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

Social media monitoring is vital for businesses to engage with customers effectively. Meltwater and MentionLytics are two leading platforms in the social listening space, each with its unique strengths.

Meltwater targets enterprises with news monitoring and influencer tracking, while MentionLytics serves mid-sized businesses with a streamlined approach. In this article, we’ll highlight their key differences, helping you choose the best fit for your needs.

Pricing & Plans

Meltwater and MentionLytics offer distinctly different pricing structures, with MentionLytics providing transparent pricing tiers while Meltwater requires direct contact for custom quotes. MentionLytics’ plans range from $41 to $499 monthly, with an additional Enterprise tier at $799 monthly, offering predictable costs for businesses of all sizes.

Plan Structure and Billing Options

MentionLytics presents six clearly defined tiers – Basic, Essential, Advanced, Pro, Agency, and Enterprise – with flexible monthly or annual billing options. Customers can save up to 20% with annual commitments. In contrast, Meltwater structures its offering into three tiers – Essential, Suite, and Enterprise – with customized pricing and annual contracts only.

Free Trial and Demo Availability

MentionLytics offers a free trial across all plans, allowing potential customers to test features before committing. Both platforms provide demo options, though Meltwater compensates for its lack of a free trial with comprehensive product demonstrations and personalized onboarding support.

Add-on Features and Capabilities

MentionLytics provides clear add-on options, including extensive review monitoring and historical data access. Their new Premium Managed Service Add-on, available for Pro plans and above, offers full-service social listening management. Meltwater’s add-ons are less transparent, requiring discussion with their sales team for customization options.

Payment and Billing Flexibility

MentionLytics accepts credit cards and PayPal for yearly subscriptions, offering greater payment flexibility. Meltwater’s payment methods aren’t publicly disclosed, though they typically handle enterprise-level transactions through traditional business payment channels.

Refund Policies

Meltwater maintains a strict no-refund policy under any circumstances, as explicitly stated in their agreement. MentionLytics’ refund policy isn’t publicly detailed, suggesting potential flexibility in specific situations.

For businesses seeking transparent pricing and flexible commitment options, MentionLytics presents a more accessible entry point, while Meltwater’s enterprise-focused approach suits larger organizations requiring customized solutions and comprehensive service packages.

Features

Dashboard & Interface

Both platforms offer comprehensive monitoring dashboards with distinct approaches. Meltwater’s interface emphasizes deep analytical capabilities with multiple data visualization options and real-time alerts. MentionLytics takes a more streamlined approach, focusing on quick-access monitoring and simplified data presentation. The dashboard layouts reflect their target users – Meltwater for enterprise-level analysis and MentionLytics for straightforward brand monitoring.

Alert Creation & Setup

Meltwater provides a sophisticated boolean search system with advanced operators for precise monitoring, though there’s a steeper learning curve. MentionLytics offers a more intuitive step-by-step alert creation process with instant result previews. While Meltwater’s approach enables more complex queries, MentionLytics’ simplified setup makes it more accessible for users without technical expertise.

Metrics & Analysis

Meltwater delivers comprehensive metric tracking including EMV, sales conversions, and detailed engagement analytics. Their system tracks influencer performance, potential impressions, and custom categories. MentionLytics focuses on fundamental metrics like mention volume, engagement rates, and website rankings. Both platforms offer sentiment analysis, though Meltwater’s BERT-based model supports an impressive 218 languages while MentionLytics claims 80% accuracy across most languages.

Data Sources & Coverage

Meltwater’s coverage spans 270,000 global news sources and 15 social media platforms, including specialized channels like KakaoTalk and LINE Voom. Their historical data reaches back to 2009 for editorial content. MentionLytics offers more limited coverage but includes essential platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and TikTok, with radio and TV monitoring restricted to USA markets. Historical data access requires an additional add-on in MentionLytics.

Reporting Capabilities

Meltwater offers six specialized report templates with extensive customization options and multiple export formats including Google Slides integration. Reports can be scheduled with flexible frequency options and include detailed metrics from media exposure to geographical presence. MentionLytics provides basic PDF reports with essential insights like share of voice and sentiment analysis, though with fewer template options and customization features.

AI & Collaboration Features

Meltwater integrates advanced AI capabilities including an AI search assistant, contextual analysis, and automated influencer discovery. Their collaboration tools facilitate influencer feedback and team coordination. MentionLytics incorporates AI for mention clustering, emotion analysis, and anomaly detection, with basic collaboration features like mention assignment. The platform lacks some advanced team collaboration tools available in Meltwater.

Meltwater emerges as the more robust solution for enterprises requiring comprehensive media monitoring and advanced analytics. MentionLytics serves as an accessible option for smaller organizations needing fundamental brand monitoring capabilities without complex features.

Customer Service

Meltwater’s Customer Service Infrastructure

Meltwater offers an extensive help center with 371 articles spread across 16 detailed categories, covering everything from basic FAQs to specialized features like Boolean searches and social media management. The platform provides support in seven languages (English, Suomi, French, German, Japanese, Chinese), making it accessible to a global user base. Their 24/7 support system includes live chat and email assistance, complemented by comprehensive training resources through Meltwater Academy, webinars, and ebooks.

The platform assigns dedicated account managers to all customers, ensuring personalized guidance for optimal platform utilization. Meltwater’s standout strength lies in its extensive self-help resources and round-the-clock support availability, making it particularly suitable for large organizations requiring comprehensive, always-available customer service.

MentionLytics’ Support Structure

MentionLytics maintains a more streamlined help center with 41 focused articles across 8 categories, covering core functionalities like mentions tracking, analytics, and integrations. Support is available in three languages (English, Spanish, Greek), with assistance provided through email, live chat, and demo sessions. Their training resources are concentrated in a single training course, offering a more direct learning path.

Account manager access is restricted to Agencies and Enterprise plan subscribers, creating a tiered support experience. MentionLytics’ approach is best suited for small to medium-sized businesses that prefer straightforward, essential support resources with the option to upgrade to more personalized assistance through higher-tier plans.

Customer testimonials

Meltwater User Reviews

Meltwater maintains a solid rating across review platforms, achieving a blended score of 4.00/5 from an impressive 2,283 total reviews (2,187 on G2 and 96 on Capterra). This substantial review base provides strong reliability in user feedback.

“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,” shares Megan D., a Marketing and Communications Manager. However, users also note limitations: “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,” explains Troy W., a Senior Product Manager.

MentionLytics User Reviews

MentionLytics boasts an exceptional blended rating of 4.84/5, compiled from 119 total reviews (81 on G2 and 38 on Capterra). While the review count is lower than Meltwater’s, the consistently high scores across platforms are noteworthy.

Data Analyst Francis S. praises the platform: “Already tried a lot of famous tracker and no one beat Mentionlytics yet. Pay only what you need.” However, Digital Consultant Rodrigo R. points out some challenges: “The platform can be a bit overwhelming at the beginning, due to the vast amount of features it has. I wish to have more details in its documentation, with more links to guides and HowTo’s on their blog.”

Based on user testimonials, Meltwater shines in providing comprehensive monitoring capabilities despite its learning curve, while MentionLytics offers superior value and performance but could benefit from improved documentation and user onboarding.

MentionLytics vs Meltwater: Final verdict

Meltwater excels at enterprise-grade social listening with extensive global coverage and advanced analytics capabilities, making it ideal for large organizations requiring comprehensive brand monitoring. MentionLytics offers a more streamlined, budget-friendly solution that’ll appeal to smaller teams and startups looking for quick, actionable social insights without complex features they won’t use.

However, both tools have notable limitations. Meltwater’s steep learning curve and premium pricing can be barriers for smaller organizations, while MentionLytics’ restricted historical data and basic reporting capabilities might not satisfy teams needing deep analytical insights. Additionally, MentionLytics lacks TikTok monitoring, which is increasingly crucial for modern social listening strategies.

For teams seeking a balanced alternative that addresses these gaps, Mention offers a free trial featuring 82% sentiment accuracy, extensive historical data coverage, and comprehensive TikTok tracking. Social media managers can schedule a demo to experience firsthand how Mention’s real-time monitoring of over 1 billion sources and versatile reporting options can complement their existing social listening strategy.