Sprout Social Alternatives: 9 Cheaper Social Media Tools Compared

Hootsuite is the nearest like-for-like swap for Sprout Social. Standard covers up to 10 social accounts with unlimited scheduled posts, AI post and image generation, a unified inbox and brand and competitor monitoring. Professional adds unlimited accounts, inbox automation, 90-day trend forecasting and custom reports. Advanced adds content approvals, message assignment and auto-routing, and team performance tracking.

The plans page we checked did not list exact prices. Its FAQ points to starting prices of $99 (Standard), $199 (Professional) and up to $399, without stating the billing period, so confirm the number at checkout. An Enterprise tier adds advanced listening, single sign-on and custom compliance.

The 14-day trial requires no credit card but caps posting at 10 to 20 posts a day per organization, depending on plan, and removes bulk scheduling. That is enough to judge the interface, though not to test a heavy publishing schedule.

Agorapulse is the one to try if your daily work is replying to comments and messages. Standard is $79 per user per month on annual billing ($99 billed monthly) and includes 10 social profiles, unlimited scheduling, a unified social inbox, basic reports and branded exports. Professional is $119 annually ($149 monthly) and Advanced $149 annually ($199 monthly).

Advanced adds labels, saved replies, automated moderation rules, bulk actions, shared calendars, ROI analysis and competitor benchmarking. The Custom plan adds unlimited profiles, SSO, API access and AI reply suggestions.

Two details to watch. Standard keeps reporting data for 6 months (Advanced keeps 24), and pricing is per user, as with Sprout, so the saving shows up mostly on the entry tiers. The monthly and annual figures above are our reading of the page's pricing and its "Save $240 per year" style callouts.

Buffer is the opposite of Sprout: simple, focused on publishing and priced per channel. The Free plan supports up to 3 channels with 10 scheduled posts per channel, 100 ideas, one user and 30 days of insights history. Essentials is $5 per channel per month and Team is $10 per channel per month.

Essentials adds unlimited scheduled posts, advanced analytics, custom reports, a hashtag manager, first-comment scheduling and unlimited AI replies. Team adds unlimited users, approval workflows, access levels and branded reports. Because you pay per channel, a brand with three or four channels can stay very cheap.

The honest limit is scope. Buffer's pricing page centers on scheduling, analytics and approvals, and does not list a shared inbox or social listening. The billing figures on the page are not fully consistent (the yearly totals and the stated annual discount do not line up), so check the final amount before you pay.

SocialPilot is the budget pick among the full-feature tools. Essentials is $20 per month ($17 on yearly billing) for 1 user and 5 social accounts. Standard is $40 ($34 yearly) for 3 users and 10 accounts, and adds bulk scheduling, a social media inbox and team collaboration.

Premium costs $100 per month ($85 yearly) for 6 users and 20 accounts, with advanced analytics, client approval and white label reports. Ultimate is $200 per month ($170 yearly) with unlimited users and 40 accounts, a dedicated account manager and migration help. Additional accounts are $4 per month.

It is a good fit for agencies that need client approval flows without Sprout pricing. The catch is depth: the page lists standard analytics and an inbox, but the more advanced listening and sentiment tools in Sprout's top plans are not part of the feature list.

Sendible is built around workspaces, which makes it a natural fit for agencies. Core gives 1 workspace and 6 social profiles, Plus gives 3 and 18, Premium 7 and 42, and Elite 15 and 90. Every plan has unlimited users, scheduling, bulk scheduling and monitoring.

Plus adds assignment and approvals. Premium adds content libraries, custom branded reports, campaigns, dedicated onboarding and a dedicated account manager. Send limits per workspace run from 100 posts a day on Core to 500 on Elite and Enterprise, which matters if you publish in bulk.

We could not read exact prices from the page, though it says yearly billing saves 15%, so treat the cost as See website until you check. Unlimited users on every plan is a real advantage over Sprout's per-seat model for larger teams.

Metricool combines scheduling and reporting at a small-business price. The Free plan includes 1 brand, 20 scheduled posts a month, 30 days of analytics and 5 competitor profiles. The paid Starter plan covers 5 brands with unlimited publishing (subject to fair use), 100 competitors, unlimited analytics history and PDF and PowerPoint reports.

Starter prices on the page were about $20 per month on annual billing and $25 on monthly billing (we could not confirm which column was which, so check at sign-up). Advanced starts around $53 to $67 and adds team and client management, a post approval system and report templates.

It is a good value for people who care about reports. Be aware that its pricing page does not list a shared inbox or social listening, and the free plan's network list excludes LinkedIn and X.

Later grew up around Instagram planning, and it is still strongest for visual brands. Starter costs $18.75 per month on yearly billing and includes 1 social set (8 profiles), 1 user, 30 posts per profile, a visual planner and Link in Bio. Growth is $37.50 per month for 2 sets, 2 users and 180 posts per profile, with internal and external approvals and a social inbox.

Scale costs $82.50 per month for 6 sets (48 profiles), 4 users and unlimited posts, and adds Meta ads analytics, competitive benchmarking and brand mention tracking. Yearly billing is advertised as 25% off, and extra social sets are $11.25 per month each.

It is a good match for a creator or small brand team. The honest drawback is that the cheap plans have post and user caps, so busy teams will move up to Growth or Scale quickly.

Loomly is centered on planning content and getting it approved. Starter is $49 per month on yearly billing ($65 billed monthly) for 3 users and 12 social accounts, with an AI assistant, scheduling, approval workflows and roles, advanced analytics and link shorteners.

Beyond is $249 per month on yearly billing ($332 monthly) for unlimited users and 60 accounts, with custom branding, custom roles and workflows, a hashtag manager and calendar 2FA enforcement. Enterprise is custom.

It suits teams where several people draft and approve posts before publishing. The gap between Starter and Beyond is large, and the page does not state the trial length, so confirm that before you sign up.

Zoho Social is worth a look if your business already runs on Zoho. The free version covers 1 brand, 6 channels, 1 user and 5 AI credits, with a publishing calendar, link shortener and image editor. The page offers a 15-day free trial of paid features, after which the account moves to a limited free plan.

Premium adds SmartQ, an inbox, content approvals and workflow, a reports dashboard, custom reports and Zoho CRM and Desk integrations, for 3 team members. Agency plans cover 10 clients (Agency) or 20 (Agency Plus) with 5 team members, client invites, portal customization and agency-branded reports.

The pricing amounts were blank in the page text we checked, so we list the price as See website. The page says yearly billing saves 33% against monthly.