Harken vs Syften
Harken
github.comSyften
syften.comSide by side
| Figure | Harken | Syften |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | $29.95/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | — |
| Free trial | — | Yes |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| API | — | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 1 | 7 |
| Spec score · Social Media Monitoring | 7.9 (#9) | 7.9 (#11) |
| Spec score · AI Social Listening Tools | 7.9 (#12) | 7.9 (#13) |
| Spec score · Social Monitoring | 7.9 (#10) | 7.9 (#11) |
| Spec score · Social Media Monitoring & Listening Software | 7.9 (#11) | 7.9 (#12) |
| Spec score · Social Media Listening Software | 7.7 (#39) | 8.0 (#27) |
| Free plan | Yes | No |
| Intended users | The README describes Harken as suited to indie founders, open-source maintainers, and privacy-conscious teams. | The page identifies B2B SaaS founders, founder-led sales, product marketers, developer tools, and community teams as a strong fit. |
| Sentiment analysis | Yes | No |
| Sources | Sources include Hacker News, Reddit, Mastodon, Bluesky, Stack Overflow, RSS, X, and YouTube. | Supported sources include the public web, Reddit, Hacker News, X/Twitter, Bluesky, Mastodon, Indie Hackers, Slack communities, Discourse, Stack Exchange, YouTube, GitHub, Lobste.rs, Dev.to, and podcasts. |
| Support | The project invites issues and pull requests, and says paid tools offer broader hosted operations and vendor support. | The site says users can contact [email protected] and that the team will reply within 24 hours. |
Plans
Syften
- Entry$29.95 a month
- Standard$49.95 a month
- Syften PRO$119.95 a month
- Entry$29.95 a month
- Standard$49.95 a month
- Syften PRO$119.95 a month
- Tailor madePriced on request
In their own words
Harken
Harken tracks mentions of keywords, brands, or products across online sources and brings sentiment and themes into a local dashboard. It can monitor Hacker News, Reddit, Mastodon, Bluesky, Stack Overflow, RSS, X, and YouTube. Sentiment comes from a built-in local lexicon analyzer; optional LLM analysis can label themes using Anthropic, OpenAI, or locally run Ollama. Harken provides a web dashboard and terminal CLI, stores its database in local SQLite, and says it sends no Harken telemetry. Alerts for new negative mentions or configured volume and sentiment thresholds can go to Slack, generic webhooks, or SMTP email. The open-source MIT software is self-hosted and free: free, with no per-seat pricing and API access. Tracking sends search terms to selected source APIs, and Anthropic or OpenAI theme labeling sends a small sample of mention text to that provider. Hacker News and Bluesky work without credentials; other sources may need credentials, configured feeds, or tokens. The quickstart requires Python 3.10 or later, and Docker Compose instructions are included.
Syften
Syften monitors public conversations for signs of buying intent, such as people asking for recommendations, comparing competitors, considering a switch, or describing a problem a product might solve. Alerts link to the person and discussion, so teams can review the original context rather than depend on an unexplained account score. It can surface competitor complaints, migration discussions, pricing objections, feature and category questions, and research that names products. Sources include public websites and communities such as Reddit, Hacker News, X/Twitter, Bluesky, Slack communities, Discourse, Stack Exchange, YouTube, GitHub, podcasts, blogs, forums, newsletters, and Product Hunt. Users can set keyword filters and optional AI acceptance rules; alerts can go to Slack, email, RSS, API, or webhooks. Entry costs $29.95 a month, billed monthly, and includes three community filters, 100 community results per day, one web filter, five web results per day, and a seven-day archive search. There is no free plan, but a 14-day trial requires no credit card. Standard and Syften PRO include API access; PRO also lists MCP support. Syften routes public conversations, but does not enrich contact records or identify every mention as a lead.