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Think of what you get with the right social media management tool.
Create content for a week in a few hours. Interact with your audience across 5 social networks. Escape hours of watching “interesting” Instagram reels.
But how many tools can meet your high expectations?
Just a few.
That’s why you need to know what you want in a social media management tool.
What features are non-negotiable? What features are nice to haves? What features are unnecessary?
With that in mind, I’ll cover 7 of the best social media management tools in the market.
And as you see what each offers, you can decide which one works best for you.
Let’s begin.
Best social media management tools for 2024
1. Vista Social
Best for: social media teams, local businesses, and individuals
Social platforms supported: Facebook, Instagram, X (Twitter), LinkedIn, TikTok, Pinterest, Google Business, Snapchat, and YouTube
Vista Social is a relatively new tool, considering the company was founded in 2022.
Notwithstanding, it’s packed with features for teams and individuals.
My favorite features are the calendar, post composer, and collaboration.
The post composer has a simple interface containing the caption box, post preview, and social accounts.
This is where you add text and images for posts and see previews on each social platform.
In the calendar, you’ll find multiple views and see scheduled posts for each social media platform. You can also get post ideas from holidays in different countries.
If you work with team members, the collaboration feature lets you add members, select roles, and share information.
While Vista Social has so many features, you won’t have to do a tutorial before team members can use it.
Here are key features you’ll find in Vista Social:
- Post composer: This lets you create and customize posts for multiple social media networks. You can schedule your posts, collaborate with team members, and even send posts for approval.
- Calendar: The calendar provides an overview of your social media posts. You can also set the calendar to your preferred view. Then, national and religious holidays give you trends to jump on.
- Social media inbox: This contains messages, comments, and mentions from your social accounts. You can reply to messages from multiple accounts and leave instructions for team members about interactions.
- AI assistant: Powered by ChatGPT-4, the AI assistant helps to create social media captions from your prompts.
- Smart publisher: With this, you can automatically publish content from trending news or specific blogs. This is useful for sharing blog posts from trusted sources.
- Social listening: You can track important keywords for your business, competitors, and industry. This way, you’ll be up to date on what people say and take necessary actions when needed.
- Review management: On Vista Social, you can reply to reviews on Facebook, Google Business, Trustpilot, Yelp, Tripadvisor, and OpenTable. This is useful if you run social media for local businesses.
- Reports: Vista Social lets you create social media performance, post performance, review performance, tasks performance, and competitor analysis reports. These let you track performance for various aspects of your campaigns.
You can read my full Vista Social review to learn more about this tool.
Vista Social pricing
Vista Social has 4 plans.
The Standard plan costs $39 monthly and comes with 8 social media profiles and 1 user. The Professional plan costs $79 monthly and comes with 15 social media profiles and 5 users.
The Advanced plan costs $149 monthly and comes with 30 social profiles and 10 users. The Enterprise plan costs $379 monthly and comes with 80 social media profiles and unlimited users.
You get a 14-day free trial for the plans.
2. Sendible
Best for: Social media teams
Social media platforms supported: Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, X (Twitter), Google Business, and YouTube
Sendible is a popular social media management tool.
Why?
First, it’s straightforward to use for teams. So, even people with little technical skills will navigate it without trouble.
You also get good social media collaboration features. For example, you can add team members and pick social media accounts they can access.
Sendible also creates dashboards for each team member you add. So, it’s easy to manage multiple clients’ accounts that need to be in different dashboards.
Here are key features of Sendible:
- Post composer: This feature lets you create captions for multiple social media platforms. You also have the editor to customize images and videos for each platform. After creating posts, you can schedule or send them for approval.
- Calendar: The calendar shows your drafts and scheduled posts for a month. You can also select holidays for more post ideas.
- Activity: In the priority inbox, you can reply to messages on your Facebook page, Instagram business accounts, LinkedIn company pages, and YouTube accounts. Likewise, the social feeds let you reply to comments on your posts.
- Content: With this feature, you can add content sources like RSS feeds. Then, you can share content pieces from these sources to your social media pages. This is useful for engaging your audience with relevant content.
- RSS Auto poster: This is where you automatically share content from a particular RSS feed. Of course, there are settings to ensure only the right content shows up on your account.
- Reports: Sendible lets you create Facebook page, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Engagement reports. With that, you can present your results to clients or boss.
You can read my Sendible review to learn more about this tool.
Sendible pricing
Sendible has 5 plans.
The Creator plan costs $29 monthly and comes with 1 user, 6 social profiles, unlimited scheduling, and reporting.
The Traction plan costs $89 monthly and comes with 4 users, 24 social profiles, and team collaboration. With the White Label plan, you get 10 users and 60 social profiles at $240 monthly.
The White Label+ plan costs $750 monthly and comes with 100 users and 300 social profiles. For the Custom plan, you have to reach out to the Sendible team with your needs.
Sendible allows a 14-day free trial for Creator and Traction plans, while a demo is available for the other plans.
3. ContentStudio
Best for: social media teams and individuals
Social media platforms supported: Facebook, Instagram, X (Twitter), LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube, Google Business, and TikTok
ContentStudio has a great blend of extensive features and affordable pricing.
But where it really excels is its content curation feature.
So, if you need to publish a lot of content on your social media pages, ContentStudio will deliver all the relevant content you need.
But there’s more.
The social media post composer. It probably has the most robust post composer of any tool on this list.
You can write your captions, use the AI caption generator to create captions and images, and even share curated content right in the post composer.
Here are key features of ContentStudio:
- Post composer: Here, you can write your captions and add images. ContentStudio also shows a preview of your posts. Beyond that, you’ll see unique settings for each social platform. Then, you can leave notes for team members about posts.
- Discover: This section has the content feed and influencers. In the content feed, you can follow curated topics or create custom topics. There’s also a search tab that lets you search for keywords, site, and people. Influencers let you uncover influencers on Instagram and Twitter. This is useful for collaborating with influencers.
- Automation recipes: With recipes like RSS feed to social media and Evergreen, you can automate some publishing actions on ContentStudio.
- Planner: This section shows all your posts and their status. You’ll also find planner views like calendar, Instagram grid, and TikTok grid.
- Social media inbox: In the inbox, you can reply to post comments, mentions, and private messages on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google Business. You can also assign interactions to team members and leave notes for them.
- Analyze: ContentStudio provides engagement and profile metrics on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and TikTok. You can also create and schedule analytics reports to email addresses.
- Mobile apps: You can download the iOS or Android app to create and schedule posts on your smartphone.
Want more information? Read my full ContentStudio review.
ContentStudio pricing
ContentStudio has 3 plans.
The Starter plan costs $25 monthly and comes with 1 workspace, 1 user, and 5 social media accounts. The Pro plan costs $49 monthly and comes with 1 workspace, 2 users, and 10 social accounts.
The Agency plan has 3 tiers. The lowest tier costs $99 monthly and comes with 5 workspaces, 5 users, and 25 social accounts. You can go through a 14-day free trial for any of the plans.
4. Loomly
Best for: social media teams
Social media platforms supported: Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X (Twitter), LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube, Google Business, and Snapchat
Loomly organizes your accounts and campaigns using calendars. Once you create a calendar for a campaign or brand, you’ll see the inbox, analytics, and media library for accounts inside the calendar.
Another thing that will stare at you is Loomly’s ease of use, which is important when working with team members or clients.
In terms of collaboration, Loomly lets you invite team members and set up permissions. Then, you can create detailed approval workflows for your publishing process.
Here are key features of Loomly:
- Calendar: The calendar provides an overview of posts in your publishing queue. Here, you’ll see icons that lead to interactions, analytics, and media library of the accounts connected to the calendar. You can also assign posts to team members.
- Post builder: This section is organized in a few simple steps. These are the necessary steps to create your social media post. There’s also a step that allows you to create ads.
- Interactions: Loomly lets you engage with comments, messages, and mentions on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn. You can also assign interactions to team members.
- Post ideas: This is where you get post ideas from Twitter hashtags, holidays, and RSS feed sources. With this, you’ll have enough content to fill your publishing queue.
- Approval workflows: If you work in a team, you can set up a detailed approval workflow for your social media posts.
- Analytics and reports: You get analytics about your profile and posts on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and LinkedIn. Loomly also lets you schedule reports to be delivered to your boss or clients.
You can read my Loomly review to learn more about this tool.
Loomly pricing
Loomly has 5 pricing plans. The Base plan costs $42 monthly and comes with 2 users and 10 social media accounts.
The Standard plan costs $85 monthly and comes with 6 users and 20 social accounts, while the Advanced plan costs $175 monthly and comes with 14 users and 35 social media accounts.
The Premium plan costs $369 monthly, and you get 30 users and 50 social media accounts. To subscribe to the Enterprise plan, you have to reach out to the Loomly team.
There’s a 15-day free trial for the plans.
5. Sprout Social
Best for: big businesses
Social media platforms supported: Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, TikTok, X (Twitter), Threads, and YouTube
If you run social media for a big business, you need to manage the business’s reputation and uncover opportunities by tracking brand, competitor, and industry mentions.
You may also need to offer customer support through your social media channels.
These are some of the features you get on Sprout Social.
On top of that, you also get automation and bots to ease some social media tasks.
Here are key features of Sprout Social:
- Post builder: Sprout Social provides a simple interface to create posts for multiple social media platforms. You can see previews and set up approval workflow for multiple users.
- Listening: This feature lets you track important business terms. With listening templates, you can exploit various listening use cases. After setting up your terms, you can get statistics, including the demographics of people and positive sentiments in the mentions.
- Review management: If you run a local business, you can reply to reviews on Facebook, Google Business, Tripadvisor, Yelp, and Glassdoor.
- Smart inbox: Here, you can reply to comments and messages from your audience. You also get to assign interactions to team members and tag messages to organize them.
- Link in bio: This feature lets you create a link in bio page to mirror your Instagram grid and drive traffic to important business and product pages.
- Chatbot: You can train chatbots to answer common customer questions and transfer customers to a rep when necessary. With bot templates, it’s easy to set up a bot even if you’re not tech-savvy.
- Reports: In the reports, you get posts, profiles, and audience metrics. You also get competitive analysis. Finally, you can build custom reports from your social media metrics.
Sprout Social pricing
Sprout Social has 4 pricing plans. The Standard plan costs $249 monthly and comes with 5 social profiles, social inbox, and review management. Each additional user costs $199 monthly.
The Professional plan costs $399 monthly and comes with unlimited social profiles and custom workflows. Each additional user costs $299 monthly.
The Advanced plan costs $499 monthly and you get chatbots and an inbox rule builder for automated actions. Each additional user costs $349 monthly.
You have to reach out to the Sprout Social team for the Enterprise plan. Sprout Social provides a 30-day free trial for the plans.
6. Later
Best for: content creators and ecommerce businesses
Social media platforms supported: Facebook, Instagram, X (Twitter), LinkedIn, TikTok, and Pinterest.
Later became popular as an Instagram management tool.
However, you can also use the tool on other popular social media platforms. The social media management tool is now known as Later Social.
Later also has an influencer marketing tool, which is known as Later Influence.
Based on my experience with Later, its features are most suitable for content creators or people who sell products on social media.
For example, it’s one of the best link in bio tools you can use for your business. You can add links to important business pages, replicate Instagram grid, and feature products.
You can also find influencer marketing opportunities and collect user-generated content (UGC) for your business.
Here are key features of Later:
- Post composer: In the post composer, you can add your social media captions, images, and videos. Later provides the best time to post feature to publish when your audience is online.
- Calendar: Here, you’ll see an overview of your posts. You’ll also see media files that can be dragged to the calendar to schedule a post.
- Caption writer: This is an AI writing tool. It helps create social media captions from a prompt and tone.
- Link in bio: This is a mini-landing page for your social media audiences. Later lets you add buttons, mirror your Instagram and TikTok grids, and link to products.
- Creator & brand collabs: If you’re a content creator, you can find suitable influencer collaboration opportunities from brands.
- Ideas: This AI feature provides content ideas for your social media posts. All you have to do is provide your brand description, and Later will dump post ideas for various aspects of your business.
- Analytics and reporting: Here, you can see audience and post performance metrics. You can also create reports if you work with brands.
- Mobile apps: Later has robust mobile apps for iOS and Android smartphones. My favorite feature here is the trends from reels and TikTok, which provide content ideas.
You can read my detailed Later review to learn more.
Later pricing
Later has 3 pricing plans.
The Starter plan costs $25 monthly and comes with 1 user and 1 social set. You also get 5 credits for AI features and 30 posts per social profile.
The Growth plan costs $45 monthly and comes with 3 users, 3 social sets, 150 posts per social profile, and 30 credits for AI features.
With the Advanced plan, you get 6 users, 6 social sets, unlimited posts, and 50 credits for AI features at $80 monthly.
You can try a plan for 14 days or use the limited free plan.
7. Pallyy
Best for: Freelancers, solopreneurs, and local businesses
Social platforms supported: Facebook, Instagram, X (Twitter), LinkedIn, Google Business, Pinterest, and TikTok
Pallyy is an easy-to-use tool that few people will have any trouble navigating.
Its simple post builder and calendar mean you can handle the core social media tasks without any fuss.
The social media inbox also ensures you can engage with your audience right in Pallyy.
Here are key features of Pallyy:
- Social media post builder: Here, you can add your captions and media. You can also customize the settings for each social media platform. Pallyy shows both mobile and desktop previews before scheduling posts.
- Calendar: This feature has a neat outline of your posts on days of the month. You can see media files beside the calendar, which makes it easy to add media to a post. Lastly, you can import holidays for your country of interest to get post ideas.
- AI captions: If you’re struggling to find captions for your posts, the AI captions can help. All you need to do for a caption is enter its description, length, tone and format, and the number of hashtags.
- Social media inbox: In the inbox, you can reply to comments, mentions, and direct messages (DMs) on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google Business, and TikTok
- Link in bio: This feature lets you create a landing page for your social media audience. You can link to social media profiles and important business pages.
- Teams: Pallyy lets you create teams and add members. This is useful if you work with team members or for clients.
- Analytics: Here, you’ll get audience, posts, and competitor metrics. You can also share your analytics reports or export them in PDF.
Want to learn more? Read my Pallyy review.
Pallyy pricing
Pallyy has a free and premium plan.
The free plan comes with 1 social set and 15 scheduled posts monthly.
The Premium plan costs $18 monthly and comes with 1 social set, unlimited scheduled posts, custom analytics reports, and more.
Each additional social set costs $18 monthly, while each additional user costs $29 monthly. The AI caption also costs $19 monthly.
You can try the Premium plan for 14 days.
Which social media management tool is best for me?
Picking a social media management tool takes time. But it ultimately depends on your needs in a social media management tool.
If you’re looking for the tool with the most extensive features, consider Vista Social, ContentStudio, and Sprout Social.
However, Sendible and Loomly fall in the most easy-to-use category.
On the other hand, running a social media team or working with clients should put Vista Social, Loomly, and ContentStudio on top of your list.
If you’re a freelancer or solopreneur, consider Pallyy, ContentStudio, and Vista Social.
If you’re a content creator, consider Later and Pallyy.
For ecommerce businesses, Later and Sprout Social may be the best options.
If you’re looking for the most affordable tool, consider Pallyy, Later, and ContentStudio.
Which tools support the most social media platforms? Look into Loomly and Vista Social.
After going through this checklist, you should be able to draw a shortlist based on your most important needs.
Conclusion
As I mentioned at the beginning of this guide, no social media management tool will work for everybody.
If you don’t prioritize what you need in a tool, even a generally great tool can be a disaster for your business.
So, list what you need in terms of calendar, social inbox, collaboration, and other features.
Then, go through this list to create a shortlist of 2 or 3 tools that fit your needs best.
And since all the tools allow free trials, you can try a few to determine the best.
Happy and productive social sending.
Disclaimer: This page contains affiliate links. This means if you click a link and buy one of the products on this page, I may receive a commission (at no extra cost to you). I only recommend tools I use and/or believe will provide value to you.
Samuel writes long-form guides to help businesses and entrepreneurs achieve better results from their marketing activities. He also writes for marketing and SaaS companies that want more leads and customers. Get in touch with him to discuss your content needs.