The best Sprout Social alternatives in 2026

The best Sprout Social alternatives depend on which job you bought Sprout for. Sprout charges per seat for publishing, the inbox and reporting, then sells listening and premium analytics on top. Few tools do all of that for less, but plenty do one part of it for a fraction of the price.

Prices below were read from each vendor's own pricing page on 4 October 2026.

What Sprout Social costs, and why it adds up

Three things push the bill up. Every price is per seat. Competitor reports for Facebook, X and Instagram only start on Professional. Listening and Premium Analytics are add-ons for Standard and up, with no price on the page. Extra AI credits (Trellis Plus) are another $28 per user a month on annual billing.

So a team of three that wants competitor reports pays $897 a month on annual billing before any listening. That is the number to beat when you look for something cheaper than Sprout Social.

The fair part: Sprout is polished, the 30 day trial needs no card, and its inbox and reports are built for teams that answer to a boss or a client every month. If you use all of it, the per-seat price is buying something real.

Sprout Social alternatives at a glance

If you used Sprout to publish and reply

Agorapulse is the closest swap. Standard is $79 per user a month billed annually ($99 monthly), Professional $119 ($149) and Advanced $149 ($199). Each plan includes 10 social profiles, and competitor benchmarking comes with Advanced. The trial is 30 days with no card.

Pick Agorapulse if your team spends its day in the social inbox and you want the same shape of tool for less per person.

Hootsuite shows annual prices only: Standard $99 per user a month, Professional $199, Advanced $399. Standard already includes competitive benchmarking against five competitors and social listening, and Professional raises benchmarking to 20 competitors. See Sprout Social vs Hootsuite for the side by side, and Hootsuite alternatives if neither fits.

Pick Hootsuite if you want listening in the same tool without a separate add-on conversation.

Buffer and Metricool suit small teams. Buffer is free for three channels, then $5 or $10 per channel a month on annual billing, with unlimited team members on its Team plan. Metricool is free for one brand and $20 a month billed annually ($25 monthly) for five brands.

Pick Buffer or Metricool if you are one to three people and Sprout's inbox was more than you needed.

If you used Sprout for listening

Brand24 publishes its prices: Individual is $199 a month billed annually ($249 monthly) for three keywords, 2,000 mentions a month and one user. Team is $299 annually ($349 monthly) with seven keywords and unlimited users. The trial is 14 days with no card.

Pick Brand24 if listening was the main reason you paid for Sprout and you want a price you can read before the demo.

Talkwalker is quote only, includes unlimited users on all three plans, and has belonged to Hootsuite since 2024. Its free Talkwalker Alerts is worth setting up whatever else you buy.

Pick Talkwalker if you need enterprise listening volume and a sales conversation does not put you off.

If you used Sprout for competitor reports

Rival IQ is built for this. Drive is $239 a month on monthly billing for 10 tracked companies and one user, Engage is $349 for 20 companies and two users, and annual billing saves 15%. Extra users are $10 a month.

Socialinsider includes competitor benchmarking on every plan. Adapt is $990 a year ($82.50 a month) on annual billing for up to 20 accounts and one seat. The trial is 14 days with no card.

Pick Rival IQ or Socialinsider if your monthly report compares your social performance with rivals' and that report is what the client pays for. There are more options in the best social media competitor analysis tools.

Figo, for what competitors do beyond their feeds

Ours, so judge accordingly. Figo does not schedule, publish, reply or report on your own accounts, and it does not do listening or sentiment. It does not replace Sprout.

What it does is watch competitors. Every week it checks each one's Instagram and Facebook posts, their Google, Meta and TikTok ads, new pages, pricing, Google and Trustpilot reviews and Reddit threads that mention them, and sends a plain-English briefing on Monday. That is $49 a month for three competitors, $99 for eight, or $249 for twenty across five client workspaces.

Pick Figo if you were paying for Professional mainly to see what rivals were up to.

Do not pick Figo if you need engagement benchmarks for client social reports. Rival IQ or Socialinsider do that properly.

When Sprout Social is the right answer

• Five or more people share the inbox. Sprout's shared inbox, tagging and approval workflows earn the per-seat price at that size.
• Reports go to executives or clients monthly. Reporting is what Sprout is best known for, and moving it means rebuilding every template.
• You want one vendor for publishing, listening and analytics. Stitching three cheaper tools together has its own cost.

Plan by plan, with the add-ons, is in Sprout Social pricing.

The short answer

If you mostly publish, Agorapulse or Buffer will do it for less. If you mostly listen, Brand24 shows you its price up front. If you mostly report on competitors, Rival IQ, Socialinsider or Metricool's free tier do that without per-seat publishing costs. Stay on Sprout if you use all three jobs and have the team size to justify it.