10 Metricool alternatives in 2026, free and paid
Ten Metricool alternatives for people who wanted a scheduler and got an analytics suite, or who hit the per-account X surcharge. What each one costs, who it suits, and when Metricool is still the right tool.
The short answer. The best Metricool alternative for publishing to many accounts, X included, is PostWharf. It sends one post to every account you connect, on ten networks today, keeps a delivery receipt from each network, and charges one price per brand, from $15 a month, with no add-on for X or any other network.
Other picks by need: Buffer for a free plan to start on (three channels); Zoho Social for one brand with reports included (from $15 a month, or $10 billed yearly); Publer for bulk scheduling on a small budget (from $5 a month for one account); Later for an Instagram and Pinterest grid (from $18.75 a month billed yearly); Postiz to run it on your own server (free under AGPL-3.0); SocialPilot for white-label client reports (from $100 a month on Premium, for twenty-five accounts); Agorapulse for a shared inbox with approvals (approvals from $119 a user a month billed yearly, on Professional); Sprout Social for competitor insights inside a full suite (from $79 a seat a month billed yearly on Essentials; competitor insights from $299 on Professional); Hootsuite for analytics plus social listening (from $99 a user a month billed yearly).
Compare PostWharf's plans and try Starter free for a week: one brand, unlimited channels with X among them, 200 posts, and no charge until the seven days are up.
Is there a free Metricool alternative?
Yes: three tools on this page have a free option you can keep. 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.
Metricool has a free plan of its own: one brand and up to 20 scheduled posts a month, without LinkedIn or X, according to its pricing page as of October 2026. So the useful question is which limit hurts. Run several brands, or post to LinkedIn or X, and the free plan is already out. PostWharf's free start is a trial, not a plan you keep: creating an account takes no card, and Starter's first seven days are free with 200 posts and unlimited channels, then it costs $15 a month per brand. For the free plans tested one post at a time, see free Metricool alternatives, checked for reliability.
What the free plans hold
Each free plan stops at a different line, and Metricool's own is the one to beat. Four that are free for good, and one that does not schedule:
| Tool | Free for good | Missing from the free plan |
|---|---|---|
| Metricool, what you have now | 1 brand, 20 scheduled posts a month | LinkedIn and X |
| Buffer | 3 channels, 10 queued posts each, 1 user | A fourth channel, a second user |
| Publer | 3 accounts, 10 scheduled posts each | X |
| Postiz | Everything, on a server you run, under AGPL-3.0 | Hosting, upgrades, and a developer app you get approved by each network yourself |
| Zoho Social | 1 brand of 6 channels and 1 user, after a 15-day trial | Scheduling, by Zoho's own plan table |
Past those lines, the cheapest paid steps below are $5 a month: Buffer per channel, and Publer for one account.
Why people leave Metricool
Metricool is an analytics product with scheduling attached, and the people who leave usually wanted it the other way round. The other common trigger is the X surcharge: X accounts are billed separately per account, which surprises anyone running several. Two smaller ones follow from the plan table. The free plan leaves out LinkedIn and X, so a one-brand user who needs either has to pay, and Metricool keeps its API for the Advanced plan, so anyone who posts from a script is pushed up a tier.
What Metricool costs in 2026
Metricool bills by brand, then adds a charge per X account. Its pricing page, read on 27 October 2026, lists Starter at $25 a month, or $20 billed yearly, for up to five brands. When PostWharf read the same page on 24 September 2026, Starter for up to ten brands was $36 a month billed yearly, Advanced ran from $53 to $159 a month billed yearly for 15 to 50 brands, and each connected X account cost $10 a month on top. Six brands therefore sit in the ten-brand band, at $45 a month or $36 billed yearly. Give each of those brands an X account and the monthly bill becomes $105, which is where the per-account line starts to matter. At the monthly rates, PostWharf Plus, at $67 for up to ten brands with X included, costs less once three of the six brands post to X; with two or fewer, Metricool Starter is the lower figure. For the same sum spelled out vendor by vendor, see the PostWharf vs Metricool page.
The ten at a glance
| # | Tool | Best for | Bills by | Free to start | Paid from |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | PostWharf | Publishing to many accounts, X included | Workspace, one per brand; channels unlimited | First post free; Starter's first seven days are free | $15 a month, or $10 billed yearly |
| 2 | Zoho Social | One brand with reports included | Brand, with users set 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 | Buffer | A plain queue with a free plan | Channel | Free plan: 3 channels, 10 queued posts each | $5 a channel a month |
| 4 | Publer | Bulk scheduling on a small budget | Account | Free plan: 3 accounts, 10 scheduled posts each, no X | $5 a month for one account |
| 5 | Later | Instagram and Pinterest planning | Social set of 8 profiles | 14-day trial | $18.75 a month billed yearly, 1 set and 1 user |
| 6 | Postiz | Running it on your own server | Channel (hosted) | Free to self-host under AGPL-3.0 | $29 a month for 5 channels |
| 7 | SocialPilot | White-label client reports | Accounts, in blocks | 14-day trial, no card | $30 a month for 7 accounts |
| 8 | Agorapulse | A shared inbox with approvals | User | 30-day trial, no card | $79 a user a month billed yearly |
| 9 | Sprout Social | Competitor insights in a full suite | Seat | 30-day trial | $79 a seat a month billed yearly |
| 10 | Hootsuite | Analytics plus social listening | User | 14-day trial | $99 a user a month billed yearly, 10 accounts |
| Metricool, for comparison | Analytics with scheduling attached | 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 |
How we chose these ten
Three tests decided the list. Each tool schedules and publishes to the major networks from one queue. Each publishes its prices, so the cost can be stated with the date it was read. And each answers at least one of the reasons people leave Metricool: a scheduler that is the main product rather than the attachment, a bill that does not grow with X accounts, a free plan with different limits, API access below the top tier, or reporting deep enough that leaving Metricool's analytics does not leave a hole. Ten tools passed all three.
The order follows what the bill counts, since that decides what moving saves. Per brand or workspace come first (PostWharf, Zoho Social), then per channel or account, including sets and blocks of accounts (Buffer, Publer, Later, Postiz, SocialPilot), then per user or seat (Agorapulse, Sprout Social, Hootsuite). Inside each group the lower starting price leads, and a tie goes alphabetically. It is an order by billing model, not a score: the "best for" line on each entry names the reader it fits.
Where the figures come from: PostWharf's from its own pricing page. Metricool's, Buffer's and Hootsuite's free plans and entry prices from each vendor's pricing page on 27 October 2026; Metricool's ten-brand, Advanced and X figures, and Publer's, Later's, Postiz's and SocialPilot's prices, from vendor pricing pages on 24 September 2026; Hootsuite's plan prices from hootsuite.com on 24 September and 16 October 2026; Agorapulse's from 2026 pricing guides read on 16 October 2026; Zoho Social's from its own pricing page in US dollars on 27 October 2026; and Sprout Social's from a web search of 2026 pricing guides on 27 October 2026. Prices move, so check the vendor's own page before you buy.
The 10 options
1. PostWharf
Best for publishing to many accounts, X included
PostWharf is a publishing tool: write a post once, send it to every account you connect, and see on each network whether it went out. It bills 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. Channels are unlimited on every plan, and X publishes like any other network, so a brand's fifth or tenth account never moves the price. Every plan includes a REST API, a CLI and an MCP server, the access Metricool keeps for Advanced. It does not do analytics, which several entries below include.
- 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 that wants reports included
Zoho Social is the social tool inside Zoho's business suite, and like Metricool it bills by brand, where a brand is one profile on each network Zoho supports: 14 on Standard and Professional, 16 on Premium. Its US-dollar pricing page, read in October 2026, 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; Premium is $65, or $40 billed yearly, for one brand and three team members. Reports come with publishing, keyword and hashtag monitoring starts on Professional, and SmartQ suggests posting times on Premium. Extra brands are add-ons from $17 a month on Professional, up to five, and the Agency plan, from $320 a month, covers ten clients. Accounts open with a 15-day trial and no card, then drop to a free plan that, by Zoho's own table, does not schedule.
- 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. Buffer
Best for a plain queue with a free plan to start on
Buffer does the scheduling half of Metricool cleanly, with an engagement inbox and analytics beside it, and it has a free plan for three channels with ten queued posts each and one user. Paid plans bill per channel: Essentials is $5 a channel a month on its pricing page as of 27 October 2026, and the rate drops past ten channels. That suits one brand on a few networks; at thirty channels Essentials came to $135 a month, or $112.50 billed yearly, when PostWharf last did the sum. An API and an MCP server come on every plan, Free included, and there is a CLI.
- 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.
4. Publer
Best for bulk scheduling on a small budget
Publer suits people who schedule in batches: bulk uploads and post recycling are its strengths. Its free plan holds three accounts with ten scheduled posts each, and leaves out X, which matters if the X surcharge is why you are looking. Paid plans start at $5 a month for one account and get cheaper per account as you add more: thirty accounts cost $120 a month on Professional, or $210 on Business at $7 an account ($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.
5. Later
Best if the Instagram and Pinterest grid is the job
Later plans posts visually, so you see how the grid will look before anything goes out, and a link-in-bio page comes with it. It bills by social set, a bundle of eight profiles, with users fixed per 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, all billed yearly. Paid plans begin with a 14-day trial. It is no answer to the X surcharge, because Later stopped supporting X on 28 August 2025, and its 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.
6. Postiz
Best if you want to run it on your own server
Postiz is open source under AGPL-3.0, so running it yourself costs nothing in licence fees, and it ships an MCP server and a CLI. What self-hosting costs instead is platform paperwork: your install needs its own developer app approved by each network, and TikTok will not approve one for private use. The hosted version skips 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.
7. SocialPilot
Best for white-label reports to clients
SocialPilot fits an agency that used Metricool's reports with clients. It manages clients, sends white-label reports from Premium, and lets you send posts to a client for sign-off through a shareable link, with no client login needed. Accounts come in blocks: Essentials is $30 a month for seven, Standard $50 for fifteen with three users, Premium $100 for twenty-five and Ultimate $200 for fifty. Every paid plan has an MCP server, but the API is kept for the custom Enterprise plan. Trials last 14 days and need no card. For the other ways to put reports in front of clients, see client reporting options for schedulers.
- 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.
8. Agorapulse
Best for a team that wants a shared inbox and approvals
Agorapulse suits a team that answered comments in Metricool's inbox and now needs more than one person on it. Standard is $79 a user a month billed yearly, or $99 monthly. Professional, at $119 billed yearly or $149 monthly, adds approval workflows, internal comments, assigning posts and messages to teammates, link in bio, ad comment monitoring and team performance reports. The two most recent 2026 pricing guides say the free plan is gone, and the 30-day trial needs no card. Billing is per user, so a growing team grows the bill.
- 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.
9. Sprout Social
Best for competitor insights inside a full suite
Sprout Social is the move for a team that liked Metricool's competitor benchmarking and wants more of it. Professional adds competitor insights and removes the profile cap; Advanced adds sentiment analysis and API access. Per seat, Essentials is $79 a month billed yearly or $99 monthly, with five profiles; Standard is $199 a month, Professional $299 and Advanced $399 on yearly billing, or $249, $399 and $499 month to month, according to 2026 pricing guides found in a web search on 27 October 2026. Standard also stops at five social profiles, and there is a 30-day trial. Competitor insights, the reason to pick it, start at $299 a seat.
- 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.
10. Hootsuite
Best if you want deeper analytics and social listening
Hootsuite keeps analytics at the centre, as Metricool does, and adds social listening, role permissions and approval workflows for larger teams. It bills per user: Standard is $99 a user a month with 10 social accounts, Professional $199 with unlimited accounts and Advanced $399, at the yearly rates PostWharf read from its plans page on 24 September and 16 October 2026; approval workflows come with Advanced. Its plans page, read on 27 October 2026, offers a 14-day trial and no free plan. It also ships an MCP server. For one person with many accounts, a seat price this high buys a lot of product that goes unused.
- Deep analytics and social listening
- Team approval workflows and role permissions that large orgs need
- Long-established, widely supported in agencies
Against it
- Per-seat pricing is heavy for one operator with many accounts
- The interface carries fifteen years of accumulated surface area
From ~$99/mo per seat.
When to stay on Metricool
Stay on Metricool if you present reports to clients. Scheduling is replaceable; competitor benchmarking and a client-ready report are not, and rebuilding them from platform dashboards is a job. Stay if per-brand pricing already suits you — it is the same model we argue for, and if the X surcharge does not apply to you, the argument for moving is thin.
How to move without losing a week
- Separate the two products in your head. Write down which Metricool features are analytics and which are publishing. If the analytics list is longer, you probably should not move.
- Export the historical reporting. Analytics history rarely transfers. Export what you need to keep before the subscription ends.
- Count your X accounts. The surcharge is per account. Work out the real total before comparing prices, because the headline figure will understate it.
- Rebuild the queue, then check it. Scheduled posts do not move from Metricool to another tool on their own, so recreate them. Before they go live, paste the new schedule into the free schedule validator, which flags duplicate posts and dead hours.
- Reconnect and overlap. Re-authorise each account in the new tool, then run one cycle in parallel with Metricool's queue paused. The guide to switching schedulers without losing posts covers the overlap step by step.
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. Cost is the fourth question, and the table above names the unit each tool bills by. PostWharf bills by brand and prices X like every other network, so adding an X account leaves the bill where it was.
A head-to-head instead
This page is a round-up. If you have already narrowed it to two, the PostWharf vs Metricool page does the pricing arithmetic on one specific comparison, with each vendor's published rates and the date they were read.
Common questions
What is the Metricool X surcharge?
On top of its per-brand plans, Metricool charges $10 a month for each connected X account, a figure read from its pricing page on 24 September 2026. The headline price leaves it out, which is why the bill surprises people. Six brands with an X account each come to $105 a month at Metricool's monthly rates: $45 for Starter plus $60 for X. PostWharf has no per-network add-on, so the same six brands cost $67 a month on Plus.
What do you lose by leaving Metricool?
The analytics and reporting, which is the half of Metricool most of its users are actually paying for. If your list of must-haves is mostly reporting, you should probably stay.
Who are Metricool's main competitors?
For scheduling and publishing across several networks, the competitors this page compares with Metricool are Buffer, Hootsuite, Sprout Social, Agorapulse, SocialPilot, Publer, Later, Zoho Social and Postiz, each with its price above. They differ in what the bill counts. Zoho Social bills by brand, as Metricool does. Buffer, Publer, Later, Postiz's hosted plans and SocialPilot bill by channel, account or a bundle of them. Agorapulse, Hootsuite and Sprout Social bill per user. PostWharf bills one price per brand with unlimited channels, X included, and records a delivery receipt from each network for every post.
What is the cheapest Metricool alternative?
It depends on the number of brands and X accounts. For nothing, Buffer's free plan holds three channels, Publer's three accounts without X, and Postiz costs nothing on your own server once each network approves your app. For one brand with unlimited channels, X among them, PostWharf Starter is $15 a month, or $10 billed yearly; Zoho Social Standard lists the same price for one brand and one user. At six brands with an X account each, Metricool Starter comes to $105 a month at monthly rates and PostWharf Plus to $67. Postiz's hosted plan is lower again, at $49 a month for up to thirty channels.
Which Metricool alternatives have an API or an MCP server?
Metricool ships an MCP server and keeps its API for Advanced. On this page, PostWharf has a REST API, a CLI and an MCP server on every plan, all three working one queue. Buffer has an API and an MCP server on every plan, Free included, plus a CLI. Postiz ships an MCP server and a CLI. SocialPilot has an MCP server on every paid plan and keeps the API for Enterprise. Hootsuite ships an MCP server, and Sprout Social puts API access in Advanced. Later's site shows no API or MCP server.
Send one post to every account, X included
- One post to every account you connect, on ten networks today
- X priced like every other network: no add-on per account
- A delivery receipt from each network, with the reason when a post fails
- A REST API, a CLI and an MCP server on every plan, Starter included
Six brands with unlimited channels cost $67 a month on Plus, whatever the number of X accounts.
See the plans and start the free week · Check a schedule for duplicates, free
Starter's first seven days are free, then $15 a month. Creating an account takes no card; PostWharf takes it when you subscribe and charges nothing until the week is out.