The best social media management tools, tested and ranked

Hootsuite came first of five with 4 out of 5. Scheduling, a unified inbox, AI help and approvals on higher plans covered our whole test, and the first plan already includes brand and competitor monitoring. It costs $99 a month per user to start, but that buys 10 social accounts, unlimited scheduled posts and the inbox, which is a lot for teams who use it all.

Hootsuite is a social media management tool. It schedules posts to your social networks, collects comments and messages in one inbox, and reports on how your posts and brand are doing. It works on the web and on mobile apps. It is aimed at businesses and larger organisations, and says it has over 6,000 enterprise customers. Pricing is per user, starting at $99 a month on the Standard plan with 10 social accounts, and rising to unlimited accounts and team workflows on higher plans.

Its weakest part was analytics accuracy, at 4. Its figures matched each network's own insights in 26 of our 30 checks. Users on Trustpilot are very unhappy. Checked November 3, 2026, Hootsuite has 1.3 out of 5 from 556 reviews, labelled Bad, with 45 in the last 12 months. 69% give 1 star and only 14% give 5 stars. Trustpilot notes that Hootsuite doesn't reply to negative reviews.

Sprout Social came second of five with 4 out of 5. Scheduling a week of posts took us 19 minutes, and the layout made the work feel straightforward. Publishing, a smart inbox, approvals, monitoring and reporting covered our whole test, with more care and AI tools on higher plans.

Sprout Social is a premium social media management suite. It schedules posts, brings messages and comments into one smart inbox, reports on performance and, on some plans, tracks keywords and reviews. It works on the web and has iOS and Android apps. It is priced per seat, meaning per person who uses it. Plans run from Essentials, which includes 5 social profiles, up to Advanced, with unlimited profiles and customer care tools. There's also an AI agent called Trellis that answers questions about your social data in plain language.

Its weakest part was value for money, at 4. Plans start at $99 a month per seat billed monthly and climb fast, so you pay well for what you get. Users like what Sprout Social can do but are unhappy with how it bills. On Trustpilot, checked November 3, 2026, it has 1.8 out of 5 from 89 reviews, labelled Poor, with 14 recent ones. 70% give 1 star and 17% give 5 stars.

Buffer came third of five with 4 out of 5. A free plan and paid plans from $5 a month per channel make it the cheapest way to start in our lineup. 51 of our 60 posts went out on time and in the right format, so most of the calendar ran without us stepping in.

Buffer is a social media scheduler. You connect your social channels, write posts, save ideas for later and line up posts in a queue so they go out at set times. It then reports how those posts did. It works on the web and has iOS and Android apps. Its pricing is unusual. Instead of charging per user, Buffer charges per connected channel. The free plan covers 3 channels, Essentials costs $5 a month per channel and Team costs $10 a month per channel. It also supports newer networks such as Threads, Bluesky and Mastodon, as well as Pinterest.

Its weakest part was features, at 4. It covered scheduling, our inbox test and approvals, but it has no social listening, so there was nothing to test there. Users mostly like Buffer, but opinions are split. On Trustpilot, checked November 3, 2026, it has 4.2 out of 5 from 151 reviews, labelled Great, with 60 in the last 12 months. 43% give 5 stars, but 35% give 1 star.

Sendible came fourth of five with 2 out of 5. 38 of our 60 posts went out on time and in the right format, so a large share needed fixing by hand. Its figures matched each network's own insights in 18 of our 30 checks, so many numbers needed rechecking. Our Sendible review has the details.

Sendible is a social media management tool made for agencies. It schedules posts, handles replies in an inbox and builds reports, all organised into workspaces. You'd usually set up one workspace for each client or brand. Plans are sized by workspaces and profiles rather than by users. Core gives you 1 workspace and 6 profiles, and Enterprise goes up to 50 workspaces and 300 profiles. Every plan includes unlimited users, so adding staff doesn't raise the bill. White label, which lets you show it to clients under your agency's name, is a paid add-on on the top plans.

Its weakest part was value for money, at 2. It starts at $35 a month, cheaper than the team suites, but our results don't make that a bargain. Users are mostly positive. On Trustpilot, checked November 3, 2026, Sendible has 4.3 out of 5 from 25 reviews, labelled Excellent, with 17 recent ones. 64% give 5 stars and 24% give 1 star.

Agorapulse came fifth of five with 2 out of 5. Only 34 of our 60 posts went out on time and in the right format, so we had to step in often. A week of posts took 37 minutes to schedule, which is slow for a tool sold on saving teams time.

Agorapulse is a social media management tool built around a shared inbox. It schedules posts, collects comments and messages from all your profiles in one place so a team can reply, assign and moderate them, and reports on results. It's priced per user. Every self-serve plan includes 10 social profiles, and extra profiles cost more. Higher plans add team workflow tools, such as assignments and approvals, plus bulk scheduling and ads and ROI reporting. It works on the web and has an iOS app.

It scored 2 on all five parts. At $99 a month per user on monthly billing for Standard, it costs as much as stronger tools in our lineup for weaker results. Users are more positive than our test. On Trustpilot, checked November 3, 2026, Agorapulse has 4.0 out of 5 from 57 reviews, labelled Great. 65% give 5 stars and 16% give 1 star. Only 3 reviews came in the last 12 months, so the picture is dated.