How to help visitors import data from a competitor

Importing data from a competitor means giving people who already use another tool a clear, step-by-step way to move their records into yours, and putting that guide on or next to your comparison page. Someone reading "X vs Y" may well use X today, and losing their data is an obvious worry about leaving. A page that shows exactly how the move works, and what will not transfer, answers that worry.

How to do it

1. Pick the one or two competitors your sign-ups come from most. Check your sign-up form answers, support tickets and your own comparison page traffic. Build import for those first.
2. Choose the import method. Two common routes: an importer inside your product that connects to the other tool, or a file upload (usually CSV or JSON) that the user exports from the old tool. Linear offers dedicated importers for Jira, GitHub Issues, Asana and Shortcut, and says importers keep more data than its CLI tool, are easier to use, and allow a bulk delete of an import.
3. Write the guide as numbered steps: export from the old tool (with the menu path), upload or connect in yours, map fields and users, check the result. Add screenshots of the actual screens.
4. List what does not transfer. Linear's import guide says that when a concept from the source tool does not translate well, it may not be imported. Put that list on your page. It builds trust and prevents support tickets.
5. Suggest a small first run. Linear's guide suggests a pilot with a few teams, and asks teams to decide which data is worth bringing at all (some start fresh and import only what they need).
6. Link the guide from the comparison page, near the top, with a line like "Switching from X? See how to import your data in about N minutes", using a number you measured. Then offer a human: a chat widget or an email address for import help. See comparison pages for the page itself and onboarding checklist for what happens after the import.

Examples

• Linear. Its import guide explains the flow: set up with an access token or sign-in, choose a team, review what was fetched, choose what to import, map users, confirm. It notes that imports can only be started by workspace admins and can be deleted for a limited time after creation. It also points to a switch instruction manual.
• Notion. Its help page for importing says you can bring in data from apps such as Confluence, Asana, Evernote and Trello. For Evernote, notebooks import as pages and notes import as database items, so the structure is kept.

These are help documents rather than comparison pages. Your comparison page can link to a guide like this.

When it backfires

• A broken importer. Wrong mappings or missing fields do more harm than having no importer. Test each route with a real export before you link to it.
• Terms and access. Use the competitor's official export or API. Do not scrape accounts or ask for passwords. Importers that need tokens should say what access they take.
• Overpromising. Claims like "move everything in one click" fail when custom fields or history do not carry over. State limits.
• Maintenance. The other tool changes its export format. Assign someone to recheck the steps on a schedule.

Questions people ask

How do I import my data? Export it from the old tool as a file, or connect the accounts, then map the fields in the new tool and check a sample before the full import.

What are the fastest data import solutions? In-product importers that connect straight to the old tool are usually faster than manual CSV work, which is why Linear recommends its dedicated importers.

Sources

• Linear docs: Import Guide, read Oct 8, 2026
• Notion Help Center: Import data into Notion, read Oct 8, 2026