Sprout Social

Sprout Social is what a social team buys when the job has stopped being scheduling and become inbox triage, approvals, listening and reporting somebody outside the team will read. The consolidated inbox and the review management are the parts creators with a manager tend to notice first. Everything is priced per seat, which is the fact that decides whether it belongs in a one-person setup: a second person doubles the bill.

Essentials is $99 per seat a month billed monthly, or $79 billed annually, and covers five social profiles with publishing and reporting. Standard is $199 per seat and adds the consolidated inbox, keyword and location monitoring and review management. Professional is $299 with unlimited profiles and competitor insight, Advanced is $399 with sentiment, the API and helpdesk integrations, and Enterprise is quoted on request. The 30-day trial asks for no card and the quoted rates assume annual billing.

A team where social has become customer service and someone has to answer for the numbers. The per-seat pricing decides most of this: at one person it is expensive against every other tool here, and at five it is being compared with hiring. A solo creator is not the buyer, and the entry plan's five-profile cap makes that explicit.