Meltwater vs Pitchbox

by Gralio Feb 20, 2025

Meltwater and Pitchbox cater to different marketing needs. Meltwater excels in brand monitoring and PR, while Pitchbox specializes in SEO and link-building. Meltwater's strength lies in its media and social listening tools. Pitchbox shines in its automated outreach and influencer discovery capabilities for SEO.

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 2268 reviews and 60 websites, saving 13 hours, 6 minutes of reading.

Meltwater

Website LinkedIn Twitter

Pitchbox

Website LinkedIn Twitter

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.

Pitchbox is a popular software designed for businesses and agencies to improve their website ranking on search engines. It helps you find and connect with influential bloggers and websites who might link back to your website. Pitchbox automates the process of finding contact information, sending personalized emails, and following up with these potential partners. It also provides analytics to track your progress and measure the effectiveness of your outreach efforts.

Summary

Main difference

Meltwater is a media intelligence platform focusing on brand monitoring and social listening, best for businesses needing to understand public perception and manage online reputation. Pitchbox specializes in link-building and outreach for SEO, making it ideal for businesses focused on improving search engine rankings and driving website traffic.

Relative strengths of Meltwater (compared to Pitchbox)

Stronger media monitoring and social listening capabilities, offering comprehensive data and analysis tools.
Provides historical media data, valuable for long-term trend analysis and PR measurement.
Offers direct influencer engagement features, facilitating relationship building and campaign management.

Relative weaknesses of Meltwater (compared to Pitchbox)

Limited SEO and link-building tools compared to Pitchbox.
Less focused on influencer discovery for SEO purposes.
Can be more expensive than Pitchbox, especially for smaller businesses.

Who is using Meltwater and Pitchbox?

No data

Jake Ward

SEO expert; 150K LinkedIn followers

Bibi The Link Builder

Link Building Expert

Who should use Meltwater VS. Pitchbox

Meltwater is a media intelligence and social listening tool that empowers businesses to monitor their brand reputation, track industry trends, and analyze competitor activity. Users praise its accurate search results and direct access to online coverage. However, some find the LinkedIn integration limited and the AI sentiment analysis inaccurate. Meltwater offers communication management, reporting and analytics, and social media scheduling. Best for small, medium, and enterprise businesses operating in diverse sectors like marketing, healthcare, and finance.

Pitchbox is a powerful outreach and link-building platform designed to boost your website's SEO. Users praise its automation features, prospecting capabilities, and robust reporting. However, some find the interface complex and the pricing high. It's ideal for SEO professionals, agencies, and businesses seeking to scale their link-building efforts but may not be suitable for smaller businesses with limited budgets.

Best for small, medium, and enterprise businesses.
Ideal for various sectors, including marketing, healthcare, finance, and more.

Best fit for small to medium-sized businesses.
Ideal for marketing and advertising agencies, and SEO professionals.

Meltwater and Pitchbox features

Supported

Partially supported

Not supported

Type in the name of the feature or in your own words tell us what you need

360° Prospect Analysis

Partially supported

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

Not supported

Pitchbox does not directly offer 360° prospect analysis.
Social media post scheduling

Supported

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

Not supported

Pitchbox does not support social media post scheduling.
Executive Engagement

Partially supported

Meltwater supports engagement analytics and integrations but not personalized insights for executives.

Not supported

Pitchbox is primarily for outreach and link building, not executive engagement.
Communication management

Supported

Meltwater allows direct messaging to influencers and managing campaigns.

Supported

Pitchbox offers features for personalized messaging, automated follow-ups, and integrated email management.
Reporting and Analytics

Supported

Meltwater offers reporting and analytics tools for social media and media monitoring, including sentiment analysis and trend tracking.

Not supported

Reporting and analytics are supported for outreach, but not for review data.
Historical data access

Supported

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

Not supported

Pitchbox does not directly support historical media coverage or social media data access.

Qualities

Value and Pricing Transparency

-0.66

Rather negative sentiment

No data
Customer Service

+0.73

Strongly positive sentiment

No data
Ease of Use

+0.66

Rather positive sentiment

No data
Reliability and Performance

-0.01

Neutral sentiment

No data
Ease of Implementation

-0.09

Neutral sentiment

No data
Scalability

-0.4

Rather negative sentiment

No data

Meltwater and Pitchbox Pricing

No data

User sentiment

Rather negative

-0.66

See full Pricing page

Pitchbox offers monthly and annual subscriptions for their plans (annual plans receive a 15% discount). Data credits are used for discovering prospects, finding emails, and verifying emails. The higher-tier plans provide unlimited prospecting and email discovery.

Plans

See full Pricing page

Meltwater and Pitchbox review insights

2255 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!

Automates email outreach, saving time and effort.
Provides comprehensive prospecting capabilities for identifying potential link opportunities.
Offers robust reporting and analytics features for tracking campaign performance.
Excellent customer support, readily available to assist with questions and issues.

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.

Occasional glitches or bugs can disrupt workflow.
Complex UI can be overwhelming for new users, requiring a significant learning curve.
Advanced features can be difficult to use effectively without extensive training or support.
High price point may be prohibitive for smaller businesses or individuals.

Meltwater and Pitchbox Ratings

Glassdoor

3.9/5

(1498)

Company health

Employee growth

5% decrease in the last year

Web traffic

14% decrease in the last quarter

11% decrease in the last quarter

Financing

September 2023 - $300M

No data

How effectively does each product identify relevant influencers for outreach?

Meltwater identifies influencers through its media monitoring and social listening capabilities, allowing users to analyze online conversations and identify key individuals driving those conversations. However, some users report that its sentiment analysis AI could be more accurate. Pitchbox focuses on identifying influential bloggers and websites for link-building purposes, leveraging SEO metrics through its Ahrefs integration. It automates the outreach process but lacks specific features for broader influencer identification beyond the SEO context.

Which product provides more useful data for measuring campaign ROI?

Meltwater provides more useful data for measuring campaign ROI. Its media monitoring and social listening features offer sentiment analysis, brand mentions, and competitor activity tracking, directly relating to campaign impact and brand perception. While Pitchbox offers analytics for outreach efforts, its focus is primarily on link-building for SEO, which is a more indirect measure of campaign success. Meltwater's reporting and analytics tools provide a more comprehensive view of campaign performance and its impact on brand reputation and audience engagement.

What are the advantages of Meltwater?

Meltwater offers broader media monitoring and social listening capabilities compared to Pitchbox's focus on link-building and SEO. Meltwater provides historical media data, sentiment analysis, and influencer marketing tools, making it more suitable for brand management and PR. It also supports a wider range of industries and offers direct messaging for influencer campaigns.

What are the disadvantages of Meltwater?

Meltwater's sentiment analysis AI has been criticized for inaccuracy. Some users have reported discrepancies between Meltwater's impression numbers and those from other platforms, causing difficulties in comparing data. Limited LinkedIn integration is another drawback. Finally, some users find the platform becomes slow or laggy after extended use.

Alternatives to Meltwater and Pitchbox

Brand24

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.

Brandwatch Consumer Intelligence

Brandwatch Consumer Intelligence is a social media listening tool that helps businesses understand how consumers feel about their brand, products, and industry trends. It offers AI-powered analysis of data from over 100 million online sources. This helps companies make better decisions about marketing and product development by understanding consumer sentiment and identifying emerging trends. Brandwatch is trusted by many large companies and is considered a leader in the social listening market.

Respona

Respona is a software tool designed to help businesses connect with bloggers and journalists. It helps you find relevant blogs in your industry, automate outreach emails, and personalize your messages. Respona provides verified contact information and offers templates for common outreach tasks, like guest post requests. The goal is to build relationships that result in backlinks to your website, improving your search engine rankings and driving more traffic.

Mentionlytics

Mentionlytics is a social media monitoring tool that helps businesses of all sizes track online conversations about their brand, competitors, and industry. It offers web and social media monitoring, sentiment analysis, competitive analysis, influencer identification, and reporting. This allows businesses to understand their online reputation, spot opportunities, and improve their marketing and sales strategies. Mentionlytics prides itself on its AI-powered features, user-friendly interface, and insightful data analysis.

Semrush

Semrush is an online visibility and marketing platform that helps businesses improve their online presence. It offers a wide range of tools for SEO, content marketing, competitor analysis, social media management, and paid advertising. With a massive database, Semrush provides insights into keywords, backlinks, website traffic, and competitor strategies, enabling businesses to make data-driven decisions to enhance their online visibility and achieve marketing goals. Many Fortune 500 companies utilize Semrush's comprehensive suite of digital marketing tools.

HypeAuditor

HypeAuditor is a software platform used to analyze the authenticity and performance of social media influencers on platforms like Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok. It helps businesses find influencers, assess their audience demographics and quality, and manage influencer marketing campaigns. HypeAuditor stands out by using AI to detect fake followers and provide in-depth audience analysis. It offers businesses valuable data to make informed decisions when partnering with influencers.

Page co-authored by

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.

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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