Zoho Social Pricing: Is it worth the cost?

When evaluating social media management tools like Zoho Social, pricing is often a deciding factor. Whether you’re a social media manager handling a few accounts or a business owner managing multiple platforms, you want a plan that works without paying for extras you don’t need. 

Zoho Social offers a range of pricing plans designed to suit different user levels, but how well does it deliver on its promises?

This blog takes a closer look at Zoho Social’s pricing structure, breaks down its value, and compares it with an alternative that might align better with your requirements. If you’ve been wondering whether Zoho Social is the right investment for your social media strategy, keep reading to get the clarity you need.

Overview of Zoho Social Pricing

Zoho Social divides its pricing into five plans that fit different organization sizes—from small businesses to large agencies. Each Zoho Social plan has specific features matching various business requirements. Here’s a glance.

Zoho Social pricing plans provide options from basic plans to full-scale agency solutions. While the initial pricing appears budget-friendly, it’s worth noting that extra costs apply when adding more brands or team members. For instance, if you’re on the Professional plan at $30/month and need to add two more brands, you’ll pay an additional $28/month, bringing your total to $58/month.

The brand and team-based pricing structure of Zoho Social means you can start small and expand. However, the costs can multiply when scaling up. If your Premium plan team grows beyond three members, each additional member costs $10/month. The Agency plan includes 10 brands at $230/month for agencies managing multiple clients, but adding five more brands would increase the monthly cost by $76. But is it all worth the price?

Let’s see how Zoho Social pricing plans and features work for different business types, from small businesses to large agencies.

Zoho Social Pricing: In-depth breakdown for Business Type 

1. Individual

Suitable Zoho Social Plans for Individuals:

Essential Features Included:

The Standard plan provides basic scheduling and publishing tools for individuals, starting with social media management. You can manage one brand across multiple networks, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google Business Profile. The plan includes fundamental features for content planning and basic performance tracking.

Missing Features:

While the Standard plan covers basic needs, it falls short for active social media users. The reporting limited to 15 days of data restricts long-term performance analysis. Without bulk scheduling or advanced content tools, individuals managing multiple posts daily might find their workflow slowed down.

2. Small Business

Suitable Zoho Social Small Business Plan:

Essential Features Included:

The Professional plan builds on the Standard offering. It provides small businesses with more in-depth social media management tools. Features like UTM parameters, expanded reporting, and message management help track campaigns and audience engagement more effectively.

Missing Features:

The one-team-member limitation poses challenges for growing businesses. Adding team members costs $10/month each, which can quickly increase costs. The lack of bulk scheduling and export options might slow down content management for businesses posting frequently.

3. Agency

Suitable Zoho Social Agency Plan:

Essential Features Included:

The agency plan serves marketing agencies that manage multiple clients. With 10 brands included and support for 5 team members, agencies can handle multiple clients through one dashboard. Custom-branded reports and client portal access add professional touches to client communications.

Missing Features:

For larger agencies, the 10-brand limit might require upgrading or purchasing add-ons. Additional brands cost $76 per 5 brands monthly. The plan misses some advanced features needed for large-scale client management.

4. Enterprise

Suitable Zoho Social Plan:

Essential Features Included:

The Agency Plus plan provides the most comprehensive feature set for large enterprises. With a capacity for 20 brands and extensive team collaboration tools, it suits organizations managing multiple social media accounts across departments or regions.

Missing Features:

Despite being the highest-tier plan, some enterprise-specific features are missing. Large organizations might find the 5-team member limit restrictive, requiring additional member purchases at $10/month each.

5. Multi-Location Brands

Suitable Zoho Social Plan:

Essential Features Included:

The Premium plan balances features and team size for businesses managing multiple locations under one brand. With three team members included, different location managers can coordinate social media efforts while maintaining brand consistency.

Missing Features:

Businesses with multiple locations might struggle with the single-brand limitation. Adding brands costs $19/month each, which can add up quickly for businesses treating each location as a separate brand.

6. Non-Profit

Suitable Zoho Social Plan:

Essential Features Included:

The Standard plan provides non-profits with a cost-effective basic social media management solution. Organizations can publish content, schedule posts, and access rudimentary analytics across major platforms.

Missing Features:

The low-cost Standard plan meets the needs of smaller non-profits. However, larger organizations with more complex social media requirements may find the feature set limited. Unlike some competitors, Zoho Social does not offer specialized non-profit pricing discounts.

Alternative to Zoho Social

From the analysis above, it’s clear that Zoho Social is a robust social media management tool often favored by small businesses and agencies across various industries. Its features cater to a wide range of needs, making it a popular choice for many. 

Marketers and businesses often have different and growing needs that Zoho Social may not fully meet. SocialPilot is a great alternative that offers more flexibility, valuable features, and affordable pricing.

	SocialPilot	Zoho Social
Pricing	Starts at $25/Month	Starts at $10/Month
Best For	Marketing Agencies, SMBs, Multi-Location Brands & Professionals	Individual marketers, medium-sized businesses, marketing agencies
Social Profiles	10	10 (Only one profile of each supported platform)
Ease of Use
Support
Publishing
Bulk Scheduling	500 Posts	(350 posts) Absent in the Standard plan
Smart Queues		Absent in smaller plans
Repeat post
First comment	(Available in all plans)	(Unavailable in Standard plan)
Auto Post From RSS Feeds		Only in higher plans
Content Planning & Creation
Content Library
TikTok Carousel Scheduling
Hashtag Generator	(aligned with caption)
AI assistant
Instagram collab posts
Location Tagging
Custom Call-To-Actions
Image Editor
Engagement
Social Inbox	Unified Inbox
Reply to reviews & queries
Reply to DMs & Comments
Analytics
Detailed Social Media Analytics	Easy to read	(insufficient)
Auto-Schedule Report Sharing to Clients
Post Performance
Team and Client Collaboration
Client Management		(in higher plans)
Approval Workflows	Easy and swift
Per Post Multi-User Collaboration
Comments on Post
White Labeling
White Label Dashboard
White Label Downloadable Report
	Try for Free	Learn More

Compared with its features, Zoho Social plans and pricing structure often fall short of the user’s expectations. Let’s take a look at some of the limitations you might face with Zoho Social:

• It focuses on basic metrics and lacks sophisticated features like sentiment analysis and competitor benchmarking.
• While Zoho Social pricing options are competitive, they can become costly for agencies or teams requiring multiple user access or advanced features like custom reporting. For example, the Premium plan is $65 per month but only includes three users, which may not suit growing businesses.
• Zoho Social’s mobile app is not as responsive as its web version. 
• The design of Zoho Social isn’t the most intuitive or simplest to use. 
• Zoho Social’s lower-tiered plans do not accommodate social media teams with more members. 
• Zoho Social requires users to add a “Brand” to manage even a small number of social channels. For example, managing only two Twitter accounts still demands purchasing an additional Brand, which may feel restrictive or unnecessarily costly for users with minimal needs

Patrick P.

What I dislike about Zoho Social is the limited advanced analytics and the less robust mobile app. While the platform excels at basic metrics, it falls short when it comes to more sophisticated analytics like sentiment analysis or competitor benchmarking, which are essential for deeper strategic insights. Additionally, the mobile app lacks some of the functionality available on the desktop version, making it less convenient for managing social media on the go. These limitations can occasionally hinder our ability to fully optimize our social media efforts.

Verified G2 Review

This has created a need for a more affordable and flexible alternative to Zoho Social. SocialPilot provides a reliable solution with advanced features and scalable options to support businesses as they grow.

Here’s what SocialPilot offers:

• SocialPilot allows seamless team collaboration with features like post-approval workflows and role-based permissions.
• SocialPilot offers a more flexible pricing structure, starting at $25/month for managing unlimited brands. This makes it an economical choice for businesses managing multiple accounts. In contrast, Zoho Social’s plans start similarly but are limited to fewer social accounts.  
• Its detailed analytics and white-label reporting provide actionable insights that can be branded and shared easily with clients.
• Unlike Zoho Social, SocialPilot enables users to schedule up to 500 posts in bulk. It saves time for busy marketers.
• Specialized plans and discounts for non-profit organizations.
• A free trial period allows you to experience the complete feature set before committing.
• Robust scheduling, content curation, and team collaboration features, even on lower-priced plans.

Overall Verdict

Zoho Social’s pricing options cater to various businesses, from individual users to large agencies. But they do fall short of the needs of growing teams. The lower-tier plans like Standard and Professional lack advanced features that growing businesses often require, such as robust analytics, team collaboration, and automation tools. Meanwhile, the higher-end Agency and Enterprise plans come with substantial price tags that could be prohibitive, especially for smaller organizations or those managing a limited number of social media accounts.

To ensure your business can optimize its social media strategy at every stage without restrictive constraints- a more flexible and cost-effective platform like SocialPilot may be a better fit. It offers advanced features and user-friendly collaboration tools without a high cost.