Head to head
Sprout Social vs Zoho Social
Last updated 4 June 2026
vs
Sprout Social is the high-end suite: publishing, a shared inbox, listening, and reporting that goes deep, sold by the seat and priced for businesses with a budget. There's no free plan; the cut-down Essentials tier is $79 a seat each month on annual billing, and the main plans start at $199.
- From
- $79 per user / 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. Sprout Social fits businesses running social as a core function better, and it reaches Snapchat and Reddit, which Zoho Social doesn't.
Zoho Social starts cheaper, $10 a month against $79 per user / mo for Sprout Social. They bill on different units, so the real gap depends on how much you run. Sprout Social adds employee advocacy and ad management that Zoho Social leaves out.
Key differences
Where the two actually diverge, before the full tables.
- Zoho Social has a free plan; Sprout Social doesn't, though it offers a 30-day trial.
- Zoho Social starts at $10 a month, Sprout Social at $79 per user / mo.
- Sprout Social posts to 11 networks, Zoho Social to 12.
- Only Sprout Social reaches Reddit and Snapchat.
- Only Zoho Social reaches Google Business, Mastodon, and Telegram.
- Sprout Social has employee advocacy; Zoho Social doesn't.
- Sprout Social has ad management; Zoho Social doesn't.
- Zoho Social has browser extension; Sprout Social doesn't.
Features compared
| Feature | Sprout Social | Zoho Social |
|---|---|---|
| AI captions | Yes | Yes |
| Basic analytics | Yes | Yes |
| Advanced reports | Yes | Yes |
| Bulk upload | Yes | Yes |
| Evergreen recycling | No | Partial |
| Team roles | Yes | Yes |
| Approvals | Yes | Yes |
| Link in bio | Yes | Yes |
Platforms compared
| Network | Sprout Social | Zoho Social |
|---|---|---|
| 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 |
| Auto | No | |
| Snapchat | Auto | No |
| 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.
Sprout Socialper user / mo
No free plan; 30-day trial.
- 1 seat
- $99/mo~$79/mo annual
- 3 seatsTypical
- $297/mo~$237/mo annual
Cheapest plan: Essentials.
Zoho Socialflat pricing
Free plan available.
- Cheapest paid plan
- $10/mo
Whole-plan price; it doesn't scale per unit.
Sprout Social
Essentials
$99 per user / mo
$79/mo billed annually
- Seats
- 1
- Accounts
- 5
- Scheduled posts
- Unlimited
- $79 per seat/mo on annual, $99 monthly
- Up to 5 social profiles
- Publishing, calendar, and the Smart Inbox
- Profile and post-level reporting
Standard
$249 per user / mo
$199/mo billed annually
- Seats
- 1
- Accounts
- 5
- Scheduled posts
- Unlimited
- $199 per seat/mo on annual, $249 monthly
- Up to 5 social profiles
- Smart Inbox, review management, and tasks
- Unlocks paid add-ons: Listening, Premium Analytics, Advocacy
Professional
Popular$399 per user / mo
$299/mo billed annually
- Seats
- 1
- Accounts
- Unlimited
- Scheduled posts
- Unlimited
- $299 per seat/mo on annual, $399 monthly
- Unlimited social profiles
- Competitor, tag, and paid reporting
- Message tagging and scheduling for optimal send times
Advanced
$499 per user / mo
$399/mo billed annually
- Seats
- 1
- Accounts
- Unlimited
- Scheduled posts
- Unlimited
- $399 per seat/mo on annual, $499 monthly
- Unlimited social profiles
- Chatbots, automated workflows, and helpdesk integrations
- AI-enhanced replies, message spike alerts, and the Sprout API
Enterprise
Custom
- Accounts
- Unlimited
- Custom pricing
- SSO and advanced security
- Premium Listening, Advocacy, and Influencer Marketing add-ons
- Dedicated support and professional services
- Priced per seat: the headline rate is for one user and multiplies by everyone you add. Sprout charges every extra seat at the same plan rate, with no volume discount.
- No free plan. There's a 30-day trial with no card required.
- Annual billing is paid upfront and is cheaper per seat than monthly: Essentials $79 vs $99, Standard $199 vs $249, Professional $299 vs $399, Advanced $399 vs $499.
- Premium Analytics, Listening, and Employee Advocacy are paid add-ons on Standard and up, quoted on request, so the real bill runs higher than the seat price.
- Prices are USD list, read off the live pricing page (which renders in USD here); the monthly figures come from the billing FAQ on that page.
What it really costs
Sprout Social charges per seat, so the headline price is for one. Here is the monthly cost as you connect more, with the 3-seat row marked as a realistic setup.
| seats | Essentials | Standard | Professional | Advanced |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $99/mo | $249/mo | $399/mo | $499/mo |
| 3Typical | $297/mo | $747/mo | $1197/mo | $1497/mo |
| 5 | $495/mo | $1245/mo | $1995/mo | $2495/mo |
| 10 | $990/mo | $2490/mo | $3990/mo | $4990/mo |
| 25 | $2475/mo | $6225/mo | $9975/mo | $12475/mo |
| 50 | $4950/mo | $12450/mo | $19950/mo | $24950/mo |
Monthly billing.
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
Sprout Social
- Polished, deep platform: inbox, listening, and reporting together
- Strong analytics and presentation-ready reports
- Wide network list, including Reddit, Bluesky, and Snapchat
- Genuinely good for customer care and approval-heavy teams
- Expensive, and per-seat pricing has no volume discount
- No free plan, and the main plans start at $199 a seat each month
- Listening, Premium Analytics, and Advocacy cost extra on top
- Overkill if you only schedule a few accounts
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
Sprout Social vs Zoho Social: FAQ
- Is Sprout Social or Zoho Social cheaper?
- Zoho Social is cheaper to start, from $10 against $79 for Sprout Social. The unit each one charges by differs, so the real bill depends on how many channels or seats you run.
- Does Sprout Social or Zoho Social have a free plan?
- Zoho Social has a free plan; Sprout Social does not, though it offers a 30-day trial.
- Which is better, Sprout Social or Zoho Social?
- Sprout Social is the stronger pick for businesses running social as a core function, 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.