I think that only those projects that are at the same level with Ethereum can be considered as competitors. There are no such blockchains at the moment. There are a large number of potential competitors, but none of them have come close to Ethereum very closely. At the moment I see a lot of marketing, but not much work. Maybe next year the situation will change, but not now.
Exactly. No other blockchain which provides smart contract functionality, have been compared with the likes of Ethereum. The pioneer smart contract platform (ETH) has unparalleled security, and high trust among people within the mainstream world (despite being slow and expensive at times). With a good foundation built upon it, Ethereum has a bright future ahead of it. Once it scales with the previously mentioned upgrades, there should be nothing stopping Ethereum from growing at unprecedented rates in terms of adoption and popularity.
Despite this, I believe that Ethereum's competitors would improve over time until they become viable alternatives for businesses, individuals, and developers alike. Some platforms have no fees like EOS, while others have their unique approach to scalability for smart contracts (like IOST). As such, there will be many smart contract platforms in the future with their unique distinctive features. This would give devs a wide variety of options to choose from, enabling an endless world of dApps for anyone to enjoy.
Nonetheless, the closest competitors to Ethereum are Cardano, NEO, and EOS. Just my opinion
