| Syften | Octolens | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Keyword alerts for Reddit and many communities | Social listening that scores mentions and sends them to your tools |
| Entry price, monthly | $29.95 (Entry) | $199 (Pro), or $159 billed yearly |
| Mid tier | $49.95 (Standard) | $599 (Scale), or $499 billed yearly |
| Top published tier | $119.95 (PRO) | Enterprise, custom |
| How limits are counted | Community and web filters, results a day | Keywords and mentions a month |
| Reddit speed | Target "at most a 1-minute delay" | Hourly on Pro, real time on Scale |
| Reddit coverage | Reddit posts and comments | Posts and comments, plus whole-subreddit tracking |
| Other platforms | Hacker News, Bluesky, Mastodon, GitHub, Stack Exchange, forums, blogs, Slack communities. X +$40 and YouTube +$20 | LinkedIn, X, Bluesky, GitHub, YouTube, Hacker News, Stack Overflow, TikTok, DEV, review sites. News, podcasts and newsletters on Scale |
| AI | AI filtering from Standard | Relevance scoring, tags, sentiment on all plans |
| API, webhooks, MCP | API on all plans. Webhooks and MCP on PRO | All three on every plan |
| History | 7 days, 30 days, full (by plan) | 2 years on Pro, unlimited on Scale |
| Trial | 14 days, no card | 7 days, no card |
Sources: syften.com and octolens.com/pricing, read 7 Nov 2026. Syften counts usage by filters and Octolens counts it by keywords, so the plan tiers don't map one to one.
Who wins for which job
Cheapest Reddit alerts: Syften. Entry costs $29.95, a fraction of Octolens Pro. Standard, at $49.95, adds AI filtering and Slack. Octolens starts at $159 to $199.
Fastest Reddit alerts: Syften. Its homepage aims for a one-minute delay. Octolens refreshes hourly on Pro and in real time on Scale ($499 to $599).
Mentions as data in your own stack: Octolens. The API, webhooks and MCP server come with every plan, and each mention carries a relevance score and sentiment. Syften keeps webhooks and MCP for PRO at $119.95.
Platform breadth: Octolens. It covers LinkedIn, TikTok and review sites. Syften lists LinkedIn as not monitored and says nothing about the other two. Syften is ahead on community sources like Mastodon, forums and Slack communities.
Adding X and YouTube: do the maths. On Syften Standard, X (+$40) and YouTube (+$20) take the monthly price to $109.95. Octolens includes both from Pro, though its starting price is higher.
History and reporting: Octolens. Pro gives you two years of data and share-of-voice analysis. Syften Entry keeps 7 days.
What neither does
Both are monitoring tools. Syften's pages are about alerts and filtering, and Octolens' are about scored mention data. Neither lists reply drafting or ranks threads by how well they fit your product. Syften's site does show a workflow where your own AI agent drafts replies through its API and MCP, so you'd be building the drafting yourself. That's the usual complaint about this category. One commenter on r/SaaS put it as "Syften catches stuff but throws a lot of noise at you" (u/ramshorst, 1 April 2026). We couldn't find enough independent Octolens users in Reddit threads to quote one.
For a closer look at each, see our Syften alternative and Octolens alternative pages, and the Reddit marketing tools ledger for what Reddit users say.
Where our product fits
Ours. Subreddit Marketing sells a Reddit monitoring app for what comes after the alert. It watches the subreddits and keywords you choose, ranks each thread by fit and shows why it matched, then drafts a reply in your voice. You edit the draft and post it from your own account. It never sends DMs for you. On the Done for you plan we can also post replies through our warmed-up accounts and add upvotes to your posts and comments.
It covers Reddit only. It has no developer API like Octolens, and its source list is shorter than Syften's. If you want alerts and data, go with one of those two. If your job is answering threads, go with ours. If all you need is a daily email, our free Reddit keyword alerts work without an account. We also run a done-for-you Reddit marketing agency for B2B SaaS, fintech and DTC brands. We don't buy upvotes, farm karma or use bought accounts.