Best keyword monitoring tools in 2026, from free alerts to scored feeds

We start with free alerts, move to paid monitors for communities, and finish with broader brand monitors that include keyword alerts. HearBuyers is labelled as ours and sits near the end because it does one narrow job. For more depth on free options, see the best free social listening tools.

Prices are the plan names and figures each vendor shows on its own pricing page, checked on 17 and 18 October 2026. Plans change, so confirm on the vendor's page before you buy.

Google Alerts turns a Google search into an email. You set how often it sends, which source types to include (discussions among them), the language, the region and how many results, and it emails you the new ones. It's free and takes a minute to set up. See our setup guide.

It works well for brand and news keywords. Because it only reports what Google Search surfaces, it may miss new comments or social posts, and it can't tell a buyer from a job ad.

Sources. Google Search results, with a source setting for news, blogs, web, video, books, discussions and finance.

Standout. Free, and you can use quotes, a minus sign and site: from Google search syntax.

Price (checked 17 October 2026). Free. You need a Google account to receive the emails.

F5Bot watches Reddit, Hacker News and Lobsters for your keywords and emails you when they come up. Alerts can be instant, batched or a daily digest. You can filter by subreddit, exclude terms, or require keywords that appear together. Gold adds AI filtering, where you describe what you want in plain language.

It's a good fit for founders who want simple alerts on those three communities. It has no intent score and doesn't draft replies.

Sources. Reddit, Hacker News and Lobsters.

Standout. Free alerts on posts and comments, with subreddit and exclusion filters.

Price (checked 17 October 2026). Free for keyword alerts by email. Silver is $9.99 a month (20 keywords) and Gold is $49.99 a month (200 keywords, RSS and JSON feeds, AI filtering, Slack and Discord). Enterprise is by contact.

Syften monitors communities and the public web. Each filter is a search query, and you can add accept rules written in plain language. It supports archive search and delivers by email, Slack, RSS, webhook and MCP. Its stated delay targets are under a minute for Reddit and at most 15 minutes for X.

It suits people who want fine control over their queries at a low entry price. X monitoring costs extra.

Sources. The public web, Reddit, X, Indie Hackers, Hacker News, GitHub, Product Hunt, Stack Exchange sites, forums, newsletters, YouTube, podcasts, Bluesky and Mastodon.

Standout. Filters built from search queries with AI accept rules, plus a 60-day look-back when you sign up.

Price (checked 17 October 2026). Entry $29.95 a month (3 community filters), Standard $49.95 (20 filters, Slack, AI filtering) and PRO $119.95 (100 filters, webhooks). X monitoring is +$40 a month and YouTube +$20. PRO has a 14-day trial with no card.

KWatch.io sends keyword alerts from LinkedIn, X, Facebook, YouTube, Reddit and Hacker News by email, Slack or webhook. Its FAQ spells out the limits: LinkedIn posts but not comments, YouTube titles and descriptions only, Facebook posts and public groups, and no Instagram or TikTok. Paid plans add AI sentiment analysis.

It's for people who want cheap alerts across several platforms and have read those limits.

Sources. LinkedIn, X, Facebook, YouTube, Reddit and Hacker News, with coverage that varies by plan (LinkedIn posts but not comments, YouTube titles and descriptions only).

Standout. A free tier, plus conversation tracking on paid plans that alerts you to new comments in a thread.

Price (checked 17 October 2026). Free is $0 (2 Reddit and 2 Hacker News keywords), Essential $19 a month, Business $79, Enterprise $199, and Agency on request.

With Octolens you pick keywords, and it helps you tune each one and uses your company context to rate every mention. Each mention gets a relevance rating, a tag such as buy intent or promotional, and a sentiment. You can build filtered feeds and send them to Slack, email, webhooks or an MCP server.

It suits teams that want filtered alerts across a long list of platforms.

Sources. Reddit, X, LinkedIn, YouTube, TikTok, Bluesky, Hacker News, GitHub, DEV and Stack Overflow, with podcasts, newsletters, news, the web and reviews on Scale.

Standout. The relevance ratings and tags act as a built-in noise filter.

Price (checked 17 October 2026). Pro is $199 a month billed monthly or $159 a month billed yearly (15,000 mentions, 10 keywords), and Scale is $599 a month or $499 a month yearly (50,000 mentions, 40 keywords). Enterprise is custom. There's a 7-day trial with no card.

Awario groups keywords into topics, which can include handles, hashtags and URLs, in any language. It has Boolean search, sentiment analysis, location-based monitoring, reports and Slack integration, and higher plans add data export.

It suits small teams that want broad coverage and lots of keywords per topic.

Sources: X, Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, YouTube, Vimeo, blogs, forums, news and the wider web.

Standout: unlimited keywords per topic on every plan.

Price (checked 17 October 2026): Starter is $49 a month ($29 a month billed annually; 3 topics, 30,000 new mentions a month), Pro is $149 ($89 annually; 15 topics), and Enterprise is $399 ($249 annually; 100 topics). The free trial needs no card.

Brand24 tracks keywords across social media, news, blogs, videos, forums and reviews. You get Boolean search and filters for sentiment, reach, language and source, along with reports, storm alerts and Slack or Teams notifications.

It suits marketing teams that want analysis and reporting on top of keyword tracking.

Its home page lists these sources: X, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Spotify, news, LinkedIn, blogs, forums, reviews, Reddit, Telegram, TripAdvisor, app stores and TikTok.

The standout feature is storm alerts, which flag unusual spikes in mentions.

Pricing, checked 17 October 2026: Individual is $249 a month ($199 a month billed annually; 3 keywords, 2,000 mentions a month). Team is $349 ($299 annually), Pro $499 ($399), Business $699 ($599), and Enterprise starts at $1,499 a month billed annually. There's a 14-day free trial.

Mention has standard alerts, set up through a query builder, and advanced alerts that take custom Boolean queries up to 2,000 characters. Notifications arrive by email or desktop push, and it adds sentiment, share of voice and reports. The home page says Agorapulse has acquired Mention.

It suits teams that write elaborate queries and are happy to buy through a demo.

Status. The home page says Agorapulse has acquired Mention.

Sources. Facebook, Instagram, X, Reddit, TikTok, Pinterest, YouTube, news, blogs, forums and 75+ review sites.

Standout. Boolean queries up to 2,000 characters.

Price (checked 17 October 2026). Not listed. The pricing page shows a single "Company" plan with a "Get a demo" button, and the price field was empty when we checked.

Mentionlytics works from keyword rules: 3 on Basic, up to 100+ on Enterprise. It adds AI sentiment, emotion analysis, clustering and dashboards, plus push and email alerts and Boolean search.

It suits marketing teams that want keyword rules and analysis at mid-range prices.

Sources: Web (news, blogs, forums), X, TikTok, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Reddit, Bluesky and Threads, with reviews as an add-on.

Standout: continuous updates on Advanced and above.

Price (checked 17 October 2026): billed yearly, Basic is $49 a month (3 keyword rules, 5,000 mentions), Essential $141, Advanced $249, Pro $416, Business $624, and Enterprise from $1,083. There's a 14-day free trial with up to 3 keywords.

HearBuyers is ours. Instead of starting with keywords, you paste your website and it works out the search phrases buyers use, plus buyer roles, problems, competitors and subreddits, all of which you can edit. It then reads public posts on X and Reddit, scores each one for buying intent from 0 to 100, and shows the sentence behind the score.

Matches at or above your threshold (70 by default) get a drafted reply, which a person approves and posts. It watches the subreddits you choose plus Reddit search, so it doesn't cover all of Reddit, and it covers only X and Reddit.

Sources: X posts and replies, and Reddit posts and comments in the subreddits you choose plus Reddit search. Hacker News is next.

Standout: the score and highlighted sentence take the place of sorting keyword matches by hand.

Price: free for 14 days with no card, then from $19 a month.

1. Start with the phrases, not the tool. Write down the exact words a buyer would use. "Alternative to Tool A" beats "Tool A".
2. Pick sources by where your buyers write. Reddit and X need different tools from the open web.
3. Test how each tool handles noise. Run a keyword for three days and count the matches you would act on.
4. Check delivery. Email works for individuals. Teams are better served by Slack or webhooks.
5. Watch the caps. Plans limit keywords, mentions and filters.
6. Prefer filters you can read. A rule you wrote is easier to fix than a hidden model.

Reddit's public data access changes between 31 October 2026 and March 2027, so any tool that reads Reddit from outside may cover less during that window. Later for Reddit, for example, announced on 3 October 2026 that its posting will stop on 1 January 2027. Ask each vendor what it will be able to read on Reddit after the change.

Watching social platforms, forums and the web for words you choose, and getting an alert when they show up.

Google Alerts covers the open web. F5Bot covers Reddit, Hacker News and Lobsters. See free social listening tools.

Use exact phrases, exclude terms such as job and giveaway, and monitor specific communities. Tools with filters or scoring cut more of the noise.

Yes, if the keywords are buyer phrases. See Reddit keyword alerts and X keyword alerts.

Write five buyer phrases and run them in two tools for a week, then compare how many matches you would reply to. Our F5Bot alternatives page shows how to go from free alerts to scoring.

*Product names belong to their owners, and HearBuyers isn't affiliated with any of them. Facts about other products come from their own pages on the dates shown.*