Head to head
Hootsuite vs Postly
Last updated 4 June 2026
vs
Hootsuite does more than schedule: listening, a shared inbox, and deep reporting sit in one dashboard, and you pay for the breadth. It starts at $99 a user each month and there's no longer a free plan.
- From
- $99 per user / mo
- Free plan
Postly is an AI-forward, per-channel scheduler that reaches a dozen social networks plus email. It bills by channel (cheaper as you add more), throws in unlimited team members and an AI studio for text, image, and video, and adds bio pages and a social inbox.
- From
- $3.2 per channel / mo
- Free plan
Bottom line
Hootsuite and Postly both cover the basics; the right one comes down to how you post. Hootsuite is the stronger pick for Small teams that need listening and reporting in one place; choose Postly for Creators and small agencies who want wide coverage cheaply.
Features compared
| Feature | Hootsuite | Postly |
|---|---|---|
| AI captions | Yes | Yes |
| Basic analytics | Yes | Yes |
| Advanced reports | Yes | Not assessed |
| Bulk upload | Yes | Yes |
| Evergreen recycling | No | Partial |
| Team roles | Yes | Yes |
| Approvals | Yes | Yes |
| Link in bio | Yes | Yes |
Platforms compared
| Network | Hootsuite | Postly |
|---|---|---|
| Auto | Auto | |
| Auto | Auto | |
| X (Twitter) | Auto | Auto |
| Auto | Auto | |
| TikTok | Auto | Auto |
| Auto | Auto | |
| YouTube | Auto | Auto |
| Threads | Auto | Auto |
| Bluesky | Auto | Auto |
| Google Business | No | Auto |
| Mastodon | No | Auto |
| Telegram | No | Auto |
| WordPress | No | Auto |
Pricing
Hootsuite
Standard
$149 per user / mo
$99/mo billed annually
- Seats
- 1
- Accounts
- 10
- Scheduled posts
- Unlimited
- $99 per user/mo on annual, $149 monthly
- Up to 10 social accounts
- Unlimited scheduling, AI assistant, one inbox
- 7-day mention search, benchmark vs 5 competitors
Advanced
Popular$399 per user / mo
$249/mo billed annually
- Seats
- 1
- Accounts
- Unlimited
- Scheduled posts
- Unlimited
- $249 per user/mo on annual, $399 monthly
- Unlimited social accounts
- Bulk schedule up to 350 posts at once
- Custom reports, approval workflows, 30-day listening
Enterprise
Custom
- Accounts
- Unlimited
- Custom pricing, 5+ users, unlimited accounts
- SSO, employee advocacy (Amplify), premium listening
- Salesforce, review management, compliance integrations
- Priced per user/seat: the headline $99 / $249 is for one seat and multiplies by how many people you add.
- No free plan. There's a 30-day trial, and the 25% trial-skip discount only applies on annual billing.
- Annual billing is much cheaper than monthly: Standard is $99 vs $149 a seat, Advanced $249 vs $399.
- Prices are USD list. Hootsuite renders prices client-side in local currency by region, so the annual figures were read off the live plans page and the monthly figures corroborated against current third-party listings.
Postly
Starter
Free
- Seats
- 2
- Accounts
- 2
- Scheduled posts
- 50
- Free: 2 channels, 2 team members
- 50 one-time scheduled posts, 5,000 AI writing credits a month
- 1GB storage
Pro
Popular$3.2 per channel / mo
- Seats
- Unlimited
- Scheduled posts
- Unlimited
- $3.20 per channel/mo (5-channel minimum, so from $16/mo)
- Cheaper per channel at scale: $1.60 (11-100), $0.80 (101+)
- Unlimited posts, unlimited AI, unlimited team members, 100GB, API
Enterprise
Custom
- Seats
- Unlimited
- Scheduled posts
- Unlimited
- Custom pricing and volume rates
- Dedicated onboarding and migration, priority support
- Priced per channel on Pro, where a channel is a page, profile, Google Business location, Pinterest board, or similar destination. The rate falls as you add channels: $3.20 each up to 10, $1.60 from 11 to 100, and $0.80 beyond 100.
- Pro has a 5-channel minimum, so it effectively starts at $16 a month; the cost-at-scale figures start from one channel but you can't buy fewer than five on Pro.
- There's a genuine free Starter plan (2 channels, 50 scheduled posts, 2 team members). Annual billing is about 20% cheaper.
- Unlimited team members are included on Pro, unlike per-seat tools. Postly also sells email campaigns (Postly Email) alongside social.
- Prices are USD, read off the live pricing page.
Pros and cons
Hootsuite
- Broad by design: scheduling, listening, inbox, and reporting together
- Deep analytics and competitor benchmarking
- Publishes to nine networks, including Bluesky and Threads
- Strong approval workflows on Advanced and up
- Expensive, and per-seat pricing climbs quickly
- No free plan, and the entry price is $99 a month
- Monthly billing costs far more than annual
- The depth is overkill if you only schedule a few accounts
Postly
- Per-channel billing that gets cheaper as you scale
- Unlimited team members on Pro
- Broad AI Studio: text, image, video, avatars, voiceovers
- A dozen networks plus WordPress and email, with a social inbox and bio pages
- Five-channel minimum on Pro
- Recycling is limited to recurring posts
- Young, lightly documented company
- Wide AI feature set means uneven depth
Hootsuite vs Postly: FAQ
- Is Hootsuite or Postly cheaper?
- Postly is cheaper to start, from $3.2 against $99 for Hootsuite. The unit each one charges by differs, so the real bill depends on how many channels or seats you run.
- Does Hootsuite or Postly have a free plan?
- Postly has a free plan; Hootsuite does not, though it offers a 30-day trial.
- Which is better, Hootsuite or Postly?
- Hootsuite is the stronger pick for small teams that need listening and reporting in one place, while Postly is the better fit for creators and small agencies who want wide coverage cheaply. We don't score them; the right call comes down to how you post.