Social Media News: Hootsuite Discontinues Free Plan

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Have you logged into your Hootsuite account lately?

If you have, and you're on their free plan, you might have spotted this message 👇

Hootsuite Free is going away after March 31

😦

When Hootsuite launched back in 2008 as an entirely free social scheduling service they quickly went viral, but it's not really a surprise that they've decided to knock the free plan on it's head. 

They've steadily limited the free plan to the point where you can currently only manage 2 social accounts, and schedule up to 5 posts. 

Which isn't a lot when you think about it. 

So, if you're facing losing your free plan and trying to decide whether to upgrade or go elsewhere, here are 4 FREE Hootsuite alternatives for you to consider.

1. Buffer
Buffer is probably the best known social media scheduler, next to Hootsuite, and they offer a really great free plan that should cover the needs of most small business owners and authors with up to 3 social media channels.

There's no daily, monthly or yearly limit to how often you can schedule/post with Buffer. The only restriction is that you can only hold 10 scheduled posts (per channel) at any given time, which if you post once per day, will last 10 days per channel, and there's no limit to how many instant posts you can create and push through to all of your channels.

2. Later 
Starting life as the first Instagram scheduling tool back in 2014, Later now allows you to schedule social media content to almost anywhere, including TikTok. 

Instead of being limited to 3 social media channels, as you are with the Buffer free plan, with Later's free plan, you can connect 1 social set, a set of profiles that includes 1x Instagram, 1x Facebook, 1x Twitter, 1x Pinterest, 1x TikTok and 1x LinkedIn.

However, you are limited to 10 posts per profile per month, so while this might be a better option if you have lots of profiles, it doesn't allow for a great deal of posting per month. 

3. Tweetdeck
If you only post to Twitter, and don't use any other platforms, you might want to consider Tweetdeck. 

This free tool, owned by Twitter, allows you to manage multiple Twitter accounts (great for authors who have separate socials for different pen names). Scheduling posts is straightforward and there's no limit to the number of tweets you can schedule. 

The Tweetdeck dashboard is popular with very active Twitter users as it allows you to view various feeds i.e. inboxes, mentions, hashtag searches and much more within one window, making it easier to engage with and update your followers without switching between apps. 

4. Facebook
If you're only posting to Facebook, why not try their native Meta Business scheduling tool? This free service allows you to create and schedule posts, reels and stories directly within Facebook itself. 

The handy calendar view provides a nice visual way of keeping track of your monthly content, and with no limits to how often you can post, you can pack out a month in advance, and clearly see what you have coming up. 

An added bonus of this tool is that, since Facebook and Instagram are owned by the same company, you can also schedule Instagram posts, stories and reels via the same dashboard.