By Lucy Bloomfield, Founder, Magic Marketer® · Updated 12 October 2026

Sprout Social alternatives in 2026: six tools, prices checked

If reporting is the job, Metricool. If you need the inbox without paying per seat, Vista Social. If you need enterprise monitoring, Hootsuite. If you run an agency, HeyOrca. If you only need a queue, Buffer. If the calendar is empty because nobody made the posts, Magic Marketer®. If you have a social team and a listening budget, stay on Sprout.

How we compared them

We read each vendor's own pricing page on 12 October 2026 and copied the list prices as published. Where a page did not show a price we could read, we wrote "Check current pricing" rather than guess. Each tool gets one best-for label, so no two are pitched at the same reader. The switching section comes from the vendor's own help centre. Magic Marketer® is our product. The choose-them-if lines are written so you can leave this page for someone else.

Why people leave Sprout Social

Sprout Social is the benchmark for social reporting. If you have a social team and a board that wants a deck every month, it is very hard to beat.

The search for an alternative comes from everyone else. Essentials is $79 a seat billed annually, the cheaper tiers stop at five profiles, and a second person doubles the bill. (Beautiful dashboard. Still empty on Monday.)

The other reason is the one that sends people away from every tool on this page. Sprout manages posts. It does not make them.

Plan	Price	What you get
Essentials	$79 per seat/mo	Billed annually, or $99 billed monthly. 5 profiles
Standard	$199 per seat/mo	Billed annually. 5 profiles
Professional	$299 per seat/mo	Billed annually. Unlimited profiles
Advanced	$399 per seat/mo	Billed annually. Unlimited profiles
Enterprise	Custom	Quoted by sales

USD list prices from sproutsocial.com/pricing, checked 12 October 2026. No free plan. 30-day trial.

Stay on Sprout Social if

You have a social team, a listening budget and stakeholders who need client-ready reports every month.

Sprout Social alternatives at a glance

Tool	Best for	Starting price	Watch out for
Sprout Social	Reporting and listening at enterprise scale	$79 per seat/mo, billed annually	Per seat. Five profiles on the cheaper tiers.
Metricool	Reporting across several brands for less	Free, then from $20/mo	Shallower reporting than Sprout.
Vista Social	Inbox, reviews and listening without per-seat pricing	$99/mo or $950/yr, 2 users	Listening is a $75/mo add-on.
Magic Marketer®	Making the posts, then publishing them	A$99/mo for up to 2 brands	No listening or competitor monitoring.
Hootsuite	Enterprise monitoring and approvals	$99 per user/mo	Per user, like Sprout. No free plan.
HeyOrca	Agencies that need client approval links	Free, then $59 per calendar/mo	Priced per calendar, so every client adds one.
Buffer	A cheap queue when the posts already exist	Free, then $5 per channel/mo	Basic reporting. Does not make posts.

Prices from each vendor's own pricing page, checked 12 October 2026: sproutsocial.com/pricing, metricool.com/pricing, vistasocial.com/pricing, hootsuite.com/plans, heyorca.com/pricing and buffer.com/pricing. Competitor prices in USD. Magic Marketer® prices are in AUD.

Best for: Reporting across several brands for less

Metricool

Metricool is the value pick for reporting. Organic, paid and competitor analytics, a free plan for one brand, and Starter from $20 a month for five brands. Compared with Sprout, the reports are shallower and the price is a fraction. No per-seat charge.

Plan	Price	What you get
Free	$0	1 brand, 20 scheduled posts a month
Starter	From $20/mo	5 brands. $36/mo for 10 brands
Advanced	From $53/mo	15 brands, up to 50

USD list prices from metricool.com/pricing, checked 12 October 2026. Annual billing saves up to 24%.

Choose Metricool if

You already have content and mainly need a cheap, capable dashboard for scheduling, analytics, and competitor tracking across a lot of brands or accounts.

Pros

Generous free plan
Several brands on the entry plan
Competitor analytics

Cons

Shallower than Sprout
No listening
Does not make posts

Best for: Inbox, reviews and listening without per-seat pricing

Vista Social

Vista Social has most of the Sprout feature list at a mid-market price. Inbox, reviews, a listening add-on and fifteen profiles on Professional at $99 a month, or $950 a year, for two users. Compared with Sprout, you trade depth of reporting for a bill that does not grow per seat.

Plan	Price	What you get
Professional	$99/mo	Or $950 a year. 15 profiles, 2 users
Advanced	$199/mo	Or $1,910 a year. 30 profiles, 3 users
Scale	$449/mo	Or $4,310 a year. 70 profiles, 4 users

USD list prices from vistasocial.com/pricing, checked 12 October 2026. No free plan, 14-day trial. X is $29/mo extra. Listening across social, web and news is $75/mo.

Choose Vista Social if

You run several brands with a small team and need the management layer: inbox, reviews, listening, advocacy.

Pros

Inbox and reviews included
Fifteen profiles on the entry plan
Listening as an add-on

Cons

No free plan
X costs extra
Still assumes the posts exist

Best for: Making the posts, then publishing them

Magic Marketer®

This week · approved

MonThree things that stall week threeLinkedIn · 9:00Queued

TueReel from Tuesday's callInstagram · 18:30Best time

WedWeek three is where consistency diesLinkedIn · 8:15Queued

Thu"Consistency beats perfection."Facebook · 12:00Queued

Fri22 seconds, captions burned inTikTok · 17:45Best time

Magic Marketer® is the production side Sprout does not have. One source becomes eight post formats in your voice, checked against your guardrails and compliance presets, then scheduled to nine channels. Analytics cover impressions, engagement, followers and best time per channel, with CSV export. It is not Sprout's reporting, and it does not pretend to be.

Plan	Price	What you get
Free trial	A$0 for 7 days	Card at sign-up. Publishing, scheduling and unlimited creations included. Free for 7 days. Cancel anytime before day 7 and you won't be charged.
Up to 2 brands	A$99/mo	Up to 2 brands. Unlimited team members. Publishing and scheduling included. A fresh batch on your schedule, daily, weekly, or monthly. Weekly community calls and workshops included. For 3 or more brands, book a demo and we quote agency pricing. Or A$986/yr, save 17%.
Agency	Custom	3 or more brands. No public rate, quoted on a demo.

Magic Marketer® prices are in AUD.

Choose Magic Marketer® if

You are one person or a small team, the calendar is empty because nobody made the posts, and you do not need enterprise reporting.

Pros

Makes the posts from a source you already have
Up to 2 brands on one plan, no per-seat charge
Brand guardrails and compliance presets

Cons

No social listening
No competitor benchmarking
Not a client-reporting product

Best for: Enterprise monitoring and approvals

Hootsuite

Hootsuite is the other enterprise platform. Standard is $99 per user a month for ten social accounts. Compared with Sprout, monitoring and routing are stronger and reporting is weaker. It is a step sideways, not down.

Plan	Price	What you get
Standard	$99 per user/mo	10 social accounts
Professional	$199 per user/mo	Unlimited social accounts
Advanced	$399 per user/mo	Unlimited social accounts
Enterprise	Custom	Quoted by sales

USD list prices from hootsuite.com/plans, checked 12 October 2026. No free plan. 14-day trial.

Choose Hootsuite if

You run social for a large team and need brand monitoring, message routing and multi-step approvals with a paper trail.

Pros

Strong monitoring and routing
Ten accounts on Standard
Multi-step approvals

Cons

Per-user pricing
No free plan
Does not make posts

Best for: Agencies that need client approval links

HeyOrca

HeyOrca suits agencies whose Sprout use is really about client sign-off. One calendar per client, unlimited users, approval links. Basic is $59 a month per calendar, and Pro adds reporting, an inbox and listening at $149. Compared with Sprout, users are free and calendars are not.

Plan	Price	What you get
Free	$0 per calendar	1 user, 2 social profiles, 15 scheduled posts a month
Basic	$59/mo per calendar	Unlimited users and posts, 10 profiles per calendar
Pro	$149/mo per calendar	Adds reporting, a social inbox and listening
Agency	Custom	Quoted by sales

USD list prices from heyorca.com/pricing, checked 12 October 2026. Annual billing saves 15%. Five or more calendars save 40%. 14-day trial.

Choose HeyOrca if

You run an agency, you need unlimited seats, client approval links, and a shared calendar, and someone else is already producing the content that goes into it.

Pros

Unlimited users on paid plans
Client approval links
Inbox and listening on Pro

Cons

Priced per calendar
Reporting only on Pro
Does not make posts

Best for: A cheap queue when the posts already exist

Buffer

If reporting was never the point, Buffer is the cheapest reliable queue. Free for three channels, then $5 per channel a month. Compared with Sprout, you lose the reporting and the inbox. You keep a lot of money.

Plan	Price	What you get
Free	$0	3 channels, 10 scheduled posts per channel, 1 user
Essentials	$5/mo per channel	Or $60 a year per channel. Unlimited scheduled posts, 1 user
Team	$10/mo per channel	Or $120 a year per channel. Unlimited team members

USD list prices from buffer.com/pricing, checked 12 October 2026. 14-day trial on paid plans. The price per channel drops past 10 channels.

Choose Buffer if

You already have a marketing team or writer producing content, and you just need a reliable place to schedule and queue posts across platforms.

Pros

Usable free plan
Priced per channel, not per seat
Quick to learn

Cons

Basic reporting
No listening
Does not make posts

How to choose a Sprout Social alternative

Start with the part of Sprout you actually open. It is usually one of six.

01
Listening and executive reports
Stay on Sprout. Nothing cheaper here fully replaces that.
02
The reports, but not the price
Metricool. Five brands and competitor analytics from $20 a month.
03
The inbox and reviews
Vista Social. No per-seat charge, two users on the entry plan.
04
Monitoring and approvals
Hootsuite, at a similar per-user price.
05
Client sign-off for an agency
HeyOrca. Unlimited users, one calendar per client.
06
The calendar, which is empty
Magic Marketer®. It makes the posts from a link, a photo or one line, then publishes. That is the only reason to pick us over Sprout.

Switching from Sprout Social: your calendar, inbox and contract

Most roundups skip this bit. With Sprout, the contract matters as much as the export.

The short version: your calendar leaves as a PDF, your inbox leaves as a CSV, and Sprout keeps publishing until the term ends.

What moves

Your calendar, as a PDF. From the Publishing Calendar, Share downloads or sends a PDF with your filters and date range.
Your inbox and reviews history, as CSV files, from Smart Inbox Export.
Your images and videos, from your own copies. Upload them again in the new tool.

What does not

The scheduled queue as a file you can import. We found a PDF export for the calendar, not a CSV one, in Sprout's help centre.
Connected profiles. Connections do not transfer. You reconnect each profile in the new tool.
Your contract. Cancelling takes effect at the end of the contract term, and you keep access until then.
Everything after that. Sprout deactivates posts, reports, files and profiles, and no scheduled post publishes.

In this order

Export the Publishing Calendar as a PDF and the Smart Inbox as a CSV.
Connect your profiles in the new tool and rebuild the calendar there. Magic Marketer® does not import a calendar - it makes new posts from a source, so use the PDF as your brief.
Delete the scheduled posts in Sprout, or remove the profiles, so nothing goes out twice before the term ends.
Deactivate from Account and Settings, then Billing. It takes effect at the end of your contract term.

From Sprout Social's help centre (How do I use the Publishing Calendar?, Inbox Export, and How do I cancel my account?), checked 12 October 2026.

Sprout Social alternative FAQs

What is the cheapest Sprout Social alternative?

If reporting is why you looked at Sprout, Metricool: free for one brand, then from $20 a month for five. If you only need a queue, Buffer. If the posts themselves are the bottleneck, Magic Marketer®.

Does Magic Marketer® do social listening?

No. It has an inbox for comments and DMs and analytics for your own accounts, but no listening or competitor monitoring. Sprout Social, Hootsuite, HeyOrca Pro and Vista Social (as an add-on) do.

Is Sprout Social worth it for a small business?

Rarely. Five profiles on the cheaper tiers and per-seat pricing make it expensive for a team of one or two. Its strengths - listening, case management, executive reporting - are built for larger teams.

Can I export my scheduled posts from Sprout Social?

The Publishing Calendar downloads as a PDF from Share. We found no CSV export of scheduled posts in Sprout's help centre. Smart Inbox messages and reviews export to CSV.

Can Magic Marketer® export reports?

Yes. Per-channel performance with CSV export and a monthly recap email. It is not a client-reporting product, so agencies that need branded decks should keep a reporting tool alongside it.

Related: Hootsuite vs Sprout Social

Fill the calendar before you measure it.

Join Our Next 30-Day Visibility Challenge

Free for 7 days. Cancel anytime before day 7 and you won't be charged. We'll remind you before your trial ends.