Free media monitoring tools exist, and two of them, Google Alerts and Talkwalker Alerts, cost nothing forever. If you want something smarter than keyword emails, AyeWatch has a free preview with no card, and its paid plans begin at $9 a month, which is the cheapest step up we would recommend.
That is the short answer. The longer one depends on what you are watching. A small game studio waiting for its first review, a streamer checking whether a news site picked up a clip, and a club organiser watching for local press all want the same thing: to hear about coverage without refreshing search results every evening.
What "free" really means here
There are three kinds of free in this market, and they are easy to confuse.
- Free forever, keyword based. You type a phrase and get an email when it shows up somewhere new. Google Alerts and Talkwalker Alerts work this way.
- Free to try. You get a limited taste of a paid tool before deciding. AyeWatch's free preview fits here: a handful of runs with no credit card, meant for testing rather than daily use.
- Free demo only. Enterprise suites such as Meltwater do not offer a self-serve trial. You book a guided demo and receive a quote.
The free options side by side
| Option | Type of free | What you get | Catch |
|---|---|---|---|
| AyeWatch | Free preview, no card | AI-matched updates with summaries and sources | A trial, not a lasting free plan |
| Google Alerts | Free forever | Email when new Google results match a phrase | Exact words only |
| Talkwalker Alerts | Free forever | Email matches from news, blogs, forums and X | Exact words only |
| Meltwater | Demo only | A guided tour | Quote-based pricing |
Where the free tools fall short
Keyword alerts are blunt. If your game shares a name with a common word, you will drown in matches. If a reviewer writes about your studio without naming the game in the headline, the alert may never fire. And every result arrives as email, which is easy to ignore after a busy week.
Why we put AyeWatch first anyway
AyeWatch works differently. You describe what you care about in a sentence, for example "reviews or news stories about our indie game, not other games with a similar name", and its AI reads new coverage to decide whether it fits. When it finds something, you get a short summary plus links to the sources. Alerts arrive as push notifications on iOS and Android and in a feed on the web, so you do not need to dig through an inbox.
Because the preview is limited, think of it as a test. If the summaries save you time, the paid plans start at $9 a month and are billed in monitoring credits, so check the pricing page before you choose one.
When to stay free
If you are tracking one rare name and only want a weekly glance, Google Alerts or Talkwalker Alerts may be all you need. Set both up, since they draw on different sources, and see how much they catch. If the matches are noisy or you keep missing stories you hear about from friends, that is the sign to try something that reads for meaning.
A five-minute starter plan
- Set up a Google Alert for your exact name in quotes.
- Add the same phrase to Talkwalker Alerts.
- Run the AyeWatch free preview with a plain-English description of the coverage you want.
- After two weeks, compare which one surfaced the stories you cared about.