Nine social media management tools compared on the thing that makes people leave Hootsuite: the pricing model. Per user, per channel, per brand or per workspace changes the bill more than any feature does, and three of the nine have a real free plan.
9 tools compared · Last reviewed
Hootsuite is the reference point for social media management, and its plans page on 14 September 2026 listed Standard at $99 per user per month billed annually, Professional at $199 and Advanced at $399. That is the number that sends people searching. A three-person team on Standard is paying $3,564 a year for scheduling, an inbox and reports, and most of the tools below deliver the same scheduling for a tenth of that.
The reason is not that Hootsuite is bad. It is that Hootsuite charges per user and the alternatives mostly do not. Buffer charges per channel ($5 a month each), Metricool per brand (from $20 a month for five), Planable per workspace ($33), and Sendible gives unlimited users on every plan. Which model fits you depends on whether your team is bigger than your channel list or the other way round, and that question decides this comparison more than any feature list.
Every price here was read from the vendor's own pricing page on 14 September 2026, and nine of the eleven pages we checked published their figures in plain HTML. Two did not: Sendible rendered its lower tiers client-side, so only its Elite and Enterprise prices appear, and Later showed only annual-billing rates. Publer and SocialPilot returned no readable prices at all and are not ranked.
Hootsuite's cheapest plan is $99 per user per month on annual billing. Add a second marketer and an intern and the bill triples for the same channels. Per-channel (Buffer), per-brand (Metricool) and per-workspace (Planable) models were all designed to avoid exactly that.
No free plan since 2023
Hootsuite retired its free tier. Buffer still has one for three channels, Metricool for one brand, and Agorapulse's FAQ says you can keep using its free plan after the trial. For a creator or a one-brand business, that is the whole decision.
Paying for an inbox and listening you do not use
If your team schedules and reports and never works the DMs, most of Hootsuite's price is buying features you skip. Buffer, SocialBee and Postiz sell scheduling without the inbox for a fraction of the cost. If you do live in the inbox, Agorapulse and Sprout Social do it better and Agorapulse does it cheaper.
Agency structure is an afterthought
Agencies need client workspaces, approval links, white-label reports and users who do not each cost $99. Sendible, Planable, Agorapulse and Vista Social all treat that as the core product rather than an enterprise add-on.
How we chose
We added the tools this search is really about — Buffer, Later, Sprout Social, Agorapulse, Sendible, SocialBee, Metricool, Planable and Postiz — to our directory rather than ranking what we happened to have, then opened each vendor's own pricing page on 14 September 2026 and read the figures from the HTML. Vista Social was already listed and its prices were corrected the same day. Where a page published its prices we quote them with billing terms; where it did not (Sendible's lower tiers, Later's monthly rates) the entry says so. Publer and SocialPilot rendered no readable prices and are left out. Promotional discounts that were on pages that day (SocialBee's birthday sale) are not quoted. Nothing here is ranked on a vendor's own marketing claims.
Best for: Small brands and creators who want to pay per channel, not per user
The first place to look. Buffer schedules to more networks than Hootsuite, including Threads, Bluesky and Mastodon, on a plan that is free for three channels and was listed at $5 per channel per month for Essentials and $10 for Team on 14 September 2026. A brand with five channels pays $25 a month for unlimited scheduling and analytics; Hootsuite's entry point is $99 per user. Team members are unlimited on the Team plan.
Free tier: Yes — 3 channels, no time limit.
Watch out: No inbox for DMs or comments and no listening. It is a scheduler and a reporting tool, and a brand with twenty channels ends up paying more than it expects.
Best for: Agencies and freelancers who report on several brands and want a free plan
The value pick. Metricool combines scheduling, a unified inbox, competitor benchmarking and the best analytics of anything below Sprout's price, including paid-ads and web data, and it charges per brand: Starter was listed at $20 per month on annual billing ($25 monthly) for up to five brands and Advanced from $53 ($67 monthly) for fifteen on 14 September 2026, with Looker Studio, API and white-label reports on Advanced. The free plan covers one brand properly.
Free tier: Yes — 1 brand with 30 days of analytics.
Watch out: The interface is dense and analytics-first; people who loved Hootsuite's calendar may find it utilitarian. The X/Twitter connection was a $10 per month add-on per account.
Best for: Teams that live in the inbox and need social-to-revenue reporting
The closest like-for-like replacement. Agorapulse has the inbox, listening, publishing and reporting Hootsuite has, adds ROI reporting via Google Analytics that Hootsuite does not match at this price, and was listed at $79 per user per month on annual billing ($99 monthly) for Standard, $119 or $149 for Professional and $149 or $199 for Advanced on 14 September 2026, each with ten profiles included. Agency approval links and branded reports are standard.
Free tier: Yes — a free plan for light use, plus a 30-day trial.
Watch out: Still per-user, so the saving over Hootsuite is real but not dramatic for a large team. Extra profiles beyond ten were $10 to $15 a month each.
Best for: Brands that treat social as a customer-service channel and can pay per seat
The premium alternative rather than the cheap one. Sprout's Smart Inbox with case management, listening and reporting are the best in the category, and its pricing page on 14 September 2026 listed Essentials at $79 per seat per month on annual billing ($99 monthly) alongside Standard at $199, Professional at $299 and Advanced at $399 per seat. On the main plans it is Hootsuite money; on Essentials it undercuts Hootsuite's Standard for a smaller feature set.
Free tier: No; a 30-day trial with no card.
Watch out: If you only schedule, you are paying for a support desk. Per-seat pricing scales exactly as painfully as Hootsuite's.
Best for: Solo marketers and small businesses who want a queue that never runs dry
A different scheduling model: content lives in categories that post on their own rhythm and recycle evergreen items, which suits a consultant or a shop far better than a calendar you must keep filling. It includes an AI writer, an inbox and analytics, and was listed at $29, $49 and $99 per month billed monthly ($290, $490 and $990 per year) on 14 September 2026, with agency plans from $179.
Free tier: No; a 14-day trial and a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Watch out: No free plan, and the inbox and analytics are lighter than Agorapulse's. A promotional discount was on the page the day we checked; the prices above are the standard ones.
Best for: Brands whose calendar is planned as a grid before it is scheduled
The visual planner. Later previews your Instagram grid before it publishes, bundles a link-in-bio page, hashtag suggestions and an influencer marketplace, and prices per social set: Starter at $18.75 per month, Growth at $37.50 and Scale at $82.50, all billed yearly, on 14 September 2026, with extra sets at $11.25 and extra users at $3.75. For a DTC brand that mostly cares about Instagram it is cheaper and better-suited than Hootsuite.
Free tier: No; a 14-day trial.
Watch out: Only annual-billing prices were readable; the page says yearly is 25% off, so monthly costs more. The inbox and listening are thin, and LinkedIn-first teams will find it the wrong shape.
Best for: Agencies and regulated brands whose bottleneck is approval, not scheduling
The approval tool. Planable shows each post exactly as it will appear, lets clients comment and approve in place with multi-level sign-off, and only then schedules. It charges per workspace rather than per user: Basic at $33 and Pro at $49 per workspace per month on monthly billing, two months free yearly, on 14 September 2026. If your Hootsuite pain is the weekly client approval spreadsheet, this fixes it.
Free tier: Yes — the first 50 created posts, no time limit.
Watch out: Analytics ($14), inbox ($9) and listening ($99) are add-ons per workspace per month. An agency with many small clients pays per workspace and should do the arithmetic.
Best for: Agencies that want scheduling, inbox, listening, reviews and white-label in one tool
The all-in-one for agencies, with DM automation, review management and white-label reporting that Hootsuite charges Enterprise money for. Its pricing page on 14 September 2026 listed Professional at $79 per month billed monthly or $758 per year with 15 profiles, Advanced at $149 or $1,430 with 30, and Scale at $349 or $3,638 with 70 — per account, not per user, which is the point.
Free tier: No; a 14-day trial without a card.
Watch out: Listening beyond your own profiles was a $75 per month add-on and X (Twitter) was $29 per month. Our own listing had the annual-per-month rates published as monthly prices until we corrected it today; check the billing toggle before you compare.
Best for: Agencies whose cost driver is head count
Unlimited users on every plan, client workspaces and full white-label of the dashboard, domain and reports make Sendible the agency answer to Hootsuite's per-user bill. It schedules, monitors and reports competently, with a shared content library and Canva built in.
Free tier: No; a 14-day trial.
Watch out: We could only read its Elite ($349 per month) and Enterprise ($800 per month) prices on 14 September 2026; the Creator, Traction and Scale tiers rendered client-side and are not quoted. Confirm those before comparing on cost. The interface feels older than Agorapulse or Planable.
Yes, three on this list. Buffer is free for three channels with no time limit, Metricool is free for one brand with 30 days of analytics, and Agorapulse's pricing FAQ says you can stay on its free plan after the 30-day trial. Planable gives 50 free posts with no time limit. Postiz is open source and free to self-host, though its hosted plans start at $29. Hootsuite itself has had no free plan since 2023.
What is the cheapest Hootsuite alternative?
Of the prices we read on 14 September 2026, Buffer's $5 per channel per month is the lowest for a small brand, and Metricool's $20 per month for up to five brands is the lowest for an agency or freelancer. Hootsuite's cheapest plan was $99 per user per month on annual billing.
Which alternative is best for agencies?
It depends on the cost driver. If it is users, Sendible (unlimited users) or Planable (per workspace). If it is client reporting and inbox work, Agorapulse or Vista Social, both with white-label reports and client approvals. If it is number of brands, Metricool's per-brand pricing is hard to beat.
Which alternative has the best inbox?
Sprout Social, then Agorapulse. Sprout's Smart Inbox adds case management and SLAs; Agorapulse's clears comments and DMs with assignment and automated moderation at roughly half Sprout's per-user price. Buffer, SocialBee and Postiz have no inbox or a light one.
What does Hootsuite actually cost?
Its plans page on 14 September 2026 listed Standard at $99 per user per month, Professional at $199 and Advanced at $399, all billed annually, with Enterprise on request. A 14-day trial needs no credit card. There is no free plan.
Will my scheduled posts move over?
Not automatically. Every tool here reconnects your social accounts through the networks' own authorisation, so the accounts move in minutes, but scheduled posts do not transfer between platforms. Export your Hootsuite calendar, let the last scheduled posts publish, and rebuild the queue in the new tool. Analytics history stays in Hootsuite; download the reports you need before the subscription ends.
