Metricool vs PostSider: Pricing by Brand Count
Metricool Starter costs $20 a month for 5 brands and $36 a month for 10 brands on annual billing ($25 and $45 billed monthly). Advanced, which adds the approval system, team roles and API access, starts at $53 a month for 15 brands. A brand is one client holding one account per network, so 5 brands can cover 5 clients. X is extra on every plan.
I build PostSider, so this is a biased comparison. Metricool is the better analytics product and I will say where. The question this post answers is narrower: what an agency actually pays, and when it needs a publishing workflow more than a reporting dashboard.
Metricool pricing by brand count
| Brands | Metricool plan | Annual billing | Monthly billing | Approvals, roles, API |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Free | $0 | $0 | No (MCP only) |
| 5 | Starter | $20/mo | $25/mo | No |
| 10 | Starter | $36/mo | $45/mo | No |
| 15 | Advanced | $53/mo | $67/mo | Yes |
| 25 | Advanced | $85/mo | $107/mo | Yes |
| 50 | Advanced | $159/mo | $210/mo | Yes |
| 50+ | Custom | Quote | Quote | Yes |
| Add-on: X/Twitter | Starter and up | $120/yr per X account | $10/mo per X account |
Checked October 18, 2026 on Metricool’s pricing page, its plans explainer and help center. USD. Metricool advertises up to 24% off for annual billing.
Two things in that table catch agencies out.
Approvals start at 15 brands. Starter has a single login; adding users, roles or the approval system needs Advanced. If clients sign off on posts, your real floor is $53 a month, even with five clients.
X is billed per account. Six clients on X add $60 a month on monthly billing. That never shows in the headline price.
What a brand buys you, and why it matters for the comparison
Metricool’s help center defines a brand as a container for one business or client, holding one profile per platform. That is a generous unit. A client with Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn is one brand, not three.
PostSider counts channels instead: Standard is $20 for 5, Team $35 for 10, Pro $45 for 30, Ultimate $90 for 100. The same client is three channels. So on raw account count Metricool is often cheaper, and I am not going to hide that. The comparison turns on approvals, X, and whether you need the analytics.
Three agencies, priced on both
Five clients, two networks each, no client approvals. Metricool Starter 5 brands: $20 annual or $25 monthly. PostSider: 10 channels, Team at $35. Metricool wins on price, and it includes reporting PostSider does not have.
Six clients, three networks each including X, clients approve posts. Metricool needs Advanced (15 brands) for approvals: $53 annual or $67 monthly, plus 6 X accounts at $10 each, so $113 to $127 a month. PostSider: 18 channels, Pro at $45, X included, approvals included. PostSider wins by a wide margin here, and the gap is almost entirely the X add-on and the approval gate.
Fifteen clients, three networks each, no X. Metricool Advanced 15 brands: $53 annual or $67 monthly. PostSider: 45 channels, Ultimate at $90. Metricool is cheaper. Add X for all fifteen and Metricool rises to $203 to $217 a month, while PostSider stays at $90.
The rule that falls out: without X and without client approvals, Metricool is the cheaper bill. Add either one and run the numbers again.
Metricool is the best analytics under $100 a month
Starter’s feature list includes competitor tracking up to 100 profiles, unlimited analytics history, ad account reporting, Looker Studio and branded PDF and PowerPoint reports. The free plan gives 1 brand, 20 scheduled posts a month and 30 days of analytics, without LinkedIn or X. For an agency whose product is a monthly performance report, $20 a month for that is hard to argue with.
Metricool also does things PostSider does not do at all: ad campaign management across Meta, Google and TikTok, competitor benchmarking, a website traffic dashboard, and a permanent free plan. PostSider has no social listening, no unified inbox, no SSO and no ad tools. If the job is data, keep Metricool.
Publishing is where PostSider is built differently
Metricool’s publishing calendar is on every plan, but the step that collects a client’s sign-off is on Advanced. That is the seam: an agency doing client review pays for Advanced to get a gate in front of a calendar.
In PostSider the workflow is the product. A draft comes in from a person or an agent, the AI post checker flags problems, the client approves, and the queue places it in the next free slot. Approvals and queues start on Team; CSV bulk import and content recycling start on Pro. There is no built-in post generator, so if you want software that writes the posts, this is the wrong product. One workspace per client shows how I set up client separation.
API and MCP: both have agent access now
Metricool’s MCP server works on every plan, Free included, inside that plan’s limits; its help center is explicit that connecting MCP does not lift caps like Free’s 20 scheduled posts. Its REST API, plus Zapier and Make, is on Advanced and Custom only.
PostSider puts the REST API, the @postsider/node SDK and the MCP server on every paid plan, Standard included. Chat clients connect to the hosted server at mcp.postsider.com/mcp and sign in with OAuth; terminal agents can run @postsider/mcp locally with an API key. The REST API allows 60 requests a minute and accepts an Idempotency-Key header so a retried call does not double-post. The MCP server page has the setup, and MCP vs REST vs SDK for social media compares the three surfaces.
The practical difference: an agent on Metricool Free or Starter can schedule and read analytics through MCP, but the approval step it would need for client work sits on Advanced. On PostSider Team, the agent’s draft goes into the same approval queue as a colleague’s.
When to stay on Metricool, and when to switch
Stay on Metricool if what you sell is data (competitor tracking, ad reporting, website traffic in one dashboard), nobody outside your team approves posts, and your clients are not on X. At that shape it is the better and cheaper tool.
Switch, or add PostSider beside it, if client sign-off still lives in email and a shared doc, if you pay the X add-on for several clients, or if you want API access without buying Advanced. Running both is a legitimate setup: Metricool for the report the client reads, PostSider for the approvals and the queue behind it.
Moving the publishing side
Reconnect each profile through its own OAuth flow, set up the approval reviewers per client first, then bring the backlog over with CSV import (Pro and up) and let the queue place it. Keep Metricool’s calendar for a week and delete each post there as you re-create it, so nothing publishes twice.
For the per-channel math across more tools, see the per-channel pricing tax for agencies. Other head-to-heads are on the compare page.
Sources
- Metricool pricing and plans explainer, checked October 18, 2026
- What’s a brand in Metricool, checked October 18, 2026
- Plans, add-ons, and API access explained, checked October 18, 2026
- MCP limits and plan requirements, checked October 18, 2026
- Metricool approval system and team roles, checked October 18, 2026
Frequently asked questions
How much is Metricool Starter for 5 brands and 10 brands?
On annual billing, Metricool Starter is $20 a month for 5 brands and $36 a month for 10 brands. On monthly billing the same tiers are $25 and $45. Above 10 brands you move to Advanced: $53, $85 or $159 a month on annual billing for 15, 25 or 50 brands.
What counts as a brand in Metricool?
A brand is one client or project, holding one account per platform: one Instagram, one Facebook Page, one LinkedIn page and so on. A client with three networks is one brand. A client with two TikTok accounts needs two brands.
Does Metricool charge extra for X/Twitter?
Yes. X is a paid add-on on Starter and above, billed per connected X account at $10 a month or $120 a year, according to Metricool's help center. The free plan cannot connect X or LinkedIn. PostSider includes X on every plan.
Does Metricool have an API or MCP server?
Both. Metricool's MCP server works on every plan, Free included, within that plan's limits. Its API is only on Advanced and Custom. PostSider includes its REST API, the @postsider/node SDK and a hosted MCP server on every paid plan.
Can I keep Metricool for analytics and use PostSider to publish?
Yes. Metricool handles the client report, PostSider handles approvals, the queue and publishing. Price that two-tool stack against one Metricool Advanced subscription before you decide.
