Narrative Geo · 2026-08-29

Trade area analysis software: a 2026 guide

The category contains at least four different products that are routinely compared as if they were one.

Four categories, not one

Published prices

PlatformWhat it isPublished price
Placer.aiFoot-traffic panel; visits, dwell, YoY$31,000/yr (Bloomington, IN contract)
Buxton / Audiense In-PersonConsulting practice; psychographic segmentation$40,000/yr (same comparison)
SiteZeus (Atlas)Franchise and multi-unit site scoringCustom quote
Tango AnalyticsPortfolio and facilities managementCAD $24,924–49,403/yr
GrowthFactorSelf-serve site scoringFrom $200/mo, one seat
Narrative GeoRouted drive-time trade areas, 107 chains, chain-wideTalk to us

The single most useful question

Ask whether a given number was measured or extrapolated. Panel figures are weighted estimates from a device sample. Ring-based counts are geometry applied to an assumption. Routed catchments are computed from the road network. All three can be useful. Only one of them is reproducible.

Narrative Geo does not sample. Every trade area is routed on the actual road network with OSRM, against full Census/ACS population and a maintained POI set. The drive-time matrix is precomputed at 1.08 billion rows, so a national query across a 20,000-store chain returns in seconds rather than being metered per location.

Run this on your own chain

Every figure above is computed on the live road network, not a radius and not a device panel. Open the platform on any of 107 US chains.

Open the platform