When investors look for Amazon alternatives, they're really searching for companies with overlapping business models or comparable growth characteristics that might trade at different valuations. Amazon operates across e-commerce, cloud computing, digital advertising, and subscription services, which means no single competitor mirrors it perfectly. Instead, the best approach is to break Amazon into its core segments and identify the strongest rivals in each one, then compare how those businesses stack up on growth and profitability.
Key takeaways
- Amazon competes in at least three distinct markets: e-commerce, cloud infrastructure (AWS), and digital advertising. Each segment has different competitors worth evaluating separately.
- Stocks like AMZN tend to carry premium valuations because of their diversified revenue streams, so finding a true one-to-one replacement is unlikely. You're better off comparing segment by segment.
- Cloud competitors and e-commerce rivals often have very different margin profiles, which matters when you're comparing profitability across Amazon alternatives.
- Business model overlap, total addressable market, and capital allocation strategy are more useful comparison dimensions than price alone.
Why there's no perfect Amazon clone
Here's the thing about searching for alternatives to Amazon: the company is almost comically diversified. It runs the largest Western e-commerce marketplace, the leading cloud infrastructure platform, a fast-growing advertising network, a major streaming service, a grocery chain, and a logistics operation that rivals dedicated freight companies. No single competitor matches all of that.
That's actually useful information, not a dead end. It means you can decompose Amazon into its business units and find focused competitors in each area. A company that dominates cloud computing might be a better "alternative" for investors who think AWS is the real value driver. Someone focused on e-commerce growth might look at different names entirely. Your thesis about what makes Amazon valuable determines which alternatives make sense for your research.
Sum-of-the-parts analysis: A method of valuing a conglomerate by estimating what each business segment would be worth as a standalone company, then adding those values together. It's particularly useful for diversified companies like Amazon where different divisions have very different growth rates and margins.
AMZN competitors in cloud computing
AWS has historically held the largest share of the global cloud infrastructure market. Its two closest competitors in this space are Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud. If your interest in Amazon is really about cloud exposure, these are the names to study.
Microsoft is the most direct comparison because Azure competes head-to-head with AWS across enterprise workloads, and Microsoft bundles cloud services with its dominant productivity software. Google Cloud has been growing its market share, though it started from a smaller base. Both companies report cloud revenue as segments within larger businesses, so you'd need to look at segment-level financials rather than company-wide numbers to make a fair comparison.
The margin differences matter here. AWS has generally operated at higher margins than Google Cloud, which spent years operating at a loss before reaching profitability. Azure's margins are harder to isolate because Microsoft bundles reporting differently. You can dig into these segment breakdowns on the AMZN research page and compare them against peers.
What about smaller cloud players?
Companies like Oracle, IBM, and Snowflake operate in cloud computing but target different niches. Oracle focuses heavily on database workloads and enterprise applications. IBM has pivoted toward hybrid cloud and consulting. Snowflake is a pure-play data cloud company. None of them compete with AWS at the same scale for general-purpose cloud infrastructure, but they might be relevant depending on which slice of the cloud market interests you.
E-commerce alternatives to Amazon
On the retail side, the list of AMZN competitors looks quite different. The most frequently cited names include Walmart, Shopify, and several international e-commerce platforms.
Walmart is the closest domestic comparison because it combines massive physical retail with a growing e-commerce and marketplace business. Its online grocery delivery and third-party marketplace have expanded steadily. The key difference: Walmart's e-commerce business operates within a company that generates most of its revenue from physical stores, which means its margin structure and growth profile look nothing like Amazon's retail segment.
Shopify takes a different angle entirely. Rather than competing as a retailer, it provides the infrastructure for other businesses to sell online. If you think the future of e-commerce is more decentralized and less dependent on a single marketplace, Shopify represents that thesis. Its revenue model (subscriptions plus merchant services) produces different margins than Amazon's first-party and marketplace revenue.
Marketplace take rate: The percentage of each transaction that a marketplace platform keeps as revenue. Comparing take rates across e-commerce platforms helps investors understand how much each company earns per dollar of goods sold through its system.
Internationally, companies like MercadoLibre in Latin America and Sea Limited in Southeast Asia dominate e-commerce in their respective regions. These stocks like AMZN operate large marketplaces with attached fintech and logistics arms, though they serve very different consumer demographics and competitive environments.
How do Amazon alternatives compare on advertising?
Amazon's advertising segment has become one of its fastest-growing and highest-margin businesses. It earns ad revenue by selling sponsored product placements and display ads within its marketplace. For investors focused on this piece, the natural comparisons are Alphabet (Google) and Meta.
The comparison here is less about finding a replacement and more about understanding where Amazon's ad business fits in the broader digital advertising market. Google dominates search advertising. Meta dominates social advertising. Amazon's advantage is that its ads appear at the point of purchase, when a shopper already has buying intent. That distinction affects conversion rates and the prices advertisers are willing to pay.
If you want to explore how these companies' advertising revenues and margins compare, the Vibe Screener lets you filter by revenue growth, profit margins, and other metrics across large-cap tech names.
Comparing growth rates and profit margins across Amazon alternatives
Rather than listing specific numbers that will go stale, here's a framework for running this comparison yourself. You want to look at three things for each competitor:
- Revenue growth rate by segment. Amazon's consolidated growth blends fast-growing segments (cloud, ads) with slower-growing ones (first-party retail). Compare each segment to its direct competitor, not to Amazon's overall number.
- Operating margin by segment. AWS typically runs significantly higher margins than Amazon's retail operations. When comparing to Microsoft or Google, look at their cloud segment margins specifically. When comparing to Walmart, use retail operating margins.
- Capital intensity. Amazon reinvests aggressively in fulfillment infrastructure, data centers, and logistics. Some competitors are more capital-light, which affects free cash flow even when revenue growth looks similar.
A common mistake when evaluating alternatives to Amazon is comparing a pure-play competitor's company-wide margins against Amazon's blended margins. That's apples to oranges. AWS might have margins in the range of 25-35%, while Amazon's retail segment operates on much thinner margins. If you compare a cloud pure-play to Amazon's overall margin, you'll draw the wrong conclusion.
Which financial metrics matter most for this comparison?
For growth-oriented comparisons, focus on revenue growth, gross margin trends, and free cash flow generation. For valuation, price-to-sales and EV/EBITDA tend to be more useful than P/E for companies that are reinvesting heavily and suppressing near-term earnings. You can read more about how to use these metrics in context on the stock analysis pillar page.
EV/EBITDA: Enterprise value divided by earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization. It's a valuation ratio that works better than P/E for comparing companies with different capital structures or those that reinvest earnings aggressively. Lower ratios suggest cheaper valuations, all else being equal.
Sorting Amazon alternatives by business model and market cap
It helps to organize the competitive landscape into tiers. Here's one way to think about it:
Mega-cap diversified competitors include Microsoft, Alphabet, and Meta. These companies overlap with Amazon in cloud, advertising, or both. They're similar in scale and trade at comparable valuations. They're the closest peers if your interest in Amazon is about owning a dominant, diversified tech platform.
Large-cap retail and e-commerce competitors include Walmart and Shopify. These compete more directly with Amazon's retail business. Walmart offers a value-oriented alternative with heavy physical retail exposure. Shopify offers a bet on decentralized e-commerce infrastructure.
International e-commerce players like MercadoLibre and Sea Limited give you exposure to e-commerce growth in emerging markets. They carry different risk profiles, including currency risk, regulatory environments, and earlier-stage market penetration.
Cloud and infrastructure specialists like Oracle, Snowflake, or Datadog compete in narrower slices of the cloud market. They won't replace Amazon as a diversified holding, but they may offer more targeted exposure to specific cloud trends.
You can browse thematic groupings like these on the Rallies Discover page, which organizes stocks by investment themes and sectors.
What to watch when building your comparison
A few practical tips for running this analysis well:
- Don't just compare revenue. Amazon's marketplace model means gross merchandise value flows through its platform that doesn't all show up as revenue. Comparing Walmart's total sales to Amazon's reported revenue isn't straightforward.
- Check where growth is accelerating or decelerating. A competitor growing cloud revenue at a faster rate than AWS might be gaining share, but check whether that growth is coming from a much smaller base.
- Look at capital allocation. Amazon has historically prioritized reinvestment over buybacks or dividends. Some alternatives return more cash to shareholders, which changes the total return calculus.
- Consider sector concentration risk. If you already own several large-cap tech names, adding another mega-cap competitor to Amazon might increase your concentration rather than diversify it.
For ongoing monitoring, the Rallies portfolio tracker can help you see how your holdings overlap across sectors and business models.
Try it yourself
Want to run this kind of analysis on your own? Copy any of these prompts and paste them into the Rallies AI Research Assistant:
- I'm looking for alternatives to Amazon as an investment — what companies compete with AMZN across e-commerce, cloud computing, and advertising, and how do their growth rates and profit margins compare?
- What are the closest alternatives to Amazon? What competitors should I compare it to?
- Compare AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud on revenue growth and operating margins. Which cloud segment is gaining market share fastest?
Frequently asked questions
What are the best AMZN competitors for investors to research?
The most relevant competitors depend on which part of Amazon's business you care about. For cloud computing, Microsoft and Alphabet are the primary rivals. For e-commerce, Walmart and Shopify compete in different ways. For digital advertising, Alphabet and Meta overlap most directly. Breaking Amazon into segments and finding the best competitor in each one gives you a clearer picture than looking for a single replacement.
Are there any stocks like AMZN that combine e-commerce and cloud?
Very few companies combine large-scale e-commerce with a major cloud platform. Microsoft comes closest in terms of scale and diversification, though its e-commerce presence is much smaller. Alibaba historically combined marketplace and cloud services, but it operates in a different regulatory and market environment. In practice, most investors who want exposure to both e-commerce and cloud end up either sticking with Amazon or owning separate pure-play companies.
How do I compare alternatives to Amazon on valuation?
Start by picking the right valuation metric for each comparison. EV/EBITDA and price-to-sales work well for high-growth companies that reinvest heavily. Compare segment-level metrics when possible, since Amazon's blended numbers mix high-margin cloud with lower-margin retail. A company might look expensive on a P/E basis but reasonable on a price-to-sales basis if it's prioritizing growth over short-term profit.
Is Walmart a real alternative to Amazon for investors?
Walmart competes with Amazon in e-commerce and grocery delivery, but the two companies have very different business profiles. Walmart generates most of its revenue from physical retail, pays a dividend, and operates on thin margins with massive scale. Amazon leans more heavily on cloud computing and advertising for profitability. Walmart can work as an alternative if you want retail exposure with less tech concentration, but it won't give you AWS-like growth.
What's the difference between Amazon competitors in cloud vs. e-commerce?
Cloud competitors like Microsoft and Alphabet compete on infrastructure, enterprise services, and developer ecosystems. E-commerce competitors like Walmart and Shopify compete on product selection, pricing, logistics, and merchant tools. These are fundamentally different businesses with different margin profiles, capital requirements, and growth drivers. That's why segment-level comparison matters more than company-level comparison when evaluating Amazon alternatives.
How should I think about international Amazon alternatives?
Companies like MercadoLibre and Sea Limited dominate e-commerce in regions where Amazon has limited presence. They offer exposure to faster-growing consumer markets but carry additional risks, including currency fluctuation, different regulatory frameworks, and less mature logistics infrastructure. If your thesis is that e-commerce growth will be strongest outside the U.S. over the next decade, these companies deserve research. Just be aware that the risk-reward profile is different from domestic large-caps.
Can I use Rallies.ai to find Amazon alternatives?
Yes. You can use the Rallies AI Research Assistant to ask natural-language questions about competitors, compare financial metrics across companies, and explore which stocks share business model characteristics with Amazon. The platform is built for exactly this kind of exploratory investment research.
Bottom line
Amazon alternatives don't come in a single neat package because Amazon itself isn't a single neat business. The most productive approach is to identify which segment of Amazon drives your investment interest, then find the strongest competitor in that space and compare on growth, margins, and valuation. That gives you a real analytical framework instead of a surface-level list of names.
If you want to go deeper on how to evaluate and compare stocks like these, explore more research frameworks on the stock analysis blog and start building your own comparisons with real data.
Disclaimer: This article is for educational and informational purposes only. It does not constitute investment advice, financial advice, trading advice, or any other type of advice. Rallies.ai does not recommend that any security, portfolio of securities, transaction, or investment strategy is suitable for any specific person. All investments involve risk, including the possible loss of principal. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Before making any investment decision, consult with a qualified financial advisor and conduct your own research.
Written by Gav Blaxberg, CEO of WOLF Financial and Co-Founder of Rallies.ai.