herdFree social listening tools for small businesses in 2026
By Lim Wai Hong · · 4 min read
Yes, you can start social listening for free in 2026. Google Alerts emails you new web pages that name your business, and F5Bot does the same for Reddit. Free tools see only some of the apps your customers use, so pay for a tool once you start missing posts you should have answered.
Can you do social listening for free?
Yes, as long as only a handful of people talk about you. Free tools come in two kinds. Alerts email you when a new page or post uses your words. Search lets you look for your name whenever you like.
Put two or three together, and a small shop can hear a lot of what people say about it without paying. You pay with your time instead.
What do free tools miss?
Google Alerts finds only what Google Search finds, so a post inside a social app reaches you only if Google lists it. F5Bot reads Reddit, Hacker News and Lobsters, and nothing else.
An alert is also just a list of new posts. You still read every one to decide which needs a reply today. And when a post is in a language you don't read, the alert gives you the words but not what they mean.
1. Google Alerts
- Best for
- News, blogs and web pages that name your business
- Price
- Free.
Google Alerts emails you when Google Search finds a new result for your words. You choose how often the emails come and which kinds of sites it checks.
Don't trust it on day one. Give it a week, then hold its emails up against the posts about you that you found by hand.
2. Talkwalker Alerts
- Best for
- A second set of alerts, with X included
- Price
- Free.
Talkwalker Alerts works like Google Alerts. You pick your words, and it emails you new mentions in news, blogs and discussion forums, and on X. You can get each one as it happens, or read them in an RSS reader or in Slack.
Both are free, so there's no reason to choose. Give it the same words as your Google Alerts and let the two run side by side.
3. F5Bot
- Best for
- Mentions on Reddit and Hacker News
- Price
- Free plan. Paid plans from $12.99 a month.
F5Bot watches Reddit, Hacker News and Lobsters for your words and emails you when they come up. You can get each post right away, a few at a time or in one email a day.
The free plan has email alerts and basic filters. The paid plans add more keywords, and the top one sends alerts to Slack or Discord. If your customers talk about you on Reddit, I'd start here.
4. Social Searcher
- Best for
- A quick search across social networks
- Price
- Free to search.
Social Searcher lets you search public posts on several social networks from one page. Its site says the search is free and needs no account.
Search your own name first, and see which networks the results come from. That tells you more than any list of sources would.
5. The search bar in each app
- Best for
- A few mentions a week
- Price
- Free. It costs you time.
Search your business name in each app your customers use, once a day. Search the usual misspellings too, and keep a sheet of what you find.
It works while the mentions are few. As they grow, the daily check takes longer, and the urgent post always seems to arrive on the day you skip it.
6. Herd's Free Plan
- Best for
- Trying a listening tool before you pay
- Price
- Free for 1 keyword and 100 mentions, one time. No card.
The Free Plan is one time, not monthly. After 100 mentions the searches stop, and paid plans start at $29 a month.
How do you start social listening for free with Herd?
The Free Plan needs no card. After you sign up, Herd asks four questions, then it starts listening.
- 01
Sign up for the Free Plan.
- 02
Enter your business name, the one your customers use.
- 03
Pick your 1 keyword. I'd use your business name, since that's what customers type when they post about you.
- 04
Choose the language you read. Press Translate on any post to read it in that language.
- 05
Pick a tone for draft replies: friendly, formal or playful. Herd drafts each reply, and you edit it before you post.
- 06
Read your feed. Each post has a positive, neutral or negative label, and you can fix any label in one click.
When is it time to pay for a tool?
When the free setup costs you more time than it saves. The clearest sign is a customer telling you about a post before your alerts do. That one stings.
Posts in languages you can't read are another sign. So is the day the mentions no longer fit in one sitting.
Paid tools start low. Billed yearly, Awario starts at $29 a month, Herd at $23.20 and Brand24 at $199. My guide to the best social listening tools for 2026 compares five of them.