Eko vs Octolens: two AI listening tools, one lives in your channel (2026)
Octolens scores mentions and sends them to your tools. Eko lives in the channel, drafts the reply, and you act with her right there.
Octolens is a modern, AI-powered social listening tool aimed at B2B and developer brands. It uses AI to score how relevant a mention is, and it integrates with Slack as well as MCP and an API, so teams can route mentions into their own stack. It is one of the more thoughtful entrants in the space.
Eko shares the AI-native starting point but takes it further into being a colleague rather than a component. She does not just score a mention and pass it on, she brings it into your Slack or Discord channel with sentiment and a drafted reply, you talk to her like a teammate, and when a mention is a buyer she hands it to Buska. Octolens gives you an intelligent feed to build on. Eko gives you an employee who has already done the next step.
Octolens is an AI-powered social listening tool for B2B and developer brands, with relevance scoring and Slack, MCP and API integrations.
Eko vs Octolens, side by side
| Eko | Octolens | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | An AI social listening employee you talk to like a colleague. | An AI social listening tool with relevance scoring. |
| Where it lives | Inside Slack, Discord and Teams, in a channel your team already keeps open. | A web app, with Slack, MCP and API integrations. |
| How you consume it | Mentions come to you, and you reply, assign, or hand off in the same place. | Scored mentions route into Slack or your own stack to act on. |
| Scope | Social listening, done deeply. Buying intent is handed to Buska for lead generation. | AI relevance scoring for B2B and developer brand mentions. |
| Pricing model | Credits. Scanning is free, you pay only for delivered value, no surprise top up bills. | Subscription, positioned at the premium end of the range. |
| Setup | Invite Eko to a channel, give her your site, name a few competitors. First results in minutes. | Configure topics and integrations, wire mentions into your tools. |
If you want an AI listening tool that scores mentions and plugs into your own stack through MCP and an API so you can build your own workflows around it, Octolens is a capable, developer-friendly option.
If you would rather not build the workflow, and want an employee who filters, drafts and helps you respond inside Slack or Discord out of the box, Eko is the finished colleague rather than the toolkit.
Frequently asked questions
- Is Eko an Octolens alternative?
- Yes. Both are AI-native social listening tools, so the choice is about shape. Octolens scores mentions and routes them into Slack or your own stack via MCP and an API for you to act on. Eko is an employee that lives in the channel: she filters, judges, drafts a reply in your voice, and lets you assign or hand off in place, without you building the workflow. Pick Octolens for a scored feed to build on, pick Eko for a finished colleague.
- Do both work in Slack?
- Yes, but differently. Octolens integrates with Slack to deliver scored mentions. Eko treats Slack, and Discord, as the workplace itself: the mention, the sentiment and a drafted reply arrive in the channel and you act there, talking to Eko like a teammate rather than clicking back to a web app.
- Which is better for a small team?
- If your team has the appetite to wire mentions into its own tools through MCP and an API, Octolens gives you the pieces. If you would rather an employee who works out of the box and does the filtering and drafting for you in the channel you already watch, Eko fits a lean team with little time to build. Eko also starts with free credits, no card.
Octolens is a strong, developer-friendly AI listening tool for teams that want a scored feed to build their own workflows on. Eko is for teams that want the workflow already finished: an AI employee in Slack or Discord who filters, drafts and helps you act, and hands real buying intent to Buska.