Over the years, developers have turned to resources like BuiltWith to help them figure out what technology is under the hood powering today’s websites – including things like shopping carts, analytics, hosting platforms and more. Now BuiltWith has new competition: SimilarTech, which not only monitors the technologies used by any site, but also automates the process of finding leads for web companies.
If the name sounds familiar, it’s because SimilarTech is actually a spin-out from the web analytics platform, SimilarWeb, which last fall raised another $25 million, valuing its business at $400 million.
SimilarTech’s service began its life as a passion project by former SimilarWeb software engineers Yaniv Hadad (now CEO at SimilarTech) and Eyal Weiss (CTO). When it grew, they decided to turn it into its own company.
But two companies are still affiliated. Not only do they share the same branding, SimilarWeb also owns a stake in SimilarTech as it shares traffic data with them. This allows SimilarTech to offer different levels of segmentation – like by industry or by country, for example – which isn’t currently available on other platforms.
SimilarTech has actually been operating in stealth mode for the past six months, and today includes clients like Google, PayPal, Facebook, Amazon and other smaller, web-based platforms, like Paddle, Playbuzz, and Skimlinks, which are looking to determine who’s using their competitor’s technology, or find customer leads.
While the value proposition is somewhat like other measurement resources such as BuiltWith or lead-gen platforms like Datanyze, SimilarTech aims for a broader scope with its service. Instead of simply uncovering the technology of websites and highlighting web trends, it’s using SimilarWeb’s comprehensive data – like traffic insights and geo segmentation – to offer a better understanding of the websites in question.

In addition, SimilarTech aids in lead generation by finding potential customers for web companies. It does this by profiling websites, including details like category, geography, web traffic and technology usage.
And it will send out an email alert to customers every time a target site stops using a competitor’s product or technology. This can help in timing the outreach appropriately – for example, if someone just left a free trial of your competitor’s technology, it could be a good time to try to convert them into your own customer.
This process of tracking technology can also help companies reduce their own churn – as in the case of a customer who begins trialling a competitor’s technology, for instance, before they’ve cancelled their service with your company.
SimilarTech also provides its customers with the verified emails of relevant people within the target companies as part of the lead.
The business model involved here is freemium-based, with a free version that lets users search for any site and see what technology it uses, as well as compare market trends (this is like BuiltWith, but SimilarTech has nice graphics), market share among different technologies, and it looks at things like geographic distribution. It will also generate limited reports of leads.
The paid version begins at $290 per month and the price scales as customers ask for bigger lists, geographic segmentation, or more verified emails.
SimilarWeb also used a freemium model, much to its advantage – this makes it a resource for those in the industry, allowing it to gain mindshare. It then makes money off its Pro tiers. SimilarTech clearly believes that model will work for its web tech and lead-gen platform, too.
Today, SimilarTech is a team of five in Tel Aviv, and looking to double over the next year.
