Find people about to cancel your competitor
Copy-paste searches for Reddit, Hacker News, GitHub and Bluesky that show you who wants to switch, and why.
The easiest customers you'll ever get already pay for a tool like yours. They're just not happy with it. When a tool raises its prices, breaks something or ignores a feature request, people say so in public. They post "what are you switching to?", "any cheaper alternative to X?" or "X just went down again". And they usually say exactly what annoys them.
The 3 kinds of posts you're looking for
Each search below targets one of these.
Price complaints.
"COMPETITOR just doubled their prices." These people have a budget and a reason to leave right now.
Alternative requests.
"Any good alternative to COMPETITOR?" They've already decided to switch. They're just choosing where to.
Bad experiences.
"COMPETITOR deleted my data", "support never answered", "it's down again". Emotional, often public, and a great moment to be helpful.
Use Reddit's own search, then sort by New and filter to the past week or past month.
"alternative to COMPETITOR""COMPETITOR alternative""switching from COMPETITOR"COMPETITOR price increaseCOMPETITOR "too expensive"COMPETITOR "is down"COMPETITOR "support" "no response"site:reddit.com "alternative to COMPETITOR"Reddit's search can miss posts. Google often finds more. Search this on Google and set Tools → Past week.
Hacker News
Use hn.algolia.com, the official HN search. Set the filter to Comments (that's where most complaints are), sort by Date, and pick Past week or Past month.
"alternative to COMPETITOR""switched from COMPETITOR""moved away from COMPETITOR"COMPETITOR pricingTip: also check Ask HN threads like "What do you use for [your category]?". People list the tools they hate in the replies.
GitHub
Use the GitHub search bar and switch the results to Issues. These searches find open issues that mention your competitor.
"alternative to COMPETITOR" is:issue is:openrepo:OWNER/REPO is:issue is:open sort:reactions-+1-descReplace OWNER/REPO with their repo, if it's public. This shows the open issues with the most thumbs-up reactions: the problems their users care about most and that haven't been fixed.
COMPETITOR in:title,body is:issue is:open created:>2026-10-01Change the date to about a month ago.
Bluesky
Use the search in the Bluesky app. Bluesky supports exact phrases in quotes, a date filter with since: and a language filter with lang:.
"alternative to COMPETITOR" since:2026-10-01"COMPETITOR" "switching" lang:en"COMPETITOR" "price" since:2026-10-01Change the date to about two weeks ago. Switch to the Latest tab to see new posts first.
How to sort what you find
Not every post is worth a reply. Ask three quick questions.
Three yeses: reply. Otherwise, save the post anyway. It tells you what people want.
- Is it recent? Older than 2 weeks is usually too late.
- Do they want to switch, or just vent? "What should I use instead?" beats "ugh, COMPETITOR again".
- Does your product actually solve their problem? If they complain about something you also don't do, skip it.
How to reply without looking like a vulture
Answer the question first.
Give useful advice, even if it doesn't involve your product.
Say you built it.
"Disclosure: I'm building X, which does Y." People forgive self-promotion. They don't forgive hidden self-promotion.
Talk about their problem, not your features.
"If the price is the issue, X is $Y and has no per-seat pricing" works. A feature list doesn't.
Never trash the competitor.
Let the person's complaint speak for itself.
Respect the rules.
Many subreddits and communities don't allow self-promotion in replies. Read the rules first.
Bonus: turn complaints into a better product
Keep a simple list of every complaint you find: what the problem was, which competitor, and how often it came up. After a month you have:
The features people want most.
The exact words they use (great for your landing page).
The reasons they switch (great for your pricing page).