Tool data

What are the best AI social listening tools in 2026?

Noisely at $49/mo is the cheapest full listening platform; Awario at $29/mo the cheapest with intent scoring; Brand24 at $199/mo is the cheapest established player; Brandwatch and Sprinklr lead enterprise; OpenCorp is free for finding the Reddit and Hacker News threads worth replying to.

Twelve tools reviewed. The established platforms (Hootsuite, Sprout Social, Brand24, Talkwalker, Brandwatch, Meltwater, Sprinklr) were verified manually against each pricing page through September 1, 2026. The Reddit-focused tools (Linkeddit, Sniff, noldo.ai, Noisely) came out of OpenCorp's competitor-discovery run on August 18, 2026 — the queries are listed below.

Verified 2026-09-01

By Krishav Raj Singh, Founder, OpenCorp

How we picked these

Every tool on this list was checked against five criteria we apply uniformly across all OpenCorp comparisons:

Pricing transparency — public prices on the vendor's own page, no opaque sales calls for the entry tier.
Source coverage — the platforms your audience actually uses, not a checkmark on a marketing feature list.
Verified pricing — every number on this page was read off the vendor's pricing page on the date in the intro.
No auto-posting — we don't recommend tools that post or comment on your behalf without explicit per-action approval.
Reasoning, not just a list — every tool entry has a real best-for, not generic copy lifted from another comparison.

How this list was built

OpenCorp ran its competitor-discovery workflow on 2026-08-18 and searched these five angles, then every surviving tool was checked against its own pricing page:

“AI social listening tool for Reddit”
“Reddit monitoring tool with buying intent scoring”
“AI tool that finds Reddit leads and scores intent”
“social listening platform for Reddit and LinkedIn”
“affordable Reddit keyword monitoring for SaaS founders”

Tool	Price	Best for	Networks
Hootsuite	Standard $99/user/mo, Professional $199, Advanced $399; Enterprise custom	Marketing teams that want publishing + monitoring in one suite; real listening is Enterprise-only.	10 accounts (Standard) / unlimited (Pro+)
Sprout Social	Essentials $79/seat/mo, Standard $199, Professional $299, Advanced $399; Enterprise custom	Social teams needing publishing and customer care; listening sold as an add-on.	5 profiles (Essentials/Standard), unlimited (Pro+)
Brand24	Individual $199/mo, Team $299, Pro $399, Business $599; Enterprise from $1,499 (annual billing)	Growing brands that want listening-native monitoring across 15 source types.	15 source types (Facebook, Instagram, X, Reddit, LinkedIn, YouTube, TikTok, news, blogs…)
Talkwalker (Lumen)	Custom quote (Core / Analyze / Business)	Enterprises needing brand intelligence at scale; no self-serve pricing.	30+ platforms, 150M sources
Brandwatch	Custom (enterprise)	Enterprise brands with dedicated analyst teams and six-figure listening budgets.	100M+ sources across social, news, forums, review sites
Meltwater	Custom (expect $800+/mo)	PR teams that need media monitoring plus social listening in one stack.	Social, news, TV, radio, podcasts, print, blogs
Sprinklr	Custom (enterprise)	Large organizations (500+ employees) standardizing on one CX vendor.	30+ social and messaging channels
Linkeddit	$49/mo, $99/mo Compete, $450 lifetime	B2B teams that want intent scoring + reply drafts without per-mention metering.	Reddit
Sniff	Free; Pro $29/mo; Business $499/mo	Search-style discovery of posts across social networks, not alerts.	Multiple social networks (search-style)
noldo.ai	Free; Builder $29/mo; Scaler $99/mo	Founders validating product-market fit on Reddit with a generous free tier.	Reddit
Noisely	$49/mo Pro; custom enterprise	Product teams routing feedback across 22+ sources into Linear or Jira.	22+ sources (Reddit, HN, Quora, Bluesky, GitHub, YouTube, Trustpilot, G2…)
OpenCorp	Free	Finding the specific threads worth replying to before you write anything.	Reddit + Hacker News

Hootsuite

Hootsuite is the most established social suite: scheduling, inbox, and brand monitoring from $99/user/mo — but true listening ("advanced listening") only appears on the Enterprise tier.

Standard $99/user/mo billed annually: 10 social accounts, unlimited scheduling, AI post generation, unified inbox, brand and competitor monitoring.
Professional $199/user/mo: unlimited accounts, automated replies and workflows, 90-day trend forecasting, custom performance reports.
Advanced $399/user/mo: approvals, message routing, team performance reporting.
"Advanced listening" is listed only on Enterprise (custom quote) — the suite tiers stop at monitoring.
14-day free trial, no credit card required.

Pros

Most established social suite — long brand trust and broad partner ecosystem.
Talkwalker-powered listening is integrated into the same dashboard as publishing.
AI post generation, optimal send times, and unified inbox included on Standard.

Cons

Per-user pricing — 3 seats on Professional runs $600+/mo before any add-ons.
"Advanced listening" is gated to Enterprise; lower tiers stop at monitoring.
Limited coverage for developer-platform audiences (no HN, GitHub, Stack Overflow).

Source: hootsuite.com/plans

Sprout Social

Sprout Social bundles publishing, inbox, and customer care from $79/seat/mo, with keyword and location monitoring on Standard and up — listening is a separate add-on.

Essentials $79/seat/mo billed annually ($99 monthly): 5 profiles, publishing, optimal send times, post-level reporting.
Standard $199/seat/mo: 5 profiles, consolidated inbox, keyword and location monitoring, review management, Trellis AI agent.
Professional $299/seat/mo: unlimited profiles, message tagging, competitor and paid insights. Advanced $399/seat/mo adds sentiment, the API, and message spike alerts.
Listening is an add-on (sold with Premium Analytics) to Standard and up — not included in any base plan.
30-day free trial; annual billing.

Pros

Cleanest interface in the category — Smart Inbox and reporting are best-in-class.
30-day free trial is generous, more time than most competitors.
Trellis AI agent on Standard and above for inbox replies and tagging.

Cons

Per-seat pricing scales fast — three seats on Professional runs $900+/mo.
Listening is sold as a paid add-on, not included in any base plan.
No Reddit, Hacker News, GitHub, or Stack Overflow coverage — limited to mainstream social.

Source: sproutsocial.com/pricing

Brand24

Brand24 is the cheapest dedicated listening platform among the big names at $199/mo, covering 15 source types with AI sentiment from the entry plan.

Individual $199/mo billed annually ($249 monthly): 3 keywords, 2,000 mentions/mo, 1 user, updates every 12 hours.
Team $299/mo annual ($349): 7 keywords, 10K mentions/mo, unlimited users, hourly updates.
Pro $399/mo annual ($499): 12 keywords, 40K mentions/mo, realtime updates, AI sentiment, AI Insights. Business $599/mo annual ($699): 25 keywords, 100K mentions/mo.
Sources include Facebook, Instagram, X, Reddit, LinkedIn, YouTube, TikTok, news, blogs, reviews, newsletters, podcasts, and more.
14-day free trial; 30-day money-back guarantee.

Pros

Cheapest dedicated listening platform among the established names at $199/mo.
AI sentiment included from the entry Individual tier — most competitors gate it.
30-day money-back guarantee on top of the 14-day trial.

Cons

Mention limits restrictive on lower tiers (2,000/mo on Individual).
No coverage for developer platforms (Hacker News, GitHub, Stack Overflow).
Historical data thinner than enterprise tools like Brandwatch.

Source: brand24.com/prices

Talkwalker (Lumen)

Lumen by Talkwalker covers 150M sources across 30+ platforms with AI question-answering, but has no public prices — every plan is a custom quote.

No public prices: Core, Analyze, and Business plans are all custom quotes via demo.
Lumen covers 150M data sources, 30+ social platforms, 187 languages, and 196 countries.
Unlimited users, professional onboarding, and training included on every plan.
AI Agent answers natural-language questions over your data; LLM Insights tracks how AI assistants describe your brand.

Pros

Best multi-language coverage in the category — 187 languages with Blue Silk AI.
150M+ sources across 30+ platforms, with image and audio recognition built in.
Virality Map shows how content spreads across channels — useful for brand crises.

Cons

No public pricing — every plan is custom quote via demo.
Per-user base pricing plus a separate listening add-on gets expensive fast.
Account offboarding requires a third-party request (lock-in).

Source: talkwalker.com/pricing

Brandwatch

Brandwatch is the enterprise heavyweight: 100M+ sources, 1.4 trillion historical posts, Iris AI for natural-language queries over the archive. Custom pricing only — expect $1,000+/mo.

1.4 trillion historical posts and 70,000+ podcast transcripts — deepest archive in the category.
Iris AI query builder + 'Ask Iris' chat for ad-hoc analysis in plain English.
Best-in-class image and logo recognition; sentiment handles sarcasm and 40+ languages.
Demo-only access; weeks-long onboarding, no self-serve signup.

Pros

Deepest historical archive in the category — 1.4T posts, 70K+ podcast transcripts.
Iris AI natural-language query builder + 'Ask Iris' chat for ad-hoc analysis.
Best-in-class image and logo recognition; sarcasm-aware sentiment in 40+ languages.

Cons

Expect $1,000+/mo minimum — consumer intelligence at scale pricing.
Weeks-long onboarding; no self-serve signup.
Overkill for teams under 100 people that just need brand monitoring.

Source: brandwatch.com

Meltwater

Meltwater pairs social listening with journalist outreach and PR distribution. Covers TV, radio, podcasts, and print alongside social. Custom pricing — expect $800+/mo.

Mira AI assistant generates briefings and integrates with Microsoft Copilot.
GenAI Lens tracks how ChatGPT and other LLMs describe your brand.
Unified PR, social listening, and journalist contact database in one platform.
G2 rating 4.1/5 (~3,100 reviews); renewal price increases of 20%+ are common.

Pros

Unified PR, listening, and journalist contact database in one platform.
Mira AI assistant generates briefings and integrates with Microsoft Copilot.
GenAI Lens tracks how ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude describe your brand.

Cons

No public pricing — expect $800+/mo minimum on custom contracts.
Renewal price bumps of 20%+ are a recurring complaint in G2 reviews.
Journalist contact database has accuracy issues per multiple reviewers.

Source: meltwater.com

Sprinklr

Sprinklr is a unified customer experience platform — listening is one module among publishing, ads, and service. 30+ channels, advanced governance, custom enterprise contracts.

True Unified-CXM: listening insights flow into contact center queues, ad audiences, and community inboxes.
AI audit logs, role-based access, GenAI noise filtering.
Steep learning curve — multiple G2 reviewers call the interface cluttered.
No self-serve; demo plus long implementation cycle required.

Pros

True Unified-CXM — listening insights flow into contact center, ads, and community.
30+ social and messaging channels; image, video, and voice recognition.
Enterprise governance: AI audit logs, role-based access, GenAI noise filtering.

Cons

Steep learning curve — multiple G2 reviewers call the interface cluttered.
Enterprise-only pricing with long implementation cycles.
Way too complex for teams under 50 people.

Source: sprinklr.com

Linkedditfound by opencorp

Linkeddit runs scheduled Reddit keyword scans, scores buying intent, drafts replies from your knowledge base, and starts at $49/month or $450 lifetime.

Pro $49/mo: 5 monitors, 10 keywords + 10 subreddits each, daily/weekly/monthly cadence, intent scoring, AI reply drafts, lead-gen pipelines, Reddit CMS, MCP access.
Compete $99/mo: everything in Pro plus weekly competitor intelligence across G2, Capterra, TrustRadius, Trustpilot, Reddit, and competitor publications.
Pro Lifetime is a $450 one-time payment with the Pro feature set. Enterprise pricing is custom.
No per-mention metering and no keyword overage fees; monitors run alongside lead gen and the CMS.

Pros

$49/mo entry with intent scoring and reply drafts — lower than Sprout Social or Hootsuite.
$450 lifetime option for the Pro feature set, no recurring charges.
No per-mention metering; monitors run alongside lead gen and the CMS.

Cons

Reddit-only — no X, LinkedIn, Hacker News, or YouTube coverage.
Smaller community and less mature than Sprout Social or Sprinklr.
Enterprise tier pricing is custom and opaque.

Source: linkeddit.com/pricing

Snifffound by opencorp

Sniff is an AI social search engine with a Perplexity-style chat interface. Pro costs $29/month for 40 credits; the Business tier is $499/month.

Basic Plan is free forever with 5 weekly credits and access to the For You feed.
Pro $29/mo: 40 credits/month, chat search access, custom email alerts.
Business $499/mo: scalable solutions, customizable credits, and services.
Headquartered in Dubai; team distributed across UAE, Singapore, and Canada.

Pros

Perplexity-style chat search interface — natural-language discovery of conversations.
Free tier with 5 weekly credits and For You feed access.
Lower entry price than Brand24 or Sprout Social.

Cons

Credit-based model — 40 credits/mo on Pro is limiting for active teams.
Business tier jumps to $499/mo with a sharp feature cliff from Pro.
Search-style discovery, not alert-based; no continuous monitoring.

Source: sniff.so

noldo.aifound by opencorp

noldo.ai scans Reddit for buyer intent with a free 10-leads tier. Builder is $29/month for 100 leads; Scaler is $99/month for unlimited leads plus competitor intel.

Free tier: 10 leads/month, $BUYER and 🔥 signals, tarpit detector, basic navigator.
Builder $29/mo: 100 leads, syntax checker (reality check), full pipeline, AI outreach drafts, communities explorer.
Scaler $99/mo: unlimited leads, Hate Cloud competitor intel, export and API access, 3 team seats.
Custom plan adds advanced AI analytics, custom integrations, dedicated AM, and SLA.
30-day money-back guarantee, no contracts.

Pros

Most generous free tier among Reddit lead tools — 10 leads/mo with $BUYER signals.
Tarpit detector and Hate Cloud competitor intel are unique signals other tools miss.
30-day money-back guarantee, no long-term contracts.

Cons

Reddit-only — no LinkedIn, X, or Hacker News coverage.
Builder-to-Scaler jump from $29 to $99 with a feature cliff.
Smaller brand and review base than Sprout Social or Brand24.

Source: noldo.ai

Noisely

Noisely pulls Reddit, G2, Trustpilot, and 19 more sources, runs AI categorization, and pushes to Slack, Linear, or Jira. Pro is $49/month for 2,000 analyses.

Pro $49/mo: 22+ sources including Reddit, Hacker News, Quora, Bluesky, GitHub, YouTube, Trustpilot, G2, Zendesk, Intercom.
2,000 AI analyses/month with sentiment, urgency, impact scoring, and 12-category classification.
10 push channels: Slack, Teams, Discord, Jira, Linear, Notion, Asana, Google Sheets, Email, Webhooks.
Real-time alerts with spike detection, weekly digests, and CSV export.
Custom plan adds higher volume, custom sources, dedicated support, and SLA.

Pros

Cheapest full listening platform at $49/mo with 22+ sources.
Pushes to 10 channels — Slack, Linear, Jira, Notion, Asana, Discord, and webhooks.
Real-time alerts with spike detection and weekly digests.

Cons

Smaller brand and review base than Brand24 or Sprout Social.
No publishing or scheduling — listening and routing only.
Custom enterprise pricing for higher volumes is opaque.

Source: noise.ly/pricing

OpenCorp

OpenCorp reads a product URL and returns competitors plus the Reddit and Hacker News threads where buyers describe the problem. Free, no gate.

Searches for the problem the product solves, not the product name, so it surfaces threads that never mention any brand.
Returns competitors with the sources that mention them, ranked Reddit threads with a reason attached, and Hacker News discussions.
No auto-posting and no auto-commenting: it decides where to show up, you write the words.
Free to run, no credit card. Source-available under the Elastic License 2.0, so it can be self-hosted.

Pros

Free, no signup or credit card required.
Surfaces the problem-not-brand threads that manual Reddit search misses.
Open source (Elastic License 2.0) — can be self-hosted.

Cons

Research-only — does not draft replies, post, or comment on your behalf.
Covers Reddit and Hacker News only — no X, LinkedIn, or YouTube.
Smaller index than Brand24 or Sprout Social; full thread context lives in the post.

Source: opencorp.live

Questions

What's the difference between social listening and social monitoring?

Monitoring tracks mentions of your brand or keywords and alerts you when something appears. Listening goes further: it analyzes the volume, themes, sentiment, and intent behind those conversations at scale. Brand24 and Noisely do both in their base plans; Hootsuite and Sprout Social mostly do monitoring in theirs and sell listening separately.

Which social listening tool is cheapest for a solo founder?

Noisely at $49/mo is the cheapest paid option with full multi-source listening. noldo.ai has the most generous free tier for Reddit leads (10 per month), and OpenCorp is free for finding the threads worth replying to.

Which Reddit monitor is cheapest?

F5Bot's free tier covers 5 keywords. Among paid tools, Linkeddit Pro at $49/month is the lowest flat-fee option with intent scoring and reply drafts included.

Which tools did OpenCorp find automatically?

Linkeddit, Sniff, and noldo.ai came out of OpenCorp's own competitor-discovery run on August 18, 2026, using the five search angles listed above. Hootsuite, Sprout Social, Brand24, and Talkwalker were added because they dominate the search results for "social listening tools"; their prices were verified manually against each vendor's pricing page.

Are these tools compliant with Reddit's API rules?

Each tool handles access differently. Prowlo states it runs its own crawl. For every other tool here, ask the vendor directly how they access Reddit and whether they hold a commercial Data API agreement.

What is the best free social listening tool?

Google Alerts is free for web mentions but covers no social networks. Sniff has a free tier with 5 weekly credits. OpenCorp is free forever for finding Reddit and Hacker News threads where your buyers are talking. Most paid tools offer a 14-30 day free trial.

Which social listening tool is best for Reddit only?

For pure Reddit keyword monitoring, F5Bot is free for 5 keywords and Syften starts at $29.95/mo with AI filtering. Linkeddit at $49/mo adds intent scoring and reply drafts. noldo.ai gives 10 Reddit leads free per month. OpenCorp is free and surfaces threads where buyers describe the problem your product solves.

Do social listening tools work with TikTok and Instagram?

Most established tools do: Brand24, Sprout Social, Hootsuite, Sprinklr, Brandwatch, Meltwater, and Talkwalker all cover TikTok and Instagram. Reddit-only tools (Linkeddit, Syften, F5Bot, noldo.ai, OpenCorp) do not. Always check the vendor's source list before subscribing.

How is AI social listening different from social monitoring?

Social monitoring tracks mentions and alerts you when one appears. Social listening goes further — it analyzes volume, themes, sentiment, and intent behind conversations at scale. AI social listening tools add LLM-powered summarization, question-answering over the mention stream, and automated categorization.

Is social listening worth it for a small business?

Yes if your customers talk about your category online. The cheapest paid tools with real listening are Awario at $29/mo and Mentionlytics at $49/mo. Brand24 starts at $199/mo for the established option. For Reddit/HN-only founders, OpenCorp is free and focuses on surfacing threads worth replying to.

Related comparisons

What are the best Reddit lead generation tools in 2026?
F5Bot is the cheapest Reddit lead alert tool (free for 5 keywords); Prowlo the cheapest paid API at $19/mo; Buska the most automated at $49/mo; OpenScout the scored mentions pick at $49/mo; Linkeddit the intent-scored reply-draft pick at $49/mo; OpenCorp the only free one that surfaces threads without paying for monitoring.
What are the best Reddit tools with AI reply suggestions in 2026?
RedShip is the cheapest monthly at $29; Reddix AI the cheapest lifetime at $150; OGTool the only full-service option from $8k/mo; GummySearch the audience-research pick at $48/mo; Barsee the AI-drafted reply pick at $40/mo; OpenCorp the only free one that surfaces threads worth replying to.

OpenCorp finds the exact Reddit and Hacker News threads where your buyers describe the problem you solve. Run it free on your product.