How much does social listening cost? Compare the whole workflow

A subscription is only part of the social listening bill. Someone has to read the alerts, check the original conversations and decide which ones deserve a reply. Include that time when you compare plans, along with the sources, team access and usage allowance you need.

Here is how to compare plans against the same job. The vendor prices below were rechecked on 28 September 2026. Octolens labels its dollar option USD; Buska displays dollar prices without a currency code in the pricing view we reviewed. Confirm currency, billing term and tax before comparing the final amounts. Reputably is our product, and you can find our prices in the plan table.

Check what each plan includes

Write down what you want to find before comparing plans. A plumber covering several suburbs may need to follow different services, place names and ways of asking for help. Ask each provider how that list fits its allowance for keywords, signals or topics. The labels are not interchangeable.

Two examples of different pricing models

Buska’s Starter plan lists $49 per month, five signals, two ideal-customer profiles and daily updates. Those units make the monitoring brief and required update interval important questions. Check the selected billing term and tier before treating a displayed price as the amount you will pay.

Octolens Pro displays $159 per month billed annually, with ten keywords and 15,000 included mentions. Its pricing page also lists extra keyword and mention charges. Ask how the mention cap and overage controls work for your workload. A predictable bill may matter more than the ability to process every possible match.

The prices show how differently plans can be structured. To compare what the tools do and who they suit, see our social listening tools comparison.

Estimate a month of use

1. Define the brief: one business, its service area, the services sold and the buying situations you want to find.
2. Set the required coverage: list essential sources separately from nice-to-have sources. Record what is public and accessible.
3. Estimate volume: use a trial sample when available. Record both matched conversations and those a person considers relevant.
4. Define ownership: name the reviewers, the time they can spend and where they record the next step.
5. Price the whole setup: subscription, expected extras, setup time and ongoing review time.

Give each tool the same brief and trial dates. If it is a quiet week, leave room in the budget for a busier one. A low and high estimate will be more useful than treating a few days of results as a typical year.

A worked cost example

For example, imagine paying $100 for software and $20 for an integration, with someone spending four hours reviewing results at an internal cost of $35 an hour. That adds up to $260 for the month. These figures are an example you can replace with your own costs.

If that review turns up 20 requests worth following up, each has cost $13 to find and check. If only five are suitable, the cost is $52 each. You still need to find out how many become customers.

Write the formula as monthly operating cost = software + add-ons + review labour + other directly attributable operating costs. Treat one-time setup separately or state the period over which you allocate it. Use the same allocation method when comparing months.

Before you sign up

• Can the team inspect the original conversation and its date?
• Does the location evidence identify an area the business really serves?
• Are results actionable under the source’s community rules?
• Can you control overages or receive a useful warning before a limit?
• Can you cancel or change the plan on terms that fit the experiment?

By the end of the trial, you should be able to explain which results your team would follow up and why. Keep a few irrelevant matches too, so you can see what needs adjusting. The local listening guide walks through those checks.

When is a more expensive plan worth considering?

An upgrade makes sense when you can name the problem it solves. Perhaps you need another source, a teammate needs access, or useful results regularly exceed the limit. Check that the higher plan solves that problem before paying for it.

When useful requests start becoming enquiries, use the ROI worksheet to connect the cost with the work you win.