12 Hootsuite alternatives in 2026, free and paid
Twelve Hootsuite alternatives for people paying per seat for a product they use a tenth of, and for teams that want approvals without Hootsuite's bill. What each costs, who it suits, and when staying is the better call.
The short answer. The best Hootsuite alternative for one person or a small team running many accounts is PostWharf. It publishes one post to every account you connect, on ten networks today, records a delivery receipt from each network, and charges one price per brand, from $15 a month, however many channels and teammates you add.
Other picks by need: Buffer for a free plan (three channels); Zoho Social for one brand on a small budget (from $15 a month, or $10 billed yearly); Metricool if you used Hootsuite's reports (free for one brand, then from $20 a month billed yearly); SocialPilot for an agency reporting to clients (from $30 a month for seven accounts); Postiz to host it yourself (free under AGPL-3.0); Vista Social for a small team that wants an inbox, approvals and review monitoring in one place (from $99 a month); Agorapulse for a team inbox with approvals (approvals from $119 a user a month billed yearly); Sprout Social for a full suite like Hootsuite's (from $199 a seat a month billed yearly).
See PostWharf's plans and start the free week. Starter's first seven days are free, with unlimited channels and 200 posts, and PostWharf will charge nothing until the week is out.
Is there a free Hootsuite alternative?
Yes: four tools on this page have a free option you can keep. Metricool has a free plan for one brand, capped at 20 posts a month and without LinkedIn or X. Buffer itself has a permanent free tier, capped at three channels and ten queued posts each. Publer has a free plan for three accounts, with ten scheduled posts each and no X. Postiz is free if you self-host it, under AGPL-3.0, provided you file your own platform app reviews. Each trades something for it, which is the honest comparison to make.
PostWharf's free start is a trial. Creating an account takes no card, and the first post is free. Starter's first seven days are free, with 200 posts and unlimited channels, and after that it is $15 a month per workspace. Hootsuite's own plans start at $99 a user a month, and 2026 pricing guides disagree on whether it still has any free tier, so check before you count on one. For free options judged by how many accounts they hold, see free Hootsuite alternatives for managing many accounts.
What each free option keeps
Free plans differ more in what they leave out than in price. The four that are free for good, and one free plan that does not schedule:
| Tool | What is free | What it leaves out |
|---|---|---|
| Buffer | 3 channels, 10 queued posts each | Every channel past the third is paid |
| Metricool | 1 brand, 20 posts a month | LinkedIn and X |
| Publer | 3 accounts, 10 scheduled posts each | X |
| Postiz | The whole product, if you host it yourself under AGPL-3.0 | Hosting, upgrades, and your own developer app approved by every network; TikTok will not approve an app for private use |
| Zoho Social | 1 brand of 6 channels and 1 user, after a 15-day trial | Scheduling: Zoho's own plan table leaves it out of the free plan |
If none of those limits fit, the paid entries below start at about $5 a month (Buffer, per channel; Publer, for one account). PostWharf's own free start is the trial described above, not a plan you can keep.
Why people leave Hootsuite
Hootsuite is priced and built for organisations with teams, approvals and reporting obligations. The people who leave are almost always one person using a tenth of it and paying per seat for the rest, or someone who found the interface heavier than the job.
What Hootsuite costs in 2026
Hootsuite bills per user. Its pricing page, read on 24 September 2026, listed Standard at $99 a user a month with 10 social accounts, Professional at $199 a user a month with unlimited accounts, and Advanced at $399 a user a month; Enterprise is priced on request. 2026 pricing guides give the $99 as a yearly-billing rate, and put approval workflows in Advanced. So one person running thirty accounts needs Professional, at $199 a month, because Standard stops at ten accounts, and a team of three on Professional pays $597 a month. Of the twelve tools below, only Agorapulse and Sprout Social price every plan per user the way Hootsuite does; Zoho Social and Vista Social include a set number of users in each plan. For paid options judged by what they cost once every account is counted, see cheaper Hootsuite alternatives for many social accounts.
The twelve at a glance
| # | Tool | Best for | Bills by | Free to start | Paid from |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | PostWharf | One person or a small team with many accounts | Workspace, one per brand; channels and seats unlimited | First post free; Starter's first seven days are free | $15 a month, or $10 billed yearly |
| 2 | Zoho Social | One brand on a small budget | Brand, with a set number of users per plan | 15-day trial, then a free plan for 1 brand that does not schedule | $15 a month, or $10 billed yearly, for 1 brand and 1 user |
| 3 | Metricool | Keeping the analytics | Brand, plus $10 a month per X account | Free plan: 1 brand, 20 posts a month, no LinkedIn or X | $20 a month billed yearly, up to 5 brands |
| 4 | Buffer | A simple queue | Channel | Free plan: 3 channels, 10 queued posts each | About $5 a channel a month |
| 5 | Publer | Bulk scheduling on a small budget | Account | Free plan: 3 accounts, 10 scheduled posts each, no X | $5 a month for one account |
| 6 | Later | Instagram and Pinterest planning | Social set of 8 profiles; users set per plan | 14-day trial | $18.75 a month billed yearly, 1 set and 1 user |
| 7 | Postiz | Owning the stack | Channel (hosted) | Free to self-host under AGPL-3.0 | $29 a month for 5 channels |
| 8 | SocialBee | Evergreen posts sorted by category | Profiles per plan | 14-day trial | $29 a month for 5 profiles |
| 9 | SocialPilot | Agencies with client reporting | Accounts, in blocks | 14-day trial, no card | $30 a month for 7 accounts |
| 10 | Vista Social | An inbox, approvals and review monitoring for a small team | Profiles, with users set per plan | 14-day trial, no card | $99 a month for 15 profiles |
| 11 | Agorapulse | A team inbox with approvals | User | 30-day trial, no card | $79 a user a month billed yearly |
| 12 | Sprout Social | A full team suite | Seat | 30-day trial | $199 a seat a month billed yearly |
| Hootsuite, for comparison | Teams with approvals and listening | User | A trial; 2026 guides disagree on a free tier | $99 a user a month billed yearly, 10 accounts |
How we chose these twelve
Every tool here had to clear three bars. It schedules and publishes to the major networks from one queue. It publishes its prices, so the cost can be stated with a date. And it fixes at least one of the reasons people leave Hootsuite: the per-seat bill, an interface heavier than the job, or a missing piece such as a free plan, self-hosting or visual planning. These twelve clear all three.
They are grouped by what the bill counts, because that decides what leaving saves. The groups follow the three ways schedulers charge: per brand or workspace (PostWharf, Zoho Social, Metricool), per channel or account, including sets and bundles of accounts (Buffer, Publer, Later, Postiz, SocialBee, SocialPilot, Vista Social), and per seat, as Hootsuite does (Agorapulse, Sprout Social). Within a group, the lower starting price in the table comes first, and ties go alphabetically. That makes it an order by billing model, not a quality ranking: each entry's "best for" line names the reader it suits.
PostWharf's prices come from its own pricing page. Hootsuite's, Metricool's, Buffer's, Publer's, Later's, Postiz's and SocialPilot's were read from each vendor's pricing page on 24 September 2026 for PostWharf's comparison pages. Sprout Social, Agorapulse and SocialBee were added on 16 October 2026 from 2026 pricing guides (octolens.com, napoleoncat.com, socialpilot.co, postfa.st, masterblogging.com and socialchamp.com), and so were the trial lengths for Later and SocialPilot. Zoho Social's and Vista Social's were read from their own pricing pages on 27 October 2026, Zoho's in US dollars, since it sets prices by region. Check any of them on the vendor's own site before you buy, because prices move.
The 12 options
1. PostWharf
Best for one person or a small team with many accounts
PostWharf publishes one post to every account you connect and tells you what happened on each network. It is priced per workspace, one per brand. Starter is $15 a month for one brand, Startup $29 for three, Plus $67 for ten and Pro $99 for any number, carrying 200, 400, 1,000 and 2,500 posts a month. Seats are unlimited, so a teammate never changes the bill. One person running thirty accounts across six brands pays $67 a month on Plus; on Hootsuite the same person needs a Professional seat at $199, because Standard stops at ten accounts.
- Priced per workspace, so channel count does not change the bill
- A delivery receipt per network on every post, re-checked after publishing, with the reason when one fails
- REST API, CLI and an MCP server on every plan, same queue behind all four surfaces
- Bluesky and Telegram connect in about a minute, with no platform review to wait out
Against it
- New, with none of the operating history the incumbents have
- Publishing only. No engagement inbox, no analytics suite
- Ten of the fourteen networks publish today; the other four are request-only
From $15/mo per workspace, unlimited channels. Seven days free.
See the plans and start the free week: Starter's first seven days are free, with unlimited channels and 200 posts a month.
2. Zoho Social
Best for one brand on a small budget
Zoho Social is the social media tool in Zoho's business suite. It does scheduling and publishing, a calendar, conversations across channels, keyword and hashtag monitoring, and reports, and Zia, Zoho's AI, writes drafts and captions. Its pricing page, read in US dollars in October 2026 (Zoho sets prices by region), lists Standard at $15 a month, or $10 billed yearly, and Professional at $40, or $30 billed yearly, each for one brand and one user, and Premium at $65, or $40 billed yearly, for one brand and three team members. A brand is one profile on each network Zoho supports: 14 on Standard and Professional, 16 on Premium. Professional and Premium sell extra brands as add-ons, from $17 a brand a month on Professional, up to five; the Agency plan, from $320 a month, holds ten clients. SmartQ, which suggests when to post and is the feature reviewers praise most often, comes with Premium. Every account starts with a 15-day trial and no card, then drops to a free plan for one brand of six channels, which Zoho's own plan table shows without scheduling. If posting times were the only reason to look, the free best time to post calculator gives a starting slot for each network in your time zone.
- Standard covers one brand with a profile on each of 14 networks for $15 a month
- Keyword, hashtag and user monitoring beside publishing, from Professional
- SmartQ suggests posting times on Premium, and Zia, Zoho's AI, drafts posts and captions
Against it
- Standard holds one brand only; Professional and Premium sell extra brands as add-ons, and the Agency plan starts at $320 a month
- The free plan leaves out scheduling, according to Zoho's own plan table
- Reviewers report limits on scheduling Instagram Stories and Reels
Free plan for one brand, without scheduling. Standard $15/mo, or $10 billed yearly, for one brand and one user, as of October 2026.
3. Metricool
Best if you actually used the analytics
Metricool is an analytics product with scheduling attached, and the only other tool here that prices per brand. If reports were the part of Hootsuite you relied on, this keeps them. Starter is $20 a month billed yearly for up to five brands; at six brands it is $45 a month, or $36 billed yearly. Each X account adds $10 a month, which is the line that catches anyone running several. It ships an MCP server, and Metricool keeps its API for Advanced.
- Analytics and scheduling in one product, priced per brand
- Competitor benchmarking built in
- Strong reporting for client work
Against it
- X accounts carry a separate per-account surcharge
- Scheduling is the smaller half of the product
Free for one brand; Starter from $20/mo for up to five brands, billed yearly, plus $10/mo per X account.
4. Buffer
Best simple replacement, with a free plan
Buffer is the plain swap: a clean queue, an engagement inbox and analytics, and years of reliability behind it. It bills per channel, at about $5 a channel a month with the rate falling past ten channels, so the bill follows your account count: thirty channels on Essentials come to $135 a month, or $112.50 billed yearly.
- A genuinely useful free tier — 3 channels, 10 queued posts each
- An MCP server and an API on every plan, Free included, plus a CLI
- Years of reliability and a real support organisation
- Clean, fast, hard to get wrong
Against it
- Billed per channel: the rate drops past ten channels, but every account still adds to the bill
- The API covers posts, ideas, channels and metrics, not the whole dashboard
Free for 3 channels; paid from ~$5 per channel per month.
5. Publer
Best for bulk scheduling on a small budget
Publer packs a lot in for the price, and its bulk scheduling and post recycling are done well. Paid plans start at $5 a month for one account and cost less per account as you add more; thirty accounts on Business come to $210 a month at $7 per account, or $151.20 billed yearly.
- Very generous feature set for the price
- Bulk scheduling and recycling done well
Against it
- Per-account pricing, so the same compounding problem
- Interface density takes a while to learn
Free for 3 accounts; paid from $5/mo for one account, less per account at volume.
6. Later
Best if Instagram and Pinterest are the job
Later is built around a visual planner: you see the grid before anything posts, and link-in-bio comes with it. It bills by social set, a bundle of eight profiles, with a set number of users on each plan. Starter is $18.75 a month for one set and one user, Growth $37.50 for two sets and two users, and Scale $82.50 for six sets and four users. Those are yearly rates; monthly is higher. Paid plans start with a 14-day trial. It does not publish to X: Later ended X support on 28 August 2025. Its own site shows no API or MCP server.
- Visual planning built around the Instagram and Pinterest grid
- Link-in-bio built in, which is a real product on its own
- Media library designed around a grid, not a list
Against it
- Priced by "social set", which is per-channel counting under another name
- No X: Later ended X support on 28 August 2025
From $18.75/mo billed yearly for one social set of 8 profiles and one user; monthly is higher.
7. Postiz
Best if you want to own the stack
Postiz is open source under AGPL-3.0, so you can run it on your own server for nothing, and it ships an MCP server and a CLI. The catch is the platforms, not the code: a self-hosted install needs its own developer app approved by every network. The hosted version avoids that, at $29 a month for five channels or $49 for thirty.
- AGPL, self-hostable, and the code is genuinely there
- Broad network coverage for an open-source project
- No vendor lock-in on your data
Against it
- Self-hosting means you file every platform app review — TikTok will not approve an app for private use
- You own the uptime, the token refreshes and the upgrades
Open source, self-host free; hosted from ~$29/mo.
8. SocialBee
Best for a library of evergreen posts sorted by category
SocialBee suits a library of evergreen posts more than a stream of news: posts go into categories, and the tool cycles through them on a schedule. Plans are sold by profile count. Bootstrap is $29 a month for five profiles, Accelerate $49 for ten and Pro $99 for twenty-five (about $24.20, $40.80 and $82.50 a month billed yearly), with agency tiers up to 150 profiles at $449. There is a 14-day trial and no free plan. It is on this list partly because, in threads about Hootsuite alternatives on Reddit, users commonly mention Buffer, Metricool, Publer, SocialBee, and Agorapulse.
- Posts sorted into content categories, each on its own posting schedule
- Recycles evergreen posts, and can retire a post after a date or a number of shares
- Plans by profile count, from five profiles up to agency tiers of 150
Against it
- The category system takes real setup before it pays off
- Recycling does little for news and trend posts
- No free plan, only a 14-day trial
From $29/mo for 5 profiles, about $24.20 billed yearly.
9. SocialPilot
Best for agencies with client reporting
SocialPilot is built for agencies: client management, white-label reports, an engagement inbox and analytics, and an MCP server on every paid plan. It sells accounts in blocks. Essentials is $30 a month for seven accounts, Standard $50 for fifteen accounts and 3 users, Premium $100 for twenty-five with white-label reports, and Ultimate $200 for fifty. The API is kept for the custom Enterprise plan. There is a 14-day trial with no card.
- Built for agencies — white-label reports and client management
- Account-block pricing is cheaper per account at volume
- An MCP server on every paid plan
Against it
- You buy accounts in blocks whether you use them or not
- API access only on the custom Enterprise plan
From $30/mo for 7 accounts; Ultimate $200/mo for 50.
10. Vista Social
Best for a small team that wants an inbox, approvals and review monitoring in one place
Vista Social puts publishing, a shared inbox, approvals and reporting in one workspace, and it monitors reviews alongside comments, which suits a local or service business that answers both. Its pricing page, read in October 2026, lists Professional at $99 a month for 15 profiles, Advanced at $199 for 30 and Scale at $449 for 70, each with a set number of users, and it offers single and multi-stage approval workflows. Professional monitors reviews from Facebook and Google; Advanced adds Yelp, Tripadvisor, Trustpilot, OpenTable and the two app stores. Prices have gone up recently: when PostWharf read the same page on 24 September 2026, Advanced was $149 for the same 30 profiles. Every plan starts with a 14-day trial and no card, and there is no free plan. Reviewers find its analytics lighter than a dedicated analytics tool. For a closer look at the inbox side, see Hootsuite alternatives for social inbox work.
- Publishing, a shared inbox, approvals and reporting in one workspace
- Review monitoring on every plan, with Yelp, Tripadvisor, Trustpilot and the app stores from Advanced
- A 14-day trial on every plan, with no card
Against it
- Prices have risen: Advanced was $149 a month for 30 profiles on 24 September 2026 and is $199 now
- Professional monitors reviews from Facebook and Google only
- No free plan, and reviewers find its analytics lighter than a dedicated analytics tool
From $99/mo on Professional for 15 profiles; Advanced $199/mo for 30, as of October 2026. 14-day trial, no card.
11. Agorapulse
Best for a team that needs a shared inbox and approvals
Agorapulse keeps the team side of Hootsuite (a shared inbox, approvals and team reports) at a lower price per user. Standard is $79 a user a month billed yearly, or $99 monthly. Professional, at $119 billed yearly or $149 monthly, adds simple approval workflows, internal comments, post and inbox assignment, link in bio, ad comment monitoring and team performance reports. The free plan is gone, according to the two most recent 2026 pricing guides, and the 30-day trial needs no card. It still bills per user, so the bill grows with the team, as it does on Hootsuite.
- Approval workflows, internal comments and inbox assignment on Professional
- Link in bio, ad comment monitoring and team reports on Professional
- Standard costs less per user than Hootsuite Standard
Against it
- Per-user pricing, so the bill grows with the team
- Approvals need Professional, at $119 a user a month billed yearly
- No free plan
From $79 per user/mo billed yearly ($99 monthly); 30-day trial.
12. Sprout Social
Best for a team that wants a full suite and can pay more per seat
Sprout Social is the like-for-like suite on this list: publishing alongside reporting, monitoring, and engagement functions, for a team that wants one system rather than several. It costs more per seat than Hootsuite's entry plan. Standard is $199 a seat a month billed yearly, Professional $299 and Advanced $399 ($249, $399 and $499 billed monthly). Standard stops at five social profiles; Professional removes the cap and adds competitor insights; Advanced adds sentiment analysis and API access. There is a 30-day trial. If publishing is the only part you need, a publishing-focused Sprout Social alternative sets out what that does and does not replace.
- Publishing, reporting, monitoring and engagement in one system
- Unlimited profiles from Professional, with competitor insights
- Sentiment analysis and API access on Advanced
Against it
- About twice Hootsuite Standard's price per seat at entry level
- Standard stops at five social profiles
From $199 per seat/mo billed yearly ($249 monthly); 30-day trial.
When to stay on Hootsuite
Stay on Hootsuite if you have a team, an approval chain and a reporting obligation, and the seat price is not the problem. Roles, permissions and multi-stage approvals are a real product. Agorapulse, Sprout Social and Vista Social are the team tools on this list. The first two bill per user too, and Vista Social includes a set number of users in each plan, so moving saves money only if their rates or plan limits suit your team better. Stay if you need social listening — that is a genuinely hard thing to build and most tools on this page do not attempt it. Publishing is the easy half of what Hootsuite does; if publishing is all you use, you are paying for the other half.
How to move without losing a week
- Work out what you actually used. Most Hootsuite leavers use publishing and one report. Write the list down before you shop — it usually shrinks the requirement dramatically.
- Export streams and scheduled content. Scheduled posts export cleanly. Streams and saved searches do not transfer anywhere; plan to rebuild or drop them.
- Check the export before you import it. Paste the exported schedule into the free schedule validator, which flags duplicates and dead hours before they reach a live queue.
- Check the analytics gap. If you needed the reporting, replace it deliberately — Metricool or the platforms' own dashboards — rather than discovering the gap in month two.
- Reconnect and overlap. Re-authorise each account, then run both for one billing cycle with Hootsuite's queue paused.
The one that catches everyone: access tokens never transfer between tools. Whatever you migrate, every account has to be re-authorised by hand in the new one. Budget an hour and do it before you cancel anything.
What to check before you pick one
Four questions decide this more often than the feature list does. Whether the tool reaches the networks you actually run, and what each network's API lets any tool do — several of them permit far less than the marketing implies, and the per-network pages say which. Whether you can drive it from a REST API, a command line or an MCP client, if any part of your posting is already scripted. And whether it tells you when a scheduled post fails, because a tool that reports an API call as a publish hides the one thing you needed to hear about. On the fourth question, cost, the table above shows what each tool counts; PostWharf counts brands, so connecting another channel never changes its bill.
A head-to-head instead
This page is a round-up. If you have already narrowed it to two, the PostWharf vs Hootsuite page does the pricing arithmetic on one specific comparison, with each vendor's published rates and the date they were read.
Common questions
Who are Hootsuite's main competitors?
For publishing to several networks from one place, the main competitors this page compares with Hootsuite are Buffer, Sprout Social, Agorapulse, SocialPilot, Metricool, Later, Publer, SocialBee, Zoho Social and Vista Social, each on this page with its price. They split by what the bill counts. Sprout Social and Agorapulse charge per user as Hootsuite does and cover the same team work: an inbox, approvals and reports. Buffer, Publer, Later, SocialBee, SocialPilot and Vista Social charge by channel, account or profile. Metricool and Zoho Social charge by brand. PostWharf charges one price per brand with unlimited channels and seats, and publishes one post to every account you connect, with a delivery receipt from each network.
What is the cheapest Hootsuite alternative for one person with many accounts?
It depends on what the bill counts. For one brand with ten accounts, the lowest paid price on this page is $15 a month, or $10 billed yearly, on PostWharf Starter, which holds unlimited channels; Zoho Social Standard lists the same price for one brand and one user, with one profile on each network. Metricool's free plan costs nothing but leaves out LinkedIn and X and stops at 20 posts a month, and Postiz costs nothing if you host it yourself and clear the platform reviews. At six brands and thirty channels, two hosted plans here cost less than PostWharf Plus at $67: Metricool Starter at $45 a month, or $36 billed yearly, plus $10 for each X account, and Postiz's hosted Pro plan at $49 for thirty channels. Buffer comes to $135 for the same thirty channels and Publer to $210 on Business. On Hootsuite, one person with thirty accounts needs Professional, at $199 a month.
What do you lose by leaving Hootsuite?
Roles, permissions and multi-stage approvals, and social listening. Those are genuinely hard products, and most of the tools on this page replace none of them. Agorapulse and Sprout Social cover the team side at their own per-user prices. If you have a team and an approval chain, compare those two before you leave, or stay.
Which Hootsuite alternatives have a shared inbox?
On this page, Buffer, Metricool, SocialPilot, Vista Social, Agorapulse and Sprout Social each have an engagement inbox, and Agorapulse's Professional plan adds assigning messages and posts to teammates. Zoho Social has an inbox on Premium. PostWharf does not have an inbox: it publishes, and reports what happened to each post on each network.
Which Hootsuite alternatives handle approvals?
Agorapulse includes simple approval workflows and internal comments on Professional, at $119 a user a month billed yearly. On Hootsuite itself, approval workflows come with Advanced, at $399 a user a month. Sprout Social has message approval workflows on Professional, at $299 a seat a month billed yearly. SocialPilot lets you mark a client as needing approval and send posts for sign-off through a shareable link, with no client account needed. Vista Social offers single and multi-stage approval workflows, and Zoho Social has content approvals on Premium.
Is there an open-source Hootsuite alternative?
Postiz. It is open source under AGPL-3.0 and free to run on your own server, with an MCP server and a CLI. Self-hosting means registering your own developer app with every network and clearing its review, and TikTok will not approve an app for private use, so some networks are closed to a self-hosted install. The hosted version starts at $29 a month for five channels.
Which Hootsuite alternatives have an MCP server?
Several, so an AI assistant can drive them. Buffer, Hootsuite, Postiz, SocialPilot and Metricool all ship an MCP server: Buffer on every plan, Free included, and SocialPilot on every paid plan. PostWharf has one on every plan, beside a REST API and a CLI, all three working the same queue. Later's own site shows no API or MCP server.
Try PostWharf on your own accounts
- One post to every account you connect, on ten networks today
- A delivery receipt from each network, with the reason when one fails
- One price per brand: adding a channel or a teammate never changes it
- A REST API, a CLI and an MCP server on every plan
Thirty channels across six brands cost $67 a month on Plus.
See the plans and start the free week · Check an exported schedule for free
Starter's first seven days are free, then $15 a month. PostWharf takes your card when you subscribe and will charge nothing until the week is out.