The days of tiresome and long-lasting research are over. Comparison sites have made everything from shopping to traveling a lot easier. Here are some great comparison websites.
Research used to be hard and time-consuming. Those days are over, and comparison sites have taken their grasp of Internet traffic.
Comparison sites are wildly popular because they help consumers find exactly what they are looking for. Search engines favor sites that are helpful to users. You will often find them outranking sites that are selling products instead of comparing them.
Developing a good comparison site takes time, especially now that there are so many competitors in the market, but the idea behind it is quite simple. As long as you have the data, making a site that compares it is not that hard.
Axo Finans
Axo Finans is a financial broker which compares loans from different banks. The goal is to ensure that their clients get the best possible loans. Axo Finans’ services are free for their customers.
Interest rates are especially important when it comes to loans. By comparing multiple banks at the same time, Axo Finans helps their customers get better interest rates. Their statistics show that the clients that get the most loan offers also get the lowest interest rate.
Axo Finans is one example of a business that has made research easier for its customers. Before comparison sites for financial services were developed, you would have to do this research on your own. It was a tiresome and time consuming process. Many probably went for a brand name they knew, found a loan at their current bank or chose a provider with a catchy commercial. Sites like Axo Finans have made it easier to make an informed decision on which loan to choose.
PriceSpy
PriceSpy is a comparison shopping website which makes it easier to find the best price for the product you are looking for. You simply type in the product you want, for instance a new pair of running shoes. After finding the model you want, you’ll get a list of the best prices for this item. Then you can proceed to the store with the best price and buy your new shoes.
PriceSpy also lets you subscribe to price drops for your favorite products. You can also compare product specs and prices. Perhaps you can find something cheaper with the same or similar specs?
PriceSpy is the UK spinoff of Prisjakt, which was developed by Jonas Bonde in Sweden in 2002. Schibsted, the Norwegian media conglomerate, is the majority shareholder in Prisjakt Sverige AB, which owns PriceSpy and its equivalents across the world.
Skyscanner
Skyscanner helps you compare flights for your next trip. You can sort the list of flights by duration, price or both – if you choose the latter, you will get a list of the “best” flights, which takes both of these aspects into account.
Each of these aspects are useful to have a look at. One flight can be extremely cheap, but it might also have multiple layovers and a total travel duration way above what it could have been. A balance between price and duration might be a good choice. Perhaps you can time your layover with a few hours of sightseeing in a beautiful city? Paris, for example?
Skyscanner is great for finding cheap flights, but it is not the only tool for travel out there. Google Travel lets you compare flights, but also other aspects of your vacation.
Google Travel
Google Travel, formerly Google Trips, is a Google product where you can find and compare hotels, flights and things to do for your trip. The hotel search is especially useful. You can compare prices from other services like hotels.com, booking.com, trivago.com and similar. Often you’ll see that the prices are better on the hotel’s own website.
This part of Google Travel is also integrated in Google Maps. Searching for hotels on Google Maps is a great tool when you want to go by map location instead of just price. Hotel comparison sites will often direct you toward the cheapest hotel, but they are often located outside of the city center.
Google Travel also lets you compare prices for flights. Other sites, like Skyscanner, provide this service as well, but you get everything in one place with Google Travel.
The future for comparison sites
Is Google’s method the future for comparison sites? Grouping many services in one will make it much more convenient for the user. It is especially useful when all those services are related to one thing: travel. Could Google include a PriceSpy-esque service in something called Google Compare?
Google Compare is actually a real, but discontinued, Google service. It compared credit cards and other financial services – not unlike Axo Finans. Before Google Compare was shut down, it came under scrutiny for unfair competition. The company might face similar scrutiny if they try to group as many services as possible under one umbrella.
