9 Best Hootsuite Alternatives in 2026 (Including Free Options)

The best Hootsuite alternatives for a small team are BroadcastPost, Buffer and Metricool if you want a free plan, and Agorapulse, SocialPilot or Sprout Social if you need an agency-grade inbox and reporting. Hootsuite no longer offers a free plan, and its paid tiers are built for larger teams, which is why so many small businesses go looking. Here are nine options, what each one does well, and a short checklist for choosing.

Why people look for Hootsuite alternatives#

Hootsuite is a capable tool, and for a marketing department it can be the right one. The complaints from smaller teams tend to be the same four:

• No free plan. Hootsuite retired its free plan in 2023. New users get a time-limited trial, then a paid subscription. Paid plans start at a monthly fee; check the pricing page for current numbers.
• Priced for teams. Plans scale with users and social accounts, so a solo owner pays for capacity built for a department.
• More than you need. Streams, social listening, approval workflows and integrations are valuable to agencies and less so to a bakery with three accounts.
• A learning curve. The dashboard rewards time invested. If you post four times a week, you may never invest it.

If any of those sound familiar, one of the tools below will fit better.

Hootsuite alternatives at a glance#

Plans and limits change often. Treat the free plan column as a starting point and confirm on each pricing page before you commit.

1. BroadcastPost#

BroadcastPost is a beginner-friendly scheduler built for creators, solopreneurs and small businesses that want to post consistently without a dashboard full of features they will never touch. It publishes to Instagram, Facebook, Threads, TikTok, LinkedIn, YouTube, Reddit and Google Business Profile, and there is a free plan rather than a trial.

The composer has three modes: Publish Now, Add to Queue (which drops the post into the next free slot in your posting schedule) and Pick a time. You set your posting days and times once, and "Suggest from my results" proposes slots based on how your own past posts performed. A hashtags box appends your usual tags to the caption and removes duplicates, TikTok posts carry the privacy, comment, duet, stitch and commercial-content settings, and analytics cover reach, views, likes, comments and follower growth per account, with CSV export.

What it does not do: BroadcastPost does not publish to Pinterest, X or Bluesky yet, and it is not a social listening or team-approval tool. If you want the simplest possible replacement for Hootsuite's scheduler, you can try BroadcastPost free and have your accounts connected in a few minutes.

2. Buffer#

Buffer is the tool most people mean when they say "like Hootsuite, but simpler." It has had a free plan for years, with a small number of connected channels and a cap on queued posts per channel; the exact limits are on its pricing page. Paid plans are priced per channel, which suits a small business with two or three accounts better than a per-user model.

The core idea is the queue: set a posting schedule per channel, add posts, and they fill the next slots. Buffer supports an unusually long list of networks, including Pinterest, X, Bluesky and Mastodon, alongside the majors. Analytics, engagement tools and team features sit on the paid tiers. If you like Buffer's model but want to compare it with similar tools, our list of Buffer alternatives goes deeper.

3. Metricool#

Metricool started as an analytics product and still leads with reporting. The free plan covers one brand, and the paid plans add more brands, team members and report options. It is a good fit if the part of Hootsuite you actually used was the analytics tab.

Beyond scheduling, Metricool shows a best-hours heatmap built from your own data, tracks competitor accounts, pulls in website and ad metrics, and produces client-ready reports. The interface is denser than Buffer's or BroadcastPost's, and beginners sometimes find the number of panels intimidating. Network coverage is broad and includes Pinterest and X.

4. Publer#

Publer is the budget pick for people who schedule in bulk. Its free plan covers a handful of accounts, and the paid plans are modest. The standout features are CSV bulk upload, post recycling for evergreen content, watermarks, a link-in-bio page, and integrations with popular design tools.

The trade-off is a busy interface with many settings per post. If you post a few times a week and want something calm, it can feel like too much. If you run a content-heavy account and want to load a month in one go, it is hard to beat at the price.

5. Planable#

Planable is built around collaboration. Posts are drafted in a preview that looks like the real feed, teammates or clients comment directly on the draft, and approvals happen inside the tool before anything is scheduled. The free plan includes a fixed number of posts in total rather than per month, which is enough to test the workflow.

It is the right choice when someone other than you has to sign off on every post. It is a weaker choice if you mostly want analytics, since reporting is lighter than the tools above.

6. Vista Social#

Vista Social packs an agency feature set into a small-team price: a unified inbox, review management for Google and Facebook, reporting, and a wide network list. There is a free plan with limited profiles and posts, and paid plans grow by profile count.

It is closer to Hootsuite in scope than most tools on this list, which is both the appeal and the caution. Expect more setup, more menus and more decisions than a scheduler built for one person.

7. SocialPilot#

SocialPilot is aimed at agencies and freelancers who manage client accounts. There is no free plan, only a trial. The features that matter here are bulk scheduling, client management, white-label reports and team roles, all at prices below the enterprise suites.

For a single small business it is more tool than you need. For someone managing five clients on a budget, it is a sensible Hootsuite replacement.

8. Agorapulse#

Agorapulse is the closest like-for-like Hootsuite alternative on this list. It has a shared social inbox, publishing with approvals, detailed reporting and basic listening, and it is built for teams. Agorapulse has offered a limited free plan at times; check the pricing page for what is available today.

Choose it if your team lives in the inbox, replying to comments and messages across several accounts, and you need reports for a manager. Skip it if you are a solo owner, because most of what you pay for will sit unused.

9. Sprout Social#

Sprout Social is the enterprise option: social listening, customer-care features, advanced reporting and integrations with sales and support tools. There is no free plan, and pricing is per user at a level that assumes a marketing budget.

It belongs on a list of Hootsuite alternatives because larger teams comparing the two usually shortlist both. For everyone else it is a reference point, not a recommendation.

Loomly, Sendible and SocialBee are also worth a look if none of the nine fit, particularly for agencies and for evergreen content recycling.

Is there a free version of Hootsuite?#

No. Hootsuite ended its free plan in 2023 and now offers a free trial that converts to a paid subscription. If "Hootsuite free" is what you were searching for, the practical answer is a different tool with a real free plan. Our roundup of free social media schedulers compares the free tiers side by side, including what each one caps.

How to choose a Hootsuite alternative#

Work through these in order and most of the list eliminates itself.

1. List your networks. If you need Pinterest or X, BroadcastPost is out for now; Buffer, Metricool and Publer cover them.
2. Count your accounts and people. One person with three accounts should not pay a per-user price.
3. Decide what you actually used in Hootsuite. Scheduling only? Pick the simplest tool. Reporting? Metricool. Inbox? Agorapulse or Vista Social. Approvals? Planable.
4. Check the free plan or the lowest tier against your real posting volume, not your ambitions.
5. Try it for a week with real posts before you cancel anything.

If your accounts are mostly Instagram and you want a visual planner rather than a Hootsuite-style dashboard, the Later vs Planoly and Buffer vs Later comparisons cover that corner of the market.

Moving your schedule over#

There is no direct import between scheduling tools, but the move is smaller than it looks.

• Copy your upcoming posts out of Hootsuite: captions, media and dates. A spreadsheet is fine.
• Connect your accounts to the new tool. Each network asks you to authorize it once.
• Set a posting schedule so queued posts land at the times your audience is used to.
• Rebuild the next two weeks first. Anything further out can wait until you trust the new tool.

If you have never used a queue-based scheduler before, how to schedule social media posts walks through the whole process step by step.

Key takeaways#

• Hootsuite no longer offers a free plan; BroadcastPost, Buffer, Metricool and Publer do.
• Match the tool to what you actually used: scheduling, reporting, inbox or approvals.
• Per-channel or free pricing suits small businesses better than per-user plans.
• Rebuild two weeks of posts in the new tool before you cancel the old one.