Hashtag analytics and tracking help you plan and manage effective social media campaigns.
They boost your online reach and let your target customers find your content.
But how do you know which hashtags to use? By using specialized tools to conduct hashtag research.
They give you the inside scoop on trending hashtags, how many people are using them, and which ones might work best for your posts.
This guide explores our nine favorite free hashtag analytics and tracking tools you should try right now.
Why do you need hashtag analytics?
Hashtag analytics give you the data to make smarter decisions and boost your social listening strategy.
They help you find the best hashtags for your marketing campaigns and track post performance.
Here's what they let you do:
- Find tags that your audience uses and join relevant conversations on platforms like Instagram, X (Twitter), LinkedIn, TikTok, and more
- Identify topics and posts that resonate with your customers
- Analyze hashtag performance in real time and find emerging opportunities
- Discover the most influential and active channels that mention a hashtag
How to choose the best hashtag tracking tool
Let’s unpack what you should consider when selecting a hashtag monitoring tool.
First, check which platforms the tool supports. Even free tools should cover the social networks you use most (think Instagram or X).
Next, look at the data it provides. The best listening tools offer:
- Real-time tracking to catch trends as they happen
- Historical data to analyze past performance
- Notifications for real-time hashtag mentions
- Engagement metrics and other hashtag analytics
- Reporting features
Remember, free tools usually have limitations compared to paid versions.
They might restrict the number of hashtags you can track, often offer less detailed analytics, or have caps on daily searches.
However, they’re a great starting point when you’re testing the waters and looking for insights to guide your initial strategy.
Besides, some tools offer advanced features even on free plans.
The top 9 free hashtag tracking tools you should try
Hashtag tools come in many shapes and sizes.
Some focus on basic hashtag analytics, while others might even find relevant social media influencers for your campaigns.
Below, we share the best free hashtag tracking tools to use in 2025.
1. Talkwalker: Best for multimedia hashtag analysis and sentiment monitoring
- This app is 100% free
Talkwalker’s Free Social Search is a free hashtag analyzer that monitors online mentions across social media, news sites, forums, and podcasts.
It covers 186 languages and provides in-depth metrics, including general buzz, engagement, sentiment, and potential reach.
All you need to do is select a trending hashtag (or enter your own) and explore its performance over the last seven days.
But it doesn’t end here.
This free tool also identifies frequently discussed themes related to your hashtag. This helps you find more ideas for various posts in your content plan.
It also generates a list of the top influencers talking about the hashtag. So you can find collaboration opportunities and get inspiration for your content.
Finally, you can compare different hashtags within the same view, add various filters, and choose hashtags that suit you best.
Key features:
- Multi-platform search covering social media, news, forums, and podcasts
- Sentiment analysis to asses public opinion
- Demographic insights showing age, gender, and interests of people mentioning the search terms
- Geographic distribution of mentions displayed on a world map
- Comparison feature for up to four different search terms
- Boolean search operators for creating more specific queries (e.g., using “AND”, “OR”, etc. operators)
Pro tip:
If you’re looking for a more comprehensive analysis, you can try Talkwalker’s Social Media Listening tool.
It covers more data sources (including 30 social networks and 150 million websites) and provides more robust analytics with real-time alerts.
2. TweetBinder: Best for X (Twitter) hashtag analytics
- This app offers limited free features
TweetBinder offers a free X (formerly Twitter) hashtag analytics feature that provides quick insights into hashtag performance.
Its free version allows you to analyze up to 200 tweets from the last 7 days.
The tool tracks various metrics for X hashtags, accounts, or keywords. It then presents data in clear, easy-to-understand reports that break down engagement and reach.
TweetBinder also provides detailed contributor rankings and sentiment analysis, helping you understand who's driving conversations around your hashtags.
Key features:
- Analysis of up to 200 recent posts on X (Twitter)
- Basic sentiment score tracking
- Contributor rankings and statistics
- Economic value calculation
- Engagement metrics and reach data
3. StarNgage: Best for Instagram influencer hashtag analysis
- This app offers limited free features
StarNgage offers a free Instagram hashtag search and tracking tool. It provides hashtag analytics to help marketers improve their social media influencer campaigns.
The tool allows you to search and analyze performance, generating information about hashtag popularity and accounts using it.
For example, it shows the top influencers who posted using your target hashtag.
It also suggests related hashtags to help you expand your search. You can click on each one to explore its performance metrics.
Key features:
- Real-time analytics of Instagram hashtags, including post and video data
- Influencer discovery based on hashtag usage
- Suggestion of related hashtags
- Reports with the top brands and posts using the hashtag
4. Hashtag Tracker by BrandMentions: Best for hashtag monitoring
- This app offers limited free features
BrandMentions offers a free hashtag tracking tool with extensive analytics across multiple social media platforms. It monitors and analyzes hashtag performance in real time.
The tool searches the entire internet for a specific hashtag, providing insights from social media, news sites, forums, and other online sources.
Enter a hashtag you want to explore, and BrandMentions will generate a detailed report on its usage and impact.
The tool also finds the top influencers by voice share and generates a list of posts mentioning your hashtag.
Key features:
- Real-time monitoring across multiple online platforms
- Detailed metrics, including mentions, reach, interactions, and high-level sentiment analysis
- Trending conversations and word cloud visualization
- Breakdown of mentions by media type (e.g., Instagram, TikTok, YouTube)
- Top influencers and websites using the hashtag
5. Intact Hashtag Generator: Best for finding Instagram hashtags
- This app offers limited free features
Inflact offers a free hashtag generator tool that creates relevant hashtags for your posts.
The tool focuses specifically on Instagram and provides tailored suggestions to improve your content's visibility on the platform.
To use it, simply enter a keyword related to your post.
Inflact will then generate a list of hashtags categorized by frequency and difficulty of ranking.
For example, for the keyword "Formula 1", it suggests hashtags like #formula1 (9.06m posts), #formula1memes (120.24k posts), and #formula12021 (9.57k posts).
You can also click on each hashtag to get additional information, such as hashtag difficulty and the number of posts.
Key features:
- Hashtag generation by keyword, photo, or post URL
- Categorization of hashtags by frequency (Frequent, Average, Rare)
- Difficulty rating for each hashtag (Hard, Medium, Easy)
- Related organic hashtags suggested by Instagram
- Similar hashtags containing related keywords
6. All-Hashtag: Best for AI-powered hashtag tracking
- This app is 100% free
All-Hashtag.com organizes popular hashtags by topics like movies, sports, and food, and generates options for you to choose from.
Type a keyword, click generate, and copy the results to your social posts.
The site offers four main tools: Generator, Creator, Counter, and Analytics.
The Generator finds hashtags based on your keyword. You can choose between Top, Random, or Live hashtags.
The tool also suggests related hashtags to add to your list.
The Creator turns your text into hashtags, while the Counter checks if you're using the right number of tags.
Finally, the Analytics tool analyzes your target hashtag and compares it with other popular options.
Key features:
- Keyword-based hashtag generation with options for top, random, or live hashtags
- Text-to-hashtag conversion
- Hashtag counter to optimize hashtag quantity and density
- Trending hashtags by category
- Analytics for measuring hashtag performance
7. RiteTag: Best for Instant Hashtag Recommendations
- This app offers limited free features
RiteTag offers a free hashtag suggestion tool.
It provides instant hashtag recommendations for both images and text across various social media platforms.
Users can get hashtag recommendations of various kinds—e.g., those that are good for Instagram or for visibility that can be acquired over time.
The tool uses real-time engagement data to pull and sort the hashtags.
Finally, RiteTag provides basic analytics on hashtag performance, helping you select the best options for your campaigns.
Key features:
- Hashtag suggestions for both text and images
- Real-time hashtag engagement data
- Analytics on hashtag performance (unique tweets, hashtag exposure, retweets)
- Compatibility with multiple social media platforms
- Browser extension for easy access
8. Taggbox: Best for UGH hashtag campaigns
- This app offers a 14-day free trial, no credit card required
Taggbox focuses on collecting and leveraging user-generated content (UGC) from hashtag campaigns across different social media platforms.
It offers a 14-day free trial without payment commitment so that you can test it stress-free.
The platform automatically aggregates content from your hashtag campaigns and helps engage your community.
You can collect, moderate, and publish UGC from hashtag campaigns across various marketing channels.
Taggbox also includes features for rights management, allowing you to properly acquire permissions from content creators before using their posts.
Also, it offers various analytics features for tracking content and hashtag performance.
Key features:
- Automatic content collection from hashtag campaigns
- Content moderation tools for UGC
- Rights management system for user content
- Performance analytics with sentiment analysis
- Customization options for displaying UGC
9. Social Searcher: Best for hashtag trend tracking
- This app offers a free plan with hashtag search limits
Social Searcher functions as a search engine designed for social media content.
It lets you track hashtag mentions and other social media platforms on multiple platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and others—all from a single dashboard.
The tool provides metrics on total mentions, user count, and sentiment score, giving you a quick overview of hashtag performance.
Its filtering system allows sorting by post type, sentiment, and platform source, making it easy to focus on specific aspects of hashtag conversations.
Social Searcher also includes a real-time monitoring option that collects mention history and sends live notifications when your tracked hashtags appear in new posts.
The free version offers basic search capabilities, perfect for someone just starting out, yet limited if you need substantial social media monitoring.
Key features:
- Cross-platform hashtag search in one interface
- Basic analytics (mentions, users, sentiment)
- Content filtering by post type and platform
- Real-time monitoring with notifications
- Search results showing actual post content using your hashtag
How to track hashtags
Now, let's explore how you can use these tools to implement effective hashtag analytics and boost your campaign results
What is hashtag analytics?
Hashtag analytics tracks how your hashtags perform on social media. It shows which tags get the most likes, comments, and shares.
It also lets you spot the hashtags your competitors use successfully and the ones your audience engages with.
This way, you can tailor your content to what actually works in your niche.
How to do hashtag analysis
Any hashtag analysis process requires using specialized tools to access real-life hashtag data.
For example, you might want to check hashtag reach and engagement before making a decision, and it’s almost impossible to do it manually.
Here’s how it works.
Start by entering a specific hashtag into your chosen platform.
This could be branded hashtags, campaign-specific hashtags, or popular hashtags.
For example, Talkwalker’s Free Search provides real-time insights into trending hashtags in your target regions.
You can either add your own hashtag or select one from the suggested list.
Next, most hashtag analytics tools will show you key metrics immediately:
- Total mentions and hashtag reach
- Engagement rates (likes, shares, comments)
- Top posts using the hashtag
- Most active users and influencers
- Sentiment
Here’s what it looks like in Talkwalker:
Look at these numbers and decide whether you want to pursue your selected hashtag.
For instance, does it have enough potential reach and engagement? And what’s the overall sentiment?
Next, examine related hashtags that appear alongside your main tag.
These connections help you discover more relevant hashtags and expand your reach.
For example, if you're tracking #bitcoin, you might find related tags like #crypto and #CryptoCommunity frequently used together.
Finally, look at historical data to identify patterns in hashtag performance.
Check when engagement peaks, which days see the most real-time activity, and what types of social media content perform best.
Use all this information to time your posts and adjust your social media strategy.
For example, you might notice that some hashtags perform best with a certain post format, like images or video, or get more engagement during holiday seasons or important events.
How to track hashtags natively on X (Twitter)
You can also manually track hashtags directly on X (Twitter) without third-party tools. However, these native methods offer limited analytics compared to specialized tools.
First, use the search bar to find specific hashtags.
Simply type the hashtag and view recent tweets, popular posts, and ongoing discussions.
This works for quick checks but doesn't provide analytics.
The Explore tab also shows trending hashtags based on your location and interests.
It's perfect for discovering what's currently popular and which conversations are gaining momentum.
To analyze X hashtags and other important metrics at scale, pick a specialized Twitter analytics tool.
Which hashtags to track for better engagement
Did you know that different types of hashtag monitoring help you achieve various marketing strategy goals?
Here are the main categories of hashtags you can analyze:
Branded hashtags
These include your company's name, slogan, or unique brand identifiers to help you track brand awareness.
Analyzing such hashtags should be part of your brand monitoring efforts.
For instance, you might discover positive mentions that can be turned into campaigns or identify potential issues that need addressing.
McDonald’s #ImLovinIt is a great example of a branded hashtag that frequently gets shared by social media users.
Product hashtags
Product hashtags include specific names of your products, product lines, or special product features to track interest and engagement with individual offerings.
Analyzing them helps you measure product-specific buzz and compare performance across your portfolio.
For instance, you might discover which products generate more social media conversation or identify features customers appreciate most.
Apple’s #iPhone16 is an example of an effective product hashtag.
Event hashtags
Event hashtags track conversations around conferences, webinars, or industry gatherings.
They help you assess event performance and engage with attendees in real time.
For example, HubSpot’s annual conference uses its own dedicated hashtag: #HubspotInbound.
Campaign hashtags
Such hashtags monitor the success of your marketing campaign hashtags. These temporary, focused tags help you measure specific campaign goals and understand your audience engagement.
For example, Nike tracked #Paris2024 and #WinningIsntForEveryone during their Olympics campaign.
Content hashtags
Content hashtags are industry-standard or topic-based tags that help categorize your social media content.
They track what type of content resonates with your social media users and discover top influencers in your field.
For example, #TravelTuesday or #ThrowbackThursday are popular Instagram topic-based tags.
Trending hashtags
These hashtags help you monitor trending topics that are relevant to your industry.
This way, you can join timely conversations and increase your visibility through participation in broader discussions.
For example, Victoria's Secret used the #VictoriasSecretFashionShow hashtag after their 2024 show.
Location-based hashtags
Such hashtags include physical locations like cities, landmarks, or venues to target local audiences and event attendees.
Analyzing location hashtags helps you understand regional engagement patterns and opportunities for geo-targeted marketing.
You might discover areas where your brand has unexpected popularity or find local events worth participating in.
For instance, #VisitNYC is an example of a location-based hashtag.
Which metrics to use for hashtag tracking
Most hashtag tracking tools automatically provide the key hashtag metrics.
Here's what to look for when analyzing your hashtag performance:
- Reach and impressions: Measure how many people saw the hashtag and how many times it was displayed
- Engagement: Track likes, comments, shares, and saves on posts using the hashtag
- Volume: Count the total number of posts using the hashtag over specific time periods
- Growth rate: See how quickly hashtag usage increases over time compared to past weeks or months
- User demographics: Check who's using the hashtag (age, location, interests)
- Influence: Determine which accounts generate the most engagement when using the hashtag
- Sentiment: Analyze whether conversations around your hashtag are positive, negative, or neutral
Set up effective hashtag analytics
We’ve explored the top nine free hashtag tracking tools and outlined effective tactics for hashtag analytics.
These strategies are key to building a data-driven approach to social media analytics.
Make sure to choose hashtag tools that:
- Cover the social media platforms of your choice
- Find the top hashtags based on real-time and historical data
- Provide insights on hashtag usage, engagement, and sentiment
- Help you understand the target audience for each hashtag
- Suggest trending topics in real time
You can also take your approach to another level with Talkwalker's Social Listening platform. It lets you track all your social networks and boost performance with real-time alerts.
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