5 Best Social Media Management Tools In 2025

To choose the best social media management software, we compared each company based on factors, including ease of use, pricing, features and functionality. We ranked each company on these factors based on a rating system, with the highest score being five out of five stars.

Here’s what we looked at to compile the rankings in each category:

Decision Factor	Scoring Weight	Description
Value	24%	To evaluate pricing, we looked at the availability of a free trial, the starting price and the highest price for each tool.
General Features	28%	We favored tools that included these general features: social dashboard, publishing capabilities, analytics, a mobile app and audience insights. We also considered notable features such as integrations, recommended post times, comment filtering and team collaboration.
Service and Support	8%	Social media moves fast and we know how important quick help is when things go wrong. We looked at customer support channels to get help when you need it.
Consumer Sentiment	40%	We gathered data from real-world users of social media management software about their experiences with each provider. We collected details about how users felt about scheduling tools, pricing, ease of use and support to create our consumer satisfaction profile.

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The best way to choose the right social media management tool is to clarify your priorities and goals regarding social media. How many social media platforms can you realistically create content for on a consistent basis? How many hours per week do you want to devote to social media? How much of your budget do you want to devote to social media? Once you answer these questions, it will be easier to search through the software features that will coincide with your priorities.

Essential Social Media Management Tool Features

Your social media management tools should help you capture the eye of new followers and drive engagement with your current followers. To do this, you should post often and know when your followers are most active. There are a few features that will help you do this.

• Platform integration: When looking for social media management software, make sure it enables you to manage all your social media platforms from a single dashboard.
• Content calendar: A visual content calendar helps you plan your social media posts and campaigns visually. This helps save time, organize your social media marketing plan, track how your social media content is performing and helps create consistency in posting. It will help you plan a week’s, month’s or more of social media content all at once.
• Scheduling tools: Scheduling tools are one of the most important features of good social media management software. Once you have mapped out what you will post and when, it’s helpful to schedule those posts all at once. Automatically scheduling posts beforehand frees up your time to concentrate on creating engaging content.
• Post optimization tool: Scheduling great content won’t help unless you post it when your ideal audience is online to see it. Because social media audiences vary, so do optimal posting times for your specific social media audience. Finding a social media management tool that is able to share your content at a time that fits best for your unique audience will ensure your content gets in front of as many people as possible.
• Analytics and reporting tools: Analytics and social media metrics are critical in determining which social media strategies are working and which aren’t. Analytics can help you answer questions, such as whether it is advantageous to continue to post on Facebook, what social media post garnered the most engagement, how many followers you gain every month on Instagram and which network drove the most brand awareness for a particular product launch.
• Keyword monitoring: No one can be on social media all the time, which is where keyword monitoring tools come into play. Keyword monitoring allows you to find all the conversations where your brand is mentioned so that you can join the dialogue.

Cost

The cost of social media management software varies depending on several factors including the number of users, number of social media channels, analytic features and automation features. Buffer is one of the more affordable software platforms, with Sprout Social being the most expensive on our list.

How much you spend on your social media management software depends on how much your social media strategy is part of your business. If your business only posts a few times a week to a few social media channels, it might not be a smart idea to buy the most expensive plan with all the automation and analytical bells and whistles. However, if you run an e-commerce store that posts multiple times a day to multiple channels, purchasing an all-inclusive plan that will help you post at the ideal time, respond to multiple customers throughout the day and track your social media ROI might be worth the extra money.

Platforms and Number of Social Networks

You’ll need to consider the social platforms a tool includes and how many you can connect. Most social media management software companies integrate with the top social media platforms such as X, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and LinkedIn. SocialPilot and Sprout Social were among the first to integrate with the popular video-sharing platform TikTok. However, slowly but surely, many other software platforms have as well.

Not all social media management software platforms integrate with the messaging app WhatsApp. While some platforms, such as Buffer and Sprout Social, allow users to schedule and push text, images, audio, video and PDF automatically to their customers on WhatsApp, other platforms, such as Zoho Social, do not.

Company/Team Size

Company and team size will both help determine what features you need in your social media management software.

Solopreneurs or time-strapped marketing managers in charge of their company’s social media channels will look for a software platform with several automation features. Automation tools help save time by scheduling posts in advance, automatically sharing new blog posts to your preferred social media platforms and customizing posts per social media platform. Along with the set-it-and-forget-it social media scheduler, an affordable price is also important for small businesses. Some social media management software, such as Buffer, have a robust free plan that might be more than suitable for solopreneurs or small businesses to manage their social media accounts.

Social media managers who run large accounts or manage accounts for several companies or brands tend to work with teams. If this is the case for you, it’s important to find a social media management software, such as Sprout Social, that will allow team members to work together without stepping on anyone’s toes or doubling efforts. Some team collaborating features to look for when comparing social media management software are:

• Assign roles to different team members
• Assign tasks to different team members
• Account permissions to give team members different levels of authority over the account
• Collision detection tools to avoid a situation where multiple team members send duplicate or conflicting responses when replying to the same message

Free vs. Paid Software

Several top social media management software platforms, including those outlined here, have a forever-free plan. Generally, these plans have limited features and functions. They may limit the number of social media accounts you can post to, limit the number of users allowed on your plan or restrict access to analytics. For example, Buffer’s forever-free plan allows users to schedule content on up to three social media channels. Zoho Social’s free plan is more robust, allowing users to post to six social media channels, access Zoho Social’s browser extension, zShare and add one team member to their Zoho Social Portal.

While these limitations may not be an issue when you’re first starting, they can limit your ability to scale unless you upgrade to a paid plan. When signing up for a free plan, it is important to research the software’s paid plans. Do they contain the features you will need to grow your business? How affordable is its basic plan versus its most expensive plan? When making a business plan for the next five years, when do you think you will need to upgrade to a paid social media management software, and what software features do you think will be most important for your business? Try to find software that has a free plan for the time being and paid plans that will help you meet your company’s goals.

Different businesses and individuals will need different social media management software. The best software for you should consider your current needs and future growth.

Solopreneurs and small business owners with just a few social accounts to handle can benefit from using a free plan from Buffer or Zoho Social. If you fall into those categories but don’t want to use a free plan, we recommend Zoho and Buffer’s paid plans or SocialPilot.

But if you’re a larger company and need to create reports and track metrics, Hootsuite and Sprout Social stand out for their strong analytics and many features. Zoho Social’s upper-tier plans would work as well.