# Competitive Alternative Evidence Grid

Canonical page: https://waitlist.crany.ai/marketing-templates/competitive-alternative-evidence-grid

By Tangenix. Published 2026-10-24. Category: Positioning.

Compare software alternatives using dated public evidence, plan restrictions and explicit unknowns before writing a defensible comparison.

## Task

Verify a specific software comparison from published offers before making a public claim.

## When to use

Use this after customer research identifies an actual alternative and before naming that product in a comparison, sales explanation or buying guide. Start with the same buyer task for every offer.

## Choose another approach when

You have only a search snippet, need to assess an undocumented enterprise contract, or want to turn a feature not mentioned on a website into proof that the competitor lacks it.

## Inputs

- The buyer task and evidence that these alternatives enter a real decision.
- Current vendor documentation, pricing pages and access conditions for each relevant offer.
- A dated record of what you can verify and what would require a product test or vendor clarification.

## Template

    Comparison question: [one buyer task, audience and constraints]
    Alternative / exact offer: [vendor, plan, version and region where relevant]
    Why included: [observed buyer consideration; otherwise label hypothesis]
    Capability under review: [precise behavior]
    Public evidence URL / checked date: [reference]
    Evidence kind: vendor description / documented limit / observed test / unknown
    What the evidence actually supports: [narrow factual statement]
    Conditions: [plan, configuration, integrations, access or account requirements]
    Not established: [unverified behavior, performance or missing information]
    Our equivalent capability / evidence: [apply the same standard]
    Publication wording: [bounded comparison or omit the unsupported claim]
    Recheck owner / trigger: [date or offer change]
    Do not equate “not found in public documentation” with “not available”.

## Illustrative example

This is not a Crany customer result. Replace example details with verified facts.

    Fictional example: a designer needs a client to acknowledge a website handoff without creating an account.
    The founder compares Handoff Notes with the fictional Task Ledger, because an interview participant considered both. A dated vendor help article describes a shared link, but does not say whether acknowledgement requires login. The grid records shared-link support as documented and login-free acknowledgement as unknown.
    Handoff Notes has a tested acknowledgement flow in its limited pilot. The founder can describe that tested pilot behavior with its access restriction. They cannot publish “Task Ledger cannot do this” from the missing documentation. The unresolved question goes to a separate verification step before comparison copy is approved.

## How to use

1. Select alternatives from buyer evidence and define a single comparable task.
2. Read primary documentation and record the exact offer and conditions for each statement.
3. Apply the same evidence standard to your product, then publish only supported comparisons.

## Checks

- Every named capability has a dated primary reference or an explicitly scoped observation.
- Missing documentation remains unknown rather than becoming a negative feature claim.
- A plan-specific or pilot capability is not generalized to every customer or product version.

## What to measure

Track unsupported statements caught before publication, stale references and buyer questions the comparison resolves. Public documentation establishes what the vendor states; it does not independently prove runtime quality, relative performance or purchase preference.

## Research and sources

Dunford supports selecting alternatives from real buyer choices and connecting capabilities to value. The evidence ledger is an original verification workflow; it does not supply an independent product review, performance benchmark or endorsement.

- [April Dunford: A Quickstart Guide to Positioning](https://aprildunford.substack.com/p/a-quickstart-guide-to-positioning) — checked 2026-10-24. Author’s 2021 explanation of buyer alternatives, differentiated capabilities, customer value and category expectations; no universal growth or numeric claims adopted.

Prepared with AI assistance. Sources support the stated principles; they do not endorse Crany or guarantee performance.

## About Crany

Crany is an AI marketing co-founder in development for software founders and vibe coders. It is designed to strategize, execute approved marketing and improve based on results. These free resources are usable independently of app access. The public waitlist is at https://waitlist.crany.ai/.