The Ultimate Social Listening Tools Comparison
2026 Edition
Last updated: July 2026
Your brand is being discussed right now. On Reddit. In a TikTok comment section. Buried in a LinkedIn thread you'll never see. The question isn't whether people are talking about you, it's whether you're listening.
Find Your Perfect Tool in 60 Seconds
Answer 4 quick questions to get personalized recommendations
What's your monthly budget for social listening?
What's your primary use case?
Which feature matters most?
Do you need traditional media monitoring?
Your Top Recommendations
Based on your answers, here are your best matches:
Budget Calculator
Adjust the sliders to see which tools fit your requirements
Tools That Fit Your Budget:
How these are ranked: Every figure comes from the vendor's own published price list. A plan is only matched against your volume when the vendor publishes a monthly mention allowance; where a platform sells alert slots, prepaid credits, export caps or a listening add-on instead, it is listed separately rather than ranked as though the two were the same thing.
Overage pricing: Where a platform charges for mentions beyond its tier allocation, that cost is included in the estimate above.
Social listening has evolved from a nice-to-have marketing add-on into a mission-critical intelligence operation. In 2026, the brands that win are the ones who hear every whisper, detect every shift in sentiment, and respond before a minor complaint becomes a viral PR nightmare.
Consider the stakes: According to recent industry research, 61 percent of social listening professionals report struggling with data quality and tool integration, even after five years of experience. That's not a skills gap. That's a tools gap.
This guide cuts through the noise. We've analyzed, tested, and compared the top social listening platforms of 2026 - examining pricing transparency, feature depth, platform coverage, alert speed, AI capabilities, and real-world performance. No vendor spin. No hidden agendas. Just a clear-eyed look at what each platform actually delivers, and what it costs.
What to Look for in a Social Listening Tool
Before diving into individual platforms, here's what actually matters when evaluating social listening tools in 2026.
Pricing & Model
Understand the true cost of each platform including entry prices, annual costs, pricing transparency, free trials, contract requirements, and overage fees.
Searches / Topics / Queries
Compare how many searches, topics, or queries each platform allows across different pricing tiers, plus Boolean search support for advanced filtering.
Mentions / Results
How each platform counts and limits mentions or results, including monthly allocations, lookback periods, and what happens when you exceed your limits.
Platforms Supported
Social media platforms and data sources covered by each tool, including Facebook, Instagram, X (Twitter), LinkedIn, TikTok, Reddit, YouTube, forums, blogs, and news sites.
Users & Seats
Team size support across pricing tiers, including how many users are included and the cost of adding extra seats to your account.
Key Features
Essential capabilities including sentiment analysis, emotion detection, image recognition, API access, webhooks, publishing tools, and language support.
Best For
Ideal use cases and target audiences for each platform, helping you match tools to your specific needs, team size, and budget.
2026 Social Listening Tools Comparison
Quick comparison of pricing, features, and capabilities across all major platforms.
Browse all platforms| Tool | Starting Price | Pricing Model | Sentiment | API | Free Trial |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Socialhose | $149/mo | Transparent tiers (20% off annual) | Numeric scores | Pro & Agency, plus pay-as-you-go API | No |
| Brand24 | $79/mo | Transparent tiers | Yes | Yes | 14 days (no CC) |
| YouScan | $299/mo | Tiered + custom | Multi-language | Unlimited tier | Demo only |
| Hootsuite | $99/user/mo | Per-user | Basic | Higher tiers | 30 days |
| Sprout Social | $199/user/mo | Per-user + add-on | Basic | Yes | 30 days |
| Mention | From $599/mo | Custom (opaque) | 31 languages | Yes | Demo only |
| Meltwater | ~$575/mo | Custom quotes | Yes | Yes | Demo only |
| Talkwalker | ~$800/mo | Custom quotes | 186 languages | Yes | Demo only |
| Brandwatch | ~$800/mo | Custom quotes | 44 languages | Yes | Demo only |
| OneUp | $18/mo | Transparent tiers | AI relevancy scoring | Growth tier ($84/mo) | 7 days |
| ForumScout | Free | Freemium with paid tiers | Yes | Yes (Business+) | Free tier available |
| KWatch.io | $19/mo | Transparent tiers | AI-powered | Business tier ($79+) | Free tier available |
| SnitchFeed | $36/mo | Transparent tiers | AI-powered (Pro+) | No | 7 days (no CC) |
| ShortsIntel | $99/mo | Credit-based (10K-50K credits/mo) | Yes (AI) | Business tier | 7 days |
| Awario | $29/mo annual ($49 monthly) | Transparent tiers, ~40% off annual | Positive / negative / neutral | Yes, on every tier | Yes, no card required |
| Mentionlytics | $49/mo | Six transparent tiers, discount on annual | AI sentiment, vendor claims 96%+ accuracy | Pro tier and above ($499/mo) | 14 days, no card required |
| BrandMentions | $79/mo annual ($99 quarterly) | Transparent tiers, discount on annual | AI sentiment; multilingual from Pro tier | Enterprise only (from $1,099/mo) | 7 days, full features |
| Determ | €99/mo (€990/yr) | Transparent tiers in EUR, 2 months free annual | AI sentiment, included on every tier | Available, contact for tier | 5 days full-feature (14 after a demo) |
| Sprinklr | Custom quote, no published pricing | Quote-only; self-serve retired April 2026 | AI sentiment across the suite | Yes, extensive APIs | Demo only |
| Cision (CisionOne) | Custom quote, no published pricing | Quote-only, modular by product | Yes, with human-assisted review options | Yes, contracted | Demo only |
| Onclusive | Custom quote, no published pricing | Quote-only, modular by capability | Yes, AI with analyst-assisted options | Yes, Data-as-a-Service offering | Demo only |
| Quid (NetBase Quid) | Custom quote, no published pricing | Quote-only, modular by application | Proprietary NLP sentiment, 20 years of tuning | Yes, contracted | 2-week Quid Terminal trial |
| Synthesio | Custom quote, no published pricing | Quote-only; platform plus optional analyst services | Yes, multilingual with research-grade validation | Yes, contracted | Demo only |
| Zignal Labs | Custom quote, no published pricing | Quote-only, mission and deployment scoped | Yes, framed as narrative and risk scoring | Yes, core to the offering | No, demo request only |
| Signal AI | Custom quote, no published pricing | Quote-only, platform plus reports | Yes, with reputation benchmarking | Yes, published as a product | Demo only |
| Emplifi | From $1,249/mo (Social Marketing Essential) | Value-based, not per seat; listening is an add-on | Yes, across marketing, care and commerce | Intelligent tier | No, demo only |
| Khoros | Custom quote, no published pricing | Quote-only, modular by product | Yes, across social and community content | Yes, contracted | Demo only |
| Agorapulse | $79/user/mo annual ($99 monthly) | Per user, per month; listening sold separately | Basic, within the listening add-on | Limited, mainly for enterprise integrations | 30 days, no card required |
| Sendible | $29/mo | Tiers by workspace and profile count, not per seat | Basic | Yes, on higher tiers | 14 days, no card required |
| Vista Social | $79/mo (+$75/mo for listening) | Transparent tiers plus openly priced add-ons | Yes, within the listening add-on | Limited | 14 days, no card required |
| BuzzSumo | $199/mo | Four transparent tiers, discount on annual | Limited, engagement metrics lead | Enterprise only ($999/mo, annual billing) | Free trial offered; length not published |
| Lucidya | Custom quote, no published pricing | Quote-only, modular across the product family | Arabic dialect-aware sentiment, 92% claimed accuracy | Yes | Demo only |
| Crowd Analyzer | Custom quote, no published pricing | Quote-only, modular by product | Arabic dialect-aware sentiment, 91% claimed accuracy | Yes, Data Integration is a named product | Demo only |
| AIM Insights (AIM Technologies) | Custom quote, no published pricing | Quote-only, modular across the AIM product family | Arabic sentiment, 92% claimed accuracy | Available, contact for terms | Demo only |
| dima (thedar.ai) | Custom quote, no published pricing | Quote-only after demo | Arabic sentiment, 97% claimed accuracy | Available, contact for terms | Demo, then setup in under 48 hours |
| Mediastow | Custom quote: nothing published, every engagement starts from a brief | Agency retainer, fixed-term project or ad-hoc press release monitoring | Automated positive/negative/neutral on the digital side, analyst-read in reports | No API; exports are RSS 2.0, Atom 1.0, HTML and TSV | Trial is one of four account types on the brief form; no self-serve signup |
| Konnect Insights | Custom quote, no published pricing | Quote-only, modular by product | Yes, part of the Konnect AI+ layer | Yes, marketplace and CRM integrations | Demo only |
| Locobuzz | Custom quote, no published pricing | Quote-only, modular by capability | Yes, via ContextualPulse | Yes, contracted | Free personalised demo, no commitment |
| Simplify360 | Custom quote, no published pricing | Quote-only; vendor describes it as usage-based | Yes, across social and reviews | Yes, Salesforce, HubSpot, Slack, Sheets, Zapier | Demo only |
| Radarr (Genesys) | Custom quote, no published pricing | Quote-only; increasingly sold through Genesys Cloud | Yes, exposed as a standalone Sentiment API | Yes, Sentiment API is a named product | Demo only |
| Stilingue (by Blip) | Custom quote, no published pricing | Quote-only, two products sold separately | Portuguese-BR sentiment, automatic classification | Yes, including custom data upload | Demo only |
| Séntisis | Custom quote, no published pricing | Quote-only, modular by product plus consultancy | Sentiment tuned per Spanish national variety | Yes | Demo only |
| Websays | $89/mo owned channels; $229/mo for external listening | Published tiers by mention volume, billed monthly | Yes, Spanish-tuned | Yes | Free trial: 250 mentions, last 7 days |
| Coosto | €249/mo (Essential) | Published tiers; final price varies by usage and integrations | Yes, plus EmotionAI as a named module | Yes, API listed as an integration | No free trial advertised, demo only |
| SentiOne | $199/mo net (Social) | Published tiers by projects, languages, history and seats | Yes, with AI credits per tier | Yes | Demo-led; no self-serve free tier advertised |
| Sotrender | $80/mo ($72 on annual billing) | Published tiers by profile count; annual saves 10 to 12% | Yes, on profile interactions | Custom tier only | 7-day free trial, no card required |
| Atribus | Custom quote, no published pricing | Custom plans agreed after a demo | Yes, Spanish-tuned | Available on request | Demo only |
| Isentia | Custom quote, no published pricing | Quote-only, scoped by market and media types | Yes, AI View and Lumina | Yes | Demo only |
| Buzzmonitor | From R$1,790/month (floor published, tiers not broken out) | Published starting price, then custom-scoped plans | Yes | Yes, integrations documented | Demo on request, no self-serve trial advertised |
| Elife | Custom quote, no published pricing | Scoped consulting engagement, software bundled | Yes, analyst-reviewed as well as automated | Via Buzzmonitor | No, consulting engagement |
| OBI4wan (now Spotler Engage) | Custom quote, no published pricing | Quote-only, scoped by modules and seats | Yes, within social analytics | Yes | Demo only |
| Ubermetrics | Custom quote, no published pricing | Quote-only, scoped by sources and use case | Yes, part of the AI content analysis layer | Yes | Demo only |
| Truescope | Custom quote: four named editions, no figures published | Four editions (Campaign, Essentials, Corporate, Enterprise), priced on request | Yes | Not documented publicly | Demo only, book a demo or contact sales |
| Dataxet | Custom quote, no published pricing | Quote-only; monitoring, insight and PR services scoped separately | Yes, within dxt:360 | Not documented publicly | Demo only |
| Wisesight | Custom quote, no published pricing | Quote-only, scoped by tools and services taken | Yes, Thai-language sentiment is the core competence | Not documented publicly | Demo only |
| YouNet Media | Custom quote, no published pricing | Quote-only, scoped by product and service mix | Yes, Vietnamese-language sentiment is the core competence | Not documented publicly | Demo only |
| Syften | $29.95/month (Entry) | Tiered by community filters, web filters and results per day | AI filtering for relevance rather than scored sentiment | Yes, Standard and PRO. Not on Entry. | 14 days, no credit card. Shows the last 60 days of mentions immediately |
| Octolens | $159/month (Pro, billed annually) | Tiered by keywords and mentions, with published per-unit overage | Yes, included on both published tiers | Yes, plus an MCP server, on both published tiers | 7 days with all Pro features, up to 5,000 mentions |
| F5Bot | Free, no credit card, no stated keyword limit | Free tier plus two paid tiers by keyword count | No | JSON feed on paid tiers; no full API | Not a trial, a permanent free tier |
| Google Alerts | Free | Free consumer feature, no paid tier exists | No | No official API | Not applicable, the whole product is free |
| Common Room | $2,500/month (Essential, billed annually) | Metered by CONTACTS and AI credits, not by mentions | Not the focus: signals are scored for GTM intent, not tone | Yes, plus an MCP server on all plans | None advertised, no free tier and no trial |
| Social Searcher | Free, no registration required | Free; pricing pages 404 and no paid plan is advertised on the site | Not described on the current site | Not described on the current site | Not applicable, the product is free and needs no account |
| SubredditSignals | $29/month (Starter) after a 14-day free trial | Tiered by brands and subreddits, plus a separate managed service | Community pain-point analysis rather than scored sentiment | Not documented publicly | 14 days |
| Reddinbox | $39/month (Starter) | Tiered by conversations analysed and Market Briefs produced | Market sentiment as part of the brief output | Not documented publicly | Yes, full features, no credit card. No permanent free tier. |
| Buzzabout | From $40/month (Starter): floor published, tiers not broken out | Published starting price with no tier detail available | Yes, audience sentiment is a headline capability | Not documented publicly | Yes, free signup available |
| Profound | $99/month (Starter, billed yearly), ChatGPT only | Tiered by answer engines, prompts, seats and agent credits | Yes, sentiment of brand mentions inside AI answers | Enterprise only, not on Starter or Growth | Free trial on the Growth plan; demo elsewhere |
| Otterly.ai | $29/month (Lite), or $25/month billed annually | Tiered by prompt volume; seats unlimited at every tier | Yes, brand sentiment within AI answers | Yes on Standard and above, plus MCP access. Not on Lite. | Yes, free trial for new users |
| AthenaHQ | Free (Essential, $25 credit), then $295/month | Credit-metered, not per-prompt or per-seat | Yes, prompt and response analysis | Paid add-on even on Starter, not included at any published tier | Better than a trial, a permanent free tier with 5 surfaces |
| Scrunch AI | $250/month billed annually, or $300/month monthly (Starter) | Tiered by prompt volume, personas, page audits and seats | Yes, brand sentiment within AI answers | Enterprise Data API, Enterprise tier only | 7 days at Starter level, no credit card required |
| Peec AI | $95/month (Starter), or $80/month billed annually: €85 / €70 in Europe | Tiered by prompt volume and models; monthly or annual (15% off); currency set by visitor IP | Yes, sentiment alongside visibility and position | Enterprise only; an MCP integration is listed alongside it | Yes, free trial on the self-serve plans; sales contact for Enterprise |
| Goodie AI | $399/month (Explorer) as displayed; a $479/month rate sits behind the billing toggle | Tiered by surfaces, prompts, responses, optimisation actions and seats | Yes, brand sentiment within AI answers | Not documented publicly | 7 days |
| Evertune | Custom quote, no published pricing | Quote-only, enterprise-scoped | Yes, brand sentiment across sampled responses | Not documented publicly | Demo only |
| Shadow | Custom quote: no published pricing, and no published usage rates | Not published. The "pay-per-use" description in circulation has no vendor source. | Yes, narrative tracking across media, social and AI | Not documented publicly | 7 days |
| Semrush AI Toolkit | $117.33/month annual (SEO plan, $139 monthly). AI tracking included in plans | Bundled into subscription tiers, NOT a separate per-domain add-on | Yes, brand sentiment within AI answers | Semrush API exists; AI Toolkit endpoint coverage not published | Free trial available on Semrush plans |
| HubSpot AEO Grader | Free (one-time grade, no account), then $50/month for ongoing tracking | Free tool plus a flat $50/month product, no HubSpot subscription required | Yes, and it is 40% of the entire score | Not documented publicly for the AEO product | The grader itself is free and permanent, with no signup |
| BrightEdge AI Catalyst | Custom quote, no published pricing | Quote-only, enterprise-scoped | Not documented publicly for the AI component | Yes, enterprise API | Demo only |
| Authoritas | Free (50 prompt credits/month), then £89/month for 2,000 credits | Credit-based tiers in GBP, USD or EUR; 1 to 5 credits per query by model; annual billing gives 1 month free | Yes, sentiment is explicitly tracked alongside mentions and visibility | Yes, a separately priced API: 1,000 queries/month free, £300 per 100k rising to £2,579 per 1M | Yes, free tiers on both platforms and the API, plus a Google Sheets plugin and template library |
| Muck Rack | Custom quote, no published pricing | Quote-only, per user, annual; monitoring modules sold as add-ons | Entity-level sentiment: NLP on Starter and Standard, AI-powered on Premier | Yes, but as a paid add-on restricted to Premier customers | Demo only, no self-serve trial or signup |
| Prezly | €100/mo billed annually (Essential: 1 user, 1 site, up to 5,000 contacts) | Flat plan subscription (Essential, Standard, Enterprise); media monitoring sold separately per tracker | Not offered | Full REST API with OAuth, a TypeScript SDK on npm, and open-source newsroom themes | 14 days, no credit card; each monitoring tracker also starts with its own 14-day trial |
| Propel | Custom quote, no published pricing | Quoted per deal across three named tiers; historically sold per user | Automated sentiment on monitored coverage, shown as a dashboard KPI | Not documented publicly | None; every route on the site leads to a demo booking |
| Wizikey | $499/mo (Growth, unlimited users, 1 country) | Flat tiers with unlimited users; monthly or annual billing | Automated positive/negative/neutral on mentions | An API is referenced on the site but not publicly documented; MCP server for AI chatbots | No trial advertised; demo-led, vendor claims deployment live in 24 hours |
| Presspage | From €20,000/year (Business); the final figure is scoped per setup | Annual subscription, two plans with published floors, priced per setup | No; analytics measure owned-channel engagement, not sentiment on coverage | Not documented publicly; Euronext LIVE is the one named integration | No platform trial; Connect inquiry tracking is offered free, no card required |
| Mynewsdesk | Essential from €220/month: 4 press releases a year, 1 brand monitored, 1 newsroom market | Subscription: self-serve Essential, plus quote-based PR Distribution and Media Monitoring plans, bundled or separate | Automated sentiment and context analysis on each mention | Not documented publicly | 10 days; Essential can then be bought monthly inside the tool |
| Notified | Custom quote, no published pricing | Per-release quotes for GlobeNewswire; platform subscriptions priced by sales | Automated sentiment across monitored coverage | No public API documented; delivery is dashboards, alerts and coverage reports | None, demo request only |
| Agility PR Solutions | Custom quote, no published pricing | Annual subscription quoted per deal; modules sold individually or bundled | Entity-level automated sentiment; analysts correct tone in curated briefings | No public API documented; Google Analytics is the named integration | No self-serve trial on the vendor site; the funnel is a 15-minute sales demo |
| TVEyes | Custom quote, no published pricing | Quote-only, scoped by number of users, regions covered and data volume | Yes, sentiment tracking inside Insight analytics | Yes, real-time and historical transcripts, clip creation and BI dashboard feeds | Yes, a full-feature trial with no commitment; duration is not published |
| Kinetiq | Custom quote, no published pricing | Enterprise agreement scoped by solution, channels and markets, quoted after a demo | Yes, real-time sentiment on coverage, broken out by station, city and reporter | Full API with variable data outputs and real-time feeds | No trial. The only entry point is a demo request form |
| Comscore | Custom quote, no published pricing | Quote-only, licensed per product, market and seat count | Not in the published feature set | Yes, data delivery and APIs are a core part of what Comscore licenses | Demo only. Comscore Direct tagging is free, but it measures your site for others, not a trial |
| Birdeye | Custom quote, no published pricing | Per location, one contract covering whichever modules you deploy | Yes, Insights AI scores sentiment on reviews and surveys with plain-English summaries | Yes, a REST API covering reviews, contacts, listings, users and reports | No self-serve trial or signup. The vendor funnel is a demo, then a quote |
| Reputation | Rep Core: $80 per location per month, reviews plus listings and local SEO | Per location per month across three published plans, custom Enterprise above 125 locations | Yes, across reviews, surveys and competitor review data, feeding Insights and Rep Score | REST API at apidocs.reputation.com, EU endpoint at apidocs-eu.reputation.com. Key comes from your CSM | No trial and no self-serve checkout. Every plan routes to "Talk to Sales" |
| Chatmeter | Custom quote, no published pricing. Priced per location, users unlimited | Per location with unlimited users, packaged by module and billed annually | Yes, Pulse AI scores sentiment and breaks it into drivers such as pricing, service and cleanliness | BI connectors into Tableau, Power BI, Domo and Qlik; a public customer API is not documented | No free trial. A demo request form is the only way in |
| Podium | Core $399/month per location, USD, published on the pricing page | Flat monthly fee per location on a 12-month term, plus per-seat phones and AI add-ons | No. A review carries the star rating the customer gave it; there is no sentiment model over text | Yes. REST API covering reviews, review invites, responses and summaries, plus conversations, contacts, campaigns, payments and SCIM | None published. Every plan button reads "Talk to Sales"; only a free Google report is self-serve |
| Fullintel | Custom quote, no published pricing | Managed service contract scoped per client: Hub access, briefing volume and analyst hours | Automated sentiment reviewed by analysts, with a proprietary Media Impact Score and Trust Score layered on top | No public API documented. Data delivery is FTP and RSS, with PPT, PDF and Excel exports | No self-serve trial. The vendor offers a free sample news brief built to your topics |
| CARMA | Custom quote, no published pricing | Annual licence for CARMA Insight (Standard or Professional), plus scoped analyst and research work | Automated in the platform, analyst-reviewed in the written reports and briefings | Not documented publicly. Delivery is the Insight platform, a mobile app, newsletters and alerts | No trial and no self-serve signup. A demo is arranged through the sales team |
Platform Deep Dives
Detailed analysis of each platform's strengths, weaknesses, and ideal use cases.
Brand24
Affordable AI-powered social listening for SMBs
YouScan
Industry-leading visual AI for brand monitoring
Hootsuite
Publishing-focused social media management
Mention
Enterprise review monitoring solution
Meltwater
PR and traditional media monitoring leader
Talkwalker
Global enterprise visual AI platform
Brandwatch
Deep historical data for large enterprises
OneUp
Social media scheduling with built-in social listening
ForumScout
Monitor Reddit, forums, and social media with Plutchik AI filtering.
KWatch.io
Real-time social listening alerts for LinkedIn, X, Reddit, and more
SnitchFeed
Intent-based social listening for startups and SMBs
ShortsIntel
AI-powered social listening for short-form video platforms
Awario
Boolean-grade social listening at a budget price
Mentionlytics
Multilingual listening with a six-rung pricing ladder
BrandMentions
Brand monitoring sold on historical depth
Determ
EU media monitoring with unlimited users on every plan
Sprinklr
Enterprise CXM suite where listening is one module of many
Cision (CisionOne)
Enterprise PR operations: monitoring, media database, distribution
Onclusive
PR measurement roll-up spanning print, broadcast and social
Quid (NetBase Quid)
Consumer and market intelligence well beyond social
Synthesio
Social listening wired into Ipsos survey research
Zignal Labs
Narrative and threat intelligence for national security buyers
Signal AI
AI-first risk and reputation intelligence, 120+ languages
Emplifi
Enterprise social and CX suite with listening as a paid add-on
Khoros
Community, customer care and listening in one enterprise stack
Agorapulse
Social management for SMBs and agencies; listening costs extra
Sendible
Agency social management, unlimited users on every tier
BuzzSumo
Content discovery and PR outreach, with alerts as the tier variable
Lucidya
Arabic-first customer experience and listening, built in Riyadh
Crowd Analyzer
Arabic-native media intelligence across the MENA region
AIM Insights (AIM Technologies)
Twelve Arabic dialects plus Franco-Arabic in one NLP stack
dima (thedar.ai)
Arabic-first monitoring built for TikTok and Snapchat in the Gulf
Mediastow
Arabic print and broadcast clipped, translated and summarised by people
Konnect Insights
Omnichannel customer experience and listening built for India
Locobuzz
India-first CX platform where listening drives digital care
Simplify360
Indian service desk covering social, reviews and app stores
Radarr (Genesys)
Southeast Asian listening platform, acquired by Genesys in 2024
Stilingue (by Blip)
NLP built for Brazilian Portuguese, not translated into it
Séntisis
Spanish-language NLP tuned to each country variety
Websays
Spanish-market listening with a fully published rate card
Coosto
The Benelux incumbent, with published European pricing
SentiOne
CEE listening with per-tier limits published in full
Sotrender
Polish social analytics: profiles, not open-web listening
Atribus
Spanish listening with logo detection and live event walls
Isentia
APAC media intelligence across broadcast, print and social
Buzzmonitor
Brazilian listening, social care and publishing in one suite
Elife
LatAm and Iberian intelligence consultancy with its own software
OBI4wan (now Spotler Engage)
Dutch webcare platform, now sold inside the Spotler Group
Ubermetrics
German content intelligence built on a very large source graph
Truescope
ANZ media intelligence that stops charging you per seat
Dataxet
Thai media intelligence with a news agency inside it
Wisesight
Thai social intelligence built around Zocial Eye
YouNet Media
Vietnamese listening that treats e-commerce data as a first-class source
Syften
Watches the developer communities enterprise tools ignore
Octolens
Unlimited seats, published overage rates, dev-first coverage
F5Bot
Free Reddit, Hacker News and Lobsters alerts, running since 2017
Google Alerts
Free news alerts, and the honest baseline for this whole category
Common Room
Go-to-market intelligence metered by contacts, not mentions
SubredditSignals
Reddit lead generation from $29, with a caveat worth reading
Reddinbox
Filters out the AI slop before it counts as a signal
Buzzabout
The cheap way into TikTok, Instagram and YouTube conversation
Profound
The category leader in AI answer tracking, priced per surface
Otterly.ai
AI visibility from $29 with unlimited seats on every tier
AthenaHQ
Credit-metered AI visibility with five surfaces free
Scrunch AI
All six AI surfaces from the entry tier, with volume as the upsell
Peec AI
European AI search analytics with per-country tracking
Goodie AI
The only tracker watching Amazon Rufus and Walmart Sparky
Evertune
The only tracker that samples each prompt 100 times
Shadow
News, social, search and AI answers in one product, and it drafts
Semrush AI Toolkit
AI visibility bundled into an SEO subscription you may already have
HubSpot AEO Grader
Free instant grade, $50/month ongoing, no HubSpot contract needed
BrightEdge AI Catalyst
Ten years of search history brought to bear on AI answers
Muck Rack
Journalist database, monitoring and pitching, priced per user behind a sales call
Prezly
PR CRM, email pitching and branded newsrooms; news monitoring costs extra
Propel
PR relationship management: pitch journalists from your own inbox, with AI and monitoring attached
Wizikey
India-born PR intelligence with published pricing and a News Score
Presspage
Branded newsrooms and direct distribution from Amsterdam, sold to replace the wire
Mynewsdesk
Nordic all-in-one PR platform: newsroom, distribution, journalist database, monitoring
Notified
GlobeNewswire distribution with PR monitoring and IR tools, under Equiniti since 2025
Agility PR Solutions
Canadian-built PR platform where analysts still curate the morning briefing
TVEyes
Full-text search across television, radio and podcasts
Kinetiq
Real-time TV logo and caption detection for ad, sponsorship and earned media measurement
Comscore
Cross-platform audience measurement across TV, digital and social
Birdeye
Review generation and local reputation for multi-location brands, priced per location
Reputation
Reviews, listings and surveys for multi-location brands, priced per location
Chatmeter
Listings, reviews and local SEO for multi-location brands, priced per location
Podium
Review generation and AI sales messaging for local businesses, not a listening tool
Fullintel
Analyst-curated daily news briefings, with the dashboard as the supporting act
CARMA
Analyst-led media measurement with its own staff in the Gulf and Asia
Frequently Asked Questions
Click any question to expand the answer
Social listening is the practice of monitoring and analyzing online conversations about your brand, competitors, and industry across social media platforms, forums, blogs, and news sites. It goes beyond simple mention tracking to extract actionable insights about sentiment, trends, and consumer behavior.
Budgets vary widely: $79-150/month for solopreneurs and small businesses (Brand24, Socialhose Starter), $100-500/month for small teams and agencies, $500-2,000/month for mid-market companies (Socialhose Pro+), and $2,000+/month for enterprise solutions like Brandwatch and Meltwater.
Social monitoring is reactive: tracking brand mentions and responding to them for customer service. Social listening is proactive: analyzing conversations to extract insights about sentiment, trends, competitors, and market opportunities for strategic decision-making.
Daily monitoring is sufficient for routine brand tracking and competitive research. Real-time monitoring becomes critical during potential PR crises, time-sensitive campaigns, product launches, or when your industry moves fast. The best approach: use standard monitoring normally with the ability to activate real-time when needed.
No. Social listening tools only access publicly available content. They cannot see private messages, closed Facebook groups, protected Twitter/X accounts, private Instagram accounts, or private Discord servers. The data analyzed represents what people chose to share publicly.
Most tools achieve 70-85% accuracy. AI sentiment analysis struggles with sarcasm, irony, cultural context, slang, industry-specific terminology, and complex mixed-sentiment statements. Use sentiment as a directional indicator and for tracking trends, not as precise measurement.
There is no single best tool - it depends on what you monitor and how you prefer to buy. Among the lower-priced options, Brand24 starts at $79/month and Socialhose Starter at $149/month; both publish their pricing and neither requires an enterprise contract. Brand24 covers a broader set of sources, while Socialhose offers deeper AI enrichment and webhook automation at higher tiers. Check both against your own mention volume and seat count before deciding.
For accessible AI: Brand24 offers an AI Brand Assistant for conversational insights. For advanced NLP: Socialhose provides intent classification, emotion detection, and entity extraction. For enterprise AI: Brandwatch Iris and Talkwalker Blue Silk offer sophisticated analysis but require significant budgets.
Brand24 offers a 14-day free trial with no credit card required, and Hootsuite offers a 30-day trial. Socialhose has no free trial but allows self-serve month-to-month signup. Enterprise tools like Brandwatch, Meltwater, and Talkwalker typically offer demos only. Mention and Sprout Social require contacting sales for trial access.
Most tools monitor major social networks (Facebook, Instagram, X/Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, TikTok, Reddit), plus blogs, forums, news sites, and review platforms. Coverage varies: some focus on social media only, while others like Meltwater include traditional media (TV, radio, print). Always verify specific platform coverage before purchasing.
Start Listening Today
Every conversation about your brand is an opportunity or a risk. Your competitors are already listening. Your customers are already talking. The only question is: are you hearing them?
Find Your Perfect Tool
Socialhose
FeaturedExpert-grade social listening for power users