The best Zoho Social alternatives in 2026

Zoho Social is good value, especially if you already use Zoho CRM or Zoho Desk, which it connects to on Premium. People usually look elsewhere because of:

• One brand per plan: each plan covers one account per network, and extra brands cost $14.50 a month each on Professional or $19.50 on Premium, billed yearly.
• One user until Premium: Free, Standard and Professional include 1 team member; Premium includes 3. Extra members are $10 a month each billed yearly ($12 monthly).
• The inbox, content approvals and custom reports start on Premium, $40 a month billed yearly.
• The free plan covers Facebook, Instagram, X, LinkedIn and Google Business Profile, but not TikTok, YouTube or Pinterest, which start on Standard.
• AI credits are limited: 5 on Free, 40 on Standard and Professional, 80 on Premium.

Source: Zoho Social pricing, checked 14 October 2026

Buffer's free plan covers any 3 channels, including TikTok business profiles, YouTube Shorts and X, with 10 scheduled posts per channel at a time and an AI Assistant. Essentials is $5 per channel a month billed yearly ($6 monthly). Team, $10 per channel, adds unlimited team members and approvals, so a second person costs nothing extra. Every plan includes a community inbox for replying to comments.

Best for: small businesses that want a free start on the networks Zoho's free plan leaves out.

Sources: Buffer pricing, checked 14 October 2026; Buffer pricing (machine-readable version, with channel table), checked 14 October 2026

Publer charges per social account rather than per brand. Professional is $5 an account a month ($4 billed yearly), every tenth account is free, and workspaces are unlimited, so running several brands costs no more than the accounts they use. Business ($10, or $8 billed yearly) adds analytics, best times to post and competitor analysis. The free plan covers 3 accounts (not X) with 10 scheduled posts each.

Best for: owners and freelancers with several brands and only a few accounts each.

Source: Publer plans, checked 14 October 2026

Metricool's free plan covers one brand, 20 scheduled posts a month, 30 days of analytics and 5 competitor profiles, but not LinkedIn or X. Starter, from $20 a month billed yearly ($25 monthly), manages up to 5 brands with unlimited publishing under a fair use policy, unlimited analytics history, LinkedIn and a Canva integration; X is an add-on. Post approval and team roles start on Advanced, from $53 a month billed yearly.

Best for: owners who care most about analytics and keeping an eye on competitors.

Source: Metricool pricing, checked 14 October 2026

If per-member pricing is adding up, Sendible includes unlimited users on every plan. Core is $35 a month for one workspace and 6 profiles, with monitoring and replying; Plus ($99) adds approvals across 3 workspaces and 18 profiles. There's no free plan, but the trial is 14 days with no card, and yearly billing saves 15%.

Best for: bigger teams and agencies where paying for each member no longer makes sense.

Source: Sendible pricing, checked 14 October 2026

Zolyp is our product, so weigh this section with that in mind. Zoho Social gives you a tidy place to schedule; it won't decide what goes in the queue. Most tools here, like the one you're leaving, move a finished post onto a calendar. If the hard part of your week is deciding what to post and then writing and designing it, a different kind of tool fits better.

Zolyp plans the week across your content themes, writes the captions and designs the visuals against your Brand Brain (your tone, colours and rules, saved once), fits each post to its platform, and publishes to Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google Business, X, TikTok, YouTube, Pinterest, and Threads. You approve the week in minutes. Lite is $9 a month per brand for scheduling your own posts; the plans that create the posts start at $29 a month, with a 3-day free trial and no card required.

Pick by what Zoho's plans make you pay extra for:

• Extra brands: Publer, priced per account with unlimited workspaces.
• Extra team members: Sendible or Buffer Team, both with unlimited users.
• Analytics: Metricool, starting free.
• TikTok or YouTube on a free plan: Buffer.
• Time to make posts at all: an AI social media manager that plans and creates them.

Prices change often. Each figure below was checked on the vendor's own pricing page on the date shown under Sources; confirm it there before you switch.

Sources: Zoho Social pricing, checked 14 October 2026; Buffer pricing, checked 14 October 2026; Publer plans, checked 14 October 2026; Metricool pricing, checked 14 October 2026; Sendible pricing, checked 14 October 2026

Zoho prices differently from most tools, so check:

• Count brands and accounts: Zoho prices by brand, while most alternatives price by account, channel or seat.
• If you use Zoho CRM or Zoho Desk with it, check whether you'd lose that link.
• List every network each brand posts to and make sure the new tool supports all of them.

A clean switch takes an afternoon:

1. Export or write down everything still scheduled in your current tool, with dates and times. Download any reports you want to keep, too.
2. Connect the same accounts in the new tool and check each one can publish.
3. Recreate the scheduled posts there, checking the time zone setting first.
4. Pause or empty the old queue so nothing goes out twice.
5. Watch the first few posts go live before you cancel the old plan. On a yearly plan, check when it renews.