14 Meltwater Alternatives for Social Media Monitoring in 2025

Meltwater is one of the most widely known media monitoring platforms used by brands and agencies to track conversations across news, broadcast, and social media. While it is powerful, it also comes with enterprise-level pricing, long-term contracts, and a steeper learning curve than some new or smaller teams might need.

As a result, many organizations explore Meltwater alternatives that provide similar capabilities with more flexible pricing or simplified features. This guide highlights 14 options, outlining their pros, cons, pricing, and best use cases to help teams make informed decisions.

Meltwater is a media intelligence and social listening tool that helps organizations understand how they are being mentioned and perceived across multiple channels.

Key features include:

• Monitoring online news, blogs, forums, social media, and broadcast outlets
• Sentiment analysis for positive, negative, and neutral coverage
• Competitor benchmarking and social media trend detection
• Custom dashboards and automated reports
• A journalist database for PR outreach and pitching
• Real-time alerts for faster response to crises or opportunities

Meltwater is robust, but its cost and complexity often lead organizations to evaluate alternative platforms that better fit their resources and priorities.

Before choosing an alternative, it helps to see how the top tools compare on price, strengths, and industry fit. Here’s a decision matrix for an at-a-glance overview:

Curious how Meltwater stacks up to competitors? We've explored tools and read hundreds of G2 reviews to determine the most popular Meltwater alternatives and how they compare.

1. Dash Social 

Dash Social provides social media management, AI-powered content suggestions and insights, and content scheduling. It is designed for social teams that need actionable data and seamless publishing tools. Unlike Meltwater, which focuses heavily on PR and media monitoring, Dash Social zeroes in on social media workflows and engagement.

Pros:

“Very intuitive platform and beautifully simple design. I especially love the AI Summary feature that lets you condense a huge page worth of info into a paragraph. It saves me time when building reports for leadership, and the interface is easy for our team to learn. Reporting is thorough and scheduling is straightforward.” (G2 Reviewer)

Cons:

“The AI image predictor was not always 100% accurate for us in terms of accuracy. We also experienced some API limitations with TikTok and Meta data, which meant certain metrics didn’t pull in right away. It wasn’t a deal breaker, but it created extra manual checks for us.” (G2 Reviewer)

Pricing: Engage plans starting at $999 per month with unlimited users

Best for: Fashion, Beauty, Retail, Lifestyle, Enterprise

2. eMedia Monitor

eMedia Monitor specializes in real-time broadcast monitoring across radio and TV. This makes it especially valuable for industries that rely on traditional media coverage. Compared with Meltwater, it offers stronger broadcast depth but does not match Meltwater’s breadth across PR, online, and social channels.

Pros:

“The transcription quality is high, with support for multiple recognition languages. We also successfully integrated the service through the API, everything runs smoothly and reliably. A special mention goes to the managers: they are always responsive, quick to react, and often go the extra mile to help resolve issues. We recommend this service as a reliable tool for TV monitoring.” (G2 Reviewer)

Cons:

“One area for further improvement could be adding more flexible API capabilities, including options related to video length, to make the system even better suited for integrations.” (G2 Reviewer)

Pricing: Custom quotes; pricing depends on the number of regions and broadcast channels included in the package.

Best for: Government, Education, Public Broadcasting, Nonprofits

3. Media Watcher

Media Watcher tracks mentions across online news, blogs, and social platforms. It helps brands keep tabs on their reputation and coverage without overwhelming complexity. Its monitoring is narrower than Meltwater, which combines PR distribution and advanced analytics in one suite.

Pros:

“Media Watcher covers more than 200 million sources worldwide, including podcasts, broadcast, social platforms, and online news. Real-time alerts and multilingual sentiment analysis make it useful for monitoring across regions.” (Media Watcher)

Cons:

“Unlike competitors with extensive review histories on platforms like G2, Media Watcher has fewer public user testimonials, making it more inflexible to verify customer support and usability. Reporting customizations are also less clearly documented compared to bigger enterprise suites.” (SourceForge)

Pricing: Custom quotes; typically mid-tier pricing, generally more affordable than enterprise platforms like Meltwater.

Best for: Healthcare, Local Media, Education, Nonprofits

4. Brand24

Brand24 monitors social media and online mentions in real time, with social media marketing tools to assess sentiment and spot emerging conversations. It’s a popular choice for smaller businesses or teams that need quick, affordable monitoring. While Meltwater serves enterprise needs with broader data and analytics, Brand24 shines in accessibility and ease of use.

Pros:

“Brand24 is easy to set up and very intuitive. I like the sentiment analysis and the ability to track mentions across different platforms quickly. The dashboard is clear, and reports are easy to share with clients or colleagues.” (G2 Reviewer)

Cons:

“The biggest drawback is the mention limits. Once you exceed your cap, you have to upgrade, which can get expensive if you’re tracking multiple brands or campaigns. The navigation could also be a bit smoother.” (G2 Reviewer)

Pricing: Plans start at $99 per month for the Individual plan, with Pro plans beginning at $149 per month.

Best for: Technology, CPG, Food and Beverage, Media and Entertainment

5. Prowly

Prowly is PR software that streamlines media outreach with journalist databases, digital newsrooms, and press release distribution. It is user-friendly and designed to support PR professionals at every stage of pitching. Meltwater overlaps here but offers deeper monitoring and analytics beyond PR outreach.

Pros:

“Prowly makes it so much easier to manage media contacts and send out press releases. The CRM features save hours of work, and the UI is clean and simple to use.” (G2 Reviewer)

Cons:

“The media monitoring side is not as strong as competitors. Real-time tracking sometimes lags, and if monitoring is the main goal, you may need an additional tool.” (G2 Reviewer)

Pricing: Plans start at $258 per month.

Best for: Beauty, Publishing, Media and Entertainment, Luxury

6. Brandwatch 

Brandwatch delivers powerful social listening, consumer insights, and audience analysis backed by AI. It’s highly regarded for visual dashboards and data granularity. While Meltwater provides broad monitoring, Brandwatch stands for its strong visual data storytelling.

Pros:

“The platform has incredible depth. The data visualization and trend analysis tools are excellent, and I can pull insights quickly for reports. It’s great for keeping track of consumer sentiment at scale.” (G2 Reviewer)

Cons:

“The platform can feel overwhelming at times. There’s a steep learning curve, and smaller teams might find it too complex for day-to-day monitoring.” (G2 Reviewer)

Pricing: Custom pricing, typically starts above $1,000 per month with costs scaling significantly for enterprise access.

Best for: Fashion, CPG, Food and Beverage, Financial Services

7. Hootsuite

Hootsuite is built for day-to-day social management, with solid scheduling, a clear content calendar, a shared inbox, and approvals that keep teams aligned. Meltwater includes publishing, but its strength lies in media intelligence, with broader news and social monitoring, deeper listening, and analytics that surface trends and sentiment. Choose Hootsuite when you need to plan and publish efficiently. Choose Meltwater when you want richer market listening, competitor tracking, and earned media reporting.

Pros:

“Hootsuite makes it easy to manage multiple accounts from one place. Scheduling posts across platforms saves us hours every week, and the reporting tools are straightforward for quick insights.” (G2 Reviewer)

Cons:

“The pricing gets expensive as you add more users and accounts. The interface can also feel dated compared to newer competitors, and advanced analytics are limited without upgrades.” (G2 Reviewer)

Pricing: Plans start at $99 per month for the Professional plan, higher-tier Business and Enterprise plans are available at custom pricing.

Best for: Education, Retail, Travel and Hospitality, Publishing

8. Sprinklr

Sprinklr is an enterprise platform built for customer experience management across social, digital, and ads. It excels at unifying social listening, publishing, and customer care within one environment. Compared to Meltwater, Sprinklr’s strength lies in end-to-end customer experience (CX) management, while Meltwater leans more on earned media and PR insights.

Pros:

“Sprinklr provides robust analytics and reporting across multiple channels. The ability to integrate social listening, publishing, and customer care into one platform is extremely valuable for global teams.” (G2 Reviewer)

Cons:

“The platform is very complex, and the learning curve is steep. Smaller teams may find it overwhelming, and the price point makes it difficult for non-enterprise organizations.” (G2 Reviewer)

Pricing: Custom pricing, generally positioned at the high end of the market, with enterprise packages starting around $199 per user per month and scaling with features.

Best for: Health and Wellness, Financial Services, Telecommunications, Government

9. Talkwalker

Talkwalker offers AI-powered social listening, media monitoring tools, and consumer intelligence. It is well known for its image and video recognition, which helps brands track visual content as easily as text mentions. Like Meltwater, it targets enterprise clients, but Talkwalker is often chosen for its advanced visual analytics.

Pros:

“Talkwalker is one of the best for real-time listening. It monitors across multiple channels, including social media, news, and blogs, and the dashboards make it easy to see trends and sentiment quickly.” (G2 Reviewer)

Cons:

“The platform is very powerful but not always easy to use. It requires training to get the most out of it, and the pricing makes it best suited for larger organizations.” (G2 Reviewer)

Pricing: Enterprise plans typically start around $9,600 per year, with costs scaling based on features, users, and data coverage.

Best for: Media and Entertainment, Food and Beverage, Travel and Hospitality, Luxury

10. Khoros

Khoros provides tools for social media management, customer engagement, and online communities. It helps brands foster stronger relationships and manage customer interactions across channels. While Meltwater excels in monitoring PR and media coverage, Khoros focuses more on customer care and community engagement.

Pros:

“Khoros makes it easy to manage large-scale community engagement and customer conversations. The ability to integrate with CRM systems and pull analytics into one place is a huge advantage.” (G2 Reviewer)

Cons:

“The platform is powerful, but it can feel overwhelming at times. Reporting isn’t always as intuitive as it should be, and setup takes more time than expected.” (G2 Reviewer)

Pricing: Plans typically start around $4,800 per year, with costs scaling based on users, integrations, and feature needs.

Best for: Travel and Hospitality, Retail, CPG, Media and Entertainment

11. CisionOne 

CisionOne delivers PR solutions, including monitoring, media databases, and press release distribution. It’s designed to connect communicators with journalists and measure campaign impact. Compared with Meltwater, it is a direct competitor but is often chosen for its emphasis on PR workflows and media relations.

Pros:

“Cision’s media database is unmatched. Being able to access journalists and influencers globally in one place makes PR outreach much more effective.” (G2 Reviewer)

Cons:

“The platform can feel clunky, and reporting isn’t always as intuitive as competitors. It also gets expensive quickly if you need more features.” (G2 Reviewer)

Pricing: Subscriptions typically begin around $10,000 per year, with costs increasing for add-ons like press release distribution and global monitoring.

Best for: Media and Entertainment, Publishing, Luxury, CPG

12. Revuse

Revuse specializes in tracking customer reviews and feedback across platforms. It helps brands understand sentiment directly from consumers. Unlike Meltwater, which focuses on earned media and social listening, Revuse zeroes in on reputation through reviews and ratings.

Pros:

“The platform is fantastic for turning customer feedback into actionable insights. It helps identify trends and pain points in reviews that we’d otherwise miss.” (G2 Reviewer)

Cons:

“The tool is strong on feedback analytics, but it doesn’t offer as much for social media monitoring compared to other platforms.” (G2 Reviewer)

Pricing: Packages starting in the mid-thousands per month, depending on data volume.

Best for: CPG, Health and Wellness, Food and Beverage, Home

13. Agorapulse

Agorapulse is a social media management tool with scheduling, inbox management, and analytics features. It is known for its simplicity and clear reporting, making it a good fit for small to mid-sized teams. Compared to Meltwater, it is more affordable and easier to adopt, but lacks deep PR and news monitoring.

Pros:

“Agorapulse has the easiest interface I’ve used. The unified inbox is a game changer for community management, and reports are simple to generate.” (G2 Reviewer)

Cons:

“Listening and analytics are somewhat limited compared to more expensive enterprise tools. For global teams, it may lack depth.” (G2 Reviewer)

Pricing: Entry-level plans start at $49 per month, with advanced plans scaling up to $119 and more per month for additional profiles and reporting.

Best for: Beauty, Fashion, Publishing, Retail

14. Muck Rack 

Muck Rack is a PR platform focused on media relations with journalist databases, pitching tools, and monitoring. It is particularly strong for teams that want to build relationships and secure coverage. While Meltwater offers similar PR functions, Muck Rack specializes more in connecting communicators directly with journalists.

Pros:

“On the media monitoring front, Muck Rack does a good job of capturing earned media coverage across digital sources. Alerts are timely and accurate, and the platform helps us keep track of brand mentions and campaign performance. For general tracking needs, it performs well and is a reliable tool for staying on top of PR results.” (G2 Reviewer)

Cons:

“It’s great for PR outreach, but the monitoring isn’t as comprehensive as competitors. Adding broadcast coverage would make it stronger.” (G2 Reviewer)

Pricing: Subscription pricing is nott public; most reviewers note contracts starting around $10,000 per year, with higher tiers for enterprise features.

Best for: Media and Entertainment, Luxury, Publishing, Travel and Hospitality

What is Meltwater used for? 

Meltwater is a media intelligence and social listening platform. It helps organizations track mentions across news, broadcast, and social media, analyze sentiment, benchmark competitors, and manage PR outreach with journalist databases.

How much does Meltwater cost? 

Meltwater’s pricing is not publicly disclosed, but most reports indicate that typical contracts range from $15,000 to $20,000 per year, with enterprise packages costing between $30,000 and $45,000+ annually, depending on features, regions, and data coverage.

Are there free Meltwater capabilities? 

No, Meltwater does not offer a free plan.