Free ways to watch Reddit, Hacker News and Bluesky for your brand
· Sniffington
You don't need to pay anyone to start listening. If your customers talk on Reddit, Hacker News or Bluesky, there are free tools that cover a lot. Here's what we'd use, including our own, and where each one stops.
F5Bot
F5Bot emails you when a keyword turns up on Reddit, Hacker News or Lobsters. It's been running since 2017 and is free for personal use with five keywords. It sends every match, so expect namesakes. Our F5Bot comparison has the details.
Hacker News search
The search box at the bottom of Hacker News is run by Algolia and covers stories and comments. Our Hacker News search uses the same index, adds a window from a day to a year, and can rule out namesakes on the newest 18 results.
Bluesky search
Bluesky's own search works inside the app. Our Bluesky search needs no account, sorts by newest or most liked, and can rule out namesakes too.
A quick check of all three
The free social listening tool reads the past week on Reddit, Hacker News and Bluesky at once and splits the results into posts about you and posts that only share your name, each with a note.
Where free stops
- Nobody's watching when you aren't. Searches answer when you ask. Alerts need something that checks on a schedule.
- Video is missing. TikTok, YouTube and Instagram are where a lot of brand talk happens, and the free tools above don't search them.
- Every match lands on you. Keyword tools can't tell your brand from the namesake, so the sorting is your job.
That gap is what Sniffington's free plan is for: one brand, all ten platforms, checked weekly, with the AI check and alerts included. No card.