Social listening tools collect public posts that mention a brand, product or topic and turn them into alerts and reports.
This guide ranks fourteen by what a buyer can check before signing: the mention and keyword quota, the networks actually covered, how far back the data reaches, the seats included, and whether export and API access cost extra.
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vendor. How that works.
In short
What social listening software does
Social listening software searches social networks, forums, news and review sites for chosen keywords, stores each matching post as a mention, and reports volume, sentiment and sources over time.
In this order: setup effort, what it really costs, how your data comes back out, whether
you can leave, and who each social listening tool is built for. Why those five, and why there is no
score out of ten, is on the how we work page.
Insight teams running retrospective research over many years of public posts
Anyone who needs a published price or a quick start
Country is where the vendor is headquartered or contracts from, which is a
different question from where your data is hosted. Where the two tell different stories, the
entry says so.
Keyword monitoring across web and social, LinkedIn and TikTok included
Ranked #1 of 14 in Best Social Listening Tools in 2026.
Published pricingEurope
The plan ladder is long, six steps from 3 keywords and 5,000 mentions to 100 keywords and custom volumes, which lets a team grow without changing vendor.
The trial runs 14 days without a card and opens every feature, so Boolean search and the API can be tested before deciding whether the Advanced tier is needed. What the cheaper plans lack is speed and depth: Basic updates twice a day, Essential every six hours, and neither includes past data.
What stands out
LinkedIn and TikTok
Six published tiers
API from Advanced
Where it costs you
API access and Boolean search are held back until the Advanced plan
Historical data is an add-on on Advanced and only included from Pro
Basic refreshes every 12 hours; continuous updates start at Advanced
Right for
Small marketing teams that need LinkedIn and TikTok mentions at a published price
Wrong for
Analysts who need Boolean queries on the entry plan
GreecePer month by keywords and mentions, published; 14-day trial
Cheapest published entry plan, with a large monthly mention allowance
Ranked #2 of 14 in Best Social Listening Tools in 2026.
Published pricingEurope
Awario meters two things at once: mentions collected per month, which counts removed ones too, and mentions stored per topic. Once the 5,000-mention Starter store is full, the help centre says collection stops for 24 hours and older entries are then overwritten.
Boolean search is available on all plans, which helps keep noise out of the quota. Read the API line carefully, because the pricing table shows it everywhere and the quota article shows it on Enterprise alone.
What stands out
30,000 mentions on Starter
Boolean search
Stored-mention caps
Where it costs you
Starter plan has one team member and lacks CSV export
Each topic stores 5,000 to 50,000 mentions; past the cap, collection pauses and older mentions are replaced
The pricing table and the help centre disagree on which plans include API access
LinkedIn and TikTok are absent from the listed sources
Right for
Solo marketers and small agencies that want high mention volumes on a budget
Wrong for
Teams that must keep every mention as a long-term archive
CyprusPer month by topics and mentions, published; 7-day trial
Media and social monitoring with unlimited users on every plan
Ranked #3 of 14 in Best Social Listening Tools in 2026.
Published pricingEurope
Determ reads like a press-monitoring tool that also covers social: the source list leads with news from over 100 million websites and adds regional traditional media beside Facebook, Instagram, X, YouTube, Reddit and Bluesky.
Reports come out as Excel, PDF, CSV, Word and PowerPoint, and there are connectors for Slack, Microsoft Teams, Zapier, BigQuery and PowerBI, so getting data out is well served. The five-day trial is short for judging a mention quota; a 14-day trial follows a product demonstration.
What stands out
Unlimited users
Unlimited keywords
Three months of history
Where it costs you
Focus plan allows one topic and 1,000 mentions a month
Default access to past data is three months; older archives back to 2020 must be requested
LinkedIn and TikTok do not appear in the source comparison table
The self-service trial lasts five days
Right for
Communications teams where many colleagues need a login and volumes are modest
Wrong for
Consumer brands that attract tens of thousands of mentions monthly
CroatiaPer month by topics and mentions, published; 5-day trial
Keyword alerts for Reddit, Hacker News and developer communities
Ranked #4 of 14 in Best Social Listening Tools in 2026.
Published pricingEurope
Syften has operated since 2019 and keeps its scope narrow: filters you define are matched against community posts and, on a separate smaller quota, the public web, podcasts and newsletters.
The daily cap matters more than it looks, because a filter on a common word can use 100 results before lunch. The archive is seven days on Entry, a month on Standard and unlimited on PRO. Setup is writing filters, and there is nothing to present to a board.
What stands out
Community sources
Slack and webhooks
Daily result caps
Where it costs you
Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and TikTok are not among the listed sources
Entry plan is limited to 3 community filters, 100 results a day and a 7-day archive
Slack, AI filtering and the API require the Standard plan; webhooks require PRO
Right for
Founders and developer-relations staff who answer questions in forums and on Reddit
Wrong for
Consumer brands that need sentiment reports across mainstream networks
PolandPer month by filters and daily results, published; 14-day trial
Mention tracking for software companies, delivered by Slack and API
Ranked #5 of 14 in Best Social Listening Tools in 2026.
Published pricingElsewhere
Octolens treats mentions as structured data: one REST API and schema across all sources, webhooks that post straight to Discord, an MCP server for AI agents, and CSV export.
The Pro plan refreshes hourly with ten keywords, 15,000 mentions and two years of retained history; Scale is real-time with forty keywords. The entry price is well above the cheapest tools in this ranking, and a buyer who needs a named contracting entity for procurement will have to ask for it.
What stands out
API on every plan
Unlimited seats
Developer sources
Where it costs you
New keywords are backfilled for seven days only
Facebook and Instagram are missing from the source list
Extra keywords and mentions above the plan are charged per unit
No company name, address or country is published; the FAQ says only that the team is Europe-based
Right for
B2B software teams routing buying signals and bug reports into Slack
Wrong for
Consumer brands whose audience talks on Instagram and Facebook
Not stated by the vendorPer month by keywords and mentions, published; 7-day trial
Web, social and review-site monitoring from a Romanian vendor
Ranked #6 of 14 in Best Social Listening Tools in 2026.
Published pricingEurope
BrandMentions spreads its limits across more dimensions than most: keywords, monthly mentions, users, refresh rate, months of history and rows per export all step up together. Starter gives 5 keywords and 5,000 mentions, Pro 20 and 30,000, Expert 50 and 75,000 with ten users and twelve months of history.
That makes the middle tier the awkward one, since it still refreshes daily and still has two seats. Agencies get white-label reports at Expert and a fully white-labelled app on Enterprise.
What stands out
Review sites included
Export row caps
White label on Expert
Where it costs you
Starter and Pro update daily; real-time monitoring starts at Expert
Exports are capped at 1,000 rows on Starter and 10,000 on Pro
API access is reserved for the Expert and Enterprise plans
Starter has a single user and Pro has two
Right for
Hospitality and local businesses that track review sites beside social mentions
Wrong for
Teams needing real-time alerts on a small budget
RomaniaPer month by keywords and mentions, published; 7-day trial
Self-service monitoring with the longest published list of sources
Ranked #7 of 14 in Best Social Listening Tools in 2026.
Published pricingNorth America
Brand24 prices by keywords and mentions, from three keywords and 2,000 mentions up to 25 keywords and 100,000 on Business, with Enterprise starting at a published figure. Real-time collection begins at the Pro plan; Team refreshes hourly.
Reports export to PDF and Excel, and the features now include tracking how AI chatbots describe a brand. The ownership chain is the open question: two changes of control in two years, and the roadmap is no longer set by a specialist vendor.
What stands out
Podcasts and newsletters
Unlimited users from Team
API costs extra
Where it costs you
Individual plan: one user, three keywords, 2,000 mentions, updates every 12 hours
API access carries an additional monthly fee
Majority-owned by Semrush, which Adobe acquired in April 2026; the product site does not mention either
Right for
Marketing and PR teams wanting broad source coverage without a sales call
Wrong for
Buyers who want an independent vendor or a low entry price
United StatesPer month by keywords and mentions, published; 14-day trial
Polish listening platform priced by projects, history and mentions
Ranked #8 of 14 in Best Social Listening Tools in 2026.
Published pricingEurope
SentiOne is unusual in selling history as the main variable. Realtime and Research cost the same, but one holds a month of data with 25,000 mentions and the other six months with 200,000, so the choice is between speed and depth.
Business extends to 18 months, 500,000 mentions and what the vendor calls 5 million sources. Export allowances in CSV and XLSX match the mention quota of each plan. Seat limits are the constraint a growing team meets first.
What stands out
Five published tiers
History by plan
API on Enterprise
Where it costs you
Social and Realtime plans keep one month of history
X is listed as a source from the Business plan upwards
Seats are limited: one on Social, three on Realtime and Research, five on Business
Automated API export is a paid add-on on Enterprise
Right for
Research teams that need six to thirty-six months of mention history
Wrong for
Buyers who want to sign up and test alone
PolandPer month by projects and mentions, published; demo account by arrangement
Social listening that analyses images as well as text
Ranked #9 of 14 in Best Social Listening Tools in 2026.
Published pricingEurope
The case for YouScan is the picture problem: a logo on a can in a photo contains no keyword, so text-only tools never see it. Visual Insights is built for that, and the Unlimited plans let topics be defined by image content and audience attributes as well as text queries.
The Starter 3 plan is a fixed package of three text topics. Investors include Kinnevik, and offices are listed in New York, Mexico City, Limassol and Warsaw.
What stands out
Image recognition
Unlimited users
API on larger plans
Where it costs you
Only the Starter 3 plan has a published price, and it is billed annually
API access and data export options are listed for the quoted Unlimited plans only
Access starts with a demo request, not a self-service trial
Right for
Consumer brands whose products appear in photos more often than in text
Wrong for
Small teams wanting monthly billing and a low entry price
CyprusOne starter plan published, billed annually; larger plans quoted
TikTok-only analytics and listening, priced by tracked accounts
Ranked #10 of 14 in Best Social Listening Tools in 2026.
Published pricingEurope
Exolyt combines account, hashtag and sound analytics with sentiment analysis of user-generated videos, share-of-voice comparison and influencer campaign tracking.
Essentials tracks 50 accounts and 50 hashtags with data refreshed twice a day; Advanced raises that to 300 of each, 15 listening projects, six refreshes a day and a year or more of history. The Basic tier at zero cost tracks a single account with seven days of history behind a 'start your trial' button: a test drive.
What stands out
TikTok only
History by plan
CSV credits
Where it costs you
Covers TikTok alone, so a second tool is needed for every other network
Essentials includes 3 listening projects and 90 days of history
Exports are metered in CSV credits and advanced exports cost extra
Every listed tier stops at 10 team members
Right for
Brands and agencies whose audience and creators are mainly on TikTok
Wrong for
Anyone who needs one tool across several social networks
FinlandPer month by tracked accounts, published; trial without a card
Content research with brand, competitor and backlink alerts attached
Ranked #11 of 14 in Best Social Listening Tools in 2026.
Published pricingEurope
BuzzSumo belongs here as the boundary case. Its alerts follow brand names, competitors, products, keywords, authors and backlinks, and a mention is whatever online reference triggers an alert. Searches are unlimited on every plan, and exports are included.
What a listening buyer would miss is a stated list of networks and a per-mention quota to compare with the other tools in this ranking. Inside the Cision group it is a sibling of Brandwatch, not an independent.
What stands out
Alerts by plan
Content history
Cision group
Where it costs you
Alert counts are low: 2, 5 and 10 on the three cheaper plans
The monitoring page does not name the social networks it tracks
API access is limited to the Enterprise plan, which is billed annually only
Right for
Content and PR teams tracking articles, authors, competitors and new backlinks
Wrong for
Teams that need mentions from named social networks
United KingdomPer month by users and alerts, published; trial offered
Enterprise listening with image and video recognition, owned by Hootsuite
Ranked #12 of 14 in Best Social Listening Tools in 2026.
Pricing on requestEurope
The tiers differ by volume instead of by features alone: Core gives baseline non-sampled results, Analyze twice the volume and Business six times, plus additional historical data.
Named tools include Blue Silk AI for classification and summaries, a Virality Map showing how a story spreads, and recognition of more than 30,000 logos. Talkwalker S.a r.l. remains registered in Luxembourg, while Hootsuite's terms now cover the service. Expect an enterprise sales process and an onboarding project.
What stands out
Owned by Hootsuite
Unlimited users
Logo recognition
Where it costs you
No prices are shown; every plan leads to a custom quote
Access is by demo; the site offers no self-service trial
Owned by Hootsuite, so the roadmap belongs to a social media management suite
Right for
Global brands needing many languages and logo detection in images and video
Wrong for
Teams that must know the cost before talking to sales
Media intelligence suite with social listening as one module
Ranked #13 of 14 in Best Social Listening Tools in 2026.
Pricing on requestNorth America
Meltwater sells four tiers, Starter, Pro, Enterprise and Agency, and the listening module covers social networks, news, forums and Reddit in one interface. It sends alerts to Slack or Teams when volume or sentiment shifts, and its Mira assistant summarises what changed.
The company began in Oslo in 2001 and says it serves 27,000 customers. The cost of that reach is commitment: the contract length is fixed before you have used the product on your own data.
What stands out
News and social together
Annual contracts
API from Pro
Where it costs you
Tailored pricing with no list; the quote depends on modules, scope and scale
Most agreements run for a minimum of 12 months
The Starter tier is not among those listed with API access
Right for
Communications departments buying news monitoring and social listening under one contract
Wrong for
Small teams wanting a monthly plan they can cancel
United StatesQuoted per organisation; 12-month contracts, demo only
Research-grade archive of public posts reaching back to 2008
Ranked #14 of 14 in Best Social Listening Tools in 2026.
Pricing on requestEurope
What Brandwatch has that the self-service tools do not is depth of archive: a question about how a category was discussed in 2015 can be answered without having been a customer then.
The vendor cites over 100 million sources, 496 million new posts a day, and the option to upload your own data beside it. Export and API access are part of the product. The trade is an unseen price and a tool that rewards a trained analyst.
What stands out
Archive from 2008
Part of Cision
Boolean queries
Where it costs you
The plans page shows no prices; standard to enterprise plans are all sold by demo
Part of Cision, so listening is one product line within a PR and media group
Results depend on Boolean queries that someone has to write and maintain
Right for
Insight teams running retrospective research over many years of public posts
Wrong for
Anyone who needs a published price or a quick start
Social listening software searches social networks, forums, news and review sites for chosen keywords, stores each matching post as a mention, and reports volume, sentiment and sources over time. The differences that matter are rarely in the feature list, so this is
the order we would work through them.
01
Decide whether you need a published price
11 of the 14 tools here publish what they cost; the other 3 quote per organisation. The ones you can compare without a sales call: Mentionlytics, Awario, Determ, Syften, Octolens, BrandMentions, Brand24, SentiOne, YouScan, Exolyt, BuzzSumo.
02
Decide how much the jurisdiction matters
These 14 vendors are established in 10 countries across 3 regions (Europe 11, North America 2, Elsewhere 1). That decides whose disclosure law applies to what the vendor holds, wherever the servers are.
What a social listening quota really counts
Every published plan in this ranking sells an allowance, and the allowances are not the same unit. Awario counts every mention it collects in a month, including ones you delete, and separately caps how many each topic may store. Determ sells topics with unlimited keywords inside them, so one topic can hold a brand and all its misspellings, but the entry plan stops at 1,000 mentions.
Syften meters results per day, which punishes a broad filter by lunchtime instead of by month end. Octolens charges per keyword and bills overage per mention. Brand24 and Mentionlytics count keywords, so each product name or competitor uses one. A brand that appears in 800 posts a month and one that appears in 80,000 should not be shopping from the same column.
Run your brand name through a trial and note the mention count after seven days.
Ask whether deleted or irrelevant mentions still count against the monthly allowance.
Find out what happens at the limit: collection stops, older data is replaced, or overage is billed.
Which networks a social listening tool can actually see
Coverage is where vendor pages diverge most, and the gaps follow access to each network's data. Mentionlytics lists LinkedIn, TikTok, Threads and Bluesky on every paid tier. The source tables published by Determ and Awario name neither LinkedIn nor TikTok. SentiOne lists X only from its Business plan. Exolyt covers TikTok and nothing else, in more depth than the generalists.
Syften and Octolens aim at places where software buyers talk, such as Reddit, Hacker News, GitHub and Stack Overflow, and leave out Facebook and Instagram. BuzzSumo does not name the networks behind its alerts at all. Before comparing prices, write down the three places your customers post, and strike every tool whose own source list omits one of them.
Read the source list on the pricing page, not the homepage claim about millions of sources.
Check whether a network is included on your plan or only on a higher tier.
Search for a post you know exists on each network during the trial.
Historical data in social listening starts when you subscribe
Most tools in this market begin collecting when you create a query, and the past is either short or sold separately. Octolens looks back seven days when a keyword is added. Determ shows three months by default and older archives on request. Mentionlytics sells historical data as an add-on below its Pro plan. BrandMentions gives three months on Starter and twelve on Expert.
SentiOne makes history the main difference between plans, from one month to thirty-six. At the other end, Brandwatch maintains an archive from 2008 and Talkwalker advertises two years. If the purchase is triggered by a crisis or a campaign that has already happened, only the archive vendors can show it to you, and that capability sits behind a quote.
Decide whether you need to look back before the purchase date, and how far.
Ask what backfill costs for one query over twelve months.
Check how long collected mentions are retained after you stop paying for a plan tier.
Seats, export and API: how social listening data leaves the tool
Mentions are only useful once they reach the people who act on them, and vendors gate that in three ways. Seats: Determ, Octolens and YouScan include unlimited users, Brand24 does from its Team plan, while Awario Starter and BrandMentions Starter allow one person. Export: Awario Starter cannot export, BrandMentions caps Starter exports at 1,000 rows, Exolyt meters CSV credits, and SentiOne ties export volume to the mention quota.
API: Octolens includes it on every plan, Mentionlytics from Advanced, BrandMentions from Expert, Brand24 for an extra monthly fee, and SentiOne as a paid add-on on Enterprise. A monitoring tool with one login and no export is a screen somebody has to remember to open.
Count who needs a login, including agency and customer-service colleagues.
Export a full month of mentions during the trial and open the file.
If mentions must reach a CRM or data warehouse, confirm the API is on your plan in writing.
What goes wrong most often when buying social listening software
Buying on the monthly mention number without testing how noisy your brand name is. A common word can spend a 5,000-mention allowance on irrelevant posts in days.
Assuming LinkedIn, TikTok or X are covered because the homepage says 'all major networks'. The plan comparison table is the only reliable list.
Expecting to see last year's conversation after signing up. With most self-service listening tools the record begins on the day the query is created.
Taking a tool owned by a social media management or PR suite as a standalone choice. Talkwalker now belongs to Hootsuite and Brandwatch to Cision, and the contract follows the parent.
07
Frequently asked questions
6 answers
What is the best social listening in 2026?
Mentionlytics leads our ranking of 14. An independent vendor with one product, founded in Crete and run remotely through a Greek and a UK company. The entry plan gives three keywords, 5,000 mentions a month and two users, and every paid tier covers LinkedIn, TikTok, Reddit and Threads.
API access and Boolean search start at the Advanced plan, and historical data is an add-on below Pro, so the entry price buys monitoring from today forward.
Which social listening tools publish their pricing?
11 of the 14, with the pricing model each one publishes:
Mentionlytics: Per month by keywords and mentions, published; 14-day trial.
Awario: Per month by topics and mentions, published; 7-day trial.
Determ: Per month by topics and mentions, published; 5-day trial.
Syften: Per month by filters and daily results, published; 14-day trial.
Octolens: Per month by keywords and mentions, published; 7-day trial.
BrandMentions: Per month by keywords and mentions, published; 7-day trial.
Brand24: Per month by keywords and mentions, published; 14-day trial.
SentiOne: Per month by projects and mentions, published; demo account by arrangement.
YouScan: One starter plan published, billed annually; larger plans quoted.
Exolyt: Per month by tracked accounts, published; trial without a card.
BuzzSumo: Per month by users and alerts, published; trial offered.
The other 3 quote per organisation.
Is there a free social listening tool?
No. None of the 14 offer a usable free tier.
Where are these social listening vendors established?
In 10 countries across 3 regions: Europe 11, North America 2, Elsewhere 1.
Mentionlytics: Greece.
Awario: Cyprus.
Determ: Croatia.
Syften: Poland.
Octolens: Not stated by the vendor.
BrandMentions: Romania.
Brand24: United States.
SentiOne: Poland.
YouScan: Cyprus.
Exolyt: Finland.
BuzzSumo: United Kingdom.
Talkwalker: Luxembourg.
Meltwater: United States.
Brandwatch: United Kingdom.
What should you use instead of Mentionlytics?
Awario and Determ are the next two on this page. Awario is for Solo marketers and small agencies that want high mention volumes on a budget; Determ is for Communications teams where many colleagues need a login and volumes are modest.
Who should not buy Mentionlytics?
Analysts who need Boolean queries on the entry plan. API access and Boolean search are held back until the Advanced plan.
If your social listening product belongs among these 14, tell us what it does and who it is for. Inclusion is an editorial call; what a listing is and is not is set out under software advice.
