Heepsy vs Meltwater: Which Is Better? (2026 Comparison)
Heepsy is a budget-friendly influencer discovery tool best suited for SMBs and D2C brands, while Meltwater is a high-end enterprise media intelligence platform for global PR and social listening. If you need simple influencer search, choose Heepsy; if you need comprehensive global media monitoring, Meltwater is the standard. For those looking for more specialized options, you can explore a Heepsy alternative or browse Meltwater alternatives for better fit.
| Feature | Heepsy | Meltwater |
|---|---|---|
| Content Discovery | ||
UGC Discovery | 3/5 | 3/5 |
Brand Mention Detection | 2/5 | 5/5 |
Untagged Content Detection | 2/5 | 1/5 |
| Video Tracking | ||
Short-Form Video Tracking | 3/5 | 2/5 |
| Creator Management | ||
Creator Analytics | 4/5 | 4/5 |
Rights Management | 2/5 | 2/5 |
| Intelligence & AI | ||
Competitor Intelligence | 2/5 | 5/5 |
AI Content Tagging | 3/5 | 5/5 |
| Platform & Integrations | ||
Multi-Platform Support | 3/5 | 5/5 |
Integrations | 3/5 | 4/5 |
| Reporting & Collaboration | ||
Reporting Dashboards | 3/5 | 5/5 |
Team Collaboration | 3/5 | 4/5 |
API Access | 2/5 | 5/5 |
| Usability & Support | ||
Ease of Use | 5/5 | 2/5 |
Customer Support | 3/5 | 3/5 |
Feature Deep Dive
Content Discovery and UGC Tracking
When it comes to finding content, these two tools operate at opposite ends of the spectrum. Heepsy (Rating: 3/5) is primarily a discovery engine. It hosts a database of over 11 million influencers, allowing users to find creators based on location, engagement, and category. However, its ability to detect actual brand mentions or untagged content is limited (2/5).
Meltwater, conversely, is a powerhouse of brand mention detection (5/5). It monitors 300 million online sources, including news, print, and broadcast. However, it significantly struggles with untagged content detection (1/5), meaning if a creator posts a video featuring your product without using a hashtag or @-mention, Meltwater will likely miss it. For teams specifically focused on video content, you might want to compare how these hold up in a ShortsIntel vs Heepsy analysis or look into Archive vs Heepsy for better asset management.
Video Intelligence and AI
Meltwater leads in technical sophistication with its ISO-certified AI and 'Mira Studio' for tracking LLM visibility. It provides a comprehensive 8-product suite that covers the entire media intelligence spectrum, including podcasts and TV. This makes it ideal for enterprise teams that need a holistic view of their brand's footprint.
Heepsy offers more basic AI capabilities, focused largely on fake follower detection and authenticity scoring. While it supports Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube, its data can occasionally be outdated, with some profiles not posting for years. If your focus is purely on high-growth video platforms, reviewing ShortsIntel vs Meltwater might reveal gaps in Meltwater's short-form tracking.
Reporting and Collaboration
For reporting, Meltwater (5/5) offers enterprise-grade dashboards and exportable reports designed for stakeholders in global organizations. Heepsy (3/5) provides more streamlined, intuitive reporting that works well for small teams but lacks the depth required for complex multi-region campaigns. Those looking for more specialized reporting for agencies might find Critical Mention vs Meltwater a useful comparison.
Usability and Platform Support
Heepsy wins on ease of use (5/5). Its interface is intuitive, making it accessible for entrepreneurs and marketing teams who don't have time for extensive training. Meltwater, due to its massive feature set, has a steep learning curve (2/5) and often requires human-guided onboarding. While Meltwater supports a massive array of platforms, Heepsy is strictly limited to the major social networks (Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Twitch). If you need something that balances power with a shorter learning curve, consider checking out an Critical Mention alternative.
| Plan Details | Heepsy | Meltwater |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing Model | Flat Rate | Custom |
| Free Tier | ||
| Free Trial | ||
| Pricing Tiers | ||
| Entry Tier | Free$0/moor $0/yr | Essentials$500/moor $6,000/yr |
| Mid Tier | Starter$89/moor $828/yr | Suite$2,000/moor $24,000/yr |
| Top Tier | Plus$249/moor $2,388/yr | Enterprise$5,000/moor $60,000/yr |
| Annual Cost (5-Person Team)* | $0 | $6,000 |
| 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.
The pricing models for Heepsy and Meltwater could not be more different. Heepsy uses a transparent, flat-rate model starting at $89/mo. For a mid-sized team of 5 people needing advanced features like sales tracking and deep demographics, the Advanced Plan ($369/mo) is the standard choice. This brings the total annual cost of ownership to approximately $4,428.
Meltwater uses a custom pricing model with no public transparency. Industry data from Vendr indicates a median annual cost of $25,000. Even their entry-level 'Essentials' tier is estimated at $6,000/year, and it requires a 12-month minimum commitment with no monthly billing option. For a team of 5, once implementation fees and premium modules are added, you are likely looking at a five-figure investment.
When comparing the two, Heepsy offers significantly better value for startups and SMBs. However, Meltwater's cost reflects its enterprise-grade data access, which includes print and broadcast monitoring that Heepsy cannot match. If these price points are outside your budget, you can browse all alternatives to find a middle-ground solution or view all ShortsIntel comparisons for more budget-friendly video tracking tools.
Who Is Each Product Best For?
Influencer discovery and analytics platform for finding and vetting social media influencers
Best For
- Small to mid-sized businesses and startups
- Marketing agencies managing multiple campaigns
- D2C/eCommerce brands (especially Shopify)
- Entrepreneurs testing influencer marketing
- Budget-conscious SMBs wanting basic influencer search
Not Ideal For
- Enterprise teams needing advanced features
- B2B brands
- Brands needing micro-influencers (<5K followers)
- Users requiring AI-powered automation
- Teams needing deep analytics and reporting
Enterprise media intelligence, social listening, and consumer insights across news, TV, radio, print, podcasts, and social media
Best For
- Enterprise brands needing comprehensive global media monitoring
- PR and communications teams managing media relations
- Global organizations requiring multi-region, multi-language coverage
- Brands needing broadcast (TV, radio, podcast) monitoring alongside digital
- Teams requiring influencer marketing with large creator database
- Organizations wanting unified suite across 8 product categories
- Companies needing extensive media contacts database (700K+)
Not Ideal For
- Brands focused on short-form video and UGC campaigns
- Teams needing to track untagged creator content
- Startups or small businesses with limited budgets
- Companies needing transparent, predictable pricing
- Teams wanting quick setup without extensive training
- Organizations requiring flexible month-to-month contracts
- Brands looking for affordable entry-level social listening
Choose Heepsy if...
You are a small to mid-sized B2C brand or a marketing agency that needs a budget-friendly way to discover and vet influencers. It is especially powerful for Shopify store owners who want to track sales performance on a month-to-month basis without committing to a five-figure annual contract. If you value a simple UI over deep media intelligence, Heepsy is the right pick. You can find more similar tools in our Heepsy alternatives guide.
Choose Meltwater if...
You are part of a global enterprise, PR firm, or communications team that requires a 'single source of truth' for all media mentions. If you need to monitor what is being said about your brand on the 6 o'clock news, in print magazines, and across 300 million web sources, Meltwater is the industry standard. It is built for those with significant budgets who need ISO-certified security and global scale. For a different enterprise perspective, consider the Brandwatch alternative list.
Neither might be right if...
You are specifically focused on scaling creator marketing through short-form video (TikTok, Reels, Shorts) and need to track untagged content. Neither Heepsy nor Meltwater is purpose-built for the unique challenges of UGC tracking, such as video-frame analysis or automated rights management. If you find yourself manually recording Reels or struggling to get usage rights from creators, you may want to look at an Archive alternative.
Consider a Third Option
Scale creator marketing with data, not grunt work.
While Heepsy and Meltwater cover discovery and broad listening, many modern brands find a gap in their workflow: the ability to actually track and utilize short-form video content (UGC) at scale. This is where ShortsIntel serves as a powerful third option.
Unlike Meltwater, which is a generalist tool, ShortsIntel is purpose-built for TikTok, Reels, and YouTube Shorts. It solves the 'untagged content' problem—finding videos where creators feature your brand but forget to tag you—a feature where Meltwater scores a 1/5. ShortsIntel also includes a 'magic-link' consent system for automated rights management, something that both Heepsy and Meltwater lack (both score 2/5 in this category).
At $99/month, ShortsIntel offers a specialized alternative to the expensive enterprise contracts of Meltwater and the manual search-heavy workflow of Heepsy. It allows you to build a high-res asset library of UGC that you can actually use in your ads. If you're currently deciding between established players, see how we stack up in a ShortsIntel vs Archive or ShortsIntel vs Hypefy comparison. For brands that are 'content rich but insight poor,' moving from a general search tool to a specialized UGC tracker is often the missing link in their marketing stack. You can explore more about this specialized approach in our ShortsIntel vs Critical Mention guide.
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 | Heepsy | Meltwater | ShortsIntel Recommended |
|---|---|---|---|
| Content Discovery | |||
UGC Discovery | 3/5 | 3/5 | 5/5 |
Brand Mention Detection | 2/5 | 5/5 | 5/5 |
Untagged Content Detection | 2/5 | 1/5 | 5/5 |
| Video Tracking | |||
Short-Form Video Tracking | 3/5 | 2/5 | 5/5 |
| Creator Management | |||
Creator Analytics | 4/5 | 4/5 | 4/5 |
Rights Management | 2/5 | 2/5 | 5/5 |
| Intelligence & AI | |||
Competitor Intelligence | 2/5 | 5/5 | 4/5 |
AI Content Tagging | 3/5 | 5/5 | 5/5 |
| Platform & Integrations | |||
Multi-Platform Support | 3/5 | 5/5 | 4/5 |
Integrations | 3/5 | 4/5 | 3/5 |
| Reporting & Collaboration | |||
Reporting Dashboards | 3/5 | 5/5 | 4/5 |
Team Collaboration | 3/5 | 4/5 | 3/5 |
API Access | 2/5 | 5/5 | 3/5 |
| Usability & Support | |||
Ease of Use | 5/5 | 2/5 | 4/5 |
Customer Support | 3/5 | 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.
Related Comparisons
More About heepsy-vs-meltwater
Similar Tools in Influencer Marketing
Popular Comparisons
Last updated: January 28, 2026