Brand monitoring tool for startups
A startup lives or dies on the first few hundred buyers, and they find you on Reddit, Hacker News, review sites and in ChatGPT answers. MentionRadar watches all of them for your name, product and competitors, alerts you the same day and costs $49 a month with no contract.
- Public pricing from $49 a month, cancel any time
- Reddit, Hacker News, news, blogs and reviews every 15 minutes
- Track competitor launches and complaints
- ChatGPT, Perplexity and AI Overviews checks included
Scan your startup name across the web and AI answers
Starter is $49 a month, or $24 billed yearly. Compare plans
What a startup gets from brand monitoring
You do not need a comms hire. You need to know quickly when a buyer, a critic or a competitor mentions you.
Two star review: onboarding took three days
Reviewer says support replied after two days and the import failed.
Show HN: Paperplane, invoicing for freelancers
Front page thread, 14 comments, one asks about Stripe payouts.
r/startups: what do you use for invoicing
Three commenters recommend Paperplane, one asks about tax support.
Early adopters talk in four places: Reddit and Hacker News, review sites, newsletters and blogs, and roundup articles that rank competitors. A few threads there decide who gets the next trial signup.
MentionRadar checks those sources every 15 minutes for your product name, founders and chosen competitors. Each mention shows its source, reach and sentiment, so the angry thread is at the top of your inbox and the neutral roundup waits for the weekly report.
A founder reply within hours turns many critics into users. A thread found a month later has already been read by your next hundred prospects.
Why startups skip enterprise monitoring suites
Enterprise suites bundle journalist databases, press release distribution, broadcast and print clipping, and analyst support. That is a fair product for a comms team of ten. A startup that only needs to read what is written about it ends up with annual contracts, auto-renewal and three to seven percent uplifts for features it never opens.
If that is your situation, see how the cost works out on our Meltwater pricing and alternatives page or the Cision pricing breakdown. Both end in the same question: how many of those modules did you use last quarter?
The smaller tools make a different trade. Published prices, monthly billing, one to five seats and no journalist database. You give up print and broadcast and keep the part startups use daily, which is online coverage, reviews and forums.
Brand monitoring tools for startups compared
Entry prices from each vendor's public pages or buyer data, checked October 2026. Confirm before you buy.
| Meltwater, Cision or Mention | Awario | MentionRadar | |
|---|---|---|---|
| How you buy | Demo and quote | Self-serve | Self-serve |
| Typical entry cost | Roughly $3,000 to $12,000+ a year (buyer data), Mention from $599 a month | EUR 49 a month (EUR 29 billed yearly) | $49 a month ($24 billed yearly) |
| Contract | Annual, auto-renew | Monthly or yearly | Monthly or yearly |
| News, blogs, forums, reviews | |||
| Print and broadcast | |||
| ChatGPT, Perplexity and AI Overviews tracking | |||
| Journalist database |
Honest read: if you pitch journalists every week or need TV and print clips, an enterprise suite earns its price. Awario is a solid mentions-only option, see our Awario pricing breakdown. MentionRadar suits the founder or first marketer who wants Reddit, Hacker News, reviews and AI answers in one inbox for under $150 a month.
Set up brand monitoring for your startup in 15 minutes
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1
Scan your name
Enter your product and one competitor at the top of this page and read real recent mentions before you sign up.
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2
Add keywords
Product name, founder names, the company name and common misspellings. Starter holds 3 keywords and 3 competitors.
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3
Turn on alerts
Get an email when a negative mention or a new Reddit or Hacker News thread appears, so you answer the same day.
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4
Read the weekly report
A summary of volume, sentiment and top articles, ready to forward to a cofounder or investor.
Which startup plan fits
Solo founder
Starter
$49 a month
3 keywords, 3 competitors, 5,000 web mentions a month, email alerts and 15 AI prompts weekly.
Startup with a marketer
Growth
$149 a month
30,000 mentions, 40 prompts in five engines, Slack alerts, scheduled PDF reports and 5 seats.
Agency serving startups
Agency
$499 a month
15 client workspaces, white-label reports and read-only client access.
Yearly billing halves each price. For a broader look at press tracking see media monitoring software, and for review and complaint alerts see reputation monitoring software.
Questions founders ask about brand monitoring
What is the best brand monitoring tool for a startup?
Pick a tool with public pricing, monthly billing and coverage of Reddit and Hacker News, where early adopters talk. MentionRadar starts at $49 a month with 3 keywords and 5,000 web mentions, and also checks ChatGPT and Perplexity. Awario and Brand24 are comparable, Meltwater and Cision are built for larger PR teams.
How much does brand monitoring cost for a startup?
Small team tools run roughly $30 to $150 a month. Enterprise suites are quoted by contract and often reach thousands a year. MentionRadar is $49 a month, or $24 billed yearly, and Growth at $149 adds 5 seats, Slack alerts and scheduled reports for a team with a first marketer.
When should a startup start brand monitoring?
As soon as strangers can find you: after a launch, a Product Hunt or Hacker News post, or the first paying customers. Early threads set the first impression, and a founder reply the same day often turns a critic into a user. Three keywords cover most pre-seed needs.
What should a startup track besides its own name?
Track your product name, founder names, two or three competitors and the problem phrase buyers use, such as the job your tool does. Competitor complaints on Reddit are sales leads, and a competitor launch is your cue to update your own positioning.
Can I see what ChatGPT says about my startup?
Yes. Starter runs 15 weekly prompts in ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews and records whether you are named, in what position and which competitors come first. For a young brand this shows whether AI assistants know you exist yet.
Does MentionRadar need a long contract?
No. Plans are monthly with public prices, and yearly billing halves the monthly cost if you prefer it. You can run a free brand scan before you create an account.
See what the web and AI say about your startup today
Scan your product name and one competitor. You see recent Reddit, news and review mentions plus a real AI answer before you create an account.