The best BuzzSumo alternatives in 2026

BuzzSumo does three jobs: finding content that performed, finding the people who write and share it, and alerting you to mentions. Most BuzzSumo alternatives do one of those jobs better or cheaper, and very few do all three. So the first step is working out which one you are paying for.

Prices below were read from each vendor's own pricing page on 4 October 2026.

What BuzzSumo costs

Every plan has unlimited searches. PR & Comms adds the media database and outreach, coverage reports and a Slack integration. There is no free plan.

Why people look for BuzzSumo alternatives

The entry plan is one person. $159 to $199 a month for a single user is a lot if you research content twice a month.

Alerts are scarce. Content Creation includes two. If monitoring mentions is the real use, a listening tool is built for that and BuzzSumo is not.

You may only use one job out of three. A content writer rarely needs the media database, and a PR lead rarely needs the content search.

The fair side: for seeing which articles on a topic actually earned engagement, and who shared them, BuzzSumo is still the quickest route. And PR & Comms is one of very few media databases with a price on the page.

BuzzSumo alternatives by job

Content research: Ahrefs Content Explorer

Content Explorer starts on Ahrefs Standard, at $249 a month on monthly billing; the $129 Lite plan does not include it. It leans on search performance and links rather than social engagement, which is the right lens if your content is written to rank.

Pick Ahrefs if you write for search and you will use the rest of Ahrefs too. As a content research tool alone, $249 is steep.

Audience research: SparkToro

SparkToro shows what a given audience reads, listens to and follows. The free plan gives three previews a month. Personal is $38 a month and is sold on annual billing only ($450 a year) for four reports a month. Business is $150 a month billed monthly or $112 billed annually, with 25 reports and 10 users. Details are in SparkToro pricing.

Pick SparkToro if you used BuzzSumo mainly to find the publications, podcasts and creators your audience pays attention to.

Mentions: Brand24, or free alerts

Brand24 Individual is $199 a month billed annually ($249 monthly) for three keywords, 2,000 mentions a month and one user. Team is $299 annually ($349 monthly) with seven keywords and unlimited users, and the trial is 14 days with no card. If your volume is low, start free: Talkwalker Alerts emails news, blog, forum and Twitter results, and our Google Alerts alternatives page covers the rest of the free options.

Pick Brand24 if mentions are the job and two alerts were never enough.

Media lists and PR: Muck Rack, Cision, Meltwater

All three are quote only. Muck Rack lists Starter, Standard and Premier plans, with podcast monitoring from Standard. Cision shows "Request pricing" for CisionOne. Meltwater uses tailored pricing, typically on 12 month contracts. The trade-offs are in Meltwater alternatives.

Pick one of these if PR is a department rather than a task, and you need deeper journalist data and pitching workflow than BuzzSumo's PR plan.

The free way to find content that worked

Google Trends shows which topics are rising. Reddit's search, sorted by top posts for the past month, shows what a community actually engaged with. A Google search limited to the past month shows what got published. It is slower than BuzzSumo, and for a monthly content plan it is often enough.

Figo, for competitors' content specifically

Ours, so judge accordingly. If what you used BuzzSumo for was checking what your competitors published, Figo is the narrower and cheaper tool. Each week it reads each competitor's sitemap and pages and reports new and changed pages and blog posts, alongside their Instagram and Facebook posts, ads, pricing and reviews, in a Monday briefing. It costs $49 a month for three competitors or $99 for eight.

Do not pick Figo if you need share counts, content search across the whole web, journalist lists or mention alerts. It does none of those. For a one-off look at a rival's content, the competitor content audit method takes 90 minutes and costs nothing.

When BuzzSumo is still the best choice

• You plan content for social reach. Engagement data by article is what BuzzSumo does best.
• You want content research and a media database in one subscription with the price on the page. That is PR & Comms.
• You have five to ten people. Users are capped per plan rather than charged per seat, so Suite covers 10 people for $399 a month billed annually.

Every tier is broken down in BuzzSumo pricing.

The short answer

Writing for search: Ahrefs. Finding where your audience hangs out: SparkToro. Tracking mentions: Brand24, or free alerts if volume is low. Serious PR: Muck Rack or Cision. Watching what competitors publish: a monitoring tool. If you genuinely use all three of BuzzSumo's jobs, it is fair value and you should stay.