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.
We set up and run Metricool for multi-brand social media operations — the pipeline, the scheduling system, and the analytics workflow.
Tygart Media manages social scheduling across multiple brands using Metricool daily. We know what the tool actually does and what it doesn’t.
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.
Leave a Reply