't tell you

The audit stays passive: nothing is done to the site under review. The report records facts, measurements and observable signs. It is not a compliance certification, legal advice or a penetration test.

It does not judge the competitor's offer, prices or positioning: it tells you how their website works, not whether they sell better.

By Quentin Mathis, Z29K · updated September 28, 2026