The concept of social media scheduling tools was created to streamline the repetitive process of posting on multiple social media platforms. Now, they are the reasons why solo entrepreneurs and freelance social media managers can single-handedly manage all their social media without breaking a sweat.
These software lets users upload and schedule their social media posts for multiple accounts ahead of time is called social media scheduling tools or publishing tools. Essentially, you can create multiple posts for many platforms in one go and schedule them to be published ahead of time.
In this article, we have handpicked best of 15 such social media scheduling tools, which take care of all content-related aspects of social media, be it post creation, designing, scheduling, approvals for publishing, etc.
Overview of the Top Social Media Scheduling Tools
We have thoroughly examined each tool featured in this article in the following section. For your convenience and quick analysis, we have selected the top contenders in the category and conducted a comparative study of their most noteworthy features.
SocialPilot |
Buffer |
Hootsuite |
Sendible |
Agorapulse |
|
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Pricing | Starts at $25/Month | Starts at $36/Month | Starts at $99/Month | Starts at $29/Month | Starts at $69/Month |
Best for | Agencies & Small Businesses | SMBs & Brands | Brands & Enterprises | Mid-sized Businesses | Brands & Enterprises |
Social Profiles | 10 | 6 | 10 | 6 | 10 |
Ease of Use | |||||
Support | |||||
Publishing | |||||
Smart Queues | |||||
Repeat Posts | |||||
Calendar View | |||||
Auto Post From RSS Feeds | Fully automated | Add on | Complicated | Manual | |
Bulk Scheduling | 500 posts | 350 posts | 350 posts | 200 Posts | |
First Comment | FB, Instagram, LinkedIn | Instagram only | Unavailable in Standard plan | ||
Post Creation | |||||
Draft Your Posts | Obscure settings | ||||
Image Editor | Advanced | Limited | |||
AI Assistant | Only captions | Add-on | |||
Hashtag Generator | Aligned with captions | ||||
Holiday Calendar | |||||
Canva Integration | On all plans | ||||
Media From External Sources | |||||
Custom Call-To-Actions | |||||
Content Library | Only in Enterprise Plan | Add-on | |||
Location Tagging | Only for Instagram | ||||
Instagram Collaboration Post | |||||
TikTok Carousel Scheduling | |||||
LinkedIn Carousel Post | Auto-converts images to PDF | Needs post in PDF format | Needs content in PDF file | Needs content in PDF file | Needs post in PDF format |
Collaboration on Post | |||||
Content Approval Workflows | Quick and easy | Basic | Complicated | Technical glitches | Complicated |
Comments on Post | No tagging | ||||
Support | |||||
Priority Customer Support | Call, chat, email, and social media | Delayed response | |||
Try for Free | Learn More | Learn More | Learn More | Learn More |
We have given you all the options and the things to look for in your ideal social media scheduling tool. Now, without any further ado, let’s begin!
How we analyze and select Social Media Scheduling Tools
We have compiled the following list of top-notch social media scheduling apps through extensive research and evaluation. Our process involved actively weighing factors like user experience, G2 ratings and reviews, cost, and scalability. We assessed the proficiency of these tools in automation, crafting content, visualization, analytics, and teamwork to rank them. We have dedicated immense effort to curating this list, with the aim of equipping marketers with insightful data for choosing the right tools that will help grow their businesses.
Best Social Media Scheduling Tools
Best for:
Marketing Agencies, SMBs, Multi-Location Brands & Professionals
Rating:
4.5 (G2)
Apps:
Web version, Android & iOS apps, Chrome, Firefox and Edge web extensions
Integrations:
Facebook, Instagram, X (Twitter), LinkedIn, TikTok, YouTube, Pinterest, Google Business Profile and Instagram Threads
Core Features of SocialPilot
Now that you know what SocialPilot can do for you, let’s discuss the core features of SocialPilot below:
Key Features:
- Advanced Scheduling & Targeting
- Multi-Format Post Scheduling
- Visual content calendar
- Notes on Content Calendar
- Alt Text & Custom Fields
- AI-Powered Content Generation
- Bulk scheduling of up to 500 posts
- First Comment Scheduling
- Automatic RSS feed scheduling
- Content Library Storage
- Customizable watermarks
- Canva Integration
- Team Collaboration Tools
- Feedback Sharing
- Streamlined client approvals
- 24×5 Customer Support
Pros
- Creating and editing posts for major social networks is streamlined through SocialPilot’s intuitive interface.
- SocialPilot’s customer support team is known for their prompt and efficient responses to user queries.
- The platform offers competitive and transparent pricing, delivering superior value compared to similar services.
- SocialPilot excels in organization, enabling users to manage and group multiple location-based pages effectively.
- The platform features a user-friendly setup process, making it simple to connect and organize various social media pages.
Daniela C.
SocialPilot is a sleek and organized tool that makes it very easy for social media managers to create and edit posts for multiple social media accounts on all major platforms. I have had little to no issues when working from SocialPilot, which makes my life easier! If there are any issues, customer support is often very quick to get back to you! I use SocialPilot every day for work so I am very appreciative to have access to such an easy and neat tool!
Cons
- Multiple Twitter account scheduling is unavailable, likely due to platform constraints.
- Periodic profile reconnection is needed, a minor but common inconvenience.
Verified User in Marketing and Advertising
Honestly, there is not much I dislike….once in a while profiles need to be reconnected. But maybe that happens on all platforms?
Our Experience
SocialPilot is one of the best social media scheduling tools that lets users plan and schedule posts for multiple social media networks from a single dashboard. All its features are designed to simplify social media posting by automating the content publishing process. The platform’s user-friendly interface and cost-effective pricing make it a go-to scheduling tool among social media agencies and growing businesses, with over 13,000 users.
Here are some of the advanced scheduling and publishing features that make it effortless to plan your content for all major social media networks.
Seamless Social Media Publishing:
SocialPilot has stood out as an ideal social media scheduling tool, offering advanced and seamless features for publishing content on all major networks. SocialPilot’s standout feature is an automated scheduling system, enabling automated content publishing through customized timetables. Using these pre-set scheduling slots automates the whole scheduling process. Rather than manually adding the date and time for a post, you can queue them, and the tool will post them at one of these ideal times. Other than this, staggered posting and repeating specific posts allow users to fully utilize their content’s worth on social media. Browser Extension from SocialPilot adds a layer of convenience to social media management. Users can quickly share and schedule posts directly from their browser, eliminating the need to switch between tabs or applications.
Advanced Content Calendar and Bulk Scheduling:
Regarding content planning, Visual Content Calendar provides an intuitive overview, making it immensely helpful for users to manage their posts and reschedule with just a drag-and-drop. With these features, SocialPilot simplifies social media publishing, making it efficient and highly effective.
While the calendar gives an overview of a month’s worth of content, bulk scheduling allows users to create and schedule several month’s worth of content. All SocialPilot needs is for users to upload a CSV file containing their content, account information, publishing dates, and times. After this, the tool will automatically schedule all your posts accordingly.
AI Assistant and Content Management:
SocialPilot’s AI Assistant elevates content creation and scheduling to new heights. This feature offers intelligent suggestions for post captions and well as hashtags, helping users craft engaging and relevant posts effortlessly. You can direct the AI-powered content generation with social-network specific prompt templates, tonal filters, language selection and much more. The hashtag generator comes close to suggesting contextually accurate in accordance to your caption to give it more reach and engagement.
Acting as the centralized archive is the Content Library that allows users to store, organize, and categorize their media files, ensuring easy access and retrieval. This feature supports various content formats, including text, images, and videos, and integrates seamlessly with the scheduling tools. Users can create content groups and tag media files for better organization.
Flexible Approvals on the Go
SocialPilot’s Approvals on the Go feature offers unparalleled flexibility for instantaneous content review and approval. This mobile-friendly tool allows users to review and approve posts from anywhere, ensuring a smooth workflow even when on the move. It supports real-time notifications and updates, keeping users informed of pending approvals. The feature integrates with the scheduling and content management tools, ensuring a seamless process. This flexibility makes SocialPilot an excellent choice for teams and agencies needing efficient and reliable content approval solutions.
SocialPilot Pricing
SocialPilot offers a 14-day free trial and access to all premium features (no credit card required &cancel any time). Choose a plan that fits your needs.
Agency+
$170.00/mo
Billed annually
- 50 Social Profiles
- Unlimited Users
- Unlimited Clients
- Client Approval
- Content Library
- White Label
Agency
$85.00/mo
Billed annually
- 30 Social Profiles
- 6 Users
- Unlimited Clients
- Client Approval
- Content Library
Small Team
$42.50/mo
Billed annually
- 20 Social Profiles
- 3 Users
- Content Library
Final Verdict:
SocialPilot is the perfect solution for social media teams, businesses and agencies. With advanced scheduling features and collaborative workflows, users can manage their daily social media activities much efficiently.
Best social media scheduling tool for:
Professionals, Small teams, Small and medium-sized businesses, and Enterprises
Ratings:
4.2/ 5 (G2), 4.4/ 5 (Capterra)
Apps:
Web, iOS, and Android versions
Integrations:
Facebook, Instagram, X (Twitter), TikTok, LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest, Threads, Google Business Profile
Key Features:
- Social media content calendar
- Bulk content scheduling
- Best time to post recommendations
- AI-assisted caption ideation generation
- Hashtag suggestions
- Canva integration
- Content discovery
- Evergreen content recycling
- Programmed holiday calendar
Pros
- Advanced scheduling capabilities simplify content planning and posting, saving a significant amount of time.
- Hootsuite’s AI integration gives recommendations to users during the process of content drafting.
Martin Abdael C.
Hootsuite’s stream feature allows me to easily follow topics of interest and industry leaders. I currently have a stream for each of our social networks and find it extremely helpful to use! However, what I enjoy the most about Hootsuite is that it allows me to plan my month’s content by allowing me to visualise and schedule posts with its planner feature. Additionally, I save a lot of time by uploading content to multiple platforms and making edits on its publishing tool.
Cons
- The feature-rich dashboard of the platform has a steep learning curve for beginner-level users.
- The price for adding more users to your Hootsuite account more than doubles the cost of the current plan.
Sharon B.
The pricing is a lot higher. I do not see options to lower the social media profiles connected to a subscription. If you want to add someone to your profile you have to choose a subscription for three people per profile.
Our Experience
Over time, Hootsuite has evolved into a complete marketing suite, but at its core, the tool is still a social media scheduling app. It supports content publishing on all the major social media platforms, so users do not have to think about going to multiple websites to post their content.
Initially, it’ll ask you to connect all those accounts (only public ones, not private ones) to Hootsuite. Once thats done, you can move on to creating those posts.
The tool comes up with the best time to post recommendations. If you schedule your post for this time, the probability is that your posts will get maximum reach and engagement. The calendar interface is another noteworthy feature in Hootsuite which is extremely useful to visualize your long-term content plan. Hootsuite being one of the best, boasts bulk scheduling of up to 350 posts on social media.
Similar to many of its competitors, Hootsuite has incorporated artificial intelligence into its platform with Owlywriter AI. This tool not only generates captions but also provides content ideas when inspiration is lacking. Hootsuite further supports users with visual content through Canva integration and an inbuilt stock image library.
Hootsuite offers a wealth of content possibilities for its users. Simply input a blog link, and the tool will transform it into social media posts. It can also analyze your content history to find top-performing posts and rephrase them for reposting, maximizing their impact. Additionally, with Hootsuite’s built-in list of holidays and festivals, you can effortlessly plan your content around key dates, ensuring you never miss an opportunity to engage your audience.
Pricing:
Hootsuite offers two pricing tiers after a 30-day trial, ranging from $99/month to $249/month. The custom plan caters to enterprises that can support upto 50 accounts to start with.
Overall verdict:
Hootsuite is a capable social media scheduling tool that allows users to create and keep track of their content plan for multiple social accounts. It is equipped with many advanced features, like advanced scheduling, AI-assisted content generation, bulk scheduling, and more. However, its UI is less than user-friendly and has a steep learning curve. Also, Hootsuite proves to be well out of budget for solopreneurs and small businesses on a tight budget.
Best social media scheduling tool for:
Social media managers, professionals, entrepreneurs, and small businesses
Ratings:
4.3/5 (G2), 4.5/5 (Capterra)
Apps:
Web, iOS, Android App, Chrome Browser Extension
Integrations:
Facebook, Google Business Profile, Instagram, LinkedIn, Mastodon, Pinterest, Shopify, Threads, TikTok, Twitter / X, YouTube
Key Features:
- Content boards
- AI assistant for content ideation and creation
- Content categorization
- Integration with Canva, Giphy, DropBox, One Drive, and Google
- Collaboration on content
- Automated scheduling plan
- Scheduling calendar
- Custom post creation
Pros
- The easy-to-navigate post-publishing dashboard in Buffer requires little to no training to use efficiently.
- The free AI integration in Buffer makes writing captions very easy and saves a lot of time.
Tracy W.
Buffer is extensively used in our company in marketing and corporate communication departments. It enables users to schedule and track scheduled posts across all major social networks. The analytics are great that show the performance of each post and aslo buffer is pretty affordable.
Cons
- Some users have problems bulk-scheduling their posts with Buffer.
Victory J.
The mobile app isn’t as seamless as the web version. I guess this isn’t an issue for many as most people prefer to work on their computers. I do a lot of repetitive tasks on the move so it kind of is a big deal for me.
Our Experience
If you want to automate your content publishing activities on the maximum number of social media platforms, Buffer is a good option to go with. It’s a simple and straightforward social media scheduling tool ideal for beginners to manage their content publishing.
Once you connect all your social profiles to Buffer, creating posts is quite simple. The post composer allows you to create different versions of the same content for different social media channels with some help from the AI Assistant. The generative AI feature can tweak your content to cut it short, make it longer, or make different iterations. The hashtag manager also enables users to create, save, reuse, and optimize groups of hashtags for specific social media networks.
The recent update to Buffer has segregated content creation and publishing dashboards into two. Users can now create posts or save ideas, tagging them under custom categories. This makes the content creation process much swifter. Additionally, you and your team can openly collaborate on the whole process of content creation.
The scheduling dashboard in Buffer has content queues based on different categories. You can either see drafts or posts for every social account connected to the tool under separate tabs or access them according to their status; they are queued, drafted, or waiting for approval. The scheduling flow from this view is a bit confusing as it’s not very straightforward.
The calendar dashboard gives a bird’s eye view of all the drafts and scheduled posts in your queues. You can drag and drop items from one slot to another in case you want to reschedule a post. Here, you can create new posts, filter the view in different ways to locate gaps in your plan and mend them.
Pricing:
Buffer provides a range of four pricing options along with a 14-day trial period for each. There is a free plan for beginners. Paid plans range from $6 a month for one account to a monthly $120 for 10 accounts.
Overall verdict:
Buffer is an uncomplicated, user-friendly tool with sufficient scheduling capabilities. However, the AI Assistant within the post composing window makes the experience of making posts within the tool highly convenient, with captions and ideas readily available. However, the restricted users in the plans on the lower tier are a bit of a problem. And the pricing which charges users per account can prove to be unsustainable for managing a higher number of social accounts.
Best social media scheduling tool for:
Mid-sized businesses, mid-sized agencies, and some enterprise brands.
Ratings:
4.5/5 (G2), 4.6/5 (Capterra)
Apps:
Web, iOS, and Android versions
Integrations:
TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, X (Twitter), LinkedIn, Google Business Profile, YouTube
Key Features:
- Multi-format post scheduling
- Grouped posts for custom scheduling queues
- Bulk scheduling content
- AI Assist for Caption generation
- Content management with social media calendar
- Holiday calendar
- In-app image editor
- Canva support
- Content curation feeds
- Content approval workflow
Pros
- Sendible’s shareable calendar simplifies collaborative planning and tracking of your social media strategy.
- Sendible suggests optimal posting times, helping users schedule their social media content for maximum reach.
Daisy R.
I love that Sendible not only allows you to schedule content, but it also provides you with the most optimal posting times and can generate reports for you. My favourite feature about Sendible is also that it allows you to create a specific calendar preview for each of your clients.
Cons
- The mobile version of Sendible lacks some of the advanced features available in the web version.
- The tool does not support scheduling content on Pinterest.
Jessica E.
Sendible used to have Pinterest scheduling but the feature was taken away. I also wish that you could build reports that covered longer periods rather than just 90 days.
Our Experience
At first glance, Sendible comes across as a very user-friendly tool that is simple to understand for beginners. It has some elaborate pricing plans that try to cater to a variety of users, be it individual creators or enterprises and agencies. The app comes across as one of the most intuitive options among social media scheduling tools, having the ability to publish social posts as well as blog posts.
The calendar is the first view users see upon signing in, displaying a summary of upcoming scheduled posts. With various filters, you can view content by profiles, creators, scheduled queues, etc., and segregate the calendar to show published posts, scheduled posts, or drafts. Additionally, the calendar highlights holidays, allowing users to click and access a smart compose box with ready-to-use images and hashtags for quick post creation.
Smart queues are another one of Sendible’s notable functions. They are basically groups or categories of posts under which you can add content relevant to the queue. Now, each of these lists or queues can be set to auto-publishing, either in a shuffled or repetitive format.
Each piece of content you create in Sendible can be assigned to a smart queue or saved in the content library. This library keeps stock of all types of content you save, including captions, hashtags, posts, ideas, or even blog posts. You can make these items into social media posts or publish blogs right from Sendible’s dashboard.
Bulk scheduling is another one of the advanced features in Sendible, which lets users create and schedule multitudes of posts. Sendible also offers content curation abilities where you can select categories to explore, blogs and news feeds, offering fresh content regularly to keep up your posting consistency.
Sendible’s AI Assist elevates the content creation process by generating well-crafted social media captions. For visual content, Sendible integrates with multiple platforms, including Canva, Google Drive, Dropbox, Pexels, and Giphy, allowing you to create or import images seamlessly into your posts.
The platform supports effective teamwork with features like task assignments, calendar sharing, and approval workflows, ensuring accountability and smooth task management. This is particularly beneficial in agency settings with multiple stakeholders involved in content approval.
Pricing:
Sendible provides five paid plan options, and instead of offering a free plan, it provides a 14-day free trial period. The plans range from Creator, priced at $29, Traction for $89, Scale for $199, Advanced for $240, to the last plan, Enterprise plan, which is priced at $750.
Overall verdict:
There is no doubt that Sendible is one of the more intuitive social media scheduling tools. The multitude of features it provides for content management and maintaining posting frequency streamlines the user’s work and saves time on manual content creation. The only hiccup is that to work as a team and access those advanced features, you will need to pay a considerable amount. Also, the flow of storing content and using those items can be simplified a lot more to avoid confusion.
Best social media scheduling tool for:
Agencies, eCommerce, and Social Media-based businesses
Ratings:
4.5/5 (G2), 4.6/5 (Capterra)
Apps:
Web version, Android and iOS apps
Integrations:
Facebook, Instagram, X (Twitter), LinkedIn, Pinterest, TikTok, YouTube and Google Business Profile, Google Analytics
Key Features:
- Multi-network scheduling
- Collaboration for content publishing
- AI Writing Assistant
- Content queues
- Instagram visual planning
- First comment scheduling
- Platform-specific customizations
- Publishing in bulk
- Custom fields
- Facebook boost posting
Pros
- The user-friendly interface simplifies the process of planning and scheduling content across various platforms, all within one central location.
- The bulk scheduling feature saves lot of time for users by allowing them to schedule up to 200 posts in one go.
Sandra H.
Agorapulse is incredibly intuitive and user-friendly, making it easy for me to schedule posts, engage with our audience, and track performance across multiple platforms. The reporting features are also robust, providing valuable insights.
Cons
- The mobile app of Agorapulse is not as effective as its web version.
- The platform often logs users out without them knowing, hindering the usage on the go.
Verified User
Agorapulse is incredibly intuitive and user-friendly, making it easy for me to schedule posts, engage with our audience, and track performance across multiple platforms. The reporting features are also robust, providing valuable insights.
Our Experience
Agorapulse is one of the more advanced social media scheduling platforms which can support overall social media marketing activities of businesses and agencies. It provides an integrated space for uniting all social profiles into one dashboard so the user can streamline post scheduling and publishing.
Here’s our take on Agorapulse’s scheduling and publishing capabilities.
As far as dashboards go, Agorapulse has one of the most intuitive yet simple-to-use scheduling dashboards out there. After creating the original draft of the content, users can switch to the post preview of each social platform selected and make changes and customize it.
When you set a post’s date and time, you can choose to recycle it. This means you can set multiple dates or the frequency of repeat posting. The calendar has several filters that help you clearly see what kind of content has been scheduled for which profile and what the status of these posts is.
To maintain consistency in publishing, Agorapulse allows you to create highly customized content groups or queues. You pre-set a schedule for each of these queues so that once you add content to them, Agorapulse keeps publishing these posts on autopilot. You can either add posts manually to these smart queues or import CSV files at once. Like many of its competitors, Agorapulse also allows bulk actions within the scheduling workflow, including bulk scheduling, bulk approvals, bulk assigning and deleting posts from the list view in the calendar dashboard.
Staying current with trends, Agorapulse has integrated AI capabilities to save users time. Besides generating posts from prompts, it can refine manually written captions by adjusting the tone or changing the length. However, the tool has not yet developed the ability to generate posts or campaign ideas.
We all know just how important it is to publish error-free content on social media. Agorapulse has an in-built workflow that allows the creator of a post to assign it to other members of his team or even clients to approve their content. Until these assignees approve the relevant posts, they will not be ready to publish and remain stuck in the creation funnel. During the approval process, team members can communicate and exchange feedback with each other right within Agorapulse.
Pricing:
Agorapulse offers one free plan and four paid plans with a 30-day free trial for each. The four paid plans are called Standard, Professional, Advanced, and Custom, ranging from $69 for Standard, $99 for Professional to $149 for Advanced, managing 10 social profiles. Additional profiles cost $15 each for every plan.
Overall verdict:
Agorapulse has many advanced publishing capabilities that help users create content and categorize it into publishing queues, which would automatically keep publishing content. The shared calendars, approval workflows and selective permissions make for seamless teamwork within the app. However, users do not have access to essential features such as the content library, publishing queues, and bulk publishing till they pay $149, which, on the other hand, is available in various Agorapulse alternatives. This somewhat hinders the users under the lower budgeted plans from leveraging the tool completely.
Best social media scheduling tool for:
Social media consultants, Mid and large-sized businesses, and enterprises
Ratings:
4.4/5 (G2), 4.4/5 (Capterra)
Apps:
Web, iOS, Android versions and Sprout Social Chrome Extension
Integrations:
Facebook, X, Instagram, LinkedIn, Threads, Pinterest, TikTok and YouTube
Key Features:
- AI-enhanced caption suggestions
- Optimal publishing time options with ViralPost
- Collaborative calendar sharing
- Asset Library for content storage hub
- Content calendar download and share
- Global timezone selection for scheduling
- Content tagging
- On-draft collaboration
Pros
- The platform’s interface allows for the scheduling and content publishing of muti-le social media accounts which saves a lot of time for users.
- The publishing feature provides various tools to easily optimize your posting schedule across multiple social media networks.
Kathryn R.
We LOVE that we can access all platforms of social media through Sprout Social and that we are able to manage our posts & quickly and easily! We don’t have to have multiple windows open and the process has been so seemless compared to the way we used to have to manage our pages! The support is amazing and we use Sprout Social all throughout our day and week – We are so thankful it has been a smooth transition and has been simple for our colleagues to understand how to post as well. Thank you!
Cons
- The pricing model, based on a per-user rate, can be costly and may not be ideal for large companies.
- The interface does not support the reuse of content across different social media platforms, limiting customization options.
Chelsea S.
A LOT of features (including some of the best features Sprout has to offer) are hidden behind levels of payment. It’s super pricey, even just for basic plans with basic features. Plus, the mobile app needs help. It seems there’s always a glitch with the mobile app – captions not copying when you go to IG to post, long loading time for mobile publisher posts.
Our Experience
Sprout Social is a versatile tool which is capable of publishing content across multiple social media platforms from a central dashboard. It has multiple tools to boost social selling with paid campaign management, product promotion and ROI tracking. But as far as content creation and auto-scheduling goes, this was our experience with the Sprout Social.
Sprout Social’s content calendar and scheduling posts feature provide a comprehensive view of upcoming and published content, even those not created on Sprout Social. Users can create, edit, and reschedule posts using multiple filters, though it lacks drag-and-drop functionality for easy rescheduling.
The composing window allows customization for various platforms, but options are limited, and captions cannot be tailored differently for each platform. The Optimal Send Times feature, leveraging 16 weeks of audience data, significantly boosts content visibility by pinpointing the best times to post for maximum engagement.
Content curation and Sprout Queues enhance content strategy by offering the Find Content feature, where users can browse categories or search keywords to find and repost relevant content. Monitoring feeds for hashtags, X (Twitter) feeds, and RSS feeds provides additional content streams. Integration with Canva, Google Drive, and other resources allows seamless export of visual assets for posts, though it lacks stock image integration. Sprout Queues enable users to create custom publishing plans for each connected account, automating post publishing.
Collaborative features in Sprout Social support larger teams with custom workflows, including an approval process and a shared content calendar. These calendars can be downloaded, shared, and scheduled for external collaborators, ensuring effective teamwork and a consistent content strategy.
The platform’s AI capabilities assist in content creation but are limited compared to competitors. The AI Assist can create three iterations of a caption and adjust the tone in three ways, though it doesn’t aid in content ideation. Despite this, Sprout Social offers valuable tools for managing and optimizing social media content across multiple platforms.
Pricing:
Sprout Social has three paid plans starting from $249 per user every month to manage five social profiles. The other two plans come at $399 and $499 per user/month to manage an unlimited number of social profiles.
Overall verdict:
In essence, Sprout Social’s scheduling and publishing features are more than adequate for any social media marketer to manage their content publishing for multiple platforms. However, the absence of advanced AI assistance, dynamic post customization, and stock media assets somewhat hinders the seamlessness of content creation. Also, some of the most essential features of the tool, like bulk scheduling, feed publishing, content tagging, and the best time to post recommendations, are not available in the Standard plan, which puts some users on a tight budget, making it unsuitable for smaller businesses.
Best social media schduling tool for:
Individuals, SMBs, and Agencies
Ratings:
4.5/5 (G2), 4.4/5 (Capterra)
Apps:
Web, iOS, and Android versions
Integrations:
Facebook, Instagram, X (Twitter), LinkedIn, Pinterest, TikTok, Google Business Profile, Mastodon, Bluesky
Key Features:
- Intuitive social media content calendar
- AI social assistant
- Drag-and-drop rescheduling
- Requeing for consistent publishing
- Bulk social post upload
- Multi-format project management
Pros
- The Marketing Calendar from Coschedule is excellent for crafting and managing multiple marketing campaigns in a single location.
- Multiple team members can access and work on the calendar together, facilitating easier collaboration and communication about content.
- This tool integrates seamlessly with WordPress, simplifying the planning, publishing, and promotion of blog posts and social media messages.
Verified User
One of the standout features of the CoSchedule Marketing Suite is the content calendar. This tool allows me to plan ahead and organize my content in one place, making it easy to see what’s coming up and ensure that I’m staying on track with my publishing schedule. I also appreciate the ability to collaborate with team members on the calendar, which helps ensure everyone is on the same page.
Cons
- The calendar overview can become cluttered when tracking scheduled posts across multiple platforms and accounts, making navigation difficult.
- The steep learning curve can pose a challenge for established teams, making adoption more difficult.
Camila C.
The calendar dashboard makes it easy to see visually where your social posts are and how full your days are. This platform is good if you don’t have a lot of social channels to monitor or send out a lot of posts. I found it difficult to keep track of what platforms had posts scheduled on a specific date when there were a lot of posts scheduled. We color-coded our posts for each platform, but I wish there was an easy way to filter them.
Our Experience
CoSchedule, primarily a calendar tool, offers extensive functionality, including social media post-scheduling, team collaboration, project management, and marketing strategy organization. Focusing on CoSchedule’s social calendar, it excels in social post-scheduling and management.
The AI Social Assistant on the other hand , it crafts engaging posts with over 500 AI-generated prompts. These prompts aid in developing creative campaign and ad copies, tailored for different audiences and objectives. Pre-designed templates simplify the process of creating cohesive and professional social campaigns, catering to various post types and ensuring a consistent brand voice across all channels.
The Social Campaigns feature, available in higher customizable plans, allows users to categorize and group social media posts into separate campaigns. This segmentation aids in monitoring ventures and their outcomes, making it easier to measure strategy effectiveness.
The biggest asset of CoSchedule is its highly intuitive calendar dashboard, enabling users to visualize their entire social strategy in one place. Adjustments can be made with simple drag-and-drop actions, efficiently optimizing the content timeline. Users can change the view to selective time frames, create and schedule posts, and add notes and to-do tasks all from the calendar.
Content pieces scheduled natively, not through CoSchedule, will also appear on the calendar if the social account is connected, allowing complete control over all marketing ventures. Users can create pre-planned posting plans and schedule up to 365 posts at once, ensuring consistency across all social media pages without the need for regular manual posting.
CoSchedule’s ReQueue feature is exceptional, as it intelligently suggests the best times to repost evergreen, top-performing content. This maximizes the content’s lifespan and engagement without requiring manual intervention. By automating this process, ReQueue significantly reduces users’ workloads and enhances content publishing consistency.
Pricing:
CoSchedule offers a free plan and three paid subscription. The Marketing Calendar plan, priced at $29 per month, allows you to connect up to 10 social media profiles. You will need to contact its customer support to opt for its Content Calendar plan and Marketing Suite plan.
Overall verdict:
As far as versatility goes, CoSchedule is limited to content management. However, as one of the social media scheduling tools, it is excellent in cetralizing all your content related tasks into one user-friendly dashboard. Along with having all the functions needed by marketers, it also comres at very convenient prices, although some of its more advanced features are only available for the enterprise level plans which have a considerably higher price.
Best social media scheduling tool for:
Small to medium-sized businesses, digital marketing agencies
Ratings:
4.6/5 (G2), 4.7/5 (Capterra)
Apps:
Web, iOS, and Android versions
Integrations:
Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), LinkedIn, Instagram, Google Business Profile, YouTube, Pinterest, TikTok, and Mastodon
Key Features:
- Intuitive social media planner
- Collaborative draft editing
- SmartQ for optimal posting times
- RSS feed integration
- Bulk post scheduling
- Streamlined team collaboration
- AI-powered content creation
Pros
- Effortless post customization for each social media channel.
- The SmartQ feature identifies the optimal time slots for scheduling social media posts.
- Zoho Social streamlines the content approval process, reducing time spent on back-and-forth communication when collaborating with a team.
Shane O.
It’s a one-stop shop for all your social media needs. They also do a fantastic job of attempting to give you a one-size-fits-all option for posting, and if the image or text body is too long, they will let you know what social media platform will have an issue and a solution to fix it.
Cons
- There are a few glitchs in the tool when bulk scheduling is concerned.
- For small businesses, the pricing structure is not as accommodating and affordable.
Donzell R.
The formatting for mass post scheduling uses wonky formatting for the date that isn’t organic to excel.
Our Experience
Zoho Social is a versatile tool for businesses and agencies managing multiple clients and social media accounts. It features tiered pricing plans and a simple design, making it easy for new users to navigate. Zoho Social streamlines creating, scheduling, and publishing custom posts across various channels.
The calendar view lets you see all drafted and scheduled content, allowing easy drag-and-drop reorganization. The platform supports direct scheduling with unique publishing times or pre-set schedules. The SmartQ feature analyzes audience engagement to recommend the best times to post, optimizing reach by timing posts for peak activity.
The platform enhances team collaboration, enabling multiple users to manage tasks effortlessly. Users can assign roles, manage permissions, and approve posts to ensure a consistent brand voice. Team members can collaborate on drafts, with all relevant communication contained within Zoho Social. Clients can be included in the workflow with restrictive access via read-only calendars, and team members stay updated with convenient in-app notifications.
Zoho Social integrates Zia, Zoho’s AI assistant, offering advanced features like creating custom posts for each platform, rephrasing pre-written copies, and generating multiple variations for captions. Zia suggests apt images matching keywords within the text and optimal replies to user comments, maintaining active engagement without manual input. This comprehensive approach makes Zoho Social a powerful tool for efficient and effective social media management, catering to diverse user needs while ensuring a consistent and engaging online presence.
Pricing:
Zoho Social has divided its pricing plans into two segments – Businesses and Agencies. The lowest plan starts at $15/month, while the highest plan goes up to $460/month.
Overall verdict:
Zoho Social comes equipped as a complete social media scheduling platform. It has many advanced tools to streamline the process of creating, customizing, and scheduling your posts to be published at the best times to get the highest engagement. The usage of the tool also is much easier than many of its kind. However, the agency and enterprise plans that allow more users to work as a team in a Zoho Social account are not easily affordable for smaller or growing businesses.
Best social media scheduling tool for:
Small teams, Small-medium businesses, and Enterprises
Ratings:
4.6/5 (G2), 4.7/5 (Capterra)
Apps:
Web, iOS, and Android versions
Integrations:
Facebook, Instagram, X (Twitter), LinkedIn, Pinterest, Google Business Profile, Pinterest, YouTube, TikTok
Key Features:
- Scheduling and automated publishing
- Consolidated content library
- Content discovery and curation
- Collaboration workflow
- Business listing management
- Local SEO optimization
Pros
- eClincher provides a comprehensive suite of features designed to support multiple facets of social media management, making it a highly versatile tool.
- The approval feature in eClincher simplifies the process of obtaining client approvals for content, ensuring timely publication.
- eClincher integrates with numerous tools to enhance workflow efficiency and create a more seamless experience.
Scott W.
eClincher has the widest selection of features. They allow you to connect up to 30 social accounts and 10 analytics accounts, plus your bit.ly, Feedly, Google Drive, Zendesk, Yelp, and Pocket. Additionally, it comes pre-loaded with a connection to Canva, free stock photo services, and a gif library. With so many tools, it’s easy to control your every aspect of your social media from one central place.
Cons
- eClincher’s user interface could benefit from being more user-friendly and visually attractive, and this improvement is also needed for their mobile app.
- eClincher’s pricing structure is high for small and medium-sized businesses or social media professionals with limited budgets.
Verified eClincher User
We loved using Eclincher until we got to the point where we were managing over 50+ profiles. Once we got to that point, the system was always buggy, and the support started to lack. We’d have problems and issues, and support couldn’t help us out. Most times, it felt like we’d ask them something, and they couldn’t comprehend what the issue was; it was kind of frustrating.
Our Experience
eClincher is a multi-purpose tool which is especially equipped to help local and multi-locational businesses to strengthen their search engine discoverability and social presence. It has all the requisites to qualify as an advanced social media scheduling tool.
eClincher’s flexible scheduling & publishing feature streamlines managing posts across multiple platforms. Users can save drafts for future editing, ensuring content aligns with brand standards before going live. The scheduler allows setting specific times and dates for posts, providing flexibility to maintain a consistent presence without being online constantly. This is especially useful for managing multiple accounts or planning campaigns in advance.
The platform supports various content types, including images, videos, and links, making it versatile for comprehensive social media management. Smart automation suggests optimal posting times based on audience engagement data, maximizing reach and interaction, and supports recurring posts for evergreen content.
eClincher’s AI-powered social media calendar combines AI-driven features with a comprehensive overview of scheduled posts, making planning and adjusting content strategy easy. Users can drag and drop posts to reschedule them, ensuring planning flexibility. The tool supports collaboration, allowing team members to review and approve posts to align with the brand’s voice and objectives.
The tool’s AI social media content creation tool helps craft the perfect tone for posts with options like casual, professional, friendly, witty, or happy. It provides suggestions for improving content, making it more engaging and effective. The AI-powered editor offers tools like tags, an extensive image library, GIFs, and Canva integration for visually appealing content.
eClincher’s local SEO automation tool enhances local search visibility by ensuring content is keyword-optimized for local search terms and audience preferences. Regularly updating and publishing relevant content improves online presence and attracts local customers.
eClincher’s listing management simplifies updating and synchronizing crucial details like descriptions, addresses, and hours of operation across Google My Business, Bing Places, and Facebook Local, maintaining a professional online presence and improving local search rankings. It also helps manage customer reviews, allowing businesses to respond promptly and maintain a positive reputation.
Pricing:
eClincher offers three paid plans and one Enterprise plan. The basic plan costs $65/month, the Premier plan is $175/month, and the largest Agency plan is $425/month.
Overall verdict:
There is no question that eClincher is a powerful tool for boosting a business’s online presence. Its SEO features help attract users through search terms. However, the tool may not be affordable for smaller businesses, as the starting price for basic functions is above average.
Best social media scheduling tool for:
Professionals, small teams, small or medium businesses
Ratings:
4.3/ 5 (G2)
Apps:
Android, iOS apps and web versions
Integrations:
TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, X (Twitter), LinkedIn, Google Business Profile, YouTube, Pinterest, Snapchat and Instagram Threads
Key Features:
- Custom posting schedule
- Unlimited scheduled posts
- Best time to post recommendations
- Visual content calendar
- Captivate AI-powered content ideation and generation
- Media library
- In-built holiday calendar
- Efficient team collaboration
- Competitor-inspired content ideas
- UGC search
- Auto-posting of Instagram Story with link stickers
Pros
- The product tagging feature on Instagram tends to be quite helpful ecommerce and other online businesses.
- The approval workflows make the management of multiple client accounts much easier.
Clair H.
Working as a SMM for multiple organisations has never been so easy with the teams & approvals add-on that Sked offers. Forget cumbersome spreadsheets and shared drives, Sked has not only been a time-saver but is also an exceptional way to streamline the social media scheduling process. I love how user friendly it is and their support staff are great also. I frequently use Sked to schedule post across multiple companies and platforms.
Cons
- The pricing model can get costly for users wanting to manage higher number of accounts with Sked Social.
- There are occasional failures in publishing Instagram posts with tags and alt texts.
Georgia H.
I dislike that I can’t choose a frame from a Reel to post to Instagram. I don’t post Reels using SKED because I have to do the finishing touches manually.
Our Experience
Sked Social is a popular social media scheduling tool that offers a wide range of publishing and content automation features, including post-scheduling, AI post creations, team collaboration, and more. It boasts a few Instagram-specific publishing features but is equally proficient with maintaining consistency on other platforms as well.
Sked Social’s scheduling features simplify managing social media content across multiple platforms. Users can create and customize content for each network and schedule posts simultaneously, with options to set specific dates and times for auto-publishing to optimize audience engagement.
The intuitive, user-friendly scheduler interface streamlines maintaining an active social media presence. With customizing posts for multiple channels, users can tailor captions, links, and other elements to suit each platform, enhancing engagement. Features like Instagram’s First Comment and TikTok’s cover tile selection maximize post impact.
The visual planning with calendar view helps users visualize content plans, reschedule posts by dragging and dropping, and import regional holiday calendars for timely festive posts. The calendar also aids team collaboration, allowing shared work on drafts and timely approvals. The Instagram grid view enables users to plan and rearrange posts for aesthetic appeal.
Sked Social’s Captivate AI supports content creation by generating ideas, content pillars, and captions. It can rephrase older posts and pull ideas from competitors for high-performing campaigns. Sked Social also helps locate user-generated content using mentions and tags, repost viral posts with trending hashtags, and gain added engagement.
The social media team collaboration & approvals tool offers a customizable workflow for teams and agencies managing client accounts. It includes multiple stages of approval, tracking content every step of the way, and facilitating communication through exclusive threads linked to particular posts or drafts. Comments can be shared with the team or clients, making it ideal for larger teams with complex review requirements.
Pricing:
The starting plan in Sked Social costs $59 per month to manage three social accounts. The next two higher plans range from $199 to $349 per month for six and ten accounts, respectively.
Overall verdict:
Sked Social is an excellent social media scheduling software that allows teams to collaboratively create and publish content for their own brand or for clients. The content creation, customization, and robust collaboration capabilities make for a great user experience. The tool does not limit users in regards to the number of team members they can add to their Sked Social account. However, the number of social accounts is limited, and connecting additional profiles costs more. This pricing model might not be sustainable for smaller teams and agencies functioning on a tight budget.
Best social media scheduling tool for:
Creators, freelancers, agencies, social media managers, and small businesses.
Ratings:
4.5/5 (G2), 4.4/5 (Capterra)
Apps:
Web, iOS, and Android versions
Integrations:
Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube, LinkedIn, and X (Twitter)
Key Features:
- Auto publishing and bulk scheduling
- Best time to post recommendations (for Instagram and TikTok)
- Media library with content labeling
- Hashtag suggestions
- Instagram Visual planner
- Curation of UGC
Pros
- Later enables users to schedule months’ worth of content in one go which saves a lot of time and effort for users.
- The ability to upload and store media assets like images and videos in bulk to be used later makes for great content management.
Julianna O.
I love using Later for social media scheduling! My small business uses it for Instagram ad Facebook scheduling daily. Thanks to Later, we are able to schedule out a months worth of content in just a few hours saving us hours and hours every week. It’s so easy to use, easy to check the traction of a post, and helps us stay sane during busy season when social media is the last thing we want to worry about.
Cons
- Later interrupts video posting when there are size issues, requiring users to manually edit the videos outside the platform and reschedule them.
- Later does not provide adequate analytics for Facebook and LinkedIn.
Hayley S.
I love the ease of use, the calendar feature, the option to copy a post to another channel, the option to filter through unused photos, analytics and the option to see all posts our company has been tagged in.
Our Experience
Later can be called a complete social media scheduling tool but the truth is that it hosts a whole package of Instagram-specific features which it does not provide for other platforms. Although as far as social media scheduling is concerned, it more or less is capable enough to handle post publishing on all platforms.
By allowing users to drag and drop media directly into a calendar, it makes scheduling easy. This feature helps organize and automate post publishing at optimal times, ensuring a consistent online presence without the need for real-time posting.
Bulk posting is another important aspect of scheduling through Later. Users can create and record hundreds of social media posts within a CSV file which then can be fed into Later’s scheduler. This leads you all these posts being scheduled into your social accounts in just a few clicks.
The Instagram Visual Planner tool lets you curate your social media feeds aesthetically by visually arranging upcoming posts. This feature is essential for Instagram marketing, where the visual layout of the feed influences viewer engagement. You can drag and drop posts to preview how they’ll look before they go live, ensuring your feed maintains a cohesive visual style.
Media Library is a dedicated space in the app where you can upload and store your images, graphics, and videos and access them from all your devices where Later is logged in to create a posts with them. You can label these assets to organize and access them better.
Later allows users to access user generated content across Instagram using tags, mentions or social profiles. You can also track posts published by other accounts with trending or relevant hashtags which they can repost for boosting the reach and engagement of their own content.
The hashtag suggestions in Later can come up with effective options for you to add to your posts rather than using the same hashtags everytime. You can give the tool a few of your go-to hashtags and it will come up with many recommendations with their relevance levels helping you make the right choice.
Pricing:
Later presents three subscription choices, each accompanied by a 14-day complimentary trial period. The system presents a no-cost option, followed by paid levels starting with Starter, valued at $25, Growth at $45, and the final choice, the Advanced option, priced at $80.
Overall verdict:
Later, with its streamlined UI and robust scheduling features helps in automating social media publishing. Its UGC content curation capabilities help users leverage online trends and also analyze the audience sentiments about their brand. However, its more advanced capabilities are centered around Instagram which might prove insufficient for brands looking to establish an omnipresent image on all social networks. Also for teams and agencies using the tool, they might feel the lack of collaboration workflows which are necessities to efficiently work together.
Best social media scheduling tool for:
Multi-locational brands, Agencies and multi-brand teams
Ratings:
4.6 (G2)
Apps:
Web version
Integrations:
Instagram, Facebook, X (Twitter), LinkedIn, Google Business Profile, YouTube, TikTok Pinterest
Key Features:
- Content Calendar
- Instagram grid view
- AI caption generator
- Content categorization
- Customization of workspace time zone
- Multi-platform content publishing
- Approval workflows
- Granular access control
- Feedback and communication thread
- Segregated workspace
Pros
- The tool is very easy to use right from the get-go.
- The customer support is readily available and tend to quick query resolution.
Michelle C.
The platform is easy to use, quick to learn and helpful to manage various accounts. You really get your money’s worth with all that you can do with Planable. Customer Support has been helpful when needed and I never have to worry about waiting too long for an answer or assistance. The AI feature to clean up a posts is very helpful and takes the pressure of coming up with attention grabbing captions off of me.
Cons
- The platform supports scheduling first comment only for Facebook and Instagram.
- A higher number of users and accounts cost considerably more.
Verified User
There’s some features missing per platform, that I would’ve liked to see. For example: posting a first comment under a post seems to only be available with Facebook and Instagram. Also, adding a linked song to a TikTok-post would be great, since I’m a music artist who’d like to connect each post to their own song within TikTok. But I understand that these are small and quite specific features, so it doesn’t stop me from using Planable. The good outweighs these small shortcomings.
Our Experience
At first glance, Planable seems like a very focused tool in terms of functionality. All its capabilities revolve around creating, storing, and scheduling content to be published consistently. The main dashboard of Planable, the calendar, is where you will find all of your scheduled content laid out according to its publishing date and time.
You can change the calendar view into a feed, list or grid view. The grid view for Instagram pages helps users aesthetically visualize their posts on the accrual network after being published. Clicking on a certain date will enable you to create posts and drag and drop functions allow easy rescheduling.
There are many more filters which you can use such as post status, feedback activity, labels, post type, time period, author, etc. You can control rescheduling with drag-and-drop and the visibility of content with specific filters. You can access the media library, saved posts archieve, access team members, add pages and compose new posts.
The post-creation process in Planable is quite simple, with all the means and assets readily available. The AI caption writer provides social media-ready content right within the composer, which can be tweaked and edited per requirement, saving a lot of time and brainstorming effort. Although this feature does not provide ideas for campaigns and is not very intuitive with prompts, it gets the job done. A convenient functionality in all this, especially for multi-locational businesses, is that you can set custom scheduling time zones.
Planable allows custom setup of multiple levels of social content approvals which allows posts generated to be crafted to perfection. Once the approval criteria are met, the scheduled posts can be locked so no more unprecedented changes can be made to them.
Pricing:
Planable’s Basic plan starts from $13 per user managing four social profiles. The Pro plan comes at a cost of $26 per user managing 10 social media profiles.
Overall Verdict:
Planable is social media scheduling tool for agencies and small businesses which focuses on content and campaign management. The conducive environment where content feedback can be exchanged and their visibility restricted is perfect for teams to work seamlessly. However, the pricing model makes affording the management of multiple accounts possible only for larger businesses.
Best social media scheduling tool for:
SMBs, franchises, and marketing agencies
Ratings:
4.6/5 (G2), 4.7/5 (Capterra)
Apps:
Web, iOS, and Android app versions
Integrations:
Facebook, X (Twitter), LinkedIn, Instagram, Google Business Profile, YouTube, Pinterest, TikTok
Key Features:
- Individual calendars for various clients
- Ideas for content creation
- Tips for optimizing posts
- Loomly’s media library
- Workflow for approvals
Pros
- The calendar feature provides an organized and visually attractive overview of your entire month’s posting plan at a glance.
- You can effortlessly categorize your posts into different sections for improved content planning and analysis.
- The tool’s platform-specific customization feature offers essential flexibility.
Rebekah N.
The Calendar view is very nice. It allows you to view your social media posts throughout the month and to drop and drag posts to different days if you find that you are heavy in one area and light in another. It also lets you categorize your posts so that you can get a report of how many posts in each category you have hit throughout the month. It’s also very intuitive and easy to use.
Cons
- Linkedin document publishing is not available.
- There some problems while posting large media files.
Amanda B.
It does not full sync with Instagram and some of the platforms. For example, I had a long video that would post just fine to all of the platforms, but not via Loomly. There’s a lot of back and forth.
Our Experience
Loomly is a social media scheduling tool equipped with advanced features for content creation, scheduling automation, performance analytics, and more. Unlike other platforms, Loomly’s basic plan accommodates two users and is available at a very reasonable price.
Loomly streamlines social media publishing with a user-friendly interface for planning and scheduling posts across multiple channels. Its content calendar offers daily inspiration and supports media uploads from Canva and Google Drive.
With Post Optimization Tips and a built-in image editor, you can refine and enhance your posts directly within the platform. The calendar also allows easy management of post queues, with drag-and-drop functionality for scheduling.
Visual content creation is simplified through Loomly’s intuitive features, supporting various content types like images, videos, and links. Real-time collaboration lets multiple users work on posts simultaneously, providing instant feedback and edits. The platform’s media asset management centralizes storage, making it easy to upload, categorize, and organize files, and includes an image and video editor for quick adjustments.
Loomly excels in campaign management by allowing post-categorization with labels and offering visual overviews to track performance using real-time data. Collaboration and approvals are efficient with multi-level custom workflows, real-time commenting, and post-history tracking. Team members can have restricted access, ensuring content standards are met before going live. Additionally, you can get an entire month’s content approved at once, ensuring the timely delivery of perfect posts.
Pricing:
Loomly has 4 paid plans, ranging from $42/month to $369/month, catering to different social accounts and user needs.
Overall verdict:
Loomly is a true social media team tool, with even the pricing plans supporting 10 social media profiles and two users under even the most basic plan. Its advanced content creation capabilities help users create the best possible version of their content for higher engagement.
Best social media scheduling tool for:
Agencies
Ratings:
4.9/ 5 (G2)
Apps:
Web version
Integrations:
X (Twitter), Pinterest, Facebook, Google Business Profile, Instagram, and LinkedIn
Key Features:
- Dashboard customization
- Content recommendation
- Canva integration
- RSS feed scheduling
- Bulk content import
- Pexels stock media library
- Categorized drip campaigns
- Drag and drop post scheduling
- Seamless client approvals
Pros
- The platform is easily navigable and straightforward.
- The approval system uncomplicated the client participation into the workflow of social media scheduling.
Valerie T.
Our clients love the approval process, it is stellar! Internally, we love the approval proess too; but also, the evergreen function, the ease of use and the continual improvement by adding new features. And, the customer support is outstanding.
Cons
- Users have sometimes faced scheduling problems in the calendar interface.
Patrick M.
I like most of it. At times the calendar schedling frustrates me as I want to change times of a post, after I dragged the social on the calendar. Accessing older content is challenging, but then again, I am not a pro.
Our Experience
Cloud Campaign is another proficient social media scheduling tool for agencies and smaller businesses. It also integrates into other SAAS software as a social media scheduling and management functionality with a fully customizable appearance.
The tool has a dedicated caption generation tool, CaptionAI that creates custom content for specific platforms. Content generated from this is crafted in a certain tone, which you can either select or customize by yourself. This AI feature is especially useful for creating drip-campaigns. You can generate multiple versions of the same post and recycle them so fresh content is published on your profiles regularly.
Creating content with Cloud Campaign is a breeze, thanks to its intuitive design and advanced features. RSS feed scheduling allows for consistent auto-publishing, while bulk content uploads into the media library keep your assets organized in neat folders. You can search connected Instagram accounts or use keywords for content recommendations to repurpose and publish.
The Pexels and Canva integrations provide stock images and custom designs without needing external storage. Custom scheduling sequences make regular content posting effortless. Drag and drop content from the library onto the calendar for optimal posting times or choose specific times for maximum engagement.
Client coordination is simplified with custom approval links, allowing external stakeholders to inspect and approve posts without logging in. Each post includes a dedicated space for feedback and comments, streamlining the approval process.
Pricing:
The starting price of Cloud Campaign is $49 for the Freelancer plan. The advanced plans Studio and Agency cost $229 and $349 respectively.
Overall Verdict:
Cloud Campaign is an efficient tool that has a streamlined workflow and helps set up automated scheduling plans that keep publishing content without needing much interference. But Cloud Campaigns lacks some of the vital platform-specific customization capabilities. This can be interpreted as the fact that while the tool is good at automating the social media posting process, users do not have the flexibility to create network-optimized custom posts within Cloud Campaign.
Best social media scheduling tool for:
Professionals, entrepreneurs, and business owners
Ratings:
3.9/5 (G2), 4.1/5 (Capterra)
Apps:
Web, iOS, and Android versions
Integrations:
Facebook, Instagram, X (Twitter), Google Business Profile, LinkedIn, Pinterest, TikTok, and YouTube
Key Features:
- All-in-one social media management
- Direct multi-platform publishing
- Viral content search
- Built-in design tools and stock image library
- Efficient content categorization
- Content queue recycling
- Saved text snippets
- Custom scheduling queues
- Continuous republishing
Pros
- Users can create and schedule posts for all their social profiles using Post Planner’s mobile app.
- The curation feature enables users to discover and share industry-relevant content on their profiles.
Verified User
The best thing for me is being able to schedule multiple channels all at one time. I manage social for several different radio stations and being able to select different channels to post on all at once is great. I also like being able to repeat posts.
Cons
- The higher plans also have set limits to the number of users.
- The dashboard is not very user-friendly.
Verified User
PostPlanner is an extremely non-intuitive, difficult, inflexible, stubborn, and impermeable program that has never left me satisfied after use. Moreover, their customer service and use of “fine print” are more than unethical.
Our Experience
Post Planner is one of those social media scheduling tools which focuses all its capabilities on creating and publishing relevant and effective social media posts. It is a very convenient solution for individuals who want to establish a social media presence for their brand.
Its content curation enables users to find and share relevant and trending content across multiple social media platforms. This ensures that users consistently provide valuable and engaging content to their audiences.
Further facilitating content creation, Post Planner offers robust inbuilt design tools and Canva integration for creating visually appealing posts. These tools help in optimizing images for various platforms and graphic design features tailored to different platforms.
The social post composer in Post Planner makes it easy to create and publish content across multiple platforms. With its user-friendly interface, you can draft posts, add multimedia, and optimize your text for better engagement. It even lets you save frequently used text pieces like hashtags, CTAs, and signatures for quick use in captions.
Post Planner helps with strategic content planning where you can group content by themes, campaigns, or other topics. These categories act like separate posting queues, so you can schedule an entire category, and the tool will automatically keep publishing from it. Plus, Post Planner lets you recycle evergreen content with just one click, making sure your best posts keep engaging your audience.
Pricing:
Post Planner mainly has three plans starting from $11 per month going up to $69 per month. The free plan available for the tool does not give access to any of the advanced features to be useful for social media professionals.
Overall verdict:
As far as multi-channel content publishing is concerned, Post Planner is an effective scheduling solution. It makes good use of content by recycling and rescheduling top-performing posts to leverage them completely. The lack of bulk scheduling puts the tool at a disadvantage, as this is a vital part of social media automation. However, for individual business owners or social media consultants managing social accounts of smaller brands, Post Planner proves sufficient in addressing all their content automation needs.
What Should You Look for in Social Media Scheduling Tools?
You might have become familiar and a bit overwhelmed with all these tools and their multitudes of functionalities. But there are certain key factors you need to crosscheck about the best social media posting tool you are considering. All else will be additional benefits.
Here are the necessary things to look for in scheduling tools:
- Multi-Platform Scheduling: You should be able to schedule posts for multiple social media accounts from different social networks without having to switch to any native platforms.
- Budget-Friendly: Growing businesses and agencies function on a limited marketing budget. Hence, it’s vital that you opt for a reasonably priced scheduling tool that provides the same value and advanced scheduling functions as high-priced enterprise-level tools.
- Easy Team Collaboration: Social media marketing is not a one-man show. Entire teams have to collaborate to create and publish effective content. So, the social media posting tool has to be capable of supporting and managing multiple team members.
- Scheduling In Bullk: Marketers like you have to be regular with their posting to establish a consistent presence on social media. With bulk scheduling, posts worth a couple of weeks or months can be scheduled at once, which eliminates the tedious job of manually posting every day. So, bulk scheduling is a pretty useful feature of a social media scheduling tool.
- Customer Support: Ideal tools tools support teams and clients collaborating seamlessly. When everyone can contribute to content creation and communicate internally within the same platform, the process becomes streamlined.
Now that we have covered everything let us give you a brief overview of actually scheduling content with these automation tools.
How to Schedule Posts Using SocialPilot
These scheduling software work by integrating with social media platforms using the network’s APIs. All you have to do is connect your accounts to the tool and you can start scheduling posts to multiple platforms from the same dashboard.
Here is the general flow of how to schedule posts using a social media scheduling tool:
- To get started, link your social media accounts to the platform.
- Now that the accounts are linked, you can go ahead and create your post. A robust scheduling tool will provide you with multiple ways to customize your post for different platforms from the same dashboard.Advanced tools like SocialPilot even offer an AI Assistant to create effective captions within seconds.
- After creating the desirable post, select the pages or accounts where you want to publish.
- Now go with any of the advanced scheduling options, picking the date and time you want for publishing the post.
You can follow the same steps to create and schedule various types of posts, including texts, videos, Reels, Stories, etc. This streamlined process drastically reduces the time needed compared to doing it manually.
Why Use a Scheduling Tool for Social Media Posts?
Let us see how these tools can make the job of a social media marketer much easier.
- They save time with automation: Scheduling tools automate the workflow and eliminate manual effort, freeing up a lot of time in the process.
- Enable extensive customizations: They allow creating tailored versions of the same post for different social networks, all from a single dashboard.
- Find the best time to post: You can set schedules for each account containing optimal times for maximum engagement.
- Maintain consistency across platforms: These tools help keep a steady consistency of posts on all your profiles across all social networks.
- Reduce chances of error: Such tools minimize errors through review and approval workflows before publishing posts.
- Facilitate collaboration: Ideal scheduling tools enable seamless team and client collaboration, streamlining the content creation process through internal communication and contribution within a single platform.
Conclusion
Though there are tons of paid and free social media scheduling tools in the market, only a handful are deemed fit for use. Some paid ones are either too expensive or don’t offer the platform you need, while others dispense a compromised performance.
That’s why we’re betting on SocialPilot. You can effortlessly post to any social media channel without spending time. Work together with your team and clients to make a lasting impact right away. Sign up for a free trial to level up your social media presence right away.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a social media scheduling tool?
A social media scheduling tool is an automation tool that helps you schedule social media posts for multiple social media accounts ahead of time. As you can’t be active on social media all the time, using a tools for social media scheduling helps you be proactive and set up your content calendar in advance.
How to select the perfect social media scheduling and publishing tool?
Here’s how to select the perfect social media posting tool:
- Check if it helps you post on social media platforms you regularly use
- Check if the social media scheduling tool has advanced social media scheduling options and can customize posts for different social media sites
- The number of posts you can queue and publish in a day with the scheduler
- If it has a social media calendar for visualization
- If it allows team collaboration
- Provides deep analytics and reporting
How do I schedule all my social media?
You can schedule all your social media posts from a posting tool like SocialPilot. You can sign up for the free trial and connect the tool with all your accounts. After that, you just need to add your posts. You can schedule social media posts at different times for different platforms or share them on all networks at once.
What is the best social media scheduling tool?
SocialPilot is the best tool for scheduling posts on social media for small businesses as it is packed with advanced features like AI Assistant, content library, bulk scheduling, RSS feed automation, and more, but it comes at a surprisingly reasonable cost.
What are some features that a paid scheduling app has that a free app might not?
Free tools might not have advanced features like white labeling and team and client collaboration workflow which are meant for bigger teams and enterprise-level business needs.
Which social media management tool is apt for enterprise-level businesses?
Enterprise-level businesses need all-around social media management capabilities which could handle large teams working together.
Tools like SocialPilot, and Hootsuite allow large team to collaborate efficiently to manage and work on their social media. Users can give selective access and review content within the tool.