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Brand Monitoring & Social Listening

Muck Rack Social Listening: what it covers, what it misses

Enterprise PR and media intelligence platform whose Social Listening module absorbed Keyhole after Muck Rack acquired it.

Reviewed by the DefendMyRep threat desk Pricing verified 2026-09-07 muckrack.com

What you actually get from Muck Rack Social Listening

Keyhole was a standalone social media analytics tool known for hashtag tracking, influencer measurement, and campaign reporting, historically priced from around $79/month. Muck Rack acquired Keyhole and folded it into its own platform; keyhole.co now redirects visitors to a Muck Rack demo request page for Social Listening, and Keyhole no longer operates as an independently purchasable product. Muck Rack Social Listening is now sold as part of Muck Rack's broader PR software suite (media database, pitching, monitoring, reporting) aimed at communications and PR teams tracking earned and social media impact together. Pricing is not published and requires a sales demo; third-party trackers report Muck Rack's typical PR software pricing starting in the five-figure annual range.

Muck Rack Social Listening pricing

Muck Rack Social Listening does not publish a public rate card. No public pricing. Demo request required; third-party reports place Muck Rack PR plans from roughly $15,000/year.

Source: muckrack.com/demo-request/muck-rack-social-listening-keyhole, read 2026-09-07.

No public rate card. Any number you see quoted for Muck Rack Social Listening on a comparison site is a third-party report, not a vendor price. Ask for the contract minimum and the termination clause on the first call.

Strengths

  • Combines social listening with Muck Rack's media database and journalist relationship data
  • Built specifically for PR and communications workflows, not generic marketing dashboards
  • Retains Keyhole's hashtag and influencer tracking depth inside a larger suite

Weaknesses

  • Keyhole no longer exists as an independently purchasable, lower-cost product
  • No published pricing anywhere, sales demo and annual contract required
  • Reported starting price is enterprise-level, out of reach for small teams that used to buy Keyhole directly
  • Buyers searching for Keyhole's old self-serve signup will hit a dead end and a lead-capture form instead

Best for

  • PR and communications teams already evaluating Muck Rack for media relations who also want social listening
  • Enterprise organizations with budget for an annual PR intelligence contract

Not ideal for

  • Small businesses or solo marketers who want Keyhole's old self-serve hashtag tracking at low monthly cost
  • Anyone wanting transparent, published pricing before talking to sales

Muck Rack Social Listening covers one lane. The damage rarely stays in one lane

Within its lane, Muck Rack Social Listening is a legitimate choice, and buyers who need exactly that lane are right to shortlist it. Category-appropriate tools beat general-purpose ones at the specific job.

Reputation exposure does not respect product categories. One incident surfaces in three places at once: search results for your name, a review or complaint platform, and the answer an AI assistant gives when someone asks about you directly. Vendors are organised by tool category. Your problem is organised by incident.

Vendors are organised by category. Damage is organised by incident.

The consequence is a coverage gap you only see during a crisis, which is the worst moment to find it. Buyers with strong tooling in one lane describe feeling well defended right up to the week something happened and the damage came through a door nothing was watching. The gap was always there. It was never tested.

Where this lands in 2026

The newest door is the one almost nothing covers. An assistant asked whether someone is trustworthy assembles an answer from sources across every lane at once, which means it can surface a two-year-old complaint thread that no longer ranks anywhere. Suppression moved the link. It did not move the citation.

That is why this review sits on the site of a firm that competes with Muck Rack Social Listening. The argument is not that Muck Rack Social Listening is a bad product. Its category was designed against a version of your problem that no longer describes the whole surface. The part it was never built to cover is the part growing fastest.

Listening platforms are built for marketers counting share of voice. Reputation defense needs the opposite: a low-volume, high-consequence alert on the one post that becomes a crisis, including the closed forums general listening tools never index.

Key facts

  • Keyhole was originally an independent social media analytics company
  • Muck Rack acquired Keyhole; keyhole.co now redirects to a Muck Rack demo request page
  • Muck Rack is a PR software company also known for its journalist database
Where we sit against it

Muck Rack Social Listening covers one lane. We cover the surface.

You get sentinel grid monitoring as one protocol inside a measured engagement, not as a standalone subscription. Your exposure is measured first against a Bayesian baseline, then the counter-strike work runs, then your surface stays monitored across search, review platforms, and the AI answer layer.

Convene a private call DefendMyRep vs Muck Rack Social Listening Sentinel Grid Monitoring

Sources checked

We read the vendor's own pages for every price on this review and record the date we read them. Where a figure comes from a third party we say so. Method: review methodology.

Common questions

Muck Rack Social Listening FAQ

How much does Muck Rack Social Listening cost in 2026?

Muck Rack Social Listening publishes no public rate card. No public pricing. Demo request required; third-party reports place Muck Rack PR plans from roughly $15,000/year. Treat any figure quoted elsewhere as a third-party report, not a vendor price.

What is Muck Rack Social Listening best used for?

PR and communications teams already evaluating Muck Rack for media relations who also want social listening. Enterprise organizations with budget for an annual PR intelligence contract. It sits in the brand monitoring & social listening category, so it solves the monitoring slice of a reputation problem rather than the whole surface.

Where does Muck Rack Social Listening fall short?

Keyhole no longer exists as an independently purchasable, lower-cost product. No published pricing anywhere, sales demo and annual contract required. Reported starting price is enterprise-level, out of reach for small teams that used to buy Keyhole directly. Buyers searching for Keyhole's old self-serve signup will hit a dead end and a lead-capture form instead.

Who should not buy Muck Rack Social Listening?

Small businesses or solo marketers who want Keyhole's old self-serve hashtag tracking at low monthly cost. Anyone wanting transparent, published pricing before talking to sales.

Is Muck Rack Social Listening enough on its own to protect a reputation?

Rarely. Listening platforms are built for marketers counting share of voice. Reputation defense needs the opposite: a low-volume, high-consequence alert on the one post that becomes a crisis, including the closed forums general listening tools never index. If your exposure spans search results, review platforms, and what AI assistants say about you, a single monitoring product covers one lane of three.

Independent desk

Comparing Muck Rack Social Listening against something else?

Bring the shortlist to the call. We will tell you which of them actually solves your surface, including when the answer is not us.

Convene the crisis cell Open a private assessment