Social Media Tool Pricing 2026

Social media management is a daily reality for every business. But when you compare the tools on the market, one thing stands out: prices have gotten out of hand. Especially for small businesses where every euro counts.

We compared the real costs of the most popular social media tools – and how Steadybeat delivers the same value at a fraction of the price.

What does a social media tool actually cost?

Hootsuite

Former market leader, enterprise pricing

• Price: 99, 199 or 399 EUR/mo per user, billed annually, excl. VAT
• 10 profiles on the cheapest plan
• 3-person team: 297 EUR/mo

Hootsuite was the industry standard for years, but prices have risen steadily. Nearly 300 EUR/mo just for social publishing is unreasonable for a small business.

Sprout Social

Most expensive on the market

• Price: $199/mo per user (approx. 183 EUR/mo)
• Only 5 channels in the basic plan
• 3-person team: ~$597/mo (~549 EUR/mo)
• Extra channels require upgrading to the Professional plan at $299/user/mo

Sprout Social is built for large enterprises. If you're a 10-person marketing agency, the annual bill easily exceeds 7,000 EUR.

Buffer

Affordable and simple, but limited

• Price: Free for 3 channels; paid $5-10/channel/mo (Essentials/Team). Team: unlimited users.
• AI writes text only, no images
• No brand image library, media attached per post
• English only, USD pricing (currency risk)

Buffer is the cheapest and most beginner-friendly option, and price isn't where to fault it. The differences with Steadybeat are elsewhere: Buffer's AI writes text only (Steadybeat also generates images), there's no brand image library, and the service prices in USD, which means currency risk for anyone billing in euros. For a small business watching its budget, euro pricing and EU data are what matter.

Later

Built for visual channels

• Price: $18.75-82.50/mo billed annually (approx. 17-76 EUR/mo), $25-110/mo billed monthly
• Channels: Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Pinterest, LinkedIn, YouTube, Threads and Snapchat
• No X

A good tool for visual social media. If X matters to you, Later won't cover it.

Agorapulse

Master of hidden costs

• Price: $79/user/mo (10 profiles)
• 3-person team: ~$237/mo (~218 EUR/mo)
• 5-person team: ~$395/mo (~364 EUR/mo)

The base price looks reasonable, but per-user add-ons quickly inflate the final bill.

Liana Social Media Management

A regional competitor – but priced for communications teams

• Price: from €99/mo (3 profiles), €134/mo (10 profiles), €240/mo (50 profiles) – excl. VAT, annual billing
• 4 channels: LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok – no X, no YouTube
• No AI content generation: LianaAI is a generic chat assistant across Liana's tools, it doesn't write posts or generate images
• Part of a broader communications cloud (press releases, media monitoring); aimed at companies, the public sector and organizations

Liana is the only other euro-priced tool in this comparison – so "at least it's priced in euros" is no excuse for the cost. Its cheapest tier still costs more than five times Steadybeat Basic: three social profiles at €99/mo. And the plan includes no AI text or images, which are core to Steadybeat – LianaAI is a separate chat assistant, not a content creator.

Summary: Real cost for a 3-person team

Let's see what a similar-sized business actually pays per year:

A full year of Steadybeat costs less than a single month of Sprout Social.

Why are international tools so expensive?

The high price isn't due to API costs – Meta and TikTok APIs are free. The real reasons:

• Per-user pricing – every team member is a new revenue stream
• Enterprise features – you pay for social listening and AI analytics you never use
• SaaS margin targets – providers aim for 70-90% margins
• Per-channel add-ons – every social profile addition costs extra

What about Liana? It's euro-priced, but its pricing is also built for communications teams – €99/mo for three profiles. Sharing a currency doesn't automatically mean a price that fits an SME, and the plan doesn't even include AI content generation.

What does a small business actually need?

Most SMEs need just three things from a social media tool:

What each tool actually covers for that first point is in our guide to publishing to all social networks from one place.

No social listening. No competitor benchmarking. No 50-page PDF reports. Yet most tools force you to pay for everything – including features you never open.

Steadybeat: Built for Small Businesses

Two plans, no hidden fees. Basic (€19/mo) is for solopreneurs: one brand, every platform and enough AI text for everyday posting. Pro (€49/mo) is for agencies and consultants running multiple brands who want AI to fill the content calendar for them.

Built in the EU, for small businesses

• UI in English
• Customer support in English
• EU servers – GDPR compliant
• Privacy policy in plain English

Focus on what matters

• Publish to every channel with one click
• Images and text – no unnecessary complexity
• Clean UI that requires no training

Who is Steadybeat for?

• Entrepreneurs and solopreneurs who want to save time
• SMEs for whom $99/mo is too much for a social media tool
• Small marketing agencies managing multiple clients
• Associations and organizations with limited budgets

Savings calculator: How much would you save?

Summary

The social media tool market is priced for enterprises. There hasn't been an affordable, straightforward option for SMEs. Now there is.

• 29x cheaper than Sprout Social (for a 3-person team)
• 15x cheaper than Hootsuite (for a 3-person team)
• No hidden fees, no per-user add-ons
• EU servers, GDPR compliant, no surprises

Steadybeat – publish once, be seen everywhere.

Sources

• Competitor prices verified in June 2026, with Sprout Social's pricing re-checked in August 2026 and Later's and Hootsuite's in October 2026 (Hootsuite lists EUR prices excl. tax) from each service's public pricing page (annual billing). Liana's prices, channels and features verified in June 2026 from lianatech.fi (prices excl. VAT). Currency conversions at 1 USD = 0.92 EUR. Prices may change, check the current price on each service's site.