Zoho Social
Affordable scheduling and monitoring that plugs into the wider Zoho and CRM ecosystem.
What is Zoho Social?
Zoho Social is a social media management tool for scheduling, publishing, monitoring, and analyzing posts across major networks. It targets small-to-midsize businesses, marketers, and agencies, and integrates tightly with Zoho CRM and the wider Zoho suite.
Best known for: Social media scheduling that plugs into the Zoho CRM ecosystem
Key features
- Multi-network post scheduling and publishing
- Content calendar and bulk scheduler
- Social monitoring and listening dashboard
- Analytics and custom reports
- Team collaboration with approval workflows
- Zoho CRM lead and contact integration
Who Zoho Social is best for
- Businesses already invested in the Zoho ecosystem
- SMBs wanting CRM-connected social at a low price
- Teams needing solid scheduling plus monitoring dashboards
Ideal team: SMBs and agencies of 1–50, especially existing Zoho/Zoho CRM users who want tightly integrated social.
Zoho Social pricing
Free
$0
- 1 brand (6 channels)
- 1 team member
- Basic scheduling
Standard
$15/flat / mo
- 1 brand (12 channels)
- Multi-channel publishing
- 40 AI credits
Professional
$40/flat / mo
- Livestream posting
- Bulk scheduling
- Monitoring dashboard
Premium
$65/flat / mo
- 3 team members
- Approvals & workflow
- CRM/Desk integration
Costs to watch before you commit
- Prices are monthly list, annual billing is roughly a third cheaper.
- Standard and Professional each cover just 1 brand and 1 user by default.
- Extra brands (~$17–23/mo) and team members (~$11.50/mo) are add-ons.
Zoho Social pros and cons
Pros
- Strong free tier: one brand across six channels with basic scheduling, at no cost
- Excellent value at Standard ($15) and Professional ($40) against Hootsuite and Sprout Social
- Monitoring dashboard for keywords, mentions, and competitors on Professional, not just publishing
- Native Zoho CRM and Desk integration turns social interactions into leads and tickets
- Bulk scheduling and livestream posting on Professional, useful for content-heavy operations
- 2,870 third-party reviews at 4.6, one of the best-evidenced tools in the Zoho range
Cons
- Standard and Professional each cover just one brand and one user by default
- Extra brands are roughly $17–23/month and extra team members around $11.50/month, so agencies stack cost quickly
- Approvals and workflow only arrive at Premium ($65), which teams need earlier than solos do
- Listed prices are monthly list: annual billing is roughly a third cheaper, so the sticker overstates committed cost
- AI credits on Standard are limited at 40, then metered
- Analytics are solid but less deep than the enterprise-focused platforms
Zoho Social review: a closer look
What Zoho Social is
Zoho Social handles scheduling, publishing, monitoring, and reporting across the major social networks, with the distinguishing feature being what happens to a conversation after it starts: native integration with Zoho CRM and Desk means a comment or DM can become a lead or a support ticket attached to a real contact record. Most social tools stop at engagement metrics. That connection is the reason a Zoho-based business should look here first, and it's a genuinely different proposition from publishing-only competitors.
Brands and seats, not posts
The pricing model needs reading carefully because the constraint isn't volume, it's scope. Standard at $15 and Professional at $40 each cover a single brand and a single user. Extra brands cost roughly $17 to $23 per month and additional team members around $11.50. For a solo marketer running one company's accounts, that structure is excellent value. For an agency running six clients, it is emphatically not the cheap option it appears to be, six brands plus a couple of seats can multiply the base cost several times over. Work out your brand and seat count first; it changes the comparison against Buffer and Hootsuite completely.
Monitoring is where it earns Professional
The jump from Standard to Professional more than doubles the price, and the monitoring dashboard is what justifies it. Tracking keywords, brand mentions, and competitor activity in one place turns the tool from a scheduler into something you actually learn from, and it's the feature most likely to change what you publish next. Bulk scheduling and livestream posting land at the same tier and matter for content-heavy operations. If you're weighing Standard against Professional, the question is simply whether you'll use monitoring; if you will, the extra is well spent, and if you won't, Standard is a perfectly good scheduler.
The billing detail worth knowing
Unusually among Zoho products, the prices listed here are monthly list rates rather than annual-equivalents, annual billing runs roughly a third cheaper. That's the opposite of the pattern elsewhere in the suite, where headline figures assume yearly prepayment and monthly costs more. Practically it means Zoho Social looks more expensive at a glance than it is on a committed plan, so if you're comparing it against a competitor's annual pricing, make sure you're comparing the same basis. AI credits are also metered, 40 on Standard, so heavy use of the generation features runs out and bills further.
How it compares
Against Buffer, Buffer is simpler, cleaner, and cheaper for straightforward scheduling across a few channels, with far less monitoring depth. Against Hootsuite, Hootsuite covers more networks and suits larger teams but costs considerably more and has grown unwieldy. Against Sprout Social, Sprout is the enterprise choice with the deepest analytics and a price to match. Against Agorapulse, the two are close on features with Agorapulse handling multi-client agency work more gracefully. The deciding question is almost always whether you use Zoho CRM: if you do, the lead and ticket routing is worth more than any feature difference; if you don't, this is a good, well-priced tool competing on ordinary merits.
Who should use Zoho Social?
A good fit
Zoho Social fits small businesses and in-house marketers of roughly 1 to 50 people managing one or two brands who want scheduling plus real monitoring without enterprise pricing. It's strongest for existing Zoho CRM and Desk users, where social conversations become leads and tickets automatically, and the free tier makes it easy to test with one brand before committing.
Look elsewhere if…
Agencies managing many client brands should price the per-brand add-ons carefully and compare Agorapulse, which handles multi-client work more economically. Teams that need approval workflows below the Premium tier will find the ladder awkward. Anyone wanting the deepest analytics and enterprise reporting should look at Sprout Social, and anyone who just wants simple scheduling across a few channels will find Buffer easier and cheaper.
The verdict
Zoho Social is one of the better-evidenced products in the Zoho range: 2,870 reviews at 4.6 is a real track record, and it earns that with solid scheduling, genuinely useful monitoring at the Professional tier, and pricing that undercuts Hootsuite and Sprout meaningfully. The CRM and Desk integration is the structural advantage and the reason a Zoho business should start here. Watch the scope model rather than the sticker: one brand and one user per plan, with extra brands around $17–23 and seats around $11.50, which turns an agency use case from cheap into ordinary. Note too that these prices are monthly list, so annual billing is about a third less, the reverse of most Zoho pricing pages.
Top Zoho Social alternatives
Popular Social Media Management tools teams evaluate alongside Zoho Social.
MissinglettrTurns blog posts and content into a year of automated, drip-fed social media campaigns.
Vista SocialModern, agency-friendly platform with publishing, listening, reviews, and a free tier.
StatusbrewEngagement and moderation platform with rule-based automation and review management.
SocialBeeCategory-based scheduler that recycles evergreen content with AI drafting built in.
LoomlyCollaboration-first content calendar with structured post approvals and brand guidance.