Best Brandwatch Alternatives Under $100/Month

Brandwatch is a powerful social listening platform, but its enterprise pricing—often $800+ per month for entry-level plans—puts it out of reach for many teams. The good news: capable alternatives exist at a fraction of the cost.

This guide covers the best social listening and monitoring tools available for under $100 per month, comparing their features to what you'd get with Brandwatch.

Why Look Beyond Brandwatch?

Brandwatch excels at enterprise social intelligence, but its pricing reflects that positioning:

• Entry plans: $800-1,000+/month
• Full platform: $3,000-10,000+/month
• Annual contracts: Required for most plans
• Implementation: Often requires onboarding fees

For small businesses, startups, researchers, and teams with modest monitoring needs, these costs don't align with the value delivered.

What to Look for in an Alternative

Before comparing specific tools, identify the Brandwatch features you actually need:

Essential Features:

• Keyword and brand mention tracking
• Multi-platform coverage (Twitter, Instagram, etc.)
• Basic sentiment analysis
• Alerting capabilities
• Data export

Nice-to-Have Features:

• Historical data access
• Influencer identification
• Competitive benchmarking
• Custom dashboards
• API access

Enterprise Features (often unnecessary):

• AI-powered insights
• Unlimited users
• Custom integrations
• Dedicated support
• Compliance certifications

Most teams under $100/month can accomplish their goals with essential and nice-to-have features.

Best Alternatives Under $100/Month

1. Xpoz - $20/month (Pro)

Best for: AI-native workflows, multi-platform analysis, research

Xpoz takes a fundamentally different approach—instead of dashboards and alerts, you query social data through AI assistants using natural language.

What You Get:

• 1,000,000 results/month at $20
• Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Reddit coverage
• Natural language queries via Claude/ChatGPT
• Historical data access
• CSV export for analysis
• No dashboards (conversational interface)

Sample Workflow:

"Show me all mentions of 'our brand' across Twitter and Instagram
this week, grouped by sentiment"

"Who are the top influencers talking about our industry?"

"Compare our mention volume to [competitor] over the past month"

Pros:

• Extremely cost-effective ($0.02 per 1K results)
• Multi-platform in one subscription
• No learning curve for queries
• Exploratory analysis strength

Cons:

• No traditional dashboard
• Requires AI assistant
• No automated alerting (yet)

Pricing:

2. Brand24 - $79/month (Individual)

Best for: Traditional social listening with dashboards

Brand24 provides classic social listening features at accessible price points.

What You Get:

• 3 keywords tracked
• 2,000 mentions/month
• Sentiment analysis
• Influencer scoring
• Email alerts
• Basic reporting

Pros:

• Traditional dashboard interface
• Real-time alerts
• Influencer identification
• PDF reports

Cons:

• Limited mentions at entry tier
• 3 keyword limit restrictive
• Higher tiers jump significantly

Pricing:

3. Mention - $41/month (Solo)

Best for: Small businesses, basic monitoring

Mention offers straightforward brand monitoring at entry-level pricing.

What You Get:

• 2 alerts (keywords)
• 3,000 mentions/month
• Basic analytics
• Web and social monitoring
• Mobile app

Pros:

• Low entry price
• Web monitoring included
• Clean interface
• Mobile access

Cons:

• Very limited keywords
• Basic analytics only
• Scales expensive

Pricing:

4. Awario - $49/month (Starter)

Best for: Competitive analysis, Boolean search

Awario emphasizes competitive monitoring and search flexibility.

What You Get:

• 3 topics
• 30,000 mentions/month
• Boolean search support
• Sentiment analysis
• Competitive comparison
• Email alerts

Pros:

• Good mention volume at entry tier
• Boolean queries available
• Competitive features
• Reasonable pricing

Cons:

• Interface dated
• Limited platforms vs. premium tools
• Customer support varies

Pricing:

5. Talkwalker Free / Blue Ocean - Limited Free Tier

Best for: Quick checks, limited monitoring

Talkwalker offers limited free social search, and Blue Ocean provides free basic monitoring.

What You Get (Free):

• Basic social search
• Limited historical data
• Sample analytics
• No ongoing monitoring

Pros:

• Free for occasional use
• Quick brand checks
• No commitment

Cons:

• Not for ongoing monitoring
• Very limited functionality
• Upsell to expensive paid tiers

Feature Comparison Matrix

Choosing the Right Alternative

By Use Case

Brand Monitoring (Real-Time Alerts)

• Best: Mention, Brand24, Awario
• Why: Built-in alerting, dashboard monitoring

Research & Analysis

• Best: Xpoz
• Why: Highest volume, historical data, exploratory queries

Competitive Intelligence

• Best: Awario, Xpoz
• Why: Comparison features, flexible search

Small Business/Startup

• Best: Mention (cheapest), Xpoz (most volume)
• Why: Budget-friendly entry points

Multi-Platform Analysis

• Best: Xpoz
• Why: Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Reddit in one subscription

By Priority

If volume matters most: Xpoz ($20 for 1M results) If dashboards matter most: Brand24 ($79) If lowest cost matters: Mention ($41) If competitive features matter: Awario ($49) If AI integration matters: Xpoz ($20)

What You Lose vs. Brandwatch

Being transparent about tradeoffs:

Features You Sacrifice:

• Sophisticated AI-powered insights
• Deep historical archives (years of data)
• Enterprise compliance and security
• Custom integrations and APIs
• Dedicated customer success
• Unlimited users on team plans
• White-label reporting

Features You Keep:

• Brand mention tracking
• Multi-platform monitoring
• Basic sentiment analysis
• Competitive tracking
• Data export
• Alerting (most tools)

Bottom Line: If your needs are monitoring, tracking, and basic analysis—not enterprise-grade insights—alternatives deliver 80% of the value at 10% of the cost.

How Xpoz Compares to Brandwatch

For teams considering both:

Xpoz Advantages:

• 40x+ cheaper for similar data access
• Natural language eliminates training
• Multi-platform included at all tiers
• Start instantly vs. procurement process

Brandwatch Advantages:

• Enterprise compliance
• Dedicated support
• Deeper historical archives
• More sophisticated AI insights
• Team collaboration features

Migration Considerations

If switching from Brandwatch:

Data Export

• Export your Brandwatch data before transitioning
• Most alternatives can't import historical data
• Plan for continuity gap

Team Training

• Simpler tools mean less training
• Xpoz requires learning prompt patterns
• Dashboard tools familiar to existing users

Workflow Adjustment

• Automated alerts may need manual replacement
• Reporting formats will differ
• Integration points may need rebuilding

Key Takeaways

• Capable alternatives exist under $100/month that cover core social listening needs.

• Xpoz offers the best value at $20/month for 1 million results across 4 platforms.

• Traditional dashboards available from Brand24, Mention, and Awario for those who prefer them.

• Volume limits matter — compare actual mention limits, not just prices.

• You lose enterprise features but keep core monitoring capabilities.

• Start with free tiers to test before committing.

Conclusion

Brandwatch's pricing reflects enterprise positioning that many teams simply don't need. For brand monitoring, competitive tracking, and social analysis at reasonable scale, alternatives under $100/month deliver substantial value.

Xpoz stands out for volume (1M results at $20), multi-platform coverage, and AI-native workflow—ideal for teams already using Claude or ChatGPT. Brand24 and Awario offer more traditional dashboard experiences for those preferring visual interfaces.

Start with free tiers, test with your actual use cases, and you'll likely find that budget-friendly options meet your needs without the enterprise price tag.