Honest comparison
Zelos AI vs Google Alerts
Google Alerts: Free · Zelos AI: $0–$349/mo
Google Alerts is where everyone starts — and it is genuinely free. But it only catches what gets published as news, sends raw links with zero analysis, misses pricing changes, job postings, review trends, and app updates entirely, and remembers nothing. Zelos also has a free tier — and it watches 18 structured sources, scores every signal, and writes you an actual brief.
FeatureZelos AIGoogle Alerts
PriceFree tier (2 competitors), paid from $49/moFree
What it catchesPricing, hiring, reviews, GitHub, patents, ads, news + moreNews mentions only
AnalysisSignificance score + implication per signalNone — raw links
Weekly briefAI-written strategic brief every MondayNone
Noise filteringAI de-duplication and noise scoringNone — every mention forwarded
History & searchFull signal history + AI chatNone
Battlecards & win/lossIncluded on paid tiersNone
Pick Zelos if
- You have ever missed a competitor price change Google never emailed you about
- You want signal, not a firehose of duplicate links
- You want to ask "what is competitor X building next?" and get an answer
Pick Google Alerts if
- You only want occasional brand-mention monitoring and truly $0 spend
The verdict
Keep Google Alerts — it is free. But the things that decide deals (pricing moves, hiring spikes, review trends) never show up in it. The Zelos free tier exists precisely so you can run both and see the difference by next Monday.
Start free — no credit card