Social Media Management · 10 tools

The best alternatives to Metricool

Short answer

Metricool is the hardest tool on this site to argue against on price. The free plan includes five competitor profiles, Starter from 20 EUR per month covers up to five brands, and it is priced per brand rather than per user, so the team can grow without the bill moving.

People still look for alternatives, and usually for one of two reasons. Either the analytics are not deep enough for the reports they have to produce, or the competitor view stops at follower counts and post volume when the question was about ads, pricing pages or reviews.

The ten tools below are ranked by which of those two gaps they close. Prices were checked against vendor pricing pages in August 2026, and the qualifier is part of the price: per brand, per channel, per user, per seat and per workspace are five different bills.

At a glance

Ranked by what each tool adds. Click a row to jump to its review.

#ToolFromPricing unitFreeCompetitor dataScore
1Our pick$39/moper plan, seats incl.NoDeep4.4
2Freeper channelYesNone4.3
3$17/moper plan14-day trialNone4.0
4$18.75/moper social set14-day trialBasic3.8
5$79/moper user30-day trialBasic4.0
6$99/moper user14-day trialBasic3.7
7Freeper workspace50 postsNone3.7
8$29/moper plan14-day trialNone3.5
9Freeper workspaceYesNone3.6
10$79/moper seat30-day trialBasic3.9

Prices checked against vendor pricing pages on August 18, 2026. Per channel, per user, per seat and per workspace are four different bills. Product names and trademarks belong to their owners.

Why teams leave Metricool

The reasons that come up most often.

  1. 01

    Competitor data is account-level metrics, with no ad library, review monitoring or landing page history.

  2. 02

    Reporting is good for the money but thinner than Sprout Social or Agorapulse on sentiment and listening.

  3. 03

    The free plan caps at 20 posts per month, which is tight for an active calendar.

  4. 04

    The interface puts a great deal on screen at once and takes a while to learn.

  5. 05

    Approval workflow is limited once several people have to sign off.

  6. 06

    Nothing turns a competitor finding into a draft, so the writing still starts from a blank page.

10 alternatives, ranked

Verify pricing on the vendor site before you buy. Plans in this category change often.

01

OppiraOur pick

Competitor intelligence that ends in published content

4.4/ 5
From
$39/mo
Pricing unit
per plan, seats incl.
Free plan
No
Competitor data
Deep
Best for

A team that has outgrown account-level competitor metrics and needs ads, reviews, landing page changes and a response.

The ranking needs a caveat before anything else: Metricool has a free plan with five competitor profiles, and Oppira does not have a free plan at all. For a solo marketer who needs to see whether a competitor posts more than they do, Metricool is the better deal and nothing here changes that.

The case for Oppira is depth on one axis. Account metrics answer how often and how well they post. They do not answer which ads are running, what the pricing page changed to, or what customers are writing in reviews, and those are the questions that usually trigger a decision. What follows is the other half: a strategy document that proposes its own updates and drafts written from it.

Strengths

  • Competitor coverage goes past social accounts: Trustpilot reviews, competitor Facebook and Google Ads and landing page change tracking from Basic.
  • The Playbook updates positioning when a competitor moves, and Studio drafts the response from it.
  • Seats are included, so a three-person team on Basic pays $79 per month in total.
  • MCP access from Basic and a CLI on Pro, so competitor data can be queried from your own tools.

Trade-offs

  • No free plan and no trial, which is a real disadvantage against a tool you can run for nothing.
  • Much weaker as a publishing and analytics tool for your own accounts.
  • No TikTok, YouTube or Reddit tracking, and no paid ad reporting for your own channels below Pro.
  • Young product with a short public record (4 Trustpilot reviews, 3.7 score).

Pricing: Starter $39 per month, Basic $79, Pro $149. Seats are included (1, 3 and 10). Annual billing is 15% off. No free plan and no trial.

02

Buffer

Simple publishing priced per channel, with a real free plan

4.3/ 5
From
Free
Pricing unit
per channel
Free plan
Yes
Competitor data
None
Best for

Someone who found Metricool heavier than the job required.

This is the move for teams that concluded they were using a tenth of Metricool. Buffer does publishing and stops, and for a two-channel brand that is the entire requirement.

It is a downgrade on the thing Metricool is unusually good at. Giving up five competitor profiles and paid reporting to save a few euros is rarely the right trade.

Visit Buffer
03

SocialPilot

Low cost per account for agencies running many clients

4.0/ 5
From
$17/mo
Pricing unit
per plan
Free plan
14-day trial
Competitor data
None
Best for

An agency whose client count has passed what per-brand pricing makes comfortable.

At high client counts the per-account maths eventually favours a flat plan. Ultimate at $200 per month for 40 accounts is hard to beat once an agency is past fifteen brands.

Below that, Metricool Advanced at 54 EUR per month for up to 15 brands is both cheaper and better at analysis, so this only makes sense at genuine scale.

Visit SocialPilot
04

Later

Visual-first planning for Instagram, TikTok and Pinterest

3.8/ 5
From
$18.75/mo
Pricing unit
per social set
Free plan
14-day trial
Competitor data
Basic
Best for

A visual brand that cares more about planning the grid than reading the numbers.

The one clear reason to switch is visual planning. If the calendar is mostly images and short video, laying it out here is faster and more accurate than in a generalist tool.

Everything measurement-related is a step down, and the competitor view is weaker than the free Metricool plan.

Visit Later
05

Agorapulse

Inbox-first management with reporting included

4.0/ 5
From
$79/mo
Pricing unit
per user
Free plan
30-day trial
Competitor data
Basic
Best for

A team whose comment and message volume has become the daily bottleneck.

Metricool has never been an engagement tool, and this is the specialist answer. Moderation, assignment and saved replies turn a scattered daily task into a queue.

The pricing model is the catch. Standard at $79 per user per month billed annually is several times a Metricool bill for a small team.

Visit Agorapulse
06

Hootsuite

The broad incumbent, priced per user

3.7/ 5
From
$99/mo
Pricing unit
per user
Free plan
14-day trial
Competitor data
Basic
Best for

A team that needs a bulk scheduler and an inbox alongside reporting.

The honest summary is that this costs considerably more and does not analyse better. It adds a bulk scheduler and an inbox, which are real, and little else a Metricool user is missing.

Worth pricing only if those two workflows are the bottleneck. Otherwise it is the most expensive way on this page to end up with a similar view of competitors.

Visit Hootsuite
07

Planable

Approval workflow and client review, priced per workspace

3.7/ 5
From
Free
Pricing unit
per workspace
Free plan
50 posts
Competitor data
None
Best for

A team where the approval chain, not the analysis, is what slows publishing down.

For review-heavy teams the approval experience is a genuine improvement, and per-workspace pricing with unlimited users is friendly to a growing team.

It moves in the opposite direction on measurement. Paying $12 per workspace extra for analytics that are still thinner than Metricool is hard to justify on its own.

Visit Planable
08

SocialBee

Content categories and evergreen recycling

3.5/ 5
From
$29/mo
Pricing unit
per plan
Free plan
14-day trial
Competitor data
None
Best for

A solo marketer who wants the schedule to refill itself from a library.

The recycling engine is the only real argument, and for a library of evergreen posts it works well and saves a planning session every week.

Everything else is a step back from Metricool, including the thing Metricool is best at. Measurement here is minimal.

Visit SocialBee
09

HeyOrca

Agency calendar priced per client calendar

3.6/ 5
From
Free
Pricing unit
per workspace
Free plan
Yes
Competitor data
None
Best for

An agency with several reviewers on each client account.

The pricing shape suits agencies with large review chains, and Pro at $149 per workspace includes modules that other tools sell separately.

For a single in-house brand this is a worse deal than the tool it would replace, on both price and analysis.

Visit HeyOrca
10

Sprout Social

Premium management with the deepest reporting in the category

3.9/ 5
From
$79/mo
Pricing unit
per seat
Free plan
30-day trial
Competitor data
Basic
Best for

A team whose reporting obligations have outgrown what a value tool can produce.

This is the only entry that clearly beats Metricool at analysis, and it charges accordingly. Essentials at $79 per seat per month billed annually covers 5 profiles, where Metricool Advanced covers up to 15 brands for 54 EUR.

The switch makes sense when someone is accountable for reporting quality to people outside the marketing team. Below that line the depth goes unused.

Visit Sprout Social

How we picked

The criteria behind the ranking, so you can weigh them differently.

  1. Whether the gap is analysis depth or competitor coverage, because those point at different tools.
  2. How far competitor data goes: account metrics, ads, reviews and landing pages are four separate questions.
  3. Whether the pricing unit is a brand, a channel, a user, a seat or a workspace.
  4. Whether a free plan exists, since leaving one deserves a clear reason.
  5. How many people need to approve a post before it publishes.
  6. Whether the tool helps write the response, or only reports that something changed.

Frequently asked questions

The questions people actually ask before switching from Metricool.

For account-level tracking, often yes. It covers 1 brand and 5 competitor profiles with 30-day analytics, which is enough to see posting frequency, follower movement and engagement. It does not cover competitor ads, review activity or landing page changes, which is where most teams eventually need to look.

There is a free plan with 1 brand, 20 posts per month, 30-day analytics and 5 competitor profiles. Starter runs from 20 EUR / $25 per month for up to 5 brands and Advanced from 54 EUR / $67 per month for up to 15, with Custom above that. Annual billing saves up to 24%, and pricing is per brand rather than per user.

Oppira is the closest fit if the question has moved past social metrics: it tracks competitor social accounts daily on every plan, and adds Trustpilot reviews, competitor Facebook and Google Ads and landing page change tracking from Basic at $79 per month with 3 seats included. Sprout Social is the better choice if listening and sentiment are what you need.

Sprout Social, clearly, and Agorapulse in most areas. Both cost several times more and both are priced per user or per seat rather than per brand, so the comparison is rarely about features alone. For most small teams Metricool remains the best analytics value in the category.

Only when a specific limit is blocking work. The usual triggers are the 20 posts per month cap, an approval chain that needs several reviewers, or a competitor question the account metrics cannot answer. If none of those apply, staying on the free plan is the right decision.

See what you would pay

Oppira starts at $39/month: competitor tracking, a playbook that stays current, and content drafted from what it finds. Public pricing, no demo call, cancel anytime.