Compare · TweetDeck / X Pro
TweetDeck is gone: what to watch X with now
Columns of live searches inside X itself: define a query, watch it stream.
Where TweetDeck / X Pro is better
Starting here because a comparison page that claims to win everywhere is worth nothing to the person reading it.
- Being native, immediate and free of any third party
- Real-time — you see a post the second it lands
- Total control over the query, with every operator available
- No data leaving X and nothing to trust
The actual difference
A column of live searches is the honest baseline for this whole category, and for a narrow niche it can be enough. What breaks it is attention: a column only works while you are watching it, and nothing filters the jokes, the job posts and the vendors. Askline runs the same searches on a schedule, discards the noise, and tells you the three worth answering — which is the part a column cannot do while you are asleep.
Which one to pick
| Your situation | Pick |
|---|---|
| Your niche is small enough to watch by eye, and you like doing it. | TweetDeck / X Pro |
| You cannot watch a column all day and the good posts expire in hours. | Askline |
Questions people ask before switching
Is there a free replacement for TweetDeck?
X Pro is the official successor and it now sits behind a subscription. Saved searches in the app cover part of it for free. Neither scores what they find, which is the part that costs you time.
Can Askline show live columns?
No. It runs a search, verifies each post against X, and gives you a scored list. Deliberately a batch, not a stream.
Do I still need an X account?
To search, no. To reply from inside Askline, yes — otherwise copy the draft and send it however you like.
What this looks like in practice
Columns were the best free tool anyone had for watching X, and losing them behind a subscription is a real loss. What columns did well was breadth of attention: several searches side by side, live, with nothing between you and the raw stream. What they never did is decide. A column showing every post containing “CRM” is a firehose in which perhaps one post an hour is worth an answer, and you find it by reading all of them. That works for an hour and fails by Thursday. Askline is the same instinct with the reading done for you: it runs several searches, drops what is not a person with a problem, orders what remains by how close they are to buying, and drafts a reply. You lose the live feel and the sense of being on top of everything. You gain a list you can actually finish.
What each one costs you in attention
Columns cost continuous attention — they reward being logged in and punish being away. The information is free, your morning is not. A scored list costs ninety seconds and a read, and loses nothing by being opened at ten rather than at eight. If watching X is genuinely your job, columns are fine and cheaper. If it is the fourth thing on your list, the sustainable version is a batch you open once.
Three people who needed a tool this month
None of them said a brand name. A mention feed keyed on TweetDeck / X Pro — or on yours — would not have shown you a single one of them, because there was no mention to catch. These are real posts, pulled in the last thirty days and checked against X before being shown here.
Favorite honeybadger alternative that isn't DD or Sentry?
Each of those links opens a page of the same thing, by category: the whole demand index is public, free to read, and refreshed every month.
Looking for an alternative to TweetDeck / X Pro?
If you are here because TweetDeck / X Pro is not producing conversations, the useful question is not which tool has more features. It is whether the tool is answering “who is talking about us?” or “who needs what we sell?”. Those produce very different lists, and only the second one contains people who have never heard of you.
Askline searches X for the six shapes of buying intent — asking for a recommendation, leaving a named tool, complaining about the current one, comparing two options, stating a budget, hiring for the problem — scores who is actually in the market, and drafts a reply in your voice that you approve before it goes anywhere. The method is written up in full in the guide to finding buyers on X.
See it before deciding
You do not have to take any of this on trust. Browse who is asking for software on X by category — real posts, real dates, linked to the original — or paste a post into the intent score checker and see how the scoring reasons about it.
Run it on your own offer
Paste your site, get a ranked inbox of people already asking. Free to try, no card.
Start free