Hootsuite Alternatives in 2026: 9 Tools Compared

Buffer is the easiest first stop for a small business that wants to schedule posts and nothing more. The Free plan covers up to 3 channels with 10 scheduled posts per channel, 100 ideas, 1 user, an AI Assistant and a community inbox. Essentials is $5 per month for one channel (billed as $60 yearly), with unlimited scheduled posts, advanced analytics, a hashtag manager and first comment scheduling.

The Team plan is $10 per month per channel and adds unlimited team members, access levels and content approval workflows. Both paid plans come with a 14-day free trial.

The catch is how pricing works: you pay per channel. For two or three profiles it is very cheap, but a brand with ten channels will pay ten times the base rate, so run the math. Buffer also centers on scheduling, analytics and a community inbox, rather than the brand and competitor monitoring that Hootsuite lists.

Metricool is a good fit for small businesses that care about analytics as much as scheduling. The Free plan manages 1 brand, lets you schedule up to 20 posts per month, analyze 5 competitor profiles and see 30 days of analytics. It also includes an AI social media assistant.

Starter is from $20 per month on annual billing ($25 monthly) and supports up to 10 brands, unlimited publishing, 100 competitors, LinkedIn connection, PDF and PPT reports and analytics with unlimited history. Advanced starts at $53 per month on annual billing and adds team and client management, role management, a post approval system and API access.

The limits to watch are on the free tier, which excludes LinkedIn and X, and the brand-based pricing, which can climb as you add clients. For one small business, though, it covers more than most free plans.

Publer is one of the cheaper options on this list. The Free plan covers 1 user, 1 workspace and 3 social accounts (not X), with 10 scheduled posts per account, 25 saved drafts and 24-hour post history. Professional is $5 per month ($4 per month billed yearly) and includes unlimited scheduling and drafts, first comments and threads, unlimited media storage and unlimited workspaces.

The page lists a 7-day free trial for paid features, and says that for every 9 social accounts, the 10th is free. Extra team members can be added when you need collaboration and approval workflows.

The caution is that the price depends on the number of social accounts and members you add, so $5 is the starting point rather than the final bill. The free plan is also limited by the 24-hour post history.

SocialBee is built around content categories, which makes it handy for businesses that want to reuse evergreen posts on a schedule. The Bootstrap plan is about $24 per month billed annually and connects up to 5 social profiles, with 1 user, 1 workspace, 10 content categories, unlimited AI content generation and 3 months of analytics.

Accelerate is about $40 per month annually, with 10 profiles, 50 content categories, a bulk post editor, CSV uploads, a post approval system and analytics up to 2 years. Pro is about $82 per month annually, with 25 profiles, 3 users and 5 workspaces. The page shows a free 14-day trial, a 30-day money-back guarantee and savings of 16 percent on yearly billing.

The honest limits are the profile counts. Bootstrap's 5 profiles and single user can feel tight for a growing team, and the approval system starts on Accelerate.

Later started as an Instagram scheduler and now covers several networks. Its pricing is built on social sets: a set includes one profile of each supported network, which are Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Pinterest, LinkedIn, YouTube, Threads and Snapchat. Starter is $18.75 per month billed yearly (the page shows 3 months free and 25 percent off), Growth is $37.50 and Scale is $82.50.

Growth includes 2 social sets (16 profiles in total), 2 users, a social inbox, collaboration and approvals, 50 AI credits per month, platform analytics for up to a year, UGC collection and up to 180 scheduled posts per profile. A 14-day free trial is offered.

The detail to check is the extras. Additional social sets are $11.25 per month each and extra users are $3.75, so a multi-brand business should add them up before it chooses a plan.

Sendible is the choice for a small team or agency that does not want to pay per seat. Every plan includes unlimited users. Core is $35 per month and covers 1 workspace and 6 social profiles, with unlimited scheduling, unlimited AI credits, bulk scheduling, monitoring and replying, and standard reports.

Plus is $99 per month for 3 workspaces and 18 profiles and adds assignment and approvals. Premium is $199 for 7 workspaces and 42 profiles, adding content libraries, custom branded reports, campaigns and a dedicated account manager. Elite is $299 and Enterprise is $750. The page shows a free trial and a yearly-billing saving of 15 percent.

The tradeoff is that approvals start on Plus at $99, a big jump from Core. White label is an add-on for the top tiers, so agencies planning to resell reports should confirm what they need.

Agorapulse leans toward engagement rather than pure scheduling. Its pricing page lists Standard, Professional, Advanced and Custom plans, a 30-day free trial with no credit card, and a feature table covering an all-in-one social inbox, comment moderation, Google reviews moderation, saved replies and a unified content calendar.

Standard, Professional and Advanced each list 10 social profiles, while the Custom plan lists unlimited. The same table also names sentiment detection, AI reply suggestions, team performance reports and white-label reporting.

The page we checked did not show dollar prices in the text we could read, so we list it as See website. The practical advice is to start the free trial and check which tier includes the inbox features you want, since the feature list differs by plan.

Loomly is a content calendar first and a scheduler second, which suits teams that need approvals before a post goes out. Starter is $49 per month billed yearly ($588 per year) and includes 12 social accounts, 3 users, unlimited calendars, an AI Assistant chat, scheduling, approval workflows and roles, advanced analytics and link shorteners.

Beyond is $249 per month billed yearly ($2,988 per year) with 60 social accounts, unlimited users, custom branding, custom roles and workflows, a hashtag manager and calendar 2FA enforcement. Enterprise is custom. The page shows a 25 percent saving for yearly billing and a Start for free option.

The tradeoff is the gap between tiers. Starter at $49 is reasonable for a small team, but Beyond at $249 is a big step up, even though it adds unlimited users and 60 accounts.

Sprout Social is the most expensive option here and aims at teams that need more reporting and customer care features. Its pricing page shows a 30-day free trial with no credit card on annual billing. A newer Essentials plan is $79 per seat per month ($99 billed monthly) and connects up to 5 profiles with optimal send times and profile and post-level reporting.

Standard is $199 per seat per month for 5 social profiles with a consolidated inbox, keyword and location monitoring, the Trellis AI agent and review management. Professional is $299 per seat for unlimited profiles, and Advanced is $399 per seat.

The cost is the point: it is priced per seat, like Hootsuite, and is not cheaper at the standard tier. It makes sense as an upgrade rather than a saving, and only for teams that will use the reporting and inbox features.