Head to head
HeyOrca vs SocialBee
Last updated 4 June 2026
vs
HeyOrca is an agency tool organised around the client calendar: you get a calendar per client, unlimited users on it, and a sign-off flow where clients approve posts by email without logging in. It charges per calendar, $59 on Basic or $149 on Pro, with a 40% discount once you run five or more.
- From
- $59 per calendar / mo
- Free plan
SocialBee is built around content categories: you sort posts into buckets and it cycles through them on a schedule, recycling the evergreen ones so the queue keeps going without you refilling it by hand. Plans are set by how many social profiles you connect, from $29 a month for five up to the agency tiers, with no permanent free plan, just a 14-day trial.
- From
- $29 per month
- Free plan
Bottom line
HeyOrca is the pick for agencies that want a calendar and approval flow per client, and it's the only one of the two with a free plan. SocialBee fits solopreneurs and small businesses who want a recycling content queue better, and it's the cheaper start, from $29 per month.
SocialBee starts cheaper, $29 per month against $59 per calendar / mo for HeyOrca. They bill on different units, so the real gap depends on how much you run. HeyOrca brings social listening that SocialBee skips, while SocialBee has evergreen recycling HeyOrca doesn't.
Key differences
Where the two actually diverge, before the full tables.
- HeyOrca has a free plan; SocialBee doesn't, though it offers a 14-day trial.
- SocialBee starts at $29 per month, HeyOrca at $59 per calendar / mo.
- HeyOrca posts to 9 networks, SocialBee to 12.
- Only SocialBee reaches Bluesky, Mastodon, and Telegram.
- HeyOrca has social listening; SocialBee doesn't.
- HeyOrca has competitor tracking; SocialBee doesn't.
- HeyOrca has link in bio; SocialBee doesn't.
- SocialBee has evergreen recycling; HeyOrca doesn't.
Features compared
| Feature | HeyOrca | SocialBee |
|---|---|---|
| AI captions | Yes | Yes |
| Basic analytics | Yes | Yes |
| Advanced reports | Yes | Yes |
| Bulk upload | Not assessed | Yes |
| Evergreen recycling | No | Yes |
| Team roles | Yes | Yes |
| Approvals | Yes | Yes |
| Link in bio | Yes | No |
Platforms compared
| Network | HeyOrca | SocialBee |
|---|---|---|
| Auto | Auto | |
| Auto | Auto | |
| X (Twitter) | Auto | Auto |
| Auto | Auto | |
| TikTok | Auto | Auto |
| Auto | Auto | |
| YouTube | Auto | Auto |
| Threads | Auto | Auto |
| Bluesky | No | Auto |
| Google Business | Auto | Auto |
| Mastodon | No | Reminder |
| Telegram | No | Reminder |
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.
HeyOrca
Free
Free
- Seats
- 1
- Accounts
- 2
- Scheduled posts
- 15
- 1 calendar, 2 social accounts, 1 user
- 15 scheduled posts a month
- Inspo library, Instagram bio link, AI tools, mobile app
Basic
$59 per calendar / mo
- Seats
- Unlimited
- Accounts
- 10
- Scheduled posts
- Unlimited
- $59 per calendar/mo, unlimited users, 10 social accounts per calendar
- Unlimited scheduling, approval workflows, Canva, best time to post, custom branding
- Reporting ($59), social inbox ($39), and listening ($39) are paid add-ons per calendar
Pro
Popular$149 per calendar / mo
- Seats
- Unlimited
- Accounts
- 10
- Scheduled posts
- Unlimited
- $149 per calendar/mo, unlimited users, 10 social accounts per calendar
- Everything in Basic, with reporting, social inbox, and listening included
- Advanced and custom reports, competitor analysis, sentiment, Instagram demographics
Enterprise
Custom
- Seats
- Unlimited
- Accounts
- Unlimited
- Scheduled posts
- Unlimited
- Custom pricing for managing many clients
- White-label onboarding, priority support, ongoing training
- Dedicated account management
- Priced per calendar, which is HeyOrca's word for a brand or client: the headline $59 / $149 is for one calendar, and you pay again for each one. Every paid calendar includes unlimited users and 10 social accounts.
- There's a 40% volume discount once you run 5 or more calendars, so the per-calendar rate drops to roughly $35 on Basic and $89 on Pro at agency scale; the cost-at-scale table reflects that. Annual billing is a further 15% off.
- Extra social accounts beyond the 10 per calendar are $10 a month each.
- On Basic, reporting ($59/mo), the social inbox ($39/mo), and social listening ($39/mo) are paid add-ons per calendar; Pro bundles all three in.
- There's a genuine Free plan (1 calendar, 2 social accounts, 1 user, 15 posts a month) plus a 14-day trial of Pro, no card required.
- Prices are USD, read off the live pricing page and cross-checked against current third-party listings.
What it really costs
HeyOrca charges per calendar, so the headline price is for one. Here is the monthly cost as you connect more, with the 5-calendar row marked as a realistic setup.
| calendars | Basic | Pro |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | $59/mo | $149/mo |
| 3 | $177/mo | $447/mo |
| 5Typical | $271/mo | $685/mo |
| 10 | $446/mo | $1130/mo |
| 25 | $971/mo | $2465/mo |
| 50 | $1846/mo | $4690/mo |
Monthly billing. Volume discounts lower the per-calendar rate at higher counts.
SocialBee
Bootstrap
$29 per month
- Seats
- 1
- Accounts
- 5
- $29/mo (billed monthly or annually; no annual discount at list)
- 5 social profiles, 1 user, 1 workspace
- 10 content categories, 10 RSS / content sources
- Unlimited AI content; analytics history 3 months
Accelerate
Popular$49 per month
- Seats
- 1
- Accounts
- 10
- $49/mo
- 10 social profiles, 1 user, 1 workspace
- 50 content categories, 30 content sources
- Adds advanced analytics, hashtag organizer, bulk editor, CSV upload, approvals
Pro
$99 per month
- Seats
- 3
- Accounts
- 25
- $99/mo
- 25 social profiles, 3 users, 5 workspaces
- Unlimited content categories and content sources
- Adds report export and internal notes; analytics history 2 years
Pro50
$179 per month
- Seats
- 5
- Accounts
- 50
- $179/mo (agency tier)
- 50 social profiles, 5 users, 10 workspaces
- Everything in Pro
Pro100
$329 per month
- Seats
- 5
- Accounts
- 100
- $329/mo (agency tier)
- 100 social profiles, 5 users, 20 workspaces
Pro150
$449 per month
- Seats
- 5
- Accounts
- 150
- $449/mo (agency tier)
- 150 social profiles, 5 users, 30 workspaces
- Plans are chosen by how many social profiles you connect, from 5 on Bootstrap up to 150 on the top agency tier. The price isn't multiplied per profile; it steps up with the band you land in.
- No permanent free plan. There's a 14-day free trial of the Pro plan, no card required.
- Annual billing doesn't lower the per-month rate at list price: the yearly plan is twelve times the monthly one (Bootstrap $348/yr, Accelerate $588/yr, Pro $1,188/yr). The discounts come from frequent promotions; a 50%-off birthday sale (code SBDAY2026) was live when this was checked, ending June 10, 2026.
- Add-ons stack on top of any plan: extra profiles are $15/mo per 5, extra users $10/mo each ($100/yr), and extra workspaces $10/mo each.
- ConciergeBee is SocialBee's separate done-for-you service (managed posting, strategy, ad management) and is billed apart from these software plans.
- Prices are USD list, read off the live pricing page and its plan-comparison table; the agency tiers were cross-checked against the page's Agency view and current third-party listings.
Pros and cons
HeyOrca
- Client approvals without the client needing an account
- Unlimited users on every paid plan
- Per-calendar pricing with a 40% volume discount at scale
- Reporting, inbox, and listening all included on Pro
- On Basic, reporting, inbox, and listening are paid add-ons
- No evergreen recycling
- Per-calendar pricing adds up before the volume discount kicks in
- Paid plans are priced for teams, not solo creators
SocialBee
- Category-based queue with automatic evergreen recycling, the thing it does best
- RSS import and CSV bulk upload for filling the queue fast
- Wide network list, including X, TikTok, and Google Business, plus reminder posting for the rest
- AI Copilot and built-in DALL·E image generation
- Profile-band pricing is simple to read
- No permanent free plan, only a 14-day trial
- No standing annual discount; you rely on promotions
- Add-ons for extra profiles, users, and workspaces stack up for agencies
- No link-in-bio or visual feed planner
- Listening is limited to your own mentions, not keyword tracking
HeyOrca vs SocialBee: FAQ
- Is HeyOrca or SocialBee cheaper?
- SocialBee is cheaper to start, from $29 against $59 for HeyOrca. The unit each one charges by differs, so the real bill depends on how many channels or seats you run.
- Does HeyOrca or SocialBee have a free plan?
- HeyOrca has a free plan; SocialBee does not, though it offers a 14-day trial.
- Which is better, HeyOrca or SocialBee?
- HeyOrca is the stronger pick for agencies that want a calendar and approval flow per client, while SocialBee is the better fit for solopreneurs and small businesses who want a recycling content queue. We don't score them; the right call comes down to how you post.