# Alternatives to Sprout Social

Premium social management and listening.

Sprout Social ranks #7 of 8 in Social media schedulers, with an Alt Score of 82. It is proprietary, sold by subscription from $99/seat/month and available on Web, iOS and Android. 9 of 10 checklist rows are verified against a public source.

Source: https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/sprout-social/
Category: Social media schedulers

## Overview

- **Who it's for**: Marketing, social, and customer care teams at mid-size to large businesses and agencies managing multiple social profiles across an organization.
- **What you get**: A unified platform for scheduling and publishing posts, a shared smart inbox that consolidates messages, comments, and mentions across networks for team response, social listening to track brand and industry conversation, and reporting/analytics on performance across channels. Role-based permissions and shared queues support collaboration across marketing, sales, and support teams.
- **How it works**: Teams connect their social accounts, then plan and schedule content, monitor and respond to incoming messages from a single inbox, and review analytics dashboards to track engagement and campaign performance.

## Profile

- **License**: Proprietary (verified 2026-07-10)
- **Pricing model**: Subscription (verified 2026-07-10)
- **Starts at**: $99/seat/month (verified 2026-07-10)
- **Platforms**: Web, iOS, Android
- **Status**: active (verified 2026-07-10)

## Ranked alternatives

| # | App | Alt Score | Licence | Platforms |
|---|-----|-----------|---------|-----------|
| 1 | [Publer](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/publer.md) | 100 | Proprietary | Web, Browser extension |
| 2 | [Buffer](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/buffer.md) | 91 | Proprietary | Web, Browser extension, iOS, Android |
| 3 | [Later](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/later.md) | 91 | Proprietary | Web, Browser extension |
| 4 | [Metricool](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/metricool.md) | 91 | ? | Web, iOS, Android, Browser extension |
| 5 | [Hootsuite](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/hootsuite.md) | 82 | Proprietary | Web, iOS, Android |
| 6 | [SocialBee](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/socialbee.md) | 82 | Proprietary | Web |
| 7 | [Typefully](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/typefully.md) | 78 | Proprietary | Web, macOS |

Alt Score = Verified coverage (90%) + Visibility (10%). See https://altcatalog.com/how-alt-score-works/

## Feature comparison

Legend: Yes / No / Partial / ? (not verified).

| Social media schedulers checklist | Sprout Social | Publer | Buffer | Later | Metricool | Hootsuite |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Subscription | Freemium | Freemium | Subscription | Freemium | Subscription |
| Starts at | $99/seat/month | $5/month | $6/month per channel | $18.75 USD/month | Free | $99 USD/user/month |
| License | Proprietary | Proprietary | Proprietary | Proprietary | ? | Proprietary |
| Platforms | Web, iOS, Android | Web, Browser extension | Web, Browser extension, iOS, Android | Web, Browser extension | Web, iOS, Android, Browser extension | Web, iOS, Android |
| Networks supported | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Visual calendar | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Best-time suggestions | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Approval workflows | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Analytics & reports | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| AI caption writing | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Browser extension | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? |
| Free tier limits | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No |
| Bulk upload | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Team seats pricing | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes |

## Sources

Sources for Sprout Social. Each alternative is sourced on its own page.

- **Pricing model**: Subscription — <https://sproutsocial.com/pricing/> (verified 2026-07-10)
  - Quote: “$99 per seat/month billed monthly.”
- **Starts at**: $99/seat/month — <https://sproutsocial.com/pricing/> (verified 2026-07-10)
  - Quote: “Essentials: $99 per seat/month”
- **License**: Proprietary — <https://sproutsocial.com/pricing/> (verified 2026-07-10)
  - Note: Hosted commercial SaaS.
  - Quote: “Essentials: $99 per seat/month”
- **Platforms**: Web, iOS, Android — <https://sproutsocial.com/features/> (verified 2026-07-10)
  - Quote: “Sprout's mobile apps for iOS and Android provide powerful publishing and workflow management tools for on-the-go content”
- **Status**: active — <https://sproutsocial.com/pricing/> (verified 2026-07-10)
  - Quote: “Start your free trial”
- **Networks supported**: Yes — <https://sproutsocial.com/features/> (verified 2026-07-10)
  - Quote: “Report across Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. Pull unlimited PDF/CSV exports.”
- **Visual calendar**: Yes — <https://sproutsocial.com/features/social-media-calendar/> (verified 2026-07-10)
  - Quote: “Visualize posts from all your networks and profiles within a single calendar.”
- **Best-time suggestions**: Yes — <https://sproutsocial.com/pricing/> (verified 2026-07-10)
  - Quote: “Increase your visibility with optimal send times”
- **Approval workflows**: Yes — <https://sproutsocial.com/features/> (verified 2026-07-10)
  - Quote: “Use advanced permissions and flexible approval structure to set up internal and external workflows to submit, review, collaborate on and approve posts.”
- **Analytics & reports**: Yes — <https://sproutsocial.com/features/> (verified 2026-07-10)
  - Quote: “Drive strategic decision-making across the business with meaningful insights from social data and analytics.”
- **AI caption writing**: Yes — <https://sproutsocial.com/ai/> (verified 2026-07-10)
  - Quote: “Generate and refine copy with AI Assist, ensuring every message is on-brand and engaging.”
- **Free tier limits**: No — <https://sproutsocial.com/pricing/> (verified 2026-07-10)
  - Note: No permanent free plan; 30-day trial only.
  - Quote: “Try Sprout free for 30 days ... After your 30-day free trial, you'll be asked to pick a plan and enter your payment info.”
- **Bulk upload**: Yes — <https://sproutsocial.com/features/> (verified 2026-07-10)
  - Quote: “Create and plan up to 350 messages all at once using a .CSV upload within Sprout's Publishing Calendar.”
- **Team seats pricing**: Yes — <https://sproutsocial.com/pricing/> (verified 2026-07-10)
  - Quote: “$99 per seat/month billed monthly.”

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Ranked by verified data, never by who paid. https://altcatalog.com/trust/