Social Media Mentions Tracker: 12 Free and Paid Tools
TL;DR: A social media mentions tracker watches platforms for your brand, product or competitor names and alerts you when they appear. Start free with Google Alerts, Talkwalker Alerts and F5Bot. Pay only when you need a platform the free tools miss, like LinkedIn, TikTok or Instagram.
The best social media mentions tracker is the one that covers the platforms your buyers actually use, at a price that fits how many keywords you track. For a small team, that usually means two free tools stacked together (Talkwalker Alerts for news, blogs and X, plus F5Bot for Reddit and Hacker News), then one paid tool such as Syften ($29.95/month), Awario (from $29/month billed annually) or Octolens ($159/month) once you need wider coverage or team alerts. Big suites like Brand24 and Hootsuite start near $200/month and make sense when listening is a job, not a side task. Prices below were checked on each vendor's pricing page on November 5, 2026.
How do I track mentions of my brand on social media?
You track brand mentions by creating an alert for each name you care about, then routing the results somewhere you will actually read them. In practice:
- List the terms: brand name, product names, common misspellings, your founder's name, and two or three competitor names.
- Pick the platforms where your buyers ask questions. A developer tool lives on Reddit, Hacker News and GitHub. A consumer brand lives on Instagram and TikTok.
- Pick a tool from the table below that covers those platforms.
- Send alerts to one place (email digest, a Slack channel) and check it daily.
- Exclude noise with negative keywords. Mention calls this Boolean search: "breakfast NOT egg" style queries (Mention pricing FAQ).
Coverage first, price second.
Which tracker covers which platform?
Coverage is the main difference between trackers. This table lists what each vendor's own page says it covers.
| Tool | X | TikTok / Instagram | News and blogs | Starting price | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Google Alerts | Indirect (via Google index) | No | No | No | Yes | Free |
| Talkwalker Alerts | Forums | Yes | No | No | Yes | Free |
| F5Bot | Yes | No | No | No | No | Free, paid from $12.99/mo |
| Syften | Yes | Add-on | No | No | Blogs | $29.95/mo |
| Awario | Social and web, per vendor | Yes | $29/mo annual | |||
| Octolens | Yes | Yes | Yes | TikTok | Higher plan | $159/mo |
| Mention | Yes | Yes | No | Both | Yes | See pricing page |
| Brand24 | Social and web, per vendor | Yes | $199/mo annual |
| Tool | Best for |
|---|---|
| Google Alerts | News, web pages |
| Talkwalker Alerts | News, blogs, X, forums |
| F5Bot | Reddit, Hacker News |
| Tool | Adds |
|---|---|
| Syften | Communities, Slack, Discourse |
| Octolens | LinkedIn, TikTok |
| Brand24 | Full social suite |
Most small teams stack two free tools before paying.
Free trackers: start here
These cost nothing and cover more than most teams expect.
- Google Alerts: emails you when Google indexes a new page matching your query (Google's help page). Best for press and blog mentions. It misses most social posts because they are not indexed fast, or at all.
- Talkwalker Alerts: free, sends to any email address, covers news, blogs, discussion forums and X, in 22 languages, with an "as it happens" option and RSS or Slack delivery. The best free generalist.
- F5Bot: free keyword alerts for Reddit posts and comments, Hacker News and Lobsters. Paid plans ($12.99/month for 20 keywords, $49.99/month for 200) add AI filtering, subreddit filters, webhooks and JSON feeds.
- Hacker News search by Algolia: free full-text search across HN stories and comments. Not an alert tool, but the fastest way to check what was already said about you.
- Reddit search: free, sort by New to catch recent threads. Our Reddit marketing tools roundup covers what to use when native search isn't enough.
Are there free social media mention trackers? Yes. Google Alerts, Talkwalker Alerts and F5Bot's free plan are free indefinitely. The limits are coverage (none of them watch LinkedIn, TikTok or Instagram) and filtering, so you will read some noise.
Paid trackers for small teams
These sit between $29 and $160 a month and suit a founder or a one-person marketing team.
- Syften: $29.95/month or $49.95/month, 14-day trial without a card. Covers Reddit, Hacker News, Indie Hackers, Slack communities, Discourse, Stack Exchange, GitHub, podcasts, Bluesky and Mastodon. X monitoring is a $40/month add-on. Strong for B2B and developer brands; weak for consumer social.
- Awario: $49/month billed monthly or $29/month billed annually on the entry plan, up to $399 ($249 annual). Each topic takes unlimited keywords, including handles, hashtags and URLs. Good value for broad social and web coverage.
- Octolens: $159/month for 10 keywords and 15,000 mentions, $499/month for 40 keywords plus podcasts, news and newsletters. Covers Reddit, LinkedIn, X, TikTok, Hacker News and YouTube. One of the few that includes LinkedIn on the entry plan.
- Mentionlytics: from $49/month billed yearly for 3 keywords and 5,000 mentions, up to $749/month. Sells an AI Visibility add-on from $49/month for tracking how AI answers mention you.
Full social listening suites
Pick one of these when listening is someone's job: reports for clients, sentiment over time, many brands.
- Brand24: from $199/month billed annually ($249 monthly) for 3 keywords, 2,000 mentions a month and updates every 12 hours. Higher plans add AI insights and up to 100,000 mentions.
- Mention: covers Facebook, Instagram, X, Reddit, TikTok, Pinterest, YouTube, news, blogs and forums. Advanced alerts take Boolean queries up to 2,000 characters.
- Hootsuite: from $99/month (Standard, annual billing) up to $399 (Advanced). Listening is bundled with scheduling and inbox; Professional adds 30-day Quick Search, and the deep listening product sits on top.
Which trackers cover Reddit?
F5Bot, Syften, Octolens and Mention all list Reddit on their own pages. Google Alerts only catches Reddit threads once Google indexes them, which can take days. Reddit coverage matters more than it used to: Reddit is the most-cited domain in AI search answers across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews (Peec AI, March 2026), so a thread about your category keeps getting read long after it is posted. See how Reddit ranks in Google and AI search.
One recent change the older roundups miss: Reddit's RSS feeds end on November 13, 2026, and Reddit stopped accepting new public Data API requests on October 31, 2026 (Reddit changelog, October 8, 2026). If your homemade tracker pipes a subreddit's RSS feed into Slack or Zapier, it stops working that day. Check that any Reddit tracker you pay for says how it will keep collecting data. More in our Reddit API explainer.
What is the difference between monitoring and listening?
Monitoring is reacting to individual mentions: someone named you, you see it and respond. Listening is analyzing mentions in bulk: share of voice, sentiment trends, what topics come up. Monitoring needs fast alerts and good filters (F5Bot, Syften, Talkwalker Alerts). Listening needs volume and reports (Brand24, Mention, Hootsuite). Most small teams need monitoring first. Our glossary has short definitions of social listening and a brand mention.
How do you write alert queries that don't flood your inbox?
A good alert query is narrow enough that most results are worth reading. Brand names that are also common words are the usual problem: a tool called "Notion" or "Linear" drowns in unrelated posts. Four habits fix most of it:
- Quote exact phrases. Track "Acme CRM" rather than Acme, so the tracker matches the phrase, not every use of the word.
- Add negative keywords. Exclude the noise you see in week one, such as a sports team, a city or a song that shares your name. Mention's Advanced alerts take Boolean queries up to 2,000 characters; F5Bot's paid plans let you exclude terms and require co-occurring keywords.
- Filter by place. Limit Reddit alerts to the subreddits your buyers use (F5Bot supports subreddit filters), and pick only the source types you need in Talkwalker Alerts (news, X, blogs or forums).
- Track the question, not just the name. Add phrases buyers use before they know you exist, like "alternative to" plus a competitor's name, or "recommend a" plus your category.
Then pick the delivery speed by what you will do with the result. Real-time alerts (Talkwalker's "as it happens", F5Bot's instant option) suit support and crisis work. A daily digest suits everything else, because a reply posted a few hours after a Reddit thread goes up still gets read.
| Your situation | Start with | Monthly cost |
|---|---|---|
| Solo founder, B2B or developer tool | F5Bot free + Talkwalker Alerts | $0 |
| Small team, needs Slack and communities | Syften | $29.95 |
| Consumer brand on social | Awario | $29 annual, $49 monthly |
| Needs LinkedIn and TikTok | Octolens | $159 |
| Agency or PR team with reports | Brand24 or Mention | $199+ |
When a mention is really a sales lead
Mention trackers tell you where your name appears. The more valuable threads often don't mention you at all: someone on r/SaaS asking "which tool should I use for X?" is a buyer, and your brand isn't in the post yet. Keyword alerts can't separate that question from "what is X?", so you read both. BoomReddit scans Reddit around the clock for those threads, scores each one by buying intent, flags the ones already ranking on Google or cited in AI answers, and drafts a reply in your voice that you approve before anything posts. It also tracks competitor mentions and sends a daily digest. Scanner is $19/month. Start free, no card.
Start-here path for a small team
- Today: set up Talkwalker Alerts and Google Alerts for your brand and two competitors.
- Today: add the same terms to F5Bot for Reddit and Hacker News.
- After two weeks: if you are missing LinkedIn, TikTok or community Slack groups, trial one paid tool from the list that covers them.
- Before replying on Reddit, read each subreddit's rules. Our self-promotion rules guide explains what mods remove.
Frequently asked questions
What is a social media mentions tracker?
It is a tool that watches social platforms, forums and the web for words you choose, usually your brand name, and alerts you when they appear. Mention defines an alert as the keyword set and a mention as each result it finds.
Are there free social media mention trackers?
Yes. Google Alerts, Talkwalker Alerts and F5Bot's free plan cost nothing. Together they cover news, blogs, X, forums, Reddit and Hacker News, but not LinkedIn, TikTok or Instagram.
Which trackers cover Reddit?
F5Bot (free), Syften, Octolens and Mention all list Reddit coverage on their pricing or home pages. Google Alerts only finds Reddit threads after Google indexes them.
What is the difference between monitoring and listening?
Monitoring means seeing and answering individual mentions quickly. Listening means analyzing many mentions for trends, sentiment and share of voice. Small teams usually need monitoring first.
Can I track LinkedIn mentions for free?
Not with the free tools listed here: none of Google Alerts, Talkwalker Alerts or F5Bot cover LinkedIn. Octolens includes LinkedIn on its $159/month entry plan.
Will my Reddit RSS tracker keep working?
No. Reddit's RSS feeds end on November 13, 2026, according to Reddit's October 8, 2026 changelog, so RSS-based Reddit alerts in Zapier, Slack or feed readers will stop.