Looking at Meta Business Suite alternatives is an important step for business owners and social media managers who are looking for efficiency.
It tends to be the go-to platform for many businesses managing their presence across Facebook and Instagram. However, it’s not always the best fit for every team, especially when it comes to features like cross-platform scheduling, team collaboration, or detailed analytics.
In this article, we’re exploring the best Meta Business Suite alternatives to help you have a better grasp of your social media strategy. These are tools we have trialed to provide an insightful review of their benefits and drawbacks.
1. Later
Later is best known as social media scheduling platform designed to simplify content planning and publishing across multiple channels. While it initially rose to prominence for Instagram scheduling, it has since evolved into a comprehensive solution that includes tools for influencer marketing, social media management, social listening, and a Link in Bio feature. The platform also offers dedicated resources and features tailored specifically for content creators, making it a versatile choice for a variety of audiences.
Later supports Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, TikTok, LinkedIn, and Instagram, making it a flexible alternative for businesses managing multi-platform strategies. With its clean interface, visual content calendar, and strong analytics, Later is especially well-suited for brands and creators focused on visual storytelling.
Key features:
- Visual content calendar
- Influencer marketing research
- Social listening
- Link in Bio tool for traffic conversion
Cons
While Later offers a variety of solutions, some users have raised concerns about usability and reliability:
- Post Composition Limitations: If you forget to select a publishing channel or select too many while composing a post, the platform may force you to start over—a frustrating experience for frequent users. “If you forget a channel or select too many, mid-point of writing a post, then you have to start over, which is a tad annoying.” – Darren W., Company Director
- Connection Refresh Issues: The platform sometimes requires users to manually refresh social media connections. If not done in time, scheduled posts may fail to publish. “Remembering to occasionally log in and refresh the connection can be inconvenient… your posts will not publish.” – Olivia M., Social Media Manager
- App Limitations for Carousel Posts: Some users report that posting Instagram carousels via the mobile app can be unreliable, often requiring manual reposting. “A lot of the times the carousel posts wouldn’t go on my IG and then I’d have to do them manually anyway.” – Rahel W., Owner
Platforms:
- TikTok
- YouTube
- Threads
- Snapchat
Pricing:
Later provides a 14-day free trial and a variety of plans starting at $16.67 a month on the annual plan
2. Hopper HQ
Hopper HQ is a great Meta Business Suite alternative to consider if you’re a small business that doesn’t want to spend too much time on social media but understands the importance of keeping a consistent presence.
Its main differentiating feature is its Strategy Planner for content planning. This feature analyzes your connected social accounts and generates a personalized content strategy tailored to your brand. It provides a strategic roadmap, including a content summary, recommended themes and post types, and optimal posting times. You can also directly create the suggested posts, saving you even more time with full social media automation.
One of Hopper HQ’s most powerful time-saving tools is its bulk creation and scheduling feature. Instead of uploading content one post at a time, users can upload and schedule dozens of posts at once across platforms. With the Split-Captions feature, users can customize their messaging for each platform while scheduling a single post. For example, a visual, hashtag-rich Instagram caption can sit alongside a more professional, text-heavy LinkedIn version
Key features:
- Strategy Planner: Generate a customized content plan for all your socials
- Split Captions: Create unique captions for each platform when cross-posting
- Visual Calendar & Grid Planner: drag and drop content and watch your grid change
- AI Assistance: Accelerate the creation process with the help of AI
- Bulk schedule: Schedule a large number of posts at once to save time
Platforms:
- Instagram​
- Facebook​
- Twitter (X)​
- LinkedIn​
- TikTok​
- Pinterest​
- YouTube Shorts​
- BluesKy
Pricing:
Hopper HQ provides a free 14-day trial and then has one subscription plan at $16 a month on the yearly plan.
3. Agorapulse
Agorapulse is especially useful for brands dealing with high engagement volumes. Although a lot more robust than the Meta Business suite, it still provides a publishing tool that supports the planning and scheduling of content across multiple platforms. It also simplifies team collaboration by allowing approvals, shared calendars, and campaign-level planning.
At its core, Agorapulse offers a unified inbox that allows users to take full control of their social interactions across all major platforms. This inbox consolidates messages, comments, and mentions, ensuring that nothing falls through the cracks.
Another strength of Agorapulse is its social listening functionality, which enables users to monitor what’s being said about their brand, industry, or competitors in real time. This insight helps inform content strategy, community engagement, and reputation management. On the performance side, Agorapulse shines with its ROI measurement capabilities as well as Google Analytics integration.
Altogether, Agorapulse delivers both strategic depth and operational ease, making it a strong alternative to Meta Business Suite. It’s especially well-suited for brands and agencies that require detailed reporting, advanced collaboration, and strong engagement management.
Key features:
- Unified inbox for messages and comments
- Advanced team collaboration tools
- Competitor analysis and social listening
- Google Analytics integration for better ROI tracking
Cons:
- Creation flow is less intuitive, particularly when handling media uploads. One reviewer mentioned frustration with the need to select a media type before dragging in a graphic, noting that moving too quickly can disrupt the entire process: “I hate how I have to click the media type before dragging the social graphic into the post while I’m creating it. Sometimes I go too fast and it ruins everything.” – Verified Reviewer
- The lack of ability to link or consolidate interactions from the same individual across different channels. Additionally, the platform’s search functionality has been described as limited, making it hard to track down historical cases or conversations:“Inability to link (the same) users between platforms. Limited search functionality, difficult to go back and locate a case/user.” – Joseph V., Social Media Support
- No support for Instagram direct messages. Currently, Agorapulse does not allow users to manage Instagram DMs within the platform, which can disrupt community management workflows: “Not having Instagram DM capabilities is an annoying limitation.” – Brodie H., Digital Marketing Manager
Platforms:
- Instagram​
- Facebook​
- Twitter (X)​
- LinkedIn​
- TikTok​
- Pinterest​
- YouTube Shorts​
- BlueSky
- Threads
- Google My Business
Pricing:
AgoraPulse provides a 30-day free trial and then a selection of 3 plans, with the starting price of $79 on the annual plan.
4. Buffer
Buffer is a good Meta Business Suite alternative for growing brands that want to create consistently, collaborate efficiently, and stay in tune with their audience. While it may not have every enterprise-level feature, Buffer’s smooth experience and powerful publishing tools make it a considerable tool.
Like all other tools mentioned in this article, Buffer provides basic scheduling features for supported platforms, which obviously include Instagram and Facebook. Like Hopper HQ, its intuitive drag-and-drop calendar makes post planning efficient and accessible, even for users with limited technical experience.
Engagement is another priority. Buffer’s Engage feature provides a focused inbox for replying to comments and mentions, enabling brands to build community and maintain customer relationships without juggling multiple platform tabs.
Finally, Buffer includes a Start Page tool, which lets users build a branded link-in-bio landing page within minutes. This feature is especially useful for Instagram and TikTok users looking to drive traffic to multiple destinations through a single clickable link.
Key features:
- Link in bio start page
- Centralized inbox and commenting
- Content collaboration and approval workflows
- Content Library for ideas
Cons:
- Unreliable post notifications: Manual publishing alerts—especially for Instagram—often fail to appear or arrive late, disrupting scheduled workflows.“It doesn’t send the notification.” – James Cross
“Defeats the purpose of the automation.” – Nathaniel Cole - Issues with image posting: Users report difficulties uploading multiple images, resizing problems, and limited support for content types like carousels and videos. “Users mention difficulties with uploading multiple images, resizing issues, and errors in posting images on platforms like Instagram and LinkedIn.” – Aggregated user review summary
- Frequent account disconnections: Social accounts disconnect often, requiring repeated reauthorization, which disrupts posting, especially for those managing many profiles. “This issue is particularly frustrating for those managing multiple accounts and can disrupt their scheduled posts.” – Aggregated user review summary
Price:
Pricing starts at $5 per month with 2 subscription plans, and also provides a 14-day free trial.
Platforms:
- Instagram​
- Facebook​
- Twitter​
- LinkedIn​
- Pinterest​
- Mastadon
- Google My Business
- Threads
- Bluesky
- YouTube
5. Sprout Social
Sprout Social is ideal for enterprise teams that need an all-in-one solution with advanced analytics, robust engagement workflows, and support for influencer and employee advocacy.
Sprout’s core features cover everything from engagement and publishing to strategic analytics. Its Engagement module helps businesses streamline customer care by consolidating messages, mentions, and comments from across social channels into a unified inbox. This mirrors tools like Agorapulse and Buffer, but Sprout offers additional filtering and workflow options suited for larger teams.
What sets Sprout apart are its premium solutions. Premium Analytics goes beyond basic performance reports to offer customized, ROI-focused dashboards that help justify social media investment. Much like Agorapulse’s social listening module, listening tracks brand sentiment and uncovers market trends based on real-time conversations. This allows businesses to proactively adapt their messaging and strategies.
Key features:
- Smart Inbox to manage conversations
- Comprehensive reporting and analytics
- Built-in CRM and contact management
- Social listening features
Cons:
- Prohibitive pricing for small businesses: Many users find Sprout Social’s pricing too steep for smaller teams, especially when compared to similarly featured platforms like Buffer or SocialBee. While its functionality is appreciated, some feel the value doesn’t justify the premium cost:
“Their prices are expensive compared to other social media management and analytics platforms.” – Cristina Morgan - Slow and ineffective issue resolution: Users often experience slow response times from customer support, with frequent bugs and delayed fixes. This has led to frustration, especially when issues are met with temporary workarounds rather than long-term solutions.
“Users express frustration with the slow response times and lack of effective solutions from customer support.” – Aggregated user review summary - Inconsistent account management: Managing multiple accounts can be cumbersome in Sprout Social, with users citing frequent disconnections, unstable access, and the need to repeatedly log in. Some reviewers also find the account management structure unclear and difficult to navigate.
“They also find managing multiple accounts confusing and cumbersome, especially for agencies.” – Aggregated user review summary
Price:
Sprout Social provides 4 subscription plans, with the lowest one starting at $199 a month. It also provides a 30-day free trial.
Platforms:
- Instagram​
- Facebook​
- Twitter (X)​
- LinkedIn​
- TikTok​
- Pinterest​
- YouTube
- Threads
6. Loomly
Loomly is built for teams who thrive on structure and consistency. While other tools like Buffer focus on simplicity and Agorapulse leans heavily into engagement and reporting, Loomly excels in operational structure and internal communication.
Loomly’s Content Calendar and Library are central to its usability. Like Later, it offers a visual content calendar that’s intuitive and easy to use. However, it also adds a structured content library where you can organize assets, save drafts, and repurpose ideas for future campaigns, perfect for maintaining brand consistency and efficiency across time zones and teams.
The platform’s Collaboration and Approvals system is a key strength, comparable to Planable and Sprout Social. Teams can assign roles, leave comments on drafts, and track post status through custom workflows. This makes it ideal for brands needing multiple layers of review before publishing.
Key features:
- Visual content calendar with drag-and-drop interface
- Collaboration & approval workflows with real-time commenting
- Content library with asset organization and media integrations
- Campaign management with custom labels and UTM tracking
Cons:
- Unreliable post publishing: Users report that posts don’t always publish as scheduled, and features like automated publishing or push notifications may not function as promised.
“It doesn’t do what it promised. When you upload to Loomly, the quality of the videos significantly decreases… The system ends up glitching and doesn’t go live.” Verified User, Food & Beverages Industry - Limited functionality compared to expectations: Some users sign up based on advertised features only to find key tools missing or underdeveloped.
“The functionality we thought wasn’t there… it was very pricey for our email company and immediately regrettable.” Verified User, Small Business (Food & Beverages) - Poor user experience and outdated interface: Reviewers mention that the desktop experience is clunky and the system doesn’t align with modern usability standards.
“The website/desktop version was majorly below bar.” Tom S., Director of Marketing
Price:
A free plan is available on Loomly, and it provides one subscription plan like Hopper HQ. However, the price is not publicly available.
Platforms:
- Instagram​
- Facebook​
- Snapchat
- Twitter​
- LinkedIn​
- Pinterest​
- Google My Business
- Threads
- Bluesky
- YouTube
.
7. SocialBee
SocialBee offers a variety of Content Creation tools that allow users to craft platform specific captions and visuals. This includes an AI Assistant to help brainstorm post ideas and generate captions, similar to the AI features in tools like Hopper HQ and Sprout Social. You canalso benefit from their content categorization, which organises posts by themes and their evergeen feature, allowing you to post variations of the same post.
Engagement tools enable you to monitor mentions, reply to comments, and manage direct messages efficiently, functions that put it in the same league as Agorapulse and other Meta Business Suuite alternatives. You can customize your dashboard, organize streams and keep track of notifactions.
On the analytics front, SocialBee offers detailed performance tracking, including downloadable PDF reports, helping marketers measure and report on campaign effectiveness. While not as advanced as analytics suite as tools focused on larger businesses, it’s more than sufficient for most small to mid-sized teams.
Where SocialBee truly extends its functionality is through its integrations. Instead of just connecting with social platforms, SocialBee supports a variety of productivity tools. These include design and imagery tools like Canva, content curation platforms like Pocket and RSS feed integration, URL shorteners such as Bitly and Rebrandly, and automation solutions including Zapier and other workflow connectors.
Key features:
- Category-based scheduling and evergreen recycling
- Engagement tools for comments, mentions, and DMs
- Team collaboration and approval workflows
- In-depth analytics with exportable reports
- Broad platform integrations
Cons:
- Unreliable link shorteners: Some users report issues with SocialBee’s built-in link shortener, noting that a significant number of links fail to work after scheduling.
“I was very disappointed to see 20% of the links do not work.” – Julie S., Owner and Registered Acupuncturist - Glitches with automation: Users have experienced glitches when setting up automatic posts, where content from previous posts is mistakenly reused.“There sometimes is a glitch when setting up the automatic posts that grabs content from previous posts.” – Erica H., Marketing & Accounting Professional
- Steep learning curve for new users: While feature-rich, SocialBee’s interface may feel unintuitive to newcomers, leading to a more difficult onboarding experience.“The layout of SocialBee is not intuitive and can be confusing for someone new to it.” – Richard S., Owner, Self-employed
Price:
SocialBee provides a 14-day free trial and then offers 3 paid plans starting at the price of $22.20 a month on the annual plan.
Platforms:
- X (Twitter)
- TikTok
- YouTube
- Google Business
- Threads
- Bluesky
- Universal Posting (multi-platform distribution)
8. Planable
What sets Planable apart from other tools in this list is its hyper-focus on real-time collaboration, multi-level approval workflows, and visual content planning, making it especially well-suited for agencies and teams juggling multiple brands or client accounts.
What makes it especially appealing compared to tools like Buffer or SocialBee is its live post preview, showing exactly how content will appear on each platform before it’s published.
The platform also excels in Collaboration and Approvals. Users can comment directly on posts, tag team members, and assign tasks or roles. Its multi-level approval system allows posts to move through different phases (e.g., draft, pending approval, approved), ensuring total clarity and accountability. Compared to Agorapulse or Loomly, Planable provides a cleaner, more intuitive collaboration process.
Another strength is Planable’s Content Calendar and Library, which lets users categorize and manage assets, campaigns, and scheduled posts all in one place. This is similar to the asset management features of Later and Loomly
Key features:
- Real-time collaboration and feedback
- Side-by-side post previews
- Approval workflows and version control
- Integrated media management
Cons:
- Lack of built-in analytics: While Planable excels at content planning and approvals, it falls short on post-performance tracking. Users needing in-depth reporting will have to rely on external tools.
“You can’t get analytics on your content. This is the biggest con for me as a strategist.” – Megan S., Founder, Small Business - No engagement or inbox functionality: Planable does not support managing comments, messages, or replies directly, which limits its usefulness for community engagement.
- “It doesn’t offer the same type of inbox or comment monitoring as other tools.” – Chelsea W., Marketing Manager, Mid-Market
- Limited automation features: Users note the lack of automation for post recycling, bulk uploads, and smart scheduling compared to other platforms.
Price:
Subscriptions start at $33 a month with 4 different plans to choose from, one being a free plan.
Platforms:
- Instagram​
- Facebook​
- Snapchat
- Twitter​
- LinkedIn​
- Pinterest​
- Mastadon
- Google My Business
- Threads
- Bluesky
- YouTube
Final Thoughts
While Meta Business Suite offers powerful tools for managing Facebook and Instagram, many teams find its limitations frustrating, especially when managing multiple platforms or collaborating at scale.
Hopefully this article has given enough Meta Bussiness Alternatives for you to find the best suitable one for your business. Although all of them provide publishing and scheduling for Instagram and Facebook, depending on your teams needs, one may be bettersuited compared to the others.
For simple, easy-to-use features, we consider trying Hopper HQ out for free!