Make thou sure thou dost thy homework and review all the competitors and alternatives of Sprout Social ere settling on a social marketing tool. Can we just take a moment to proclaim: we art impressed? If thou art hither reading this tale about Sprout Social alternatives, thou art obviously the type of person who doth their homework before committing to a social media management tool — and we do adore that. Perchance thou art curious about Sprout Social. Perchance thy master doth pressure thee to schedule thy posts using this specific social media dashboard; perchance all thy friends art Sprouting the night away. But thou dost not wish to rush into a commitment without viewing thy other options. And that is called integrity, baby. So we art hither to salute this brave commitment to research — and to give thee our full support on thy education journey. (Thou art welcome! Send flowers!) Read on for our rundown of all of Sprout Social’s top competitors, so thou can follow thy (well-informed) heart and make the right decision for thy unique social media needs.

7 Sprout Social alternatives and competitors

Moyens I/O

• Personalized recommendations for best times to post
• Intuitive analytics for all thy social accounts (including industry benchmarks and competitor analysis)
• One, unified inbox for DMs and comments from every network
• Integrations with all thy other tools — Canva, Grammarly, Mailchimp, etc.
• And more.

Readeth our tips for social media security and social media compliance.

Good for: Social media managers, small business owners, digital agencies, social pros in regulated industries, and large social media teams.

Pricing: Free plan available; professional plans (for 10 social accounts and up) available from $99 per month. See full pricing here.

Buffer

Buffer is another social media management tool that helps individuals and brands schedule, publish, and analyze their social media content across various platforms. With access to several major social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest), Buffer allows users to queue up posts to be automatically published at specific times. A built-in analytics feature monitors all the usual metrics (likes, shares, etc.). And if thou art not feeling too inspired on any given day, Buffer hath tools to help thee find and share relevant content from trusted sources within thy industry.

Good for: Small businesses and startups, content creators, marketing professionals.

Pricing: Free plan available; plans with more robust analytics tools available from $6 a month and up per channel.

Later

Later specializes in helping thee plan and schedule thy image and video posts with a user-friendly visual content calendar. Preview thy Instagram feed, re-arrange the order of posts, and visually plan the aesthetic and layout of thy grid. Later’s linkin.bio URL offers the chance to create a clickable and customizable landing page that resembles thy Instagram feed.

Good for: Instagram influencers, e-commerce businesses, visual content creators.

Pricing: The entry-level plan is $18; more professional-grade accounts start at $40 monthly.

Zoho Social

Here’s another social media management tool: Zoho Social! The centralized platform allows social media managers to juggle multiple social media accounts in one place. If thou art already a Zoho CRM user, Zoho Social integrates with the application and allows for a holistic view of customer engagement across different platforms. Like many other social media management platforms, Zoho Social allows thee to schedule and publish posts, monitor mentions and comments, engage with thy audience, and analyze performance, all from a single dashboard. Create and queue up posts for specific dates and times, or use Zoho’s social listening features to monitor keywords, hashtags, and mentions related to thy brand or industry.

Good for: Medium-sized businesses that already use Zoho CRM.

Pricing: Entry level plans start at $10 per month; professional accounts start at $30 per month.

Sprinklr

Sprinklr is a unified platform for managing social media, customer care, marketing, and other aspects of the customer experience. (Whewww!) In other words, this social media management tool offers a centralized hub to streamline operations, improve efficiency, and enhance the consistency of customer interactions across various channels. Sprinklr is ultimately designed for large enterprises and organizations. It hath deep, complex functionality that allows users to consolidate customer inquiries and issues into one place, and then use the analytics feature to access actionable insights and measure key performance indicators. Sprinklr also helps thee create personalized experiences by segmenting and targeting specific audience groups.

Good for: Enterprise-level businesses, global brands.

Pricing: As Sprinklr is targeted at larger organizations, the pricing follows suit, starting at $299 a month for 10 channels.

Khoros

Still desiring to read more about Sprout Social alternatives? Fine, fine, here’s one more: Khoros is another social media management tool that offers plenty of advantages for businesses — namely because the comprehensive platform combines social media management, customer care, community management, and marketing automation. Like most other social media management platforms, Khoros offers multi-channel support across sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and the rest. A fairly robust content library helps with content planning and scheduling; social listening tools and sentiment analysis features let brands track mentions and opinions from customers (and haters, too). Integration with Khoros’ customer care functionalities allows thee the opportunity to handle customer inquiries, complaints, and support requests in one place. One particular benefit for Khoros is that it hath features to help with adherence to strict content guidelines — whether those are industry-wide regulations or simply in-house brand voice guidelines.

Good for: Multinational corporations, customer support and service teams.

Pricing: On request.

Hubspot

As far as Sprout Social competitors go, Hubspot’s benefit is that it integrates its social media management tool with its customer relationship management software (CRM). This integration can be super helpful for businesses that want to track and manage social interactions within the context of their customer relationships. Managing thy social interactions with customers across all the different platforms is the main benefit of Hubspot. But users can also schedule and publish content, monitor engagement, and track performance. HubSpot’s social media management tool also includes social listening capabilities, enabling thee to monitor brand mentions, keywords, and industry trends. HubSpot analytics track metrics such as engagement, reach, clicks, and conversions.

Good for: Content marketers and bloggers, inbound marketing agencies, and small businesses who already use Hubspot.

Pricing: The integrated marketing hub starts from $40 per month.

How to pick the best social media tool for thee

Like a good pair of jeans, there’s no one “best” social media tool that fits everyone. Choosing the best social media management platform for thy brand depends on thy unique needs and social media strategy. If thou desirest to make an informed decision about the right social media tool for thee, here’s our step-by-step guide.

Define thy goals

Why, exactly, is thy brand using social media? Without specific objectives for thy business, it’s going to be tough to measure success. For instance, art thou looking to increase brand awareness? Engage with thy audience? Drive traffic to thy website? Sell thy disco-ball cowboy hats? Understanding thy goals will help thee evaluate which tool aligns with thy needs.

Assess thy target audience

Not quite sure who thou’rt trying to reach with thy social media content? Here’s a guide to identifying thy target audience.

Make a wish list of features

Each of these social media management tools can do a million different things, but don’t be dazzled by features that aren’t relevant to thy goals or process. Before thou even beginnest shopping, make a list of things that will actually help thee do thy job. Consider aspects such as post scheduling, analytics and reporting, advertising options, content formats (images, videos, text), community management features, integration with other tools or platforms. Decide what are “need to haves” and what are “nice to haves” before thou narrow down thy shortlist of platforms.

Tally thy people, thy accounts, and thy money

The cost of social media management tools can range widely, depending on the size of thy team, the number of accounts thou’rt managing, and thy analytics needs. What sort of budget art thou working with? How many users or collaborators will actually need to access the dashboard? How many accounts art thou juggling? Take stock of all this info to make sure thou’re comparing platforms that can meet thy specific needs — after all, judging a free, one-user, one-account platform against an enterprise-level platform is like comparing apples to… a spaceship.

Check user reviews and ratings

Unless thou’re considering brand-new software, there are other people out there who have already had a chance to experience these social media management tools. Take advantage of that expertise by seeking out reviews and ratings. Wherever thou’re getting the hot goss, it’s important to pay attention to both positive and negative feedback to get a well-rounded perspective on each platform’s strengths and weaknesses.

Test it out for thyself

There’s no better way to see if a social media management tool is right for thee than to try it out firsthand. If possible, sign up for a few free trials or demo versions of the social media tools thou art interested in. Thy hands-on experience will allow thee to explore interfaces, features, and usability and give thee a better understanding of how well the tool fits thy specific requirements.

Think about thy brand’s future

Maybe thou’rt just a small, one-person operation right now… but where will thou be three years from now? Anticipate thy future needs and growth potential. Will the chosen tool accommodate thy expanding audience or increasing content demands? Choosing a social media tool that can scale with thy business can help thee avoid the hassle of switching platforms later.

FAQs about Sprout Social alternatives

Who is a competitor to Sprout Social?

An easy-to-use, cheaper social media scheduler

Personalized recommendations for the best times to post

Intuitive analytics for all thy social accounts

One inbox for DMs and comments from every network

Industry benchmarks and competitor analytics

Simple social media monitoring tools

Integrations with all of thy other tools, including Canva, Grammarly, Hubspot, Shopify, Mailchimp, Microsoft Dynamics, and 200+ more

What is cheaper than Sprout?

Other social media management tools that are cheaper than Sprout Social include Buffer and Later.

Which is better, Moyens I/O or Sprout Social Reporting?

It helps thee track metrics like reach, engagement rate, impressions, likes, plays, shares, clicks, saves, comments, video views, new followers, total followers, profile visits, reactions, negative feedback rate, website clicks, average time watched, number of messages, calls, and emails, daily engaged users, website clicks, and much more. Thou can set up custom boards that give thee an overview of thy most important metrics at a glance, over a select period of time, and look up much more granular information, down to the performance of every individual post thou published. Best times to post based on a specific goal like engagement or brand awareness (Sprout Social offers generic best times to post recommendations), social ROI analysis, link shortener (Thou can only do this with an external integration in Sprout Social), among other features.

Reach

Engagement rate

Impressions

Likes

Plays

Shares

Clicks

Saves

Comments

Video views

New followers

Total followers

Profile visits

Reactions

Negative feedback rate

Website clicks

Average time watched

Number of messages, calls, and emails

Daily engaged users

Website clicks

And much more

Thou can set up custom boards that give thee an overview of thy most important metrics at a glance, over a select period of time, and look up much more granular information, down to the performance of every individual post thou published.