Metricool Review (2026): The Cheapest Way to Run Many Brands, With Two Catches

At the core is a planning calendar that schedules and auto-publishes across ten networks: Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest, Google Business, Bluesky, Threads and X (Twitter). Best-time suggestions and bulk planning are built in.

The catch specific to Metricool: X (Twitter) needs a paid add-on to connect (see below) and is not available on the Free plan at all. Everything else publishes on any paid plan.

Analytics is why most people choose Metricool. You get deep native metrics — reach, engagement, follower growth, demographics — across every connected network, plus competitor analysis (5 profiles on Free, up to 100 on paid) and a Looker Studio connector on the paid plans.

For agencies, the report builder exports branded PDF and PowerPoint reports with your own logo and colors (Starter and up); full white-label is reserved for the Custom plan. Little else at this price reports this well.

A genuine differentiator: Metricool connects Meta (Facebook/Instagram), Google and TikTok ad accounts, so you can report on — and even create — paid campaigns alongside your organic scheduling in the same dashboard. Most schedulers at this price don't touch ads at all.

Metricool prices by 'brand' — one set of connected profiles — not per channel or per seat, and the per-brand rate falls as you add brands (roughly $3–4 a brand at the higher tiers). For anyone running many accounts, that is one of the cheapest ways to do the math in the category.

Two costs sit outside the headline price. X (Twitter) is a paid add-on at $10 per connected account per month as of August 23, 2026, available only on the paid plans — the Free plan can't connect X at all. The other is the Advanced Analytics add-on (Metricool Studio and unlimited campaign dashboards), from $12 a month on Starter and $36 a month on Advanced and Custom. Budget for both if they matter to you.

Yes, and it is free-forever, not a trial. Metricool's pricing FAQ states: 'Yes! You can use Metricool for free, forever.' As of August 23, 2026 the Free plan is $0 a month for 1 brand with up to 20 scheduled posts a month, 5 competitor profiles, 30 days of analytics and the AI assistant, and the plan card limits it to your brand's networks 'except LinkedIn and Twitter'.

So the free plan is real but narrow: LinkedIn needs Starter or higher, and X cannot be connected on Free at all because the X add-on is listed only against the paid plans. A second brand or unlimited publishing also means paying.

Paid plans add SmartLinks, a customizable link-in-bio page with click tracking, and a unified inbox for comments and DMs — though the inbox covers Instagram, Facebook and Google Business only, so treat it as an inbox, not full social listening.

An AI assistant helps draft and polish captions, with usage credits that scale by plan. Useful, but not a headline reason to choose Metricool.

You can cancel at any time, but refunds are limited to the first 15 days, and billing is the recurring complaint in user reviews. Metricool's pricing FAQ states: 'You can cancel your plan at any time. You can continue to enjoy your payment plan until the end of the current billing cycle. Once it is terminated, your account will become free.'

On refunds, the vendor's legal terms state: 'The Customer has a withdrawal period of 15 calendar days from the date of the first contracting of any Metricool Plan. This right of withdrawal does not apply to automatic renewals,' and separately that 'Refunds are not made for current billing cycles, whether monthly or yearly.' The same terms say the contract is automatically extended for the same period unless you tell Metricool before the end of the current cycle, and that a price increase is communicated at least 15 days before the renewal date. User reviews complain that ordinary renewal charges arrive with little notice and report a price increase around 2025, so set the reminder before the cycle ends, not after.

Metricool is the better buy if you manage several brands; Buffer is the better buy if you run a handful of accounts and want the simplest scheduler. The difference is the pricing unit. As of August 23, 2026, Buffer's Essentials plan is $5 per channel per month on yearly billing ($60 per channel per year), and Buffer's own FAQ example of five brands with an Instagram and a Facebook page each comes to 10 channels, or $50 a month. Metricool's Starter covers 5 brands for $20 a month on annual billing, and each brand holds one profile per network, so the same five brands cost $20.

Buffer wins on the free plan for small setups (3 channels, 10 scheduled posts per channel) and on ease of use. Metricool wins on analytics, competitor tracking and ad reporting. One cost cuts the other way: Buffer lists X as a regular channel with no surcharge on its pricing page, while Metricool charges $10 per connected X account per month on top of the plan.

The core difference is what you pay for: Buffer charges per connected channel ($5 or $10 per channel per month on yearly billing as of August 23, 2026), while Metricool charges per brand (from $20 a month for 5 brands on annual billing), and a Metricool brand bundles one profile on each network plus its ad accounts.

The second difference is scope. Metricool's plan table includes Facebook Ads, Google Ads and TikTok Ads connections on every plan including Free, competitor analysis (5 profiles on Free, 100 on paid) and PDF/PPT report downloads on the paid plans; Buffer's page is built around publishing, with advanced analytics on Essentials and approval workflows and branded reports on Team, and it lists no ad-account reporting. The third is the free plan: Buffer allows 3 channels with 10 scheduled posts each, Metricool allows 1 brand with 20 scheduled posts a month and no LinkedIn or X.

On price, yes, by a wide margin: as of August 23, 2026 Hootsuite's plans page says plans start at $99 per user per month billed annually (Standard, up to 10 social accounts, sold per seat), with a 14-day trial and no free plan, while Metricool's Starter is $20 a month on annual billing for 5 brands ($36 for 10) and there is a free-forever plan. One person managing 10 accounts pays $99 a month on Hootsuite and $20 to $36 on Metricool, depending on how those accounts group into brands.

Hootsuite is the better tool when you need what its higher tiers sell: content approval and message routing across a team (Advanced) and advanced listening plus single sign-on (Enterprise). Metricool's Advanced plan ($53 a month for 15 brands, annual) has a post approval system and role management, but it has no social listening, so a large team with governance needs should still price Hootsuite. For everyone else, our Hootsuite review scores it 6.5/10 against Metricool's 8.5.