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Planable is the best client-facing social media tool we’ve ever used and we’ve used a lot.
Content management tools are lifesavers when you're a marketer. These tools go beyond just a social media calendar or a task tracker. They help you organize and streamline all your content processes, from planning and creating to reporting to your clients. We all know...
Planable is one of the top social media management tools for agencies, offering a highly intuitive, beautiful interface and the most advanced collaboration options I’ve seen. And while the tool gets constantly updated with new features and capabilities, it might not be the best fit for everyone.
I’m here to help you find the best solution for your specific needs, so let me walk you through some of the most popular alternatives currently available. I’ll cover each tool’s key features so you can find the best option for your goals.
Planable is a social media management tool that also doubles as a content planning and collaboration platform.
Key features in Planable: content planning, approvals, scheduling, feedback & media library tools
Users can collaborate on all sorts of written content, like blogs and ad copy, via its Universal Content feature bundle, and then schedule posts across multiple social media channels directly from the same platform.
But despite direct social media scheduling capabilities, Planable currently doesn’t offer native integrations with any CMS tools to schedule or publish blogs or other website content.
That means you do have to copy that content from Planable and paste it into your CMS. At least it doesn’t mess up your formatting like when you copy from a Google Doc into WordPress.
As for social media, Planable currently lacks social inbox management, hashtag tracking, and competitive analytics.
That doesn’t mean Planable’s features are lackluster. In fact, it’s very strong when it comes to three of the most important aspects of social media management – content planning, collaboration, and approval.
Let’s have a look at how some of the platform’s key functionalities work.
Content planning with Planable is a walk in the park. Its drag-and-drop calendar lets you easily schedule content across multiple channels and organize them through color-coded labels.
Content calendar view in Planable
Sifting through already-scheduled content is also a breeze — the platform’s ample selection of filters lets you search through posts based on content and post types (images, videos, Stories, Reels, etc.), approval status, labels, authors, and so on.
Content approval with just one click directly in the calendar view and quick access to the platform’s built-in media library are just a few of the platform’s other standouts.
Media library for images and videos in Planable
However, the media library may be tricky to navigate, especially when dealing with numerous files. You can only filter through used, unused, and deleted media assets. The option to organize assets into multiple folders, search for files by name, or have some of the calendar’s filtering options would be a great addition.
Planable’s collaboration features are among its hallmarks. You can collaborate on projects through real-time comments, clear text suggestions, and annotations — particularly handy for long-form content creation, like blogs.
Content collaboration in Planable
Planable lets you set up separate workspaces dedicated to each team, client, or brand. I love that the platform also includes internal notes and posts. You can make comments or entire projects only visible to team members — perfect for hiding ongoing work away from external stakeholders.
Internal setting option in Planable
Planable also includes version control and lets you edit and leave comments on images or videos. The downside is that these features don’t include visual and timestamp annotations.
Planable’s approval features are top-notch. You can set up a customized approval workflow by picking between four workflow types: none, optional, required, and multi-level.
Multi-level approval workflow in Planable
The ability to set approvals as optional — or skip them completely — is a particularly nice touch for small teams that don’t have a dedicated reviewer onboard.
Multi-level approvals, however, work best in large teams that seek to establish in-depth content review processes involving multiple departments.
You can set up multiple approval levels, with each containing as many team members as you wish. Content has to pass through each distinct layer before the final green light.
But “large teams” is the keyword here — multi-level approvals are only available in the platform’s top-tier Enterprise package.
Planable Analytics lets you easily gauge your campaign performance across one or multiple social media accounts. The analytics dashboard gives you a high-level visual overview of your social media performance across various metrics like reach, engagement, impressions, followers, and profile visits.
Social media analytics dashboard in Planable
Planable’s Top Performing Content feature also pulls your top three posts in terms of engagement and impressions. You can then zoom in on the details and view each post’s interactions, like comments, shares, and likes.
You can generate easy-to-grasp reports in just a few clicks and share them via email or download them as PDF files directly within the platform. Planable also reveals anything and everything you need to know about your social media audience — from your followers’ location (countries and cities) down to your audience’s age and gender distribution.
The drawback? Planable’s analytics capabilities are only available as a paid add-on. Pricing starts at $9 per workspace per month (billed yearly).
Pricing: Paid packages start at $33 per month. Planable’s free version also lets you schedule up to 50 total posts.
While Planable is a highly valued social media management and content collaboration platform, it might still not quite fit your specific needs. So let’s have a look at some of the best Planable alternatives and where they fill in the gaps.
Hootsuite is an all-in-one social media management software solution that includes social inbox management, ad campaign management, and content curation capabilities.
The platform stands out through its social media analytics and listening features. Hootsuite’s competitive benchmarking tool lets social media managers compare their campaign’s performance against their main competitors’ or industry averages side-by-side.
Hootsuite then offers insights regarding each competitor’s top posts and content performance by post type based on specific metrics, as well as its trending hashtags.
As for social media listening, Hootsuite’s AI-powered features analyze brand mentions and social media conversations to generate follower sentiment summaries and forecasts.
Set up, manage, and track ad campaigns across multiple social media accounts directly in Hootsuite. Easily generate ad copy with Hootsuite’s AI writing assistant and automatically turn high-performing organic posts into boosted content to maximize awareness.
Schedule multiple social media posts simultaneously across one or multiple social media accounts through bulk scheduling. Get ideal posting time suggestions and boost website traffic through Hootsuite’s built-in link in bio page builder.
Monitor your overall social media presence with cross-network reports. Compare your paid and organic social media campaigns side-by-side. Track each employee’s social media response times and resolution rates to gauge your social customer service efforts.
Pricing: Hootsuite starts at $99 per month for one user (billed yearly). A 30-day free trial is available.
Drawbacks: Hootsuite’s social media listening tools are only available as paid extra add-ons — pricing is not disclosed.
Takeaway: Hootsuite is among the top Planable alternatives for large teams with big budgets seeking to handle multiple social media activities, from post scheduling to ad campaign management and social listening.
Sprout Social is a unified social media management solution that banks on customer service. The platform’s contact records help you monitor all previous customer interactions while its built-in social inbox pulls any new comments, DMs, and mentions from all your social channels.
You can reply or delegate these messages to specific team members and boost productivity through AI-powered summaries, message prioritization, and agent replies. Sprout Social also lets you respond to customer reviews across the most popular review sites and set up chatbots for Facebook or Twitter.
Most notably, there’s the Message Spike Alerts feature. Sprout Social notifies you whenever there’s a sudden surge in brand mentions — perfect to prevent any potential PR crises. Other customer service-specific features include case management, reply collision detection, and CSAT or NPS surveys.
Use the platform’s ideal posting time suggestions to schedule content for maximized engagement. Post content across multiple social channels simultaneously and leverage the Content Suggestions feature to curate posts relevant to your brand.
Compare boosted and organic campaign performance. Generate cross-network or network-specific reports and monitor your customer service strategy through dedicated case activity reports.
Use Sprout Social’s AI-powered sentiment analysis to understand how people perceive your brand across the web and prioritize incoming customer messages based on their sentiment (negative, positive, neutral).
Pricing: Plans start at $199 per user per month (billed yearly). You can also try Sprout Social for free for up to 30 days.
Drawbacks: Sprout Social can’t upload multiple videos for Instagram Carousel posts.
Takeaway: If you can afford the significantly higher bill, Sprout Social is one of the best Planable alternatives for big companies that prioritize social media customer service strategies.
Later is a simple social media scheduler that stands out through its Instagram and TikTok-specific features.
The platform includes a solid drag-and-drop link in bio page builder — complete with SEO meta title and description customization, as well as page analytics like views, click-throughs, and conversions.
You can highlight specific products through featured banners and build email lists via Later’s native Mailchimp integration, which is perfect for eCommerce brands.
Later also includes a dedicated Instagram grid planner, Instagram first-comment scheduling, and TikTok-specific analytics.
Streamline content scheduling across all networks through bulk scheduling and auto-posting. Maximize content visibility and engagement with ideal posting time and Instagram hashtag suggestions.
Track your Instagram performance through post, Reel, and Story analytics. Monitor your TikTok posts’ average watch times, the percentage of followers who watched a video in full, and more.
Monitor Instagram and TikTok conversations and easily reply to comments from both social media channels via Later’s built-in message inbox.
Pricing: Later starts at $16.67 per month (billed yearly). There’s a 14-day free trial available for all pricing plans.
Drawbacks: Although Later supports multiple social media networks, most of its features strictly focus on Instagram and TikTok. The inbox management tool is only available for these two platforms, while Later’s hashtag suggestions only work for Instagram, for instance.
Takeaway: Later is one of the Planable alternatives for small businesses looking to boost e-commerce sales through TikTok and Instagram.
Metricool is an all-in-one social media management solution complete with hashtag tracking, social media inbox, and ad management capabilities. The platform stands out through its social media profile analytics.
You can get detailed insights on any social account’s performance — be it your own, your competitor’s, or a potential influencer’s. These details include a list of an account’s posts with a brief overview of each post’s interactions, engagement rates, likes, and comments.
You can also visualize a specific account’s follower growth and posting frequency, or create a list of all your competitors so you can have on-hand access to their performance metrics.
Easily deploy and monitor Facebook and Google Ads campaigns directly within the platform. Compare your campaigns’ performance side-by-side to fine-tune your strategy.
Plan social media posts via a drag-and-drop interface. Edit images, add alt texts for visuals, or shorten links directly in the calendar view. Set up your time zone preferences and let the platform automatically post content whenever you need it to.
Create link in bio pages with fully customizable URLs, buttons, and layouts. Track metrics like visits, organic clicks, and each button’s click-through rate.
Pricing: Paid packages start at $18 per month (billed yearly). There’s also a free version available that includes up to 50 posts per month.
Drawbacks: Some features are only available for specific platforms. Ad campaign management only works for Google and Facebook Ads, while hashtag tracking is strictly available for Instagram and Twitter.
Takeaway: Metricool’s social media profile analytics make it a good alternative to Planable for those who need a tool to research influencers or track competitors, and don’t need it for content planning.
Buffer is a versatile social media marketing tool with robust inbox management, social scheduling, and analytics capabilities. The platform particularly stands out through its native Shopify integration.
You can connect your Shopify website to Buffer and see which social media channels drive the most customers — complete with insights on average order values, top-selling products, and more.
Buffer’s Start Page functionality also lets you set up fully-customized link in bio pages and track their performance.
Store content ideas in the platform’s dedicated Ideas tab and turn these ideas into first drafts, which you can then refine into fully-fledged posts with your team. Kickstart the brainstorming process with Buffer’s AI-powered assistant.
Track hashtag, boosted, and organic post performance across multiple platforms. Use Buffer’s Shopify analytics to cross-reference social media performance with your sales data as well as top products and referrals.
Monitor and reply to messages within a unified dashboard. Leverage the platform’s machine-learning capabilities to prioritize question-based messages or negative comments.
Pricing: Paid packages start at $5 per month per profile. There’s also a free version that includes up to three social media profiles.
Drawbacks: The platform’s per-profile pricing structure can get pricey for social media managers who manage multiple social media accounts.
Takeaway: Buffer is among the best Planable alternatives for Shopify store owners looking to track and optimize their social media campaigns for improved sales.
SocialPilot is an all-in-one social media solution with solid client management tools. You can add and manage multiple clients from a single dashboard and assign custom permission for each external stakeholder.
SocialPilot also lets you create separate internal and external approval workflows, while clients can easily review your projects from any device via direct links — no account required.
Easily plan content for multiple networks and clients through a drag-and-drop interface. Use the platform’s filters to search for specific posts by client, account, team, social network, or approval status.
Generate unified reports that include up to ten different accounts. Set up custom reporting schedules to ensure consistency and have these reports automatically delivered to your clients’ inboxes.
Organize media assets through color-coded labels, store hashtag lists, and allow specific teams to view, edit, or store content.
Pricing: SocialPilot starts at $25.5 per month (billed yearly) with a 14-day free trial available for all pricing plans.
Drawbacks: SocialPilot’s client management tools are only available from the Agency plan and up, which costs $85 per month.
Takeaway: SocialPilot is a worthy alternative to Planable if you’re looking for more advanced analytics & reporting capabilities, especially for Google Business Profile reports.
Planoly is a straightforward social media planning and management solution designed for small influencers and individual creators. It offers the tools necessary to grow your social media presence under an affordable package.
You can plan your content through an easy-to-use calendar, while the Auto-Post feature will automatically publish the content for you — no extra clicks needed.
Planoly also provides a weekly curated list of trending songs and videos to help you draw inspiration and make your posts more relatable. Other handy tools include an AI caption writer and access to various social content templates.
Save links, notes, or videos in the platform, and get to work on them whenever you feel inspired.
Easily set up Instagram microsites, with the option to add products and checkout forms (paid add-on).
Customize the same content piece for multiple social channels as you draft it. Get content previews to make sure your post is in tip-top shape across all platforms.
Pricing: Planoly starts at $14 per month (billed yearly). There’s a 7-day free trial for all pricing packages.
Drawbacks: Planoly is rather limited compared to the other tools in this list. Numerous features are only available for Instagram, like its stock photo library, analytics, and link in bio page builder.
Takeaway: Planoly is a good alternative to Planable for those seeking a simple and affordable social media scheduling tool without any collaboration elements.
Although some of the social media management tools above are suited for particular use cases and may outperform Planable in specific departments, Planable is still probably the best all-around choice.
While its analytics isn’t as advanced as other tools, Planable’s content creation and collaboration features make the social media processes very smooth for teams and agencies.
Its drag-and-drop calendar with color-coded labels, one-click approvals, and broad set of filtering options lets you easily look up, organize, and roll out social media posts.
Content calendar interface in Planable
The platform’s recurring and multi-profile scheduling also add an extra layer of convenience. Planable’s image and video editing tools with built-in commenting and version control can spare creative teams the need for separate editing or file-proofing software.
Speaking of creative teams, Planable doubles down on what matters the most — collaboration ✨.
Real-time comments and notifications along with text annotations and suggestions allow for quick and precise feedback giving. Meanwhile, the platform’s customizable approval workflows let you find and set up the right reviewing processes for your team — be it simple or complex.
Approvals and collaboration in Planable
The option to collaborate on and review content outside social media posts is another nice touch. It allows creative teams to work on multiple marketing campaigns and streamline content repurposing, for instance.
To recap, Planoly is a good Planable alternative if you manage your social media accounts alone, especially on Instagram — it’s simple and affordable.
Other established social media management tools like Hootsuite and Sprout Social are good choices for large brands prioritizing social media customer service, but come with a significant price tag. And Later and Buffer are highly capable Planable alternatives for eCommerce brands.
Meanwhile, Planable is an excellent all-around choice with top-notch team collaboration and approval tools. Why not try it and see for yourself with 50 free posts?
Miruna Dragomir, CMO @Planable, ex Social Media Comms Manager @Oracle & ex Marketing Coordinator @Uber. 9 years of experience in social media and marketing. Built Planable’s brand and reputation and helped grow it from 50 customers to over 6.5K. Social media fanatic, tech geek & a sucker for learning.
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