Hey is that the next mega-rich Amazon FBA guru I see there? I think it is…

Welcome to my Helium 10 vs Jungle Scout review. I owe a lot of my success to these tools, so in this review, I’ll show you how each one helped me succeed and let you make the decision for yourself.

I’ll be honest – if you don’t use the right tools, you won’t succeed at Amazon FBA. Period. But you need the best tools FOR YOU.

The last thing you want to do is pay $100/mo for something you can’t even use or don't really need.

In this Helium 10 vs Jungle Scout mega-guide for the soon-to-be scrillionaires, I’ll cover:

• The pros and cons of each tool
• Which type of entrepreneur needs Jungle Scout and which would be better off with Helium 10
• How to tell if you need Helium 10 or just Jungle Scout
• A breakdown of each web app and its premium features
• How Jungle Scout's pricing compares with that of Helium 10
• Memes that probably only I think are funny

Ready? This is going to be FBAulous… sorry.

Here’s a Breakdown of My Helium 10 vs Jungle Scout Guide:

1. Who Needs Which Tool?
2. Pros and Cons
3. A Breakdown of Helium 10 vs Jungle Scout
4. Pricing (Is Helium 10 REALLY WORTH the money?.)

Helium 10 vs Jungle Scout? Which Tool Do I Need?

This is a gross oversimplification, but I think it will be very useful.

Ask yourself: 

Do I need just a product selection tool that will help me launch faster or do I want an all in one suite of Amazon business tools to grow a hugely profitable money machine?

Yup, the Helium 10 vs Jungle Scout debate comes really down to this question.

If you just need help choosing products, just get Jungle Scout. As a pure product research tool, there aren't many products out there that can beat it in terms of value. Seriously, you can check out my research here.

However, if you’re serious about growing big and building a successful online business, get Helium 10.

All serious Amazon sellers use Helium 10. I haven’t met a single big-time FBA person who doesn’t use it.

Jungle Scout is a better product sourcing tool for sure. But that’s it.

Helium 10 wins in every other category if you ask me.

Get Jungle Scout If…

• You’re on a budget
• You only need a great product selection tool
• You want a web app with a short learning curve

Get Helium 10 if… 

• You’ve got the money to invest
• You’re serious about growing big
• You need an all-in-one solution for selection, optimization, analytics, and store management

Jungle Scout Pros and Cons

Pros

• Simple to use
• Jungle Scout's interface is smooth and intuitive
• Great supplier database
• The best product selection tool
• Affordable
• Access to the Jungle Scout comprehensive training library

Cons

• Not as many tools as Helium 10
• Limited outside of product selection and sourcing
• No mobile app
• The Jungle Scout Chrome extension costs extra

Helium 10 Pros and Cons

Pros

• All-in-one of every tool you need to grow a profitable store
• Significantly more features that Jungle Scout
• Amazon training
• Networking and Workshops
• Support with targeting keyword search terms
• Inventory Protector – manage your inventory levels better, keep things smooth, save lots of money. No other tool has this afaik.

Cons

• Far more expensive than Jungle Scout
• Complicated
• Also no mobile app

NOTE: Helium 10 is offering our readers up to 50% off by using our links in this post. If you run an Amazon business, this is your next step to scaling.

What is Jungle Scout?

Jungle Scout (JS) is an insanely powerful Amazon research tool that takes all of the hard work and uncertainty out of finding winning products, then acts as your financial command center.

Jungle Scout is by far the most popular, well known Amazon product research, supplier sourcing, and keyword research tool that I know of.

Think of Jungle Scout as a blinding light in the world’s densest jungle.

This one tool does all this:

• Product Research: Jungle Scout shows you winning products in HIGH DEMAND, so you don’t have to research and play the guessing game.
• Product Tracking: Use Jungle Scout's product tracker to keep your finger on the pulse of Amazon with sales data (like average price and sales history), analytics (like search volume and review info), and inventory data at a glance.
• Supplier Sourcing: Jungle Scout connects you to reliable suppliers so you eliminate the risk of good deals gone bad (Been there. DONE THAT. GIVE ME MY MONEY BACK).
• Researching High Ranking Keywords: Know what shoppers are searching for and optimize your listings accordingly. Using Jungle Scout as a keyword research tool results in more traffic, more sales, more smiles all around.
• Inventory Manager: Offering a real-time view of your stock, the Jungle Scout inventory manager helps you understand how much stock to order, how to boost sales, and how to cut costs. I’m loving it.

Jungle Scout Features Breakdown

Jungle Scout is primarily a product research and sourcing tool.

It has a bunch of new features, but as I said before, Amazon sellers mostly use it for researching products, connecting with suppliers, and getting to launch.

So, I’m only going to stick to the most important Jungle Scout features in this breakdown.

Here we go…

Product Database – Find the Needle in the Haystack

Imagine Amazon as a massive jungle of hay. And buried in the trillions of golden hay straws are a few sharp needles.

Jungle Scout helps the Amazon seller find these needles by offering access to a 70-million strong Product Database. Using the tool's extremely helpful and highly granular search filters, finding the right product to sell is remarkably easy.

Here's a little bit of wisdom for the skeptical Amazon seller who somehow isn't convinced yet: Product research is the most important part of succeeding on Amazon. And attempting product research without a specialist tool is just madness. 

You have to build your house on a solid foundation, or some other lazy cliche that I hate but feel the need to use here.

Product Database makes it so much easier. You can even target products with terrible listings (my favorite). That way you know it’s easier to outrank your competitors.

Product Tracker – Track Product Ideas Over Time

Once you find the next big hit, the Jungle Scout Product Tracker gives you pin-point accurate data so you can easily compare products.

Say you’re trying to decide between two products: edible glitter or pulled pork shredder claws.

How do you know which one will blow up first?

With the Jungle Scout Product Tracker!

Product Tracker will compare them side by side with inventory, Best Seller Rank, number of sales (and historical sales data), and critical pricing data (like average price) so you can make an informed decision rather than just guessing.

With all of that data over a long period of time, the Jungle Scout Product Tracker will help the diligent Amazon seller make the right choice every time.

Jungle Scout Supplier Database – Peace of Mind

In the world of online business (especially e-commerce) you often live and die by the  partnerships you make. And no partner is more crucial to your success than the suppliers you choose to work with.

Supplier selection is a risky game because you have no idea who you're dealing with, where they’re really from, or what kind of product they’ll make you. If only there was some kind of global supplier database you could tap into, right?

Guess what… there is!

The Jungle Scout Supplier Database was the first tool of its kind, and it’s still badass to this day. It's instant, unfettered access to high-quality, fully-vetted suppliers.

Instead of going with your gut or having to trust dodgy foreign information, the Jungle Scout Supplier Database shows you crucial data like: customer volume, number of confirmed shipments, current customers, and even comparison quotes.

You’ll get your product made faster, better, and, most importantly, by someone you trust. Jungle Scout takes all the risk out of finding a supplier.

Opportunity Finder – Discover Emerging Trends, Find High-Demand, Low-Competition KWs and Profitable Product Niches

The Jungle Scout Opportunity Finder is a niche selection godsend.

You know those unique niche products with high margins, high demand, and low competition?

This is how you find them – or well, let Jungle Scout find them for you.

As with most keyword research tools, you can use Jungle Scout to scope out trending keywords to see what people are starting to buy now (and will be super profitable later!). And you can analyze a niche’s past performance, too.

There's no arguing this point, Jungle Scout is simply one of the best keyword research tools available on the market today.

It really all comes down to the Niche Score metric. Now, when you’re searching for products, Jungle Scout shows you a neat little number that quantifies how good of a niche the product is rather than having to guess for yourself.

If you choose a bad niche, your store will fail before it even opens.

NOTE: Niche Score is not a be-all-end-all metric, it's a made up algorithm by Jungle Scout. You really have to know your stuff to get a good feel for products but this gives you a great start and has a strong correlation.

What is the Jungle Scout Chrome Extension?

The Jungle Scout Chrome Extension is a bridge between Amazon and Jungle Scout built directly into the web's favorite browser.

Now, when you’re searching for products on Amazon, you get all of the product’s information and helpful metrics in a single click without having to leave Amazon.

Using the chrome extension, Jungle Scout shows you crucial information like Opportunity Score, average price, reviews, daily sales, sales history, and a ton of other metrics that will help validate your product ideas.

All of this neatly overlayed onto the Amazon user interface.

Now, I have good news and bad news about the Chrome extension.

GOOD NEWS

Jungle scout's Chrome extension is one of the best Amazon selling tools I’ve ever used, and it’s pretty affordable.

BAD NEWS

It’s not included in the Jungle Scout subscription. Yeah, annoying. You have to pay for the Chrome extension separately. More on this later.

What is Helium 10?

Remember how I said Jungle Scout was a blinding light in the dark jungle?

Well…

Helium 10 is like lighting the entire jungle on fire, bulldozing what remains, then building a massive, super profitable Amazon FBA operation where that dense, dark jungle used to be (#SaveTheRainforest).

Let me sum up the difference between Helium 10 and Jungle Scout succinctly…

Whereas Jungle Scout is more for product researching, Helium 10 is an all-in-one suite of Amazon FBA tools covering product research PLUS SEO, store management, fraud protection, listings optimization, PPC campaign management, lead capturing, and product launches – basically everything Amazon FBA sellers need.

Jungle Scout is one tool that helps you succeed. Helium 10 is EVERY TOOL you need to succeed in ONE PLACE.

All the serious Amazon sellers I’ve ever met use Helium 10.

Here are some of the most important features:

Helium 10 Features Breakdown

Helium 10 is a massive fleet of FBA tools. Covering each one of them would require a trilogy of novels.

So I’m just going to break down the most important ones.

Helium 10 Black Box – Research Everything in the Known Universe

The Helium 10 Black Box is a prestige keyword research tool. It's also one of the industry's best product research tools. In fact, it might even be as good as Jungle Scout.

By opening up a window onto a product database comprising a brain-melting two billion Amazon products, Black Box empowers Helium 10 users to find lucrative, winning products in untapped niches with smart filters like category, estimated monthly sales, and number of Amazon sellers. That way, you can find popular products in low-competition niches.

And yes, in case you haven't quite registered this yet, or you think that may have been a typo, I did say that the Helium 10 product database consists of TWO BILLION entries.

Right, let's take a peek at what this baby can do. Pretend you’re Jeff Bezos and you want to start your selling on Amazon in your spare time.

You decide the best product for you is one with high search volume, middle-tier prices, and tons of positive reviews.

Fortunately, being the richest (or is it the second-richest?) person on earth, you can afford to splash out on one of the world's best product research tools.

So, you open Helium 10, go to Black Box, set your filters, click a button or 2, and voila – it shows you this:

Black Box just did all that work for you. Imagine all of the lobbying for tax breaks you can do with that extra time!

Helium 10 Cerebro – Another Unfair Advantage

Helium 10 Cerebro is evil Amazon black magic disguised as a reverse ASIN lookup tool that you can use to become a badass competitor keyword spy.

Using Cerebro helps you destroy your competition. So in that way, it’s like putting a curse on your competitor’s store.

Basically, Helium 10 Cerebro reverse engineers successful listings and shows you all of the reasons WHY they’re successful so you can take that exact same blueprint, improve upon it, and OUTRANK them.

Black. Magic.

Let me explain in a little more detail.

Here’s a quick example to help illustrate the evil black magicness.

Say you…erg…”Jeff Bezos” wants to sell gaming chairs. All he has to do is fire up his own website, search for gaming chairs, and see what’s already selling.

Then he just takes the ASIN from the product and pops it into Cerebro.

Here’s what Helium 10 returns:

And this…

This is literally everything you need to know about this listing PLUS suggestions from Helium 10 on outranking it.

I know that some of these terms probably look more like Klingon than English, so I’ll explain a few:

• Cerebro IQ Score: This is a score that indicates how good of an opportunity this product is. The higher the better.
• CPR 8-Day Giveaways: This is an estimation of how many units you’d need to give away in an 8-day period to rank on page 1 for this term. Well, technically it's about units sold but we know how the game works.
• Competing Products: Pretty self-explanatory. Helium 10 reveals how many competitors you’ll be up against. Obviously, the fewer the better, but high competition doesn’t always mean GOOD competition. Take everything into account when evaluating a product.

Using a tool like Cerebro as a competitor keyword spy isn't just a smart way to do business, it's pretty much a requirement for success in a space as cutthroat as Amazon.

Helium 10 Magnet – Expand Your Keyword List

Magnet is an awesome keyword research and expansion tool with the largest database of actionable search terms on the market, or so Helium 10 claims. My experiences with most of the tools confirm this.

Magnet drastically increases your chances of driving easy traffic that your competition isn’t taking advantage of.

You enter a “seed keyword” and Magnet spits back thousands of related terms you might not even know exist.

Back to good ol’ Jeff and his gaming chair. If he were to put the words “gaming chair” into Magnet, he’d get tons of lucrative product/keyword opportunities like lumbar support, desk accessories (for boys and girls), adjustable desks, etc.

Helium 10 Magnet will show you:

• Related keywords
• High-volume terms
• High ranking keywords
• Actionable keywords
• Competing products
• Top products
• Word frequency

The cool thing is, if your competition isn’t using Magnet to do their keyword research, they WON’T HAVE THIS INFO.

All successful Amazon FBA sellers are using things like this to their advantage

Helium 10 Frankenstein – “It’s ALIVE!… And it’s making my keyword lists way more potent!”

Frankenstein takes a bunch of mismatched parts and turns them into a lean, mean, fighting machine (hence the name!). The result? You save hours of time and skyrocket your Amazon rank.

Here’s how it works…

Normally, keyword lists have thousands of words, and the majority of them contain duplicate terms or unnecessary words.

That means you have to spend hours poring over your spreadsheet cleaning the dang thing up. By the end, you're close to swearing off FBA for good.

Frankenstein does all that work for you instantly. You can set parameters like “remove FOR or WITH” or other useless words, so you’re left with only the meat of the terms.

Just enter your keyword list, set your parameters, and click a button.

IT’S ALIVE!! Those are all the words you need to have in your listing to rank.

Helium 10 Scribbles – Optimize Your Listings. Outrank Everyone.

Scribbles is my personal favorite tool. Partly, because I love writing (not really) and partly because I love ranking #1 for my products, selling boatloads, and traveling across the world full-time on my private jet… I wish :(.

Seriously, though, Scribbles is an awesome, intuitive listings optimization tool that ensures you never miss a single keyword. It makes listings optimization so easy.

You enter your keywords and write your listing. Then, Scribbles tracks which words you use and removes them from the list as you go along.

Every time you use one of those keywords in the list, it’ll disappear. Once it’s empty, you’ve got a fully optimized listing! Without this, you’ve got to manually track everything. And we all know how clumsy we humans are, especially after 4 cups of coffee.

Helium 10 XRay – A Bird’s-Eye View Right From Your Browser

Imagine having a bird’s-eye view of profitability, potential ROI, reviews, inventory, ASIN’s, and ads analytics AS YOU BROWSE Amazon.

That’s XRay, Helium 10’s Chrome Extension.

All the info you need to make calculated decisions is right there at the click of a button.

Now, when Jeff is doing research for his gaming chairs, he can see nearly all of the relevant data about this specific product’s profitability, sales trends, ads, inventory, and customer feedback directly from his browser.

And he even gets to try the free version (up to 50 searches).

Helium 10 Refund Genie – Refunding Made Easy

Refund Genie has refunded me money that I didn’t even know was owed to me.

Getting reimbursed by Amazon for lost or damaged inventory IS NOT EASY.

You’ve got to go to Seller Central, generate a report, make a spreadsheet, open a case with Amazon, and a bunch of other “I-don’t-feel-like-doing-this-BS-today” kind of stuff.

With Refund Genie, Helium 10 automates this entire process.

Using Refund Genie feels like you found a magic lamp, and out popped a genie that just spent 3,000 years learning how to optimize the Amazon refund process, and he only charges about $100/mo to do it all for you.

So yeah, unless needless admin is your thing, Refund Genie is a must-have.

NOTE: Amazon is notoriously bad at reimbursing sellers. There are plenty of refund management companies out there, but some take a 25% cut of your refund. If you’re super busy, it might be worth it. I prefer to DIY. Up to you.

Other Tools

Somehow, this isn’t all of Helium 10’s awesome tools. They’ve also got:

• Keyword tracker
• Profitability calculator
• Trendster (analyze sales trends)
• Follow up
• Inventory protector
• Market tracker

And there’s still more. Check out this screenshot of all the Helium 10 tools:

Before we head into the topic of pricing, it's worth mentioning that Viral Launch is a pretty decent competitor to both of these tools.

Read our kickass comparison between Viral Launch and Jungle Scout here.

Helium 10 vs Jungle Scout Pricing – A Tale of Two Philosophies

How much does Jungle Scout cost?

Is it worth it?

How much is Helium 10?

Wait, WHAT? HOW much?

I’m about to answer all of these questions and give my thoughts on whether they’re worth the money or not.

Short answer – yes. Every red cent. You cannot succeed at FBA without these tools like Jungle Scout and Helium 10.

I repeat: Tools like Jungle Scout and Helium 10 is as important to your Amazon business success as oxygen is to your existence as a human being.

Jungle Scout Pricing

Jungle Scout’s pricing is like a whiskey on the rocks: Simple. Straightforward. You know what you’re getting and it doesn’t change. I found this to be the ideal approach to pricing for new sellers who may not be 100% sure what kind of subscription is right for them yet.

The entire suite of Jungle Scout tools costs $39/mo billed annually. The suite plus the Chrome extension costs $49/mo. That irks me a bit. Why don't Jungle Scout include the Chrome extension?

Who am I to judge, though?

If you want to pay monthly, things get a bit steeper with Jungle Scout.

NOTE: This is only for 500 orders per month. If you’re making more sales, Jungle Scout's prices increase drastically. Of course, if you’re making 1,000 + sales per month, I doubt you’ll care about paying $20 more for Jungle Scout…

Helium 10 Pricing 

I want to make things easy for you. So here’s an actual screenshot of Helium 10’s prices:

I wish I was kidding…

Helium 10 has multiple pricing tiers starting with free and working up to Elite. As you ascend, you unlock more features and functionality (e.g. more uses of the index checker, more alerts, or more tracked keywords).

Here are the Helium 10 pricing basics:

• Platinum Plan ($97/mo): The entry-level plan comes with all the tools plus 5,000 emails, 2,500 tracked keywords, alerts on 300 ASINS, and 150 uses of the Index Checker. Perfect for new Amazon sellers.
• Diamond Plan ($197/mo): Upgrading to the Diamond plan is like doubling up. You get double the Index Checker (300 uses), alerts (600), and keywords (5,000). This for Amazon sellers who want to scale big.
• Elite Plan ($397/mo): The ultimate FBA plan. This includes elite training, workshops, networking, and a private Facebook group. Plus, you get 50,000 emails, 500 uses of the Index Checker, and 1,000 alerts per month.

What Comes With the Helium 10 Free Plan?

All you need is an email address (or addresses!) to get all these features.

• Black Box: 20 uses
• Trenderster: 30 uses
• Magnet: 2 uses per day
• Cerebro: 2 uses per day
• Frankenstein: 30 days
• Scribbles: 30 days
• Xray: 50 uses
• Refund Genie: Very limited use

But Wait, There’s More…

Helium 10 also offers a la carte pricing.

So, if you only want to use one tool, you can just purchase that single tool instead of the suite. I don’t recommend it since Platinum only costs $97/mo, but it’s your money.

Here’s some of the a la carte pricing:

• Black Box: $37/mo.
• Magnet: $37/mo.
• Cerebro: $37/mo.
• Refund Genie: $97/mo.

NOTE: Helium 10 currently has a coupon for 50% off your first month! Oh and they also don't have a missing Chrome extension you have to pay extra for 🙂

Are Helium 10 and Jungle Scout Worth the Money?

Yes, both Helium 10 and Jungle Scout are worth the money.

Every penny.

This is an investment, not an expense. You cannot succeed as an Amazon seller without tools like these.

Jungle Scout is a web app that'll eliminate dozens of hours of manual research and take all of the guesswork and risk out of selecting, sourcing, and tracking a product. It literally shows you low competition, high demand, upward-trending products that will make you bank.

And it’s only about $40.

Helium 10 is worth every penny too. It’s a suite of tools that will optimize your store end-to-end. From finding products to optimizing listings for higher rankings and more sales to managing your store and getting refunds.

Here’s the thing that most new sellers don’t understand.

YOUR COMPETITORS ARE USING THESE TOOLS.

If you don’t have either Jungle Scout or Helium 10, you can’t beat them. Plain and simple. You have to fight fire with fire. If someone has access to all of this data, how can you compete?

You can’t.

F.A.Q

Q: Is Jungle Scout Free?

No, Jungle Scout is not a free tool. It does not offer a free plan or a free trial. However, it does offer a 14-day money-back guarantee, so you can try it risk-free.

Q: Who Owns Helium 10?

Helium 10 is owned by Manny Coates, the Founder. The Co-Founder, COO, and CMO is Guillermo Puyol.

Q: Is Jungle Scout Worth the Money?

Yes, Jungle Scout is definitely worth the money. It’s a very powerful research tool that costs as little as $39/mo. Jungle Scout can help you find winning products to build an Amazon FBA business. $39/mo is more than fair.

Q: What is Helium 10 Used For?

Helium 10 is used to find products, build an Amazon business, optimize your listings, and manage the entire buying process. It’s the only all-in-one, end-to-end Amazon tool in existence.

Q: How Much Does Helium 10 Cost?

Helium 10 has four subscription options. The Platinum Plan is $97/mo, the Diamond Plan costs $197/mo, and the Elite plan comes in at $397/mo. There's also a free option, albeit with limited functionality.

Q: Is Helium 10 XRay Free?

Yes, you can access Helium 10 Xray for free, but with limited functionality.

Q: Is Helium 10 Free?

Helium 10 has a free plan with limited functionality.

Q: Is Helium 10 Better Than Jungle Scout?

Yes, it’s more comprehensive than Jungle Scout. However, Jungle Scout might be better if you only need a cheap product research tool.

Q: Can I use Helium 10 to Manage Amazon PPC campaigns? 

Yes, Helium 10's PPC Automation tool enables users to analyze several metrics that drive the success of Amazon PPC campaigns.