Metricool is good at the thing it was built for: analytics across social, web and ads, in one dashboard a client will read. The reasons people look past it are nearly always about the other half of the product. The plan is sold by brand, and a brand holds one profile of each network, so a creator with two Instagram accounts is two brands. X costs $10 a month per account on top of Free and Starter. Approvals live on Advanced at $67. And there is no Discord, Telegram or Mastodon.
This page lists the alternatives at eight channels, says what each one lacks against Metricool, and ends with the cases where Metricool is still the right buy.
What Metricool costs
| Plan | Monthly | Yearly, per month | Brands | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | $0 | 1 | No X, shorter history |
| Starter | $25 | $20 | 5 | X at $10 per account; 10 brands for $45 |
| Advanced | $67 | $53 | 15 | X included, team, approvals, API; 25 brands $107, 50 brands $210 |
| Custom | on request |
Eight channels for one brand is $25 a month. Eight channels for a creator who runs two Instagram and two TikTok accounts is still $25 but needs two of the five brands, and with X on both it is $45.
Eight alternatives at 8 channels
Prices are each vendor's own, monthly billing, read in October 2026. "API" means a documented public API; "MCP" means a Model Context Protocol server an assistant can connect to.
| Tool | 8 channels / month | What that includes | Free plan | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Preflight Starter | $13 | 8 channels, 1 user, 150 posts/month, 1 GB files | Free plan, 3 channels | Pro ($24): 20 channels, 3 users, API + MCP |
| Buffer | $48 (Essentials) | $6 per channel | Yes, 3 channels | API + MCP on every plan |
| Publer | about $33 (Professional) | $5 for the first account, $4 each after | Yes, 3 accounts | Telegram and WordPress; MCP in beta |
| PostFast | €29 (Creator) | 12 accounts, 5 users | No, 7-day trial | API + MCP everywhere |
| Postiz | $39 (Team) | 10 channels, unlimited members | Self-host free | Open source; Discord and Telegram |
| Later | $25 (Starter) | 1 set of 8 networks | No | No X, Bluesky, Mastodon, API |
| SocialBee | $49 (Accelerate) | 10 profiles, 1 user | No, 14-day trial | No public API |
| Hootsuite | $99 (Standard, yearly) | 10 accounts, 1 user | No | Listening and inbox |
Metricool's $25 is the line. Only Preflight sits clearly under it; Later ties it with less; everyone else costs more and offers something Metricool does not. Preflight's plans, with yearly billing at ten months for twelve, are on the pricing page.
What each one gives up against Metricool
Preflight has no ads reporting, no web analytics, no competitor benchmarks and no Looker Studio connector; its analytics are per post and per network, with YouTube retention and traffic sources and a printable monthly report. Its X is text-only. What it has instead: a flat $13 for eight channels of any mix, pre-publish checks against each network's real rules, Discord, Telegram, Mastodon and Tumblr, approval links at $24 rather than $67, and video to 2 GB. The side-by-side is on Preflight vs Metricool.
Buffer has the best free plan at three channels and an API and MCP on every tier, and costs nearly twice Metricool at eight channels.
Publer keeps per-account billing cheap and has Telegram and WordPress, with members at $2 or $3 each; its MCP was in beta in October 2026.
PostFast is flat, has API and MCP on every plan and Google Business Profile; no Discord or Mastodon.
Postiz is open source with Discord and Telegram and unlimited members for $39 hosted; the analytics are thin next to Metricool's.
Later matches the price and drops X, Bluesky, Mastodon and any API.
SocialBee and Hootsuite cost twice and four times as much; SocialBee for content categories and recycling, Hootsuite for listening and a company-sized inbox.
When Metricool is still right
- The report is the product you sell. Nobody under $50 ships ads, web and social analytics in one place.
- You want an MCP server without paying. Metricool's is on the free plan; Preflight's MCP server starts on Pro.
- You post to X with pictures and can carry the $10.
- One brand, every network, no team: $25 buys a lot.
Moving over
Metricool exports analytics, not a schedule, so the queue is rebuilt in the new tool. Every tool above imports from a CSV; Preflight's takes text, date, time and a media URL per row. Keep Metricool's free plan for the reporting if you like it; nothing stops two tools reading the same accounts.
Prices read from metricool.com/pricing and each vendor's page on 6 October 2026. Metricool quotes euros or dollars by region; dollar figures are used here.
Questions people ask
- Does Metricool have a free plan?
- Yes: one brand, one profile of each network, no X, and a shorter analytics history than the paid plans. Its MCP server is included on the free plan.
- What is the cheapest Metricool alternative at 8 channels?
- Preflight Starter at $13 a month in October 2026, then Later at $25 for one set of eight networks, PostFast at €29, Publer at about $33, Postiz at $39 and Buffer at $48.
- Which alternatives include X without a surcharge?
- Buffer, Publer (paid plans), PostFast, Postiz, SocialBee and Hootsuite include X. Metricool charges $10 a month per X account on Free and Starter; Later dropped X; Preflight's X is text-only.
- Which alternatives post to Discord or Telegram?
- Preflight and Postiz post to both; Publer posts to Telegram. Metricool, Buffer, Later, SocialBee and Hootsuite post to neither.