6 Top BuzzSumo Alternatives & Competitors (2024)
If you're trying to identify popular trends online, you may have encountered a tool called BuzzSumo. The way this content marketing analytics platform works is simple: you input a topic, brand name, or domain, and BuzzSumo provides data about how people are talking about that subject online.
The data that it provides is very heavily focused on social media chatter. When using BuzzSumo, you’ll be able to see:
- The popularity of any link or topic across Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Reddit
- The top accounts sharing related content
- An estimate of how evergreen, or continually relevant, a piece of content is
- Currently trending topics, such as top sports content in the past 24 hours
In this guide, we’ve compiled of the best BuzzSumo alternatives that offer additional features, like predicting the next top trend or gathering content insights across multiple channels. Let’s check them out!
1. Exploding Topics
If you want to stay on top of what the next big trends are going to be, Exploding Topics is the place to start.
Our free trend discovery platform is updated daily and gives you advanced insights into the topics and brands people are—or will be—talking about.
We use a trend-spotting AI that constantly looks at online chatter to identify top trends. This information is then passed to an experienced data analyst who reviews and verifies the information before it’s published on our site.
Because our data covers trends across 40+ categories—and isn’t limited to chatter on specific platforms—large and small businesses alike can use Exploding Topics to:
- Build out your blog content calendar with soon-to-be-trending topics
- Conduct forward-looking SEO keyword research
- Include new and popular channels in your marketing strategy development
- Discover up-and-coming brands to build partnerships with
- Develop ideas for solving problems that consumers might encounter
- Get the pulse on which rapidly growing brands are going to be a smart investment
Accessing the trend data is simple.
You can search the Exploding Topics database for a particular keyword or browse an entire category—such as our list of technology trends. From there, you can filter the data to see how it’s changed over time and identify topics that are exploding in popularity.
How much does Exploding Topics cost?
It's free to use Exploding Topics. While some of our reports and data sets are reserved for Pro users, everyone can get free weekly trend reports and browse our topics library.
Pro plans start at just $39 per month—less than BuzzSumo's starting price of $79 per month when billed yearly. Depending on the features you need, you can select from three plan options:
- Pro: $39 per month, billed annually
- Investor: $99 per month, billed annually
- Business: $299 per month, billed annually
At a glance: Exploding Topics vs. BuzzSumo
| Exploding Topics | BuzzSumo | |
| Free plan? | Yes | Yes |
| Starting paid cost | $39 per month, billed annually | $79 per month, billed annually |
| Trend spotting sources | All online chatter | Select social media platforms |
| Good for |
|
|
2. Mention
Mention is a paid marketing tool that can help you analyze social media data, get alerted to new brand mentions, and post relevant content online.
Its core features include:
- Notifying users when a particular brand or keyword is mentioned on social media
- Tracking mentions across selected forums and blogs
- Drilling down into trends to see data about social shares
- Scheduling social media posts
These features make Mention really useful if you need to figure out when to post on social media about a particular topic, as the platform can show you if Monday afternoons or Thursday mornings result in more engagement.
Because of this, Mention could be a good choice for digital marketers that need to develop social media strategies. However, it doesn’t necessarily provide a way to predict future trends.
How much does Mention cost?
There are no free Mention plans—everyone must choose a paid option.
- Solo: $41 per month, billed annually
- Pro: $83 per month, billed annually
- ProPlus: $149 per month, billed annually
Mention also offers customized pricing for large companies that need to connect an unlimited number of social media accounts.
At a glance: Mention vs. BuzzSumo
| Mention | BuzzSumo | |
| Free plan? | No | Yes |
| Starting paid cost | $41 per month, billed annually | $79 per month, billed annually |
| Trend spotting sources |
| Select social media platforms |
| Good for |
|
|
3. Semrush
Semrush may be best known as a search engine optimization (SEO) tool, but its features extend beyond keyword research.
While you can certainly use Semrush to pull lists of terms that are popular in Google search results, you can also use the platform to explore different industries and markets. Semrush’s market and competitor analysis tools may be used to:
- Take a peek at competitors’ strategies for growing their web traffic
- Research new keywords for your content strategy and marketing campaigns
- Analyze your target audience’s interests and trends
- Evaluate backlinks to see who is referencing your brand online
- Track competitors’ social media posts and paid ads
- Conduct market research to uncover key players and their online share of voice
Semrush’s strengths really lie in optimizing web content—which isn’t surprising, given its status as a leading SEO tool. It doesn't offer quite as much insight as other tools on this list when it comes to social media activity and trend forecasting.
How much does Semrush cost?
Semrush doesn't have a free tier, and all users must select a paid plan.
- Pro: $117.33 per month, billed annually
- Guru: $208.33 per month, billed annually
- Business: $416.66 per month, billed annually
If you aren’t in charge of optimizing your company’s site, you may not be able to take advantage of all of Semrush’s paid features or get the full range of insights that you’ll find in a dedicated trend spotting tool.
At a glance: Semrush vs. BuzzSumo
| Semrush | BuzzSumo | |
| Free plan? | No | Yes |
| Starting paid cost | $117.33 per month, billed annually | $159 per month, billed annually |
| Trend spotting sources |
| Select social media platforms |
| Good for |
|
|
4. Sprout Social
Like Mention, Sprout Social is primarily a paid social media management platform, with plenty of features for tracking hashtags and topics.
The Sprout Social listening tool can:
- Track trending topics across the web
- Track brand mentions across social media platforms
- Post to social media accounts
One of the most interesting features Sprout Social offers is a social media relationship manager. Functioning a bit like a CRM, this tool lets you manage details about your top followers and cultivate influencer marketing partnerships.
How much does Sprout Social cost?
Like many BuzzSumo alternatives, Sprout Social doesn't offer a free plan. Anyone interested in using the platform must select one of the following Sprout Social subscriptions:
- Standard: $249 per month
- Professional: $399 per month
- Advanced: $499 per month
Sprout Social plans are billed monthly, and the company also offers custom enterprise pricing for large companies with specific needs.
All in all, Sprout Social is an option that’s best suited for anyone whose main responsibilities revolve around social media marketing. If you’re just looking for a way to discover and track trending topics online, you’ll probably wind up paying Sprout Social for features that you won’t need or use.
At a glance: Sprout Social vs. BuzzSumo
| Sprout Social | BuzzSumo | |
| Free plan? | No | Yes |
| Starting paid cost | $249 per month | $79 per month, billed annually |
| Trend spotting sources |
| Select social media platforms |
| Good for |
|
|
5. ContentStudio
ContentStudio’s paid curation tool streamlines the process of finding topically relevant content to share with your audience.
By linking your brand’s accounts to the ContentStudio portal, you can re-share trending content with just a click.
ContentStudio subscriptions also include a variety of tools to help you monitor social engagement around the best content you share. Depending on their plan level, users can get access to:
- A social media scheduler
- A unified social media inbox
- Analytics about competitors' accounts
- AI content generation tools
- Automated content publishing
If you’re primarily interested in the content curation aspect of ContentStudio, you can get a feel for how it works by using their free tool called "ContentIdeas".
To get the most out of ContentStudio and ContentIdeas, you’ll need to already have an idea of what’s trending in your industry. ContentStudio doesn’t offer quite the same level of listening and trend analysis that platforms like Exploding Topics and BuzzSumo do.
Once you’ve identified trending topics, you can use ContentStudio to seek out and share related content from other publishers and social media users.
How much does ContentStudio cost?
There are three paid ContentStudio plans, and no free tier:
- Starter: $20 per month, billed annually
- Pro: $40 per month, billed annually
- Agency: $80 per month and up, billed annually
While all plans include social media publishing tools, users must select one of the upper plan tiers in order to publish curated content to a blog.
At a glance: ContentStudio vs. BuzzSumo
| ContentStudio | BuzzSumo | |
| Free plan? | No | Yes |
| Starting paid cost | $20 per month, billed annually | $79 per month, billed annually |
| Trend spotting sources |
| Select social media platforms |
| Good for |
|
|
6. Meltwater
Meltwater offers paid tools that help brands monitor chatter across multiple channels:
- Social media accounts
- Websites and blogs
- Print media outlets
- Broadcast media networks
- Podcasts
To use the tool, you’ll need to have topics and terms you want to track, such as your brand name. From there, you can begin monitoring trends and engagement data related to your keywords.
If you find that chatter about your brand isn’t trending in the direction that you want, you can tap into Meltwater’s influencer management tools and PR media database to help you change the conversation. Meltwater also owns Scoop.it, a content explorer similar to ContentStudio's ContentIdeas.
The combination of this media database and content platform makes Meltwater a potentially useful tool for large brands that are more interested in tracking perception of their brand vs. identifying new trending topics.
How much does Meltwater cost?
Meltwater doesn't publish its pricing online—to get a price, you'll need to contact the company for a quote.
If budget is a concern, and you'll be using the tool for a small to midsize company, Meltwater may not be the best option to potentially replace BuzzzSumo.
At a glance: Meltwater vs. BuzzSumo
| Meltwater | BuzzSumo | |
| Free plan? | No | Yes |
| Starting paid cost | Custom; must contact company for a demo | $79 per month, billed annually |
| Trend spotting sources |
| Select social media platforms |
| Good for |
|
|
Conclusion
BuzzSumo, and many of its alternatives, are great for digging through historical data or tracking metrics on a specific platform.
The Internet isn’t divided into neatly walled gardens, though. Trending topics on Twitter can lead to spin-off blog posts and YouTube videos, all of which may show up across other platforms and search engines.
To get a handle on what trends look like broadly—and keep an eye on what’s about to be the next hot topic—you probably want a powerful tool focused on trend spotting (like Exploding Topics).
