Awario vs Meltwater: Which Is the Right Choice? (2025 review)

Social media monitoring tools have become essential for businesses seeking to understand their online presence and engage with audiences effectively. Awario and Meltwater stand out as prominent solutions in this space, each offering distinct approaches to social listening and analytics. This comparison examines their core capabilities, pricing structures, and real-world performance to help you make an informed choice.

The analysis draws from verified customer reviews, official documentation, and hands-on platform testing to provide an unbiased look at how these tools perform across key metrics.

We break down essential aspects from pricing models to advanced features, helping you identify which tool best aligns with your social listening goals. Understanding these crucial differences will enable teams to make a choice that supports their long-term social media monitoring strategy.

Pricing & Plans

Awario offers transparent pricing with three main tiers starting at $29/month for the Starter plan, while Meltwater requires custom quotes for their Essential, Suite, and Enterprise solutions. Both platforms provide flexible billing options, with Awario allowing monthly or yearly payments and Meltwater focusing on annual contracts.

Pricing Structure and Features

Awario’s Starter plan ($29/month) includes 3 topics, 30,000 monthly mentions, and single-user access. Their Pro plan ($89/month) expands to 15 topics and 10 team members, while the Enterprise plan ($249/month) offers 100 topics and unlimited users. Meltwater’s tiered structure, though pricing isn’t public, scales from Essential (core features for small teams) to Enterprise (custom solutions for global organizations).

Trial Access and Demos

Awario provides a free trial that includes access to core features, letting users test the platform’s monitoring capabilities and reporting functions. Meltwater takes a different approach, offering personalized demos instead of trials, allowing potential customers to see customized solutions tailored to their needs.

Add-ons and Customization

Awario maintains a straightforward pricing model without additional add-ons, including all features within their respective tiers. Meltwater offers custom add-ons and premium services, particularly in their Enterprise tier, though specific costs aren’t publicly available.

Payment and Billing Options

Awario accepts diverse payment methods including credit cards, PayPal, bank transfers, and alternative options like WebMoney and Alipay. Meltwater’s payment methods aren’t publicly disclosed, but they typically process traditional business payment options for their enterprise clients.

Refund Policies

Both platforms maintain strict refund policies. Awario doesn’t offer refunds for unused services or irregular usage periods, while Meltwater explicitly states that no refunds will be provided under any circumstances during or after agreement termination.

For organizations seeking social listening solutions, Awario presents a more transparent, scalable option for small to medium businesses, while Meltwater’s enterprise-focused approach suits larger organizations requiring customized solutions and comprehensive global coverage.

Features

Dashboard & Interface

Both platforms offer modern, data-rich dashboards with distinct approaches to data visualization. Awario’s interface emphasizes real-time mention monitoring with a clean, straightforward layout. Meltwater provides a more comprehensive view with multiple widgets and customizable sections, though this can create a steeper learning curve for new users.

Alert Creation & Monitoring

Awario provides two straightforward alert types – Standard and Boolean – with intuitive keyword selection and filtering options. Users can easily set up whitelist/blacklist features after initial configuration. Meltwater offers a more sophisticated boolean search system with advanced operators for precise targeting, including source, proximity, and entity operators. While this provides greater control, it may require significant time investment to master.

Metrics & Analytics

Meltwater delivers comprehensive analytics tracking 10+ key metrics, including unique indicators like EMV (estimated media value) and conversion tracking. Awario focuses on core social metrics including reach, sentiment, and engagement. Both platforms offer robust filtering capabilities, though Meltwater edges ahead with additional custom categories and location-based filtering options.

Data Sources & Coverage

Meltwater demonstrates superior source coverage with access to 15 social media channels, 270,000 news sources, and specialized content like podcasts and broadcast media. Historical data extends back to 2009 for editorial content. Awario provides focused monitoring of major social platforms and web sources, though historical data is limited to web sources only. Meltwater supports an impressive 480 languages, while Awario monitors mentions across all languages without specifying an exact number.

Sentiment Analysis

Meltwater employs Google’s BERT model for sentiment analysis across 218 languages, offering sophisticated contextual understanding. Awario’s deep learning models provide approximately 70% accuracy in sentiment detection. Both platforms automatically categorize mentions as positive, neutral, or negative, though Meltwater’s implementation appears more technically advanced.

Reporting Capabilities

Meltwater offers extensive reporting options with multiple templates, formats (PDF, PPTX, Google Slides), and scheduled digest reports. Reports include detailed metrics from media exposure to geographical presence. Awario provides essential report templates focusing on mention statistics and influencer analysis, though it lacks scheduling capabilities.

Collaboration & AI Features

Meltwater showcases strong AI integration with features like AI search assistance, contextual analysis cards, and automated tagging. The platform includes role-based collaboration tools. Awario offers basic role management (admin/user/guest) and focuses its AI capabilities primarily on sentiment analysis, limiting advanced collaborative workflows.

Meltwater stands out for enterprise-level monitoring needs with extensive source coverage and advanced features, while Awario offers a more focused solution for social media monitoring with straightforward implementation.

Customer Service

Awario’s Support Infrastructure

Awario maintains a comprehensive help center with 13 well-organized categories covering essential topics from basic setup to advanced features like Boolean search and API integration. Their support system operates through live chat and a contact form, though specific response times aren’t publicly disclosed. The help center is available exclusively in English, which may limit accessibility for international users.

The Awario Learning Center provides structured training resources, complemented by a dedicated account manager for personalized guidance. Their Social Media Wiki section offers additional context for users looking to enhance their social listening knowledge. The standout feature is their streamlined, category-based documentation that makes finding answers relatively straightforward.

Key takeaway: Awario’s support system is best suited for English-speaking teams who prefer structured, self-service documentation with the option for direct support when needed.

Meltwater’s Support Architecture

Meltwater delivers an extensive knowledge base featuring 371 articles across 15 categories, ranging from basic FAQs to specialized topics like consumer intelligence and influencer marketing. Their multilingual support in six languages (English, Suomi, French, German, Japanese, and Chinese) demonstrates strong global accessibility. The 24/7 email support and live chat options ensure continuous assistance regardless of time zones.

The platform’s training ecosystem includes the Meltwater Academy, regular webinars, e-books, and mobile apps, offering diverse learning pathways for different user preferences. Their community help center facilitates peer-to-peer learning, while dedicated account managers provide strategic guidance for optimal platform utilization.

Key takeaway: Meltwater’s robust support infrastructure makes it ideal for global enterprises requiring comprehensive, multi-language support with round-the-clock assistance and diverse training options.

Customer testimonials

Awario User Reviews

Awario maintains a solid rating across review platforms, scoring 4.12/5 from 87 total reviews (40 on G2 with 3.9/5 and 47 on Capterra with 4.3/5). Users praise the platform’s straightforward approach and value proposition. “I love Awario’s simplicity, ease of creating reports, and speed. It’s daily reports are helpful to give you a quick birds-eye view. There are really lots of powerful and key features for the price.”

However, some users express frustration with accuracy and support: “Even if you add specific keywords, it yields irrelevant outcomes. The statistics provided are way off compared to the actual ones from the platform. The customer service sucks.”

Meltwater User Reviews

Meltwater demonstrates consistent performance across platforms with an overall rating of 4.0/5 from an impressive 2,283 total reviews (2,187 on G2 with 4.0/5 and 96 on Capterra with 4.0/5). Users highlight the platform’s comprehensive analytics capabilities: “Meltwater provides us with invaluable data and insights. With the Explore function, we can monitor online conversations about our organization and related areas, while also comparing those discussions to competitor activity and analyzing trends over different time periods.”

The main criticism centers on complexity: “Although the interface is user-friendly, there is still a learning curve to fully utilize all the advanced features. It can take some time to get accustomed to the various tools and functionalities available.”

While Awario appeals to users seeking simplicity and quick results despite some accuracy concerns, Meltwater stands out for its robust features and comprehensive insights, though users should expect some time investment to master the platform’s full capabilities.

Meltwater vs Awario: Final verdict

Awario shines with its competitive pricing and robust Boolean search capabilities, making it ideal for small to medium businesses requiring precise monitoring parameters. Meanwhile, Meltwater’s enterprise-grade solution offers unmatched global coverage and advanced analytics, though it comes with a steeper learning curve and higher price point. Both tools deliver reliable social listening capabilities, but they target distinctly different user segments.

Teams should consider key trade-offs before committing. While Awario provides excellent value, it’s limited by a 3-month historical data restriction and lacks comprehensive API access. Meltwater offers deeper historical insights but requires significant investment in both cost and training time. Additionally, neither platform currently offers comprehensive TikTok monitoring, which may be crucial for brands targeting Gen Z audiences.

For teams seeking a balanced alternative that addresses these limitations, Mention offers comprehensive social listening with 82% sentiment accuracy and up to 2 years of historical data. Their platform analyzes over 1 billion sources in real-time, including TikTok, at a more accessible price point. You can start a free trial to explore their 10+ reporting templates, or schedule a demo to see how Mention can complement your existing monitoring strategy.