Top 10 Social Media Marketing Tools

Social media marketing tools save time on the parts of the work that repeat: scheduling posts, answering comments, planning content, designing and reporting. Most small businesses need only two of the top 10 social media marketing tools below: one to schedule and manage accounts, and one to create content. Several have free plans that are enough to start.

Social media marketing tools at a glance

• Best free start: Buffer, CoSchedule or Agorapulse’s free plan for scheduling, plus Canva Free for design.

• Best for teams with many accounts: Hootsuite, Sprout Social or Agorapulse.

• Best for agencies: Sendible.

• Best for recycling evergreen posts: SocialBee or MeetEdgar.

• Best for research: BuzzSumo.

Prices below are in US dollars unless stated, as shown on each vendor’s pricing page in November 2026. They change often, so confirm before you buy.

Scheduling and account management tools

• 1. Buffer: Simple scheduling across the main networks, with a clean calendar and basic analytics. The easiest place to start if you post for one business. Free plan for 3 channels and 10 scheduled posts per channel. Essentials is $5 a month per channel; 14-day trial.

• 2. Hootsuite: An all-in-one platform for scheduling, a shared inbox, social listening and reports. Suits teams that manage many accounts. No free plan. Standard is $99 per user a month billed yearly, with 10 social accounts; 14-day trial.

• 3. Sprout Social: Team collaboration, a unified inbox and detailed reporting. Priced for businesses that treat social as a main channel. No free plan. Essentials is $79 per seat a month billed yearly, or $99 billed monthly; 30-day trial.

• 4. Agorapulse: Strong on the inbox: comments, messages and mentions from every network in one place, plus scheduling and reports. Free Archie plan for Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube. Standard is $79 per user a month billed yearly, or $99 monthly; 30-day trial.

• 5. Sendible: Built for agencies and freelancers who manage social media for several clients, with separate workspaces. No free plan. Core is $35 a month, or $29.75 a month billed yearly, with 6 profiles and unlimited users; 14-day trial.

Content planning and recycling tools

• 6. SocialBee: Organizes posts into content categories and re-shares evergreen posts on a schedule, so your feed stays balanced. No free plan. Bootstrap is $29 a month, or $24 a month billed yearly, with 5 profiles; 14-day trial.

• 7. MeetEdgar: Builds a library of evergreen posts and keeps re-sharing them automatically, for businesses short on time. No free plan. Eddie is $29.99 a month or $299 a year, with 5 accounts; 30-day trial that converts to paid automatically.

• 8. CoSchedule: A marketing calendar that puts social posts beside blog posts, email and campaigns. Free plan for 1 profile and up to 15 scheduled posts. Starter is $29 a month billed yearly, or $39 monthly, with 3 profiles; 14-day trial.

Research and design tools

• 9. BuzzSumo: Research, not scheduling: find what content performs in your field, and the journalists and creators who share it. No free plan. Content Creation is $199 a month billed yearly; 30-day trial limited to 50 searches.

• 10. Canva: Design posts, stories and short videos from templates, with your brand colours and fonts, no designer needed. Free plan with 5 GB of storage and one brand kit. Canva Pro is CA$142 a year on Canva’s Canadian pricing page.

How much do social media marketing tools cost?

Social media tools range from free to several hundred dollars a month. The price depends mostly on two numbers: how many social profiles you connect, and how many people need a login.

• Free: enough for one person posting to two or three accounts (Buffer, CoSchedule, Agorapulse’s Archie plan, Canva Free).

• About $5–$40 a month: one business with a handful of profiles (Buffer Essentials, Sendible Core, SocialBee, MeetEdgar, CoSchedule Starter).

• About $80–$100 per user a month: teams that need a shared inbox, approvals and detailed reports (Hootsuite, Sprout Social, Agorapulse Standard).

• $199 a month and up: research tools such as BuzzSumo, worth it when content is a main sales channel.

Watch for per-user pricing. A $79 plan for a team of three costs $237 a month.

How to choose a social media marketing tool

• Count your accounts and people. One person with two accounts needs Buffer or similar; a team with many accounts needs Hootsuite, Sprout Social or Agorapulse.

• Check the networks you use. Make sure the tool supports each one you post to, including the video formats you need. Agorapulse’s free plan, for example, covers only Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube.

• Decide whether you need an inbox. If comments and messages matter to your sales, favour Agorapulse or Sprout Social over a pure scheduler.

• Try before you pay. Most offer a free plan or trial; schedule a real week of posts before deciding, and note when a trial converts to paid.

• Check prices on each site. Plans and limits change often, especially for team seats.

The rule we give clients at msmtech: pick the simplest tool that covers your accounts, and move up only when you hit a limit you can name. A tool set up in a burst and then abandoned costs more than no tool.

Common mistakes with social media tools

• Buying a team platform for one person. Pay for seats and features you will use this quarter.

• Posting the same text everywhere. Schedulers make cross-posting easy, but each network has its own length, format and tone.

• Ignoring the inbox. Scheduled posts bring comments; someone still has to answer them.

• Trusting the tool’s reports alone. Check visits and sales from social in your own web analytics →

A tool only helps if there is a plan behind it. Read how to plan social media marketing for a small business →. For the bigger picture, see marketing in the digital age for small businesses →. Need a website for your social posts to point to? Talk to msmtech →

Frequently asked questions

What is the best free social media management tool?

For one person posting to a few accounts, Buffer’s free plan is the simplest start: 3 channels and 10 scheduled posts per channel, as of November 2026. CoSchedule and Agorapulse also have free plans, each with its own limits.

Is Hootsuite free?

No. Hootsuite has no free plan as of November 2026; its Standard plan costs $99 per user a month billed yearly, after a 14-day trial. Buffer, CoSchedule and Agorapulse offer free plans instead.

What is the cheapest social media scheduler?

Among these ten, Buffer’s Essentials plan is the cheapest paid option at $5 a month per channel, as of November 2026. For a business with a single channel that works out to $60 a year.

Is Canva Pro worth it for social media?

Canva Free covers most small-business posts. Canva Pro, at CA$142 a year as of November 2026, adds more templates and brand kit options, which saves time if you post several times a week.