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The Best Free Hootsuite Alternative in 2026

Hootsuite removed their free plan. Prices start at $99/month. Here are the best free alternatives that actually work.

📅 Apr 4, 2026⏱ 5 min read

What Happened to Hootsuite's Free Plan

Hootsuite removed their free plan in 2023. What used to be available at no cost now starts at $99/month for their Standard plan — and that gets you one user and up to 10 social accounts. Bulk scheduling and many features that were previously included require the Advanced plan at $249/month.

For a lot of users — solo creators, small businesses, freelance social media managers — that pricing jump happened with no real warning and no comparable free alternative waiting for them.

This guide covers the actual alternatives, with honest takes on each.

What You're Looking for in a Hootsuite Alternative

Hootsuite's core value was multi-platform management in one dashboard. The alternatives need to cover:

Scheduling to multiple platforms without per-channel fees

A functional calendar view

Team access (at least 1-2 members)

Basic analytics

Ideally: something that is actually free, not a 7-day trial

The Best Free Alternatives

SocialMate

The most genuinely free option available in 2026. SocialMate's free plan includes:

4 live platforms (Bluesky, Discord, Telegram, Mastodon) with more coming throughout 2026

Unlimited scheduled posts

2-week scheduling window

2 team seats

75 AI credits/month (caption generation, hashtags, post rewriting, and more)

30-day analytics

Link-in-bio page

Bulk scheduler

Hashtag manager

No credit card required. No trial period. This is what the free plan actually is.

SocialMate is built specifically for the audience Hootsuite priced out — individual creators, small businesses, and lean teams who need real scheduling without enterprise pricing.

Buffer (Free Plan)

Buffer offers a free tier with 3 channels and 10 scheduled posts per channel. This is functional for someone just starting out with 1-2 platforms, but it gets limiting quickly. If you need more than 3 channels or more than 10 queued posts per channel, you're looking at $6/channel/month on the Essentials plan.

Buffer is polished and reliable. The free tier is just genuinely small.

Later (Free Plan)

Later's free plan gives you 14 posts per month per social profile. That's extremely limited — roughly 3 posts per week per platform. They're optimized for Instagram and TikTok. If that's your focus, Later is worth a look. For broader multi-platform use, the free tier won't cover it.

Direct Feature Comparison

|---|---|---|---|

| Team seats | 2 | 1 | 1 |

| Price | $0 | $0 | $99/month |

Who Should Use What

**Use SocialMate** if you're on Bluesky, Discord, Telegram, or Mastodon and need a multi-platform free tool with AI features and team access.

**Use Buffer's free plan** if you're primarily on Instagram or Facebook and just starting out with very low posting volume.

**Use Hootsuite** if you're at an enterprise level with compliance requirements, Salesforce integration needs, or team structures that require their specific features — and you can justify $99/month or more.

For the vast majority of individual creators and small businesses, SocialMate's free plan covers everything Hootsuite was charging $99/month for.

SocialMate is free to start — no credit card required.