--- title: "Best B2B Social Listening Tools (2026): 11 Compared" description: "The best B2B social listening tools for catching buyers on Reddit, X, LinkedIn and Hacker News: Octolens, Syften, F5Bot, Brand24, Common Room and more." url: https://getaob.com/social-listening-tools --- # Best B2B social listening tools (2026): where buyers complain in public, and how to answer them B2B social listening tools watch public posts on Reddit, X, LinkedIn, Hacker News, and similar sites for keywords you choose: your category, a competitor's name, or the words people use when they have the problem you solve. For sales, a post asking for a tool recommendation or complaining about a competitor is the most direct buying signal there is, because the buyer wrote it themselves. Below are the keyword listeners built for B2B, the brand monitoring suites, the signal platforms that act on mentions, and the build-your-own options OneGTM uses, with what each vendor publishes about price. This page covers other people's posts. For analytics on your own LinkedIn posts, see [LinkedIn analytics tools](https://getaob.com/linkedin-analytics-tools). For the wider set of triggers, see [buying signal tools](https://getaob.com/buying-signal-tools). By [Garrett Wolfe](https://garrettawolfe.com), founder of OneGTM (Clay Artisan Solutions Partner) and former GTM engineer at Unify. Updated October 26, 2026. Key takeaways - Octolens and Syften are built for B2B keyword listening on Reddit, Hacker News, and X, from about $30 to $160 a month. - F5Bot is free for Reddit, Hacker News, and Lobsters alerts. - Brand24 and Mention are brand monitoring suites, priced for marketing teams. - Most posts come from a username with no email. Reply in the thread, and save sequences for LinkedIn posts. - A fit check matters more than the listener. Most keyword hits are hobbyists, students, and vendors. ## Keyword listening built for B2B These watch developer and founder communities where B2B buyers ask for recommendations, and alert you in Slack, email, or by webhook. Cheap, fast to set up, and good at Reddit and Hacker News. ### [Octolens](https://octolens.com/?utm_source=onegtm&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=social-listening-tools) Our pick for B2B teams Social listening for B2B and developer brands across Reddit, X, LinkedIn, Hacker News, GitHub, Stack Overflow, YouTube, Bluesky, and review sites, with AI relevance filtering. Scale adds podcasts, newsletters, news, and the web. **Best for:** B2B teams that want one listener across developer and founder communities **Pricing:** Pro $159/month (15,000 mentions, 10 keywords) and Scale $499/month (50,000 mentions, 40 keywords), billed annually. Enterprise custom. 7-day free trial. ### [Syften](https://syften.com/?utm_source=onegtm&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=social-listening-tools) Keyword monitor for Reddit, Hacker News, Indie Hackers, GitHub, Product Hunt, Stack Exchange, forums, Slack communities, Bluesky, and the web, with AI filtering, Slack alerts, an API, and webhooks. **Best for:** Cheap, wide community coverage with an API **Pricing:** Entry $29.95/month; Standard $49.95/month; PRO $119.95/month. X monitoring +$40/month and YouTube +$20/month on Standard and PRO. ### [F5Bot](https://f5bot.com/?utm_source=onegtm&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=social-listening-tools) Emails you when your keywords appear on Reddit, Hacker News, or Lobsters. No dashboard, no AI, and very little setup. **Best for:** Free alerts on Reddit and Hacker News **Pricing:** Free plan. Paid Silver $12.99/month and Gold $49.99/month. ## Brand monitoring suites Built for marketing and PR teams tracking a brand across social, news, and the web, with sentiment and reporting. Good coverage, priced per keyword and mention volume. ### [Brand24](https://brand24.com/?utm_source=onegtm&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=social-listening-tools) Media monitoring across Facebook, Instagram, X, Reddit, LinkedIn, YouTube, TikTok, news, blogs, podcasts, newsletters, and reviews, with sentiment analysis and alerts. **Best for:** Marketing teams tracking brand and competitor mentions everywhere **Pricing:** Individual $199, Team $299, Pro $399, Business $599 per month billed annually ($249, $349, $499, $699 monthly). Enterprise from $1,499/month. ### [Mention](https://mention.com/?utm_source=onegtm&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=social-listening-tools) Media monitoring and social listening with sentiment analysis and competitive tracking. Historical data and API access are paid add-ons. **Best for:** PR and marketing teams that want listening and reporting in one tool **Pricing:** Custom pricing; the plan price was not shown on the pricing page when we checked. Annual billing gives two months free. Choosing tools for an outbound build? Send me your current stack and what you want it to do. I'll tell you what I'd keep and what I'd change. Get a stack review ## Signal platforms that act on mentions These treat social activity as one signal among many, tie it to a person and an account, and push it toward outreach. ### [Common Room](https://www.commonroom.io/?utm_source=onegtm&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=social-listening-tools) Signal platform that combines social and community engagement with website visits, product usage, and third-party intent, resolves it to people and accounts, and routes it to reps. **Best for:** Companies with an active community and a budget for a full signal platform **Pricing:** Essential $2,500/month billed annually. Advanced and Enterprise custom. ### [Gojiberry](https://gojiberry.ai/?utm_source=onegtm&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=social-listening-tools) AI agents that watch buying and social signals, such as people engaging with competitors, following your company, or active in your space, then run outreach to them. **Best for:** Small teams that want LinkedIn social signals turned into outreach **Pricing:** Pro $99/month with 2 AI agents and up to 1,800 prospects contacted a month. Custom plans for teams of 3 or more. ## Build your own listening feed When you want the raw posts in your own database, with your own fit rules and routing, pull them through scrapers and APIs. This is how OneGTM builds listening lanes. ### [Apify Reddit scrapers](https://apify.com/?fpr=onegtm&utm_source=onegtm&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=social-listening-tools) Scraping platform with ready-made actors that search Reddit posts and comments by keyword or subreddit and return full text, author, score, and dates. Pay per result. **Best for:** Pulling Reddit threads on a schedule into your own database **Pricing:** Reddit Scraper Lite from $3.40 per 1,000 results, lower on higher Apify plans. Apify free plan includes $5 of usage a month; Starter $19/month. ### [treg](https://treg.to/?utm_source=onegtm&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=social-listening-tools) OneGTM uses this Pay-per-call catalog of thousands of data endpoints, including Reddit, X, TikTok, and LinkedIn post search and engager scraping from several providers, with measured success rates shown before you call. **Best for:** One-off or niche social searches without a subscription **Pricing:** No subscription. You pay per call, with the price shown before each call and no markup. $1.00 free to start. Reddit keyword search from about $0.001 to $0.002 per call. ### [Deepline](https://deepline.com/?utm_source=onegtm&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=social-listening-tools) OneGTM uses this GTM data platform where scheduled plays pull posts, run a fit check with a model, find the person, and route them. Its providers include Hacker News and Bluesky, and it runs the LinkedIn engager plays we use alongside listening. **Best for:** Turning social posts into scored, routed leads **Pricing:** Pay as you go at $0.10 per credit with no platform fee. ### [Hacker News Search API](https://hn.algolia.com/api?utm_source=onegtm&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=social-listening-tools) Algolia's public search API for Hacker News. Search stories and comments by keyword and date with no key. Useful for launches, shutdowns, and Ask HN threads in your category. **Best for:** Free, structured Hacker News search **Pricing:** Free. Prices are from each vendor's site as of October 2026 and change often, so check before you buy. This is an opinionated list, not a paid ranking. Some links are referral links that may earn us a credit; that never changes what you pay or who makes the list. ## B2B social listening tools compared | Tool | Best for | Starting price | | --- | --- | --- | | Octolens | B2B teams that want one listener across developer and founder communities | Pro $159/month billed annually | | Syften | Cheap, wide community coverage with an API | From $29.95/month | | F5Bot | Free alerts on Reddit and Hacker News | Free; paid from $12.99/month | | Brand24 | Marketing teams tracking brand and competitor mentions everywhere | From $199/month billed annually | | Mention | PR and marketing teams that want listening and reporting in one tool | Custom pricing | | Common Room | Companies with an active community and a budget for a full signal platform | $2,500/month billed annually | | Gojiberry | Small teams that want LinkedIn social signals turned into outreach | Pro $99/month | | Apify Reddit scrapers | Pulling Reddit threads on a schedule into your own database | From $3.40 per 1,000 results | | treg (OneGTM uses) | One-off or niche social searches without a subscription | Pay per call; $1 free | | Deepline (OneGTM uses) | Turning social posts into scored, routed leads | $0.10/credit, no platform fee | | Hacker News Search API | Free, structured Hacker News search | Free | Starting prices as published by each vendor in October 2026. ## What to listen for Listening on your brand name is the least useful setup for sales. People who already know your name will find you. The posts worth catching are from people who have the problem and have not picked a tool yet. Write keywords in the words a buyer uses for the pain. Your website copy is the wrong source. Then add competitor names, because a public complaint about a competitor is a buyer telling you they might switch. - Recommendation requests: "alternative to", "anyone using", "what do you use for". - Competitor names, especially next to words like pricing, outage, support, or cancel. - The problem in plain words, such as "spreadsheet hell" or "manual data entry". - Launch and shutdown threads in your category on Hacker News and Product Hunt. - Your category name, to see who is new to it. ## Most posts come with a username and nothing else On Reddit, X, Hacker News, and Bluesky you usually get a handle and no way to find a work email. In a listening lane we ran, those handle-only posts were the majority of the feed and also the sharpest posts in it. Join those conversations in the thread. Do not try to sequence them. LinkedIn is the exception. A LinkedIn post gives you the person's profile, which you can enrich to a work email and reach through a LinkedIn sequencer or cold email. Expect that slice to be small. The posts you cannot answer are still worth keeping: they are buyers describing the problem in their own words, which is the best copy research you can get. ## How to use social listening in outbound Here is the play. Pull keyword hits daily from a listener or your own scrapers into one table. Run each post through a fit check with a model that asks one question: does this person need what we sell? Drop hobbyists, students, researchers, vendors, and recruiters. On an error, mark the post unknown so an outage does not wipe the list. For the posts that pass, a model drafts a short public reply and a short DM in your voice, and each one lands as a card in a Slack channel for a person to send or skip. Handle-only posts get a helpful reply in the thread that answers the question first. LinkedIn posts go to HeyReach with a message that references the post, and to Instantly once you have a verified email. Keep every post, answered or not, as a copy corpus. - Answer the question in the thread before mentioning your product, or the mods will remove you. - Reply within a day. Threads go cold fast. - Never paste the same reply twice. Communities notice. - Route LinkedIn posts to a sequence; route the rest to a person. - Mine the full set monthly for the phrases buyers use. ## When to get help with social listening Setting up a keyword alert takes ten minutes. The work is choosing keywords that catch buyers, filtering out everyone who is not one, and routing the rest to the right reply without spamming communities. OneGTM builds listening lanes on Apify, treg, and Deepline: pull the posts, run the fit check, draft replies for a person to approve in Slack, and push LinkedIn posts into HeyReach and Instantly. You own the data and the workflows. - Your alerts are full of noise and nobody reads them. - Buyers ask for recommendations in your category and you find out a week later. - You want competitor complaints turned into outreach. - You want buyer language from Reddit and Hacker News in your outbound copy. Book a call ## B2B social listening FAQ ### What are the best B2B social listening tools? Octolens and Syften are the strongest B2B keyword listeners for Reddit, Hacker News, X, and LinkedIn, and F5Bot is a free option for Reddit and Hacker News. Brand24 and Mention suit marketing teams tracking a brand everywhere. OneGTM builds its own listening feeds, pulling posts through Apify and treg and running the fit check and routing in its own plays. ### How much do B2B social listening tools cost? F5Bot is free, Syften starts at $29.95 a month, and Octolens Pro is $159 a month billed annually. Brand24 starts at $199 a month billed annually, and Common Room's Essential plan is $2,500 a month billed annually. Apify Reddit scrapers cost from $3.40 per 1,000 results. ### Is there a free social listening tool for Reddit and Hacker News? Yes. F5Bot emails you free when your keywords appear on Reddit, Hacker News, or Lobsters, and the Hacker News Search API from Algolia is free with no key. Syften's Entry plan is a cheap step up at $29.95 a month with Slack alerts and an API. ### How is social listening different from LinkedIn analytics? Social listening watches other people's public posts for your keywords and competitors. LinkedIn analytics measures how your own posts perform and who engaged with them. Use listening to find buyers who are asking for help, and analytics to improve your own content. ### Can I add people from Reddit to a cold email sequence? Usually not. Reddit, X, and Hacker News posts rarely link to a real name or work email, so the right move is a helpful reply in the thread. LinkedIn posts are the exception, since the profile can be enriched to a work email. ### What keywords should a B2B company monitor? Monitor recommendation phrases such as alternative to, competitor names next to words like pricing or cancel, and the plain words buyers use for the problem you solve. Your own brand name is the least useful keyword for finding new buyers. ### Does social listening work for B2B sales? Yes, when you filter hard. Most keyword hits come from hobbyists, students, and vendors, so add a fit check before anyone replies. The posts that pass are some of the strongest signals available, because the buyer described the need in their own words. Buyers asking for your category in public and nobody answering? ## Related - [Best buying signal tools](https://getaob.com/buying-signal-tools): Signal platforms and data feeds for job changes, hiring, funding, and intent, with what OneGTM uses. - [Best LinkedIn analytics tools](https://getaob.com/linkedin-analytics-tools): Post analytics, engagement tracking, and employee advocacy tools, plus how to turn engagers into pipeline. - [Company news monitoring](https://getaob.com/company-news-monitoring): News APIs and alert tools for sales, with pricing and how to turn a headline into a first line. - [Best intent data providers](https://getaob.com/intent-data-providers): Bombora, G2, TrustRadius, 6sense and more for third-party intent, with how to test them. - [Best ad intelligence tools](https://getaob.com/ad-intelligence-tools): Free ad libraries, paid ad intelligence tools, and APIs, with pricing and how to sell to new advertisers. - [Developer signal tools](https://getaob.com/developer-signal-tools): GitHub, package download, and docs signals for dev-tool GTM, with free APIs, paid platforms, and pricing. ## Get a social listening review Tell me what you're building. I reply the same day. Book a call at [getaob.com/#contact](https://getaob.com/#contact) or email [team@getaob.com](mailto:team@getaob.com).