6 Hootsuite Alternatives in 2024 (FREE Platform Offers)

Social media management is no longer anyone’s game and has leveled up in previous years as social media scheduling, management, analytics, and AI tools have emerged left and right. One of the first social media management tools to appear on the market was Hootsuite, launched in 2008. 

However, in the last year, they have changed their plans and offers, one being completely discontinuing their free platform. This has left many small businesses and creators with unfeasible fees and limitations. Thankfully, numerous Hootsuite alternatives offer free and affordable plans for all business sizes and necessities. In this article, we will explain 5 alternative tools to Hootsuite that you can use to manage your social media channels.

Hootsuite Features 

Hootsuite offers a variety of features to support social media manager’s day-to-day tasks. Platform integrations include Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, X, YouTube, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Threads (Beta). 

Users may add other tool integrations such as Google Business Profile, LinkedIn hashtag analytics, and Google Drive. 

Some of the top features include the following: 

Planning and scheduling: 

This feature allows users to plan and schedule social media content. Under Hootsuite’s “Planner” tab access sections “Calendar” and “Content” to view and edit your scheduled content. 

Hootsuite’s Calendar can be viewed in three ways: month, week, or list. When viewing content, filter by post status or social network. You may only drag and drop in the weekly view. 

The Content section displays post statuses, (draft, scheduled, past scheduled, require approval, expired approvals, rejected), in which the content approval process comes into play, offering task assignments to team members, and roles and permissions management. 

One note about the approval process is only available for Enterprise plans. This is a custom plan, but with a team of more than 2 members, this can be upwards of $739/mo. 

Social Media Analytics

Hootsuites’ analytics include report templates, customizable reports, post performance, and the best time to publish for all plans. 

Competitive benchmarking is available for all plans, offering 2 competitors for Professional and Team plans, and 20 for Enterprise users. 

Social listening tools include forecasting, peak detection, historical data, sentiment analysis, and data sources. Only basic tools and sources are available in Professional and Team plans, while Enterprise plans require an add-on for advanced social listening tools. 

Inbox management 

An all-in-one centralized social media inbox is available for all platforms. Basic features are included in Professional and Team plans, while Enterprise features include team assignments, tags, saved and suggested replies, and an auto-responder. 

Hootsuite Platform Takeaways 

Hootsuite is no short of features – from scheduling to social listening, content creation, and inbox management. However, many of these features are limited to the Enterprise plan, which can cash out at unattainable levels for some marketing teams. 

While Hootsuite’s basic features are useful, these include limited user and account connections, thus, increasing the price significantly for any social media team. This tool is more oriented toward large organizations with considerable budgets. 

Why Choose a Hootsuite Alternative? 

Hootsuite is a robust social media management platform for brands such as IKEA, Adobe, and JetBlue, whose marketing teams use Hootsuite. While the tool is robust, Hootsuites’ prices can deter creators, small business owners, and social media managers with smaller budgets. 

In 2023, Hootsuite discontinued its free plan, leaving many businesses with a tough decision – pay more for social management or switch to another tool. Hootsuite does offer a free 30-day trial, requiring credit card information. 

Hootsuite’s three paid plans include: 

• Professional: Includes 1 user and 10 social accounts. Some features include unlimited post scheduling, custom analytics, AI caption, single inox, and listening basics, starting at $99/mo. 

• Team: 3 users with 20 social accounts. This plan includes every feature in the Professional plan plus a link in bio tool, team roles and permissions, DM assignment, and automatic link tracking, to name a few. This plan starts at $249/mo. 

• Enterprise: 5 users and up to 50 social accounts. This plan includes the Professional and Team plan features plus, approval workflow, content library, asset management, and unlimited ad revenue. This custom plan requires a demo request to see pricing options. Teams may add-on users and social networks, separate from the flat rate. 

If you want to lower your monthly social media budget, the following options include affordable, team-friendly tools that don’t need to drain your budget. 

Choosing the Right Social Media Management Software

We can’t speak for everyone on the “best” tools, since each platform differs regarding features, pricing, limitations, user-friendliness, etc. However, when selecting a social media management software for your business, we recommend choosing a tool that meets your brand needs and aligns with your business goals. Here are a few things to consider when picking a platform to manage your social channels: 

User-Interface 

Before implementing a tool into your business or team, you must understand how the platform works. This platform should be user-friendly and easy to use. When testing a tool, ask yourself if you could see yourself using it daily. If you don’t “vibe” with a platform, odds are you aren’t going to utilize it thus, defeating the point of signing up in the first place. 

Pricing 

Next is reviewing each tool’s pricing models and plans. While many platforms have free or inexpensive plans, this can come with account limitations. Social media management platforms can be spendy, and if you’re not careful, you can be charged upwards of $1,000+ monthly. As a small business owner, content creator, or solo-preneur, these costs are impossible. Therefore, finding a tool that fits into your budget is important. Especially if you are a small business owner or emerging creator, spending well over your means is unnecessary. As long as you have a strong strategy, many affordable tools will set you up for success, without breaking the bank. 

Features 

A tool will only be useful if it provides the services your business needs. Before committing to a tool, ensure your plan offers essential features for your brand. Even if the software looks flashy, the pricing is affordable, and the brand is supportive, the goal is to optimize your work rather than add more tools to your kit. Most social media management platforms will have plan breakdowns on their pricing pages, including a list of the available features. Always take a deep dive into this information while researching tools. 

Customer Service 

It’s no secret that great customer service goes a long way. The same is true for social media management platforms. In case there are any errors or failures, you want to be able to rely on a brand’s customer service to help solve the issue. While gathering information about different tools, dive into their customer service. Do they provide live chat support on their website or app? If not, is their contact information easy to find? You can test a brand’s customer service by seeing how they respond to your question or inquiry. 

6 Social Media Management Alternatives to Hootsuite 

As mentioned earlier, Hootsuite is a well-established social media management platform providing useful resources for social media managers, brands, and agencies. 

Thankfully, many alternatives to Hootsuite still offer powerful social media management tools at a reasonable cost. If you’re looking to centralize your social media management and lower your marketing costs, here are five alternate tools to Hootsuite in 2024:

Metricool 

The first alternative to Hootsuite is Metricool. A comprehensive social media management platform, offering a completely freemium platform. This allows social media managers of all shapes, sizes, and experiences to test what centralized social media management looks and feels like. 

What started as a blogging analytics platform became a complete social media tool in 2015. Did you know that Metricool was first called Bloggerespacio? CEOs Juan Pablo Tejela and Laura Montells put their computer science brains together to build a tool that helps brands, businesses, and creators schedule, plan, and measure their social media tasks in one place. 

Metricool is compatible with over 9 social media platforms: Facebook, Instagram, X, LinkedIn, TikTok, Pinterest, YouTube, Google Business Profile, Twitch, Google Ads, and Facebook Ads. This means that not only can you schedule and auto-publish social media content, but you can also create and run advertising campaigns across Google and Meta placements. 

Metricool’s free platform includes scheduling and auto-publishing to all of the above platforms, as well as saving LinkedIn, which is a premium connection. The first premium plan, Starter, starts at $18/month, which includes managing up to 10 brands, planning up to 2,000 pieces of content per month, downloadable social media reports, and unlimited historical data. 

The Advanced and Enterprise plans unlock team member access and a social media approval process so you can work together with your team or clients. You can access integrations such as Zapier and Google Looker Studio for advanced automations and analytics with these plans. The Enterprise plan also offers a white-label option to integrate Metricool completely into a brand’s website or application. 

Metricool is a leading competitor in social media management compared with other social media tools. View all of Metricool’s plans and pricing here. 

Planoly 

Planoly was launched in 2016 as one of the first visual planners for Instagram. Since then it has evolved into a social media planning and scheduling tool for over 8 million creators and brands. Users can schedule and auto-publish content across 7 social media channels: Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, Pinterest, X, and LinkedIn. 

The tool offers a 7-day free trial, with their first “Starter” plan starting at just $14/month. This includes scheduling to 1 “social set”, meaning connections to 1 account for each of the 7 social platforms offered. This includes 1 user and up to 60 uploads a month. 

The “Growth” plan is $24/month and includes 1 social set, unlimited upload, and access for 3 users. The final plan, “Pro”, is $36.50/month and includes everything in the “Growth” plan plus 2 social sets, 6 users, and priority support. 

Users can upload content from Canva, Dropbox, Google Drive, or their devices. They can also access content inspiration with weekly trends, ideas manager, and image and video editing. As this was originally an Instagram-dominate platform, there are some limitations. Stock photos, plan reporting, and analytics are only available for the IG planner. 

Planable 

Planable was also launched in 2016, as a content marketing tool for teams. With team collaboration in mind, this tool takes pride in its approval workflow features. Planable supports Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, X, YouTube, Google Business Profile, TikTok, and Pinterest. 

They offer a completely free platform that allows access to a workspace, to create, review, collaborate, and publish up to 50 pieces of content a month, in one place. The first paid plan, “Basic”, starts at $11/user and includes 60 posts per month, 4 pages per workspace, 2 types of approvals, and feed and calendar views. 

The “Pro” plan starts at $22/month per user and includes everything in the “Basic” plus 150 posts per workspace, 10 pages per workspace, 3 types of approvals, and a grid view. The final paid plan, “Enterprise” has custom pricing and users need to contact Planable to learn more about this plan. This includes unlimited posts, multi-level approvals, list views, a dedicated account manager, and more. 

One of the downsides of Planable is paying for analytics and reporting, which equals $9/month per workspace. If you have multiple workspaces, and users, and want access to analytics, these costs can add up quickly. 

Buffer 

The initial version of Buffer launched in 2010, allowing access to only Twitter at the time. What started as a basic product has transformed into a digital marketing platform. This social media management platform supports connection to Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, X, LinkedIn, Mastodon, YouTube, Google Business Profile, Pinterest, and landing pages. Buffer offers a free plan, as well as a 14-day trial for their paid plans. 

Buffer’s free plan includes up to 3 channels. For example, three channels include 1 Instagram, 1 TikTok, and 1 Facebook account. Users can schedule up to 10 posts a month per channel. This includes other features such as 1,000 ideas, integrations, and calendar views. The free plan doesn’t include account analytics, insights, or reporting. 

The first paid plan, “Essentials” starts at $6/month per channel with unlimited scheduling. This includes all analytics and insights save branded reports and a cover page. Within this plan, only 1 user has access to the platform. 

The “Team” plan starts at $12/month per channel and includes unlimited scheduling. All of the “Essentials” are included in this plan, as well as branded reports a cover page, and unlimited user access. Lastly, the “Agency” plan starts at $120/month for 10 channels and includes both unlimited scheduling and user access. 

Buffer’s access to Shopify makes it stand out amongst many other social media management platforms. However, similar to Planble, you must pay per channel which can become expensive if you have multiple accounts and clients. Another interesting feature of Buffer is its Product Roadmap, which shows its upcoming feature developments. This allows users to see the new features in progress. 

Later 

Later was born from two solutions that began in 2014: Mavrck, an influencer marketing platform, and Later, a social media management platform. In 2024, Mavrck and Later merged to create a unified influencer and social media management platform. 

This platform offers four plans: Starter, Growth, Advanced, and Agency. New users can start a 14-day trial to test Later’s plans. Later supports Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, LinkedIn, Pinterest, X, and YouTube. Later uses what is called “social sets”, which means 1 of each of the connected platforms. 

The “Starter” plan starts at $16.67/month and includes auto-publishing for 1 social set, the best times to post, an AI caption writer, a creator database, a link-in-bio tool, and human support from their team. This plan is best for individual creators, business owners, or social media managers. One thing to note about this plan is users can’t purchase extra sets or users. This also doesn’t include Instagram product tagging, post campaigns, search for creators and limited analytics. 

Later’s “Growth” plan starts at $30/month including 3 social sets for 3 users. This includes 150 posts per social profile, collaboration tools for brands and creators, analytical data of up to 1 year, and unlimited team management. 

The final paid plans, “Advanced” and “Agency”, start at $53.33/month and $133.33/month respectively. The main difference between these plans is the social sets, the “Advanced” including 6 and “Agency” including 15. As you go up in plans, users have more AI feature credits.

Besides the “Starter” plan, users can purchase social sets and user access, at $10/month and $3.33/month respectively. Users can also purchase extra credits for $3.33/month to access more AI features. 

Sprout Social 

Sprout Social was founded in 2010 by CEO Justyn Howard. Core features include engagement, publishing, and analytics. Social platforms include Instagram, X, Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn, TikTok, Threads, YouTube, and Google Business Profile. Other integrations include Bit.ly, Canva, Google Drive, Slack, and more. 

With AI-powered solutions and DM automations, Sprout Social aims to provide optimized customer experiences. The social media calendar allows users to schedule content at optimal times, with the ability to access content suggestions, an asset library, URL tracking, and more. 

Inside Sprout Social’s analytics, interactive charts and graphs visualize data, with multiple perspectives. Users can access social network reports and cross-network group reports, amongst other features. 

Sprout does not offer a free plan, only a 30-day free trial. Plans include the following: 

• Standard: $199 per seat/month. This includes 5 social media profiles, a centralized inbox, scheduling, publishing, a content calendar, reporting, and more. 
• Professional: $299 per set/month. This includes everything in the Standard plan plus, unlimited social profiles, competitive reports for Instagram, Facebook, and X, message tagging, custom workflows, saved replies, and more. 
• Advanced: Starting at $399 per seat/month, this includes everything in the Professional plus message spike alerts, AI assistant, chatbots with automation tools, sentiment in inbox and reviews, automated link tracking, and more. 
• Enterprise: Lastly, the Enterprise plan requires contact for pricing. However, this includes all plan features plus tailored implementation and onboarding, consulting services, and 24/7 customer support. 

*Sprout Social offers other premium solutions, separate from plan features. These include social listening, premium analytics, employee advocacy, and influencer marketing.

Conclusions 

When searching for a social media management tool, your team must be on the same page before signing on. Beyond pricing, ensure all tools and features fit your brand’s marketing goals, without compromising your budget. 

At Metricool, we offer affordably tiered plans to fit each team’s goals. While no tool is “perfect” it’s important to do the research beforehand, so you don’t waste subscriptions or time trying on platforms. 

Want to learn more about what Metricool offers? Check out all offered features below: 

Anniston Ward , 12 August 2024