The most innovative food sector is the soft drinks industry (FOOD DRINK EUROPE, 2021). The biggest revenue-generating innovation in the soft drinks market in Hungary has been the introduction of sugar-free alternatives (TERMÉKMIX, 2019). This study aims to examine the online position and consumer perceptions of soft drinks. A new type of qualitative methodology, netnography, was used in the research. The research questions proposed in contrast to the netnographic study were related to the perception of sugary and sugar-free soft drinks, which were investigated from the consumer side through forums, blogs, and social networking sites. I used a keyword search to assess the popularity of the research topic and specific soft drink brands, using Google and Instagram search engines as content aggregators. I also looked at the most relevant results of Google hits and their evaluation, i.e. I made an overall summary of the most popular clickbait titles. Based on my analysis of the online position of soft drinks, I concluded that internet users have concerns about sweetener-based soft drinks and even consider them to be more harmful than sugary soft drink alternatives.