# Neur vs IBISWorld, SizeUp and a consultant

> An honest comparison of the four ways a new owner gets market research in the US — IBISWorld reports, SizeUp through an SBDC, a paid consultant, and a Neur report — with what each costs and what each answers.

Canonical: https://www.neur.co/docs/neur-vs-ibisworld-sizeup-and-a-consultant
Last updated: 2026-10-20

When someone searches for an "IBISWorld alternative" or a "SizeUp alternative" they usually have the same problem: they want to know whether one business will work in one place, and the tools they keep finding answer a different question. This page sets the four common options side by side so you can pick the one that fits the decision in front of you.

## The question each one answers

- **IBISWorld** answers "how is this industry doing nationally?" One report covers an industry across the United States: size, growth, cost structure, major players. It does not look at your city or your street.
- **SizeUp** answers "how does my business compare with others in my area, and where are my competitors and customers?" It is sold to cities, counties and Small Business Development Centers, which offer it to local businesses, often at no charge to the business where the community pays for it.
- **A consultant** answers whatever you pay them to answer, with judgement attached. Our separate page on [Neur vs hiring a business consultant](https://www.neur.co/docs/neur-vs-business-consultant) covers that choice.
- **Neur** answers "will this business work at this location, and what should I do about it?" One report covers one idea in one US city or at one address: a 0–100 score, the competitors a customer would see, a financial estimate and an action plan, in a PDF a lender can read.

## What they cost

| Option | Price | What you get for it |
|---|---|---|
| IBISWorld, one report | $2,850 for a US Industry Research Report; $800 for a shorter Industry Spotlight | National industry analysis, 10 to 20 pages for a Spotlight, longer for the full report |
| IBISWorld, membership | Quote only; one spend-tracking vendor estimates about $10,000 a year for small companies | Access to the full report library for a year |
| SizeUp | Free to the business where a city, county or SBDC has licensed it; otherwise not available to individuals | Local benchmarking, competitor map, advertising-area and cost-of-business tools |
| Consultant | Typically several thousand dollars for a feasibility study | Research plus judgement, delivered as a document, over weeks |
| Neur | $59.99 for one report, $149.99 for three; no subscription | A full feasibility report for one idea in one place, ready in minutes, with the Lender Report PDF |

Prices checked October 2026 from each company's own pages where they publish them. IBISWorld membership pricing is not public and the estimate above is a third party's; confirm with their sales team.

## Where each one is the right choice

**Choose IBISWorld** when you need national industry context for a formal document: an investor deck, an academic project, a corporate strategy memo. Many public and university libraries carry it, so check there before paying.

**Choose SizeUp** when your local SBDC or city offers it. It is a good first look at how established businesses in your area perform, and the people who offer it will usually sit with you. Its limits are that you cannot buy it as an individual, it benchmarks existing businesses rather than scoring a new one, and coverage depends on which community paid.

**Choose a consultant** when the decision is large enough that a second human opinion is worth the fee, or when you need someone to do primary research: surveys, interviews, site visits.

**Choose Neur** when you are deciding between ideas or between locations and want the public data read for you, scored, and formatted for a bank. The whole report costs less than one hour of a consultant's time, and the state-level data behind it is [free on the site](https://www.neur.co/data/top-businesses).

## What Neur does not do

Neur does not interview customers, visit the site or negotiate a lease. It reads US Census, Bureau of Labor Statistics and Google Places data for the place you name, applies a model, and shows its sources. It covers the United States only. Where a data source is suppressed or thin, the report says so rather than guessing. The [data sources](https://www.neur.co/docs/data-sources) and [methodology](https://www.neur.co/docs/methodology) pages list exactly what goes in.

## The honest summary

IBISWorld tells you about the industry. SizeUp, if your town has it, tells you about businesses like yours nearby. A consultant tells you what they think. Neur tells you whether your idea works on that corner, for the price of a nice dinner, in a document you can hand to a lender. Most new owners need the last one first, and can add the others if the decision grows.