Free Sprout Social Alternative: What Each Plan Gets You, and What You Give Up
Hermoso is a free Sprout Social alternative for publishing, replies and DM automation. Sprout's plans as of October 2026, what you lose moving off each, how to move, and when to stay.
Hermoso is a free Sprout Social alternative if what you use Sprout for is publishing, replying to comments and DMs, and managing reviews. Scheduling to eleven channels, Instagram and Facebook DM automation, and Google Business Profile review replies are free on every plan. Sprout charges per seat, from $79 a seat a month with annual billing, after a 30-day trial. Where Sprout is clearly ahead is listening and team workflows, covered below.
We make Hermoso, so read this with that in mind. Every competitor number below comes from that company's own pricing page, read on October 31, 2026, and prices change, so check the page before you buy.
What each Sprout Social plan gets you
From sproutsocial.com/pricing, read October 31, 2026. Prices are per seat per month. Each tier builds on the one before.
| Plan | Price | Profiles | What it adds |
|---|---|---|---|
| Essentials | $79 with annual billing, $99 billed monthly | 5 | Publishing with optimal send times, profile and post-level reporting |
| Standard | $199 | 5 | Consolidated inbox and collaboration, keyword and location monitoring, review management, the Trellis AI agent |
| Professional | $299 | Unlimited | Message tagging, competitor, tag and paid insights, AI post enhancement |
| Advanced | $399 | Unlimited | AI reply enhancement, sentiment in the inbox and reviews, the Sprout API and helpdesk integrations, team productivity and customer care reports, message spike alerts |
| Enterprise | Custom | Not listed | Onboarding, SSO setup, priority support |
Add-ons are priced separately: Trellis Plus is $28 per seat a month on annual billing ($35 monthly) for 1,000 credits per seat. Premium Analytics and Listening, Employee Advocacy and Professional Services are add-ons for Standard and up, with no price listed. Because everything is per seat, three people on Essentials at the annual rate is $237 a month, and three on Standard is $597.
What Hermoso covers instead
- Publishing to eleven channels from one calendar, with a posting queue. Details.
- Replies to comments and DMs from the app or your AI assistant, plus keyword rules that DM people who comment. See the free ManyChat alternative.
- Reviews: read and reply to Google Business Profile reviews.
- An API and MCP server and an Intercom connector, where Sprout's Advanced plan sells its API and helpdesk integrations.
- Competitor research across the Meta, Google, LinkedIn and TikTok ad libraries and organic posts, in ad and social search (a free Hermoso account, with a small amount of credits per search).
- Creative: an AI agent that makes the images and videos.
What you give up by leaving
- Listening. Sprout's Standard plan adds keyword and location monitoring and its add-ons go deeper. Hermoso reads mentions on the channels you connect but is not a listening dashboard.
- Sentiment and spike alerts. Sprout's Advanced plan has both. Hermoso has neither.
- Team workflow and care reports. Hermoso has admin and member roles but no care-queue metrics.
- Review management beyond Google. Hermoso covers Google Business Profile reviews, so check the review sites you actually use.
- Recurring posts, RSS auto-posting, first-comment and URL shortening are not in Hermoso.
How to move
- List what you open Sprout for in a normal week: scheduling, inbox, reports. Anything outside this guide's "covers instead" list is your answer on whether to switch.
- Sign up free, connect your channels, and set your posting slots.
- Recreate your reports by asking the chat or your AI assistant for last month's results from the platforms' own insights.
- Keep Sprout for a billing cycle if you need its listening, then drop to fewer seats.
Stay on Sprout Social if
- Brand listening, sentiment or review monitoring across many sites is core to your work.
- You run a customer care team that needs inbox metrics.
- You depend on its API or helpdesk integrations on the Advanced plan.
If you mainly publish and reply, the free option covers it. See also best free social media schedulers. X is the one channel that uses credits in Hermoso, because X charges per API request.
Start free at app.hermoso.ai, no card.
Questions people ask
Is there a free alternative to Sprout Social?
Yes. Hermoso schedules to eleven channels, handles comment and DM replies and automates Instagram and Facebook DMs free on every plan. It does not replace Sprout's listening or sentiment tools.
How much does Sprout Social cost?
As of October 31, 2026: Essentials $79 per seat a month with annual billing ($99 monthly), Standard $199, Professional $299, Advanced $399, Enterprise custom, with a 30-day free trial.
Does Sprout Social have a free plan?
Its pricing page offers a 30-day free trial and lists no free plan.
What does Sprout Social Essentials include?
Per its page, up to 5 social profiles, publishing with optimal send times, and profile and post-level reporting. The inbox and listening start on Standard.
What is Trellis Plus?
A Sprout add-on listed at $28 per seat a month on annual billing, or $35 billed monthly, for 1,000 credits per seat each month.
Can Hermoso reply to reviews?
Yes, for Google Business Profile reviews, from the app or your AI assistant.