Top 10 Social Listening Tools

Want to know what is the best social listening tool available on the market? Well, we’ve got the list for you!

What is social listening?

Social listening involves using social data to uncover valuable insights. Whether those insights are about your consumers, industries, or people’s opinions on a particular topic, anything can be understood using social listening.

What is a social listening tool?

A social listening tool will provide you with the ability to dig into the insights you need. This will involve a search or query function so that you can identify particular audiences or topics of interest. It should also have the ability to process this data at scale for sentiment, emotion, author, and other data that a social post may contain like views or likes. Crucially, this tool should pull data and posts from numerous social media platforms, as relying on limited sources can introduce bias into your data.

The Top 10 Tools for social listening

Here's a closer look at the top contenders in the social listening space, each offering distinct strengths for various business needs.

1. Infegy Starscape
2. YouScan
3. Brandwatch Consumer Intelligence
4. Meltwater
5. Talkwalker by HootSuite
6. Quid
7. Onclusive
8. Sprout Social
9. Pulsar
10. Tubular

1. Infegy

Figure 1: Screenshot from Infegy Starscape

Why Infegy?

Infegy Starscape truly stands out in the social listening landscape. Its remarkable speed in processing vast datasets is a significant advantage. Coupled with its expansive data coverage, Infegy offers unparalleled depth of insight. For businesses concerned with regulatory compliance, its GDPR adherence provides considerable peace of mind. What truly differentiates Infegy is its commitment to unlimited access:be it for general use or through its unlimited API access, offering extraordinary flexibility. Furthermore, users frequently highlight the exceptional support from their client success team, ensuring users can maximize the platform's potential.

Who is Infegy best for?

Infegy Starscape is an ideal solution for marketing professionals, social media analysts, and researchers who require broad-based, deep insights into consumer behavior and sentiment from vast, unstructured social data. It caters to brands and agencies of all scales, from emerging firms to Fortune 500 companies, particularly those focused on enhancing marketing strategies, improving customer engagement, and making informed decisions based on comprehensive data. Organizations prioritizing long-term trend analysis will find its extensive historical data and psychographic insights invaluable. Furthermore, users who appreciate a user-friendly interface and visually engaging data presentations, such as its AI query builder, in-depth query AI summaries of more than 80,000 metrics, and unique visualizations, will find the platform highly effective for conveying complex understandings to various stakeholders.

2. YouScan

Figure 2: Screenshot from YouScan’s App

Why YouScan?

YouScan offers some interesting capabilities, particularly its ability to perform image searches for brand appearances and conversations, as well as its efficient tracking of mentions. It’s often noted for its lower price point and its focus on global sources.

Who is YouScan best for?

YouScan is generally a good fit for SMBs or image-heavy researchers.

3. Brandwatch Consumer Intelligence

Figure 3: Screenshot from Brandwatch’s App

Why Brandwatch Consumer Intelligence?

Brandwatch Consumer Intelligence provides solid access to data from platforms like Reddit and X (formerly Twitter), along with TikTok mentions. It's a good tool for common brand monitoring use cases and even offers the convenience of posting directly to the platform.

Why is Brandwatch best for?

Brandwatch is often best for large brands with a more defined need for specific queries or a manageable number of searches.

4. Meltwater

Figure 4: Screenshot from Meltwater’s App

Why Meltwater?

Meltwater offers a jack-of-all-trades tool for PR teams with earned media understanding mixed into recent social media data.

Who is Meltwater best suited for?

Meltwater typically finds its home with large enterprises that primarily require a robust PR tool.

5. Talkwalker by Hootsuite

Figure 5: Screenshot from Talkwalker’s App

Why Talkwalker?

Talkwalker is often praised for its multi-language support, global data coverage, and trend prediction tools. Now backed by Hootsuite, it has stronger publishing-listening integration.

Who is Talkwalker suited best for?

It serves companies that engage in lots of different types of searches and need both in-depth and quick reports. It's particularly suited for large companies that are not inhibited by a cap on mentions.

6. Quid

Figure 6: Screenshot from Quid’s App

Why Quid?

Quid distinguishes itself with its impressive visualizations and sophisticated complex boolean search capabilities.

Who is Quid best suited for?

Quid is typically best for large enterprises with significant resources to invest in advanced, highly detailed analytics.

7. Onclusive

Figure 7: Screenshot from Onclusive App

Why Onclusive?

Onclusive, formerly known as Digimind, is noted for its ease of use and its good client support. This platform is particularly beneficial for data-focused folks who are plugging into multiple, large tech stacks.

Who is Onclusive best suited for?
Data analytics practitioners due to its numerous integrations with other data platforms.

8. Sprout Social

Figure 8: Screenshot from Sprout’s App

Why Sprout Social?

Sprout Social is particularly strong if your primary need is for social posting information integrated with listening efforts. Sprout Social is also an affordable tool used across multiple small businesses.

Who is Sprout Social best suited for?

It's often a good choice for companies with a more concentrated focus, perhaps on one or two key topics of interest, and for those who don’t require extensive historical data.

9. Pulsar

Figure 9: Screenshot from Pulsar’s App

Why Pulsar?

Pulsar includes strong audience intelligence, robust visualizations & custom dashboards, and a variety of modules to address different needs.

Who is Pulsar best suited for?

Large companies with needs for short data little historical needs and deep internal social listening knowledge.

10. Tubular

Figure 10: Screenshot from Tubular App

Why Tubular?

Tubular is the newest platform on this list. It’s made a splash with its relatively small database size, but a larger-than-average database of fully transcribed videos, filling a niche need in the market.

Who is Tubular best suited for?

Tubular is best suited for those whose social listening practice only needs an understanding of videos or images.

Takeaways for Your Brand

Selecting the right social listening tool depends on your specific business goals, resources, and the depth of insights you require. From comprehensive platforms like Infegy Starscape and Brandwatch to more specialized solutions like Tubular and YouScan, each tool offers distinct advantages, from advanced data processing to visual dashboards and media-specific capabilities. Whether you're part of a global enterprise needing extensive trend analysis or a small business looking for affordable, focused listening, there's a platform tailored to your needs. By aligning your organizational priorities with the strengths of these top tools, you can harness the full power of social listening to drive smarter, data-informed decisions.

If you want to learn more about how Infegy approaches social listening, contact us today.