Looking for a Zoho Social alternative that can keep up with your social media team’s evolving needs?

Zoho works well for basic publishing and scheduling. But many marketers outgrow it once they need more detailed social media analytics and reporting, faster approvals or better visibility into what’s driving performance.

If you’re ready to level up, these 10 alternatives will help you plan smarter social media content, uncover deeper insights and clearly demonstrate the impact of your social strategy.

10 best Zoho Social alternatives for smarter social media management

According to the 2025 Sprout Social Index, 65% of marketing leaders say tying social performance to business goals is essential for securing buy-in and resources. That means the platform you choose needs to do more than schedule posts. It should also empower you to connect every campaign to measurable outcomes.

From managing multiple brands to reporting wins to executives, today’s social teams need tools that make it easier to spot trends, act quickly and prove value. These 10 alternatives go beyond the basics to help you sharpen your strategy with data-driven precision:

1. Sprout Social

Sprout Social transforms social media management into a strategic approach for driving revenue and growth by putting AI-powered insights, flexible collaboration workflows and deep analytics at the heart of your social approach. Additionally, its automation features streamline repetitive tasks, which frees your team to focus on creative campaigns and measurable outcomes.

For teams that need to move faster and stay aligned, Sprout’s unified platform offers centralized message management, approval workflows and customizable dashboards that surface performance trends and audience behavior. With real‑time listening, AI-powered reporting and integrations from over a decade of social data, it supports smarter planning and faster stakeholder reporting.

Sprout Social's publishing tool

For example, Sprout’s Premium Analytics provides customizable dashboards, interactive reports and AI-powered trend analysis that help you connect every social initiative to business outcomes, not just surface‑level metrics. From campaign‑level ROI to audience growth insights, Sprout equips you with the clarity you need to prove impact to leadership and guide smarter strategy.

Sprout Social’s premium analytics

Other key capabilities include the following:

  • Comprehensive social listening: Sprout’s AI-powered social listening tools help you identify emerging themes, track sentiment shifts over time and monitor competitors. This means PR and customer experience teams can act on early signals—such as a recurring complaint or a breakout campaign idea—before they go mainstream.
Sprout’s social listening overview
  • Social customer service capabilities: Sprout’s Smart Inbox consolidates incoming messages, comments and reviews from every connected profile into a single, real-time stream. And with message spike alerts, you’ll know instantly when a conversation is heating up. This helps you catch time-sensitive opportunities and respond to viral posts or customer complaints without drowning in notifications. By centralizing communication and highlighting urgent interactions, teams can respond faster and more efficiently, which leads to quicker resolutions, reduced customer frustration and higher overall satisfaction.
Sprout’s Smart Inbox
  • Advanced team collaborations and workflows: The Campaign Planner streamlines content planning with a visual calendar and multi-step approval process. It also allows marketers to map campaigns by theme and draft. With this planner, they can review and publish posts in one shared calendar, which simplifies social media collaboration and ensures that everyone is on the same page.
  • Insightful recommendations with AI Assist: This tool analyzes audience behavior to suggest the best times to post. It also generates engaging captions tailored to your brand and automates repetitive tasks like hashtag selection. Beyond that, Sprout’s AI Assist can generate alt text for accessibility, translate content for global audiences and help teams save time while improving their social posts’ quality and reach.

The best part is that Sprout helps you scale your operations as you grow. It offers role-based permissions for clear team accountability, shared asset libraries for easy access to creative content and integrations with tools like Salesforce, Tableau and Slack to keep cross-functional teams aligned. As a result, responses go out more quickly, content stays consistent and it’s easier to collaborate, especially when you’re managing multiple profiles or campaigns.

If you’ve outgrown basic scheduling and reporting, it’s time for a platform that matches your ambitions. Try Sprout Social free to unlock advanced analytics, seamless collaboration and the AI-powered insights that make proving ROI simple.

Try Sprout Social for free

2. Agorapulse

Agorapulse is a social media management tool for teams that manage high volumes of customer interactions across multiple brands or clients. Beyond social media publishing, it works as a response engine, a lightweight customer relationship management (CRM) platform and a social media analytics tool that helps teams stay organized and responsive.

Agorapulse’s homepage

Source: Agorapulse

Agorapulse’s social inbox supports assignments, saved replies and collision detection so teams can collaborate efficiently and avoid missing messages. Its built-in social CRM platform creates contact records for each engagement, which makes it easier to track conversation history, tag VIPs and manage advocates or leads. For reporting, UTM-powered analytics connect social activity to clicks, leads and conversions, with customizable reports that suit different client KPIs.

Because this platform balances publishing, engagement and CRM capabilities, it’s well-suited for agencies and brand teams that manage multiple profiles and large message volumes.

3. Buffer

Buffer is a social media management platform for small teams and solopreneurs who want a simple way to plan and publish content. It supports scheduling across major networks with a drag‑and‑drop calendar so it’s easy to manage posting without added complexity.

Buffer’s social media scheduling tool

Source: Buffer

Buffer’s queue‑based scheduling allows you to plan posts for multiple channels, reuse top‑performing content and adjust timing quickly. It also offers team permissions for draft collaboration and a post analytics dashboard that tracks reach, clicks and engagement.

Its straightforward design makes it well‑suited for startups and creators who prioritize content consistency over advanced approval workflows or in‑depth analytics.

4. Brandwatch

Brandwatch is a social media management and analytics platform for marketing, research and insights teams. It combines social media listening with customizable dashboards to help brands track conversations, measure sentiment and inform business decisions.

Brandwatch's homepage

Source: Brandwatch

Brandwatch’s AI-powered listening capabilities scan millions of posts across social platforms, news sites, blogs and forums to surface emerging themes, audience segments and brand associations. Its share of voice metrics and flexible dashboards also make it easy to compare performance against competitors, while audience analysis tools cluster users by interests, engagement patterns and demographics for more targeted campaigns.

Beyond that, research-grade listening and analytics make Brandwatch especially valuable for enterprises that are looking for competitive intelligence and deeper audience insights.

5. Hootsuite

A widely used social media management platform, Hootsuite is for large organizations that manage multiple accounts across teams. It brings publishing, ad management and integrations together in a single dashboard to streamline complex workflows.

Hootsuite’s homepage

Source: Hootsuite

The platform supports management for dozens of social profiles with team permissions, approval workflows and activity logs for smoother collaboration. And with over 200 app integrations—including Canva, Dropbox and Trello—Hootsuite centralizes campaign planning, content creation and performance tracking.

Due to its scalability and extensive integrations, Hootsuite is a strong choice for enterprises that need robust publishing controls and collaboration tools.

6. SocialPilot

SocialPilot is a cost-effective social media management platform for small agencies and in-house teams that need to manage multiple profiles without overspending. It combines publishing, analytics and client collaboration tools in one platform.

SocialPilot’s calendar dashboard

Source: SocialPilot

This platform supports multiclient management with custom access controls to keep workspaces organized, along with bulk scheduling that allows teams to upload hundreds of posts via CSV for advanced planning. SocialPilot also offers client approval workflows and white-label PDF reports, which make it easier for agencies to deliver polished results and maintain brand consistency.

With its balance of affordability and flexibility, SocialPilot is well-suited for teams that want to manage several clients or channels on a budget.

7. Later

Later is for brands that rely heavily on visual content, especially on Instagram, TikTok and Pinterest. It helps ecommerce teams, creators and lifestyle brands organize media, plan posts in advance and maintain a cohesive visual grid.

Later's homepage

Source: Later

Its drag‑and‑drop planner lets you preview how your feeds will look before publishing so you can more easily design your campaigns around aesthetics. The media library also stores and tags assets for quick reuse, while the Linkin.bio feature turns posts into clickable landing pages that track engagement and conversions.

Later is a strong choice for visually driven teams that want to combine consistent branding with simple publishing tools and link‑in‑bio conversion tracking.

8. Sendible

Sendible helps agencies manage multiple clients efficiently by streamlining approvals, reporting and secure account access. It supports publishing across major social networks and offers automation features to simplify daily workflows.

Sendible’s scheduling calendar

Source: Sendible

Its smart queues automatically fill content gaps with evergreen posts, while its approval workflows allow clients or internal reviewers to sign off directly within the platform. Additionally, its content library makes it easy to save and repurpose posts across accounts and bulk scheduling reduces time spent on repetitive tasks.

With its white‑label reporting and client collaboration features, Sendible is a practical option for agencies that are looking to scale delivery while maintaining brand consistency.

9. Loomly

Instead of scattered docs and email threads, Loomly gives teams one place to create, collaborate on and finalize social content. It also streamlines day‑to‑day collaboration for teams by providing layered review processes.

Loomly's dashboard

Source: Loomly

Beyond that, its content calendar organizes ideas, drafts and asset uploads in one place, while its collaboration tools allow team members to leave comments, edit posts and approve content directly in the platform. Its post optimization tips also give teams real‑time guidance on hashtags, image formats and copy length so every post meets platform best practices.

Loomly works well for in‑house teams that are managing recurring campaigns and content formats that require input from multiple stakeholders.

10. Sprinklr

Sprinklr is a customer experience management platform for large enterprises with complex social media needs. It connects social media scheduling, publishing, engagement and analytics with business intelligence tools to provide a comprehensive view of customer interactions.

Sprinklr's homepage Source: Sprinklr

Its publishing system supports multilevel teams with role‑based permissions, hierarchical workflows and compliance features. Meanwhile, AI‑powered social listening processes millions of conversations to detect sentiment, trends and competitor activity, then routes insights to the right teams in real time. Sprinklr’s unified care console also consolidates customer interactions across social, email, chat and voice for consistent, informed responses.

Sprinklr works well for global enterprises that are seeking a scalable platform that aligns social media management with broader customer experience strategies.

Why Sprout Social is different than Zoho Social

As social teams grow, so does the complexity—different team members must handle messages across platforms, inconsistent posting schedules and no clear way to measure what’s actually working. But Sprout Social helps you fix these problems.

It brings all conversations into one place, makes collaboration easier with shared calendars and approvals and connects social performance to business metrics, making it a stronger, more scalable option.

Here’s more on how Sprout helps you go beyond the basics:

Plan and publish smarter with an intuitive calendar

If your team is juggling posts across multiple channels—often leading to scattered campaigns and last-minute scrambles—then Sprout Social is the tool for you.

Sprout’s Campaign Planner provides teams with a centralized calendar view. This allows them to map out content by theme, campaign or objective. You can plan across profiles, assign tasks and manage approvals. Every post fits into a bigger strategy, not just a queue.

Sprout’s social publishing calendar.

Strengthen customer relationships with the Smart Inbox

Teams end up missing conversations when replies scatter across different social media accounts and no one knows who’s handling them. That’s where the Smart Inbox comes into the picture. It pulls all incoming messages, mentions and reviews across social networks into a unified, filterable view. It allows you to track every response.

You can tag, assign and prioritize messages in real time, making it easier to collaborate across departments. The real-time activity chart helps teams visualize message volume and track progress toward inbox zero, especially during busy campaigns or support surges. With message spike alerts, Sprout notifies your team when incoming volume suddenly increases. This allows you to respond faster, allocate resources more effectively and stay ahead of potential issues.

Sprout’s smart inbox feature.

Stay ahead with always-on social listening

Social media marketing isn’t just about what’s happening on your page. Staying abreast of what people are saying about your brand, competitors or industry boosts your ability to satisfy your target audience and create better campaigns.

Sprout’s Listening tool helps you do just that. It processes millions of conversions daily across social platforms, forums and blogs. This helps you monitor brand sentiment, spot emerging trends and identify content opportunities or reputational risks early.

Sprout’s social media listening report.

Turn insight into action with Premium Analytics

Standard reports often stop at impressions and likes. That makes it difficult to demonstrate the real impact of social media. Sprout’s Premium Analytics goes beyond surface-level metrics. It helps you build custom dashboards that map social activity to business goals.

It offers customizable reports to help you track performance by network, campaign, content type or individual post. You can further break down metrics like engagement rate, click-through rate, follower growth and publishing volume. Service-oriented teams have options to monitor response times, resolution rates and trends in inbound messages. You can also schedule recurring reports, share live dashboards or export PDFs to keep stakeholders informed.

Sprout’s post performance report.

Scale smarter with collaborative workflows

As your team grows, managing content reviews, approvals and roles becomes increasingly challenging. Sprout offers multistep approval workflows, user roles and shared content libraries. These capabilities allow teams to move quickly without losing control.

From planning content and unifying conversations to uncovering trends and proving ROI, Sprout brings all your social efforts into one powerful platform. Start your free trial today to experience how smarter publishing, always‑on listening and premium analytics can help you drive real business impact.

Choosing the best Zoho Social alternative for your team

If you’ve outgrown Zoho Social, the right alternative depends on your goals. For instance, some alternatives handle lightweight publishing well, while others shine when it comes to collaboration or analytics. The key is finding a platform that grows with you—one that doesn’t just meet today’s needs but sets you up for long‑term success.

But when you need a Zoho Social alternative that supports multichannel planning, real‑time engagement and advanced analytics, Sprout Social stands out. It unifies publishing, listening and reporting to help your team collaborate and prove ROI.

Start your free, 30‑day Sprout Social trial now to experience how effortless social media management can really be.