quietmoneySeatalert
University course seat alerts: students pick a full course and get an SMS and email the moment someone drops and a seat opens; currently supports McMaster and McGill.
McMaster studenOne-line growth story, compiled by us from public sources; speculation is marked separately below.
Checkout visits over time
Checkout: checkout.stripe.com
1. Productwhat it sells, to whom, and how it charges
- Product
- University course seat alerts: students pick a full course and get an SMS and email the moment someone drops and a seat opens; currently supports McMaster and McGill.
- Users
- Students at McMaster University and McGill University in Canada who cannot get into full courses
- Positioning
- More focused: seat-grabbing for course registration at just two schools, run by a solo developer, charging only to keep the service running
- Pricing
- Paid service; the site says 'fairly priced' but does not publish specific prices, not found Free tier: no
- Team
- solo
- Price source
- seatalert.ca
“"Why is Seat Alert paid?"; "Together we raised $834 for the WFP!"; footer "©Ethan McAuliffe"”Quote from the site
2. Channelswhere new users come from and what the traffic looks like
New-user source: SEO (Non-brand search). Search 53.5% (brand keywords 77.7%, such as 'seat alert mcmaster' and 'seat alert mcgill'; non-brand about 11%, such as 'seated mcgill'), direct 34.9%, email 7% (alert emails bring return visits), social is Reddit only. New users arrive via campus word of mouth and school subreddits, then search the name; traffic clusters in registration season: 31,328 two months ago, 21,490 last month
Last month's traffic sources
Top channel measured by Similarweb, others estimated by rank
Five-class attribution
| Attributable new users, last month | Share |
|---|---|
| SEO | 11% |
| Other | 89% |
Direct + brand search 78%. Direct and brand search count as viral only when the site shows sharing mechanics; the largest share wins, under 5% means Other.
Countries
| Country | Share of visits |
|---|---|
| United States | 2.91% |
Language
English
Social sources
Keywords
34 keywords · brand ~78% · organic 100% / paid 0%
| Similarweb top 5 keywords |
|---|
| seat alert |
| seat alert mcmaster |
| seat alert mcgill |
| seatalert |
| seated mcgill |
Non-brand queries: seated mcgill
Site metrics (Similarweb, last month)
- Visits, last 3 months
- 27.5K (3 months)
- Visits MoM
- -16.38%
- Country rank
- Canada #35042
- Category rank
- Science and Education/Universities and Colleges #628
- Bounce rate
- 40.35%
- Pages / visit
- 2.82
- Visit duration
- 00:01:37
- Industry
- Universities and Colleges
- Top 3 channels
- Organic Search › Direct › Mail (top channel 53.49%)
3. Growth pathhow the first users arrived and what kept it growing
Classification
Basics
Timeline
Growth loop
Revenue and scale clues
Confidence and gaps
Other sites that started via “Friends and local circle”
Similar sitessame category, also growing via SEO
FAQ
How many checkout visits does Seatalert get per month?
About 21,490 last month (Similarweb estimate), #129 of 606; the month before was 31,328. Opening checkout is not paying, so this is not revenue.
Where do Seatalert's new users come from?
New-user source: SEO (Non-brand search). New users mostly come from need-based searches Search 53.5% (brand keywords 77.7%, such as 'seat alert mcmaster' and 'seat alert mcgill'; non-brand about 11%, such as 'seated mcgill'), direct 34.9%, email 7% (alert emails bring return visits), social is Reddit only. New users arrive via campus word of mouth and school subreddits, then search the name; traffic clusters in registration season: 31,328 two months ago, 21,490 last month
How much does Seatalert cost?
Paid service; the site says 'fairly priced' but does not publish specific prices, not found
Dossier confidence: medium. Parts 1 and 2 come from reading the site and Similarweb data; part 3 from public reporting, founder posts, Wayback snapshots, WHOIS and similar, with speculation marked.
The number: checkout visits is Similarweb's estimate of visits from the site to a checkout payment page; opening checkout is not paying, so this is not revenue. Small sites land on fixed buckets.
Data through last month. Page updated 2026-10-26.