Meine Top-Alternativen für Social Media Management

Last Updated on Dezember 31, 2024 by Ewen Finser

If you have used Later previously – or are just curious about alternatives – I’m going to run through some of my top alternatives here.

As a disclaimer up front, I do personally really like Later for some use cases. Specifically, running automated Instagram campaigns and any platform with highly visual content.

Aber there are some clear use cases where it’s not a perfect fit.

• If you aren’t doing Instagram-first distribution
• If you have a broad, multi-channel social distribution strategy
• If you need a unified social media inbox for actioning
• If you need granular, in-depth analytics (esp. for client reporting)

So what would I recommend as SMM tool Alternativen? Let’s go…

Sprout Social: Beste Gesamtalternative

TL;DR: Sprout Social fills many of the gaps (I described above) that Later leaves. It’s generally my most frequently recommend alternative based on the problem sets I hear from clients after trying Later.

Why I’d Recommend Sprout Social?

• Integrates with everything: Sprout Social is one of the most well integrated social media management platforms that I’ve personal tested, featuring ALL the major social networks (and some lesser ones, too). More than that though, Sprout also integrates with third party business platforms of all kinds, from CRMs to website analytics and pretty much everything in between.

• Powerful social listening: Know what conversations are happening where is half the battle for smart social media teams. And Sprout definitely has one of the more robust social listening toolkits I’ve tried. Many platforms include “social listening” as a me-too feature, but for Sprout Social it could honestly be a stand alone platform.

• Team friendly: More so than most social platforms, Sprout Social feels build for scale. It’s well suited to multi disciplinary marketing teams and stakeholders, with project management-like workflows and automations.

• Link-in-bio included: In case you thought you’d need a separate platform for this, Sprout Social includes this standard.
• Smart inboxes: I absolutely LOVE these new smart inboxes some platforms have and Sprout Social does this really well. It’s basically a dedicated inbox for all the social events, activity, and opportunities that you care about across ALL of you social networks. A great naturally starting point for workflow optimization and visibility.

• Data nerd friendly: Sprout Social is a true social analytics engine, with dozens of useful reports out of the box and many ways to customize reports based on your company-specific KPIs.

Sprout Social Compared to Other Platforms:

• Sprout Social vs Loomly
• Sprout Social vs Buffer

Metricool: Best Budget Downgrade

TL;DR: Metricool is a more expansive social media platform compared to Later AND it can also be cheaper for most users. This is a compelling reason to consider it as it kills two birds with one stone.

Why I Like Metricool

• Swiss Army Knife: Later has been working to expand beyond the Instagram initial use case, but is still behind platforms like Metricool that cover the social media market more broadly, including platforms like Twitch and Threads that Later does not support.
• Cost & Value Effective: While Later may at first appear cheaper, they offer a promo trick “4 months free” and list annual pricing up front. After this promo period and with a true monthly cost, it’s $25/month for their most basic plan. Metricool on the other hand starts at $22/month AND has UNLIMITED posts per month (Later is capped at 30 posts per profile on their basic account).
• Completely Free Tier: Unlike Later, Metricool also offers an entirely free plan (free forever – not a trial period). This is a great way to decide if it’s the right platform before investing further.
• Competitor Analysis: Beyond just social media management, Metricool also serves as an analytics and competitor intelligence platform, with the ability to monitor and assess what peers are doing with preset dashboard filters.

Hootsuite: Best Data & Analytics Upgrade

TL;DR: Hootsuite is another up-market competitor with more platform integrations AND a state of the art hub for collecting data (both on your campaigns and on competitors).

Why I Like Hootsuite

• Unified Social Media Inbox: Hootsuite centralizes social media management with a handy “social inbox” for seeing all of the activity in one place. This is great for getting a sense of where to respond first and what’s happening across the broader social landscape.
• Performance Tracking: Hootsuite has an excellent built-in analytics platform for tracking both organic and PAID (influencer, etc..) campaigns in one dashboard.
• Unlimited Posts (All Plans): Unlike Later, Hootsuite offers no post restrictions on all of their paid plans. So, while the initial monthly costs and cost per seat are higher, there’s more value here for power users / teams.
• Integrationen: As one of the early pioneers of social media automation (along with Buffer), Hootsuite has one of the broadest third-party integration bases of any similar tool. Worth considering if you are an integration junky.

Hootsuite Im Vergleich zu Gleichaltrigen:

• Hootsuite vs Later Compared Directly
• Hootsuite vs. SocialPilot
• Hootsuite vs. SocialBee
• Hootsuite vs. Hubspot
• Hootsuite vs. Post Planner
• Hootsuite vs. Sendible
• Hootsuite vs. SocialOomph
• Hootsuite vs. Buffer
• Hootsuite vs. Agorapulse

SocialBee: Best Multi Account Management

TL;DR: I’ve used SocialBee off and on for a number of years, particularly for portfolios and agencies where I have multiple brands to manage (in different verticals), but have one core social media management team. SocialBee is a great, cost effective solution for this use case.

Why I Like SocialBee

• Multiple Accounts, One Dash: As stated above, I love using SocialBee across multiple brands because they keep a core dashboard management view for everything. This is good for a portfolio owner OR a social media agency (or just an agency that does SMM as part of their offerings).

• Some Different Integrations: Specifically I liked that they had Threads, Google Business Profiles, and even Bluesky integrations that I don’t always see on other platforms. Bluesky and Threads specifically are growing platforms that Later doesn’t currently support.

• Content Categories: This is a really helpful feature that I didn’t have with Later which helps keep content types and clusters in dedicated groups for easy automation. I can build the categories, then with a few clicks auto-schedule across an optimized calendar.
• Evergreen Posting: On some platforms one-time shares rarely get seen by your total audience, so I like how SocialBee builds this into their feature-set, unlike Later. You can schedule recurring posts at any interval you need.

SocialBee Compared to Peers:

• SocialBee vs. Hootsuite
• SocialBee vs. MeetEdgar

Sendible: Best Alternative for Agencies

TL;DR: I love Sendible for agencies in particular as they have a scalable pricing plan for managing many accounts, along with white label reports and reporting that makes your life easier compared to Later.

Why I Like Sendible

• Value Pricing: Sendible offers a plan for pretty much everyone. I still think Later is more competitive at the entry level “Creator” tier, but Sendible becomes more affordable at scale as you move to the Traction, Scale and above plans. For larger brand management teams or agencies, this is a critical distinction.

• Unified Inbox: Unlike Later, Sendible offers a unified social media inbox for centralized management across all social media accounts.
• Client Connect Feature: This innovative secure portal allows clients to connect their own socials to your agency Sendible system without having to chase down passwords or insecurely share sensitive data.
• Google Business Integration: Unlike Later, Sendible offers native Google Business integration, making it a good fit for local brands or agencies supporting local brands as compard with Later which does not have this.

Sendible Compared to Peers:

• Sendible vs. Hootsuite
• Sendible vs. Puffer
• Sendible vs. Hootsuite

SocialPilot: Best Larger Enterprise Upgrade

TL;DR: SocialPilot is a great SMM platform at scale for larger enterprises and agencies, with great value pricing and a few additional key platform integrations compared to Later.

Why I Like SocialPilot

• More Included Social Accounts (better value): At first blush, Later might appear less expensive than SocialPilot and that’s true in terms of the base price you pay, but SocialPilot includes more social accounts at each level. For example, their Standard Plan starts at $50/,omth but includes 15 social media accounts (up to 3 users), while Later starts at $16.67/month (1 user) but 1 “social set” (this means 1 profile, on up to 8 social media platforms).

• PDF Reports & Exports: SocialPilot offers a variety of tools to export PDFs, reports and other analytics views, making it a good fit for an agency or enterprise with internal stakeholders.
• Supports Google Business: If you are a local business, or an agency that supports local businesses, having Google Business integrated can be a make or break. SocialPilot offers direct integration, whereas later does not (yet).
• Supports Bluesky: Bluesky is new in terms of growth, but SocialPilot was early to offer a dedicated integration, giving it a clear advantage over Later (they do not).

SocialPilot Compared to Peers:

• SocialPilot vs. Hootsuite
• SocialPilot vs. Buffer

Tailwind: Best for Pinterest Pivot

TL;DR: Tailwind is to Pinterest what Later originally was for Instagram. If you are specifically looking to grow Pinterest (and don’t need much else), consider Tailwind as a better customizaed fit for this use case.

Why I Like Tailwind

• Pinterest Focus: Tailwind also supports Instagram and Facebook (jetzt), but it’s best known for the Pinterest integration and for good reason. Tailwind was the first dedicated social media insights and automation platform specifically for Pinterest, and some of their features are still unrivaled in the space (mostly due to how other social media apps are designed – mass market for many platforms).
• Communities Focus: Communities is one of Tailwind’s unique features, which allows me to easily team up with other networked Pinterest marketers and mutually support each other’s shares. This is by far one of the unique proprietary advantages that I haven’t seen successfully replicated on other platforms.
• Advanced Pinterest Analytics: Tailwind draws out so many critical insights and trends for me that I wouldn’t otherwise get from the Pinterest dashboard.
• Annehmbare Preisgestaltung: Tailwind starts at just $14.99 for their base plan (200 posts per month) and this is farily affordable compared to many of the options I’ve previously listed. If you are running a Pinterest-heavy strategy, it’s compelling!

Final Cut: So Which is Best?

There are some really good options here and I hope I’ve provided some different flavors to help your decision.

If you are still stuck, however, here’s how I’d narrow it down more precisely based on the use cases that I most commonly see:

• Need to expand beyond Instagram? Eindeutig go with the broader overall Sprout Social platform here.
• Just need more robust analytics? Go with Hootsuite here.
• Need something cheaper? Downgrade to Metricool here.