SproutSocial vs SocialBee: Facebook Scheduling Tools

You can use SocialSprout or SocialBee to schedule posts on Facebook, Instagram, X, LinkedIn and more. SocialSprout has more features and is pricier than SocialBee. However, SocialBee’s handy features and affordability make it accessible to more users.

Read on for a detailed break down of SproutSocial vs SocialBee. In this review, I break down their features, pricing models, pros, and cons to help you make an informed choice.

SproutSocial vs SocialBee

SproutSocial is ideal for larger enterprises, offering advanced features and analytics starting at 249 USD/month. SocialBee, priced from 29USD /month, suits freelancers and small businesses with essential scheduling and management features. Both platforms provide free trials, allowing you to test functionalities before committing.

SproutSocial vs SocialBee pricing

SproutSocial and SocialBee have a subscription-based pricing model, and each pricing plan has a free trial. SocialSprout’s trial period is 30 days, while SocialBee’s is only 14 days.

Here’s a breakdown of each tool’s packages:

SproutSocial pricing

SproutSocial has four pricing plans:

• Standard – from 249 USD per month
• Professional – from 399 USD per month
• Advanced – from 499 USD per month
• Enterprise – depends on the business (you’ll need to contact SproutSocial for details)

SocialBee pricing

SocialBee Pricing Screenshot

Social Bee has three pricing plans:

• Bootstrap –  29 USD per month
• Accelerate –  49 USD per month
• Pro – 99 USD per month

Who is SproutSocial best for?

SproutSocial is best for medium to large enterprises looking to boost brand awareness and expand their customer base via social media channels.

SproutSocial’s intuitive features make it easy for you to meet your customers’ needs and interact with them on your socials. For instance, Smart Inbox, a message management tool, allows you to monitor incoming messages from all social networks, prioritize important ones, and respond quickly to customers’ queries.

Profile Performance Report helps you measure a brand’s social progress. It shows metrics like audience growth, impressions, engagement, and post-link clicks. So you’ll know how well you’re reaching customers and earning their trust and loyalty.

SproutSocial’s Paid Performance Report allows you to analyze the success of your Ad (paid) campaigns across various networks. Therefore, you’ll know your top campaigns and what revenue they’re bringing back into the business (Ad campaign ROI).

You’ll also enjoy advanced features such as Employee advocacy and Social Listening if you’re a premium user. Employee Advocacy allows employees to spread the word about the brand they’re working for, boosting brand awareness. Social Listening tools help you know what customers say about the brand, its competitors, and the industry.

Who is SocialBee best for?

SocialBee is best for freelancers, agencies, and small businesses seeking a budget-friendly way to manage their social media platforms.

SocialBee’s content planning and scheduling features help you curate your content posting strategy. For instance, the Social media calendar allows you to plan when to publish time-sensitive posts. Also, schedule analytics provide insights into what scheduling strategies are working and how you can customize future ones to reap better results.

The Evergreen Content Recycling feature lets you create a library of evergreen content. Then, the tool automatically reposts the valuable content to increase its lifespan. You can also discard time-sensitive content automatically with the Expire Content feature.

SproutSocial vs SocialBee Pros and Cons

SproutSocial pros and cons

Below are the advantages and disadvantages of using SproutSocial for social media management.

SproutSocial pros

• A well-organized user interface (UI)
• Schedule posts up to 180 days in advance
• Collaborative publishing calendar
• Automated content scheduling and publishing
• Integrations with multiple third-party tools and platforms, including Canva, Pinterest, YouTube, WooCommerce, Google Analytics, etc.
• In-depth performance analytics

• Send-time optimization technology
• Multiple account monitoring and management
• Simple onboarding process for new users
• Fewer distractions by action boxes
• Handy resources for more information on social media management
• No credit card is required to sign up
• 30-day free trial

SproutSocial cons

• Expensive pricing plans
• No free plan
• Additional costs for advanced features
• No automatic posting on Instagram
• Limited customer support
• Unexplained account disconnection

SocialBee pros and cons

Here are the advantages and disadvantages of using SocialBee for social media management:

SocialBee pros

• Cheaper plans than SproutSocial
• Supports Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, X (Twitter), Pinterest, and Google Business Profile at a go
• Integrations with third-party platforms, including Canva, Zapier, Unsplash, GIPHY, and URL shorteners
• Easy recycling of evergreen content and expiring of time-sensitive posts

• Content diversification through categories and queues
• Several customer support options
• Several training resources/options
• Hashtag organizer available
• Marketing services available
• No credit card is required to sign up

SocialBee cons

• Fewer features than SproutSocial
• The user interface may not be the easiest for new users
• Doesn’t have an in-built Pinterest integration
• Many distractions by action boxes
• The mobile version needs improving
• Slow loading speed
• No free plan (only a 14-day free trial)

The Bottomline: SproutSocial vs SocialBee

SproutSocial and SocialBee are great social media management tools, depending on your needs and budget. If you’re looking for a robust tool with intuitive premium tools to up your social media presence and boost your ROI, SproutSocial is your go-to tool. But if you want to manage your socials in a simplistic and functional way without hurting your pocket, go for SocialBee.

Sign up for a free SocialBee trial account here.

Now, let’s dive into the nitty-gritty of SproutSocial and SocialBee social media scheduling tools and how to use them to schedule Facebook posts.

What is SocialBee?

SocialBee is a social media management tool that supports Facebook, Instagram, Twitter (X, YouTube, LinkedIn, TikTok, Pinterest, and Google Business Profile. It allows you to create and schedule posts on these platforms, engage with your followers, and make data-informed decisions from analytics.

This social media management tool is pocket-friendly, simplistic, and functional, making it a favorite among freelancers and small-to-medium digital marketing businesses.

SocialBee features

SocialBee offers several publishing features to help you schedule content on your favorite social media platform. These features include:

• Social media calendar – a visual, category-based calendar that lets you plan and manage different content types on your social networks.

• Copilot – an AI-based feature that helps you schedule your posts. It gives you recommendations on the best posting time, platform suggestions, and a content plan.
• Bulk schedule and pause content categories – help you schedule group posts (categories) for several social networks simultaneously. You can also pause content categories for later posting.
• Drafts – allow you to draft content in advance to post it later.
• Recycle evergreen posts – allows you to re-queue your evergreen content and post it later to maintain a consistent schedule.
• Expire content – lets you discard time-sensitive content automatically.
• Bulk editor – allows you to edit multiple posts at a go.
• Schedule statistics – provides data on the number of times a category has been scheduled.

Additional features

• AI content creation, image editing, post location, and hashtag generation
• Team management tools – workspaces, content approval, and feedback notes
• Manage comments, DMs and mentions
• Analytics -UTM parameters, engagement tracking, audience tracking, profile performance, PDF report export
• Integrates with Zapier, Canva, GIFs, and stock photography

Learn more about SocialBee features.

Is SocialBee worth the money?

SocialBee is worth every penny you pay. The app offers most features you’ll find in a premium social media marketing tool like SproutSocial, but at a lower price. So, you can upscale your social media marketing strategy using SocialBee for a long time.

Create your free SocialBee account now

How to use SocialBee to schedule Facebook posts

You can maintain a consistent content strategy on your Facebook page to boost engagement and conversion rates by using SocialBee to schedule your posts.

Here’s how to schedule Facebook posts with SocialBee:

Step 1: Connect your Facebook page to SocialBee

• Log in to your SocialBee account. If you’re a new user, sign up for the 14-day free trial on SocialBee.

• Add Facebook to your ‘Social accounts’ button.

• Select the Facebook page from the options.

• Grant SocialBee access to your Facebook page. You can also edit the access first.

• Select your preferred Facebook profile to connect. Click on the ‘Connect account’ button.

Step 2: Schedule posts

• Click on the ‘Continue’ button after adding your Facebook page.

• Select ‘Tune your workspace to start the onboarding process. 

• Start/skip your onboarding process. Once complete, go to your dashboard.

• Click on the ‘Dashboard’ icon. Select the ‘Create Post’ button to create and schedule a new post under the ‘Connected social accounts’ window.

• Customize your post. Select the type of content that you want to post and customize it for Facebook. Then, select the post type and preferred posting time. You can also choose to re-queue or expire it at a specific time. Also, check how the published post will appear on your Facebook page.

• Save post. If you like the post preview, click on the ‘Save post’ button to complete the scheduling process.

What is SproutSocial?

SproutSocial is a social media management tool that helps users manage and monitor their social networks in one place. You can use it to schedule posts on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter (X), LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube, and Google Business Profile.

SproutSocial automates social media content creation and publishing. Using AI chatbots, you can automatically respond to user comments across multiple channels to boost engagement. Also. SproutSocial’s AI-generated analytics help you understand your content’s performance to polish your social media marketing strategy.

SproutSocial features

SproutSocial has about 86 features that will help your brand enhance its social presence, reach more customers, and boost its ROI. The software is well-known for its robust planning and scheduling tools, that will enable you to upscale your content creation strategies.

Below are publishing features that make Facebook scheduling a walk in the park:

• Social Media Calendar – is a shared content calendar that allows you (and your team) to plan your content strategy ahead of time. Its collaborative features, such as Find Content and Notes, help teams to curate content that speaks to their target audience at the right time. This intuitive calendar also lets you track important tasks, events, and social campaigns.
• Sprout Queue – is an automated scheduling ‘engine’ that helps you add drafted posts to your calendar, awaiting publishing. Hence, it ensures you publish posts when your target audience is most engaged.
• Optimal Send Times – recommends the best time to post your content. This feature evaluates your audience’s data in 6 weeks to determine when they’re most active on Facebook (and other social networks).
• Viral Post – integrates with SproutQueue to automate content scheduling. So it relieves you of the pressure of figuring out the best time to post your content. It’s also configurable and easy to set up, giving you total control.
• Drafts – help you draft and save your posts to publish later. It is also a collaborative feature, allowing team members to craft content for future publishing. Plus, you can have scheduled or unscheduled drafts in your workspace.
• Message Approval Workflows – provide message approval options for users managing a team. Hence, you have all posts that require approvals or more input from your team in one place.

Additional features

• Influencer marketing tools
• Analytics (paid ads, hashtags, posts, and profile performance)
• Bot builder for automated replies on Facebook and other platforms (to respond to customer queries 24/7)
• Team management tools (task assignment, team reports)
• Content suggestions and campaign planner
• Social listening tools – customer and trend identification, campaign analysis, and competitor comparison
• Network integrations with Zapier, Hubspot, Canva, Woo, Unsplash, GIPHY, and URL shorteners

Discover more SproutSocial features here.

Is SproutSocial worth the money?

SproutSocial is worth the money if you have a large enterprise with a massive ROI from social media management.

SproutSocial is quite pricey for freelancers, small-sized businesses, and agencies. Plus, getting advanced features for the standard plan requires additional costs, so it’s pretty difficult to up-scale your social campaigns.

Hence, for a social media manager working for a medium-sized agency, I wouldn’t use SproutSocial in the long run. I’d recommend similar tools that give more bang for your buck like SocialBee and Hootsuite.

How to use SproutSocial to schedule Facebook posts

You can maintain a steady flow of Facebook content by scheduling your posts with SproutSocial.

Here’s how:

Option 1: Schedule with Calendar

• Step 1: Log in to your SproutSocial account. If you’re a new user, sign up for a free 30-day trial with SproutSocial to create an account. You only need your email address and a password.

• Step 2: Click the Publishing icon. You’ll find several publishing features under this icon, including the Calendar, Sprout Queue, and Drafts.

• Step 3: Select Calendar. Choose your preferred profile (Facebook page), post type, and tag from the available options.

• Step 4: Schedule a post. Hover to the current date and select ‘Schedule Post.’ A ‘New Post’ window will appear where you’ll write your content. Choose your preferred publishing workflow, Sprout tags, and when to post. You can also use ‘Optimal Times’ to check the best time to publish your content. Finish by clicking the ‘Schedule’ button. 

Option 2: Schedule with Sprout Queue

To add posts to Sprout Queue for later publishing:

• Click on the ‘Publishing’ icon and select ‘Sprout Queue.’

• Click on the ‘Add to Your Queue’ button.

• Draft your post on your selected Facebook profile. You can also choose your preferred publishing workflows and Sprout tags (content labels).

• Select ‘Auto-schedule with Queue’ as your ‘When to post’ option.

• Click on the ‘Queue’ button to finish scheduling with Sprout Queue.

Manage multiple social media profiles like a pro!

Choosing SocialBee vs SproutSocial comes down to your needs and budget. With 29 USD every month, you can use a reliable social media management tool like SocialBee to schedule posts on Instagram, Facebook, X, LinkedIn and Youtube. And you can monitor performance with the same tool. Execute your social media marketing strategy effortlessly using SocialBee’s handy publishing and scheduling features.

Click here to create your free SocialBee account.

Check out other social media scheduling tool reviews!

• Sendible vs. Hootsuite: Side-by-Side Comparison
• SocialPilot vs. Buffer: Detailed Review
• Publer vs. Later: Which is Better?
• Agorapulse vs. eClincher Review
• Loomly vs. Metricool: In-Depth Review