Meltwater vs Brand24

by Gralio Feb 07, 2025

Meltwater and Brand24 are both social listening and media monitoring tools, but they cater to different needs. Meltwater is a more comprehensive platform with a broader range of data sources and historical data access, making it suitable for in-depth media analysis and influencer marketing. Brand24, on the other hand, is a more user-friendly and cost-effective option focused on real-time social listening and online reputation management.

At Gralio.ai we help to simplify your decision-making process by offering detailed, side-by-side software comparisons like this one, to help you confidently choose the tool that aligns with your business goals.

This comparison was created by analysing 2604 reviews and 55 websites, saving 14 hours, 55 minutes of reading.

About

Meltwater is a media intelligence tool that helps businesses understand online conversations and manage their brands. It offers media monitoring, social listening, and influencer marketing tools that provide data-driven insights. Meltwater analyzes online news, social media, and other sources to deliver brand mentions, sentiment analysis, and competitor activity. This information can be used to create reports, inform marketing strategies, and track the ROI of public relations efforts.
Brand24 is a social listening tool that helps businesses track online conversations about their brand, competitors, and industry. It gathers data from social media, news sites, blogs, forums, and more, providing insights through AI-powered reports. Businesses can use Brand24 to manage their online reputation, track marketing campaigns, understand customer sentiment, and identify potential sales leads. The platform offers real-time monitoring, sentiment analysis, automated reporting, and hashtag tracking. Brand24 is suitable for businesses of all sizes looking to understand and improve their online presence.

Summary

Main difference
Meltwater offers broader media monitoring capabilities, including historical data and influencer marketing tools. Brand24 focuses on real-time social listening and online reputation management with a more user-friendly interface.

Relative strengths of Meltwater (compared to Brand24)

  • Wider range of data sources (news, social media, blogs, forums).

  • Historical data access (media coverage back to 2009).

  • Influencer marketing tools (direct messaging, campaign management).

Relative weaknesses of Meltwater (compared to Brand24)

  • Less user-friendly interface.

  • Limited LinkedIn integration.

  • Potential lag and performance issues.

What companies are using Meltwater and Brand24?

Who should use Meltwater VS. Brand24

Meltwater is a media intelligence and social listening tool best suited for businesses of all sizes seeking to understand online conversations and manage their brand reputation. Users praise Meltwater's accurate search results and direct access to online coverage. However, some have noted discrepancies in impression numbers compared to other platforms and limited LinkedIn integration. Meltwater helps companies in diverse industries, from healthcare to finance, gain data-driven insights for informed decision-making.

Brand24 is a social listening and media monitoring tool ideal for businesses of all sizes, particularly those in marketing, PR, or e-commerce. Users praise its intuitive interface, excellent customer support, and insightful reports. However, some users have noted difficulty canceling the service and limited integrations. Brand24 effectively helps track brand reputation, monitor campaigns, and engage with customers online.

  • Best fit for small, medium, and enterprise businesses.

  • Ideal for various sectors, including Marketing & Advertising, Healthcare, and Finance.

  • Ideal for small, medium, and enterprise businesses.

  • Best fit for Marketing & Advertising, E-commerce, Retail, and Software/IT.

Meltwater and Brand24 features

Supported
Partially supported
Not supported
Type in the name of the feature or in your own words tell us what you need
  • Real-time media monitoring
    Supported

    Meltwater offers real-time media monitoring across various platforms.

    Supported

    Brand24 offers real-time monitoring across various online platforms.

  • 360° Prospect Analysis
    Partially supported

    Meltwater supports social activity and news analysis, but not financial data or company initiatives.

    Not supported

    Brand24 does not support 360° Prospect Analysis, focusing instead on social listening and brand monitoring.

  • Social media post scheduling
    Supported

    Meltwater supports scheduling various social media posts, including Instagram Reels.

    Not supported

    Brand24 does not support social media post scheduling.

  • Communication management
    Supported

    Meltwater allows direct messaging to influencers and managing campaigns.

    Not supported

    Brand24 helps find influencers, but use other tools to contact them.

  • Historical data access
    Supported

    Meltwater offers historical media coverage back to 2009 and social media data for the past 15 months.

    Supported

    Brand24 supports access to historical media coverage and social media data for trend analysis and long-term performance tracking.

  • Social media analytics
    Supported

    Meltwater offers comprehensive social media analytics and reporting features.

    Supported

    Brand24 supports social media analytics with analytics and reporting features specifically for social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and others.

Qualities

  • Value and Pricing Transparency
    -0.66
    Rather negative sentiment
    -0.08
    Neutral sentiment
  • Customer Service
    +0.73
    Strongly positive sentiment
    +0.86
    Strongly positive sentiment
  • Ease of Use
    +0.66
    Rather positive sentiment
    +0.83
    Strongly positive sentiment
  • Reliability and Performance
    -0.01
    Neutral sentiment
    +0.55
    Rather positive sentiment
  • Ease of Implementation
    -0.09
    Neutral sentiment
    +0.87
    Strongly positive sentiment
  • Scalability
    -0.4
    Rather negative sentiment
    -0.6
    Rather negative sentiment
Meltwater and Brand24 Pricing
No data

User sentiment

Rather negative
-0.66

See full Pricing page

Brand24 offers a 14-day free trial. The pricing model is tiered subscription. Prices are shown as monthly payments on an annual contract.
Plans

User sentiment

Neutral
-0.08

See full Pricing page

Meltwater and Brand24 review insights

2590 reviews analysed from and

Users love

  • The searches are accurate and I appreciate being able to click through directly to print and online coverage on the outlet's website.
  • Our team also really appreciates the insight reports and in past roles I have benefitted from the newsletter feature, which was helpful and I appreciated being able to create a custom template and brand it for our audience.
  • Ability to capture content close to real time, accurately.
  • The free learning platform compliments its user friendly platform very well, making new tech easy to learn!
  • Very user-friendly and intuitive platform.
  • Excellent customer support.
  • Cost-effective.
  • Great reporting features.
  • Seamless Slack integration.

Users dislike

  • Meltwater impression numbers are different than MRP numbers, which can be hard if you have switched systems or are working at companies or on clients (for agencies) that have historically used MRP as a baseline.
  • Limited integration with LinkedIn.
  • The tool gets laggy if we dont refresh the page after some hours.
  • Their AI sentiment is not accurate.
  • It is very difficult to cancel the service.
  • Limited integration with platforms other than Facebook
  • The AI reporting system can be enhanced.
  • News mentions aren’t always picked up and I have to add them manually.
  • Servers are in the EU so some news sites in the US are blocked.

Meltwater and Brand24 Ratings

  • G2
    4.0/5
    (2098)
  • Capterra
    4.0/5
    (75)
  • TrustPilot
    2.0/5
    (12)
  • Glassdoor
    3.9/5
    (1498)
  • G2
    4.6/5
    (294)
  • Capterra
    4.7/5
    (133)
  • TrustPilot
    2.9/5
    (2)
  • Glassdoor
    5.0/5
    (2)

Company health

Employee growth

5% decrease in the last year
12% increase in the last year

Web traffic

14% decrease in the last quarter
11% increase in the last quarter

Financing

September 2023 - $300M
February 2016 - $740K

How accurately does each product's sentiment analysis handle nuanced online discussions?

Meltwater's sentiment analysis has been criticized by users for inaccuracy, particularly in nuanced online discussions. Brand24 also uses AI-powered sentiment analysis, but user reviews do not mention any specific issues with its accuracy in handling complex discussions. While Brand24's AI reporting is mentioned as an area for potential enhancement, there is no direct feedback regarding its sentiment analysis accuracy. Therefore, based on available information, Brand24's sentiment analysis may be more reliable for nuanced online discussions, although more detailed user feedback on this specific aspect would be needed for a definitive assessment.

Which product provides more comprehensive historical data for long-term trend analysis?

Meltwater provides more comprehensive historical data, offering media coverage back to 2009. While both platforms offer social listening and real-time monitoring, Brand24's historical social media data is limited to the past 15 months. Therefore, Meltwater is better suited for long-term trend analysis requiring data spanning further back than 2022.

What are the advantages of Meltwater?

Meltwater offers historical media coverage back to 2009, providing a more extensive archive for trend analysis compared to Brand24's shorter data retention period. Meltwater also offers direct messaging to influencers and campaign management tools, giving users more comprehensive influencer marketing capabilities. Finally, Meltwater allows scheduling of various social media posts, including Instagram Reels, a feature not explicitly mentioned for Brand24.

What are the disadvantages of Meltwater?

Meltwater has some reported disadvantages, including inaccurate AI-powered sentiment analysis and limited LinkedIn integration. Users have also noted discrepancies between Meltwater's impression numbers and those from other platforms, which can create inconsistencies when comparing data. Additionally, some users find the platform can become slow or laggy.

Alternatives to Meltwater and Brand24

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Page co-authored by
MK
Michal Kaczor
CEO at Gralio

Michal has worked at startups for many years and writes about topics relating to software selection and IT management. As a former consultant for Bain, a business advisory company, he also knows how to understand needs of any business and find solutions to its problems.

TT
Tymon Terlikiewicz
CTO at Gralio

Tymon is a seasoned CTO who loves finding the perfect tools for any task. He recently headed up the tech department at Batmaid, a well-known Swiss company, where he managed about 60 software purchases, including CX, HR, Payroll, Marketing automation and various developer tools.

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