Sprout Social is a well-known social media tool, especially with those who don’t mind a higher price for their social media insights. In offering a variety of features including analytics, publishing, and community management, Sprout Social is an all-in-one social media tool that many rely upon.

However, when looking over what Sprout Social has to offer, one thing immediately stands out: The pricing. For many, the main question is whether paying such a high price for this tool is worth it?

In this article, we will discuss why some may be looking for an alternative to Sprout Social. We will first highlight some of the reasons as to why someone may be looking for a Sprout Social alternative, and then move to discussing the other options that are available on the market. 

Why should you consider Alternatives to Sprout Social

It comes as no surprise that even though Sprout Social has created a loyal user base for itself due to the advanced features it offers and the flexibility it provides for those doing in-depth social media research. However, next to all these notable features, it’s important to explore whether there are other options that might better suit specific business’ needs. When looking more deeply into what the tool offers, and what it costs, some may begin to consider an alternative to Sprout Social.

Below, we will highlight some of the possible drawbacks to help you decide if Sprout Social really is the right social media tool for you.

It Can be Expensive!

Let’s face it, Sprout Social can be expensive for some, especially for freelancers and other small businesses. While there are some advantages when it comes to the high-quality analytics you get from Sprout Social, it is not a tool for those looking for a relatively cheap option. Moreover, similar to some other products, Sprout Social makes some features only accessible with its higher-priced plans, which can dramatically raise your monthly costs if you need one or more of those features unexpectedly.

Teamwork Limitations for Publishing

Community Management AI Functionality Only for Higher Priced Plans

Community management is a very important part of social media teams and/or customer service agents. Relatively small teams may be responsible for managing the followings of many different profiles that include responding to many messages and comments. AI integration is one way to help teams to get through more responses quickly. 

For companies that want to take advantage of Sprout Social’s AI-intergration, they need to purchase a more expensive subscription. Currently, you would need to pay for the plan that is $399 per month per user in order to take advantage of this AI-integration for community management. For a tool that already has a relatively high starting price point, this may be a bit surprising to some and ultimately spur them to search for a Sprout Social alternative.

Alternatives to Sprout Social

With the points explained above in mind, it may be worthwhile to learn more about some alternatives to Sprout Social. Depending on what functions you are looking for, there are some sprout social competitors who provide similar features but at a cheaper price. By exploring these Sprout Social alternatives, businesses, agencies, and influencers may discover other tools that are a better fit for their social media management requirements.

Fanpage Karma

For many companies and agencies, Fanpage Karma represents an ideal social media tool. This is because Fanpage Karma provides a wide range of competitor analysis and publishing options that also provides unlimited profile tracking. 

Benefits include:

✅ Unlimited profiles and dashboards included in the price

✅ Easy to share reporting and dashboards with those internally and externally

✅  Great publishing features: Posting Stories, carousels, flexible approval process with external people etc

✅ Fair transparent pricing with no hidden costs

✅ Automated reporting and community management capabilities

✅ Powerful social media monitoring features available

Buffer

Buffer is a sprout social free alternative that you can reliably use for publishing posts and simple analysis of your campaigns. This is especially useful for small companies with only a limited social media presence who simply want a tool that can help them manage their social media presence. 

However, the freemium version can only take you so far, and there are also additionall costs if you want to add a significant number of profiles for your analysis.   

Hootsuite

Hootsuite provides the full-spectrum of features and functionalities that social media managers may need in their work. This is a well-known tool that gives its users a large number of features to help them with their social media activities. 

However, some may find that Hootsuite is mostly suitable for those looking for a social media tool that provides a lot of functionality but where you don’t need to analyze many profiles. The number of profiles you can track in your account is limited according to the plan you choose and the lowest priced plan, which is already $99 a month, restricts some important features such as community management functions.

Sprinklr

While Sprinklr may be a less well-known than some of the other tools mentioned above, it does excel in many areas. It has effectively integrated AI capabilities into different parts of the tool and gives its users powerful analysis features to keep up to date on social media trends. 

One of the possible drawbacks of choosing Sprinklr is that it has a relatively expensive subscription options. Its cheapest plan starts at $299 a month and allows you to track only a relatively small number of profiles with it. For added features, such as some AI features related to benchmarking and analysis, you would have to contact their sales team to get a custom plan.

Emplifi

Emplifi places a strong emphasis on social media analytics and has good social media publishing features. What may make this option so appealing to some companies is that Emplifi provides many different solutions for marketing, sales, and customer service teams along with its social media management solutions. 

One thing to note about Emplifi is that its cheapest plan for social media management starts at $200 a month and that plan includes only 10 profiles to track, analyze, and/or manage. Moreover, its higher priced plans for social media management don’t publicize prices and requests that you contact their sales team.

Agorapulse

As an alternative to Sprout Social, Agorapulse provides advanced reporting capabilities and a comprehensive array of metrics for analyzing social media performance, including detailed competitor benchmarking and trend analysis. Agorapulse also offers a freemium version which is fairly basic but at least allows you to get started with a social media management tool. 

Like so many social media tools, Agorapulse charges its users for tracking additional profiles outside of what is allowed by the plan. Each additional profile outside the 10 allowed by the Standard, Professional, and Advanced plans costs an extra 10 Euros per month. This can make this tool expensive for those who want to track dozens or even hundreds of profiles.

Brandwatch

Brandwatch is one of the biggest names on the market not only for social media management but also other areas related to business insights and research. If you are looking for more than just social media management from one single company, then Brandwatch may be for you. 

However, Brandwatch’s solutions may be outside the price range of many businesses, especially small businesses on a limited budget. Moreover, some may find it difficult to navigate through all the options available in terms of the features and functions you need for your business across marketing and sales teams.

Metricool

Metricool may be a good Social Sprout alternative for those searching for a social media tool with a freemium option. In fact, with Metricool’s free option, you can add up to 5 profiles of your competitors for analysis. In this sense, it also offers rather affordable paid plans as well that gives you much of what you need to get your social media management activities up and running. 

However, Metricool may have a few weaknesses you should be aware of. For instance, community management functions does not appear to be a strength of this tool, with relatively limited features for managing a large number of followers and their messages and comments. Moreover, its publishing feature may not do the best job at helping teams exchange ideas and coordinate content creation.