I examined the 7 greatest free social media monitoring instruments — right here’s how they stack up

If you happen to’ve ever woken as much as a trending hashtag about your model — and never in a great way — you know the way quick a small difficulty can turn out to be a full-blown PR disaster. Thankfully, I’ve not been there, executed that, or obtained the t-shirt, however I do know loads of individuals who’ve been left holding the bag.

With greater than 5 billion individuals worldwide utilizing social media — and sharing their two cents on all the things from cat movies to how superior a model is (or isn’t) — popularity administration and social media listening is simply going to get extra necessary.

With that in thoughts, I examined seven of the preferred free social media monitoring instruments so that you don’t need to. Right here’s what I discovered.

Desk of Contents

What’s social media monitoring?

In a nutshell, social media monitoring, or social media “listening,” is about conserving your ear to the bottom.

It’s the continued means of monitoring conversations, key phrases, and tendencies on social platforms so what’s being stated about your model (or the rest that issues to your corporation).

Once I’m working a model audit, I’m not simply who tags the corporate on Instagram. I’m digging into the complete dialog. Which may imply:

Sounds nice, proper?

It’s — besides these conversations occur all over the place from TikTok and Instagram to LinkedIn, Reddit, and area of interest communities. Making an attempt to maintain up manually is almost unattainable, and Google Alerts will solely get you to this point.

What tendencies are we seeing in terms of social media on the whole? Our 2025 Social Traits Report shares unique findings on how individuals interact throughout social personally and professionally. Get it free now.

Dig deeper into social media listening particularly and the way it works.

Why use a social media monitoring instrument?

As a enterprise, it’s crucial to know what’s occurring round you always. Competitor launches, buyer complaints, viral tendencies — all of those elements can affect your model’s efficiency. Social media monitoring offers you a technique to see all of it in actual time, making it an necessary a part of your social media technique.

Carried out properly, it goes past knowledge factors to indicate you:

The place you’re successful so you possibly can double down.
The place prospects are annoyed so you possibly can repair points earlier than they escalate.
The place new alternatives are rising so you may get forward of rivals.

As a result of monitoring manually by checking newsfeeds or looking hashtags simply isn’t scalable anymore, third-party instruments are your greatest wager.

If you happen to’re already utilizing HubSpot for CRM or advertising automation, HubSpot’s Social Inbox permits you to arrange monitoring streams so you possibly can see model mentions, competitor tags, and keyword-based conversations in a single dashboard.

HubSpot isn’t the one possibility (I examined seven others beneath), however the aim is similar: curating the conversations that matter most so you possibly can interact and reply successfully.

Social media monitoring instruments have modified so much since I first began utilizing them. Again then, there have been dozens of free choices I may depend on — however most of these have both shut down or locked the perfect options behind a paywall.

And from a enterprise perspective, I get it. Particularly as platforms tighten their APIs. However … it makes discovering actually free instruments that truly work a lot more durable.

That stated, you continue to have choices.

If you happen to’re on a finances or simply testing the waters, there are nonetheless a handful of strong instruments (and beneficiant free trials) that may show you how to preserve tabs on the conversations occurring round your model.

I hung out testing seven of the preferred choices. Some are lean and easy, others extra strong, however every one may help you begin constructing a clearer image of your social footprint. Right here’s my tackle them.

1. BrandMentions

Price: Handful of free instruments; Subscription begins at $79/month.

Free trial: Sure (7 days).

What it’s: BrandMentions is a type of instruments that’s been round lengthy sufficient to earn its spot on the checklist. It’s not flashy, but it surely does what it guarantees. That’s value so much. If you’re speaking about monitoring each nook of the Web for mentions of your model, substance wins over model each time.

Whereas the complete instrument is subscription-based (with a 7-day trial), it does supply a number of free trackers you should utilize advert hoc and get a ton of worth:

Social Mentions

Hashtag Tracker

Model Tracker

Social Media Tracker

I pulled all of these reviews in below a minute — and it’s simply the tip of the iceberg. A lot extra knowledge is obtainable. Every instrument delivers comparable outcomes, so you possibly can actually simply use one for all of your wants. Nonetheless, I used to be tremendous impressed and can be coming again to this one sooner or later.

My take: BrandMentions is a strong “set it and neglect it” possibility. It’s not going to present you each single point out in actual time (only a few instruments do), but it surely’s dependable and affords a broad view of your on-line presence with out overwhelming you with knowledge.

2. TailWind

Price: Free plan with restricted options; paid plans begin at $14.99/month.

Free trial: Sure.

What it’s: Tailwind began as a Pinterest scheduling instrument, but it surely’s developed right into a extra full platform with monitoring options in-built. You need to use it to schedule posts for Pinterest, Instagram, and Fb, however the true gem is the analytics and monitoring it affords on the free plan.

Tailwind’s insights show you how to see which posts are performing greatest, which hashtags are driving probably the most visitors, and what occasions your viewers is most engaged.

Want assist in these areas? Give these assets a learn:

My take: If you happen to’re lively on Pinterest or Instagram, Tailwind is value testing. It’s not as strong for monitoring conversations outdoors your personal channels, but it surely’s nice for maximizing efficiency the place you’re already posting. And since the free plan is beneficiant, it’s a low-risk technique to get began.

All of those are pretty primary insights, however in the event you’re extremely lively on Instagram and Pinterest (like an ecommerce model, as an illustration), it’s handy to have all of that info in a single place. The draw back — particularly for the needs of this text — is that it’s not a real social listening instrument.

3. TalkWalker by Hootsuite

Price: Paid plans begin at $99/month.

Free trial: Sure (30 days).

What it’s: Acquired by Hootsuite in 2024, TalkWalker is a paid platform. At $99/month it might be steep for somebody searching for free social media auditing instruments. Whereas they used to supply standalone free instruments like Talkwalker Alerts and Free Social Search, in my current testing, it seems these are not accessible — all the things has moved behind a subscription.

That stated, there’s a motive individuals pay for Talkwalker’s social media listening. It’s good, actually good — that includes:

Alerts that allow you to monitor model mentions throughout dozens of social networks.
Trending matters monitor so you possibly can keep on high of what’s widespread.
Proprietary AI that helps you get knowledge insights and forecast tendencies.

My take: Talkwalker is a powerhouse. It delivers enterprise-grade protection and AI-powered insights you received’t discover in most different instruments. However it’s not free, and the fee received’t make sense for lots of small or mid-sized companies. If you happen to’re a solo marketer or working with a lean staff, you’ll most likely wish to begin with one of many different instruments on this checklist.

4. Metricool

Price: Free plan accessible; paid plans begin at $18/month.

Free trial: Not relevant; free model is strong.

What it’s: Not gonna lie — Metricool is my favourite of the bunch. And it’s the one I exploit for my enterprise and for a number of shoppers. They name themselves a “digital Swiss Military Knife,” and I’ve to say — it’s fairly darn correct.

At first, it might really feel a bit like a scheduling and analytics instrument, but it surely does a heckuva lot extra — together with social listening. With a unified inbox and primary key phrase monitoring, you possibly can:

Keep on high of name mentions.
Handle feedback, messages, and tags.
Establish trending phrases.
Monitor rivals.
Acquire primary listening insights.

My take: If you happen to haven’t guessed by now, I like to recommend this one. If you would like enterprise-grade listening instruments, this most likely isn’t it — however you’re additionally most likely not searching for free or low-cost instruments. I like that it offers you a single place for #allthethings and allows you to monitor the most probably social platforms. The free model is likely to be sufficient to your wants — however even when that you must go paid, it’s approachable — particularly in contrast with different platforms.

5. BuzzSumo

Price: No free model; plans vary from $199–$999/month.

Free trial: Sure (7 days).

What it’s: Right here’s the deal, on the worth level, I virtually dropped BuzzSumo from the rankings. It will get dear for the little man. Candidly, it’s a rock star of a platform for content material entrepreneurs and comms execs who need deep insights into what content material is working — and who’s speaking about it.

Right here’s what it brings to the desk:

Model Monitoring & Alerts. Arrange key phrase, competitor, or product alerts to catch conversations throughout social media, information, blogs, and even backlinks.
Development & Content material Discovery. Establish high-performing articles, trending matters, high key phrases, and creatives shaping your business.
Influencer & Journalist Finder. Discover out who’s masking your subject and monitor who’s sharing your stuff
Competitor Evaluation and Reporting. Evaluate share of voice, high performing content material, and backlinks in a shareable dashboard.

My take: BuzzSumo is a powerhouse — however not free of charge. If you happen to’re critical about content material, influencer outreach, or trend-based content material technique, take it for a spin with the 7-day trial. What it lacks in pricing flexibility, it makes up for in depth. That stated, in case your wants are extra primary or budget-minded, there are lighter instruments on this checklist that do model mentions and development alerts simply nice.

6. SmarterQueue

Price: Paid plans begin at $24.99/month.

Free trial: Sure (14-day trial begins whenever you arrange your Posting Plan and schedule your first submit).

What it’s: I’ve used SmarterQueue previously (truly earlier than I moved to Metricool), and I cherished how straightforward it’s to arrange and use — and that content material can publish and re-publish. It does all the things most small companies want together with:

Viewing engagement on particular person posts and seeing top-performing posts.
Monitoring Evergreen submit efficiency over time.
Analyzing your social historical past.
Monitoring social mentions and tags.

Whereas competitor monitoring is simply accessible on higher-tier plans, the excellent news is that these begin as little as $84.99/month — which is considerably decrease than a number of the different objects.

My take: If you happen to’re managing one or a couple of manufacturers and desire a light-weight however succesful instrument, SmarterQueue is a … sensible choose (see what I did there?). It’s intuitive, reasonably priced, and cuts out the complexity. It may not substitute an enterprise listening platform, however for conserving tabs on conversations and rising tendencies, it is likely to be precisely what you want.

Plus, the trial offers you loads of time to take a peek below the hood earlier than you even schedule a submit — and solely then does your 14-day countdown start.

7. Mentionlytics

Price: Plans begin at $41/month, with tiers as much as $499–$999/month.

Free trial: Sure (14-day trial with full entry, no bank card required).

What it’s: Consider Mentionlytics as a full-feature social listening engine wrapped in a clear, no-nonsense interface. It screens conversations throughout Twitter/X, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, Fb, Reddit, blogs, information websites, and consists of net pages and evaluate platforms — so that you’re not simply seeing public social chatter, however the broader context too.

For the fee, it’d simply be the most effective true social listening instruments on the market.

The Fundamental plan offers you:

3 key phrase guidelines.
5K month-to-month mentions.
12 hours replace.
10 social profiles.
2 customers.

And like most platforms today, AI is making Mentionlytics even higher:

I like that it tracks sentiment evaluation and AI point out clustering — as a result of with sensible searches, that’s getting much more necessary.

My take: Mentionlytics slots properly into this checklist as a critical listening instrument — particularly in the event you’re previous the starter part. The free trial offers you actual entry to take it for a spin with out paying upfront.

It’s not free long run, but it surely offers you a lot for a comparatively low price, and might develop with you, providing actionable insights — with out instantly forcing you right into a $10K annual spend.