10 Best Social Media Management Tools for Startups

As a budding entrepreneur or business owner, juggling the many different aspects of your startup can feel like a massive undertaking. One critical area is social media. 

In the following section, we'll introduce you to the best social media management tools specifically tailored for startups, which will help you automate tasks, analyze performance, and engage better with your audience.

1. Arrow – Best Social Media Management Tool Overall
2. Hootsuite – Best for Comprehensive Social Media Management
3. SocialPilot – Best for Cost-effectiveness and Usability
4. Buffer – Best for Transparent Business Practice and Remote Collaboration
5. eClincher – Best for Revolutionary and Innovative Features
6. HubSpot – Best Customer Platform with CRM Database Insight
7. Zoho Social – Best for Social Media Management from a Single Dashboard
8. CoSchedule - Best for Organizational Tools and Calendars
9. Sendible - Best for Instagram Management and Scheduling Features
10. Sprout Social - Best for High-Level Analytics and Strategic Business Decisions

Arrow is an AI-powered tool that automates the task of managing your social media. Built specifically for small businesses and “solopreneurs,” it allows businesses to post dynamic promotional content, blogs, seasonal content, and more to their social media accounts, saving them an estimated 6.5 hours per week. Not only does it boost the business's visibility and credibility, but it also does this “for the cost of a large pizza.” 

Current pricing plans are Solo Flyer ($19/month), Co-Pilot ($59/month), and Pilot ($79/month).

Pros

• Affordable pricing
• Quick setup
• Variety of post types
• High customer ratings

Cons

• Restricted to premium plans
• Limited posts per week

Who It’s Best For

Arrow is best for small businesses and startups that are looking for an affordable and time-saving solution for managing their social media posts.

With Hootsuite, you can get insights on your social ROI in addition to managing messages and comments across platforms in one centralized dashboard. This incredible tool offers a wide range of features that help in designing, scheduling, and publishing content across various social networks.  Other features include a unified social media inbox, AI-generated captions and post ideas, and advanced analytics. 

Current pricing plans are Professional ($99/month), Team ($249/month), and Enterprise (Custom pricing).

Pros

• Extensive analytics
• Centralized dashboard
• Social inbox feature
• AI capabilities for automation

Cons

• Pricing trends higher for budget-conscious startups
• May be complex for beginners

Who It’s Best For

Hootsuite is best for startups that want to spend a little more to manage multiple social media platforms and get advanced insights.

SocialPilot takes off the pressure of managing social media with its features like a content calendar, bulk scheduling, AI-generated posts, and a content library. With competitive prices compared to some of the tools on the market, it truly is a promising option for growing businesses. 

Monthly pricing plans for SocialPilot are Professional ($30/month), Small Team ($50/month), Agency ($100/month), and Agency+ ($200/month).

Pros

• Affordable pricing
• Bulk scheduling feature
• Robust analytics
• Superior customer support

Cons

• Learning curve for beginners
• Limited customization options

Who It’s Best For

SocialPilot is best for startups and agencies trying to find a cost-effective tool that offers comprehensive features and top-notch customer support.

Having started as a project to schedule tweets, Buffer has grown into a popular tool that helps businesses grow organically through social media marketing. Its transparency, consistent improvement ideology, and global remote team setup make it quite the catch for startups scouting for a reliable social media management tool. 

Buffer has pricing plans ranging from free (limited features), Essentials ($6/month for one channel), Team ($12/month for one channel), and Agency ($120/month for 10 channels). Prices increase as you add more channels and features. 

Pros

• User-friendly interface
• Organic content creation focus
• Open transparency policy
• Supports multiple platforms

Cons

• No free plan
• Limited options on lower-tier plans

Who It’s Best For

Buffer is best for startups looking for a user-friendly tool that places high importance on organic growth and transparent practices.

eClincher offers a comprehensive platform aimed at managing social media and online presence for businesses. With features like publishing and scheduling posts, visual calendars, AI assistants, engagement tools, SEO tools, and detailed analytic reports, it offers a path to quality social media management.

Its analytic reporting tools allow users to examine accounts with templates or custom dashboards and find the best times to post using real-time data. On top of all that, it also offers on-the-go publishing and sharing options via a mobile app and a Chrome extension. 

The Basic plan begins at $65/month, scaling up to $425/month for agencies, while enterprises need to contact the firm for custom pricing.

Pros

• Comprehensive feature set
• Real-time data analysis
• Mobile app and Chrome extension

Cons

• Expensive for small businesses
• Specific pricing for enterprises

Who It’s Best For

eClincher is best for businesses and agencies that manage multiple social media accounts and require a range of features for publishing, analyzing, and monitoring engagement.

HubSpot is an all-in-one customer platform that provides software, integrations, and resources to connect marketing, sales, content management, and customer service. The platform allows businesses to grow faster by creating tailor-made customer journey experiences. HubSpot offers products for marketing, sales, customer service, content management, operations, and commerce. These tools not only help get leads and close deals but also enhance relationships with customers and turn them into promoters. 

HubSpot offers plans from free to $3,600/month for enterprises.

Pros

• All in one platform
• Connects customer journeys
• Offers free tools
• Well-known marketplace tool

Cons

• Professional plan starts high
• May be overwhelming for beginners

Who It’s Best For

HubSpot is ideal for businesses that desire one platform to manage their marketing, sales, content management, and customer service.

Zoho Social is a social media management tool that allows businesses to plan, schedule, publish, monitor, and analyze social media content from one interface. It incorporates advanced scheduling, collaboration tools and integrations that help expand the social media presence of a business. Its automation features improve customer support and lead generation while making social media operations more efficient. 

Zoho Social offers a 15-day free trial and paid plans starting from $15/month to $460/month.

Pros

• Advanced scheduling
• Collaboration tools
• Cost-effective options
• Great for small businesses

Cons

• No free plan after trial
• Additional cost for advanced features

Who It’s Best For

Zoho Social is best for businesses requiring an effective tool to manage their social media presence across various platforms.

CoSchedule helps streamline marketing efforts by organizing them in one place via various calendars. They offer social media, content, and project management calendars, with each feature aiming to provide visibility and customization to tasks, projects, and campaigns. Their marketing suite combines different products to coordinate marketing processes and teams. CoSchedule even offers AI writing and analysis tools to assist with tasks like headlines, emails, and social media messages. 

Pricing begins at $19/month for the Social Calendar.

Pros

• Varied calendar options
• AI writing and analysis tools
• Customizable for specific needs

Cons

• No free plan
• Pricing details not fully transparent

Who It’s Best For

CoSchedule is suited for marketers who need an organized calendar system to manage their social media, content, and project duties effectively.

Looking for an all-in-one social media management tool for your startup? Look no further than Sendible. This tool offers several features that streamline your social media marketing efforts, no matter the platform. From Instagram to Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and even YouTube, Sendible covers a lot of bases. 

You can schedule posts, images, videos, and stories on Instagram without dealing with annoying push notifications. Get insights into your top-performing posts, add alt text to images for improved accessibility, plan multi-image posts on Facebook, and manage audience insights for your LinkedIn pages. 

Sendible’s pricing plans are Creator for $29/month, Traction for $89/month, White Label for $240/month, and White Label+ for $750/month.

Pros

• Comprehensive toolset
• Multi-platform management
• Advanced analytics
• Reasonable pricing

Cons

• Complex interface
• Limited free trial

Who It’s Best For

Sendible is best suited for startups and small businesses looking to scale their social media efforts across multiple platforms. It's a great choice for users who want a blend of flexibility, efficiency and affordability in a single tool.

If you're after robust social media management software that gives you more than just publishing options, then Sprout Social is a great pick. It's an integrated platform that helps you extract value from social media while strengthening your market position. The platform is easy to use and doesn't require extensive learning curves, making it a favorite among startups. 

In addition to standard posting features like scheduling and automation, Sprout Social has advanced AI and machine learning technologies. These technologies help guide your strategic business decisions using accurate data and insights. What’s more, Sprout Social has integrations with major CRM systems like Salesforce as well as all major social networks. 

Pricing plans start from $249/month (Standard) to $399/month (Professional), $499/month (Advanced)  and custom pricing for Enterprise level solutions.

Pros

• Advanced analytics
• Smart AI technology
• Seamless integrations
• ROI focused features

Cons

• Pricey for startups
• Limited free plan

Who It’s Best For

Sprout Social is an excellent choice for businesses that want a high-level, data-driven social media management tool. It's particularly helpful for startups that are ready to significantly ramp up their social media marketing efforts and are willing to invest for that growth.

In our quest to find the best social media management tools for startups on the market, we’ve examined multiple elements of each service, including pricing, key features, ease of use, integration capabilities, and user reviews to help startups find the right fit for their needs. Here’s a more in-depth look at our methodology.

Before we dive into specifics, remember that pricing is an important factor for startups. Every penny counts, so consider your budget constraints while exploring options. Keep in mind that most of the tools offer different tiers of pricing, so choose the one that provides the most value for your needs. Most often, you can start with a basic plan and upgrade as your requirements grow.

A good social media management tool should offer more than just scheduling posts. Features such as analytics, multi-platform compatibility, and content curation can save a lot of time and effort. Having a dashboard that presents all your social media engagement can also help you easily track overall performance.

Complexity isn't your friend when there's already so much on your plate. The interface of the tool should be intuitive and user-friendly. You don't want to spend hours figuring out how to schedule a single post. In short, we looked for tools that simplified social media tasks rather than complicating them.

Social media isn't an isolated part of your business. Your chosen platforms should ideally integrate with other tools you're using - such as email marketing software or CRM systems. This will help streamline your marketing efforts and keep everything synchronized.

What could be better than hearing from people who have already used these tools? User reviews provide day-to-day insights that you can't get from feature lists or sales pitches. We made sure to read these before settling on a tool to add to the list