Buffer is the cheapest publishing switch: yearly Essentials is $5 per channel ($60 billed yearly for one channel), Free covers 3 channels, and MCP sits on every plan including Free. Sprout Social is the paid-suite peer at $79 per seat annual on Essentials and $199 on Standard. Hootsuite Standard is $99 per user annual for 10 accounts. Metricool bills by brand, with annual Starter from $20 on the 5-brand footer SKU. Trends MCP is the live multi-source trend feed for Cursor, Claude, and REST, from $0 at 100 requests/month, not an inbox replacement. Agorapulse still wins a unified inbox with one-step approvals at $79 per user annual Standard. Leave for per-seat cost and the cut is Buffer or Metricool. Leave for listening depth and the cut is Sprout or Hootsuite.
Which tool replaces Agorapulse for which job?
No single product clones Agorapulse's inbox plus one-step approvals at the same per-user price. The right alternative matches the job that made the team leave. Public cards checked on 12 Oct 2026:
| Tool | Wins this job | Public starting price | Billing unit | MCP |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Buffer | Cheap publishing, Cursor in the editor | Yearly Essentials $5/channel ($60 billed yearly); Free 3 channels | Per channel | https://mcp.buffer.com/mcp on every plan including Free. Cursor OAuth JSON, no transport, no key |
| Agorapulse | Unified inbox, one-step approvals | Standard $79/user annual ($99 monthly) | Per user; 10 profiles shared | Hosted https://api.openmcp.agorapulse.com/mcp. Drafts. ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot Studio. No Cursor snippet in help 12960496 |
| Metricool | Multi-brand analytics without a seat tax | Annual Starter from $20 (footer: 5 brands); Free 1 brand | Per brand | Hosted https://ai.metricool.com/mcp on Free. Cursor Desktop JSON uses "type": "http" |
| Sprout Social | Analytics and listening depth | Essentials $79/seat annual; Standard $199 | Per seat; 5 profiles on Essentials and Standard | Official https://mcp.sproutsocial.com/mcp. ChatGPT only. TikTok publishing metrics. Write actions out |
| Hootsuite | Broad OS (Perch, Nest, Lumen, Parliament) | Standard $99/user annual; 10 accounts | Per user | Four hosts under mcp.hootsuite.com (/perch, /nest, /lumen, /parliament). ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Copilot. No Cursor snippet on the integrations page |
| Trends MCP | Live multi-source trend data for agents | Free 100 requests/month; Starter $19 for 1,000 | Per request | Cursor JSON on llms.txt (Last updated 2026-10-12) uses transport: "http" and Bearer YOUR_API_KEY |
Trends MCP is first only when the job is trend data inside an agent. It does not schedule posts or run an inbox. For the social-suite query, Buffer, Metricool, Sprout, or Hootsuite is the actual switch. The Agorapulse pricing post keeps the SKU table; this page is the leave-or-stay decision.
Where Agorapulse public pricing disagrees with itself
Agorapulse Standard is $79 per user per month on the annual toggle and $99 monthly, Professional $119 / $149, Advanced $149 / $199, Custom tailored. Help 8762696 (8 Jul 2026) prints the same 99/79, 149/119, 199/149 grid. Ten social profiles are shared across every user on Standard, Professional, and Advanced. Extra profiles are $10 per month on annual billing or $15 on monthly, from the live tooltip. Ad accounts, Google Analytics, and third-party tools do not count toward the 10.
The printed "Save $240/year" on Standard is 20.20% ($99 x 12 = $1,188 vs $79 x 12 = $948). Professional save $360 is 20.13%. Advanced save $600 is 25.13% against $199 x 12 = $2,388. Help 8762696 still says annual is "up to 20% on the base plan." Do not flatten Advanced into 20%.
Pricing FAQ 1 still says a trial account can keep a free plan after the trial, with no automatic charges. Live cards on 12 Oct 2026 show no Free SKU. Help 8762514 (updated the week of this run) says the Free plan ended 6 July 2026 for new and current Free users. The replacement is a paid plan or free Archie (help 8762514): 1 owner, up to 100 Archie-only users, up to 50 Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube profiles, new posts only via Archie. Archie is absent from the live pricing grid.
Trial length is three public stories. Pricing hero and FAQ 3: 30 days, no card. Help 8762696: 15-day Advanced trial, no card. Help 11748805: 15 days of Advanced plus one 15-day extension inside 90 days of start, for 30 days total; 90 days of inactivity deletes the trial account. Trial limits in 11748805: 1 seat to start, 10 profiles, 6 competitors. Inbox Sentiment Analysis is off.
X is an add-on. Help 8762824 (24 Aug 2026): X Lite is $/€29 per X profile per month (publish only). X Plus is $/€69 (publish, Inbox, reports). X profiles do not count toward the 10. The live pricing page still listed X Lite and X Plus without dollars on 12 Oct 2026. Use the help article for the dollar amounts.
Data retention on the live grid is 6 / 12 / 24 / 24 months. Nonprofit pricing is "reach out"; there is no public SKU.
Does Buffer beat per-user Agorapulse on publishing?
Yes, if the pain is seat math and the job is scheduling. Buffer yearly cards on 12 Oct 2026 still print Essentials $5 / Team $10, billed $60 / $120 yearly, labeled "save 2 months." The pricing FAQ still promises a 20% annual discount. $6 to $5 is 16.67%, two months free. Do not flatten the FAQ into the cards. buffer.com/pricing.md still lists monthly Essentials from $6 and Team from $12. Example totals there: 10-channel Essentials $60 monthly / $50 yearly.
Free is 3 channels, 10 scheduled posts per channel (refill after publish), 1 user. MCP is on every plan including Free, host https://mcp.buffer.com/mcp. Cursor install from developers.buffer.com is OAuth JSON with only "url": "https://mcp.buffer.com/mcp". No transport. No key.
A 3-person team on Agorapulse Standard annual is $79 x 3 = $237/month for 10 shared profiles. The same headcount on Buffer Team yearly at 10 channels is $100/month from the pricing.md example table, with unlimited users. That is the publishing-cost argument. Buffer is not Agorapulse's inbox. First-comment copy still splits: the HTML feature row says Instagram, Facebook, or LinkedIn; pricing.md bullets say Instagram or LinkedIn. Fair use on paid scheduling is 5,000 posts per channel.
Is Sprout Social the suite upgrade?
Sprout is the upgrade when the team already pays per seat and wants deeper analytics and listening, not a cheaper calendar. Hero cards on 12 Oct 2026: Standard $199, Professional $299, Advanced $399 per seat per month, billed annually, plus Essentials at $79 annual and $99 monthly. JSON-LD AggregateOffer lowPrice 79.00 highPrice 399.00, offerCount 4. Essentials carries annual 79 and monthly 99. Standard, Professional, and Advanced are annual-only in schema. The CMS FAQ still lists monthly Standard $249, Professional $399, Advanced $499. Professional monthly $399 equals Advanced annual $399 before tax. Profiles: 5 / 5 / Unlimited / Unlimited. 30-day trial, no card.
Official MCP host is https://mcp.sproutsocial.com/mcp, OAuth, ChatGPT only (help 41085761844365). TikTok publishing metrics only. Write actions, ads, and other networks are out (help 41085790604173). Setup copy still fights: 41085761844365 names ChatGPT Plus, Pro, or Enterprise; 41085790604173 limits setup and use to ChatGPT Pro or Enterprise. No first-party Cursor mcp.json on those pages.
A 3-seat Sprout Standard annual bill is $199 x 3 = $597/month for 5 profiles. That is more than Agorapulse Standard at $237 for 10 shared profiles. Pay it for Sprout's listening add-ons and Smart Inbox, not to save money.
Why Hootsuite still looks expensive next to Agorapulse
Hootsuite /pricing 301s to https://www.hootsuite.com/plans. JSON-LD on 12 Oct 2026 still prices Standard $99, Professional $199, Advanced $399 per user per month, billed annually. AggregateOffer lowPrice 99.00 highPrice 399.00, offerCount 4. FAQ confirms monthly billing exists and costs more; no month-to-month dollar printed on /plans this run. Standard includes 10 social accounts. Professional and Advanced are unlimited. 14-day trial; marketing FAQ says no card and no auto-charge.
JSON-LD still describes "Lumen by Talkwalker" as Enterprise-tier. Standard and Professional plan copy say those SKUs include Lumen, with a depth split (Standard 7-day search; Professional 30-day search and a 90-day trend forecast on the Professional card). Do not read the schema line as "Lumen is Enterprise-only."
MCP lives at four hosts: https://mcp.hootsuite.com/perch, /nest, /lumen, /parliament. The integrations page names ChatGPT and Claude connectors, with Gemini and Copilot going through IT admin. A string search of that page on 12 Oct 2026 found no Cursor, Windsurf, VS Code, or mcp.json snippet.
A 3-seat Hootsuite Standard annual bill is $99 x 3 = $297/month for 10 accounts, above Agorapulse Standard's $237. Hootsuite is the switch for Perch/Nest/Lumen/Parliament as a suite, not for a cheaper inbox. Deeper listening notes sit on social listening tools.
Why Metricool looks cheaper at five brands
Metricool bills by brand count, not by seat. Annual tab on 12 Oct 2026 still prints Starter from $20, with footer rows "Up to 5 brands for $20/month" and "Up to 10 brands for $36/month." The Starter card body still says "Manage up to 10 brands" next to "From $20/month." Help bl0v9 is the place that names Starter 5 vs Starter 10 as options. Do not quote $20 as a 10-brand SKU.
USD annual: Free $0 (1 brand). Starter $20 (5) / $36 (10). Advanced $53 (15) / $85 (25) / $159 (50). USD monthly: Starter $25 / $45; Advanced $67 / $107 / $210. The "save up to 24%" tab matches 50-brand Advanced ($210 to $159), not 5-brand Starter ($25 to $20 = 20%).
Hosted MCP https://ai.metricool.com/mcp is on any plan including Free (help h72jg, updated 4 days before this run). Cursor Desktop JSON from help eqp9h uses "url": "https://ai.metricool.com/mcp" and "type": "http". Free still caps MCP at 20 published posts per calendar month and 30 days of analytics. Help h72jg lists brands, analytics, and scheduled posts as live tools. Inbox, comments, SmartLinks, reviews, and Ads campaign management are not available through the MCP, even though the eqp9h permission screen still lists several of those surfaces. REST API is Advanced or Custom only. A 3-person agency on Metricool annual Starter 5 is $20/month for the brands, not $20 times headcount.
What Agorapulse MCP actually queues
Help 12960496 is titled "Model Context Protocool (MCP) integration explained." The typo is still on the live article. Hosted URL: https://api.openmcp.agorapulse.com/mcp. OAuth. Beta. Pricing subject to change. Available to all Agorapulse users excluding Legacy plan holders. Required paid AI includes Claude Pro/Max/Team/Enterprise, ChatGPT Go/Plus/Pro/Team, and Copilot Studio. ChatGPT needs Owner plus Developer Mode. No Cursor mcp.json on that page.
Drafts only. The connector creates draft posts; it does not auto-publish. Replies follow Inbox approval workflows and queue instead of posting live. Listening defaults to the last 7 days if no date range is set. The article names get_labeled_post_performance and a 502 when the label or since / until window is wrong. Registry GET @agorapulse/mcp returned 404 on 12 Oct 2026. Do not paste an npx install.
That is a social-ops MCP, not a trend-research MCP. Cursor users who want Google, TikTok, Amazon, and Reddit in one config want Trends MCP for Cursor.
When Trends MCP is the right switch
Trends MCP wins the trend-data job. It loses scheduling, inbox, and approvals. Public markdown on 12 Oct 2026 (pricing.md and llms.txt, both Last updated 2026-10-12): Free $0 / 100 requests; Starter $19 / 1,000; Pro $49 / 5,000; Business $199 / 25,000. Annual saves 20% in markdown. HTML yearly cards print Starter $16/mo ($192 billed annually), Pro $39/mo ($468), Business $159/mo ($1,910). $19 x 0.8 = $15.20, not $16. Do not flatten those.
HTML /pricing still heads "30+ data sources" while its FAQ says "40+ sources." Homepage hero is "35+" and its FAQ is "40+." HTML /data-sources prints "36 sources," "Fifteen keyword sources and twenty-one live," a 16 / 24 pair, and "83 data sources." llms.txt lists 16 keyword sources and 24 live feeds (keeps 4 category boards). data-sources.md lists 16 keyword sources and 20 live-feed rows. Do not pick one integer and call it official.
HTML FAQ: one successful API or MCP call equals one request. pricing.md / llms.txt: MCP get_top_trends costs 1 credit per 10 requested rows (max 10 credits per call); REST is 1 request per call. Trial FAQ: card collected at checkout, not charged until day 8. Yearly cards: "after day 7." Homepage copy-config omits transport and the Bearer prefix:
{"mcpServers": {"trends-mcp": {"url": "https://api.trendsmcp.ai/mcp","headers": {"Authorization": "YOUR_API_KEY"}}}}
llms.txt Cursor JSON includes both:
"trends-mcp": {
"url": "https://api.trendsmcp.ai/mcp",
"transport": "http",
"headers": { "Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" }
}
Two MCP hosts, not interchangeable: https://api.trendsmcp.ai/mcp is Bearer for Cursor, VS Code, Claude Desktop, Claude Code. The www host /mcp path is OAuth for Claude.ai Connectors only. Google Trends inside Cursor is a separate landing at Google Trends MCP for Cursor. Keep the social suite for the calendar. Add Trends MCP when the agent needs a live board those suites do not expose.
FAQ
What is the best Agorapulse alternative for a three-person team?
Buffer Team yearly at 10 channels is $100/month from Buffer's example table, unlimited users. Metricool annual Starter 5 is $20/month for five brands. Agorapulse Standard annual for three users is $237/month. Sprout Standard is $597. Hootsuite Standard is $297. Pick Buffer or Metricool to cut cost. Pick Sprout or Hootsuite for suite depth. Pick Trends MCP only for trend data.
Does Agorapulse still have a free plan?
Live pricing cards on 12 Oct 2026 show no Free SKU. Help 8762514 says Free ended 6 July 2026. Pricing FAQ 1 still tells trial users they can keep a free plan. Archie is the free replacement described in that help article, with Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube only, and new posts only through Archie. Treat FAQ 1 as stale until Agorapulse edits it.
Can Cursor talk to Agorapulse over MCP?
Not from first-party docs. Help 12960496 documents ChatGPT (Owner, Developer Mode), Claude, and Copilot Studio against https://api.openmcp.agorapulse.com/mcp. No Cursor snippet. Drafts only. npm @agorapulse/mcp 404s. Buffer and Metricool both publish Cursor JSON. Trends MCP publishes Cursor JSON on llms.txt.
Is Trends MCP a replacement for Agorapulse?
No. Trends MCP returns keyword series, growth windows, and live ranked feeds. It does not publish, approve, or reply. An Agorapulse team that needs cheaper publishing should look at Buffer or Metricool. A team that needs Google, TikTok, Amazon, and Reddit inside Cursor should add Trends MCP beside the social suite, not instead of it.
How should X profiles be counted in a switch?
Agorapulse X Lite is $/€29 per X profile per month and X Plus is $/€69, and those profiles do not count toward the 10 (help 8762824). Buffer bills X as a normal channel. Metricool X is $10 per connected account per month on Starter and up. Add those line items before calling any alternative cheaper.
Accessed 12 Oct 2026: agorapulse.com/pricing; Agorapulse help 12960496, 8762514, 8762696, 11748805, 8762824; buffer.com/pricing and pricing.md; sproutsocial.com/pricing; Sprout help 41085761844365 and 41085790604173; hootsuite.com/plans; metricool.com/pricing; Metricool help eqp9h and h72jg; Trends MCP pricing.md and llms.txt (Last updated 2026-10-12).