Best media monitoring tools, compared by source and price

Google Alerts emails you when new results for a topic show up in Google Search. You choose how often (as-it-happens, daily or weekly), sources (news, blogs, web, video, books, discussions or finance), language and region. It is free and needs a Google account.

It suits anyone starting out or covering a few names. Its best point is that it costs nothing and takes a minute to set up. The limit is that it only reports what Google Search surfaces, with no scoring, no team inbox and no Slack. See how to set up Google Alerts. Checked 17 October 2026.

Awario tracks conversations across social media, news, blogs, videos, forums and reviews. Its source list includes X, Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, YouTube, Vimeo, blogs, forums, news and the web, and it says it crawls over 13 billion web pages daily. It suits small agencies and in-house marketers.

Its standout feature is price. Starter is $49 a month, or $29 billed annually, with 3 topics and 30,000 new mentions a month. Pro is $149 ($89 annually) and Enterprise is $399 ($249 annually). The free trial gives Starter access with no card.

One limit to know about: per its FAQ, exports are only on Pro and Enterprise. Checked 17 October 2026. See the Awario review and Awario vs Mention.

Brand24 calls itself an AI social listening tool. Its home page lists X, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Spotify, news, blogs, forums, reviews, Reddit, Telegram, TikTok and more, along with sentiment, reach and influencer analysis, reports, and alerts to Slack and Microsoft Teams. It suits marketing teams who want a polished dashboard.

Its standout feature is reporting. Plans (monthly price, then per month billed annually) are Individual $249 ($199), Team $349 ($299), Pro $499 ($399) and Business $699 ($599), with Enterprise from $1,499 a month billed annually. A 14-day trial is offered.

One limit to know about: the pricing page shows per-plan source availability in icons, so confirm your sources on your plan. Checked 17 October 2026. See Brand24 vs Mention and the Brand24 pricing guide.

BrandMentions lists brand monitoring, reputation management, media monitoring and business intelligence as use cases, with AI sentiment and reports. It suits resellers and agencies, which it names.

Standout: tiers by keywords and mentions. Starter is $99 a month billed quarterly (5 keywords, 5k mentions). Pro is $299 monthly, Expert $499 and Enterprise from $1,299. The trial is 7 days.

One limit: the pricing page we read showed monthly figures only, so annual prices are unconfirmed. Checked 17 October 2026. See the BrandMentions review.

Mentionlytics lists web (news, blogs, forums), X, TikTok, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Reddit, Bluesky and Threads, plus reviews as an add-on, podcasts and Telegram. Features include AI sentiment, emotion analysis, share of voice and dashboards. It suits teams that want AI summaries.

Standout: a 14-day trial with all features. Prices billed yearly: Basic $49, Essential $141, Advanced $249, Pro $416, Business $624, Enterprise from $1,083, each a month. The page showed yearly prices, so those are the only figures we quote. Checked 17 October 2026.

Mention's home banner says Agorapulse acquired it. The site lists social listening and media monitoring, with Boolean alerts, sentiment, share of voice and white-label reports. It names Facebook, Instagram, X, Reddit, TikTok, Pinterest and YouTube, plus news, blogs, forums and 75+ review sites. It claims over 1 billion sources, a vendor figure.

It suits teams comfortable buying through a demo. Its pricing page shows one "Company" plan with the price field rendered empty, so we treat the price as not listed. One limit worth knowing: its FAQ says the "Publish" and "Respond" features are being progressively deprecated. Checked 17 October 2026.

Meltwater covers media intelligence, social listening, AI visibility tracking, media relations and influencer marketing for PR and communications leaders. Plans are Starter, Pro, Enterprise and Agency, each marked "Contact Sales".

Standout: PR workflow breadth. Price: its FAQ says pricing is tailored, with most agreements annual and a 12-month minimum. There is no self-serve trial, only a free guided demo.

A fair limit: you cannot see a price before a call. Checked 17 October 2026. See the Meltwater pricing guide.

Cision's site describes CisionOne as a media intelligence platform for monitoring, analytics and influencer engagement. Media Monitoring covers print, online, TV, radio, social, podcast and magazine coverage. It suits PR and communications teams that report on traditional press.

Standout: broadcast and print coverage listed by name. Price: the pricing page redirects to a "Request Pricing" form, with no plans or trial. The Cision family also includes Brandwatch and PR Newswire. Checked 18 October 2026.

Talkwalker is now called Lumen by Talkwalker as it moves closer to Hootsuite. It lists social listening, media monitoring, benchmarking and audience insights. The pricing page offers Core, Analyze and Business plans, all with unlimited users. It says it covers 30+ social platforms and 150 million data sources.

Price: "Pick your plan to get a custom quote", no figures. The plans differ by results volume and topics, so size your needs first. Checked 17 October 2026. See the Talkwalker pricing guide.

Brandwatch's suite includes Consumer Intelligence, Search Intelligence, Social Media Management, Influencer Marketing and Media Intelligence & Insights. The site now shows "Brandwatch + Cision" for global enterprises. Its plans page says each product has plans from standard to enterprise but lists no prices, only a "Schedule your free demo" form.

It suits enterprise analysts. One fair limit: you can't compare prices before a demo. Checked 17 October 2026. See Brand24 vs Brandwatch.

Media monitoring is a different job from what HearBuyers does. HearBuyers (ours) does not track press coverage, broadcast or brand sentiment. It reads public posts on X and Reddit, scores each for buying intent and drafts a reply a person approves. If your goal is leads rather than coverage, see our social listening list.

1. List the sources you must cover. Press in print and broadcast points to Cision or Meltwater. Social and web mentions point to the mid-priced tools.
2. Match reports to your audience. Check for PDF, white-label or scheduled reports.
3. Size the mention limit. Plans cap mentions each month, for example 5,000 on Mentionlytics Basic, so estimate your volume first.
4. Trial on your own names. Run two tools on the same brand and compare what each missed.

It means tracking where your brand, people or topics appear in news, blogs, social posts and broadcast, and getting alerted when they do.

Google Alerts is free, but it only reports Google Search results. Several paid tools offer trials.

Media monitoring covers press and publications. Social listening covers conversations. Many tools do both, which is why they appear on both lists. Our social media monitoring list covers the second.

Meltwater, CisionOne, Talkwalker and Brandwatch price by quote. Their pages cite sources, volume, users and contract terms as factors.

Next step: list the ten names you most need to hear about, run two tools on them for a week, and compare what each missed.