Ranked for people leaving Agorapulse

Best Agorapulse alternatives in 2026

Six tools ranked for a one to three person local business, priced from each vendor's own page on one named date, with the winner on price and the winner on analytics named even when neither is us.

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Ours is entry one, on one criterion: it writes and designs the posts and keeps a free plan that never expires.

SpeedRun Social is our top pick: it writes and designs the posts and keeps a free plan that never expires, where Agorapulse charges per seat and caps every paid plan at ten social profiles.

The list ranks six tools on what a one to three person local business actually pays and gets: the entry price for one seat, how many social accounts each plan holds, whether the tool writes and designs the posts or only schedules them, and what the free plan actually is. Buffer wins on price alone and Sprout Social wins on analytics, and both are named below even though neither is us.

We build SpeedRun Social, so this list is written by one of the alternatives on it. The conflict is named here and again in the method, before the ranking, because a vendor roundup that hides its author is the exact artifact this page replaces.

Two wins that are not ours

Buffer wins on price, and it is not us. Its free plan never expires and its paid plans start lower than every other paid plan on this list.

Sprout Social wins on analytics, and it is not us either. Its plan page leads with reporting tiers and sells Premium Analytics and Listening as add-ons, and this page sells none of that.

Why people look for an Agorapulse alternative

The pricing page listed Standard at $99, Professional at $149 and Advanced at $199 a month per user billed monthly, and the same three at $79, $119 and $149 a month per user billed yearly. Every tier is priced per user, so a second seat doubles the bill. agorapulse.com/pricing, read 18 September 2026

All three named paid tiers carry the same ten social profiles, and only the Custom tier, quoted as a tailored price on request, lifts that to unlimited profiles. A business running more than ten profiles has no published plan to buy. agorapulse.com/pricing, read 18 September 2026

The entry Standard tier omits the inbox teamwork Agorapulse leads with: post and inbox assignments, ad comment moderation, team performance reports, Instagram product tagging and the link-in-bio tool are all listed at Professional or above, and data retention on Standard is six months against twelve and twenty four on the higher tiers. agorapulse.com/pricing, read 18 September 2026

The ranked table

What each tool makes, whether it posts, and how it lets you start. The prices live in the entries below, each linked to the page it was read from.

RankToolMakesPostingStart
1SpeedRun SocialWrites and designsSchedules and publishesFree plan, never expires
2BufferWrites text onlySchedules and publishesFree plan, 3 channels
3SocialPilotWrites text onlySchedules and publishes14-day trial, no free plan
4Vista SocialWrites text onlySchedules and publishes14-day trial, no free plan
5HootsuiteWrites and designsSchedules and publishes14-day trial, no free plan
6Sprout SocialWrites text onlySchedules and publishes30-day trial, no free plan

Six tools, and what each one costs to start

Every priced claim below links to the vendor page it was read from and the date it was read. Where a vendor publishes a monthly price and an annual one, both are quoted.

  1. SpeedRun Social

    our product

    Ours reads your site into a brand kit, then writes the captions, renders the images and cuts a short video every week, and parks the lot in an approval queue until you release it. Disclosure: this is our product, on our own list, and it holds first place on one criterion only.

    What it costs
    Free plan at $0: 300 credits a month refilled forever, one free campaign a week (3 posts, 1 video, 1 cross-post), no card, watermarked media on free. Paid plans are $49.99, $99.99 and $199.99 a month billed monthly, or $39.99, $79.99 and $159.99 a month billed annually. speedrunsocial.com/pricing, read 18 September 2026
    Best for
    An owner-run local business whose real problem is that the week's posts are not getting made, and who wants one free campaign every week on a standing rhythm before paying anyone.

    Honest drawback

    Free-plan media carries a watermark. We are the newest name on this list with very few customers, we publish to eleven platforms and Mastodon is not among them, and there is no shared inbox, no social listening and no white-label client reporting. speedrunsocial.com/pricing, read 18 September 2026

  2. Buffer

    Buffer is the scheduler that wins on price here. It writes and refines caption text with its AI Assistant, but the images and the video stay your job, which is why it ranks below the tools that make the whole post.

    What it costs
    The page opened on its Yearly setting, where Essentials read $5 and Team $10 a month per channel billed yearly, printed as $60 and $120 a year per channel. Clicking Monthly changed the same two to $6 and $12 a month billed monthly. The free plan is free forever for up to 3 channels with 10 scheduled posts per channel and one user account, and the paid plans carry a 14-day free trial. buffer.com/pricing, read 18 September 2026
    Best for
    A one or two person operation with a folder of finished photos and captions that mostly needs a queue, a calendar and a bill that starts at zero and stays small.

    Honest drawback

    The page lists no image or video generation on any plan. Its AI Assistant is described there as refining and repurposing content you supply, with unlimited credits, so an empty calendar stays empty however good the queue is. The bill is per channel, and the free plan holds 10 scheduled posts per channel and one user account. buffer.com/pricing, read 18 September 2026

  3. SocialPilot

    SocialPilot is a flat-rate scheduler for a solo owner or small team: one price buys seven social accounts and AI credits for captions, with an image editor and a Canva hookup rather than generated artwork.

    What it costs
    The plans page listed Essentials at $30 a month billed monthly or $25.50 a month billed yearly, Standard at $50 or $42.50, Premium at $100 or $85, and Ultimate at $200 or $170. Essentials holds 7 social media accounts, 1 user and 500 AI credits, and every plan starts with a 14-day free trial and no free plan. socialpilot.co/plans, read 18 September 2026
    Best for
    A small team that wants the most accounts per dollar and already makes its own images, and does not mind that the AI writing is metered in monthly credits.

    Honest drawback

    There is no free plan, only a 14-day trial, and the AI credits on the entry plan are 500 a month for the whole workspace, so the writing budget is thin once captions and ideas all draw from one balance. Images are edited or imported, not generated. socialpilot.co/plans, read 18 September 2026

  4. Vista Social

    Vista Social is a mid-price scheduler that packs 15 social profiles and 2 users into its entry plan, with AI credits for captions and a review and listening stack attached.

    What it costs
    The page opened on its Monthly setting, where Professional read $79 a month billed monthly for 15 social profiles and 2 users, Advanced $149 a month billed monthly, and Scale $349 a month billed monthly. Pressing Yearly, marked save 20%, changed the same three to $64, $120 and $304 a month billed yearly. Every plan starts with a free 14-day trial and there is no free plan. vistasocial.com/pricing, read 18 September 2026
    Best for
    A small team that wants more profiles and a second seat without jumping to enterprise pricing, and brings its own finished images.

    Honest drawback

    There is no free plan, only a 14-day trial, and the entry plan's 1,000 monthly AI credits are the writing budget for the whole workspace. It is a scheduler with an AI writing assist, not a designer, so images and video are still made elsewhere. vistasocial.com/pricing, read 18 September 2026

  5. Hootsuite

    Hootsuite is the enterprise name on the list: publishing, a shared inbox, listening, approvals and reporting in one suite, and the only other tool here that also generates images with AI. It ranks where it does because the entry price is per seat and the page publishes only the annual rate.

    What it costs
    The plans page listed Standard at $99, Professional at $199 and Advanced at $399 per user a month, footnoted as based on annual billing, with Enterprise quoted on request. It carries no billing toggle and publishes no month-to-month price, so the only rate shown is the annual one. Standard covers up to 10 social accounts and comes with a free 14-day trial needing no credit card. hootsuite.com/plans, read 18 September 2026
    Best for
    A firm with a team who live in a shared inbox and a budget that treats social media as a department, where per seat pricing and a prepaid year are the cost of doing business.

    Honest drawback

    There is no free plan, and the rate is per user, so adding one colleague doubles the bill before anything else changes. The trial blocks bulk scheduling and caps posting at 10 to 20 posts a day per organisation, which makes it hard to test one busy real week before committing to a year. hootsuite.com/plans, read 18 September 2026

  6. Sprout Social

    Sprout Social is the analytics pick and the most expensive seat on the list: deep reporting, competitor and paid insights, and Premium Analytics and Listening sold as add-ons. It ranks last for a one to three person shop because the bill is per seat and the entry tiers cap at five profiles.

    What it costs
    The page opened on its annual setting, where Essentials read $79 per seat a month billed yearly, Standard $199 per seat a month, Professional $299 and Advanced $399. Essentials states $99 per seat a month billed monthly. Every plan starts with a 30-day free trial and there is no free plan, and Essentials and Standard each connect up to 5 social profiles. sproutsocial.com/pricing, read 18 September 2026
    Best for
    A marketing team that needs the deepest reporting and listening and will pay per seat for it, not a small local business checking the week's posts off a list.

    Honest drawback

    There is no free plan, only a 30-day trial, and the affordable Essentials tier is a publishing-only simplification with five profiles and no shared inbox teamwork. The reporting that makes Sprout worth the name lives on Standard and up, which is more seat than a one to three person shop needs. sproutsocial.com/pricing, read 18 September 2026

When to stay on Agorapulse

Stay on Agorapulse if the shared inbox is the whole point: it folds organic comments, messages and, from Professional up, ad comments into one place with post and inbox assignments. That team inbox workflow is its center, and none of the cheaper tools above rebuild it.

Stay on Agorapulse if you are a social media manager or agency that wants 24/7 support and, on the higher tiers, ROI analysis and competitor benchmarking. The entries above make and post the week's content for less, but they are not a manager's inbox and reporting suite.

How this list was ranked

The bias first: we build SpeedRun Social, and it sits first on this list on exactly one criterion, that it writes and designs the posts and keeps a free plan that never expires. A list of alternatives written by one of the alternatives has to say that before the ranking or not at all.

On 18 September 2026 every pricing page below was opened in a browser and read from the rendered page, because these pages paint their numbers in JavaScript. Where a page had a billing toggle it was pressed and the figures confirmed to change before both modes were quoted. Nothing here is restated from a review site, another list or an assistant's answer.

Every priced entry names its billing mode. Buffer, SocialPilot and Vista Social publish both a monthly and a yearly rate, so both are quoted. Sprout Social publishes an annual set and states one monthly figure for Essentials, so both are quoted. Hootsuite publishes only the annual rate and no month-to-month price, so that gap is stated rather than filled.

The ranking weighs four things a one to three person business actually cares about: what the entry plan costs for one seat, how many social accounts it holds, whether the tool writes and designs the posts or only schedules them, and what the free plan actually is. On those axes the order falls out the way it does. There are no scores, stars, testimonials or customer counts anywhere on this page, and prices move, so open the linked page before any number here decides anything.

Our own entry is first only on the writes-and-designs axis. It does not win on price and it does not win on analytics, and the page names the tools that do, Buffer and Sprout Social, so the ranking stays a ranking and not a pitch.

Questions people ask before switching

  • What is the best Agorapulse alternative?

    For a one to three person local business, SpeedRun Social. It writes and designs the week's posts and keeps a free plan that never expires, where Agorapulse prices every plan per user from $99 a month billed monthly. If price is the whole point, Buffer wins, and if analytics is the whole point, Sprout Social wins.

  • Is there a free Agorapulse alternative?

    Two on this list keep free plans that never expire. Buffer's is free forever for 3 channels with 10 scheduled posts per channel. Ours is free forever too: 300 credits refill every month, one campaign a week, no card, watermarked media. Agorapulse itself keeps a free plan after its 30-day trial, per its own FAQ; the other entries here run trials instead.

  • Which Agorapulse alternative is cheapest?

    Buffer, on the prices read on 18 September 2026. Its Essentials plan was $6 a month per channel billed monthly or $5 a month billed yearly, with a free plan for 3 channels that never expires. The cheapest paid plan that also writes and designs the posts is SpeedRun Social, at $49.99 a month billed monthly or $39.99 a month billed yearly.

  • Why do people leave Agorapulse?

    Agorapulse's own page names the friction: every paid plan is priced per user, from $99 a month billed monthly for Standard, and all three named tiers cap at ten social profiles. The entry tier also omits ad comment moderation, inbox assignments and team reports, which are Professional and up, and data retention on Standard is six months. A business that posts most days and wants its images made rather than only scheduled shops the entries above.

  • Should I stay on Agorapulse?

    Sometimes, yes. Agorapulse is the only tool here that folds organic comments, messages and, on Professional and up, ad comments into one shared inbox with post and inbox assignments, and its own page lists 24/7 support on every tier. If you only want the week's posts written and designed without a per-seat bill, the entries above do that for less.

Keep reading

Run one week through two of them

Two tools on this page keep a free plan that never expires, ours included, so a switch can be tested on real accounts before any money moves. Ours writes and designs the posts and waits for your approval until you turn that off.

Start freeSee real output

Every vendor figure on this page was read on 18 September 2026. Prices move; the links exist so you can check theirs and ours.