Sprout Social alternatives, compared on price, approvals and AI agents
Hootsuite, Agorapulse, Sendible, Vista Social and ten more, compared with Sprout Social on price per seat, approvals, free plans, X, Bluesky and AI agents.
By Mellow · UpdatedThe short answer
Sprout Social charges per seat: Essentials is $79 a seat a month billed yearly ($99 monthly) with five profiles, Standard $199, Professional, where approvals start, $299, and Advanced, where its API starts, $399. There is no free plan, only a 30-day trial. Alternatives that do not charge per person include Sendible, from $30 a month billed yearly with unlimited users; Planable, per workspace with unlimited users; and Vista Social, 15 profiles and two users from $79.17. Hootsuite, from $99, and Agorapulse, from $79, charge per user as Sprout Social does.
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 1 October 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 Sprout Social alternative
Every seat is billed. A team of 3 on Professional, the first plan with an approval workflow, pays $897 a month billed yearly, or $1,197 billed monthly.
Source: pricing
Automation starts late. The API comes with Advanced, and its publishing endpoint creates drafts only. Sprout’s MCP server is supported in ChatGPT only, and reads TikTok data rather than publishing.
Sources: API docs, ChatGPT help, pricing
What its users mention. On G2, a review site, Sprout Social scores 4.4 out of 5 from 6,874 reviews; the drawbacks its summary counts most often are missing features (707 mentions), limited features (527) and expense (456).
Source: G2 reviews
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 1 October 2026. Sprout Social for reference: Essentials: $99 per seat a month, $79 yearly; 5 profiles.
| 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 in beta on current plans: inbox, 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, one of them for publishing; a REST API needs an approved developer account, and its publishing API does not reach TikTok, YouTube or Bluesky. Sources: MCP, 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 | A free plan with limited scheduling; its post limit is not stated. The 14-day trial 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. 7-day trial, no card. Sources: free plan, home | Bluesky included; no X. Sources: Bluesky, channels | No MCP server or public API documented; a Zapier integration. Source: integrations | From Starter. Source: pricing |
| Mellow Hub | publication: one post to one account | Solo: $19 a month, or $190 a year; 1 brand profile and 900 publications a month. Source: pricing | No free publishing; connecting accounts, drafts and checks cost nothing. 7-day trial with a card on file. 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 |
| Metricool | brand | Starter: $25 a month, $20 yearly; up to 5 brands. Source: pricing | Free: 1 brand, 20 scheduled posts a month, without LinkedIn or X. Source: pricing | Bluesky included; X costs $10 a month per account, on paid plans. Source: pricing | MCP on every plan, Free included, within plan limits; the API from Advanced. Sources: MCP plans, pricing | From Advanced: $67 a month, $53 yearly. Source: pricing |
| 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: pricing, platforms | MCP on every plan, the trial included; public API from Pro. Sources: 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, free to host yourself. 7-day trial. Sources: home, pricing | 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 |
| 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 | The pricing page marks them only with icons. 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
- Unlimited users. Sendible and Planable include unlimited users on every plan; Buffer’s Team plan and Postiz from its Team plan include unlimited team members.
- Approvals for less. Planable’s required approvals from $49 a month billed yearly, per workspace; Loomly from $49 with three users; Later from $37.50 on Growth; Sendible from $84 with unlimited users.
- An inbox, priced per user like Sprout Social. Agorapulse’s Standard is $79 a user a month billed yearly with a unified inbox and ten profiles. Hootsuite sells its inbox, Nest, per user as well; check which plan includes it.
- An AI agent that can publish. Buffer, Metricool, Planable and Postiz include an MCP server that can schedule on every plan, Vista Social on paid plans, Publer from Business and Zernio on every account. Mellow Hub limits each agent’s channels, mode, daily ceiling and expiry on the server.
- Both X and Bluesky. Included at Buffer, Hootsuite, Postiz, Sendible, SocialBee, Zernio and Mellow Hub, as at Sprout Social. X costs extra at Metricool, Vista Social and Agorapulse.
What you give up by leaving Sprout Social
Sprout Social’s strength is everything around the calendar: an inbox from Standard, keyword and location monitoring, review management and deep reporting, with approvals from Professional. Of the tools above, Hootsuite and Agorapulse cover the most of that bundle; the cheaper ones are schedulers first.
Source: pricing
If reporting to clients or managers is the main job, test the replacement’s reports on your own accounts before you cancel.
Where Mellow Hub fits, and where it does not
Mellow Hub publishes one post to 9 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 publishing. Connecting accounts, drafts and checks are free; publishing needs a plan, and the 7-day trial takes a card.
- 9 networks. No Google Business Profile, Mastodon, Reddit, Snapchat or Telegram.
- A monthly allowance. Plans include a set number of publications a month, where several tools above advertise unlimited posts.
- No inbox and no listening. No comments, direct messages or monitoring; 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
How much does Sprout Social cost?
Checked on 1 October 2026: $79, $199, $299 or $399 a seat a month billed yearly, or $99, $249, $399 or $499 billed monthly, for Essentials, Standard, Professional and Advanced; Enterprise is priced on request.
Is there a cheaper alternative to Sprout Social?
Per person, Agorapulse’s Standard is $79 a user a month billed yearly with an inbox. Without per-person pricing, Sendible’s Core is $30 billed yearly for 6 profiles with unlimited users, and Planable’s Basic $33 per workspace with unlimited users.
Which Sprout Social alternatives have unlimited users?
Sendible and Planable on every plan, Buffer on its Team plan, Postiz from its Team plan and Loomly on Beyond. Sprout Social, Hootsuite and Agorapulse bill every user.
Does Sprout Social have an API?
Yes, from the Advanced plan, and its publishing endpoint creates drafts only. Its MCP server is supported in ChatGPT only and reads TikTok data, such as post performance.
Does Sprout Social have a free plan?
No. It offers a 30-day trial without a card, then paid plans from $79 a seat a month billed yearly.
Sources
Each vendor’s cells link to the pages above, all read on 1 October 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.