Critical Mention vs Dig: Which Is Better? (2026 Comparison)
Critical Mention and Dig serve very different ends of the media intelligence spectrum. Choose Critical Mention if you need legacy broadcast monitoring (TV/Radio) and real-time PR tracking, but opt for Dig if you are a Fortune 500 brand requiring deep AI analysis of social video narratives and deepfake detection. For teams focused specifically on UGC and short-form video tracking, you may want to explore ShortsIntel vs Critical Mention or check our ShortsIntel vs Dig comparison to see a more specialized alternative.
| Feature | Critical Mention | Dig |
|---|---|---|
| Content Discovery | ||
UGC Discovery | 1/5 | 3/5 |
Brand Mention Detection | 5/5 | 5/5 |
Untagged Content Detection | 2/5 | 4/5 |
| Video Tracking | ||
Short-Form Video Tracking | 2/5 | 5/5 |
| Creator Management | ||
Creator Analytics | 1/5 | 3/5 |
Rights Management | 2/5 | 1/5 |
| Intelligence & AI | ||
Competitor Intelligence | 4/5 | 4/5 |
AI Content Tagging | 3/5 | 5/5 |
| Platform & Integrations | ||
Multi-Platform Support | 5/5 | 3/5 |
Integrations | 3/5 | 1/5 |
| Reporting & Collaboration | ||
Reporting Dashboards | 5/5 | 3/5 |
Team Collaboration | 4/5 | 2/5 |
API Access | 4/5 | 1/5 |
| Usability & Support | ||
Ease of Use | 4/5 | 2/5 |
Customer Support | 5/5 | 3/5 |
Feature Deep Dive
Media Coverage and Discovery
Critical Mention is a titan in traditional media monitoring. Founded in 2002, it excels at tracking television, radio, and online news with a speed that few can match—often delivering results within 60 seconds of a broadcast. However, its social listening capabilities are secondary to its broadcast roots. In contrast, Dig is a 'video-first' intelligence platform. It doesn't track TV or radio but offers 90%+ coverage of social video across TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts.
When it comes to UGC Discovery, Critical Mention scores a low 1/5, as it is primarily designed for earned media rather than creator-led content. Dig performs better at 3/5, using narrative clustering to surface emerging themes across video clips. If your goal is specifically to find unbranded user content, you might find more value in a Critical Mention alternative that prioritizes social-first detection.
Video Tracking and AI Intelligence
Dig is built on a proprietary LLM stack that understands natural language, allowing it to detect disinformation and deepfakes with 93% accuracy. This makes it a 5/5 for Short-Form Video Tracking and AI Content Tagging. Critical Mention lags here (2/5 and 3/5 respectively), as its search function relies heavily on traditional Boolean keyword matching rather than the semantic understanding offered by Dig. While Critical Mention provides excellent sentiment analysis for news segments, it lacks the 'narrative detection' that allows Dig to cluster thousands of videos into coherent brand stories.
Platform Usability and Support
Critical Mention is widely praised for its intuitive UI and exceptional 24/7/365 customer support, which is included in every subscription. It earns a 4/5 for Ease of Use. Dig, however, is a more complex enterprise tool that requires brand-specific customization and dedicated training, resulting in a lower usability score of 2/5. Furthermore, Dig has no public API, making it difficult to integrate into existing stacks—a sharp contrast to Critical Mention's 4/5 score for API Access. For teams needing better workflow integration, reviewing Brandwatch vs Dig or Archive vs Critical Mention can provide insight into more flexible platforms.
Reporting and Collaboration
Critical Mention offers robust, shareable reports and custom charts tailored for PR professionals who need to prove ROI to stakeholders. Dig's reporting is focused on 'Intelligence Modules' (Reputation, Brand, Product), which provide deep strategic insights but may feel less 'ready-to-share' for a standard PR report. For those managing external creators, neither tool is perfect; Collabstr vs Critical Mention highlights how dedicated creator tools handle the logistics that these media-heavy platforms miss. To see a full list of how these tools stack up against modern social needs, visit our Dig alternatives directory.
| Plan Details | Critical Mention | Dig |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing Model | Custom | Custom |
| Free Tier | ||
| Free Trial | ||
| Pricing Tiers | ||
| Entry Tier | Custom PackageCustom | EnterpriseCustom |
| Mid Tier | EnterpriseCustom | — |
| Annual Cost (5-Person Team)* | Contact Sales | Contact Sales |
| Hidden Costs |
|
|
* Annual cost calculated using entry tier pricing. Per-seat pricing multiplied by 5 users. Actual costs may vary based on specific plan and usage.
Comparing the pricing of Critical Mention and Dig is a challenge because both companies strictly use a custom, sales-led pricing model. There are no public pricing pages, and neither offers a free trial, which can be a barrier for teams needing immediate solutions.
Critical Mention Pricing Based on user data, Critical Mention's pricing varies significantly depending on the scope of monitoring. One Reddit user cited a cost of $6,000/year for broadcast monitoring, while another reported a quote of $2,500/year for a non-profit. For a team of 5 users, you can expect an annual commitment ranging from $4,000 to $8,000 depending on the volume of mentions and the number of markets tracked. It is generally considered expensive compared to social-only tools but competitive within the enterprise media intelligence space. To see more accessible options, you can browse Critical Mention alternatives.
Dig Pricing Dig is positioned as a high-end enterprise solution for Fortune 500 brands. While they do not disclose prices, industry estimates for platforms of this caliber often start at $2,000 per month ($24,000 annually). This cost covers the high computational power required for their LLM-native video analysis and disinformation detection. For a 5-person team, the 'total cost of ownership' isn't just the subscription; it includes the time spent on brand-specific customization and onboarding, which is mandatory for the platform to deliver value. If this budget is prohibitive, looking for a Dig alternative with a flat-rate model is advisable.
Value Comparison Critical Mention offers better value for PR agencies and communications teams who need a broad 'catch-all' for TV and news. Dig offers superior value for global enterprise brands (luxury, CPG, tech) that face significant reputation risks on social video platforms and need high-level strategic intelligence rather than just a list of mentions.
Who Is Each Product Best For?
Real-time TV, radio, online news, podcast, and social media monitoring with analytics
Best For
- PR and communications teams needing broadcast monitoring
- Agencies managing multiple client media coverage
- Enterprise brands tracking earned media across all channels
- Government and non-profit organizations
- Financial services firms requiring comprehensive media intelligence
- Teams needing 24/7 customer support
Not Ideal For
- Influencer marketing campaigns
- UGC discovery and tracking
- Small businesses on tight budgets
- Teams focused solely on social media
- Short-form video content tracking
- Creator relationship management
Video-first social intelligence platform for brand reputation monitoring, narrative detection, and influencer evaluation across social video
Best For
- Enterprise brands needing deep social video intelligence and monitoring
- Fortune 500 companies in luxury, CPG, and fashion verticals
- Brand safety teams monitoring for deepfakes and disinformation
- Market research teams analyzing video-first consumer narratives
- Organizations requiring reputation intelligence across social video platforms
Not Ideal For
- Small businesses and startups (enterprise-only, no accessible pricing)
- Content creators needing UGC tracking and rights management
- Teams needing text-based social listening across all social platforms
- Companies wanting self-serve onboarding without sales process
- Brands needing public API access or third-party integrations
- Budget-conscious teams without enterprise-level budgets ($2K+/mo)
Choose Critical Mention if...
You are a PR professional or an agency that needs to track earned media across TV, radio, and online news in real-time. It is the gold standard for broadcast monitoring and offers the 24/7 support that enterprise communications teams rely on during a crisis. It is also ideal if you need a tool that is easy for a whole team to pick up and use without weeks of specialized training.
Choose Dig if...
You are a Fortune 500 brand in a high-stakes industry like luxury, fashion, or tech. Dig is for teams that need to understand the why behind social video trends, rather than just the what. If your brand safety team is concerned about deepfakes, disinformation, or complex narrative shifts on TikTok and Reels, Dig’s AI-native approach is unmatched.
Neither might be right if...
You are a small-to-medium business, a DTC brand, or an individual creator. Both tools are enterprise-focused and carry the price tags and sales-heavy onboarding processes to match. If your primary goal is tracking UGC creators, managing usage rights, or finding affordable social listening, these tools will likely feel like overkill. In these cases, checking a dedicated Archive alternative or a platform like Heepsy alternative may be a more cost-effective path forward for your marketing team.
Consider a Third Option
Scale creator marketing with data, not grunt work.
While Critical Mention tracks the news and Dig tracks the 'narrative,' many brands find themselves stuck in the middle: they need to track social video content, but they don't have an enterprise budget or a need for broadcast TV data. This is where ShortsIntel enters the picture.
ShortsIntel is a purpose-built video social listening tool designed specifically for the era of TikTok, Reels, and YouTube Shorts. Unlike Critical Mention, which often misses social stories, or Dig, which requires an enterprise sales cycle, ShortsIntel offers a self-serve platform starting at just $99/month.
One of the biggest differentiators is Untagged Content Detection. ShortsIntel claims to find 30% more content than competitors by using AI to identify brand presence in videos even when the creator forgets to use a hashtag or tag the brand account. While Dig is excellent for 'narrative detection,' ShortsIntel focuses on actionable Rights Management. It features an automated 'magic-link' system to request and manage usage rights, turning your discovered UGC into a high-res library for ad creatives—a feature both Critical Mention and Dig lack.
If you are a DTC brand running creator campaigns, ShortsIntel vs Archive or ShortsIntel vs Brandwatch might show you how a video-first approach saves time. For those moving away from legacy tools, you can compare ShortsIntel vs Collabstr to see how it handles creator data, or ShortsIntel vs CreatorIQ to evaluate its influencer tracking capabilities. For brands that need deep video insights without the enterprise gatekeeping, ShortsIntel is the logical middle ground.
Why Choose ShortsIntel
- Purpose-built for short-form video (TikTok, Reels, Shorts) unlike general social listening tools
- Detects untagged content that competitors miss (claims 30% more coverage)
- AI-powered content tagging analyzes videos frame-by-frame for format, visual elements, and trends
- Automated rights management with magic-link consent system and audit trails
Best For
Starting at $99/mo
7-day free trial
Full Comparison: All Three Options
| Feature | Critical Mention | Dig | ShortsIntel Recommended |
|---|---|---|---|
| Content Discovery | |||
UGC Discovery | 1/5 | 3/5 | 5/5 |
Brand Mention Detection | 5/5 | 5/5 | 5/5 |
Untagged Content Detection | 2/5 | 4/5 | 5/5 |
| Video Tracking | |||
Short-Form Video Tracking | 2/5 | 5/5 | 5/5 |
| Creator Management | |||
Creator Analytics | 1/5 | 3/5 | 4/5 |
Rights Management | 2/5 | 1/5 | 5/5 |
| Intelligence & AI | |||
Competitor Intelligence | 4/5 | 4/5 | 4/5 |
AI Content Tagging | 3/5 | 5/5 | 5/5 |
| Platform & Integrations | |||
Multi-Platform Support | 5/5 | 3/5 | 4/5 |
Integrations | 3/5 | 1/5 | 3/5 |
| Reporting & Collaboration | |||
Reporting Dashboards | 5/5 | 3/5 | 4/5 |
Team Collaboration | 4/5 | 2/5 | 3/5 |
API Access | 4/5 | 1/5 | 3/5 |
| Usability & Support | |||
Ease of Use | 4/5 | 2/5 | 4/5 |
Customer Support | 5/5 | 3/5 | 4/5 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Ready to try ShortsIntel?
Track UGC, discover creators, and monitor brand mentions across TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube Shorts.
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Last updated: January 30, 2026