Best Hootsuite alternatives
Almost everyone looking to leave Hootsuite is leaving for the same reason: $99 per user per month is hard to justify when the team mostly schedules and reports. The question is which features you'd actually miss, because for some teams the answer is 'ones you can't replace'.
Who wrote this
Optimate publishes this page, so treat it as a vendor's list rather than an independent review. We've tried to earn the read by ranking on fit rather than on who's paying for the page — Optimate isn't first on every list here, and where a competitor is the better answer we say so and link you to them.
How this list is ordered
Ordered by fit for the typical leaver — a small or mid-sized team paying enterprise per-seat rates for a fraction of the feature set. Where a tool can't replace something Hootsuite does, it's named.
Pricing checked 25 August 2026. Tools without a figure are ones we haven’t verified directly — check their site rather than trust a number we didn’t read ourselves.
Number 1: Optimate
Free plan · Pro £29/mo · Studio £59/mo · Agency £135/moBest for: Teams paying per seat for what is mostly scheduling and content
Flat workspace pricing with seats unmetered — Pro is £29/month against $99 per user per month — plus brand-kit-grounded AI content and images. You lose social listening, sentiment analysis and enterprise governance entirely. If you use those, this is not a replacement and you should stay.
Number 2: SocialPilot
From $20/mo (5 accounts)Best for: The cheapest credible replacement for scheduling and reporting
$20/month for 5 accounts and $40 for 10, with white-label client reports Hootsuite charges far more for. No listening, so the same caveat applies.
Number 3: Metricool
Free plan · from €20/moBest for: Leaving Hootsuite but keeping serious reporting
Competitor benchmarking, report templates and a Looker Studio connector from €20/month. The closest thing to Hootsuite's analytics at a fraction of the price, minus the listening.
Number 4: Sprout Social
From $99/seat/mo billed annuallyBest for: Moving sideways, not down
The one alternative that genuinely matches and exceeds Hootsuite on listening and inbox — and costs more, at $199/seat/month on Standard. Only worth it if the enterprise features are exactly why you're unhappy.
Number 5: Agorapulse
Best for: Inbox-heavy teams handling lots of inbound comments
Best known for its social inbox and moderation tooling, with solid team workflow and reporting. Check their site for current pricing.
Number 6: Buffer
Free plan · from $5/channel/moBest for: If it turns out you only ever scheduled
From $5/channel with no listening, no governance and no pretence otherwise. A big drop in capability and an enormous drop in price.
Common questions
What's the closest free alternative to Hootsuite?
There isn't a true one — Hootsuite's paid features have no free equivalent. Optimate, Buffer and Metricool all have free tiers that cover basic scheduling for a few profiles, which replaces the part of Hootsuite most small teams actually use.
What do I lose by leaving Hootsuite?
Social listening, sentiment analysis, formal approval chains and audit trails, in most cases. Almost nothing on this list replaces listening — Sprout Social is the main exception and it costs more. Be honest about whether you use those before switching.
Why is Hootsuite priced per user?
It's built for organisations where many people touch social with defined permissions, and the pricing reflects that model. It's also what makes it expensive for small teams, where flat workspace pricing costs a fraction as much.
Try Optimate against your own accounts
Free plan, 3 social profiles, no card required — enough to judge the content quality for yourself rather than take our word for it.
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