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Managing multiple social media accounts can quickly become overwhelming without the right tools in place. Rella is a content management platform designed to simplify that process with features for planning, scheduling, approvals, and analytics. It’s a solid option for...
Sep 23, 2025
A smooth calendar–collaboration–approval loop is non-negotiable when you’re managing content at scale. Gain helps many teams get there, but not without its hiccups. Users mention that the previews are a little off, LinkedIn constantly needs reconnecting, and notifications get overwhelming fast. All of that, plus a need for more profound analytics, is enough to make many consider Gain app alternatives.
But which tool can truly deliver? The right platform speeds up social media approval and makes it equally easy to create, manage, and distribute content. I’ve gathered 7 strong solutions to help you improve your workflows and replace Gain.
Gain is a content approval and social scheduling app that is popular among marketing agencies and content teams.
It helps businesses manage content for multiple clients, set up auto-approval workflows, and publish to major social media platforms. Gain has a fairly user-friendly interface that helps teams onboard even the least tech-savvy clients.
That said, the app isn’t the perfect fit for everyone.
Some users report publishing issues, limited mobile access, and a lack of flexibility with notifications. Others want better analytics, faster support, or more options to customize their workflow.
If you want an app that scales better, excels across devices, gives you more control, and has more robust capabilities, you might want to look into other options.
Let’s take a closer look at some of Gain’s key features and where users feel the friction.
Gain’s calendar view helps you keep track of all your marketing efforts. You can view a month of social media posts or opt for a gallery view with big thumbnails and the core idea behind each.
Each client, brand, or team gets their workspace. Content tags, filters, and labels help you organize your content the way you want.
However, some users say visual previews don’t always match the final post, making content reviews tricky.
And if you rely on the calendar while on the go, users report that the mobile app won’t help much: it shows notifications but doesn’t give you full calendar access.
One of Gain’s standout capabilities is its approval flow setup. You can assign one or multiple approvers, set custom steps, and automate reviewer reminders. This eases collaboration, especially when you want to keep internal and client feedback loops separate.
But when it comes to larger teams or high-volume clients, users say the notifications stack up fast. This can be overwhelming when you’re running several campaigns at once.
Gain supports auto-publishing to most major platforms once a post is approved. You can reuse content by duplicating it for different channels and recycle posts automatically within a date range you choose.
However, users report running into publishing bugs, especially on LinkedIn, where accounts often have to be reconnected manually.
And while posts can be sent to multiple platforms, the analytics that follow are basic, showing little beyond status updates and confirmation that the content went live.
The right platform can become a real game-changer for your content workflow. Even small differences, like how you approve posts or view a calendar, start to matter when you scale.
So take a close look at how your team works and choose a tool that fits. Look for these features when choosing Gain alternatives:
Whether you’re a large enterprise or a small in-house team, your content workflow is the foundation of your operations. Gain remains a good option for brands and businesses that focus on calendar and approval flows, but its mobile app limitations and quite weak analytics call for a fallback.
Here are 7 top Gain alternatives for improved workflows:
Planable is a content collaboration platform for marketers and agencies dealing with high volumes of social content. Similar to Gain, it focuses on simplifying content workflows for both internal and external stakeholders. However, Planable takes it up a notch with customizable approval flows, a clear and simple interface, and a powerful mobile app that allows you to do the same things on the go.
Approve, schedule, or publish posts in Planable with built-in collaboration tools and cross-platform content previews.
Here’s what Planable brings to the table:
All this and more is why Planable is a great fit for those who value structure, clarity, and speed in both content planning and approval flows.
Planable lives and breathes fast feedback. You can leave comments, add notes and annotations, and tag teammates directly inside the post view. This keeps all your feedback in context, making it super easy to implement changes.
Planable also allows you to give clients or stakeholders a quick overview of the content plan via a guest view link. They can see posts and give feedback without having to log in.
Make content edits in Planable with real-time team suggestions and inline feedback to speed up the approval process.
Every comment can be treated as a to-do. Reply to feedback and resolve comments once you’re done with them. You see changes as they happen, and everyone’s editing the same version of the post.
Have something to discuss but not ready to involve your client yet? Use private notes to keep things just between us marketers before presenting your creations to the clients or the world.
Collaborate on content in Planable with real-time feedback, comments, and visual approval for campaigns.
Approvals are where Planable truly shines. Its approval system lets you choose from 4 approval flows: none, optional, mandatory, or multi-level.
Set up the content approval workflow at a workspace level. Everyone’s looped in, from internal lead to legal advisers to clients.
Set up multi-level approval workflows in Planable with drag-and-drop collaborators and customizable publishing rules.
You can set up optional or mandatory steps and automate publishing once final approval hits. Clients can review posts without logging in, and internal comments stay private. This ensures nothing goes live until it’s ready.
Whether you’re managing one brand or 20, Planable’s approval flows help you keep the quality high and the chaos low.
With Planable, every brand or client gets its own workspace. That means separate calendars, team members, and content. No crossed wires, no mix-ups.
Inside each workspace, you’ll find planning, approvals, publishing, and analytics. You can invite clients to their dedicated space and control what they can see or edit. Set up roles and permissions for each workspace to fine-tune access.
Organize your campaigns by client or brand using Planable’s workspaces, each with its own team and pages.
Workspaces keep your content organized, your teammates focused, and your clients involved but not overwhelmed.
Pricing: You can try Planable for free for 50 posts. The paid plans start at $33/month per workspace.
Drawbacks: Planable has no direct integration with CMS platforms for web publishing. It also doesn’t have social listening.
Takeaway: Planable’s flexible approvals, mobile-friendly setup, and client-ready workspaces make it the best alternative to Gain if you want quicker turnarounds, powerful content creation, and organized feedback and approval loops.
Zoho Social is part of the wider Zoho ecosystem, which makes it a natural fit for teams already using tools like Zoho CRM, Zoho Docs, or Zoho Campaigns. Unlike Gain’s approval-focused setup, Zoho is centered on content management—planning, scheduling, and engagement all in one place.
Zoho is a good pick if your focus is on posting and tracking content, not getting approvals. It’s also great for cross-functional collaboration, since it connects with other Zoho products like social CRM or documents.
Key features
Pricing: Zoho Social has a free plan. Paid plans start at $15/month and include one brand. Extra brands can be added as needed.
Drawbacks: Some platforms, like TikTok and YouTube, are only available with paid plans. The mobile app could also use some improvements in terms of speed and usability.
Zoho Social vs. Gain takeaway
Zoho’s tight connection to other Zoho apps makes it a smart pick for cross-department (marketing, sales, and customer service) visibility, though it’s not as approval-focused as Gain.
Hootsuite is a comprehensive social media management tool for large enterprises. Compared to Gain, it has much more robust capabilities in terms of analytics. You can build white-label reports, monitor sentiment, and benchmark performance against industry standards.
Hootsuite works best for businesses focused on performance metrics, large-scale engagement, and brand insights.
Key features
Pricing: Hootsuite starts at $149/month per user. You can try it for free for 30 days.
Drawback: Hootsuite isn’t tailored for approval pipelines or real-time workflow collaboration. Its interface is also pretty overwhelming.
Hootsuite vs. Gain takeaway
Hootsuite outperforms Gain in analytics, listening, and performance benchmarking. It’s best suited to brands that live and breathe deep insights that matter more than multi-step approval flows.
Monday.com is a project management platform that helps teams of all sizes plan, prioritize, manage, and execute their work more effectively. Like Gain, it supports workflows with a feedback loop, but takes it further with custom automations, advanced views, and deeper project tracking.
Monday is ideal for managing content alongside other marketing or operational projects.
Key features
Pricing: Monday has a free plan. Paid plans start at $9/month per seat.
Drawback: Monday.com doesn’t natively publish to social media or preview posts, making extra tools necessary for content distribution.
Monday.com vs. Gain takeaway
Monday.com offers greater customization, automation, and cross-project tracking than Gain. It’s a good pick for managing content as part of wider operational or marketing workflows.
Buffer is a straightforward, clean social media scheduling tool tailored for creators and small brands or businesses. While Gain focuses on an agency-centric approach, Buffer wins by making post scheduling and performance tracking quick and easy. Its user-friendly interface has practically no learning curve.
Buffer is great for solopreneurs, freelancers, or small teams who want to plan and publish posts effectively, track basic analytics, and keep content workflows lean and simple.
Key features
Pricing: Buffer has a free plan. Paid plans start at $6/month per channel.
Drawbacks: Buffer lacks rich approvals or multi-team workflows. It also doesn’t offer many options for client management, like workspaces or separate calendars.
Buffer vs. Gain takeaway
Buffer’s clean, no-frills scheduling works well if you don’t require layered approvals or multiple client calendars.
ZoomSphere is a lesser-known but powerful social media tool built for sophisticated workflows. It combines approvals, task tracking, and project organization with monitoring and reporting functionalities.
ZoomSphere is a good fit for teams that manage multiple brands or clients, need structured task hand-offs and visual dashboards, and want built-in review loops.
Key features
Pricing: ZoomSphere offers a 14-day free trial. Paid plans start at $179/month.
Drawback: ZoomSphere doesn’t integrate with Canva or other content creation tools.
ZoomSphere vs. Gain takeaway
ZoomSphere combines scheduling with task tracking, monitoring, and reporting, giving teams more operational control than Gain. A solid fit if internal task coordination is a top priority.
Loomly is a social media management tool that helps you move from idea to post with built-in content inspiration, approval flows, and publishing tools. It also functions as a campaign management tool, offering robust support for sponsored content, an area where Gain provides more basic functionality.
Loomly is a strong fit for marketing teams, agencies, or creators who want clean workflows and creative flexibility at a campaign level.
Key features
Pricing: Loomly has a trial period and 2 paid plans with custom pricing.
Drawback: Loomly’s analytics are not very detailed. Recently, Loomly raised its price, and according to some reviews, it was a significant bump, especially for small businesses.
Loomly vs. Gain takeaway
Loomly adds campaign-level planning and asset management to the mix, being a better option than Gain for mixing content creation with long-term campaign tracking.
When choosing a Gain alternative, the main factor to consider is the most important part of your workflow.
Depending on what matters the most to you and your team, choose the option that fits your budget and scalability requirements:
Ready to move on from Gain? Try Planable—the first 50 posts are on us, no strings attached.
Content marketer with a background in journalism; digital nomad, and tech geek. In love with blogs, storytelling, strategies, and old-school Instagram. If it can be written, I probably wrote it.
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