October 12, 2026
Post Planner vs Hootsuite: Honest Comparison
Post Planner and Hootsuite both schedule social media posts, and both have been around for over a decade. Beyond that, they're built for different jobs:
- Post Planner is built for engagement on a budget. It finds posts that are already doing well, helps you share and recycle them, and starts at $9 a month.
- Hootsuite is built for running a whole social media operation: publishing, an inbox, listening, analytics and team approvals, priced per person from $99 a month.
Here's an honest side-by-side, with prices and features checked on each company's own site in October 2026.
At a glance
| Post Planner | Hootsuite | |
|---|---|---|
| Built for | Small businesses and solopreneurs who want engagement | Marketing teams and agencies running social at scale |
| Pricing | Per plan | Per user |
| Paid plans from (billed yearly) | $9/mo: 3 accounts, 1 user | $99 per user/mo: 10 accounts |
| Monthly billing | $14/mo | Higher per-user rate |
| Free plan | Yes, 1 account | No |
| Free trial | 7 days | 14 days, no card |
| Networks | 10, including Google Business Profile and Bluesky (X and Pinterest from Growth) | Wide coverage of the major networks |
| Content discovery | Yes, its core feature | Not in its plans |
| Evergreen recycling | Yes, every plan | Not in its plans |
| Social inbox | Not listed | Yes, every plan |
| Social listening | Not listed | 7 days on every plan; 30 days from Professional |
| Post approvals | Not listed | Advanced ($399 per user) and up |
| AI writing | Unlimited AI captions on every plan | Wisdom AI on every plan |
| Bulk upload | Spreadsheet upload | Up to 350 posts from a CSV |
Price: what you'd actually pay
Post Planner (billed yearly; monthly in brackets):
| Plan | Price | Accounts | Users | Scheduled posts in the queue |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | $9 ($14) | 3 | 1 | 150 |
| Growth | $39 ($59) | 15 | 2 | 1,500 |
| Business | $69 ($99) | 25 | 5 | Unlimited |
| Agency | $119 ($179) | 50 | 10 | Unlimited |
Hootsuite (per user, billed yearly):
| Plan | Price per user | Accounts | Approvals |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | $99 | 10 | No |
| Professional | $199 | Unlimited | No |
| Advanced | $399 | Unlimited | Yes |
| Enterprise | Custom | Unlimited | Yes |
For one person managing 10 to 15 accounts, Post Planner Growth is $39 a month and Hootsuite Standard is $99. For a team of five with 25 accounts, Post Planner Business is $69 a month for the whole team. Hootsuite needs Professional for more than 10 accounts, at $199 per person: $995 a month for five people. Both companies show visitors in India lower prices in rupees.
Where Post Planner wins
Finding things to post. This is Post Planner's reason to exist. You can pull content from "ANY public Facebook page, Twitter account, Reddit subreddit or RSS feed", and Post Planner gives each item a star rating by engagement, so you can pick the ones already proving themselves. It can show the top-performing posts from any Facebook Page, including competitors'. Higher plans search further back: 3 days on Starter, 30 days on Growth, 3 years on Business.
Recycling evergreen posts. Post Planner can repeat a post "a specific number of times, until a certain date, or forever", on every plan, and its analytics let you "re-queue top performers in one click".
Price. It's a fraction of Hootsuite's cost, its plans include more than one user from Growth up, and there's a free plan.
Where Hootsuite wins
Everything after the post goes out. Hootsuite's inbox gathers comments and messages from your accounts on every plan. It has social listening (7 days of search on every plan, 30 days from Professional) and benchmarking against competitors' accounts.
Teams and approvals. On Advanced and above, posts can be sent for approval before they publish. Post Planner's plans don't list an approval workflow.
Unlimited accounts. From Professional, there's no cap on social accounts. Post Planner tops out at 50 on its Agency plan, or more on its highest tier.
Scale. The Bulk Composer uploads up to 350 posts from a CSV file, and Hootsuite's analytics and reporting go much deeper.
A few things to know about each
Post Planner's posting plans can be approximate on purpose. Its recurring time slots can post at the exact time or "Randomly within 20 minutes". Random timing makes a feed look less automated, but use exact times for a sale or a launch.
Post Planner's first comment works on Instagram, and on Facebook from the Growth plan.
Hootsuite and Instagram Creator accounts: Hootsuite can only auto-publish to Instagram Business accounts linked to a Facebook Page. Creator accounts get a reminder on their phone for every post. More on what Hootsuite can do on Instagram →
Which should you choose?
Choose Post Planner if you're a small business or solo marketer, your main problem is having enough good things to post, and you want a low price. Its curation and recycling are genuinely useful, and Hootsuite's plans don't include anything like them.
Choose Hootsuite if you manage social for a larger brand or team, you need an inbox, listening and approvals, and the per-person price is small compared with what the work is worth.
If neither fits: PostStage
PostStage sits between the two. It's a scheduler built in India for creators, small businesses and agencies who mainly need their own posts out on time, on every network they use.
- 16 networks from one composer, including Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Google Business Profile, TikTok and Bluesky
- Exact-second publishing: a post set for 6:00 PM goes out at 6:00:00, not somewhere in a window
- Instagram Business and Creator accounts both auto-publish, with no Facebook Page needed, and a first comment on every plan
- Approvals and 10 seats on Pro, for ₹999 a month (₹799 billed yearly), or $12 outside India
- Evergreen repeats: send a published Instagram, Facebook or TikTok post out again every 30 to 180 days (Starter and above)
- Free plan for 1 account and 15 posts a month; Starter is ₹499 a month (₹399 yearly) for 15 accounts
It doesn't have Post Planner's content discovery or Hootsuite's listening, and LinkedIn company pages aren't supported yet.
Frequently asked questions
Is Post Planner cheaper than Hootsuite? Yes, by a wide margin. Post Planner starts at $9 a month billed yearly; Hootsuite starts at $99 per user a month billed yearly.
Does Post Planner have a free plan? Yes, for one social account. Its paid plans have a 7-day free trial, after which you move to the free plan if you don't upgrade.
Does Hootsuite have a free plan? No. It has a 14-day free trial without a card.
Can Post Planner recycle posts? Yes, on every plan: a set number of times, until a date, or forever.
Does Post Planner have approvals? Its plans don't list an approval workflow. If your team needs posts approved before they go out, Hootsuite (Advanced and up) or PostStage (Pro) have approval workflows.