Metricool Buyer's Checklist: What to Check Before You Pay in 2026

Start by counting brands, not accounts

Metricool sizes every plan by the brand, so the first check is a headcount. A brand holds one profile per social network, plus one website or blog. One business with Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, LinkedIn and YouTube fits in a single brand. Two Instagram accounts for the same company do not: each needs its own brand. Local businesses face the sharpest version of this rule, because each Google Business Profile location needs a brand of its own. A bakery with three shops is three brands before it posts anything. Get this number right and the plan size usually picks itself.

• List every client, product line or location that has its own social presence on any network.
• Count any network where you run two or more profiles, since each extra profile on that network is another brand.
• Count each Google Business Profile location as a separate brand, even when the locations share one company page elsewhere.
• Add one or two spare slots for growth, then match the total to a plan size.

The sizes are fixed steps, and Free is a single brand that cannot be swapped for another. Starter covers up to 5 brands at $25 a month billed monthly or $20 a month billed annually, and up to 10 brands at $45 or $36 a month ^[1]. Advanced covers up to 15, 25 or 50 brands, and Custom starts above 50. The awkward step is the 11th brand. Starter stops at ten, so one more client moves you to Advanced at $67 a month billed monthly or $53 a month billed annually for up to 15 brands. Prices exclude VAT. Our full pricing breakdown lists every size.

Check the networks you actually need

Most networks, including Instagram, Facebook Pages, TikTok, YouTube, Threads, Bluesky, Pinterest and Google Business Profile, work on every plan, but four of them carry conditions: LinkedIn and X change the bill or the plan, while Twitch and Ads limit what you can do. Read the list below against your own channels before you compare features, because a single network can rule out the cheaper tiers. If neither LinkedIn nor X matters to you, Free and Starter stay open. If one does, the decision often narrows to a single tier.

• LinkedIn: personal profiles and company pages work only on paid plans, never on Free.
• X (Twitter): on plans bought on the website, requires a paid plan plus the X add-on at $10 a month ($120 a year) per connected X account, and the Free plan cannot add it; the app-store Starter Mobile 5 plan includes X in its price.
• Twitch: analytics and competitor tracking only, because you cannot publish to Twitch from Metricool.
• Ads: Meta, Google and TikTok reporting, with campaigns created for Meta and Google while TikTok ads are monitored only.

X deserves a second look because it scales with accounts, not brands. One add-on covers one X account in one brand, so five clients on X need five add-ons. A Starter account for 5 brands billed monthly with one X account costs $25 plus $10, or $35 a month, by our arithmetic. With five X accounts the add-ons alone reach $50 a month. Starter also gets a reduced set of X analytics, while Advanced gets the complete set. The current price dates from July 13, 2026; earlier buyers keep $5 only while one legacy add-on stays active. If X sits at the center of your work, price it first.

Pick the Instagram connection before you connect

Instagram can be linked in two ways, and the choice has consequences you cannot undo cheaply. The first is through Facebook, using a Facebook Page linked to the Instagram account. The second is Instagram login, with the Instagram username and password. The Facebook route gives every Instagram feature. Instagram login covers scheduling, publishing and basic metrics, but it drops competitor analysis and Collabs analytics, and it limits Flows, the automation for messages and comments ^[2]. Product tagging and boosted posts are Facebook-only too.

• Confirm the account is a Business or Creator profile, because personal accounts are not supported at all.
• Connect through Facebook if you want full analytics, competitor tracking or the complete set of Flows.
• Decide once. Switching methods later creates a new connection and keeps only the last 30 days of history.

Two more Instagram limits belong on the list. Some formats go out by notification rather than automatically: Stories with links, mentions or stickers, Reels with interactive stickers or audio outside Metricool's library, and carousels with videos over 60 seconds. Those need the mobile app at posting time. Instagram also caps publishing at 50 posts per 24 hours through its API. Neither is unusual. Both are worth knowing before a launch week.

Decide who else will log in

This is the check that decides most purchases. Free and Starter have one user. There are no teammates, no roles and no post approval on either plan. Team and client management arrives on Advanced, with unlimited users, default roles such as Analyst, Editor, Manager, Content Creator and Client, plus custom roles that the brand owner creates. Approval workflows, shared brands and the link that lets clients connect their own networks without a Metricool account are Advanced features as well.

• Will anyone besides you create, edit or schedule posts in the account, even occasionally?
• Does a client or manager need to approve posts before they go out on any network?
• Do clients need their own logins to see reports, analytics or the content calendar?

If any answer is yes, plan on Advanced from the start. There is one narrow exception. A person on a Free account can work inside a brand that a paid account shares with them, and they see premium features inside that brand. That helps a freelancer who joins a client's account. It does not turn Starter into a team plan, so do not count on it for your own staff. Agencies should also read our Metricool guide for agencies before choosing a brand size.

Match the plan to your reporting needs

Reporting splits along the same Starter and Advanced line, with one moving part in the middle. Free has no reports at all. Starter adds PDF and PowerPoint reports, unlimited analytics history and 100 competitors. Advanced adds custom report templates, which are built per brand and cannot be transferred, and the Looker Studio connector, which Metricool calls Data Studio. If your clients expect reports in your own design, or your team lives in Looker Studio dashboards, Starter will not do.

• If standard PDF or PPT reports are enough for your clients, Starter covers you.
• If you need branded templates or the Looker Studio connector, plan on Advanced or Custom.
• If you want detailed day-by-day post analytics, Advanced gives 15 days and the Advanced Analytics add-on extends that to 30 days.

The moving part is the newer tools. Metricool Studio builds reports from a written prompt, and Campaign Dashboards gather a campaign's organic and paid content in one view. Both are free on Starter and Advanced for a limited time and are announced as a future paid add-on. Without the Advanced Analytics add-on, Studio is capped at two views of ten versions each, and Campaign Dashboards at three per brand. That add-on costs from $12 a month on Starter and $36 a month on Advanced. Dashboards are desktop only, one brand each, up to 180 days. Do not budget as if these stay free.

Check the automation, API and AI side

Developers and operations teams should check this section first. The public REST API is on Advanced and Custom only, and so are Zapier and the Looker Studio connector. Make (the automation tool) and n8n connect through that same API, so they follow the same plan rule. We found no published API call limit for Advanced (the 500 calls a month per brand in the Terms is a fee condition of Custom-plan Integration and White Label contracts), and browser calls are blocked, so you need a backend. Zapier offers six triggers and four actions, without threads. If an automation is part of your plan, Starter is out.

• If you need Zapier, Make, n8n or your own scripts, only Advanced or Custom will work.
• If you want AI help with captions, count monthly credits (Free 5 a month, Starter 20 per brand, Advanced 35 per brand).
• If you want to drive Metricool from Claude or ChatGPT, the official MCP server works on every plan, Free included.

AI credits deserve a closer read. One credit is roughly 600 words, prompt and answer together. Credits cannot be bought and do not roll over. AI alt text uses credits on Free and Starter and is unlimited on Advanced. The MCP covers brands, analytics and the planner, so an assistant can create and schedule posts. It does not reach the inbox, comments, SmartLinks or ad campaign management, and plan limits still apply: Free still stops at 20 posts a month. Our Metricool MCP guide covers the setup.

Know what the mobile app cannot do

If you run social from a phone, check the app before you commit, because it is a smaller product than the web version. The iOS and Android apps let you publish, review basic stats, reply to messages, approve posts and use Canva, Google Drive and the post library, with files of up to 500 MB. Several desktop features are missing, though. That matters most for people who expect to manage everything away from a desk, and for anyone who plans to buy a subscription through the app stores rather than on the website.

• The app has no SmartLinks, Ads, Studio, Campaign Dashboards or Flows.
• It also lacks user management, subscription management, Adobe Express and thread scheduling.
• Best Times shows only a basic view, and the editor handles images only, since video editing is web only.
• Metricool's help pages say it needs Android 11 or higher (Android 10 and lower are no longer fully supported) and iOS 14 or higher.

Treat the app as a companion. It still matters, because notification posts for Instagram Stories and some Reels go through it, so at least one person on your team needs it installed on a phone. Plans also cannot be bought, changed or cancelled inside the app, except the one plan sold through the stores, which the next section covers. Reporting, setup and billing work all stay on the web, so budget desk time for them every week rather than expecting the phone to carry the whole job.

Read the billing rules before you enter a card

Metricool's billing is clear once read, but several rules surprise people who skip them. There is no standard free trial of the paid plans; the Free plan is the way to try it. Trials exist only through promo or affiliate codes, for first-time users. The refund window is narrow: you can withdraw within 15 calendar days of your first purchase of a paid plan ^[3]. Renewals, monthly or annual, are not refunded. Neither are plan changes.

• Use Free until you hit a real limit, then upgrade from inside the account on the website.
• Pay annually only when sure, because annual billing saves up to 24% but there is no prorated refund mid-cycle.
• Before a downgrade, know that Metricool keeps the oldest brands by creation date; to keep others, delete the unwanted brands from the Connections panel before the downgrade completes, because the choice is locked afterward.
• Expect VAT on top of the listed prices depending on your country, and make any tax ID match the company name.
• Pay with a regular card or PayPal, since prepaid and virtual cards are refused.

Upgrades are immediate and prorated. Downgrades and cancellations wait for the end of the cycle. A failed payment triggers a few days of retries and then a move to Free, with your data kept for reactivation. App store buyers get a different deal: the only plan sold in the apps is Starter Mobile 5, monthly only, billed by Apple or Google, with the X add-on included and no promo codes. It skips Flows. Cancel and claim refunds through the store, not through Metricool.

Posting volume, data and support

Three quieter checks finish the list. Paid plans advertise unlimited publishing, but it sits under a Fair Use Policy with a base threshold of 600 posts per brand a month ^[4]. Above it, Metricool reviews the account by hand and you cannot post during the check. If no breach is found, a higher custom threshold is set. A confirmed breach can suspend posting for the rest of the month. Very few businesses get near that line. High-volume publishers should still ask first.

• Data location: data sits on servers in the European Union, with no international transfers, according to the privacy policy.
• DPA: a GDPR data processing agreement is available on request, and breach notices go out by email within 72 hours.
• Certification: we found no published security certification, such as SOC 2 or ISO 27001, on any page we read.
• 2FA: available through an authenticator app, but off by default and without backup codes, so turn it on and store access carefully.
• Support: in-app chat and email on every plan, with no phone line and no published response times.

For most small teams these terms are fine. Buyers with a security review should note the missing certification early, since procurement teams often ask for one. Metricool is a Spanish company, so Spanish law governs the contract. The help center is large, with around 350 articles, and covers most setup, connection and billing questions in plain steps. Billing questions go to the same email address as everything else. Expect written support, not a call. Plan around that.

Pick this plan if

The checks above reduce to a short rule. Your brand count, your user count and your need for automation decide the tier, while X and the add-ons decide the final bill once the tier is set. The prices below are list prices before VAT and add-ons, and each paid plan can also be billed monthly at a higher rate. If two plans seem to fit, start with the smaller one, since upgrades are immediate and prorated while downgrades wait for the end of the cycle and keep your oldest brands unless you delete the others first.

• Free: you have one brand, work alone, can do without LinkedIn, X and reports, and 20 posts a month is enough.
• Starter: you work alone on up to 10 brands and need LinkedIn, reports or unlimited posting under Fair Use, at $20 a month billed annually for up to 5 brands.
• Advanced: anyone else logs in, a client approves posts, or you need the API, Zapier, templates or Looker Studio, at $53 a month billed annually for up to 15 brands.
• Custom: you manage more than 50 brands or want White Label for your agency or your own platform.

The bottom line

Metricool rewards buyers who count before they pay. Count brands, remembering that every Google Business Profile location and every second profile on a network is its own brand. Count users, because one extra login moves you to Advanced. Count X accounts, at $10 a month each on top of any paid plan bought on the website. Then read the rules that cannot be reversed: the 15-day refund window on the first purchase only, the oldest-brands rule on downgrades (delete unwanted brands before the downgrade completes), and the Instagram connection choice. Start on Free, upgrade when a real limit appears, and treat Studio, Campaign Dashboards and Flows as a preview that may become paid.