Category: Metricool & Social Media

Metricool’s pricing is one of the strongest arguments for using it. The plans scale by features and brand count in a way that makes multi-brand management economically viable — unlike competitors that charge per seat or per connected account in ways that make large portfolios expensive fast.

The Free Plan: What You Actually Get

The free plan covers one brand with a limited number of scheduled posts per month across supported platforms. Analytics are available but restricted in depth and date range. The free plan has no API access.

For a solo operator managing a single personal brand who posts a few times a week, the free plan works. For anyone managing multiple brands, needing more than basic analytics, or wanting programmatic scheduling via API, it’s not sufficient. The free plan is a trial, not a working tool for a serious operation.

The Starter Plan

Starter unlocks multiple brands, higher posting volume limits, and better analytics access. It’s the entry point for small agencies and operators managing more than one account. The Starter plan does not include API access — that’s the key limitation that pushes operators running automated or AI-assisted workflows up to Advanced.

The Advanced Plan: The Right Tier for Most Agencies

Advanced is the plan where Metricool becomes genuinely capable for a content agency or multi-brand operation. Key unlocks: full analytics including best time to post, hashtag analytics, and historical data; API access for programmatic scheduling; team member access; and a higher brand count ceiling.

The API access on Advanced is the feature that changes the economics. Being able to schedule posts programmatically — via Claude, via a script, via any tool that can make an HTTP request — means Metricool becomes infrastructure rather than a tool you manually use. That shift in how you interact with it is worth the plan upgrade for operations running content at volume.

What the API Requires

API access on Advanced uses token-based authentication. The token goes in the X-Mc-Auth header. Your userId and blogId go as query parameters. Each brand you manage has its own blogId — found in the URL when you’re viewing that brand’s dashboard in Metricool. One API token covers all brands under your account. The token can be regenerated from Account Settings; when regenerated, the old token is immediately invalidated with no grace period.

Agency and Custom Plans

For operations managing large numbers of brands — twenty, fifty, more — Metricool offers agency-tier and custom plans with higher brand ceilings, white-label reporting, and priority support. For an operation like ours managing 24 brands, the agency tier is where the economics make sense relative to the per-brand cost on lower tiers.

The Real Cost Comparison

Comparing Metricool to Hootsuite or Sprout Social at equivalent feature sets: Metricool is substantially cheaper. Hootsuite’s professional plan with comparable brand count and team member access runs several times the cost of Metricool Advanced. Sprout Social’s agency pricing is higher still. The gap narrows at enterprise scale but remains significant for small to mid-size agencies.

The honest caveat: Hootsuite and Sprout Social have deeper team collaboration, more sophisticated approval workflows, and better enterprise integrations. If you need those specifically, the premium is potentially justified. If you need reliable multi-brand scheduling, good analytics, and API access at a reasonable price, Metricool wins on value.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Metricool charge per connected social account?

No — Metricool charges per brand (called a “blog” in their system), not per connected social account within a brand. A single brand can connect LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and GBP without those counting as four separate accounts for billing purposes. This makes Metricool significantly cheaper than tools that charge per connected platform.

Is the Metricool API included in the free plan?

No. API access requires the Advanced plan or higher. The free and Starter plans do not include API access. If programmatic scheduling — via scripts, AI tools, or custom integrations — is part of your workflow, Advanced is the minimum viable plan.

Can you try Metricool before paying?

Yes. The free plan is permanent and functional enough to evaluate the interface and basic scheduling workflow. Most paid plan tiers offer a trial period. The free plan is the most honest way to evaluate whether the interface and workflow fit before committing to a paid tier.

How many brands can you manage on Metricool?

Brand count varies by plan. The free plan covers one brand. Paid plans increase the ceiling, with agency and custom plans supporting large numbers of brands. The specific limits change as Metricool adjusts its pricing, so checking the current plan page for exact numbers is advisable. For operations managing ten or more brands, the agency tier is typically the right starting point.

Metricool is the best social media scheduling tool most people haven’t heard of. It doesn’t have Buffer’s brand recognition or Hootsuite’s enterprise sales team. What it has is a genuinely capable platform at a price point that makes the big tools look cynical, and a feature set that covers multi-brand management, analytics, and API access in a way that most competitors don’t.

We manage 24 brands in Metricool. LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and Google Business Profile across a mix of personal brands, local news properties, industry organizations, and business clients. This review is from that experience — not a feature comparison of marketing pages.

What Metricool Does Well

Multi-brand management without per-seat pricing. Most social media tools charge per connected account or per team member in ways that make managing twenty-plus brands expensive. Metricool’s pricing is plan-based — pay for the tier, connect the brands the tier allows. At the Advanced plan level, the per-brand cost is low enough that managing a large portfolio is economically viable in a way it isn’t with Hootsuite or Sprout Social.

Google Business Profile scheduling. GBP scheduling is a feature most tools ignore entirely or charge extra for. Metricool includes it natively. For any business with a local footprint where GBP visibility matters, this feature alone justifies the subscription. The constraint is real: GBP posts are limited to 1,500 characters and a single image, but the scheduling workflow is clean and reliable.

Analytics that are actually useful. Metricool’s analytics give you post-level performance data across platforms — reach, engagement, clicks, best performing content by network. The best time to post analysis is derived from your actual account’s historical engagement, not generic industry data. For an operation running content at volume, knowing which content format and posting time actually performs for your specific audience is more useful than any benchmark study.

The visual planner. The content calendar view is genuinely well-designed. Dragging posts between days, seeing the full week or month at a glance, identifying gaps in the schedule — these interactions work the way you’d expect. It’s not remarkable, but it’s reliable, which matters more for daily use.

API access. Metricool exposes a REST API for programmatic scheduling. The authentication model uses an API token in the header (X-Mc-Auth) with userId and blogId as query parameters. This is the feature that makes Metricool viable for AI-native content operations — Claude can schedule posts directly to Metricool via API, closing the loop between content production and social distribution without a manual step. API access requires the Advanced plan or higher.

Where Metricool Falls Short

The mobile app. The mobile experience is functional but clearly secondary to the web interface. For an operation where most scheduling happens at a desk, this is a minor issue. For someone primarily managing social on mobile, it’s a meaningful limitation.

Instagram scheduling complexity. Instagram’s API restrictions create friction for any third-party scheduler, and Metricool is no exception. Reels scheduling, story scheduling, and carousel posts have varying degrees of reliability depending on Instagram’s current API policies. Stories in particular require additional steps that aren’t needed on other platforms.

Reporting depth. Metricool’s analytics are good for content performance monitoring. They’re not good enough to replace a dedicated analytics platform for brands that need deep audience demographic data, competitive benchmarking, or custom reporting. For most small to mid-size operations the analytics are sufficient; for enterprise clients with sophisticated reporting requirements, you’ll need something additional.

LinkedIn organic analytics lag. LinkedIn’s API throttles analytics data in ways that create a delay between when a post goes live and when accurate performance data appears in Metricool. This is a LinkedIn API limitation, not a Metricool failure, but it’s worth knowing if LinkedIn analytics are a primary use case.

How We Actually Use It

Our Metricool workflow runs on three layers. First, content production — articles go live on WordPress, then get adapted into platform-specific social posts. Second, the Canva → Metricool pipeline for visual content — designs are created in Canva and imported directly to Metricool’s media library before being attached to scheduled posts. Third, API-driven scheduling for programmatic content — Claude generates post text and schedules directly to Metricool via the API, with the blogId and userId specifying which brand the post goes to.

The multi-brand architecture works because each brand in Metricool has its own blogId. We manage local news properties like the Mason County Minute and Belfair Bugle, industry networks, personal brands, and client accounts — all from a single Metricool login, each posting to the right accounts with the right content.

The Honest Verdict

Metricool is the right tool if you’re managing multiple brands across multiple platforms and need API access without paying enterprise prices. It’s not the right tool if you need deep competitive analytics, sophisticated team collaboration, or a polished mobile experience. For agencies and operators running content operations at volume, it fills a gap that more expensive tools don’t fill more effectively.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Metricool free?

Metricool has a free plan that allows limited scheduling across a small number of accounts with basic analytics. The free plan is adequate for a single brand with low posting volume. For multi-brand management, API access, or meaningful analytics depth, the paid plans starting at the Advanced tier are required. API access specifically requires Advanced or higher.

What platforms does Metricool support in 2026?

Metricool supports LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, X/Twitter, Google Business Profile, TikTok, YouTube, Pinterest, Threads, and Bluesky. Google Business Profile scheduling is included natively, which distinguishes it from most competitors. Platform support varies by plan tier — not all platforms are available on all plans.

How does Metricool compare to Hootsuite?

Metricool is significantly cheaper for multi-brand management, includes Google Business Profile natively, and has a more functional API for programmatic scheduling. Hootsuite has stronger team collaboration features, deeper enterprise analytics, and broader third-party integrations. For small agencies and multi-brand operators, Metricool provides more value per dollar. For large teams with complex approval workflows and enterprise reporting requirements, Hootsuite’s additional overhead may be justified.

Does Metricool have an API?

Yes. Metricool’s REST API allows programmatic scheduling, post management, and brand listing. Authentication uses an API token in the X-Mc-Auth header, with userId and blogId as query parameters. API access requires the Advanced plan. The API covers scheduling posts across all supported platforms, retrieving scheduled content, and managing media.