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The 8 Best Minea Alternatives for Dropship Spying 

This is our review of the best alternatives for Minea.

20
 min read
June 4, 2023
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I have explored countless tools and plug-ins in my many years of dropshipping. A dropship spy tool is just one in an ocean of business tools you can use. Today, I will share with you the best Minea alternatives. 

And the best alternative to Minea is Dropship.io. I am saying this because our tool has everything you need to spy on your competitors, look for winning products, and see what ads your competitors are running.…

We will discuss the following: 

  • The best alternative spy tools for Minea
  • Why do you need to find a replacement for Minea?
  • How to use dropship spy tools to succeed in dropshipping

The key takeaways are: 

  • Social media ad likes, and comments do not translate to sales
  • You are better off looking at actual sales data per product than ad performance
  • Not all dropship spy tools give you real value for your money

Ready to begin? Let us start!

Top 8 Minea Alternatives

1. Dropship.IO – best overall for spying on competitors and their ads

2. Dropship Spy – best for Amazon dropshipping

3. SpyFu – best for PPC and keyword research

4. Foreplay – best searching ad creatives and trends

5. BigSpy – best for tracking ad performance of other entrepreneurs

6. AdPlexity – best for tracking ads and their respective landing pages

7. Dropispy – best free alternative for viewing ad stats

8. Anstrex – best searching product catalogs, along with searching for suppliers and importing goods to your store

8 Best Minea Alternatives

1. Dropship.IO - best overall

Dropship.IO is more than just a product research tool. It is a product database, seller database, ad spy, and competitor spy all rolled into one. With our tool, you can find and launch the right products properly.  

Dropship.IO Features

  • Sales Tracker – the sales tracker is how you spy on your competitors’ sales; you can save many stores in the database and view their sales performance daily from a single table. 
  • Product Database – our product database is the tool to check if a product has a market demand. With this database, you will know the revenue of a product in dollars, unit sales in the past month, and the stores selling these products. 
  • Seller Database – want to sell a product? Check our seller database for suppliers. Our system allows you to chat with these suppliers on Skype. We also provide data about the sellers, such as orders shipped, years in business, number of employees, floor space of operations, and many more. 
  • Competitor Research – there is no better way to understand competition than to spy on them. With our competitor research tool, you get to know who sells the same items as yours, how many years they have been in business, what marketing tactics they use, and many more. 
  • Facebook Ad Spy – finally, we provide you access to Facebook Ads Library. This site is where you can find your competitors’ ads. Take inspiration from these ads if they are successful. 

Dropship.IO Pros

  • You can spy on the ads of your competitors
  • You can track the daily, weekly, and monthly sales of your competitors
  • You can find winning products based on sales or revenue
  • You can find sellers that you can trust

Dropship.IO Cons

  • Right now, we only track Shopify stores, not stores from other platforms like WooCommerce.
  • We only track Facebook ads, not TikTok.

As far as Minea alternatives go, Dropship.IO is the best one. Even thought we are a bit biased.

The big difference between our tool and theirs is our competition spy. Although we only work with Shopify now, we guarantee that our data can provide all the insights you need to run a successful dropshipping business.  

2. Dropship Spy - best for Amazon dropshipping

Dropship Spy is a collection of winning products based on sales performance. As a member, you will get access to this database, and they only get data from dropshippers. Apart from data, they also offer “Social Proof” products with TikTok content.

Dropship Spy Features

  • Product Feedback – there is a wide range of information about each product in the database; some examples include sales and profits, Amazon data, supplier list and how many they have sold, plus TikTok performance.
  • Amazon Analysis – for each product on Amazon, you will see stats like what keywords work best for the product or the product’s ranking in the US and the UK.
  • Social Posts and Performance – if available, you will see how a product’s post or ad performed on TikTok. Some examples of data you will find are the number of likes, shares, and comments. 

Dropship Spy Pros

  • The system has a product feedback scoring system.
  • You can view the ratings of the seller, and it can help you decide whether or not to work with them.
  • There is a chart of sales and profits for each product
  • You can view the TikTok analysis of a product if there are any

Dropship Spy Cons

  • There is no free account; you must pay at least $39 monthly.

Dropship Spy is an ideal tool to focus on AliExpress dropshipping. One thing worth noting is that there is a scoring system in the platform. With it, you can easily see if the product is worth selling. 

3. SpyFu - best for PPC and keyword research

SpyFu is a marketing analyzer tool. It provides data about SEO, pay-per-click performance, and backlinking performance. These activities are most important to get traffic and SEO credibility. You can use it to spy on competitors, especially if they sell from their website instead of Amazon or Etsy. 

SpyFu Features

  • PPC Competitor Research – with this tool, you can find a competitor and then find out what keywords they bought for ranking their sites and ads. 
  • SEO Competitor Research – if you want to grow your traffic organically, you can use this tool to find keywords relevant to your products and blog pages. Your product pages will likely appear in search engine results with the right keywords.
  • PPC Ads Winner and Losers – you will have access to a database of ads that bought specific keywords on a pay-per-click basis. The system will show you which ads made money and which did not.  

SpyFu Pros

  • The tool allows you to monitor the PPC campaigns of your competitors
  • You can track your ranking progress in terms of keywords and ads
  • You can find out what keywords to rank your store organically with SEO

SpyFu Cons

  • The tool is complicated to use
  • There is no free plan

Overall, SpyFu is an incredible tool for ads and SEO. I recommend it if you want an in-depth analysis of keywords, both for your domain ranking and advertising efforts. With the right keywords, you will target people on Google search based on what they type, not what you think they type on the search bar. 

4. Foreplay - best searching ad creatives and trends

Foreplay is what you use to find winning ads. The tool does not provide a list of winning products. Instead, it gives you tons of ads that you can choose from. You cannot copy these ads but can draw inspiration from them. 

The main benefit of this tool is you can create ads that people pay attention to. Too often, we launch advertisements that we think are great, only to experience disappointment when the ads underperform.  

Foreplay Features

  • Advertising Database – find winning ads on the platform and see what the marketers did; you will know what ad types are tending, such as UGC content, image types, and video types, and use the same strategy to advertise your dropshipping store. 
  • Brief Builder – this tool makes it easy to create an advertising brief or plan; some people call it a storyboard, which you can give to your ad creator. The brief creator is like a script you will follow to make a coherent ad.
  • Discovery and Swipe – you will have access to thousands of ads related to your business or niche. From the tool, you can save the ads to your library. Once you have these ads, you can go back to them later, watch them, and learn what key components advertisers used to succeed in getting traffic and sales.

Foreplay Pros

  • You can save the ad to your desktop and send that ad to your ad creator or artist.
  • You can get ads from the Facebook Library and TikTok Creative Center
  • You can share the ads with a team and collaborate with them 
  • There is a Chrome extension that allows you to save ads easily

Foreplay Cons

  • The only thing it does is give you access to an advertising database plus the ad briefs.

Use Foreplay after setting up your dropshipping store. Once the website is ready, the next thing you want is traffic and sales. Foreplay can give you insights into what ads work. You can save the ads from a platform, like TikTok, and use that for your reference later on. 

5. BigSpy - best for tracking ad performance of other entrepreneurs

BigSpy, like Foreplay, is an advertising database. It has over 850 million ad creatives in its database, which you can view. The main benefit of this platform is that it gives you an idea of what advertising strategy works and what does not.

BigSpy Features 

  • Ad Data – the tool provides information about how the ad performed. Each ad thumbnail shows you the impression count, duration, popularity rating, and number of likes. 
  • Multiple Platforms – you can spy on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, and Google ads. As such, you can leverage these ads and see what ad creatives work for specific platforms. You no longer have to experiment with what each platform demographic wants from an ad. 
  • Etsy Hunt – if you dropship on Etsy, you can use their Etsy Hunt tool. What it does is analyze the ranks of products. You can use the data from this tool to determine what keywords to use and what products sell the most on the Etsy platform.

BigSpy Pros

  • The tool has access to ads on several platforms
  • You can track ad performance
  • It is possible to download the ad creative for later use

BigSpy Cons

  • They claim that the service is free, but it is not
  • The Basic Plan only gives you access to FB and Instagram ads

BigSpy is heavy on ads. If you get the VIP plan, you can access Ad Ideas, a feature that tells you what ads will likely work, which no one has done yet. As a dropshipper, you should be okay with the basic plan, which costs $9 monthly.

Use BigSpy if you are not making sales despite your store being perfect. For example, you may have found the right products from our tool and uploaded them to your store, but you are not making sales. Your ads are likely the issue, and it is where Big Spy can help. 

6. AdPlexity - best for tracking ads

AdPlexity is an ad spy tool that lets you track what your competitors do—particularly in their advertising efforts. With it, you can follow ad performance from over 75 countries, get comprehensive data about ad metrics, and find out which campaigns are profitable. 

AdPlexity Features

  • Major Countries – you can search ads in the US or UK and more than 75 countries. This filter is important if you are a global dropshipper. With it, you can get ideas about what ads work for a specific culture. 
  • Profitable Campaigns – the tool tells you if the ads made sales. If they did, you could create your ad like your competitors did. 
  • Landing Pages – you can download the landing pages of websites that made sales. From here, you can format your landing page similar to theirs. 
  • Filtering System – you can filter your search based on keywords, the advertiser, the affiliate network, or the publisher. This process helps you concentrate on specific ad types that closely resemble your business. 

AdPlexity Pros

  • You can filter the ads in so many ways 
  • Real-time insight is available if you spy on ads
  • You can search for ads based on keywords
  • You have access to thousands of advertisements from various platforms

AdPlexity Cons

  • Too expensive; you will pay an average of $200 monthly.

AdPlexity is an excellent tool for deep diving into advertising successes on various platforms. In addition, you can narrow your analysis based on devices. For example, you can search for ads on mobile only or on desktop only. AdPlexity also helps you find what affiliate networks performed the best. With it, you can register and find affiliates to market your products. 

7. Dropispy - best free alternative

Dropispy is a tool for dropshippers who want to find winning products based on ad performance. In our tool, you will see winning products based on sales, even if these products have no ads. 

Dropispy approaches winning products differently, and I can say that this is an excellent tool for dropshippers who do not want to go the long and hard way of building credibility. In Dropispy, you will see winning products that made sales from ads. Without these ads, these products would never have made a sale.

Dropispy Features

  • Ad Stats – on each ad thumbnail, you will see the reactions of people who saw the ad. For example, you will know how many people liked it, loved it, etc.
  • Ad Analysis – going in-depth on an ad performance is easy; you will see the demographics of the ad’s impressions, which countries saw the ad, and what genders. You will also see the trend of likes and shares of the ad over its course. 
  • New Ads Daily – they ad over 20,000 new ad creatives daily. Because of this, you will not run out of ad ideas. I suggest you get the free plan, download the best ads in your niche, and create your version. 

Dropispy Pros

  • There is a free account available
  • You can download the ads to your phone or desktop computer
  • They also have a spy tool for shops
  • There is an analysis area for the ad you are investigating 

Dropispy Cons

  • There is a severe limitation to the free plan.

Use Dropispy if your business concentration is advertising. As a dropshipper, you probably know by now that an ad is an important component of success in dropshipping. The thing is that you should build your winning product list based on niche, not on ads. So, I suggest that you use this tool in conjunction with ours.

8. Anstrex - best searching product catalogs

Anstrex is a huge spy tool for ads. They built this for dropshippers and all sorts of marketers, including marketing agencies that make ads for their clients. For dropshipping, the tool shows ads that performed, products that performed well, and retail stores that performed well. 

Anstrex Features   

  • Product Coverage – the company covers around 6 million products from 10,000 retailers. The sheer size of the ad database guarantees that you will find something related to your dropshipping store. They also have coverage for 92 countries.  
  • Catalog – apart from ads, you will have access to a list of suppliers. In addition, the product thumbnails will give you a quick snapshot of sales numbers, product insights, and more.  
  • Filtering – you can narrow your search through filtering options. With this tool, you can find viral, trending, and products based on growth. Use this to find products in a particular niche that meets your criteria. 

Anstrex Pros

  • They offer a free account
  • The platform provides several tools that a dropshipper needs
  • They have a tool for importation 

Anstrex Cons

  • Most of the suppliers are from AliExpress, so there is nothing special about this catalog.

Anstrex is a complex tool that has many things to offer. As such, it may be trying to be a jack of all trades. This is not to say that it is bad. It is still an ideal replacement or alternative to Minea. 

One caveat you may come across is their pricing method. If you decide to get the dropshipping tool, you will not have access to the marketing tools. Anstrex treats its services separately. It means you must pay separately if you want access to ads. 

How to Use Spy Tools to Your Advantage

I recommended several ad spy tools, but why do you really need them? There are many reasons, and I will provide details shortly. The takeaway from this section is this: if you understand why you need a spy tool, you can choose the right one for you. 

As you know, spy tools do many things. They can do much, from product research to sales data to advertising results and keywords. As a business person, you need to understand your priorities and then choose the tools you need to execute these priorities.

1. You want to know what ads people respond to

Not all ads perform the same way. The worst that can happen is you launch an ad and you get no outbound clicks. You want a high impression and outbound click-through rate, or CTR. 

Experts agree that a reasonable CTR is 2% (2% of people who saw your ad clicked on your link). To create an ad that performs, it is always best to see the actual performance of other ads and then create something similar. 

I do the same thing. While I do not always use ad spy tools, I have the time to play random ads on my social media accounts, record them, and see how people respond. As you can see from the screenshot below, I am getting better at creating ads.

My first ad only had 0.58% CTR, while the second one reached almost 2%. It happened because I did my research. I watched other people’s ads and took inspiration from them. 

2. You want to know what products people buy

The best justification for using a spy tool is sales data. I showed you how Dropship.IO could help you find the winning products. You cannot underestimate the importance of sales. 

Why? 

Too many times, dropshippers begin their journey by “selling what they want to sell.” They think that a product is cute. You are making a terrible mistake if this is how you start a dropshipping store. 

Do not sell a product that nobody wants. I cannot stress that hard enough. You will end up frustrated, asking yourself why nobody is buying. The answer is simple: you are selling a product nobody wants.

Use a spy tool like ours to find sales data from real Shopify stores. I am telling you: you cannot go wrong selling products that people are already buying. 

3. You want to get ideas on how to advertise 

You can also use spy tools to get ideas on what to advertise and how. Not all of us are marketing experts. Many of us do not even know where to begin on ad creatives. 

Ad spy tools can show you what kinds of ads work. Do funny ads generate sales? Are long ads worth it? Should you use UGC-type of ads? 

Here are some of the things you will learn from ad spy tools: 

  • Best types of ads that work on particular platforms
  • Demographics that best respond to a product type
  • Types of thumbnails to use
  • Copywriting texts that work or entice people to buy

An ad spy tool is invaluable if you are at a phase where your website is complete, and the only thing you need now is traffic. If your ads are bad, chances are that the people who viewed them won’t even bother clicking. 

No click, no traffic. No traffic, no sales. 

Finally, you need a spy tool to run your business based on data. For example, you cannot just assume that “red shoes” is a good keyword. You need a spy tool to know, based on data, what people use on search engines to search for products.

Not all spy tools offer the same level of service. Some specialize in keywords, then some specialize in ads. We at Dropship.IO specialize in sales data—you will know if a product has a market or if people are interested in or ignoring a product. 

Reasons to Look for Minea Alternatives

Minea is an excellent ad spy tool—there is no doubt about that. It helps you find the best products to sell in your dropshipping store, plus you can spy on ads on TikTok, Facebook, and Pinterest. 

While they offer a free account, there are still some reasons why you may want to consider something else, and below are some of them. 

You do not need all the bells and whistles

Not all dropshipping stores are huge businesses. Most dropshippers are small or medium, with little to no ad budget. What matters to many dropshippers is finding winning products, which other tools can provide. 

In addition, Minea covers many social platforms you can spy on, such as Facebook and TikTok. However, not everyone wants to advertise on TikTok, and Facebook should be enough for many dropshippers. 

Why? TikTok operates on a regional basis. For example, TikTok users in Asia cannot advertise in the US or UK. Due to the political climate between China and other countries, TikTok does not allow global advertising (TikTok’s parent company is in China). 

So, why would you pay for a service if you do not need all its components? If you are a dropshipper who needs only a few important tools, you would certainly consider other options. 

The paid plans have limitations 

The free Minea plan gives you 500 research credits per month. If you upgrade to the Starter Plan, your monthly credit goes up to 10,000. 

Who wants these limitations? The Starter Plan costs 49 EUR monthly, while the Premium Plan costs 99 EUR. The Premium plan gives you only 100,000 credits of research monthly. 

These limits can put you in a bind, especially if you are a highly active dropshipper. The same thing goes for advertising agencies. You want a plan that does not give you limitations, like ours. With Dropship.IO, you can enjoy unlimited analysis at only $49 monthly. 

It does not provide sales data

Minea is primarily an ad spy tool, not a product research tool. It scrapes the internet for ads, then archives them, along with the data for them. 

Here are some types of data you will get from the ads:

  • Number of likes
  • Audience countries
  • Number of comments
  • Number of shares

The one thing that is missing here is this: sales. 

I want you to know that likes do not translate to sales. Comments do not mean sales. Shares do not mean shares. 

Time and time again, marketing experts say you should not pay attention to these metrics. Social metrics do not directly result in money. What you want is sales data. 

The pitfall here is simple: you would think that a product that has a thousand likes generates sales. Wrong. It does not work like that all the time. 

With Dropship.IO, we show you actual sales data. Take a look at this sample. 

As you can see, of all Shopify stores selling egg timers, the greatest number of sales is only 153 in a month. An ad for a product like this can generate thousands of likes. The reality is that the top store worldwide only made $124.90 in revenue for this product. 

Suppose we divide $124.90 by 153 units; the egg timer sells for $0.81! Do you really want to put all the effort into earning a measly $0.81? Surely, you don’t.

Now take a look at this:

As you can see, the company made $38,000 in a month. I did some digging and discovered that they are running several ads on Facebook. 

With this data, I know that this product, the wine box, gets viewers’ attention and makes money. It is what I call a practical investigation. You will only know if a product has a big demand if you can access actual sales information. 

Minea Alternatives FAQs

What is the best spy tool?

The best spy tool is our too, Dropship.IO, as we provide a comprehensive set for your competitors’ sales. In addition, our system helps you find winning products—these are actual sales per store, not just basic info like the capital and suggested retail prices.   

What is an ad spy tool?

An ad spy tool is a system that records ads from various ad platforms. These tools allow you to search for ads using keywords relevant to your store. 

What tool can I use to spy on Google ads?

SpyFu and BigSpy are the two best tools to use for Google ads. However, most dropshippers spend money on social media ads, as people who want to shop are usually on these platforms. 

Summary

Before you go, I encourage you to sign up for our 7-day free trial program. Explore our tool, and I guarantee you will not feel sorry. 

As a dropshipper, I want you to win and be one of the 5% of people who succeeded in this business. Use our tool, and we will support you in achieving your dropshipping business goals!

Try Dropship
Discover winning products to sell today.
Shopify Offer
Start and sell with Shopify $1/month for 3 months.
Try Dropship
Discover winning products to sell today.
Shopify Offer
Start and sell with Shopify for $1 for one month.

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