Sprout Social alternatives: Brand24

All-in-one social media management tools, such as Sprout Social, often offer additional features that can serve for social listening or social media analytics. But are those features polished? Not always. If you need a social media monitoring tool, it’s better to switch to a solution that specializes in social listening. If you are looking for Sprout Social alternatives, let’s find out if Brand24 is the good one.

In this article, we will focus on Sprout Social’s social listening possibilities and compare them to the capabilities of a dedicated media monitoring tool – Brand24.

We will investigate which solution performs better in social listening and find out if Brand24 is a good alternative to Sprout Social. Also, we will answer the following question: Is it better to use a multitasking tool or a dedicated one?

First, let’s take a quick look at the prices.

Sprout Social’s Listening feature starts at $999 per month.

That is because Listening, Premium Analytics, and Employee Advocacy are additional premium solutions of Sprout Social tool.

If you don’t have that much budget to spend on social media monitoring, you may be interested in finding an alternative that is 10 times cheaper.

Here is a little agenda of what we will be looking into in this article: 

• Sprout Social alternatives: Brand24. Overview
• Sprout Social alternatives: Brand24. Features
• Sprout Social alternatives: Brand24. Pricing
• Sprout Social alternatives: Brand24. Reviews
• Sprout Social alternatives: Brand24. Summary

Sprout Social alternatives: Brand24. Overview

Sprout Social is an all-in-one social media management platform that claims to meet four needs of its clients, such as Social Management, Customer Care, Data and Intelligence, Employee Advocacy. 

These use cases don’t say a lot about the solution, but we can already assume that Sprout Social is a multifunctional platform that can be used for various purposes. 

Depending on your needs, Sprout Social offers 5 products and can be used for five main purposes: 

1. Engagement
2. Publishing and Scheduling
3. Analytics 
4. Listening 
5. Employee Advocacy

Sprout Social without a doubt is an all-in-one tool, that mostly serves for social media management. It offers Analytical and Listening features as well, but they are additional and if you want to use Sprout Social for social listening, you must pay extra money for it. 

The Listening feature starts at $999 per month.

In my biased opinion, it is expensive. Isn’t it?

Not every company has a vast budget for marketing tools. We, Marketers, know it well.

That is why, in this article, I would like to focus on the Listening part of Sprout Social. We will try to find an alternative to Sprout Social that is more affordable, offers more features, and, in general, is more advanced.

Let’s find out then whether Brand24 is a good alternative to Sprout Social.

Brand24 is a media monitoring software that offers both social listening, analytics, and reporting features. It can be used by many types of specialists and business owners for various purposes.

Brand24 is suitable for companies of all sizes, as it is affordable but offers many valuable data. It is a robust tool that is considered effective and user-friendly. 

Brand24 has various purposes such as:

• Finding online conversations about your company
• Protecting online reputation
• Preventing a PR crisis
• Improving customer satisfaction and customer relations
• Measuring your marketing / PR effort
• Finding brand ambassadors and influencers
• Tracking social media campaigns
• Campaign monitoring
• Hashtags monitoring
• Monitoring competitors and researching the market
• Discovering customer insights

Brand24 can be beneficial for many professionals such as Social Media Managers, PR experts, Marketers.

Most importantly, it is a dedicated social listening tool that focuses mainly on this purpose. Brand24 provides clients with the most valuable data and insights. It is constantly developing new features and metrics while still sustaining a reasonable price.

One of the latest updates provided a new metric online Presence Score, that measures awareness around the brand or any topic.

Also, since 2021, Brand24’s experts can create for you dedicated, advanced social media reports that turn online data into insights. This service is called Custom Reports.

Sprout Social alternatives: Brand24. Features

In this part of the comparison, I would like to focus on features that serve for social listening in both tools.

Monitored Platforms

Both tools allow to build social media presence and track multiple social media platforms.

Sprout Social monitors Web and social media platforms such as Twitter, Tumblr, Youtube, Reddit and it allows for Instagram and Facebook monitoring compliant with terms and guidelines of these platforms.

Brand24 monitors multiple online sources such as:

• Social media – Twitter, Youtube, Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, TikTok, Twitch
• Blogs
• Podcasts
• Forums
• Newsletters
• Review sites
• News sites
• Websites

Sentiment Analysis

Both Sprout Social and Brand24 provide sentiment analysis.

Yet, the Brand24 tool gives more advanced data. It measures the sentiment for each collected mention. So you’ll be able to quickly detect whether the mention is positive, negative, or neutral.

Sprout Social measures the sentiment for each topic.

Hashtag Tracking

Both Brand24 and Sprout Social allow you to track hashtags across social networks.

Brand24 finds trending hashtags and presents the list of them. So that you can use it to reach a new audience.

Sprout Social shows you Related keywords and hashtags.

Check: What is the Best Hashtag Tracker?

Influencer Marketing

Sprout Social offers a Profile Overview table, which shows metrics for specific profiles, including their followers, volume, and impressions.

Brand24 offers a dedicated metric called Influence Score, that shows you how influential are public profiles that

Brand24 offers a dedicated metric called Influence Score, that shows you how influential are public profiles that mention your company or certain topics.

This feature helps you identify influencers connected with your niche and find people that are worth collaborating with.

Competitor Analysis

Both Brand24 and Sprout Social allow you to monitor your competitors online.

Brand24 offers an additional, Competitors tab, where you can compare two or more projects to see how your company is performing against other companies in your niche.

There is nothing wrong with spying a little bit around your competitors’ social media accounts. We all do that from time to time. Check how such a report looks like in the Brand24 tool:

Metrics

Sprout Social measures many metrics and they are divided into 5 categories: Performance, Conversation, Demographics, Themes, Messages.

Performance:

• Volume
• Impressions
• Engagement
• Sentiment

Conversation:

• Word cloud
• Related keywords and hashtags

Demographics:

• Age and Gender
• Device
• Profile Overview
• Locations

Brand24 can be used for various purposes, and that’s why there are many metrics that help to give you a better understanding of how your company or monitored topic is performing. Brand24’s analytics is powerful as well.

In the Mentions tab:

• The volume of conversations – Social media reach, Non-social reach;
• Sentiment Analysis;
• Influence Score;
• Interactions and Engagement.

In the Analysis tab:

• Presence Score;
• AVE – Advertising Value Equivalent, which estimates the value of collected articles and mentions;
• Trending hashtags;
• Most influential profiles;
• Word cloud.

Furthermore, with Brand24, you can set many filters and extract data that is most important for you.

As far as features are concerned – Brand24 seems like a good alternative to Sprout Social. Both tools are similar and offer most of the same functions.

Sprout Social obviously offers even more features that are connected to social media management – publishing, scheduling. But we are looking into Listening features in this article.

Sprout Social alternatives: Brand24. Pricing

Sprout Social offers a very convenient, 30-day free trial that surely gives you the possibility to test it very well. The trial does not require a credit card from you which also is a plus. 

The trial does not include the Listening feature, but you can request a demo to see its possibilities.

After the trial, Sprout Social can offer you 3 pricing plans. 

1. Standard $89 / mo 
2. Professional $149 / mo
3. Advanced $249 / mo 

Sprout Social’s Listening feature starts at $999 / mo.

These plans obviously differ as far as features and functions are concerned. 

However, if you want to use Sprout Social as a social listening solution, the cost of the tool will be increased. Listening is an add-on feature that is not included in any of the three pricing plans. 

Brand24 also offers three pricing plans that you can choose from depending on your financial resources and needs. The tool is affordable and cheaper than Sprout Social, which makes it more accessible also for smaller businesses.

1. Personal Plus $49 / mo
2. Professional Premium $99 / mo
3. Professional Business $149 / mo 
4. Max $249 / mo

Brand24 offers a free trial as well, it lasts 14 days and there is no credit card required as well. 

Check the Brand24 pricing and plans!

Sprout Social alternatives: Brand24. Reviews

Both Brand24 and Sprout Social both have been recognized as G2’s 2021 Leaders.

Sprout Social has loads of reviews that are available online and I must say – they are pretty great!

Most of the opinions speak about social media management only, there is not much information on how social listening is performing as far as Sprout Social is concerned. It is definitely expensive though, and that’s one of the drawbacks that clients spotted.

“We would like to try their Listening tool to seek out conversations in our industry, however, it is incredibly expensive so we have not made that leap yet”

The good news is that Brand24 – an alternative to Sprout Social, has great opinions as well.

There are positive feedbacks that consider managing social media, monitoring the company’s online presence, and social listening. Brand24 is also considered an advanced solution, and definitely, its affordability is huge plus spotted by opinion formers.

Why should you consider alternatives to Sprout Social?

Sprout Social is a popular social media management tool, especially for business users. The tool includes scheduling, publishing, monitoring, analyzing a user’s profiles and actions, with a simple and efficient user interface. It supports multiple social media platforms.

But regular plans do not cover Listening, Premium Analytics, and Employee Advocacy.

It significantly increases the total price of this social media management tool. Which makes it not affordable for some social media marketing teams.

The second important reason for looking for Sprout Social alternative is the lack of in-depth sentiment analysis. While Brand24 conducts sentiment for every single mention, Sprout Social handles it only for topics.

The third reason is the number of monitored platforms. Sprout Social focuses on social networks. Is it enough for you?

For me, it’s nothing special. We can find those sources in many popular social media tools.

With Brand24, you can track much more sources, for example, podcasts, newsletters, or forums. So you’ll be able to build strong brand awareness and presence not only across social networks.

Need a more detailed comparison of Brand24 vs Sprout Social? Check Sprout Social Competitors!

Sprout Social vs Brand24. Summary:

After the in-depth comparison, I need to say that I think it is possible to find alternatives to Sprout Social if you are looking for one.

Its Listening feature is kind of expensive in my biased opinion, but it surely provides clients with valuable data and insights.

You’ll have to pay $89 (assuming you’ll choose the cheapest plan) + $999 for social listening. That gives us $1088 monthly and over $13 000 (!) yearly.

How about cost optimization?

Instead of using one tool, pick two tools.

Sprout Social for social media management, and dedicated tool (for example Brand24) for social listening.

The total cost of those tools will be $89 + $49 ( $138 monthly, and $1 656 yearly). Sounds much better isn’t it?

In my biased opinion, Brand24 is a good alternative to Sprout Social’s Listening feature.

It is a dedicated social media monitoring solution that offers almost identical possibilities when it comes to social listening at a much lower price. I dare to say Brand24 is one of the best Sprout Social alternatives.

Obviously, each tool has its pros and cons so it’s important to do your research. Fortunately, you can test both tools for free to see which one meets your expectations.

Start your free trial to test Brand24!

FAQ

Who is a competitor to Sprout Social?

1. Brand24: Brand24 excels in social listening, providing businesses with real-time monitoring and analytics to capture and analyze online conversations about their brand including but not limited to Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Linkedin, and Reddit.
2. Sprout Social: Sprout Social is a comprehensive social media scheduling tool that includes features for scheduling, engagement, and analytics. It helps businesses effectively manage their social media presence.
3. Hootsuite: Hootsuite is one of many widely recognized social media management platforms that allows users to schedule posts, monitor social media activity, and analyze performance across various platforms. It offers a broad range of features for businesses of all sizes.
4. Agorapulse: Agorapulse is a social media management platform that offers scheduling, content management, and social inbox features. It provides businesses with tools to efficiently manage and engage with their social media audience.
5. Sendible: Sendible is a social media management platform catering to agencies and businesses. It offers features such as content scheduling, analytics, and social listening, streamlining social media efforts.

Is there a free alternative to Sprout Social?

While Sprout Social is a powerful social media management tool, there are free alternatives available for scheduling posts. One popular option is Hootsuite. Hootsuite offers a free plan that allows users to schedule posts to multiple social media platforms, manage social streams, and access basic analytics. Although it may have some limitations compared to the paid version, the free plan can be a suitable choice for individuals or small businesses with limited social media management needs.

Why not to use Sprout Social?

While Sprout Social is a popular social media tool, there are a few considerations to keep in mind, especially for busy social media marketers:

1. Cost: Sprout Social’s pricing may be a deterrent for some businesses, particularly smaller ones with limited budgets. It’s important to evaluate the cost and features offered to ensure it aligns with your specific needs and resources.
2. Complexity: Sprout Social offers a wide range of features, which can sometimes make the platform feel complex and overwhelming, especially for users who are new to social media management. It may require a learning curve and time investment to fully utilize its capabilities.
3. Feature Overload: While Sprout Social provides extensive functionality, not all businesses may require or utilize all the features. This can lead to paying for features that are not fully utilized or necessary for your specific social media management requirements.
4. Alternatives: There are several alternatives available in the market that offer similar features to Sprout Social at potentially more affordable prices. It’s worth exploring and comparing different options to find the best fit for your social media management needs.

Considering these factors, it’s essential for marketers to evaluate their requirements, budget, and desired ease of use when deciding whether Sprout Social is the right tool for them or if an alternative option might better suit their social media marketing efforts.

What is cheaper than Sprout?

Several social media management tools offer more affordable options compared to Sprout Social. Here are a few alternatives to consider:

1. Buffer: This Sprout Social alternative provides social media scheduling and publishing features at a lower price point. It offers various plans suitable for individuals and small businesses looking to manage their social media posts effectively.
2. Hootsuite: Hootsuite offers a range of pricing plans, including more cost-effective options compared to Sprout Social. It allows users to schedule and manage social media posts across multiple platforms, making it a popular choice for businesses of all sizes.
3. Later: While Later is a social media marketing platform primarily focuses on Instagram scheduling, it also supports scheduling for other social media platforms. It offers affordable plans tailored to individuals and small businesses, making it a suitable option for managing social media posts and planning social media strategy.

It’s important to assess the specific features and requirements for your social media strategy and posts when considering these alternatives to find the best fit for your needs and budget.