Metricool alternatives, compared on price, X, approvals and AI agents
Buffer, Publer, Planable, Postiz and ten more, compared with Metricool on price per brand, X without an add-on, team approvals, free plans and AI agents.
By Mellow · UpdatedThe short answer
Metricool charges per brand, one account on each network: Starter covers up to 5 brands for $25 a month, or $20 billed yearly, and up to 10 for $45, or $36. That is cheap for many brands. The cost rises in three places: X is $10 a month for each X account, team members and approvals start with Advanced at $67 a month, and the API comes only with Advanced. Alternatives include X in the price (Buffer, Postiz, SocialBee, Hootsuite, Mellow Hub), give a team approvals without a per-brand tier (Planable with unlimited users, Sendible, Loomly), or put an API on the entry plan (Buffer, Postiz, Zernio, Mellow Hub).
Disclosure: Mellow publishes this page and makes Mellow Hub, one of the tools below. Hub’s row comes from its own pricing configuration and code. Every other cell links to the vendor’s own page, read on 7 November 2026; where a vendor’s pages do not say something, the table says so. Rows are in alphabetical order, not ranked.
Why people look for a Metricool alternative
X is an add-on. X costs $10 a month per connected account and is not offered on the free plan. With X on each of 5 brands, Starter’s $25 becomes $75 a month.
Sources: pricing, plans help
No team on Starter. Team members and the post approval system start with Advanced: $67 a month, or $53 billed yearly, for up to 15 brands.
Source: pricing
The API waits for Advanced. Metricool’s MCP server works on every plan, the free one included, but its API is for Advanced and Custom only, so your own code or an automation that does not speak MCP needs the larger plan.
Sources: MCP plans, MCP and API
A small free plan. Free covers one brand and 20 scheduled posts a month, without LinkedIn or X.
Source: pricing
14 alternatives, side by side
Prices are US dollars a month for the cheapest paid plan; “yearly” is the monthly price when billed for a year. Checked on 7 November 2026. Metricool for reference: Starter: $25 a month, $20 yearly; up to 5 brands.
| Tool | Priced per | Cheapest paid plan | Free plan or trial | X and Bluesky | AI agents: MCP and API | Approvals |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Agorapulse | user | Standard: $99 a month, $79 yearly, per user; 10 social profiles. Source: pricing | No free plan since 6 July 2026; a free AI-content plan, Archie, replaced it. 30-day trial, no card. Sources: pricing, Archie plan | Bluesky included; X is an add-on sold through sales. Source: pricing | MCP on current plans, not Legacy ones: inbox with replies, listening and analytics; publishing only as drafts. A reporting API on Custom. Sources: MCP help, pricing | From Professional: $149 a month, $119 yearly, per user. Source: pricing |
| Buffer | channel | Essentials: $6 a channel a month, $5 yearly, for the first 10 channels; less per channel above that. Sources: pricing, tiers | Free: 3 channels, 10 scheduled posts per channel at a time, 1 user. 14-day trial of paid plans, no card. Source: pricing | Both included. Source: pricing | MCP server and API on every plan, Free included: create, schedule and manage posts. Sources: MCP, API | Team plan: $12 a channel a month, $10 yearly. Source: pricing |
| Hootsuite | user | Standard: $99 per user a month billed yearly; 10 social accounts. The monthly-billing price is not published. Source: plans | No free plan. 14-day trial, no card, limited to 10 to 20 posts a day. Source: plans | Both included. Source: networks | Hosted MCP servers since June 2026; the publishing one, Perch, saves drafts and does not publish or schedule. A REST API needs an approved developer account, and its publishing API does not reach TikTok, YouTube or Bluesky. Sources: MCP, Perch docs, API | From Advanced: $399 per user a month, yearly. Source: plans |
| Later | plan (sets of 8 profiles) | Starter: $25 a month, $18.75 yearly; 8 profiles, 30 posts per profile a month, 1 user. Source: pricing | Free: 8 profiles, 12 posts per profile a month, 1 user. The 14-day trial of paid plans takes a card. Sources: plans help, trial help | Neither: X support ended on 28 August 2025, and Bluesky is not supported. Sources: X help, platforms | No MCP server or public API documented. Source: pricing | From Growth: $50 a month, $37.50 yearly. Source: pricing |
| Loomly | plan | Starter: $65 a month, $49 yearly; 12 accounts, 3 users. Source: pricing | Free: 3 accounts, 5 posts a month; Loomly says it may not be available to everyone. A free trial of unstated length, no card. Sources: free plan, pricing | Bluesky included; no X. Sources: Bluesky, platforms | No MCP server or public API documented; a Zapier integration. Source: integrations | From Starter. Source: pricing |
| Mellow Hub | brand profile | Solo: $19 a month, or $190 a year; 1 brand profile and unlimited publishing, with a fair-use ceiling of 900 publications a month. Source: pricing | No free plan. A new account starts with a 7-day free trial of a monthly plan: it takes a card, charges $0 that day and nothing if cancelled before it ends. A yearly plan is charged the day it is chosen. Source: pricing | Both included. Source: networks | Hosted MCP server and REST API. Each key or OAuth grant carries its channels, review or autopilot, a daily ceiling and an expiry, and every action goes in a journal. Source: MCP guide | Review mode: an agent’s posts wait for a signed-in person to approve them. No team seats. Source: MCP guide |
| Planable | workspace, unlimited users | Basic: $39 a month, $33 yearly; 4 pages and 60 posts a month per workspace. Source: pricing | A trial of 50 posts with no time limit, no card. Source: pricing | X, limited to one post a day on Basic; no Bluesky. Sources: X per plan, platforms | MCP on every paid plan; public API from Pro. Sources: pricing, MCP, API | Required approvals from Pro: $59 a month, $49 yearly. Source: pricing |
| Postiz | plan, by channels | Standard: $29 a month, $23 yearly; 5 channels, no team members. Source: pricing | No hosted free plan; open source under AGPL-3.0, so you can host it yourself. 7-day trial. Sources: pricing, home, self-hosting | Both included. Source: pricing | MCP, API, CLI and webhooks on every plan. Sources: MCP, pricing | Not listed on the pricing page. Source: pricing |
| Publer | social account | Professional: $5 an account a month, $4 yearly. Source: plans | Free: 3 accounts, not X, 10 scheduled posts per account. Source: plans | Bluesky included; X on paid plans only. Source: plans | MCP, since 28 September 2026, and API on Business ($10 an account a month) and above. Sources: MCP, API | The plans page does not say in words which tier includes them. Source: plans |
| Sendible | plan, unlimited users | Core: $35 a month, $30 yearly; 6 profiles, unlimited users, 100 sends a day. Source: pricing | No free plan. 14-day trial, no card. Source: pricing | Both included. Source: pricing | No MCP server; the only documented API is for single sign-on. Source: white-label help | From Plus: $99 a month, $84 yearly. Source: pricing |
| SocialBee | plan, by profiles | Bootstrap: $29 a month, $24.17 yearly; 5 profiles, 1 user. Source: pricing | No free plan. 14-day trial, no card. Source: pricing | Both included. Source: accounts help | No MCP server and no public API. Source: API help | From Accelerate: $49 a month. Source: pricing |
| Sprout Social | seat | Essentials: $99 per seat a month, $79 yearly; 5 profiles. Source: pricing | No free plan. 30-day trial, no card. Source: pricing | Both included. Source: profiles help | MCP for ChatGPT only, reading TikTok data; the API, from Advanced, creates drafts only. Sources: ChatGPT help, API docs | From Professional: $299 per seat a month, yearly. Source: pricing |
| Vista Social | plan, by profiles and users | Professional: $99 a month, $79.17 yearly; 15 profiles, 2 users. Source: pricing | No free plan listed. 14-day trial, no card. Source: pricing | Bluesky included; X is a $29 a month add-on. Source: pricing | MCP on every paid plan; the API on Enterprise or as a paid add-on. Sources: MCP help, API help | Single-stage approvals on every plan; multi-stage from Advanced. Source: pricing |
| Zernio (formerly Late) | connected account | The first 2 accounts free, then $6 an account a month for accounts 3 to 10, less above. Source: pricing | The first 2 connected accounts, with no card. Source: pricing | Both; X’s own API charges are passed on. Source: pricing | The product is an API; a hosted MCP server on every account. Source: MCP docs | Not stated. Source: pricing |
Which one fits which need
- X without an add-on. Buffer from $5 a channel billed yearly, Postiz from $23 billed yearly for 5 channels, SocialBee from $24.17 for 5 profiles; Hootsuite, Sendible, Sprout Social and Mellow Hub include X too, and Zernio passes on X’s own API charges.
- A team with approvals for less. Planable from Pro, $49 billed yearly per workspace with unlimited users; Loomly from Starter, $49 billed yearly with three users; Later from Growth, $37.50 billed yearly with two users.
- An API on the entry plan. Buffer’s API and MCP server are on every plan, the free one included; Postiz has MCP, an API and a CLI on every plan; Zernio is an API first; Mellow Hub’s REST API and MCP server come with every plan.
- Paying per account instead of per brand. Publer from $4 an account a month billed yearly; Buffer from $5 a channel; Zernio’s first two accounts free.
- An AI agent with limits set on the server. Mellow Hub gives each agent its own channels, review or autopilot, a daily ceiling and an expiry, and records every action. Metricool’s MCP can create posts for review as well as scheduled ones.
What you give up by leaving Metricool
Metricool is an analytics tool as much as a scheduler: paid plans keep unlimited history, the free plan includes an inbox for Instagram, Facebook, Google Business Profile, TikTok and YouTube, and it publishes to Google Business Profile, which Mellow Hub does not.
Sources: pricing, networks
For several brands that do not post to X, Starter is one of the cheapest options in the table: up to 10 brands for $36 a month billed yearly. Its MCP server is on the free plan too.
Sources: pricing, MCP plans
Where Mellow Hub fits, and where it does not
Mellow Hub publishes one post to 10 networks at once, by hand in its composer or through an AI agent, and checks every network’s rules before anything is sent. It is built for agents that publish: each key or OAuth grant is limited to the channels, the mode, the daily ceiling and the expiry its owner chose, and every action is recorded where the owner can revoke it. It is weaker in these ways:
- No free plan. Publishing needs a plan. A new account starts with a 7-day free trial of a monthly plan, which takes a card; a yearly plan is charged the day it is chosen.
- 10 networks. No Google Business Profile, Mastodon, Reddit or Snapchat.
- No inbox and no listening. No shared inbox, comment moderation or monitoring. On Instagram it answers by keyword: a comment gets a public reply and one private message, a direct message gets an answer (comment-to-DM). Analytics are per post.
- No team seats. One owner’s brand profiles, without roles or client logins.
- Newer. Mellow has published live, with public links, to Instagram, YouTube, X, LinkedIn, Threads, Bluesky, Pinterest and Facebook. On TikTok, uploads are accepted but, on our test accounts, visible only to their owner.
See the plans, each network’s rules, or the comparison of publishing APIs if an agent or your own code will do the posting.
Questions
Does Metricool charge extra for X (Twitter)?
Yes. X is $10 a month for each connected X account, on paid plans only; the free plan has no X and no LinkedIn. Checked on 7 November 2026.
Is Metricool free?
There is a free plan: one brand, 20 scheduled posts a month, without LinkedIn or X, and 30 days of analytics history. Paid plans start at $25 a month, or $20 billed yearly, for up to 5 brands.
Does Metricool have an API or MCP?
Both. Its MCP server works on every plan, the free one included, within plan limits, and can create and edit scheduled posts. Its API is for Advanced and Custom plans only.
When does Metricool include approvals and team members?
From Advanced: $67 a month, or $53 billed yearly, for up to 15 brands. Free and Starter have no team members.
What is cheaper than Metricool?
For several brands without X, few tools are: Starter covers up to 10 brands for $36 a month billed yearly. With X on every brand, add $10 per X account; Buffer, Postiz and SocialBee include X in their price. For one or two accounts, Buffer’s and Publer’s free plans and Zernio’s first two accounts cost nothing.
Sources
Each vendor’s cells link to the pages above, all read on 7 November 2026. Prices change; check the vendor’s page before you buy. Figures marked as reviews come from G2’s summaries of its users’ reviews, not from the vendor.
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