Top 15 Social Listening Tools for Brands for 2025
Social listening tools are all about getting a sense of the online consensus on your brand or business. What are people interested in seeing? What makes them click on your content?
Take it from us: social media is where you’ll find the most interesting (and helpful) conversations circling around about your brand.
But you can’t “listen in” on everything people say on the internet; it’s just not possible. Unless? Social listening software, QR code generators, and graphic design platforms all work in tandem to make this happen—and we have them all.
We’ve scoured the web to narrow down the best and brightest tools, so take a look at each of them and consider which one might work for you.
Table of Contents
What are social listening tools?
The art of social listening involves paying attention to online rants, raves, and everything else in between about certain brands on social media networks, such as Instagram, Facebook, X, and Reddit.
Whether they gain traction or not, these discussions make a difference.
This might look like a Discord community server where members share their thoughts on specific apps or brands. It could also be a TikTok personality wearing shoes that people notice and comment on.
This is where social listening tools come in. You can’t manually sift through every conversation across countless social media platforms, so these tools help you organize, track, and analyze customer engagement in one swift motion.
The best social listening platforms to look for
Ever wanted to be a fly on the wall? You can be with these intuitive social listening wonders.
BuzzSumo
BuzzSumo is a content marketing tool launched in 2014 and has since served thousands of businesses worldwide.
They accomplish this by doing the tedious research work for you and discovering interesting content ideas and trending topics that will likely do well.
With high-quality, data-backed content, you’ll soon notice a change in your social engagement and top rankings. Buzzsumo even has features that allow you to keep track of mentions and current popular keywords.
Pricing: Their basic plan starts at $199 per month for one user. This includes a content analyzer, access to trending feeds, and a question analyzer.
Hootsuite
Hootsuite lies at the top of this shortlist of social listening tools for good reason. It is a favorite platform among social media teams and is known for the smooth social media management of small and big businesses alike.
They have social listening features such as “Insights,” which monitor competitor activity via sentiment analysis. Another popular feature, “Streams,” helps users watch for mentions, keywords, and trending hashtags.
This tool works well if you want an all-in-one platform for managing social media. It also makes scheduling social calendars easy and visually pleasing, a feature many use the app for.
Pricing: Hootsuite’s basic Professional plan is $99 monthly and billed annually. However, their most popular option is Team, which costs $249 monthly and lets you manage up to 20 social accounts.
Brandwatch
If you’re looking for a comprehensive social listening platform that performs in-depth data analysis, Brandwatch is a stellar choice.
Brandwatch is trusted by the world’s biggest brands, like Unilever, Toyota, and Nestlé. Why? They conduct research that delves deep across various social networks, bringing structure to billions of thoughts.
Keep up with a fast-paced digital landscape by keeping an eye on consumer opinion, creating smart content strategies, organizing your social content calendar, and engaging with customers in all the right places.
Pricing: This is available upon scheduling a free demo and directly submitting a request for specific pricing plans to Brandwatch’s sales team.
CisionOne
CisionOne, ideal for managing public relations (PR), is a communications platform that works best to identify influential figures for outreach, trace media coverage, and reduce potential risks to public image.
Like Brandwatch, this platform performs thorough social listening research and reveals insights into social metrics, arranging the data into personalized reports.
You can also use CisionOne to schedule and publish posts and access an impressive database of contact information for journalists and media outlets.
Pricing: You can fill out a form to book a demo with a CisionOne expert. You can also request pricing options by submitting another form at the bottom of their page.
Agorapulse
Agorapulse is one of the best digital marketing tools for small businesses.
They act as your personal digital marketing manager, always ready to oversee your social media accounts and prepare social listening reports that you can share with your clients or present to executives.
This user-friendly tool centralizes social media response automation, software integrations, and comment moderation so you can focus on improving customer experience without switching between solutions.
Pricing: Agorapulse's Standard plan is $49 per month when billed annually; however, it goes up to $69 if you choose to be billed monthly. You can also test the waters by trying their 30-day free trial.
Keyhole
This is another great social listening platform that also doubles as one of the best social media marketing tools out there. It handles the technical aspects of your online presence so you can concentrate on building your brand.
Keyhole’s social media tracking features allow you to stay ahead of global conversations and monitor competitors on Instagram, Facebook, X, YouTube, and more.
Another cool feature they have is volume predictions, which basically measure your posts’ virality, giving you the legroom to capitalize on potential marketing opportunities.
Keyhole also helps you spot trends from prominent news sources like CNN and the Guardian, bringing the most relevant information to the forefront.
Pricing: Keyhole’s social listening features can be accessed at a starting price of $99 per month.
Mention
If you’re a freelancer or a small business owner, this may be the social listening wizard you’re looking for. It offers a range of affordable plans for features that you’d otherwise pay more for with other platforms.
What Mention does best is it instantly tracks and analyzes brand mentions from over a billion sources in real-time. They even observe customer sentiments, such as positive and negative feedback, to inform future marketing efforts.
Pricing: Mention’s Solo plan costs $49 per month for one user. To access reporting features, you can upgrade to Pro at $99 per month.
YouScan
Nothing beats YouScan’s AI-powered analysis of text, images, and consumer profiles. They stand out with their image-reading functions, which can describe your audience, what they do, and what they say.
With 5.22 billion social media users worldwide, understanding online sentiments is a vital data point that cannot be overlooked.
Once you know how others feel about your brand, you can adjust your marketing efforts accordingly to align with consumer expectations.
Pricing: YouScan has two major plans (one for startups and another for unlimited use). The full pricing options are available upon request.
Meltwater
Meltwater is one of those social media listening tools that dives into the thick of conversations about your brand and comes out with the most meaningful insights.
With Meltwater’s media intelligence, you can drown out the noise of millions of voices and reach the audience you know will listen. The data this platform collects can reveal their needs by peeling back what they’re saying online.
Furthermore, you can stay five steps ahead of potential brand crises as Meltwater swiftly detects sentiment shifts and jumps into action at the appropriate moment.
Pricing: You can choose from three main plans (Essentials, Suite, and Enterprise), which are available upon request.
Talkwalker
If you manage a multinational corporation or enterprise, Talkwalker may be the ideal option. It specializes in tracking global brand health and social benchmarking against competitors.
Talkwalker has AI-run analytics that evaluate online discourse in a whopping 192 languages. This ensures no stone is left unturned in understanding a more complete global brand perception.
They also use AI and human search to trace new trends across 30 social networks, over 150 million websites worldwide, and 239 countries.
Another impressive social listening feature is Talkwalker’s ability to find and establish partnerships with the right influencers. This allows you to connect your audience with reliable and trusted voices in the industry.
Pricing: Talkwalker offers four main pricing packages (Listen, Analyze, Business, and Premium), with Business being the most popular. Pricing is available upon request.
Synthesio
Synthesio gives you the confidence to navigate your social media by using market research methods to track current conversations around the world.
It has a special Noise Reducer feature that immediately eliminates any irrelevant mentions and drives your data set in the direction of genuine consumer impressions.
However, what really makes Synthesio stand out is that it allows users to customize their AI models for specific reasons. This tool is best for those with social listening experience searching for something more sophisticated.
With Synthesio, you can make personalized classifiers that merge with AI models to accurately categorize online exchanges.
Pricing: Since Synthesio is an enterprise-level software, pricing is available upon request. This is because the price will vary depending on the user’s needs.
Exolyt
TikTok, today’s most popular short-form video-sharing platform, has grown exponentially in the last few years. Out of 5.4 billion internet users, 19.26% actively use TikTok monthly.
This growth paves the way for platforms like Exolyt. Its focus on TikTok conversations allows you to monitor what people say, track certain hashtags, accounts, and videos, and gather insights about them.
If your energy leans toward growing your brand on this highly influential social platform, then Exolyt could be a promising tool to plan your content in a strategic and informed way.
Pricing: Exolyt offers a free basic plan (no credit card required) that allows you to track one TikTok account. You can also upgrade to Essentials at €250 per month, which allows you to track up to 50 accounts.
Awario
This list of tools for social listening wouldn’t be complete without Awario. This one gains high praise for its web mention tracking and backlink monitoring features.
Their tracking covers everything from social media and blogs to news articles and online forums. Awario is also more affordable than most and can be incredibly useful for PR campaigns.
Pricing: Awario offers a Starter plan for $29 monthly with 1 team member and a more popular plan, Pro, for $89 monthly with 10 team members.
AnswerThePublic
AnswerThePublic collects keyword search volumes and sifts through them to help you discover hidden niches, trends, and content ideas.
You can receive updates about certain keywords that people are discussing in fresh ways and find interesting questions and related phrases, allowing you to make research-based business decisions.
Pricing: All of their plans offer a 7-day free trial. An Individual plan costs only $5 monthly, Pro at $49, and Expert at $99.
Sprout Social
Tap into different audience preferences by monitoring millions of sentiments and conversations about specific products or campaigns. Sprout Social specializes in a number of ways, one of these being crisis management.
They offer custom alerts and sentiment analysis that anticipate when certain conversations take a turn. Industry analysis is another area where Sprout Social shines, identifying critical trends for market growth.
Pricing: Sprout Social offers a 30-day free trial to test its features. It offers various plans with monthly or annual billing options.
Other software that boosts social media engagement
Aside from social listening, here are some other digital tools that can help you manage and promote your online presence even further:
QR TIGER QR Code Generator
QR TIGER, an advanced all-in-one QR code maker, can be a flexible addition to your social media marketing toolkit.
They have a wide range of QR solutions for different use cases; however, their social media QR code is especially handy in drawing attention to your social platforms.
With an easy-to-use interface that allows new users to navigate the page smoothly, you can store links to all of your profiles in a single code and share it with the world instantly.
This software is trusted by thousands of brands worldwide for good reason. It has helped make some of the best QR code marketing campaigns to date, such as Hershey’s Kisses video message campaign in 2023.
Pricing: QR TIGER offers a 30-day free trial during which you can test its premium features. They have plans for individuals and businesses, from a Regular plan at $7 monthly to Enterprise at a custom cost.
Connect others to your socials with a QR code
Create and share a QR code that holds your online social presence all in one place with an advanced QR code maker:
- Go to QR TIGER’s dynamic QR code generator and log into your account.
- Select the Link Page QR code solution, then choose the social media icons you want to include and enter the URL or ID information in the corresponding data fields.
- Click Generate dynamic QR code.
- Customize your QR code with your brand colors and explore different patterns, eyes, and frames. Upload your logo to encourage brand recall.
- Test-scan your QR code, then click Download to save it.
Pro tip: Sign up for QR TIGER's freemium plan to create up to three free dynamic QR codes easily. Alternatively, you can try any of the paid plans to enjoy advanced features such as tracking and analytics.
Canva
This graphic design software is a favorite among many small businesses and marketing teams because of its expansive collection of free templates for different social platforms, graphic elements, font options, and team features.
Canva's brand kit makes it easy to create visually compelling, brand-aligned, and consistent images for your social media posts.
Pricing: Canva also offers a 30-day free trial. Their Canva Pro plan costs $119 a year and includes 1TB of cloud storage, while their Canva Teams plan costs the same for a minimum of three people.
TIGER FORM
This comprehensive online form builder is another QR code-based platform you mustn’t ignore.
It creatively reinvents the traditional paper forms we’re used to seeing (and dreading) by prompting respondents to scan a QR code that leads them to a fully customized digital form.
They have a myriad of templates for any occasion, from surveys and registration forms to quizzes and polls. One of the best parts about TIGER FORM is its advanced tracking and integrations with CRM software.
With TIGER FORM, you can generate leads and offer your audience a direct channel to share their thoughts and opinions about your brand by incorporating form QR codes into your social media posts and emails.
You can likely find these QR codes in marketing campaigns or customer feedback forms and in almost any industry needing efficient form sharing and data collection.
Pricing: TIGER FORM has a freemium plan that can be upgraded anytime to access more advanced features. The Starter plan, at $278, is for one user or team, while Enterprise is available upon request.
Upsides of using social listening software
Here are a few major reasons why you should consider incorporating social listening tech in your social media management:
Understand your audience
One of the many highlights of using social listening software is being able to dive deep into your audience’s thoughts, ideas, and needs and tailoring your content to align with that and current trends.
Once you have a decent understanding of your target demographics through sentiment analysis reports, you can be steps ahead of potential issues and address them at an early stage.
Social media tracking features
Many businesses see the value of investing in high-end social listening services for real-time monitoring.
Monitoring shifts and patterns in online conversations and mentions of your brand is crucial in maintaining a positive and consistent public brand image.
Have a competitive advantage
Of course, competitor analysis is another major benefit of social listening.
They are great as benchmarking tools, helping you gauge your brand's position in a competitive market and identify successful campaigns that can also work for you.
By observing what others in your industry are doing, you can devise ways to differentiate yourself and stand out among the crowd. .gif)
Listen well and empower your social media strategy
Today, there are so many social listening platforms that it can be overwhelming to sift through them all to find the hidden gems.
In a saturated market, we’ve gathered the best and most indispensable tools for businesses of all sizes. Before considering which one is right for you, first, identify what you want to achieve with your social media strategy.
Of course, consider important factors, such as specific features and budget. Each platform has its own strengths and weaknesses, so strike a balance between the two when you pick your tool.
Also, don’t miss out on incorporating other useful software in your social media campaigns and management!
This might include a reliable QR code generator to put your socials on the map or graphic design tools to make beautiful brand-aligned content.
FAQs
What is the goal of social listening?
Its goal is to gather valuable insight into public online conversations and understand the social climate surrounding relevant keywords, influencers, topics, and platforms.
Is social listening difficult to do?
It can be difficult without the proper tools to segregate important information from irrelevant ones. Social listening software helps by tracking and organizing only the data that matters.
Why use social listening tools?
They help brands identify emerging industry trends, gauge how people feel about your brand or products, and tailor their content to resonate with their target audience.
