What Are the Best Alternatives to Google Alerts?
The alternatives we read are Talkwalker Alerts, Feedly, Awario, Brand24, Mention and Meltwater. Talkwalker Alerts is free; Feedly has a free plan but its keyword and AI features are paid; the other four are paid monitoring tools that add social platforms, sentiment and reporting.
Which is best depends on the job. If you only need to know when your company name appears in a new news story or web page, Google Alerts or Talkwalker Alerts may be enough. If you need social posts, review sites, competitor dashboards or reports for a team, you are buying a monitoring product, and the price ladder below applies. Google's AI Mode is not an alert tool in the pages we read; see whether Google AI Mode can monitor news about your company for what it does.
What Does Google Alerts Do, and Where Does It Fall Short?
Google Alerts emails you new Google Search results for a topic you choose. Google's help page says: “You can get emails when new results for a topic show up in Google Search. For example, you can get info about news, products, or mentions of your name.” (Google Search Help)
The alert form offers frequency (As-it-happens, At most once a day, At most once a week), sources (Automatic, News, Blogs, Web, Video, Books, Discussions, Finance), any language or one language, any region or one country, and “Only the best results” or “All results” (Google Alerts). Because it reports what Google Search finds, its reach is Google's index; a page Google has not indexed will not trigger an alert.
What the form does not list is a social network as a source, sentiment, shared team inboxes or reports. That is where the alternatives differ. Our guides how to monitor brand mentions with Google Alerts and Google Alerts vs Talkwalker Alerts cover set-up and the free head-to-head in detail.
Where Google Alerts is still the better choice: it costs nothing, has no paid upsell, offers more source types and languages than Talkwalker Alerts, and has a simple country filter. For a founder who wants a free notice when a name appears in the news, it is hard to beat.
How Do the Alternatives Compare on Price and Sources?
Talkwalker Alerts is free, Feedly's paid reader plans start at $6 a month billed annually, Awario's monitoring plans start at $29 and Brand24's at $199, while Mention and Meltwater publish no figure. The table states only what each vendor's page shows. Pricing checked October 2026.
| Tool | Published price | Sources and limits on its own page | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google Alerts | Free | Automatic, News, Blogs, Web, Video, Books, Discussions, Finance; email delivery | |
| Talkwalker Alerts | Free | News, Twitter, Blogs, Discussion forums; 22 languages; email, RSS or Slack | Talkwalker |
| Feedly | Free (100 feeds); Pro $6 and Pro+ $12 a month billed annually; Market Intelligence from $1,600 a month billed annually | RSS feeds and newsletters; Google News feeds and AI Feeds on Pro+ | Feedly |
| Awario | $29 / $89 / $249 a month billed annually; $49 / $149 / $399 billed monthly | 3, 15 or 100 topics; 30,000 to 1,000,000 new mentions a month | Awario |
| Brand24 | $199 to $599 a month billed annually; $249 to $699 monthly; Enterprise from $1,499 | 3 to 25 keywords and 2K to 100K mentions a month by plan; 14-day free trial | Brand24 |
| Mention | One Company plan; “Starting at” with no figure displayed | Social platforms, news, blogs, forums, 75+ review sites | Mention |
| Meltwater | Quote-based; most contracts annual, 12-month minimum | Price depends on “the breadth of sources and regions you want to monitor”; no source counts given | Meltwater |
US dollars per month, billed annually
Source: Feedly, “Feedly Pro” and “Pricing | Feedly Market Intelligence”; Brand24, “Prices”; Awario, “Pricing.” Read October 19, 2026.
All prices are as labeled “billed annually” on each page; monthly billing costs more where offered (Brand24 $249, Awario $49). Feedly Pro+ showed a first-year offer of $8.25 a month; the chart uses the $12 list price. Google Alerts, Talkwalker Alerts and Feedly's basic plan are free; Mention displayed no figure and Meltwater is quote-based, so none is charted.
The chart shows how wide the paid range is: a Feedly reader plan costs a few dollars a month, while Brand24's entry plan and Feedly's team intelligence product sit one and two orders of magnitude higher, so plans with “monitoring” in the description are not interchangeable.
What Is Talkwalker Alerts, and When Does It Fit?
Talkwalker Alerts is a free alert service that adds X (Twitter) results to the web sources Google Alerts covers. Its page says it “monitors every single mention of your brand, products, and keywords across the internet. Including news platforms, blogs, forums, websites, and even Twitter (X),” lets you choose “News, Twitter, Blogs, or Discussion forums,” is “available in 22 different languages,” and delivers “via email, RSS, or through a Slack integration” (Talkwalker). Unlike Google Alerts, it sends to any email address.
The page warns that pairing “As it happens” with “All results” means “you might find your inbox flooded during the day.” Sentiment analysis, “Up to 5 years of historical data” and podcast and review-site coverage belong to Talkwalker's separate paid Social Listening product, sold through a demo request. Talkwalker Alerts fits anyone who wants free monitoring with X results and Boolean queries. Its limits are that it is an alert feed rather than an analytics tool, and that “every single mention” is marketing copy; our head-to-head notes its free-service terms do not warrant completeness.
What Is Feedly, and When Does It Fit?
Feedly is a news reader that can collect Google News keyword searches and AI-filtered feeds in one place, which makes it a reading tool for alerts rather than a replacement source. Its free plan “allows you to follow up to 100 feeds and organize them into 3 folders.” Pro is $6 a month billed annually; Pro+ is $12 a month billed annually and adds “Google News feeds,” “Feedly AI Feeds,” “Follow newsletters” and “RSS Builder.” On October 19, 2026 the page also showed a first-year Pro+ offer of $8.25 a month. Enterprise, with team feeds, Slack and Microsoft Teams, and API access, is priced through sales (Feedly Pro). Feedly Market Intelligence, aimed at strategy teams, lists Standard at $1,600 and Advanced at $2,400 a month billed annually (Feedly Market Intelligence).
Two documented limits matter. Feedly's help center says you can create “up to 10 query terms for Google News searches (Google News limitation),” and for keyword alerts beyond Google News its options are Pro+ AI Feeds or adding a Google Alert as an RSS feed (Feedly Docs; Feedly Docs). Those help articles were last updated in 2023. Feedly fits someone who wants to read alerts, trade press and newsletters in one reader for a few dollars a month. It does not list social-media mention tracking or sentiment on its reader plans.
What Is Awario, and When Does It Fit?
Awario is a lower-cost paid monitoring tool that meters usage by topics and mentions. Starter is $29 a month billed annually or $49 billed monthly, with 3 topics, 30,000 new mentions a month and one team member; Pro is $89 or $149, with 15 topics, 300,000 mentions and 10 team members; Enterprise is $249 or $399, with 100 topics and 1,000,000 mentions. Every plan lists unlimited keywords per topic, and the yearly toggle reads “Save up to 40%.” The free trial gives access to Starter with up to 3 alerts and 30,000 mentions, with no credit card (Awario).
The page contradicts itself on export. Its feature list shows “Data export” on all plans, but its FAQ says “The export option is available to the Pro and Enterprise plan users.” Awario fits small budgets that want volume; confirm export in writing before relying on it.
What Is Brand24, and When Does It Fit?
Brand24 is a paid mention-tracking tool with a published price ladder. Individual is $249 a month or $199 billed annually, for 3 keywords, 2K mentions a month and one user; Team is $349 or $299 for 7 keywords and 10K mentions; Pro is $499 or $399 for 12 keywords and 40K; Business is $699 or $599 for 25 keywords and 100K; Enterprise is “from $ 1499” with a “Custom mentions limit.” It offers a 14-day free trial with no credit card and a 30-day money-back guarantee that excludes custom plans (Brand24).
Keyword caps are the main constraint: a company with several brands, executives and competitors to track can outgrow the lower tiers quickly. Brand24 fits teams that want a known price and a trial. For a head-to-head, see Brand24 vs Mention.
What Is Mention, and When Does It Fit?
Mention sells one Company plan, described as a “Complete media monitoring solution with advanced social listening, sentiment analysis, and competitive intelligence.” Its listed sources are “Facebook, Instagram, Twitter/X, Reddit, TikTok, Pinterest, YouTube, and more,” “news, blogs, forums” and “75+ review sites including Google, Facebook, Trustpilot, Amazon, and Glassdoor and more.” It says “Only our Advanced Alert has the ability to build custom Boolean Queries, using up to 2,000 characters,” and marks some features as “available as a paid add-on” (Mention).
On October 19, 2026 the page showed “Starting at” and a currency symbol with no figure, alongside “Pay yearly and get 2 months free” and “Save 360$.” It published no mention or alert limits, and its free-trial button gave no length. We did not request a quote and do not repeat third-party price estimates. Mention fits teams that want review-site and social coverage and will get the price and limits in writing.
What Is Meltwater, and When Does It Fit?
Meltwater is an enterprise media intelligence platform that quotes privately. Its pricing FAQ says it “uses tailored pricing rather than a one-size-fits-all list,” with factors including “the breadth of sources and regions you want to monitor, volume of data and workflows, number of users, integrations, onboarding and support needs, and contract terms.” It “does not offer a self-serve free trial,” and “most partnerships are structured on annual agreements, with a minimum contract length of 12 months” (Meltwater).
It fits larger organizations that want monitoring alongside media relations tools and can commit for a year; see Cision vs Meltwater. For someone who only wants a notice when a name appears, a 12-month contract is a large step up from a free alert.
Which Alternative Should You Choose?
These are our recommendations, not vendor statements.
| If you need... | Start with | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Free news and web alerts | Google Alerts | Most source types and languages; no cost or upsell |
| Free alerts that include X | Talkwalker Alerts | Lists Twitter as a result type; any email address |
| One place to read alerts, trade press and newsletters | Feedly | Free plan; Google News feeds on Pro+ at $12 a month billed annually |
| Cheapest paid social and web monitoring | Awario | From $29 a month billed annually; confirm export |
| A published price ladder and a trial | Brand24 | Five plans with stated keyword and mention caps |
| Review-site coverage | Mention | Names 75+ review sites; get the price in writing |
| Enterprise monitoring with media relations | Meltwater | Tailored quote, 12-month minimum |
Many teams run Google Alerts and Talkwalker Alerts together before paying for anything. Monitoring tells you what was said; it does not change coverage. If Reddit is the gap, see whether you can still monitor Reddit for mentions.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best free alternative to Google Alerts?
Talkwalker Alerts, which calls itself the “Best free, easy alternative to Google Alerts.” It adds Twitter (X) results to news, blogs and forums, in 22 languages, by email, RSS or Slack.
Does Google Alerts monitor social media?
Its alert form lists Automatic, News, Blogs, Web, Video, Books, Discussions and Finance as sources. No social network is listed.
What is the cheapest paid alternative to Google Alerts?
As of October 2026, Feedly Pro+ adds Google News feeds and AI Feeds for $12 a month billed annually. Among dedicated monitoring tools, Awario starts at $29 a month billed annually and Brand24 at $199.
Do Mention and Meltwater publish prices?
No. Meltwater says it uses tailored pricing with a 12-month minimum for most contracts, and Mention's pricing page showed “Starting at” with no figure on October 19, 2026.
Can I read Google Alerts inside Feedly?
Yes. Feedly's help center says you can create Google Alerts and get them delivered as an RSS feed you add to Feedly.
Can any tool guarantee I see every mention?
No page we read guarantees complete coverage. Source lists and coverage claims are the vendors' own and were not tested.
Sources and Methodology
This guide is built from Google's Alerts page and help article and from each vendor's own pricing, product and help pages, read October 19, 2026. Feedly's pricing was read in a browser at feedly.com/i/pro after the older pricing address returned an error. Mention's pricing page displayed no price figure. We did not test any tool, request quotes or measure coverage; the “Which Alternative Should You Choose?” table is house recommendation.
- official Google, Google Alerts. Frequency, source, language, region and result options. Read October 19, 2026.
- platform documentation Google Search Help, Create an alert. How alerts work and settings. Read October 19, 2026.
- vendor Talkwalker, Talkwalker Alerts. Free positioning, result types, languages, delivery, Social Listening features. Read October 19, 2026.
- vendor Feedly, Feedly Pro. Free, Pro, Pro+ and Enterprise plans and features. Read October 19, 2026.
- vendor Feedly, Pricing | Feedly Market Intelligence. Standard and Advanced prices. Read October 19, 2026.
- platform documentation Feedly Docs, How many query terms can I create for Google News searches? and “Can I create a keyword alert for non Google news sites?” (https://docs.feedly.com/article/72-can-i-create-a-keyword-alert-for-non-google-news-sites). Query-term limit and keyword-alert options. Read October 19, 2026.
- platform documentation Feedly Docs, How to add/follow Google Alerts in my Feedly?. Google Alerts via RSS. Read October 19, 2026.
- vendor Awario, Pricing. Plans, billing labels, limits, trial, export discrepancy. Read October 19, 2026.
- vendor Brand24, Prices. Plans, limits, trial and refund terms. Read October 19, 2026.
- vendor Mention, Pricing. Company plan, sources, Boolean limit, add-ons, empty price field. Read October 19, 2026.
- vendor Meltwater, Pricing. Tailored pricing, price factors, trial and contract terms. Read October 19, 2026.