Social media management software for a small business comes in three kinds, and the right one depends on which part of the job is not getting done.
- Schedulers (Buffer, Later, Meta Business Suite) publish posts you have already made.
Free at Buffer to about $25 a month at Later for one business, prices read September 16, 2026; Meta Business Suite is free.
- All-in-one suites (Metricool, Hootsuite) add analytics, an inbox and reporting to the scheduler.
Free to $20 a month billed yearly at Metricool, read July 29, 2026; Hootsuite is priced for teams, and its plans are in the table below.
- Software that writes the posts from your website (Boomp) makes the caption and image, and on the paid-publishing plans schedules them after you approve.
$9 to $275 a month.
If your posts exist and only need queuing, buy a scheduler.
If several people or several brands share the accounts, buy a suite.
If the queue is empty because nobody writes the posts, buy the software that writes them.
Vendor prices below come from Boomp reads of each vendor's pricing page, and each carries the date it was read.
Which kind fits which business
| Kind | Who writes the post | Who publishes | Entry price (date read) | Fits a business that |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scheduler (Buffer) | You | The tool, on your schedule | Free for 3 channels; Essentials $5 a month per channel (16 Sep 2026) | Has posts ready and wants one queue for two or three channels |
| Scheduler (Later) | You | The tool, on your schedule | Starter $18.75 a month billed yearly, about $25 month to month (16 Sep 2026) | Plans visually and posts to several platforms for one brand |
| Scheduler (Meta Business Suite) | You | Meta, on your schedule | Free | Uses Facebook and Instagram only |
| All-in-one suite (Metricool) | You | The tool, plus analytics and inbox | Free for 1 brand; Starter $20 a month billed yearly, $25 month to month (29 Jul 2026) | Runs more than one brand, or wants reporting in the same tool |
| All-in-one suite (Hootsuite) | You | The tool, plus analytics and inbox | Standard $99 a month (4 Aug 2026) | Has a team, many accounts, or a manager who lives in the tool |
| Software from your website (Boomp Packs) | The software, from your site | You, by email link; nothing connected | $9 a month | Never wants to write a post again but will post it |
| Software from your website (Boomp Core) | The software, from your site | Boomp, after you approve each post in the app | $39 a month | Wants it handled and can spend ten minutes a week saying yes |
| Software with a person approving (Boomp done-for-you) | The software, from your site | Boomp, with the founder approving | $275 a month | Never wants to open the app |
Hootsuite lists Standard at $99, Professional at $199 and Advanced at up to $399 per user, with a custom Enterprise tier, and annual billing costs less (read 4 August 2026).
Buffer lists Essentials at $5 a month per channel, or $60 a channel billed yearly, above a free plan for up to three channels with ten scheduled posts per channel (read 16 September 2026).
Later lists Starter at $18.75 a month billed yearly, about $25 month to month, for one social set of up to eight profiles, one of each platform (read 16 September 2026).
Metricool lists a free plan for one brand and Starter at $20 a month billed yearly, or $25 month to month (read 29 July 2026).
Plan builders change often, so confirm the current price on the vendor's page before deciding.
What "management" means when the tool says it
Every vendor on this page sells "social media management".
Look at what the word covers in each case.
A scheduler manages the calendar.
You paste a caption, attach an image, pick a time, and it publishes.
Buffer, Later and Meta Business Suite do this well and cheaply.
None of them writes the caption or makes the image.
An all-in-one suite manages the calendar and the aftermath.
Metricool and Hootsuite add analytics, a shared inbox for comments and messages, and reports.
They are built for someone whose job is social media.
They still do not write the post.
Software that writes from your website manages the part the other two leave open.
Boomp reads your public website, the services, about and FAQ pages and any reviews shown there, and writes posts about your business, caption and image, with carousels and short videos on the paid plans.
On Packs you publish them yourself.
On Core and done-for-you it publishes to your connected channels after approval.
It does not do replies or ads on any plan.
The three kinds are not rivals so much as three different jobs.
A lot of small businesses own a scheduler they never open because the job the scheduler solves, publishing, was never the job that was stopping them.
Schedulers: when the posts already exist
Buy a scheduler when you, or someone on your staff, will make the posts and just need them to go out on time.
Buffer is the plainest.
The free plan covers up to three channels with ten scheduled posts per channel, which is enough to test whether you will actually keep a queue full.
Essentials is $5 a month per channel (read 16 September 2026), so a business on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn pays $15.
The cheapest schedulers page walks through how per-channel pricing adds up.
Later prices by social set, up to eight profiles, one of each platform.
Starter is $18.75 a month billed yearly, or about $25 month to month, for one set (read 16 September 2026).
It suits a business that posts the same visual content to several platforms and wants to see the grid before it publishes.
Meta Business Suite is Meta's own tool for Facebook and Instagram.
If those two are your whole footprint, it schedules and manages Facebook and Instagram from one place, and it is free.
The moment you add LinkedIn, TikTok or Google Business Profile, you need something else.
The trade with every scheduler is the same.
The bill is small, and the work is all yours.
If you have been paying for one and your last post was six weeks ago, the tool was never the problem.
All-in-one suites: when several people or brands share the accounts
Buy a suite when social media is somebody's job, or when one login has to run several businesses.
Metricool is the small-business end of this category.
The free plan covers one brand.
Starter is $20 a month billed yearly, or $25 month to month (read 29 July 2026).
If you run a business and a side brand, or you are a freelancer managing a few clients, this is the price band to look at.
Hootsuite is the established one, and it is priced for teams.
Standard starts at $99 a month, Professional at $199, and Advanced runs to $399 per user, with annual billing costing less (read 4 August 2026).
A solo owner rarely needs it.
A business with a marketing hire, a shared inbox that has to be answered, and reporting owed to someone above does.
Suites carry the same gap as schedulers.
They give the person doing the work a better desk.
They do not do the work.
Software that writes the posts: when nobody writes them
Buy this when the honest reason the accounts are quiet is that nobody sits down to write.
Boomp starts from your website rather than from a blank box or a brief.
That matters because the source decides what the post can say.
Here is one it wrote for a paying customer, a listing agent on the West Michigan lakeshore, shown without her name.
The first two sentences of the caption, quoted verbatim.
Published June 4, 2026.
Written by the software from her own website.
No scheduler produced that.
The software did, reading her public website, and the caption above is the proof.
Whatever your website talks about is what the posts will be about.
The price follows how much of the remaining job you keep.
- Packs, $9 a month.
Ten finished posts, caption and image, by email link.
You publish them with whatever free tool you already use.
Nothing connected.
- Core, $39 a month.
Twenty posts, one carousel and one video.
You approve each one in the app, and Boomp publishes to your connected channels: Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, Google Business Profile and the rest of the nine it supports.
- Done for you, $275 a month.
The same content.
Boomp's founder approves every post.
You never open the app.
It is a Boomp account with a person approving, not an agency: no ads, no replies, no photo shoots, no strategy calls.
Pro at $79 and Max at $199 sit above Core; the pricing page has the full comparison.
No contract on any plan.
Combining kinds, which most small businesses end up doing
The three kinds stack, and the cheapest good setup is often two of them.
Meta Business Suite plus Boomp Packs.
A Facebook-and-Instagram business gets ten posts a month written from its website for $9, and publishes them through Meta's free tool.
Total software bill: $9 a month.
Buffer Free plus Boomp Packs.
The same idea for a business on three channels including LinkedIn.
Still $9 a month.
Metricool plus Boomp Core.
A business that wants the posts written and published, and also wants analytics and an inbox for the comments those posts bring in.
Boomp publishes after approval; Metricool watches what happens.
Hootsuite alone, with a person writing.
This is the right answer for a business with a marketing hire who writes well and needs the team features.
The software cost is the hire's tool budget, not a replacement for the hire.
The under-$50 tools page covers the scheduler end of these stacks in more detail, and the affordable management page covers what a sub-$100 total should include.
For a ranked list of the tools that write the content, read the management tools that create the content and the best automated social media tools for small business.
This page explains the three kinds of software and which fits which business; the ranked list compares named tools by what they create and publish.
What software should not decide for you
Whichever kind you buy, some things stay with the business.
Claims.
On Boomp's Core plan you approve each post; on done-for-you the founder approves, and anything legal, medical or property-specific is still yours to confirm.
A scheduler publishes whatever you queue and checks nothing.
Perishable facts.
Hours, prices, a seasonal offer, a staff change.
Software that reads your website will repeat what the website says, so keep the website current and tell whoever approves when something changes.
Permissions.
Customer photos, testimonials and anyone else's work need permission before they go in a post, whatever tool schedules it.
Replies.
No kind of software on this page answers a customer's comment for you.
Suites route it to a person; schedulers and Boomp leave it to you in the native app.
How to choose in one sitting
1. Open your accounts and find the date of your last post.
If it was this week and you enjoyed making it, buy a scheduler and stop reading.
2. If more than one person or more than one brand touches the accounts, price Metricool first and Hootsuite only if you have a team.
3. If the last post was weeks ago and the reason is that nobody writes them, the problem is not publishing.
Get the posts made.
4. Pick the Boomp door by how much you want to keep: publish yourself for $9, approve for $39, or hand it all over for $275.
Every Boomp option starts the same way, with the software reading your website, and the first ten posts are free: ten finished posts made from your own website, with images, a carousel and a short video, before any email, account or card.
