Agorapulse alternatives in 2026

Agorapulse's cheapest plan is $79 a month, and the small print under it is the important part: per user. One person on Standard is $948 a year on annual billing ($99 a month if you pay monthly); a three-person team is $2,844. Every plan includes 10 social profiles shared across the account, approvals start on the second tier, and bulk scheduling and Zapier start on the third. What that money buys is one of the best social inboxes in the category, and if you live in comments and DMs it's fair value. If you mostly need posts published, you're paying for an inbox you don't open. Prices below were read from Agorapulse's own pricing page on October 21, 2026.

Disclosure first: we make one of the tools in this list. We'll say where Agorapulse and the others beat us.

Quick answers

What does Agorapulse cost in 2026?

Four tiers, all priced per user, all with the same 10-profile allowance until Custom:

• Standard, $79/user/month annual ($99 monthly). Unlimited scheduling, the unified inbox, basic reports, branded report exports. No approvals, no bulk scheduling. Report data is kept for 6 months, and the content library holds 10 images and 2 videos.
• Professional, $119/user/month annual ($149 monthly). Adds simple approval workflows, link in bio, Instagram product tagging, ad comment moderation, post and inbox assignments. 12 months of data.
• Advanced, $149/user/month annual ($199 monthly). Adds bulk scheduling, labels, saved replies, shared calendars, Zapier, ROI and competitor reports. 24 months of data.
• Custom, quoted. Unlimited profiles, multi-step approvals, SSO, the reports API.

Two line items are easy to miss. X has its own add-ons on the pricing page, "X Lite" (publishing and threads) and "X Plus" (moderation and analytics), both priced via "contact us". And the 10-profile allowance is listed per plan, not per user; third-party breakdowns of the pricing say it stays at 10 when you add seats, so a three-person team on Standard pays three times and still shares 10 profiles.

Where Agorapulse is excellent: the inbox (comments, DMs, ad comments, Google reviews, all moderated from one queue), listening and ROI reporting on the upper tiers, and support that its pricing page promises within 6 hours on Standard and under an hour on Advanced. It also has an MCP connector for Claude, ChatGPT and Copilot, in beta, available to every plan except Legacy; per its help centre it can read your inbox and reply, pull analytics, and create draft posts, but it does not publish. That's a sensible safety line, and it's the same one we drew with our MCP server, which schedules into your queue but has no instant-post tool.

Agorapulse alternatives compared

Agorapulse's figures come from its pricing page and help centre today; the others from our SocialBee, Planable and Sprout Social comparisons, all checked against the vendors' pages this month, and our scheduler pricing study. If a number is wrong, tell us and we'll correct it and say so.

1. Smart Post Studio: if you publish and don't moderate

This is ours, so weigh it accordingly. $8 a month flat on the Scheduler plan for all eight platforms (Instagram, Threads, TikTok, X, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn including Company Pages, Fanvue), $11–19 on Studio plans that add the AI writing studio and email campaigns, and a free plan with 2 platforms and 10 posts a month, no card. Against $948 a year for one Agorapulse seat, that's $96.

What you give up is most of what Agorapulse is for: no inbox, no listening, no approvals, no ROI reports, analytics per platform rather than a dashboard, and no Pinterest, Bluesky or Google Business Profile, all of which Agorapulse supports. If comments and DMs are half your job, we're the wrong tool. Where we're different rather than cheaper: the desktop app publishes media from your own machine, so a 4K export goes up as 4K instead of being re-encoded on someone's server (the evidence), with no 2-video library cap.

2. SocialBee: the inbox for a fraction of the price

If the inbox is the reason you looked at Agorapulse, SocialBee is the closest small-budget match: its engagement inbox (comments, mentions and DMs on Facebook and Instagram, comments on Threads, LinkedIn Pages, YouTube and X) is on every plan from $29 a month. Bootstrap caps you at 5 profiles; Accelerate at $49 gives 10 profiles and adds approvals. Its other strength is evergreen recycling by category. Thinner on reporting and moderation rules than Agorapulse, and no API beyond Zapier and Make. Details in our SocialBee alternatives post.

3. Buffer: free plan, per-channel meter

Three channels and 10 scheduled posts per channel for free, $6 per channel on Essentials after that ($5 billed yearly), so eight channels is $40–48 a month for one user. Buffer has a comment inbox and its MCP server on every plan, including free. Approvals need the Team plan at $12 per channel. Media goes through the cloud with a 1080p cap. Side by side: Smart Post Studio vs Buffer.

4. Metricool: reports first, at a fifth of the price

If Agorapulse's reporting is what you'd miss, Metricool Starter is $20 a month billed annually ($25 monthly) for up to 5 brands with the reports included. X is a $10 add-on per account, and the free plan excludes X and LinkedIn. Approvals and the API start on Advanced ($53 annual). Our Metricool comparison covers the fine print.

5. Planable: approvals without per-user pricing

Agorapulse makes you buy Professional ($119 per user) for simple approvals and Custom for multi-step ones. Planable charges per workspace instead, $33 on Basic with unlimited users, and approvals are its core product. The inbox is an add-on ($7.50–9 per workspace) and analytics another $12. For an agency with clients signing off, this is often cheaper than Agorapulse seats.

6. Hootsuite and Sprout Social: the same shape, priced like it

If you're leaving Agorapulse because you've outgrown it, these are the two usual destinations. Hootsuite starts at $99 per user per month on annual billing with inbox, listening and team features. Sprout Social Essentials matches Agorapulse at $79 per seat, but caps you at 5 profiles and keeps its consolidated inbox on Standard at $199; unlimited profiles start at $299. On paper, Agorapulse Standard gives you more for the same $79. We covered both in Hootsuite alternatives for solo creators and the Sprout post above.

Who should stay on Agorapulse

Teams that answer comments, DMs and reviews every day. Brands running ads whose comment sections need moderating. Anyone who reports ROI to a manager or client. For those people Agorapulse's Standard plan is one of the better deals in its class: 10 profiles and a full inbox at the same $79 Sprout charges for 5 profiles and no consolidated inbox.

Everyone else is paying per user for a queue they don't work. One person publishing to eight platforms can do that for $8, or free on Buffer if three channels is enough. Before you switch, check what you'd keep: our free engagement rate calculator covers the basic number most people open Agorapulse's reports for.

People also ask

Does Agorapulse have a free plan?

Its plan cards show no free tier, only a 30-day trial with no card required. The pricing FAQ still refers to a free plan, and third-party trackers report the classic free plan ended in July 2026. Treat it as trial-only for scheduling and check the page before you sign up.

Is Agorapulse cheaper than Sprout Social?

At the entry tier the price is the same, $79 per user per month on annual billing, but Agorapulse Standard includes 10 profiles and the unified inbox, while Sprout Essentials covers 5 profiles and puts its consolidated inbox on the $199 Standard plan.

What is the best Agorapulse alternative for one person?

Depends on whether you need the inbox. Without it: a flat-price scheduler such as Smart Post Studio ($8 for 8 platforms) or Buffer's free plan. With it: SocialBee from $29 a month includes an engagement inbox.

TL;DR: Agorapulse is $79–149 per user per month on annual billing, 10 profiles shared, approvals from $119, no listed free tier. It's worth it for teams that live in the inbox. If you only publish, Smart Post Studio ($8 flat), Buffer (free for 3 channels) or Metricool ($20) cost a fraction; if you need an inbox on a budget, SocialBee from $29.