Disclosure: Hushread is our app. We’ve tried to be fair, and we say where the others are the better choice.
The right Google Alerts alternative depends on what you are tracking. To follow a topic or a name in the news for free, turn a Google News search into an RSS feed in any reader, or use a reader that does it for you, such as Hushread or Inoreader. To monitor a brand, Talkwalker Alerts is the free like-for-like swap, F5Bot watches Reddit and Hacker News for free, and Brand24 is the paid step up from $199 a month. If an occasional email about new web pages is all you need, Google Alerts still does that.
What Google Alerts does, and where it falls short
Google’s description is one line: “You can get emails when new results for a topic show up in Google Search” (Google support). The create form lets you set how often, which sources (News, Blogs, Web, Video, Books, Discussions, Finance), a language, a region, and “Only the best results” or “All results”.
The Google Alerts create form, signed out, on 6 October 2026. Source: google.com
The complaints are old and consistent.
- It misses things. In March 2013, Computerworld’s JR Raphael wrote that his alerts had become “irregular deliveries with incomplete data” (Computerworld). Contify, which sells a competing product, ran its own test: alerts for 148 Fortune 1000 companies, watched for three days on the “Only the best results” setting. It reported “~40% of business content being missed” (Contify, first published December 2017). Experiences differ: in a January 2024 Hacker News thread one user said alerts were “definitely not covering all the mentions”, and another replied “I am still getting useful alerts every day” (Hacker News).
- It can stop. In October 2021 Google’s Danny Sullivan confirmed “an issue that’s prevented Google Alerts from operating properly”, and for some users alerts did not work properly for about five to six days (Search Engine Roundtable). One user quoted there said “the alert shows no new data for two days”.
- No social networks. The Sources menu has no option for X, Facebook or any other social network.
- Email by default. Signed out, the form offers an “Enter email” box and no other delivery choice. Feedly’s help page says an alert can be “delivered as RSS feed” (Feedly docs), an option the signed-out form did not show us, and Google’s troubleshooting starts with “Check what account you’re logged onto”.
Google Alerts alternatives at a glance
Plans and prices checked on 6 October 2026, in US dollars (Feedly’s as quoted to a US address):
| Tool | Free plan | Paid price | Sources covered | Delivery |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Google Alerts | Yes | None | Google Search results | Email; RSS per Feedly’s help page |
| Google News search feed | Yes | None | Google News | RSS, any reader |
| Hushread | 5 sources | Pro $1.25/mo billed yearly in the US | Google News search, plus feeds you add | In-app feed, push |
| Inoreader | 150 feeds | Pro $7.50/mo, billed annually | Google News searches; monitoring feeds on Pro | In-app feed; push on Pro |
| Feedly | 100 feeds | Pro+ $8.25/mo for the first year, billed annually | Google News feeds on Pro+ | In-app feed |
| Talkwalker Alerts | Yes | None | News, blogs, forums, X (Twitter) | Email, RSS, Slack |
| F5Bot | 5 keywords | From $9.99/mo | Reddit, Hacker News, Lobsters | Email; RSS and Slack on Gold |
| Brand24 | No, 14-day trial | From $199/mo, billed annually | News, blogs, X, Facebook, Instagram, Reddit | Email, push, Slack |
Tracking a topic or a name in the news, free
1. A Google News search as an RSS feed
Any Google News search has a feed. Put your words after q=:
https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=%22chip+exports%22&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:enWe fetched that URL on 6 October 2026 and got an RSS feed of 100 articles. Search operators work inside q=: in our tests when:1d cut the feed to the past day and site:reuters.com returned only Reuters. Paste the URL into any reader’s “add feed” box, or build it with our Google News RSS feed generator, which fills in the country and language values.
The limits: we found no Google help page that documents the format, so it may change. The feed’s copyright line allows “a personal feed reader for personal, non-commercial use”. Items link to a news.google.com redirect, not the publisher. And it covers Google News only, not forums or social networks. Need a reader? See our best RSS reader guide.
2. Hushread: Follow a topic, then add a Notify rule
Hushread is an RSS and news reader for iPhone, iPad, Android and the web.
Follow a topic tracks a word or phrase: every new article that mentions it, from any outlet, arrives in your feed. Results come from Google News search, and Hushread opens the original article, not a Google redirect.
Rules do the alerting. A rule matches a keyword or phrase against each article’s title and summary, then mutes it, marks it read, or sends a push alert for every match, across all sources, one folder or one source.
The limits: Hushread is a reader, not a brand-monitoring service. Topics see what Google News sees, so X and other social networks are not searched. Alerts are push notifications, not email, and there are no integrations, team features or API. Each topic counts toward the free plan’s 5 sources; Pro is $1.25 a month billed yearly in the US for unlimited sources.
3. Inoreader: Google News alerts on the free plan
Inoreader Free allows 150 feeds and includes “Google News alerts”, which follow “Google News searches for keywords and topic updates in different languages” (Inoreader pricing). It has no push notifications or rules, so you check the feed yourself.
Pro is $7.50 a month billed annually, or $9.99 monthly, and adds 30 monitoring feeds for “keeping track of people, brands, companies, emerging trends, and events”, push notifications, and 30 rules that can send them. Our Inoreader alternatives post covers the trade-offs.
4. Feedly: keyword feeds on Pro+
Feedly’s free plan covers 100 feeds and 3 folders. “Google News feeds” are listed under Pro+ (Feedly’s pricing page). A US address is quoted $99 for the first year ($8.25 a month), then $144 a year ($12 a month) (archived price feed). From India the page showed us more: our Feedly pricing post has both. If you already use Feedly, the cheaper route is the one its help page describes: have a Google Alert delivered as an RSS feed and add that feed.
Monitoring a brand for a business
5. Talkwalker Alerts: the free like-for-like swap
Talkwalker Alerts works the way Google Alerts does. You enter a query, pick result types (News, Twitter, Blogs, Discussions), a language, how often and how many, then give your name and an email address (sign-up form). It is free, and its page says alerts arrive “via email, RSS, or through a Slack integration” (Talkwalker).
Talkwalker announced in April 2024 that it was set to be acquired by Hootsuite (Talkwalker press release), and the free tool was still live on 6 October 2026. We have not tested its coverage against Google Alerts. Its comparison table says Google Alerts has “No option to filter result source”, but Google’s form has a Sources menu.
6. F5Bot: Reddit and Hacker News, free
F5Bot “monitors Reddit, Hacker News, and Lobsters for your keywords and sends you an alert when they show up” (F5Bot). The free plan is for personal use: 5 keywords, up to 20 alerts a day, delayed by up to 2 hours. Silver is $9.99 a month for 20 keywords. Gold is $49.99 a month for 200 keywords, with RSS and JSON feeds and Slack or Discord delivery (F5Bot plans).
It covers discussion sites only, so pair it with a news tool. Reddit searches and subreddits have RSS feeds, with a tight rate limit: see our subreddit RSS feed guide.
7. Brand24: paid monitoring with social coverage
Brand24 has no free plan, only a 14-day trial. Individual costs $199 a month billed annually (advertised as “Up to 3 months free”) or $249 month to month, for 3 keywords, 2,000 mentions a month and updates every 12 hours. Team is $299, Pro $399 and Business $599 a month billed annually, and Enterprise starts at $1,499 (Brand24 pricing).
Brand24’s plans as shown to an address in India on 6 October 2026. A US-based capture from 3 October listed the same prices. Source: brand24.com
Individual covers news, blogs, X, Facebook, Instagram and Reddit; LinkedIn, YouTube and TikTok start at Team. Every plan lists email notifications, mobile push and Slack integrations. It fits when a missed mention costs money.
When Google Alerts is still the right tool
Stay with Google Alerts if you want a free email when a new page mentions your name, a niche term or your own site, and a missed result costs you nothing. It needs no app and no reader, and its Sources menu reaches past news into the wider web, books and video.
Google is also building monitoring into Search. In May 2026 it announced “information agents” in Search that watch “blogs, news sites and social posts” (Google blog). Paid subscribers got them first, and on 28 September 2026 Search Engine Journal reported that AI Mode’s information monitoring was rolling out to all users globally, with Google pointing people to the Google app to try it (Search Engine Journal). Google’s examples were local and shopping topics, and we have not tested it for tracking a name.
FAQ
Is there a free alternative to Google Alerts?
Yes. Talkwalker Alerts is free and delivers by email, RSS or Slack, a Google News search feed is free in any RSS reader, and F5Bot’s free plan watches 5 keywords on Reddit, Hacker News and Lobsters. Inoreader Free and Hushread Free can follow Google News searches.
What is the best alternative to Google News alerts?
For news only, a Google News search feed gives you the same search as a feed you control. Inoreader Free includes Google News alerts, and Hushread’s Follow a topic uses Google News search and can send a push alert through a keyword rule.
Why is Google Alerts not working?
Google’s checklist: confirm you are signed in to the right account, that the alert is not disabled, that your inbox is not full and the emails are not in spam (Google support). If all that is fine, Alerts may be having an outage, as it did for several days in October 2021.
Google Alerts vs Talkwalker Alerts: which is better?
Both are free and the forms are nearly identical. Talkwalker adds X (Twitter) results and Slack delivery, while Google’s Sources menu also covers the wider web, books, video and finance.
If a missed mention would cost your business money, start with Talkwalker Alerts and F5Bot, and move to Brand24 when you need social coverage and reports. If you just want a subject in the news, build the Google News feed and add it to the reader you already use. Hushread is free with up to 5 sources on iOS, Android and the web. Try Hushread.