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Most social media listening tools are pricey. Enterprise tools like Talkwalker, Brandwatch, and Meltwater can cost $6,000–$50,000+ per year.
For small businesses, freelancers, solopreneurs, and creators, that’s way out of budget.
The good news is, there are low-cost and even completely free social media listening tools out there. Here we’ll look at some of the best free social media listening tools along with some other affordable options to help you find the best one for you.
Let’s dive in.
What Is Social Media Listening?
Social media listening is the practice of monitoring online conversations to understand what people are saying about your:
- Brand
- Product
- Competitors
- Industry
- Content
- Campaigns
- Trends you’re participating in
Social media listening goes beyond monitoring mentions. Instead, listening looks for indirect and unfiltered conversations happening anywhere online, even when you’re not tagged or mentioned by name. It provides a high-level look at what people are saying and can help you learn more about:
- Customer sentiment: Are your customers happy? Confused? Angry? Indifferent?
- Customer needs: Listening gives you real-time ideas based on what audiences are curious about right now.
- Competitor weaknesses: When customers complain about your competitors, this provides insight into how you can improve your positioning.
- Risk or PR issues: If sentiment around your brand is going sideways, it’s best to know about it early and get ahead of it.
- Product improvement ideas: People tell the internet everything, including what they wish your product did better.
- Influencer or advocate discovery: People who already love you are easier to partner with than cold outreach targets.
- Trend detection: Listening helps you keep pace with changing audience preferences and cultural shifts.
4 Completely Free Social Media Listening Tools
Free listening tools are rare nowadays. Most platforms have either eliminated free plans or heavily restricted data. Still, there are meaningful free options worth trying. Here are a few I tested out.
1. Metricool (Free Plan)
Price: Free plan available. Paid plans start at $22/month.
Best for: Creators and small business owners already using Metricool for scheduling.
While Metricool is usually categorized as a scheduler and analytics suite, its free plan includes decent social monitoring features across TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, X, and LinkedIn. (Note that Instagram data is limited due to limitations in Instagram’s API.)
Metricool offers:
- Hashtag tracking.
- Mention monitoring.
- Competitor benchmarking.
I found Metricool to be clean, modern, and beginner-friendly. You can create reports, visualize performance, and monitor audience conversations from the same dashboard you use to schedule content.
2. Talkwalker Free Social Search
Price: Limited free plan available. Paid plan pricing upon request.
Best for: Beginners, students, freelancers, early-stage startups, or creators needing quick, top-level insights without cost.
Talkwalker is one of the top enterprise tools in the world. Major brands, PR firms, government agencies, and global companies use its full platform. But what many people don’t know is that they offer a completely free public tool called Social Search that tracks mentions on X, YouTube, news, forums, and podcasts.
Social Search lets you:
- Track brand mentions across multiple platforms.
- Pull basic sentiment insights.
- Analyze trending topics.
- Compare terms side-by-side.
- Review the last 7 days of conversations.
It’s not as deep as Talkwalker’s enterprise tool, but it’s shockingly useful for a free, no-account-required product.
When I tried it out, I found that Social Search loads fast, has a clean UI, and presents data visually. You don’t get exports or dashboards, but for simple insights, it’s one of the best free options available.
3. Kwatch.io
Price: Free plan available. Paid plans start at $19/month.
Best for: Solopreneurs and small businesses that only need monitoring, not full analytics.
Kwatch.io is a simple but powerful keyword alerting tool. You enter a keyword or brand name, and it notifies you when it appears online in social media. Kwatch can monitor keywords in real time across:
- Hacker News
- X
- YouTube
Kwatch is lightweight and fast. Setup takes less than 60 seconds, and alerts come through email or dashboard notifications. You can set it up to notify you by Slack or another system in your stack. With higher-level plans, you can even get AI-powered sentiment analysis.
4. F5Bot
Price: Free plan available. Paid plans start at $12.99/month.
Best for: Simple Reddit monitoring.
Reddit monitoring has become more important over the last year or so as Reddit continues to gain followers and show up in search results. F5Bot offers a simple way to monitor Reddit, whether as a whole or in specific subreddits. Simply sign up, enter your keywords, and you’ll get an email every time your keyword or brand is mentioned.
Affordable Social Media Listening Tools
If you need more features than what free plans provide, you’ve still got options. Here are a few social media listening tools that aren’t free, but are lower-cost and provide great value.
Social Champ
Price: Paid plans that include social listening start at $8/month.
Social Champ is a solid social media listening tool, and one that’s also affordable. You can track brand name and keyword mentions across Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Reddit, and LinkedIn for as little as $8/month. I love Social Champ’s clear reporting around listening, which provides the total number of alerts across channels, as well as trending hashtags and popular phrases around those mentions. You also get:
- Sentiment analysis around your brand.
- Top emojis used.
- Engagement associated with your mentions.
- Popular phrases.
How to Choose the Right Social Media Listening Tool
Still not sure which social media listening tool you should try? Here’s how to make the right pick based on your goals and limitations.
What platforms do you need tracked?
Different tools specialize in different platforms:
- All platforms + web coverage: Brand24, Awario
- News and blogs: Talkwalker Social Search
- Reddit: Kwatch.io, F5Bot
Choose a tool based on where your audience spends time.
How many keywords do you need to monitor?
If you only need one brand name, one hashtag, or one product, a free, lightweight tool might work just fine.
If you need competitor monitoring, branded vs. unbranded keyword clusters, or customer pain point tracking, you’ll likely need to look at a paid option.
Do you need real-time alerts?
Real-time alerts are critical for:
- Brands with active customer feedback.
- Companies dealing with high-volume reviews.
- Crisis management.
- Fast-moving industries (tech, finance, sports, entertainment).
Cheaper tools typically offer email or push notifications. Enterprise tools offer full alerting dashboards and ways to receive instant alerts.
Read: Things to Avoid When Managing Social Media for a Brand
Do you want sentiment analysis?
Sentiment analysis tells you whether:
- Mentions are positive, negative, or neutral.
- The conversation is trending in the right direction.
- There are emerging PR risks.
Tools that offer good sentiment analysis include:
- Brand24
- Mentionlytics
- Awario
Most free tools do NOT include it.
What’s your monthly budget?
Budget will be a big factor in which social media listening tool you choose. Here’s a quick overview.
- $0: Talkwalker Social Search, Metricool (free), Kwatch.io
- $10–$50: Awario (low tier), Notifier
- $50–$90: Brand24, Mentionlytics
- $300+: Talkwalker, Brandwatch, Meltwater (enterprise)
Use this as a guide based on your current needs and growth stage.
Final Thoughts
Social media listening doesn’t have to drain your budget. With a thoughtful combination of free and affordable tools, you can monitor conversations, identify trends, improve your content strategy, and stay ahead of both opportunities and threats.
At Softailed, we provide the tools to help you find and compare the best software for your needs. That’s why we tested 40+ social media software providers to come up with our top picks for the best social media management tools. Check it out, and get more tips on how to choose the right software for you in How to Compare Software.
