The best Hootsuite alternatives
7 tools, ranked by how much of the job each one does. Munshi Social, the AI content marketing engine for small teams, is first, and the reasons to skip it are stated under its own entry.
Prices dated on every entry · Updated September 2026
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If you have no social team, Munshi is the Hootsuite alternative to pick. It does the team's work, writing and publishing articles and posts for one owner-operator price. If you mainly want low-cost scheduling with strong reports, Metricool is next. If you have a social team that needs listening, compliance and multi-team approvals, stay on Hootsuite, because nothing below replaces it. Hootsuite is built for social teams at large organizations. Small businesses leave it because $99 a month buys tools for a team they do not have.
What sends Hootsuite customers shopping
These are Hootsuite's own published terms and the complaints its users repeat in public reviews, stated as fairly as we can. They are not our opinion of the product.
- Standard starts at $99 per user a month on annual billing, and it assumes people whose whole job is social
- AI drafting helps, but your team still runs content from start to finish
- Social only: no blog publishing and no content strategy
- The depth that justifies the price (listening, a unified inbox, permissions) is depth a five-person business rarely uses
The full side-by-side is on Munshi vs Hootsuite.
7 Hootsuite alternatives, in order
Every list ranks tools by how completely they do a small business's content marketing. That means five jobs: strategy, writing, publishing to a blog, publishing to social, and measurement. Munshi does all five without a second subscription, which is why it is first on most lists. It is also the youngest, the narrowest on team features, and holds one account per network per workspace. Where the people leaving a tool are leaving for exactly those things, as agencies with many client accounts are, that need outranks the five jobs, the list says so under this line, and Munshi drops to where it belongs. Prices are quoted from each vendor's pricing page and dated. 1,000 posts and 8 networks are Munshi's own numbers, from our pricing page.
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Munshi Social
Munshi Social is the AI content marketing engine for small teams. It plans the content and writes the articles and the posts. It publishes them to your CMS and your networks and reports the results, all from one weekly approval.
- Best for
- A business where nobody has time to write. The output is the product: 15 articles and 1,000 posts a month, finished and waiting, not a blank editor with an AI button. It suits one or two people running one brand, who would rather read a week's work and say yes than start from an empty composer.
- Price
- $15/mo founding price, locked for life, with two seats and 8 networks and no per-channel fee. Studio runs three brands at $29/mo. The price rises to $49 at public launch.
- The gap
- It holds one account per network per workspace, so four Facebook Pages do not fit. It has two seats, no role hierarchy and five blog destinations (WordPress, Ghost, Webflow, Framer, or Sanity). X is coming soon, the inbox handles comments but not direct messages, and the track record starts in 2026.
Skip to number two if you have a dedicated social team, run social customer service at scale, or need listening and compliance. Those are Hootsuite's strengths, and nothing on this list matches them for less. Skip us in particular if you pay for the unified inbox. Munshi reads comments on six networks and replies on four, with no direct messages at all.
Our own pricing page and the app, September 2026
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Metricool
Metricool is a social media planner with unusually deep analytics. It schedules to eleven networks and puts your ad accounts, your website traffic and up to 100 competitors in the same dashboard. It also has an inbox, a link in bio page, a Looker Studio connector on Advanced, and a free plan that never expires.
- Best for
- A social media manager or agency whose job is reporting, across five or more brands, at a low price per brand. It also suits a one-brand owner who writes their own posts and fits inside 20 a month on the free plan.
- Price
- Free for 1 brand. Starter $20/mo billed yearly ($25 monthly) for 5 brands, or $36 ($45) for 10. Advanced from $53/mo billed yearly ($67 monthly). Prices exclude VAT
- The gap
- It measures what you publish, but it does not write it. The AI assistant drafts one post at a time on 20 credits per brand a month, and there is no blog publishing and no keyword plan. A second login needs Advanced at $53 a month billed yearly, and X is $10 a month per account on every paid plan.
Pricing and features checked against metricool.com/pricing, Metricool's product pages and its help centre on 30 September 2026
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Buffer
Buffer is the lightweight scheduler most people try first. It has a queue, a calendar, clean analytics and a community inbox on every plan. It also has iOS and Android apps, and a free plan that is truly usable, not a demo.
- Best for
- A team that already writes its own posts and wants them queued reliably across two or three channels. It also suits anyone running several accounts on one network, because channels are unlimited on both paid plans. Five Facebook Pages is a normal setup on Buffer and an impossible one in Munshi.
- Price
- Free forever for 3 channels. Essentials $6 per channel a month ($60 a year), Team $12 per channel a month ($120 a year)
- The gap
- It publishes what you bring it. The AI Assistant drafts and reshapes one post at a time while you sit in the composer. There is no blog publishing at any price and no keyword plan. The bill grows with every account: eight channels on Essentials cost $48 a month, or $480 a year. A second login means the Team plan, at double the per-channel rate.
Pricing and features checked against buffer.com/pricing, buffer.com and Buffer's help centre on 17 September 2026
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StoryChief
StoryChief is a content marketing platform for teams that write. It publishes articles and social posts from one calendar to seventeen CMS destinations. It also has editorial approvals with roles and comments, employee advocacy, and an AI assistant metered in credits.
- Best for
- A staffed content team or an agency that needs roles, a review chain and client workspaces. It also suits a site on HubSpot, Drupal, Wix or Contentful, thanks to its long CMS list. Agency plans price per client, not per seat, which is the right shape for that work.
- Price
- Social Calendar $22/mo yearly ($27 quarterly). Articles need Team Editorial at $81/seat/mo
- The gap
- Article publishing starts at $81 a seat a month, and the $22 plan is social only. Billing is quarterly or yearly, never month to month. The AI runs on a credit balance that runs out, and the whole design assumes a person who owns the draft.
Prices re-checked against storychief.io/pricing on 17 September 2026; features, roles and the CMS list checked against its help centre and integrations directory on 29 August 2026
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Later
Later is a visual social media planner that grew up on Instagram. Its users know it for the drag-and-drop grid preview, the Link in Bio page, best-time slots in the calendar and good mobile apps. It publishes to eight networks, and it sits inside a company that also runs influencer campaigns.
- Best for
- An Instagram-first creator or brand that plans the feed by how it looks and writes its own captions. It also suits a small team that wants client approvals, review links and Instagram and Facebook direct messages, from Growth up. Social sets make several brands on one account a normal setup.
- Price
- Starter $18.75/mo billed yearly or $25 monthly, Growth $37.50/mo ($50 monthly), Scale $82.50/mo ($110 monthly). A limited free plan too
- The gap
- It publishes what you write. The AI drafts one caption per credit, from 5 credits a month on Starter, and each profile is capped at 30 posts a month there. Approvals, the inbox and a second user start on Growth. There is no blog publishing, no keyword plan, and its plans are non-refundable.
Pricing and features checked against later.com/pricing, Later's help centre and its about page on 30 September 2026
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SocialBee
SocialBee is a social scheduler built around evergreen recycling. You sort posts into categories and give each one a schedule. It then re-queues the evergreen posts with variations until an expiry date you set. It also has an engagement inbox on every plan and native mobile apps.
- Best for
- A brand with a deep library of evergreen posts, where re-running the best of them is the whole strategy. It also suits anyone who needs more than eight profiles. Plans are sold by profile count, from 5 on Bootstrap to 150 on the largest agency tier.
- Price
- Bootstrap $29/mo, or $24.17/mo billed yearly. Accelerate $49, Pro $99, agency tiers $179 to $449
- The gap
- It is social only. There is no blog publishing and no keyword strategy, only content pillars and a posting rhythm. Post approval starts on Accelerate at $49 a month, so the cheapest plan has no approval step. Analytics history is three months on Bootstrap.
Pricing and features checked against socialbee.com/pricing, its feature pages and its help documentation on 17 September 2026
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Jasper
Jasper is an AI writing platform for marketing teams. It offers brand voices, knowledge assets, audiences, campaign templates and long-form drafting, with agents for marketing workflows on top.
- Best for
- A marketing team that writes a lot and wants an AI that holds one brand voice across several people. It suits a team that already has a scheduler and a CMS workflow it is happy with. Jasper is the strongest writer on this list by some distance.
- Price
- Pro is $69 per seat a month billed monthly, or $59 per seat a month billed yearly. It includes one seat, 2 brand voices, 5 knowledge assets and 3 audiences. Business is quoted, and there is a 7-day free trial.
- The gap
- It drafts, but it does not plan the calendar, publish to your CMS or your networks, or read the results. You still run the rest of your tools around it and pay for them separately.
Pricing checked against jasper.ai/pricing on 17 September 2026
Munshi, on the screens that matter here
You came here because $99 buys a desk, not the work. Here is the whole job in one screen, one weekly sitting and one price.
These are real captures from the app, not mock-ups. The walkthroughs behind them are in the docs.
Choosing a Hootsuite alternative, answered
What is the cheapest Hootsuite alternative for a small business?
Buffer's and Metricool's free plans, which cost nothing. Buffer's covers three channels with 10 scheduled posts each, and Metricool's covers one brand with 20 scheduled posts a month. Among paid tools, Munshi is $15 a month flat for eight networks, with the writing included. Metricool's Starter runs from $20 a month billed yearly ($25 month to month), and SocialBee's Bootstrap is $29. Hootsuite's own entry plan is $99 per user a month on annual billing, for 10 accounts.
Which Hootsuite alternative has a unified inbox?
SocialBee comes closest at this price. Its engagement inbox is on every plan. It carries comments and mentions from Facebook, Instagram, Threads, LinkedIn Pages and X, comments from YouTube, and direct messages on Facebook and Instagram. Buffer's community inbox reaches ten networks. Munshi's Community inbox is comments only, on six networks, with replies on four and no direct messages. If inbox depth is why you use Hootsuite, none of these is a straight swap.
Is there a Hootsuite alternative with social listening?
No, not on this list, and that is worth being clear about. Listening, brand monitoring and competitor benchmarking at Hootsuite's depth are what its price buys. Metricool tracks competitors in a lighter way and comes closest. If listening is a compliance or customer service need, staying on Hootsuite is the right call.
Which alternative works without a dedicated social team?
Munshi, which is built for exactly that case. It proposes the plan, writes the articles and the posts, and publishes them to your blog and your networks. It stops once a week for one approval that usually takes well under an hour. Everything else on this list, Jasper included, assumes somebody decides what goes out and writes it.
Does any of them publish to my website as well as social?
Yes, Munshi and StoryChief. Munshi writes 15 articles a month into WordPress, Ghost, Webflow, Framer or Sanity as part of the $15 plan. StoryChief reaches seventeen CMS platforms, from $81 a seat a month. Hootsuite, Buffer, SocialBee, Later and Metricool are social only, so a blog stays a separate tool and a separate bill.
What about team approvals and permissions?
Munshi is the weakest on this list for a team that reviews each other's work: it has two seats per workspace and no role hierarchy. Hootsuite puts team approval workflows and message routing on Advanced, at $399 per user a month. StoryChief has multi-step approvals with roles and comments on its team tiers. Buffer's Team plan adds approvals and custom access controls at $12 per channel a month.
The trial is the honest pitch
Describe your business and read what Munshi plans and writes for it. The trial gives you 14 days, 3 real articles and 50 posts, with no card. If the output is not better than what you had, you have lost an afternoon.
Other lists: StoryChief alternatives · Buffer alternatives · SocialBee alternatives · Loomly alternatives · Later alternatives · Planable alternatives · CoSchedule alternatives · Metricool alternatives · Blotato alternatives · SocialPilot alternatives · ContentCal alternatives · every comparison