Meltwater vs Mention vs Planable: Which Is Right for You in 2026?
Meltwater and Mention genuinely compete with each other — both are listening and monitoring platforms tracking brand and competitor mentions, just at very…
Subscription · From $33/workspace/month (billed monthly)
Best for: Teams and agencies that need a shared calendar with client or internal approval workflows before scheduling and publishing posts.
At a Glance
Meltwater
Mention
Planable
Primary category
Social Media
Social Media
Social Media
Rating
Not documented
Not documented
Not documented
Pricing model
Custom / Quote-based
Subscription
Subscription
Starting price
Custom quote (typically $6,000+/year)
$49/month (Solo plan, billed monthly)
$33/workspace/month (billed monthly)
Free plan
Not documented
Not documented
Yes
Free trial
Not documented
Not documented
Yes
Platforms
Web, iOS
Web, iOS, Android
Web
Team collaboration
Not documented
Not documented
Not documented
AI features
Yes
Not documented
Not documented
Public API
Yes
Yes
Not documented
Standout Differences
Meltwater and Mention are real competitors; Planable is not
Meltwater and Mention both track brand, competitor, and industry mentions across social, news, blogs, and other sources — they're solving the same core listening problem at different scale. Planable, by contrast, is a scheduling and approval-workflow tool with no listening function described in its offering.
Meltwater, Mention, Planable
A big pricing-transparency gap
Mention ($49/month Solo plan) and Planable ($33/workspace/month) both publish self-serve starting prices, while Meltwater requires a custom quote typically starting around $6,000+/year. That difference alone rules Meltwater out for many smaller teams regardless of feature fit.
If a team needs both monitoring coverage and a structured content-approval workflow, no single one of these three tools covers both jobs — it takes pairing Planable with either Meltwater or Mention.
Planable, Meltwater, Mention
Scale of source coverage differs even between the two listening tools
Meltwater is positioned as a global media, social, and consumer intelligence platform for measuring PR impact, while Mention is scoped as real-time listening across social media, news, blogs, forums, and review sites — a narrower, more self-serve version of the same core idea.
Meltwater, Mention
Feature-by-Feature
Core Job
Feature
Meltwater
Mention
Planable
Social & media listening / mention tracking
Available
Available
Unavailable
News, blog, and forum monitoring beyond social
Available
Available
Unavailable
Content planning, approval workflow & publishing
Not documented
Not documented
Available
PR impact measurement
Available
Not documented
Unavailable
Pricing & Plans
Feature
Meltwater
Mention
Planable
Transparent self-serve starting price
Unavailable
Available
Available
Entry price under $50/month
Unavailable
Available
Available
Custom/enterprise sales pricing
Available
Unavailable
Unavailable
Team Collaboration
Feature
Meltwater
Mention
Planable
Client/team content approval workflow
Not documented
Not documented
Available
Pricing Compared
Starting price reflects the lowest paid tier, not the full cost for every team size or usage level.
Meltwater
Starter — From approximately $10,000/year (custom quote) Annual
Pro — From approximately $25,000/year (custom quote) Annual
Enterprise — From approximately $130,000/year (custom quote) Annual
Mention
Solo — $49/month Monthly (lower with annual billing)
Pro — $99/month Monthly
ProPlus — $179/month Monthly
Company/Enterprise — Custom Annual
Planable
Basic — $33/workspace/month Monthly or yearly (2 months free annually)
Pro — $49/workspace/month Monthly or yearly (2 months free annually)
Enterprise — Custom Custom
Pros & Cons
Meltwater
Pros
Very broad global coverage of news, broadcast, and social sources across many languages and regions
Combines media monitoring, journalist database, and social listening in a single platform
Long operating history since 2001 with public-company financial transparency after its 2020 IPO
Highly customizable dashboards and reporting suited to enterprise communications teams
Extensive global support infrastructure with offices across six continents
Cons
Pricing is not published and requires a custom sales negotiation, making cost comparison difficult upfront
Can be significantly more expensive than smaller point-solution monitoring tools
Feature breadth can be more than smaller teams or single-brand businesses actually need
Contract terms are typically annual, offering less flexibility than month-to-month tools
Some reviewers note a learning curve to fully use the platform's many modules effectively
Mention
Pros
Broad source coverage spanning social media, news, forums and dedicated review sites
Boolean search gives precise control over what counts as a relevant mention
Agency-friendly white-label reporting and multi-client management
Mid-market pricing that is more accessible than enterprise suites like Brandwatch or Meltwater
Established track record, operating since the early 2010s with broad international coverage
Cons
No permanent free tier, only a time-limited free trial
Entry-level Solo plan is limited to a single user and very few alerts
Some integrations, such as Slack and Zapier, are gated behind paid add-ons
Less deep historical and archival data access compared to enterprise-grade competitors
Sentiment analysis accuracy, like most automated tools, can struggle with sarcasm or industry-specific language
Planable
Pros
Strong focus on team and client collaboration and approval, not just scheduling
Unlimited users included on all plans
Native feed preview shows how posts will actually look per platform
Public API and integrations available on higher tiers
Cons
No permanent free plan, only a post-limited free trial
Analytics and Social Inbox are priced as separate add-ons rather than bundled
Per-workspace pricing can get expensive for agencies managing many clients
Enterprise-grade features like SSO and dedicated support require custom pricing
Use Cases
Choose Meltwater: Enterprises and PR teams that need global news plus social monitoring and can work within a custom, quote-based enterprise sales process.
Choose Mention: Smaller teams that want transparent, self-serve real-time listening starting at $49/month without an enterprise sales cycle.
Choose Planable: Teams and agencies that need a shared calendar with client or internal approval workflows before scheduling and publishing posts.
Meltwater
Brand and reputation monitoring — Tracks news and social mentions of a brand in real time to identify PR opportunities and manage reputation risk.
Journalist outreach and PR campaigns — Uses the media contact database to identify and pitch relevant journalists for press coverage.
Competitive and market intelligence — Monitors competitor coverage and broader industry trends to inform marketing and business strategy.
Mention
Brand Reputation Monitoring — Marketing and communications teams track what customers and press are saying about their brand across social and news channels in real time.
Agency Client Reporting — PR and social media agencies use Mention to monitor multiple client brands and generate white-labeled reports.
Competitive Intelligence — Companies track competitor mentions and share of voice to benchmark campaign performance and market positioning.
Planable
Agency client approval workflows — Agencies use Planable's approval steps so clients can review and approve posts before they go live.
Multi-brand content coordination — Companies managing several brands or locations organize content per workspace with labels and campaigns.
In-house team collaboration — Marketing teams use comments and suggestions to refine posts together before scheduling.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are Meltwater and Mention interchangeable?
They're similar in function — both track brand, competitor, and industry mentions — but very different in scale and buying process. Meltwater is custom-quoted, typically starting around $6,000+/year for enterprise PR and comms teams, while Mention is self-serve starting at $49/month, aimed at smaller teams that don't want a sales cycle.
Does Planable do social listening like Meltwater or Mention?
No. Planable is a collaboration-first content planning, approval, and publishing platform — it helps teams plan, review, and schedule posts, not monitor brand or competitor mentions. If listening is what you need, look at Meltwater or Mention instead.
Which is cheapest for a small team?
Planable starts at $33/workspace/month and Mention's Solo plan starts at $49/month, both with published self-serve pricing. Meltwater is priced for enterprise budgets, with custom quotes typically starting around $6,000+/year.
Can I use Planable alongside Meltwater or Mention?
Yes — they solve different problems. A team could use Meltwater or Mention to monitor brand and competitor conversations and Planable to plan, get approval on, and publish its own content, without either tool overlapping with the other's job.
Which is better for a PR team measuring press coverage impact?
Meltwater, which is explicitly positioned around global media, social, and consumer intelligence with impact measurement for PR and comms teams — a more specialized use case than Mention's brand and competitor monitoring.