Is there a tool out there that would make a good alternative to Meltwater? As one of the leading providers of SaaS solutions for online Media monitoring, Meltwater is a logical choice.

However, we tested out its closest competitors and can now be confident to say this – it’s not the only such tool that deserves your attention.

Why look for Meltwater competitors?

Meltwater is a Social Media monitoring tool that helps users track and analyze what is being said on the internet about the brands they follow. In addition to media monitoring, outreach, and social listening, Meltwater provides a few social media management features (although it’s far from being a true social media manager).

A lot of attention has been paid to the user interface, so it looks really good after being tuned up by the user. Another of Meltwater’s strong points is the broad range of analytics it provides. All reports contain useful data presented in attractive graphs and charts. Nevertheless, there’s not much you can do to customize them.

Have you heard that this solution is user-friendly and won’t take you long to master? Unfortunately, you might be disappointed in this regard. Based on our analysis and the opinions of many users, we are forced to conclude that the tool is actually only easy to use at the beginning. The more you want to set up, the harder it becomes.

Navigation through the whole interface is rather tough to configure at first. It’s not surprising – cramming so many functions into one place can be a challenge.

Meltwater doesn’t provide any pricing information, but it is considered an expensive solution in the industry. So the only question is whether or not the price is reasonable for the quality. Among user opinions, the term “clunky” doesn’t work in its favor.

Meltwater pros and cons:

• All-in-one solution that combines media monitoring, listening, and social media engagement
• Modern UI
• Easy to set up

• Limited customization options
• Frequently occurring errors
• Difficult to master
• Many people complain about poor-quality customer service

Meltwater competitors to consider

So, what are the alternatives? Here are our suggestions:

1. Mediatoolkit

Mediatoolkit is an online monitoring tool that gives marketers control over brand, product, or service mentions instantly and in any language. It’s especially helpful for managing brands’ reputations online and dealing with any unexpected crises.

It simplifies the workflow thanks to such features as real-time notifications via Slack channels and spike alerts, which send the user instant notifications whenever their brand generates a higher volume of online buzz than usual.

What we like most about Mediatoolkit’s interface is that it is simple to use, so anyone can quickly learn how to use it effectively (as confirmed by many user opinions). 

What’s more, Mediatoolkit provides advanced ready-made reports as well as fully customizable reports. That’s why you can gain comprehensive analytics on your social media monitoring without spending hours on it.

Pros:

• Easily navigable, smooth interface
• Detailed competitor, mention, and trend monitoring in every language
• 24/7 email notifications with customizable frequency and limits
• White label solution to brand your own ready-to-use media monitoring tool
• Filtering features with several advanced options to give precise and relevant results
• Detailed customizable reports that can be exported to PDF, Word, Excel, or PowerPoint
• Boolean operators for collecting all kinds of keywords, creating context, and avoiding exceeding mention limits

Cons:

• Doesn’t offer advanced filtering options on the mobile app
• Lack of print, radio, and television monitoring

Pricing info:

Members get 25 queries, 50,000 mentions, unlimited keywords, and unlimited users for $399 per month. Most features are already included in the lowest-priced plan. You can try Mediatoolkit on a 7-day free trial without providing credit card details.

2. Agorapulse

With Agorapulse, you can keep all of your marketing activities organized. it’s a complete, all-in-one solution combining social media management and monitoring features, so, it’s no surprise that many well-known companies effectively use this tool.

In particular, Agorapulse is useful for teams seeking a tool that streamlines their social media work. This tool is geared more toward planning and scheduling than monitoring social media directly, which is why it provides useful collaboration features but not advanced tracking options.

Therefore, it is necessary to remember that media monitoring is only a bonus here (yet still effective).

Pros:

• Clean dashboard and intuitive UI
• Inbox for managing social media messages
• Agorapulse Academy and certification course
• Additional features that streamline collaboration such as assigning specific roles to members

Cons:

• Focused more on social media management than monitoring
• Basic reports that do not provide many insightful details (customization costs extra)
• Mobile app users sometimes find it glitchy

Pricing info:

The Agorapulse plan (recommended for small businesses) starts at $93 per month. It provides a 30-day free trial without requiring credit card details.

3. Hootsuite

Hootsuite covers almost every aspect of marketers’ work, helping them to manage organic and paid social media content, measure performance, as well as share and schedule social media posts. Using this tool properly can quickly increase a team’s productivity. However, how does it work as a social media monitoring solution?

Although it’s an all-in-one social media tool, it doesn’t have its own monitoring solution. Instead, Hootsuite’s monitoring features are powered by Brandwatch or Talkwalker, another Meltwater alternative.

The tool is mainly known for a user-friendly interface that can be effectively used even by beginners. It’s easy to navigate through and self-teach. The solution strongly emphasizes the development of social media skills by offering expert certifications, training, and coaching in social marketing, social listening, and customer care.

Pros:

• Features that facilitate collaboration within teams, such as comments and task assignment
• Capability of managing comments on social media profiles
• Hootsuite education platform includes free webinars and videos that assist users in navigating the system more effectively

Cons:

• Uses third party solutions for social media monitoring
• Insufficient analytics options
• The cost of additional features drives up the price of the product

Pricing info:

Hootsuite’s pricing varies between $19 and $599 per month depending on the set of features and number of users. It provides a 30-day free trial.

4. Brandwatch

Brandwatch is a social media analytics tool focused more on the needs of large companies than those of smaller businesses. The tool appeals more to those looking for a data-driven interface than one that is visually appealing.

It includes filters and metrics that help you to manage obtaining results easily. Apart from the usual social media monitoring features, it provides AI-powered solutions like image analysis and auto segmentation.

Brandwatch is a tool that doesn’t cause any problems with setting it up. Nevertheless, many users complain about the interface being hard to learn, especially when it comes to building queries.

Pros:

• Robust analytics features
• Newly updated interface with a very modern design
• Historical data available as far back as 2010

Cons:

• Vague pricing structure
• Not equipped with advanced alerting options
• Queries require a learning curve (and are challenging for non-techies)
• Unreliable sentiment classification

Pricing info:

Brandwatch does not provide pricing information. However, some sources say that Brandwatch Analytics costs are increasing from their current starting price of $1,000 per month (but this has still not been confirmed).

5. Mention

Mention is a tool that combines social media monitoring features with listening solutions. It’s a powerful tool for tracking mentions, but many companies use it mainly as a social media management tool.

By using Mention, you can monitor what is being said online about brands and products, get comprehensive analytics about their industries, and measure the results of your marketing and PR efforts.

Unfortunately, it’s not a super user-friendly tool and can be challenging to master, especially for beginners. Among the available opinions, we found many warnings. For example, the tool’s search function has some bugs that can lead to missed noteworthy mentions (which shouldn’t happen when this is its primary function).

Pros:

• Clean interface
• Calculates the popularity of sites that talk about your brand
• Additional social media management features
• Useful industry reports

Cons:

• Users often criticize customer support
• It doesn’t offer many third-party integrations
• Occasionally, it misses crucial mentions if searches aren’t set up correctly
• It can take time to get familiar with this platform

Pricing info:

Mention’s prices range from $34 to $234 per month. The platform offers a free trial that lasts 14 days, plus a demo of its customizable plan for large enterprises.

6. Sendible

Sendible is a social media management platform designed for agencies looking to manage social media more effectively. It does not focus on monitoring social media but rather on planning, scheduling, and facilitating team collaboration.

Sendible is, without a doubt, an ideal platform for the creation of social media marketing campaigns. However, its real-time monitoring still needs some improvement and there are no advanced features in this regard.

Sendible offers nice one-click reports, but we recommend it only to those who are looking for basic information and don’t need insightful data analysis. It is a good tool to help keep your daily routine organized and schedule posts easily, but you won’t get much out of its analytics.

Pros:

• Intuitive interface, easy to understand and use
• Features that streamline team collaboration
• Regular updates to eliminate errors

Cons:

• Monitoring social media is not its primary focus
• Real-time monitoring options need some improvements
• Reporting features are limited and don’t allow for sufficient customization

Pricing info:

Sendible’s cheapest plan costs $29 per month and is recommended for getting started. With more advanced features, the monthly costs range from $89 to $199. All plans include a free 14-day trial.

As a final note

What can you do to make sure that your chosen tool is the right Meltwater alternative? The only way to know is to try. Take advantage of the fact all of them offer free trials and test them out for yourself. You will soon discover which one is the best for your business.

Don’t you know which one to start with? We’re not going to beat around the bush – try out Mediattoolkit (maybe this one will turn out to be the best Meltwater alternative?). See for yourself!

The post We Tried Out 6 Meltwater Competitors – Here’s Our Verdict appeared first on Mediatoolkit.