BuzzSumo is a popular platform among digital marketers. It can help you generate content ideas, get insights on content performance, and identify influencers on social media.
As a result, the platform is used for competitor intelligence, influencer marketing, content strategy, and digital PR, among others. You can perform research with BuzzSumo using a keyword or by entering a domain name.
While many attest to BuzzSumo’s usefulness, others complain that the platform is somewhat expensive to use. For emphasis, BuzzSumo allows just 10 free searches per month, and the premium plans start at $99 per month.
If you’re among the latter, here are the 10 best free BuzzSumo alternatives you can go for.
Best Free BuzzSumo Alternatives
1. Ubersuggest
The best alternative to Buzzsumo is Ubersuggest.
This tool, from Neil Patel, is described as a free SEO tool and one to help boost traffic.
As a BuzzSumo alternative, it’s ideal for content strategy and competitor intelligence. The platform has many tools for finding working keywords for your content and optimizing your website.
Let’s start with the “Content Ideas” feature, which is what you’re probably looking for if you’re reading this article. Enter any keyword or topic to instantly generate content ideas, pulled from the web.
Like Buzzsumo, Ubersuggest not only gives you the most popular articles on the web for each topic you search for but also tells you the estimated visits and number of backlinks. That can help you gauge a topic’s popularity.
Furthermore, it will show you how many shares the article got on social media, including on Facebook, Pinterest, and Reddit. That serves as yet another metric to determine a topic’s popularity.
You can export the results in a CSV file or copy them to your clipboard. As a free user, you get three free searches a day.
With Ubersuggest, it’s very easy to know what your competitors are doing. You can analyze their content strategy by simply searching for their domain.
If you analyze keywords, you’ll get the top content and articles that are ranking on SERPs. To help you build your own content, Ubersuggest delivers intelligent keyword suggestions.
If you’re particular about SEO, the Ubersuggest tool uncovers your competitor’s best backlinks.
One advantage of using this tool over BuzzSumo is the A/B testing calculator. This allows you to analyze websites and marketing campaigns side-by-side to find out the best-performing ones.
Ubersuggest is also an ideal BuzzSumo alternative for monitoring. With it, you can track everyday changes in your rankings in more than 20 locations and on mobile or desktop. Finally, the platform features a Chrome Extension.
Ubersuggest is more ‘free’ than it is premium. There are advanced features you can access without a subscription, unlike BuzzSumo.
Nevertheless, the platform features premium plans for individuals and businesses who want to do more.
The paid plans are a lot cheaper than what BuzzSumo offers. You can either pay a monthly subscription or purchase the tool for a lifetime. The plans include:
Subscription Plans
- Individual Plan – $12 per month
- Business Plan – $20 per month
- Enterprise/Agency Plan – $40 per month
Lifetime Plans
- Individual Plan – $120 one-time payment
- Business Plan – $200 one-time payment
- Enterprise/Agency Plan – $400 one-time payment
2. Right Relevance
The second best free BuzzSumo alternative on this list is Right Relevance.
You can use Right Relevance for two major things – content discovery and finding influencers. Both are the core features of BuzzSumo.
You can easily sign up for Right Relevance using your Twitter, LinkedIn, or Facebook account.
To use the platform to discover content, you just have to search for any topic you’re interested in. If you don’t know what to search for, you can connect your Twitter account and get useful recommendations.
Right Relevance’s database contains over 40,000 structured topics with unlimited web articles for each.
When you search for a topic, you can filter the content result by location, relevance, and date posted. You can choose articles posted that day or the past week for the most recent ones.
Like BuzzSumo, Right Relevance lets you sort articles with media content. Likewise, you can filter the results based on the topic score.
Furthermore, you can analyze two or more topics at a time. The content you like can be saved for later viewing, and you can save content to your feeds.
Searching for influencers is not so different. You can discover individual or organization influencers for any searched topic, and you can sort their posts based on Topic Score.
From the Right Relevance platform, you can directly follow influencer social media accounts and stay up-to-date with their posts.
You don’t have to pay to use Right Relevance. You can search for content and find influencers using the web platform even without creating an account.
Payment might only be needed if you’re using Right Relevance as integration on a third-party platform. For example, installing Right Relevance on Hootsuite costs $9.99.
3. Feedly
An interesting alternative to Buzzsumo is Feedly; it allows you to find and follow websites and feeds.
It’s free to sign up. Start by entering a topic or hashtag into the search bar, and suggested feeds will come up.
You can gauge a feed’s popularity by checking how many followers it has. Click on any feed to see the most popular articles on that feed.
If you like a feed, follow it. The articles it publishes will then appear in your timeline, which makes it a quite convenient alternative to Buzzsumo.
By following a certain number of feeds, you can get a constant flow of content ideas right in your timeline. You can also use folders to organize your feeds and topics, which is useful if you have multiple clients or blogs.
It’s possible to use Feedly to track Twitter and Reddit conversations, but you’ll need to upgrade to a premium plan to do that.
Overall, Feedly is an excellent Buzzsumo alternative for keeping track of trending conversations and content ideas on the web.
Also Read: Best Free SEO Writing Assistant Software
4. Google Alerts
Did you know that Google allows you to set up alerts for specific topics, keywords, and content ideas?
You’ll get curated content sent straight to your email inbox, giving you an unlimited number of content ideas for your blog.
Since Google’s search engine is so powerful, you’ll get access to a broad range of content from various publishers. That’s what makes it such a great alternative to Buzzsumo.
Sources include blogs, videos, news articles, books, and more, and you can set up alerts in multiple languages.
You have control over how often you get those emails, as you can set it at a maximum of once a day or once a week. You can also filter for specific sources (such as video content only or books) and filter for content from a specific region.
Google Alerts is free and easy to use. Before you set up your actual alert, you will see a preview of how it will look.
5. DrumUp
Another great tool for generating content ideas and finding the best content on the web is DrumUp.
After signing up for your free account (create an account by linking your Twitter, LinkedIn, or Facebook account), click on the New Content Stream button. Then, enter a keyword or topic.
Try to be more specific rather than broad. For example, enter “real estate investing” instead of just “real estate.”
You can enter multiple keywords and topics. Then, click on the big blue button that says “Build Content Stream.”
As a free user, you can create up to one content stream. Remember, though, that you can track multiple topics and keywords in the same stream.
You can even add negative keywords that you don’t want to appear in your stream. Furthermore, you can filter for results from a specific country only.
Another useful feature is the hashtag and @mention suggester, which is particularly helpful if you post regularly on Twitter.
If you upgrade, you can also add content to a special content library and create RSS feeds. Premium members also get access to other tools, like the URL shortener.
These other tools and features, including the ability to instantly republish an article you found to your social media feed, is what makes it superior to Buzzsumo.
6. Twitter Lists
An amazing content discovery tool to have in your arsenal is free and doesn’t require any additional downloading or account creation if you already have a Twitter account, unlike Buzzsumo.
It’s called Twitter Lists, and it’s a tool that Twitter created to help users better prioritize the tweets and content they see.
Like most social media platforms, Twitter has a standard feed that shows you content published by people you follow. However, what if you want to follow different people in different niches?
Perhaps you’re interested in several topics or run multiple blogs (for yourself or clients) that cover entirely different industries. In that case, having the same feed for all those topics can be disorienting, as it can make it hard to find the specific content ideas you want.
On the other hand, creating multiple Twitter accounts is tedious and doesn’t make much sense.
That’s where Twitter Lists come into the picture. You can create lists that revolve around different topics and follow people who are influencers in specific niches or industries.
For example, if you want to get content ideas for blogging and content marketing, you might follow people like Neil Patel. If you want to learn about investing, you might follow accounts like The Motley Fool or Dave Ramsey.
You can add and remove people from lists at will, and you can pin your favorite list to the top of your homepage, so you don’t miss out on any important news.
Twitter lists are awesome, in my opinion, for staying on top of trending topics. You can not only create your own lists but even join lists that others have created.
If you don’t want others to join or see your list, simply make it private.
7. ShareIt by Social Pilot
Social Pilot has created an excellent Buzzsumo alternative called ShareIt. This free tool allows for both content discovery and influencer discovery, like Buzzsumo.
Start by entering a topic into the search bar. The tool will then sift through the most popular content on the internet covering that topic.
There will be two tabs in the search results: Articles and Influencers.
Under the Articles tab, you will find popular articles that were recently published. That’s one of the things I like about ShareIt – the content is fresh, while on Buzzsumo, much of the content it shows you has been published a while back.
You can filter the results by relevance or time.
ShareIt will tell you exactly how long ago, to the hour, each article was published. You can view the article or republish it to your social media feed.
8. AllTop
AllTop is a simple but free alternative to Buzzsumo that aggregates the most popular headlines from around the web covering particular topics. On the homepage, it will display the most recent articles from popular sites like TechCrunch, the Washington Post, Wired, and others.
However, you can also browse results for specific topics, such as:
- Cryptocurrency
- Android
- Beauty
- Travel
- And many others
Furthermore, if you create an account, you can create a customized RSS feed.
AllTop might look a bit outdated, but it can actually be a very useful content discovery tool for your arsenal. Simply bookmark the topic you’re interested in the most and refresh the page whenever you want to see trending content ideas.
One of the cool things about AllTop is that you can compare the most recently-published articles on top sites, allowing you to clearly identify content trends.
9. Scoop.it
Scoop It, or Scoop.it, is another great content discovery tool. It’s a great alternative to Buzzsumo because it’s effective not only for content discovery but for content curation as well.
It also offers the ability to let your whole team monitor and discover new content with a team account.
To start searching for content, simply sign up using your Twitter or Facebook account and enter a keyword or topic into the search bar. The tool will show you “scoops,” or news stories and articles related to that topic.
You can view or follow scoops.
One thing that sets Scoop.it apart from Buzzsumo is that not only can you discover content created by others but you can also create your own “topic pages” that curate content on specific topics. You can create multiple topic pages, and people searching through Scoop.it can find you.
You can add your own CTAs and links to those topic pages to generate conversions.
If you want, you can follow topic pages created by others. In your profile, you’ll see the topic pages and scoops you’re following.
However, you’re not limited to curating content on topic pages. You can also use topic pages to generate newsletters, publish them to WordPress, or publish them to your social media feeds.
While Scoop.it is free to use for content discovery, some features, such as publishing your curated content to social, require a premium plan.
Scoop.it has mobile apps for Android and iOS, another reason many people prefer it to Buzzsumo, as you can find trending content on the go. Not only that, but it integrates with many internet marketing tools.
For example, it integrates with MailChimp to allow you to send newsletters with curated content. Other tools it integrates with include Buffer, a social media scheduling tool, and AddThis, which allows you to add social media sharing buttons to your site.
10. Pocket
A very convenient alternative to Buzzsumo is Pocket. It allows you to save interesting content from around the web to a little web “pocket,” which you can check later if you want to read them or review content ideas you have saved.
Since Pocket has a mobile app, unlike Buzzsumo, it makes it very easy to find content ideas while on the bus or waiting at the doctor’s office.
However, Pocket will also select the best articles from the web covering the topics you’re interested in and present them to you, making it a great way to get a constant feed of intriguing topic ideas.
To start, sign up with your Google, Apple, or Firefox account. Then, select the topics that you’re interested in – options include travel, business, parenting, personal finance, health and fitness, and others.
You’ll be taken to your personalized feed with article suggestions. You can update the topics you follow at any time by clicking on “Update Topics” in the top-right corner of your personalized feed.
If you like an article, you can save it, and it will show up in your “Saves” tab. You can also click on the “Discover” tab to find trending and popular content across the web.
A cool feature of Pocket is that you can listen to articles with the audio playback feature. If you’re a busy person always on the go, and you don’t have time to read articles, listening to them can help you make better use of your time and get content ideas.
While Pocket is free to use, the premium plan will give you access to additional features, such enhanced search options to help you find trending content on more specific topics. Also, when you save articles, Pocket will suggest tags, which you can add to better filter and customize your personalized feed.
Another perk of the premium plan is that you won’t have to see any ads.
Bonus Listing: Social Animal
Social Animal is one of the closest tools to Buzzsumo, period. The only reason it didn’t make it to the main list is because it requires payment, and this article focuses on free Buzzsumo alternatives (or those that at least have a free version).
Here are the main features of Social Animal:
- Content discovery
- Influencer discovery
- Facebook insights
- Competitor monitoring
Let’s first discuss content discovery, as it’s the main focus of our article. You can search for articles that cover a specific topic and uncover the most popular articles, along with the amount of engagement each has received on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Reddit.
You can conduct deep searches and filter by content type. There is also the option to analyze the title of each article that comes up.
Set up keyword alerts to ensure you get a constant stream of content ideas.
The influencer discovery section allows you to find influencers and bloggers to collaborate with. You can filter by location, language, and more; target micro-influencers if you’re looking for budget-friendly alternatives to macro-influencers.
With millions of influencers in the database, you will never run out of influencers to work with, all highly targeted as per your search terms.
The Facebook Insights tool analyzes content and posts on Facebook, helping you identify trends. Not only can you figure out which content to post, but you can also determine when to share it for optimal exposure and engagement.
Finally, competitor monitoring allows you to see what your competitors are doing to get shares and engagement and figure out how to outperform them.
While Social Animal isn’t free, it does offer a free trial. See updated pricing here.
Other Ways to Discover Content
There are so many free tools that allow you to discover content ideas. You just have to know how to use them properly for content discovery.
Reddit is a good example. It’s actually one of the best places to go if you want to find which topics are trending in particular communities and niches.
It’s easy to follow topics. On Reddit, communities and topics are called “Subreddits.”
For example, the cryptocurrency subreddit has around six million members. There are subreddits for travel, social media marketing, personal finance, budgeting, and virtually everything else under the sun.
Anyone can create a subreddit, and regardless of how niche you think a topic is, someone has likely already built a community on Reddit surrounding that topic. All you have to do is use the search bar to find the subreddit and then join it, so new posts show up in your homepage.
These new posts can serve as fodder for new article ideas. You can also go to a subreddit and filter for top, controversial, hot, and popular posts, allowing you to stay on top of emerging trends.
Quora is another good place to find content ideas. It’s a Q&A site, but browsing the recently-posted questions about a topic will help you find trending content ideas; you can also get alerts of new topics and questions sent to your email.
We already touched upon Twitter lists, but Twitter itself can be an excellent search tool for finding trending topics. Just go to the search bar and enter a topic or hashtag.
You can also go to the Twitter trending page to find trending topics.
Finally, remember that email newsletters are your friend. Find the top newsletters in the niche and subscribe to them to pinpoint trends.
In Gmail, you can create folders and specify that emails from certain addresses go to specific folders to organize the newsletters and prevent them from cluttering your inbox.
Finally, another great place to get content ideas is no other than YouTube. You can follow channels or use the search bar to find content on specific topics (filter by time to find the most recent videos published on a topic).
Bottom Line
Content research and monitoring are a major part of every digital marketing campaign. This is why tools like BuzzSumo and most of its alternatives are freemium.
If BuzzSumo is too expensive for you, then you can go with any of the alternatives that are cheaper and offer more features with a free account.
Tom loves to write on technology, e-commerce & internet marketing. I started my first e-commerce company in college, designing and selling t-shirts for my campus bar crawl using print-on-demand. Having successfully established multiple 6 & 7-figure e-commerce businesses (in women’s fashion and hiking gear), I think I can share a tip or 2 to help you succeed.