7 Meltwater Alternatives for Social Media & Media Monitoring

Founded in 2001, Meltwater is a long-established social media marketing and consumer intelligence platform. Originally a media monitoring company, Meltwater now has an expansive suite of products. Yet it isn’t the right option for every marketing team. And it has plenty of competition.

Below, we’ll compare features, pricing, and reviews for seven of the top Meltwater alternatives. By the end of the article, you’ll know whether the best choice for your team is Meltwater or a competing tool, such as:

Ready to dive in and test a top competitor? Sign up for Agorapulse and trial our top-ranking social media management and social listening platform for 30 days.

What Is Meltwater?

Meltwater is a media, social, and consumer intelligence platform designed to help brands unlock their competitive edge. With its tools, marketers can publish content, engage with customers, and analyze insights. All of its tools combine AI technology with human expertise so you can make data-driven decisions efficiently.

Meltwater products

Meltwater has eight products, which you can purchase separately or in combination. The Meltwater suite includes:

• Social media management to publish content and engage with followers
• Social listening and analytics to monitor brand mentions and keywords on social media
• Influencer marketing to discover influencers and manage campaigns
• Consumer intelligence to perform market research and track customer sentiment
• Media intelligence to identify earned media placements and understand sentiment
• Media relations to connect with journalists and manage PR campaigns
• Sales intelligence to manage prospecting and outreach campaigns
• Data and API integration to connect Meltwater with your tech stack

Meltwater pricing

If you want a clear answer about the cost of Meltwater, the platform’s pricing page will disappoint you. It lists basic information about the platform’s three plans (Essentials, Suite, and Enterprise), with no pricing in sight.

Instead, you have to contact Meltwater’s sales team for a custom quote. The platform’s pricing structure is based on the products you want, the number of users to onboard, and the total capacity you need.

So, what’s the typical cost of a subscription? Our Meltwater pricing research led to a quote of $15,000 per year for social media management and social listening, with capacity for four users and 16 social profiles.

Reasons to consider an alternative to Meltwater

If you aren’t looking to spend $1,000 or more per month on a social media and media monitoring tool, the price alone may convince you to consider a Meltwater competitor instead. But before you make a decision, take a look at some of the most common issues users have had with the platform.

Usability issues

Even regular users find Meltwater difficult to navigate. As this G2 reviewer explains, using the platform can be cumbersome, causing team members to waste time browsing self-service knowledge center documents.

Scheduling glitches

If you depend on Meltwater for social media management, you may end up creating more work for your team. This G2 reviewer discusses scheduling glitches, issues with connecting social profiles, and disappearing posts.

Social listening inaccuracies

A reliable social media listening tool should save time and analyze mentions and keywords efficiently. This G2 reviewer is one of many who mention issues with incorrect listening results and inaccurate sentiment analysis.

Poor customer service

When you pay more than $1,000 per month for a software subscription, you expect reliable support. But this G2 reviewer is one of many who cite poor customer service—including a decline in support quality over the years.

Best Meltwater Alternatives for Social Media Management and Media Monitoring

Meltwater has a long list of features and capabilities. But it isn’t necessarily the best in all of these areas. Whether you want a better-rated platform or a tool dedicated to a specific solution, consider these top Meltwater competitors instead.

1. Agorapulse

Agorapulse is a top-rated social media management solution that offers publishing, engagement, listening, and reporting. Using our platform, you can schedule social media posts, manage your social inbox, listen for brand mentions, understand sentiment, and report on results—all from a single dashboard.

With Agorapulse, you can also collaborate with team members and colleagues. Our post and inbox assignment features make it easy to route items to the right person, and our shared calendars let you keep clients and stakeholders in the loop.

Need to prove the value of your social media efforts? With Agorapulse’s social ROI reports, you can track the value of every channel, profile, campaign, or post. Then, you can use the data to improve your strategy.

Meltwater vs Agorapulse

As a solution dedicated to social media management, Agorapulse lacks the consumer intelligence and media relations tools that Meltwater offers. Despite this difference in capabilities, G2 users prefer Agorapulse over Meltwater.

On G2, Agorapulse outranks Meltwater in all major areas, from usability to quality of support to product direction. Users also consider Agorapulse a much better business partner.

G2 reviewers far prefer Agorapulse for social media management, rating our platform higher in 19 out of 23 social media management and analytics categories. And while media and brand monitoring is a major selling point for Meltwater, G2 reviewers rate Agorapulse higher in five out of 10 monitoring and listening categories.

Consider Agorapulse over Meltwater when you want a highly rated social media management platform that can scale to fit your team and your social profiles. From publishing and engagement to listening and reporting, our platform can handle all your social media needs.

If you do need a solution for media relations or influencer marketing, consider purchasing a dedicated tool to use alongside Agorapulse. It’s likely that together, they’d cost less than Meltwater’s monthly subscription price.

Agorapulse pricing

Unlike Meltwater, Agorapulse has transparent pricing. We offer five plans, including a free option:

• Free: $0 per month for one user and three social profiles
• Standard: $49 per user per month (billed annually) for 10 social profiles and basic social tools
• Professional: $79 per user per month (billed annually) for 10 social profiles and team tools
• Advanced: $119 per user per month (billed annually) for 10 social profiles and advanced tools
• Custom: Personalized pricing and user capacity for large brands and agencies

You can customize any of our paid plans. Add more users by multiplying the base price, and add more social profiles for $10 each per month (billed annually).

You can also add our advanced social listening to any paid plan. Each social and web search costs $40 per month.

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2. Sprinklr

Sprinklr is a unified customer experience platform that brings marketing and customer service teams together. Its products are designed to help large customer-facing teams share data and work more efficiently.

Altogether, Sprinklr has four products:

• Sprinklr Social for social media management
• Sprinklr Insights for listening and analytics
• Sprinklr Marketing for influencer and content marketing
• Sprinklr Service for customer support teams

Meltwater vs Sprinklr

Meltwater outranks Sprinklr products in most major categories. But overall, G2 reviewers have the most positive outlook on the product direction of Sprinklr Insights.

Consider Sprinklr as a Meltwater alternative if your organization needs a strong solution for customer service in addition to social media, consumer intelligence, and influencer marketing. Sprinklr Service is the highest-rated Sprinklr product on G2, and it adds more functionality to an already full-featured platform.

Sprinklr pricing

Sprinklr prices each product suite separately. Its self-serve social media management solution starts at $199 per seat per month (billed annually).

However, its consumer intelligence and influencer marketing solutions are only available as enterprise plans. Each has custom pricing.

3. Brandwatch

Brandwatch is a social suite for managing content, monitoring brands, and doing in-depth research. It’s an enterprise solution designed for large agencies and brands.

Like Sprinklr and Meltwater, Brandwatch offers different products:

• Social media management for publishing, engagement, listening, and reporting
• Consumer intelligence for market research and AI-powered data analysis
• Influencer marketing for influencer discovery and campaign management

Meltwater vs Brandwatch

Meltwater and Brandwatch have similar capabilities, making the two platforms relatively easy to compare. As this G2 comparison shows, reviewers prefer Brandwatch’s social media management and consumer intelligence tools in all major categories.

Brandwatch also outperforms Meltwater in every feature category aside from follower analysis and attribution. Consider Brandwatch when you want a Meltwater alternative that’s easier to use and that has better support and more powerful features.

Brandwatch pricing

Like Sprinklr, Brandwatch prices each product suite separately. And like Meltwater, Brandwatch doesn’t list any pricing details publicly.

However, our Brandwatch pricing research revealed that plans have historically started at $1,000 per month. Since this subscription fee includes social media management only, the cost would be higher to add on consumer intelligence and influencer marketing.

4. Semrush

Think of Semrush only for SEO research? Semrush is a marketing platform that helps brands improve visibility online. Its capabilities extend far beyond social media. Semrush also has tools for brand monitoring, influencer marketing, SEO, and content marketing.

However, social media management and media monitoring aren’t Semrush’s core offerings. The base product includes SEO and content marketing only, while other features are available as add-ons.

Meltwater vs Semrush

Unlike many options on this list, Semrush has more capabilities than Meltwater. And as you can see in this G2 comparison, Semrush outperforms Meltwater in key areas like usability, support, and product direction. In fact, the only areas where reviewers prefer Meltwater are broadcast, print, and local media monitoring.

Consider Semrush over Meltwater when you want an all-in-one solution for digital marketing. But be prepared to pay extra for any Semrush apps and integrations beyond the standard toolset.

Semrush pricing

Semrush has three standard plans. Each supports a single user, but you can add more for $45 per month.

• Pro: $117.33 per month (billed annually) for five projects and SEO and PPC tools
• Guru: $208.33 per month (billed annually) for 15 projects, plus content marketing tools
• Business: $416.66 per month (billed annually) for 40 projects, plus enterprise tools

You can add Semrush Social to any plan for $29.99 per month. Semrush apps for media monitoring cost $39 per month, while the platform’s influencer marketing apps cost $169 per month.

5. Sprout Social

Sprout Social is a social media management platform with tools for creating content, scheduling posts, and responding to follower questions. It also has premium tools for listening to customer conversations, connecting with influencers, and extending social reach via employee advocacy.

Meltwater vs Sprout Social

Compared to Meltwater, Sprout Social lacks some capabilities. While Sprout Social does offer social media management, social listening, and influencer marketing, it lacks consumer intelligence and media relations.

As you can see in this Meltwater and Sprout Social comparison, G2 reviewers consider Sprout Social a superior tool overall. In fact, G2 reviewers prefer this platform in almost every social media management category.

However, G2 reviewers prefer Meltwater for most social listening and media monitoring features. This may be a result of Sprout Social offering listening as a premium add-on only.

Consider Sprout Social as an alternative to Meltwater when you want a social media management tool but you have another solution in place for social listening and media monitoring.

Sprout Social pricing

Sprout Social has four plans. Aside from the Enterprise plan, each allows one user. To add more, multiply the base price by the number of users to need to onboard.

• Standard: $199 per seat per month (billed annually) for five social profiles and basic social media tools
• Professional: $299 per seat per month (billed annually) for unlimited social profiles and AI tools
• Advanced: $399 per seat per month (billed annually) for unlimited profiles and customer service tools
• Enterprise: Custom plans based on team size and needs

None of these plans include social listening or influencer marketing. Sprout Social prices these tools separately as premium add-ons. Our Sprout Social pricing research discovered that advanced listening alone costs an extra $999 per month.

6. Hootsuite

As a social media management platform, Hootsuite has tools for creating AI-powered content, handling engagement, and reviewing social media analytics. It also has tools for launching and analyzing social ads.

Meltwater vs Hootsuite

Like many tools on this list, Hootsuite isn’t designed as an all-in-one platform for social media, influencer marketing, and media monitoring. As a result, it has fewer capabilities than Meltwater.

Yet Hootsuite meets more users’ requirements, as this G2 comparison of Hootsuite and Meltwater reveals. And while Hootsuite rates better in terms of usability and business partnership potential, Meltwater offers better support and has a more positive product direction.

Consider Hootsuite as an alternative to Meltwater when your primary need is a solution for organic and paid social media management. Just know that you’ll likely need a separate tool for social media monitoring, PR, and influencer marketing.

Hootsuite pricing

Hootsuite has three plans, each of which supports a different number of users and social accounts.

• Professional: $99 per month (billed annually) for one user and 10 social accounts
• Team: $249 per month (billed annually) for three users and 20 social accounts
• Enterprise: Custom pricing for large brands and agencies

Similar to Sprout Social, standard Hootsuite pricing doesn’t include social listening. Instead, advanced versions of Hootsuite’s listening, inbox, and analytics tools are available as add-ons for an extra cost.

7. CisionOne

CisionOne is a PR and communications platform. It has tools for media monitoring, social listening, and media analytics. The platform uses AI to analyze mentions, helping brands evaluate their online presence efficiently.

It also has tools for connecting with members of the media. With CisionOne, you can use journalist databases and relationship management tools to land more strategic earned media placements.

Meltwater vs CisionOne

As this comparison of Meltwater and CisionOne shows, G2 reviewers give the two platforms similar ratings in most categories. However, Meltwater far outperforms CisionOne in terms of positive product direction.

Consider CisionOne if you need a dedicated platform for PR and communications. If you need a solution for social media management or influencer marketing, plan to purchase a separate tool.

CisionOne pricing

CisionOne doesn’t provide any information about plans or pricing. All plans are custom, so you’d need to get a quote from the sales team.

Next Steps for Choosing a Meltwater Alternative

Meltwater tends to be a popular choice for enterprise teams and agencies that want a single platform for social media, PR, media monitoring, market research, and sales outreach. But a complex all-in-one platform isn’t the best tool for every team.

When you want a top-ranked alternative for social listening and social media management, Agorapulse is a smart solution. Whether you need a social media marketing suite for a small team or a large agency, Agorapulse has the tools you want—plus the support you need to maximize the value of your investment.

Ready to see how our platform works for your social media team? Try Agorapulse for free.