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Hootsuite has no free plan. Standard is $99 per user a month for up to 10 accounts, Professional $199, Advanced $399.
Buffer does three channels free, and $5 a channel after that. For a small business the gap is not close.
Prices were checked against each vendor’s own pricing page on 14 September 2026.
The best Hootsuite alternatives at a glance
The free one most people should start with, the one with real analytics for the money, and one you can host yourself.
Buffer
Free for three channels
Free / $5 a channelMetricool
Best analytics per pound
Free tier, then low-cost plansPostiz
Open source, self-hosted
Free, open sourceBuffer
The obvious swap
Priced per channel rather than per user, which is the structural difference that matters: three channels on Essentials is $15 a month against Hootsuite $99. Scheduling, a posting queue, an ideas board and clean analytics, with an interface that does not need training. It is lighter than Hootsuite on team approvals and social listening, which most small businesses never used.
Free tier: Free tier: yes, free forever. Three channels, ten scheduled posts per channel, one user, AI assistant and basic insights.
Metricool
Analytics without the enterprise price
The strongest reporting at this price point, including competitor tracking, best-time-to-post analysis and white-label PDF reports that agencies actually send to clients. Covers the usual networks plus Google Business Profile and web analytics in the same dashboard. The interface is busier than Buffer, which is the price of having the numbers on screen.
Free tier: Free tier: yes, covering one brand with scheduling and analytics.
Later
Visual planning for Instagram
Built around a visual content calendar, so you arrange the grid before you schedule, which matters if Instagram or Pinterest is your main channel. Link-in-bio, user-generated content collection and influencer tools are included. Weaker for text-first networks, and the per-plan social-set limits catch out anyone managing several brands.
Free tier: Free tier: limited or trial only depending on region; paid plans are tiered monthly.
Publer
Most features for the money
Unglamorous and very good value. Bulk scheduling from a spreadsheet, recycling evergreen posts, watermarking, signatures and a proper approval workflow, priced per social account so you pay for what you connect. It is the tool that keeps appearing in Reddit threads from people who compared the spreadsheet rather than the marketing.
Free tier: Free tier: yes, with a small number of connected accounts and scheduled posts.
SocialBee
Evergreen content on rotation
Organised around content categories that recycle on a schedule, so a library of evergreen posts keeps circulating without you rebuilding a queue each week. That suits consultants, coaches and B2B accounts where the same messages bear repeating. Less suited to news-led or reactive posting, where the category model gets in the way.
Free tier: Free tier: no, trial only. Tiered monthly by profiles and users.
Postiz
Self-host your scheduler
An open-source social scheduler you run yourself, covering the major networks with a calendar, an AI assistant and team features. No per-channel fee and no per-user fee at any scale, which is why agencies managing dozens of accounts look at it. You are responsible for the server and for keeping up with each network API changes, which is the real ongoing cost here.
Free tier: Free tier: yes. Open source and free to self-host, with a paid hosted option.
| # | Tool | Best for | Free tier | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Buffer | The obvious swap | Yes, 3 channels | Free / $5 per channel a month |
| 02 | Metricool | Analytics without the enterprise price | Yes, one brand | Free tier, then low-cost paid plans |
| 03 | Later | Visual planning for Instagram | Trial only in most regions | Paid, tiered monthly |
| 04 | Publer | Most features for the money | Yes, limited accounts | Free tier, then low per-account pricing |
| 05 | SocialBee | Evergreen content on rotation | Trial only | Paid, tiered monthly |
| 06 | Postiz | Self-host your scheduler | Yes, fully free self-hosted | Free, open source |
Is Hootsuite still free? No
It is the first question Google suggests, and the answer is no. The free plan was withdrawn, and the entry tier on Hootsuite’s own plans page is Standard at $99 per user a month, covering up to 10 social accounts. Professional is $199 and Advanced $399.
Standard alone is $1,188 a year for one person. That is a sensible price for an agency running client reporting and social listening. It is a strange price for a café posting four times a week.
The per-user model is the other thing to notice. Hootsuite charges by person; Buffer and Publer charge by connected channel. If you have one marketer and three channels, per-channel pricing is dramatically cheaper. If you have eight people sharing one brand, per-user pricing starts to make more sense.
Hootsuite alternatives compared
Cheapest paid tier and what the free tier really allows, checked against each vendor’s own page on 14 September 2026.
Hootsuite, Buffer or Later?
All three comparisons appear in Google’s question box, so here is the short version.
Buffer is the default recommendation for most people. Free for three channels, $5 a channel after that, and nothing to learn. Choose it unless you have a specific reason not to.
Later wins if Instagram or Pinterest is the main channel, because planning the visual grid before you schedule is genuinely useful and Buffer does not really do it.
Hootsuite earns its price in two situations: agencies that need client reporting, approvals and social listening in one place, and larger teams where per-user pricing works out cheaper than per-channel across many brands.
If none of that is you, you were paying for a platform and using a scheduler.
What to actually check before switching
Schedulers all look the same on a feature list. Four things separate them in practice.
Which networks post natively. Instagram carousels and Reels, TikTok, YouTube Shorts, Threads, Bluesky, LinkedIn documents and Google Business Profile all behave differently, and “supported” sometimes means a reminder notification rather than an automatic post. Check the specific format you publish most.
What the free or entry tier caps. Buffer free is ten scheduled posts per channel at a time, not ten a month, which trips people up in both directions.
Whether analytics survive the move. Historic performance data usually stays with the old tool. Export your reports before you cancel.
Approvals, if more than one person posts. This is the feature small teams discover they need in month three, and it is often a tier up.
The thing no scheduler fixes
Worth saying, because it is where most of the money in this category is wasted.
Every tool here will publish your posts reliably. None of them will make the posts worth reading, and the platforms increasingly decide reach on engagement in the first minutes rather than on posting time. That means the “best time to post” feature is worth less than it was, and being present to reply is worth more.
The practical implication: spend the difference between $99 and $15 a month on making fewer, better posts and answering comments, rather than on a dashboard that schedules more of them.
How we test and price these tools
Every price here was read from the vendor’s own pricing page in a browser on 14 September 2026, not copied from another round-up. We say whether a tool charges per user or per channel, because that structure changes the bill more than the headline rate does.
For schedulers we check which networks post automatically rather than by reminder, what the free tier actually caps, and whether approvals and analytics sit on the entry plan or a tier above. Those four answers decide whether a cheap tool stays cheap.
We read current Reddit threads for each tool, so the picks reflect what people are using this year. No vendor pays for a place on this list.
Hootsuite alternatives FAQs
Taken from Google’s results and current threads on Reddit.
How we test01 Is Hootsuite no longer free?
Correct, the free plan has gone. The cheapest plan on Hootsuite own page is Standard at $99 per user a month for up to 10 social accounts. Buffer, Metricool and Publer all still have genuinely free tiers, and Postiz is free if you self-host.
02 What is the best free social media scheduler?
Buffer. Free forever for three channels with ten scheduled posts per channel and an AI assistant, and no time limit. Metricool free covers one brand with analytics included, which Buffer free does not really do. Publer free connects a small number of accounts.
03 Which is better, Hootsuite or Buffer?
Buffer for almost anyone under about five people, because it charges per channel rather than per user: three channels is $15 a month against Hootsuite $99. Hootsuite is worth it for agencies needing client reporting, approvals and social listening, or larger teams across many brands.
04 Which is better, Later or Hootsuite?
Later if Instagram or Pinterest is your main channel, because planning the visual grid before scheduling is its core strength. Hootsuite if you manage several brands and need listening and approvals. Later is cheaper; Hootsuite is broader.
05 What are the top social media schedulers?
By usage, Hootsuite, Buffer, Later, Sprout Social and Metricool. By value in 2026, Buffer for individuals and small teams, Metricool for reporting, Publer for features per pound, and Postiz if you can self-host. Sprout Social sits above Hootsuite on price.
06 Which alternative is best for an agency?
Metricool for white-label client reports at a low price, or Postiz self-hosted if you manage dozens of accounts and want no per-channel fee at all. Hootsuite and Sprout Social remain the safe enterprise answers if the client expects a recognised name on the invoice.
07 Will I lose my analytics if I switch?
Usually yes. Historic performance data stays with the tool that collected it, and networks only expose a limited window through their APIs. Export your reports as PDF or CSV before you cancel, and expect the new tool to start its own history from day one.
Browse every alternatives guide, or start with the marketing category.