Social media competitor analysis tools compared

Social media competitor analysis tools compare your accounts with your rivals' on the numbers anyone can see: followers, posting frequency, engagement per post and which formats work. The specialists, Rival IQ and Socialinsider, do this best. Publishing suites such as Sprout Social and Hootsuite include it in some plans, Metricool and Social Blade cover the basics for free, and Brandwatch handles the listening side at enterprise prices.

This page is about benchmarking competitors' own accounts. If you want to know what people say about a brand anywhere online, that is listening, covered in social listening tools.

How we chose

We looked for tools whose competitor features work on accounts you do not own, cover at least Instagram and Facebook, and keep history you can trend. Each tool is judged on what it shows about rivals, not on its scheduling features.

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

Social media competitor analysis tools at a glance

The specialists

Rival IQ

Rival IQ is built around competitor benchmarking. Every plan tracks your brand and rivals across five networks and compares posting volume, engagement and content performance side by side. Drive is $239 a month for 10 companies, 6 months of history and one user; Engage is $349 for 20 companies and 2 users. Annual billing saves 15%, and extra users are $10 a month.

Limits. Six months of history on the entry plan is short for spotting seasonal patterns. It is an analysis tool, not a scheduler, so most teams run it beside something else.

Socialinsider

Socialinsider includes competitor benchmarking on every plan, across the accounts you add. Adapt is $990 a year (the page shows it as $82 a month) for up to 20 social accounts, 3 months of history and one seat. Optimize, at $1,490 a year, gives 6 months and 2 seats; Predict, at $2,390 a year, gives 12 months and 5 seats.

Limits. History is the catch. Three months on Adapt is enough to see this quarter, not to compare with last year. Extra team members are $15 a month each.

Publishing suites with competitor reports

Sprout Social

Sprout's Facebook, X and Instagram competitor reports start on Professional, at $399 per seat a month or $299 billed annually. Essentials and Standard do not include them. If your team already publishes in Sprout, the convenience is real.

Limits. Per-seat pricing makes a three-person team $897 a month on annual billing just to see competitor reports. Listening and premium analytics are separate, unpriced add-ons.

Hootsuite

Hootsuite includes competitive benchmarking from Standard, at $99 per user a month billed annually, against up to five competitors. Professional, at $199, raises that to 20. There is a 14 day trial with no card.

Limits. Benchmarking is a feature of a scheduling product, so it is shallower than Rival IQ's. Monthly billing exists but the page does not print its price.

Metricool

Metricool is the cheapest route to tracking a lot of competitors. The free plan analyses 5 competitor profiles with 30 days of analytics; Starter, at $25 a month or $20 billed annually for 5 brands, raises that to up to 100 competitors with unlimited history.

Limits. Reports are simpler than the specialists', and the X add-on costs $10 a month per account.

Listening and public stats

Brandwatch

Brandwatch, now part of Cision, is the enterprise choice when "competitor analysis" means everything said about a rival across social and the web, not just their own posts. It publishes no prices and sells through demos. Bought by insight teams at large brands, not by a two-person social team.

Social Blade

Social Blade tracks public statistics for creators and brands on YouTube, TikTok, Twitch, Facebook and Instagram, and is free to use. You see follower and view history over time, which is enough to tell whether a rival's account is growing, flat or suddenly jumping. Paid plans remove ads and extend history: Bronze is $59.99 a year, and Silver, at $149.99 a year, keeps 60 days of table data.

Limits. No post-level engagement analysis, and no side-by-side reports.

Figo, for the posts themselves

Ours, so judge accordingly. Figo picks up competitors' new Instagram and Facebook posts and Reddit threads that mention them, and includes them in a Monday briefing alongside their ads, page changes, rankings and reviews. Starter is $49 a month for 3 competitors, with a 7 day trial.

It does not calculate engagement rates or benchmark audience growth, and it does not cover TikTok posts, YouTube, LinkedIn or X. If benchmarking social performance is the job, Rival IQ or Socialinsider is the better buy.

What to benchmark, whichever tool you use

Posting frequency by format. Reels, carousels, static posts. A rival doubling their Reels output is a strategy change.

Engagement per post, not a monthly average. One viral post distorts an account-level average.

Their top ten posts of the quarter. The content tells you more than any metric.

Follower growth against posting. Growth without more posting often means ads or a collaboration.

The social media competitor analysis template gives you the sheet, and monitoring competitor social media covers the manual routine.

Who should pick what

• Social is your main channel and you report on it monthly: Rival IQ or Socialinsider.
• You already pay for Sprout Social or Hootsuite: check your tier before buying anything else.
• Small budget, many rivals: Metricool, free plan first.
• You only need to know if an account is really growing: Social Blade.
• You want competitors' posts in one weekly summary with their ads and site changes: Figo.