Top social media tools to boost your social strategy

In recent years, every marketing campaign I’ve participated in has had social media at its core. It’s no shock — over five billion people use social media tools daily. So, if you want to reach the maximum number of people, your business needs to be on social media, too.

Learn More About HubSpot's Social Media Software

Social media marketing is incredibly time-consuming, covering everything from designing eye-catching graphics and posting at the right time to tracking campaign performance. The speed and impact of your efforts depend primarily on the tools you use — trust me, I know.

That’s why I’ll be sharing the top social media tools you should be using in 2025 to save time, boost conversions, and prevent the kind of burnout I experienced in 2021 trying to go it alone.

Table of Contents

• Executive Summary
• What are social media tools?
• What makes for a good social media tool?
• What to Look for in a Social Media Tool
• Best Social Media Tools
• FAQs About Social Media Software

Executive Summary

Social media tools are software that help businesses manage, schedule, and analyze their social media activities across multiple channels. The best social media management tools save time, improve team collaboration, and make it easier to measure ROI. When choosing a tool, look for features like CRM integration, analytics, automation, and support for all your key platforms.

Compare pricing, ease of use, and scalability to find the right fit for your business size. HubSpot offers excellent social media tools that enable you to create, publish, and track/measure your content alongside the rest of your marketing efforts in one place. Get started here.

What are social media tools?

Social media tools are software applications and platforms that help businesses and marketers manage, optimize, and scale their social media presence. These tools transform time-consuming and often technical manual tasks (like content creation and posting) into streamlined workflows, so you can focus on more creative things like strategy.

There is a wide variety of social media tools available, catering to every stage of the social media marketing process.

Types of Social Media Management Tools

Scheduling and Publishing Tools: These platforms let you plan and automate your content calendar across multiple networks. Instead of logging into each platform separately, you can schedule weeks of content in advance and from one place, ensuring you maintain a consistent posting schedule and optimize publishing times for maximum engagement.

Tools like Buffer, Hootsuite, and HubSpot excel in this area, offering features like optimal posting times and bulk scheduling. HubSpot also integrates with your larger CRM to take into account all of your contacts’ engagement with your business, not just social media.

Analytics and Reporting Tools: These tools collect and monitor your social media activity to provide data and insights that drive smart strategic decisions. Analytics tools track engagement rates, follower growth, and content performance across all your channels. They transform raw numbers into actionable insights, showing you exactly what resonates with your audience and what needs adjustment.

Read: The 20 Best Social Media Analytics Tools for Marketers

Content Creation Tools: From creating graphics to editing engaging videos, social media content creation tools help you produce professional-quality, on-brand visuals without a design degree. Platforms like Canva and Adobe Creative Suite provide templates, stock assets, and editing features that maintain brand consistency. Video apps like CapCut also offer transitions, audio editing, and special effects to give your content that little extra sparkle.

Social Listening and Monitoring Tools: These tools help you stay on top of conversations about your brand, product, competitors, and the things your buyers care about. Track mentions, keywords, hashtags, and industry trends across social platforms and respond quickly.

Team Collaboration Tools: For businesses with multiple stakeholders, social media collaboration tools can speed up approval workflows and task assignments and improve brand consistency by giving everyone a single source of truth to turn to.

Instead of keeping up with confusing email chains or logging in and out of tools, all assets and communication are in one place.

AI-powered Tools: The newest category leverages artificial intelligence to generate captions, suggest optimal posting times, create visual content, and even automate tasks. These tools are rapidly evolving, offering increasingly sophisticated ways to enhance your social strategy.

Read: AI tools for social media marketing that are proven to streamline your digital strategy

What makes for a good social media tool?

The best social media management platforms don't just save time — they drive measurable business results. But what exactly separates powerful tools from those not worth your time? Let’s discuss.

Proves and Boosts ROI

Like everything in business, good social media tools directly contribute to your bottom line. If you’re spending more using a tool than you’re making from it, it’s not worth the investment, right?

So, look for platforms that are not only within your budget and accomplish everything you want, but also connect social activities to business outcomes like lead generation, sales, and customer retention.

For instance, HubSpot‘s social media management software links every interaction to your CRM, showing exactly which posts generate leads and customers. This visibility helps you double down on what works and cut what doesn’t.

Also, remember, the best social media tools don’t have to break the bank either. Often, you can find high-quality options that are free or very budget-friendly that can do all that you want and more, like the Unfold or Buffer.

Streamlines Your Workflow

Mankind’s oldest tools like hammers and simple levers existed to make work faster and easier to do. Digital tools are no different.

A social media tool that saves 30 minutes daily gives you 10+ hours back monthly for strategic work. That’s huge! That’s why the best platforms expedite (or even automate) repetitive tasks while maintaining quality and brand voice.

Key workflow improvements to look for can include:

• Bulk scheduling across multiple platforms
• Automated approval workflows for teams
• One-click repurposing for different networks
• Centralized inbox for all social messages

HubSpot offers all of these things.

Easy to Use

No matter how powerful a tool might be, it only saves you time if it’s straightforward and intuitive. I appreciate social media tools that are designed with the user in mind — ones that let anyone, from the analytical team members to your creative, right-brained writers, navigate and complete tasks without hassle.

That said, look for tools with simple, easy-to-navigate user interfaces and also reliable support should issues arise. Many top-notch tools, such as HubSpot and Kicksta, offer tutorials on their websites to help you navigate the tools. HubSpot even offers live support via phone or instant message to troubleshoot larger problems.

Provides Actionable Intelligence

Data without insights is just noise — especially in 2025. Top-tier tools analyze your performance and deliver specific recommendations. They answer questions like “When should I post?” and “Which content drives the most engagement?” with examples to support their claims.

Scales With Your Business

Whether you're a solo entrepreneur, an internal marketer, or managing social for multiple brands, your tool should grow with you. Look for transparent, flexible pricing, unlimited team members, and features that unlock as your needs evolve.

What to Look for in a Social Media Tool

With everything we talked about in mind, what features should you look for in a social media tool?

1. User-friendly Interface

I’d like to think I’m tech-savvy, but I’ll always appreciate a tool with a clean, intuitive design that minimizes the learning curve and reduces errors.

Even if you can find your way around tools easily, chances are not everyone on your team can. So, when choosing a social media tool, look for one with an interface that every member of your team can navigate easily.

This is especially crucial during fast-paced campaign launches, where every minute counts.

2. Automation Capabilities

The first time I used Hypefury to schedule X (formerly known as Twitter) posts, my mind was blown at how much easier my work became. Since then, I’ve always recommended choosing a social media tool that can automate repetitive tasks, like cross-platform publishing, so that your campaigns run smoothly even when you’re not at your desk.

With scheduling tools like Hypefury or HubSpot, you can set up automated posts for a months-long campaign through a spreadsheet. As long as you set your times and dates right, you can leave it and focus on other things, like responding to comments/inquiries.

3. In-depth Analytics and Reporting

Detailed analytics are my compass in determining what works and what doesn’t. So, I choose social media tools that provide real-time engagement metrics, demographic breakdowns, and conversion rates. This way, I know what’s working and what isn’t, and can tweak my strategy accordingly.

For example, if your analytics dashboard reveals that your video content is outperforming image posts by 40%, you’ll know how to scale back on images and focus more on creating videos.

4. Seamless Integration with Other Platforms

Integration is key to maintaining an efficient workflow. So, I look for social media tools that play well with other applications I use — whether that’s my CRM, email marketing platform, or design software like Canva.

I remember a campaign where direct integration with Canva allowed me to import and tweak images without the extra step of exporting files manually. This seamless connection saves time and reduces the chance of errors.

5. Customizable Features

Every campaign is unique, so having the flexibility to customize dashboards, reporting metrics, and even workflow settings is a huge plus.

For example, if you’re executing a user-generated content (UGC) campaign, you can tailor your dashboards to monitor specific hashtags or mentions. This ensures that you’re tracking the metrics that your team actually needs and cares about.

6. Reliable Customer Support

When issues arise, having prompt and effective customer support makes all the difference. Imagine hitting a technical glitch right before a big campaign launch — having access to expert help means you can resolve the problem quickly and keep your project on track.

7. Affordability and Scalability

Finally, I look for cost-effective tools that scale with my needs because tool constraints shouldn’t limit growth potential. So, if you’re starting small, selecting a social media tool that offers both free and upgrade options allows you to invest in more features as your campaign demands increase.

Now that you know what to look for in a social media tool, let’s talk about the best ones out there.

Best Social Media Tools

With hundreds of options available, I’ve tested and categorized the top social media management tools to help you find your perfect match. Here's my comprehensive breakdown by category and use case.

All-in-one Social Media Tools

1. HubSpot’s Social Media Management Software

Price: Starts at $800/month, included in the Marketing Hub Professional tier

Best for: Businesses wanting an integrated CRM and social data

Key features: AI post generation, automatic blog sharing, ROI attribution, unified inbox

Platforms: LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, X (Twitter)

HubSpot’s Social Media Management Software is designed to simplify and unify your social media efforts.

This tool allows you to publish different types of content across Facebook, X, LinkedIn, Instagram, and YouTube directly from a central dashboard, streamlining the entire process and makes it easier to maintain a consistent brand voice.

I also love how this tool helps you set up keyword monitoring, so you never miss a mention or critical conversation about your brand. HubSpot also integrates all of your marketing with your CRM, so it‘s easy to figure out how many leads and customers you’re receiving directly from social media.

“HubSpot Marketing Hub… puts the potential of corporate marketing within everyone's reach,” one customer says.

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Some standout features of HubSpot’s Social Media Management software include:

• AI social post generator: This helps you quickly draft and publish content directly to LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and X (formerly Twitter).
• Automatic blog sharing: Connect your social accounts to your blog so that your content is shared automatically as it’s published.
• Optimal scheduling suggestions: Get recommendations on the best times to post, ensuring your content reaches your audience when they’re most active.
• Out-of-the-box social reports: Compare the performance of different platforms, campaigns, and publishing times with detailed, easy-to-understand reports.
• CRM integration: Seamlessly connect your social interactions to your CRM, so you can easily track customer journeys and report on social media ROI.

2. Hootsuite

Price: Starts at $99/month per user with a 30-day free trial

Best for: Enterprise teams managing multiple brands

Key features: 200+ app integrations, AI-powered insights, competitor analysis

Platforms: All major platforms plus Bluesky, Threads

Hootsuite is a well-known social media management tool that brings all your social tasks together in one intuitive dashboard.

This tool’s robustness astounds me, as it allows users to plan, create, schedule, and analyze social content for multiple platforms — whether it’s Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, LinkedIn, TikTok, Pinterest, or YouTube.

This allows you to engage with your audience across the board from a single platform, making it easier to maintain a consistent and active presence.

I also love how smoothly Hootsuite integrates with over 200 marketing tools, including Canva, HubSpot, Shopify, Mailchimp, and Microsoft Dynamics. This interconnected ecosystem enables you to integrate your marketing, design, and analytics processes into a unified workflow.

Hootsuite’s AI-powered tools further enhance your strategy by helping you post at the best times for your audience, create on-brand captions for each network, and even analyze your performance against top competitors — all of which contribute to smarter, more efficient social media management.

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3. Sprout Social

Price: Starts at $199/month per seat, with 30-day trial

Best for: Agencies and teams prioritizing customer care

Key features: Smart inbox, social listening, custom workflows

Platforms: Facebook, Instagram, X, LinkedIn, TikTok, Pinterest

Sprout Social is an all-in-one social media management platform designed to power your entire social media strategy. I appreciate how this tool bundles social management, customer care, and data intelligence tools into one cohesive package.

This integration means you can not only create and schedule posts with ease but also manage interactions and gain deep insights into your brand’s performance — all in one place. It’s a real asset for ensuring your social media efforts are both proactive and reactive to customer needs.

I also love Sprout Social’s ability to support every stage of the social marketing funnel. Whether you’re focused on content creation, post scheduling, or reviewing campaign performance, Sprout Social has powerful features to help you.

After every campaign, you can review your performance and make adjustments to your content strategy by using the social listening tool to get insights into your brand’s health and industry landscape.

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Best Scheduling Social Media Tools

4. Buffer

Price: Free plan available, paid from $5/month

Best for: Small businesses and solopreneurs

Key features: Visual calendar, optimal timing, engagement tracking

Platforms: 11 platforms, including Bluesky and Mastodon

Buffer is a simple yet powerful toolkit that helps you create, schedule, and analyze content across all the popular social media channels. I love its clean, user-friendly interface that makes managing your social media presence straightforward — even if you’re new to the game.

This platform combines content scheduling, in-depth analytics, and audience engagement tools. So, you can plan your posts ahead of time, which ensures that your content is published at the optimal times for maximum reach. The analytics allow you to track performance metrics so you can refine your strategy based on what resonates with your audience.

You can also triage and respond to people’s comments on your Facebook and Instagram posts from a single dashboard. Buffer offers smart alerts using machine learning that notify you immediately if a post has questions, negative sentiment, or comments about a purchase.

Buffer also offers several free social media tools including:

• A link-in bio tool to help you create a customized landing page for your social profiles
• An image editor for customizing visuals so your posts remain on-brand
• AI-powered tools to help you generate social media post ideas, polish captions, and repurpose content for different channels.

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Pro tip: In our 2024 State of Social Media report, we found that 6 PM to 9 PM and 12 PM to 3 PM are the best times to post across social channels.

5. Later

Price: Starts at $16.67/month, with 14-day free trial

Best for: Visual-first brands on Instagram

Key features: Visual content calendar, UGC management, link-in-bio

Platforms: Instagram, Facebook, X, TikTok, Pinterest, LinkedIn

Later is a visual-first social media scheduling platform that helps you plan, schedule, and analyze your posts across Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, X, and TikTok.

It offers a clean, drag-and-drop content calendar that lets you visually plan your social feed and ensure your posts align with your brand's aesthetic.

With an intuitive interface designed for marketers and social media managers, Later simplifies the process of managing visual content and allows you to maintain a consistent posting schedule without the hassle of switching between different tools.

Later provides robust analytics that help you optimize your posting strategy by identifying the best times to post and tracking engagement metrics. It also offers useful features such as hashtag suggestions, user-generated content management, and a link-in-bio feature for Instagram that helps your posts become instantly shoppable.

“I love that you can either use it via the website or app on the go,” one user remarks. “It is one of those apps that I could not live without … Later is [a] super easy tool to set up.”

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6. SocialBee

Price: Starts at $24.20/month with a 14-day free trial

Best for: Content recycling and evergreen posts

Key features: Category-based scheduling, AI CoPilot, content recycling

Platforms: All major platforms plus Google Business Profile

SocialBee is a robust social media management platform that streamlines every stage of your social media marketing efforts. With its range of features, including automation, visual creation, AI assistance, analytics, and inbox monitoring, SocialBee offers a complete solution for your social media needs.

For example, SocialBee’s AI tool, CoPilot, takes crucial information about your business (like its name, URL, tagline, services, tone, etc.) and uses it to:

• Determine the best social networks for you
• Categorize your social media posts for a more organized experience
• Generate a best time posting plan based on your chosen platform(s) and content categories, and
• Generate actual posts that will resonate with your target audience.

This platform also integrates with popular design tools like Canva, Unsplash, and Giphy, allowing you to access a wealth of visual resources directly within SocialBee.

And after your posts have been published automatically across all your social profiles, you can analyze the performance of your content from the Analytics dashboard and monitor your inbox for messages, comments, and mentions.

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7. Visme

Price: Free, or starts at $12.25/month

Best for: Brands that create content beyond social media

Key features: customizable templates, brand kit, AI, content calendar

Platforms: Facebook, Instagram, X, LinkedIn, TikTok, Pinterest, and YouTube

Visme is an all-in-one design tool that allows you to create, curate, schedule, and publish your social media content, all within the app.

It offers a 360-degree approach to social media management by providing a user-friendly interface, access to thousands of customizable social media templates and millions of design assets, a brand kit, and AI-powered tools to streamline your content creation process and provide engaging visuals and captions.

Visme also comes with a built-in calendar, so you can get a bird’s-eye view to plan and track your social media process. When you’re ready, publish directly to platforms like Facebook, Instagram, X, LinkedIn, TikTok, Pinterest, and YouTube.

Visme also integrates with platforms like HubSpot, MailChimp, Salesforce, and more so your team can work in sync when launching major marketing campaigns.

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Best Analytics and Monitoring Tools

8. Brandwatch

Price: Custom pricing

Best for: Enterprise social listening and sentiment analysis

Key features: Real-time monitoring, AI insights, competitor tracking

Coverage: Global social platforms, news sites, forums

Brandwatch is a powerful digital consumer intelligence platform that allows you to monitor, analyze, and act on the wealth of data generated by online conversations.

It helps you tap into real-time insights from social media, blogs, forums, and news sites, so you can understand your audience’s sentiments, track trends, and gauge overall brand health.

The platform comes packed with advanced features such as customizable dashboards, in-depth sentiment analysis, and AI-powered insights that simplify complex data into actionable strategies. It also offers real-time alerts, competitor tracking, and detailed reporting tools that allow you to stay ahead of the curve and effectively manage your brand’s online reputation.

Brandwatch integrates with HubSpot to help you provide efficient social customer service. When you sync customers’ tickets and social media profiles to HubSpot, you will get a more complete overview of your customers and make sure every customer interaction is handled with care, speed, and accuracy.

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Best Content Creation Tools

9. Canva

Price: Free, Pro from $10/month

Best for: Non-designers creating professional graphics

Key features: Templates, brand kit, team collaboration, video editing, AI

Output: All social media formats

Canva is a user-friendly graphic design platform that makes creating custom, on-brand visuals for your social media accounts a breeze. I’ve used Canva for three years now and some of my favorite features are its:

• Intuitive drag-and-drop interface that allows you to design everything from Facebook posts and Instagram stories to presentations and infographics without needing advanced design skills.
• Extensive library of fonts, images, icons, and illustrations that allow you to create visually appealing content tailored to your audience.
• Thousands of stunning templates across different topics and color palettes. I often find it intimidating to start designing from scratch, so the templates give me a foundation I can customize to match the brand’s style.
• Brand kit that ensures consistency across team members
• AI features can generate entire designs from text prompts.

Canva also has “teams,” which allows you to collaborate with team members via shared documents and comments to refine designs.

One user said, “Canva has been a lifesaver to me and my business. No more hours sitting in front of the computer coming up with graphics for social media post(s) or Pinterest post(s).”

Check out our video that dives into how Canva built its product into the awesome creative tool it is today:

10. Adobe LightRoom

Price: Starts at $11.99/month

Best for: Photo-heavy brands requiring consistent editing

Key features: Batch editing, presets, cloud sync, mobile editing

Integration: Direct publishing to major platforms

Adobe Lightroom is a photo editing and organization tool that allows you to create stunning visuals with ease. With a robust set of editing features — from sliders and filters to advanced color adjustments and cropping tools — this tool ensures that your images are always vibrant, on-brand, and tailored to your business's aesthetic.

Beyond basic editing, Lightroom offers a range of creative presets and customizable options that can streamline your workflow and reinforce your brand identity. So, you can develop a signature look by applying a consistent filter to a series of images, which helps maintain a cohesive visual story across your social media channels.

I also love LightRoom’s seamless cross-device synchronization. Changes you make on your desktop are instantly available on your mobile device, which means you can edit on the go and maintain consistency across all your visual content.

Furthermore, LightRoom integrates with other Adobe products, like PhotoShop, Illustrator, and InDesign. So, if you’re an avid Adobe user, you’ll have fun with LightRoom.

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11. Movavi Video Editor

Price: Starts at $19.95/month, with a 7-day free trial

Best for: Brands investing heavily in short-form video content, but don’t have a specialist

Key features: user-friendly UI, creative effects

Movavi Video Editor is an easy-to-navigate video editing software that helps you create stunning videos for social media — whether it's showcasing products, riding the latest TikTok trend, or curating engaging Instagram content.

This platform has a wide range of creative features, including smooth transitions, dynamic titles, eye-catching filters, and creative special effects that can transform ordinary clips into captivating videos.

You can also add music, voiceovers, and various audio effects to ensure that your video not only looks great but also delivers an audio experience that catches (and holds) your audience’s attention.

This company understands that video editing can be complex, so it provides a rich library of video tutorials and step-by-step guides. Whether you're a beginner or have some experience, these resources help you get started quickly and explore different techniques at your own pace.

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12. Design Wizard

Price: Free, or starts at $9.99/month

Best for: Brands with heavy graphic needs

Key features: Extensive library of stock photos, illustrations, and templates, YouTube video maker.

Design Wizard is a versatile graphic design platform that empowers you to create professional visuals quickly and easily.

With its extensive library of customizable templates and a vast collection of stock images and illustrations, Design Wizard makes it simple to produce a variety of content — from social media graphics and marketing materials to presentations and invitations — without needing advanced design skills.

The platform stands out for its intuitive, user-friendly interface and robust customization features. You can easily tailor every element to match your brand’s identity, whether you're adjusting colors, fonts, or layouts.

Design Wizard also offers several other design tools, including a background remover, YouTube video maker, online video trimmer, ad maker, and storyboard designer.

13. Quuu

Price: Starts at $19.79/month with 7-day free trial

Best for: Brands that like to diversify their marketing mediums and are comfortable sharing third-party content alongside original

Key features: Smart curation, AI scheduling

Quuu is an intelligent content curation platform designed to help you discover hand-picked content suggestions for your social media feeds. By providing a steady stream of pre-vetted articles, blog posts, and visual content, Quuu takes the guesswork out of content curation.

It’s particularly useful for marketers and social media managers who want to keep their channels active and engaging without spending hours searching for high-quality content. The platform’s curated suggestions are tailored to your chosen topics, ensuring that every piece of content resonates with your audience.

In addition to content discovery, Quuu also has an AI social media scheduler that allows you to easily plan and post curated content alongside your original material. The scheduler also recommends content adjustments and improvements tailored to your audience's preferences and past engagement trends.

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If you‘re a HubSpot customer, you can integrate the two platforms. Quuu finds the best content for your social profiles, and HubSpot lets you control those suggestions. You can go to your draft folder via HubSpot and pick which content you want to upload if your Quuu account isn’t automated, which you can change.

Quuu looks for content so you don't have to. The tool also integrates with Buffer, Hootsuite, and Socialbee.

Best Specialized Social Media Tools

14. HypeAuditor

Price: Free plan available. Paid plans start at $2999/year

Best for: Businesses focused on working with influencers

Key features: Demographic filters, Mention tracking, Internal outreach

Platforms: Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Twitch

HypeAuditor is an influencer marketing platform that helps you find authentic influencers across several social platforms and industries.

This platform has an influencer database containing 205.6M+ accounts across Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Twitter, and Twitch. All you have to do is apply filters like keywords, follower count range, audience location, interests, and age to find the perfect influencer for your brand.

This platform also allows you to peruse accounts that already mention your brand or products, so you can spot potential brand ambassadors. You can also track mentions of other brands to know how well you compare to them.

Once you’ve found some influencers you’d like to work with, HypeAuditor allows you to reach out to them quickly and easily — I’m talking dozens of personalized emails in minutes. It also simplifies the negotiation process and helps you track and monitor your influencer marketing campaigns once they’re live.

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15. Kicksta

Price: Starts at $39/month for individual creatives

Best for: Businesses focused on growing their Instagram presence

Key features: Demographic filters, Mention tracking, Internal outreach

Platforms: Instagram

Kicksta is an Instagram growth service that helps you get more organic followers on your Instagram business account. It operates in two ways:

• Growth pods network - Here, Kicksta’s AI will analyze your Instagram account, and based on the results, you will be added to several growth pods, which consist of different IG accounts. Then, you’ll be incentivized to participate in growth pod activity.
• Targeted growth - This method depends on a follow/unfollow automation, meaning that Kicksta’s software will follow an account, perform an interaction with it, wait for the follow back, and then after a few days, unfollow the particular account, leaving your following count low, and followers count high.

Kicksta is a great alternative to buying followers because it ensures that all the followers you get are real people who are genuinely interested in your niche, not bots or fake accounts.

"Kicksta helps introduce new audiences to our brand while providing consistent organic Instagram growth,” says Ryan Beltran, CEO of Original Grain. “It’s great for social proof too!"

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16. Unfold

Price: Free, starts at $12.99/month

Best for: Lifestyle brands that want to create stylish collages to keep their social media accounts on-brand and receive the maximum amount of engagement from followers.

Platforms: Instagram, Facebook

Described as “a toolkit for storytellers,” Unfold is a versatile app available on both iOS and Android that empowers you to create Instagram stories. Some standout features of Unfold include its:

• Template library that helps you create beautiful social media content
• Editing suite that allows you to edit photos and videos with an array of filters and effects
• Bio site feature that allows you to build a customized bio site, perfect for linking your most important content or promotions, so your audience can easily explore more of what you have to offer
• Brand kit where you can store your assets, including your brand colors, fonts, logos, and stickers.

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Best Budget-Friendly Social Media Tools

17. Planable

Price: Starts at $33/month per workspace with a free plan available

Best for: Small teams investing in a variety of content marketing

Platforms: Facebook, Instagram, X, LinkedIn, YouTube, TikTok

Planable is a comprehensive collaboration, approval, and social media management tool that allows you to craft social media posts, content briefs, emails, newsletters, or even blogs — all from a single platform.

This tool is designed to take the hassle out of content production by keeping everything organized and accessible, ensuring that every piece of content is ready for publication without unnecessary back-and-forth.

One of the standout features of Planable is its support for team collaboration. You can leave comments directly next to each draft, mention teammates, add internal notes, and assign custom roles and permissions to ensure the right people see the right content.

If you’re managing a campaign for multiple brands, you can easily switch between workspaces and use the intuitive drag-and-drop calendar to schedule posts, ensuring that each brand’s content is on track.

After your campaign goes live, Planable helps you measure success. You can analyze performance and create detailed reports to share across your organization, enabling you to pinpoint what worked and where adjustments are needed.

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18. Statusbrew

Price: Starts at $69/month for one user seat with a 14-day free trial. For agencies, prices start at $49/month per client.

Best for: Agencies; teams managing multiple brands

Platforms: Facebook, Instagram, X, LinkedIn, YouTube, TikTok

Statusbrew stands out as a top alternative to Sprout Social, offering a broad range of features that streamline social media management. I love its user-friendly navigation and robust tools for content creation, audience engagement, and analytics, which together help you build a strong brand presence across multiple networks.

For agencies and teams managing multiple clients, Statusbrew truly shines. I like how it allows you to create separate workspaces for each client or project, ensuring that data remains organized and compartmentalized.

This is further enhanced by internal tags and labels, which let you categorize posts, users, and engagements. So, if you’re juggling campaigns for different brands, you can easily filter and generate detailed analytics for each client without any data overlap or confusion.

Some other features of Statusbrew include shareable content calendars, sentiment analysis, and automated comment moderation.

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FAQs About Social Media Software

What is the most used social media tool?

Based on market share and user reviews, Hootsuite and Buffer lead in total users, while HubSpot dominates among businesses prioritizing ROI tracking. The “most used” varies by company size — enterprises favor Sprout Social and Hootsuite, while small businesses often start with Buffer or Later.

How much should I budget for social media tools?

Pricing ranges from free (Buffer, Canva basic) to $800+ monthly for enterprise platforms. Most growing businesses spend $100-300 monthly for a comprehensive tool. Consider starting with free tiers to test functionality, then upgrade based on proven ROI.

Can I manage all social platforms from one tool?

Yes, but coverage varies. Hootsuite and Sprout Social support the most platforms, including newer networks like Bluesky and Threads. However, some platform-specific features (like Instagram Shopping) may require native apps.

Do I need different tools for scheduling vs. analytics?

No, all-in-one platforms like HubSpot, Hootsuite, and Sprout Social handle both. However, specialized tools may often requiring integration with another tool. For example, you can pair Buffer for scheduling with Iconosquare for Instagram analytics if you need advanced features.

How do social media tools integrate with my CRM?

HubSpot offers native integration since social tools are built into the CRM. It can also integrate with thousands of third-party apps. Other tools like Hootsuite and Sprout Social connect via APIs or Zapier. This integration is crucial for tracking social's impact on sales and customer relationships.

Start building your social media success.

The right social media tools transform overwhelming tasks into strategic opportunities. Whether you need simple scheduling or enterprise-grade management, the perfect solution exists for your business.

What should you do next?

1. Audit your current social media workflow to identify pain points.
2. Start with free trials of 2-3 tools that address your biggest challenges.
3. Set clear success metrics before implementation.
4. Train your team on one tool at a time to ensure adoption.
5. Review and optimize your tool stack quarterly as needs evolve.

Remember: the best social media tool is the one your team will actually use. Start simple, measure results, and scale your toolkit as your social presence grows.

Ready to see social media ROI? HubSpot‘s Social Media Management Software connects every like, comment, and share to real business results. Track leads, attribute revenue, and prove social’s impact with the only tool that fully integrates with your CRM.

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