Meltwater vs. SocialBee

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Meltwater
Score 8.0 out of 10
N/A
Meltwater Media Intelligence platform is a set of public relations software tools for media monitoring, social media monitoring, and collecting brand insights. The four areas of functionality are Monitor, Analyze, Distribute, and Engage. (Note that this product combines features from the vendor Meltwater's former Buzz, Press, and News products.)N/A
SocialBee
Score 1.0 out of 10
N/A
SocialBee is an AI-powered social media management tool that empowers its customers to share content across multiple social networks from one place. Using such a tool, the user can set a posting schedule, have content shared as planned, and then analyze the performance of their accounts. Supported platforms: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, Google my Business, TikTok, YouTube, and Bluesky. The AI Copilot can generate an entire social…
$29
per month
Pricing
MeltwaterSocialBee
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Bootstrap
$29
per month
Accelerate
$49
per month
Pro
$99
per month
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
MeltwaterSocialBee
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsA discount is offered for annual billing.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
MeltwaterSocialBee
Considered Both Products
Meltwater
Chose Meltwater
We chose Meltwater because we can create actual queries and search on forums, which many other platforms lack. We found that other services tend to focus only on social media.
Chose Meltwater
Meltwater does not limit competitive searches in the same way that Crayon and Klue do. Meltwater also captures different sources of information than aggregation tools. While Meltwater doesn’t provide access to expert reports like a different platform that I rely on for deep …
Chose Meltwater
I believe they are fairly evenly matched, Meltwater has better search options but it really goes back and forth on who has the most updated contacts.
Chose Meltwater
Meltwater has more detail in its analytics, and is far more complex.
Chose Meltwater
Meltwater serves as an all-in-one platform, so it has benefitted us greatly in being able to service a variety of needs in one place. Having a streamlined platform is important to our team since it can feel counterproductive to visit a variety of products to service one …
Chose Meltwater
Cision PRWeb has a more robust toolset and provides more precise metrics and analysis, as well as a better media outreach database of journalists.
Chose Meltwater
I started using Meltwater because of a client. I do find it much easier to use than Cision. I hear good things about Muck Rack and recently had a demo. That's probably the one I would use if I were to leave Meltwater. Cision has always been difficult to use, in my opinion.
Chose Meltwater
I have tried several platforms but continue coming back to Meltwater. Even though we are a national company, I like the global reach that Meltwater offers.
Chose Meltwater
We actually use both Cision and Meltwater Media Intelligence Platform. I prefer Cision over Meltwater Media Intelligence Platform in that the analytics are better, plus the competitor tracking has made my job SO much easier. After working with the customer service/technical …
Chose Meltwater
I was looking for a full-service option. I did some research. What really sold me was the presentation. They offered products that were helpful, and I wasn’t even aware of them. It is more expensive than the other products that are out there, but you get more. The other …
Chose Meltwater
Meltwater is our primary tool, however, we have engaged TVEyes as broadcast media has not been a strength of Meltwater. We would love to see that change and use Meltwater for all needs.
Chose Meltwater
Meltwater is a do-everything platform so it automatically ranks above these two programs. That said, due to these two programs focusing on both incredibly thorough reporter contact databases and tv/radio monitoring, their specialties are reliable when needed.
Chose Meltwater
Cision and LexisNexis are better for accessing articles behind paywalls. I've found that social-specific tools like Sprout Social or Sprinklr seem to be better for monitoring social media mentions. However, Meltwater Media Intelligence Platform may have upped its "social game" …
Chose Meltwater
Sprout Social was only limited to social media publishing. Not what we needed as a PR firm that works in the media landscape.
Chose Meltwater
[In my opinion,] Meltwater [Media Intelligence Platform]'s media database simply doesn't stack up to what Cision offers. It doesn't matter how nice the interface is if the data included in the database you're pulling from isn't complete or well organized. Cision can be clunky, …
Chose Meltwater
The functionality, customer service, and quality of databases are all better with Meltwater Media Intelligence Platform. I have used Cision in the past and have not been as happy with it.
Chose Meltwater
Crayon [Intel Pro] is slightly better, but not by much. If you are set on using a service like this, I'd choose it, but Crayon [Intel Pro] is more expensive. [In my opinion, it is] best to use an intern [where] you can target their efforts, not some hit-and-miss AI program.
Chose Meltwater
We've used Cision [PRWeb] for their media database for a long time, and then we've used TrendKite for media tracking [and] reporting, as well. While we're new to [Meltwater Media Intelligence Platform], [concerning] media tracking [and] reporting, it seems to be as good or …
Chose Meltwater
Cision acquired TrendKite which we loved. I was worried that TrendKite would not be supported as well so we switched to Meltwater.

Years ago Meltwater was a fine choice. Now ... it is so bad it's hard to even imagine how they get by with the state of the product and the very …
Chose Meltwater
Meltwater is the most expensive option with the worst customer service. Terrible experience.
Chose Meltwater
Meltwater is a fully reinforced software and its features outweigh the purpose of Mention, but they are similar in that they provide insight into where your brand is being discussed and who is talking about it. I was able to find what I needed out of Mention, within Meltwater, …
Chose Meltwater
We originally had Salesforce/Radian6 and switched to Meltwater Media Intelligence Platform to align with what other similar brands were using, and because at that time, Salesforce was experiencing technical issues. After a year and a half with Meltwater Media Intelligence …
Chose Meltwater
TrendKite is much more flexible with an unlimited amount of dashboards, searches, metrics on a particular dashboard, and more. There are pricing systems with all platforms sure, but to add broadcast is outrageous. Not to mention, their live chat staff has been rude in the past …
SocialBee
Chose SocialBee
SocialBee provides multiple features that you can get from other multiple different tools. It's kinda all in one solution for social media management. So cost-wise, it saves us a lot of money. It is also from a stable company with a sufficient MRR that helps with the security …
Features
MeltwaterSocialBee
Publishing
Comparison of Publishing features of Product A and Product B
Meltwater
-
Ratings
SocialBee
9.3
Ratings
15% above category average
Content planning and scheduling00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Content optimization00 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Workflow management00 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Engagement
Comparison of Engagement features of Product A and Product B
Meltwater
-
Ratings
SocialBee
10.0
Ratings
23% above category average
Bulk actions00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Channel coverage/integration
Comparison of Channel coverage/integration features of Product A and Product B
Meltwater
-
Ratings
SocialBee
10.0
Ratings
17% above category average
Twitter00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Facebook00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
LinkedIn00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Google+00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Instagram00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Pinterest00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Reporting/analytics
Comparison of Reporting/analytics features of Product A and Product B
Meltwater
-
Ratings
SocialBee
8.0
Ratings
1% above category average
Campaign success analytics00 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Account management
Comparison of Account management features of Product A and Product B
Meltwater
-
Ratings
SocialBee
8.5
Ratings
6% above category average
Role-based user permissions & privileges00 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Mobile access00 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
MeltwaterSocialBee
Small Businesses
Newswire
Newswire
Score 8.2 out of 10
CoSchedule Marketing Suite
CoSchedule Marketing Suite
Score 10.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Newswire
Newswire
Score 8.2 out of 10
CoSchedule Marketing Suite
CoSchedule Marketing Suite
Score 10.0 out of 10
Enterprises
Cision Communications Cloud
Cision Communications Cloud
Score 6.9 out of 10
Social Suite by Reputation.com
Social Suite by Reputation.com
Score 9.4 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
MeltwaterSocialBee
Likelihood to Recommend
8.0
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
9.0
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Availability
10.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
7.5
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
In-Person Training
8.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Online Training
8.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
6.1
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
1.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
9.1
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
MeltwaterSocialBee
Likelihood to Recommend
If you practice media relations in your role, Meltwater is helpful. You can do research to find relevant publications and journalists, build media lists, export them to share with a team or client and you can also keep notes on your campaigns. I like using it for research, although I do research outside the platform, as well, to be sure to be thorough (and some of the info in the database is outdated). I would say if you don't practice media relations, it's probably not as useful. There are other tools that do a better job if you want to search for media or social media mentions, for example. If you are looking for an all-in-one media relations tool that's relatively easy to use, Meltwater is probably a good fit.
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SocialBee is very ideal for busy individuals or small agencies that are not privileged with time. Social media management can be one of the most tedious tasks in anybody's business. SocialBee covers the majority of the tasks. Set it up once and you're done (practically forever) With all its powerful features though, it can be a little more complicated for a non-techie person. If your requirements are just simple post-scheduling, you can use other alternatives.
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Pros
  • Up to date contact information. It is actually relevant and active info, not always the case with others.
  • The user interface is better than most tools. While not perfect, it's pretty easy to figure out how to get what you want.
  • Their support is excellent. Anytime I've needed help I can call, but better than this, they proactively call and assist.
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  • All major social platforms are available.
  • Posts can be organized per category, per client.
  • Hashtag organizer.
  • Links manager, with integrations to popular link shortener tools (we use Switchy, and it works smoothly)
Read full review
Cons
  • Their tracking system for media mentions isn't perfect - we have stumbled across several posts mentioning our company/product that were not picked up by the platform. While frustrating, we send these URLs to our rep and their tech team ensures that that website will be monitored moving forward.
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  • Though it's not clunky, it can improve on the loading speeds while working.
  • The UI/UX can be further improved (nice and neat instead of big cards especially on the categories page)
  • I would love it if the scheduler can be expanded into 2-weeks or monthly range. So we can post categories that are on a 2x a month and 1x a month frequency.
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Likelihood to Renew
We have had great success with Meltwater Buzz the past 2 years. The reporting has been great for our board reports, seeing the conversations going on between our followers helps us to learn who our audience is and what we can do better on our social media. The analytics we see on Meltwater Buzz we could not get anywhere else
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No answers on this topic
Usability
Once you get some basic training it's pretty easy to use. I would like to see training manuals, or instructional videos to help me explore features I'm not currently using.
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Currently, SocialBee is the only software that we use for our social media clients, the confidence that we have for SB is above the fold. It saves us a lot of time and business management is easy because it's highly quantifiable with the client as to the number of posts, schedules, and results.
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Support Rating
Our account rep at Meltwater went dark for a long time. Then, a couple of weeks ago, our new account manager reached out to set up a meeting. Apparently, they had a big shakeup in the company, and there were some personnel changes. Our new account rep was great in discussing the platform's capabilities that were available to us and even offered to schedule a follow-up meeting with his technical team to introduce our new social media team members to the platform and how it could help them with their jobs.
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I have encountered their support just a couple of times since the platform is very straightforward for me. But on those occasions, it was so smooth. They responded to my concerns in just a few hours. Not too many companies offer that convenience nowadays. Plus, they do live webinars regularly which is totally amazing!
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In-Person Training
Again, really in-depth and helpful for a program that is really easy to use.
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No answers on this topic
Online Training
Walked step by step through program. Very informative on a program that doesn't require much training.
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No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
You are only allowed 15 users, so make sure you've identified who will have access to use the tool.
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No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
Meltwater serves as an all-in-one platform, so it has benefitted us greatly in being able to service a variety of needs in one place. Having a streamlined platform is important to our team since it can feel counterproductive to visit a variety of products to service one client's needs. So, Meltwater has been essential in ensuring our needs are met through one destination.
Read full review
SocialBee provides multiple features that you can get from other multiple different tools. It's kinda all in one solution for social media management. So cost-wise, it saves us a lot of money. It is also from a stable company with a sufficient MRR that helps with the security and development of the software.
Read full review
Return on Investment
  • Improved PR reporting, for sure.
  • Competitor analysis for clients and ourselves.
  • A great ability to track the news and understand particular news drivers for certain industries, allowing us to get our client in front of the media at or before the perfect moment.
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  • It provides us higher margin because it requires minimal resources.
  • Lesser working time means more marketing and leads generation time.
  • Very cost efficient solution.
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ScreenShots