On any given day, you're creating social media posts, repurposing existing content, staying on top of trends across platforms, reviewing your analytics for social media reporting, and so much more.
Phew. Doing all of this manually can make you bone tired and burned out.
Luckily, there are plenty of social media management tools to take some of the tasks off your to-do list.
Here are the 7 best ones, plus who they're best for — along with plenty of alternatives to each tool, if you need them.
At a glance: The 7 best social media management tools (and various alternatives)
Click on one of the tools below to jump to a section, or scroll on for a big-picture overview in the table.
1. Buffer
Best social media management tool for creators and small businesses
Free plan/trial available: Yes. Free forever for up to 3 channels. All paid plans also have a 14-day free trial.
Price: Paid plans begin at $6/month/channel.
Favorite features:
- Store ideas, curated content, and any notes on the go using the Create Space, which has some incredible organization options like tags and a Kanban board layout.
- The Buffer Remix app gives a glow-up to any URL and converts it into an Instagrammable image
- The Start Page helps you ditch dry, boring, and generic link-in-bio tools and enables you to create a customizable landing page that’s authentically you
- Buffer's social media engagement tools are a gamechanger when it comes to keeping on top of comments. Buffer surfaces all your Facebook page and Instagram comments in a single dashboard so you can respond to them right there. It’ll even flag comments that need your attention the most — like questions or those with a negative sentiment — or pinpoint comments from potential customers.
You knew Buffer was gonna be on the top of this list, didn’t you? 😉 Yes, I’m biased because this is the Buffer blog, but I had been a customer of Buffer long before I was its writer.
The thing I love most about Buffer is its simplicity. On the surface, Buffer looks like a simple tool. Add your accounts and start social media scheduling. But Buffer can do so much more.
- You can store the social media post ideas that pop up in the shower or while walking the dog because the app is so smooth, accessible, and easy to use
- You can create beautiful, branded social media reports for stakeholders and get metrics tailored to you — no more questioning, “At what times do I get the most engagement? Which posts give me the most bang for my buck?
- You can build your very own customized landing page in minutes. You’ll be surprised at how easy it is to create, seriously
Not just this: Buffer is a pioneer in the industry for embedding scheduling, analytics, etc., for new social media platforms. With new social channels entering the internet rapidly (looking at you, Threads & Bluesky), you’d want a social media management tool that’s in your corner, looking out for you.
Besides this, Buffer has all the basics checked: You can schedule posts easily, respond to comments, use its AI assistant to help speed up content creation, and collaborate with your team easily.
Buffer isn’t the best choice for you if you run a large enterprise company with a complex social media team. Its features are simple, straightforward, and powerful. But they are primarily geared toward creators and scrappy small businesses.
3 alternatives to Buffer
Later
Later is a good overall alternative to Buffer, but it’s available only for popular social media channels (LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, X, Pinterest, and YouTube). It also doesn’t have any free plan.
The paid plans are costlier — they begin at $25/month for one user, but include one social media account for each platform.
Loomly
Loomly is also a good choice — especially if you’re a freelance social media manager. It has decent collaboration features and approval workflows — designed for someone managing multiple content calendars. But it’s not too complicated either (not a good fit for bigger social media agencies).
It doesn’t have any free plans. The paid plans begin at $42/month for two users and 10 social media accounts.
Metricool
Lastly, Metricool is also a solid option. It can do all the basics of social media management, from post-scheduling to customized landing pages. Metricool has a free plan allowing you to publish up to 50 monthly posts.
Paid plans begin at $22/month to schedule unlimited monthly posts.
2. Hootsuite
Free plan/trial available: No free plans. Paid plans have a free trial of 30 days.
Price: Pricing starts at $99/month for 10 social media channels.
Favorite features:
- An extensive and unbeatable social listening dashboard to help you monitor trending keywords, competitors, and brand mentions
- Granular control over the access you can provide to various team members. This feature is perfect for complex teams
- You can stack your social media reports against competitors and your industry, in general, to examine how you’re performing against these benchmarks
Hootsuite is not an unfamiliar tool in the social media management world. And for good reason: I love its social listening feature. Since acquiring Talkwalker, it has become all the more powerful.
You can choose your location, a topic you want to analyze, and the platform will give an in-depth report about what people are saying on that topic for the past week.
That’s not all: Hootsuite also has an excellent team management feature. You can create multiple sub-teams and minutely decide what level of access to give to your team members. An A+ feature if you’re a freelance social media manager or run a social media marketing agency
The AI assistant can also do a lot — there are options to use copywriting formulas to write posts, repurpose existing posts, etc. But on testing, I found most outputs need a ton of refining.
I also don’t enjoy how complex the home dashboard is. It’s a bit overwhelming, and while feature-rich, Hootsuite definitely isn’t easy to use.
3 alternatives to Hootsuite
Keyhole
Keyhole is an excellent Hootsuite alternative, specifically for social media listening. Its fundamental social media management features (like scheduling, storing ideas, creating graphics, team collaboration) aren’t as strong as Hootsuite, but the social listening feature is a tad bit better.
Better how? The dashboard is more user-friendly and the audience insights are deeper. For example, you can also analyze whether the overall sentiment on a topic is positive, negative, or neutral.
It has no free plan and the pricing is a bit complicated: You have to buy each of its features (social listening, scheduling, analytics, historical insights) separately. Social listening costs $189/month in the cheapest plan.
Social Insider
Social Insider is also a good choice for replacing Hootsuite for social media analytics. The only problem is Social Insider doesn’t help you schedule posts or collaborate with team members. It’s specifically a tool to dive deeper into your social media analytics.
If you have your content calendar scheduling and collaborating sorted via other tools, I’d recommend Social Insider for getting excellent insight into your social media performance.
There’s no free plan. Paid plans begin at $99/month for up to 20 social media accounts.
Mention
Lastly, Mention is also a great tool that has the best of both worlds from Keyhole and Social Insider. Granted, its social listening features and analytics aren’t as good as Keyhole and Social Insider, but it’s decent enough.
It also allows you to do all the basic social media management stuff like scheduling posts for X, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook. Prices start at $41/month for up to 4 social media accounts. There’s no free plan.
3. Tailwind
Free plan/trial available: Free plan available for one account and five posts per month.
Price: Paid plans begin at $19.99/month for 400 posts per month on one account.
Favorite features:
- Schedule your pins at preset intervals
- A browser extension to create new pins from anywhere and save them to relevant boards
- SmartGuide monitors your Pinterest activity and alerts you on the recommended best practices to inform your Pinterest strategy
Sure, plenty of social media management software can help you schedule pins on Pinterest and manage your Pinterest account. But no one does it like Tailwind.
For starters, its sole focus is on Pinterest and it's an official Pinterest partner. So if you’re someone who’s looking to burrow down on this platform or grow your following on it exclusively, I’d say it's better to use a Tailwind because it’s dedicated to Pinterest.
The thing I find most amazing? You can transform your photos into fantastic Pin designs in one click. It’s like having your own, personalized Canva for Pinterest within your social media management tool.
Apart from this, you can schedule pins, add them to preset boards, and even spread them out at various intervals for maximum engagement. You know, the basics. On testing, Tailwind was quite easy to use! The browser extension was a bit wonky and slowed me down, but that just might be my browser (Brave).
What I don’t like is the free version of Tailwind is basically non-existent for anyone taking Pinterest marketing seriously. There are only five free posts per month…which is nothing — especially since Pinterest often thrives on quantity.
3 alternatives to Tailwind (for other social media channels)
Hypefury
Hypefury is the Tailwind of X. It has an inspiration panel to see other creators’ top tweets and has auto-comments to promote your newsletter, small business, or any other venture. There’s no better tool if you’re looking to grow on X. No free plan. Paid plans begin at $29/month. You can connect one X account and schedule posts for up to one month.
Shield
Shield is the alternative to Tailwind if you’re big on LinkedIn. Its unique selling point is its in-depth LinkedIn analytics — you can identify key themes in your content and which topics get the most likes from your audience. There’s no free plan. Paid plans begin at $8/month for one LinkedIn account.
Manychat
I’d recommend using Manychat if you are selling on Instagram. It can’t do the scheduling, social media analytics, etc. but it can automate attracting leads via Instagram DMs and responding to customers quickly.
4. SocialPilot
Free plan/trial available: No free plans. Free trial for all paid plans available for 14 days.
Price: Prices start at $30/month for one user and 10 social media accounts.
Favorite features:
- Separate your dashboards for various clients and whitelabel them with customized colors, logos, etc., to give your customers a premium experience
- Simple approval process with easy, shareable, personalized links — requiring no sign-ups from your clients
- Auto-send various clients personalized and branded social media performance reports
SocialPilot screams agency, in my opinion. Its pricing plans itself have “Agency” and “Agency+” options. Take the approval process: you can share direct personalized links (no sign ups required) that compile everything your client needs to review on a single screen. The whole workflow is designed to be agency-friendly.
The dashboard is also user-friendly if you manage multiple clients. You can have different sub-dashboards for various clients to keep their management separated from the rest. Not just this: You can also whitelabel the platform to provide a customized experience to your clients.
And like Hootsuite, there’s also granular control over which team member can do what tasks — but SocialPilot is much more affordable and simpler to use.
I didn’t mention the basic features like scheduling, reporting features, and AI assistant, but SocialPilot aces all the fundamentals, too. Its standout features are just more geared toward agencies.
3 alternatives to SocialPilot
Sendible
Sendible is also designed for agencies, like SocialPilot. It has similar features like personalized dashboards, automated reports, and custom permissions. I’d say the user experience of Sendible is a tad bit better, but SocialPilot’s approval workflow is superior to Sendible.
Choose Sendible if you’re an agency that’s scaling fast. Its pricing plans are more accommodating toward bigger agencies. Similarly to SocialPilot, paid plans begin at $29/month for one user and six social media profiles. There’s no free plan.
SocialBee
SocialBee also has separate plans for agencies. You can have separate workspaces for each client and collaborate seamlessly. There’s not a lot of granular control, though, so SocialBee is more suitable for agencies with a small team handling a lot of clients.
No free plans. Paid plans begin at $179/month for up to 50 social media profiles and 10 workspaces.
Pally
Pallyy is a good alternative to SocialPilot if you want something simple. There’s no branded dashboards, but you can have customized colors. There’s a feedback overview that’s very straightforward to use, but can get cluttered if you manage a ton of clients.
Pricing is also simple: They have one plan that costs $18/month. Adding team members costs $29/month/user. You can create unlimited teams. There’s also a free forever plan where you can schedule up to 15 posts/month.
5. Zoho Social
Free plan/trial available: No free plan. All paid plans have a 15-day free trial.
Price: Pricing starts at €15/month for one user and 10 social media channels.
Favorite features:
- Integration to other Zoho products like CRM and Desk for smooth management
- Build your own customized social media listening dashboard to track brand mentions, stay on top of trends, and more
- Automate your social media posts to repeat at a certain cadence to repost your content without any intervention
Zoho is a well-known name in the tech industry. It offers CRM solutions, emailing services, payroll processing, customer service software, and a whole lot of other products that knowledge workers use. If you work in a company that already uses Zoho for various purposes, Zoho Social is a great social media management tool you should consider.
I’ll be honest: Zoho Social has nothing special. Like Buffer’s known for its ease and Hootsuite for its feature-richness, Zoho Social doesn’t have any snowflake feature to make it standout.
But that isn’t to say it can’t get the job done. If you need something simple to schedule your posts, analyze their performance, and create the occasional report, Zoho can do the job just fine.
Zoho Social is especially great because it integrates with Zoho Desk (its customer service software). Some businesses just get a lot of queries from customers on social media. If you’re one of those, Zoho Social is great because you can integrate social media for customer service and social media for marketing seamlessly.
I’d recommend signing up for Zoho Social only if you’re already in the Zoho ecosystem and your social media marketing strategy is still developing. Once you’ve fleshed out a roadmap, you might move toward a more specialized social media management software that caters to your unique needs. Or if you have the budget, you can add a separate tool in addition to Zoho Social.
2 alternatives to Zoho Social
HubSpot
HubSpot is the enterprise version of Zoho. It has a social media management software that can help you build campaigns, schedule social media posts, and link all your social media activity back to the HubSpot CRM. Like Zoho Social, HubSpot’s social media management tool isn’t the best in the market — but it’s an easy choice if you already use HubSpot products. There are many pricing plans, but the one that includes social media starts at $890/month for three users. You can connect up to 50 social media accounts and schedule 10,000 posts per month.
MeetEdgar
For republishing top-performing content, you can also use MeetEdgar. Other than that, MeetEdgar also has basic social media management software features like scheduling posts, tracking performance, etc.
It costs $29.99/month for up to five social accounts. There’s no free plan.
What’s your go-to social media management tool?
Social media management tools come in all shapes and sizes, and what suits you best depends on your social media goals and needs. I hope I’ve mentioned at least one tool that might suit your needs!
If your favorite tool is on the list, I would love to hear what you love about it. If I’ve missed your favorite tool, please leave a comment below and share why you love it.
