# Metricool Alternatives: 6 Rivals Compared on Price, Users and Limits

> Metricool alternatives compared: Buffer, Hootsuite, Later, Sprout Social, Sendible and SocialBee, with prices, billing periods and where Metricool still wins.

_Source: https://professionalstoolkit.com/articles/metricool-alternatives — The Professional's Toolkit · updated October 2026_

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**$10** — a month per connected X account for X add-ons bought since July 13, 2026, on top of a paid web plan; earlier buyers keep $5 a month while an add-on stays active.



- **$20/mo** — Metricool Starter billed annually, 5 brands
- **1 user** — on Starter; more need Advanced
- **15 days** — refund window, first purchase only


## Why teams start looking beyond Metricool

Metricool's limits sit outside the planner and the reports, in a few specific places. Plans are sized by brands rather than seats: Starter costs $25 a month billed monthly or $20 a month billed annually for up to 5 brands, and Advanced costs $67 a month billed monthly or $53 a month billed annually for up to 15 brands [1]. That bundle is generous. The walls sit around it: X, team features, listening, the inbox and the billing rules. We cover each wall first, then six rivals.

### The X add-on changes the math

X (Twitter) is not included in the price of a Metricool web plan; only the app-store Starter Mobile 5 plan includes the X add-on in its monthly price. On the web you need a paid plan plus the X add-on, which costs $10 a month or $120 a year per connected X account since July 13, 2026 [2]. Earlier buyers keep the legacy $5 rate only while at least one add-on stays active. The Free plan cannot connect X at all, and it leaves out LinkedIn too. For a brand that lives on X, the cost climbs fast. Starter for 5 brands billed monthly plus one X account comes to $35 a month by our arithmetic, and a second X account pushes it to $45. Starter also gets only reduced X analytics; the complete set needs Advanced.

### Teams, approvals and the API wait for Advanced

Starter allows one user. Adding teammates, roles and permissions, post approval, the API, Zapier, Make (the automation tool) and the Looker Studio connector all need Advanced or Custom. Advanced does bring unlimited users, so a growing team is not charged per seat once it gets there. The pain sits in between. A two-person shop that only wants a second login or one sign-off step has to move from the Starter price to the Advanced price. The MCP server is the one exception to this gating: it works on every plan, Free included, with each plan's limits still applying.

### No listening, and an inbox built for small volumes

Metricool has no social listening. The closest tool is the Hashtag Tracker, which sits outside every plan and costs $25 a day per network, with one free day for every four bought. The inbox works per brand, with no unified view across brands, no automatic replies and no message assignment, and you cannot delete or hide comments from it [3]. DM replies must go out within 7 days for Instagram connected through Facebook, or within 24 hours when Instagram is connected directly. For a brand that treats social media as customer service, those are real gaps.

### Free for now, and a short refund window

Two smaller points shape the long-term cost. Studio, Campaign Dashboards and Flows are free on Starter and Advanced for a limited time (Studio and Campaign Dashboards only in a limited form; the full versions already need the Advanced Analytics add-on, from $12 a month on Starter and $36 on Advanced), and Metricool has announced them as future paid add-ons. If your reporting leans on Studio or your DM automation runs on Flows, plan for a price you cannot see yet. Refunds are narrow as well: the 15-day withdrawal right covers the first purchase only, and renewals, later annual cycles and plan changes are not refunded [4]. There is no standard free trial of paid plans. The Free plan, with 1 brand and 20 posts a month, is the way to test it.

## The six alternatives at a glance

| Tool | How it charges | Entry paid plan | Users on entry plan |
|---|---|---|---|
| Metricool | Bundle of brands | $25 a month billed monthly or $20 a month billed annually, up to 5 brands | 1 |
| Buffer | Per channel | $6 per channel a month, or $5 billed yearly | 1 |
| Hootsuite | Per user | $99 per user a month, billed annually | Seats you buy |
| Later | Per Social Set | $25 a month, or $18.75 billed yearly | 1 |
| Sprout Social | Per seat | $79 per seat a month billed annually, $99 billed monthly | 1 (Essentials lists 1 user seat) |
| Sendible | Per plan (bundles of workspaces, 6 profiles each) | $35 a month billed monthly for 1 workspace | Unlimited |
| SocialBee | Per plan | $29 a month, or $24.20 billed annually | 1 |


> 💡 **Count profiles, logins and approvers:** Write down how many profiles you post to, how many people need a login and whether posts need sign-off. Those three numbers pick the cheapest tool better than any entry price.


Read the second column before the third. A per-channel or per-seat price looks small on the page and grows with every profile or person you add, while a bundle looks larger and stays flat until you cross its limit. Count three things before comparing anything: how many profiles you publish to, how many people need their own login, and whether someone has to approve posts. Those three numbers decide the winner far more often than the entry price does.

## Buffer: cheaper for a few channels, open to developers on every plan

Buffer prices per channel. Essentials costs $6 per channel a month billed monthly or $5 billed yearly ($60 per channel a year), and Team costs $12 per channel a month or $10 billed yearly, with lower per-channel rates as volume grows. The free tier covers 3 channels and 1 user, with 10 scheduled posts per channel at a time. Upgrading bills every connected channel, including the first three, and Start Page counts as a channel. Paid plans come with a 14-day trial, and nonprofits get 50% off. Our [Buffer review](/articles/buffer-review) covers the full plan grid.

Buffer fits better when you run one business across a handful of channels, or when developers want access without a big plan. On Essentials billed yearly, five channels come to $25 a month by our arithmetic, or $300 a year. On Team billed yearly, the same five channels come to $50 a month, a little under Advanced at $53 a month billed annually. That Team price buys unlimited users, approval workflows and permissions per channel. The bigger difference is developer access. Buffer offers its API and an official MCP server on every plan, while Metricool keeps its API for Advanced and Custom and offers only the MCP on every plan.

Metricool still wins once you manage several brands. Each brand holds one profile per network for a single bundle price, so five brands on four networks each stay inside Starter. Buffer has no listening or ads management, while Metricool reports on Meta, Google and TikTok ads. Buffer's rebuilt Insights has no custom report builder, demographics or best time to post yet, and no Google Business Profile analytics. Metricool covers competitors, unlimited analytics history on paid plans and PDF or PPT reports. Buffer's inbox also skips Instagram DMs.

## Hootsuite: listening and enterprise controls at a per-user price

Hootsuite charges per user and publishes only annual rates: Standard is $99, Professional $199 and Advanced $399 per user a month billed annually, with Enterprise quoted through sales. It publishes no month-to-month rate and has no free plan. A 14-day trial starts without a credit card, limited to 10-20 posts a day and no bulk scheduling. Its pricing page says you are not charged automatically, while Hootsuite's terms and its help center say a trial with a payment method on file converts and is charged. Standard covers up to 10 social accounts and Professional removes that cap. Annual plans are non-refundable. Our [Hootsuite review](/articles/hootsuite-review) goes through every tier in detail.

Hootsuite is the better pick when social media is a customer care and reputation function. Basic listening comes with every plan, with 7 days of quick search on Standard and 30 days above it. Professional adds 20 benchmarked competitors, and its plans page lists automated inbox replies and workflows, though the help center puts auto-responders and automation rules on Advanced. Advanced adds approval workflows with up to three layers, message assignment and auto-routing. The inbox reaches WhatsApp and Google Business Profile, and ads management sits on every plan. Hootsuite also lists SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001, where we found no published security certification for Metricool. Larger companies will notice that.

Metricool wins clearly on cost. One Hootsuite Standard seat costs $1,188 a year, against $240 a year for Metricool Starter billed annually for up to 5 brands. A team of three on Hootsuite Standard pays $3,564 a year by our arithmetic, while Metricool Advanced costs $636 a year billed annually for up to 15 brands with unlimited users. Hootsuite's Publishing API skips TikTok, YouTube and Bluesky, and its inbox keeps conversations for only six weeks. Without a listening need, that is a lot of money.

## Later: Instagram-first planning, but no X and no API

Later sells plans by Social Set, a group of one profile per platform. Starter costs $25 a month or $18.75 a month billed yearly ($225 a year) for 1 Social Set, 1 user and 30 posts per profile a month. Growth costs $50 a month or $37.50 billed yearly for 2 Social Sets, 2 users and 180 posts per profile. Scale costs $110 a month or $82.50 billed yearly for 6 Social Sets, 4 users and unlimited posts. A creator-focused free tier of 12 posts per profile a month appears only in the help center. Paid plans start with a 14-day trial that needs a credit card and converts to a paid plan automatically unless cancelled, and plans are non-refundable except case by case. See our [Later review](/articles/later-review).

Later suits brands whose social life runs through Instagram, TikTok and creators. The visual calendar comes with an Instagram grid planner, the shoppable Link in Bio takes up to 5 links per Instagram post and collects emails, and Growth adds product tagging, internal and external approvals, a social inbox (in beta, desktop only) and UGC collection. Scale adds brand mentions on Instagram and TikTok, sentiment on those two plus Facebook Pages, and benchmarking of up to 20 Instagram competitors. For influencer programs there is Later Influence, a separate quote-only platform with creator search, campaigns and payouts. That is a different job.

Metricool wins on reach and openness. Later removed X support on August 28, 2025, while Metricool can still publish to X with a paid plan and the X add-on at $10 a month per account. Later has no public API, no Zapier and no Bluesky or Google Business Profile support. Its plans also cap posts, at 30 per profile a month on Starter, while Metricool publishes without a monthly cap under its fair use threshold of 600 posts per brand a month. On AI, Later's privacy policy lets it train its own models on customer content, whereas Metricool's terms say its AI providers may not.

## Sprout Social, Sendible and SocialBee: three more to weigh

All three have full reviews of their own: our [Sprout Social review](/articles/sprout-social-review), [Sendible review](/articles/sendible-review) and [SocialBee review](/articles/socialbee-review) cover every tier. Treat every figure as a current list price and check it again before buying. Each one answers a different Metricool limit. Sprout Social answers the inbox and listening question, Sendible the per-seat question for agencies, and SocialBee the question of keeping a content library posting on its own.

### Sprout Social

Sprout prices per seat, with annual and month-to-month rates. A new Essentials plan costs $79 per seat a month billed annually, or $99 billed monthly, for up to 5 profiles with optimal send times. Standard costs $199 per seat a month billed annually ($249 billed monthly) with 5 profiles, a consolidated inbox, keyword and location monitoring, the Trellis AI agent and review management. Professional, at $299 per seat a month billed annually ($399 billed monthly), opens unlimited profiles and competitor insights, and Advanced, at $399 per seat a month billed annually ($499 billed monthly), adds the API, helpdesk integrations and sentiment in the Smart Inbox. Listening and Premium Analytics are separate paid add-ons from Standard up. You can try it for 30 days with no credit card required. All annual plans renew automatically: those paid upfront in the app are cancelled in the billing page before the renewal date, while annual plans paid monthly and invoiced plans need 30 days' notice by email. Sprout gives no refunds on cancellation or downgrade.

Sprout fits a team where social media doubles as customer care, with reviews, monitoring and inbox sentiment in one place. Metricool wins on price by a wide margin. One Sprout Standard seat at $199 a month billed annually costs more than Metricool Advanced for 50 brands at $159 a month billed annually, which comes with unlimited users. Both keep the API for their Advanced plans, but only Sprout multiplies that plan by seats. For a small team that mostly publishes and reports, the per-seat model is hard to justify.

### Sendible

Sendible lists five plans on its home page, billed monthly with 15% off for annual billing, and unlimited users on all of them. These workspace plans have been rolling out since August 2026, and some older accounts remain on per-user legacy plans. Core costs $35 a month for 1 workspace and 6 profiles, Plus $99 for 3 workspaces and 18 profiles, Premium $199 for 7 workspaces and 42 profiles, Elite $299 and Enterprise $750 for the largest setups. Core already has unlimited AI credits, bulk scheduling and a reply inbox. White label is a paid option on Elite and Enterprise. Every plan starts with a 14-day trial with no card to start; a card added during the trial is billed when it ends.

Sendible suits agencies that want clients and staff inside the tool without paying per head, and it publishes to X and WordPress among its networks. On Metricool, X still needs a paid plan and the add-on at $10 a month per account. Sendible also states an average email response time of 6 hours on Core and 5 hours above it; Metricool publishes no response times. Metricool wins on approvals by price, though. Approval on Sendible starts at Plus for $99 a month billed monthly, against Metricool Advanced at $67 a month billed monthly for up to 15 brands. Each Sendible workspace holds only 6 profiles, roughly one brand's worth.

### SocialBee

SocialBee sells Bootstrap at $29 a month or $24.20 billed annually ($290 a year) for 5 profiles and 1 user, Accelerate at $49 or $40.80 ($490 a year) for 10 profiles, and Pro at $99 or $82.50 ($990 a year) for 25 profiles, 5 workspaces and 3 users per workspace. Extra users cost $10 a month each. A 14-day trial of Pro needs no card, posting stops when it ends, and the pricing page promises a 30-day money-back guarantee on the first purchase, twice the length of Metricool's 15-day first-purchase window.

SocialBee suits solo marketers who want AI to carry the content load. Copilot builds a strategy from your website address, AI captions and images have no monthly cap on any plan (fair use; SocialBee says this may change), and content categories keep an evergreen library in rotation. It publishes directly to Google Business Profile and Bluesky, while Facebook groups go through mobile reminders you publish by hand. Its help center describes direct X posting as a $10-a-month add-on, and its pages disagree on who needs it. It links to Zapier, Pabbly and Make (the automation tool). Metricool wins on depth per dollar. Neither entry plan has post approvals (SocialBee adds them on Accelerate, Metricool on Advanced). Bootstrap keeps analytics for only 3 months, while Metricool's Starter keeps unlimited history and adds 100 competitors, ads reporting and PDF reports. Five SocialBee profiles also cover less ground than five Metricool brands.

## What reviewers say about Metricool


**What users rate it, by platform**

| Platform | Rating | Reviews | As of |
|---|---|---|---|


_Rendered from our current record; these are other platforms' user scores, separate from our own Toolkit Score._


The review picture is mostly kind, with one soft spot. Business-software review sites rate Metricool well, and Trustpilot leans positive too. The app stores are weaker, with a middling Android rating and a low score on the US iOS store. Low-star Trustpilot reviews cluster around support, posts that failed or never published, lost analytics data and login problems. Read that as a map of where complaints come from, not as a trend. It matches the product: the mobile apps lack SmartLinks, Ads, Studio, Flows and user management, and support runs through chat and email only, with no phone and no published response times.


> ⚠ **Free features may get a price:** Limited Studio and Campaign Dashboards, plus Flows, are free on Starter and Advanced for a limited time, and Metricool has announced them as future paid add-ons. Full Studio and Campaign Dashboards already need the Advanced Analytics add-on, from $12 a month on Starter and $36 on Advanced.


## Who should stay with Metricool

Stay if you manage several brands on a small budget. By our arithmetic, Starter billed annually works out to $4 a brand a month across 5 brands, and Advanced billed annually comes to about $3.53 a brand a month across 15. None of the rivals above gets close to that for multi-brand work. Advanced also adds unlimited users, roles, post approval, the API and the Looker Studio connector, so an agency can grow its team without a per-seat bill. **Brand-based pricing** is the strongest reason for a small agency to stay.

Stay as well if analytics and ads matter as much as publishing. Metricool reports on Meta, Google and TikTok ads and builds Meta and Google campaigns. It tracks competitors and covers Google Business Profile, Threads, Bluesky and Twitch analytics. The MCP server works on every plan, Free included, so AI assistants can read your analytics and schedule posts without an upgrade. Leave if you need listening, a care-grade inbox, a second user below the Advanced price, or many X accounts.


> 💡 **Test on the Free plan first:** Metricool has no standard trial of paid plans. Its Free plan gives 1 brand and 20 posts a month, enough to judge the planner before you compare rivals.



## FAQ

**What is the best Metricool alternative?**

It depends on the gap. Hootsuite includes basic listening and a deeper inbox, Sprout Social has a deeper inbox from Standard and sells Listening as a paid add-on from Standard up, Buffer is cheaper for one brand on a few channels and opens its API on every plan, and Later is built around Instagram and creators.

**Is there a cheaper alternative to Metricool?**

For a single brand on a few channels, Buffer Essentials can come close: $5 per channel a month billed yearly. For several brands, Metricool Starter at $20 a month billed annually for up to 5 brands is hard to beat.

**Which Metricool alternative includes social listening?**

Hootsuite includes basic listening on every plan (7 days of search on Standard, 30 above), Later offers brand mentions on Scale for Instagram and TikTok only, and Sprout Social sells Listening as a paid add-on from Standard up. Metricool has no listening, only the pay-per-day Hashtag Tracker.

**Does Metricool include X (Twitter)?**

No. On the web plans, X needs a paid plan plus the X add-on: $10 a month or $120 a year per connected X account for add-ons bought since July 13, 2026 (earlier buyers keep $5 a month while at least one add-on stays active). The app-only Starter Mobile 5 plan includes the X add-on.

**Which alternatives include unlimited users?**

Sendible includes unlimited users on all its current plans (some older accounts remain on per-user legacy plans), and Buffer on its Team plan. On Metricool, unlimited users start with Advanced at $53 a month billed annually for up to 15 brands.

**Can I get a refund from Metricool if I switch?**

Only within 15 days of your first purchase. Renewals, later annual cycles and plan changes are not refunded.


## The bottom line

Metricool remains the cheapest per brand in this group for small teams and agencies that publish and report across several brands. Its limits are specific and easy to check against your own needs: X costs $10 a month per account for new buyers on top of a paid web plan, team features and the API wait for Advanced, there is no listening, and the inbox is basic. If listening and customer care drive your work, look at Hootsuite or Sprout Social. If you run one brand on a few channels or need cheap API access, Buffer is the closer fit, and Later suits Instagram-led creator brands that can live without X.



## Sources

[1] Metricool Pricing ▷ Find The Best Plan Social Ads Report 2026: Real Data on What Works on Meta and TikTok [Download it now] ➔ Product Report — https://metricool.com/pricing/ (2026-10)
[2] Metricool Help: x twitter access in metricool — https://help.metricool.com/x-twitter-access-in-metricool-2bt66 (2026-10)
[3] Metricool Help: inbox manager how to manage messages and comments from metricool — https://help.metricool.com/inbox-manager-how-to-manage-messages-and-comments-from-metricool-s9zze (2026-10)
[4] Metricool Help: metricool refund policy — https://help.metricool.com/metricool-refund-policy-0lrpo (2026-10)
[5] Metricool Help Center — https://help.metricool.com/plans-add-ons-and-api-access-explained-xux1u
[6] G2, Metricool reviews — https://www.g2.com/products/metricool/reviews