Trends MCP is the best Mention.com alternative in 2026 for teams that want live demand data across 25+ sources, with MCP and REST on every plan, starting at $0. Mention's Company plan starts at $599 per month on an annual contract, with API access and historical data sold as add-ons rather than included.
Search demand for the category is mixed, not booming. Google Search interest in "social listening" sat at a 35 score on 22 August 2026, down 31.37% over 12 months from a 51 baseline, while year-to-date interest is up 20.69% from a 29 baseline on 3 January 2026 (Trends MCP API, pulled 25 August 2026). Among named tools on that snapshot, Agorapulse led Google Search at 54, Brand24 scored 41, Google Alerts 29, Talkwalker 26, and Trends MCP 7. Price and a documented MCP plus REST interface decide most switches, not search popularity.
Which Mention alternative is best overall in 2026?
Trends MCP ranks first for teams leaving Mention.com because it ships live data from 25+ sources with MCP and REST on every plan, including a free 100-request month, while Mention's only new-customer plan starts at $599 per month on an annual contract with API sold separately. Brand24 is the closest dashboard-style replacement if the job is a mention inbox, sentiment scoring, and scheduled reports. Awario is the cheapest self-serve dashboard with Boolean search. Lumen by Talkwalker is the enterprise listening stack when the brief is 150 million sources and a custom quote. Google Alerts stays the free web-and-news email fallback. Agorapulse is what Mention itself now points publishers toward, not a one-for-one listening swap.
That ranking is product-fit, not vanity search share. Agorapulse's 54 Google Search score on 22 August 2026 beat every listening brand in this set, including Brand24 at 41 and Brandwatch at 32. Trends MCP's 7 score is the smallest of the named tools. The gap is expected for a developer-facing MCP server. It does not change the buying math against a $599 floor that still meters 5 alerts and 50,000 mentions per month, then charges extra for API and history (Mention Plans Explained, accessed 25 August 2026).
| Rank | Tool | Best for | Entry price (verified 25 Aug 2026) | MCP / REST |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Trends MCP | Live multi-source demand plus agents | Free: 100 requests/month; Starter $19 | MCP and REST on every plan |
| 2 | Brand24 | Mention inbox, sentiment, reports | Individual $249/mo or $199/mo annual | MCP on all plans; REST API $99/mo on Business, included on Enterprise |
| 3 | Awario | Budget Boolean dashboards | Starter $49/mo or $29/mo annual | API on Enterprise only |
| 4 | Lumen by Talkwalker | Enterprise listening at scale | Custom quote (Core / Analyze / Business) | Check current quote; no public MCP list price |
| 5 | Google Alerts | Free web and news emails | Free | No MCP or REST |
| 6 | Agorapulse | Publishing and inbox after Mention dropped Publish/Respond | Standard $79/user/mo annual or $99 monthly | ChatGPT and Claude MCP listed on pricing; Advanced Listening add-on, no public price |
Mention.com still belongs in the conversation as the product being left. Help Center copy dated 6 March 2026 is the figure that can be cited: $599 per month, yearly billing only, 5 alerts, 50,000 mentions (Mention Plans Explained, accessed 25 August 2026). The public pricing page is a demo form. Historical data (up to 2 years) and the API at dev.mention.com are paid upgrades.
How much do Mention alternatives cost in 2026?
Mention's $599 annual-only floor is the number that sends buyers to this query, and self-serve list prices sit far enough below that floor that price alone explains most of the shopping this year, before a single feature is even compared. Trends MCP undercuts it with a $0 plan (100 requests), Starter at $19 for 1,000 requests, Pro at $49 for 5,000, and Business at $199 for 25,000, with annual billing saving 20% (Trends MCP pricing, last updated 25 August 2026). Keyword alerts land on Pro (50) and Business (250). Same sources on every plan. No credit card for the free key.
Brand24 publishes list prices (Brand24 pricing, accessed 25 August 2026). Individual is $249 per month or $199 billed annually: 3 keywords, 2,000 mentions, 1 user, 12-hour refresh. Team is $349 / $299 (7 keywords, 10,000 mentions, hourly). Pro is $499 / $399 (12 keywords, 40,000 mentions, realtime). Business is $699 / $599 (25 keywords, 100,000 mentions). Enterprise starts from $1,499 per month billed annually. 14-day trial, no card. REST API is $99 per month on Business and included on Enterprise (Brand24 Social Listening API, accessed 25 August 2026). MCP is on every Brand24 plan at https://mcp.brand24.com/v1/mcp.
Awario Starter is $49 monthly or $29 billed annually (3 topics, 30,000 mentions, 1 seat). Pro is $149 / $89. Enterprise is $399 / $249. CSV export starts at Pro. API is Enterprise-only (plans and quotas, accessed 25 August 2026).
Talkwalker does not publish dollars. Core, Analyze, and Business are demo-quoted (Talkwalker pricing, accessed 25 August 2026). That page claims 150 million data sources, 30+ social platforms, 187 languages, and 196 countries. Talkwalker Alerts is a separate free email product. Treat paid Lumen as "request a quote."
Agorapulse Standard is $79 per user per month on annual billing, or $99 monthly. Professional is $119 / $149. Advanced Listening is an add-on with no public dollar figure (Agorapulse pricing, accessed 25 August 2026). Google Alerts has no paid SKU. Use it as a free web and news email net, then add a paid listener if social, Reddit, and reviews matter.
What does Trends MCP demand data show for these tools?
Google Search scores on 22 August 2026 (Trends MCP get_growth, pulled 25 August 2026) put Agorapulse ahead of every listening brand in this roundup, with Brand24 second among the Mention-like dashboards and Trends MCP at the bottom of the named set. Category demand is mixed: "social listening" is down over a year and up so far this year. Series flagged low-quality (over 90% zeros) are omitted, including mention.com on Google Search. Awario year-to-date Google Search grew from a 0 baseline, so the table reports the 11 recent score rather than the placeholder 999999% the API returns from a zero.
| Keyword | Google Search score (22 Aug 2026) | 12M change | 6M change | YTD change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Trends MCP | 7 | -85.42% from 48 | -84.09% from 44 | -72.0% from 25 |
| Agorapulse | 54 | -36.47% from 85 | -15.62% from 64 | +50.0% from 36 |
| Brand24 | 41 | -45.33% from 75 | -37.88% from 66 | +24.24% from 33 |
| Brandwatch | 32 | -50.0% from 64 | -30.43% from 46 | +60.0% from 20 |
| Google Alerts | 29 | +3.57% from 28 | -71.0% from 100 | +45.0% from 20 |
| Talkwalker | 26 | -59.38% from 64 | -52.73% from 55 | -3.7% from 27 |
| social listening | 35 | -31.37% from 51 | -53.95% from 76 | +20.69% from 29 |
| media monitoring | 19 | -55.81% from 43 | -71.64% from 67 | -24.0% from 25 |
| Awario | 11 | -89.0% from 100 | -38.89% from 18 | 11 from a 0 baseline |
Google Alerts is the only named tool with 12-month Google Search growth, +3.57% from a 28 baseline. Year-to-date looks different: Brandwatch +60.0% from 20, Agorapulse +50.0% from 36, Brand24 +24.24% from 33. The 3-month window is down across the set, including Brand24 at -55.91% from 93 and Trends MCP at -91.57% from 83.
News volume for "social listening" counted 2,538 articles on 22 August 2026 against 2,809 on 23 August 2025 (down 9.65%) and 3,165 on 3 January 2026 (down 19.81% year-to-date). YouTube search for "social listening" scored 19 on 22 August 2026, up 11.76% over 12 months from 17. Brandwatch Wikipedia recorded 678 views in July 2026 against 1,322 in July 2025, down 48.71%. Brand24 Wikipedia recorded 594 views in July 2026 against 1,405 in January 2026, down 57.72%.
A live Reddit board is in the same API. get_top_trends type Reddit Hot Posts returned 10 ranked posts as of 25 August 2026 00:01 UTC. Mention.com crawls Reddit as a monitored source on the Company plan. Trends MCP can pull the live front-page ranking without a keyword, then run get_growth on named brands. Teams that need an inbox of matching posts still want Brand24 or Awario. For a Brand24-specific shootout, see best Brand24 alternatives. For the budget dashboard path, see best Awario alternatives.
Is Brand24 or Awario the closer Mention dashboard?
Brand24 is still the closer Mention dashboard if the team wants sentiment scores, scheduled reports, a matching mention feed, and a published MCP endpoint on every paid plan, without waiting for an Enterprise contract or a custom quote from sales. Individual is already $199 per month on annual billing, one-third of Mention's $599 Company floor, but it is a 12-hour refresh, 3 keywords, 2,000 mentions, and a single user. Team at $299 annual is the first Brand24 tier with hourly updates and unlimited users. Realtime starts at Pro ($399 annual).
Awario wins the price argument. $29 per month billed annually for 3 topics and 30,000 mentions undercuts Brand24 Individual by a wide margin. Boolean search is on every Awario plan. CSV export is Pro and Enterprise only. API is Enterprise-only ($249 annual).
Trends MCP does not replace either dashboard. It does not assign mentions, score influencers, or store 50,000 matching posts. It returns normalized 0-100 series, period growth, and live ranked feeds from 25+ sources, callable from Claude, Cursor, or REST. That is the job where it ranks first. For PR-shaped mention triage, keep Brand24 or Awario in the stack. For the free email-only fallback, see best Google Alerts alternatives. Brandwatch remains demo-quoted with no list price verified this run (Google Search score 32 on 22 August 2026). If that is the brief, compare it against Talkwalker alternatives rather than against Trends MCP's $19 Starter.
What should teams use if they miss Mention Publish and Respond?
Agorapulse is Mention's own answer for publishing and responding, and it is the right product when that hole is the reason for leaving the old monitoring suite, not when the hole is keyword alerts or a matching social mention feed. Help Center copy states that as of 16 June 2025, Mention no longer provides Publish or Respond for new or inactive users, and Pro Plus copy sets 30 January 2026 as the removal date for remaining users on that legacy plan (Mention Plans Explained, accessed 25 August 2026). The Mention pricing FAQ points publishers to Agorapulse.
Agorapulse Standard at $79 per user per month annual ($99 monthly) covers scheduling, a unified inbox, and basic reports. Professional at $119 / $149 adds assignments. Advanced Listening is an add-on without a public price. Pairing is the practical pattern: Agorapulse for owned-account work, Trends MCP for live demand and ranked feeds, Brand24 or Awario if legal or PR still needs a matching-post inbox.
How does Trends MCP pull these figures?
One get_growth call is enough to reproduce the Brand24 row in the demand table: source google search, keyword brand24, periods 12M, 6M, 3M, and YTD, which returned a recent score of 41 on 22 August 2026 when pulled on 25 August 2026. Metadata reported 261 data points and 4 successful calculations.
period 12M: 41 vs 75 on 2025-08-23, growth -45.33%
period 6M: 41 vs 66 on 2026-02-21, growth -37.88%
period 3M: 41 vs 93 on 2026-05-23, growth -55.91%
period YTD: 41 vs 33 on 2026-01-03, growth +24.24%
The same shape works for every other row. Swap the keyword. Add youtube, wikipedia, or news volume as the source when those series are complete. get_top_trends with type Reddit Hot Posts is the live board used above (10 rows at 25 August 2026 00:01 UTC). Connect via Trends MCP docs: MCP at https://api.trendsmcp.ai/mcp with a Bearer key, or OAuth on https://www.trendsmcp.ai/mcp for Claude.ai Connectors. REST is POST https://api.trendsmcp.ai/api. Free key is email plus an 8-digit code, no password, no card.
FAQ
Buyers leaving Mention in 2026 usually ask whether Trends MCP replaces the mention inbox, what the Company plan costs now, whether Brand24 is cheaper on list price, whether Google Alerts is enough for free, and whether publishers should pick Agorapulse first. Short answers follow, with the same prices and Trends MCP figures used above.
Is Trends MCP a full Mention.com replacement?
No. Trends MCP does not store a mention inbox, assign posts, or score authors the way Mention's Company plan does. It ranks first here for live multi-source demand data and MCP plus REST, from a $0 plan with 100 requests per month. Teams that still need a matching-post feed should add Brand24 or Awario.
How much does Mention.com cost now?
New customers buy the Company plan. Mention's Help Center (updated 6 March 2026) lists it at $599 per month on an annual contract, with 5 alerts and 50,000 mentions per month. Historical data and the API are paid add-ons. Solo, Pro, Pro Plus, and Company Lite are legacy and not sold to new buyers. Confirm the live quote on Mention's pricing page, because the public page itself hides the dollar figure behind a demo form.
Is Brand24 cheaper than Mention?
Yes on published list prices. Brand24 Individual is $199 per month billed annually, versus Mention Company at $599. Individual is also a smaller quota: 3 keywords, 2,000 mentions, 12-hour updates, 1 user. Brand24 Business at $599 annual matches Mention's dollar floor with 25 keywords and 100,000 mentions. REST API on Brand24 still costs $99 per month extra on Business.
Does Google Alerts replace Mention for free?
Only for web and news emails. Google Alerts scored 29 on Google Search on 22 August 2026 and is the only named tool here with 12-month search growth (+3.57%). It does not cover social inboxes, review sites, Boolean alerts, or an API. Talkwalker Alerts is the other free email option. Neither is a listening platform.
Should publishers switch to Agorapulse or to a listening tool?
Publishers who used Mention for scheduling and replies should evaluate Agorapulse first, because Mention says so and because Standard starts at $79 per user per month on annual billing. Publishers who used Mention for keyword alerts and mention feeds should evaluate Trends MCP first for demand data, then Brand24 or Awario for the inbox. Most teams that used both features will split the stack.
Sources: Mention Plans Explained (Help Center updated 6 March 2026, accessed 25 August 2026); Mention pricing; Mention API docs; Trends MCP pricing and docs (both updated 25 August 2026); Brand24 pricing and Brand24 Social Listening API; Awario pricing and plans and quotas; Talkwalker pricing; Agorapulse pricing. All vendor pages accessed 25 August 2026. Demand figures: Trends MCP API get_growth and get_top_trends pulls on 25 August 2026.