Hootsuite Social Listening Pricing and Alternatives
Check what AI engines and the web say about your brand
Hootsuite lists social listening inside its Standard ($99), Professional ($199) and Advanced (up to $399) plans, billed per user per month, and quotes Enterprise on request. Depth differs by tier, and the deeper listening many teams want, including Talkwalker by Hootsuite, is sold through sales. If you mainly need mentions, alerts and reports, MentionRadar runs $49 to $499 a month and also tracks ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews.
The confusion comes from two products under one owner. Hootsuite is the scheduling and inbox platform with listening built into each plan. Talkwalker is the enterprise listening suite that Hootsuite acquired in 2024. A quote for one is not a quote for the other, so decide which job you are paying for before you compare numbers.
How much does Hootsuite social listening cost?
Hootsuite's plans page shows listening in every tier, with the price set by the plan and the number of users. Its FAQ gives starting points of $99 per user per month for Standard, $199 for Professional and up to $399 for Advanced, with annual billing lowering the monthly rate. Enterprise has no public price.
| Plan | Price (per user, per month) | Social accounts | Listening included |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | From $99 | 10 | Monitor your brand and competitors |
| Professional | From $199 | Unlimited | 30 day Quick Search and 90 day trend forecasting |
| Advanced | Up to $399 | Unlimited | Professional listening plus team tools |
| Enterprise | Custom quote | Unlimited | 13 months of historical data, alerts and scheduled reports |
Prices checked on Hootsuite's plans page in October 2026. They are per user, so a three person team on Professional is about $600 a month at the starting rate before any Enterprise needs. Hootsuite offers a 14 day trial on Standard, Professional and Advanced without a credit card.
Does Hootsuite have social listening?
Yes. Listening is part of every plan, but the depth changes sharply. Standard lets you monitor your brand and competitors. Professional adds a 30 day Quick Search and 90 day trend forecasting. Historical data going back 13 months, alerts and scheduled reports are described under Enterprise, which is quote only.
That ladder matters if your job is reporting. A team that needs to show a quarter of mention volume to a manager will hit the history limits on the lower tiers and be pushed toward a sales conversation.
What about Talkwalker by Hootsuite?
Talkwalker is priced separately by quote. Vendr purchase data puts the median around $13,300 a year, with a reported range of about $12,260 to $15,860, and Talkwalker's own pricing page offers Core, Analyze and Business tiers through a demo form. Talkwalker states that Core includes unlimited users.
Those are buyer figures, not a rate card. If you are weighing it, read our Talkwalker pricing and alternatives page for plan contents and what each tier leaves out.
Is Hootsuite worth it for listening alone?
Usually not. Hootsuite earns its price when your team publishes to several networks, shares an inbox and approves posts. If those people already use another scheduler, or you only watch mentions, you are paying per seat for features that sit idle.
A quick audit settles it. List what each seat did last month: scheduled posts, answered messages, or read the listening feed. If most seats only read the feed, the cheaper move is to keep a smaller Hootsuite footprint for publishing and run listening somewhere else.
Hootsuite listening alternatives compared
| Tool | Starting price | Best for | What it lacks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hootsuite | $99 per user a month for Standard | Teams that publish and manage inboxes across networks | Deep listening history sits in the quoted Enterprise tier |
| Talkwalker by Hootsuite | Quote only, Vendr median about $13,300 a year | Large teams needing enterprise consumer intelligence | No public price, demo only |
| Sprout Social listening | Add-on reported near $999 a month on top of seats | Social teams already on Sprout | Add-on cost, quote driven |
| MentionRadar | Starter $49, Growth $149, Agency $499 a month. Yearly billing is roughly half at $24, $74 and $249 a month | Web mention monitoring plus ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews tracking | No publishing or social inbox, no Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, print or broadcast |
For the Sprout side of the comparison, see our Sprout Social listening cost breakdown. Neither a starting price nor a median guarantees what your team will be quoted.
What MentionRadar covers
Starter includes 3 keywords, 3 competitors, 5,000 web mentions a month and 1 seat. Sources include news, blogs, forums, Reddit, Hacker News, reviews, YouTube and X. It has email alerts and 15 AI prompts weekly across ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews.
Growth includes 30,000 mentions, 40 prompts across 5 engines including Gemini and Claude, cited sources, Slack alerts, scheduled PDF reports and 5 seats. Agency adds 15 client workspaces, white-label reports and 15 seats. Monthly plans carry no long contract. Compare limits on the MentionRadar pricing page.
What you would still need Hootsuite for
MentionRadar does not publish posts, run a shared inbox or monitor Facebook, Instagram or TikTok. If those are daily tasks, keep a Hootsuite seat for them and move the reading and reporting somewhere cheaper.
How to cut a Hootsuite listening bill
- Count active seats. Pricing is per user, so removing readers who never publish is the fastest saving.
- Drop to the tier you use. If nobody uses trend forecasting, Professional is paying for it.
- Price the history. Ask what 13 months of data costs against exporting reports monthly from a cheaper monitor.
- Get Enterprise and Talkwalker quotes itemized. Ask what changes if you remove modules or users.
- Test a dedicated monitor in parallel. Run the same brand terms through both feeds for two weeks and compare relevant mentions, missing sources and report quality.
Can I split publishing and listening?
Yes, and many small teams do. Keep one scheduler for posting and send mentions, alerts and weekly reports from a dedicated listening tool. The combined cost is only lower if the smaller Hootsuite plan still covers your publishing needs, so check seats and accounts first.
Recurring questions you see in mentions make good article topics, and you can turn those questions into SEO articles without adding writing headcount.
The short version
Hootsuite includes listening in every plan from $99 per user a month, but deeper history and Talkwalker are quote-led. If most of your seats only read mentions, a dedicated monitor can do that for $49 to $499 a month and add AI answer tracking. Scan your brand on MentionRadar's AI visibility tracker to see what ChatGPT says about you today.