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Social Media · head to head

Metricool vs YouScan

Metricool logo

Metricool

Social Media

All-in-one platform to plan, publish, and analyze social media content

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
YouScan logo

YouScan

Social Media

Social listening with image recognition, priced from $499 a month with a hard limit on search topics

From
$499/month
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only Metricool has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: Metricool full Twitter/X analytics and post approval workflows are locked behind the Advanced plan.; YouScan the binding constraint on the published plan is search topics, not mentions: three topics on Starter 3 forces agencies to merge unrelated clients into a single query, which corrupts reporting and pushes them to the quote-only tier.
  • They diverge on capability: Metricool covers Content Planner, YouScan covers Visual Insights.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Metricool and YouScan actually diverge.

Attributes where Metricool and YouScan differ
AttributeMetricoolYouScan
Starting priceFree$499/month
Pricing modelfreemiumPer month by mention volume and search topics
Free tierYesNo
Platformsweb, ios, android, apiWeb

Identical on both: user rating (Not yet rated), category (Social Media).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Metricool

  • Content Planner
  • Analytics & Competitor Analysis
  • Automated Reporting
  • Unified Inbox
  • Ads Management
  • SmartLinks
  • AI Assistant

Only in YouScan

  • Visual Insights
  • Insights Copilot
  • Audience Insights
  • Auto-Categories
  • Sentiment analysis
  • Audio and video monitoring
  • Smart alerts and automation
  • Social Intelligence API

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Metricool

  • Scheduling posts across multiple social networksnot YouScan
  • Tracking competitor social performancenot YouScan
  • Automating client and team reportsnot YouScan
  • Managing paid social ad campaignsnot YouScan
  • Building a link-in-bio landing pagenot YouScan

YouScan

  • A drinks or snack brand that needs to find product placement in user photos where nobody typed the brand name.not Metricool
  • A consumer marketing team wanting demographic profiles of who is discussing a campaign, not just how many mentions it generated.not Metricool
  • A support operation routing complaints found on social straight into Zendesk or Freshdesk as tickets.not Metricool
  • A brand tracking sentiment across several languages in Central and Eastern Europe where larger vendors have thinner source coverage.not Metricool

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Metricool

  • Full Twitter/X analytics and post approval workflows are locked behind the Advanced plan.
  • Unlimited scheduling on paid plans is still capped by an undisclosed fair use policy.
  • Free plan is limited to a single brand and 20 posts per month.
  • API access is only available on the top Advanced tier.

YouScan

  • The binding constraint on the published plan is search topics, not mentions: three topics on Starter 3 forces agencies to merge unrelated clients into a single query, which corrupts reporting and pushes them to the quote-only tier.
  • Unlimited means sampled, not complete: high-volume topics collect every nth mention and analytics are extrapolated, so the top tier structurally cannot deliver exhaustive capture for legal or crisis forensic use.
  • Sampling frequency is fixed at topic creation and cannot be changed, so a wrong initial choice means building a new topic and losing historical continuity in the data you have already paid to collect.
  • Instagram coverage is structurally partial because it depends on hashtags being present, and channel-based Instagram history is capped at twelve months back, so caption-free visual mentions are undercounted.
  • Visual Insights and Audience Insights, the two capabilities that most differentiate the product, are only included on the quote-only Unlimited tier, so the published $499 price does not buy the reason you came.
  • Billing is annual only at the published tier with no monthly-rolling option and no published overage schedule, so the cost of a volume spike is unknown until you negotiate it.
  • X coverage now depends on constrained paid API access, which combined with sampling makes historic post depth the weakest part of the archive relative to Brandwatch or Talkwalker.

Pricing, plan by plan

Metricool

Free
  • FreeFree
    • 1 brand
    • 20 posts/month
    • 5 competitor profiles
  • Starter$20/month
    • Up to 10 brands
    • Unlimited publishing (fair use)
    • 100 competitor profiles
  • Advanced$53/month
    • Up to 50 brands
    • Team management and post approval
    • Full Twitter/X analytics

YouScan

$499/month
  • Starter 3$499/month
    • Billed annually
    • Up to 15,000 mentions per month
    • 3 text search topics
  • Unlimited$undefined/month
    • Unlimited sampled mentions
    • Unlimited search topics, users and alert rules
    • Visual Insights included

Which should you pick?

Choose Metricool if

  • You need content planner.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on web, ios, android, api.
  • You also want analytics & competitor analysis.
Metricool review

Choose YouScan if

  • You need visual insights.
  • You also want insights copilot.
YouScan review

Questions people ask

Is Metricool or YouScan better?
Neither clearly leads. Metricool starts at Free and YouScan at $499/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Metricool or YouScan?
Metricool has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for Metricool and $499/month for YouScan.
Does Metricool or YouScan run on more platforms?
Metricool runs on web, ios, android, api. YouScan runs on Web.
Can I use Metricool for free?
Yes. Metricool has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. YouScan starts at $499/month.
What is Metricool best used for?
Metricool is most often used for scheduling posts across multiple social networks, tracking competitor social performance, automating client and team reports, managing paid social ad campaigns. Of those, scheduling posts across multiple social networks and tracking competitor social performance are not what YouScan is typically brought in for.
What can Metricool do that YouScan cannot?
Metricool covers Content Planner, Analytics & Competitor Analysis, Automated Reporting, Unified Inbox. YouScan covers Visual Insights, Insights Copilot, Audience Insights, Auto-Categories.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Metricool: Is there a free plan, and what are its limits?

Metricool's Free plan supports 1 brand, up to 20 posts per month, 5 competitor profiles, and 30 days of analytics history.

Source
YouScan: Does the Unlimited plan really collect every mention?

No. It collects a sample of high-volume topics and extrapolates the analytics. Ask for the sampling ratio in writing if completeness matters.

Metricool: What does Metricool cost?

Starter runs from about $20/month and Advanced from about $53/month (billed annually, with monthly billing also available); a Custom tier is available on request.

Source
YouScan: Is Visual Insights on the $499 plan?

No. Visual Insights and Audience Insights are included on the Unlimited tier only, which is quoted rather than published.

Metricool: How is usage metered?

Plans limit the number of connected brands and competitor profiles; scheduling is unlimited on paid plans but subject to a fair use policy.

Source
YouScan: Was YouScan affected by the war in Ukraine?

It was founded in Kyiv but contracts through a Cyprus entity and moved infrastructure to Azure West Europe. It exited the Russian market entirely, liquidating both Russian entities by mid-2024, and now contractually bars customers with Russian Federation connections.

YouScan: Can I pay monthly?

Not at the published tier. Starter 3 is $499 a month billed annually.

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