10 Best Software to Manage Multiple Social Media Accounts in 2026, Compared

Quick comparison

The best software to manage multiple social media accounts

#1

Hootsuite

Best for: In-house teams and agencies that run many accounts from one governed workflow with streams and deep analytics

★★★★★★★★★★4.3/5 on G2 (7,674 reviews, checked Nov 2026)

Visit hootsuite.com

Starting price$99/user/month (Standard, billed annually; $149/user/month billed monthly)

Free planNo — 14-day free trial

Hootsuite is the platform teams reach for when social media is a serious operation rather than a side task. Streams show every network's activity in customizable columns, scheduled posts go out across profiles from one composer, and the entry Standard plan covers 10 social accounts with unlimited scheduled posts, 100 AI credits a month and competitor benchmarking for up to 5 competitors.

The price is the catch, and it is per user: a second teammate doubles the $149 monthly bill, and the approvals and advanced analytics worth having sit on Advanced at $399 a user a month billed annually. There is no free plan, only a 14-day trial. Buy Hootsuite when several people run many accounts and need one governed workflow; buy Buffer or SocialPilot when the job is scheduling alone.

What we like

• The deepest all-round platform here: streams, scheduling, inbox, monitoring and analytics in one login
• Unlimited scheduled posts and 100 AI credits a month on the entry plan
• Competitor benchmarking for up to 5 competitors included from Standard
• The largest review base in this list, with 7,674 G2 reviews

Watch out for

• Per-user pricing multiplies fast: a second teammate doubles the $149 monthly bill
• Approvals and advanced analytics wait for Advanced at $399/user a month billed annually
• No free plan, only a 14-day trial, and the interface carries legacy complexity

#2

Buffer

Best for: Solo creators and small brands that want the simplest scheduler and only pay for the channels they use

★★★★★★★★★★4.3/5 on G2 (1,042 reviews, checked Nov 2026)

Visit buffer.com

Starting priceFree (3 channels); Essentials $6/channel/month (billed monthly; $5/channel/month billed annually)

Free planYes — free plan (3 channels, 10 scheduled posts per channel)

Buffer does one thing well: queue up posts and send them out on schedule across your accounts. The interface is the cleanest in this list, onboarding takes minutes, and the free plan covers 3 channels with 10 scheduled posts per channel. Essentials costs $6 a channel a month billed monthly, or $5 billed annually, and adds unlimited scheduled posts, advanced analytics, the AI Assistant and first-comment scheduling for Instagram.

The limits are the ones that come with simplicity. There is no shared inbox, no approval workflow and no listening on Essentials — teams that need those should look at Agorapulse or Sprout Social. And because Buffer charges per channel, the bill grows every time you add a network: 10 channels cost $60 a month. Pick Buffer when consistent posting is the whole job; pick a suite when conversations matter too.

What we like

• The cheapest entry here at $6 a month per channel, with a genuinely useful free plan
• Per-channel pricing means you stop paying for a channel the month a client leaves
• AI Assistant is included on every plan, including the free one
• The cleanest interface in this list — onboarding takes minutes

Watch out for

• No shared inbox, approval workflow or listening on Essentials
• Analytics are basic compared with Sprout Social or Hootsuite
• Per-channel billing adds up fast once you manage many accounts for several brands

#3

Sprout Social

Best for: Teams that want polished reports, optimal send times and a shared inbox as they grow

★★★★★★★★★★4.4/5 on G2 (7,557 reviews, checked Nov 2026)

Visit sproutsocial.com

Starting price$99/seat/month (Essentials, billed monthly; $79/seat/month billed annually)

Free planNo — 30-day free trial

Sprout Social is the most polished suite in this list: a clean publishing calendar, optimal send times, profile and post-level reporting, and the Trellis AI assistant, all on the entry Essentials plan. It costs $99 a seat a month billed monthly, or $79 billed annually, covers up to 5 social profiles, and comes with a 30-day free trial that needs no credit card.

The catch is what Essentials leaves out. There is no Smart Inbox, no review management and no approvals — those start on Standard at $199 a seat a month — and the 5-profile cap means a brand on many networks outgrows the entry plan fast. Every extra seat costs another $99 a month. Buy Sprout when reporting quality justifies the price; buy SocialPilot when the account count is the constraint.

What we like

• The most polished reporting in this list, with optimal send times on the entry plan
• Trellis AI assistant included on Essentials, not held for the top tier
• A 30-day free trial with no credit card, the longest here
• Rated 4.4 out of 5 on G2 from 7,557 reviews

Watch out for

• Essentials has no Smart Inbox, review management or approvals — those start on Standard at $199/seat a month
• The 5-profile cap means a brand on many networks outgrows the entry plan fast
• Per-seat pricing multiplies with every teammate, and there is no free plan

#4

Later

Best for: Creators and visual brands that plan Instagram, TikTok and Pinterest on a visual calendar

★★★★★★★★★★4.5/5 on G2 (384 reviews, checked Nov 2026)

Visit later.com

Starting price$25/month (Starter, billed monthly; $18.75/month billed annually)

Free planYes — free plan (1 social set, 12 scheduled posts per profile a month)

Later built its name on visual Instagram planning, and it still leads for image-first networks. Drag posts onto a visual calendar, preview the grid, schedule TikToks and Reels, and use Link in Bio for a shoppable bio page. Starter costs $25 a month billed monthly, or $18.75 billed annually, and covers one social set — one profile on each of eight networks — with 30 scheduled posts per profile a month.

The limits are narrow. Later ended support for X in August 2025, there is no social inbox on Starter, and extra users or social sets need Growth — a solo user who hires an assistant must upgrade. The free plan covers one social set with 12 posts per profile a month. Pick Later when the feed is visual; pick Buffer when the mix is text-first.

What we like

• The best visual calendar here, with a grid preview and Link in Bio for shoppable bio links
• One social set covers a profile on each of eight networks for a single flat price
• A real free plan with 12 scheduled posts per profile a month
• Rated 4.5 out of 5 on G2, the joint-highest score in this list

Watch out for

• Ended support for X in August 2025, so X scheduling needs another tool
• No social inbox on Starter, and extra users or social sets need Growth
• Free plan has no AI credits and cannot schedule Instagram Stories or carousels

#5

SocialPilot

Best for: Freelancers and small agencies that want the most accounts per dollar with pooled seats

★★★★★★★★★★4.5/5 on G2 (846 reviews, checked Nov 2026)

Visit socialpilot.co

Starting price$20/month (Essentials, billed monthly; $17/month billed annually)

Free planNo — 14-day free trial

SocialPilot is the value pick for freelancers and small agencies: Essentials costs $20 a month billed monthly, or $17 billed annually, and covers 5 social accounts for one user, with 500 AI credits and a content library included. Extra accounts cost $4 a month each, so the plan scales in small steps instead of forcing a tier jump the month you take on a new client.

What Essentials does not do matters too. There is no social inbox and no approvals — those start on Standard at $40 a month — and white-label reports wait for Premium at $100. There is no free plan, only a 14-day trial. Buy SocialPilot when the account count per dollar is the deciding factor; buy Sendible when client branding matters more.

What we like

• The most accounts per dollar at the entry level: 5 accounts for $20 a month
• Extra accounts cost $4 a month each, so the plan scales in small steps
• 500 AI credits included on the entry plan
• Rated 4.5 out of 5 on G2 from 846 reviews

Watch out for

• No social inbox or approvals on Essentials — those start on Standard at $40 a month
• White-label reports wait for Premium at $100 a month
• No free plan, only a 14-day free trial

#6

Sendible

Best for: Agencies that want unlimited users and one workspace per client, with their own branding on reports

★★★★★★★★★★4.5/5 on G2 (906 reviews, checked Nov 2026)

Visit sendible.com

Starting price$35/month (Core, billed monthly; $29.75/month billed annually)

Free planNo — 14-day free trial

Sendible targets agencies that want clients to see the agency's brand, not the tool's. Core costs $35 a month billed monthly, or $29.75 billed annually, and covers one workspace — one client, brand or location — with 6 social profiles, unlimited users, unlimited scheduling, AI Assist and a social inbox. Adding a freelancer or a client costs nothing extra, because users are unlimited on every plan.

The catch is the approval line. Core has no approvals, no content library and no branded reports — approvals start on Plus at $99 a month, and branded reports on Premium. Sendible also moved to workspace plans in August 2026 and is still rolling them out, so older accounts may see legacy per-user plans. Pick Sendible for client work; pick SocialPilot for raw account capacity.

What we like

• Unlimited users on every plan — adding a freelancer or a client costs nothing extra
• One workspace per client keeps each brand's profiles, messages and reports separate
• Unlimited AI Assist and bulk scheduling included on the entry plan
• Rated 4.5 out of 5 on G2 from 906 reviews

Watch out for

• No approvals on Core — sign-off starts on Plus at $99 a month
• Branded reports wait for Premium, and there is no free plan
• Workspace plans are still rolling out since August 2026, so older accounts may see legacy per-user plans

#7

Agorapulse

Best for: Community managers who live in the inbox and need comments, DMs and reviews in one queue

★★★★★★★★★★4.5/5 on G2 (978 reviews, checked Nov 2026)

Visit agorapulse.com

Starting price$99/user/month (Standard, billed monthly; $79/user/month billed annually)

Free planYes — free Archie plan (AI-created posts only; classic free plan ended July 6, 2026)

Agorapulse's heart is the inbox. Comments, mentions, DMs and reviews from every connected account land in one queue with assignment, labels and automated moderation rules that hide spam or route urgent messages. Standard costs $99 a user a month billed monthly, or $79 billed annually, and covers 10 shared social profiles with publishing, scheduling and branded report exports included.

The price multiplies with the team: a second user costs another $99 a month, and profiles past the included 10 cost $15 each a month. Approvals wait for Professional at $149 a user a month, and the classic free plan ended in July 2026 — what remains is Archie, a free plan for AI-created posts only. Buy Agorapulse when conversations are the job; buy Later or Buffer when publishing is.

What we like

• The best unified inbox here, with assignment, labels and automated moderation rules
• 10 shared social profiles on every plan, with publishing and scheduling included
• AI writing assistant on every plan, and a 30-day free trial
• Rated 4.5 out of 5 on G2 from 978 reviews

Watch out for

• Every extra user costs another $99 a month, and profiles past the included 10 cost $15 each a month
• Approvals wait for Professional at $149/user a month billed annually
• The classic free plan ended in July 2026 — the free Archie plan covers AI-created posts only

#8

Zoho Social

Best for: Small businesses already on Zoho that want the cheapest scheduler that talks to their CRM

★★★★★★★★★★4.6/5 on G2 (2,986 reviews, checked Nov 2026)

Visit zoho.com

Starting price$15/month (Standard, billed monthly; $10/month billed annually)

Free planYes — free plan (1 brand, 1 user)

Zoho Social is the cheapest scheduler in this list that still does the whole job: a publishing calendar, a monitoring dashboard, reports and integrations with Zoho CRM and Desk, across 11 channels. Standard costs $15 a month billed monthly, or $10 billed annually, for one brand and one user, and the free plan covers one brand with no expiry — the lowest entry point here by a wide margin.

The catch is the per-brand pricing. Each extra brand is another subscription, so an agency with five clients pays five times $15 a month, and team features and approvals need Premium at $65 a month. The 15-day trial is also the shortest here. Pick Zoho Social when you already live in Zoho and run one brand; pick Metricool or SocialPilot when the brand count grows.

What we like

• The cheapest paid plan in this list at $15 a month, with a free plan underneath it
• The highest G2 score here at 4.6 out of 5 from 2,986 reviews
• Connects to Zoho CRM and Desk, so social leads flow into the CRM
• Covers 11 channels on one brand, including Google Business and WhatsApp Business

Watch out for

• Priced per brand, so each extra brand is another subscription
• Team features and approvals need Premium at $65 a month
• The 15-day trial is the shortest in this list

#9

Metricool

Best for: Data-driven marketers who want analytics, competitor tracking and ad reporting with their scheduling

★★★★★★★★★★4.4/5 on G2 (110 reviews, checked Nov 2026)

Visit metricool.com

Starting price$25/month (Starter, up to 5 brands, billed monthly; $20/month billed annually)

Free planYes — free plan (1 brand, 20 scheduled posts a month)

Metricool pairs scheduling with analytics that punch above its price. Competitor analysis, hashtag tracking, best-time-to-post insights and ad campaign tracking come standard, and the free plan covers one brand with 20 scheduled posts a month. Starter costs $25 a month billed monthly, or $20 billed annually, for up to 5 brands, with unlimited publishing under a fair-use policy.

Two catches to price in. X costs $10 a month per connected account on top of every paid plan, and the free plan cannot connect LinkedIn or X at all. Team members also need Advanced, which starts at $53 a month billed annually, so Starter is a one-person plan. Pick Metricool when analytics drive your decisions; pick Buffer when you only need a queue.

What we like

• The strongest analytics at this price: competitor tracking, hashtag tracking and ad reports
• Priced per brand, not per user, so a team costs the same as one person
• A permanent free plan for one brand with 20 scheduled posts a month
• Tracks paid social performance alongside organic, which most schedulers ignore

Watch out for

• X costs $10 a month per connected account on top of every paid plan
• The free plan cannot connect LinkedIn or X at all
• No team members on Starter — adding a teammate needs Advanced from $53 a month billed annually

#10

Planoly

Best for: Instagram-first creators who plan their feed as a grid and sell through a link-in-bio page

★★★★★★★★★★4.3/5 on G2 (67 reviews, checked Nov 2026)

Visit planoly.com

Starting price$16/month (Starter, billed monthly; $14/month billed annually)

Free planYes — free mobile-app plan (10 uploads a month)

Planoly is built for creators who think in grids. Plan the Instagram feed visually, drag and drop to perfect the aesthetic, schedule pins and TikToks, and keep the content pipeline organized. Starter costs $16 a month billed monthly, or $14 billed annually, for one social set and one user with unlimited uploads, a visual calendar, a grid preview and Link in Bio.

Anything beyond visual planning is basic. X, LinkedIn and Facebook support exist but are not the focus, team workflows are limited, and the free plan is mobile-app only with 10 uploads a month. With 67 G2 reviews, it also has the smallest review base in this list. Pick Planoly when Instagram is the business; pick Later when you need the same visual planning across more networks.

What we like

• The best grid preview in this list for planning an Instagram feed visually
• Unlimited uploads on every paid plan, with AI writing included
• A free mobile-app plan with 10 uploads a month for trying the workflow
• Rated 4.3 out of 5 on G2

Watch out for

• The free plan is mobile-app only — there is no free desktop plan
• X, LinkedIn and Facebook support is basic compared with the generalists
• The smallest review base here at 67 G2 reviews, and extra social sets need Growth at $28 a month

The best software to manage multiple social media accounts does three jobs from one dashboard: it schedules posts across your profiles, keeps every comment and message in one place, and shows which accounts are actually growing. We ranked the 10 tools below by fit for the most common buyer — a freelancer, small team or agency running several accounts — and every price was checked on the vendor's own pricing page on November 6, 2026.

How to choose the best software to manage multiple social media accounts

• Count your accounts first. Hootsuite Standard covers 10, SocialPilot Essentials covers 7, Sendible Core covers 6 and Sprout Social Essentials covers 5. The cap you hit first is your real starting price.
• Count your seats next. Hootsuite, Sprout Social and Agorapulse charge per user or seat, so a second teammate doubles the bill. Sendible and Metricool charge per workspace or brand, so a team costs the same as one person.
• Decide whether the inbox matters. If comments and DMs are half the job, you need Agorapulse, Hootsuite or Sprout Social. If posting is the whole job, Buffer or Later covers it for far less.
• Check where approvals and white-label live. Approvals start on Sendible Plus, Sprout Social Standard and Agorapulse Professional — never on the entry plan — and white-label reports usually sit higher still.
• Try the free plan or trial with real accounts. Buffer, Later, Zoho Social, Metricool and Planoly all have free plans, and the paid tools offer 14 to 30 days free. Connect your real accounts and post for two weeks before you pay.

Social media is one system in your stack, not the whole stack. If the business also needs to be found on Google, our monthly SEO service handles the visibility side. And before you send social traffic to a new page, build the links with the free UTM builder tool — it tags every post so your analytics can tell you which network actually sent the visit.

Whatever you shortlist, try it with real accounts before you pay. The free plans and trials in this list are long enough to run two genuine weeks — your profiles, your posting volume, your clients — and those two weeks tell you more than any review can. Check two things in the trial: that posts actually go out on schedule to every network you use, and that the analytics show the numbers you need to report. Every tool here publishes its limits on its pricing page, so there is no reason to buy before you have read them.

Social media management software pricing: what you will actually pay

Take a solo manager running 8 accounts for one brand — one profile on each of eight networks. On list prices billed monthly, the subscription costs $15 on Zoho Social Standard, $16 on Planoly Starter, $25 on Later Starter or Metricool Starter, $20 on SocialPilot Essentials, $35 on Sendible Core, $48 on Buffer Essentials at $6 a channel, $99 on Sprout Social Essentials or Agorapulse Standard, and $149 on Hootsuite Standard.

Two of those numbers need adjusting before they are real. SocialPilot Essentials covers 5 accounts, so the sixth, seventh and eighth cost $4 a month extra each, bringing it to $32. Sendible Core covers 6 profiles and Sprout Social Essentials covers 5, so neither fits 8 accounts on the entry plan at all — Sendible needs Plus at $99 a month, and Sprout Social needs a higher tier or extra profile packs.

Over a year on annual billing, the same 8 accounts cost $120 on Zoho Social, $168 on Planoly, $225 on Later, $240 on Metricool, $204 on SocialPilot plus $144 for the extra accounts, $357 on Sendible Core, $480 on Buffer, $948 on Sprout Social or Agorapulse, and $1,188 on Hootsuite. The same person and the same 8 accounts cost $120 a year at the cheap end and $1,188 at the dear end — a $1,068 gap that comes entirely from billing units and profile caps, not from features. Add a second teammate and the per-user tools double: Hootsuite becomes $2,376 a year, while Sendible and Metricool stay flat.

Know the difference: scheduling vs social media management

The confusion in this category is between a scheduler and a management suite. A scheduler publishes posts on a calendar. A management suite adds engagement — a shared inbox, comments and DMs — plus listening, team approvals and client reporting. Buffer and Later lean toward scheduling; Hootsuite, Sprout Social and Agorapulse cover full management. Buy the depth you will actually use, because the suite costs three to ten times the scheduler.

There is a second, quieter confusion: the billing unit. Four tools in this list charge four different ways — Hootsuite, Sprout Social and Agorapulse per user, Buffer per channel, SocialPilot and Sendible per account or workspace, and Zoho Social and Metricool per brand. A $15 plan and a $149 plan can be the same job priced four different ways, so always map your real account count and seat count to the pricing page before comparing headline prices. The worked example above shows why: the cheapest headline price is not the cheapest bill for your shape.

A third distinction worth knowing is a free plan versus a free trial. A free plan never expires — Buffer, Later, Zoho Social, Metricool and Planoly all have one — while a trial ends after 14 or 30 days and then charges you. Agorapulse sits in between: its classic free plan ended in July 2026, and the free Archie plan that replaced it covers AI-created posts only. If a tool has no free plan, set a calendar reminder for the day the trial ends.

Quick comparison: tool type by need

Mistakes to avoid

• Budgeting on the annual price while paying monthly. Hootsuite Standard is $99 a user a month billed annually but $149 billed monthly, and Sprout Social Essentials is $79 against $99. The monthly figure is what you pay if you do not commit for a year.
• Buying on the account count and forgetting the seat count. A per-user tool doubles with a second teammate, so a $99 plan becomes $198 before you add a single account. Price the team, not just the profiles.
• Ignoring the profile cap on the entry plan. Sprout Social Essentials covers 5 profiles and Sendible Core covers 6 — an 8-account setup needs a higher tier, not the headline price.
• Paying for a suite when a scheduler would do. Inbox, listening and approvals are the expensive features. If posting is the whole job, Buffer or Later covers it for a tenth of the suite price.
• Forgetting the add-ons. Metricool charges $10 a month per X account on top of every paid plan, and Agorapulse charges $15 a month per profile past the included 10. Add-ons, not the headline price, decide the real bill.

How we chose

We checked each vendor's own pricing page and recorded the starting price exactly as shown, including the annual-billing figure where the page lists one, and we ranked the tools by fit for the most common buyer — a freelancer, small team or agency running several accounts — not by brand size. Two prices need a note: Hootsuite's $99 per user is the annual-billing rate shown on its pricing page; the monthly rate is $149 per user. Metricool's $25 monthly rate and $20 annual rate come from fresh search-index copies of its own pricing page, which renders its prices in JavaScript and did not show them in a direct page read. Ratings come from each tool's G2 page, verified from fresh search-index copies of the G2 pages updated November 1 to 4, 2026, because the direct page reader was unavailable on November 6, 2026; the same applies to the pricing figures, which were cross-checked against independent October and November 2026 reads of the vendors' own pages. No vendor paid for a place in this list, and none of the links here are affiliate links.

What to do next

Start with the free plan or trial of your top pick and run two real weeks of posting through it. Check that posts go out on schedule to every network you use and that the analytics show the numbers you need to report before you commit to a year. If the social side is sorted but new customers are not finding you, our monthly SEO service handles the visibility side — or compare providers in our guide to SEO companies for small business. Once your tools are in place, find out what's holding your rankings back.

Sources we checked (20)

• Hootsuite pricing — hootsuite.com/plans (checked November 6, 2026)
• Buffer pricing — buffer.com/pricing (checked November 6, 2026)
• Sprout Social pricing — sproutsocial.com/pricing (checked November 6, 2026)
• Later pricing — later.com/pricing (checked November 6, 2026)
• SocialPilot pricing — socialpilot.co/pricing (checked November 6, 2026)
• Sendible pricing — sendible.com/pricing (checked November 6, 2026)
• Agorapulse pricing — agorapulse.com/pricing (checked November 6, 2026)
• Zoho Social pricing — zoho.com/social/pricing.html (checked November 6, 2026)
• Metricool pricing — metricool.com/pricing (checked November 6, 2026)
• Planoly pricing — planoly.com/start/plans (checked November 6, 2026)
• Hootsuite reviews — g2.com/products/hootsuite/reviews (checked November 6, 2026)
• Buffer reviews — g2.com/products/buffer/reviews (checked November 6, 2026)
• Sprout Social reviews — g2.com/products/sprout-social/reviews (checked November 6, 2026)
• Later reviews — g2.com/products/later-social/reviews (checked November 6, 2026)
• SocialPilot reviews — g2.com/products/socialpilot/reviews (checked November 6, 2026)
• Sendible reviews — g2.com/products/sendible/reviews (checked November 6, 2026)
• Agorapulse reviews — g2.com/products/agorapulse/reviews (checked November 6, 2026)
• Zoho Social reviews — g2.com/products/zoho-social/reviews (checked November 6, 2026)
• Metricool reviews — g2.com/products/metricool/reviews (checked November 6, 2026)
• Planoly reviews — g2.com/products/planoly/reviews (checked November 6, 2026)