A social media management tool is where a team plans posts, publishes them to every network, answers comments and messages, and reports on what worked. Most tools do the first part well. The differences show up in the other three: whether the inbox covers DMs and reviews or only comments, whether reports are good enough to send to a client or a boss, and whether a manager can approve a post before it goes live.
This guide compares seven tools for teams that publish, engage, report and collaborate across several networks: Sprout Social, Hootsuite, Buffer, Metricool, Later, Sprinklr and Planoly. It is written for in-house marketing teams, agencies that manage several clients, and brands with a customer care function on social.
The biggest trap is pricing. These tools charge per user, per channel, per brand or per plan, so a tool that looks cheap for one person can cost thousands a month for a team of eight. This guide does the arithmetic for two example teams near the end.
What Matters When Choosing a Social Media Management Tool for a Team
- Publishing across networks: X (Twitter) is the most common gap. Later does not list it, Planoly only sends reminders for it, and Metricool charges extra for it.
- The inbox: whether comments, DMs and reviews land in one place, and whether teammates can see who is handling what. This is the biggest difference between full suites and schedulers.
- Reporting: how much history you keep, competitor comparisons, and reports you can send to clients.
- Collaboration: approvals, roles and message assignment. Many tools put approvals on a higher plan than you might expect.
- Pricing unit: per user, per channel, per brand or per plan. This decides how the bill grows as you add people or accounts.
- Listening: tracking brand mentions beyond your own accounts. Some tools include a basic version; others sell it as an add-on.
How We Compared
We compared plans and documentation, not hands-on tests. For each tool we read the vendor's own pricing and feature pages on 17 October 2026. All prices are USD list prices, excluding tax. "Billed annually" prices are the monthly equivalent of paying for a year upfront.
Where a vendor does not publish a number (Sprinklr's pricing, Sprout Social's listening add-on, Hootsuite's monthly-billing prices), we say so and do not guess. Prices change often, so check the vendor's page before you buy.
Comparison Table
| Tool | Starting price | Free plan / trial | Priced by | Best for | Standout |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sprout Social | $79/seat/month billed annually ($99 monthly) | No free plan; 30-day trial | Seat | Engagement and reporting for growing teams | Smart Inbox with comments, DMs and reviews |
| Hootsuite | $99/user/month billed annually | No free plan; 14-day trial | User | All-in-one suite for larger teams | Listening included on every plan |
| Buffer | $5/channel/month billed yearly ($6 monthly) | Free plan (3 channels); 14-day trial | Channel | Affordable, simple scheduling | Unlimited users on the Team plan |
| Metricool | $20/month billed annually ($25 monthly) | Free plan (1 brand) | Brand | Analytics-minded agencies managing many brands | 50 brands for $159/month billed annually |
| Later | $18.75/month billed yearly ($25 monthly) | No free plan; 14-day trial | Plan (social sets and users) | Visual planning for Instagram and TikTok | Visual drag-and-drop planner |
| Sprinklr | By quote only | No free plan or trial | Quote | Enterprise-scale social with governance | 30+ channels with compliance checks |
| Planoly | $14/month billed annually ($16 monthly) | Free plan (mobile app); 14-day trial | Plan (social sets and users) | Instagram-first creators and small brands | Instagram grid planner and link-in-bio store |
Prices checked October 2026 on each vendor's pricing page.
Per User, Per Channel or Per Brand: How the Pricing Models Differ
- Per user (or seat): Sprout Social and Hootsuite. Adding a profile is free within the plan's limit, but each colleague costs a full seat.
- Per channel: Buffer. You pay for each connected social account, cheaper per channel above 10. Team includes unlimited users.
- Per brand: Metricool. A brand is one business or client with one profile per network. Plans are priced in bands (5, 10, 15, 25 and 50 brands). Team members are unlimited on Advanced only.
- Per plan with bundles: Later and Planoly. Each plan includes some "social sets" (one profile on each supported network) and users, with extra sets and users as add-ons on higher plans.
- By quote: Sprinklr. There is no public price.
In short: many people and few accounts favors per-channel or per-brand pricing. One or two people managing many accounts can make a per-seat suite reasonable.
Sprout Social
Sprout Social is a full social media management suite built around engagement and reporting. It covers publishing, a shared inbox, review management and analytics, with listening, premium analytics and employee advocacy sold as add-ons. Its AI assistant is called Trellis.
What it does well for teams
The Smart Inbox is Sprout's main strength. It brings comments, DMs and reviews into one place, with collision detection so teammates see when someone is already replying, and case management for customer care. It starts on Standard, which also adds 10 brand keywords for monitoring, review management for Google, Yelp, TripAdvisor, Trustpilot and Glassdoor, and 90 days of conversation history. Professional keeps the full history and adds message tagging.
Publishing is on every plan: a calendar, the Sprout Queue and ViralPost send-time suggestions. Bulk scheduling and Instagram grid planning need Professional. Group, profile and post-level reports are on every plan, with competitor and paid reports from Professional.
Approval workflows start on Professional. Advanced adds external approvals (useful when a client must sign off), spike alerts, sentiment, chatbots, the API, and Salesforce, HubSpot and Zendesk integrations.
Every plan covers Instagram, X, Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Snapchat, TikTok, Threads, YouTube and Reddit; WhatsApp and review sites are added from Standard. Sprout lists 24/5 live phone and chat support on every plan.
Pricing
Sprout Social is priced per seat. There is no free plan, but there is a 30-day free trial with no credit card. Annual billing requires one upfront payment for the term.
- Essentials: $79 per seat per month billed annually, or $99 monthly. 5 social profiles, publishing and reporting. No inbox and no brand keywords.
- Standard: $199 per seat per month billed annually, or $249 monthly. 5 social profiles, the all-in-one inbox, 10 brand keywords, review management and 90 days of conversation history.
- Professional: $299 per seat per month billed annually, or $399 monthly. Unlimited social profiles, bulk scheduling, approval workflow, competitor reports, message tagging and full conversation history.
- Advanced: $399 per seat per month billed annually, or $499 monthly. Adds the API, external approvals, spike alerts, sentiment, chatbots and helpdesk and CRM integrations.
- Enterprise: custom pricing.
Every plan includes 100 Trellis AI credits per seat per month. Listening, Premium Analytics and Employee Advocacy are add-ons for Standard and up, sold through a demo with no public price.
Pros
- The most complete inbox in this group below enterprise level, with collision detection, case management and reviews
- Reporting on every plan, including the cheapest
- All self-serve prices published, monthly and annual
- 30-day free trial without a credit card
Cons
- Expensive per seat, and every teammate needs one
- Essentials and Standard include only 5 social profiles; extra profiles have no public price
- Approval workflows start at $299 per seat per month billed annually
- Listening and Premium Analytics are add-ons with no public price
Who it's for
Choose Sprout Social if engagement and customer care on social matter as much as publishing, and you have a small to mid-size team with budget for per-seat software. Most teams that need more than 5 profiles and approvals will land on Professional. Skip it if you mainly need scheduling, if your team is large and budget-limited, or if you need listening and want to know the price before you talk to sales.
Hootsuite
Hootsuite now sells its product as "Hootsuite Social OS", made of modules: Perch (publishing), Nest (inbox and customer care), Lumen (insights and listening), Wisdom (AI assistant) and Parliament (employee advocacy).
What it does well for teams
Hootsuite's main advantage is breadth on every plan: even Standard includes unlimited scheduled posts, the inbox, analytics, ads publishing and basic listening, which Sprout Social sells separately. Standard's listening has a 7-day Quick Search, trending topics, sentiment and peak detection. Professional extends that to a 30-day search, exports and trend forecasting up to 90 days. Full listening (13 months of history, alerts) is Enterprise only.
The Nest inbox covers Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, X, Threads, TikTok, Google Business Profile and WhatsApp. Publishing covers Facebook, Instagram, X, LinkedIn, TikTok, YouTube, Threads, Bluesky and Pinterest, with a calendar, recommended times, bulk scheduling and Canva templates. Competitive benchmarking covers 5 competitors on Standard and 20 from Professional, and every self-serve plan includes 100 AI credits a month.
The weak spot for teams: approvals, internal comments, message assignment, routing and team reporting are all on Advanced, the most expensive self-serve plan.
Pricing
Hootsuite is priced per user, with no free plan. The 14-day trial needs no credit card and does not auto-charge, but trial accounts have daily posting limits and no bulk scheduling.
- Standard: $99 per user per month billed annually. Up to 10 social accounts, unlimited scheduled posts, 100 AI credits a month.
- Professional: $199 per user per month billed annually. Unlimited social accounts, 30-day listening search and exports, automatic post boosting.
- Advanced: $399 per user per month billed annually. Adds approvals, message assignment and team reporting.
- Enterprise: custom pricing through a demo.
Monthly billing exists, but Hootsuite does not publish the monthly price. Employee advocacy (Parliament), the advanced inbox, Lumen by Talkwalker, Salesforce and SSO are Enterprise-only add-ons.
Pros
- Publishing, inbox, analytics, ads and basic listening on every plan
- Unlimited social accounts from Professional
- Inbox covers WhatsApp and Google Business Profile as well as the main networks
- No-credit-card 14-day trial that does not auto-charge
Cons
- $99 per user per month is the entry price, billed annually
- Approvals and message assignment need Advanced at $399 per user per month
- Standard is capped at 10 social accounts
- Monthly-billing prices are not published
Who it's for
Choose Hootsuite if you want one platform for publishing, inbox, reporting and some listening, and either a small team (where the per-user cost stays manageable) or an enterprise budget. It is a good fit for teams that want to watch trends and mentions without buying a separate listening tool. Skip it if you need approval workflows on a budget: Sprout Social has them $100 per seat cheaper, and Buffer, Metricool and Later include them for a small fraction of the cost.
Buffer
Buffer is a scheduling-first tool with per-channel pricing, plus a community inbox, AI assistant and analytics.
What it does well for teams
Buffer's queue, visual calendar, drafts and templates cover most posting needs. Paid plans include unlimited scheduled posts (with a fair use cap of 5,000 per channel), first comment scheduling, a hashtag manager, channel groups and a browser extension. The Ideas board lets a team collect and organize content ideas before they become posts.
For a team, the key plan is Team: unlimited team members, approval workflows, access levels and branded reports. Adding a writer or a client reviewer does not change the bill.
The community inbox lets you reply to comments, with AI replies and saved replies. Buffer does not list DMs in its inbox or any social listening, so it is lighter than Sprout Social or Hootsuite for customer care.
Buffer supports Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, LinkedIn, X, YouTube (Shorts), Threads, Pinterest, Google Business Profile, Bluesky, Mastodon and Substack. Instagram personal profiles and Facebook groups are publishing by notification only. Every plan includes a public API and integrations with Canva, Zapier and Make.
Pricing
Buffer is priced per channel (a channel is one connected social account), with lower prices per channel above 10. There is a 14-day free trial of paid plans, and the account falls back to Free if you don't add payment details. Nonprofits get 50% off.
- Free: $0. Up to 3 channels, 10 scheduled posts per channel at a time, 1 user, AI Assistant, community inbox and 30 days of insights history.
- Essentials: $6 per channel per month billed monthly (about $5 billed yearly) for the first 10 channels, then (on monthly billing) $4, $3 and $1 per channel past 10, 25 and 50. 1 user, unlimited posts, analytics and reports.
- Team: $12 per channel per month billed monthly ($10 billed yearly) for the first 10 channels, then (on monthly billing) $4, $3 and $2 per channel past 10, 25 and 50. Unlimited team members, approvals, access levels and branded reports.
Buffer's own table puts Team at $100 a month billed yearly for 10 channels, $150 for 25 and $213 for 50 ($120, $180 and $255 billed monthly).
Pros
- Real free plan for 3 channels
- Team plan includes unlimited users, so cost does not grow with headcount
- Volume discounts make large channel counts cheap
- The full price list is published, including a machine-readable version
Cons
- Essentials is single-user, so teams need the Team plan for approvals and access levels
- The inbox handles comments; DMs and listening are not listed
- The free plan allows only 10 queued posts per channel and 30 days of insights
Who it's for
Choose Buffer if your team mostly plans and publishes, wants approvals and several users, and does not need a full customer care inbox. Skip it if DMs, reviews or listening are a big part of the job.
Metricool
Metricool combines scheduling with analytics, competitor tracking and ads reporting. It prices by brand, which makes it unusually cheap for agencies.
What it does well for teams
Metricool's planner includes best-time suggestions, autolists and RSS on every plan, poll and PDF scheduling from Starter, and recurring posts on Advanced. The unified inbox covers Instagram, Facebook, Google Business Profile, TikTok, YouTube and LinkedIn, and X with its paid add-on.
Analytics is where Metricool goes further than most tools at its price. Paid plans keep unlimited history, track up to 100 competitor profiles, report on Facebook, Google and TikTok Ads, and produce automated PDF and PowerPoint reports. Advanced adds custom report templates and a Looker Studio connector, useful for monthly client reports.
Team and client management, roles, post approval and the API are on Advanced. Advanced includes unlimited team members, so an agency can add every account manager and client without paying per head. Free and Starter have none.
Pricing
Metricool is priced by number of brands. A brand is one business or client with one profile per social network or ad platform. Prices exclude VAT. The free plan is free forever, and the pricing page does not mention a free trial of paid plans.
- Free: $0. 1 brand, all networks except LinkedIn and X, 20 scheduled posts a month, 5 competitor profiles, 30 days of analytics.
- Starter: $20 a month billed annually for up to 5 brands ($25 monthly), or $36 billed annually for up to 10 brands ($45 monthly). Unlimited publishing (fair use), LinkedIn, 100 competitors, PDF and PPT reports, unlimited analytics history.
- Advanced: $53 a month billed annually for 15 brands ($67 monthly), $85 for 25 brands ($107 monthly), $159 for 50 brands ($210 monthly). Adds team and client management, roles, post approval, custom report templates, the Looker Studio connector and the API.
- Custom: by quote for 50+ brands, with white label and a dedicated account manager.
Add-ons: X (Twitter) costs $10 per month per connected account, on paid plans only. Advanced Analytics starts at $12 a month on Starter and $36 a month on Advanced. Cancelling returns the account to the free plan.
Pros
- Generous free plan with analytics
- Unlimited team members on Advanced
- Analytics, competitor tracking and ads reporting are stronger than most tools at this price
- Very low cost per brand at scale: 50 brands for $159 a month billed annually
Cons
- X costs $10 per account per month extra
- LinkedIn is not available on the free plan
- Team members, approvals, roles and the API need Advanced; Free and Starter are single-user
Who it's for
Choose Metricool if you are an agency or freelancer managing several brands and reporting matters to your clients. Skip it if X is a main channel across many brands (the add-on adds up), or if you need customer care features such as case management.
Later
Later (the product is called Later Social) is a visual planner focused on Instagram, TikTok and other visual networks.
What it does well for teams
The core is a drag-and-drop visual calendar, with best-time-to-post suggestions for Instagram, Facebook and TikTok and a Link in Bio page on every plan. Later schedules posts to Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube, Threads and Snapchat, and lists auto publishing for Instagram business and creator accounts, TikTok, Facebook, Threads, Pinterest and LinkedIn.
Team features start on Growth: content approval and external comment workflows, custom roles, UGC collection and a social inbox for Instagram, Facebook and TikTok conversations. Scale adds custom analytics, Meta ads analytics, competitive benchmarking, brand mentions, brand health, future industry insights and priority support.
Later organizes profiles into "social sets": one profile on each supported network (8 profiles per set). That suits agencies or multi-brand teams, because each client or brand maps to one set. X is not in Later's list of supported profiles.
Pricing
Later is priced per plan, with a set number of social sets and users. Yearly billing saves 25%. There is a 14-day free trial and no free plan. Nonprofits get 50% off the annual Growth plan.
- Starter: $18.75 a month billed yearly, or $25 monthly. 1 social set (8 profiles), 1 user, 30 posts per profile per month, 3 months of analytics. No add-ons.
- Growth: $37.50 a month billed yearly, or $50 monthly. 2 social sets (16 profiles), 2 users, 180 posts per profile per month, 1 year of analytics, approvals, social inbox, custom roles.
- Scale: $82.50 a month billed yearly, or $110 monthly. 6 social sets (48 profiles), 4 users, unlimited posts, 2 years of analytics, competitive benchmarking, brand mentions and Meta ads analytics.
On Growth and Scale you can add an extra social set for $11.25 a month billed yearly ($15 monthly), an extra user for $3.75 ($5 monthly) and 100 extra AI credits for $3.75 ($5 monthly).
Pros
- Low flat price with several users included on Growth and Scale
- Visual planning built for Instagram and TikTok
- Social sets map neatly to brands or clients
Cons
- No X support listed
- Starter has 1 user, 30 posts per profile per month and no add-ons
- The inbox only covers Instagram, Facebook and TikTok
- No free plan
Who it's for
Choose Later if your team's work is mostly Instagram, TikTok and other visual networks, and you want approvals and an inbox at a small-business price. Skip it if X is important to you or if you need an inbox for LinkedIn, reviews or WhatsApp.
Sprinklr
Sprinklr is an enterprise customer experience platform. Its social media management product, Sprinklr Social, is one of four suites alongside Sprinklr Service, Sprinklr Insights and Sprinklr Marketing.
What it does well for teams
Sprinklr supports 30+ social and messaging channels, with AI in 100+ languages for content, sentiment and insights.
Governance is its main strength: granular access controls, audit trails, automated approvals, and compliance checks that flag brand risks before a post goes live. It also offers employee advocacy and 100+ integrations with CRM, DAM and BI tools.
The catch is that several capabilities belong to other suites. On the Sprinklr Social page, social listening, visual insights and competitive benchmarking are marked as part of Sprinklr Insights, social advertising as part of Sprinklr Marketing, and social customer service as part of Sprinklr Service. A full setup covering publishing, care and listening means buying more than one product.
Pricing
Sprinklr publishes no prices. Its self-serve plans have been discontinued: on 17 October 2026 its old pricing page returned "not found" and its trial page redirected to a demo request. Buying is through a demo and a sales quote, with no free trial.
Pros
- Built for large organizations with many brands and regions
- The widest channel coverage in this group (30+ channels)
- Deep governance, audit and compliance controls
Cons
- No public pricing, no self-serve plan and no free trial
- Listening, ads and customer care are separate suites
- Far more than a small or mid-size team needs
Who it's for
Choose Sprinklr if you are a large enterprise where compliance and governance across many teams and regions come first. Everyone else will be better served by Sprout Social or Hootsuite.
Planoly
Planoly started in 2016 as a visual Instagram planner. It now has a Social Planner and a Creator Store (a link-in-bio storefront).
What it does well for teams
Planoly's visual grid planner lets you preview and rearrange your Instagram feed before posting, which is still its strongest feature. It auto-posts to Instagram (including Reels with original audio), TikTok, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest and Threads. For X, and for Instagram posts that need native music, it sends push-notification reminders so you post manually.
It also has a content calendar, an AI idea generator, Canva import and automated replies to comments and Instagram DMs. Every paid plan includes the link-in-bio store, where you can sell digital products and merch.
For team work, Planoly is thin: its pricing page lists no unified inbox, approvals or listening. Higher plans add users and social sets, not team workflow.
Pricing
Planoly is priced per account, not per user, and annual plans are billed upfront. There is a 14-day free trial on all paid plans. The free plan only works in the Planoly mobile app and allows 10 uploads a month.
- Starter: $14 a month billed annually, or $16 monthly. 1 social set, 1 user. No add-ons.
- Growth: $24 a month billed annually, or $28 monthly. 2 social sets, 2 users. Extra social sets cost $10 a month and extra users $5 a month.
- Pro: $47 a month billed annually, or $55 monthly. 6 social sets, 6 users. Extra social sets cost $8 a month and extra users $3 a month.
A social set is up to one of each channel: Instagram, Facebook, X, Pinterest, LinkedIn, YouTube, Threads and TikTok.
Pros
- The best Instagram grid planning in this group
- Low price for a full social set
- Link-in-bio store and DM automation on every paid plan
Cons
- X can't be auto-published, only reminded
- No unified inbox, approvals or listening listed
- Starter can't add users or social sets
- The free plan is mobile-only with 10 uploads a month
Who it's for
Choose Planoly if you are an Instagram-first creator or small brand that cares about the look of the feed and wants to sell from a link-in-bio page. Skip it if you need a team inbox, approvals or reporting for clients.
Pricing at Scale: Two Example Teams
Here is what the tools cost for two example teams, using list prices from each vendor's pricing page in October 2026. Prices are monthly equivalents on annual billing unless noted, before tax.
Both teams need publishing, an inbox, reports and approvals, so for each tool we pick the cheapest plan with approvals and enough profiles. Each brand posts to five networks (Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok and YouTube), leaving out X because support for it varies.
Team 1: 3 people, 2 brands, 10 social accounts
- Sprout Social Professional: approvals start on Professional, which also has unlimited profiles (Standard includes 5). 3 seats x $299 = $897 a month ($10,764 a year). On monthly billing: 3 x $399 = $1,197 a month.
- Hootsuite Advanced: approvals need Advanced. 3 users x $399 = $1,197 a month ($14,364 a year). Without approvals, Professional would be 3 x $199 = $597 a month.
- Buffer Team: 10 channels x $10 = $100 a month billed yearly ($1,200 a year), or $120 a month on monthly billing. Users are unlimited.
- Metricool Advanced: approvals need Advanced, whose smallest band is 15 brands. $53 a month billed annually ($636 a year), or $67 monthly. Team members are unlimited. (Starter at $20 a month would cover 5 brands but has no approvals and no team members.)
- Later Growth: 2 social sets and 2 users are included, plus 1 extra user at $3.75. $37.50 + $3.75 = $41.25 a month billed yearly ($495 a year). On monthly billing: $50 + $5 = $55.
Team 2: 8 people, 5 brands, 25 social accounts
- Sprout Social Professional: 8 seats x $299 = $2,392 a month ($28,704 a year).
- Hootsuite Advanced: 8 users x $399 = $3,192 a month ($38,304 a year). Professional without approvals: 8 x $199 = $1,592 a month.
- Buffer Team: Buffer's own table puts 25 channels at $150 a month billed yearly ($1,800 a year), or $180 monthly (10 x $12 + 15 x $4).
- Metricool Advanced: 5 brands fit in the 15-brand band. $53 a month billed annually ($636 a year).
- Later Growth with add-ons: 2 social sets and 2 users are included, plus 3 extra sets at $11.25 and 6 extra users at $3.75. $37.50 + $33.75 + $22.50 = $93.75 a month billed yearly ($1,125 a year). On monthly billing: $50 + 3 x $15 + 6 x $5 = $125. Scale plus 4 extra users costs $97.50 billed yearly ($130 monthly) but lifts Growth's 180-post cap per profile.
What the numbers show
The per-seat suites cost roughly 9 to 60 times as much as the other tools. For Team 2, Sprout Social Professional costs $28,704 a year against $1,800 for Buffer Team and $636 for Metricool Advanced. The difference buys the inbox and care tooling (DMs, reviews, collision detection, case management), deeper reporting, and Hootsuite's included listening.
A few notes on the examples:
- If you post to X: Metricool charges $10 per X account per month, so adding X for 5 brands adds 5 x $10 = $50 a month. Sprout Social, Hootsuite and Buffer include X. Later does not support it.
- Planoly is left out above because its pricing page lists no approvals or inbox. For reference, Pro covers Team 2's size for $47 a month billed annually plus 2 extra users at $3 = $53 a month.
- Sprinklr is left out because it publishes no prices.
How to Choose
- Customer care and engagement come first: Sprout Social. Standard has the inbox if 5 profiles are enough; most teams need Professional for unlimited profiles and approvals.
- Listening without a separate tool: Hootsuite. Budget for Advanced if you need approvals.
- Mostly publishing, tight budget: Buffer Team. Unlimited users and approvals, priced per channel.
- Agency with many brands: Metricool Advanced. Unlimited team members, approvals and custom report templates from $53 a month billed annually for 15 brands.
- Instagram and TikTok first: Later. Visual planning, approvals and an inbox on Growth.
- Global enterprise with compliance needs: Sprinklr, by quote.
- Solo creator or small brand on Instagram: Planoly. Grid planning and a link-in-bio store from $14 a month.
Before you buy:
- List every network you need. X support differs most, and inbox coverage varies by network.
- Count seats honestly. With Sprout Social and Hootsuite, each user is a paid seat. Ask how the vendor handles people who only approve posts.
- Find the plan where approvals start. It is Professional on Sprout Social, Advanced on Hootsuite and Metricool, Team on Buffer and Growth on Later.
- Use the trial with real work. Sprout Social gives 30 days; Hootsuite, Buffer, Later and Planoly give 14; Metricool has a free plan instead.
Final Verdict
Sprout Social is our pick for teams that publish, engage and report together. It has the strongest inbox below enterprise level, reporting on every plan, approvals on Professional and published prices for every self-serve plan. It is expensive per seat, so it suits teams where answering people is a real part of the job. Choose Hootsuite if you want listening included, Buffer for low-cost scheduling with unlimited users, Metricool for agencies with many brands, Later for Instagram and TikTok teams, Sprinklr for global enterprises and Planoly for Instagram-first creators.
Prices change often. Check each vendor's pricing page before you buy, and use the free trial to confirm the inbox and approval flow work the way your team does.
Sarah Chen