5 Best Alternatives to Sprout Social in 2026
By Noahlast updated pricing verified
The best alternative to Sprout Social is Hootsuite. Other top alternatives are Agorapulse and Buffer — 5 options compared below with verified pricing, pros and cons, and honest weaknesses.
How we picked
- Fit first: every listed tool replaces the core job of the product on this page.
- Pricing is read from each vendor's pricing page; the verification date is shown above.
- Third-party review scores are displayed with counts and linked to their source.
- Likes and “I use this” marks from signed-in users feed the ordering.
Paid placement never alters editorial rank — read the full methodology.
Sprout Social alternatives at a glance
| Alternative | Best for | Learning curve | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sprout Socialreference | an in-house brand team that handles social customer care (comments, DMs, WhatsApp messages and reviews) in one shared inbox next to its publishing calendar | Moderate | From $79/mo |
| Hootsuite | running publishing, a shared social inbox and brand monitoring for a mid-size brand from one per-seat tool | Moderate | From $99/mo |
| Agorapulse | an agency or in-house team managing up to 10 brand profiles that needs a shared inbox and wants to prove social ROI with Google Analytics data | Moderate | From $79/mo |
| Buffer | a solo creator or small business scheduling posts to a handful of social channels without paying per user | Low | Free tier · paid from $5/mo |
| Later | planning and auto-publishing an Instagram and TikTok content calendar with a shoppable Link in Bio page | Low | From $18.75/mo |
| Cadenus | a small or mid-size agency that needs client video approvals and scheduled publishing across 8 to 45 brands for one flat monthly price | Low | Custom pricing |
Sprout Social
Hootsuite
Agorapulse
Buffer
Later
Cadenus1Hootsuite — best Sprout Social alternative for running publishing, a shared social inbox and brand monitoring for a mid-size brand from one per-seat tool
Per-user suite with publishing, a unified inbox, analytics and social listening, the product most often evaluated head-to-head with Sprout; Hootsuite Standard costs $99 per user per month billed annually against $199 for Sprout's first inbox tier.
Pros
- Social listening, competitor monitoring and a unified inbox are included from the Standard plan.
- Publishes to 9 networks, including Threads, Bluesky and Pinterest, with unlimited scheduled posts.
- 100+ integrations plus MCP connectors for ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot and Gemini.
- 14-day free trial with no credit card, and nonprofits can apply for discounted rates.
- Enterprise covers SSO, 13 months of listening history, Salesforce integration and employee advocacy in one contract.
Cons
- No free plan, and per-user pricing from $99 a month on annual billing is many times Buffer's or Later's entry price.
- Standard is capped at 10 social accounts; unlimited accounts start at $199 per user per month.
- Approval workflows and message routing require Advanced at $399 per user per month.
- Trial accounts are limited to 10-20 posts per day per organization and cannot bulk schedule.
Pricing: From $99/mo (verified )
2Agorapulse — best Sprout Social alternative for an agency or in-house team managing up to 10 brand profiles that needs a shared inbox and wants to prove social ROI with Google Analytics data
Per-user social inbox, publishing and ROI reporting suite at $79 to $149 per user per month billed annually, chosen by teams that want Sprout-style engagement tools, including Google review replies, at a lower seat price.
Pros
- Social ROI reports tie posts to Google Analytics traffic on every plan, and to conversions and revenue on Advanced.
- Google Business Profile reviews are answered from the same inbox as comments and DMs on every plan.
- Covers Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn pages and personal profiles, TikTok, YouTube, Threads, Pinterest, Bluesky and Google Business Profile.
- Support runs 24/7, with first-response targets from under 6 hours on Standard to under 1 hour on Advanced.
- 30-day trial with no credit card, and MCP access for ChatGPT and Claude on every plan.
Cons
- X (Twitter) is not included: publishing costs $29 and full inbox and reporting $69 per X profile per month.
- Each plan includes only 10 profile slots regardless of seat count; extra profiles cost $10 to $15 a month each.
- Approvals start on Professional, saved replies and bulk scheduling on Advanced, and Slack, HubSpot and Salesforce integrations only on Custom.
- Standard includes email support only and keeps 6 months of data.
Pricing: From $79/mo (verified )
3Buffer — best Sprout Social alternative for a solo creator or small business scheduling posts to a handful of social channels without paying per user
Scheduler billed per channel rather than per seat, free for 3 channels and $10 per channel per month on Team billed yearly, for teams that mainly need publishing and simple comment replies rather than Sprout's case management.
Pros
- Free-forever plan for 3 channels with scheduling, AI Assistant, insights, comment replies and API access.
- Publishes to 12 networks, including Bluesky, Mastodon, Threads, Substack and Google Business Profile.
- The Team plan adds unlimited users at no per-seat cost, with approval workflows and channel-level access.
- Volume discounts cut the per-channel rate after 10 channels, and nonprofits get 50% off paid plans.
- Buffer publishes its revenue, salaries and pricing rationale openly.
Cons
- Per-channel billing adds up for agencies and multi-brand teams: 25 channels cost $180 a month on Team billed monthly.
- No social listening, brand monitoring or competitor benchmarking.
- The free plan keeps only 30 days of analytics and 10 queued posts per channel, and approval workflows require Team.
- Card payments only: Buffer does not accept PayPal, checks or bank transfers.
Pricing: Free tier · paid from $5/mo (verified )
4Later — best Sprout Social alternative for planning and auto-publishing an Instagram and TikTok content calendar with a shoppable Link in Bio page
Visual planner for Instagram, TikTok and Pinterest with Link in Bio pages, priced by social set from $18.75 per month billed yearly; it competes with Sprout's publishing for creator-led brands that do not need review management.
Pros
- Visual calendar and feed preview suited to planning Instagram, TikTok and Pinterest content.
- Link in Bio with linked posts, email capture and Google Analytics tracking is included on every plan.
- Schedules Snapchat Spotlight and Stories, LinkedIn, Threads and YouTube Shorts alongside Instagram and TikTok.
- Growth adds external approval links so clients without a Later account can review posts.
- Annual billing saves 25%, and Scale adds brand mentions, brand health and benchmarking against up to 20 competitors.
Cons
- No free plan, and no X (Twitter) or Bluesky publishing.
- Starter limits posting to 30 posts per profile per month, 1 user and 3 months of analytics, with no add-ons.
- Pricing by social set means a second Instagram account requires a second set, which Starter does not allow.
- App Store reviews report auto-publish disconnections and failed posts, and the Android app rates 3.6/5 on Google Play.
Pricing: From $18.75/mo (verified )
5Cadenus — best Sprout Social alternative for a small or mid-size agency that needs client video approvals and scheduled publishing across 8 to 45 brands for one flat monthly price
Agency publishing tool with client approval links at one flat price per agency (39 to 129 euros a month), an option for agencies that need scheduling and approvals without Sprout's per-seat billing.
Pros
- Flat per-agency pricing with unlimited posts, and clients and approvers never count as seats.
- Native publishing through official APIs to Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, LinkedIn, YouTube and X, with per-platform previews, first comments and link shortening.
- MCP server with 29 tools, a shell skill and a REST API let Claude, Claude Code, Codex and Cursor draft and schedule posts within approval rules.
- Covers agency operations beyond scheduling: production pipeline, time tracking, revenue and margin per client, and white-label reports.
- Automatic HEVC-to-H.264 conversion and 30 GB background uploads handle phone and 4K video.
Cons
- No Pinterest, Threads, Bluesky or Google Business Profile publishing, and X costs €5 per account per month extra.
- No free plan: the 7-day trial requires a card, and prices are set in euros.
- Young product from a small team, with a public changelog that begins in May 2026 and no native mobile apps listed.
- The ChatGPT connector excludes the four publishing tools, and API uploads are capped at 300 MB per file.
Pricing: Custom pricing (verified )