New Athenous API plan is now available. Explore plan!

Vs Hootsuite

Hootsuite alternative for posts and ads

Hootsuite sells a social seat from $99 per user. Athenous is the workspace: Lab drafts, Post schedules, and Agency publishes the campaign. Starter is $20/mo. Paid campaigns are on Agency, $99/mo for the workspace.

Start free See pricing

Hootsuite, 3 seats

$297/mo

Standard is $99 per user, billed annually. Three people are $297, and that plan is still the social suite.

Athenous Agency

$99/mo

One workspace, up to 5 seats. The calendar is included, and this is the plan that publishes ads.

Hootsuite still leads on a full message inbox, included on Standard. Social Inbox here is a beta for Facebook and Instagram comments on posts you published in Athenous. Standard also generates images with AI. Lab drafts text, then you send it to Post.

Competitor figures are published entry prices as of November 2026, before tax. Hootsuite is per user and billed annually. Buffer Essentials is per channel and billed annually. Birch Pro is the base tier, up to $10k of monthly ad spend. Athenous plans are the prices on this site.
Athenous Hootsuite
Price Starter $20, Pro $49, Agency $99. One workspace price, with a 7-day trial on every plan. Agency covers up to 5 seats. From $99 per user/mo, billed annually. 14-day trial. No free plan. Three seats are $297/mo.
Organic posts Post: composer, calendar, schedule or publish now, creative library, smart-time suggestions. 5 channels on Starter, 10 on Pro, 15 on Agency. Unlimited publishes on paid plans. Standard covers up to 10 social accounts. Higher plans uncap accounts and still charge per user.
AI drafts Lab has 27+ tools: posts, ad copy, hashtags, growth plans, publishing time, sentiment. Send to Post. AI does not publish by itself. 20,000 credits on Starter. Standard includes generating posts and images with AI.
Paid campaigns Agency and Enterprise. Campaign, ad set, and ad on Meta, Google, LinkedIn, TikTok, and more. Unlimited ad accounts. Budget suggestions and A/B tests. Starter and Pro do not publish ads. The published plan is the social suite. Ad buying is not what that page sells.
Rules Pro and up. Schedule, event, spend, ROAS, or connector health. Notify, Slack, webhook, or pause a campaign, with confirm-before-pause. 25 rules on Pro, 50 on Agency. The seat is the social suite. Spend rules are not what the published plan sells.
Inbox Social Inbox (beta): Facebook and Instagram comments on posts you published here. Reply or archive from one queue. One inbox for messages is included on Standard.
Team Owner, Admin, Member, Viewer. A draft has to be approved before it can be scheduled. 1 seat on Starter, 3 on Pro, 5 on Agency. A workspace per brand. Each person is another user on the plan. The price follows the seat.
API REST API, CLI, and MCP from Pro. Claude, Cursor, and ChatGPT use the same key. 1,500 requests a day on Pro, 3,000 on Agency. Starter has no API. A developer platform aimed at partners, separate from the seat you buy to publish.
Integrations Google Drive, Google Sheets, and Dropbox from Starter, in Connections. Canva, Unsplash, and Pixabay are on the tools page. Partner apps sit outside the seat you buy to publish.

Vs Hootsuite

Where Athenous is stronger

The seat, the ad account, and the approval step are the reasons teams switch.

  • The seat mathThree Hootsuite Standard seats are $297/mo, billed annually, and that is still the social suite. Athenous Agency is $99/mo for the workspace, up to 5 seats, and that plan publishes ads.
  • A studio, not a caption buttonLab is 27+ tools: posts, ad copy, hashtags, growth strategy, publishing time, sentiment, budget. Send to Post. AI does not publish by itself. Starter includes 20,000 credits.
  • Ads are a plan, not a second productAgency builds campaign, ad set, and ad on Meta, Google, LinkedIn, TikTok, and more, with unlimited ad accounts. The published Hootsuite plan does not sell that.
  • Rules and an API on the accountPro adds 25 rules, Slack, webhooks, and the REST API. Agency can pause a campaign after a spend check. Hootsuite's developer platform is separate from the seat.

The switch

What each Athenous plan actually includes

The modules are on the pricing page. This is the same split.

  1. 01

    Starter, $20

    Lab and Post. Five channels, 20,000 AI credits, unlimited publishes, 120 new schedules a month, one seat.

  2. 02

    Pro, $49

    Automate, the API, approvals, and up to 3 seats. Ten channels. Still no paid publishing.

  3. 03

    Agency, $99

    Campaigns plus the calendar. Unlimited ad accounts, up to 5 seats, 100,000 AI credits.

Platform

AI, API, MCP, Automate, and the team

Hootsuite's developer platform sits beside the seat. These run on the Athenous plan that includes them, across every channel in the workspace.

  • AILab is 27+ tools: posts, ad copy, hashtags, publishing time, sentiment, and budget. Send to Post. AI does not publish by itself. 20,000 credits on Starter.
  • APIREST API and CLI from Pro. 1,500 requests a day on Pro, 3,000 on Agency. Webhooks. Keys live in Settings. Starter has no API.
  • MCPThe same Pro+ key connects Claude, Cursor, and ChatGPT at mcp.athenous.io. The assistant lists connectors, schedules a post, publishes, syncs analytics, and inspects campaigns. OAuth stays in Connections.
  • AutomateFrom Pro. Triggers on a schedule, an event, spend, or ROAS. Actions are notify, Slack, a signed webhook, or pause a campaign after confirmation. 25 rules on Pro, 50 on Agency.
  • CollaborateOwner, Admin, Member, and Viewer. A draft has to be approved before it can be scheduled. One seat on Starter, three on Pro, five on Agency. One workspace per brand.
  • Cross-channelOne composer for Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok, X, YouTube, and more. On Agency the ad account is in that same workspace, and a post can be linked to the campaign.
  • IntegrationsGoogle Drive, Google Sheets, and Dropbox connect from Starter, beside the networks. Canva exports PNG into the library. Unsplash and Pixabay turn on without OAuth. The full list is on the tools page.

Questions

Frequently asked questions

Is Athenous a Hootsuite alternative?

Yes for the calendar, and for ads on Agency. Lab drafts, Post schedules, and Campaigns publishes paid work on Agency ($99/mo) and Enterprise. Starter ($20/mo) is AI and social scheduling for one person. Every plan includes a 7-day trial.

Does the Hootsuite plan include ads?

The published Hootsuite plans are the social suite. Athenous paid publishing is Agency and Enterprise: campaign, ad set, and ad, with unlimited ad-account connections, next to the organic calendar.

Which plan replaces a Hootsuite seat?

Starter ($20) is one person and five social channels. Pro ($49) adds rules, the API, and up to three seats. Agency ($99) adds paid campaigns for up to five seats. Hootsuite Standard is $99 per user, billed annually.

Athenous

Switch the queue and the campaign together

7-day trial on every plan. Plans from $20/mo.

Start free Book a demo