If you’ve ever wished you could spot the next big thing before it becomes mainstream, you’re not alone — and that’s exactly where Exploding Topics comes in.
Exploding Topics is a trend-spotting tool designed to help you discover emerging products, startups, and business ideas before they blow up. Whether you’re an entrepreneur, investor, dropshipper, or content creator, the idea of getting a 12-month head start on trends sounds pretty incredible, right?
In this review, I’ll walk you through my hands-on experience with Exploding Topics — the features I loved, the areas that could use improvement, and most importantly: Is it really worth your time and money?
Short Overview
Exploding Topics is a trend spotting tool that helps you spot emerging trends before they hit mainstream market. It was originally founded by Josh Howarth and later joined by a well known SEO expert Brian Dean( I was already a fan of Brian Dean from Backlinko).
Basically, this tools lets you find any trends at a very early stage. Meaning, with this tool in your hand, you will be the first one to discover new trends and capitalize on it before it blows up across the internet. How cool is that, right! It does this by analyzing millions of searches, conversations and mentions across the internet. It then predicts which trends will grow based on those historical data.
Overall, I find Exploding Topics to be a solid tool for discovering emerging and new trends at an earlier stage and staying ahead of competitors. I also really liked that they are always improving their tool. The tool can now predict the trends 12 months ahead of time (before it becomes massive) which was only 6 months before.
Pros
- Clean and easy-to-use interface
- Huge database of trends (1M+)
- Excels in discovering emerging trends and untapped opportunities at an early stage
- Covers a wide range of industries and topics
- Great tool for dropshippers and investors
- Valuable insights into trends and detailed reports
Cons
- Can get expensive, especially for tight-budget businesses and solopreneurs
- Starter plan only allows 10 topic searches
- Trend forecasting is only available on investor plan and above
- Trends are limited to set categories and topics
- No monthly plan options
Key Features
1. Trends Database
Let’s start with the core feature of this tool and probably the reason you decide to go for exploding topics pro – Trend Database.
As the name suggests, trend database is the collection of a huge list of trending topics(31+ hot categories and over 1 million topics). Here you will find the trends categorically organized into macro and micro. Macro means a broad topic or industry like health, business, tech, etc whereas micro means smaller topics under those broad topics such as weight loss, AI, make money, etc. This is a very helpful feature to quickly identify trends according to your needs.
You will also get various filtering options(date, category, status, etc) that make your search easy. One handy filtering option is you get to choose from growth potential i.e regular, peaked and exploding(determined by Google search data). This is an excellent option to spot the trends or topics that have seen a more aggressive rise in popularity.
Additionally, if you have an investor or business plan, you can export the data into a CSV file for further investigation.
2. Trending Products
Dropsippers or any other sellers (e-commerce), this feature is especially for you!
Trending products is a collection of a huge list of trending products across various niches. Here you will find emerging products along with their growth chart, search volume, average revenue, average no. of sales, and more. With these insights at your fingertip, it’s very easy to discover products worthy of your time and effort. While the accuracy of the data can vary with the actual product, you can still have an idea of where to invest your time and money.
Similar to Trend Database, you will get handy filtering options. Plus you will see some additional filtering options(average price, monthly sales, revenue, Amazon Best Sellers Rank, and even average review score), that makes your product research easier and quicker. Just filter and norrow your search and find your next big product quickly!
If any product catches your eye, you can always click on it and dive deep and analyze more. Additionally, if you enable the forecasting option, you can also see the product growth potential for the whole next year. Yeah! Like seeing the future.
3. Trending Startups
Next feature is Trending Startups!
I am not an investor but for those who love investing in startups and are actively searching for a great opportunities to put your money into, then this tool can be the one your are looking for!
It’s a powerful feature designed to help you discover trending or emerging startups at a very early stage. Here you will see a list of small companies that are starting to get traction. You will get a similar filtering option as in trend database and of course with some additional options, especially for investors(total funding, no.of employees, location, etc). It’s an excellent way to analyze the growth potential of startups and make smarter, more confident decisions.
What’s cool is that it doesn’t focus on the giant companies that everyone already knows. Instead, it zooms in on smaller, niche businesses that are just starting to make waves — giving you the perfect chance to get ahead of the curve.
If a startup catches your eye, you can click on it and dive deep. See the full picture — funding details, growth stats, their website, social media profiles, and tons more valuable insights at your fingertips. Everything you need to size up a potential investment or partnership opportunity is right there for you.
Keep in mind though, this feature is only available if you’re on the Investor or Business plan.
4. Meta Trends
Meta Trends is another cool and super helpful feature of Exploding Topics.
Think of it like a sector or industry-based trend discovery feature. It basically groups together various related micro-topics under a bigger, primary topic and helps you actually visualize the connection between them. In simple words, it helps you see the big picture behind any trend.
Inside Meta Trends, you’ll find a clean categorization of top-level trends and pre-organized ideas across different industries. Click on any topic and you’ll instantly get a detailed breakdown of different micro-trends that are highly relevant to that primary trend (in circular form).
Basically, the inner ring displays all the popular micro-trends, while the outer ring showcases other relevant trends. You can click on any micro trends and further dive deep and analyze it in detail.
5. Trend Tracking + Alerts
As the name suggests, Trend Tracking feature lets you track any trends you like throughout the tool and keep a close eye on how they perform over time. It is a great feature to closely monitor competitor’s company, growth and product sales.
To get started, you’ll need to create a project — basically, a folder where you can manually add the topics or trends you want to track. Once you add a trend, it will start tracking from that day forward. Projects make it easy to group trends by category, by client, or however you want. And the best part? You can create as many projects as you like and add as many topics inside each project as you want — although your total number of tracked topics will depend on your subscription plan.
Plus, you can even set up email alerts to get notified if something major happens — like a spike or drop in search volume or growth rate. That way, you only need to log in when there’s real action happening, saving you a bunch of time and mental energy!
Most importantly, the data inside Exploding Topics is updated daily, so you’re always looking at fresh, up-to-date trends that can give you an edge for your business or content strategy.
6. Bonus: Weekly trends newsletter
Here’s a nice little bonus — the Weekly Trends Newsletter!
Every Tuesday, you’ll get an email packed with some of the best-exploding trends of the week, plus expert insights and analysis to help you stay ahead of the curve.
Even if you don’t buy a paid plan, I highly recommend subscribing to their email newsletter. Free members also get access to these weekly emails (of course, with limited insights compared to the full version).
But honestly, even with the limited info, it’s a great way to keep learning about new trends — and the best part? It doesn’t cost you anything.
Exploding Topics offers a free plan with limited features (of course), which is a nice way to dip your toes in before going all in. Just go to the Explodingtopics site and start using it. Yes, you don’t need to create an account too.
However, if you want the full power of the tool, Explodingtopics Pro is a must. They have three Pro plans to choose from:
- Entrepreneur ($39/month): Perfect for solopreneurs and small business owners who want to spot and leverage new trends early.
- Investor ($99/month): Best suited for investors and business owners who are serious about finding major growth opportunities.
- Business ($249/month): Ideal for agencies working with multiple clients across different industries — you get the full firepower here. You can even use Explodingtopics API on this plan.
One important thing to note: there are no monthly billing options — all plans are billed annually if you decide to upgrade.
The good news? They offer a 7-day free trial, so you can test drive everything and experience the tool at full power before making a commitment. (Heads up though — you’ll need to enter your card details to start the trial.)
My Experience
Exploding Topics has been an extremely powerful tool for helping me stay ahead of competitors and dominate new markets early. It’s been super helpful for finding emerging products, spotting growing startups, and even sparking new entrepreneurial ideas. If you’re someone who wants to catch trends before they go mainstream, this tool can seriously give you an edge.
Things I Like
- Beginner-friendly: Super easy to understand and navigate, even if you’re new to trend research.
- Excellent forecasting feature: Helps you predict future growth and stay ahead.
- Huge database of trends: Tons (1M+) of topics across different industries to explore.
- Great for dropshippers: A fantastic tool for discovering winning products and maximizing profits.
- Investor-friendly: Helps investors catch emerging companies early and capitalize before the market catches on.
- High-quality insights: You get real, actionable data — not just basic numbers.
- Access to historical data: See how trends have performed over time.
- Multi-source analysis: Doesn’t just rely on Google — analyzes conversations and mentions across the internet, including social media and forums.
Things I Don’t Like
- No monthly payment option: You have to commit to annual billing if you want the Pro features.
- Expensive for solopreneurs and small entrepreneurs: The pricing can be a bit steep if you’re just starting out.
- Limited analyses on the basic plan: Only 10 trend analyses are allowed, and no forecasting feature on the starter plan.
- Doesn’t go deep into channel-specific breakdowns: Would be nice to see which platforms (like TikTok, Reddit, etc.) are driving a trend with data(in numbers).
- Trend prediction accuracy can vary: Like any tool, it’s not 100% perfect — sometimes trends don’t grow as expected.
Conclusion: Is Exploding Topics Worth It?
After using Exploding Topics for the past 5 months, I can confidently say: yes, it’s worth it — if you know how to use it to your advantage.
It’s a powerful tool that can genuinely help you stay ahead of competitors, find hidden opportunities early, and make smarter business moves — whether you’re hunting for the next winning product, investing in emerging startups, or simply brainstorming new entrepreneurial ideas.
The tool is easy to navigate, packed with valuable insights, and constantly evolving (I love that they upgraded their forecasting from 6 to 12 months). The only real downsides are the higher price tag for solopreneurs and the lack of monthly billing options.
If you’re serious about staying on top of trends and willing to invest for the long term, Exploding Topics can become one of the most valuable tools in your arsenal.
And even if you’re not ready to commit yet, I highly recommend signing up for their free newsletter — it’s a simple (and free) way to start tapping into the power of trend spotting today.
Rabin is an SEO Specialist and a content creator who is also a BCA graduate. He shares easy-to-follow hacks and tips to help you make smart choices for SEO tools and strategies through his blog. Passionate about learning and sharing, Rabin’s goal is to help you navigate your SEO and blogging journey with confidence.