10 Best Metricool Alternatives in 2026

Key takeaways

• The best Metricool alternative for running several brands without per-channel or X fees is PostWharf: one composer and one queue per brand, unlimited channels across 10 networks with X included, a delivery receipt for every post, from $15 a month.
• Other picks by need: paying by the account, Publer (from $5 a month for one account); a free scheduler you host yourself, Postiz (hosted plans from $29); manager approval and a shared inbox for about $50, SocialPilot (Standard, $50); approvals for brands that do not post to X, Later (Growth, $50 for two social sets); a free plan that includes X, Buffer (three channels free, then $6 a channel); approvals for a brand or two under Metricool's Advanced price, SocialBee (Accelerate, $49); sign-off on the entry plan, Planable ($33 per workspace); client approvals with unlimited users, Sendible (Plus, $99 for three workspaces); a team that works mostly in the inbox, Agorapulse ($99 per user, or $79 billed yearly).
• Why people leave: Metricool charges $10 a month for each X account, and keeps approvals, team roles and client access on its Advanced plan, from $67 a month.
• Among the tools in our price table, PostWharf has the lowest monthly price on a hosted plan for each setup we priced: one brand ($15), three brands ($29) and ten brands ($67).

Metricool is a social media tool built around analytics, and two parts of its bill catch people out: a monthly fee for every X account and approvals that only start on the Advanced plan. If those are why you are looking, PostWharf is where we would start for posting across several brands: it bills one price per brand workspace, with no per-channel fee and X included, from $15 a month. Publer, Postiz, SocialPilot, Later, Buffer, SocialBee, Planable, Sendible and Agorapulse each suit a narrower need, and the second table below shows what each one costs for one, three and ten brands.

Start a seven-day PostWharf trial on one brand: Starter's first week is free, and if you cancel before it ends you pay nothing.

Why people leave Metricool

The reasons in the reviews and comparison pages come down to four parts of Metricool's pricing:

• X costs extra on every paid plan. Metricool charges $10 a month, or $120 a year, for each connected X account on Starter and above, and the Free plan does not connect X at all (Metricool's plans and add-ons guide, read 16 October 2026). Five brands with one X account each add $50 a month to the plan price.
• Approvals wait for Advanced. Starter has no approval system, team roles, client access or API. Those start on Advanced, at $67 a month billed monthly for 15 brands ($53 billed yearly) and up to $210 for 50 brands (Metricool pricing, read 16 October 2026). A freelancer with three brands who needs client sign-off pays $67 plus $30 for three X accounts: $97 a month.
• A brand holds one profile per network. A business with three Facebook pages needs three brands. Agencies whose clients run one profile per network come out well; a single brand with several pages on one network pays for each as a separate brand.
• The free plan leaves out X and LinkedIn. It covers a single brand, so it rarely fits a business that posts to X or LinkedIn.

What Metricool still does well

Metricool does more than schedule, so weigh these before you move. It manages Meta, Google and TikTok ads in the same dashboard as organic posts, reports website traffic through a WordPress plugin or a tracking pixel, benchmarks up to 100 competitor profiles from Starter, and sells a hashtag tracker as a paid extra (RecurPost's comparison, checked 12 October 2026). Its paid Starter plan costs $25 a month for five brands or $45 for ten. If those reports are what you open every week, paying the X fee may cost less than replacing them.

How we chose the 10

We started from the scheduling tools AI engines name most often for social-scheduling questions, from a Cituna scan of 16 October 2026. Besides the eight tools it already tracks (Buffer, Hootsuite, Sprout Social, Later, SocialBee, CoSchedule, MeetEdgar and Sendible), it named twelve more: Metricool, Publer, SocialPilot, Postiz, Planable, Pallyy, Blotato, Agorapulse, Ayrshare, Zoho Social, Vista Social and Meta Business Suite. A tool made this list if it:

• schedules and publishes to several networks from one queue, the job Metricool's planner does,
• sells self-serve plans to new customers, at a price we could find in a source dated 2026,
• and removes at least one of the four reasons above.

Here is why the rest were left off, each checked with one web search on 16 October 2026:

• Prices that differ too much by source to compare fairly: Vista Social (one October 2026 page reports a price rise between 21 and 28 September 2026), Pallyy (one June 2026 review lists Pro at $25 per social set with extra sets at $10, while its help centre is reported to describe $25 per set plus $29 per extra user) and Zoho Social (sources give Professional at $35 or $40, Premium at $55 or $65 and Agency at $275 or $320).
• No sign in our sources that they remove one of the four reasons: CoSchedule (from $29 per user a month, with $5 for each profile beyond three) and MeetEdgar ($29.99 or $49.99 a month, no free plan). None of the sources we read said whether either one charges for X or on which plan its approvals start.
• A different job: Ayrshare is a social media API that developers build into their own apps, from $149 a month, and since March 2026 X bills per post on top of its fee; Meta Business Suite schedules only to Facebook and Instagram. Hootsuite and Sprout Social sell per-seat suites built around social listening, a different purchase from Metricool's, so we left them for another page.
• No 2026 price found: Blotato.

PostWharf is listed first. The other nine follow the monthly cost of a three-brand setup, lowest first, with ties broken by the one-brand price, and PostWharf has the lowest three-brand price as well. PostWharf's facts come from its own site, read on 16 October 2026. The prices and plans of Metricool, Publer, Postiz, SocialPilot, Later, Buffer, SocialBee, Sendible and Agorapulse come from each vendor's own pages, read the same day; Planable's come from one web search that day, and a few other details from third-party guides. The section for each tool names its source. Where sources disagreed, we used the figure most of them agree on, or the newest dated one, and say so.

Metricool alternatives at a glance

A dash means the source we used did not cover it.

What each one costs for 1, 3 and 10 brands

How we priced it: monthly billing, list prices before tax, one user, and the cheapest plan that holds the setup. Each brand has four accounts, for example Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and X. Metricool's totals include $10 a month for each brand's X account; the sources we read named no X publishing surcharge for the other tools, though Agorapulse charges $50 a month per X profile for its X inbox and X reporting, and Buffer includes X even on its free plan, so check each tool's X terms before you switch. Later does not publish to X, so its totals cover the other three accounts in each brand. Publer's totals count every 10th account free, Buffer's use the volume rates on Buffer's pricing page above ten channels, Agorapulse's add $15 for each profile over ten on monthly billing, and Later's add $15 for each social set beyond the two in Growth. Sendible's and Planable's totals give each brand its own workspace. For ten brands, the SocialPilot, SocialBee and Sendible figures are the first plan that holds the setup without add-ons: Ultimate (50 accounts), Pro50 (50 profiles) and Elite (15 workspaces). Self-hosted Postiz costs nothing but your server, and Buffer's free plan covers three channels. PostWharf's plans for these three setups allow 200, 400 and 1,000 scheduled posts a month.

The 10 alternatives, ranked

11. PostWharf

Best for several brands with many accounts each, posted without per-channel or X fees, and teams that schedule from code or AI toolsFree trial · from $10/moPlans and prices

PostWharf is a social media scheduler with one composer and one queue per brand, and a record of what actually went out. You write a caption and its hashtags once, adjust them for any network that needs it, and publish now or at a set time to Instagram, TikTok, X, LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook, Threads, Pinterest, Bluesky and Telegram. Failed deliveries are retried automatically, and every post is checked again after publishing, with one receipt row per network. Reddit, Discord, Snapchat and WordPress are on request and cannot be connected yet.

For someone leaving Metricool, the billing unit is the point. A workspace is one brand, with its own channels, drafts, queue and delivery history kept apart from your other brands, and every plan has unlimited channels with no per-channel fee and no surcharge on any network, X included. Five Instagram accounts under one brand are still one workspace. Starter is $15 a month ($10 billed yearly) for one workspace and 200 scheduled posts a month; Startup is $29 ($23) for three workspaces and 400 posts; Plus is $67 ($54) for ten and 1,000; Pro is $99 ($79) for unlimited workspaces and 2,500 (PostWharf pricing, read 16 October 2026).

Every plan also includes a REST API with one key per workspace, an MCP server that works with Claude Code and other MCP clients, the wharf command-line tool from npm, and webhooks. PostWharf lists Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, Codex, n8n, Zapier and Make among the tools it works with, so a workflow in n8n, Zapier or Make can hand it finished posts. Our guide to auto-posting your blog to social with n8n and Claude builds the other half: a workflow that watches your blog's RSS feed, has Claude write a caption for each new post and passes it to your scheduler. When an AI assistant drafts the posts, nothing goes out until you approve it. Startup adds email support, Plus priority support and Pro dedicated support.

Where it falls short next to Metricool: PostWharf's pages do not list analytics dashboards, a social inbox, white-label reports or client approval portals, and there is no free plan, only the seven-day trial on Starter. Its free character counter and caption generator need no account.

Try PostWharf free for seven days: the card is charged only when the Starter trial ends, so cancel before then and you pay nothing.

22. Publer

Best for one or two brands with a handful of accounts, paying only for the accounts you connectFree plan · from $4/moPlans and prices

Publer charges by the social account. Professional is $5 a month for one account ($4 billed yearly), $12 for three and $20 for five, with a 7-day trial, and Business is $10 ($8 yearly), $21 for three and $35 for five, with a 14-day trial. Every 10th account is free, the plan owner is included, and each extra member costs $2 a month on Professional or $3 on Business; Business adds analytics, unlimited AI prompts and the API (Publer's plans page, read 16 October 2026).

For a Metricool shopper, per-account pricing is the mirror image of Metricool's brand pricing: a brand with several profiles on one network pays for exactly what it connects, with no brand tier to climb.

Where it falls short: the bill grows with every account, so ten brands of four accounts reach $144 a month on Professional, and paying for extra users adds up for a team. Publer lists approval workflows among its features; check which plan includes them before you rely on them.

33. Postiz

Best for a free Metricool alternative you host yourself, on open-source codeOpen source · cloud from $23/moPlans and prices

Postiz is open source under the AGPL licence, with its code on GitHub as gitroomhq/postiz-app, so you can run it on your own server and pay only for the hosting. The hosted plans are priced by channel count: Standard is $29 a month for 5 channels and one user, Team $39 for 10 channels with unlimited team members, Pro $49 for 30 channels and Ultimate $99 for 100. Each has a 7-day trial and unlimited posts, yearly billing brings them to $23, $31, $39 and $79, and Standard already includes the API, webhooks, MCP server and CLI (Postiz pricing and plans docs, read 16 October 2026).

For a Metricool shopper, the hosted tiers count channels rather than brands, so 12 accounts fit Pro at $49 and 40 fit Ultimate at $99.

Where it falls short: self-hosting is an ongoing job, from server upkeep and updates to keeping each network's connection working as the networks change their APIs. The sources we read did not cover approvals.

44. SocialPilot

Best for a small team that wants manager approval, a shared inbox and analytics on one plan for about $50 a monthFree trial · from $25.50/moPlans and prices

SocialPilot prices by social accounts and users. Essentials is $30 a month ($25.50 billed yearly) for 7 accounts and one user, without analytics, the inbox or approvals. Standard is $50 ($42.50) for 15 accounts and three users, and adds the social inbox, analytics and manager approval. Premium is $100 ($85) for 25 accounts and six users, with client approval, bulk scheduling and white-label reports, and Ultimate is $200 ($170) for 50 accounts and unlimited users (SocialPilot's plans page, read 16 October 2026). On Essentials, each account beyond seven costs $4 a month. There is no free plan, only a 14-day trial that asks for no card. It publishes to ten networks, X among them, and its MCP server for Claude, ChatGPT and other AI tools comes with every plan.

For a Metricool shopper, Standard brings manager approval and an inbox to a $50 plan that holds 15 accounts, where Metricool asks $67 for Advanced before any X fees.

Where it falls short: Essentials leaves out approvals, analytics and the inbox, so most people leaving Metricool for those land on Standard; client approval, as distinct from manager approval, waits for Premium at $100; the API is sold only on Enterprise; and the first plan that holds ten brands of four accounts is Ultimate, at $200 a month.

55. Later

Best for one or two Instagram- and TikTok-led brands that need approvals and do not post to XFree trial · from $18.75/moPlans and prices

Later is a visual planner priced by social sets, where a set is one profile on each of the eight networks it supports. Starter is $25 a month ($18.75 billed yearly) for one set, one user and 30 posts per profile a month, and takes no add-ons. Growth is $50 ($37.50) for two sets, two users and 180 posts per profile, and adds approvals, a social inbox and extra sets at $15 a month each. Scale is $110 ($82.50) for six sets, four users and unlimited posts, with competitor benchmarking and Meta Ads analytics (Later's pricing page, read 16 October 2026). Every plan starts with a 14-day trial, and there is no free plan. It auto-publishes to Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Threads, YouTube, Pinterest, LinkedIn and Snapchat, and its approvals can bring in outside stakeholders through an external comment link.

For a Metricool shopper, Growth brings approvals to a $50 plan for two brands, below the $67 where Metricool's Advanced starts, and a third brand adds $15.

Where it falls short: Later does not publish to X, Bluesky or Google Business Profile, so a roster that includes them needs a second tool; a set holds one profile per network, the same limit as a Metricool brand; Starter allows 30 posts per profile a month; and Later's site mentions no public API or MCP server.

66. Buffer

Best for a small roster that wants a free plan with X, or a team that needs approvals on a few channelsFree plan · from $5/moPlans and prices

Buffer prices by channel. The free plan covers three channels with 10 queued posts each and one user; Essentials costs $6 a channel a month ($5 billed yearly) for one user; Team costs $12 a channel ($10 yearly) and adds unlimited users and approval workflows (Buffer pricing, read 16 October 2026). Monthly billing drops above ten channels: $4 a channel for channels 11 to 25 and $3 for 26 to 50. RecurPost's comparison of 12 October 2026 notes that X is included even on the free plan.

For a Metricool shopper, Buffer removes the X fee outright, and approvals cost the Team rate per channel instead of a jump to a 15-brand plan.

Where it falls short: per-channel pricing climbs with the roster, to $165 a month for ten brands of four accounts on Essentials, and approvals mean paying the Team rate on every channel you connect.

77. SocialBee

Best for approvals for one or two brands, for less than Metricool's Advanced planFree trial · from $24/moPlans and prices

SocialBee sells plans by profile count, with a 14-day trial and no free plan. Bootstrap is $29 a month ($290 billed yearly) for 5 profiles and three months of analytics; Accelerate is $49 ($490 a year) for 10 profiles; Pro is $99 ($990 a year) for 25 profiles, three users per workspace and branded reports. The agency tiers Pro50, Pro100 and Pro150 cost $179, $329 and $449 a month for 50, 100 and 150 profiles (SocialBee pricing, read 16 October 2026). Accelerate adds post approval, and one guide credits it with two years of analytics (Hackceleration).

For a Metricool shopper, Accelerate puts approvals within reach at $49 a month for up to 10 profiles, against $67 plus X fees on Metricool's Advanced plan.

Where it falls short: the price jumps at each profile cap, so 12 profiles need Pro at $99, and extra users, workspaces and profiles beyond a plan's limits are billed as add-ons.

88. Planable

Best for teams and clients who must sign off before anything is posted

Planable puts approvals on its entry plan: Basic includes two types of approval per workspace, Pro adds a third, and Enterprise adds approvals in several stages (Social Champ's Planable pricing review). Basic is $33 per workspace a month in Capterra's Planable pricing listing, Social Champ and CostBench, while PostPlanify lists $39, which may be the gap between yearly and monthly billing. Pro is $49 in Capterra and CostBench. Capterra also lists a free plan with 50 posts in total, a lifetime cap rather than a monthly one, though one CostBench page says there is no free plan.

For a Metricool shopper, Planable gives approval on its first paid plan at $33 a workspace, against $67 for Metricool's Advanced.

Where it falls short: one price per workspace adds up across brands, to $330 a month for ten brands on Basic, and the sources disagree on its prices, so confirm the current figures before you budget.

99. Sendible

Best for agencies with several people on the account who want client approvals without paying per seatFree trial · from $30/moPlans and prices

Sendible bills by workspace, each holding six social profiles, and every plan includes unlimited users. Core is $35 a month ($30 billed yearly) for one workspace, with bulk scheduling and the inbox, and each extra workspace adds $35. Plus is $99 ($84) for three workspaces and 18 profiles, adds assignment and approval workflows, and charges $30 for each extra workspace. Premium is $199 ($169) for seven workspaces, and Elite $299 ($254) for 15 (Sendible's pricing page, read 16 October 2026). There is a 14-day trial without a card, and no free plan. It publishes to Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X, LinkedIn, YouTube, Threads, Bluesky, Google Business Profile and WordPress, and Client Connect lets a client link their own profiles without sharing a password.

For a Metricool shopper, Sendible's pricing page lists X among its networks and names no fee per X account, and each workspace keeps a client's profiles, calendar, inbox and reports apart, with no charge for the people who use them.

Where it falls short: approvals start on Plus at $99 a month, above the $67 where Metricool's Advanced starts; Pinterest is not among its networks; its API covers only single sign-on, and its pages mention no MCP server; and the first plan that holds ten brands in their own workspaces is Elite, at $299 a month.

1010. Agorapulse

Best for teams that spend more of the day replying to comments and messages than schedulingFree trial · from $79/user/moPlans and prices

Agorapulse is priced per user. Standard is $79 per user a month billed yearly ($99 monthly), Professional $119 ($149) and Advanced $149 ($199), each with 10 social profiles shared across the account's users, and Custom has unlimited profiles. Each profile over ten costs $15 a month on monthly billing or $10 on annual, adding seats does not add profiles, and approval workflows start on Professional (Agorapulse pricing, read 16 October 2026). RecurPost's comparison names it the closest fit for inbox and community work.

For a Metricool shopper, Agorapulse is the move when replies and community work, rather than the posting calendar, are what you outgrew.

Where it falls short: every seat costs at least $79 a month, so three people on Standard come to $237 a month billed yearly, and profiles beyond ten add $15 each a month on monthly billing.

Switching from Metricool without a gap in your posting

Count two numbers before you compare plans: the accounts in each brand and the X accounts across all of them. Those two decide most of the price differences in the table above. Then list the Metricool reports you open each month, because Metricool's ads reports, web analytics and competitor benchmarks may have no equal in the new tool.

Next, fill the new tool's queue before you cancel. Our guide to planning a month of social posts in one ChatGPT chat gives you the calendar as a table you can paste, and turning one blog post into five social posts with AI fills it from content you already have. Run both tools for a week, check that every network actually posted, and only then cancel.

If you plan to feed the new scheduler from other apps, compare the automation platforms that connect it in our tools directory.

The short answer

If the X fee and brand-based pricing are what push you off Metricool, PostWharf bills one price per brand with unlimited channels and X included, from $15 a month, and Starter's first seven days are free. If you need approvals on a cheaper plan, Planable, SocialBee, SocialPilot and Later are the closer fits; for client sign-off with unlimited users, Sendible; for a busy shared inbox, Agorapulse; and if you need a free option, Buffer and Postiz are where to look.

Start your free PostWharf week, or browse our tools directory for the automation platforms that connect a scheduler to the rest of your work.

Prices for PostWharf, Metricool, Publer, Postiz, SocialPilot, Later, Buffer, SocialBee, Sendible and Agorapulse were read on each vendor's own site, and Planable's in third-party sources returned by one web search, all on 16 October 2026. Plans change; check the vendor's own pricing page before you buy.