Quick picks: what are you doing?
- You only need an email when your product name shows up on Reddit or Hacker News: F5Bot, free for 5 keywords. Its tiers page lists Free as personal use only and Silver ($12.99) as non-commercial, so a business starts at Gold, $49.99 a month for 200 keywords.
- For Syften's job across more social networks, with sentiment and reach: Brand24, $249 a month or $199 billed yearly for 3 keywords; LinkedIn, YouTube and Medium start on its $349 Team plan.
- X, LinkedIn, YouTube and reviews in one feed, with an MCP server on every plan: Octolens, from $159 a month billed annually.
- You want Reddit threads ranked by buying intent, with reply drafts: Redreach from $19 a month, or RedShip at $29.
- You'll pick the threads but want someone else's account to post: ReplyAgent, $4 a comment. Mention.Broker sells 10 mentions a month for $34.99.
- Nobody on the team has time to read alerts or write replies: CommunityMentions, $1,000 a month, comments posted daily on Reddit, YouTube, Medium, LinkedIn and X. Compare it with Syften.
Syften alternatives compared
Each row gives the same fields from that vendor's own pricing page, all read November 13, 2026 (Redreach in a browser, since its prices load with JavaScript). Rows after Syften are ordered by how much of the work between a mention and a posted reply the tool takes off you. CommunityMentions is ours.
| Tool | What it does | Who posts the reply | Channels | Agent access | Price as published | Where it beats us |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Syften | Keyword alerts with AI filtering on Standard and up | You or your own agent | The web, Reddit, Hacker News, GitHub, forums, Slack communities and more; X +$40 and YouTube +$20 a month; no LinkedIn | API on every plan; webhooks and MCP on PRO | $29.95, $49.95 or $119.95 a month | Developer-community coverage for $49.95 |
| CommunityMentions (ours) | Finds threads, writes comments in a voice you approve in Slack, posts them daily | People with established accounts, paid only when a comment sticks | Reddit, YouTube, Medium, LinkedIn, X | An MCP server for subreddit data | $1,000 a month after a $1 setup charge | Not applicable, it is ours |
| ReplyAgent | Posts comments from its aged accounts; AI finds threads and drafts on its paid plan | Its accounts at $4 a comment, or you for free | Not listed | $4 a comment, $8 a post; AI features $79 a month | Pay per comment; ReplyAgent refunds 70% if a moderator removed it by its 24-hour check | |
| Mention.Broker | A marketplace of Reddit users who write and post mentions by campaign | Its verified Reddit users | Not listed | Free for 2 mentions; launch pricing $34.99 a month for 10, $89.99 for 30 (list $49.99 and $149.99) | A fixed count of Reddit mentions each month | |
| Redreach | Finds Reddit threads from your site and competitors, suggests replies | You, from your own account; automated DMs through an extension | MCP and API on Growth and Professional | $19, $39 or $79 a month; $15, $31 or $63 billed yearly; $12 for 3 days | Daily ranked threads from $39 | |
| RedShip | Daily lead opportunities, competitor tracking, AI reply suggestions | You | Webhooks on Company | $29 or $49 a month | Reply suggestions on its $29 plan | |
| Subreddit Signals | Scores threads for buying intent in the subreddits you choose | You | Not listed | $29 or $59 a month; $288 or $590 a year; card needed for the trial | Your own voice on every comment | |
| Brand24 | Social listening with sentiment, reach and AI insights | You | Facebook, Instagram, X, Reddit, news and blogs on every plan; LinkedIn, Medium, YouTube, Quora and TikTok from Team | MCP from Pro; API at $149 extra | $249, $349, $499 or $699 a month; $199, $299, $399 or $599 billed yearly | Every mention across social, news and blogs |
| Octolens | Listening with AI relevance filtering and a daily brief | You | Reddit, X, LinkedIn, YouTube, TikTok, Hacker News, GitHub, reviews and more | API, webhooks and MCP on every plan | $159 or $499 a month billed annually | LinkedIn and review coverage with an MCP server |
| Awario | Social listening by topic, unlimited keywords per topic | You | Reddit and other social networks, news and the web | API on its feature list; the plan split isn't shown in text | $49, $149 or $399 a month; from $29 billed yearly | 30,000 mentions a month on its Starter plan |
| F5Bot | Keyword email alerts | You | Reddit, Hacker News, Lobsters | Not listed | Free (personal use only); $12.99 (non-commercial), $49.99 or $214.99 a month | Free, for personal use; Gold at $49.99 for a business |
Why founders look past Syften
- It only tells you. Syften's page says it provides the mentions and "gets out of the way": you or your own AI agent read them, write the reply and post it.
- No LinkedIn. Its FAQ answers "Does Syften monitor LinkedIn?" with "No, unfortunately not." Brand24 (from Team) and Octolens cover it.
- X and YouTube cost extra: $40 and $20 a month on Standard or PRO, so PRO with both is $179.95.
- The cheapest plan is small: 3 community filters, 100 results a day and a 7-day archive, with no Slack and no AI filtering.
- It has no sentiment, reach or influencer reports, which Brand24 and Awario sell.
What a year of each costs
The plan a single brand would start on, at the published price read November 13, 2026. ReplyAgent is counted at its own "typical usage" of 30 comments a month with no AI plan. CommunityMentions is 12 months at $1,000 plus the $1 setup charge.
| Option | How it's counted | 12 months |
|---|---|---|
| F5Bot | Free plan, 5 keywords, personal use only; a business plan (Gold) is $549 a year | $0 |
| Redreach Startup | $15 a month billed yearly | $180 |
| Subreddit Signals Starter | Annual plan | $288 |
| RedShip Founder | $29 a month | $348 |
| Awario Starter | $29 a month billed yearly | $348 |
| Mention.Broker Starter | $34.99 a month for 10 mentions | $419.88 |
| Syften Standard | $49.95 a month | $599.40 |
| ReplyAgent | 30 comments a month at $4 | $1,440 |
| Octolens Pro | $159 a month billed annually | $1,908 |
| Brand24 Individual | $199 a month billed yearly | $2,388 |
| CommunityMentions (ours) | $1,000 a month plus $1 | $12,001 |
Which tools do AI answers suggest instead?
In our scan of November 2, 2026, we asked ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity eight buyer questions about Reddit marketing, three times each, so 24 answers per assistant and 96 in all. F5Bot was named in 18, Syften in 16, Brand24 in 16, Redreach in 11, ReplyAgent in 9 and GummySearch in 9, although GummySearch says on its own pricing page that it closed on November 30, 2025. Four of Syften's 16 came in answers to "Is there a service that posts comments about my company on Reddit every day?", a job an alert tool doesn't do. One of the eight questions asked for alternatives to ReddiReach, and it produced 6 of Syften's 16. So when an assistant hands you a list, check which column of the table above each name sits in.
| Tool | Answers naming it (of 96) | ChatGPT | Claude | Gemini | Perplexity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| F5Bot | 18 | 1 | 8 | 9 | 0 |
| Syften | 16 | 0 | 7 | 6 | 3 |
| Brand24 | 16 | 2 | 7 | 7 | 0 |
| GummySearch (closed) | 9 | 0 | 2 | 7 | 0 |
Where Syften still wins
- Developer communities: one $49.95 Standard plan watches Hacker News, GitHub, Indie Hackers, Stack Exchange, forums and Slack communities, which most Reddit tools skip.
- Speed: Syften says it targets a Reddit delay of under 1 minute and at most 15 minutes on X.
- Trial: 14 days of PRO with no card, and it shows mentions from the 2 months before you sign up.
- Hooks for your own agent: API on every plan, webhooks and MCP on PRO.
- Price: Standard is $49.95 a month, about a twentieth of ours, and every reply stays in your words.
Which one fits
Keep Syften if your buyers talk on Hacker News and GitHub and someone on the team answers alerts within the hour. Move to F5Bot if you only need Reddit and Hacker News for a few words (Gold, $49.99, for a business), to Brand24 or Octolens if you need LinkedIn and sentiment, and to Redreach or RedShip if you want Reddit threads ranked for you. If alerts pile up unanswered, a better alert tool won't fix it: ReplyAgent and Mention.Broker post per comment once you choose, and CommunityMentions finds, writes and posts daily. To find which subreddits to watch first, try the free subreddit finder, or see F5Bot alternatives for alert-only tools.
How we compared
Every price comes from the vendor's own pricing page on November 13, 2026, read with a browser-like request; Redreach loads its prices in the browser, so we read them there with both billing toggles. Plan limits are as each page lists them; we did not buy each tool. The AI answer counts come from CommunityMentions' own scan of 96 answers on November 2, 2026, counting an answer once when it names the tool anywhere. If a vendor's page says something different now, its page wins.
Sources
- Syften pricing section and FAQ, read November 13, 2026.
- Brand24 prices, Octolens pricing, Awario pricing and F5Bot tiers, read November 13, 2026.
- Redreach pricing, RedShip pricing, Subreddit Signals pricing, ReplyAgent pricing and Mention.Broker, read November 13, 2026.
- GummySearch pricing page closure notice, read November 13, 2026.
- CommunityMentions AI answer scan: 96 answers from ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity to eight buyer questions asked three times each, November 2, 2026.
- Our price and terms: pricing section and company facts, read November 13, 2026.