6 Best Hootsuite Alternatives in 2026 (Free & Paid)

The best Hootsuite alternatives in 2026 are Buffer and Metricool if you want a free plan, Later for visual Instagram and TikTok planning, Sprout Social and Agorapulse for a complete inbox and reporting suite, and Wavnil for AI-assisted content on 30+ networks from $24 a month. For reference, Hootsuite starts at $99 per user per month, billed annually.

Transparency first: Wavnil is our product. We compare it on the same criteria as the other five, including what it doesn't do. All prices were checked on each vendor's website on September 25, 2026, in US dollars before tax. They change often, so confirm them before you buy.

This comparison is for social media managers, small businesses and agencies who find Hootsuite too expensive or too complex for what they actually use, and want to know what they'd gain or lose by switching.

Hootsuite alternatives compared (September 2026)

A dash means the vendor's pricing page didn't state it. Higher plans and exact limits are detailed in each section below.

How we chose and compared these tools

We picked widely used tools that cover what most teams use Hootsuite for: scheduling posts, collaborating as a team and measuring results. Each one had to publish its prices, so you can compare without booking a sales call.

For each tool, we read the public pricing page and plan details on September 25, 2026. We didn't run a hands-on test of every competitor, so treat the feature notes as a map, and use the free trials to test your own workflow before you commit.

1. Wavnil: best for AI-assisted content on 30+ networks

Pricing: $24 per month for 5 channels, $39 for 10 channels, $49 for 30 channels and $99 for 100 channels, with 20% off on yearly billing. Every plan starts with a 7-day free trial, which requires a payment card.

Wavnil is an AI-first social media scheduler. You plan posts on a visual calendar, publish to more than 30 networks (from Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn and YouTube to Bluesky, Reddit, Discord and Google Business Profile) and create content with AI along the way.

Strengths:

• Flat monthly price, not per user. Team members are unlimited from the $39 plan, which changes the maths for teams compared with per-seat tools.
• Unlimited posts on every plan.
• AI built in: a writing assistant on every plan, monthly AI image and video credits, and an AI agent you can chat with to draft posts for your channels.
• Design studio and media library to create visuals without leaving the app.
• Posting time slots per account, so new posts fill your best hours automatically, plus a public API.

Limitations:

• No unified inbox, approval workflow or social listening. If you reply to comments and messages from your scheduler or need formal client sign-off, Hootsuite, Sprout Social or Agorapulse fit better.
• Shorter trial: 7 days with a card, versus 14 to 30 days without one elsewhere.
• Newer product, so there are fewer third-party reviews to compare.

Best for: creators, small teams and agencies who mainly publish, want AI help to produce content, and post on many networks.

2. Buffer: best free and budget option

Pricing: a free plan for 3 channels with up to 10 scheduled posts per channel. Paid plans are priced per channel: Essentials at $5 per channel per month and Team at $10 per channel per month, both billed yearly. Paid plans come with a 14-day trial.

Buffer is one of the simplest schedulers to learn. You connect your channels, fill a queue, and posts go out at the times you set.

Strengths:

• A genuinely usable free plan for getting started.
• Low entry price when you only manage a handful of channels.
• The Team plan adds unlimited users and approval workflows, handy for agencies whose clients sign off on posts.

Limitations:

• Costs grow with every channel you add, so a brand active on eight networks pays eight times the channel price.
• Its focus is publishing. Teams that need deep listening or large-scale customer care will find more in the suites below.

Best for: solo creators, freelancers and small businesses with a few channels.

3. Later: best for visual planning

Pricing: Starter at $25 per month, or $18.75 per month billed yearly, for 8 social profiles and 1 user. Growth costs $50 per month ($37.50 billed yearly) and Scale $110 per month ($82.50 billed yearly). There's a 14-day trial and no free plan.

Later grew up around visual planning: you drag media from a library onto a calendar and preview how your grid will look. Its link-in-bio page, Linkin.bio, is one of its best-known features.

Strengths:

• Visual calendar and media library, well suited to image- and video-led brands.
• Lower starting price than Hootsuite, especially billed yearly.

Limitations:

• The Starter plan includes only 1 user, so teams need a higher plan.
• No free plan, only the trial.

Best for: creators and consumer brands whose strategy revolves around Instagram and TikTok visuals.

4. Sprout Social: best all-in-one suite for larger teams

Pricing: Essentials at $79 per seat per month billed annually ($99 billed monthly), for 5 social profiles. The higher plans, Standard, Professional and Advanced, cost $199, $299 and $399 per seat per month. The free trial lasts 30 days and doesn't require a card.

Sprout Social is the closest like-for-like replacement for Hootsuite: publishing, a unified inbox for comments and messages, in-depth reporting and listening features, built for teams that handle social media as a customer channel.

Strengths:

• Complete suite covering publishing, engagement and analytics.
• Long trial with no card, enough to test a real workflow.

Limitations:

• Per-seat pricing adds up quickly: five people on the Standard plan cost about $1,000 per month.
• Essentials covers only 5 social profiles.

Best for: mid-size and large teams with customer care, reporting and approval needs.

5. Metricool: best for analytics and multi-brand agencies

Pricing: a free plan for 1 brand with up to 20 posts per month. Paid plans are priced by number of brands: Starter from $20 per month for 5 brands and Advanced from $53 per month for 15 brands.

Metricool combines scheduling with strong analytics, including reports on competitors and on paid campaigns, which makes it popular with agencies that report to clients every month.

Strengths:

• Pricing by brand, which suits agencies with many small clients.
• Analytics-first approach, with reports that are easy to share.

Limitations:

• The free plan is capped at 20 posts per month.
• Costs step up by brand tiers, so check where your client count lands.

Best for: agencies and consultants who need solid reporting across many brands.

6. Agorapulse: best for community management

Pricing: from $79 per user per month on the Standard plan, which includes 10 social profiles. Professional costs $119 per user per month billed annually ($149 monthly), and Advanced $149 ($199 monthly). The free trial lasts 30 days, with no card, and there's no free plan.

Agorapulse is built around its social inbox: comments, messages and mentions land in one place, where a team can assign, answer and track them, alongside publishing and reporting.

Strengths:

• Strong inbox and team workflow for brands with busy comment sections.
• Long trial without a card.

Limitations:

• Per-user pricing, like Hootsuite, so larger teams pay more.
• No free plan.

Best for: brands and agencies where replying to the community matters as much as publishing.

Which Hootsuite alternative should you choose?

Start from the job you actually hired Hootsuite for:

• Publishing on a tight budget: Buffer's free plan or Essentials, or Metricool's free plan.
• Visual planning for Instagram and TikTok: Later.
• Customer care, listening and approvals at scale: Sprout Social or Agorapulse, which cost less than Hootsuite per user but cover similar ground.
• Creating and publishing more content with AI, on many networks, at a flat price: Wavnil.

If you rely on Hootsuite's inbox every day, don't switch to a publishing-only tool, whatever the savings. If you mostly schedule posts, you're probably paying for features you don't use.

Before you switch from Hootsuite

1. Export what you need to keep, such as past reports, before your subscription ends.
2. List your channels and check each one is supported. No third-party tool can post to personal Facebook profiles or to Facebook groups anymore, as explained in our guide on how to schedule Facebook posts.
3. Plan the handover of scheduled posts. Queued posts stay in the tool that holds them, so recreate the next few weeks in the new tool before you cancel.
4. Check the billing terms. Hootsuite's advertised prices are billed annually, so note your renewal date.
5. Use the trial on your real workflow, with your channels and your team, rather than a demo account.

Once you've switched, a social media content calendar helps you rebuild your publishing rhythm. And if you want to see what Wavnil includes, compare the features, the supported channels and the pricing, then start your 7-day trial.

Sources

Prices and plan details checked on September 25, 2026:

• Hootsuite, plans and pricing.
• Buffer, pricing.
• Later, pricing.
• Sprout Social, pricing.
• Metricool, pricing.
• Agorapulse, pricing.
• Wavnil, pricing.