Top 15 Best Tools for Social Media Managers

Being a social media manager in today’s world is no easy feat. You're the wearer of many hats, the mastermind behind the brand’s strategy, the driving force behind its growth, and the glue that holds everything together. 

But let’s be honest – flying solo isn’t always an option – and it's a quick path to burnout. Sometimes, you need a little backup to make sure things run smoothly. More often than not, that backup comes in the form of smart tools that help you automate the boring stuff, juggle and make sense of tons of data, create amazing content, and do proper research whenever you need it. 

So, to save you some time, we’ve done some solid digging, explored the best social media tools out there – including a few favorites we use here at Flixier – to bring you a complete list of 15 must-have tools for social media managers.
 

Let’s get started!

Social media scheduling tools

When you run multiple social media accounts, posting manually to each one of them every single day can be quite challenging, to say the least. Before you lose all hope, let us let in on a little secret: there are many tools out there that can help you schedule posts in advance and let them go live at the perfect time.
 

This is particularly important when you’re targeting a global audience, and you have followers tuning in outside of your working hours. You don’t want to miss out on the visibility, engagement and potential leads, but you also don’t want to stay up working late or setting 3AM alarms to publish your posts. 
 

1.Hootsuite (our favorite)

When it comes to the best AI tools for social media managers, Hootsuite is a real game-changer. It lets you plan, schedule, and track posts across multiple platforms, all from one single dashboard. This tool also provides real-time analytics, helps you create unique content using its built-in OwlyWriter AI, offers detailed reporting, and tools to monitor customer conversations – all of which makes it easier to juggle all aspects of social media without getting lost in endless spreadsheets.
 

Pros:

• Multi-channel scheduling
• OwlyWriter AI (AI powered social media writing tool)
• Detailed analytics & reporting 
• Social listening 
• Inbox monitoring 

Cons: 

• Pricey for small businesses
• Limited features available on the free plan
• Occasional scheduling errors 

Pricing: Starting at $99/month; free 30-day trial available 
 

What social media managers love most about it: 

“Hootsuite's core functionality as a scheduler is its best feature. While it has added several additional capabilities over the years, I appreciate the fact that it has maintained the planning and scheduling feature at the highest level. Many SaaS companies tend to lose their focus and let the element that originally brought people to the product go to the wayside after a few years, and Hootsuite has not. I also like that days are labeled for what national days or relevant events (ex. Valentine's Day, the Superbowl, etc) are occurring, which helps me ensure that I don't miss an important posting theme.” - Faith
 

What WE love most about it: 

Keeping track of social media content across multiple networks can be challenging and takes up a lot of time, so we love using Hootsuite to keep everything organized and take the stress out of scheduling. It’s really easy to write, preview and schedule any post – all one place. As we continue to grow on social media, we’ll surely explore more of Hootsuite’s awesome social media management capabilities. 
 

Source: Screenshot of HootSuite dashboard by Andreea Udescu

2.Buffer

Just like Hootsuite, Buffer simplifies post scheduling for social media managers, enabling them to launch campaigns simultaneously across multiple platforms. With features like post previews, custom URL shortener, analytics, and team collaboration, this tool is a great-choice for anyone trying to save time without compromising on the quality of the social media content.
 

Pros:

• Easy scheduling with post previews 
• Ideas app for storing content ideas 
• AI assistant for fine-tuning content

Cons: 

• No built-in social inbox
• No TikTok or Threads scheduling

Pricing: Starting at $6/month per channel, free plan also available (for only 3 channels)

What social media managers love most about it: 

“I find Buffer to be an incredibly powerful and easy-to-use tool for managing my social media presence. It's seamless integration of various features, including texting images before sharing them on any network or scheduling posts across multiple channels, makes it a breeze to use. I can send content that has been vetted before it is published because the interface is not only fast and intuitive, but also offers excellent review systems.” – Kamica
 

3.SocialPilot 

SocialPilot is designed for social media managers looking to plan content easily and stay consistent. With its Bulk Scheduling feature, you can schedule hundreds of posts (up to 500) across all major platforms. The built-in collaboration tools ensure your team stays in sync at all times, while the customized post creation feature lets you tailor content to each platform.
 

Pros: 

• Bulk scheduling
• Great for agencies
• Simple content approval process
• AI Pilot for easy content creation 

Cons:

• Advanced features are less intuitive to navigate
• No analytics for non-scheduled content

Pricing: Starting at $42.50/month, 30-day free trial available 
 

What social media managers love most about it: 

“Social Pilot allows me to utilize automation to ensure consistent content posting. On top of this the dashboard provides a nice single pane of glass to see what I will be posting this month with the capability to edit and schedule more posts. Basically 4 hours of work allows me to keep constant communication for an entire month which has proven invaluable for us as a business who does not employ internal marketing. The setup to my social media platforms was easy and the integration has not had a single issue.” – Shayne

Social media analytics tools

As a social media manager, your job doesn’t end when you hit "publish". On the contrary – that’s when the real fun starts! After sharing your content, it’s all about tracking how it performs, figuring out what’s working (and what isn’t), and using those insights to create even better posts going forward.
 

With so many platforms and so much data to keep up with, it’s just easier to rely on smart tools instead of trying to manage everything in spreadsheets. You’ll want something that shows all your key stats together in one place, gives you quick reports, and helps you keep an eye on what your competitors are doing.
 

1.Socialinsider (our favorite)

Socialinsider is a powerful analytics tool that lets you keep an eye on your metrics across different platforms, offers customizable dashboards and auto-reports, and helps you compare your performance with your competitors. With its AI-powered content pillars analysis feature, you can easily break down social media content into themes or categories, and see what’s working best. 
 

Pros: 

• Customizable dashboards 
• Auto-reports
• AI content pillars

Cons: 

• Slight data delays
• Pricey for small businesses

Pricing: Starting at $99/month, 14-day free trial also available 
 

What social media managers love most about it: 

“When we started to offer Social Media Management services for our clients it became clear that we needed software for in depth reporting for profiles and also cross channel. Socialinsider was recommended by a friend and the tool is really great! Also, some clients asked for benchmarking with the competition and this also came in very handy. The cool part is that we also used the benchmarking feature for our pitches. “ - Andrei
 

What WE love most about it: 

At Flixier, we’re all about growth, so naturally we like keeping an eye on our progress, especially on social media! With Socialinsider, we’re able to get a clear, detailed picture of what’s working for us on each individual channel and across all platforms, see what types of content resonate the most with our audience and what are the best times to post. Most importantly, it lets us track our competitors’ activity as well through the Benchmarking feature, which is very helpful for knowing where we stand in the video editing industry. 

Source: Screenshot of Socialinsider dashboard by Andreea Udescu

 

2.Rival IQ

RivalIQ is also a great choice for anyone who wants to stay on top of their social media performance. With competitive benchmarking, custom reports and alerts, this tool empowers social media managers to keep up with the fast pace of social media, and get valuable insights that improve their strategy. 

Pros:

• User-friendly interface
• Automated insights

Cons: 

• Limited social listening

Pricing: Starting at $239/month, 14-day free trial available

What social media managers love most about it: 

“I appreciate that RivalIQ offers me stats and tables for metrics that I may not have previously considered as instrumental pieces of data. However, there have been a handful of times where I've looked at some of these different graphs, and have been able to see trends that I wouldn't have noticed if I was just looking at the big stats like Engagement Rate per follower. It lets me see things I wouldn't have put together independently. “ – Grace 

3.SproutSocial

Sprout Social is the perfect mix of simplicity and powerful features. Through its user-friendly interface, you can dive deep into analytics to understand your performance, while its social listening tools help you stay on top of your audience and trends. The added bonus of response automation makes it easy to engage with your followers without doing everything manually.

Pros:

• Scalability 
• Built-in influencer marketing tools

Cons: 

• Occasional glitches when posting 
• Pricey for small business
   

Pricing: Starting at $199/month, 30-day free trial available 
 

What social media managers love most about it: 

“As a one-person team managing all the email, social media, and communications for my nonprofit, efficiency and simplicity are essential—and Sprout delivers on both fronts. The platform was incredibly easy to implement, requiring minimal setup time, which allowed me to integrate it seamlessly into my daily workflow. It’s now a tool I use every single day, with its publishing and reporting features saving me hours of work each week.” – Shelby 

Social media design tools

You might have noticed that social media is becoming increasingly more visual. Whether it’s static images, infographics or memes, people are attracted to visuals to entertain, educate or inform them. The demand for visual content creates a need for design tools – ideally ones that are easy to use, packed with ready-made templates to get you started, and even come with AI-powered features to make designing a breeze, even if you have zero experience.

1.Canva (our favorite)

Canva is a real powerhouse of design tools that can help you create everything from presentations to infographics, videos, documents and social media graphics in just a few minutes. With its countless drag-and-drop tools and a massive library of templates, as well as features like background remover and AI-powered tools, it makes it easy for anyone to create eye-catching visuals for social media. 

Pros:

• Ease of use
• Huge template library
• AI-powered tools like Magic Write
• Free plan available 

Cons: 

• Basic photo editing
• Web-based so internet-dependant
• Advanced tools require subscription

Pricing: Starting at $15/month/person, free plan also available

What social media managers love most about it: 

“I'm not a graphic designer but the work I do as a social media analyst is creating content pieces for the social media accounts of the company I work for. Canva makes my work easier thanks to templates, especially when I'm not inspired, I just have to navigate the templates section and find something special that will help me start. Creating reels on Canva is also one of the things I like the most because you can use all the video resources available to create beautiful things.” - Rigel 
 

What WE love most about it: 

We love how easy Canva makes it to create engaging social media content. With their templates, we can quickly put together everything from carousels and video thumbnails to infographics. Their brand kit feature also helps us maintain consistent visual branding across all our posts.

Source: Screenshot of Canva dashboard by Andreea Udescu

2.Adobe Express

Adobe Express (formerly Adobe Spark) is a cloud-based design tool that serves as a great alternative to Canva. It too offers a large collection of ready-made templates, which can help social media managers create professional-looking content in a very short time. It also integrates seamlessly with the rest of the Adobe ecosystem and can be easily used on any device. 
 

Pros:

• Pre-made templates
• One-click resizing
• Mobile app for editing on the go

Cons: 

• Some templates & assets are locked behind a paywall
• Spotty scheduling feature
   

Pricing: Starting at $4.20/month/person,, Free plan also available
 

What social media managers love most about it: 

The best part of Photoshop Express is that it is available on all platforms like Android, iOS, windows and even on web versions which gives me and my team flexibility to work from anywhere with whatever device they have without any kind of disturbance also they provide an option to directly share their edited photos on social media through the app only which make the experience more flawless. – Shivam 

3.Ease.ly

For presenting data and ideas in the most visually appealing way, many social media managers rely on Ease.ly. This tool is one of those no-code tools that simplifies infographic design and comes packed with tons of premade templates –  making it the go-to choice for brands that rely on statistics, reports, or educational content.

Pros:

• Ease of use
• Massive library of images and vector illustrations
• Perfect for reports, infographics and other data-based visuals

Cons: 

• Not great for generic social media graphics (Stories, ads, etc)

Pricing: Starting at $5/month
 

What social media managers love most about it: 

“Designer did a fantastic job creating an infographic with the content provided. Captured the essence of the message with clever graphics and layout. The quick turnaround of the draft design was amazing. I am a repeat customer and highly recommend it.” – Melissa

Social media influencer marketing tools

Influencer marketing is all the rage these days, but finding a genuine match for your specific brand identity can be a real hit or miss. Manually searching for influencers across different social media channels can feel like a more hands-on approach, but it takes forever. That’s why it’s best to use smart tools that take the guesswork out of discovery and help you build genuine, long-term collaborations with the right creators.

1.Influencer Marketing AI (our favorite)

When it comes to the best AI tools for social media managers, Influencer Marketing AI takes the cake. This influencer discovery tool automates the process of searching for influencers, empowering social media managers to scale up their influencer marketing strategy. Whether you're casting a wide net or searching for that perfect niche influencer, this tool helps you find the right connections with ease.

Pros:

• Automated influencer discovery & vetting
• Campaign tracking
• In-depth audience analytics

Cons: 

• Suited mostly for influencer campaigns, not general social media content
• Pricey for small businesses 
   

Pricing: Starting at $99 for individuals, 30-day free trial available 
 

What social media managers love most about it: 

“IMAI allows me to efficiently source influencers for new campaigns when needed, as well as search through profiles to identify market trends. IMAI is a tool that I trialed for a while, and as soon as the trial was up, I knew I could no longer operate without it. This tool has saved me so much time and made my job so much easier, and I have it to thank for my success in many recent influencer marketing campaigns.” – Sean 

What WE love most about it: 

We’re always looking to connect with great creators to help grow our presence on social media. For us,  InfluencerMarketing AI is a great discovery tool that makes the process easier and faster by allowing us to do highly tailored searches using multiple filters.

Source: Screenshot of Influencer Marketing AI dashboard by Andreea Udescu

2.Traackr

Traackr is more than a discovery tool –  it helps social media managers build lasting, meaningful partnerships with creators. This tool offers performance tracking and budget management tools, to ensure that you’re keeping campaigns data-driven and efficient.
 

Pros:

• Detailed performance insights and ROI
• Great customer support

Cons: 

• Expensive for small businesses
   

Pricing:  Starting at $25,000/yr (around $2k/month)
 

What social media managers love most about it: 

“My experience with Traackr has been incredibly positive. It's a data powerhouse that's constantly being optimized, providing me/my team with new insights tailored to our needs. The platform is surprisingly easy to use, especially with the Traackr team's readily available and supportive training.” – Emmanuelle 

3.Upfluence

Upfluence allows social media managers to tap into a vast network of creators and find the right match for their campaigns. With automated follow-ups and helpful customer support calls, this tool can get you up to speed and ready to roll in no time.

Pros:

• Extensive influencer database
• Powerful search filters
• Automated follow-ups

Cons: 

• Pricey for small businesses 

Pricing: Pricing details available by booking a demo
 

What social media managers love most about it: 

“Was able to find 150 influencers to reach out to within a few hours and then make a campaign to bulk outreach. I liked the automated follow up emails if an influencer didn't answer. They have live customer support calls every week that I joined last week where they answer any questions I had and we were able to get my Shopify and Outlook email integrated easily.” – Rachael 

Social media video tools

There’s no denying that video reigns supreme on social media. Instagram Reels, TikToks and other types of short-video content are best for grabbing attention and driving engagement – and they’re easy to create and share if you have the proper tool. The best choice is a tool that’s highly intuitive, packed with fun customization options, and equipped with AI-powered features to speed up repetitive or time-consuming tasks, like adding subtitles.
 

1.Flixier (our favorite, obviously) 

Flixier is a cloud-powered online video editor packed with AI features that make editing fun, easy, and scalable. It’s a game-changer for social media managers who want to create quick videos for Reels and TikTok manually or with AI (using the brand new AI video generator), generate auto-captions in one click, or turn scripts into AI voiceovers with zero effort. In an online world where video rules, Flixier is the ideal all-in-one tool solution for creating impactful video content. 

Pros:

• Intuitive interface
• Works in-browser so no downloads needed
• Massive template library
• AI-powered tools that save you hours of editing
• Social media safe zones for mindful framing
• Direct publishing

Cons: 

• Requires an internet connection to work
   

Pricing: Starting at $14/month, free plan also available 
 

What social media managers love most about it: 

“What I like best about Flixier is its speed and ease of use. The platform's cloud-based processing ensures that my videos render quickly, even on my basic laptop, which is a huge time-saver. Additionally, the intuitive interface and drag-and-drop functionality make video editing straightforward and enjoyable, even for someone with limited experience. The ability to collaborate in real-time with others is another standout feature that I really appreciate.”– Mahadbaig 
 

What WE love most about it: 

What we’re most excited about is our new AI video editing features that make video creation less time and energy consuming. In a social media world that moves at the speed of light, Flixier empowers social media managers to keep up the pace and create amazing content for any platform. From auto-generated captions and voiceovers to video translation in over 130 languages, and countless other creative editing tools, we’re constantly working to make Flixier a go-to tool for easy content creation and social media growth.

Source: Screenshot of Flixier dashboard by Andreea Udescu

2.Filmorra

Filmora is a great video editor that helps social media managers create and polish videos with ease. With cool AI features like Auto Reframe for effortless framing, automatic sound cleanup, and a huge library of ready-to-use templates, it’s a solid choice for anyone who wants to avoid spending too much time on complicated editing.
 

Pros:

• Drag and drop interface
• AI features for fast edits 
• Easy export

Cons: 

• Not enough options for advance video editing

Pricing: Starting at $49.99/year, 7-day free plan also available 
 

What social media managers love most about it: 

“Filmora is like having a personal editing Swiss Army Knife in my toolbox. For quick social media edits, it's a breeze to use. The interface is intuitive, and features like drag-and-drop editing make piecing together clips a snap. But Filmora doesn't stop there. When I'm feeling creative, I can tap into its hidden depths. Green screen editing and keyframe animation open up a world of possibilities, allowing me to craft truly eye-catching and professional-looking videos. It's the perfect balance of user-friendliness and power for anyone who wants to take their video editing skills to the next level.” – Rogelyn
 

3.Descript

Descript is an all-in-one video editor that can help social media managers with content creation, transcription and even podcast production, making it easy to repurpose content across multiple platforms. Its standout feature is the ability to edit videos just like you would edit a document. 

Pros:

• Unique text-based editing
• Overdub feature for voice editing

Cons: 

• AI voiceovers may sound slightly robotic

Pricing: Starting at $49.99/year, 7-day free plan also available 
 

What social media managers love most about it: 

“I love using Descript for editing my podcast videos and making social media clips. The best parts - and the easiest features to use right from the beginning - is using the underlord ai features to edit the video like a word document, and using it to remove the filler words (um, like, yeah).” – Alicia 

Ready to take your social media game to the next level? 

Social media can definitely feel like a lot to juggle, but at the end of the day, it's all about creating content that sticks and connecting with your audience in a meaningful way. These 15 tools can help take some of the pressure off, level up your strategy, and make navigating the twists and turns of social media a bit more fun and manageable. Depending on your budget, you can stick with free tools or upgrade to a paid plan to enjoy more premium features.