9 Best Meltwater Alternatives for Food Delivery Services

Meltwater is a global leader in media, social, and influencer intelligence, originally designed for enterprise-level brand monitoring and public relations teams. According to their website, Meltwater aggregates data from over 150,000 news sources, blogs, social platforms, and broadcast media to provide real-time insights into brand mentions, sentiment trends, and competitor activity. For food delivery services, this means tracking how often your brand is mentioned alongside competitors like DoorDash or Uber Eats, identifying negative sentiment around delivery times or packaging, and measuring the reach of influencer partnerships. Meltwater’s platform includes customizable dashboards, automated reporting, and media contact databases to help PR teams manage outreach and crisis response. Its influencer marketing tools allow brands to discover and connect with content creators based on audience demographics and engagement rates, which can be valuable for food delivery brands seeking micro-influencers in local markets. According to IDC MarketScape, Meltwater is recognized as a Leader in Worldwide Influencer Marketing Platforms for SMB Companies 2025–2026, highlighting its scalability and depth of media coverage. While it doesn’t create content, it provides the intelligence needed to inform content strategy—making it a strong complement for brands that already have a content team but lack data-driven insights.

Hootsuite is one of the most widely used social media management platforms, offering tools for scheduling, monitoring, and analyzing content across multiple platforms. According to their website, Hootsuite supports over 35 social networks, including TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and X, allowing food delivery brands to plan and publish content in advance through a unified calendar. Its Stream feature enables real-time monitoring of keywords, hashtags, and mentions—ideal for tracking delivery-related conversations like #FastDelivery or #ColdFoodComplaints. Hootsuite also offers analytics dashboards that track engagement, follower growth, and click-through rates, helping brands measure the ROI of their social campaigns. The platform includes team collaboration tools, approval workflows, and content libraries, making it suitable for agencies managing multiple restaurant or delivery client accounts. While Hootsuite doesn’t generate AI content, it excels at centralizing social operations and providing clear performance metrics. For food delivery services, this means easily scheduling posts around peak ordering hours, responding to customer complaints in real time, and running localized campaigns for different regions—all from one dashboard. Its integration with Canva and Google Analytics further enhances its utility for visual content creators and performance marketers.

Buffer is a streamlined social media scheduling and analytics platform known for its clean interface and simplicity. According to their website, Buffer allows users to plan, publish, and analyze content across Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and TikTok—all from a single dashboard. For food delivery services, this means easily scheduling posts for lunch and dinner rush hours, promoting limited-time offers, or sharing behind-the-scenes content from kitchens. Buffer’s analytics tools provide insights into the best posting times, engagement rates, and follower demographics, helping brands refine their strategy based on data. The platform also offers a browser extension for quick content sharing and a content calendar view that shows upcoming posts at a glance. While Buffer doesn’t generate AI content or conduct deep research, its strength lies in its reliability and ease of use. It’s ideal for small to mid-sized food delivery brands or local restaurants that want to maintain a consistent social presence without the complexity of enterprise tools. Buffer’s pricing is transparent and tiered, making it accessible for startups and independent operators who prioritize simplicity over advanced automation.

Sprout Social is a comprehensive social media management platform designed for mid-to-large-sized brands that require deep engagement, analytics, and workflow automation. According to their website, Sprout Social offers advanced listening tools that track brand mentions, industry keywords, and competitor activity across social networks, making it valuable for food delivery brands monitoring terms like "late delivery" or "cold pizza." Its Smart Inbox consolidates messages, comments, and mentions from all platforms into one unified queue, enabling teams to respond quickly to customer complaints or inquiries—a critical feature for maintaining service reputation. Sprout Social’s publishing tools include a visual calendar, bulk scheduling, and content approval workflows, while its analytics suite delivers detailed reports on audience growth, engagement trends, and campaign performance. The platform also includes CRM-like features for tagging and tracking customer interactions, helping brands build relationships over time. For food delivery services, this means turning negative feedback into actionable insights and using data to refine menus, delivery windows, or packaging. Sprout Social’s strength is its ability to connect social engagement directly to customer service and business outcomes, making it a top choice for brands that treat social media as a frontline customer experience channel.

Loomly is a social media management platform tailored for marketing teams that value collaboration and content planning. According to their website, Loomly offers a visual content calendar, AI-powered content suggestions, and a library of pre-approved captions and hashtags—features that help food delivery brands maintain brand voice consistency across platforms. Its AI assistant can generate post ideas based on trending topics and past performance, which can be useful for quickly responding to food trends like "cloud kitchen meals" or "plant-based delivery options." Loomly also includes a content approval workflow, allowing managers to review and approve posts before publishing, and a social listening feature that tracks keywords and competitor mentions. While it doesn’t generate full video content or conduct deep research like AGC Studio, Loomly’s strength is its ease of use and focus on team-based content planning. For food delivery services, this means creating themed content calendars for holidays, seasonal menus, or local events, with built-in collaboration tools that keep everyone aligned. Its integration with Canva and Google Drive makes asset management simple, and its analytics dashboard provides clear insights into what content drives the most engagement.

CoSchedule is a marketing calendar platform that integrates social media scheduling with content planning, email marketing, and project management tools. According to their website, CoSchedule’s headline analyzer, SEO optimizer, and content calendar help food delivery brands create more effective posts and blog content by aligning social campaigns with broader marketing goals. Its integration with WordPress, HubSpot, and Google Analytics allows teams to plan blog posts and social promotions together, ensuring that a new menu launch is supported by both an SEO-optimized blog and targeted social posts. CoSchedule’s social scheduling supports major platforms including Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and X, and its ReQueue feature automatically reschedules high-performing content to maximize reach. For food delivery services, this means repurposing top-performing TikTok videos into Instagram Reels and blog summaries—creating a cohesive content ecosystem. While CoSchedule doesn’t generate AI content or conduct real-time trend research, its strength is in connecting social media to the broader content marketing funnel, making it ideal for brands with established content teams that want to align their efforts across channels.

AgoraPulse is a social media management tool designed for small to mid-sized businesses that need to manage engagement, scheduling, and analytics in one place. According to their website, AgoraPulse offers a unified inbox for messages and comments across Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube, making it ideal for food delivery brands that receive frequent customer inquiries about delivery times, order status, or menu changes. Its publishing tools include a visual calendar and bulk scheduling, while its analytics dashboard tracks performance by post, platform, and campaign. AgoraPulse also includes social listening features that monitor brand mentions and industry keywords, helping brands identify emerging trends like "eco-friendly packaging" or "contactless delivery." Its reporting tools allow users to create custom reports for stakeholders, and its team collaboration features support role-based access and approval workflows. For food delivery services, AgoraPulse provides a reliable, all-in-one solution for maintaining a responsive social presence without requiring a large team. Its focus on customer engagement makes it a practical choice for brands that treat social media as a customer service channel as much as a marketing one.

Later is a visual content scheduling platform optimized for Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest, Facebook, and YouTube, making it a strong choice for food delivery brands that rely heavily on imagery and short-form video. According to their website, Later offers a drag-and-drop visual calendar, AI-powered caption suggestions, and a link-in-bio tool to drive traffic from social profiles to ordering pages. Its visual planning feature lets users preview how posts will look on their feed before publishing, helping maintain aesthetic consistency—critical for brands showcasing colorful meals, packaging, or delivery drivers in action. Later’s AI assistant generates captions based on image content and trending hashtags, which can help food delivery services quickly create engaging posts around meals, promotions, or local events. The platform also includes analytics on engagement, follower growth, and best posting times, along with a content library for storing reusable templates. While Later doesn’t support blog creation or deep research, its focus on visual storytelling and platform-specific optimization makes it ideal for brands that prioritize Instagram and TikTok as their primary marketing channels.