Social Media · ranked shortlist
Best Social Media software for Small Businesses in 2026
20 approved social media listings, ordered by published rating with the method stated below rather than assumed. Small businesses are usually replacing spreadsheets rather than another tool, so the deciding factor is how much of the job one purchase covers. Watch for capabilities that only appear in the upper tiers.
- Tools ranked
- 20
- Entry price range
- $1-$499
- Publish a $0 plan
- 7 of 20
How this ranking is derived
The sort key
Published rating, highest first. Ties break on the number of ratings behind the score, then on product name so the order never depends on what the API happened to return first. That is the whole rule, there is no weighting, no score of our own, and nothing paid: no sponsored slot runs on these pages.
Where the ratings come from
No listing in this set carries a rating, so the order falls back to name. Those scores are aggregated from public sources rather than collected here, Softwr hosts no reviews of its own, which is also why no rating on this page is marked up as ours in structured data.
What the pool is
Approved social media listings, capped at 20 per page; 20 came back for this one. It is not the whole market, and a tool being absent means we hold no record of it rather than that it failed a test. The unranked full set is on the social media category page.
The ranking
Each entry lists why it sits where it sits, drawn from its own published rating and pricing.
- #1
Awario
Highest rated hereSocial listening with published prices and no per-seat charge on the top tier
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Paid from $49 a month, with no free plan.
- 3 published tiers, topping out at $399.
- Billing
- Per month by mention volume
- Published tiers
- 3 tiers
- Tags
- social-listening, brand monitoring, sentiment-analysis, Boolean Search
- #2
Brand24
Social listening and media monitoring with published prices and a hard cap on mentions per month
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Paid from $199 a month, with no free plan.
- 5 published tiers, topping out at $599 plus a tier sold by quote.
- Billing
- Per month by mention volume
- Published tiers
- 5 tiers
- Tags
- social-listening, media monitoring, sentiment-analysis, brand monitoring
- #3
Determ
Media monitoring and PR intelligence with published European pricing and unlimited users on every plan
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Paid from $99 a month, with no free plan.
- 4 published tiers, topping out at $499 plus a tier sold by quote.
- Billing
- Per month by topic and mention volume
- Published tiers
- 4 tiers
- Tags
- media monitoring, pr, social-listening, alerts
- #4
Facebook
Meta's social network app, free to use and monetised entirely through targeted advertising
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Free, no paid tier is published at all.
- Billing
- Free, funded entirely by targeted advertising
- Published tiers
- 1 tier
- Tags
- social-media, meta, advertising, marketplace
- #5
Khoros
Enterprise social media management and branded community platform, now owned by IgniteTech
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Its top tier is unpriced and sold by quote.
- Billing
- quote
- Published tiers
- 1 tier
- Tags
- community, Social Media Management, Social Customer Care, Moderation
- #6
Mention
Real-time media monitoring made simple
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Publishes a $0 plan, with paid tiers from $41 a month.
- 4 published tiers, topping out at $83.
- Billing
- freemium
- Published tiers
- 4 tiers
- Tags
- media monitoring, social-listening, brand tracking, smb
- #7
Metricool
All-in-one platform to plan, publish, and analyze social media content
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Publishes a $0 plan, with paid tiers from $20 a month.
- 3 published tiers, topping out at $53.
- Billing
- freemium
- Published tiers
- 3 tiers
- Tags
- Social Media Management, Content Scheduling, Social Analytics, reporting
- #8
Pinterest
Visual discovery and bookmarking platform monetised through advertising and shopping links, run as an independent public company
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Free, no paid tier is published at all.
- Billing
- Free for users, advertising revenue from businesses
- Published tiers
- 1 tier
- Tags
- social-media, Visual Discovery, advertising, ecommerce
- #9
Planoly
Visual social media planning, scheduling, and link-in-bio platform
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Paid from $14 a month, with no free plan.
- 3 published tiers, topping out at $47.
- Billing
- subscription
- Published tiers
- 3 tiers
- Tags
- Social Media Scheduling, Instagram Planning, Link In Bio, Content Calendar
- #10
Rival IQ
Competitive social media analytics and benchmarking with published, self-service pricing
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Paid from $239 a month, with no free plan.
- 3 published tiers, topping out at $559.
- Billing
- Per month by tracked company count
- Published tiers
- 3 tiers
- Tags
- Social Analytics, Competitive Benchmarking, reporting, social-listening
- #11
Sendible
Social media management platform built for agencies managing multiple client accounts
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Paid from $1 a month, with no free plan.
- 5 published tiers, topping out at $50.
- Billing
- subscription
- Published tiers
- 5 tiers
- Tags
- Social Media Management, Agency Tools, Social Scheduling, Client Reporting
- #12
Sked Social
Social media scheduling and approval workflow platform for teams and agencies
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Paid from $24 a month, with no free plan.
- 4 published tiers, topping out at $166 plus a tier sold by quote.
- Billing
- subscription
- Published tiers
- 4 tiers
- Tags
- Social Media Management, Content Scheduling, Approval Workflow, Social Inbox
- #13
SocialBee
Social media scheduling and content recycling tool for multiple platforms
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Paid from $29 a month, with no free plan.
- 3 published tiers, topping out at $99.
- Billing
- subscription
- Published tiers
- 3 tiers
- Tags
- Social Media Scheduling, Content Recycling, Social Media Management, Small Business
- #14
Statusbrew
Social media publishing, inbox and moderation with rule-based comment hiding built in
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Paid from $89 a month, with no free plan.
- 4 published tiers, topping out at $299 plus a tier sold by quote.
- Billing
- Per user per month
- Published tiers
- 4 tiers
- Tags
- Social Media Management, Moderation, scheduling, engagement
- #15
Synthesio
Enterprise social intelligence platform owned by Ipsos, with market research methodology behind it
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Its top tier is unpriced and sold by quote.
- Billing
- quote
- Published tiers
- 1 tier
- Tags
- Social Intelligence, consumer-insights, social-listening, market-research
- #16
Tailwind
Pinterest and Instagram marketing platform for scheduling and keyword research
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Paid from $11.99 a month, with no free plan.
- 4 published tiers, topping out at $29.98.
- Billing
- subscription
- Published tiers
- 4 tiers
- Tags
- Pinterest Marketing, Pin Scheduling, Keyword Research, Social Media Automation
- #17
Talkwalker
Consumer intelligence to accelerate your brand
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Free, no paid tier is published at all.
- Billing
- subscription
- Published tiers
- 3 tiers
- Tags
- social-listening, consumer-intelligence, brand monitoring, hootsuite
- #18
Tumblr
Blogging and fandom platform owned by Automattic after being sold off by Verizon for a fraction of what Yahoo paid for it
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Publishes a $0 plan, with paid tiers from $4.99 a month.
- Billing
- Free to use, optional ad-free subscription and paid post promotion
- Published tiers
- 2 tiers
- Tags
- social-media, Blogging, Fandom, Automattic
- #19
X
The renamed and restructured Twitter, now merged into Elon Musks xAI, with paid verification and metered API access
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Publishes a $0 plan, with paid tiers from $8 a month.
- 3 published tiers, topping out at $40.
- Billing
- Free to use, paid X Premium tiers and metered developer API
- Published tiers
- 3 tiers
- Tags
- social-media, microblogging, twitter, X Corp
- #20
YouScan
Social listening with image recognition, priced from $499 a month with a hard limit on search topics
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Paid from $499 a month, with no free plan.
- Its top tier is unpriced and sold by quote.
- Billing
- Per month by mention volume and search topics
- Published tiers
- 2 tiers
- Tags
- social-listening, Image Recognition, brand monitoring, sentiment-analysis
What social media software costs
Counted from the published pricing of the 20 listings on this page. A tool counts as free only where it publishes a $0 plan, an open-source licence or a starting price of zero.
- Cheapest paid plan
- $1Sendible
- Median entry price
- $29across 15 priced
- Dearest entry price
- $499YouScan
- Publish a $0 plan
- 7of 20
Paid social media plans in this set start anywhere from $1 a month for Sendible to $499 for YouScan. The median entry price across the 15 tools that publish one is $29, half of them start below that figure and half above it.
Entry price is not the ceiling. The dearest published tier anywhere in this category is Brand24's at $599 a month. Read the top of each ladder as well as the bottom, because that is where you land after two years of growth.
7 of 20 publish a $0 plan, and 3 of those charge nothing at all. 11 tools have no free tier of any kind.
7 of 20 keep at least one tier unpriced and sold by quote, which in practice means the number you end up paying at the top end is not on this page or on theirs.
How these vendors bill
The billing model each of the 20 social media listings publishes, counted. Two tools at the same headline price are not the same purchase if one of them charges per seat.
- subscription
- 6
- freemium
- 2
- Per month by mention volume
- 2
- quote
- 2
- Free for users, advertising revenue from businesses
- 1
- Free to use, optional ad-free subscription and paid post promotion
- 1
- Free to use, paid X Premium tiers and metered developer API
- 1
- Free, funded entirely by targeted advertising
- 1
- Per month by mention volume and search topics
- 1
- Per month by topic and mention volume
- 1
- Per month by tracked company count
- 1
- Per user per month
- 1
Separately, 7 of 20 publish at least one tier with no price attached. Those are sold by quote, so the top of the ladder is negotiable, and unknowable, until you talk to sales.
What comes as standard, and what you pay extra for
Every capability named in a published pricing tier by any of the 18 social media tools here that break their plans down, counted once per vendor. This measures what vendors choose to advertise as a selling point, not everything the software does, an absence below is silence, not a missing feature.
Named most often
- API access , 6 of 18
- Sentiment analysis , 4 of 18
- Unlimited users , 3 of 18
- AI sentiment analysis , 2 of 18
- Boolean search , 2 of 18
Named by fewer
- Custom integrations , 2 of 18
- Dedicated account manager , 2 of 18
- Dedicated support , 2 of 18
Named by exactly one vendor: Ad supported, Basic scheduling and monitoring, Digital product & merch selling, Keyword tracking, Scheduled exports and email alerts, Unlimited mentions. Those are differentiators rather than table stakes.
What “Social Media” covers in practice
The subject tags that recur across these 20 listings, with the number of tools carrying each. A category label is a filing decision; this is the closer read of what is actually filed under it.
- social-listening8
- Social Media Management6
- brand monitoring4
- social-media4
- Enterprise3
- media monitoring3
- reporting3
- sentiment-analysis3
- advertising2
- consumer-insights2
- Content Scheduling2
- Moderation2
Carried by a single tool: Ads Management, Approval Workflow, community, Content Recycling, Image Recognition, marketplace, Reputation, Social Intelligence. If one of those is the reason you are here, the category page is the wrong lens, go straight to that product.
How to choose between them
Four things the numbers above should change about your shortlist.
Start with the free tiers if there are enough of them
7 of 20 social media tools here publish a $0 plan, which is enough to run a real trial without a purchase order. A free tier is worth more than a free trial when you are evaluating: a trial expires on the vendor's schedule, a free plan expires when you outgrow it. The thing to check before you commit is which of the capabilities below sit above the free line, starting with api access, the single most frequently named capability in this category's published tiers.
Read the spread before you read the features
$1 to $499 is a $498 spread on entry price alone, and a spread that wide is never about polish, it is about who the vendor built for. Tools at the bottom of this ladder are priced for one person or a small team; tools near $499 are priced for a department with a procurement process. Decide which of those you are before you compare capability, or you will shortlist four tools that were never competing for the same buyer.
Check which tier you actually land on
14 of 20 tools here publish three or more tiers, and the median vendor in this category ships 3 of them. The advertised price is the first rung, and the things teams tend to need, api access, sentiment analysis, unlimited users, are named in higher plans far more often than in entry ones. Price your shortlist at the tier that contains what you need, not at the tier on the pricing page's left edge.
The billing model matters more than the headline number
This category splits across 12 billing models: subscription on 6 listings, freemium on 2, and 10 other arrangements across the rest. A per-user price and a flat subscription at the same headline figure are not the same purchase, the first one grows with headcount and the second does not. Multiply by your real team size before you compare two numbers side by side.
Compare social media tools directly
Every pairing below is a full comparison: the same checklist applied to both, so a gap in one is a gap in the other.
- Awario vs Brand24
- Brand24 vs Determ
- Determ vs Facebook
- Facebook vs Khoros
- Khoros vs Mention
- Mention vs Metricool
- Metricool vs Pinterest
- Pinterest vs Planoly
Go straight to the numbers
- Awariopricingalternatives
- Brand24pricingalternatives
- Determpricingalternatives
- Facebookpricingalternatives
- Khorospricingalternatives
- Mentionpricingalternatives
Questions people ask about social media software
Answered from the listings on this page, and nowhere else.
- How is this social media ranking decided?
- Mechanically. The 20 approved social media listings on this page are sorted by their published rating, highest first, with the number of ratings behind each score as the tie-break and the product name as a final tie-break so the order is stable. Those ratings are aggregated from public sources, not collected from Softwr readers, this site hosts no reviews, so the order is a summary of what is already published elsewhere, not a verdict of our own. Nothing on this page is paid placement.
- Is this list re-ordered for small businesses?
- No, and it would be dishonest to imply otherwise. The catalogue records no data about which team sizes or roles each tool suits, so the ranking is the same published-rating order as the unsegmented list. What the small businesses framing changes is which of the figures below matter most. Small businesses are usually replacing spreadsheets rather than another tool, so the deciding factor is how much of the job one purchase covers. Watch for capabilities that only appear in the upper tiers.
- How much does social media software cost?
- Across the 20 social media tools listed here, paid plans start between $1 and $499 a month, with a median entry price of $29. The most expensive single tier published in the category is $599 a month (Brand24). 7 of 20 also publish a $0 plan.
- What is the cheapest social media software?
- 3 of the 20 tools listed here cost nothing at all. Among the ones that charge, Sendible has the lowest published entry price at $1 a month. Cheapest and best value are different questions: check which tier the capability you need actually appears in before you compare starting prices.
- Is there free social media software?
- Yes, 7 of 20 tools in this category publish a plan priced at $0. 3 of them are free outright, with no paid tier above. A tool is only counted as free here when it publishes a $0 plan, an open-source licence, or a starting price of zero, a free trial does not count.
- What features should social media software have?
- Judging by what vendors put in their own published pricing tiers, the most frequently named capabilities in this category are api access (6 of 18 tools that publish plan detail), sentiment analysis (4) and unlimited users (3). Treat those as the category baseline. Anything named by only one vendor, such as ad supported or basic scheduling and monitoring, is a differentiator rather than a standard, so it is worth deciding whether you need it before it narrows your shortlist to one.
- How is social media software usually billed?
- subscription (6), freemium (2), Per month by mention volume (2), quote (2), plus 8 less common arrangements, counted across the 20 listings on this page. The distinction that costs money is per-seat versus flat: a per-user plan at the same headline price scales with your headcount and a flat subscription does not. 7 of 20 tools also keep at least one tier unpriced and sold by quote.
- What does social media software actually cover?
- The 20 tools on this page do not describe themselves the same way. The subject tags they carry most often are social-listening (8), social media management (6), brand monitoring (4), social-media (4), enterprise (3). That spread is the honest answer to what the category means in practice: it is not one product shape, and two tools filed under social media may overlap on very little.
- How many pricing tiers do social media tools offer?
- 20 of 20 tools here publish a plan breakdown, and the median one has 3 tiers. 14 of 20 publish three or more. More tiers is not generosity, it usually means the capability you are buying for sits two rungs above the advertised price, so price your shortlist at the tier that contains it.
- How many social media tools are listed on Softwr?
- 20 approved social media listings appear on this page, including Awario, Brand24, Determ, Facebook. Each links to a full breakdown with its pricing tiers and plan detail, and the category can be filtered by price and sorted by rating above. You can also read the shortlist view at /best/social-media, which ranks the same set by published rating.
Keep reading
More on Social Media
Neighbouring categories
Adjacent in the same taxonomy, not a ranking.