The 11 Best Social Media Management Tools in 2026 — Tried + Tested

Social media management tools can help take the admin of social media off your plate — so you can focus on the fun stuff. Here’s a list of the 11 best tools available right now.

Hootsuite is a pretty powerful social media management tool. But its $99 per month starting price puts it out of reach for a lot of creators, entrepreneurs, and small businesses — and that's before you even get to the plan most people actually need.

Hootsuite's free plan was discontinued back in 2023, so there's no way to get Hootsuite for free beyond the 30-day trial. When the free plan was axed (RIP), existing users were nudged toward the $99 per month Standard plan. It's billed annually, which means a lump sum of $1,188 upfront.

Some customers chose to upgrade to keep their access to the social media scheduling tool. But for a lot of creators and small teams, $99 a month is a real stretch, especially when you're already juggling a stack of tools just to keep your content running.

An extra $2,388 a year has to earn its place in the budget.

The good news: you have options. There are plenty of solid social media management tools out there, and a few of them do things Hootsuite doesn't, often at a fraction of the price (sometimes free).

Not sure if you should make the leap? Here are a few common reasons creators and small teams start exploring other platforms:

• Budget: the monthly fees add up fast, especially when you're paying annually
• Analytics: wanting something deeper, clearer, or just easier to actually read
• Workflow: simpler scheduling, approvals, or engagement tools that don't require a learning curve
• Interface: a calmer, less cluttered dashboard that keeps the focus on creating
• Platform coverage: needing support for newer networks like Threads, Bluesky, or Mastodon that your current tool doesn't cover
• AI tools: looking for built-in AI to help generate ideas, draft posts, or repurpose content across channels

If any of those hit close to home, the alternatives below are worth a look.

Key takeaways

• Best overall value: Buffer offers a robust free plan and affordable per-channel pricing ($6 per month), making it the top choice for small teams.
• Best for Instagram: Later remains the leader for visual-first planning and aesthetic grid management.
• Best for enterprise: Sprout Social is the most powerful alternative for large teams needing CRM integration and advanced social listening.
• Best for multi-content: CoSchedule is ideal for those managing blogs and newsletters alongside social media.
• Pricing reality: Since Hootsuite discontinued its free plan and starts at $99 per user per month, most alternatives listed offer significant cost savings for creators.

Hootsuite alternatives at a glance

1. Buffer

Price: Free, with paid plans starting at $6 per channel per month.

At Buffer, we are really into transparency. We're also pretty open about how we operate. You can find everything from product metrics to salaries on our public transparency hub, if you're curious.

So, full transparency: I work at Buffer, so I'm not exactly neutral here. But I've worked as a social media manager and creator for more than a decade, long before starting at Buffer.

But I keep coming back to Buffer because it covers the features most creators and small teams actually need — without the price tag that makes you wince every month.

The free plan includes some genuinely useful features:

• Schedule up to 30 posts across three channels: Buffer's free plan lets you publish and schedule up to 30 posts (10 per channel), which is significantly more than most other free plans. You'll also be able to choose from a broad range of different channels, including Twitter/X, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Google Business, Pinterest, Mastodon, YouTube, Threads, and Bluesky.
• Drag-and-drop social media calendar: The intuitive calendar shows all scheduled posts and drafts at a glance, so you can monitor all your social accounts from a single dashboard, in real time.
• Create Space: A free content library where you can save and plan out all your ideas, which is something I find incredibly helpful in my content creation workflow. It has powerful organizational features, like tags and a Kanban view, to help you keep track of your content.
• Start Page: Set up your own beautiful link-in-bio landing page within minutes. You can even schedule updates to your Start Page as you would your social channels.
• Buffer's AI Assistant: Creating enough content for all your social media profiles all the time can be overwhelming, which is where our AI Assistant can help. The AI Assistant can draft posts for your schedule, repurpose content you've already created, and keep the ideas coming when you're running low so you can spend more time on the stuff that actually matters. Unlike many social media tools, Buffer's AI Assistant is available on the free plan with unlimited usage.
• Reply to comments: Say goodbye to posting and ghosting, and boost your engagement by 5% to 42%. Buffer's Community tab helps you manage all your social media comments and replies in one place.
• Analyze your performance: The free version gives you access to 30 days of easy-to-understand analytics on each post to help you understand what's working and what you need to tweak.
• Crosspost: Draft a post once and customize it for each platform before publishing, making it easy to manage multiple channels from a single composer.

Buffer's paid plans

If you're looking to manage more than three social media accounts or need more in-depth social media analytics, you might want to check out Buffer's other plans:

• Essentials: $6 per month per channel
• Team: $12 per month per channel

Analytics tools and reports

Buffer's analytics will help you make sense of all the metrics available across channels to draw conclusions so you can take action. You'll find answers to questions like: "When is the best time to post on Instagram for me?" and "How often should I be posting?"

You'll also be able to generate custom reports you can download and share (essential in content marketing).

All of Buffer's paid plans come with a 14-day free trial, so you can put all the advanced features to the test to see if they're really necessary for you right now.

2. Sendible

Price: 14-day free trial, with plans starting at $29 per month thereafter. 

Sendible is a no-frills, no-fuss social media management platform at an affordable price. It connects with Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, and Google Business, and the streamlined dashboard lets you view your scheduled, draft, and undelivered posts at a glance.

The tool also has a handy tasks system where team members or clients can assign to-dos related to the content calendar. It's great for agencies and teams that need to stay organized. It also has a social inbox, so you can manage comments and messages without leaving the platform.

Along with social media management tools, Sendible users can generate instant social media analytics reports for all their connected channels. The reports are presentation-ready, which is helpful if you're sharing updates with clients or stakeholders.

3. Metricool  

Price: Free up to a limit of 20 posts per month, with paid plans starting at $25 per month. 

Metricool is a user-friendly social media management platform with a genuinely useful free plan. You can schedule up to 20 posts per month at no cost, which makes it a solid option if you're just getting started. The platform supports scheduling and automation for multiple social media platforms and also allows for bulk scheduling across social channels.

One of the platform's key features is its heat-map-style planner, which shows users the best times to post their content.

Along with scheduling, Metricool offers competitor tracking and influencer analytics, which are useful features if you're managing social for a brand that works with influencers or wants to keep a close eye on the competition. The tool has slick approval workflows for social media posts and a central social inbox for comments from the majority of its connected platforms.

4. Later

Price: 14-day trial, with plans starting at $25 per user per month after that.

Later started as an Instagram-focused tool, and visual planning is still where it shines. If maintaining a polished brand aesthetic is a priority, its drag-and-drop content calendar and grid preview make it easy to see exactly how your content will appear before it goes live.

Today, Later has expanded into a broader social media management platform. Alongside scheduling and publishing across major social networks, it offers influencer marketing tools, social listening, analytics, and link-in-bio features in a single dashboard.

Brands can use Later's influencer marketing tools to discover creators, manage campaigns, and track performance, while its social listening capabilities help monitor brand mentions, audience sentiment, and emerging trends.

If you're looking for a platform that combines visual content planning with influencer marketing and social listening tools, Later is well worth exploring.

5. CoSchedule

Price: Free, limited-use plan for one social media profile, with plans starting at $29 per month per user thereafter. 

CoSchedule is a great option if you're managing content beyond social (think a blog, newsletters, and the like) and want to see everything in one calendar. It's a great way to streamline your content marketing efforts.

Along with scheduling on most social platforms (Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, TikTok, Twitter/X, YouTube, Mastodon, and Bluesky), CoSchedule can help you project-manage marketing campaigns that include blog posts, newsletters, and podcasts.

There's also an AI chatbot, Mia, that can help you draft everything from blog posts to message responses.

6. Sprout Social

Price: 30-day trial, with plans starting at $199 per user per month thereafter.

Sprout Social is another great Hootsuite alternative, though it does come at an even steeper price point. That said, it has great team collaboration features and combines several social media tools into one platform, from social media scheduling to social listening to its analytics tool for better reporting.

Sprout Social is one of the few social media management tools that provides customer relationship management (CRM) features. The reports are genuinely easy on the eye and clear enough to share with a client or stakeholder without needing to explain every metric.

7. Agorapulse

Price: 30-day free trial, with plans starting at $99 per month thereafter. 

Agorapulse is a solid option for small marketing teams who are ready to invest in a more feature-rich tool and want something that earns its place in the budget. It connects with most popular social platforms, and it also integrates with Google Analytics to help you measure the impact of your social posts on website traffic.

Along with this, Agorapulse users will have access to a single social inbox to monitor engagement and social listening features, a helpful tool in fine-tuning your marketing strategy. 

The best Hootsuite alternative for you

There’s no single ‘best’ Hootsuite alternative; the right pick comes down to what you need.

Here’s a simple three-step way to figure it out:

1. Jot down two or three features you love (or need) from your current tool.
2. Shortlist platforms that tick those boxes and fit your budget.
3. Test each one for at least a week on a free plan or trial, paying close attention to workflow, analytics, and ease of use.

Within a couple of weeks, you’ll know which platform feels like home.

• On a tight budget? Buffer's free plan gives you three channels, an AI assistant, and a content calendar, with no credit card needed.
• Managing clients or a team? Sendible's task system and Agorapulse's shared inbox are both built for collaboration.
• Need more than social? CoSchedule lets you manage blog posts, newsletters, and social media in a single calendar.
• Is Instagram your main focus? Later's visual planner and hashtag suggestions are hard to beat.
• Want deep analytics and reporting? Buffer's paid plans and Metricool's competitor monitoring both deliver solid insights without the enterprise price tag.

Whether you’re on a social media marketing team or a solo creator, social media management tools are a pretty personal choice. If Buffer ends up being the right fit, we'd love to have you as part of our community. If not, that's OK too; we hope you find the tool that works best for you.

FAQ about Hootsuite alternatives

What is the best alternative to Hootsuite?

The best Hootsuite alternative depends on your goals, budget, and workflow. Popular options include tools that offer social media scheduling, analytics, and engagement features at a lower cost or with simpler interfaces.

Is there a free alternative to Hootsuite?

Yes. Several Hootsuite alternatives offer free plans or free trials. These plans often include limited scheduling, basic analytics, or caps on the number of posts per month, which can work well for creators or small businesses getting started.

Buffer has a free plan that lets you schedule up to 30 posts across three social channels, with no time limit; it's not just a trial. Metricool also has a free tier (capped at 20 posts per month), and CoSchedule offers a free plan for one social media profile. Other tools on this list, like Sendible, Agorapulse, and Later, offer free trials so you can test them before committing.

Why did Hootsuite remove its free plan?

Hootsuite ended its free plan on March 31, 2023, as part of a shift toward paid subscriptions. New users can still access a free trial, but continued use requires a paid plan.

Are Hootsuite alternatives good for small businesses?

Many Hootsuite alternatives are designed with small businesses and solo creators in mind. They typically focus on ease of use, clearer analytics, and more affordable pricing, making them easier to adopt without large upfront costs.

Can I switch from Hootsuite without losing my content?

Your published content and social accounts are yours, so you won't lose them. What you will need to rebuild are any scheduled or queued posts, since those live inside Hootsuite's system and can't be exported. The good news: reconnecting your social accounts to a new tool usually takes just a few minutes, and you can start scheduling again right away.

How do I choose the right Hootsuite alternative?

Start by identifying the features you rely on most, such as scheduling, analytics, engagement tools, or team collaboration. Then narrow your list to platforms that offer those features within your budget. Finally, take your top one or two picks for a spin using a free plan or trial for at least a week. Pay close attention to how the tool fits into your daily workflow — the best tool is the one you'll actually enjoy using.

What is the cheapest social media management tool?

Budget options exist at every level. Buffer's free plan costs nothing and covers three social channels with up to 30 scheduled posts. Paid plans start at $6 per channel per month, one of the lowest entry points you'll find. Metricool also has a free tier (capped at 20 posts per month), with paid plans from $25 per month. If you're watching your spend, starting on a free plan and upgrading only when you need to is a reasonable approach.

Is Buffer cheaper than Hootsuite?

Yes. Buffer offers a free plan and paid plans starting at $6 per channel per month, while Hootsuite's paid plans start at $99 per month.

More social media marketing tools resources

• The 11 Best Social Media Management Tools — Tried + Tested
• 9 Tools for Social Media Automation (+ Automation Pro Tips)
• The Best Social Media APIs for Developers + Vibe Coders
• The Top 10 AI Writing Tools I Recommend as a Professional Writer
• The 21 Best Social Media Marketing Tools to Try
• The 9 Best AI Image Generators of 2026 (+ Examples)
• The 11 Best Social Media Analytics + Reporting Tools