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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    BrightLocal

    Score7.2 out of 10
    N/ABrightLocal is a search engine optimization tool that tracks search rankings, builds citations, and monitors online reviews and stresses local search performance.

    $39

    per month

    Meltwater

    Score7.6 out of 10
    N/AMeltwater Media Intelligence platform is a set of public relations software tools for media monitoring, social media monitoring, and collecting brand insights. The four areas of functionality are Monitor, Analyze, Distribute, and Engage. (Note that this product combines features from the vendor Meltwater's former Buzz, Press, and News products.)N/A
    Pricing
    BrightLocalMeltwater
    Editions & Modules
    Track Plan
    $39
    per month
    Manage Plan
    $49
    per month
    Grow Plan
    $59
    per month
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    BrightLocalMeltwater
    Free Trial
    YesNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional DetailsBrightLocal offers custom enterprise plans for businesses with more than 50 locations.—
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    BrightLocalMeltwater
    Considered Both Products
    BrightLocal
    No answer on this topic
    Meltwater
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    86%
    Would buy again
    6 Answers
    63%
    Would buy again
    20 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    7 Answers
    62%
    Delivers good value for the price
    16 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    7 Answers
    69%
    Happy with the feature set
    22 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    6 Answers
    63%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    15 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    7 Answers
    81%
    Implementation went as expected
    22 Answers
    Features
    BrightLocalMeltwater
    SEO
    Comparison of SEO features of BrightLocal and Meltwater
    Feature
    BrightLocal
    6.7
    12 Ratings
    14% below category average
    Meltwater
    -
    Ratings
    Keyword analysis7.08 Ratings00 Ratings
    Backlink management4.05 Ratings00 Ratings
    SERP ranking tracking7.711 Ratings00 Ratings
    Page grader7.52 Ratings00 Ratings
    Competitive analysis7.611 Ratings00 Ratings
    Site audit / diagnostics9.98 Ratings00 Ratings
    Site recommendations6.64 Ratings00 Ratings
    Task management3.56 Ratings00 Ratings
    SEO Channels
    Comparison of SEO Channels features of BrightLocal and Meltwater
    Feature
    BrightLocal
    8.6
    13 Ratings
    12% above category average
    Meltwater
    -
    Ratings
    Local SEO8.613 Ratings00 Ratings
    Social SEO7.96 Ratings00 Ratings
    Mobile SEO10.04 Ratings00 Ratings
    Global SEO7.72 Ratings00 Ratings
    SEO Platform & Account Management
    Comparison of SEO Platform & Account Management features of BrightLocal and Meltwater
    Feature
    BrightLocal
    9.2
    11 Ratings
    9% above category average
    Meltwater
    -
    Ratings
    Multi-domain support8.59 Ratings00 Ratings
    Integration with web analytics tools9.910 Ratings00 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    BrightLocalMeltwater
    Small Businesses
    Serpstat
    Score10 out of 10
    Help a Reporter Out (HARO)
    Score5 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Yoast
    Score8.5 out of 10
    Cision Communications Cloud
    Score8 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Google Trends
    Score8.6 out of 10
    Cision Communications Cloud
    Score8 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    BrightLocalMeltwater
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.6
    (14 ratings)
    7.2
    (73 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (10 ratings)
    Usability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    5.6
    (5 ratings)
    Availability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Support Rating
    7.5
    (2 ratings)
    10.0
    (29 ratings)
    In-Person Training
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    Online Training
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    6.1
    (2 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    1.0
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    BrightLocalMeltwater
    Likelihood to Recommend
    BrightLocal
    If you are a local business owner or marketing agency catering to local businesses, BrightLocal is a must have software. It has everything you need to track your local marketing efforts and to identify opportunities to make improvements, all at a very reasonable price point. You can also create nice looking reports to send to clients which are simple to create.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Meltwater
    Meltwater is well-suited for agencies that have an engagement team who is looking to service a variety of client needs such as social media reporting, public relations outreach, and community management. If you're looking to have a platform serve just one need, you can still use Meltwater but will get more bang for your buck if you are needing a variety of tools.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    BrightLocal
    • When we use BrightLocal's citation building service, I know that we're getting quality citations done right. Their staff will email you with any questions and always double check the information before creating inaccurate citations.
    • I love that BrightLocal is very quick about making changes when requested. For example, if we can't find a city on the drop-down list, you can chat them and they'll add it. Or if a report is pulling incorrectly, they'll re-run it within a reasonable timeframe.
    • BrightLocal has a lot of different reports that are easy to send to your clients. You can even add them to a web-viewable dashboard so that your client can simply bookmark a link and view their reports when they please.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Meltwater
    • Media research - you can search for relevant publications and journalists to add to your media list.
    • Earned media coverage - you can search for coverage of your brand and find news stories that also include data that may be useful (how many people did the story reach for example).
    • Building media lists - if you have no current existing list, you can build and export one in Excel for example.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    BrightLocal
    • Up and down rankings were not always right on with the local search, but only off by one or two spots
    • It felt like it was only used for local SEO, and I know there are more features, just never got to them.
    • Didn't seem useful for every single client in the way Ahrefs or Spyfu did
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Meltwater
    • The dashboards are not user-friendly, customizable (color, font size, etc.), or worthy of presenting to a client. All of the insights from a dashboard get pulled from the platform and placed into a more client-friendly presentation.
    • Paywalls for certain publications connected to who-knows-what. DowJones racket limits media monitoring capabilities and results in manual searches for a growing number of publications.
    • TVeyes, the broadcast monitoring arm of the media monitoring capabilities, just needs TLC and to become more client-facing. Currently, the links produced to share clips look sketchy, and they have a relatively short shelf life.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    BrightLocal
    No answers on this topic
    Meltwater
    Meltwater works well for our organization and has allowed us to meet our internal goals. We are always open to new products and services that may be able to provide similar or better features; however, our experience has been that many of Meltwater's competitors are not up to the task.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    BrightLocal
    No answers on this topic
    Meltwater
    Once you get some basic training it's pretty easy to use. I would like to see training manuals, or instructional videos to help me explore features I'm not currently using.
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    BrightLocal
    Although their customer support has always contacted me, they have not always been helpful. Many times I've had reports or information disappear with them telling me they had no record of it, even when I had reports that the information was in there. There are times when their system did have bugs and the support was able to help me there. Overall, the support staff is there but they cannot always do much and need to wait for their development team to get back to them which often takes a long time.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Meltwater
    Our account rep at Meltwater went dark for a long time. Then, a couple of weeks ago, our new account manager reached out to set up a meeting. Apparently, they had a big shakeup in the company, and there were some personnel changes. Our new account rep was great in discussing the platform's capabilities that were available to us and even offered to schedule a follow-up meeting with his technical team to introduce our new social media team members to the platform and how it could help them with their jobs.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    In-Person Training
    BrightLocal
    No answers on this topic
    Meltwater
    Again, really in-depth and helpful for a program that is really easy to use.
    Read full review
    Online Training
    BrightLocal
    No answers on this topic
    Meltwater
    Walked step by step through program. Very informative on a program that doesn't require much training.
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    BrightLocal
    No answers on this topic
    Meltwater
    You are only allowed 15 users, so make sure you've identified who will have access to use the tool.
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    BrightLocal
    Thryv reached out to me about 3 weeks before signing up with BrightLocal. While all of their features were impressive, there were only about 3 features that I would have used. Thryv wanted $200 per month for their service, which I found to be way overpriced for what I was wanting to use it for. I selected BrightLocal because it had the features I wanted at a lower price and then add ons. After using BrightLocal for a week and speaking with Becki, a customer service executive, I have discovered more features that I would use on BrightLocal than on Thryv.
    Read full review
    Meltwater
    I was looking for a full-service option. I did some research. What really sold me was the presentation. They offered products that were helpful, and I wasn’t even aware of them. It is more expensive than the other products that are out there, but you get more. The other companies are good, but Meltwater Media Intelligence is more full service.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    BrightLocal
    • BrightLocal's ranking reports have helped us better serve our clients' SEO needs, especially local SEO.
    • Reporting is nicely accomplished with their online client report dashboards.
    • Negative: some of their software defects are glaringly obvious take forever to fix, creating a number of awkward moments when we talk our clients through their reports.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Meltwater
    • As a PR firm, we rely on the media databases that [Meltwater Media Intelligence Platform] supplies to deliver the media exposure that they expect from us.
    • We utilize their tracking of media hits for our overall reporting to our clients.
    • Both of these are advantageous in helping us to not only keep our existing clients happy but also to gain new clients (and, in turn - revenue), as well.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    BrightLocal Screenshots

    Screenshot of Location SummaryScreenshot of Local Search Rank CheckerScreenshot of Local Search GridScreenshot of Local Search AuditScreenshot of Google My Business AuditScreenshot of Citation Tracker