This guide compares 10 Brandwatch alternatives, highlighting powerful tools like EmbedSocial, Talkwalker, and Sprout Social. We’ll explore solutions for consumer intelligence, brand monitoring, and leveraging user-generated content, tailored for businesses of all sizes in 2025.
When it comes to understanding your audience and market, social listening is non-negotiable. Brandwatch is an undisputed leader in consumer intelligence, offering deep analytics and vast data coverage. However, its enterprise-level complexity and pricing aren’t the right fit for every organization.
The experts at SocialPilot have tested 10 Brandwatch alternatives to provide a detailed comparison, sharing real insights from hands-on experience. We’ll walk you through the strengths and weaknesses of these competitors, highlighting how they measure up in terms of listening power, data analytics, pricing, and ease of use.
Whether you’re looking for a more affordable solution or a social listening tool to turn customer conversations into social proof, this guide will help you make an informed decision on the best fit for your brand.
Introduction to Social Listening
Social listening is the practice of monitoring and analyzing online conversations across social media platforms to understand what people are saying about a brand, product, or service. By tracking brand mentions, relevant keywords, and hashtags, companies can gain a real-time view of how their brand is perceived in the market.
Social listening goes beyond simply observing; it enables businesses to actively engage with their audience, respond to feedback, and identify emerging trends within their industry. Leveraging social listening as part of your social media management strategy helps brands stay connected to their customers, understand competitor activity, and make data-driven decisions that enhance marketing effectiveness. With the right tools, companies can transform raw online conversations into actionable insights, ensuring they remain relevant and responsive in a fast-moving digital landscape.
Importance of Social Listening for businesses
For modern businesses, social listening is more than just a buzzword it’s a vital component of effective brand management and customer engagement.
By monitoring online conversations, companies can quickly identify and address customer concerns, turning potential issues into opportunities for positive engagement. Social listening empowers brands to understand their audience on a deeper level, uncovering preferences, interests, and pain points that inform more targeted and impactful marketing campaigns. It also provides valuable insights into competitor strategies, helping businesses stay ahead in a competitive industry.
By keeping a finger on the pulse of social media, companies can boost brand awareness, foster stronger relationships with their audience, and drive higher levels of engagement across all campaigns. Ultimately, social listening enables businesses to make smarter decisions, adapt to market trends, and maintain a proactive approach to brand reputation management.
How we analyze and select Brandwatch alternatives:
Our process of curating a list of relevant tools involves thorough research and evaluation. We focus on criteria critical for social listening, including data sources and coverage, sentiment analysis accuracy, query and boolean logic capabilities, trend analysis, reporting and dashboard customization, user interface, pricing, and overall value. Metrics such as engagement rate and reach are also considered when comparing tools. The best tool depends on the specific use case and organizational needs. Additionally, the underlying technology and AI capabilities of each platform are evaluated as part of the selection process. Curated by seasoned professionals, these tools empower marketers with valuable insights to make informed decisions and scale their businesses.
Top Brandwatch alternatives at a glance
Before diving into each Brandwatch alternative, take a quick peek at tools that offer powerful listening features, often with more accessible pricing and interfaces. Many of these platforms integrate with multiple social networks such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn, making it easier to manage and analyze your online presence across channels.
| EmbedSocial | Brandwatch | Sprout Social | Talkwalker | Mention | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Starts at $99/Month | Custom | Starts at $249/Month | Custom | Starts at $49/Month |
| Best for | SMBs & E-commerce | Large Agencies & Enterprises | Brands & Enterprises | Agencies & Enterprises | SMBs & Agencies |
| Key Listening Feature | UGC & Review Aggregation | Deep Consumer Intelligence | Integrated Listening & Publishing | Image & Video Analytics | Real-Time Alerts |
| Ease of Use | ★★★★★ | ★★★☆☆ | ★★★★☆ | ★★★☆☆ | ★★★★★ |
| Support | ★★★★☆ | ★★★★☆ | ★★★★☆ | ★★★★☆ | ★★★★☆ |
| Publishing | ➤ | ➤ | |||
| UGC Management | ➤ | ➤ | |||
| Engagement | ➤ | ➤ | ➤ | ➤ | |
| Advanced Listening | ➤ | ➤ | ➤ | ➤ | |
| Team Collaboration | ➤ | ➤ | ➤ | ➤ | ➤ |
| User Seats | Up to 5 | Custom | Varies by plan | Custom | Up to 3 |
Some tools are competitively priced or offer custom pricing based on the features and user seats required, providing flexibility for different team sizes. Additionally, certain alternatives unlock more features in their premium plans, which may be important for advanced users seeking enhanced capabilities.
10 Brandwatch alternatives for 2025
1. EmbedSocial
$99 per month
EmbedSocial aggregates customer reviews and social media content to create engaging social proof widgets for websites. Users can easily publish these widgets directly to their website or social channels, streamlining the process of sharing social proof.
Best Brandwatch Alternative Tool for :E-commerce brands, SMBs, and agencies focused on building social proof and leveraging user-generated content (UGC).
Star Rating:4.8 on G2 & 4.9 on Capterra
Apps: Web Version, with mobile-responsive widgets.
Platforms Supported (for aggregation): Facebook, Google, Instagram, X (Twitter), YouTube, TikTok, Yelp, and more.
Key Features:
- Automatic aggregation of reviews from multiple platforms.
- Customizable widgets to display reviews, photos, and social feeds on your website.
- UGC management to collect and request photos from customers.
- AI review management to summarize and analyze feedback.
- Story widgets to display Instagram and Facebook Stories.
- Forms and surveys to collect first-party feedback.
- Approval workflows for content and reviews, allowing teams to review and approve submissions before they are published.
Pros
- Excellent for turning positive customer feedback into marketing assets.
- Extremely easy to set up and embed beautiful, professional-looking widgets.
- Allows users to publish social proof content directly to their website or social channels.
- Affordable pricing makes it highly accessible for small to medium businesses.
- Directly boosts conversions by showcasing real-time social proof.
Ivica S.The best part about EmbedSocial is how it streamlines the process of gathering and showcasing reviews. It’s incredibly user-friendly, and the variety of widgets available means you can always find a style that fits your website perfectly. Customer support is also top-notch. Verified G2 Review
Cons
- It’s not a traditional social listening tool for broad market research or competitor analysis.
- Focus is on leveraging existing mentions and reviews, not on discovering untagged conversations across the web.
Our Experience: We tested EmbedSocial to see how its “listening” compares to Brandwatch. The approach is fundamentally different but equally valuable for a specific goal. Brandwatch listens to the entire web to find strategic insights. EmbedSocial listens specifically to your customers’ direct feedback (reviews, mentions) and helps you amplify their voices. It excels at collecting and weaponizing social proof. For an e-commerce store, being able to automatically pull Google Reviews and display them in a beautiful on-site widget is a powerful form of listening that directly impacts the bottom line. EmbedSocial also helps turn customer feedback into actionable marketing ideas, making it easier for teams to plan new campaigns based on real user input.
Pricing and Value: EmbedSocial offers a 7-day free trial. Plans are modular, with the EmbedSocial premium plan starting at $99/month.
Overall Verdict: If your listening goal is to build trust, increase conversions, and showcase customer love, EmbedSocial is a more practical and impactful alternative than Brandwatch. It’s the best tool for activating the voice of the customer and transforming feedback into new marketing ideas.
2. Sprout Social
$249 per month
An all-in-one social media management platform that unifies publishing, engagement, analytics, and listening for brands.
Best for: Brands and Enterprises needing an integrated platform for management and listening.
Star Rating: 4.5 on G2 & 4.4 on Capterra
Key Listening Features:
- Advanced Listening dashboard with trend analysis and robust trend monitoring to track audience behavior and optimize content strategy
- Sentiment analysis and topic analysis
- Competitive analysis and industry benchmarking
- Influencer identification
- Unified Smart Inbox for mentions and keywords
- Approval workflows for streamlined team collaboration and content approval processes
Pros
- Combines top-tier publishing, engagement, analytics, and listening in one platform.
- Approval workflows make team collaboration and content approval efficient, especially for marketing teams and agencies.
- Intuitive interface for building complex listening queries.
- Excellent, visually appealing reports that are easy to share with stakeholders.
- Powerful trend monitoring capabilities help identify recent developments and inform your content strategy.
Cons
- High price point, especially for the Advanced plan, which contains the best listening features.
- Listening query limits on lower-tier plans can be restrictive.
Overall verdict: If you want a single platform that does everything—from listening to publishing to reporting—and have the budget, Sprout Social is an excellent, user-friendly alternative to Brandwatch.
3. Talkwalker
Custom Pricing
An enterprise-grade consumer intelligence platform that uses AI to analyze text and visual data from across the web.
Best for: Large Agencies and Enterprises needing enterprise-grade consumer intelligence.
Star Rating:4.5 (G2), 4.6 (Capterra)
Key Listening Features:
- AI-powered image and video analytics (logo recognition, scene analysis)
- Access to a massive database of social, online, and print sources.
- Advanced sentiment analysis in multiple languages.
- Predictive analytics and trend forecasting.
- Robust social intelligence capabilities for understanding audiences and tracking competitors.
- Advanced technology and AI-driven features power Talkwalker’s analytics for deeper consumer insights.
- Comprehensive trend monitoring and forecasting to identify emerging topics and optimize content strategy.
Pros
- Arguably the most powerful data coverage in the industry, including visual analytics.
- Extremely granular and customizable dashboards for deep-dive analysis.
- Excellent for market research and consumer intelligence beyond just brand mentions.
Cons
- Very expensive, with pricing tailored to large enterprise budgets.
- Steep learning curve; this is a tool for dedicated analysts.
Overall verdict: For enterprises that demand the most advanced data and analytics capabilities, especially in visual intelligence, Talkwalker is a top-tier alternative to Brandwatch.
4. Mention
$49 per month
A real-time media monitoring tool that alerts users instantly to brand mentions across social media and the web.
Best for: SMBs, startups, and agencies focused on real-time brand monitoring and competitor tracking.
Star Rating:4.3 (G2), 4.6 (Capterra)
Key Listening Features:
- Real-time alerts for keywords and brand mentions.
- Monitors over 1 billion sources daily, including social, news, blogs, and forums.
- Tracks activities across major social networks such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube.
- Competitor monitoring capabilities for tracking rivals’ activities, trends, and performance in real-time.
- Competitive analysis dashboards.
- Boolean operators for precise query building.
Pros
- Extremely easy to set up and use; you can get meaningful alerts in minutes.
- Affordable pricing plans make it accessible for smaller businesses.
- The real-time nature of its alerts is excellent for PR and crisis management.
Cons
- Lacks the deep, historical data and demographic analysis of Brandwatch.
- Reporting is functional but less robust and customizable than enterprise tools.
Overall Verdict: If you need simple, affordable, real-time brand monitoring without the complexity of a full consumer intelligence suite, Mention is an outstanding Brandwatch alternative.
5. Brand24
$99 per month
A powerful and affordable media monitoring tool that helps businesses track and analyze online conversations about their brand.
Best for: Small and medium businesses wanting powerful listening features without an enterprise price tag.
Star Rating:4.6 (G2), 4.6 (Capterra)
Key Features:
- Mention analytics and sentiment analysis
- Tracks key metrics such as engagement rate, reach, impressions, and follower growth, with custom reporting options
- Influencer scores to identify influential figures and assess their impact on brand reputation and influencer marketing strategies
- Automated daily/weekly reports
- Discuss volume charts to spot trends
6. Awario
$49 per month
A social listening tool that finds brand mentions and identifies industry trends using a non-stop web crawler.
Best for: Businesses looking for lead generation and influencer marketing through social listening.
Star Rating:4.1 (G2), 4.5 (Capterra)
Key Features:
- Awario Leads for social selling
- Boolean search for highly specific queries
- White-label reports for agencies
- Tracks mentions on social media, news, blogs, and the web.
- Provides trend monitoring to help identify emerging topics and shifts in audience behavior.
- Offers detailed metrics such as impressions, engagement rate, and follower growth to measure social media performance and generate custom reports.
7. Agorapulse
$69 per month
A comprehensive social media management tool that excels at inbox management, publishing, and reporting for teams.
Best for: Marketing teams and agencies that prioritize inbox management and engagement.
Star Rating:4.5 (G2), 4.6 (Capterra)
Key Features:
- Unified social inbox with listening capabilities for comments and mentions.
- Saved replies and automated inbox rules.
- Monitors ad comments.
- Easy-to-understand ROI reporting.
- Approval workflows streamline content review and team collaboration, making it easier for marketing teams and agencies to manage content approvals.
- Flexible user seats on Agorapulse plans allow multiple team members to collaborate efficiently, supporting scalability and cost-effective team management.
8. YouScan
Custom Pricing
An AI-powered social listening platform with advanced image recognition capabilities to uncover visual insights.
Best for: Brands that need to understand how their products are being used in real life through visual analytics.
Star Rating:4.8 (G2), 4.8 (Capterra)
Key Features:
- Advanced visual insights (logo detection, scenes, objects, demographics).
- Cutting-edge technology and AI-driven features for enhanced media monitoring and consumer insights.
- Powerful trend monitoring capabilities to track both visual and social trends, helping optimize content strategy.
- AI-powered trend detection.
- Audience insights and segmentation.
- Anomaly detection to flag unusual activity.
9. Meltwater
Custom Pricing
An all-encompassing media intelligence and social listening suite for PR and marketing professionals at large organizations. Pricing is customized and requires contacting the company for a quote.
Best for: Enterprise PR and corporate communications teams needing integrated media monitoring and outreach. Sales teams also use Meltwater for prospect research and B2B outreach.
Star Rating:4.0 (G2), 4.1 (Capterra)
Key Features:
- Global media monitoring across online news, print, and broadcast.
- Social listening and analytics.
- Influencer database and outreach tools.
- Executive-level reporting.
- Research and monitor prospective business clients, helping organizations identify and track key contacts and opportunities.
10. BuzzSumo
$199 per month
A content marketing and research tool that helps you discover popular content, analyze trends, and find key influencers.
Best for: Content marketers and strategists looking to inform their strategy with data on what’s trending.
Star Rating: 4.5 (G2), 4.5 (Capterra)
Key Features:
- Content discovery engine to find high-performing content.
- Comprehensive content marketing research capabilities, including analysis of trending topics, content engagement, and performance insights.
- Ability to identify trending topics to inform your content and social media strategies.
- Question analyzer to find real questions asked by your audience.
- Brand monitoring and competitor alerts.
- Influencer search by topic or keyword, with influencer scores to evaluate the impact and reach of potential partners.
Key keatures for choosing a Brandwatch alternative
When shifting from or comparing to Brandwatch, prioritize these critical social listening features.
- Data Coverage & Sources – Look for a tool that pulls data from the sources that matter most to you – not just social media, but also news sites, blogs, forums, and review sites.
- Analytical Depth – Your tool must go beyond simple mention counting. Look for sentiment analysis, share of voice, trend analysis, and demographic insights to truly understand the “what” and “why.”
- Query & Boolean Logic – The ability to build precise search queries is crucial. A strong alternative will support Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT) to help you cut through the noise.
- Reporting & Dashboards – A powerful tool is useless if you can’t share the insights. Look for customizable, easy-to-read dashboards and shareable reports.
- User-Friendliness & Learning Curve – Consider how intuitive an alternative is. A user-friendly interface means your team can get value from the tool faster. Publishing and scheduling features are essential for efficiently managing and posting social media content.
- Cost-Effectiveness & Scalability – Evaluate the price against the features offered. The best alternative provides the listening power you need at a price that fits your budget. Premium plans may unlock more features for advanced users seeking additional capabilities.
Brandwatch overview
Brandwatch stands out as a leading consumer intelligence platform, offering a comprehensive suite of social media monitoring, analytics, and engagement tools. Designed for businesses seeking a holistic view of their online presence, Brandwatch enables users to track brand mentions, keywords, and hashtags across major social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube. Its advanced analytics and reporting features allow companies to measure the impact of their social media campaigns, monitor sentiment, and uncover actionable insights about their audience and industry.
With robust media monitoring capabilities and a user-friendly interface, Brandwatch helps brands streamline their social media management, enhance consumer intelligence, and drive more effective engagement strategies. Whether you’re looking to monitor brand health, analyze campaign performance, or stay ahead of industry trends, Brandwatch provides the features and flexibility needed to succeed in today’s digital landscape.
Limitations of Brandwatch
Despite its reputation as a powerful consumer intelligence platform, Brandwatch does have some limitations that businesses should consider. One of the primary challenges is its pricing structure, which can be prohibitive for small businesses or individuals looking for a more budget-friendly solution. Additionally, the platform’s extensive features and capabilities may feel overwhelming to new users, requiring a significant investment of time and training to fully leverage its potential. While Brandwatch excels in social listening and analytics, its social media management features – such as content publishing and scheduling – are not as advanced as those offered by dedicated platforms like Sprout Social.
This means that companies seeking an all-in-one tool for both listening and active social media content management may find Brandwatch less suitable for their needs. Nevertheless, for organizations focused on deep audience understanding and consumer intelligence, Brandwatch remains a valuable tool, provided they are prepared for the learning curve and investment.
Wrapping Up
Confused? You need not be.
Choosing a Brandwatch alternative depends on your primary goal. Talkwalker is a top choice for enterprise-level market research. Mention is your go-to for real-time media monitoring. For an integrated management and listening suite, consider Sprout Social.
Brandwatch is unique because it combines various tools and features into a comprehensive platform for social media management and consumer insights. This integrated approach makes Brandwatch a strong solution for brand management.
When two companies merge, it can sometimes lead to challenges like cultural clashes or conflicting visions, which may affect platform effectiveness and user experience.
These tools are trusted by brands and businesses worldwide, helping them manage their reputations and connect with global audiences.
However, if your main objective is to listen to your customers and use their voice to build trust and drive sales, then a User-Generated Content platform is your best bet.
That’s why EmbedSocial stands out. It’s built to help you capture, manage, and display customer reviews and social proof, turning positive conversations into your most powerful marketing asset.
Take the free trial and see how easy it is to put your customer’s voice to work.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best alternative to Brandwatch for social listening?
It depends on your needs. For enterprise intelligence, Talkwalker. For real-time monitoring, Mention. For leveraging customer reviews and social proof, EmbedSocial is the best in its class. These tools help brands understand consumers and their preferences, enabling more targeted strategies. Social media analytics are also crucial for evaluating the effectiveness of each tool in monitoring engagement and performance.
What is the difference between social listening and UGC management?
Social listening is the broad analysis of online conversations for strategic insights. Consumer research plays a key role in social listening, helping brands gain deeper insights into their audience. UGC management is the process of collecting, curating, and displaying content created by users (like reviews and photos) to build social proof.
Do any Brandwatch alternatives have a free plan?
Advanced listening tools rarely offer a permanent free plan. However, most tools on this list, including EmbedSocial, offer a free trial to test their features.
How much do social listening tools cost?
Costs range from ~$49/month for tools like Mention and Awario to thousands per month for enterprise platforms like Brandwatch and Meltwater. UGC platforms like EmbedSocial offer affordable plans starting around $39/month. Sales teams often engage with platform representatives to discuss pricing and features before making a decision.