Top 10 Free Social Media Competitor Analysis Tools to Try Today

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Finding success on social media is a challenging feat. You need to keep track of countless things, which can sometimes feel overwhelming. For example, more than measuring your metrics, like engagement and reach, is required. You need to look at what your competition is doing, too. Analyzing how your competitors perform on social media can uncover valuable insights that can help you improve your strategy.

This process starts with understanding how to measure brand awareness on social media. From there, you can use free social media competitor analysis tools to keep track of your rivals' performance and identify their strengths, weaknesses, and upcoming trends. This guide will introduce you to today's top 10 free social media competitor analysis tools.

Brandwise’s social media engagement software can help readers achieve their objectives by clearly showing how your brand compares to others in your industry.

What is Competitor Analysis?

Free Social Media Competitor Analysis Tools

Competitor analysis in the context of social media is the process of evaluating your competitors' strategies, performance, and audience engagement to gain insights that can inform your marketing efforts. It involves studying your rivals' social media profiles, identifying the type of content they post, and measuring how their audience interacts with their campaigns. Businesses can uncover valuable data using competitor analysis tools, such as Popular hashtags and trending topics.

Audience demographics and preferences

Post timing and frequency that yields the best engagement. Strengths and weaknesses in their digital presence. Competitor analysis is not about copying but learning and understanding what works well in your industry and applying those insights to refine your approach.

Benchmarking Your Performance

Competitor analysis helps you measure your social media success against industry standards. By comparing engagement rates, follower growth, and content performance, you can identify areas for improvement in your strategy.

Understanding Market Trends

Social media trends shift quickly. Analyzing your competitors informs you about emerging topics, hashtags, and content formats that resonate with audiences.

Refining Content Strategy

By examining which types of posts perform best for competitors- videos, infographics, or polls, you can tailor your content strategy to drive better engagement.

Identifying Gaps in the Market

Competitor analysis can reveal unaddressed audience needs or overlooked content opportunities. This insight allows you to position your brand uniquely.

Improving Customer Engagement

Observing how competitors interact with their followers provides a roadmap for enhancing customer service and communication.

The Role of Tools in Competitor Analysis

Manually tracking competitors' social media activities is time-consuming and prone to errors. Competitor analysis tools automate this process, providing accurate, real-time insights with less effort. These tools enable you to:

Monitor multiple competitors across various social media platforms simultaneously.

Generate reports highlighting performance metrics like follower growth, engagement rates, and popular posts.

Receive notifications about new campaigns or trends.

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What to Look for in a Competitor Analysis Tool

Competitor analysis tools help brands identify rival strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities to refine social media strategies. However, not all tools are created equal. Choosing the right one depends on your needs, budget, and marketing goals. A well-chosen tool saves time, provides actionable insights, and helps you refine your strategies effectively.

Key Features to Look For

Ease of Use

A user-friendly interface ensures you can quickly access insights without a steep learning curve. This is especially important for small teams or businesses without dedicated analysts.

What to Look For

Clean dashboard design with intuitive navigation.

Simple setup for tracking competitors and customizing reports.

Precise data visualization tools like graphs and charts.

Example

Brandwise offers a sleek interface that simplifies competitor tracking and provides real-time AI-driven insights.

Coverage Across Platforms

Most businesses operate on multiple social media platforms. A tool that monitors all major platforms ensures you don’t miss any important data.

What to Look For

Support platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and TikTok.

Ability to track competitors’ performance on multiple platforms simultaneously.

Platform-specific metrics, such as hashtags on Instagram or mentions on Twitter.

Example

Tools like Mentionlytics excel in offering broad platform coverage, enabling businesses to track mentions and trends across diverse social channels.

Real-Time Monitoring

Social media trends and conversations happen in real-time. A tool that delivers live updates ensures you can respond quickly to changes in competitor strategies.

What to Look For

Alerts for new posts, campaigns, or mentions by competitors.

Real-time insights into engagement spikes or viral content.

Monitoring of trending hashtags and keywords.

Example

NapoleonCat provides real-time updates on competitors’ activity and performance metrics.

Comprehensive Data Insights

Surface-level metrics like follower counts need to be increased. A good tool should provide deep insights into audience behavior, engagement trends, and content performance.

What to Look For

Metrics like engagement rate, click-through rate (CTR), and sentiment analysis.

Insights into audience demographics and preferences.

Identification of top-performing content by competitors.

Example

BuzzSumo excels in identifying high-performing content and engagement metrics to inform your strategy.

Customization and Reporting

Pre-made reports may only sometimes align with your specific goals. Customizable reporting options allow you to tailor insights to your needs.

What to Look For

Ability to create custom reports based on selected metrics.

Automated reporting features for regular updates.

Exportable formats for presentations or team collaboration.

Example

Brand24 enables users to create detailed reports with custom metrics for a comprehensive analysis.

Affordability and Free Plan Availability

Many small businesses operate with limited budgets. A tool offering free or affordable plans is ideal for exploring features before committing to premium versions.

What to Look For

A robust free plan with essential features.

Transparent pricing for premium features or additional users.

Example

Tools like Followerwonk and Iconosquare offer free plans with basic competitor tracking features.

Brandwise is an intelligent social media management tool. At its core is an advanced AI that continuously learns and improves, automatically moderating comments on ads and posts while generating intelligent replies to comments and messages. This powerful tool streamlines workflow by consolidating social media interactions in one place and provides valuable AI-driven insights, identifying top FAQs and concerns to enhance customer engagement strategies.

For brands struggling with high-volume social media interactions, Brandwise offers an efficient solution to automatically hide negative comments, provide AI-generated responses, and gain a deeper understanding of customer engagement patterns. Try our social media engagement software for free for 7 days to grow your social media accounts rapidly!

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Brandwise is more than a competitor analysis tool; it’s an AI-powered social media management solution. It consolidates competitor insights, comment moderation, and audience engagement into one efficient platform.

Why It Stands Out

Key Features

Competitor Performance Monitoring: Track engagement rates, post-performance, and audience growth.

AI-Driven Insights: Identify top-performing competitor strategies with intelligent recommendations.

Comment Moderation and Reply Automation: Manage high-volume social media interactions effortlessly.

Best For

Brands dealing with large-scale social media operations need real-time insights.

Pricing

Free Trial: 7 days.

Plans Start At $39/month.

Social Champ simplifies competitor tracking with its easy-to-use interface and cross-platform support.

Key Features

Monitor and compare competitor engagement across multiple platforms.

Analyze post-performance metrics such as likes, shares, and comments.

Schedule and automate your posts while reviewing competitor strategies.

Best For

Small businesses and solo marketers.

Pricing

Free Plan: Limited features.

3. Mentionlytics

Mentionlytics focuses on real-time monitoring, offering insights on mentions, hashtags, and audience sentiment.

Key Features

Tracks competitor mentions across social media and the web.

Provides sentiment analysis to gauge audience perceptions.

Offers real-time alerts for trending topics and hashtags.

Best For

Brands seeking PR insights and reputation management.

Pricing

Free Plan: Limited searches and results.

4. Brand24

Brand24 delivers powerful analytics for competitor monitoring, making it ideal for detailed social listening.

Key Features

Real-time tracking of competitor mentions across platforms.

Insights into audience sentiment and conversation trends.

Customizable reporting tools for competitor performance.

Best For

Agencies and businesses managing multiple competitors.

Pricing

Free Plan: Limited to basic features.

5. BuzzSumo

BuzzSumo excels in identifying high-performing competitor content and trends.

Key Features

Analyzes top competitor content based on shares, likes, and comments.

Tracks influencers who engage with competitors’ posts.

Offers keyword and topic analysis for content inspiration.

Best For

Content marketers and social media teams.

Pricing

Free Plan: Limited to a set number of searches.

6. NapoleonCat

NapoleonCat is a versatile tool with competitor benchmarking and engagement tracking capabilities.

Key Features

Tracks competitor growth, audience engagement, and response rates.

Offers automated moderation for comments and messages.

Includes analytics for Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

Best For

Agencies handling multiple client accounts.

Pricing

Free Trial: Available.

7. TweetDeck

TweetDeck specializes in Twitter competitor analysis, offering real-time data and management features.

Key Features

Real-time tracking of competitor tweets and mentions.

Organizes competitor insights using custom dashboards.

Free scheduling tool for managing your own Twitter content.

Best For

Brands focusing on Twitter marketing.

Pricing

Completely free.

8. Keyhole

Keyhole offers hashtag and keyword tracking, making it ideal for analyzing campaign effectiveness.

Key Features

Tracks competitor hashtags and campaign performance.

Provides engagement metrics and audience demographics.

Monitors sentiment around competitor content.

Best For

Campaign managers and digital marketers.

Pricing

Free Plan: Limited access.

9. Mention

Mention specializes in real-time social listening, tracking competitor mentions, and audience discussions.

Key Features

Tracks competitor mentions across social media, blogs, and forums.

Provides insights into trending topics and keywords.

Offers sentiment analysis for competitor campaigns.

Best For

Brands focusing on audience sentiment and PR.

Pricing

Free Plan: Limited features.

10. Iconosquare

Iconosquare provides in-depth analytics for Instagram and Facebook competitor accounts.

Key Features

Tracks follower growth, engagement rates, and post-performance.

Benchmarks your account against competitors in your niche.

Offers advanced reporting for visual content performance.

Best For

Visual brands focusing on Instagram and Facebook.

Pricing

Free Plan: Basic analytics.

Brandwise is an intelligent software that takes the stress out of social media engagement. At its core is an advanced AI that continuously learns and improves, automatically moderating comments on ads and posts while generating intelligent replies to comments and messages. This powerful tool streamlines workflow by consolidating social media interactions in one place and provides valuable AI-driven insights, identifying top FAQs and concerns to enhance customer engagement strategies.