I've been in the SEO space for a long time, so was very familiar with Brian Dean and his awesome work with Backlinko.
But Exploding Topics may be his best work yet – and I think this thing will be a juggernaut in the near future.
Here are the top uses for Exploding Topics and the problems it solves:
- Easily get a high-level overview of current trends
- Get a feel for future trends and their projections
- Dive deeper into different trend categories
- Search and discover trending product ideas
- Get ideas shown to you in a browsable format
The standout #1 reason I use Exploding Topics
The #1 reason I use and recommend Exploding Topics is not a single feature or use case but the combination of trends I can search, trends that are shown to me, and trends I can browse by category + the great minimalist UI.
What makes great software is how well it can solve the sequence of individual steps a user needs to do to complete their job. Software at its best helps reduce the time to do those discrete steps, helps connect them together in a workflow, and helps recommend what to do and nudge you in the right direction.
Trend Tracking
Trend tracking allows you to organize and track trends by different categories or grouping however you may see fit. I like to bucket things by client or topic.
Meta Trends
Meta Trends are pre-selected by the Exploding Topics team. I find this very thoughtful and highly valuable by them to take a step back and show you big picture ideas that may cause a tectonic shift in your industry in the next 5-10 years.
Exploding Topics Pricing
Pricing for Exploding topics starts and $39/mo for Entrepreneur. Investor is $99/mo and Business is $249 a month. I'm currently on the Investor plan because I value the CSV export and 4 user seats.
Exploding Topics Alternatives
With lots of software eating the world, not all software is the best fit for everyone.
I have been guilty of buying software in the past hoping that the purchase would solve the problem for me. That's rarely true. Even with full-suite software like HubSpot, you need to have your own workflow that you can actively do on a weekly basis, and use software to enhance that workflow.
Unless you have a budget to burn, you should try using free software when testing out your own personal workflow. Then when the problem becomes painful, look to paid solutions.
Exploding Topics Paid Alternatives
Glimpse – very similar in concept to Exploding Topics – they seem to not have the same market penetration on the SEO side.
Buzzsumo – great for tracking and integrating with social trends, more of a broader suite of content & PR products
Talkwalker – Talkwaker is a social listening & media monitoring suite of products, with less of a focus on trends
Exploding Topics Free Alternatives
- Google Trends – if you're a lightweight user with minimal needs or random searches – Google Trends is fine to start with until you start to have a painful need.
- Trendhunter – this is largely a free source of ideas on a daily, weekly, and monthly level. Trendhunter is great for products and larger cultural trends, but they cover the gamut. They seem to use AI and other scraping capabilities to crawl the web for ideas. They also offer custom paid services for enterprises.
Last Updated on February 5, 2024 by Joe
