Best Social Media Competitor Analysis Tools: 6 Compared

How we chose

Competitor analysis tools fall into two camps, so the first filter was what each tool actually measures: named competitor profiles, or mentions of keywords and brands. The list keeps both camps, but every pick had to publish its pricing or a clear trial, track at least five competitors on its entry plan, and work without a sales call to start. Prices and limits below are based on published pricing and documentation, checked on 13 November 2026. No hands-on testing was done.

1. Socialinsider: best for dedicated competitor benchmarking across networks

Socialinsider is built for one job: comparing your social performance against named competitors. The Adapt plan costs $99 a month, or $82.50 a month billed annually ($990 a year), and covers 20 profiles, 3 months of history and 1 seat. Optimize costs $124 a month billed annually ($149 monthly) for 30 profiles, 6 months of history and 2 seats. Predict costs $199 a month billed annually ($239 monthly) for 40 profiles, 12 months of history and 5 seats.

Every plan includes competitor benchmarking, and the add-ons are priced plainly: extra profiles $6 a month, extra members $15 a month, API access $100 a month and Looker Studio integration $100 a month. The 14-day free trial needs no card. The weakness is scope: Socialinsider does not schedule posts or manage inboxes, so you still need a publishing tool alongside it. For a team whose main question is "how do we compare?", it is the most direct answer on this list.

2. Rival IQ: best for agencies tracking a fixed list of companies

Rival IQ suits agencies that report on a defined set of clients and their competitors. The Drive plan costs $239 a month for 10 tracked companies, 6 months of history and 1 user. Engage costs $349 a month for 20 companies, 12 months of history and 2 users. Engage Pro costs $559 a month for 40 companies, 24 months of history and 5 users. Annual billing saves 15%, which brings Drive to $199 a month.

Extra companies cost $50 a month for 5, and extra users cost $10 a month. API access is an add-on on Engage Pro. The 14-day free trial needs no card. The pricing is higher than Socialinsider at the same company count, and the entry plan covers only 10 companies, so small teams tracking many rivals will feel the limit fast. The strength is reporting: Rival IQ's landscape reports and head-to-head comparisons are built for client-facing decks, which is why agencies keep paying for it.

3. Sprout Social: best for competitor reporting inside a full social suite

Sprout Social is a full social media management platform — scheduling, inbox, publishing and reporting — with competitor analysis added on top. The plans are Essentials at $79 per seat a month billed annually ($99 monthly), Standard at $199 ($249 monthly), Professional at $299 ($399 monthly) and Advanced at $399 ($499 monthly). Essentials and Standard are capped at 5 social profiles; Professional and Advanced allow unlimited profiles.

The catch is that competitor reporting starts on the Professional plan. If you buy Sprout for competitor analysis alone, you are paying $299 per seat a month for it, plus the cost of extra seats. The 30-day free trial is the longest on this list, and the Trellis Plus add-on costs $28 per seat a month billed annually. Buy Sprout if you want one tool for publishing and competitor reporting. If you already have a scheduler, Socialinsider or Metricool gives you the same competitor data for less.

4. Brand24: best for mention and share-of-voice tracking

Brand24 tracks mentions of keywords, brands and competitors across social media, news, blogs and forums, then turns them into share-of-voice and sentiment reports. The Individual plan costs $199 a month billed annually ($249 monthly) for 3 keywords, 2,000 mentions a month and 1 user. Team costs $299 a month billed annually ($349 monthly) for 7 keywords and 10,000 mentions. Pro costs $399 a month billed annually ($499 monthly) for 12 keywords and 40,000 mentions a month, with realtime data. Business costs $599 a month billed annually ($699 monthly) for 25 keywords and 100,000 mentions, and Enterprise starts at $1,499 a month.

API access is a $149-a-month add-on. The 14-day free trial needs no card. Brand24 measures something different from the profile trackers above: it counts how often people talk about a brand, not how a profile performs. That makes it the right pick for reputation and campaign monitoring, and the wrong pick if you want follower growth or engagement benchmarks for specific rival accounts.

5. Metricool: best for budget competitor tracking

Metricool is the cheapest useful option on this list. The Starter plan costs $20 a month billed annually ($25 monthly) for 5 brands, and Advanced costs $53 a month billed annually ($67 monthly) for 15 brands. The free plan is free forever for 1 brand and tracks 5 competitor profiles per network. Paid plans track up to 100 competitor profiles per network.

The trade-offs are real. There is no LinkedIn competitor benchmarking, and the X competitor add-on costs $10 a month per account. The reporting is simpler than Socialinsider or Rival IQ, and the tool is primarily a scheduler with competitor tracking added. For a small business or a freelancer who needs to keep an eye on a handful of rivals without a $99-a-month commitment, those limits are easy to live with. It is the only pick here where you can start free and stay free.

6. Brandwatch: best for enterprise teams needing deep listening data

Brandwatch is the enterprise end of this list. It combines social listening, competitor benchmarking, audience research and AI summaries in one platform, and it is the tool large brands use when they need historical data, custom queries and global coverage. There is no public pricing — every deal is a custom quote, and third-party estimates of $800 to $1,500 a month for small teams are not vendor figures, so they are not quoted here.

That lack of a public price is the point: Brandwatch is bought through a sales process, with implementation and training included. If your team is small, the cost and the onboarding time will outweigh the extra depth. If you are a global brand with a dedicated social team, it is the most complete option on this list. Everyone else should start with Socialinsider or Metricool and move up only when the cheaper tools stop answering your questions.

Worked example: what tracking 20 competitors costs for a year

Take a team that wants to track 20 competitor profiles for 12 months:

• Socialinsider Adapt: $82.50 a month billed annually = $990 a year.
• Metricool Starter: $20 a month billed annually = $240 a year, and it covers up to 100 profiles per network.
• Rival IQ Engage: $349 a month, or about $297 a month with the 15% annual discount = about $3,560 a year.
• Sprout Social Professional: $299 a seat a month billed annually = $3,588 a year for one seat.
• Brand24 Team: $299 a month billed annually = $3,588 a year — but it tracks 7 keywords, not 20 profiles, so it answers a different question.
• Brandwatch: custom quote.

The same 20 competitors cost anywhere from $240 to over $3,500 a year, which is why the first step is deciding whether you need profile benchmarks, mention tracking or both.

How to choose

Free plans and trials in detail

Only Metricool has a permanent free plan, and it is genuinely usable: 1 brand, 5 competitor profiles per network, scheduling and basic analytics included. Socialinsider, Rival IQ and Brand24 all offer 14-day free trials with no card required, which is enough to import your competitors and see one report cycle. Sprout Social offers the longest trial at 30 days, which suits teams that need time to connect profiles and invite colleagues. Brandwatch offers a demo rather than a trial. If you are comparing tools, start the trials one at a time and import the same 10 competitors into each — the reports will tell you more in a week than a feature page will.

How to choose a competitor tool without overpaying

Start by listing the competitors you actually need to track and the question you want answered: how their content performs, how often people mention them, or both. That one decision narrows this list to two or three tools. For the wider social picture, compare the best social listening platforms and the best AI social media management tools, and read the competitor website analysis guide for the search side of the same job. If social is only one channel, Adziq's Meta ads services and SEO services cover the paid and organic angles.

Common questions

Sources

• Socialinsider pricing
• Rival IQ pricing
• Sprout Social pricing
• Brand24 pricing
• Metricool pricing
• Brandwatch

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