10 Best Social Media Management Tools You Must Go For in 2023

May 24, 2023
By
Irina Maltseva

As a business owner, staying on top of your social media presence is essential for success. With so many platforms to juggle and manage, it can be hard to keep up with everything- until now!

We analyzed and tested 30 social media management tools to ease the burden and chose the 10 best for managing social media campaigns.

These apps make managing many social accounts easy, from automated posts and scheduling to analytics and insights. You can create high-quality content with features like post templates and content libraries.

Our analysis considered pricing models, feature sets, ease of use, and customer ratings. We evaluated each social media management tool across more than 15 criteria before obtaining an overall score. 

So, if you are looking for a platform to help your company succeed, read on to learn more about your options.

Best for
Cheapest plan
Best for
Best overall
Cheapest plan
$249/mo
Best for
Best marketing platform for Instagram
Cheapest plan
$18/mo
Best for
Easy social media management
Cheapest plan
$9.99/mo
Best for
Best for agencies
Cheapest plan
$35/mo
Best for
For those looking for a top social media calendar
Cheapest plan
$29/mo
Best for
Best for teams and agencies without big budgets
Cheapest plan
$30/mo
Best for
For those looking for a simple solution
Cheapest plan
$59/mo
Best for
The top social media management tool for agencies
Cheapest plan
$29/mo
Best for
For easy social media scheduling
Cheapest plan
$6/mo
Best for
Social media scheduling, monitoring, and analytics
Cheapest plan
$49/mo

What makes the best social media management tool?

Social media management software is a valuable tool for small businesses and digital marketers. It allows them to schedule content and track performance in one place.

These tools have different features according to the social media networks they support. For example, Twitter has different analytics than Facebook, and posting to Instagram requires managing many image sizes. 

To maximize reach, engagement, and ROI on social media, it's essential to have a good content marketing strategy in place. 

Look for software that provides consistent insights about the performance and social media analytics. It will streamline your workflow and help you track your progress over time.

Despite the limitations, the top social media management tools offer features that make managing your social network presence more efficient. Some standout features include:

Powerful scheduling tools

Social networks are all about being present, but creating and sharing content at the right time is also essential. Scheduling tools can help you do both. They make it easy to share fresh, relevant posts with your audience consistently. 

Support for multiple social media networks

This feature allows users to manage their accounts from a single dashboard, saving time and effort. It also offers features such as cross-posting and provides insights and social media analytics for all accounts in one place. This can help users streamline their social media management efforts and track the performance of their social media presence across multiple social platforms.

Detailed analytics

Detailed analytics features in a social media management tool are like a roadmap for your business's social network success. They allow you to track the performance of your content, understand your audience, and make informed decisions about your social media marketing strategy. 

This information is invaluable in helping you fine-tune your social media strategy, outmaneuver your competitors, and make the most of your social media presence.

Powerful integrations

Businesses can automate tasks, access data, and streamline processes by connecting their social media efforts to other tools and systems. This can save time and effort and allow businesses to focus on growing.

Cost-effectiveness

Since all social media software is limited to offering similar features, companies must offer additional key features, excellent customer support, and team and collaboration tools to justify high prices.

10 best social media management tools

1. Sprout Social

Sprout Social homepage

Sprout Social is the perfect social media management tool for businesses of any size. With integration across Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube and more social platforms, you can manage your entire social presence from one convenient dashboard.  

Managing customer reviews from sources like Google My Business and Facebook has never been easier. Create shoppable posts integrated with Facebook Shops and Shopify to help drive conversions. Sprout Social also provides detailed social media analytics to measure the performance of all your campaigns in real time.  

One of Sprout Social's best key features is its ability to provide customer relationship management (CRM) capabilities. Besides, Sprout Social has earned the praise of many social media managers not for its CRM abilities but also its amazing reports. 

What makes Sprout Social stand out?

Includes tools that analyze social media activity to understand audience behaviour and improve content marketing.

Pros

A convenient dashboard that allows you to manage your social media accounts in one place

Tools to optimize your social media presence

Detailed analytics and reports to help you track user engagement and ROI

Scheduling features to streamline the process of creating and posting content

A free 30-day trial period is available

Cons

A high cost for the standard plan

Limits on the number of social media profiles that you can manage

Pricing

  • Standard: $89 per month
  • Professional: $399 per month
  • Advanced: $499 per month

2. Later

Later homepage

Later is the ultimate social media posting tool for those who strongly emphasize Instagram. However, the platform also allows users to manage Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest. 

What makes Later so unique is its focus on visuals, like Instagram. It starts with an image instead of a message; users select an image from their library or take one on the spot before adding any accompanying text. This ensures that your images are the focus of each post and makes it easier for you to create high-quality content for your followers. 

With Later, there’s no need to post on each platform manually - plan ahead and let the scheduler take care of the rest. Whether it’s Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, or Twitter, Later helps you manage all your accounts in one place. 

The intuitive drag-and-drop calendar shows scheduled posts at a glance, allowing you to rearrange them if needed. Plus, its content library stores your brand’s images and videos for easy access when creating content.

The visual Instagram planner provides an all-in-one solution for managing feeds and creating cohesive visuals that maximize engagement on Instagram. 

With this easy-to-use drag-and-drop user interface, you can rearrange posts until you get the look you want. The platform also allows you to schedule Instagram stories in advance using the Later planner. 

To help businesses get the most out of their content, Later also offers optimization analytics that provides insights into followers’ interactions and engagement for each post.

What makes Later stand out?

One of the standout features of Later is its visual content social media calendar, which allows you to easily schedule images by simply dragging and dropping them. 

It has a free link tool that allows you to link shoppable Instagram feeds or any other blog posts and websites on your Instagram profile.

Pros

Ease of use, with a simple user interface and media gallery

Competitive pricing plans

A feature that suggests the best times to publish content

Cons

Lack of integration with eCommerce platforms

Requirement of business accounts on social media

Limited key features compared to other similar tools

The free version only includes basic features

Pricing

  • Starter: $18 per month
  • Growth: $40 per month
  • Advanced: $80 per month

3. Crowdfire

Crowdfire homepage

For those looking for an efficient way to manage their social media channels, Crowdfire provides an excellent solution. With its easy-to-use user interface, users can schedule posts across many different social platforms in one go - meaning they can reach more potential customers quickly.

Additionally, Crowdfire's advanced version offers valuable insights into competitor strategies and detailed social media analytics about how followers engage with content.

It claims to be the first app that supports posting directly to TikTok, making it a great choice for businesses seeking to reach younger audiences. This versatile software allows users to post their content on any major social media network and share posts from multiple blogging websites, online stores, and video sites like YouTube and Twitch. 

Crowdfire is a powerful content curation tool that puts content curation at its forefront. It offers users a wide range of options to select the content they want to share, including articles, images, posts, videos, and RSS feeds. 

Furthermore, it offers recommendations based on topics you can easily customize and refine through filters.

What makes Crowdfire stand out?

It allows you to connect your blogs, YouTube channel, and online shops and will automatically generate social media posts for any updates on your sites. 

Pros

Automated scheduling suggestions to help you plan your content

The ability to tailor posts to each platform in one view, making it easy to create consistent messaging across different platforms

The ability to manage multiple accounts from a single dashboard

Cons

It may not be easy to link accounts

Some processes may take time to set up

Pricing

  • Plus: $9.99 per month
  • Premium: $49.99 per month
  • VIP: $99.99 per month

4. HeyOrca

HeyOrca homepage

HeyOrca is one of the world's leading social media management tools for agencies. It provides an all-in-one solution to streamline social media planning and content creation. The platform's intuitive design ensures you can quickly access your content, clients, and messaging in a single centralized location. 

The content calendar feature is one of HeyOrca's most powerful tools. You'll be able to easily share your plans for scheduled posts with multiple team members or clients — no matter how many social media calendars you need to create.

With HeyOrca, you can create mockups of the content you plan to share on social media and pass it to your team members and clients for a go-ahead before it is shared. Furthermore, you can choose which versions of that content you want your clients to be able to see or not see.

Additionally, the platform offers easy-to-understand reports so that all stakeholders can track progress in real-time and stay up-to-date on how different versions of the same piece of content are performing.

What makes HeyOrca stand out?

This tool allows you to create content mock-ups, which allows clients to review and provide feedback before the content is published easily. 

Pros

A well-designed collaboration and approval system enables effective communication with clients

Integration with Canva, a popular design tool, to create visually appealing posts

A user-friendly interface that clearly displays scheduled posts at a glance

Cons

Bulk upload feature is missing

The platform doesn't have support to share other posts

Limited engagement-related features (though these are reportedly being developed)

Limited tracking of paid posts

Pricing

  • Basic: $35 per month
  • Standard: $59 per month
  • Pro: $77 per month

5. CoSchedule

CoSchedule homepage

CoSchedule is a powerful marketing tool that helps brands organize their content. Its goal is to allow teams to schedule all their marketing content, including blog posts, using an easy-to-use content calendar.

Additionally, project management tools are included, which let you monitor the progress of each piece of marketing content and when it's ready for publishing. You can manage everything in one dashboard to make things even easier.

The advantages that CoSchedule provides are apparent; its user-friendly interface makes it simple to collaborate with team members to create high-quality content ideas and marketing campaigns. The drag & drop features also help make creating new editorial calendars a breeze while allowing users to track deadlines and optimize workflow.

What makes CoSchedule stand out?

The ReQueue feature of this tool helps you automatically identify the best times to post on social media and automatically fills gaps in your content schedule with your top-performing posts.

Pros

A centralized dashboard and calendar that make it easy to manage and schedule content

Collaboration features that enable teams and clients to work together efficiently

Project management tools to help you stay organized and on track

A variety of features to support different aspects of social media management

Cons

Limited customization options

Slow loading times

Pricing

  • Pro: $29 per user/month
  • Marketing Suite: You need to contact the sales team

6. SocialPilot

SocialPilot homepage

SocialPilot is a social media management tool that aids users in managing various social media accounts and networks from a single interface. 

The software allows you to manage your accounts by organizing them into relevant groups, such as by channel, client, or other criteria. If you want to post the same content across many social media channels, you can select them all in the process. 

It's even simpler if you've already grouped the channels, as you can select the group, and the platform will send the post to the desired locations. The platform makes it easy to schedule, queue, edit, and share all your content. 

The posting module even includes a content curation feature, where you can search for content by keywords and then post, queue, or schedule it from within the platform.

SocialPilot can also integrate with Zapier, a web service that facilitates the integration of other web apps.  You can connect over 1,000 apps to SocialPilot and share data to streamline workflows by integrating. 

One of the standout features of SocialPilot is the Social Inbox, which allows you to manage and respond to all your Facebook comments and messages across all accounts and pages. 

It may not be the best fit for large corporations seeking the latest social media innovation. Still, it can be a useful tool for small social media professionals looking to streamline their workflows and improve their online presence. 

What makes SocialPilot stand out?

This tool offers bulk scheduling, allowing users to schedule up to 500 posts at a time. It also includes content curation and discovery tools, which help users find and collect new ideas for social media content.

Pros

A relatively low price for the basic plan, starting at $25.50 per month

A 14-day free trial to test out the features

The ability to manage a minimum of 10 social media accounts with any plan

A strong focus on automation to streamline social media management

An easy-to-navigate dashboard that makes it simple to access and use the various features

Basic search features to help you find past content

Integration with a wide range of social media platforms

Cons

You must edit the same post individually for each channel

The interface may appear outdated to some users

It lacks advanced features compared to other tools

Pricing

  • Professional: $21 per month
  • Small Team: $35 per month
  • Agency: $70 per month
  • White Label: $140 per month

7. AgoraPulse

AgoraPulse homepage

Agorapulse is a powerful, fully-featured social media management program with a user-friendly interface. Despite its extensive capabilities, Agorapulse has well-designed help resources to make it easy to learn and use.  

Platform's Inbox feature is a central hub for managing and organizing interactions across your social media accounts. 

The advanced filtering options make it easy to view and manage comments, mentions, conversations, and reviews for each account. 

The Inbox Assistant allows you to set rules to automatically organize and clean up each account's Inbox. You can also manually assign messages to other team members as needed.  

The platform has a Social Listening section useful for businesses who want to stay on top of mentions of their brand or other relevant terms, such as their competitors. 

You can create searches for specific words, phrases, locations, hashtags, and usernames. As with many other social media management apps, Agorapulse offers a variety of options for publishing content. 

The default Publishing tab brings you to a calendar view that shows the current period (monthly by default) and the status of your scheduled, queued, published, sent for approval, assigned to you, or failed social messages. 

The software also offers reports that provide insights into the performance of your social media accounts. Also, granular details about specific pieces of content, such as Instagram stories. 

Additionally, reports also include metrics on marketing campaign performance and community management. That shows how effectively your team reviews, deletes and responds to incoming messages. 

What makes AgoraPulse stand out?

This tool provides access to metrics that can help you understand the return on investment (ROI) of your social media tactics. These metrics may include data on engagement, reach, traffic, and conversions, among others, and can help you measure the effectiveness of your social media efforts and identify areas for improvement.

Pros

Ease of social media management, with a simple interface that is easy to use

Features that prevent you from accidentally double-replying or committing similar errors

Cons

Limited post editing features

Few third-party integrations

The engagement platform may be difficult to use

Pricing

  • Standard: $49 per month
  • Pro: $79 per month
  • Advanced: $119 per month

8. Sendible

Sendible homepage

Sendible was founded in mid-2008 and initially offered a platform with strong API integration capabilities. The goal was to provide marketers with a central console to manage all their social media and other platforms, including blogging, email, and SMS. 

Over the past decade, Sendible has continued to evolve and keep up with updates to social media platforms. Today, you can use the platform to find content inspiration in the dashboard and integrate other essential applications, such as Google Drive and Canva, to streamline access to content and workflows.

The platform integrates Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google My Business, Instagram, and YouTube.

Sendible's scheduling feature lets you plan and schedule content either one at a time or in bulk. When creating a post, we found the character counter to be useful for ensuring that messages are within each platform's character limits (usually 240 characters or less). 

Optimizing content for specific offers, post types, and platforms can significantly impact the level of engagement a post receives, and Sendible's tools can help you do this effectively.

Content curation is a common feature in social media management tools, but each platform has its unique approach. 

Sendible's Auto RSS posting is useful for busy social media managers who need to fill content gaps in their calendars.

The platform offers a set of 8 standard reports that will make you smile if you're a social media manager. These reports provide valuable insights and data to help you understand and improve your social media performance. 

What makes Sendible stand out?

This tool includes a feature that suggests new ideas for content that is likely to be well-received by your clients' audience. 

Pros

Excellent social scheduling features to help you plan and publish content

A social engagement platform that allows you to interact with your audience

Brand social media monitoring to help you track your online reputation

Cons

The social listening feature may be slow

The platform may have a clunky organization

Pricing

  • Creator: $29 per month
  • Traction: $89 per month
  • Scale: $199 per month

9. Buffer

Buffer homepage

Buffer is a social media management platform popular with small businesses and individuals. It helps users drive meaningful engagement and achieve results on social media through its streamlined and intuitive features.

The platform allows you to manage various social media accounts, including Facebook pages and groups, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn profiles and pages, and Pinterest.

Additionally, sharing content across your social media accounts makes it easy. Once you've connected your accounts, you can create a new post within the app and choose which accounts to use. 

Buffer also offers a range of products to help social media marketers and teams work more efficiently. Their offerings cover all the essential bases, from publishing to engagement to analytics. 

Plus, their products are carefully crafted and refined to ensure the highest level of effectiveness. And with tools for creating simple landing pages and collaborating with team members, Buffer has everything you need to succeed on social media.

What makes Buffer stand out?

The platform allows you to create a custom posting schedule for each of your business's social media platforms

Pros

Simple cross-posting to multiple social media platforms

A straightforward calendar view that makes it easy to plan and schedule content

Integration with a wide range of social media platforms

Cons

The analytics feature (Buffer Analyze) may be too basic for some users

There have been reports of glitches when using the tool with Instagram

Platform has arbitrary character limits for Facebook and Twitter

The pricing model is pay-as-you-go, rather than a flat fee

Pricing

  • Essential: $5/month per channel
  • Team: $10/month per channel
  • Agency: $100/month for 10 channels

10. Hootsuite

Hootsuite homepage

Hootsuite is the largest and most widely used social media management tool, with over 18 million users and adoption by more than 800 Fortune 1000 companies. 

The platform's success is due in part to its comprehensive feature set, which includes tools for curating and scheduling content, measuring social media ROI, running social media ads, and much more. 

Hootsuite was created to help users manage and organize many social media accounts efficiently. Hootsuite's main dashboard operates like Trello, with simple to use cards that allow it to efficiently manage social media projects.

You can create "boards" – one for each of your social accounts – and set up many streams within each board. For example, if you create a board for your Twitter account, you could set up a stream to show only your posts, another stream to show when you are tagged in someone else's post, and perhaps another stream to show posts that use your branded hashtags. 

The platform’s content scheduler is a powerful tool for streamlining the work of social media managers. By organizing your feeds and timelines in a clear and easy-to-use interface, Hootsuite can help you save time and effort when scheduling content. 

With the ability to create posts for many social media channels at once, you no longer have to spend hours on copy-and-paste tasks. Simply select your channels, create your post, and you're ready. 

What makes Hootsuite stand out?

Hootsuite offers free social media scheduling for up to 30 social posts. 

Pros

Customizable feeds that filter out unnecessary content and show you only the social media posts that are relevant to you

A highly flexible post composer and scheduler with a bulk option, which simplifies the process of creating and scheduling content

An inbox that consolidates all messages, comments, and mentions, so you don't miss any important conversations

Cons

Lack of demo- or psychographic data for the audience

The plans may be expensive if you have a large number of social profiles or spend a significant amount on ads each month

The free plans offer limited tools and features

Pricing

  • Professional: $29 per month
  • Team: $249 per month
  • Business: $739 per month  
  • Enterprise: price available upon inquiry

Which social media management tool is the best for you?

Social media is essential for building brand awareness and achieving success as a company. To make the most of your social media efforts, you need a social media management software that is affordable, easy to use, and provides valuable analytics and reports. Sprout Social stands out among the many software options available with its user-friendly dashboard, optimization tools, and 30-day free trial period.  Later and Crowdfire are another two tools that we recommend you to give a try because of their simplicity and extensive features set.

Have questions?

What is social media management software?

Social media management software is a tool that helps you manage your social media accounts and interact with your followers. It makes managing social media easier and more efficient.

Here's what you can do with social media management software:

  • Create and schedule posts ahead of time
  • Track how well your content is doing in real time
  • See conversations about your brand or industry
  • Respond quickly to customer comments

Are integrations important when choosing a social media management tool?

Yes, integrations can be important because they:

  • Make things more efficient
  • Add extra features
  • Provide better data insights

What is the expected pricing of social media management software?

The price of social media management tools can vary, with costs ranging from $10 to $600 per month. This range depends on the features, users, and platforms included in the tool. 

Social media services that provide in-depth analytics can be more expensive than other options. Prices for these services can range from $100 to $4,000 per month. 

Why should I buy social media management tools?

Social media management tools can help businesses and organizations manage their social media accounts and marketing efforts more effectively. 

Here's what these tools can do:

  • Automate tasks like scheduling and publishing content
  • Improve engagement by responding to comments and messages
  • Monitor hashtags and keywords and track brand mentions
  • Include analytics and reporting features to track the performance of social media campaigns
  • Help manage customer inquiries and comments, providing better customer service

Irina Maltseva

Irina is a Founder at ONSAAS, Growth Lead at Aura, and a SaaS marketing consultant. She helps companies to grow their revenue with SEO and inbound marketing. In her spare time, Irina entertains her cat Persie and collects airline miles.

On this page:

Top 3 social media management tools

Sprout Social
Later
Crowdfire
By clicking “Accept”, you agree to the storing of cookies on your device to enhance site navigation, analyze site usage, and assist in our marketing efforts. View our Privacy Policy for more information.