Later vs Sprout Social
A source-aware comparison of pricing, documented capabilities and workflow fit.
Short answer
- Price: Later is cheaper — $18.75/mo vs $79/user/mo.
- How to start: Later is from $18.75/mo billed annually, Sprout Social is from $79/user/mo billed annually.
- Where they differ: only Sprout Social has sso (saml); both offer public api and mobile app.
These lines are generated from the pricing we track, not from a paid placement. How we score tools.
What Later is
What Later isLater is a social media scheduling and analytics platform whose pricing unit is the 'social set' — one profile from each supported network — rather than the individual account, so a brand running two Instagram handles consumes two sets even though it uses one network. Plans also cap how many posts each profile can schedule per month and how far back analytics reach, and the AI features draw on a small monthly credit allowance. Starter is the tier where the limits bite hardest: it cannot buy extra sets, users or credits at all.
What Sprout Social is
What Sprout Social isSprout Social handles publishing, engagement and reporting for social teams, with a strong emphasis on analytics. Reporting is where it earns the price: cross-network reports are presentable to a client or an executive without rebuilding them in a spreadsheet. For a solo operator who only needs scheduling, that reporting depth is paid-for weight.
Side by side
| Later | Sprout Social | |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Marketing | Marketing |
| How to start | $18.75/moverified | $79/user/moverified |
| Public API | Yes | Yes |
| Mobile app | Yes | Yes |
| Open source / self-hostable | No | No |
| SSO (SAML) | No | Yes |
| Visit | Later ↗ | Sprout Social ↗ |
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What Later is built to do
- Multi-network scheduling
- Publishes to Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Threads, YouTube, Pinterest, LinkedIn and Snapchat.
- Approval workflow
- Internal and external collaboration and approvals from the Growth plan.
- Analytics history
- Platform analytics reaching back 3 months, 1 year or 2 years by plan.
What Sprout Social is built to do
- Cross-network publishing
- Schedules and queues posts across the major social networks from one calendar.
- Shared social inbox
- Collects mentions and messages from every profile into one queue.
- Presentation-ready reports
- Builds cross-network performance reports for clients and stakeholders.
Choose Later if
- One brand on many networks: a single social set covers one profile on each of the eight supported platforms
- Small teams that need approvals and a shared inbox — those start on Growth at $37.50 per month billed yearly
- Agencies that grow in steps: extra social sets are $11.25 a month and extra users $3.75 a month on Growth and above
- Reporting-led buyers who need Meta Ads analytics, benchmarking and two years of history, which is Scale at $82.50 per month
Skip Later if
- You are on Starter and expect to expand — extra social sets, users and AI credits are not sold on that plan at all
- You run several accounts on the same network: each one consumes a social set, so two Instagram handles cost two sets
- You post heavily below the top tier: Starter caps 30 posts per profile per month and Growth 180; only Scale is unlimited
- You need long analytics history — Starter keeps 3 months and Growth 1 year
Choose Sprout Social if
- Social teams that need publishing, inbox and reporting in one seat
- Agencies needing unlimited profiles — that starts at the Professional tier
- Trying it fully: 30-day trial with no card
Skip Sprout Social if
- You are a solo operator or small brand — $79/seat/mo annual ($99 monthly) is agency pricing
- You have more than 5 social profiles: Essentials and Standard both cap at 5, unlimited starts at Professional ($299/seat/mo)
- You need a free tier; there is none
Evidence and freshness
Where a claim on this page comes from a vendor page, it is linked here.
Later: pros & cons
- One social set covers all eight supported networks
- Extra sets, users and AI credits are priced add-ons on Growth and above
- Approvals, social inbox and UGC collection from the middle tier
- Starter allows no add-ons of any kind
- Scheduled posts are capped per profile below the top tier
- Analytics history is limited by plan
Sprout Social: pros & cons
- Reporting is genuinely strong
- Unified inbox across networks
- Good approval and collaboration flow
- Priced per user and expensive
- Some features cost extra on top
- Overkill for one or two accounts
Our verdict on Later
Priced sensibly if you fit inside a social set and its post cap. Count your profiles first — the set, not the seat, is what you are buying.
Our verdict on Sprout Social
Buy it for the reporting. If nobody reads the reports, you are paying for the wrong thing.
Published plans, side by side
Every figure below was read from the vendor's own pricing page and is shown with the sentence it came from. Where a vendor publishes no plan prices, we say so rather than guess.
Later
- Starter$18.75/mo billed annually
Starter $18.75 USD/month billed yearly: 1 social set (8 social profiles), 1 user, 30 posts per profile per month, 5 AI credits per month, platform analytics up to 3 months, Link in Bio, basic support; extra social sets, users and AI credits are explicitly not available
- Growth$37.5/mo billed annually
Growth $37.50 USD/month billed yearly: 2 social sets (16 profiles), 2 users, 180 posts per profile per month, 50 AI credits, analytics up to 1 year, social inbox, internal and external approvals, UGC collection, custom roles and permissions
- Scale$82.5/mo billed annually
Scale $82.50 USD/month billed yearly: 6 social sets (48 profiles), unlimited posts, 100 AI credits, analytics up to 2 years, Meta Ads analytics, custom analytics, competitive benchmarking, brand health and brand mentions, priority support
Sprout Social
- Essentials$79/user/mo billed annually
Essentials $79/seat/month annual, $99 monthly, 5 social profiles
- Standard$199/user/mo billed annually
Standard $199/seat/month annual, 5 profiles
- Professional$299/user/mo billed annually
Professional $299/seat/month annual, unlimited profiles
- Advanced$399/user/mo billed annually
Advanced $399/seat/month annual
Later vs Sprout Social: common questions
- Is Later cheaper than Sprout Social?
- Later is the cheaper entry point at $18.75/mo billed annually, against $79/user/mo billed annually for Sprout Social. Both figures come from the vendors' own pricing pages.
- Does Later or Sprout Social have a free plan?
- Later has no free plan listed, while Sprout Social has no free plan listed.
- Which is cheaper once you start paying, Later or Sprout Social?
- The two are not priced the same way: Later's cheapest paid step is Starter at $18.75/mo billed annually, while Sprout Social's is Essentials at $79/user/mo billed annually. One scales with headcount and the other does not, so the cheaper option depends entirely on team size.
- What is the difference between Later and Sprout Social?
- On the criteria we check, only Sprout Social has sso (saml); both offer public api and mobile app. The table above lists every criterion side by side.