Summary: As a social media expert in India, you excel in content creation but struggle with scheduling and managing diverse platforms. Fret not! We’ve thoroughly tested top free social media management tools to provide insights on how you can get through the social media realm in India affordably.
In today’s digital landscape, an effective social media marketing strategy is considered the most important element in content marketing. Yet, the most crucial task of posting frequently across multiple accounts daily has become extremely time-consuming.
Social media management software helps marketing managers with the scheduling and automation of content sharing. These tools empower users to oversee, monitor, and coordinate all their social media channels from a single, integrated dashboard.
By using an ideal social media management software, individuals and businesses can effectively optimize their social campaigns, saving time and increasing the impact of their online presence. In this article, we will discover the importance of social media management tools, elevating the efficacy of social strategies.
What is a Social Media Management Tool?
A social media management tool is a powerful platform designed to streamline and enhance the management of various social media accounts. It serves as a centralized hub where individuals and businesses can schedule posts, track performance analytics, engage with followers, and monitor social media activities across different platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
These tools typically offer features for content calendar organization, post automation, audience targeting, and in-depth reporting to optimize social media strategies. They enable users to efficiently curate, publish, and analyze content, and save time and effort while maximizing the impact of their online presence.
11 Best Free Social Media Management Tools in 2024
| Social Media Management Tool | Best Free Social Media Management Tools For |
|---|---|
| HubSpot | Businesses seeking an all-in-one marketing platform for social media management. |
| Later | Enhancing Instagram presence along with Pinterest, FB, and other social platforms. |
| Buffer | Small businesses for driving engagement and growth. |
| Hootsuite | Centrally managing all social media accounts, scheduling posts, tracking analytics, and collaborating with the team. |
| Sprout Social | Turning your social media activities into strategic marketing using robust analytics. |
| Zoho Social | Simplifying social media tasks for business including scheduling posts, monitoring conversations, and measuring results. |
| SocialPilot | Agencies and individuals looking for affordable social media management solutions. |
| Tailwind | Individuals and businesses looking for a specialized approach to managing their presence on visually driven platforms such as Instagram and Pinterest. |
| Brandwatch | Thorough social media monitoring and competitor research. |
| Agorapulse | Managing all social media interactions in one place and facilitating teamwork and collaboration. |
| Crowdfire | Effortless scheduling of social media posts and seamless content curation. |
1. HubSpot
HubSpot is well-known for its CRM capabilities. However, it also provides powerful social media management features as part of its marketing package. These features include all your social media accounts and content in a central platform.
Apart from that, it facilitates easy post scheduling, engagement with your audience, and thorough performance analysis. Overall, the software helps save time and enhance your social media marketing strategy.
The exciting part is that you can configure keywords to monitor trends and directly post content from CRM to your social accounts. Moreover, HubSpot offers a comprehensive overview of clicks, visits, leads, and more to help you evaluate the overall performance of your social media activities.
HubSpot CRM
Starting Price
$ 20.00
Top Features of HubSpot CRM
- Analytics-Customer Journey
- Campaign Reporting
- Predictive Lead Scoring
- Conversation Intelligence
- Email Scheduling
- Integration with FB Messenger
| Supported User | 1 User |
| Types of Users Include | Social Media Marketers, Individuals, Businesses, Advertisement Agencies |
| Profile Creation | Facilitates the creation and management of social media profiles, ensuring a strategic approach to social media management. |
| Scheduling | Offers advanced scheduling tools for effective planning and publication of content across multiple channels. |
| Pricing Plans | Starting at $15 per month for a basic package, namely Starter, and reaching up to $3,600 per month for enterprise-level plans. |
2. Later
Later serves as a robust social media solution that caters to businesses and social media managers with a strong emphasis on visual content in their marketing journey. Its primary purpose is to streamline and enhance the scheduling and management of social media posts.
In short, it functions as a personalized social media tool, offering integration with multiple platforms such as Facebook, TikTok, LinkedIn, Instagram, X (formerly Twitter), and Pinterest. This integration allows users to consolidate the management of their social media accounts into a single platform, leading to significant time and resource savings.
Later
Starting Price
$ 40.00
Top Features of Later
- Stories Scheduling
- Visual Planner
- Caption Writer
- Reels Scheduling
- Hashtag Suggestion
- Desktop Posting
- Auto Publish
| Supported User | 1 User |
| Types of Users Include | Social Media Managers, Freelancers, Agencies, Content Creators, SMB, Instagram Focused Users |
| Profile Creation | Enables creating and managing profiles, emphasizing Instagram profile enhancement while offering integration with other platforms. |
| Scheduling | With a primary focus on visual content, it offers a unique visual content calendar for intuitive scheduling. You can simply drag and drop images for precise timing and engagement optimization. |
| Pricing Plans | Later’s pricing starts at $16.67/month. It also offers a free trial for 14 days. |
3. Buffer
Buffer, also known as Bufferapp, serves as a versatile social media marketing software offering features for drafting and scheduling posts for various platforms including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest. It offers important functionalities for social media reporting and monitoring.
Apart from that, it consists of three different segments including Buffer Publishing for post scheduling, Buffer Analytics for social media performance analysis, and Buffer Engagement for business Instagram monitoring and engagement.
It is particularly useful for large organizations to track brand-related conversations on Instagram and respond promptly to any inquiries. When using all three components together, users can seamlessly navigate between them through navbar, making Buffer a comprehensive solution for managing social media presence effectively.
Buffer
Starting Price
$ 6.00
Top Features of Buffer
| Supported User | 1 User |
| Types of Users Include | Small Businesses, Individual Content Creators |
| Profile Creation | Allows users to create and manage all their social media profiles from a unified dashboard. |
| Scheduling | Allows users to schedule posts across Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, TikTok, YouTube Shorts, Pinterest, and Mastodon simultaneously. |
| Pricing Plans | Offers a 14-day free trial along with a free plan for up to 3 channels. It offers paid packages starting at $6 per month/channel. |
4. Hootsuite
Hootsuite is a comprehensive social media management platform designed to empower organizations to deliver exceptional social media experiences. With a wide array of features, it enables the management of social media channels, content creation, and the planning, scheduling, and optimization of social media interactions.
Businesses of all types benefit from the ability to seamlessly connect all social media accounts and oversee all activities through a centralized management console.
Additionally, Hootsuite offers a unified dashboard for creating, scheduling, and publishing posts and ads, along with real-time insights and reports for optimizing content, ads, and audience engagement. Its scalability and availability as a cloud-based SaaS solution make it a unique choice.
Hootsuite
Starting Price
₹ 1915.00 excl. GST
Top Features of Hootsuite
- Social media monitoring tool
- Post Scheduler
- Hashtag Generator
- Caption Generator
- Bulk Post Scheduling
- Canva Templates
- Inbox Analytics
| Supported User | 1 User |
| Types of Users Include | Businesses, Individuals, Advertising Firms |
| Profile Creation | Facilitates the creation and management of social media profiles, providing a centralized dashboard for easy account handling. |
| Scheduling | Users can leverage Hootsuite’s scheduling tools to efficiently plan and publish content across over 35 social media networks, enabling bulk scheduling of posts. |
| Pricing Plans | Paid plan, i.e., ‘Professional’ start at ₹1,915 per month, along with a 30-day free trial. |
5. Sprout Social
Sprout Social is a cloud-based social media management service tailored to businesses of all sizes. It facilitates the handling of audience engagements and marketing operations. Its notable features are automated publishing, conversation monitoring, social content administration, social media analytics, and more.
One of its standout components is the “Smart Inbox,” which collects interactions from diverse social media platforms, streamlining management through task conversion, assignment delegation, and team collaboration.
Additionally, the platform streamlines social media content scheduling and approval processes via its publishing feature. Moreover, Sprout Social equips users with robust reporting and analytics tools for monitoring the brand’s social media performance across various platforms.
Sprout Social
Starting Price
$ 249.00
Top Features of Sprout Social
- Centralized Social Inbox
- Review Management
- Automation Tools with Chatbots
- Content Calendar
- Automatic Link Tracking
- Message Tagging
- Trend Analysis: hashtags & keywords
| Supported User | 5 Users |
| Types of Users Include | SMBs, Agencies, Enterprises, Social Storefronts |
| Profile Creation | Offers profile creation and management features for a unified and streamlined social media management experience. |
| Scheduling | Sprout Social’s advanced scheduling tools help users with content planning and posting across multiple social media platforms. |
| Pricing Plans | The paid plan, namely ‘Standard’ starts at $199/user/month, with a 30-day trial. |
6. Zoho Social
Zoho Social stands out as a comprehensive social media management platform tailored for businesses and agencies, seamlessly integrated into Zoho’s suite of 50+ products. Its dashboard is equipped with a robust array of features, including a Publishing Calendar, Bulk Scheduler, and Approval management.
The platform’s monitoring tools enable the tracking of social conversations and timely responses. Its advanced reporting capabilities further facilitate performance analysis through intuitive graphs and the creation of unlimited customized reports.
Zoho Social further caters to teams through custom user-roles and internal discussion features. Additionally, agency users benefit from the ability to invite clients to Zoho Social, effectively managing their social media presence.
Zoho Social
Starting Price
₹ 900.00 excl. GST
Top Features of Zoho Social
- Content Monitoring
- CRM & Desk Integration
- Content Scheduling
- Zia- AI Assistant
- Multi-channel Publishing
- Publishing Calendar
- Custom Video Thumbnail
- Block/Mute Accounts
| Supported User | 1 User |
| Types of Users Include | Businesses, Remote Teams, Individuals, Marketing & Advertising Agencies |
| Profile Creation | Offers profile creation and management, providing users with a unified platform for account administration. |
| Scheduling | Offers advanced scheduling tools, users can strategically plan and publish content across multiple social media channels. |
| Pricing Plans | Zoho Social’s price starts at ₹900/month. It also offers a 15-day free trial. |
7. Social Pilot
SocialPilot serves as a versatile social media management and engagement platform catering to marketers of various scales. It enables you to seamlessly link your accounts to efficiently oversee Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, TikTok, Pinterest, Google Business Profile, YouTube, and Tumblr profiles.
This application allows users to effortlessly connect and supervise all social media profiles from their devices. Apart from that, it allows them to manage posts and schedules remotely, and stay updated with real-time notifications to ensure current awareness of critical information.
SocialPilot
Starting Price
Price on Request
Top Features of SocialPilot
- Content Library
- Bulk Scheduling
- Multi-channel Analytics
- Customizable URLs
- Post Generator
- Social Inbox
- AI Assistant
| Supported User | 1 User |
| Types of Users Include | Small Businesses, Enterprises, Big Organizations, Multi-Location Brands, Marketing Agencies |
| Profile Creation | Streamlines profile creation and management, allowing users to organize and enhance their social media profiles. |
| Scheduling | Offers intuitive scheduling tools to plan and publish content seamlessly, optimizing engagement and reach across multiple social media channels. |
| Pricing Plans | The ‘Professional’ plan starts at $30 per month. It also offers a 14-day free trial. |
8. Tailwind
Tailwind stands out as a top-tier social media and email marketing platform important for businesses seeking to elevate their social media engagement and online visibility.
This platform empowers users to draft and organize posts across various social media accounts, offering the capability to develop visual content tailored for different platforms, repurpose content for broader reach, and evaluate social media Return on Investment (ROI) through robust analytics.
Furthermore, through the utilization of Tailwind App, individuals can effortlessly schedule posts across Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, and other platforms, making it great for enhancing the frequency and impact of their posts.
Top Features of Tailwind
- Customizable Links
- Advanced Analytics
- Smart Schedule
- Bulk Uploads
- Ghostwriter Credits
- Hashtag Finder
| Supported User | 1 User |
| Types of Users Include | Marketers, Businesses, NGOs, Ghostwriters, Social Media Communities |
| Profile Creation | Provides a streamlined approach to creating and managing profiles on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest. |
| Scheduling | Offers advanced scheduling to plan and publish content strategically, maximizing their visibility and engagement on social media platforms. |
| Pricing Plans | The Pro Plan starts at $24.99 per month. |
9. Brandwatch
Brandwatch is a prominent Social Media Management platform that enables over 5,000 companies to interact with customers in real-time on social media. Organizations benefit from AI-enhanced data insights that enhance their understanding of consumer sentiments toward their brands and products.
The features it encompasses include listening, engagement, publishing, measurement, influencer marketing, and customer data management tools. By leveraging Brandwatch, businesses can seamlessly connect with their customers at a rapid pace.
Brandwatch presents a comprehensive range of specialized products, including social listening, brand monitoring, influencer marketing tools, and more, empowering brands and agencies to make informed, data-driven decisions and deliver exceptional customer interactions.
Brandwatch
Starting Price
Price on Request
Top Features of Brandwatch
- Social Calendar
- Collaboration
- Centralized CRM
- Performance Tracker
- Customizable Dashboards
- Automated Monitoring and Reporting
- Multi-Channel Campaigns
| Supported User | NA |
| Types of Users Include | Social Media Managers, Marketing Teams, Agencies, Media & Entertainment Industry, Enterprises |
| Profile Creation | Doesn’t offer direct mentions of profiles. |
| Scheduling | Provides robust scheduling capabilities for social media posts, empowering users to strategically plan and publish content. |
| Pricing Plans | Pricing details are not publicly available. |
10. Agorapulse
Agorapulse serves as an all-in-one social media management solution, streamlining the handling of social media communications, content scheduling and publication, monitoring, and reporting within a user-friendly dashboard.
The Social Media ROI feature provides marketers with the tools needed to derive insights from data, refine strategies, and optimize ROI.
Additionally, the dashboard seamlessly integrates with GA4, enabling users to effortlessly track customer engagement across various devices with minimal setup, ensuring comprehensive analytics.
Agorapulse
Starting Price
Price on Request
| Supported User | 1 User |
| Types of Users Include | Agencies, Social Commerce Organizations, Marketing Managers, Social Media Managers |
| Profile Creation | Simplifies the process of creating and managing social media profiles. |
| Scheduling | Offers intuitive scheduling features to ensure consistent and timely engagement with the audience. |
| Pricing Plans | Plans start at $69 per user per month. Offers a free trial for 30 days also. |
11. Crowdfire
Crowdfire is a robust social media tool utilized globally by businesses and individuals to enhance social media engagement and expand their online presence. It is compatible with a wide array of platforms including Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, Pinterest, 500px, Vimeo, and more.
Crowdfire offers a comprehensive set of features enabling users to create and schedule posts for future releases. Apart from that, it automatically curates articles and images tailored to audience preferences for easy sharing across all social profiles.
Moreover, it monitors website and blog updates to share seamlessly on social media, schedules posts in advance for optimal timing and customizes posts for each profile. By doing so, it streamlines the posting process and saves valuable time and energy.
Crowdfire
Starting Price
Price on Request
Top Features of Crowdfire
- Custom Post Schedule
- Schedule Bulk Posts
- Support for Video Post
- Calendar View Schedule
- Hashtag Recommendations
- Chrome Extensions
- Image & Article Curation
| Supported User | 3 Users |
| Types of Users Include | Solopreneurs, Small Businesses, Larger Organizations, SMBs, Agencies, Individuals/Content Creators |
| Profile Creation | Allows for profile creation and management. |
| Scheduling | Offers scheduling functionality to publish content across multiple platforms. |
| Pricing Plans | Offers a free option for posting 10 posts/channel/month. The paid plan, i.e., ‘Plus’ starts at $9.99 per month. |
Key Features of Social Media Management Tools
Selecting the right social media management tool is essential for businesses that want to improve their online presence and engagement strategies. Therefore, it becomes crucial to identify key features that can optimize your social media performance and streamline your processes effectively.
These features include multi-platform management, Content Planning, Content Organization, Post Timing Optimization, Keyword Monitoring, and more.
- Multi-Platform Management: Managing your presence on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest, and other social media platforms becomes overwhelming. Therefore, ensure that your social media management tool supports various social media platforms, enabling centralized management of all accounts in one place.
- Content Planning and Organization: Look for a platform that offers you a content calendar to schedule all your social media posts and campaigns for weeks, months, or even a year in advance. This will help with time management and allow for a consistent posting schedule.
- Optimizing Post Timing: Posting great content becomes ineffective if it doesn’t reach your target audience when they are most active. Hence, find a tool that can share your content at the optimal time to ensure maximum visibility and engagement with your specific audience.
- Insightful Analytics and Reporting: Choose tools that offer detailed analytics on post-performance, audience engagement, and demographic insights to track the effectiveness of your social media campaigns.
- Keyword Monitoring Capabilities: Look for keyword monitoring tools in your social media management software as it will help you identify all conversations involving your brand name.
- Scheduling and Publishing: Opt for tools with advanced scheduling features to plan and automate posts, ensuring consistent and timely content delivery to your audience.
- Content Calendar: Select software that provides a visual overview of scheduled content. This will help in maintaining a structured posting schedule and comprehensive content strategy.
- Social Listening and Monitoring: Prioritize tools with social listening capabilities to monitor brand mentions, industry trends, and audience sentiments. This helps facilitate proactive engagement and response strategies.
- Team Collaboration: Features like task assignments, approval workflows, and content-sharing options foster seamless collaboration among team members managing social media activities.
- CRM Integration: Look for software having integration with CRM systems. This will allow you to manage customer interactions, leads, and personalized messaging, enhancing customer engagement and retention.
- Ad Management: Look for tools that help with ad management and offer integrated ad management functionalities to create, monitor, and optimize social media advertising campaigns within the platform.
- Customer Support and Training: Ensure that the selected tool offers reliable customer support and training resources to assist users in maximizing the tool’s potential and addressing any issues effectively.
Compare Top 10 Social Media Management Tools
Here is a detailed comparison between different free social media management tools based on features like content curation, social listening, scheduling, engagement, and more.
We have compared the top social media management tools like Buffer, Hootsuite, Later, Crowdfire, Agorapulse, and more. Let’s see them in detail.
| Feature | Later | HubSpot | Buffer | Sprout Social | Hootsuite | Brandwatch | Tailwind | SocialPilot | Crowdfire | Agorapulse |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bulk Scheduling | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Engagement | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Social Listening | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | Yes |
| Scheduling | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Client Management | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | Yes |
| Content Curation | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Free Plan | Yes | Limited | Yes | No | Limited | No | Limited | Limited | Limited | Limited |
| Team Collaboration | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Analytics & Reporting | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Paid Social | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
How We Tested These Free Social Media Tools?
To find out the top social media software available, we conducted a thorough evaluation based on specific criteria. These parameters included:
- Features Evaluation: Each software’s features were reviewed thoroughly to understand their capabilities in social media management, scheduling, analytics, and engagement.
- User Interface Assessment: We assessed the user interface for ease of navigation, intuitiveness, and overall user experience.
- Integration Testing: We also checked the software’s compatibility with various social media platforms and other tools to ensure its adaptability and usability within existing workflows.
- Performance and Reliability: Performance metrics and reliability tests were conducted to ensure the software’s stability and effectiveness.
- Customer Support Analysis: The responsiveness of customer support services provided by the software vendors was also considered.
Based on this detailed testing methodology, we have prepared a list of top social media software across the defined parameters. Our evaluation process ensured that the selected software could meet the diverse needs of businesses and individuals seeking to enhance their social media management and marketing efforts.
Conclusion: Which is the Best Free Social Media Management Tool
Social media management software serves as a steppingstone for anyone who wants to streamline the process of content posting, analyzing audience engagement, and assessing marketing performance across multiple social platforms.
By leveraging the diverse capabilities offered by these tools, individuals and businesses can boost up their social campaigns, save valuable time, and elevate their online influence. These tools allow users to refine and enhance their social strategies and facilitate substantial impact in the digital realm.
These tools offer many features, such as post-scheduling, analytics, content curation, and team collaboration for optimized social media efficiency.
Free Social Media Management Tool FAQs
What is a social media management tool?
A social media management tool is a platform designed to help businesses and individuals manage, monitor, and analyze their social media accounts and activities in a centralized manner. It enables them to streamline their social media marketing efforts and engage with their audience effectively.
What is the best tool for social media marketing?
The best tool for social media marketing depends on the specific needs and goals of the business or individual. Some popular options include Hootsuite, Buffer, Sprout Social, and HubSpot, each offering unique features to facilitate content management, scheduling, analytics, and audience engagement across various social media platforms.
What are the platforms of SMM?
The platforms of Social Media Marketing (SMM) include popular social media channels such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest, and TikTok, among others.
What is social media and its tools?
Social media refers to online platforms and websites that allow people to interact, share information, and engage with content. Social media tools are software applications or platforms designed to help manage, monitor, and analyze social media accounts and activities. This helps businesses and individuals streamline their social media marketing efforts to engage with their audience.
Google News
Written by
Namrata Samal 
Namrata is a skilled content writer with an expertise in writing marketing, tech, business-related topics, and more. She has been writing since 2021 and has written several write-ups. With her journey with Techjockey, she has worked on different genres of content like product descriptions, tech articles, alternate pages,... Read more
Previous 
