The Top 13 Social Listening Tools for 2026

The Top 13 Social Listening Tools for 2026

by Ann-Derrick Gaillot](/content/en/author/ann-derrick-gaillot/index.html)

Dec 15, 2025

21 min. read

The Top 13 Social Media Listening Tools for 2026

1. Meltwater

The Meltwater social listening platform saves marketers time by providing a comprehensive view of mentions in traditional media, social media, and digital media in one place. Our AI assistant, Mira, is also available to provide insights and summaries that help you reduce human error and obtain important insights in a fraction of the time.

Key features

Price: Custom pricing available.

Best for: Comprehensive listening, sentiment analysis, influencer discovery and AI assisted insights for data-driven marketing and PR activities, plus easy reporting and real-time dashboards for keeping shareholders in the loop.

User reviews for Meltwater

👍 Advantages
"Meltwater is very detailed and captures more than we ever thought that it could. We also appreciate the fact that we can send things out on the press wire. It has been very easy to use so far and to implement into our routine." (Source)
✍️ Could be improved
"At this time, we don’t have any significant dislikes. Meltwater meets our needs well, and any minor adjustments we’ve required have been easy to manage within the platform." (Source)

More info about Meltwater social listening: Meltwater's customizable, in-depth insight reports ensure that users can keep key stakeholders in the know with accuracy, precision, and style.

2. Awario

Awario is a brand monitoring tool that offers shareable social listening reports and a social listening API.

Key features

Pricing: Awario has three different plans: Starter, Pro, and Enterprise.

Best for: Competitive benchmarking and extensive language support for spotting opportunities and uncovering influencers.

3. Digimind

Digimind's easy-to-use platform is tailored to medium and small businesses and offers social listening across 10+ social networks, including Facebook and Baidu.

Key features

Price: Not publicly available. Request a demo through the form on their website.

Best for: Reputation monitoring and extensive online coverage.

4. Brand24

Brand24 is comparable to Awario in that it offers competitive social listening features, including sentiment analysis, alerts, social media analytics reporting, and a free trial.

Key features

Price: Different pricing tiers, billed either monthly or annually: Individual ($149/mo), Team ($249/mo), Pro ($299/mo), Business ($499/mo), and Enterprise ($999/mo).

Best for: Comprehensive brand monitoring, help identifying areas of reputational risk, and sentiment analysis.

5. Talkwalker

Talkwalker is the next company that has to be part of any list of top social listening tools on the market.

Key features

Price: There are three tiers available: Listen, Analyze, and Business. Contact them for specific price details.

Best for: Real-time insights from a very wide variety of social media, blogs, and news sources.

6. Brandwatch

Acquired by Cision in 2021, Brandwatch is a consumer intelligence platform that includes social listening and research tools like AI-powered image and sentiment analysis.

Key features

Price: Not publicly available. Contact through their website for specific price details.

Best for: Spotting trends and data visualization with the ability to create customizable dashboards and reports.

7. YouScan

YouScan's social media monitoring platform includes a number of social listening features and tools, including a mentions stream that highlights user-generated content about your brand or topic and automatically categorizes them based on sentiment.

Key features

Price: Plans start at $299 per month.

Best for: Visual listening and workflow optimization.

8. Agorapulse

Agorapulse is one of the many social media management platforms on the market that includes some social listening capabilities.

Key features

Price: There are four plans available with Agorapulse: Standard ($79/mo), Professional ($119/mo), Advanced ($149/mo), and Custom (tailored pricing). Each plan can be billed monthly or annually.

Best for: Real-time social media marketing opportunities to connect with consumers and stay ahead of competitors.

9. BuzzSumo

Primarily a content marketing platform which we have also covered in our blog featuring the best content marketing tools, BuzzSumo's social listening capabilities are geared toward uncovering the most popular (i.e. most shared and engaged with) content across the web and social networks like Facebook, X (Twitter), Pinterest, and Reddit.

Key features

Price: Plans for BuzzSumo start at $199 per month. There is a free 30-day trial available.

Best for: Tracking and discovering viral content for inspiration and opportunities.

10. Oktopost

In early 2022, social media management tool Oktopost launched its social listening module, which monitors Instagram, X (Twitter), Facebook, and LinkedIn, as an add-on license with a free trial of 1,000 mentions per month.

Key features

Price: Customized quotes available. Contact them through the form on their website.

Best for: Competitive analysis and reporting for optimizing marketing campaigns and content production.

11. Synthesio

Synthesio's social intelligence suite offers advanced social listening analytics, primarily for Enterprise-level users, complete with interactive data visualizations and customizable, use case-specific dashboards (available as an add-on feature).

Key features

Price: Not publicly available. Request a demo through the form on their website.

12. Sprinklr

Monitoring more than two dozen social networks, Sprinklr's social listening tool is bundled with its Enterprise-level customer experience management platform.

Key features

Price: Get price information through the contact form on their website.

Best for: Gaining quick and accurate insights and generating reports for enterprise level stakeholders.

13. Keyhole

Trusted by over 100,000 companies, Keyhole is your ticket to comprehensive insights. Keyhole collects data from top platforms like Facebook, X (Twitter), LinkedIn, TikTok, LinkedIn, and more.

Key features

Price: Plans start at $79/mo; free trial available.

Best for: Trend spotting and pattern analysis.

How Does Social Listening Work?

Social listening tools aggregate social data from social media platforms and analyze them according to specific attributes or metrics.

Marketers use that data to inform their marketing strategy, better understand their target audiences, predict trends, identify influencers, and so much more. Overall, social listening tools enable better decision-making through data.

FAQ: Top Social Listening Tools

What are social listening tools?

Social listening tools are solutions used by companies to track online conversations. They are useful for following trends in brand mentions, competitor mentions, or industry terms. The best social listening tools also provide insights and analytics to help marketers strategize, and real-time alerts and sentiment analysis to aid in crisis management and mitigation.

Why is it important for businesses to integrate social listening software with their existing PR and marketing workflows?

It is important for businesses to integrate social listening into their workflows because it reduces the need to manually mine for brand mentions (and increases accuracy), freeing up time for strategizing based on analysis and insights. It allows teams to conduct thorough crisis monitoring and management, brand assessment, social media customer support, marketing campaign monitoring, influencer identification, competitive intelligence, and market intelligence, and trendspotting.

Can businesses leverage social listening tools to gain an advantage in local markets?

Yes, businesses can use social listening to get local insights to help them gain a competitive advantage in local markets. Advanced Boolean keyword searches and prompt-driven AI assistance can offer unique geographical insights into consumer behavior, specific needs, and trends to inspire more relevant marketing and PR campaigns.