Social media marketing might seem easy at the beginning. But once you take over the branding, you need a social media management tool to keep your hold on the reigns.
Zoho Social is a favored social media marketing tool used by many small businesses and agencies to propel their businesses ahead.
But due to high demand, there are lots of Zoho Social alternatives in the market as well, giving it tough competition.
Social media scheduling tools like Zoho Social and its substitutes can help you maneuver brand presence on multiple social media channels such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.
But is this the only solution? Let’s find out!
Why Consider Alternatives to Zoho Social?
Zoho Social comes with many useful features, like Bulk Scheduling, Publishing Calendar, Listening, and Analytics. However, it will cost you a hefty sum if you want to utilize its full potential.
There have been scenarios when users weren’t delighted with customer support and failed to get immediate aid.
To help you pick the right tool, we have reviewed the 9 best Zoho Social alternatives. Each alternative is carefully compared and assessed against Zoho Social, so you make a unanimous choice.
How we analyze and select these tools:
Our process of curating a list of relevant tools involves thorough research and evaluation. Factors considered include platform compatibility, automation, content creation, visualization, analytics, collaboration, pricing, scalability, and user experience. Curated by seasoned professionals, these tools empower marketers with valuable insights to make informed decisions and scale their businesses.
Hootsuite is one of the most used social media management tools out there. It lets you work on almost any social platform you could think of, from Facebook to Pinterest or YouTube. It also enables you to work with a team, making this app a handy tool for growing your online presence.
Hootsuite is not limited to planning your posts. It also has great analytics features that can help you improve your content. It ticks off many of the requirements needed to help you grow your business or startup.
Hootsuite comes with a lot of features that might take a while to get a hang of. Here are the most basic and important ones you should know about:
- Post Scheduling and Automated Publishing
Primarily, this is what a social media manager does. You can draft posts and save them within the app. Once you’re pleased with the content, you can use the publisher to schedule your posts. It’s easy, intuitive, and shouldn’t take up too much of your time. You can also schedule different posts for multiple social media networks. - Social Media Listening
Social listening is essential if you want to know your reach. You can get an overview of what your audience is talking about online and see if you have any mentions. You can also engage with the public and respond to messages or mentions in-stream. - Analytics
You can set performance benchmarks in the app and see how your content improves. It’s a great way to analyze how your investments in social media are working.
Hootsuite Vs. Zoho Social
Hootsuite is the best fit for freelancers and businesses of all sizes, whereas Zoho Social is considered a right fit for small to large businesses.
With Hootsuite, you can get your queries answered through phone, online, knowledge base, and video tutorials. Zoho Social only provides email support.
If you are looking to manage Facebook and LinkedIn ads, then Hootsuite is a perfect choice, whereas, with Zoho Social, you can only manage Leads Ads on Facebook.
For user satisfaction, both platforms have a lot of positive reviews. However, Hootsuite comes with more detailed and in-depth features.
Price: Hootsuite offers its Team plan for $129 per month. This plan allows you to add 20 social media accounts of 3 users. If you are a small business, then this is a great plan for your needs. Zoho Social also offers a similar plan but it costs $320 each month.
DrumUp is a platform that will not only help you manage your social media posts but will also help you create the best content. However, you can only connect with three social media networks—Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
You can still work with your team and connect multiple accounts. This makes the platform perfect if you manage more reports on the same social network. The prices are lower compared to other platforms.
DrumUp does offer a free plan option after your two weeks of free trial expire. So this is a good option for people testing out platforms to find the perfect social media manager.
It comes with many features, depending on which plan you use.
But here are some basic ones that should help you decide if this platform is best for your purposes:
- Analytics
Just like other platforms, DrumUp can offer you metrics to measure your social media impact. There are four fundamental things to analyze: likes, shares, comments, and click-through data. Having this information will help you create the perfect content for your audience. You can also download the data and analyze it offline if you need to. - Publishing and Scheduling
Just as with the other apps, you can draft and publish your content from the platform. You can also plan your posts and organize your content across the three social media networks available. You can also share interesting articles you find online directly through DrumUp. - Hashtag Recommendations & Repeat Schedule
This is a time saver. Based on the content of your posts and the analytics data, DrumUp will suggest smart hashtags to add to your post before publishing. Also, if you have a relevant post that you want to publish more than once, you can set up a repeat schedule.
DrumUp Vs. Zoho Social
The first significant difference is that DrumUp doesn’t have a free plan. However, it offers a free trial for any of its subscriptions.
All kinds of customers can successfully use DrumUp, from small businesses to large enterprises and even freelancers. They have features that will be sufficient for anyone.
Price: In addition to the free plan offered by Drumup that allows you to manage 1 social account, publish 3 posts per day, it also provides 3 chargeable plans – Starter, Pro, and Small Business. They have priced their starter plan at $15/month, which allows you to manage 3 social accounts, RSS feeds, and the ability to set a repeat schedule for posts.
Agorapulse provides all the tools a social media marketer needs to win with social media marketing. It is a more complex platform designed to manage your social media posts and increase your brand awareness.
Enterprise-level companies and agencies use it. There are plenty of useful features, but the subscriptions can be pricey if you’re a beginner.
There are many features offered by Agorapulse, and their numbers only increase with the price. However, here is a shortlist that will help you understand what this platform is all about:
- Publishing and Scheduling
This feature is no surprise. Draft your posts or upload them in bulk on the platform. You can post them directly or schedule them on your calendar. If you have a valuable post you want to publish multiple times, you will also have the rescheduling option. - Social Inbox
Does your page receive many messages per day? With the social inbox, you can reply to messages and manage your comments and mentions. You won’t have to log in to your social media profile. Thus, saving you time and improving your efficiency. - Built-in CRM
This feature helps you learn more about your followers without too much work. You can label your most active customers or followers. You can categorize them in any way useful to you. By having access to this kind of information, you can more easily find people you want to work with according to how they interact with your brand.
Agorapulse Vs. Zoho Social
For the number of features, Agorapulse takes the crown. Aimed more at enterprises and developed businesses, it has multiple features you could ever need.
However, Zoho Social has more third-party integrations. The most significant difference between these platforms is the price, but they both have a free trial.
Agorapulse also offers social CRM that gives you detailed insights into your engaged users’ historical interactions, tracks the most active users, and adds labels to improve internal collaboration. Zoho Social also provides you with Zoho CRM integration.
Price: Agorapulse offers a 14-day free trial without a credit card and the subscription for their Pro plan starts at $99/month.
Statusbrew is a social media management platform that includes all the tools you could need as a professional social media marketer. It is also a perfect tool for multiple teams to work directly from the platform on one project.
Statusbrew is an excellent Zoho alternative as it supports a competent range of integrations. Some of its main features include:
- Link Customization
Adding UTM parameters to your links can increase the effectiveness of your social media campaigns. You can also shorten your link within the platforms to make your posts look cleaner and save some space. - Slack Integration
Slack is an excellent tool for team communication. So it comes naturally to have it integrated with a platform aimed at improving collaborative social media management. Having this tool integrated into your platform will make teamwork more effective. - Audience Engagement
While it’s good to connect with your customers, nobody wants to deal with spam. Statusbrew comes with customizable moderation rules that can help you focus on what is truly important.
Statusbrew Vs. Zoho Social
When it comes to prices, Statusbrew has higher fees. However, they are aimed more at agencies and enterprises. The features they offer are more in-depth, aimed at professionals. Additionally, they are more focused on user experience.
Statusbrew provides 24/7 live support and personal training.
Price: Statusbrew packages its product into 3 plans – Standard, Premium, and Enterprise. Their Standard plan starts at $179/month/license and allows you to manage up to 10 social profiles and 5 users in addition to some amazing features like in-depth analytics, social inbox, social CRM, etc.
Sendible aims more at developed businesses—considering its price plans. However, Sendible has robust built-in brand monitoring and engagement features, among others, if you buy their subscription. The best part is Sendible supports multiple social media platforms and blogging sites too.
Notable features of Sendible that make it a worthy alternative to Zoho Social are as follows:
- Social Listening
You can keep track of what your audience is talking about straight from the platform. With this feature, you can reply to your comments and messages without logging into social media networks. - Collaboration
With this feature, you can use the Sendible platform with your team and create content together. You can delegate tasks, send posts for approval, and limit access for other users.
Sendible Vs. Zoho Social
Zoho Social might seem to have more features than Sendible but the latter is more flexible, along with its in-depth analysis and monitoring.
It’s also easier to manage multiple users and clients with Sendible, and it’s for any kind of business or freelancer. However, as mentioned, Sendible has a higher cost factor.
Price: Sendible’s pricing for startup agencies starts with $89/month for 4 users, where you can build 24 reports in total. You can try it with a 14-day free trial.
Later is another one of the most used tools for social media management. Its budget-friendly plans allow it to be used by individuals to businesses to schedule their content on multiple social media channels. The preview feature makes it easier to visualize your content on the actual platform and streamline it accordingly.
Later has some unique features along with all the other powerful capabilities which a social media automation tool must have to prove itself a capable Zoho Social alternative. Let’s look at some of these capabilities:
- Scheduling and Publishing:
The scheduling and publishing aspects of Later are very elegant and streamlined to enable users to create and plan their content with ease. The drag-and-drop feature in Later smoothens the experience of creating content and cuts down on the time you spend on crafting every single post. You can schedule posts in bulk at a time to escape the monotony of regular posting while maintaining your consistency. - Analytics:
Later allows users to monitor their performance with in-depth insights from Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Key metrics such as engagement rates, impressions, follower growth and clicks on every social media are all available on the intuitive dashboard. But the best times to post and hashtag analytics are the gems of the analytics section of Later, which gives it an edge over its competitors. - Social Inbox:
One of the most important capabilities of a social media tool is to be able to monitor the audience’s interaction on their social media channels. Later does this very efficiently with its inbox feature. The centralized dashboard houses all the conversations which are accessible to the users. Replying to every message and responding to comments so much easier when you can see them all in the same space.
Later Vs. Zoho Social
Later has a nifty feature that makes the posts we create with it more effective. The hashtag suggestions it gives users widens their reach on the platforms they are being posted on even more. Zoho Social does not have this feature.
Later supports carousel posts on Facebook, which are effective forms of content for businesses. However, Zoho Social does not have this capability.
Price: Later starting price for its Growth plan costs $40 and allows six users to manage a total of 18 accounts, i.e., three accounts for all the platforms it supports, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and TikTok. Zoho Social on the other hand, at the price of $15 supports six social channels and allows two team members.
eClincher is that alternative to Zoho Social that you wish you knew before. The social media management tool is an excellent fit for the franchise and mid-size businesses with workflow and collaboration features. It provides a visual calendar with a drag and drop feature that lets you get a snapshot of your monthly social postings.
eClincher also has a campaign tracker so you can gauge every social media campaign. Its competitor analysis feature will also keep a vigilant eye on your competitors so you can lead the race.
- Smart Queues
Smart queues are for auto-posting on social media. Optimize your content for any platform for better engagement. It has an RSS feed and hashtag monitoring to curate quality content for your audience. - Social Listening
Get all messages, replies, comments, and more at one place called Social Inbox. Don’t miss out on any prospect or follower’s mention with prompt and discrete responses. - Top Integrations
eClincher comes with top integrations like URL shorteners, analytics platforms, visual sites like Canva and Unsplash, and more for a smoother workflow. They keep on adding newer integrations, so watch for them!
eClincher Vs. Zoho Social
eClincher has better customer support with loads of onboarding resources, while Zoho Social lacks majorly on that part.
While Zoho Social is more apt for organizations, eClincher offers packages for all levels.
Price: eClincher has 3 packages, Basic, Premier, and Agency. Its Premier plan is $119/month for 3 users and 20 social media profiles. You can add 5 profiles more at $30/month extra and 1 additional user at $20/month.
Wrapping Up
Social media management tools save time that is otherwise spent on checking social media networks. But before deciding on a specific platform, get an understanding of what the platform is all about.
That’s why SocialPilot gives you a free trial of every plan to get clear about your requirements before subscribing to the tool. You get to use every feature, so you know it’s worth the spend.
Leverage analytics to improve your content continually, increase your brand awareness by curating creative posts, and drive engagement on all the social media platforms with SocialPilot. So hurry up and get started today!
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Zoho Social used for?
Zoho Social is a social media management platform for scheduling posts on different social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram.
Why use a Zoho Social Alternative?
Zoho Social may not be a good fit for all. Other social media management tools like SocialPilot provide similar features at a really affordable price range. So it is worth exploring them before making the final choice.
What are the top alternatives to Zoho Social?
Some of the top alternatives to Zoho Social are:
- SocialPilot
- Hootsuite
- Sprout Social
- DrumpUp
- Agorapulse
- Statusbrew
- Sendible
- Later
- eClincher
How does Zoho Social work?
Zoho Social lets you curate content and schedule them as social media posts to various accounts on multiple platforms. You can monitor conversations, keywords, and mentions and have established workflows. You also get notified about direct messages.
What is the best alternative to Zoho Social?
SocialPilot is one of the best alternatives to Zoho Social. It lets you create and edit posts via Canva integration, schedule posts on 9 platforms, track analytics, and generate White-Label reports. The prices are incredibly affordable too.
SocialPilot
SocialPilot is a comprehensive social media management tool designed and developed especially for small and medium-sized digital marketing agencies.
In addition to the powerful features, it comes with a clean and intuitive design, which means that you can focus on your work rather than waste your time figuring out which button does which thing. You can also group your managed accounts the way you like and schedule posts in bulk.
Besides, if you are managing a team of social media marketers, you can define workflows to optimize your processes and reduce the risk of posting irrelevant content. You can also manage all your posts from a dashboard.
As you’d expect, this is a straightforward platform that comes with a lot of features.
However, here are a few that should help you understand more about SocialPilot:
With this feature, you can bulk upload up to 500 posts (with images) directly from a .csv file. You can review the content directly on the platform and then publish it in bulk on multiple social media profiles.
SocialPilot offers you the option to add media at the time of creating your post. For instance, you can add images and videos from Google Drive, Dropbox, and Box. You also have access to an endless supply of high-quality stock images with the Unsplash integration.
If you have multiple clients or manage many accounts across various social networks, this feature is here to save you. With it, you can organize your content and have a bird’s eye view of each account’s posting schedule. You can further filter down the view by week and day.
Get precious insights into the performance of your social media activities by each platform. From your content’s performance to data about your audience, you can use it to optimize your social media marketing ROI. You can also identify the right time to post to improve your content reach and drive engagement.
Check all the features of the SocialPilot here.
SocialPilot Vs. Zoho Social
You may find that both Zoho Social and SocialPilot offer similar features. But, there are considerable benefits of using SocialPilot over Zoho Social. For example, SocialPilot bulk schedules up to 500 posts with images, texts, and links compared to 350 posts with Zoho Social.
To shorten your links, you can use only Zoho shortener and Bitly shortener in Zoho Social, whereas SocialPilot gives you the flexibility to choose from multiple URL shorteners like Snip.ly, Rebrandly.com, and Bitly.com.
Additionally, you can search for content related to your field with RSS feeds. This is not available in Zoho Social.
Price: SocialPilot offers a 14-day FREE trial, and the subscription of its best-selling Studio plan starts at $100/month compared to Zoho Social’s $320/month subscription for agencies.