Brand monitoring tools compared
Choose by where your brand is discussed and where the alerts need to go. If X, LinkedIn, Facebook, news or sentiment reports matter, buy a full listening suite: Brand24, Mention or Awario. If your users talk on Reddit and Hacker News, F5Bot is free and Syften covers more communities from $29.95 a month. If you want new mentions in your own code, by webhook or API, with TikTok or Bluesky included, look at Octolens or TrueScrape. Every option below says what it does badly, with the price read from its own page.
Prices read from each vendor’s own pages on 2026-10-31 and 2026-11-01. Pricing moves. Check before you rely on it.
Which brand monitoring tool fits which buyer?
Brand24
Best for: Full suite: marketing teams that need sentiment, reach and reports across social media and news.
Individual $199/mo billed annually, $249 monthly; 14-day free trial · X, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, LinkedIn, Reddit, Twitch, news, blogs, reviews, newsletters, podcasts
Good
- AI sentiment, reach and automated reports on every plan.
- Covers LinkedIn, news, blogs, reviews and podcasts as well as social media.
Bad
- Individual covers 3 keywords, 2,000 mentions a month and one user, updated every 12 hours.
- API access is a $149 add-on, and webhooks are not mentioned on the pricing page.
- Hacker News, Bluesky and Threads are not on its source list.
Mention
Best for: Full suite: companies whose reputation is decided on review sites and in the press, reported on by a team.
No price on its pricing page; it says annual billing saves $360 · Facebook, Instagram, X, Reddit, TikTok, Pinterest, YouTube, news, blogs, forums, 75+ review sites
Good
- More than 75 review sites, plus news, blogs and forums.
- Sentiment, white-label reports, team roles and an account manager in the plan.
Bad
- The pricing page shows no price, so you cannot compare cost without starting a conversation or a trial.
- API access and historical data are paid add-ons on top of the Company plan.
- Its pricing FAQ says the Publish and Respond features are being deprecated.
Awario
Best for: Full suite on a budget: small brands that want X, Facebook and news with an API for under $50 a month.
Starter $29/mo or $49/mo (the page pairs the two with annual and monthly billing); free trial · Reddit, Instagram, X, Facebook, YouTube, Vimeo and news
Good
- The lowest published entry price among the full suites, with 30,000 mentions a month on Starter.
- API, PDF and white-label reports on every plan, with no add-on fee.
Bad
- TikTok, Threads, Bluesky, LinkedIn and Hacker News are not named on its site.
- Sentiment appears only as a feature page, not in any plan’s feature list.
- No webhook delivery is listed on the pricing page; you poll the API.
Octolens
Best for: Developer tools: B2B and developer-tool companies that need X, LinkedIn and Hacker News with relevance scoring.
Pro $159/mo billed annually; 7-day free trial · Reddit, Hacker News, X, LinkedIn, Bluesky, GitHub, YouTube, Stack Overflow, TikTok, DEV, app reviews; podcasts, newsletters and news on Scale
Good
- API, webhooks, Slack, MCP, relevance scoring and sentiment on every plan.
- The only tool here with both LinkedIn and Hacker News.
Bad
- Pro covers 10 keywords; news, podcasts, newsletters and the web need Scale at $499 a month.
- Facebook is not on its source list, and Threads is not listed either.
Syften
Best for: Communities: founders and DevRel teams watching Reddit, Hacker News, forums and newsletters.
Entry $29.95/mo; Standard $49.95/mo; 14-day free trial · Reddit, Hacker News, Lobsters, GitHub, Product Hunt, Stack Exchange, Dev.to, Bluesky, Mastodon, forums, newsletters, podcasts; X and YouTube as add-ons
Good
- The broadest community coverage on this page, with Reddit alerts within about a minute.
- AI filtering of spam and self-promotion from Standard.
Bad
- No Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, LinkedIn or Threads, and no sentiment analysis.
- Webhooks and MCP need the $119.95 Pro plan, and X costs $40 a month extra.
F5Bot
Best for: Communities, free: anyone who only needs Reddit and Hacker News alerts by email.
Free; Silver $12.99/mo, Gold $49.99/mo · Reddit, Hacker News, Lobsters
Good
- Genuinely free for 5 keywords, with instant, batched or daily-digest alerts.
- AI filtering in plain language on Gold, and Lobsters, which few others watch.
Bad
- Three sites only: no X, Facebook, news, review sites or any video platform.
- API access and webhooks start at its Platinum tier, $214.99 a month; below Gold, alerts are email.
- No sentiment or reports; it is an alert, not a listening tool.
TrueScrape
Best for: Developer feed: founders and developers who want new mentions as a feed, webhook or API call, paid per check instead of per seat or plan.
1 credit per platform per check; credits from $25 one-time for 20,000, 1,000 free on signup · Reddit, Hacker News, Bluesky, YouTube, Threads, Instagram hashtags, TikTok hashtags
Good
- A free brand mention checker at /tools/brand-mentions with no account; one click on Watch this term opens a dashboard feed.
- One POST /v1/monitors with an optional webhook_url; signed webhooks carry only new posts, and MCP tools expose the same monitors to agents.
- A platform that fails or returns nothing costs nothing, and nothing is charged per mention.
Bad
- No sentiment, reports, review sites or news: it lists new mentions and nothing more.
- No X, LinkedIn or Facebook. The source list grows where logged-out access exists, but X and LinkedIn are not coming, because both need a login.
- Instagram and TikTok are watched by hashtag only, not by text anywhere in a post.
How do they compare on price and coverage?
| Option | Price | X | Facebook and news | Sentiment | Hacker News | TikTok | Webhooks and API | Free tier | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brand24 | $199/mo, billed annually | Yes | Yes | Both | Yes | Yes | Not listed | Yes | API as a $149 add-on | 14-day trial |
| Mention | Not shown | Yes | Not listed | Both | Yes | Yes | Not listed | Yes | API as a paid add-on | Free trial |
| Awario | $29/mo or $49/mo | Yes | Not listed | Both | Feature page only | Yes | Not listed | Not listed | API on every plan | Free trial, no card |
| Octolens | $159/mo, billed annually | Yes | Yes | News from Scale; no Facebook | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | API, webhooks and MCP on every plan | 7-day trial |
| Syften | $29.95/mo | $40/mo add-on | No | Neither | No | Yes | Yes | No | API on all plans; webhooks on Pro | 14-day trial |
| F5Bot | Free | No | No | Neither | No | Yes | Yes | No | From Platinum ($214.99/mo) | Free plan, email alerts |
| TrueScrape | Pay per check, no plan | No | No | Neither | No | Yes | Yes | By hashtag | API, signed webhooks and MCP | Free checker; 1,000 credits on signup |
Questions people actually ask
- Which brand monitoring tool should I choose?
- Start from where your brand is discussed. For X, LinkedIn, Facebook, news or sentiment reports, choose a full suite: Brand24, Mention or Awario. For Reddit and Hacker News, F5Bot is free and Syften covers more communities from $29.95 a month. For new mentions delivered to your own code, Octolens includes webhooks on every plan, and TrueScrape charges per check with no plan.
- How much do brand monitoring tools cost?
- From free to several hundred dollars a month. F5Bot is free; Awario starts at $29 or $49 a month, Syften at $29.95, Octolens at $159 billed annually and Brand24 at $199 billed annually. Mention shows no price on its pricing page. TrueScrape charges 1 credit per platform per check; a platform that fails or returns nothing costs nothing, and nothing is charged per mention.
- Is there a free brand monitoring tool?
- F5Bot is free for 5 keywords on Reddit, Hacker News and Lobsters, with email alerts. TrueScrape has a free brand mention checker with no account, limited to 3 checks a day. Brand24, Syften and Octolens offer trials of 7 to 14 days, and Awario and Mention offer free trials.
- Which brand monitoring tools include sentiment analysis?
- Brand24, Mention and Octolens list sentiment on their pricing pages. Awario links a sentiment feature page but does not list it in a plan. Syften, F5Bot and TrueScrape have none; Syften from Standard and F5Bot on Gold filter out irrelevant posts with AI instead.
- Which tools send new mentions to a webhook or an API?
- Octolens includes API, webhooks and MCP on every plan. Awario includes an API on every plan, and Syften an API on every plan with webhooks on its $119.95 Pro plan. Brand24 sells API access as a $149 add-on and Mention as a paid add-on; F5Bot starts both at Platinum, $214.99 a month. TrueScrape is an API: POST /v1/monitors with a webhook_url sends signed webhooks of new posts only.
- Which tools monitor X and LinkedIn?
- Brand24 and Octolens list both. Mention and Awario list X but not LinkedIn, and Syften sells X as a $40 a month add-on. F5Bot and TrueScrape cover neither; TrueScrape reads only what a logged-out visitor can see, and both X and LinkedIn need a login.
How do you see who mentions your brand right now?
The free brand mention checker shows recent mentions with no account. Brand mention monitoring covers what a watched term costs, and how to track brand mentions without a subscription compares the paid tools.
The free grant is 1,000 credits and needs no card. It is sized to answer whether the data is good enough, which is the only question worth resolving before you commit.