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Social Media · head to head

Awario vs Meltwater

Awario logo

Awario

Social Media

Social listening with published prices and no per-seat charge on the top tier

From
$29/month
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Meltwater logo

Meltwater

News

Media intelligence and social listening platform

From
$15000/year
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Awario mention quotas are hard monthly caps, so a brand that experiences an unexpected coverage spike can exhaust its allowance mid-month and stop collecting data during the exact event it needed to monitor.; Meltwater real-time accuracy issues reported, particularly for niche industries or non-English content
  • They diverge on capability: Awario covers Boolean query builder, Meltwater covers Media monitoring.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Awario and Meltwater actually diverge.

Attributes where Awario and Meltwater differ
AttributeAwarioMeltwater
Starting price$29/month$15000/year
Pricing modelPer month by mention volumeUnknown
PlatformsWeb, APIWeb, iOS, Android
CategorySocial MediaNews
FoundedUnknown2001

Identical on both: free tier (No), user rating (Not yet rated).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Awario

  • Boolean query builder
  • Multi-source monitoring
  • Topic cloud
  • Awario Leads
  • Influencer identification
  • Location filtering
  • White-label reporting
  • Alerts and digests

Only in Meltwater

  • Media monitoring
  • Social listening
  • Influencer discovery
  • Competitive intelligence
  • PR analytics
  • Report automation
  • Crisis monitoring
  • Salesforce

Both cover

  • Sentiment analysis

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Awario

  • A five-person agency that needs client-branded listening reports without paying enterprise suite seat prices, using the unlimited-member Enterprise tiernot Meltwater
  • A software company tracking competitor complaints on forums and Reddit to feed a sales objection librarynot Meltwater
  • A consumer brand watching for early signs of a product complaint spreading before it reaches mainstream pressnot Meltwater
  • A consultant who needs a defensible share-of-voice number for a pitch deck and can build the Boolean queries themselvesnot Meltwater

Meltwater

  • Media monitoringnot Awario
  • Influencer researchnot Awario
  • Brand trackingnot Awario
  • Crisis managementnot Awario

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Awario

  • Mention quotas are hard monthly caps, so a brand that experiences an unexpected coverage spike can exhaust its allowance mid-month and stop collecting data during the exact event it needed to monitor.
  • Stored-mention limits per topic mean older mentions are purged, so building a genuine multi-year historical baseline is not possible on any published tier and back-filling history before signup is not offered.
  • There is no language filter, and results skew heavily to English, which makes it unreliable for brands whose primary conversation happens in a non-English market.
  • The Leads module identifies accounts showing intent but does not enrich them with an email address or phone number, so every lead still requires manual contact research before outreach.
  • The company operates with a very small team, reportedly down from around thirty staff in 2020, so support depth and the pace of platform coverage updates when a social network changes its API are real risks on a multi-year commitment.

Meltwater

  • Real-time accuracy issues reported, particularly for niche industries or non-English content
  • Limited media contact database at 380,000-400,000 contacts compared to competitors like Cision
  • Cumbersome dashboard navigation and reporting interface requiring multi-step menu access for data exports
  • Annual contracts with limited ability to scale down; risky for businesses with fluctuating needs

Pricing, plan by plan

Awario

$29/month
  • Starter$49/month
    • 3 topics
    • 30,000 new mentions per month
    • 5,000 stored mentions per topic
  • Pro$149/month
    • 15 topics
    • 300,000 new mentions per month
    • 15,000 stored mentions per topic
  • Enterprise$399/month
    • 100 topics
    • 1,000,000 new mentions per month
    • 50,000 stored mentions per topic

Meltwater

$15000/year
  • Essentials$15000/year
    • Core media monitoring
    • Brand mention tracking
    • Industry trend monitoring
  • Suite$25000/year
    • Media monitoring
    • Social listening
    • Cross-department analytics

Which should you pick?

Choose Awario if

  • You need boolean query builder.
  • You work on Web, API.
  • You also want multi-source monitoring.
Awario review

Choose Meltwater if

  • You need media monitoring.
  • You work on Web, iOS, Android.
  • You also want social listening.
Meltwater review

Questions people ask

Is Awario or Meltwater better?
Neither clearly leads. Awario starts at $29/month and Meltwater at $15000/year, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Awario or Meltwater?
Awario starts at $29/month and Meltwater at $15000/year.
Does Awario or Meltwater run on more platforms?
Awario runs on Web, API. Meltwater runs on Web, iOS, Android.
What is Awario best used for?
Awario is most often used for a five-person agency that needs client-branded listening reports without paying enterprise suite seat prices, using the unlimited-member enterprise tier, a software company tracking competitor complaints on forums and reddit to feed a sales objection library, a consumer brand watching for early signs of a product complaint spreading before it reaches mainstream press, a consultant who needs a defensible share-of-voice number for a pitch deck and can build the boolean queries themselves. Of those, a five-person agency that needs client-branded listening reports without paying enterprise suite seat prices, using the unlimited-member enterprise tier and a software company tracking competitor complaints on forums and reddit to feed a sales objection library are not what Meltwater is typically brought in for.
What can Awario do that Meltwater cannot?
Awario covers Boolean query builder, Multi-source monitoring, Topic cloud, Awario Leads. Meltwater covers Media monitoring, Social listening, Influencer discovery, Competitive intelligence. Both handle Sentiment analysis.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Awario: How much does Awario cost?

Starter is 49 USD per month billed monthly or 29 USD per month billed annually, Pro is 149 or 89, and Enterprise is 399 or 249 with unlimited team members.

Meltwater: How much does Meltwater cost?

Meltwater does not publish pricing; all quotes require a sales call and annual contract. Median annual cost is approximately $25,000, with mid-market PR teams typically paying $15,000-$40,000 depending on users, coverage volume, and features.

Source
Awario: Can I get historical mentions from before I signed up?

No. Monitoring begins when you create a topic, and stored-mention caps mean older data is purged over time, so it cannot serve as a historical archive.

Meltwater: What sources does Meltwater monitor?

Meltwater monitors 200M+ online publications, 400,000+ traditional media sources, 20,000+ podcasts, TV/radio across all 210 US DMAs, and social platforms including Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, YouTube, WeChat, and Weibo.

Source
Awario: Is the Enterprise tier suitable for a large enterprise?

Despite the name, reviewers consistently report it does not meet complex enterprise requirements. It is best understood as an unlimited-seat tier for small teams and agencies.

Meltwater: What languages does Meltwater support?

Meltwater provides global multilingual support with consistent accuracy across 100+ languages for sentiment analysis and content classification.

Source
Awario: Does it filter by language?

No. There is no language filter and coverage skews to English, which is a significant limitation for non-English markets.

Meltwater: Does Meltwater include journalist/media contact information?

Meltwater's media database includes approximately 380,000-400,000 contacts, smaller than competitors like Cision (1.1M). Media database and GenAI Lens are separate paid add-ons.

Source
Meltwater: Can I export Meltwater reports?

Yes, Meltwater generates custom dashboards and reports tailored to stakeholders. Mira AI assistant can generate summaries and insights from monitoring data.

Source
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