With over 500 million monthly users, X is one of the most active social media platforms on the planet.
There’s a lot of data flying around X (formerly Twitter) that’s highly valuable for brands that know how to harvest it.
Getting the right insights from X can make a big difference to your business plans. X data can guide audience strategies, marketing plans, product development, and much more.
Whether you’re a social media manager proving return on investment (ROI) or a business owner looking to grow your audience, the best X analytics tools reveal which posts resonate, when your followers are most active, and how you stack up against competitors.
This guide highlights the top tools for tracking and optimizing your social media presence on X, including Brandwatch Social Media Management.
We’ll look at why these tools matter, what each offers, and how to choose the right one.
Best X analytics tools
How to choose the right X analytics tool
Before we look at the 10 best X analytics tools, it’s worth thinking about what you want from a tool and how you’ll use it. After all, it’s really important to choose software that fits your business size and budget.
Start by identifying your goals. Decide what you need from X analytics. It could be basic performance tracking, competitor benchmarking, or perhaps in-depth audience insights.
Then consider your budget and the size of your operation. Small teams may get by with free or low-cost tools, while larger organizations might require a comprehensive (and pricier) platform.
Think about your team’s skill level. An intuitive, user-friendly interface is crucial if multiple people (including non-analysts) will be using the analytics regularly. You might find the easy-to-use tool is better than the complex one, even if the latter is more powerful.
Check if the tool provides the specific data you need. For instance, if tracking sentiment or pulling multi-platform reports is important, pick a solution that offers those capabilities.
If you report to stakeholders, look for strong reporting features (like custom dashboards or scheduled PDF exports) to simplify sharing results.
Finally, check out if product demos are available to see if you like the interface and insights. Brandwatch, for example, offers a demo so you can see how Social Media Management works.
Top X analytics tools for 2026
Now, let’s explore 10 of the best tools to analyze your X presence.
This list includes a mix of all-in-one social media suites, advanced analytics platforms, and even X’s native analytics. Each tool’s key features and ideal use case are summarized to help you compare options.
1. Brandwatch
Brandwatch is a social media management suite that excels at analytics. Individual modules within the wider Social Media Management platform have easy access to analysis and many, many more insights.
The Measure module provides in-depth analytics for all major networks, including X, while the Benchmark feature offers powerful competitive benchmarking. Both use Brandwatch’s innovative Iris AI to generate content insights and post analysis.
So, you can start understanding your own presence on X and compare it to rival brands. What’s more, Social Media Management gives users access to post scheduling, social listening, monitoring, target audience analysis, and other analytics features to support a 360-degree social media strategy.
Best features of Brandwatch
- All-in-one analytics: Brandwatch brings together data from X and other networks (Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, etc) into a single dashboard.
- Advanced X metrics: Get 100+ key metrics at both the post and profile level – from impressions, likes, reposts, replies, and engagement rate to follower growth and audience demographics.
- Competitive benchmarking: With the Benchmark tool, compare your X presence against competitors or industry leaders. You can instantly benchmark followers, engagement, share of voice, and other KPIs to see where you lead and where you can improve.
- AI-powered insights: Brandwatch uses its Iris AI to surface meaningful patterns in your data. It can automatically analyze your X post performance and even summarize trending themes in comments, saving you time on analysis.
- Custom reports and collaboration: The platform makes reporting easy with intuitive, customizable dashboards and exportable reports. You can drag-and-drop widgets, apply templates, and generate shareable live reports or PDFs to showcase results.
Why choose Brandwatch
Brandwatch was built for social media management and was one of the first tools to accurately track X analytics way back when the platform launched as Twitter.
It’s ideal for mid-size to enterprise teams who want robust metrics, competitive intelligence, and time-saving AI insights all in one platform. The tool’s breadth and depth mean you can manage and measure your X marketing strategy seamlessly.
2. X Analytics
X Analytics is the built-in analytics dashboard provided by X. Only Premium subscription accounts have access to X Analytics, which may be beneficial if you plan to expand your presence on the platform.
Users get basic fundamental stats such as impressions, likes, reposts, replies, and clicks to gauge social media performance. X also provides monthly highlights and target audience information – all in a clean, simple interface.
Why choose X Analytics
If you’re an individual or small brand who wants basic analytics directly on X, then this is a great first step. Keep in mind it’s limited to 28-day data and lacks advanced features like competitor tracking.
3. Talkwalker
Talkwalker is an enterprise social intelligence platform that can track conversations about your brand, competitors, or any topic across X and other channels. It offers real-time listening of mentions of your brand, keywords, and hashtags (even if not @tagged), and it can recognize your logo in posted images.
Run sentiment and trend analysis on posts, and benchmark your buzz against competitors by comparing mention volumes and sentiment side by side.
Talkwater also has the ability to track posts in 100+ languages – ideal for brands seeking to expand into new territories, or those who have already got a global presence.
Why choose Talkwater
Talkwater is good for large brands, PR teams, or organizations that need in-depth X listening and sentiment analysis beyond their own posts. Only a few tools – including Brandwatch – can offer this level of social media intelligence at an enterprise level.
4. Keyhole
Keyhole is a specialized social media analytics tool, particularly known for X hashtag tracking and keyword monitoring. It helps marketers measure the impact of campaigns, events, or trends by analyzing hashtag performance on X.
It draws on five years’ worth of historical data and real-time analytics to provide a full overview of brand performance. You can also monitor specific X accounts (such as competitors and influencers) to gauge growth and engagement.
It’s particularly useful in a live event setting, such as a product launch or advertising launch, when you want to see audience reaction in real time.
If you need to share your findings with others, Keyhole generates easy-to-understand reports (including sentiment analysis and reach summaries) that you can customize.
Why choose Keyhole
Keyhole is great for marketers, PR teams, and event organizers who need to track the performance and buzz of specific X hashtags or topics, especially during campaigns or live events.
5. Rival IQ
As the name suggests, Rival IQ is a tool tailored for competitive benchmarking across social media. It includes X competitor analytics and enables you to closely watch your own metrics and those of multiple competitors, all in one dashboard.
You can benchmark metrics by audience size for fair performance comparisons, and analyze hashtag and content usage patterns to see what resonates in your industry.
Get notified of notable changes (like a competitor’s sudden spike in followers or a viral post), and track historical performance trends for each account over time.
Why choose Rival IQ
If you want to learn from and beat the competition, then Rival IQ is a great tool. Brands and agencies working in competitive industries get up-to-date, unbiased insights on how their X performance stacks up against others.
6. Agorapulse
Agorapulse is a social media management platform that combines publishing, engagement (inbox management), and analytics. Its unified dashboard shows all your key X stats at a glance – post count, impressions, engagements, clicks, and follower growth.
You can track a few competitor X accounts to compare basic metrics like follower count and engagement, giving a simple benchmark of how you’re doing in your niche.
You also get highlights of your top posts on X for a defined period and engagement breakdowns by type (likes vs reposts vs replies). This helps you see what content sparks the most interaction.
Why choose Agorapulse
If you’re a small team or agency that needs an easy-to-use tool combining scheduling, inbox management, and all essential X analytics, then Agorapulse could be for you. It doesn't go too hard on data, but it's powerful enough for most small brands.
7. Followerwonk
As the name suggests, Followerwonk has been analyzing X since the early days, and the software remains focused on followers and audience analysis. It was acquired by Fedica in 2023, which means users also get access to Fedica's AI-powered tools.
You can analyze your followers’ bios and locations to see common interests or industries (eg, top bio keywords, top cities/countries), painting a clear picture of your audience.
Compare up to three X accounts to see follower overlap or similarities. This can reveal how much audience you share with competitors or influencers and highlight new people to target.
And track changes in your follower count over time and identify new followers or recent unfollows, helping you link spikes or drops to specific campaigns or events.
Why choose Followerwonk
Any marketer who needs to understand their followers better can get a leg up with Followerwonk and Fedica. Taking a data-driven approach to X followers makes it much easier to optimize posting strategies.
8. Hootsuite
Hootsuite is a social media management tool that brings all your social accounts into one place. Its analytics dashboard is where you can compare performance across platforms.
The software tracks all the essential X metrics (likes, replies, reposts, reach, clicks, follower growth) and even conversions if you set up goal tracking, with visual charts to monitor social media trends.
You can monitor competitors, schedule posts for optimal times, and generate X reports. Hootsuite is a broad tool used by those who have responsibility for more social media platforms than simply checking X performance.
Why choose Hootsuite
Social media managers who need a broad overview across multiple platforms (including X) will benefit from this tool. Its analytics and scheduling features make it a powerful tool, although some features may not be applicable to all brands.
9. Sprout Social
Sprout Social is a social media management platform known for its analytics and reporting, especially appealing to brands and agencies. Users can connect multiple X accounts (and other networks) to analyze followers, impressions, engagement, and clicks for each or in aggregate, with options to tag posts and filter by campaigns.
The platform is team-friendly, with automated scheduling and collaborative features (multiple users, task assignments, shared dashboards) that make it good for agency workflows.
Users can access data on audience demographics and activity times, along with basic tools to compare their X performance against a few competitor profiles.
Why choose Sprout Social
Sprout is popular with X marketing teams and agencies that need deep X analytics coupled with easy, client-ready reporting and collaboration features. Its wider social media marketing tool makes it a more realistic choice for larger brands.
10. Minter.io
Minter is an analytics platform that originally focused on Instagram but now supports X and other sites as well. It covers all the fundamental X stats (follower growth, impressions, engagements, link clicks, etc) in a clean interface, with straightforward charts that make trends easy to spot.
The software pulls in as much past data as the X API allows, enabling you to analyze long-term performance or year-over-year trends from day one.
It also has a polished reports feature, with weekly, monthly, and annual PDF options that can be automatically emailed. These reports include key metrics and graphs, saving you time preparing updates for your team or clients.
Why choose Minter
Anyone who needs a simple, no-frills X analytics solution should check out Minter. It has easy-to-read dashboards and automated reporting to share progress.
Time to find an X (Twitter) analytics tool today
As you can see from the above list, there are plenty of options to consider when choosing an X analytics tool. You could go with a small-scale solution like Followerwonk or Rival IQ that excels in one aspect of X analytics.
Or, you may need a more powerful tool like Brandwatch that offers X analytics alongside social listening, benchmarking, scheduling, monitoring, and AI support.
Whatever your choice, be sure to try a demo first and test drive your tool.
X Analytics tools FAQ
Q1: Does X have built-in analytics?
Keeping up with all the metrics from mYes, X offers a native analytics dashboard, but full access now requires an X Premium subscription (which gets you a blue tick). The built-in analytics provides basic stats (impressions, likes, reposts, replies) for roughly the past 28 days and gives you monthly highlights like your top tweet and new followers.
Q2: Are there any free X analytics tools available?
Absolutely. If you’re on a tight budget, the best option is X’s own analytics. It’s technically free with a Premium account for basic insights. Additionally, many paid tools like Brandwatch offer demos, so you can test before investing in a full plan.
Q3: What are the most important metrics to track on X?
It depends on your goals, but brands generally tend to focus on engagement metrics (likes, reposts, replies, clicks) and engagement rates (engagements divided by impressions) to see how their content resonates. Impressions (how many people see your posts) and follower growth over time are great for gauging reach and audience building.
Q4: Can I track my competitors’ performance on X with these tools?
Yes. Many analytics tools offer competitor tracking or benchmarking features. For instance, Brandwatch’s Benchmark module lets you compare your X metrics side by side with competitors (followers, engagement rates, top posts, etc.
Q5: Is it safe to connect my X account to third-party analytics tools?
In general, yes – as long as you stick to reputable tools. Apps like Brandwatch are official X partners and use X’s official API, so you’ll be directed to the website to authorize them (meaning you don’t give the tool your password directly).
