Head to head
Gain vs Zoho Social
Last updated 4 June 2026
vs
Gain is a content-approval tool first and a scheduler second. Its whole point is getting client sign-off without friction: clients review and approve posts by email or SMS without logging in, channels are unlimited, and you pay by team size and client count rather than per account.
- From
- $99 /mo
- Free plan
Zoho Social is the scheduler inside Zoho's wider business suite: capable publishing, a monitoring dashboard, and reporting that plugs straight into Zoho CRM. Pricing splits into single-brand business plans, billed per brand per member, and flat agency plans for managing many brands.
- From
- $10 /mo
- Free plan
Bottom line
Zoho Social is the pick for businesses already using Zoho CRM or the wider Zoho suite, and it's the only one of the two with a free plan. Gain fits agencies whose bottleneck is client review and sign-off better.
Zoho Social starts cheaper, $10 a month against $99 a month for Gain. Zoho Social adds social listening and advanced reports that Gain leaves out.
Key differences
Where the two actually diverge, before the full tables.
- Zoho Social has a free plan; Gain doesn't, though it offers a 14-day trial.
- Zoho Social starts at $10 a month, Gain at $99 a month.
- Gain posts to 8 networks, Zoho Social to 12.
- Only Zoho Social reaches YouTube, Bluesky, Mastodon, and Telegram.
- Zoho Social has social listening; Gain doesn't.
- Zoho Social has advanced reports; Gain doesn't.
- Zoho Social has social inbox; Gain doesn't.
- Zoho Social has link in bio; Gain doesn't.
Features compared
| Feature | Gain | Zoho Social |
|---|---|---|
| AI captions | Yes | Yes |
| Basic analytics | Yes | Yes |
| Advanced reports | No | Yes |
| Bulk upload | Not assessed | Yes |
| Evergreen recycling | No | Partial |
| Team roles | Yes | Yes |
| Approvals | Yes | Yes |
| Link in bio | No | Yes |
Platforms compared
| Network | Gain | Zoho Social |
|---|---|---|
| Auto | Auto | |
| Auto | Auto | |
| X (Twitter) | Auto | Auto |
| Auto | Auto | |
| TikTok | Auto | Auto |
| Auto | Auto | |
| YouTube | No | Auto |
| Threads | Auto | Auto |
| Bluesky | No | Auto |
| Google Business | Auto | Auto |
| Mastodon | No | Auto |
| Telegram | No | Auto |
Pricing
Headline prices are for a single unit. Here is the real monthly cost as each tool scales, costed on its own unit so the two stay honest.
Gainflat pricing
No free plan; 14-day trial.
- Cheapest paid plan
- $99/mo
Whole-plan price; it doesn't scale per unit.
Zoho Socialflat pricing
Free plan available.
- Cheapest paid plan
- $10/mo
Whole-plan price; it doesn't scale per unit.
Gain
Starter
$119 /mo
$99/mo billed annually
- Seats
- 3
- Accounts
- Unlimited
- Scheduled posts
- Unlimited
- $119/mo, $99 on annual
- Up to 3 team members, up to 6 client workspaces, unlimited social accounts
- Unlimited approval workflows and client reviewers, content calendar, AI writing assistant
Agency
Popular$239 /mo
$199/mo billed annually
- Seats
- 6
- Accounts
- Unlimited
- Scheduled posts
- Unlimited
- $239/mo, $199 on annual
- Up to 6 team members, up to 12 client workspaces, unlimited social accounts
- Adds white-label and more capacity
Agency Premium
$479 /mo
$399/mo billed annually
- Seats
- 20
- Accounts
- Unlimited
- Scheduled posts
- Unlimited
- $479/mo, $399 on annual
- Up to 20 team members, up to 30 client workspaces, unlimited social accounts
Enterprise
Custom
- Seats
- Unlimited
- Accounts
- Unlimited
- Scheduled posts
- Unlimited
- Custom pricing, as many team members and workspaces as you need
- Unlimited social accounts, advanced support
- Flat, quota-bundled plans: each tier bundles team members and workspaces (one per client), with unlimited social accounts on every plan, so the price scales by team size and client count rather than per channel.
- Client reviewers are unlimited and don't count against your seats: clients approve or reject posts by email or SMS without needing a Gain account.
- There's no free plan, only a 14-day trial, no card required.
- Annual billing is about 17% cheaper: Starter is $99 a month versus $119, Agency $199 versus $239, Agency Premium $399 versus $479.
- White-label is included from the Agency plan up.
- Prices are USD, read off the live pricing page by toggling monthly and annual.
Zoho Social
Free
Free
- Seats
- 1
- Accounts
- 6
- 1 brand, 6 channels (Facebook, Instagram, X, LinkedIn profile and page, Google Business), 1 member
- Home dashboard, drafts, basic publishing, 5 AI credits
- Forever free after the 15-day all-access trial
Standard
$15 /mo
$10/mo billed annually
- Seats
- 1
- Accounts
- 12
- $15/mo, $10 on annual (per brand, per member)
- 1 brand, 12 channels (adds YouTube, Pinterest, TikTok, Mastodon, Threads, Bluesky), 1 member
- Publishing calendar, multi-channel publishing, zurl shortener, summary reports, 40 AI credits
Professional
$40 /mo
$30/mo billed annually
- Seats
- 1
- Accounts
- 12
- $40/mo, $30 on annual (per brand, per member)
- 1 brand, 12 channels, 1 member
- Adds bulk scheduling, repeat posting, post insights, monitoring dashboard, media library, RSS, messages, first comment
Premium
Popular$65 /mo
$40/mo billed annually
- Seats
- 3
- Accounts
- 14
- $65/mo, $40 on annual (per brand)
- 1 brand, 14 channels (adds WhatsApp Business and Telegram Business), 3 members
- Adds SmartQ, unified Inbox, content approvals and workflow, custom reports, UTM, Zoho CRM and Desk integration, 80 AI credits
Agency
$320 /mo
$230/mo billed annually
- Seats
- 5
- Accounts
- 140
- $320/mo, $230 on annual
- 10 brands, up to 140 channels, 5 members
- Client invite, customizable client portal, agency-branded reports, all Premium features
Agency Plus
$460 /mo
$330/mo billed annually
- Seats
- 5
- Accounts
- 280
- $460/mo, $330 on annual
- 20 brands, up to 280 channels, 5 members
- All Agency features, with 10 more brands available as add-ons
- Zoho splits into business plans (one brand) and agency plans (many brands). The business tiers (Standard, Professional, Premium) are billed per brand per team member, so the headline is for a single brand with the bundled members; the agency tiers bundle 10 or 20 brands at a flat price.
- Extra brands and members are add-ons: roughly $19.50 a brand each month and $10 a member each month on annual billing (a little more monthly, and the brand rate varies by plan), so a single-brand business with a few people climbs past the sticker price.
- Annual billing is up to about 33% cheaper: Standard $10 vs $15, Professional $30 vs $40, Premium $40 vs $65 a month.
- There's a forever-free plan (1 brand, 6 channels, 1 member) that kicks in after the 15-day all-access trial, no card required.
- Records are USD. The live pricing page geo-locates and showed Australian dollars including GST here, so the USD list figures were taken from Zoho's US pricing and current third-party listings, then cross-checked by stripping the 10% GST from the AUD and converting (for example Premium A$66.91, less GST, times about 0.66, lands near $40).
Pros and cons
Gain
- Best-in-class client approvals: sign off by email or SMS, no account needed
- Unlimited client reviewers and unlimited social accounts on every plan
- Flat pricing by team and client count, with white-label from Agency up
- Revision tracking through each feedback round
- No social inbox, listening, or evergreen recycling
- Light analytics and reporting
- No YouTube or Bluesky
- Priced for teams, with the entry plan at $99 a month
Zoho Social
- Deep Zoho CRM and Desk integration, a genuine differentiator
- Direct publishing to a dozen channels, with monitoring and a unified inbox
- Forever-free plan and a clear annual discount
- Flat agency plans for managing many brands
- Per-brand-per-member pricing plus add-ons gets fiddly
- WhatsApp and Telegram are Premium-only
- No evergreen recycling queue or visual feed planner
- Listed business-plan prices are before brand and member add-ons
Gain vs Zoho Social: FAQ
- Is Gain or Zoho Social cheaper?
- Zoho Social is cheaper to start, from $10 against $99 for Gain. The unit each one charges by differs, so the real bill depends on how many channels or seats you run.
- Does Gain or Zoho Social have a free plan?
- Zoho Social has a free plan; Gain does not, though it offers a 14-day trial.
- Which is better, Gain or Zoho Social?
- Gain is the stronger pick for agencies whose bottleneck is client review and sign-off, while Zoho Social is the better fit for businesses already using Zoho CRM or the wider Zoho suite. We don't score them; the right call comes down to how you post.