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

Choosing the right social listening platform can make or break a brand’s ability to understand and engage with its audience effectively. Awario and Brandwatch stand out as powerful contenders in the social media monitoring space, each offering distinct capabilities for businesses seeking actionable consumer insights.

This comprehensive comparison draws from verified user experiences, official documentation, and current platform specifications to help you make an informed choice.

Whether you’re a small business looking for affordable yet robust monitoring or an enterprise requiring advanced analytics and integration capabilities, understanding these key differences is crucial for selecting the right tool.

This detailed comparison provides the essential insights needed to evaluate Awario and Brandwatch against your organization’s unique requirements, budget constraints, and growth objectives.

Pricing & Plans

Awario and Brandwatch represent contrasting approaches to social listening pricing and accessibility. While Awario offers transparent pricing starting at $29/month for its Starter plan, Brandwatch requires custom quotes for all services, targeting enterprise-level clients.

Pricing Structure and Billing

Awario provides three defined tiers: Starter ($29/month), Pro ($89/month), and Enterprise ($249/month), with flexible monthly or annual billing options. Brandwatch, focusing on enterprise solutions, operates on annual contracts only, with customized pricing based on specific business needs. This makes Awario more accessible for smaller organizations while Brandwatch caters to larger enterprises requiring comprehensive solutions.

Free Trials and Demos

Awario offers a free trial that includes access to core features like topic monitoring and mention tracking, allowing users to test the platform’s capabilities firsthand. In contrast, Brandwatch doesn’t provide a free trial but offers comprehensive product demos, where potential clients can explore their Consumer Intelligence, Social Media Management, and Influencer Marketing platforms with expert guidance.

Add-ons and Customization

Awario maintains a straightforward pricing model without additional add-ons, including all features within their respective tiers. Brandwatch offers custom plans with specialized features for different user types: researchers, social media managers, and influencer marketers. Their modular approach allows clients to build solutions tailored to specific needs, though at premium pricing.

Payment and Billing Flexibility

Awario accepts diverse payment methods including credit cards, PayPal, bank transfers, and alternative options like WebMoney and Alipay. Brandwatch limits payment options to bank transfers, PayPal, and credit cards, reflecting their enterprise focus. *Both platforms require upfront payment*, with Brandwatch specifically requiring annual commitments.

Refund Policies

Both platforms maintain strict refund policies. *Awario explicitly states no refunds for unused services or intermittent usage*, while *Brandwatch’s fees are non-cancellable and non-refundable* unless specifically stated in their terms. This rigid stance reflects industry standards for enterprise software services.

For organizations choosing between these platforms, Awario presents a more accessible option for small to medium-sized businesses requiring immediate access and flexible billing, while Brandwatch serves enterprises needing comprehensive social intelligence solutions with customized feature sets and dedicated support.

Features

Dashboard & Interface

Awario’s dashboard emphasizes simplicity with a clean, intuitive layout focusing on real-time mention tracking and quick sentiment analysis. Brandwatch offers a more data-rich interface with comprehensive visualization tools and detailed analytics panels. Both platforms present their data through customizable widgets, though Brandwatch’s approach provides more granular control over dashboard elements.

Alert Creation & Setup

Awario provides two distinct alert types: Standard and Boolean, with straightforward keyword selection, geographic targeting, and language filters. Their whitelist/blacklist feature adds precision to mention tracking. Brandwatch takes a more advanced approach with complex Boolean operators, source-specific parameters, and country operators for refined alert creation. **Brandwatch’s sophisticated Boolean logic** allows for more precise targeting, though *it may present a steeper learning curve for new users*.

Metrics & Analytics

Awario tracks essential social metrics including likes, shares, comments, reach, and sentiment, with filtering capabilities for grouping mentions and authors. Brandwatch expands this with additional metrics like impressions, emotions (for English content), and detailed author profiling. **Brandwatch’s emotion analysis** adds valuable context to sentiment data, while *Awario’s simpler metric set* focuses on core performance indicators.

Data Sources & Coverage

Awario monitors major social platforms (X, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube) and web sources, with historical data limited to web content. Brandwatch offers broader coverage, including 165 languages and historical data up to 3 years for X and their archive. **Brandwatch’s extensive source list** includes radio, TV, and specific blog platforms, though *both platforms have limitations on certain social networks* like TikTok.

Sentiment Analysis

Both platforms employ advanced sentiment analysis, with Awario achieving roughly 70% accuracy through deep learning models. Brandwatch supports 40 languages with 60-75% accuracy, using a combination of Deep Learning, NLP, and Transformer Architecture. **Brandwatch’s multi-language support** gives it an edge for international monitoring.

Reporting Capabilities

Awario offers three main report templates focusing on mention statistics, alert comparisons, and influencer analysis, with PDF/CSV export options. Brandwatch provides more flexible reporting with email alerts, dashboard exports, and larger CSV export capabilities (up to 5000 mentions). *Neither platform offers comprehensive report scheduling options*.

Collaboration Features

Awario maintains basic role management with admin, user, and guest access levels. Brandwatch provides more robust collaboration tools, including **multi-step approval workflows**, note-sharing capabilities, and timezone support for global teams.

AI Integration

Both platforms incorporate AI primarily for sentiment analysis, with Brandwatch adding emotion analysis and Iris conversation insights for mention summaries. **Brandwatch’s broader AI implementation** offers more analytical depth, while Awario focuses on sentiment accuracy through specialized deep learning models.

The platforms serve different user needs effectively – Awario excels in straightforward social listening with intuitive controls, while Brandwatch provides comprehensive analytics and advanced monitoring capabilities for enterprise-level requirements.

Customer Service

Awario Customer Service

Awario’s help center provides comprehensive coverage across 13 distinct categories, ranging from basic setup to advanced features like Boolean search and API implementation. The platform offers immediate assistance through live chat and a contact form, with detailed documentation available exclusively in English. Their Learning Center serves as a central hub for training materials and tutorials.

Account manager support comes standard, helping customers maximize platform value through personalized guidance. The well-organized help center includes practical sections like “Questions That Keep You Up at Night” and “Social Media Wiki,” making self-service troubleshooting straightforward. Takeaway: Awario’s support structure is ideal for teams who value instant communication and hands-on guidance.

Brandwatch Customer Service

Brandwatch maintains an extensive knowledge base covering 12 major categories, with particular depth in consumer intelligence, research, and social media management tools. Support options include in-app chat, request forms, and email assistance, though email responses can take between 4-24 hours. The platform provides English-only support, complemented by their mobile app for Engage features.

The Brandwatch Academy stands out with its structured learning approach, offering webinars, detailed reports, and regular events for skill development. While account manager access is available, the delayed email response times may impact urgent support needs. Takeaway: Brandwatch’s service model best suits enterprises willing to trade immediate support for comprehensive training resources and educational materials.

Customer testimonials

Awario User Reviews

Awario maintains a solid rating across review platforms, with an overall score of 4.12/5 based on 87 total reviews. The platform scores 3.9 on G2 (40 reviews) and 4.3 on Capterra (47 reviews).

Users share mixed experiences with the platform. “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, others express frustration: “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.”

Brandwatch User Reviews

Brandwatch demonstrates strong user satisfaction with a combined rating of 4.35/5 from 895 reviews. The platform earns a 4.4 rating on G2 (661 reviews) and 4.2 on Capterra (234 reviews), showing consistent performance across platforms.

User feedback highlights both strengths and limitations. “Its query builder is clean and simple, as are the Brandwatch Academy resources which teach junior colleagues how to use it. The Quick Search function rivals Google Trends in being a ‘pick up and play’ insight finder.” On the downside: “Too much of online news and approx (3 to 5)% of them do not show or show errors. The keyword backfilling fails even after multiple attempts, and data loading takes too much time.”

Based on user testimonials, Brandwatch emerges as the more established solution with significantly more reviews and higher overall ratings, though users cite occasional technical issues. Awario offers a simpler, more affordable alternative but struggles with accuracy and customer support challenges.

Brandwatch vs Awario: Final verdict

When comparing Awario and Brandwatch, clear strengths emerge for different use cases. Awario stands out for its affordable pricing and intuitive interface, making it ideal for small to medium businesses seeking essential social listening capabilities. Brandwatch delivers enterprise-grade analytics and unmatched data coverage, perfect for large organizations requiring comprehensive market intelligence and advanced sentiment analysis.

However, both tools have notable limitations. Awario’s reporting capabilities are somewhat basic, and it lacks advanced Boolean search options. Meanwhile, Brandwatch’s steep learning curve and premium pricing put it out of reach for many smaller teams. Its historical data restrictions can also pose challenges for in-depth trend analysis.

For teams seeking a balanced alternative that addresses these gaps, Mention offers compelling features worth exploring. With 82% sentiment accuracy, extensive historical data access, and real-time monitoring across over a billion sources, it bridges the gap between enterprise power and user-friendly design. Experience Mention’s comprehensive solution firsthand through a free trial, or schedule a demo to see how its robust reporting and cost-effective pricing can enhance your social listening strategy.