Most product research tools out there cost money, but what if you don't have the budget for that yet?
What if you want to get a few sales on your online store before investing in one of these tools?
If that's you, then you're in luck! We've created a list of the best free product research tools you can use to build up your dropshipping store.
Note: There is more than just doing product research with tools like this. If you're on a budget and you want to learn more about doing product research for your online store for free, then we suggest reading our other article here as well!
The 9 Best Free Product Research Tools: An Overview
So, you're looking for a free product research tool that could help you take your store to the next level?
Listed below, you can see all the tools we will cover in this article.
The tools are divided into two categories: free tools and paid product research tools with a free account or trial:
| Tool | Main features | Pricing | Read Review |
| 1. AliExpress Dropshipping Center | - Analyze and compare AliExpress products - Get order insights into products | Free to use | AliExpress Dropshipping Center Review |
| 2. Dropshipping Copilot | - AI product selection - Find most popular dropshipping items | $0 / $12.90 per month | Dropshipping Copilot Review |
| 3. Shine | - Track Shopify's stores' product launches - See the best-selling products | Free to use | Shine Review |
| 4. Wholesale2B | - Browse millions of products - See a large supplier directory | Free to use | Wholesale2B Review |
| 5. My Ad Finder | - Find well-performing ad campaigns - Spy on your competitors' campaigns | Free to use | My Ad Finder Review |
| 6. Thieve.co | - See a selection of over 4,000+ winning products - Discover product trends | 14-day free trial | Thieve.co Review |
| 7. Niche Scraper | - Product scraper for finding winning products - Spy on other Shopify sites | Free plan available | Niche Scraper Review |
| 8. Ecom Hunt | - A list of trending products - Detailed product info | Free plan available | Ecom Hunt Review |
| 9. Sell The Trend | - A winning product research tool - Handy TikTok viral ad tool | 7-day free trial | Sell The Trend Review |
Should you use a paid or a free product research tool when searching for products?
We said this before, but you don't need a product research tool for your product research.
In case you don’t know, product research is the process in which you research what kind of products are best to sell in your store. Most likely, these are products that are selling a lot.
Although we won’t deny that product research tools could save you time and inspire you for the product research part.
But the problem is that most of these tools cost you a monthly payment.
And most people starting with ecommerce and dropshipping don’t have much money available.
That's why we've created this list with the best free product research tools for dropshipping.
You're probably thinking "free"? Are you sure?
Yes! No need to pay anything.
Although there is one thing to note, we will separate this article into two parts.
One part will be for completely free product research tools, and the other part will contain paid product research tools, but these paid ones do have the option to get a free account or free trial.
We included these paid product research tools because they can be really powerful, but if your money is tight, you can use their free account options or 7/14 days free trials!
Plus, don't forget that you can cancel these trials and signup for a different product research tool trial on this list.
Awesome, right?
5 Free product research tools for your online store
If you're ready, then let's get started with the free product research tools!
These tools will help you with your product research for free.
1. AliExpress Dropshipping Center Review
Let's start with the most famous one, which not everyone knows about yet.
It’s the AliExpress Dropshipping Center!
This tool is inside AliExpress and is specially created for AliExpress dropshippers.
In case you don’t know anything about the AliExpress Dropshipping Center or you don’t know how to enable it on your AliExpress account, then we suggest reading our other article here.
In short, you can paste products from AliExpress, and the tool will give you analytics and info related to the product.
Plus, under 'Find Products to Sell,' you can find other related dropshipping products:
The great thing about it is that it’s free to use and offers advanced product research options!
Fun fact: Did you know that there's also an Alibaba Dropshipping Center now? You can learn more about that one here!
2. Dropshipping Copilot Review
Dropshipping Copilot is a tool that combines the power of AI with the massive product range on AliExpress.
It can help you find winning products, write product descriptions, fulfill orders in bulk, and more!
You can simply tell Dropshipping Copilot the kind of store you're creating, and it'll suggest products tailored just for you.
But does it work? Let's put it to the test!
We'll use the prompt below for our experiment:
I run an online store for pet owners who love to take their furry friends on outdoor adventures. I'm looking for pet products that support active lifestyles. Can you find a range of products that match this adventurous theme?
Here are the results:
As you can see, Dropshipping Copilot recommended several product categories, including durable pet harnesses and portable pet water bottles.
Some of the recommended categories we really liked included portable pet water bottles, adventure pet backpacks, and reflective pet leashes:
When it comes to pricing, Dropshipping Copilot has kept it simple.
Let's break it down:
- Advanced plan (Free). Dropshipping Copilot does offer a free plan that is surprisingly robust. It offers all the core features you need, with the main limitation being that you're limited to 500 credits for the AI features.
- Professional plan ($12.90 per month or $129 per year). This paid plan gives you unlimited credits for AI-assisted features, as well as upgraded AliExpress after-sales customer service.
Full review: Dropshipping Copilot: How to Use This AI AliExpress Tool
3. Shine Review
The next free tool on this list is called Shine (previously Commerce Inspector).
They do have a paid plan available, but what we're referring to is their free Chrome Extension:
They will show you the best-selling and newly listed products of a store:
They also integrated with the Facebook Ad Library so you can see their ads.
Plus, they will show you what apps that store is using!
We think it doesn't need any further explanation; it's great for product research, right?
If you want to learn more about the Shine, we suggest visiting their website here.
4. Wholesale2B Review
Wow, we had to include this tool.
Even though Wholesale2B has paid plans, they have a lifetime-long free plan for those who want to browse the products on their platform.
They have over a million products that you get access to, even with the free plan!
This is what the product research view looks like:
To find winning products, you can use filters like 'Trending' or 'New Items.'
Even under the 'Trending' category, you can see almost 7,000 products.
If you want to actually start importing the products to your online store, you have to opt for a paid plan.
But for product research purposes, the free plan is great.
Wholesale2B also has a supplier directory, and you can see an overview of the suppliers with the free plan.
For no cost, we're impressed by what it provides!
5. My Ad Finder Review
Next up is a great little free tool that will help you do product research on Facebook.
It’s called My Ad Finder, and you can install it here on the Chrome Web Store.
We guess you can guess already what this tool does, but if you can’t, no worries!
If you activate this tool and go to Facebook, then it will only show you Facebook Ads. It will filter out all the other posts.
You could combine this tool with the product research method from Franklin Hatchett:
This way, you will have a great chance to see ads on your Facebook feed from other online stores!
Do keep in mind that you don’t have to do this via his 'Meta Pixel hack.' You can also get more ads from online stores by showing Facebook that you’re interested in them.
But how do you show Facebook that you're interested in these Facebook Ads?
For example, by liking all the dropshipping ads or posts you see, going to their dropshipping stores, and adding their products to your cart.
This way, you’re showing Facebook that you’re highly interested in these kinds of products!
And do you know what Facebook will do then?
They will show you more ads that are related to that in the hope that you purchase them!
4 Paid product research tools that have a free account or trial available
Now that you have seen the best free tools to help you with your product research, it's time to move on to the paid product research tools.
We only included a few paid product research tools because not every product research tool lets you create a free account or gives you a free trial without charging any money!
1. Thieve.co Review
The next product research tool is called Thieve. They show you products that are trending currently.
It will give you a lot of inspiration for your product research!
While they are not a completely free tool, they have a 14-day free trial that you can access to browse their platform and the products.
You can sort the products by a category, so you can find products inside your niche (if you have a dropshipping niche store):
For every product listed in Thieve.co, you can access a product page, where you can see additional information about it.
Curious about how one of the product pages looks inside Thieve.co?
Here is an example:
As you can see, there is a link to the AliExpress page, order amount, ratings, and description you can use, as well as some images.
Even though Thieve.co is a paid tool, you get access to all of this with their free trial, so we recommend you check it out!
It's called Thieve Supply, but it costs money, so we won't cover it further in this article.
If you want to learn more about it, we have made a more detailed review of the platform here.
2. Niche Scraper Review
We added Niche Scraper as number two here because they allow you to create a completely free account, which you can keep for as long as you want.
However, if you're looking for more features, then you will need to upgrade your account, but their free account option is great to use if you don't have a big budget yet!
This is what you will get with their free-for-life plan:
If you're interested in learning more about Niche Scraper, then we suggest reading our review that we linked to below.
Niche Scraper Complete Review 2024: Best Low Budget Product Research Tool?
3. Ecomhunt Review
The next product research tool is called Ecomhunt.
Many of you that are reading this article probably already know this tool, but we thought it was still worth mentioning!
Ecomhunt tries to add a few so-called 'winning products' each day.
The great thing about Ecomhunt is that they got an option, just like Niche Scraper, to create a free account. Although it will have some limited features again:
But we don't think you care that much about limited features if your budget is tight!
If you're interested in learning more about Ecomhunt, then we suggest reading our review that we linked below.
Ecomhunt Review (2024) - The Best Winning Products or Not?
4. Sell The Trend Review
And the last paid product research tool on this list with a free account/trial option is Sell The Trend.
Although we highly recommend Sell The Trend on this blog, we didn't put it on number one because they don't offer a free account option like Niche Scraper or Ecomhunt!
They do give you a free 7-day trial, which you can cancel anytime, so you don't pay any money. The great thing about their trial is that you can use the full product research tool that whole week! No limitations.
Sell The Trend does a lot; for example, take a look at the image below:
If you're interested in learning more about Sell The trend, then you can read our review that we linked to below:
Sell The Trend Review (2024) – Easily Find Winning Products
Conclusion
So there you have it! Nine awesome product research tools that you can use today for zero dollars!
Don't forget that you can combine all these free product research tools and free accounts/trials from paid tools to do your product research even better!
Just remember that if you use a trial, don't forget to cancel it so you won't be charged. However, if you like the tool and want to use it longer, you can do that too!
If you have another free product research tool for this list or any questions, let us know by commenting!
Good luck with your product research!
Want to learn more about dropshipping?
Ready to move your dropshipping store to the next level? Check out the articles below:
8 Comments
very informative sir
Hi, thank you for your comment! Good luck with everything 😊
Greaaaaaat Article and full of very valiable data. I recomend anyone wanting to learn dropshipping to read it. Many Thanks to The Author 👍
Hi,
That’s awesome to hear! Good luck with your dropshipping journey 😊
– Richard
that’s great, I got lots of information from this website
hope so it will work for my drop shipping store
will search these sites for sure
thanks
Hi,
Thank you for your great comment! I wish you the best with everything 😊
– Richard
Most of these maybe free to “sign up” but then they want you to pay to use the website and/or features. These are not “Completely Free” as your post title suggest.
Hi,
Thank you for sharing your feedback! That’s a great point; we will make sure to update it 😊
Good luck with everything!
– Richard