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Pricing

Sprout Social Alternative for Small Teams (2026 Pricing)

By PostMediaAI6 min read

Sprout Social is built for social teams that run publishing, customer care, listening and reporting in one place, and its pricing reflects that: plans are sold per seat. If your team mostly plans and publishes posts, you may be paying for capabilities you rarely open. This guide compares Sprout Social with PostMediaAI honestly, using each company's own pages as of Nov 2026, including the areas where Sprout is clearly the better fit.

What Sprout Social costs (as of Nov 2026)

Sprout's pricing page shows four main plans plus Enterprise, all per seat per month on annual billing: Standard $199, Professional $299 and Advanced $399, with Enterprise on custom pricing. A newer Essentials plan, aimed at people focused on publishing, is $79 per seat a month billed annually or $99 billed monthly, for up to 5 social profiles. Sprout offers a 30-day free trial with no credit card required. Every plan includes Trellis, Sprout's AI agent, with 100 credits per seat a month; Trellis Plus adds 1,000 credits for $28 per seat a month billed annually (sproutsocial.com/pricing).

Sprout Social vs PostMediaAI plans

  • Sprout Essentials: price (as listed): $79 per seat/mo billed annually ($99 monthly); social profiles: Up to 5; seats: Per seat; highlights listed: Publishing workflows, optimal send times, profile and post reporting, Trellis AI
  • Sprout Standard: price (as listed): $199 per seat/mo, annual billing; social profiles: 5; seats: Per seat; highlights listed: Consolidated inbox, keyword and location monitoring, review management, Trellis AI
  • Sprout Professional: price (as listed): $299 per seat/mo, annual billing; social profiles: Unlimited; seats: Per seat; highlights listed: Message tagging, competitor, tag and paid insights, AI Assist for posts
  • Sprout Advanced: price (as listed): $399 per seat/mo, annual billing; social profiles: Unlimited; seats: Per seat; highlights listed: Sentiment, Sprout API, helpdesk integrations, customer care reports
  • PostMediaAI Team: price (as listed): $19/mo ($15.17/mo yearly); social profiles: 10 channels; seats: Unlimited members; highlights listed: AI drafts per channel, shared calendar, cross-posting, images and video clips
  • PostMediaAI Pro / Ultimate: price (as listed): $29 / $49 per month; social profiles: 30 / 100 channels; seats: Unlimited members; highlights listed: Same features, more channels

Sprout also sells add-ons such as Premium Analytics, Listening, Employee Advocacy and Professional Services, available on Standard and up (sproutsocial.com/pricing).

Per-seat maths for a small team

Seat pricing is the biggest cost driver. On annual list prices, as of Nov 2026:

  • 1 person, 5 profiles, publishing only: Sprout Essentials $79 a month. PostMediaAI Standard $7.17 a month.
  • 3 people, 5 profiles, publishing only: Sprout Essentials 3 x $79 = $237 a month. PostMediaAI Team $15.17 a month for 10 channels, since members are unlimited.
  • 3 people, 20 profiles, with inbox: Sprout Professional 3 x $299 = $897 a month (Standard is capped at 5 profiles). PostMediaAI Pro $23.17 a month for 30 channels, without an inbox.

The last example is the important one. Price is only half the story when the more expensive tool does a job the cheaper one does not.

Where Sprout Social is the stronger fit

From Sprout's pricing page, capabilities PostMediaAI does not list include:

  • A consolidated Smart Inbox for messages and reviews, with sentiment on Advanced.
  • Keyword and location monitoring, plus a Listening add-on with sentiment tracking and spike alerts.
  • Competitor, tag and paid insights on Professional, and Premium Analytics as an add-on.
  • The Sprout API and helpdesk integrations on Advanced.
  • Employee advocacy, influencer marketing and enterprise onboarding and SSO options.

If your team runs customer care or brand monitoring through Sprout, a calendar-first scheduler is not a replacement for that work.

Where PostMediaAI is the stronger fit

  • Price per team: unlimited members on Team ($19), Pro ($29) and Ultimate ($49), instead of a price per seat.
  • More channels per plan: 10, 30 or 100, against 5 on Sprout Essentials and Standard.
  • AI built into drafting: topic or link in, a first draft for each channel out, with rewrites such as Shorter, More casual or For LinkedIn (postmediaai.com).
  • Visual creation in the same app: AI images and short videos, cutting long videos into clips, and the Advanced Picture Editor.
  • Wide channel coverage: 35 listed channels, including Discord, Slack, Telegram, Reddit, Bluesky, Mastodon, YouTube, TikTok and WordPress (postmediaai.com/faq).

Who each tool is built for

Sprout describes its Standard plan as perfect for small teams managing a few profiles, Professional for teams handling a lot of profiles with high engagement, and Advanced for cross-functional teams and workflows (sproutsocial.com/pricing). PostMediaAI names creators, founders, small brands, agencies, teams and communities as its audiences, and sizes plans by channel count rather than by role (postmediaai.com). In practice, Sprout fits organisations where social is also a customer-service and insight function; PostMediaAI fits people whose main job is getting good posts out across many channels.

Questions to ask before switching

  1. Which Sprout features did your team use in the last 30 days? Inbox, listening and reports count; the composer alone does not justify per-seat pricing.
  2. How many people need to schedule posts? Multiply by the seat price you pay today.
  3. How many profiles do you run? Sprout Standard and Essentials include 5.
  4. Do you need approvals or an API? PostMediaAI does not list either.
  5. Could a split setup work, with a care tool for the inbox and a scheduler for content?

If you do run two tools, keep one calendar as the single source of truth. Our guide to managing multiple social media accounts explains how, and the social media content strategy guide helps you plan what goes on that calendar. Comparing Hootsuite too? See our Hootsuite alternative guide.

How a move usually goes

Switching is mostly a planning exercise. Connect your channels through each network's official sign-in, recreate your upcoming posts, and move your images and videos into the media library. PostMediaAI's FAQ suggests keeping your old tool running until you are ready to switch over (postmediaai.com/faq), which matters with seat-based contracts: check your Sprout renewal date and billing terms before you cancel, since annual plans renew on their own schedule.

FAQ

Does Sprout Social have a free plan?

Sprout lists a 30-day free trial with no credit card required, not a free plan (sproutsocial.com/pricing).

What is a cheaper alternative to Sprout Social?

For publishing-focused teams, channel-bundle tools usually cost less because they do not charge per seat. PostMediaAI Team is $19 a month for 10 channels with unlimited members (postmediaai.com/pricing). For inbox and listening, compare other suites rather than schedulers.

Is Sprout Social priced per user?

Yes. All listed plans are priced per seat per month (sproutsocial.com/pricing).

Does PostMediaAI have a social inbox?

PostMediaAI does not list a social inbox. It focuses on drafting, the calendar, publishing, analytics for supported networks and the media library (postmediaai.com).

Related guides: Best Auto Posting Apps for Social Media: How to Choose, Publer Alternative: Flat Channel Plans for Teams (2026) and Later Alternative for Every Channel, Not Just Visual Ones.

Sources

Competitor details below were read on each vendor's own pricing or product page on 1 November 2026. Plans change often, so check the live page before you buy.

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