Buffer
buffer.com
Straightforward social scheduling
from $5/moFree plan
Sprout Social
Social management with serious reporting
Free trialSocial MediaSince 2010
from $79/moVisit sproutsocial.com
What Sprout Social is
Publishing, a unified social inbox, listening and analytics with polished reporting for agencies and brands.
What Sprout Social has cost
We have read this pricing page 15 times since Jan 2021, including archived copies of it. Each figure below was pulled from the page itself, not from a summary of it.
- $99/moJan 2021 – Jul 2022 · Standard · 4 readings · archived page
- $249/moJan 2023 – Jan 2025 · Standard · 5 readings · archived page
- $199†Jul 2025 – Jan 2026 · Standard · 2 readings · archived page
The entry plan changed name here, from Standard to Essentials. That is a different plan, so the two prices are not a rise or a cut.
$79/mo*Jul 2026 – Aug 2026 · Essentials · 3 readings · archived page- $79/moSept 2026 · Essentials · 1 reading · source
* That reading is the effective monthly cost when paying for a year up front, which is what the page published at the time.
† The page showed this figure beside a monthly/annual switch and did not say which one it belonged to, so we publish the number without claiming a billing period. Readings like this are shown but never compared, which is why they never produce a price change.
Gaps are ours, not the vendor's: where a capture was unreadable, or the price could not be tied to a plan at all, no reading was recorded rather than a guess. See every price change we can stand behind.
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Trial length and card requirement are set by the vendor.
Sprout Social alternatives
Other tools in social media that cover similar ground. Full comparison.
Where Sprout Social sits on price
Entry prices across Social Media, cheapest first.
- Publer$4.28
- Buffer$5
- Hypefury$6
- Contents Pilot$9.90
- Typefully$12.50*
- Later$18.75
- Metricool$25
- SocialBee$29
- Sprout Social$79
- Hootsuite$99
9 of these 10 prices were read from the vendor's own pricing page; the rest are marked * and are indicative. The median is taken across the 9 verified prices in Social Media.
Sprout Social pricing questions
- How much does Sprout Social cost?
- Sprout Social starts at $79 a month on its Essentials plan, billed monthly. That figure was read from sproutsocial.com's own pricing page on 21 September 2026.
- Does Sprout Social have a free plan?
- No ongoing free plan. Sprout Social offers a free trial, after which a paid plan is required.
- What is Sprout Social used for?
- Publishing, a unified social inbox, listening and analytics with polished reporting for agencies and brands. People mainly use it to schedule social posts, monitor mentions, report on social.
- What are the best alternatives to Sprout Social?
- The closest alternatives in the same category are Buffer, Hootsuite, Later, Metricool. Buffer starts lower at $5 a month; Later starts lower at $18.75 a month; Metricool starts lower at $25 a month. Buffer, Later and Metricool publish a free plan.