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

Choosing between Agorapulse and Meltwater for social listening requires carefully weighing each platform’s unique strengths and limitations. Both tools offer robust features for monitoring social conversations and gathering actionable insights, but they serve different organizational needs and budgets. This detailed comparison examines key aspects like data coverage, core capabilities, pricing structures, and user experience to help readers make an informed decision.

The analysis draws from verified sources, including official documentation, product specifications, and authentic user reviews across trusted platforms. While both solutions excel at social listening, their approaches differ significantly in terms of scope, complexity, and target users. Understanding these nuances is crucial for organizations investing in the right social intelligence platform.

Rather than declaring a universal winner, this guide helps readers evaluate which tool better aligns with their specific requirements. By examining real-world performance data and user experiences, organizations can better understand how each platform’s features and limitations match their social listening goals and resources.

Pricing & Plans

Agorapulse and Meltwater present distinctly different pricing approaches in the social media management space. While Agorapulse offers transparent pricing starting at $49/month for its Standard plan, Meltwater requires custom quotes for all its packages, making direct cost comparisons challenging.

Core Plans and Billing Options

Agorapulse structures its pricing across four tiers: Standard ($49/month), Pro ($79/month), Advanced ($119/month), and Custom. Each plan includes 10 social profiles, with additional profiles available for $10/month each. They offer both monthly and annual billing options, with annual subscriptions providing cost savings. Meltwater, meanwhile, divides its offering into three tiers – Essentials, Suite, and Enterprise – but doesn’t publicly disclose pricing, requiring prospects to contact sales for customized quotes.

Free Trial and Demo Access

Agorapulse provides a free trial and maintains a free plan supporting up to 3 social profiles with 10 scheduled posts. They also offer comprehensive product demos for potential customers. In contrast, Meltwater doesn’t offer a free trial but provides detailed demos to showcase their platform’s capabilities. This difference in approach means customers can test Agorapulse hands-on before committing, while Meltwater requires reliance on guided demonstrations.

Add-ons and Expandability

Agorapulse’s pricing includes clear add-on options, with social listening available at $40/search/month and advocacy features for $150/month. These supplements integrate seamlessly with existing plans. Meltwater’s add-ons are customized based on client needs, but pricing isn’t publicly available. Both platforms offer enterprise-level customization for larger organizations.

Payment and Refund Policies

Agorapulse accepts major credit cards (VISA, MasterCard, American Express) and PayPal, offering partial refunds on annual subscriptions within 30 days of renewal. Meltwater’s refund policy is notably stricter, with no refunds available under any circumstances. Their payment methods aren’t publicly disclosed, requiring discussion with sales representatives.

For businesses seeking transparent pricing and flexibility, Agorapulse offers a more straightforward approach with clear costs and trial options. Meltwater’s enterprise-focused model might better suit larger organizations requiring custom solutions and comprehensive service packages, despite its less transparent pricing structure.

Features

Dashboard Interface

Agorapulse offers a streamlined dashboard focused on social media management with real-time alerts and engagement metrics prominently displayed. In contrast, Meltwater’s dashboard presents a more comprehensive media monitoring view, incorporating traditional and social media data visualization through detailed trend graphs and analytics panels.

Alert Configuration

Agorapulse utilizes a straightforward alert creation process with basic boolean operators and geographic filters. Meltwater delivers superior search flexibility through advanced operators, including proximity and entity-specific parameters, though this complexity may require a steeper learning curve. Both platforms support case-sensitive searches, with Meltwater offering more granular refinement options.

Metrics and Analytics

Meltwater excels with comprehensive measurement capabilities, tracking advanced metrics like EMV (estimated media value) and conversion analytics. Agorapulse focuses on social-specific metrics, including engagement rates and audience demographics. While Meltwater provides deeper analytical insights, Agorapulse offers more intuitive social performance tracking.

Data Coverage

Meltwater demonstrates superior source coverage with access to 270,000 global news sources, 15 social networks, and extensive broadcast media. Their historical data reaches back to 2009 for editorial content. Agorapulse’s coverage is limited to major social networks and web sources, with historical data restricted to 30 days. Meltwater supports 480 languages compared to Agorapulse’s undisclosed language capabilities.

Sentiment Analysis

Meltwater implements Google’s BERT model for sentiment analysis across 218 languages. Their AI-powered approach enables automated sentiment detection for diverse content types. Agorapulse offers only manual sentiment assignment, lacking automated analysis capabilities.

Reporting Capabilities

Meltwater provides extensive reporting options with six specialized templates and multiple export formats including Google Slides integration. Reports include detailed metrics from media exposure to geographical presence. Agorapulse offers basic reporting templates focused on social media metrics, with limited export options in PDF and CSV formats.

Collaboration Tools

Both platforms support team workflows through workspace management and task assignment. Meltwater adds value with influencer collaboration features, while Agorapulse emphasizes social media approval workflows.

AI Integration

Meltwater showcases advanced AI capabilities including contextual analysis, automated tagging, and AI-powered influencer discovery. Agorapulse’s AI features focus on content creation and scheduling optimization, though with less sophisticated implementation.

Meltwater emerges as the comprehensive solution for enterprises requiring extensive media monitoring and advanced analytics. Agorapulse presents a more focused option for organizations primarily seeking social media management capabilities with straightforward workflows.

Customer Service

Agorapulse Support Analysis

Agorapulse maintains a comprehensive help center with 362 articles spanning 14 key categories, with content available in three major European languages – English, French, and German. Their tiered support system provides email and chat assistance, with response times varying from 30 minutes to 6 hours based on the customer’s plan level. Professional plan subscribers gain access to live chat, while Custom plan members receive exclusive benefits including video calls and dedicated account management.

The platform’s training resources demonstrate a strong commitment to customer education, offering webinars, ebooks, guides, and a social media community. Custom plan users benefit from both group and one-on-one coaching sessions, though these premium support features aren’t available to users on lower-tier plans. The key advantage of Agorapulse’s support structure lies in its clear escalation path – as customers invest in higher-tier plans, they receive increasingly personalized and responsive support.

Meltwater Support Analysis

Meltwater’s help center features 371 articles across 16 categories, with documentation available in six languages including Asian markets (Japanese and Chinese). Their support infrastructure stands out with true 24/7 availability through both live chat and email channels, making them particularly accessible for global teams operating across time zones. The Meltwater Community adds an additional layer of peer-to-peer support, complementing their official channels.

The company’s investment in training resources is evident through the Meltwater Academy, regular webinars, and comprehensive ebooks. Unlike Agorapulse’s tiered approach, Meltwater provides account manager access as a standard feature rather than restricting it to premium plans. The platform’s greatest strength is its globally accessible support system, making it an ideal choice for international organizations requiring consistent, round-the-clock assistance in multiple languages.

Customer testimonials

Agorapulse User Reviews

Agorapulse maintains a strong reputation with users, earning a blended rating of 4.54/5 from 1,652 total reviews across G2 (4.5/5 from 942 reviews) and Capterra (4.6/5 from 710 reviews). Users appreciate the platform’s straightforward implementation and practical features.

“Our move across to Agorapulse was unexpected however it was easy to implement, the platform is simple to navigate and we instantly saw the benefits of moving across. The social listening has allowed us to find business leads for other departments within the company.” However, some users note technical limitations: “One issue I’ve run in to is occassionally there are disconnected links in the listening feature when our clients are tagged by other businesses on Facebook.”

Meltwater User Reviews

Meltwater has accumulated 2,283 total reviews with a blended rating of 4.0/5, combining feedback from G2 (4.0/5 from 2,187 reviews) and Capterra (4.0/5 from 96 reviews). The platform receives praise for its 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.” Yet users mention a steeper learning curve: “Although the interface is user-friendly, there is still a learning curve to fully utilize all the advanced features.”

Based on user testimonials, Agorapulse stands out for its ease of use and quick implementation, while Meltwater’s strength lies in its robust data analysis capabilities despite requiring more time to master.

Meltwater vs Agorapulse: Final verdict

Agorapulse stands out with its comprehensive social media management capabilities and user-friendly interface, making it ideal for marketing teams focused on engagement and content scheduling. Meltwater excels in media monitoring and analytics across traditional and digital channels, offering enterprise-grade insights for PR professionals and larger organizations. While both tools deliver value, Agorapulse’s limited listening capabilities and Meltwater’s steep learning curve represent notable trade-offs.

Budget-conscious teams might find Agorapulse’s pricing more accessible, though they’ll need to accept its restricted historical data access. Meltwater’s extensive coverage and advanced analytics command a premium price point that may stretch smaller organizations’ resources. Additionally, Meltwater’s complex interface could require significant onboarding time, while Agorapulse users might need supplementary tools for deep social listening.

For teams seeking additional social listening options, Mention offers a balanced solution with real-time monitoring across billions of sources, superior sentiment accuracy, and up to 2 years of historical data access. Experience Mention’s comprehensive monitoring capabilities through a free trial or schedule a demo to explore how its extensive reporting and cost-effective pricing could complement your existing strategy.