Social Listening is now a crucial asset for any company to grow in a competitive market.
You need to be present where your customers are. You must stay close to the ground and engage quickly with users, to build a strong online reputation.
But it can quickly become time consuming to monitor mentions of your brand on all the platforms that are now available, from social media to online communities, and check every source.
You need a tool that can handle all the monitoring for you, and keep you updated on new conversations as they happen. A tool to lift that weight for you, so that you can focus on engaging with your customers and prospects.
To help you choose the right tool, we regularly test and benchmark the different tools available.
Today, we will analyze the Best social listening alternative to Brand24 and the incumbent :

buska vs brand24

So let’s dive in and see how they can help you :

How to signup ?

• buska offers a 7 day trial with a very simple and quick onboarding (under 2 minutes).
  When you sign up, you are asked to type the first keyword you want to monitor and get instant access to the latest mentions
  
  

• Brand24 offers a 14 day free trial. After you sign up , you are invited to choose your first Keyword.
  Then you must select the language for the monitoring.

  
  

Conclusion :

Both tools offer a quick signup. Buska is easier to setup, while Brand24 offers a video walkthrough to get acquainted with all the tabs and sections of the platform.
– if you want a very simple onboarding and quick access to mentions of your brand, buska is the best social listening alternative to Brand24’s onboarding experience.
– if you have time to spare and like video tutorials, you can opt for Brand24. 😉

What sources are monitored

Both tools monitor social media and the internet to find your keywords.
Sources available will vary depending on the plan you choose.

🔍 With buska , you get access to :

• Linkedin

• Facebook

• Twitter

• Youtube,

• TikTok

• Pinterest

• Instagram

• Reddit

• Quora

• Medium

• Google Search

• Google News

• File Search (Ultimate plan)

• IndieHackers
  and more…

• Brand24 also lets you monitor the Web and some Social Platforms.
  The number of sources is more limited than buska.
  It doesn’t track mentions from Linkedin on Free Trial and on the Starter plan.
  Note that they require you to connect your Facebook, Linkedin and Instagram accounts to monitor mentions from those platforms.
  Brand24 allows you to track mentions from Twitch and Podcasts on their Top Tier plan.

Conclusion :

• If you are looking for an extensive monitoring of your brand across multiple platforms, buska will provide more sources, including File Search.

How to get notified

Both tools let you setup notifications to be alerted when a new mention of you keywords pops up online.

🔍 buska allows you to easily setup notifications via :

• email

• browser

• slack

• discord

• whatsapp (soon)

Just turn toggles on and connect your accounts, and you are set.
You’ll receive alerts (weekly, daily, instant – depending on your plan) when it finds new mentions.

Brand24 allows you to define notifications via :

• Email mainly

• Push Notifications

• Slack

Conclusion :

buska offers more « plug’N’play » options for notifications.
You can receive alerts on many different communication channels.
Brand24 lets you setup extensive options for the email alerts but offers a limited number of channels.

What other features they offer :

• Sentiment Analysis :
  Both buska and Brand24 provide Sentiment Analysis for the mentions tracked.

• Social Sharing :
  Only buska lets you share your best mentions for social media.

  • 🔍 buska lets you add members to your team and define management roles.
    It allows you to even create multiple teams in the ultimate plan

• Analytics :
  Both tools give you access to visual stats of key Metrics
  Brand24 is very report oriented. You can generated different types of reports and infographics

How social listening looks

The tools show very different designs :

🔍 buska opted for a sleak minimalist design, focused on showing the mentions of the brand.
– The Dashboard shows you the Key metrics and latest mentions.
– The Feed shows all the mentions you have. You can filter by source, language, or sentiment.

Buska also sends designed emails when there are new notifications of mentions of the brand.

The design of Brand24 is much more « conservative »; using the classic codes of B2B SaaS design, with very crowded screens.
The user interface can feel a bit overwhelming at times.

How much does it cost ?

🔍 buska targets startups, entrepreneurs and small businesses and aims for a self serve approach. It offers 3 plans :

• Free Trial – 7 days to test all the features of the Pro Plan.

• Pro Plan – with 3 keywords. It adds Facebook, Tiktok as sources, and gives more notification options and Sentiment analysis

• Ultimate Plan – with 10 Keyword, adding File Search, Team Management and more features.

The prices are aligned with the budget and needs of the target audience : from the Solo Founder to the fast growing Scale up.

Brand24 is much more expensive comparatively.
Their starting Individual Plan ($99 / month) is 10 times more expensive than buska’s Pro Plan for 3 keywords.
It doesn’t include Linkedin, Medium, Quora mentions, unlike buska.
And it is limited to 2 000 mentions/months while buska offers unlimited mentions.

The model targets Enterprise customers as it is based on the number of mentions monthly + number of keywords.
To get Hourly notifications + 7 keywords, Brand24’s Team Plan will cost you $179 / month, which makes it +50% more costly than buska’s Ultimate Plan. And you don’t get Slack notifications or PDF reports.

To get the same level of features as buska’s ultimate Plan, you will have to purchase the Pro or Enterprise plans which are X2 to X4 times more expensive.

Which tool to choose ?

We have seen that 🔍 buska appears to be the best social listening alternative to Brand24 in 2024 .
The tools have different approaches and target different audiences:

• buska is tailored for Small & Medium businesses and growing startups,

• Brand24 is more suited for midcaps and Corporate companies with large marketing analysts teams through its Pro/Enterprise plans

If you are looking for a social listening tool for your company or want to track your competitors easily, with a friendly experience.
And get the best money to value tool to stay updated on your mentions in real time and engage quickly with your audience, buska is clearly the way to go.

if you want to monitor Social Business Pages and you are looking for high volume reporting, with a budget for marketing data research over $200 / month, then Brand24 can be an option.

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If you enjoyed this article, make sure to check out our Blog for more insights on Social Listening.