{
    "title": "Hootsuite Alternatives 2027: 13 Paid, Free & Open-Source",
    "url": "https://zekaiwork.com/alternatives/hootsuite/",
    "summary": "The best Hootsuite alternatives in 2027 are Sprout Social (best overall, $79/seat/mo billed yearly), Buffer (best free plan: 3 channels, 10 posts each) and Postiz (best open source, AGPL-3.0). Hootsuite itself starts at $99/user/mo. Zekai checked these prices on vendor pages on 10 Nov 2026; 10 more are compared below, including 1 with a free plan and 4 open source.",
    "tool": {
        "name": "Hootsuite",
        "starting_price": "$99/user/mo",
        "free_plan": "No",
        "price_checked": "2026-11-10",
        "pricing_url": "https://www.hootsuite.com/plans"
    },
    "task": "Social media scheduler / manager",
    "prices_checked": "2026-11-10",
    "date_modified": "2026-11-13",
    "alternatives": [
        {
            "name": "Sprout Social",
            "type": "Paid",
            "starting_price": "$79/seat/mo billed yearly",
            "free_plan_limit": "No free plan",
            "best_for": "Larger teams needing reporting depth",
            "difference": "Prices per seat from $79 billed yearly with 5 profiles on Essentials and a 30-day trial; Hootsuite Standard starts at $99 per user with 10 accounts and a 14-day trial.",
            "price_checked": "2026-11-10",
            "pricing_url": "https://sproutsocial.com/pricing/",
            "website": "https://sproutsocial.com",
            "zekai_score": 8.9,
            "zekai_review": "https://zekaiwork.com/ai-tools/sprout-social/"
        },
        {
            "name": "Buffer",
            "type": "Free plan + paid",
            "starting_price": "$5/channel/mo",
            "free_plan_limit": "Up to 3 channels, 10 scheduled posts per channel, 1 user",
            "best_for": "Small teams on a tight budget",
            "difference": "Charges $5 per connected channel instead of per user, allows unlimited team members on Team, and keeps a free plan of 3 channels with 10 scheduled posts per channel.",
            "price_checked": "2026-11-10",
            "pricing_url": "https://buffer.com/pricing",
            "website": "https://buffer.com",
            "zekai_score": 9.3,
            "zekai_review": "https://zekaiwork.com/ai-tools/buffer/"
        },
        {
            "name": "SocialPilot",
            "type": "Paid",
            "starting_price": "$20/mo",
            "free_plan_limit": "No free plan",
            "best_for": "Agencies wanting low per-account cost",
            "difference": "Essentials costs $20 monthly for 5 accounts and 1 user; Standard adds 3 users and 10 accounts for $40, with a 14-day trial and no card required.",
            "price_checked": "2026-11-10",
            "pricing_url": "https://www.socialpilot.co/pricing",
            "website": "https://www.socialpilot.co"
        },
        {
            "name": "Agorapulse",
            "type": "Paid",
            "starting_price": "$79/user/mo billed yearly",
            "free_plan_limit": "No free plan",
            "best_for": "Social inbox and review management",
            "difference": "Lists three paid tiers that all include 10 social profiles per user ($79, $119, $149 billed yearly), so higher tiers add features rather than more profiles.",
            "price_checked": "2026-11-10",
            "pricing_url": "https://www.agorapulse.com/pricing/",
            "website": "https://www.agorapulse.com",
            "zekai_score": 7.8,
            "zekai_review": "https://zekaiwork.com/ai-tools/agorapulse/"
        },
        {
            "name": "Later",
            "type": "Paid",
            "starting_price": "$18.75/mo billed yearly",
            "free_plan_limit": "No free plan",
            "best_for": "Visual planning for Instagram and TikTok",
            "difference": "Sells social sets: Starter gives 1 set of 8 profiles and caps posts at 30 per profile each month, with a 14-day trial.",
            "price_checked": "2026-11-10",
            "pricing_url": "https://later.com/pricing/",
            "website": "https://later.com",
            "zekai_score": 8.8,
            "zekai_review": "https://zekaiwork.com/ai-tools/later/"
        },
        {
            "name": "Publer",
            "type": "Free",
            "starting_price": "Free plan; paid price not published",
            "free_plan_limit": "3 social accounts (not X), 10 scheduled posts per account, 25 drafts",
            "best_for": "Freelancers starting scheduling at no cost",
            "difference": "Free plan connects 3 accounts (not X) with 10 scheduled posts each and 25 drafts; paid pricing uses an account slider where every 10th account is free.",
            "price_checked": "2026-11-10",
            "pricing_url": "https://publer.com/pricing",
            "website": "https://publer.com",
            "zekai_score": 7.9,
            "zekai_review": "https://zekaiwork.com/ai-tools/publer/"
        },
        {
            "name": "ContentStudio",
            "type": "Paid",
            "starting_price": "$19/mo billed yearly",
            "free_plan_limit": "No free plan",
            "best_for": "Agencies needing many workspaces",
            "difference": "Standard covers 5 accounts and 1 workspace at $19 billed yearly; Agency Unlimited allows unlimited workspaces and users, with only a one-time 7-day trial.",
            "price_checked": "2026-11-10",
            "pricing_url": "https://contentstudio.io/pricing",
            "website": "https://contentstudio.io",
            "zekai_score": 8.8,
            "zekai_review": "https://zekaiwork.com/ai-tools/contentstudio/"
        },
        {
            "name": "FeedHive",
            "type": "Paid",
            "starting_price": "$15/mo billed yearly",
            "free_plan_limit": "No free plan",
            "best_for": "Solo creators scheduling short-form content",
            "difference": "Creator gives 4 social accounts for $15 monthly billed yearly; Business reaches 100 accounts over 50 workspaces for $69, each with a 7-day trial.",
            "price_checked": "2026-11-10",
            "pricing_url": "https://www.feedhive.com/pricing",
            "website": "https://www.feedhive.com",
            "zekai_score": 7.2,
            "zekai_review": "https://zekaiwork.com/ai-tools/feedhive/"
        },
        {
            "name": "Postiz",
            "type": "Open source",
            "starting_price": "$29/mo (hosted)",
            "free_plan_limit": "No limit (self-hosted)",
            "licence": "AGPL-3.0",
            "best_for": "Self-hosted scheduling with agent integrations",
            "difference": "Schedules to many networks from one AGPL codebase with a calendar, AI helpers and agent integrations; running it yourself needs Postgres, Redis and a developer app for each network you connect.",
            "price_checked": "2026-11-10",
            "pricing_url": "https://postiz.com/pricing",
            "website": "https://postiz.com",
            "repository": "https://github.com/gitroomhq/postiz-app",
            "zekai_open_source_page": "https://zekaiwork.com/free-open-source/postiz-app/",
            "commercial_use": "Yes; AGPL-3.0 means sharing changes if you run it as a service.",
            "runs_on": "Docker host with Postgres, Redis and media storage.",
            "setup": "moderate: Docker plus a developer app and keys for each network.",
            "github_stars": 41530,
            "stars_checked": "2026-11-13",
            "last_commit": "2026-11-13",
            "last_release": "2026-11-13",
            "zekai_score": 7.9,
            "zekai_review": "https://zekaiwork.com/free-open-source/postiz-app/"
        },
        {
            "name": "Mixpost",
            "type": "Open source",
            "starting_price": "$299 one-time (hosted)",
            "free_plan_limit": "No limit (self-hosted)",
            "licence": "MIT (Lite edition)",
            "best_for": "Self-hosted Laravel publishing app",
            "difference": "Lite is MIT and free, built on Laravel; the inbox, extra networks and team features are in Pro, a $299 one-time licence per domain, so it is open core rather than fully free.",
            "price_checked": "2026-11-10",
            "pricing_url": "https://mixpost.app/pricing",
            "website": "https://mixpost.app",
            "repository": "https://github.com/inovector/mixpost",
            "zekai_open_source_page": "https://zekaiwork.com/free-open-source/mixpost/",
            "commercial_use": "Yes for Lite (MIT); Pro and Enterprise need paid licences.",
            "runs_on": "A PHP or Docker server with a public domain.",
            "setup": "moderate: Docker, manual PHP or Laravel install; networks need their own app keys.",
            "github_stars": 3930,
            "stars_checked": "2026-11-13",
            "last_commit": "2026-03-16",
            "last_release": "2026-03-16",
            "zekai_score": 6.3,
            "zekai_review": "https://zekaiwork.com/free-open-source/mixpost/"
        },
        {
            "name": "TryPost",
            "type": "Open source",
            "starting_price": "Free (self-hosted)",
            "free_plan_limit": "No limit (self-hosted)",
            "licence": "AGPL-3.0",
            "best_for": "Self-hosted scheduler driven by AI agents",
            "difference": "Exposes an MCP server with 80+ tools and a REST API so AI agents can draft, queue and publish posts, and its self-hosted build carries every feature of the cloud product.",
            "website": "https://trypost.it",
            "repository": "https://github.com/trypostit/trypost",
            "zekai_open_source_page": "https://zekaiwork.com/free-open-source/trypost/",
            "commercial_use": "Yes; AGPL-3.0 means sharing changes if you run it as a service.",
            "runs_on": "A web server running PHP 8.2 or newer with Laravel 13.",
            "setup": "moderate: Laravel application; follow its documentation to set up and connect networks.",
            "github_stars": 860,
            "stars_checked": "2026-11-13",
            "last_commit": "2026-11-13",
            "last_release": "2026-11-01",
            "zekai_score": 7,
            "zekai_review": "https://zekaiwork.com/free-open-source/trypost/"
        },
        {
            "name": "OpenPost",
            "type": "Open source",
            "starting_price": "Free (self-hosted)",
            "free_plan_limit": "No limit (self-hosted)",
            "licence": "AGPL-3.0",
            "best_for": "Scheduling plus image and video editing",
            "difference": "Bundles an image editor, video editor and workflow canvas with scheduling, and runs from a single Docker container with SQLite by default; it lists 16 networks including Mastodon, Bluesky and PeerTube.",
            "website": "https://openpo.st",
            "repository": "https://github.com/getopenpost/openpost",
            "zekai_open_source_page": "https://zekaiwork.com/free-open-source/openpost/",
            "commercial_use": "Yes; AGPL-3.0 means sharing changes if you run it as a service.",
            "runs_on": "Docker Compose; the default setup is one container with SQLite.",
            "setup": "moderate: One container, but each network needs its own app credentials.",
            "github_stars": 907,
            "stars_checked": "2026-11-13",
            "last_commit": "2026-11-13",
            "last_release": "2026-11-13",
            "zekai_score": 7.3,
            "zekai_review": "https://zekaiwork.com/free-open-source/openpost/"
        },
        {
            "name": "Socioboard",
            "type": "Open source",
            "starting_price": "Free (self-hosted)",
            "free_plan_limit": "No limit (self-hosted)",
            "licence": "GPL-3.0-or-later",
            "best_for": "Older open GPL multi-network social platform",
            "difference": "Older codebase that supports nine networks with analytics and reporting, but needs Node.js microservices, a PHP front end, MongoDB and MySQL, and its licence header dates from 2014-2021.",
            "website": "https://socioboard.com",
            "repository": "https://github.com/socioboard/Socioboard-5.0",
            "zekai_open_source_page": "https://zekaiwork.com/free-open-source/socioboard/",
            "commercial_use": "Yes; GPL-3.0 means sharing source if you distribute modified versions.",
            "runs_on": "Server with Node.js 14+, PHP front end, MongoDB, MySQL and PM2.",
            "setup": "hard: Several Node microservices plus PHP, MongoDB and MySQL, per its install guide.",
            "github_stars": 1530,
            "stars_checked": "2026-11-13",
            "last_commit": "2026-08-17",
            "last_release": "2024-01-16",
            "zekai_score": 6,
            "zekai_review": "https://zekaiwork.com/free-open-source/socioboard/"
        }
    ],
    "faq": [
        {
            "q": "What is the best alternative to Hootsuite in 2027?",
            "a": "Sprout Social is the best overall Hootsuite alternative on this page ($79/seat/mo billed yearly). For no cost, Buffer has a free plan (Up to 3 channels, 10 scheduled posts per channel, 1 user). To self-host, Postiz is open source (AGPL-3.0)."
        },
        {
            "q": "Is there a free version of Hootsuite?",
            "a": "No. Hootsuite has no free plan; paid plans start at $99/user/mo, checked on 10 Nov 2026."
        },
        {
            "q": "Is there a 100% free alternative to Hootsuite?",
            "a": "Yes. Postiz, Mixpost, TryPost, OpenPost, Socioboard are open source and free to self-host. Buffer, Publer have a free plan with limits, shown in the table."
        },
        {
            "q": "What is cheaper than Hootsuite?",
            "a": "SocialPilot starts at $20/mo, against $99/user/mo for Hootsuite, as listed on each vendor's pricing page on 10 Nov 2026."
        },
        {
            "q": "How much do Hootsuite alternatives cost for a team of 5?",
            "a": "If each of 5 people buys the entry paid plan, at the prices Zekai checked on 10 Nov 2026, the monthly cost is Buffer $25/mo, FeedHive $75/mo, Later $93.75/mo, against Hootsuite $495/mo for Hootsuite. Team and business plans can cost more per seat. The Zekai Cost Finder on this page recalculates for any team size."
        },
        {
            "q": "Which is better, Sprout Social or Hootsuite?",
            "a": "Prices per seat from $79 billed yearly with 5 profiles on Essentials and a 30-day trial; Hootsuite Standard starts at $99 per user with 10 accounts and a 14-day trial. Choose Sprout Social if you want a 30-day no-card trial and tiered per-seat plans with Trellis AI credits included. Stay with Hootsuite if you need 10 accounts on the entry plan and a single AI assistant bundled in every tier."
        },
        {
            "q": "Why are people leaving Hootsuite?",
            "a": "The documented reasons are: Pricing page shows Standard from $99, Professional $199 and Advanced up to $399 per user a month, with no figures on the plan cards themselves (10 Nov 2026); Trial accounts have daily posting limits of 10 to 20 posts per organization and no bulk scheduling during the 14-day trial (10 Nov 2026). Each is sourced in the section above."
        },
        {
            "q": "What is better than Hootsuite?",
            "a": "It depends on the job: Sprout Social for analytics and team workflows, Agorapulse for inbox handling, Buffer for simple scheduling, Later for visual calendars."
        }
    ],
    "publisher": "Zekai (zekaiwork.com) — independently reviewed; prices read on vendor pages on the dates shown.",
    "licence": "Free to quote with a link to https://zekaiwork.com/alternatives/hootsuite/. Bulk copying or republishing the dataset is not permitted."
}