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Social listening tools

Free social listening tools in 2026: what is really free, and what it costs after

· Nolyn research team

Social listening means tracking what people say about a brand, a competitor, a product or a topic across social networks, forums, news and reviews. Most articles about free social listening tools list paid suites with a trial. We checked 11 tools plus two enterprise suites on their own websites on October 24, 2026 and split them into what stays free and what becomes a subscription, with each free plan's limits and the cheapest paid plan. Prices are as each vendor's US page shows them, before tax. For e-commerce teams we also show the cheaper path many of them need: on-demand research on the posts, comments and reviews that matter, instead of a monitoring subscription.

What are the best free social listening tools?

Only a few tools are free for good: Google Alerts and Talkwalker Alerts for the web and news, F5Bot for Reddit and Hacker News, Social Searcher for quick searches, and TikTok's Creative Center for trending hashtags. The full listening suites are trials: Brand24 for 14 days and Hootsuite for 14, both without a card, Sprout Social for 30, and the cheapest paid plan we found was Awario at $29 a month billed yearly (all checked on the vendors' sites on 2026-10-24).

How we checked

  • Free plans, trial lengths, card requirements, cheapest paid plans and the sources each tool covers were read on each vendor's own pricing and product pages on 2026-10-24. Where a vendor does not publish something, we say so instead of quoting third-party estimates.
  • "Free" means usable with no time limit. A free trial is listed as a trial.
  • We did not buy plans or fill in demo forms; descriptions are based on public pages, and coverage and AI features are as each vendor names them.
  • Nolyn is included for one job only, on-demand research on specific posts, comments, reviews and searches. It is not a monitoring tool and is not ranked against them on alerts or history.

Overview

ToolFree plan or trialCheapest paid planCovers
Google AlertsFreeNoneNews, blogs, web, video, discussions
Talkwalker Alerts + Free Social SearchFree; search covers the last 7 daysLumen by Talkwalker: not published (demo)Alerts: news, blogs, forums, X
F5BotFree$12.99/mo (20 keywords)Reddit, Hacker News, Lobsters
Social SearcherFree, no loginNo paid plan foundPublic posts indexed by search engines
TikTok Creative CenterTop 3 hashtags without login; more with a TikTok for Business loginNoneTikTok trending hashtags and videos
AwarioTrial, no card (length not stated)$29/mo billed yearly, $49 monthlyReddit, Instagram, X, Facebook, YouTube, Vimeo, news
Brand2414-day trial, no card$199/mo billed yearly, $249 monthlySocial incl. TikTok and Reddit, news, blogs, podcasts, reviews
Hootsuite14-day trial, no card$99/user/mo billed yearlyBrand and competitor monitoring; advanced listening on Enterprise
Sprout Social30-day trial, no card$79/seat/mo billed yearly; listening add-on price on requestListening as a paid add-on
BuzzSumo7-day trial, no card$199/mo billed yearlyWeb content and mentions, alerts
YouScanDemo only$499/mo billed annuallySocial, blogs, forums, reviews, news
Nolyn (on-demand research)100 credits at sign-upPlus $19/mo for 1,500 creditsSpecific TikTok, Instagram and YouTube posts and comments, Amazon reviews

Checked on each vendor's own site on 2026-10-24. Prices as shown on the vendors' US pages, before tax.

The tools, free ones first

1. Google Alerts

Best for: free email alerts when a brand or keyword appears on the webPrice: Free

Google Alerts emails you when new results for a search appear in Google's index. You choose the sources (news, blogs, web, video, books, discussions, finance), the language and region, and how often (as it happens, daily or weekly). It is the simplest way to hear about press coverage and blog posts about a brand or competitor. It does not cover social networks' own feeds, and it shows no volume, sentiment or reach.

Pros

  • Free, no limits stated
  • Setup takes a minute
  • Good for press and blog mentions

Cons

  • No social network feeds
  • No dashboard, volume or sentiment
  • Only what Google has indexed
Google Alerts website

2. Talkwalker Alerts and Free Social Search

Best for: a free Google Alerts alternative that adds X and forums, plus a quick 7-day social searchPrice: Free; the paid platform, now Lumen by Talkwalker, is quoted on a demo

Talkwalker, now part of Hootsuite, still offers two free tools. Talkwalker Alerts sends email alerts from news, blogs, forums and X. Free Social Search shows the last 7 days of results from a limited set of its sources, with sentiment, and asks you to fill in a form before you use it. The full platform, Lumen by Talkwalker, has no published price.

Pros

  • Free and covers forums and X
  • 7-day search with sentiment
  • Backed by a large listening vendor

Cons

  • Free search covers only 7 days and a limited set of sources
  • Form before access
  • The paid platform is demo-only
Talkwalker Alerts and Free Social Search website

3. F5Bot

Best for: free alerts when Reddit or Hacker News mentions your brand, product or competitorPrice: Free; Silver $12.99/mo (20 keywords); Gold $49.99/mo (200 keywords, Slack, Discord, RSS, API)

F5Bot watches Reddit, Hacker News and Lobsters for your keywords and emails you instantly, in batches or as a daily digest. Reddit is where many buyers ask for product recommendations and complain about brands, and it is often missing from cheap tools. F5Bot says its free plan is free forever with no card; the site does not state how many keywords the free plan includes.

Pros

  • Free Reddit monitoring
  • Instant, batched or daily alerts
  • Paid plans from $12.99/mo

Cons

  • Only Reddit, Hacker News and Lobsters
  • No sentiment or analytics
  • Free keyword limit not stated
F5Bot website

4. Social Searcher

Best for: a quick, free one-off search across public postsPrice: Free, no login; we found no paid plan

Social Searcher is a search box for public social posts, based on data indexed by major search engines; it says it has no caps or daily limits and needs no login. On October 24, 2026 its site no longer mentioned saved searches, alerts or sentiment, and its pricing page returned a 404, so treat it as a free search tool, not a monitoring service. It does not name which networks it covers.

Pros

  • Free, no account
  • No stated limits
  • Fast for a one-off check

Cons

  • No alerts or saved searches
  • Networks covered not named
  • Only what search engines index
Social Searcher website

5. TikTok Creative Center

Best for: seeing which hashtags are trending on TikTok in your market, for freePrice: Free; full lists need a TikTok for Business login

TikTok's own trends pages, now branded TikTok One Creative Suite, rank trending hashtags and videos by market and period. Logged out, it showed only the top 3 US hashtags for the last 7 days on October 24, 2026; the rest needs a login, and the creators view said "coming soon". It is trend discovery, not brand monitoring: it will not tell you who mentioned your product.

Pros

  • Official TikTok data
  • Free
  • Filter by market and period

Cons

  • Top 3 only without login
  • Trends, not brand mentions
  • TikTok only
TikTok Creative Center website

6. Awario

Best for: the cheapest real monitoring subscriptionPrice: Starter $29/mo billed yearly or $49 monthly (3 topics, 30K new mentions a month); trial with no card

Awario is the lowest-priced full monitoring tool we found: it collects mentions of your topics from Reddit, Instagram, X, Facebook, YouTube, Vimeo and news, with sentiment and a topic cloud. Its pricing page does not label which price is monthly and which yearly; from its "save up to 40%" line we read $29 as billed yearly. Its FAQ gives a stored-mention range of 3,000 to 50,000 that does not match the 5,000 shown for Starter, so check limits during the trial.

Pros

  • Lowest published price
  • Reddit and major networks
  • Trial without a card

Cons

  • No free plan
  • TikTok not listed
  • Limits stated inconsistently
Awario website

7. Brand24

Best for: small brands that want broad coverage including TikTok, podcasts and reviewsPrice: Individual $199/mo billed yearly or $249 monthly (3 keywords, 2,000 mentions a month, 1 user, updates every 12 hours); 14-day trial, no card

Brand24 lists one of the widest source sets in this group: Facebook, Instagram, X, TikTok, YouTube, Reddit, LinkedIn, news, blogs, podcasts, reviews, newsletters, Twitch, Quora and Medium. It names AI features for sentiment, topic analysis, AI insights and an AI brand assistant. The 14-day trial is the best free way to see a full listening dashboard; after that the cheapest plan is a real budget line for a small brand.

Pros

  • Wide coverage incl. TikTok and podcasts
  • AI insights and sentiment
  • 14-day trial without a card

Cons

  • No free plan
  • Individual plan: 3 keywords and 12-hour updates
  • History length not published
Brand24 website

8. Hootsuite

Best for: teams that already schedule posts in Hootsuite and want basic monitoring with itPrice: Standard from $99/user/mo billed yearly; Professional $199; 14-day trial, no card

Hootsuite has no free plan. Its plans include monitoring your brand and competitors; Professional adds a 30-day Quick Search, and advanced listening powered by Talkwalker, with 13 months of history, is on Enterprise. It also names Wisdom AI and AI trend forecasting. Choose it for publishing plus light listening, not for listening alone.

Pros

  • Publishing and monitoring in one tool
  • 14-day trial, no card
  • Talkwalker listening on Enterprise

Cons

  • No free plan
  • Per-user pricing
  • Deep listening only on Enterprise
Hootsuite website

9. Sprout Social

Best for: agencies and teams on Sprout that need listening as an add-onPrice: Essentials $79/seat/mo billed yearly ($99 monthly); listening add-on from the Standard plan up, price on request; 30-day trial, no card

Sprout Social offers the longest trial here, 30 days without a card, but listening is a paid add-on whose price is not published. It names its Trellis AI agent, AI Assist and sentiment analysis. It suits teams that already run publishing and reporting in Sprout.

Pros

  • 30-day trial without a card
  • Publishing and listening in one tool
  • AI assistant

Cons

  • Listening is an extra add-on
  • Add-on price not published
  • Per-seat pricing
Sprout Social website

10. BuzzSumo

Best for: PR and content teams tracking articles and mentions on the webPrice: Content Creation $199/mo billed yearly (1 user, 2 alerts, 2 years of history); 7-day trial, no card

BuzzSumo is built around web content: which articles about a topic get shared, plus alerts for brand mentions, URLs and domains. It is useful for PR and backlink work, less for conversations inside social networks. Slack alerts start on its PR & Comms plan.

Pros

  • Strong for articles and PR
  • 2 years of history
  • 7-day trial without a card

Cons

  • No free plan
  • Only 2 alerts on the cheapest plan
  • Web content more than social conversations
BuzzSumo website

11. YouScan

Best for: brands that need AI analysis of images and logos, not just textPrice: Starter 3: $499/mo billed annually (3 topics, 15,000 mentions a month, unlimited users); free demo only

YouScan covers social networks, blogs, forums, reviews and news and names an Insights Copilot (10 questions a month on Starter), Visual Insights and aspect-level sentiment; image and logo recognition is on its Unlimited plan. It is the cheapest published price among the AI-first suites, but it is a demo-led sale with no trial.

Pros

  • AI copilot and aspect sentiment
  • Unlimited users
  • Published starting price

Cons

  • $499/mo billed annually
  • No free plan or trial
  • Image recognition on the top plan
YouScan website

12. Nolyn

Best for: e-commerce teams that need answers from specific posts, comments and reviews now, not a monitoring subscriptionPrice: Credits per task: about 39 credits for a YouTube comment analysis in our Oct 21, 2026 run; 100 free credits at sign-up; Plus $19/mo for 1,500 credits, Pro $49/mo for 4,000

Nolyn is not a listening platform: it does not crawl the web for every mention, keep a history or send alerts. It answers one research question at a time from public data: what viewers say under a competitor's video, what buyers complain about in Amazon reviews, which TikTok videos about a product are getting views. On October 21, 2026 we ran its YouTube comment exporter on a budget robot vacuum review (249,009 views, 155 comments): it read 67 top-level comments in 2–3 minutes, and of the 65 from viewers, 23 asked which robot to buy and 14 were about price, the kind of insight a seller would act on. If you want the same check every week, Nolyn can repeat a task on a schedule, but each run is still a fresh snapshot.

Pros

  • Pay per question, no subscription
  • Reads the actual comments and reviews behind each answer
  • Covers Amazon reviews, which listening tools mostly skip

Cons

  • No always-on monitoring, alerts or history
  • Only the posts, searches and products you ask about
  • Public data only
Analyze a video's comments

AI social listening: what the vendors actually offer

Almost every paid suite now names AI features, and they fall into three groups. Classification: sentiment and topic grouping, which most tools have had for years (Brand24, Awario, YouScan's aspect sentiment). Summaries and assistants you can ask questions: Brand24's AI Insights and AI Brand Assistant, YouScan's Insights Copilot, Brandwatch's Iris, Hootsuite's Wisdom AI and Sprout's Trellis. And image recognition, which finds a logo in photos without a text mention, offered by YouScan on its top plan.

None of the free tools above has an AI layer. The practical alternative is to collect the posts, comments or reviews yourself and ask an AI model to group them, which is what Nolyn's comment and review tools do for one video, post or product at a time, with counts you can check against the raw comments.

A free social listening stack for a small brand

If the budget is zero, combining the free tools covers most of what a small brand or seller needs:

  • Google Alerts and Talkwalker Alerts for your brand name, product names and main competitors (press, blogs, forums, X).
  • F5Bot for the same keywords on Reddit, where buyers ask for recommendations.
  • TikTok Creative Center once a week for trending hashtags in your category.
  • The platforms' own search, sorted by recent, for TikTok and Instagram mentions; save what matters in a sheet.
  • Amazon and marketplace reviews of your own and competitors' products, read in full once a month: the most direct listening an e-commerce brand has.

Enterprise suites with no published price

Brandwatch and Mention both sell through a demo. On October 24, 2026 Brandwatch's pricing page showed no prices and no trial, and Mention showed a single Company plan with no price, billed yearly, and said its publishing features are being phased out in favour of Agorapulse. Both are aimed at larger teams; we list them for completeness rather than as free options.

Which one to choose

You have no budget and want to know when your brand appears in news, blogs or forums
Google Alerts plus Talkwalker Alerts
Your buyers talk on Reddit
F5Bot (free), or its $12.99 plan for more keywords
You want a full dashboard for a month before deciding
Brand24 or Hootsuite (14 days) or Sprout Social (30 days), all without a card
You need always-on monitoring on the smallest budget
Awario Starter, $29/mo billed yearly
You need a specific answer now, such as what buyers say about a competitor's product
Nolyn, paid per task

Ask what people say about a product, now

Paste a competitor's video or product and Nolyn reads the comments or reviews and groups them into themes with counts. Sign in with Google; new accounts get 100 credits.

Analyze comments

Questions

Is there a completely free social listening tool?

Yes, for parts of the job: Google Alerts and Talkwalker Alerts for the web, news and forums, F5Bot for Reddit and Hacker News, Social Searcher for one-off searches and TikTok's Creative Center for trending hashtags. Full dashboards with sentiment across networks are paid, after a trial (checked 2026-10-24).

What is the cheapest paid social listening tool?

Of the tools we checked, Awario: $29 a month billed yearly or $49 monthly for 3 topics and 30,000 new mentions a month. F5Bot's paid plans start at $12.99 a month but only cover Reddit, Hacker News and Lobsters.

Which social listening tools have a free trial without a credit card?

Brand24 (14 days), Hootsuite (14 days), Sprout Social (30 days), BuzzSumo (7 days) and Awario (length not stated) all said no card was needed on 2026-10-24.

What is AI social listening?

Listening tools that use AI to classify sentiment and topics, summarise conversations, answer questions about them, or recognise logos in images. Examples named by vendors include Brand24's AI Brand Assistant, YouScan's Insights Copilot, Brandwatch's Iris and Hootsuite's Wisdom AI.

Is Hootsuite social listening free?

No. Hootsuite has no free plan; its plans start at $99 per user a month billed yearly after a 14-day trial, and advanced listening is on Enterprise. Its sister product Talkwalker still offers free alerts and a 7-day free social search.

Can Nolyn monitor my brand mentions?

Not continuously. Nolyn researches specific things on request, such as a video's comments, a product's Amazon reviews or a TikTok search, and can repeat a task on a schedule, but it does not crawl every mention or keep a history like a listening platform.

Sources

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