10 Best Plann Alternatives for Collaborative Social Media Management

If you’ve been relying on Plann (aka PlannThat) for your social media scheduling but feel it’s not keeping up with your growing needs, you’re not alone. Plann is a solid Instagram-focused tool, but it does have its limitations. Many of its advanced features – like analytics, best-time posting suggestions, and even inbox replies – only work for Instagram. It also lacks support for key networks such as X (Twitter) and Google Business Profile, and its top plan caps out at just 4 users, which can hinder larger teams. Collaboration features in Plann are basic (no internal comments or content annotations), so as your team or client list expands, you might find yourself looking for a more robust solution.

Fortunately, there are plenty of Plann alternatives available that offer broader social network support and richer collaboration tools. Below, we’ll explore 10 of the best alternatives – focusing on platforms that make teamwork easier. From all-in-one social media suites to niche content planners, each option brings something unique to the table. Let’s dive in!

1. Planable – The Ultimate Collaborative Content Planner 

Planable’s calendar interface allows teams to visually plan and schedule posts across multiple social networks. Planable is our top pick for a Plann alternative, especially for teams and agencies. It supports posting to 9 different social platforms, including those that Plann misses (yes, Planable works with X and Google Business Profile). Beyond social posts, Planable lets you collaborate on virtually any kind of content – think blog drafts, newsletters, or ads – using its Universal Content feature. In other words, it’s not limited to social media; it’s a centralized hub for all your content planning.

What really makes Planable shine is its collaboration and approval toolkit. You get real-time feedback threads with both internal and client-facing comments, plus the ability to attach precise text annotations on posts for clear edits. Planable allows multi-level approval workflows, so you can set up an organized review process (e.g. content goes through your copywriter then the manager then the client for final sign-off). According to one agency co-founder, “Planable is the best client-facing social media tool we’ve ever used and we’ve used a lot”. The platform is built with agencies in mind: you can create dedicated workspaces for each client or brand and invite clients via shareable link – no account required on their end. This, along with features like a drag-and-drop content calendar and color-coded labels for campaigns, keeps everyone on the same page. Planable even has an AI assistant to help brainstorm captions or repurpose content without leaving the app. Overall, if seamless teamwork and multi-platform planning are your priorities, Planable is hard to beat.

2. Sprout Social – Best for Engagement and Team Inbox Management

Sprout Social is an all-in-one social media management platform trusted by many large organizations for its powerful engagement tools. Sprout’s standout feature is its unified social inbox, which pulls in comments, direct messages, mentions, and even reviews from all your social accounts into one dashboard. Your team can collaboratively monitor and respond to everything from Facebook comments to Instagram DMs without juggling apps. Sprout even offers advanced filtering (by keywords, sentiment, tags, etc.) to help multiple team members triage and respond efficiently. For example, Sprout’s Smart Inbox was key for Salesforce’s social team during big events – they could track and engage with thousands of incoming messages in real time. In fact, Salesforce reports that after implementing Sprout, their team “saved over 12,000 hours [in one year] by using Sprout, and [the] team is having a lot more fun with their work.” This highlights how Sprout’s automation and workflows (like assigning tasks and canned responses) can drastically improve team efficiency.

Sprout Social also excels in analytics and scheduling. It offers a robust content calendar where you can schedule posts across networks, complete with optimal send-time suggestions to maximize engagement. The platform’s reporting is top-notch – you can generate reports that compare performance across multiple profiles or even track competitors on key metrics. Collaboration-wise, Sprout supports user roles, approvals, and a neat feature called Message Spike Alerts (to notify the team of sudden surges in activity that might need attention). The main downside of Sprout? Pricing. Sprout is a premium tool (entry plans are about $199 per user/month) and some features like external approvals or bulk scheduling aren’t even available on the lowest tier. It’s an investment, but for a large team focused on community engagement and comprehensive analytics, Sprout Social is a leading choice.

3. Hootsuite – Best for Broad Features and Team Workflow at Scale

Hootsuite is one of the original social media management platforms, and it remains a popular choice for companies that need a little bit of everything. From scheduling and monitoring to analytics and advertising, Hootsuite covers a lot of bases. Importantly, it has strong team collaboration capabilities: you can have multiple users on the account with different roles and permissions, ensuring everyone knows their responsibilities. For example, you can assign one team member to draft posts and another to approve them before publishing. Hootsuite’s higher-tier plans include workflow features like content approvals, task assignments, and even a shared content library for your team’s assets. In other words, it’s built to help social media teams work together efficiently.

Another advantage of Hootsuite is its sheer comprehensiveness. It supports a wide array of social networks (including the usual suspects plus LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest, Threads, and more) and offers extras like social listening streams and an in-dashboard inbox for messages. The tool’s dashboard lets you manage all your social accounts in one place, which is a huge time-saver for busy managers. That said, all those features can make Hootsuite feel a bit complex at first. New users often face a learning curve with Hootsuite’s interface, which is packed with options and data. The platform has undergone pricing changes recently as well, moving more toward enterprise clients. Still, if you need a tried-and-true platform with robust collaboration tools (and don’t mind spending time mastering it), Hootsuite remains a solid Plann alternative for scaling teams.

4. Agorapulse – Best for Unified Inbox and Agency ROI Focus

Agorapulse is a favorite among social media agencies and mid-sized businesses, largely due to its emphasis on efficiency and reporting. Like Sprout, Agorapulse offers a unified social inbox that consolidates all your messages, comments, and reviews across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, TikTok, and more. Your team can easily keep tabs on incoming social chatter without switching accounts – a big win for collaboration and responsiveness. Agorapulse also provides intuitive publishing tools (schedule or queue posts to multiple networks at once, with the ability to tailor each post per platform) and in-depth analytics with beautiful PDF reports for clients.

When it comes to teamwork, Agorapulse has you covered with features like content approval workflows and shared calendars. You can require that certain posts get approved by a manager or client before going live, and you can share an interactive content calendar with stakeholders so they can see what’s planned. User roles and permissions are built in as well, so you can safely grant access to team members or clients at different levels. One standout feature is Agorapulse’s focus on ROI tracking – it has an “ROI” dashboard that helps you tie social media efforts to real business outcomes (great for justifying your work to clients or bosses). Combined with its “social listening” tool to monitor brand mentions and keywords, Agorapulse really positions itself as an all-in-one command center for social media teams. The pricing is moderate (cheaper than Sprout for similar features) and they even offer a limited free plan. If you’re an agency or a results-driven team, Agorapulse’s blend of collaboration and analytics – all in one easy interface – makes it one of the most effective Plann alternatives out there.

5. Later – Best for Visual Planning and E-commerce Social Media

Later is well-known as an Instagram scheduling tool, but it has grown into a multi-platform scheduler with a strong visual planning focus. It’s especially handy for brands that rely on Instagram, TikTok, and Pinterest for marketing (think fashion, beauty, or any highly visual industry). One of Later’s coolest features is its Linkin.bio integration – essentially a mini web page you can link to from your Instagram/TikTok bio that mimics your feed and includes clickable links. This is awesome for driving traffic from Instagram posts, and Later even provides built-in SEO tools for these link-in-bio pages to boost discovery. You can track page views and click-through rates via Google Analytics integration, turning your Instagram feed into a gateway for sales.

On the collaboration front, Later has added features to make team life easier too. Its social media scheduler works across all major platforms – you can plan posts for Instagram, Facebook, Twitter (X), Pinterest, LinkedIn, TikTok, and even Threads and Snapchat in one calendar. It supports scheduling of unique formats like Instagram Stories and carousels (with auto-publish) and gives hashtag and best-time suggestions to help maximize reach. Later also offers a basic unified inbox for certain platforms, so you can reply to Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok comments from one place. This is great for a small social team wearing multiple hats. In terms of analytics, Later provides decent audience insights (e.g. demographics reports across platforms) to help you understand your followers. It’s worth noting that some advanced features (like listening/monitoring or more in-depth analytics) are only in Later’s higher enterprise plans. However, for small teams and content creators, Later’s blend of visual planning and straightforward scheduling – at a relatively affordable price point – makes it a strong Plann alternative, particularly if Instagram and TikTok are your bread and butter.

6. SocialPilot – Best for Multi-Platform Scheduling on a Budget

SocialPilot is a cost-effective social media management tool that doesn’t skimp on features, making it a popular alternative for those who want broad functionality without the enterprise price tag. It supports all the major social networks you’d expect – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, TikTok, Google Business Profile – and even some newer players like Bluesky. If Plann’s lack of certain networks was an issue, SocialPilot likely has you covered. The platform is built for volume: it allows bulk scheduling of up to 500 posts at once via CSV import, which is perfect if you plan content months ahead or have a huge queue of posts to recycle.

For team collaboration, SocialPilot includes multi-user support with client management features. Agencies can invite clients to their own dashboard views and even white-label the interface on higher plans. The tool provides an in-app content library to store your brand’s media assets, saved hashtags, or caption templates for easy reuse. There’s also an AI assistant that can automatically tweak your posts to fit character limits or translate content into different languages – a nifty time-saver when tailoring content to each platform. SocialPilot’s scheduling calendar is simple and effective, with a drag-and-drop UI and the ability to set up recurring time slots (Smart Queues) so you always post at optimal times. While SocialPilot does have an inbox feature, it’s a bit limited – currently it only supports managing comments/messages for Facebook and Instagram, which is worth noting if cross-platform engagement is a priority. Overall, SocialPilot is ideal for small teams or agencies managing many accounts who need collaboration (team roles, approvals) and multi-platform support, but at a fraction of the cost of big-name tools.

7. Loomly – Best for Intuitive Calendar & Approval Workflows

Loomly is a user-friendly social media management platform that’s great for teams seeking a clean interface and strong approval features. Many social media managers love Loomly for its visual content calendar – you can see all your scheduled posts laid out and drag-and-drop to reschedule them, which makes planning super straightforward. Loomly supports a wide range of social platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter/X, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube, TikTok, Google Business, even Snapchat and Threads), so it’s on par with top tools in coverage. Creating a post in Loomly is guided by helpful steps, and it even suggests optimizations and ideas. One feature that stands out is Loomly’s collaborative workflow: you can assign posts to team members, set up an approval process (e.g., content must be approved by a supervisor or client before publishing), and discuss feedback right on the post draft. In fact, Loomly supports multi-level approval workflows and role-based permissions, ensuring the right people see and approve content at the right stage. This is a big plus for agencies or larger teams concerned about quality control.

Loomly also offers a built-in content library for storing your images, videos, and notes, as well as an idea hub that gives you post ideas based on trending topics – handy when your team has a creative block. Analytics are part of the package too, giving you performance metrics for each post and platform. Users frequently praise Loomly’s ease of use: “From the very beginning, the platform is easy to understand and very easy to set up and use,” says one G2 reviewer, noting how it helps map out content for multiple companies daily. That said, Loomly went through a pricing change recently that made it pricier for some small users (they reduced mid-tier plans, pushing users to higher plans for certain features). It still offers a 15-day free trial and is highly rated for its feature set. If you want a simplified yet powerful planner that your team (and clients) can pick up quickly, Loomly is a great Plann alternative to consider.

8. FeedHive – Best for Content Automation and AI-Assisted Posting

FeedHive is a newer entrant geared toward creators and marketers who love automation. If you find yourself doing a lot of repetitive posting tasks or want to squeeze more engagement out of each post, FeedHive might be your jam. Its hallmark feature is condition-based automation triggers for your social content. For instance, you can set up rules like: “After my tweet gets 50 likes, automatically post a follow-up comment” or “If a Facebook post hits 100 shares, reshare it the next day to capitalize on the momentum.” FeedHive lets you configure these kinds of triggers easily, so it can automatically handle some engagement for you. It’s a smart way to keep the interaction going without constant manual effort.

FeedHive is also heavy on AI-powered assistance. The platform will score your content’s “virality” potential based on trends and formats, and if your score is low, it can suggest edits or automatically adjust your content to improve performance. It’s like having a little data-driven editor sitting with your team, advising on how to make posts pop. Of course, FeedHive covers standard scheduling across multiple channels as well – you can draft a post and customize it for Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, etc., in one go. It even supports scheduling media like Instagram Reels, TikToks, and YouTube Shorts, which not all tools do. Collaboration-wise, FeedHive allows team members to handle incoming engagement together using a unified inbox for Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube comments. One current limitation is that FeedHive does not support X (Twitter) yet, which is something to consider if Twitter is key to you. However, they do support scheduling to other platforms and are likely to expand. For teams focused on maximizing reach with minimal effort, FeedHive’s automation and AI features make it a cutting-edge alternative to Plann.

9. Zoho Social – Best for Internal & Client Collaboration

Zoho Social is part of the larger Zoho business software suite, and it’s a fantastic choice if you want a social media tool that doubles as a collaboration hub. What sets Zoho Social apart is its “Collaborate” tab – a space designed like a social media feed for your team’s internal discussions. Here, your team can have conversations about content strategy, brainstorm new post ideas, and even share real-time reports, all without leaving the platform. You can tag colleagues to grab their attention on a draft or use @all to notify the whole team. It essentially brings a Slack-like teamwork element directly into your social media tool, which can really streamline feedback loops.

Crucially, Zoho Social also recognizes that agencies often need to involve clients in the process. Rather than messy email threads, Zoho Social lets you tag clients in discussions or content threads when you want their input. The client will get a notification and can view just that specific thread to comment or approve, without seeing any of your internal chatter. This keeps your internal workflow private but still easily pulls in client feedback – a huge plus for client-agency transparency. In terms of core features, Zoho Social handles multi-platform scheduling (Facebook, Insta, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.), monitoring, and analytics. It also provides role-based access and unlimited team members on higher plans, so you can add your whole marketing department with appropriate permissions. Another neat feature: you can set up an integrated chat or even audio/video calls with teammates within Zoho Social’s interface for quick discussions. Being part of Zoho, it integrates natively with Zoho CRM and other tools, which is great if your company runs on that ecosystem. In short, Zoho Social is built for collaboration at its core – it’s ideal for teams that want a social media tool and a teamwork tool in one. If you’re an agency or a social media team that juggles multiple team members and client approvals, Zoho Social is definitely a Plann alternative to check out.

10. Rella – Best for Structured Content Workflow

Rella is a newer platform that approaches social media planning from a project management perspective. Imagine combining a Trello-style Kanban board with a content calendar – that’s essentially Rella. It’s perfect for teams that want a highly structured workflow for content creation. In Rella, you create cards for each piece of content (e.g. an Instagram post or a TikTok video) and move those cards through customizable columns like Ideas → In Draft → Ready for Approval → Scheduled. This visual pipeline gives everyone clarity on the status of each post. You can click on a card to see all the details of that content: the copy, the creative, due dates, etc.

Collaboration is baked into Rella’s system. On each content card, team members can be assigned tasks or sub-tasks (say, one person to design the graphic, another to write the caption) and they can upload files or leave comments for feedback. This keeps discussions organized by specific piece of content, rather than one giant chat. Rella also offers Social Spaces, which are like separate workspaces for each client or project – within each Space you can even have sub-folders to group campaigns or channels for better organization. For Instagram lovers, Rella has a dedicated Instagram planner where you can preview and rearrange your grid to maintain that perfect aesthetic. It also provides built-in analytics per project, so you can click on a Space and see the engagement rate, impressions, and follower growth at a glance. One thing Rella currently lacks is a publishing inbox – you can’t respond to comments or messages from Rella yet, as it’s more focused on the content production process. So you might still handle engagement natively or via another tool. However, for keeping a content team organized and on-schedule, Rella’s structured approach is incredibly useful. It’s like having a content pipeline dashboard that everyone can refer to, making it clear what’s in progress and what’s next in the queue.Conclusion:

Conclusion:

Choosing the Right Alternative: The best Plann alternative for you will depend on your specific needs and the gaps you’re looking to fill. If Plann’s Instagram-first nature was limiting you, tools like Sprout Social or Agorapulse will broaden your reach across networks and beef up engagement features. If simple content scheduling was fine but you need better team collaboration, options like Planable, Zoho Social, or Loomly provide the dedicated teamwork and approval features that make a difference. And for those who crave advanced capabilities – whether it’s AI and automation (FeedHive), project-style organization (Rella), or e-commerce integrations (Later) – there’s an alternative above to match.

That said, Planable stands out as an especially strong choice for agencies and social media teams that need to streamline their workflow. It lets you work on almost any type of content (not just social posts) while its top-notch collaboration and approval tools ensure every project rolls out in tip-top shape. Planable’s unique combination of multi-platform support, real-time feedback, and client-friendly interface makes it arguably the best option to speed up your content management processes across the board. Whichever platform you choose, each of these alternatives will help SMM specialists and digital marketers take their social strategy to the next level – with the right tool, you’ll spend less time wrestling with limitations and more time engaging your audience. Good luck and happy planning!