Ranked for people leaving Hootsuite

Best Hootsuite alternatives in 2026

Seven tools ranked by how much of the whole posting job each one does before you pay anything (the caption, the image and a short video, then the publish step, on a free plan that does not expire, with watermarked media), each priced from the vendor's own pricing page on one named date, by a company that sells one of them and says so before the list starts.

Start free

Ours starts free: one campaign a week of 3 posts, 1 video and 1 cross-post for the first 30 days, plus 300 credits a month, then free with no end date for light use. No card required, and free-plan media carries a small watermark.

The best Hootsuite alternative for somebody leaving a $99-per-user bill is SpeedRun Social, our own product. Before you pay anything, its free plan that does not expire writes the caption, makes the image and a short video, and publishes the post, which no other entry here manages. The media on that plan is watermarked. Hootsuite's paid plans start at $99 per user per month billed annually, it publishes no month-to-month price, and it has no free plan (hootsuite.com/plans, read 28 August 2026).

We sell SpeedRun Social, so the order below runs on a rule you can check, and the rivals that beat us are named plainly. If you only want Hootsuite's scheduling calendar, Buffer replaces it from $6 per channel per month billed monthly, or $5 billed annually, with a free plan for up to 3 channels that does not expire (buffer.com/pricing, read 28 August 2026), and a team that works in a shared inbox keeps that job elsewhere, because ours has none. The other five tools are priced below from each vendor's own page on 28 August 2026.

The seven alternatives, ranked by what a free plan covers

Every priced claim below links to the vendor page it was read from, with the date we read it. Where a vendor publishes a monthly price and an annual one, both are quoted, because most of these pages open with the annual figure already selected. Where a number matters to you, open theirs.

  1. SpeedRun Social

    our product

    The whole job on a free plan with no end date

    The one tool on this list that makes the posts as well as publishing them: captions, images and short video generated from a brand kit built from your own website, held in an approval queue until you say go, and nothing goes out until a social account is connected. It ranks first because its free plan, which does not expire, is the only one here that writes, makes and publishes, and the media on that plan is watermarked. Disclosure: this is our product, and this is our list.

    SpeedRun Social starting price
    Free plan at $0: 300 credits/month and 1 free campaign/week (3 posts + 1 video + 1 cross-post) to start, then free with no end date for light use, no card required, watermarked media on free. Paid plans at $49.99, $99.99 and $199.99 a month, billed monthly only. speedrunsocial.com/pricing, read 28 August 2026
    Who SpeedRun Social is best for
    Local service businesses (plumbers, HVAC, landscapers, salons) that want a steady feed to exist every week without producing the media themselves.

    SpeedRun Social: honest limitation

    Media on the free plan is watermarked, and there is no shared inbox or social listening. A team that answers customers inside Hootsuite's inbox keeps that job elsewhere; Buffer or SocialPilot pair better with that workflow. speedrunsocial.com/pricing, read 28 August 2026

  2. Buffer

    Best like-for-like replacement at the lowest entry price

    The closest match for what most people actually use Hootsuite for, a scheduling calendar across your accounts, at a fraction of the entry price.

    Buffer starting price
    Free plan at $0, covering up to 3 channels with 10 scheduled posts per channel and 1 user. The page opens on its yearly toggle: billed monthly it listed Essentials at $6 per channel per month and Team at $12; billed annually the same two read $5 and $10 per channel per month, printed as $60 a year for one Essentials channel and $120 for one Team channel, with the FAQ putting the annual saving at 20%. Channels above 10 cost less per channel. buffer.com/pricing, read 28 August 2026
    Who Buffer is best for
    Anyone who writes their own posts, wants Hootsuite's calendar without Hootsuite's bill, and posts to a handful of channels.

    Buffer: honest limitation

    Buffer schedules what you bring, and it charges per channel, so the bill climbs with every account you connect. The free plan allows 10 scheduled posts per channel, Free and Essentials each seat a single user, and the unlimited posting on paid plans is held to a fair use ceiling of 5,000 posts per channel. buffer.com/pricing, read 28 August 2026

  3. SocialPilot

    Best for agencies and many accounts per dollar

    The account-count play: the most connected profiles per dollar for someone replacing a Hootsuite team plan across a client roster.

    SocialPilot starting price
    SocialPilot's page opens on its yearly toggle, which it brands Save 15%. Billed monthly it listed Essentials at $20 a month for 5 social accounts and 1 user, Standard at $40 for 10 accounts, Premium at $100 for 20 and Ultimate at $200 for 40 with unlimited users; billed annually the same four read $17, $34, $85 and $170 a month. Extra accounts are $4 a month each, and the Enterprise tier is priced on request. socialpilot.co/pricing, read 28 August 2026
    Who SocialPilot is best for
    Agencies and multi-brand managers filling several calendars who care about cost per connected account.

    SocialPilot: honest limitation

    There is no free plan, only a 14-day trial, and the entry plan seats a single user, so a small team starts at Standard. socialpilot.co/pricing, read 28 August 2026

  4. Zoho Social

    Best cheap full suite with a permanent free plan

    The budget pick for a business that wants a proper suite (publishing, monitoring, analytics), and especially one already living inside Zoho's other apps.

    Zoho Social starting price
    US pricing on the For Businesses tab showed Free at US$0. The page opens on its yearly toggle, which it brands Save 33%: billed monthly it listed Standard at US$15 a month, Professional at US$40 and Premium at US$65; billed annually the same three read US$10, US$30 and US$40 a month. Extra brands are US$17 a month or US$14.50 billed annually, and extra team members US$12 a month or US$10 billed annually. The page also offers an all-access free version for 15 days with no card. Prices adjust by region and the raw page ships no prices, so these are the US figures as rendered in a browser. zoho.com/social/pricing, read 28 August 2026
    Who Zoho Social is best for
    Small businesses on a tight budget, and anyone already running Zoho CRM or Zoho's office suite.

    Zoho Social: honest limitation

    Zoho Social's free plan covers 1 brand across 6 channels with 1 team member and 5 AI credits, Standard and Professional still seat a single user, and every figure above is the US region's, rendered client-side rather than shipped in the page. zoho.com/social/pricing, read 28 August 2026

  5. Pallyy

    Best for solo creators running one brand

    A clean, Instagram-first scheduler at freelancer pricing, with the calendar and analytics of the bigger tools and none of the enterprise weight.

    Pallyy starting price
    Free at $0 (1 social set, 15 posts a month, 1 user). This page opens on monthly rather than yearly: billed monthly it listed Starter at $15 a month, Pro at $25, Agency at $99 and Scale at $199; billed yearly the same four read $12, $20, $79 and $165 a month, charged as $140, $240, $950 and $1,980 a year. The yearly option is branded Pay annually, save up to 25%, and extra social sets are $10 a month. pallyy.com/pricing, read 28 August 2026
    Who Pallyy is best for
    Solo creators, freelancers and single-brand businesses that want one tidy calendar, Instagram first.

    Pallyy: honest limitation

    Pallyy's free plan caps at 15 posts a month, team seats arrive only on the Agency tier, and the pricing table marks video, carousel and Reels publishing as unavailable on Starter even though the free plan carries them. pallyy.com/pricing, read 28 August 2026

  6. RecurPost

    Best for evergreen content on repeat

    The lowest paid entry on this list, built around recycling queues that repost your evergreen content on a rotation instead of letting it die after one outing.

    RecurPost starting price
    This page opens on monthly billing and on USD. Billed monthly it listed Starter at $9 a month for 2 social accounts, Personal at $25 for 5 and Agency at $79 for 20; billed annually the same three read $7.50, $20.83 and $65.83 a month, charged as $90, $250 and $790 a year. The toggle brands yearly billing as 2 months free and the FAQ puts it at about 17% off. Extra accounts are $4 a month each, and an Enterprise tier is quoted for 100 or more accounts. recurpost.com/plans-and-pricing, read 28 August 2026
    Who RecurPost is best for
    Businesses whose posts stay true all year (services, tips, testimonials you own) and can repeat on a schedule.

    RecurPost: honest limitation

    RecurPost's FAQ states there is no permanent free plan, only a 14-day trial on every self-serve plan with no card, and Starter's 2 accounts run out as soon as you add a third platform. recurpost.com/plans-and-pricing, read 28 August 2026

  7. Postly

    Best per-channel pricing at volume

    One paid plan priced by channel count, with unlimited posts and unlimited team members, so the bill tracks your footprint instead of your headcount.

    Postly starting price
    Postly's page opens on yearly, which it brands save 20%. Billed yearly it listed Pro at $16.00 a month at the 5-channel minimum, which is $3.20 per channel and $192.00 a year; billed monthly the same five channels are $20.00 a month, which is $4.00 per channel. Rates fall by band and apply only inside each band: channels 11 to 100 are $1.60 each billed yearly or $2.00 billed monthly, and channel 101 upward $0.80 or $1.00. Enterprise Core starts at $299 a month with 25 channels. postly.ai/pricing, read 28 August 2026
    Who Postly is best for
    Teams pushing content to many channels who want costs tied to channels, with as many teammates as they like at no extra seat cost.

    Postly: honest limitation

    There is no free plan, only a 7-day trial, and the 5-channel minimum sets the floor at $192.00 a year, or $20.00 a month billed monthly, even if you only need two channels. postly.ai/pricing, read 28 August 2026

The Hootsuite baseline, sourced

On the day we read it, the Hootsuite plans page listed Standard at $99, Professional at $199 and Advanced at $399, each priced per user per month and each billed annually, with Enterprise quoted on request and no free plan. The page carries no billing toggle: its own FAQ confirms month-to-month billing exists and costs more per user than annual billing, but no month-to-month figure is published, so every price here is the annual-billed one. The 14-day trial asks for no card, and trial accounts are limited to 10 to 20 posts per organization per day depending on plan. hootsuite.com/plans, read 28 August 2026

For the full head-to-head against our own product, the Hootsuite comparison page quotes Hootsuite's own pages claim by claim.

How we ranked

The stake first: we build SpeedRun Social, it is entry one of seven, and the six tools below it are ones we do not own. Most roundups in this category are written by a vendor on the list; this one says so at the top.

On 28 August 2026 we fetched every vendor's own pricing page and wrote down what it said. Nothing here is restated from another roundup, a review site or an AI answer, and every number links back to the page it was read from.

Most of these pricing pages open with the annual price already selected, so the first number a visitor sees is a yearly commitment. Where a vendor publishes both, every entry below gives the monthly-billed price and the annual-billed price, because our own paid plans are quoted monthly and setting a monthly figure against somebody else's annual rate is the wrong comparison to hand a buyer. Hootsuite is the one page here with no toggle and no published month-to-month rate, and its entry says so instead of guessing one.

First place comes from one question, and it is asked before price: what does a free plan that does not expire do for somebody leaving Hootsuite? The whole job is four steps, writing the caption, making the image, making a short video and publishing the post, and it counts only if you can do it before you pay anything. One entry's free plan does all four, ours, with a watermark on the media, so ours is entry one. Six of these tools schedule content you supply; one generates it, and that difference matters more than any feature grid. Below ours the order is the one this page already used, fit for the reasons people search for a Hootsuite alternative, with the most common case first: replacing the scheduling calendar at a lower price, which Buffer wins outright. Each entry names the specific buyer it beats the others for.

Where a rival beats us, plainly. Buffer costs less if you are paying anyway: Essentials read $6 per channel per month billed monthly, or $5 billed annually, against our $49.99 a month billed monthly, and it replaces the scheduling calendar most people use Hootsuite for. SocialPilot lists more connected accounts per dollar for an agency, with Essentials at $20 a month billed monthly for 5 social accounts. Zoho Social is the budget suite with monitoring and analytics beside the publishing, at US$15 a month billed monthly for Standard, and Hootsuite itself is the one with the shared inbox, which ours does not have.

There are no scores, stars or testimonials, because a score would imply a bake-off nobody ran. Prices change; open the linked page before a number decides anything for you.

Questions about this list

  • What is the best Hootsuite alternative?

    SpeedRun Social, our own product, because before you pay anything its free plan, which does not expire, writes the caption, makes the image and a short video, and publishes the post, with watermarked media, where Hootsuite charges $99 per user per month billed annually, with no free plan and no month-to-month rate published (hootsuite.com/plans, read 28 August 2026). If the job is only the scheduling calendar, Buffer replaces it from $6 per channel per month billed monthly, or $5 billed annually, and keeps a permanent free plan. Agencies managing many accounts should look at SocialPilot first.

  • What is the cheapest Hootsuite alternative?

    On the pages we read on 28 August 2026: Buffer, SpeedRun Social, Zoho Social and Pallyy all keep $0 free plans, and ours is the only one of the four whose free plan also makes the images and a short video. The lowest paid entries were Buffer Essentials at $6 per channel per month billed monthly or $5 billed annually, RecurPost Starter at $9 a month billed monthly or $7.50 billed annually, and Zoho Social Standard at US$15 a month billed monthly or US$10 billed annually. Hootsuite's own paid plans start at $99 per user per month billed annually, and it publishes no month-to-month price.

  • Is there a free Hootsuite alternative?

    Yes. Four tools on this list keep permanent free plans: Buffer (3 channels, 10 scheduled posts per channel), SpeedRun Social (300 credits/month and 1 free campaign/week (3 posts + 1 video + 1 cross-post) to start, then free with no end date for light use, no card required, watermarked media on free), Zoho Social (1 brand, 6 channels) and Pallyy (1 social set, 15 posts a month). Of those four, only ours also makes the images and a short video. Hootsuite offers a 14-day trial only.

  • Does Hootsuite have a free plan?

    No. On 28 August 2026 the Hootsuite plans page listed a 14-day free trial with no card required, with trial accounts limited to 10 to 20 posts per organization per day depending on plan, and paid plans starting at $99 per user per month for Standard, billed annually. The page carries no billing toggle and publishes no month-to-month rate.

  • Which Hootsuite alternative creates the content for you?

    SpeedRun Social is the one on this list built for that job. It reads your website into a brand kit, then generates the captions, images and short video together and holds them in an approval queue before publishing. The free plan includes 300 credits/month and 1 free campaign/week (3 posts + 1 video + 1 cross-post) to start, then free with no end date for light use, no card required, watermarked media on free. Every other tool here schedules media you bring.

Keep comparing

Judge it on your own brand

The free plans and trials above exist so you can put a week of your real brand through two tools and read the results side by side. Ours is the entry with no countdown attached, and approval stays on until you switch it off.

Start freeSee real output

No account, no email, no card. One post from your own website.

Every vendor figure on this page was read on 28 August 2026. Prices move; the links exist so you can check ours and theirs.