Hootsuite starts at $99/user/month (annual billing) or $149/user/month if you pay monthly. There's no free plan anymore. And with a 1.5-star Trustpilot rating driven by billing complaints, a lot of people are looking for alternatives.
We tested 8 of them. Here's what each one actually costs, what it does well, and who should use it.
Why people leave Hootsuite
Three reasons keep coming up:
- Price. $99/user/month is the floor. A 3-person team on the Advanced plan pays $747/month. That's $9,000/year for a scheduling tool.
- Per-seat billing. Every team member multiplies your cost. This kills the economics for agencies and growing teams.
- AI that's just a caption writer. OwlyWriter generates text captions. It doesn't create images, doesn't generate video, doesn't manage your inbox, and doesn't learn your brand voice.
Hootsuite still works for enterprises with big budgets and deep integrations. But for everyone else, here are the better options.
1. SonetHub — Best for AI-first social media management
Pricing: Free (€0) | Starter €15/mo | Growth €29/mo | Pro €59/mo | Business €129/mo
SonetHub is built differently from every other tool on this list. There's no traditional dashboard — the AI is the entire interface. You describe what you need in a conversation, and it handles the rest: writes the copy, generates images or video, formats each post for the target platform, and schedules everything.
That's not a gimmick. It's a fundamentally different workflow. Instead of clicking through a composer, selecting platforms, writing copy, sourcing images, and scheduling manually, you type one message and review the output.
What stands out:
- AI generates text, images, and video — not just captions
- Brand memory that learns your tone and style from your edits over time
- AI-powered inbox that classifies DMs by importance and drafts replies
- Flat pricing with no per-seat fees. The €59/mo Pro plan includes 5 team members
- Supports 9 platforms: Instagram, Facebook, X, LinkedIn, Threads, TikTok, YouTube, Pinterest, and Bluesky
- EU-based (Spanish legal entity, GDPR-native)
Where it falls short:
- Younger product with a smaller integration ecosystem than established players
- Not built for 500-person enterprise marketing departments
Best for: Creators, freelancers, small businesses, and agencies that want AI doing the heavy lifting instead of just suggesting captions. Especially if you manage multiple accounts and refuse to pay per seat.
Free tier: Yes — 3 accounts, 10 posts/month, full AI chat access.
2. Buffer — Best for simplicity and beginners
Pricing: Free | Essentials $5/channel/mo | Team $10/channel/mo
Buffer's strength is that it's dead simple. If you want a clean interface, basic scheduling, and you don't need advanced analytics or inbox management, Buffer is the tool that stays out of your way.
The per-channel pricing is transparent and affordable for small accounts. 3 channels on Essentials costs $15/month. But it scales linearly — 10 channels hits $50/month, and 20 channels on the Team plan runs $200/month. That adds up fast for agencies.
What stands out:
- Genuinely easy to use — minimal learning curve
- Supports 12 platforms including Threads, Bluesky, Mastodon, Pinterest, and Google Business
- AI Assistant included free on all plans (generates captions, adjusts tone, translates)
- Excellent platform support — they add new networks fast
Where it falls short:
- No unified inbox for DMs
- Analytics are basic compared to Sprout Social or Agorapulse
- AI only generates text — no image or video creation
- Per-channel pricing gets expensive at scale
Best for: Solo creators and small businesses who want a no-fuss scheduling tool and don't need inbox management or deep analytics. If you manage 3–5 accounts and want something affordable and clean, this is it.
Free tier: Yes — 3 channels, 10 scheduled posts per channel.
3. Later — Best for visual-first brands on Instagram and TikTok
Pricing: Starter $25/mo | Growth $50/mo | Scale $110/mo (annual: $18.75 / $37.50 / $82.50)
Later started as an Instagram scheduling tool and it still shows. The visual planner with drag-and-drop calendar is the best in the market for planning a visually cohesive feed. If aesthetics matter to your brand (fashion, food, travel, design), Later's grid preview is genuinely useful.
They've expanded to support Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, X, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube, and Snapchat. The Linkin.bio feature — a customizable mini landing page — is a nice touch for driving traffic from Instagram.
What stands out:
- Visual content calendar and Instagram grid preview are best-in-class
- Linkin.bio for turning your feed into a clickable landing page
- Smart scheduling based on optimal posting times
- Strong Instagram and TikTok analytics
Where it falls short:
- No free plan — just a 14-day trial
- Starter plan caps you at 30 posts/month for 1 social set, which is tight
- AI credits are limited and cost extra on lower tiers
- No social inbox
Best for: Visual brands, Instagram-heavy creators, and e-commerce businesses that care about how their feed looks as a whole. If Instagram or TikTok is your primary platform and you want a visual planner, Later beats everything else here.
4. Sprout Social — Best enterprise-grade analytics and reporting
Pricing: Standard $199/seat/mo | Professional $299/seat/mo | Advanced $399/seat/mo (annual billing)
Sprout Social is the expensive option. A solo user on the Standard plan pays $199/month. A 3-person team on Professional pays $897/month. That's not a typo.
But if you need serious analytics, compliance features, and executive-ready reporting, Sprout Social delivers. Their reports are polished and deep. The social listening add-on (starting at $999/month extra) tracks brand mentions, sentiment, and competitive intelligence across the web.
What stands out:
- Best-in-class analytics and reporting — presentation-ready out of the box
- Social listening and sentiment analysis (paid add-on)
- Strong approval workflows and compliance tools for regulated industries
- 30-day free trial (the longest on this list)
Where it falls short:
- Pricing is brutal. Per-seat billing makes this a non-starter for most small businesses
- Social listening starts at $999/month on top of your plan
- AI Assist generates captions but nothing more
- The value-per-dollar ratio is the lowest on this list unless you're an enterprise
Best for: Mid-to-large companies with dedicated social media teams and a real budget. If your CEO wants polished monthly reports and your industry requires compliance workflows, Sprout Social earns its price tag. Everyone else should look elsewhere.
5. Blaze.ai — Best for AI-generated content strategy
Pricing: Free (limited) | Starter $39/mo | Growth $85/mo (annual: $27 / $60)
Blaze.ai is an AI marketing platform that goes beyond just writing captions. It analyzes your brand, builds a 12-month content plan, and generates platform-specific posts with scheduling built in. If you want AI to handle content strategy — not just content creation — Blaze is interesting.
The workflow builder moves content from brief to publication with configurable review stages at each step. That's useful for teams that need a human approval step before anything goes live.
What stands out:
- AI builds a full content plan (what to post, where, when) based on your brand
- Brand voice analysis and consistent tone across platforms
- Workflow builder with approval stages
- Supports Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, X, TikTok, plus Mailchimp and WordPress
Where it falls short:
- No video editing or video generation — text and images only
- No social inbox or DM management
- Starter plan only supports 3 accounts and 1 user
- Smaller platform support (no Pinterest, YouTube, or Threads scheduling)
Best for: Solopreneurs and small businesses that want AI to think strategically about what to post, not just how to word it. If you're overwhelmed by content planning and want a tool that tells you "post this on Tuesday, this on Thursday," Blaze fills that gap.
Free tier: Yes — limited features with a 7-day trial of paid plans.
6. SocialBee — Best for content recycling and category-based scheduling
Pricing: Bootstrap $29/mo | Accelerate $49/mo | Pro $99/mo (annual: ~$24 / $41 / $83)
SocialBee's killer feature is content categories. Instead of dumping everything into one queue, you organize posts into buckets like "Educational," "Promotional," "Behind the scenes," and "Community." You define how often each category should post, and SocialBee handles the mix automatically.
This means your evergreen content gets recycled without you thinking about it. Write a great tip once, and it keeps getting reposted on a schedule. For solo operators who can't create fresh content every day, this is a lifesaver.
What stands out:
- Category-based scheduling with automatic content recycling
- Supports 10 platforms including Pinterest, Threads, Bluesky, and Google Business
- AI assistant generates post ideas and variations
- Canva integration built in
- 14-day free trial, no credit card required
Where it falls short:
- No unified inbox
- Analytics are adequate but not deep
- AI generates text only — no image or video creation
- Interface can feel cluttered compared to Buffer or Later
Best for: Small business owners and solopreneurs who want to maximize a small content library. If you have 50 great posts and want them rotating on autopilot while you add new ones occasionally, SocialBee's category system is exactly what you need.
7. Sendible — Best for agencies managing multiple clients
Pricing: Creator $29/mo | Traction $89/mo | Scale $199/mo | Advanced $299/mo | Enterprise $750/mo (monthly pricing; ~15% off annually)
Sendible was built for agencies from day one, and it shows. The white-label dashboard lets you connect Sendible to your own domain with your brand colors — so clients see your brand, not Sendible's. That alone makes it worth considering if you run a social media agency.
Unlimited scheduling on every plan is a nice touch. The reporting is strong with customizable templates, and the collaboration tools (client approvals, role-based permissions, task assignment) are well-designed for multi-client workflows.
What stands out:
- White-label dashboards — the only fully brandable tool on this list
- Unlimited scheduling on all plans
- Strong client collaboration features (approvals, permissions, tasks)
- Supports Facebook, Instagram, X, LinkedIn, TikTok, YouTube, Google Business, Threads, and Bluesky
Where it falls short:
- No free plan — 14-day trial only
- No Pinterest support
- AI features are basic compared to newer tools
- Price jumps between tiers are steep (Creator to Traction is $29 to $89)
Best for: Social media agencies that manage multiple clients and want white-label reporting and client-facing dashboards. If you need your tool to look like your tool when clients log in, Sendible is the clear choice.
8. Agorapulse — Best social inbox and community management
Pricing: Free (limited) | Standard $79/user/mo | Professional $119/user/mo | Advanced $149/user/mo (annual billing)
Agorapulse has the best social inbox on this list. Every comment, mention, DM, and review across all your platforms lands in one place, with labels, filters, saved replies, and assignment rules. If community management is a core part of your job — responding to comments, managing conversations, handling reviews — Agorapulse makes it efficient.
The new Report Studio lets you build custom reports with drag-and-drop metrics, and the ROI tracking feature connects social engagement to actual web traffic and conversions. That's useful data that most tools in this price range don't provide.
What stands out:
- Best-in-class social inbox with moderation rules, labels, and assignment
- ROI tracking that ties social engagement to business outcomes
- Customizable Report Studio
- 30-day free trial
Where it falls short:
- Per-user pricing means costs scale with team size
- Additional social profiles cost $15 each beyond what's included
- AI features are limited compared to SonetHub or Blaze.ai
- The free plan is heavily restricted (3 social profiles, 1 user)
Best for: Brands and teams where community management is the priority. If you spend more time responding to comments and DMs than creating content, Agorapulse's inbox management is worth the per-seat price.
Free tier: Yes — 3 social profiles, 1 user, basic features.
The comparison table
| Tool | Starting price | Free plan | Pricing model | AI content generation | Social inbox | Platforms | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SonetHub | €0 | Yes | Flat rate | Text + images + video | Yes (AI-powered) | 8 | AI-first management |
| Buffer | $0 | Yes | Per channel | Text only | No | 12 | Simplicity |
| Later | $25/mo | No | Tiered | Text (limited credits) | No | 8 | Visual brands |
| Sprout Social | $199/seat/mo | No | Per seat | Text only | Yes | 8+ | Enterprise analytics |
| Blaze.ai | $0 | Yes | Tiered | Text + strategy | No | 5 | Content planning |
| SocialBee | $29/mo | No | Tiered | Text only | No | 10 | Content recycling |
| Sendible | $29/mo | No | Tiered | Basic | Yes | 9 | Agencies (white-label) |
| Agorapulse | $0 | Yes | Per user | Basic | Yes (best) | 8 | Community management |
How to pick
You're a solo creator on a budget: Buffer (free or $5/channel) or SonetHub (free, with AI that actually creates content).
You're a visual brand on Instagram: Later. The grid planner and Linkin.bio are worth it.
You run an agency: Sendible for white-label client dashboards, or SonetHub if flat pricing matters more than white-labeling.
You need deep analytics and reports for executives: Sprout Social — if the budget allows.
You want AI to do the actual work, not just suggest captions: SonetHub. It's the only tool here where AI generates text, images, and video in one conversation.
You want content recycling on autopilot: SocialBee. The category system is unique and well-executed.
Community management is your main job: Agorapulse. The social inbox is the best in the business.
You want AI content strategy, not just content: Blaze.ai. It plans what to post, not just how to word it.
The bottom line
Hootsuite priced itself out of the market for anyone who isn't an enterprise. At $99/user/month with no free plan, it's asking 2016 prices for a 2016 experience — a scheduling dashboard with a caption generator bolted on.
Every tool on this list does something better than Hootsuite at a lower price point. The right choice depends on what you actually need. Don't pay for enterprise features you'll never use.
All prices exclude applicable taxes.