Social media conversations unfold in seconds, and public sentiment can turn on a dime.

When it comes to X, there's no way you could scroll through timelines manually and hope to catch important brand mentions. 

Instead, you need reliable tools that track keywords, monitor engagement, and analyze audience sentiment, so you can jump into relevant conversations and protect your brand’s online presence and reputation. 

As artificial intelligence and cross‑channel analytics evolve, X monitoring tools have become a secret weapon for social media managers, PR teams, and business leaders.

If critical comments about your brand start to spike, these tools will give you the best chance of responding early (a good example here is the recent American Eagle campaign featuring Sydney Sweeney). On a less critical level, brand monitoring tools simply help you understand what people think of your brand and its competitors, and how that perception is changing over time.

In this guide, we'll discuss the best X monitoring tools on the market right now and look at how they can help you keep on top of all brand-related conversations on X.

In this guide:

Why X monitoring tools matter

Before jumping into the best software on the market, it helps to understand why tools that monitor conversations on social media platforms like X have become an essential part of understanding your brand's presence.

Unlike occasional social listening through manual searches of your brand name, modern monitoring platforms like Brandwatch provide real‑time data and valuable insights that can drive strategic decisions. 

Let's look at some of the key benefits for your social media marketing strategy.

Real-time tracking

On X, trending topics can come and go within hours. Monitoring platforms automatically collect posts containing specific keywords or brand names, alerting you the moment conversations pick up. 

This enables real‑time responses to crises or emerging trends.

Brand reputation management

Negative posts can spread quickly on X. Monitoring tools surface brand mentions immediately, letting teams address issues before they spiral. 

Immediate insights are really helpful when it comes to maintaining a positive brand image and getting a deeper understanding of your brand's performance.

Competitor and industry analysis

Understanding what competitors are doing gives you clues to direct your strategy. 

Monitoring platforms can be your secret weapon by analyzing competitors’ posts, hashtags, and marketing campaigns, revealing where you can differentiate and capture your target audience's attention. Many tools also benchmark your performance against peers.

Crisis management

Sentiment analysis tools often give you an alert when conversation tone shifts, so you can intervene before a crisis damages brand perception. 

These automated alerts (and detailed reporting) free up your team to focus on strategy.

Read our Crisis Management Guide and learn more about how proactively monitoring customer feedback can help your organization identify and manage a potential crisis.

Data‑driven decision making

A good social media monitoring tool will often produce detailed reports and dashboards with metrics like reach, engagement, share of voice, and sentiment. 

This is the kind of comprehensive insight you need to justify budgets and plan content that resonates.

How to choose the right X monitoring tool

With multiple platforms on the market, choosing the right one can be daunting. Have a think about these factors, and it will be easier to whittle down your choice.

Data coverage

Ensure the tool has access to the full X firehose or official APIs for real‑time posts. 

Some platforms, like Brandwatch, are official X partners and have unparalleled access to historical and live data.

Breadth of monitoring

Decide whether you need only X monitoring or cross‑network insights. 

Multi‑platform dashboards let you see performance in context and compare channels.

Sentiment and AI capabilities

Advanced platforms use AI to analyze sentiment, detect emerging themes, and summarize online conversations.

This reduces manual work and reveals insights at scale.

Alerting and automation

Look for tools that trigger alerts based on keyword spikes or sentiment shifts. 

Pairing these alerts with automated reporting saves time and keeps stakeholders informed.

Usability and reporting

A clear, customizable dashboard is essential.

Consider whether you need downloadable reports, API access, collaborative features, and the ability to share live dashboards.

Budget and scale

Some tools cater to individuals or small businesses, offering free or low‑cost plans. Others are enterprise‑level with more complex features. 

The trick is to match the pricing tier to your needs without over‑buying features you won’t use.

Top X monitoring tools for 2026

Now, let's look at the top 10 tools that excel at monitoring X. 

In each section, we'll focus on what the tool does best, its notable features, and how it could help your social media efforts.

1. Brandwatch

Brandwatch is more than a monitoring tool; it’s a comprehensive social media management suite.

As an official X partner, Brandwatch has unparalleled access to the complete X firehose – both historical data and real‑time posts. This means you can track conversations across 500 million posts per day and understand audience sentiment, behavior, and industry trends.

The Brandwatch suite is perfect for enterprise marketing teams, agencies, and global brands that need a single platform for social publishing, social media listening, engagement, and competitive benchmarking.

Users can also tap into Brandwatch Consumer Research to uncover insights from billions of online conversations, slice and dice audiences into various segments, track sentiment over time, and identify emerging trends across platforms.

It's a tool that transforms marketing departments, and its AI capabilities and deep X integration make it ideal for organizations requiring actionable insights across multiple networks.

Brandwatch X monitoring key features

  • Unified suite for publishing and engagement: With Brandwatch Social Media Management, you can draft, schedule, and publish X posts alongside content for other networks using collaboration workflows and a unified calendar. You can also coordinate social media campaigns and save time by managing everything from a single dashboard.
  • Real‑time engagement management: Thanks to a unified inbox, you can respond to direct messages and mentions, set up feeds for key conversations, and assign tickets to team members. Collaboration tools like labels and notes mean that you can be confident nothing slips through the cracks.
  • Complete X firehose access: Brandwatch Consumer Research provides access to all public X posts, and will even let you search through historic and real‑time data with powerful keyword rules. This is great for discovering emerging trends and understanding audience affinities.
  • Listening and sentiment analysis: With Listen, you can track real‑time sentiment and emotion analysis, helping you perfect your content strategy.
  • In‑depth performance measurement: Thanks to detailed analytics, it’s easy to aggregate metrics beyond X from platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Pinterest. Brandwatch offers custom dashboards and drag‑and‑drop widgets, plus AI‑powered insights that summarize post performance and conversations. You can also create unlimited reports and share live dashboards via public links or scheduled emails.
  • Competitor benchmarking: Use the Benchmark module to compare your performance against more than 300,000 brands across major social networks. It identifies strengths and weaknesses, monitors competitors’ posts, campaigns, and hashtags, and provides AI‑powered summaries of competitor content. You also gain metrics such as follower growth rate and engagement rate to gauge how you stack up.

2. Sprout Social

Sprout’s listening feature uses AI to process millions of conversations on X and other social media platforms and distill them into actionable insights. It's fairly simple to use and will give you a general overview of conversations on X.

You can use it for crisis management, competitor benchmarking, and trend analysis. 

Sprout features for X

  • Crisis management and sentiment analysis: Custom alerts and granular sentiment analysis help you spot potential crises on X before they erupt. You could also use Sprout’s sentiment research feature to explore customer feelings about products, topics, and competitors.
  • Competitor comparison and share of voice: The competitor comparison feature identifies gaps in your industry, tracks share of voice, and reveals consumer attitudes toward competitors on X.
  • Multi‑purpose insights: Access additional modules for trend identification, campaign analysis, and industry benchmarking on X.

3. Brand24

Brand24 offers real‑time social listening across X and other networks, focusing on AI-powered insights and sentiment analysis.

It’s known for its alerting and reporting features, and provides in-depth sentiment analysis and competitor comparisons along with quick AI insights.

Brand24 features for X

  • Real‑time monitoring with advanced filters: Set up keyword searches and track mentions, hashtags, or phrases in real time.
  • Instant notifications and storm alerts: Brand24 triggers alerts when there’s a sudden spike in mentions on X or when sentiment shifts drastically, helping you respond quickly to crises.
  • AI summarization and event detection: The tool automatically summarizes X conversations, detects emerging themes, and identifies notable events.

4. Keyhole

Keyhole is a specialized tool for tracking hashtags, industry keywords, and influencer campaigns on X. 

Like Brandwatch, it uses X’s official API to deliver real-time and historical data. It might also fit the bill if you need precise hashtag analytics and need to look at how certain campaigns have performed in the past.

Keyhole features for X

  • Real‑time hashtag and keyword tracking: Keyhole monitors mentions and engagement for specific hashtags or keywords, providing aggregated metrics like reach and impressions.
  • QuickTrends and posting suggestions: This tool instantly identifies trending topics and offers recommendations for optimal posting times and hashtags.

5. Mention

Mention monitors over a billion sources, including X and other social networks, blogs, forums, and news sites. 

It allows teams to track brand mentions and industry conversations while offering in-depth analytics and engagement tools.

Mention features for X

  • Real‑time listening across the web: Mention will tap you into conversations from X and other social networks, plus blogs and forums, giving you a holistic view.
  • Sentiment analysis and share of voice: The platform identifies positive, negative, or neutral mentions and calculates share of voice across multiple sources.

6. Agorapulse

Agorapulse is social media management and listening software that covers X, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and more. 

It's designed for instant insight and crisis monitoring, offering quick setup, cross-platform monitoring, and reliable sentiment analysis.

Agorapulse features for X

  • Customizable searches: Set up searches for keywords, hashtags, or phrases across X and other platforms. Filters allow for the exclusion or inclusion of specific terms.
  • Trend detection and live volume reports: Agorapulse displays real-time charts showing the volume of mentions so you can identify trending topics.
  • Sentiment alerts: You'll get instant alerts when sentiment turns negative or when there is a surge in mentions.

7. X Pro (formerly TweetDeck)

X Pro is the native tool for advanced X users. It's the built-in option if you don't want to use a third-party tool. It’s not a free tool because it comes as part of the X Premium subscription.

It enables users to manage multiple X accounts, monitor lists, hashtags, and keywords simultaneously, and schedule posts. 

X Pro features for X

  • Column-based dashboard: Set up columns to track timelines, mentions, hashtags, lists, or keyword searches all on one screen. This multi-column layout helps manage multiple conversations in real time.
  • Basic analytics: While not as robust as a third-party tool, X Pro offers basic metrics like engagement counts for scheduled X posts.

8. Talkwalker

Talkwalker is an enterprise-grade listening tool with extensive data coverage, AI-driven sentiment analysis, and visual recognition capabilities. 

Its virality maps show how content spreads across networks and languages.

Talkwater features for X

  • Real-time listening and sentiment analysis: Talkwalker monitors mentions across X and other networks, using AI to identify sentiment, themes, and patterns.
  • Image recognition: Recognize logos and objects in photos, which is vital for campaigns where brand imagery is shared widely.

9. Hootsuite

Hootsuite is known for its social media management capabilities, and its advanced analytics suite brings X metrics together with insights from other networks.

While it's better known as a social media management platform, it does offer basic listening tools to help users follow online conversations. With this platform, you can compare X performance against your presence on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and more.

Hootsuite features for X

  • Comprehensive analytics: Hootsuite’s dashboard tracks engagement metrics like follower growth, post reach, and share of voice across multiple networks. It also provides comparisons between organic and paid performance.
  • Competitive benchmarking: The platform compares your engagement rates and audience size against industry benchmarks, helping you understand where you stand.

10. Rival IQ

Rival IQ focuses on competitive analysis and content optimization for X. 

While it isn’t a social listening platform, it can offer benchmarking reports that compare your account’s performance against industry peers and reveal what content types drive engagement.

Rival IQ features for X

  • Competitive benchmarking: Rival IQ collects comprehensive data from your X account and compares it against competitors, highlighting strengths and weaknesses.
  • AI-powered trend detection: It surfaces trending topics and offers actionable recommendations to refine your social media strategy.

FAQs

As we reach the end of our guide, let's have a look at any lingering questions you might still have.

How is social media monitoring different from social media analytics?

Social media monitoring tools are software platforms that automatically track conversations on platforms like X based on predefined keywords, hashtags, accounts, or topics. They collect data in real time and often include sentiment analysis, alert systems, performance dashboards, and reports. 

Unlike basic analytics, monitoring tools like Brandwatch keep you updated on conversations as they happen, which means you can jump in with quick responses and informed decisions.

How do X monitoring tools measure engagement and reach?

Monitoring platforms automatically collect data on likes, comments, reposts, and impressions from X’s APIs. Tools like Brandwatch Social Media Management display these key metrics across multiple networks in custom dashboards, while Keyhole aggregates reach and impressions for any hashtag or keyword. 

The reports often include engagement rates, follower growth, and share of voice, helping marketers understand both the volume and quality of interactions.

Do X monitoring tools comply with X’s policies?

Yes – and most reputable tools partner with X or use the official API to collect data. 

Brandwatch is an Official X Partner with direct access to the X firehose, and some other tools are able to offer compliant integrations, too. 

Always verify that your chosen tool follows X’s terms of service and that you have permission to collect and store data.

A few last words on X monitoring tools

Monitoring X for brand mentions or trending topics means much more than just occasionally glancing at your notifications feed. 

As conversations unfold faster and audiences become more vocal, marketers need tools that provide real‑time alerts, deep sentiment analysis, competitor insights, and historical context. 

The products in this list cover a broad spectrum of needs, but hopefully, you've spotted something that will suit your team. Whether you’re a small business seeking actionable insights or a global brand managing complex social campaigns, the right monitoring tool can be a total game-changer. It will help you stay informed, protect your reputation, and seize opportunities. 

The key is to go for a platform that fits your budget, data needs, and workflow. Once you're all set up, you'll be able to transform the noise of X into something much more useful – valuable intelligence that guides your social strategy forward.