Author: will_tygart

Metricool has a short learning curve but a few non-obvious setup steps that make a significant difference in how well it works. Most people get the basics running in an hour. Getting the full value — multi-brand setup, analytics configured, API connected if needed — takes a few hours of deliberate setup. This guide covers both.

Step 1: Connect Your Social Accounts

After creating an account, the first task is connecting your social platforms. Go to Settings → Social Networks and authorize each platform you use. Metricool will prompt you through the OAuth flow for each platform — you’ll need admin access to the accounts you’re connecting.

A few platform-specific notes: Facebook and Instagram are connected through Meta’s Business Manager, so you’ll need your Facebook Business account credentials rather than your personal Facebook login. LinkedIn requires connecting either a personal profile or a Company Page — connect both if you post to both. Google Business Profile requires connecting your Google account with GBP admin access.

Step 2: Set Up Brands (If Managing Multiple)

If you’re managing more than one brand — multiple clients, multiple business lines, or a personal brand alongside business accounts — set up separate brands in Metricool before connecting accounts. Go to the brand switcher in the top left, create a new brand for each client or business, and then connect that brand’s social accounts under its workspace.

The common mistake: connecting all accounts under one brand and using it like a single aggregated feed. This works for small single-brand operations but creates a messy, unsearchable account structure for multi-brand management. The brand-per-client structure is worth the extra setup time.

Step 3: Learn the Planner

The Planner is Metricool’s scheduling interface — the place you’ll spend most of your time. Access it from the left navigation. The default view is a weekly calendar showing scheduled posts across all connected platforms for the current brand.

To create a new post: click a time slot on the calendar or use the “New Post” button. Write the caption, upload media, select which platforms to post to, and set the date and time. Metricool shows a preview of how the post will render on each selected platform, which is useful for catching formatting issues before the post goes live.

Best time recommendations: Metricool calculates optimal posting times based on historical engagement data for your accounts. These appear as highlighted time slots on the planner calendar. They’re worth following for at least the first few months until you have enough data to develop your own posting time intuition for each brand.

Step 4: Understand the Analytics Dashboard

Metricool’s analytics are organized by platform — switch between Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, and other platforms using the tabs at the top of the Analytics section. Each platform view shows follower growth, engagement rate, reach, impressions, and post performance for a selected date range.

The most useful view for recurring reporting: set a fixed date range (last 30 days, last quarter), review the top-performing posts by engagement rate, and check the follower growth trend. These three data points cover most of what you need for a regular social media performance review.

Competitor analysis is available on higher plan tiers — add competitor accounts to track their follower counts and posting frequency alongside your own metrics. For agencies pitching clients or benchmarking performance, this feature justifies the plan upgrade on its own.

Step 5: The Canva Integration

Metricool integrates directly with Canva, which is how we handle visual content for most brands. In the post creation interface, click the Canva button to open a Canva design directly in Metricool’s window. Design the asset, publish it from Canva, and it imports automatically into your Metricool post. This workflow eliminates the download-upload step that adds friction to visual post creation at scale.

Step 6: API Setup (Advanced)

If you need programmatic access to Metricool for automated scheduling or analytics retrieval, the API token is in Settings → API. Generate a token, store it securely, and use it with the Metricool REST API. The base URL and endpoint documentation are available in Metricool’s API documentation. We use the API for creating draft posts programmatically from our content pipeline, which then get reviewed and published from the Metricool planner.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long does it take to learn Metricool?

Basic scheduling — connecting accounts, creating posts, reading analytics — takes one to two hours to get comfortable with. The full feature set, including multi-brand management, competitor analysis, and API access, takes a few days of regular use to master. The learning curve is shorter than Hootsuite and comparable to Buffer for basic features.

Can multiple people use the same Metricool account?

Yes — Metricool supports team members on paid plans, with different permission levels for each member. You can add team members in Settings → Team and assign them access to specific brands or all brands. The number of team member seats available depends on your plan tier.

Does Metricool post automatically or do you have to confirm each post?

Most platform integrations post fully automatically at the scheduled time. Instagram is the exception — some content types may require a push notification on your mobile device to complete the publish, due to Meta API restrictions. Standard Instagram feed posts direct-publish automatically on supported plans; Reels and Stories have variable automation support.

Can you schedule the same post to multiple platforms at once?

Yes — when creating a post in Metricool, you can select multiple platforms and the same content will be scheduled to all selected platforms simultaneously. You can also customize the caption or media for each platform within the same post creation flow if the content needs to be adapted by platform.

Metricool and Later are both excellent social scheduling tools making different bets. Later is optimized for visual platforms — Instagram above all, with strong Pinterest and TikTok support. Metricool is optimized for multi-platform, multi-brand operations where analytics depth and API access matter as much as the scheduling interface.

If Instagram is the center of your social strategy, Later deserves serious consideration. If you’re managing multiple platforms across multiple brands with any need for programmatic scheduling or deep analytics, Metricool is probably the better fit.

Where Later Wins

Instagram experience. Later was built for Instagram first. The visual planning grid, the media library, the Instagram-specific analytics, and the Link in Bio tool are all more polished than Metricool’s Instagram features. If a significant portion of your social strategy is Instagram-centric, Later’s native Instagram experience is meaningfully better.

Media library. Later has a proper media library for storing and reusing visual assets. You can upload a batch of images, tag them, and pull them into posts from the library rather than uploading per-post. For visual-heavy operations posting similar content types repeatedly, this is a real workflow improvement that Metricool doesn’t match.

Link in Bio. Later’s Link in Bio tool — a landing page that makes Instagram posts clickable — is a core feature of its platform. For creators and brands driving traffic from Instagram, this is a meaningful native integration.

Where Metricool Wins

Platform breadth. Metricool supports more platforms than Later with more complete feature sets per platform. LinkedIn scheduling, Google Business Profile, YouTube, and Twitter/X are all more fully supported in Metricool. For multi-platform operations, this breadth matters.

Analytics depth. Metricool’s analytics are more comprehensive than Later’s across all platforms, not just Instagram. Competitor benchmarking, hashtag performance, engagement rate trends, and best posting time recommendations are all more developed in Metricool.

API access. Metricool’s API enables programmatic scheduling and analytics retrieval. Later has limited API access. For agencies or operators with any automated publishing component, Metricool’s API is the decisive advantage.

Multi-brand management. Metricool’s workspace structure for managing multiple brands is cleaner and more functional than Later’s equivalent. For agencies managing five or more client brands, Metricool’s multi-brand architecture is better designed.

Google Business Profile. Metricool supports GBP scheduling natively. Later does not. For local businesses or agencies managing local SEO, this is a meaningful gap.

The Honest Recommendation

If Instagram is your primary platform and you care most about the visual scheduling experience, a strong media library, and Link in Bio: use Later. If you’re managing multiple platforms, multiple brands, need analytics depth beyond Instagram, or have any programmatic scheduling requirement: use Metricool. The two tools aren’t really competing — they’re optimized for different operations.

We use Metricool because our operation spans multiple platforms across multiple brands with API-driven publishing. For a creator or brand with an Instagram-first strategy, we’d point them toward Later without hesitation.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can you use both Metricool and Later together?

You could, but the overlap makes maintaining two systems more overhead than it’s worth for most operations. The exception: if you have a client portfolio where some clients are Instagram-first (managed in Later) and others are multi-platform (managed in Metricool). In that case the division by client type is cleaner than trying to force all clients into one tool.

Which tool is cheaper, Metricool or Later?

Comparable plans are similarly priced. Later’s pricing scales by post volume and users; Metricool’s scales by brands and features. For agencies managing multiple brands, Metricool’s per-brand structure is often more cost-effective than Later’s per-user structure. Run the comparison against your specific brand count and team size.

Does Later support LinkedIn scheduling?

Later supports LinkedIn scheduling, but the integration is more limited than Metricool’s. For operations where LinkedIn is a significant channel — B2B agencies, professional services, thought leadership accounts — Metricool’s LinkedIn support is more complete.

Hootsuite, Buffer, and Metricool are solving the same problem but making different tradeoffs. All three schedule social content across multiple platforms. All three provide analytics. All three have free tiers and paid plans. The differences are in where each tool excels, what each costs at real agency scale, and which one fits the way a small agency actually works.

We’ve used all three. Here’s the comparison without the affiliate link bias.

Hootsuite: Most Complete, Most Expensive

Hootsuite is the established enterprise player in social media management. Its feature set is the deepest of the three — social listening, sophisticated team workflows, approval chains, deep integrations with enterprise tools, and the most comprehensive platform support. For a large agency with complex team structures and enterprise clients, Hootsuite’s feature depth justifies the cost.

For a small agency, it mostly doesn’t. Hootsuite’s pricing for small teams is significantly higher than Metricool for comparable scheduling and analytics functionality. The interface is more complex than you need if you’re not using the enterprise features. And the features that make Hootsuite worth the premium — social listening, advanced team management, enterprise integrations — are features most small agencies don’t need.

Hootsuite is the right choice when: you’re managing a large team with approval workflows, you need social listening and monitoring alongside scheduling, or your clients require enterprise-grade reporting and compliance features.

Buffer: Simplest Interface, Lightest Analytics

Buffer is the clean, simple option. Its publishing interface is the most intuitive of the three — easy to learn, fast to use, minimal friction for basic scheduling. For a solo creator or a very small operation scheduling content for a handful of accounts, Buffer’s simplicity is a genuine advantage.

The limitation is analytics. Buffer’s analytics are the lightest of the three — adequate for basic performance tracking but thin compared to Metricool’s analytics depth. For agencies billing clients on social media performance, Buffer’s reporting is often insufficient. You end up pulling native platform analytics separately anyway, which defeats part of the purpose of a scheduling tool.

Buffer is the right choice when: you have simple scheduling needs and prioritize interface speed over analytics depth, you’re a solo creator rather than an agency, or you’re managing a small number of accounts with low posting volume.

Metricool: Best Balance for Small Agencies

Metricool sits between Buffer’s simplicity and Hootsuite’s complexity in a way that’s well-calibrated for small agencies. The scheduling interface is nearly as clean as Buffer’s after a short learning curve. The analytics are substantially deeper than Buffer’s and comparable to Hootsuite’s at lower plan tiers. The multi-brand management is purpose-built for agency use. And the API — which neither Buffer nor Hootsuite matches at Metricool’s price point — enables automated publishing workflows that most agency operations eventually need.

The Google Business Profile scheduling support is also a meaningful differentiator. For agencies managing local businesses, scheduling GBP posts alongside social content from one tool is a real operational convenience that Buffer doesn’t offer and Hootsuite charges more for.

The Price Comparison at Agency Scale

At five brands and two team members — a reasonable small agency configuration — Metricool’s Advanced plan is meaningfully less expensive than Hootsuite’s equivalent and roughly comparable to Buffer’s equivalent, while providing substantially more analytics capability than Buffer and comparable scheduling features to both. The API access included in Metricool’s Advanced plan has no equivalent at the same price point from either competitor.

As brand count scales, Metricool maintains its cost advantage over Hootsuite. Buffer’s pricing can become competitive at certain configurations, but the analytics gap remains.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which social media scheduler is best for Instagram?

All three have similar Instagram limitations because they’re all constrained by Meta’s API. For Instagram-focused operations, Later is often a better choice than any of the three — it’s purpose-built for visual platforms and has deeper Instagram-specific features. Among the three general schedulers, the Instagram experience is comparable enough that other factors should drive the decision.

Does Buffer have an API?

Buffer has an API, but it’s more limited than Metricool’s and the documentation is less comprehensive. For operations needing programmatic scheduling and analytics retrieval, Metricool’s API is more capable and better documented than Buffer’s.

Is Hootsuite worth it for a small agency?

For most small agencies, no. Hootsuite’s premium pricing is justified by enterprise features that small agencies don’t use. The scheduling and analytics capabilities that matter for a small agency are available at lower cost in Metricool with comparable quality. Unless you specifically need Hootsuite’s social listening, approval workflows, or enterprise integrations, the cost premium isn’t warranted.

Metricool’s pricing is reasonable but not simple. The plan tiers scale by number of brands, team members, and feature access in ways that make the right plan non-obvious at first glance. Here’s a plain-language breakdown of what each tier actually means for a small agency or solo operator.

The Free Plan

Metricool’s free plan covers one brand, with scheduling for the major platforms, basic analytics, and access to the visual planner. The post volume limit per month is low enough that it’s genuinely a single-brand personal use tier rather than a business tool. It’s useful for evaluating the interface before committing to a paid plan, and for solo creators managing one account with modest posting volume.

What’s missing on free: multi-brand management, API access, advanced analytics, competitor analysis, and the posting volume needed for a real business social operation. For any agency or business managing more than one brand, the free plan is a trial, not a working solution.

The Starter Plan

The first paid tier covers a small number of brands — typically three to five depending on current pricing — with increased post volume, basic team member access, and the full scheduling interface. This is the right tier for a solo operator managing a personal brand alongside one or two client accounts, or a small local business running multiple location accounts.

What you still don’t get at Starter: API access, advanced competitor analysis, and the brand count needed for a real agency operation. If you need the API or manage more than a handful of brands, Starter is likely a waypoint rather than a destination.

The Advanced Plan

Advanced is where Metricool becomes genuinely useful for a small agency. The brand count increases significantly, the analytics layer gets substantially deeper — including competitor benchmarking and hashtag performance — and API access is included. For an operation running automated or high-volume publishing, the API is the feature that justifies the Advanced plan upgrade on its own.

Advanced also includes more team member seats and stronger reporting features — the ability to export analytics reports in formats suitable for client delivery. For agencies billing clients on social media management, the reporting upgrade has real operational value.

The Agency Plan

The Agency tier is designed for larger operations managing many client brands. Brand count expands significantly, white-label reporting options become available, and team management features are more robust. The price point is higher but still substantially below enterprise social management platforms like Sprout Social or HubSpot’s social tools.

Agency makes sense when: you’re managing ten or more brands, you need to deliver white-label analytics reports to clients, or your team size requires more seat access than Advanced provides.

Annual vs Monthly Billing

Metricool offers meaningful discounts for annual billing — typically around twenty percent off the monthly rate. For any operation committed to Metricool as a long-term tool, annual billing is the right choice. The only reason to stay monthly is if you’re still evaluating whether Metricool is the right fit, or if you have genuine uncertainty about the brand count you’ll need six months from now.

The Plan We Use

We’re on a plan that includes API access and supports multiple brands — the Advanced tier or equivalent. The API is the non-negotiable feature for our operation because we publish to Metricool programmatically from our content pipeline. The analytics depth at this tier is also meaningfully better than what’s available at lower tiers. For an agency doing real volume social management, the cost is justified by the API access alone.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Metricool charge per social account or per brand?

Per brand — a brand in Metricool can include multiple connected social accounts (Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter/X, etc.) for the same business. So one client with accounts on three platforms counts as one brand, not three. This makes Metricool’s pricing more favorable for agencies than tools that charge per connected account.

Is the Metricool API included in all paid plans?

No — API access is a feature of higher-tier plans, typically Advanced and above. If programmatic access to Metricool’s scheduling functionality is important for your operation, verify that the plan you’re considering includes API access before committing. It’s the most common feature oversight when choosing a plan tier.

Can you downgrade a Metricool plan?

Yes, plan changes are available through the Metricool account settings. Downgrading mid-billing-cycle typically takes effect at the next renewal date. If you’re on annual billing and need to downgrade, contact Metricool support — the process and any credit handling will depend on how far into the billing cycle you are.

Is Metricool cheaper than Hootsuite or Buffer?

For comparable feature access, generally yes. Metricool’s advanced plan provides scheduling, analytics, multi-brand management, and API access at a price point below Hootsuite’s equivalent tiers. Buffer is closer in price to Metricool but lighter on analytics depth. The cost comparison depends on which features you actually need — run the comparison against the specific features your operation requires rather than headline plan prices.

Metricool is the best social media scheduling tool most businesses haven’t tried. It’s not as well-known as Hootsuite or Buffer, it doesn’t have a massive marketing budget, and it’s not the default recommendation in every “best social media tools” roundup. What it does have is a genuinely well-built feature set, fair pricing, and an API that actually works — which is why we use it for multi-brand social scheduling across every client operation we run.

This review is written from daily use, not a trial account. We manage multiple brands in Metricool, use the API for automated publishing, and run the Canva-to-Metricool pipeline for visual content. Here’s the honest assessment.

What Metricool Does Well

Multi-brand management. Metricool’s workspace structure is built for managing multiple brands from one account. Each brand gets its own connected accounts, content calendar, and analytics. Switching between brands is seamless. For agencies or operators running content across multiple clients or business lines, this is the feature that matters most — and Metricool handles it more cleanly than most competitors at its price point.

The content planner. Metricool’s visual planner is the best scheduling interface we’ve used. Drag-and-drop across platforms, a week or month view, time-slot recommendations based on historical performance, and a clean preview of how posts will render on each platform. It’s fast to use once you’re familiar with it, and the learning curve is shorter than Hootsuite or Sprout Social.

Analytics depth. The analytics layer is genuinely useful — not just vanity metrics but engagement rate trends, best posting times, follower growth, reach and impressions, and competitor benchmarking. For a tool at this price point, the analytics are unusually comprehensive.

Google Business Profile scheduling. Most social scheduling tools ignore GBP or treat it as an afterthought. Metricool supports GBP post scheduling natively, which matters for local businesses and agencies managing local SEO alongside social content.

The API. Metricool has a documented REST API that supports creating draft posts, managing scheduled content, and pulling analytics data programmatically. We use it for automated content scheduling from our publishing pipeline. The API works reliably and the documentation is adequate. This is not a feature most competitors offer at Metricool’s price tier.

Where Metricool Falls Short

Instagram limitations. Like most third-party schedulers, Metricool’s Instagram integration is constrained by Meta’s API. Carousel posts, Reels, and Stories have varying levels of automation support — some require a mobile notification to complete the publish rather than posting fully automatically. This is an Instagram API limitation, not a Metricool problem, but it’s worth knowing before you assume all Instagram content schedules completely hands-off.

Team collaboration features. For solo operators and small teams, Metricool’s collaboration tools are adequate. For larger agencies needing approval workflows, content review stages, and granular team permissions, the collaboration layer is thinner than purpose-built agency tools. This is improving with each version but is still a weak point relative to enterprise social management platforms.

Content library. Metricool doesn’t have a robust media library for storing and reusing assets. You upload content per-post rather than pulling from a stored asset library. For high-volume operations posting similar content types repeatedly, this creates friction that a better asset management layer would eliminate.

Pricing Honesty

Metricool’s free plan is genuinely useful for a single brand — not the crippled trial version some tools offer. The paid plans scale reasonably by the number of brands and team members. For an agency managing five or more brands, the monthly cost is competitive with Hootsuite and Buffer while offering comparable or better features in most categories.

The pricing page is occasionally confusing because features are split across plan tiers in ways that aren’t always intuitive. The API access, in particular, requires a higher plan tier than you might expect. Read the feature matrix carefully before committing to a plan.

Who Should Use Metricool

Metricool is the right choice for: content agencies managing multiple client social accounts, solo operators running personal brand and business accounts simultaneously, local businesses that need GBP scheduling alongside social, and anyone who wants API access for automated publishing without paying enterprise prices.

It’s probably not the right choice for: large enterprise teams needing sophisticated approval workflows, operations focused almost entirely on Instagram where native tools or Later may be better optimized, or businesses that need deep social listening and monitoring features.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Metricool good for agencies?

Yes, particularly for small to mid-size agencies managing multiple client brands. The multi-brand workspace structure, combined with per-brand analytics and a capable scheduling interface, makes it well-suited for agency social management. The API is a meaningful advantage for agencies running automated or high-volume publishing workflows.

How does Metricool compare to Hootsuite?

Metricool is generally less expensive than Hootsuite for comparable feature sets, with a cleaner interface and better API documentation. Hootsuite has stronger enterprise features — more sophisticated team management, deeper integrations, and more robust social listening. For most small agencies and solo operators, Metricool provides comparable scheduling and analytics capability at a lower price point.

Does Metricool post automatically or does it require manual confirmation?

Most platform integrations support fully automatic posting — the post publishes at the scheduled time without any action required. Instagram is the exception: some content types (particularly Reels and Stories) may require a mobile push notification to complete the publish, due to Meta API limitations. Direct publishing for standard Instagram feed posts works automatically on supported plan tiers.

Is Metricool’s free plan worth using?

For a single brand with modest scheduling needs, yes — Metricool’s free plan is one of the more capable free tiers in social scheduling. It includes scheduling for multiple platforms, basic analytics, and the visual planner. The limitations kick in around brand count, post volume per month, and access to advanced analytics and API features.