Syften community monitoring background

Forum Keyword Alert Monitoring

Find public forum threads and replies from people already asking about your market, competitors, integrations, and problems.

  • Forum threads and replies
  • Source, title, and author filters
  • Slack, email, RSS, API, webhooks
  • Archive search and AI filtering
See who's talking about youYou will immediately see who has mentioned you in the last 60 days. No credit card required, 14 day free trial. Easily delete account if you don't like it.
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Forums are where people describe real problems in detail

Short-form social feeds move fast. Forums are different. People write longer posts, explain what they tried, compare tools, ask for integrations, and leave threads that keep ranking in Google for years.

Syften watches those public discussions and alerts you when your filters match, so you can help while the thread is still active.

This is the same basic playbook behind Zapier's early forum strategy: find people already asking for help, answer the specific problem, and let the thread keep working after the conversation ends.

Find integration requests

Track phrases like "connect to" zapier, competitor names, and product categories to spot workflows your product can solve.

Catch competitor complaints

Monitor competitor.com, "alternative to", pricing complaints, missing features, and migration questions.

Answer while the thread is fresh

A useful forum reply helps the original poster, the lurkers reading today, and the searchers who find the indexed thread later.

Which forums do you monitor?

Syften can currently alert you about new posts and replies from these forums:

So what can forum monitoring be used for?

You can use Syften to receive alerts whenever a new thread or reply matches the keywords you care about. That means you can be one of the first people to reply usefully instead of finding the thread months later through search.

This is especially useful for founder-led sales, developer tools, agencies, and niche SaaS products where buyers ask detailed questions before they buy.

You can also monitor your own articles, docs, and product pages. If someone shares your link in a forum, your team can join the conversation while it is still fresh.

Example forum alert filters

Syften filters are not Google queries. Words and phrases on the same line must all match. Use separate filter lines when you need alternative keywords or phrases. Repeated site:, author:, and replyto: values on one line are treated as alternatives.

GoalExample filterWhat it finds
Domain mentionsexample.comMentions of a domain, including subdomains and common obfuscated forms like example[.]com.
Product name"Acme Analytics"Mentions of a multi-word product name.
Alternative searches"alternative to" calendlyThreads and replies where someone is comparing options around a known product.
Integration demand"connect to" zapierPeople describing integration needs, automation workflows, and missing connectors.
Forum-specific alertsite:meta.discourse.org title:`[paid-job]`New Discourse threads with a specific marker in the title.
Multiple sourcessite:indiehackers.com site:news.ycombinator.com "email warmup"Matches from either source that also mention the exact phrase.
Reply notificationssite:news.ycombinator.com replyto:yourusernameReplies to your account where replyto: is supported, such as Hacker News, Indie Hackers, and Stack Exchange.
Noise reduction"wordpress theme*" `?` NOT `https://`Questions about WordPress themes while excluding posts that are mainly links.

Other than forums, we monitor these communities:

RedditRedditHacker NewsHacker NewsXXBlueskyBlueskyMastodonMastodonIndie HackersIndie HackersSlackSlackDiscourseDiscourseStack OverflowStack OverflowServer FaultServer FaultStack ExchangeStack ExchangeYouTubeYouTubeGitHubGitHubLobste.rsLobste.rsDev.toDev.toPodcastsPodcasts...and a few others :)...and a few others :)

Syften's filter syntax is built for exact matches, source filters, exclusions, tags, and AI filtering, so useful forum conversations can reach you without the junk.

Syntax example.

Operating since 2019

Check out what our customers are saying

Brady Cassidy
Brady Cassidy
CEO of Rewardful
At Rewardful, we're huge believers in word-of-mouth marketing. I've used most of the social monitoring tools on the market and most have a lot of noise in the results or miss important conversations happening online. Syften returns the most relevant social mentions with the least amount of noise out of all the tools I've tested so far. Their community listening is the best on the market and I love how you can fine tune by source.
I love that Syften monitors all the communities I am part of but don't have enough time to check all day. Now, I can check my email and see conversations happening on Twitter, Reddit, Indie Hackers, and many more places. It's incredibly useful. Worth every dollar.
Arvid Kahl
Arvid Kahl
Author of Zero To Sold, The Embedded Entrepreneur and Find Your Following
Jacob Eiting
Jacob Eiting
CEO of RevenueCat.com
We use Syften to react to people saying things about us on the internet every single day. It's a set once and forget tool that just helps your team keep your pulse on whatever it is you care about.
Syften is awesome. I use it for my business so I can monitor the brand, and participate in online discussions which can help us attract new customers. I also use it personally to keep track of niche subjects that I'm interested in like emerging tech and products.
Reilly Chase
Reilly Chase
CEO of HostiFi
James Hawkins
James Hawkins
Co-founder and CEO of posthog.com
We love Syften at PostHog and find it incredibly useful for listening to our open-source community. The Slack integration enables our entire team to find ways to connect with our users, whether it's the Marketing team sharing new content or the Engineering team answering technical questions. The filtering system is especially powerful and helps us separate the signal from the noise.
I've written a couple books and like to keep an eye on how and where folks are talking about them. Syften has helped me catch several key conversations that I otherwise wouldn't have seen. Even on the days without any notable alerts, I'm still happy to know that I haven't missed anything. A very useful tool.
Rob Fitzpatrick
Rob Fitzpatrick
Author of The Mom Test and Workshop Survival Guide
Brian Swichkow
Brian Swichkow
Co-founder and CEO of inc.one, Reddit marketing expert
Syften has become integral to our business. It allows us to monitor *and* respond in real-time using their super simple webhooks. For example, when people mention our competitors being expensive on Twitter, Syften finds it and enables us to respond instantly with Zapier. It's paid for itself many times over. It even helped us secure $5M in funding for one of our community members. Michael has been overwhelmingly supportive over the past 18+ months we've been a customer and we couldn't be more grateful.
I use Syften every day and have been for a year. I looked at various other social listening tools but they were mostly aimed at big brands and enterprise customers and carried a hefty price tag. Syften tracks all of the major networks that I'm interested (even ones the big tools don't) and it's affordable for businesses of every size. Every day I get an email digest of people talking about my product for me to take immediate action on.
Kyle Gawley
Kyle Gawley
Founder of usegravity.app
Michael Masouras
Michael Masouras
Founder and CEO of MotoHunt.com
I gather the mentions I get from Syften and add them to our customer sales and partner presentations to show how our product is gaining mindshare amongst users on Reddit and forums. These slides are very impactful.
Syften has been a great tool to understand in which communities my website is being mentioned, or topics relevant to my business. It allowed me to engage in meaningful discussions and to identify some important actors in my niche.
Aquiles Carattino, Ph.D.
Aquiles Carattino, Ph.D.
Uetke.com
Łukasz Wiktor
Łukasz Wiktor
Founder of PersonalDiscount.io
Syften has enabled us to keep an eye on the topics related to our product. We can easily track posts about discount codes, email marketing, and e-commerce. We can then suggest using our service, or just be helpful answering questions on subjects that we are familiar with.

Pricing

It pays for itself if you find just one customer (easy)

Entry

$19.95 /month

Keep an eye out for your product name

  • 3 filtersA filter is a search query for mentions you want to track.
  • Daily results: 100
  • Archive search: 7 daysSee who has mentioned you in the past. Click to read more.
Start free trial Start a 14 day free trial on the Syften PRO plan. No credit card required. Easily delete account if you don't like it. You will immediately see who has mentioned you in the last 60 days.

Standard

$39.95 /month

AI filtering, API access, more filters, more archive, Slack integration, and optional Twitter and YouTube support

  • 20 filtersA filter is a search query for mentions you want to track.
  • Daily results: 200
  • Archive search: 1 monthSee who has mentioned you in the past. Click to read more.
  • Slack integration
  • Twitter monitoringPaid addon
  • YouTube monitoringPaid addon
  • AI filteringFilter noisy matches before they reach your alerts. Click to read more.
  • API accessQuery results and edit your settings. Click to read more.
Start free trial Start a 14 day free trial on the Syften PRO plan. No credit card required. Easily delete account if you don't like it. You will immediately see who has mentioned you in the last 60 days.

Syften PRO

$99.95 /month

More matches, more filters, unlimited archive, API access, and webhook support

  • 100 filtersA filter is a search query for mentions you want to track.
  • Daily results: 500
  • Archive search: unlimitedSee who has mentioned you in the past. Click to read more.
  • Slack integration
  • Twitter monitoringPaid addon
  • YouTube monitoringPaid addon
  • AI filteringFilter noisy matches before they reach your alerts. Click to read more.
  • API accessQuery results and edit your settings. Click to read more.
  • WebhooksPush new matches to your own endpoint. Click to read more.
  • MCPConnect Syften to AI tools that support MCP. Click to read more.
Start free trial Start a 14 day free trial on the Syften PRO plan. No credit card required. Easily delete account if you don't like it. You will immediately see who has mentioned you in the last 60 days.

Tailor made

We also offer custom solutions built just for you, whether it's integrating Syften into your product or supplying your marketing team with the right data.

Contact us

Frequently asked questions

Which forums does Syften monitor?

Syften monitors the public forums listed on this page, including Discourse forums and other niche community sites. The list is generated from sources we can reliably fetch and monitor.

Can Syften monitor forum replies, not just new threads?

Yes. Forum monitoring covers threads and replies where the source exposes them. That matters because many buying questions and competitor comparisons happen inside replies, not only in the first post.

Can I monitor one specific forum?

Yes. Use the site: operator to limit a filter to a forum domain or path. For example, site:meta.discourse.org migration only matches items from that forum.

Can I monitor forum authors?

Yes, when the source exposes an author name. Use author: together with site: when you want alerts from a known account on a specific forum.

Can Syften notify me when someone replies to me on a forum?

It depends on the source. Syften supports replyto: on some communities, such as Hacker News, Indie Hackers, and Stack Exchange, but not every forum exposes enough reply structure for this to work.

How do you reduce noisy forum alerts?

Start with exact product names, domains, competitor domains, narrow problem phrases, or forum-specific paths. Then add exclusions, type: filters, tags, or AI filtering for broad words.

Can I search older forum mentions after signing up?

Yes. Syften includes archive search so you can test filters and inspect recent forum matches from before you created an alert.

I have more questions.

Contact us at hello@syften.com or use the chat widget (we'll reply within 24 hours).

Never miss a mention again

Stay in the loop and see what people are saying about you, your brand, and your competitors — all in real-time.

Start listeningNo credit card required, 14 day free trial. Easily delete account if you don't like it.