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Planable is the best client-facing social media tool we’ve ever used and we’ve used a lot.
Feeling overwhelmed by the never-ending list of marketing tasks? You're not alone. Today, marketers are expected to be jacks of all trades, handling everything from strategizing to creating content calendars and running profitable campaigns. But AI technology comes in...
Feb 4, 2025
If you’re building up your marketing agency software stack, Sprinklr may seem like a solid choice for boosting your brand’s reputation and awareness. It handles consumer insights, social listening, social media management, and loads more. But the platform comes at quite a hefty price tag — other Sprinklr alternatives are significantly more budget-friendly with little compromise in their capabilities.
So do Sprinklr’s features justify its price tag? Let’s have a look.
Sprinklr offers a product suite with solutions dedicated to social media management, content marketing and planning, customer service, and consumer insights via market intelligence. There’s a lot to unpack, but let’s stick to the platform’s social media management tools since that’s what you’re probably here for.
In a nutshell, Sprinklr Social is super robust. The platform includes features for planning, organizing, and tracking social media campaigns, gauging and managing how followers perceive your brand, and organizing your branded assets — all under the same roof.
And Sprinklr is consistently in-depth across all its social media management-specific features. For example, the platform’s analytics tools cover separate reports for account performance, paid campaigns, brand mentions, user-generated content, and so on.
The drawbacks? Sprinklr starts at $199 per user per month (annual billing) — for the social media management tool alone. Most users also report quite a steep learning curve, with marketing teams requiring extensive training to use the platform efficiently.
Still, let’s take a better look at Sprinklr’s calendar, collaboration, and approval tools to see whether it makes up for its drawbacks.
Sprinklr’s social calendar holds up well against most content calendar tools. You can plan and manage your content marketing strategy through loads of features available directly within the calendar view — there’s the option to leave notes, automatically roll out content based on ideal posting time suggestions, and more.
You can also track separate campaigns through color-coded labels and an ample filter set (filter content by account, network, campaign, etc.). One feature I found particularly useful is the option to put all scheduled content on hold with just a few clicks — it can come in handy in case of any sudden PR crises.
As for drawbacks, the interface can get quite busy. For example, navigating through filters will require you to sift through numerous menus and sub-menus.
Sprinklr handles collaborative work via comments, mentions, and annotations — the option to annotate visuals is a big plus.
The platform also lets you leave notes directly on the calendar view, which is handy to quickly leave or view feedback. Still, unlike some other content collaboration tools, Sprinklr lacks clear text suggestions, which would’ve simplified feedback-giving processes.
Establishing an in-depth approval process with Sprinklr shouldn’t be an issue — the platform facilitates both tiered and parallel approvals. Tiered approvals establish systematic multi-level approval workflows — where content needs approval from all team members within a specific tier before passing down to the next approval layer.
Parallel approvals, however, allow team members across all departments to approve content at will. Enabling this feature does require you to reach out to the customer success manager or the support team, which can be an inconvenience.
Another feature that makes Sprinklr stand out from other dedicated approval tools is its Smart Approvals features — it leverages AI to check and flag content for any tone inconsistencies, for example.
Pricing: Sprinklr Social starts at $199 per user per month (billed annually). There’s also a 30-day free trial available.
Planable is a content planning platform that brings a large portion of Sprinklr’s top features in a much more accessible package — both in terms of pricing and ease of use.
The Universal Content feature lets you plan and collaborate on ad copy, newsletters, blogs, or any other written content types. Planable also doubles as a social media management tool — you can schedule content across most popular networks and access advanced tools like recurring post and cross-network publishing — all available under the same pricing plans.
Collaboration on a blog post in Planable
The platform’s hallmarks, however, are its collaboration and approval features. You can leave feedback via calendar notes, direct comments, annotations, and clear text suggestions. Planable’s customizable approvals let you pick between four distinct workflows: none, optional, required, and multi-level.
Let’s find out more about Planable’s key features and see how it stacks up against Sprinklr.
Planable lets you organize content via a drag-and-drop interface and color-coded labels. Just like Sprinklr, you get access to a huge selection of filters — you can browse posts based on approval status (approved, rejected, pending approval), content type (image, video, GIF, etc.), social network, campaign, and more.
Content calendar view in Planable
Still, I found Planable’s content calendar much easier to navigate — it’s not as busy and the filter set is neatly laid out, for example. You can also approve posts in the calendar view through just a click, which is a nice touch.
Most notably, you can set up multiple workspaces — each having its own dedicated calendar. This makes it easier to organize content for different clients, campaigns, teams, and so on.
As for drawbacks, Planable doesn’t include the option to schedule and manage advertising campaigns — unlike Sprinklr.
Planable’s collaboration tools make feedback-giving a breeze. Aside from comments, annotations, and suggestions, you can also invite external stakeholders through shareable links. The option to mark feedback or entire posts as internal ensures ongoing projects are hidden away from the client’s view until they’re ready.
Setting new posts as internal only in Planable
You can also assign custom user roles and permissions (viewer-only, approver, editor, publisher, etc.) to gain complete control over who can do what on a specific workspace. Other notable features include version control as well as email or app notifications.
Selecting workspace permissions in Planable
Planable lets you leave comments on visuals like images and videos too, which you can store for repeat use in the platform’s media library.
The platform’s multi-layer approvals work similar to Sprinklr’s.
Multi-level approval workflow in Planable
You can set up multiple approval levels and content has to pass through all tiers before reaching the final level — ideal to ensure content goes through a thorough review process prior to the final approver, like your client.
Still, Planable lacks features similar to Sprinklr’s AI-powered approval tools.
Pricing: Planable starts at $33 per workspace per month (annual billing). You can also schedule your first 50 posts completely for free.
Drawbacks: The platform lacks any social listening capabilities. Although it does offer social media analytics, they’re available as a paid add-on.
Takeaway: Overall, Planable is an excellent Sprinklr alternative for marketing agencies looking for a solution to streamline content creation and review processes.
Hootsuite is a unified social media management tool with particularly powerful analytics capabilities.
The platform lets you track anything and everything social media performance-related — from cross-network and platform-specific performance reports to ad campaign tracking, competitor benchmarking, and more.
Most notably, the platform can automatically identify top-performing organic content and turn it into boosted posts for maximized visibility and engagement.
Compare your social campaigns’ performance against your competitors or industry averages side-by-side. Track your competitors’ trending hashtags, account growth, and average post performance to identify any gaps you could fill in.
Respond to comments and DMs across multiple networks through a unified message inbox. Assign comments to specific team members and monitor agent response rates and resolution times to measure their effectiveness.
Plan social media posts within a straightforward calendar. Use the platform’s ideal posting time suggestions and automatically repurpose top-performing posts to maximize reach and engagement.
Pricing: Hootsuite’s plans start at $99 per month (annual billing) for one user and up to 10 social media accounts. You can also sign up for a 30-day free trial.
Drawbacks: The platform’s pricing structure is quite restrictive. The entry-level plan is only available to one user, while the Team package is limited to three users — the Enterprise package is the only option for larger social media teams.
Sprout Social stands out through its solid reputation management features. The platform lets you monitor and respond to online reviews across Yelp, Apple Store, and Google My Business, as well as handle social media comments.
There’s also the platform’s Message Spike Alerts feature — perfect for crisis management. It lets you know whenever there’s a sudden surge of brand mentions. Coupled with Sprout Social’s sentiment analysis tools, you can put out any potential PR crises before they blow out of proportion.
Generate cross-network and network-specific reports, and leverage the platform’s native Google Analytics integration to get a 360-degree overview of your social campaign’s performance.
Set up link-in-bio pages directly in Sprout Social. Measure page views and link clicks to identify top-performing posts in terms of click-throughs and conversions.
Collaborate with team members via calendar notes and internal comments. Ensure adequate responses through dedicated message approval workflows.
Pricing: Sprout Social starts at $199 per seat per month (annual billing) for up to five social media profiles. You can also try the platform for free for up to 30 days.
Drawbacks: Sprout Social’s price tag makes the platform hard to reach — especially for smaller agencies with more limited budgets.
HeyOrca is specifically built for agencies working with numerous clients. The platform lets you set up personalized calendars and media libraries for each brand your team handles, while stakeholders can leave feedback and approve or reject content with no logins required.
HeyOrca also comes with some handy inbox management tools — you can sift through comments, mentions, and DMs by social account and quickly respond to messages via AI-assisted replies.
Generate cross-channel reports to gauge social media performance across multiple networks side-by-side. Analyze competitors on Instagram and Facebook, and automatically schedule PDF reports to clients via email.
View internal and external comments within content previews, along with audit trails showing each and every tweak. Store client brand guidelines or content briefs via HeyOrca’s dedicated Notes section.
Plan and publish YouTube videos up to 10 minutes long directly within HeyOrca — YouTube Shorts are also included.
Pricing: Pricing plans start at $59 per calendar per month (annual billing). There’s also a 14-day free trial available.
Drawbacks: Although HeyOrca covers YouTube publishing, that platform’s analytics don’t monitor content on the network.
Planoly offers quite a few features to help solo content creators take some of the load off of running their social media accounts — especially Instagram.
The platform automatically posts content across multiple networks and provides a live feed of weekly trending songs and videos to boost content ideation. You can also store notes, URLs, and media files on Planoly’s Ideas Manager, so you can easily turn them into fully-fledged posts once inspiration hits.
Manage Instagram content under a dedicated grid view. Respond to comments, track Instagram performance, and set up link-in-bio pages complete with shoppable products and checkouts directly within the platform.
Schedule content across most popular social media platforms via an intuitive calendar view. Leave notes, set up reminders, and preview your content before you roll it out to socials.
Store and manage visual assets, as well as edit images and videos through various filters, stickers, text overlays, and more.
Pricing: Planoly starts at $14 per month (annual billing). There’s also a 14-day free trial available.
Drawbacks: Planoly’s feature set is rather limited, while a large portion of its functionalities are strictly available for Instagram.
SocialPilot’s entry-level pricing plan allows for up to 15 social media profiles across all popular networks (Google My Business included) and three users.
On top of that, you get access to LinkedIn PDF carousel post publishing, Facebook Audience targeting, the option to organize multiple social accounts into separate groups, and more — perfect for small teams on a budget handling a large number of social profiles.
Automatically schedule a series of cross-network posts based on the ideal posting times of each specific account.
Invite clients via shareable links, set up separate internal and external collaborator approval workflows for organized feedback processes, and collaborate via comments.
Use the platform’s AI tools to help with brainstorming, generating complete social media posts, or re-writing existing ones to fit specific networks.
Pricing: The platform’s Standard package costs $42.50 per month with three users included (annual billing). There’s also a 14-day free trial available.
Drawbacks: Scalability can be a challenge — there are steep pricing differences between plans.
Buffer includes loads of features to streamline the content ideation process.
The platform’s Ideas dashboard lets you jot down notes or store media (PDFs, GIFs, videos, photos, etc.) so you can turn them into complete posts whenever inspiration strikes.
Buffer’s AI assistant also helps brainstorm new content ideas, generate hashtags, or write up first drafts from scratch.
Maximize brand visibility and awareness through Buffer’s AI-powered analytics tools — get ideal posting time, content type, and posting frequency suggestions based on your social media performance.
Schedule content across all major platforms — YouTube, Threads, Mastodon, and BlueSky included. Schedule the same post on multiple networks and make platform-specific tweaks directly in the composer.
Generate audience demographics reports (gender, age, and location). Track hashtag performance and compare organic content against boosted posts to measure and optimize ROI.
Pricing: Buffer is available for free for up to three social media profiles. Paid plans start at $5 per profile per month (annual billing).
Drawbacks: Buffer’s team collaboration tools are only available in up-tier pricing packages.
Sendible makes it easy to plan and run complete social media campaigns.
You can create separate calendars and tags for each particular campaign, and assign group posts to their corresponding campaigns directly within the composer.
From there, Sendible tracks the number of posts rolled out and reveals the total number of interactions and followers they generated so you can easily gauge their effectiveness.
Monitor and reply to comments across Facebook (ads included), Instagram, LinkedIn, and more. Assign messages to the appropriate team member and leverage the platform’s Priority Inbox to handle urgent messages via its sentiment analysis capabilities.
Store media assets and hashtags under centralized dashboards dedicated to specific campaigns, clients, and more. Use the platform’s browser extensions so you can easily share content from your blog to your socials.
Use the platform’s native GA4 integration to gain actionable insights across your campaign’s performance. Set up custom reports via the platform’s report builder and send them over to clients via links.
Pricing: Sendible starts at $25 per month (annual billing). There’s also a 14-day free trial available.
Drawbacks: Entry-level plans lack key features, like analytics (outside its GA4 integration) and content libraries.
You’ve got loads of options. Hootsuite and Sprout Social are excellent for larger agencies banking on analytics and social engagement, for example. HeyOrca, SocialPilot, and Sendible work well if you handle multiple clients or work on campaigns at a large scale. And Buffer or Planoly is ideal for solopreneurs or micro-businesses.
Meanwhile, Planable is an excellent option for busy creative teams. The platform’s collaboration and approval tools let you work on all sorts of content and ensure your projects are in tip-top shape once they reach your clients. Plus, its calendar lets you easily plan and roll out posts across all major networks. And did I mention you can schedule your first 50 posts completely for free?
Digital marketing enthusiast, language nerd, and content writer. Horea loves writing about SaaS and anything that involves boosting online presence – from SEO to social media, web design, and more. His content is allergic to fluff and eats research for breakfast.
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