10 best Sprout Social alternatives to elevate your social media strategy

Social media is no longer just a publishing tool.  It’s the backbone of the entire customer journey. Brands today need more than scheduling and analytics: they need platforms that unify marketing, commerce, and customer care into a single, seamless experience.

Sprout Social has long been a go-to for social media management, and for good reason. It’s a powerful all-in-one platform that blends publishing, analytics, engagement, and listening into a single experience. But as social media becomes increasingly central to the customer journey, many teams are starting to feel constrained by its pricing, complexity, and user-based licensing.

Sprout’s rich feature set is a strength, but it can also be overkill for smaller teams — and expensive to scale as you add users and social profiles. The good news? There’s a growing set of platforms that can match or even surpass Sprout in specific areas, from enterprise-scale CX unification to nimble, budget-friendly publishing.

If you’re ready to rethink your social tech stack, here are 10 of the best Sprout Social alternatives to consider.

1. Emplifi

Best For: Enterprise-level businesses seeking a unified platform for social media, marketing, commerce, and care.

Emplifi is more than a social scheduler — it’s an AI-powered customer engagement platform. It unifies social media management, customer care, and marketing into one ecosystem, giving teams a single source of truth for every customer interaction. Its strength lies in eliminating silos and enabling personalized, omnichannel experiences — from social listening and content planning to influencer collaborations, real-time engagement, and post-purchase care. While its enterprise-grade power may be more than smaller teams need, for large organizations it’s a game changer.

Why It’s a Top Alternative: While Sprout Social delivers strong social management features, Emplifi goes further — unifying marketing, commerce, and care data into one AI-powered platform that drives true end-to-end customer engagement. Instead of juggling disconnected tools and siloed data, you can centralize your entire customer journey with Emplifi and turn every interaction into measurable impact.

Make the switch to Emplifi today — and see how a unified platform can transform your social strategy, accelerate ROI, and elevate your customer experience. Book a demo with one of our experts.

2. Sprinklr

Best For: Global enterprises managing complex, high-volume social operations.

Sprinklr is a powerhouse built for scale. It spans publishing, engagement, social listening, advertising, and customer care, all powered by AI. Its enterprise architecture includes robust security, governance, and workflow controls, plus integrations with CRMs, commerce platforms, and contact centers — making it one of the most complete customer experience management suites on the market.

Why It’s a Top Alternative: Sprinklr outpaces Sprout when it comes to enterprise-scale functionality and governance. For organizations managing hundreds of social accounts, multilingual teams, or regulated environments, Sprinklr delivers the depth, configurability, and compliance controls that Sprout simply wasn’t built for.

Downsides: Complex interface and slower onboarding for marketing-only teams.

3. Khoros

Best For: Large brands blending social marketing with digital customer care.

Khoros offers a unified platform for social publishing, engagement, messaging, and branded community forums. It’s designed to help brands engage audiences and support customers from one place, handling public conversations alongside private support cases. Its deep analytics and automation support complex team structures and high conversation volumes.

Why It’s a Top Alternative: Where Sprout focuses heavily on marketing workflows, Khoros uniquely bridges marketing and support. This makes it ideal for brands where social isn’t just a marketing channel but also a frontline support touchpoint — and where integrated workflows between those functions are essential.

Downsides: Complex interface and slower onboarding for marketing-only teams.

4. Hootsuite

Best For: Large teams managing multiple social channels at scale.

Hootsuite is one of the most established names in social media management, offering advanced scheduling, monitoring, engagement, and analytics across nearly every platform. Its customizable dashboards, content libraries, and integrations make it well-suited for high-volume social operations. It also provides social advertising tools and employee advocacy features.

Why It’s a Top Alternative: Hootsuite rivals Sprout in breadth but typically offers more flexible licensing and pricing. For large or distributed teams, it can be easier to scale without the per-user cost spikes that Sprout’s model creates.

Downsides: Dated interface and weaker analytics than modern competitors.

5. HubSpot (Marketing & Service Hubs)

Best For: Businesses seeking deep CRM integration and unified marketing + service data.

HubSpot brings social media into its broader CRM and marketing automation ecosystem. Teams can schedule and monitor posts while seeing the full customer history, from first marketing touch through every sales call and service ticket. Its reporting ties social activity directly to revenue impact, giving marketers clear ROI visibility.

Why It’s a Top Alternative: HubSpot offers something Sprout doesn’t: native CRM integration. Instead of stitching Sprout into a separate system, HubSpot gives you one platform and one data model, breaking down silos and enabling highly personalized social engagement at scale.

Downsides: Limited social feature depth and fast-rising costs as you scale.

6. Agorapulse

Best For: Small to mid-sized teams wanting Sprout-like features with simpler pricing.

Agorapulse delivers publishing, social inbox management, monitoring, and analytics in a clean, intuitive interface. It includes team collaboration tools, approval workflows, and competitor benchmarking, while maintaining transparent, predictable pricing that’s easy to scale.

Why It’s a Top Alternative: Agorapulse offers much of Sprout’s functionality at lower costs, with a simpler user experience and licensing model. It’s ideal for cost-conscious teams that need robust capabilities without the enterprise overhead or complexity of Sprout.

Downsides: Lacks deep enterprise automation and integrations.

7. Dash Social

Best For: Visual-first brands focused on creative storytelling and influencer content.

Dash Social (previously Dash Hudson) specializes in helping brands maximize visual content performance. It offers a drag-and-drop content calendar, advanced creative analytics, influencer management, and campaign tracking — with strong support for Instagram, TikTok, and Pinterest. It’s built for brands where aesthetic quality and storytelling drive engagement.

Why It’s a Top Alternative: While Sprout offers broad analytics, Dash Social goes deep on creative insights and influencer ROI. For consumer brands that depend on compelling visuals and want to link content performance directly to engagement and sales, Dash Social delivers capabilities Sprout simply doesn’t.

Downsides: Narrow focus limits its use beyond visual content strategies.

8. Buffer

Best For: Small businesses and creators seeking a simple, budget-friendly scheduling tool.

Buffer provides an intuitive interface for publishing, basic analytics, and engagement at a fraction of the cost of enterprise tools. It’s fast to onboard, easy to use, and includes a free plan for up to 3 social channels, making it especially accessible for solo creators or small teams. Paid plans start at a low entry point, allowing users to scale affordably as their social presence grows.

Why It’s a Top Alternative: Buffer removes the complexity. It’s perfect for teams that find Sprout Social’s enterprise-grade feature set overwhelming and need a lightweight, low-cost way to get content out quickly, with the flexibility to start for free and upgrade only as needed.

Downsides: Limited analytics and not built for complex team structures.

9. Later

Best For: Visual-first brands and influencer-led teams focused on content performance and shoppable social commerce.

Later is built for visual content planning and influencer-driven sales. It offers a drag-and-drop content calendar, Instagram grid previews, hashtag planning, and link-in-bio tools, making it especially popular with lifestyle, fashion, and retail brands. It also includes built-in influencer commerce features, allowing brands to track revenue down to specific posts and SKUs while giving creators affiliate tools and performance-based rewards. While it excels at visual storytelling and commerce, it’s less suited for text-heavy strategies or complex enterprise workflows.

Why It’s a Top Alternative: While Sprout excels at publishing, analytics, and listening, it doesn’t offer native influencer commerce or sales attribution. Later now bridges the gap between content creation and conversions, helping brands understand not just what content engages audiences but what actually drives purchases. For teams who see influencers and content creators as core revenue drivers, Later delivers capabilities that Sprout simply doesn’t.

Downsides: More niche, with limited cross-channel management features.

10. Zoho Social

Best For: Small to mid-sized businesses seeking strong value and CRM integration.

Zoho Social offers publishing, engagement, monitoring, and analytics at very competitive prices, and integrates natively with Zoho CRM. It’s simple to set up yet includes team collaboration tools, approval workflows, and deep reporting, making it powerful enough for growing teams.

Why It’s a Top Alternative: Zoho Social delivers robust functionality without the high cost of Sprout. It’s a smart choice for teams that need powerful social media tools on a startup-friendly budget.

Downsides: Dated UI and lacks advanced enterprise capabilities.

Conclusion: It’s time to make the switch to Emplifi

Social media has evolved from a marketing tool into the backbone of the entire customer journey. While Sprout Social remains a capable platform, the landscape has shifted — and the best brands now demand more: unified data, cross-channel automation, and real-time engagement at every stage of the customer lifecycle.

That’s exactly what Emplifi delivers. By combining social, marketing, commerce, and care in one AI-powered platform, Emplifi helps you break down silos, prove ROI, and deliver personalized, seamless customer experiences at scale.

Don’t settle for fragmented tools. Make the switch to Emplifi and unlock the full potential of your social strategy. Book a demo with Emplifi today.