Sprout Social vs. Agorapulse vs. Vista Social: Which Tool Fits Your Team in 2026?

Updated August 28, 2026

Hire one more person for your social team, and on some platforms that single decision adds hundreds of dollars to your bill before they’ve published a single post. Sprout Social charges per seat, so growing a team means growing the invoice right alongside it.

Agorapulse charges less per seat, but the same math still applies every time headcount goes up. Meanwhile, Vista Social breaks from that model entirely, pricing by profiles and a set number of included users instead of billing per person, so building out a team doesn’t automatically mean building out the cost.

In this article:

• Best all-in-one platform: Vista Social bundles publishing, the inbox, DM automations, listening, and review management, with users included in each plan instead of billed per seat like Sprout Social or Agorapulse
• Most expensive for teams: A team of four managing 15 profiles with approvals pays $1,596 a month on Sprout Social, $671 on Agorapulse, and $449 on Vista Social
• Social listening included: Vista Social bundles it into every paid plan; Sprout Social and Agorapulse both sell it as a separate add-on
• Most important buying check: Price out your actual team size and profile count, not just each platform’s cheapest listed price

Sprout Social vs Agorapulse vs Vista Social: quick verdict

Sprout Social is built for teams that want deep analytics, established CRM integrations, and a sales-led buying process. It’s also the most expensive of the three by a wide margin once you add more than one seat.

Agorapulse costs less per seat than Sprout Social and covers the core publishing, inbox, and reporting workflow well. It still bills per user, though, so the price climbs steadily as a team grows, and its most useful features sit behind higher tiers.

Vista Social is the social media management platform for enterprise brands, multi-location businesses, and agencies. Publishing, the inbox, DM automations, social listening, review management, and reporting live in one platform, with multi-step approval workflows, custom roles and permissions, and SOC 2 Type II, GDPR, and CCPA compliance. Users are included in each plan instead of billed per person.

Pricing comparison

Price is where these three platforms diverge the most, and it comes down to what each one charges for: a seat, a profile, or both. That distinction ends up mattering more than the sticker price on any homepage.

Prices were checked directly on each platform’s pricing page in November 2026. All prices shown are month-to-month rates. Sprout Social and Agorapulse charge them per user.

Sprout Social pricing in 2026

Sprout Social’s cheapest tier, Essentials, caps out at 5 social profiles and doesn’t include social listening at any price. Moving up to Standard, Professional, or Advanced multiplies your bill by however many people need a seat, since Sprout charges the full per-seat rate for every teammate, including occasional stakeholders.

Agorapulse pricing in 2026

Agorapulse discontinued its permanent free plan as of July 6, 2026, so a 30-day trial is now the only free option. All four public tiers cap at 10 social profiles, and only Custom offers unlimited profiles.

Vista Social pricing in 2026

Vista Social bundles a set number of profiles and users into each tier instead of charging per seat. Professional includes 15 profiles and 2 users for $99 a month, Advanced includes 30 profiles and 3 users for $199 a month, and Scale includes 70 profiles and 4 users for $449 a month. Enterprise is custom-priced, with unlimited profiles, 8+ users, SSO, a dedicated account manager, onboarding and training, and quarterly account reviews. Every plan starts with a 14-day free trial.

What a team of four managing 15 profiles pays

The starting price on each homepage rarely reflects what a real team pays. Take four people managing 15 social profiles with approval workflows, on monthly billing. Sprout Social needs Professional for approvals and more than five profiles. Agorapulse needs Professional for approvals, plus five extra profiles, since its public plans cap at 10.

Sprout Social costs more than three times as much as Vista Social for this team, and Agorapulse costs about 50% more. Both bills grow again every time someone joins the account, while Vista Social’s Scale plan already includes 70 profiles. Bigger teams can add users on Scale or move to Enterprise, which starts at 8+ users with unlimited profiles.

Feature comparison

Content publishing and scheduling

Sprout Social’s Standard plan caps you at 5 social profiles, and unlimited profiles don’t unlock until Professional at $399 per user a month. Its AI Assist tools help draft and enhance posts, with reply enhancement added on Advanced.

Agorapulse includes unlimited post scheduling on every tier, along with an AI writing assistant and alt text generator. It reserves features like Canva integration, publishing queues, and bulk scheduling for Advanced, its top public tier.

Vista Social includes unlimited scheduling, bulk scheduling, and a Canva integration starting on Professional. Trending audio suggestions and DM automations are also part of the base plan rather than an upgrade.

Social inbox and engagement

Sprout Social includes its Smart Inbox from Standard and adds sentiment detection on Advanced. Inbox automation and helpdesk integrations also require the Advanced tier.

Agorapulse’s inbox covers comment moderation and assigning messages from Professional up, while Advanced or Custom add saved replies, filter presets, and AI reply suggestions. Standard’s inbox is limited to the basics: moderation, search, and conversation notes.

Vista Social includes a unified social inbox with team assignments and message labeling starting on Professional. The same base plan includes DM automations, letting teams set up automatic replies to comments and messages without an upgrade.

Analytics and reporting

Sprout Social’s Standard plan covers basic reporting, but Premium Analytics is a separate add-on on top of the per-seat price. Professional adds unlimited profiles and competitor insights.

Agorapulse includes white-label reporting and basic ROI reports on every tier, and Advanced adds advanced reports, ads reporting, and competitor benchmarking. Team performance reports also require Professional or higher.

Vista Social includes real-time reporting and custom report building starting on Professional, and Scale adds white-label reporting and industry benchmark reports. Competitor and sentiment analysis reports scale up through the same tiers.

Social listening

This is where the three platforms differ the most. Sprout Social doesn’t include listening on any plan. It sells listening as a separate add-on available Standard and up, and only reveals pricing through a sales conversation.

Agorapulse handles listening the same way. Advanced Listening is a separate add-on that requires booking a demo, and it isn’t priced on the public pricing page at all.

Vista Social includes listening for your own connected profiles free on every plan. An optional $75-a-month add-on extends that to the wider social web, news, and blogs, still far below what a sales-gated add-on typically costs.

AI features

Sprout Social’s AI agent is called Trellis, and it comes included across every plan with usage credits that scale by tier. Sprout splits its AI drafting and reply tools, Enhance Post and Enhance Reply, between the Professional and Advanced plans.

Agorapulse’s AI tools cover writing assistance, alt text generation, and AI summaries on every tier, though only Custom includes AI reply suggestions. Agorapulse also includes Organization Context AI, which grounds suggestions in your own account data, on every tier.

Vista Social’s Ask Vista works as a command center you can ask directly about your own account data, like which posts underperformed last month. AI Training and Knowledge, available from Advanced, lets teams feed Vista approved brand context so its replies and captions sound less generic.

Supported networks

Customer support

Sprout Social offers email support across its plans and a help center for self-service. Its Enterprise tier adds white-glove onboarding and priority support.

Agorapulse includes email support on Standard, with live chat added on Professional and Advanced. Only the Custom tier gets video call support and a dedicated Customer Success Manager.

Vista Social includes email support on Professional, adds video call support starting on Advanced, and includes priority support, a dedicated account manager, onboarding and training, and quarterly account reviews on Enterprise. Vista Social’s support channels don’t currently include live chat, which puts it a step behind Agorapulse’s Professional and Advanced tiers on that specific point.

Where Sprout Social falls short

Sprout Social offers deep analytics and established CRM integrations on per-seat pricing. It gets harder to justify as a team grows, since social listening and every added seat both raise an already high entry price.

Where teams hit limits: per-seat costs, plus a separate add-on for listening.

Where Agorapulse falls short

Agorapulse covers core scheduling, inbox, and reporting at a lower per-seat price than Sprout Social, but its public tiers cap out at 10 profiles. If you’re also weighing Hootsuite or SocialPilot, our SocialPilot vs Hootsuite vs Vista Social comparison covers two more per-seat competitors.

Where teams hit limits: the 10-profile cap on public tiers, and a bill that grows with every user.

Who should choose Vista Social?

Vista Social fits enterprise brands, multi-location businesses, and agencies that need DM automations, social listening, review management, and multi-step approval workflows in one platform, with custom roles and permissions and, on Enterprise, SSO and a dedicated account manager. It goes further than Sprout Social on listening, reviews, and AI trained on your brand, with extras like Vista Work for managing projects alongside the content itself and an employee advocacy add-on priced transparently on the site, unlike Sprout Social and Agorapulse, which both gate their advocacy add-ons behind a sales call.

Best for: Enterprise brands, multi-location businesses, and agencies that want publishing, engagement, listening, reviews, and reporting in one platform, with fair, predictable pricing that doesn’t scale per seat.

Sprout Social vs Agorapulse vs Vista Social: making the call

Sprout Social offers deep analytics and CRM integrations if you’re comfortable with per-seat pricing as you grow. Agorapulse costs less per seat and covers the core workflow well, but the bill still grows with every teammate added. Vista Social bundles social listening, review management, and DM automations into its plans instead of selling them as separate add-ons, and backs larger teams with approvals, permissions, SSO, and a dedicated account manager on Enterprise.

Choose Vista Social if you run social for a brand, a multi-location business, or an agency and want publishing, engagement, listening, reviews, and reporting in one platform, with the approvals, permissions, and security larger teams expect. Try Vista Social free for 14 days, no credit card required, and price it against your actual team size before committing.

Frequently asked questions

How much does Sprout Social cost for a team of four?

A team of four on Sprout Social’s Standard plan costs $996 a month at the $249-per-user monthly rate, and Standard caps at five profiles. Managing 15 profiles means Professional, at $1,596 a month. Vista Social’s Scale plan covers the same team and 70 profiles for $449 a month.

Does Agorapulse have a free plan?

No. Agorapulse discontinued its permanent free plan as of July 6, 2026. It still offers a 30-day free trial with no credit card required.

Is social listening included in Sprout Social or Agorapulse?

No. Both platforms sell social listening as a separate add-on rather than including it in any base plan. Vista Social includes listening for your own profiles free on every plan, with a paid add-on for wider web and news listening.

How does each tool’s cost change as a team grows?

Sprout Social and Agorapulse charge per seat, so every new teammate adds to the bill. Vista Social includes 2 to 4 users in each published plan, and Scale and Enterprise can add more, so cost follows the plan rather than headcount. Teams of 8 or more usually fit Enterprise, which is custom-priced and includes SSO and a dedicated account manager.

Does Vista Social have live chat support?

Not currently. Vista Social offers email support on its Professional plan and adds video call support from Advanced up. Agorapulse includes live chat starting on its Professional plan.