Critical Mention vs Modash: Which Is Better? (2026 Comparison)
Critical Mention and Modash serve entirely different pillars of marketing: Critical Mention is a powerhouse for PR and broadcast media monitoring, while Modash is an all-in-one influencer marketing platform for ecommerce brands. If you need to track TV and radio mentions, choose Critical Mention; if you are scaling a Shopify-based influencer program, Modash is the better fit. You can explore more options in our all ShortsIntel comparisons or find a specific Critical Mention alternative for your niche.
| Feature | Critical Mention | Modash |
|---|---|---|
| Content Discovery | ||
UGC Discovery | 1/5 | 4/5 |
Brand Mention Detection | 5/5 | 3/5 |
Untagged Content Detection | 2/5 | 3/5 |
| Video Tracking | ||
Short-Form Video Tracking | 2/5 | 4/5 |
| Creator Management | ||
Creator Analytics | 1/5 | 4/5 |
Rights Management | 2/5 | 2/5 |
| Intelligence & AI | ||
Competitor Intelligence | 4/5 | 2/5 |
AI Content Tagging | 3/5 | 3/5 |
| Platform & Integrations | ||
Multi-Platform Support | 5/5 | 3/5 |
Integrations | 3/5 | 3/5 |
| Reporting & Collaboration | ||
Reporting Dashboards | 5/5 | 4/5 |
Team Collaboration | 4/5 | 4/5 |
API Access | 4/5 | 3/5 |
| Usability & Support | ||
Ease of Use | 4/5 | 4/5 |
Customer Support | 5/5 | 4/5 |
Feature Deep Dive
Content Discovery and Brand Monitoring
Critical Mention excels in traditional media and brand mention detection (5/5). Because it was built for PR professionals, it monitors real-time TV, radio, and online news with incredible speed—often reporting hits within 60 seconds. However, its ability to discover new user-generated content (UGC) is limited (1/5). In contrast, Modash is built for creator discovery (4/5), boasting a database of over 350 million profiles across Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. While Modash is excellent for finding influencers, it lacks the broad broadcast coverage that defines Critical Mention.
Video Tracking and Social Listening
When it comes to video, the two tools take different paths. Critical Mention tracks broadcast video (TV) and has basic social monitoring, but it struggles with the nuances of short-form vertical video. Modash offers much stronger short-form video tracking (4/5) and automatic IG Story collection, which is vital for modern social campaigns. However, both tools have a notable weakness: detecting untagged content. If a creator mentions your brand in a video but forgets to tag your account or use your hashtag, Critical Mention (2/5) and Modash (3/5) may miss it. For teams focused heavily on this gap, reviewing a ShortsIntel vs Critical Mention breakdown reveals how specialized tools are closing this visibility gap.
Creator Management and Intelligence
Modash is the clear winner for managing relationships. It offers an end-to-end workflow—discover, manage, track, and pay—making it a favorite for teams managing 10 to 250+ influencers. Critical Mention does not offer creator CRM features or influencer payment tools, as its focus remains on earned media value and sentiment analysis across news cycles. Critical Mention does provide superior sentiment analysis and trend visualization (5/5) for enterprise-level reporting, which is why many agencies still use it alongside a Modash alternative for their PR needs.
Platform and Usability
Critical Mention offers a broader multi-platform reach (5/5) because it includes podcasts, radio, and news sites alongside social media. Modash is more restricted, focusing only on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. Both tools are praised for their UI, though Modash is generally considered more intuitive for modern marketing teams, while Critical Mention’s search functionality can have a steeper learning curve. For more comparative data, see our Archive vs Critical Mention and Archive vs Modash pages, which highlight how different platforms handle content library management and rights.
| Plan Details | Critical Mention | Modash |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing Model | Custom | Flat Rate |
| Free Tier | ||
| Free Trial | 14 days | |
| Pricing Tiers | ||
| Entry Tier | Custom PackageCustom | Essentials$299/moor $2,388/yr |
| Mid Tier | EnterpriseCustom | Performance$599/moor $5,988/yr |
| Top Tier | — | EnterpriseCustom |
| Annual Cost (5-Person Team)* | Contact Sales | $2,388 |
| 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 costs of these two platforms is a study in transparency versus custom enterprise modeling.
Modash uses a transparent, flat-rate pricing model. Their Essentials tier starts at $99/month ($2,388/year), while the Performance tier is $599/month ($5,988/year). For a 5-person marketing team, the Performance tier is the most likely fit, as it allows for untagged content collection and higher usage limits.
Critical Mention, conversely, uses a custom pricing model. While they do not publish rates, user reports suggest a wide range of costs. Some users have cited $2,500/year for basic services, while enterprise-level broadcast monitoring can easily exceed $6,000/year. For a 5-person team, Critical Mention would likely require an enterprise contract, which could significantly exceed Modash's costs depending on the number of broadcast markets being monitored.
When calculating the total cost of ownership, Modash offers more predictable scaling for ecommerce brands. However, for a PR agency, Critical Mention's cost is often justified by its 24/7 customer support and comprehensive broadcast data that social-only tools cannot provide. If you are looking for more affordable entry points into social tracking, check out our Hypefy vs Critical Mention and Hypefy vs Modash comparisons to see how budget-friendly tools stack up.
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
End-to-end influencer marketing platform for discovering, managing, tracking, and paying creators
Best For
- Consumer brands on Shopify running influencer programs
- In-house marketing teams managing 10-250+ influencers
- Brands wanting all-in-one influencer workflow (discover to pay)
- Teams prioritizing ease of use over enterprise features
- Companies needing automatic IG Story collection
- Ecommerce brands tracking affiliate revenue via promo codes
Not Ideal For
- Brands needing multi-platform coverage (Twitch, LinkedIn, X)
- WooCommerce or Magento ecommerce stores
- Teams focused primarily on UGC content licensing
- Enterprise brands needing advanced compliance/security
- Agencies managing campaigns for multiple clients
- Teams needing deep brand mention monitoring in video content
Choose Critical Mention if...
You are a PR professional, a communications team, or a large enterprise that lives and breathes earned media. If you need to know the second your CEO is mentioned on the evening news or your brand is discussed on a popular podcast, Critical Mention is the industry standard. It is also the right choice for government and non-profit organizations that need high-level sentiment analysis and 24/7 support. You can see more options for this use case on our Brandwatch alternative page.
Choose Modash if...
You are an in-house marketing team, particularly for a Shopify-based consumer brand, looking to scale an influencer program. Modash is designed for the high-volume work of finding, vetting, and paying creators. If your primary goal is to turn influencer marketing into a predictable revenue channel through Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube, Modash’s all-in-one workflow is vastly superior to Critical Mention’s media-monitoring focus. For those in this category, checking out an Critical Mention alternative might also be helpful for client reporting.
Neither might be right if...
You are primarily focused on tracking short-form video UGC and need to manage the usage rights of that content for ads. Neither Critical Mention nor Modash provides robust, automated rights management workflows or specialized AI that scans the actual visual content of videos to find untagged brand appearances. If you find yourself drowning in manual content collection from TikTok and Reels, you may need a tool specialized in video social listening rather than general PR or influencer databases.
Consider a Third Option
Scale creator marketing with data, not grunt work.
While Critical Mention and Modash are leaders in their respective fields, they often leave a gap for brands focused specifically on short-form video (UGC). This is where ShortsIntel comes in.
ShortsIntel is purpose-built for the "video-first" era. Unlike Critical Mention, which focuses on broadcast news, or Modash, which focuses on influencer databases, ShortsIntel specializes in tracking and analyzing UGC across TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts.
Why consider ShortsIntel instead?
- Untagged Content Detection: ShortsIntel uses frame-by-frame AI analysis to find videos that mention your brand but didn't tag you. It claims to find up to 30% more content than general social listening tools.
- Automated Rights Management: One of the biggest pain points in UGC is getting permission to use creator content in ads. ShortsIntel includes a magic-link consent system, which neither Critical Mention nor Modash offers natively.
- Affordability: With a Starter tier at just $99/month, ShortsIntel is significantly more accessible than the enterprise-heavy Critical Mention or the mid-market Modash plans.
If your marketing strategy is built around high-res video assets and creator-led ads, you might find the specialized focus of ShortsIntel more valuable than a broad media monitor. You can compare the specifics in our ShortsIntel vs Modash or ShortsIntel vs Critical Mention guides. For those exploring the broader market, our browse all alternatives page offers a bird's-eye view of the 2026 landscape, including tools like the ShortsIntel vs Archive comparison.
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 | Modash | ShortsIntel Recommended |
|---|---|---|---|
| Content Discovery | |||
UGC Discovery | 1/5 | 4/5 | 5/5 |
Brand Mention Detection | 5/5 | 3/5 | 5/5 |
Untagged Content Detection | 2/5 | 3/5 | 5/5 |
| Video Tracking | |||
Short-Form Video Tracking | 2/5 | 4/5 | 5/5 |
| Creator Management | |||
Creator Analytics | 1/5 | 4/5 | 4/5 |
Rights Management | 2/5 | 2/5 | 5/5 |
| Intelligence & AI | |||
Competitor Intelligence | 4/5 | 2/5 | 4/5 |
AI Content Tagging | 3/5 | 3/5 | 5/5 |
| Platform & Integrations | |||
Multi-Platform Support | 5/5 | 3/5 | 4/5 |
Integrations | 3/5 | 3/5 | 3/5 |
| Reporting & Collaboration | |||
Reporting Dashboards | 5/5 | 4/5 | 4/5 |
Team Collaboration | 4/5 | 4/5 | 3/5 |
API Access | 4/5 | 3/5 | 3/5 |
| Usability & Support | |||
Ease of Use | 4/5 | 4/5 | 4/5 |
Customer Support | 5/5 | 4/5 | 4/5 |
Frequently Asked Questions
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Track UGC, discover creators, and monitor brand mentions across TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube Shorts.
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Last updated: January 28, 2026