The Best Social Media Monitoring & Listening Software in 2026
We researched social media monitoring and listening products through official websites, pricing pages, plan tables and product documentation. Rankings reflect the category’s core job, value for money and verified features such as network coverage, keyword limits, historical data, alerts and sentiment analysis.
Our top picks
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Top ranked
Brandwatch Consumer Intelligence#1 of 269.4/10A broad listening and consumer research platform for organizations analyzing conversations at scale.
Pricing on request
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Runner-up
Meltwater Social Listening#2 of 269.3/10Broad global listening with AI analysis, alerts, dashboards, and API access.
Pricing on request
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Top-ranked free plan
Social Searcher#14 of 267.7/10Low-cost monitoring with broad public-web search, saved queries, sentiment, and exports.
Free plan · 14-day trial
Advertiser disclosure: iTechGuides is reader-supported. Vendors can pay for top positions in our rankings and for a place on other products' pages, and we may earn a commission when you click some links. Bought places stand at the number bought; this page and our disclosure say so. Paying vendors may get a fuller, more detailed review from our editors, and that review can change their score. How we rank.
The full ranking 26 tools, best first
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Best forEnterprise-scale consumer intelligence
A broad listening and consumer research platform for organizations analyzing conversations at scale.
- Sentiment analysis
9.4/10★★★★★Visit Brandwatch -
Best forGlobal, omnichannel listening teams
Broad global listening with AI analysis, alerts, dashboards, and API access.
- Sentiment analysis
9.3/10★★★★★Visit Meltwater -
Best forEnterprise omnichannel insights
Enterprise listening with broad channel coverage, advanced analysis, and crisis monitoring.
- Sentiment analysis
9.2/10★★★★★Visit site -
Best forTeams needing listening plus publishing
A broad social suite pairing listening, publishing, engagement and workflow tools.
9.0/10★★★★☆Visit Sprout Social -
Best forMultilingual, visual listening programs
Broad social and web monitoring with multilingual sentiment and visual listening.
- Sentiment analysis
8.8/10★★★★☆Visit Talkwalker -
Best forBroad AI-powered mention analytics
AI-powered monitoring with broad coverage, reporting, and real-time alerts.
- Sentiment analysis
8.6/10★★★★☆Visit Brand24 -
Best forTeams tracking reputation across social and web sources
Broad-source listening with crisis alerts, sentiment analysis, and monthly plans from $199.
- Sentiment analysis
8.5/10★★★★☆Visit SentiOne -
Best forAffordable full-web listening
Broad social and web listening with AI insights, from $69 per month billed annually.
- Sentiment analysis
8.4/10★★★★☆Visit Mentionlytics -
Best forHistorical mention and competitor tracking
BrandMentions combines historical monitoring, competitor tracking, sentiment, and alerts.
- Sentiment analysis
8.3/10★★★★☆Visit BrandMentions -
Best forPR and marketing teams monitoring on mobile
Mobile-accessible listening with AI insights, archives and exports, starting at €99 per month.
- Sentiment analysis
8.2/10★★★★☆Visit Determ -
Best forBudget-conscious real-time listening
Real-time social and web listening with Boolean search, starting at $29 per month billed annually.
- Sentiment analysis
8.1/10★★★★☆Visit Awario -
Best forVisual and audience insight teams
Visual and audience analysis add depth to social listening, starting at $499 per month billed annually.
- Sentiment analysis
7.9/10★★★★☆Visit YouScan -
Best forCampaign and influencer measurement
A broad monitoring suite for measuring campaigns, influencers, audiences, and competitors.
7.8/10★★★★☆Visit Keyhole -
Best forLow-cost search and monitoring
Low-cost monitoring with broad public-web search, saved queries, sentiment, and exports.
- Sentiment analysis
7.7/10★★★★☆Open Social Searcher -
Best forEnterprise trend and crisis analysis
Synthesio brings social, search, review, visual and news monitoring into enterprise analysis.
- Sentiment analysis
7.6/10★★★★☆Visit Synthesio -
Best forAdvanced audience and narrative research
Enterprise listening pairs broad public-source coverage with audience and narrative analysis.
- Sentiment analysis
7.5/10★★★★☆Visit Pulsar -
Best forManaged social measurement programs
Cross-channel social analysis with listening, benchmarking, and managed measurement services.
- Sentiment analysis
7.4/10★★★★☆Visit ListenFirst -
Best forBrand safety and crisis moderation
Context-aware moderation, crisis alerts, and multichannel listening for brand safety teams.
- Real-time alerts
- Sentiment analysis
7.3/10★★★★☆Visit BrandBastion -
Best forB2B SaaS teams tracking mentions across many sources
Broad-source monitoring with AI filtering, priced from $159/month on annual billing.
- Sentiment analysis
7.2/10★★★★☆Visit Octolens -
Best forTeams monitoring TikTok on a free plan
A TikTok-focused monitoring tool with useful free analytics, but no multi-network coverage.
7.1/10★★★★☆Visit Exolyt -
Best forSolo founders and small teams wanting self-hosted monitoring
Open-source monitoring across social and developer sources, stored locally in SQLite.
- Sentiment analysis
7.0/10★★★★☆Visit Harken -
Best forDeep competitive and market intelligence
A broad intelligence platform for tracking competitors, markets, and consumer signals.
6.9/10★★★☆☆Visit NetBase Quid -
Best forSelf-hosted semantic conversation feeds
A CLI-driven listening tool that scores new public posts against natural-language relevance rules.
6.9/10★★★☆☆Visit OpenMagpie -
Best forSmall teams tracking buying intent
A focused way for small teams to track public conversations and buying signals.
6.8/10★★★☆☆Visit Syften -
Best forSmall teams needing low-cost social alerts
Affordable keyword alerts with conversation tracking on Reddit and Hacker News.
- Sentiment analysis
6.7/10★★★☆☆Visit KWatch.io -
Best forTeams monitoring social risks and brand conversations
A crisis-monitoring-focused listening tool with AI sentiment, alerts and dashboards.
- Sentiment analysis
6.6/10★★★☆☆Visit Onclusive
No tools match those filters.
Compare at a glance
| # | Tool | Paid from | Sentiment analysis | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Brandwatch Consumer Intelligence | Yes | 9.4 | |
| 2 | Meltwater Social Listening | Yes | 9.3 | |
| 3 | Sprinklr Insights | Yes | 9.2 | |
| 4 | Sprout Social | $79/seat/mo | 9.0 | |
| 5 | Talkwalker | Yes | 8.8 | |
| 6 | Brand24 | $199/mo | Yes | 8.6 |
| 7 | SentiOne Listen | $199/mo | Yes | 8.5 |
| 8 | Mentionlytics | $69/mo | Yes | 8.4 |
| 9 | BrandMentions | $79/mo | Yes | 8.3 |
| 10 | Determ | €99/mo | Yes | 8.2 |
| 11 | Awario | $29/mo | Yes | 8.1 |
| 12 | YouScan | $499/mo | Yes | 7.9 |
| 13 | Keyhole | 7.8 | ||
| 14 | Social Searcher | Yes | 7.7 | |
| 15 | Synthesio | Yes | 7.6 | |
| 16 | Pulsar | Yes | 7.5 | |
| 17 | ListenFirst | Yes | 7.4 | |
| 18 | BrandBastion Reputation+ | Yes | 7.3 | |
| 19 | Octolens | $159/mo | Yes | 7.2 |
| 20 | Exolyt | 7.1 | ||
| 21 | Harken | Free | Yes | 7.0 |
| 22 | NetBase Quid | 6.9 | ||
| 23 | OpenMagpie | Free | 6.9 | |
| 24 | Syften | $29.95/mo | No | 6.8 |
| 25 | KWatch.io | $19/mo | Yes | 6.7 |
| 26 | Onclusive Social | Yes | 6.6 |
Head-to-head All 20 comparisons →
- Brandwatch Consumer Intelligence vs Meltwater Social Listening
- Brandwatch Consumer Intelligence vs Sprout Social
- Brandwatch Consumer Intelligence vs Brand24
- Brandwatch Consumer Intelligence vs SentiOne Listen
- Brandwatch Consumer Intelligence vs Mentionlytics
- Meltwater Social Listening vs Sprinklr Insights
- Meltwater Social Listening vs Sprout Social
- Meltwater Social Listening vs SentiOne Listen
- Meltwater Social Listening vs Mentionlytics
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How we rank social media monitoring & listening software
Every tool on this page was researched by iTechGuides Editors from its official website — pricing pages, plan tables and product documentation. We rank on how well each one does this category's core job, what the free or entry plan includes, and where it falls short. Where we have enough verified facts, the score out of 10 is a rubric — job fit, value and how much we could verify — shown with its breakdown on every tool's page; a tool we have not verified enough to score yet shows its rank without a number. Scores are re-checked when a product changes its plans. Read the full editorial policy, or submit a tool we missed.
Reviewed by iTechGuides Editors · Editorial team · Updated Oct 2026
Last updated · How we research and update