Free moat test
Moat Test: Find Out Who Can Copy Your Startup
Describe your idea. In about a minute you get the companies already doing it, the one best placed to copy you and how fast, and a score from ten moat tests.
Why a quiz can't tell you if you have a moat
Most moat tests ask you to rate your own idea. Founders are the least objective judges of their own defensibility, and a quiz has no idea who your competitors are. Moat Check starts from the outside: it searches the web for companies already doing your idea, names the one with the users, data or distribution to copy you fastest, and only then scores each test against that evidence.
The ten tests
- Network effect. Does each new user make the product better for other users?
- Winnable starting market. Is there a small, self-contained market it can dominate first (a team, a school, a city, a niche)?
- Owned customer relationship. Do the relationships and transactions live inside the product, rather than in WhatsApp, Slack, email or a marketplace someone else owns?
- Competitive resilience. Could a rival with $50M and a better AI model, launching in 12 months, fail to win the same users?
- Proprietary data. Does normal use create data competitors can't buy, scrape or synthesize?
- Data flywheel. Does that data measurably make the product better as usage grows?
- Switching costs. Would leaving mean losing history, integrations, workflow or reputation?
- Distribution advantage. Is there a distribution channel it owns that rivals can't simply buy?
- Platform independence. Is it safe from Apple, Google, OpenAI, Meta, Shopify or another platform shipping it as a feature?
- Beyond the AI model. Would it stay valuable if a competitor plugged in the same AI model with an empty database?
Each test scores 10 for a pass, 5 for a partial and 0 for a fail, so the total is out of 100. Read exactly how each is judged in the methodology, or what each kind of moat means in What is a moat?
See a real result
Every analysis in the idea library is a full example, with its competitors, sources and the move that would make it defensible. For instance: telemedicine for rural clinics in Africa (65, Defensible) or an AI medical scribe for doctors (15, No moat).
Questions
What is a moat test?
A moat test checks whether a business could keep its customers after a competitor copies its product. Moat Check runs ten such tests, from network effects to switching costs, against real competitors found on the web.
How is this different from a moat quiz?
A quiz scores your own answers about your idea. Moat Check researches who is already doing it and who could copy it, and judges each test on that evidence, with the sources shown.
How long does it take, and is it free?
About a minute. Your first analysis is free without signing up; accounts get 5 bonus analyses and 3 more every month.
Is my idea kept private?
Yes. Every analysis starts private at an unguessable link. It appears in the public library only if you choose to publish it.