There are many social media schedulers out there, and picking the right one can be overwhelming. Learn how to pick the social media scheduler that’s right for your business.
One of the first steps to social media management is finding the right tools to coordinate everyday tasks. With the stress of a tight budget, a crunching timeline, and social features that your company is specifically looking for, finding the perfect scheduler can be a daunting task.
In this guide, we break down the industry’s best schedulers. We’ll list information such as pricing, plans available, notable features, and recommendations of each tool. This should make it easy to pick what scheduler will work for your business.
Note: Features and prices below may be changed by the tool provider.
Sprout Social
Sprout social is one of the most popular schedulers out there, but it can be an expensive solution for your social team. With its paid-per-user pricing, social teams of more than 3 users can get costly. However, Sprout Social offers many solutions for different types of businesses. It’s also easy to use and will most likely have all the features that you’re looking for. Looking for analytics and automated live reports? Then this is one of the best tools for you.
One of my favorite features is that you can bulk schedule posts easily. For example, if you want to share an article on Twitter every 2 weeks, you will be able to do so when you first schedule it out. It’s a huge time-saver. Sprout Social is also a solution that is scalable with your business. If you want to test it out, there’s a 10-day free trial available. You can learn more about it here.
Startups, small to established businesses: $99/user per month
- All-in-one social inbox: Rounds up all your social messages in one place so you can respond to inquiries across social networks.
- Mobile app: On-the-go social management
- Basic reporting features
- Five social media profiles
Corporate: $149/user per month
- Includes all features mentioned above
- Ability to pull trends, engagement, and a campaign report
- An approval workflow
- Ten social media profiles
Enterprise: $249/user per month
- Includes all the features listed above
- Chatbots & automation tools
- Advanced reporting
- Shared asset library
- URL tracking
- Ten social media profiles
Social Studio
Image by Social Studio
As part of the Salesforce’s Marketing cloud, Social Studio is a social media marketing tool for large and enterprise businesses. Take note that this is an expensive solution, but reasonably so. It connects with Salesforce’s Customer Relationship Management (CRM) feature. According to Social Studio, you can “route social posts to complete the picture of your customer across social, email, and other digital channels.”
Compared to other social schedulers, its features are limited. Aside from the CRM feature, it’s notable feature include managing content across internal teams. As mentioned in Finance Online, its pricing caters to “different packages that are tailored according to your company’s size, needs, budget, and industry, among others.” You’ll need to contact Social Studio for a quote. Learn more here.
Later
Image by Later.
Are you focusing your social efforts on Instagram? Then Later is the social media scheduler for you. There are many features to love. But, some noteworthy ones include a visual planner, auto-publishing on Instagram, and a media library. You can also easily find and repost user-generated content and create a shoppable feed. Later is affordable as well (however, they offer a monthly per-user pricing which can get expensive if you have a big team). Learn more here.
Solopreneaurs, Startups: Free/user
- Media library
- Basic Instagram analytics
- Schedule photos only
Solopreneaurs: $9/user per month
- All features listed above
- Schedule photos, videos, multi-photo posts
- Tag users in each picture
- Location feature
- Search & repost UGC content
Startup and Small businesses: $19/user per month
- All features listed above
- Two users
- Hashtag suggestions
- Conversations: Manage & reply to all Instagram comments
- Contributors: Request and collect your media
- Optimal time suggestions
- Shared calendar with team
- Shoppable feed
Tip: Later also schedules on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.
Buffer
Image by Buffer.
Are you an agency, or are you planning on scaling your business? Then Buffer is the perfect solution for you. It’s relatively affordable as well as scalable. If you have a big social team, we recommend Buffer since it doesn’t offer a per-user solution. This way you can add team members to your team, all of whom will be included in its monthly plan.
Buffer’s notable features include auto publishing on Instagram, approval process, team management, social support (at an additional cost), and analytics. You can also schedule posts to Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram. There’s a free trial for plans above $99/mo. Learn more about it here.
Solopreneaurs: Free
- Three social profiles
- Mobile app
- Video & GIF uploader
- Link shortening & tracking
Solopreneaurs & Startups: $15/mo.
- All the features listed above
- Eight social accounts
- Pinterest scheduling
- RSS Feed: Find content easily
- Calendar feature
- Analytics
Startups and Small businesses: $99/mo.
- All features listed above
- Five team members
- 25 social accounts
- Advanced analytics
Small and medium sized businesses: $199/mo.
- All features listed above
- Ten team members
- 50 social accounts
Large and Enterprise businesses: $399/mo.
- All features listed above
- 25 team members
- 150 social accounts
Add on: Social support starting at $50/mo.
Add on: Advanced Analytics aren’t available yet, but you can sign up for early access here.
Hootsuite
Image by Digital Trends
Hootsuite was one of the first schedulers out there, and it’s well-known in the industry. The platform isn’t as seamless and modern as others, but it won’t break the bank, either. Hootsuite’s notable features include bulk scheduling, content curation, monitoring, team management, and integrations. Learn more here.
Solopreneurs: Free to $29/mo.
- Bulk scheduling
- Analytics
- RSS integrations
Start-ups, small to established businesses: $129/mo.
- All features listed above
- 20 social profiles
- Three users
- Custom analytics report
- One Hootsuite platform certification
Established businesses: $599/mo.
- All features listed above
- 35 social profiles
- Five users
- Approval workflow
- One social media certification
- Extended training
CoSchedule
Image by CoSchedule.
CoSchedule doesn’t just schedule your posts for you. It’s also a great all-in-one tool for your marketing team. You can manage everything in one calendar, and you can also communicate across different marketing teams seamlessly. For example, you’ll be able to work with your events, content, promotions, and social teams to make sure every content piece you produce gets shared. It’s a dream tool for every marketing project manager. You’ll save hours by streamlining your marketing and social processes.
CoSchedule’s notable features include team management, marketing calendar(s), a blog management feature, integrated email marketing, and social automation. You’ll also find project workflow management, bulk schedule, and integrations with various apps. So, what’s not to love? Well, it can get pricey, but it’s not a per-user system so you’ll only need to pay an all-inclusive monthly cost. Learn more here.
Solopreneurs: $0 to $49/mo.
- Eight social profiles
- Blog & social scheduling
- Email Marketing
- Social Analytics
Startups and Small businesses: $60/mo.
- All features listed above
- Three users (add more for $19/user)
- Ten social profiles
- Social promotion
- Business analytics
Established businesses: $300/mo.
- All features listed above
- Five users (add more for $19/user)
- 15 social profiles
- Marketing Campaigns
- Workflow approval & management
- Multiple calendars
- Account manager
Enterprise: $1,200/mo.
- All features listed above
- Ten users (add more for $19/user)
- 25 social profiles
- Team training
- 24/7 support
You can also find various agency plans through here.
Quuu
Image by Quuu.
Quuu is perfect for businesses who are focusing on redistributing quality content. This scheduler hand-picks quality content every day so you can reschedule them easily. While there isn’t a free account, there’s a free trial available for 30 days. Learn more here.
Start ups: $15/mo.
- Up to 6 suggestions per day
- Unlimited access to curated content library
- Ten social profiles
- Repost feature
Small businesses: $49/mo.
- All features listed above
- 25 social profiles
Established businesses: $99/mo.
- All features listed above
- 50 social profiles
