27 Social Media Tools Your Marketing Team Needs

Managing social media shouldn’t feel like you’re juggling flaming torches while riding a unicycle. Yet that’s exactly how it feels when you’re trying to create content, engage with followers, track analytics, keep up with trends—the list goes on and on.

Luckily, creating the right tech stack can help. Finding a few (or even just the one) social media tools can be the difference between running around like a chicken with its head cut off or sitting at your desk like a cool cucumber.

Throughout this list, we’ve got 27 different social media tools for different parts of your strategy. Let’s help you find the right tools for your marketing team.

What are social media tools?

Social media tools are software applications designed to help you manage your social media presence. Whether that’s creating content, publishing posts, analyzing performance, what have you—these tools help you do it all.

There are different types of social media tools on the market, each one perfect for different aspects of your social media marketing strategy.

Let’s walk through some of these so you know what you need to shop for:

• Social media management tools allow you to plan and publish content across multiple platforms from a single dashboard. Instead of logging into five different apps to post the same update, you can do it all in one place—and even schedule it for the optimal time when your audience is most active.
• Social media content creation tools make it easier to design eye-catching graphics, edit videos, and create professional-looking content without needing a dedicated designer on your team. From templates to stock photos to editing features, these tools help you produce high-quality visuals that stop the scroll.
• Social media analytics tools help you track your performance and understand what’s working (and what’s not). These tools show you metrics like engagement rates, follower growth, reach, and impressions, giving you the data you need to make informed decisions about your strategy.
• Social media monitoring tools keep tabs on what people are saying about your brand, your competitors, and your industry. They help you stay on top of mentions, track relevant keywords, and jump into conversations at the right moment.
• Social media community management tools streamline how you interact with your audience. They organize comments, messages, and mentions in one place so you can respond quickly and build stronger relationships with your followers.

Find tools in all of these categories and more below.

Best all-in-one social media tool

If you just want one tool that can do it all, look no further. Why bother building a tech stack when you can just learn the ins and outs of one single tool?

1. Vista Social

Vista Social is the ultimate social media tool for businesses large and small, marketing agencies, franchise and multi-location businesses, and pretty much anyone else who needs to manage a brand’s presence on social media.

“That’s a big claim,” you might be saying. And so it is.

But walk with me through Vista Social’s complete arsenal of social media management capabilities so you can see for yourself.

• Social media publishing and scheduling: Select the platform you want to share to and watch as our publisher creates a preview perfectly catered to that platform. Create high-quality content, then schedule it in advance so it can auto-publish while you focus on other tasks.
• Social media analytics: Get access to valuable insights in a variety of reports, like a Social Media Performance Report, Post Performance Report, Industry Benchmark Report, Competitor Analysis Report, and so much more. Or build custom reports with the exact insights you need.
• Unified inbox: View all comments, messages, mentions, and reviews from across your online presence in one easy-to-manage inbox. Assign conversations to different team members and mark them as complete once handled.
• Social listening: Create listeners for your brand name and other various keywords from your industry so you can easily track, monitor, and respond to all mentions. You can also gather overall sentiment around those keywords and track your listener results in our reporting section.
• AI assistance: Vista Social is powered by AI, and we mean in every way possible. Use AI to help you generate content ideas, to jumpstart your caption writing, to analyze your social media performance, to automate your customer service, or even just to manage your social media as a whole.
• Automation: We’re one of the only social media tools to offer DM automation this robust. Create automations that send DMs after users comment a trigger word, create DM autoresponders for customer support, use DM automation during live streams, and more.
• Employee advocacy: Get your employees to help share your brand’s content, further boosting awareness and recognition in even more professional networks. Make it easy for them to share your content, plus get access to intuitive reports on the performance.
• Link-in-bio: Create your own micro landing page to use as your social media link-in-bio using our Vista Page builder. Access engaging integrations to help build out the perfect landing page for your brand.
• URL tracking: Input URLs you want to track and Vista Social automatically generates UTM parameters at the end of the link each time you share it with your audience. Track clicks across your Google Analytics to help gauge tangible social media ROI.

When we say that Vista Social is the most complete social media tool on the market, it’s because it’s true.

Pricing: Plans start at $79/month after a 14-day free trial

Best social media management tools

Discover some of the top rated social media management tools below and see if they fit your needs.

2. Sprout Social

Sprout Social is a social media management platform that makes it easy to schedule content, engage with your audience, and track your performance across multiple networks. 

It’s a great option for businesses and agencies that need a comprehensive tool to manage their social media presence at scale, though it does come with a higher price point than some competitors.

Pricing: Paid plans start at $199/user/month, billed annually

3. Hootsuite

Hootsuite is one of the OG social media management platforms, and it’s been a staple in the industry for years. The platform allows you to schedule and publish content across multiple social networks, monitor conversations through customizable streams, and track performance with built-in analytics. 

While Hootsuite has been around long enough to prove its reliability, some users find the interface a bit clunky compared to newer competitors, and the pricing can add up quickly as you scale.

Pricing: Plans start at $149/user/month

4. Sendible

Sendible is a social media management platform built specifically with agencies and teams in mind. The platform offers all the essentials you’d expect—scheduling, publishing, analytics, and social listening—but it puts a major focus on its client management features. 

You can create separate dashboards for each client, set up approval workflows so clients can review content before it goes live, and generate white-labeled reports that showcase your results in a professional, branded format. The interface is fairly straightforward, though it might take a bit of time to get familiar with all the features.

Pricing: Plans start at $29/month

5. Later

Later started as an Instagram-focused scheduling tool and has since expanded to support multiple platforms, but its visual-first approach still makes it a favorite for brands that prioritize aesthetics.

This is especially true as Later has heavily invested in functionality fit for ecommerce brands, like its visual content calendar, link-in-bio shopping page, and influencer marketing capabilities. If you’re heavily focused on Instagram marketing and want a tool that makes planning your feed feel effortless, Later is definitely worth a look.

Pricing: Plans start at $25/month

6. Buffer

Buffer is known for its simplicity and straightforward approach to social media management. The platform lets you queue up posts across multiple social networks, and its browser extension makes it incredibly easy to share content you find while browsing the web with just a couple of clicks. 

While it might not have all the advanced features that larger teams or agencies need, Buffer’s affordability and ease of use make it a solid choice if you’re looking for a no-fuss scheduling tool that just works. Plus, they offer a free plan that covers the basics if you want to test it out before committing.

Pricing: Free for up to 3 social channels, then paid plans start at $5/channel/month

7. Agorapulse

Agorapulse is a comprehensive social media management platform that strikes a nice balance between powerful features and user-friendly design. The interface is intuitive and well-organized, so you won’t need a PhD to figure out how to use it, and their customer support is known for being top-notch. 

While the pricing is on the mid-to-higher end, you’re getting a lot of value for what you pay—especially if managing engagement and building relationships with your audience is a priority.

Pricing: Plans start at $99/user/month

8. Metricool

Metricool is an affordable, feature-packed social media management tool that lets you schedule and publish content across all major social networks, analyze your performance, and engage with your audience.

If you’re a small business, freelancer, or content creator looking for a budget-friendly tool that doesn’t skimp on features, Metricool delivers serious bang for your buck—and the fact that you can get started for free makes it an easy one to try out.

Pricing: Free limited plan, with paid plans starting at $22/month

9. Dash Social

Dash Social is an enterprise-level social media management platform built for large teams, agencies, and brands that need serious firepower. Its team collaboration features are a main focus of the tool, making sure that large teams can get everything they need out of it.

The platform is designed to scale with enterprise clients who need everything from content planning and scheduling to in-depth reporting and team management all in one place. If you’re running a large team, Dash Social offers the robust features and scalability you need.

Pricing: Paid plans start at $999/month

Best social media content creation tools

You can’t implement a social media strategy without content. These tools are perfect for helping you design stunning visuals that will grab attention in a social media feed.

10. Canva

Canva is the perfect tool for editing images, creating graphics, and even building out videos on a budget. It’s user-friendly, meaning anyone can log on and start creating, even without a design degree.

Start with a template, find beautifully designed elements to bring into your visuals, and create something amazing that will stand out in a social media feed.

Pricing: Free limited plan, with paid plans starting at $15/month

11. BuzzSumo

BuzzSumo is a content research tool that takes the guesswork out of what to create by showing you exactly what’s already resonating with your audience. Search any topic or keyword and see which pieces of content are getting the most social shares and engagement across platforms.

While the tool doesn’t actually help you create the content itself, BuzzSumo is invaluable for the ideation and research phase, helping you create content that’s more likely to perform well before you even start writing or designing.

Pricing: Plans start at $199/month

12. Biteable

Biteable is a video maker perfect for generating quick, social media-friendly video clips. Start with a template and upload your recorded videos, or use the AI video generator to create something from scratch.

Other fun content creation features include voiceover generation, ad generation, animated avatars, and more.

Pricing: Plans start at $29/month

Best social media analytics tools

Monitor your performance with the right social media analytics and reporting tool.

13. Socialinsider

Socialinsider is a competitive insights tool for analyzing your performance against that of your competitors across various social media platforms. Track follower growth, post performance, and posting cadence to see how you compare to others in your industry.

Pricing: Plans start at $99/month

14. Swydo

Swydo is a reporting and analytics tool designed specifically for agencies and marketing teams who need to create professional, client-ready reports without spending hours copying and pasting data. 

The tool offers a library of pre-built templates to get you started quickly, but you can also customize everything to match your branding and highlight the metrics that matter most to your clients.

Pricing: Plans start at $49/month

15. Keyhole

Keyhole is a social media analytics and listening tool that specializes in real-time tracking of hashtags, keywords, and account performance across multiple platforms. 

Get access to metrics like reach, impressions, engagement rates, and sentiment analysis in easy-to-understand dashboards that help you spot trends and patterns quickly.

Pricing: Custom pricing

Best AI social media tools

AI is the future—let it help you put together a successful social media strategy.

16. FeedHive

FeedHive is an AI-focused social media tool that helps brands create, optimize, and schedule posts with less manual effort. 

What really sets FeedHive apart is its AI-powered performance predictions. Before you even publish a post, the platform analyzes your content and predicts how well it’s likely to perform based on your historical data, giving you the chance to tweak and optimize before hitting publish.

Pricing: Plans start at $19/month

17. Flick

Flick is an AI-powered social media tool that’s particularly strong when it comes to content creation and hashtag strategy. You can train the AI to understand your brand voice and style, so the suggestions it generates actually sound like you rather than generic robot-speak.

Flick also offers advanced hashtag analytics and recommendations, helping you find the right hashtags to reach your target audience on Instagram and other platforms without just guessing or using the same overused tags as everyone else.

Pricing: Plans start at $14/month

18. Predis.ai

Predis.ai is an AI-powered content creation tool that generates ready-to-post social media content from just a simple text prompt or URL. The platform uses AI to create not just captions, but complete posts with graphics, videos, carousels, and even reels—essentially taking care of the entire content creation process for you.

The trade-off is that AI-generated content can sometimes feel a bit generic or require tweaking to truly match your brand voice, but if you’re struggling to keep up with content demands or need a starting point to build from, Predis.ai can be a serious time-saver.

Pricing: Plans start at $32/month

Best social media link tracking tools

Want to actually track your ROI? Social media link tracking tools can help you do just that. Find the right option for your brand.

19. Bitly

Bitly is the go-to link shortening and tracking tool that transforms long, unwieldy URLs into clean, clickable short links while giving you detailed analytics on how those links perform. 

Beyond just making your links look tidier, Bitly tracks every click, showing you metrics like total clicks, geographic location of your audience, referral sources, and when people are most likely to click.

Pricing: Free limited plan, with paid plans starting at $120/year

20. Rebrandly

Rebrandly is a link management platform that lets you use your own custom domain (like yourbrand.co or go.yourbrand.com) to create short links that look professional and trustworthy. 

The platform tracks detailed analytics for every link you create, showing you clicks, geographic data, devices, referrers, and more—giving you insights into how your audience interacts with your content across different channels.

Pricing: Free limited plan, with paid plans starting at $14/month

21. Linkly

Linkly is a link shortening and tracking tool that focuses on simplicity and clean analytics without all the extra bells and whistles. The platform lets you create custom branded short links using your own domain, track detailed click data, and organize your links with tags for easy management.

While it doesn’t have as many advanced features as some competitors, Linkly’s clean interface and competitive pricing make it a solid middle-ground option for marketers who want branded links and reliable tracking without paying for features they’ll never use.

Pricing: Free limited plan, with paid plans starting at $39/month

Best social media monitoring tools

Keep your thumb on the pulse of your industry (and keep an eye on your brand’s reputation) with the right listening and monitoring tools.

22. Mention

Mention is a social media monitoring tool that tracks mentions of your brand name, relevant keywords, and hashtags across social media platforms, news sites, blogs, forums, and pretty much anywhere else online conversations are happening.

A tool like this is perfect for brands that need to stay on top of their online reputation and catch conversations that matter, especially if you’re in crisis management mode or running a time-sensitive campaign.

Pricing: Plans start at $599

23. Brandwatch

Brandwatch is an enterprise-level social listening and analytics platform that goes way beyond basic mention tracking to provide deep consumer intelligence and market insights. 

The platform monitors billions of online conversations across the web, using AI and machine learning to uncover insights about your audience that you’d never find through manual monitoring.

Pricing: Custom pricing

24. Brand24

Brand24 is a social media monitoring tool that makes it easy to stay on top of what people are saying about your brand by consolidating all mentions into one streamlined dashboard where you can filter by sentiment and source.

Brand24’s standout feature is its reputation score. This gives you a quick snapshot of how your brand is being perceived online based on the volume and sentiment of mentions, making it easy to spot potential issues before they escalate.

Pricing: Plans start at $199/month

Best social media community management tools

Build a thriving social media community with the best community management tools out there.

25. Thryv

Thryv offers features like a shared inbox and personalized engagement recommendations that make it easy for your team to manage your online community. Plus, get reputation management capabilities to track and respond to online reviews.

Pricing: Plans start at $646/month

26. Khoros

Khoros has a number of community management related features perfect for brands looking to boost engagement across their online presence. Features include community design, content creation, moderation, automation, and even gamification.

This helps build a space for your community to live as well as keep it alive and engaged day after day.

Pricing: Custom pricing

27. Hivebrite

HiveBrite is another platform that lets brands actually build out a community on a space other than social media. Own your community with a beautifully branded space and keep them engaged across different topics relating back to your brand.

Pricing: Custom pricing

Find the best social media tools for your team

Build the best tech stack for your brand by picking and choosing your favorite options from this list of social media tools. Or, just make life easy by signing up for Vista Social and getting everything you need all in one tool.

Social media tools FAQs

What are the main types of social media tools?

The main types of social media tools are:

• Publishing/scheduling
• Engagement/community management
• Analytics
• Content creation
• Listening/monitoring

All brands hoping to make a splash on social media should find tools that help them do these things—or an all-in-one tool that does it all.

What is the most effective social media tool?

The most effective social media tool is one that can help you do more things in one place. Vista Social is the perfect solution here, giving you a complete suite of features that help you run your brand’s entire social media and online presence.

Are there any free social media tools?

Most social media tools have paid plans, though they typically offer a free trial to give it a try. Some of the free tools on our list include Buffer, Canva, and Bitly.