Merch Informer is a tool for researching different merch designs and business opportunities. It will help you discover hot trends, access historical data, get popular keywords, and find the best designs to list on Amazon Merch, with data from several marketplaces and social sites like Pinterest.
Furthermore, it will help you optimize your listings on Amazon and create beautiful graphics with the easy-to-use drag-and-drop graphic designer. Other tools include the trademark violation detector, which ensures you aren’t using any phrases that violate a trademark and which could get you delisted or in trouble.
There are some downsides of Merch Informer, though. It has many separate tools and features, which can involve a bit of a learning curve to learn.
It is also not free to use. While it does offer a free trial, you have to enter your credit card details to get that free trial; you may forget to cancel and end up paying a monthly subscription without wanting to.
Regardless of why you are looking for a Merch Informer alternative, you have come to the right place. Today, I will be showing you the eight best Merch Informer alternatives for product design and keyword research.
Best Free Merch Informer Alternatives
1. Merch Titans
Merch Titans is a research software for Merch by Amazon, RedBubble, and other print on demand and merch selling platforms. It has several tools that allow you to find profitable products ideas and niches for your Merch by Amazon shop.
There are some tools that are free to use, unlike Merch Informer, and you don’t need to sign up for an account, join a free trial, or enter your credit card details to use them. That’s one of the reasons it is my top Merch Informer alternative.
For example, the Merch by Amazon research tool lets you search for keywords that are popular on Merch by Amazon. Just enter a keyword, choose a marketplace (like Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk), and choose a category (like t-shirts).
The tool will bring up relevant products on Merch by Amazon, along with details such as:
- Title
- Price
- Seller rank
- Reviews
- And a lot more
Note that most of the information there is hidden unless you are a Merch Titans member. However, there is still some useful information that you can see without signing in.
The same applies to the Kindle Direct Publishing tool, which allows you to research different keywords on Kindle. You can filter for results by publication type (journal, notebook, planner, etc.).
The product search tool helps you find important historical product data that will help you determine a product’s profitability. The keyword research tool will give you keyword suggestions based on real-time search terms that customers on Amazon are using when searching the site for products.
Alongside keyword suggestions, you will get access to valuable data such as search volume, keyword popularity, average CPC, and more.
Titan Vault is a tool that lets you see all the t-shirts on Merch by Amazon sorted by estimated sales, best seller rank, and more. That allows you to find profitable t-shirt ideas and identify trends that were successful.
Like Merch Informer, Merch Titans has a trademark infringement checker that helps you avoid violating any trademarks.
Furthermore, it features automation tools to help you automate your business and increase your productivity.
One of the problems many print on demand sellers have is that it can take quite a while to upload designs to multiple platforms. While selling on multiple platforms is key to increasing overall sales, it can take a lot of time to publish listings on all of them, especially if you have many designs.
Merch Titans solves that problem by allowing you to upload your designs to multiple marketplaces at once with the click of a button.
You’ll need to download the desktop app, though. You’ll get a blank spreadsheet which you can fill with the details of your products, including the image path, title, description, tags, and more.
Adjust the settings for each print on demand platform you are using, and then click on the yellow Start Upload button. The app will take care of the rest for you.
It supports platforms like Printful, Merch by Amazon, RedBubble, Spreadshirt, Teespring, Zazzle, and others.
Automation isn’t just available for print on demand. Merch Titans also has a tool that allows you to automate your publishing to Kindle Direct Publishing.
There is another tool that makes it easy to automate design creation on Canva.com, a popular free tool for creating designs. Using the Canvas Titans Chrome extension, you can set up different variables to create and download multiple versions of a design.
If you use Canva to create designs for your print on demand products, you will find this very useful.
Merch Titans is slightly cheaper than Merch Informer, as long as you sign up for the yearly billing option. The cheaper plan costs $6.99/month when billed yearly, and it offers some benefits over the cheapest Merch Informer plan.
For example, while Merch Informer only allows you to set up 50 trademark alerts on the cheap plan, Merch Titans let you set up 250.
For updated pricing, check the homepage and scroll down to the pricing section.
Note that the automation tools cost extra, with plans starting from $18.74/month when billed yearly. Check the Merch Titans automation page for updated pricing details.
Also note that if you want automation for Kindle Direct Publishing or Canva, you will have to pay for additional monthly subscriptions. Check the relevant pages for more information.
Also Read: Most Expensive Things On Amazon
2. ResearchBase
ResearchBase is a site that allows you to find ideas for t-shirts, bags, and other merch to sell on Merch by Amazon. I love the homepage, as it makes it easy to select which exact product you are interested in selling and researching – just choose one of the icons under the search bar.
You can also select which marketplace you are interested in researching, such as Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com (the US version), Amazon.de (the German version), and others.
The search tool will take you to results on Amazon itself, so before clicking on the red search button, decide how you want to filter the results. You can leave it as the default or sort by average rating, lowest price, newest arrivals, etc.
On the right side of the search bar, you can also switch away from Amazon and search other search engines, print on demand platforms, and image sites, including:
- Teepublic
- Wikipedia
- FineArtAmerica
- Etsy
- Walmart
- Freepik
- Vexels
- Society6
- And more
However, most of those options are reserved for paying members. You can also enable Multi Search to search multiple sites and platforms at once.
When you enter a keyword into the search bar, you will get some related suggested search terms.
You do not need to create an account to use the search tool, unlike Merch Informer.
Another cool feature that I really liked was the Events ideas section. It includes upcoming events (including minor calendar days) that provide fun and interesting ideas for merch designs, such as Human Space Flight Day and World Radio Day.
However, most of the Events are hidden and reserved for paying members.
The Listing Creator tool, which is currently in beta, helps you create Amazon listings, but you need to be a Pro member.
While using the keyword tool is free, ResearchBase Pro will give you additional tools and features to help you improve your Amazon listings. In addition to some of the tools I have just mentioned (such as Events and the Listing Creator), you will get access to KeywordBase.
KeywordBase allows you to quickly add keywords from the suggestions, see the search volumes of the keywords, and even check for trademark violations. You can also export your keywords as a CSV file.
ResearchPro only costs $99/year, but check this page for updated pricing details.
3. MerchResearch.so
MerchResearch.so is an awesome, free tool that gives you plenty of keyword ideas for your merch store.
Start by entering a keyword in the search bar and choosing a language. You can search for the exact keyword you entered or select from one of the suggestions that will show up.
Then, click on Find Keywords. The tool will give you keyword rating data, such as search volume, purchase intent, and keyword length scores, which combine to give you an overall score on how profitable the keyword is.
It will also give you related keywords and data for each of them, including:
- Trends
- Search volume
- Rating
You can export the list of related keywords it gives you by copying them to your clipboard or exporting them as a CSV file.
The site can be a bit slow at times, so just have patience as it loads. Unlike Merch Informer, it is free to use.
Also Read: Best Niche For Amazon Affiliate Marketing
4. PrettyMerch
PrettyMerch is a Chrome extension for Amazon sellers that you can use not only to research merch and product ideas but also manage your listings and business.
You can use the Trend Finder to find profitable products, filtering the results based on best seller rank, marketplace, price, and more. You will also be able to see reviews and filter by change in best seller rank to identify trending products that are becoming more popular.
It’s a particularly helpful tool for finding which topics, designs, and slogans are worth putting on your t-shirts and other merchandise.
Another helpful tool is the Product Manager tool, which allows you to quickly and easily manage your listings in bulk, even if you are selling hundreds of thousands of products.
You can edit and delete products in bulk and also find specific products you are selling using advanced filters such as sold or not, days until removal, and more.
Furthermore, PrettyMerch provides advanced analytics that help you analyze your performance and see where you are successful and where you are not. It shows details such as:
- Total sales, returns, and royalties
- Average royalties per sale
- Average sales, returns, and royalties per day and month
- Record days and months
At any time, you can view important data in your dashboard, including an overview of the products sold that day, a sales chart for the past eight days, top sellers for the past month, total unique products sold, total reviews, and more.
Unlike Merch Informer, PrettyMerch is entirely free to use. It’s free forever, not just as a free trial.
However, there are premium plans as well, which give you access to even more awesome features. For example, you can enjoy premium perks like real-time sales notifications or get access to special tools like:
- The trademark search tool to ensure you are not violating any trademarks
- A web app, which you can use instead of the Chrome extension
- A keyword research tool
- Training videos and a private mastermind group
There are a few plans available, so check updated pricing here.
All in all, PrettyMerch is convenient and easy to use and an excellent alternative to Merch Informer if you are looking for a free product research and listing management tool.
5. MerchNinja
MerchNinja is a research tool for Merch by Amazon. The database features over five million designs and is updated daily, giving you access to product ideas and more.
With various sub-niche categories to choose from, you can drill down and see updated sales and trend information, with the ability to filter for results based on BSR, official brands, new designs, deleted designs, and more.
The BSR update tool tracks changes in BSR for specific products, helping you see which products are gaining popularity and which are declining in popularity.
The Ninja Events calendar features over 900 events, holidays, and humorous days that you can use for merch design ideas. When a new holiday or day approaches, release a new design to tap into the hype.
Furthermore, you can research the competition and existing products in any specific niche or sub-niche, allowing you to identify market opportunities that are not yet currently being exploited by other print on demand sellers.
The Ninja Keyword tool is useful for finding profitable keywords on Amazon. You will get awesome keyword suggestions and can check the monthly search volume and relevance of any keyword and the number of designs currently ranking for that keyword on Amazon.
The Merch Ninja Trademark Check tool allows you to instantly check for trademarks on keywords or phrases. It searches through trademark databases in different countries, not just the United States, to give you the complete picture.
Not only can you manually search for trademark infringements, but you can let the tool monitor things for you around the clock, finding trademark infringements and notifying you with alerts when it does.
You can save your favorite products to a list and use Merch Ninja on the go, as it is mobile responsive.
All plans support several Amazon marketplaces, and you can also select a plan that includes support for Kindle Direct Publishing. So, if you need a Merch Informer alternative that includes support for KDP, MerchNinja is a good choice.
See updated pricing here.
6. SpyAMZ
SpyAMZ, short for Spy Amazon, is an Amazon research tool that has some advantages over Merch Informer.
For example, while Merch Informer has a few different tools, such as Merchant Search, Merch Hunter, and Trend Hunter, SpyAMZ includes all of those into one tool, so you can see all of the results in one place. That reduces the learning curve and complexity that I talked about in the introduction of this article.
It also includes advanced filters to make your search easier. Available filters include time, rank, specific brands, product types, BSR, sudden BSR rank increases, and more.
SpyAMZ often brings up more results than Merch Informer, giving you more complete search results and making the tool a superior choice if you want research that is as detailed as possible.
Like Merch Informer, SpyAMZ has a trademark checker. The trademark checker allows you to search for whole phrases, partial phrases, and individual word matches.
While Merch Informer uses Trademarkia to check for trademark matches, SpyAMZ uses the United States Patent and Trademark Office database.
The Events section informs you about upcoming events and holidays that can provide ideas for your merch.
The Statistics database allows you to quickly find t-shirts that were added that day, deleted that day, and more. You can also click on the Random tab and keep refreshing it to get random product ideas if you have a mental block preventing you from coming up with ideas.
A useful tool that SpyAMZ provides its members is the image resizer, which allows you to quickly resize any image so that it fits with Merch by Amazon’s requirements.
Overall, while SpyAMZ is more expensive than Merch Informer, it gives you more results and allows you to better filter and customize your results. With 12 million t-shirts in its massive database, advanced filters, and hourly updates, it is a powerful tool that can really help you supercharge your Merch by Amazon business.
You can see a detailed comparison of Merch Informer and SpyAMZ and a breakdown of the similarities and differences between the two, as well as the advantages each has over the other, here.
7. Podly
Podly is a Merch by Amazon research tool that supports five marketplaces: Amazon US, DE, IT, ES, and FR. It has over two million products in its product research database, as well as millions of results in the KDP database.
The advanced filtering options help you drill down and find the specific products you are looking for, while you can see BSR levels updated daily to identify emerging trends; you can also compare current BSR rankings with historical data from the past 30 days for more accurate trend detection.
A cool feature is the Product Archive, which allows you to analyze past best-selling designs. With products ranging as far back as 2017 and up to the present, it’s one reason to choose Podly over Merch Informer.
When you find products you like, save them to your favorites list, so you can review them later.
You can also save time when creating your listings by using the Keyword Processor to process lists of keywords and the Listing Creator to use your processed keywords to generate listings.
Like Merch Informer, Podly has a trademark violation checker. It checks for international trademark violations and ensures your business stays safe from legal compliance problems.
Unfortunately, Podly doesn’t have a free plan or a free trial. However, it does have a seven-day money-back guarantee, so you can try it risk-free for seven days and get a refund if you are not happy with the tool.
Also Read: How Much Money Do I Need To Start Selling On Amazon?
8. Productor for Merch by AMazon
Productor for Merch by AMazon, or Productor.io, is a great tool for Amazon merch research and store management. It is forever free to use and always will be, according to the site, making it one of the best free alternatives to Merch Informer.
Using the Productor Chrome extension, you can detect copyright infringements and banned keywords before submitting your designs. You can also get product ideas from the upcoming events section, where various holidays and events are listed.
Furthermore, you can track your store’s performance by filtering your products by sales, reviews, and more to identify your best-performing products.
Additionally, Productor has useful mobile apps that allow you to track your sales and performance on the go and receive real-time alerts and notifications.
A trademark checker is also included, and it allows you to run manual trademark searches and set up automatic searches. The auto-convert tool lets you automatically convert designs from one product type to another (for example, if you created a design for t-shirts, you can convert it to a design that would fit a hoodie).
Wrapping It Up: What Is the Best Merch Informer Alternative?
Merch Titans is my #1 recommended alternative to Merch Informer. It provides most of the same tools and features, but it also gives you free access to several tools without needing to create an account.
Not only that, but the automation tools, while costing extra, will help you be more productive and save time.