· Reviewed by Sergio Verdugo, co-founder of Quetzal
If you left Hootsuite because nobody has time to make the posts, Quetzal makes and publishes them for you. If you need Hootsuite's inbox, listening and reporting at a different price, Sprout Social is the like-for-like suite, and Metricool covers planning and reporting for many brands at a much lower entry price.
If you only need to queue posts you already make, Buffer's free plan or Publer will do it for far less than a Hootsuite seat.
14 days free. Card required, nothing charged today.
Ranked by how much of the day-to-day work each tool takes off a small team: first making the posts, then publishing and approving them, then the inbox and reporting; ties go to the lower entry price. We make Quetzal, and it sits first because under this criterion it does the most of that work: it plans, writes, designs and publishes the posts. Judge that claim against the table below.
| Best for | From | Free plan or trial | Main trade-off | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Quetzal | Businesses with no time to make the posts | Starter: $116 a month per brand ($89 a month billed yearly), before tax | 14-day trial, card required; no free plan | No free plan, and no listening or shared inbox like Hootsuite's |
| 2. SocialBee | Recycling evergreen posts with an AI copilot | Bootstrap: $29 a month per workspace ($24.17 a month billed yearly) | 14-day trial, no card | No AI video on its pricing page |
| 3. Sprout Social | Larger teams that need a like-for-like suite | Essentials: $99 a month per user ($79 a month billed yearly) | 30-day trial, no card | Also priced per user, from $99 a month |
| 4. Metricool | Agencies reporting on many brands | Starter (up to 5 brands): $25 a month per account ($20 a month billed yearly) | Free plan | AI is limited to writing help; no AI video |
| 5. Buffer | Small teams scheduling their own posts | Essentials: $6 a month per channel ($5 a month billed yearly) | Free plan and 14-day trial, no card | Its web app is in English only |
| 6. Publer | Scheduling many accounts on a small budget | Not listed on their pricing page | Free plan and 7-day trial, no card | Prices were not listed on the page we read |
| 7. Planable | Teams whose hard part is approval | Basic: $39 a month per workspace ($33 a month billed yearly) | Free plan, no card | All sales are final: no refunds |
1. Quetzal
2. SocialBee
3. Sprout Social
4. Metricool
5. Buffer
6. Publer
7. Planable
An AI social media autopilot: it plans, writes, designs and publishes your posts, and learns from the results.
Quetzal plans the week from your brand and website, writes and designs the posts, and publishes them to Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok, X and YouTube after your approval or on autopilot. AI images start on Starter and AI reels on Pro. It is priced per brand, not per user: Starter is $116 a month ($89 billed yearly), with a 14-day trial that takes a card.
A planning and analytics platform priced by number of brands, popular with agencies and community managers.
Metricool plans, publishes and measures, with detailed reports, competitor analytics, an inbox and approvals. It is priced by the number of brands, from $25 a month per account, and has a free plan. Its app is available in seven languages, Spanish among them.
A simple scheduler for individuals and small teams, priced per connected channel, with an AI assistant for post text.
Buffer is a simple queue priced per channel, from $6 a month, with a free plan for up to three channels and a 14-day trial without a card. It has an inbox, approvals and an AI assistant for post text, and publishes to 13 networks.
A social media scheduler priced per connected account, with a free plan and an AI assistant for post text and images.
Publer charges per connected account and has a free plan; its paid features can be tried for 7 days without a card. It publishes to 13 networks, Bluesky, Mastodon and Telegram among them, and has approvals and an AI assistant for text and images.
A collaboration and approval tool for planning social posts, with unlimited users and an AI writer for captions.
Planable is built around collaboration and client approval, with unlimited users on every paid workspace from $39 a month per workspace, and a free tier of 50 posts with no time limit. Its AI writer helps with captions.
It depends on the job. For a business that needs the posts made, Quetzal plans, writes, designs and publishes them. For a team that needs Hootsuite's inbox, listening and reporting, Sprout Social is the closest suite. For reporting across many brands at a lower price, Metricool.
Buffer has a free plan for up to three channels, Metricool and Publer have free plans, and Planable has a free tier of 50 posts. Quetzal has no free plan; it has a 14-day trial with a card.
Quetzal plans and makes the week's posts on its own and waits for your approval, or publishes on autopilot. SocialBee's copilot drafts a plan, captions and images for you to approve. The others help with text when you ask.
If you use Hootsuite for listening and the inbox, keep it and add a tool that makes the posts. If you mainly use it to schedule, a cheaper scheduler or Quetzal can replace it.
For scheduling your own posts, Buffer and Publer, which charge per channel or account and have free plans. Hootsuite charges per user from $149 a month.
Start the new tool's trial before your Hootsuite term renews, connect your accounts, move scheduled posts across, run both for a week and cancel Hootsuite before the renewal date. Hootsuite does not refund the rest of a term.
The quickest way to compare is to see a week of posts made with your brand and put it next to what you use today.
14 days free. Card required, nothing charged today.
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