Overview
SimilarSites (similarsites.com) is SimilarGroup’s free related-site recommender; the About page is also signed “by SimilarWeb.” Cross-border sellers do not come here for a traffic report. They come for a map: paste a competitor DTC store, a niche content site, or a tool domain, and get sites that look alike in content, structure, and co-visitation. The Chrome extension “Similar Sites - Discover Related Websites” pops the same list on the page you are already browsing.
The job is the first-hour shortlist. SimilarWeb and Ahrefs will sell visits and keywords, but the paid floors are high and the free tiers barely let you spy a rival. SimilarSites does not print monthly visits, bounce rate, or search volume. It answers “who else looks like this?” You still take that list into a paid SEO suite or Google Trends before you buy inventory.
It fits solo sellers and content ops who need peer domains before they spend. If you already pay SimilarWeb for a traffic deck, keep SimilarSites as a sidebar, not the source of truth.
Core features and advantages
Domain-to-domain recommendations
On the site or in the extension you enter a URL. Engines that the About page names — content, keyword density, topic tags, shared visitor paths, user ratings — return a list with thumbnails and categories. Seller workflow: drop in a DTC brand that matches a Temu winner, or a vertical store, and see who else sells the same niche so you are not staring only at Amazon search.
Browser extension
Chrome Web Store on 2026-07-27 showed about 300,000 users, 3.9/5 from roughly 399 ratings, version 7.3.19, 28 languages. Click the icon on any page; you do not copy the URL back to the homepage. The listing says anonymized browsing signals feed the recommender. Privacy-sensitive teams should read the store permissions before installing.
Relationship to SimilarWeb
SimilarSites sits in SimilarGroup; About says “by SimilarWeb.” It is not the SimilarWeb traffic suite and it will not open a competitor’s channel mix. Treat them as a free discovery layer plus a paid measurement layer. Third-party “Similar Sites Finder” APIs on marketplaces are not this product.
Supported platforms
The website and Chrome extension work on public pages. They do not plug into Amazon, Shopify, or Temu admin. Results are global and uneven: large commerce brands usually return a dense peer set; long-tail independents often collapse into generic portals. There is no first-party mobile app as the main entry.
Who it's for
- Solo sellers and content ops hunting category blogs, review sites, and rival storefronts.
- DTC teams listing ~20 peer domains before they buy a traffic tool.
- Skip it if you need audited visits, keyword volume, or backlinks — SimilarSites has none of those fields.
Concrete use case: before a pet-goods Shopify build, paste two known DTC competitors, export the similar list, drop forums and coupon mills, then check leftover domains in Google Trends. Do not rank those sites by “who has more traffic” inside SimilarSites — that metric is not there.
Pricing and value
The main site and official extension are free. There is no public seller price card. Chrome lists similargroup@gmail.com; About lists contact@similarsites.com. Same-name APIs on RapidAPI are third-party wrappers and unrelated to this checkout. For a cross-border seller the free list is worth the first research hour; a sourcing meeting still needs a paid traffic tool for numbers.
Community feedback
Chrome’s 3.9 score splits: faster than Googling “similar to,” versus stale suggestions, ads, and brand confusion with SimilarWeb. English SEO roundups still call it the quickest similar-site finder and stress no SEO metrics. Amazon seller Reddit barely names it; people ask for SimilarWeb instead. Chinese cross-border groups do not treat it as a sourcing staple.
Competitive positioning
SimilarSites is fast, free, and has no login wall. SimilarWeb has traffic and sources but almost no free lookups. Google Trends is search interest, not site similarity. Exploding Topics finds rising themes, not domain neighbors. Overlap and backlinks remain Ahrefs / Semrush work.
Alternatives
- Google Trends — category search interest, not similar domains.
- Global E-commerce Website Ranking — SimilarWeb’s commerce ranking for the big board, not one neighbor.
- Exploding Topics — rising topics rather than competitor URLs.
Limitations
No visits, conversion, or ad share. Recommendation quality wobbles, especially on long-tail shops. The extension leans on browsing data; read the privacy text. Not a product database and not 1688 / Amazon units. Ads and dated screenshots show up in store complaints.
Verdict
Use SimilarSites for a free peer-domain list before you build a store or a content buy. Do not use it to decide who deserves inventory. When you need traffic numbers, go to SimilarWeb or a trends tool.
Next step: look up one competitor on similarsites.com or install the Chrome extension; questions go to contact@similarsites.com.
Data notes
Rechecked 2026-09-06 against similarsites.com/about and the Chrome Web Store listing. published (2024-03-15), monthlyVisits, domainRating, and authorityScore are catalog placeholders and unverified. Exact launch day is unverified. Extension user and rating counts are store snapshots and will move.