Best Social Media Management Software 2021

Social media management software is built to support the day-to-day work of social media marketers, and small business managers. Social media management software comes with many tools that help social media marketers and small businesses save time, monitor social media performance, engage audiences, and drive more traffic to their websites.

Social media management software includes tools for brand monitoring, content publishing, audience engagement, and reporting. Most solutions work across all major social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and YouTube.

The solutions below are ideal for in-house marketers and small businesses, and less so for large enterprises. Social media management solutions are often used in combination with email marketing software, SMS marketing tools, and SEO software by marketing teams at larger organizations.

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Highest Rated Social Media Management Software

Social media management software helps streamline your social media activity by consolidating all of your social media channels into one platform. With this type of software, you can more effectively schedule & publish content on your social media accounts, engage your audience, and analyze your social media performance.

Sprout Social

Sprout Social

Best Overall Product
Rating: 94
Starting Price: $99 per month

Sprout Social is an all-in-one social media management platform used by over 20,000 organizations to manage Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter and other social media channels. In addition to basic features, Sprout Social includes advanced features such as a chatbot and digital asset library. Sprout Social is the best overall solution for SMBs, but is priced at a premium to other options.

Pros:
  • Efficient workflow for creating, scheduling and publishing social media posts saves considerable time
  • Ability to respond to all customer messages from one interface saves considerable time
  • Analytics help your team monitor KPI performance and add rigor to your social media programs
Cons:
  • More expensive than alternative social media management tools
  • Not a full-featured replacement for managing paid social campaigns
  • Some marketers prefer multiple stream inbox over Sprout's single-stream inbox
Agorapulse

Agorapulse

Best Value
Rating: 86
Starting Price: $99 per month

Agorapulse is an all-in-one social media management platform with over 11,000 customers. The software is used to create & schedule social media content, engage audiences, listen for key terms, and analyze social media performance. It centralizes these functions across Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, and YouTube.

Pros:
  • Fraction of the price of more comprehensive tools like Sprout Social
  • Offers 24/7 customer support through chat and email
  • Performs exceptionally well on Facebook & Instagram comment management
Cons:
  • Does not integrate with Google My Business or Pinterest
  • No RSS feed to automatically pull content into system
  • Does not offer chat bots, or integrate with help desk & online reviews platforms
Hootsuite
Rating: 86
Starting Price: $29 per month

Hootsuite is a social media management platform that is designed to help users manage all of their social media activity in one central location. It is the oldest and most popular social media management software with a wide range of plans for all budgets.

Pros:
  • Customers can publish to several social media platforms simultaneously
  • Streams of content allow customers to monitor a broad range of social media content
  • Has a portfolio of integrated applications to augment the core application's functionality
Cons:
  • Social inbox for managing social media conversations is not as robust as alternative solutions
  • Scheduling tool lacks some features including scheduling queues
  • To gain social CRM features, customers much purchase Nimble for an extra $19/month
Loomly
Rating: 80
Starting Price: $25 per month

Loomly is a social media management tool that is used by marketers to publish social media content and respond to social media conversations. The platform includes features to support team workflows and a solid analytics dashboard. We recommend Loomly for small teams that need a tool to streamline their social media operations. At $25 per month, it is an affordable option compared to more advanced tools such as Agorapulse and Sprout Social.

Pros:
  • Customizable team workflows for approving & publishing social media content
  • Ability to preview & edit posts for each social media channel
  • Suggested post ideas & RSS feeds to inspire your team
Cons:
  • Does not integrate with Instagram
  • No chatbot or automated message response features
  • Does not include social CRM with profiles of your audience
  • No social media listening component
NapoleonCat
Rating: 74
Starting Price: $27 per month

NapoleonCat is an all-in-one social media management platform that integrates with Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, Twitter, YouTube & Google My Business. Customers use NapoleonCat to publish content on their social media accounts, engage their brands' audiences, and measure social media performance.

Pros:
  • Integrates with all major social media channels including Google My Business
  • Clean and intuitive user interface
  • Automated rule feature allows you to auto-respond to or delete specific conversations
Cons:
  • Cannot schedule repeating posts or assign posts to a queue
  • No social media listening component
  • Software product has a few minor usability issues

Social Media Management Software FAQs

Social media management software is a solution used by social media managers and business owners to improve the management of their social media profiles. The social media management software integrates with your social media profiles to pull information from major platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter and YouTube, and to push information to these same platforms.

For one user, social media management software starts at around $30 per month. The best social media management tools start at $100 per month for one user. Most solutions are priced on a per-user and per-profile basis. For larger teams with 5-10 users, social media management software costs $200 to $500 per month.

The best social media management software for you depends on your budget and feature preferences. Overall, Sprout Social is the best social media management software solution. However, it is priced at a premium. Agorapulse, which has almost all the same features as Sprout Social, is the best value for teams. Finally, Hootsuite's entry plan is the best entry-level solution for companies on a budget.

Hootsuite is the most popular social media management software solution. Hootsuite, founded in 2008, was the pioneer of the industry. It has over 10 million users today.

The most common social media management software features are publishing, engagement, listening and analytics.

  • These tool’s publishing features allow social media managers to publish content to all major social media platforms. This includes the ability to schedule posts to publish in the future, and to publish to several platforms at once.
  • Most social media management software also includes an engagement feature that allows users to respond to comments and messages from customers.
  • In addition, the listening functionality allows you to track social media activity for specific keywords and profiles. You can use this feature to keep a pulse on what your target audience is saying about your brand on social media platforms.
  • Finally, the analytics reports in social media software help you understand the performance of your social media marketing. The data can also be analyzed to surface valuable insights about your target audience.

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