Later vs Metricool: pricing, features and which to choose

Later began in Vancouver in 2014 as Latergramme, one of the first tools for scheduling Instagram posts, and grew into a broader social media and creator marketing company. Its brand has always centered on visual planning: a drag-and-drop calendar and an Instagram grid preview that show how a feed will look before posts go live. Later also runs Later Influence, an influencer marketing platform for brands, and acquired the creator commerce company Mavely in 2025. The social product serves creators, small businesses, social media managers and agencies, and supports Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Threads, YouTube, Pinterest, LinkedIn and Snapchat.

The core tools are a visual planner, multi-profile scheduling, auto-publishing to Instagram business and creator accounts, TikTok, Facebook, Threads, Pinterest and LinkedIn, saved captions, drafts and hashtag suggestions. Best Time to Post recommendations cover Instagram, Facebook and TikTok. The media library stores unlimited photos and videos and connects to Canva, and a Chrome extension saves images from the web. Link in Bio turns an Instagram or TikTok bio link into a clickable landing page with its own analytics. Growth and Scale plans add collaboration and approvals, a social inbox for comments and DMs, user-generated content collection and Instagram product tagging.

Later's strengths are visual feed planning, a strong Link in Bio, Instagram and TikTok features, and fair entry pricing. Its weaknesses are post caps on lower plans, small AI credit allowances, and analytics and listening that sit mostly on the Scale tier. Buffer is simpler and cheaper for basic scheduling. Hootsuite and Sprout Social offer deeper listening and enterprise features at higher prices. Metricool combines scheduling with ads and web analytics, and SocialBee focuses on content categories and evergreen recycling. Planoly is a close visual planning rival. Choose Later if your content is image and video-led and you want to plan how your feed looks.

Metricool was founded in Spain in 2016 and grew from a web and social analytics tool into a full social media management platform used by freelancers, small businesses and agencies. Its model is built around brands: each brand groups the social profiles, website and ad accounts for one business or client, and plans are priced by how many brands you manage instead of how many seats you need. Supported networks include Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, LinkedIn, X, Pinterest, YouTube, Threads, Bluesky, Twitch and Google Business Profile. The interface and help center are available in several languages, and Metricool has a large Spanish-speaking user base.

The planner schedules posts, reels, stories and carousels across networks from one calendar, with a post library, hashtag search and integrations with Canva, Adobe Express and Google Drive. Analytics cover each network with unlimited history on paid plans, plus website traffic through a tracking script. Ads reporting brings Meta, Google and TikTok ad campaigns into the same dashboard. Competitor analysis tracks up to 100 profiles on Starter. A social inbox handles comments and messages, SmartLinks provides link-in-bio pages, and PDF and PowerPoint reports can be scheduled for clients. Advanced plans add team and client roles, post approval, custom report templates and a Looker Studio connector.

Metricool's strengths are brand-based pricing that suits agencies, a usable free plan, combined organic and paid analytics, and MCP access on every plan. Its weaknesses are an interface that packs in many features, X support as a separate add-on, and AI credits that are modest per brand. Later is stronger for visual Instagram planning and Link in Bio. Buffer is simpler for light scheduling. Hootsuite and Sprout Social offer deeper listening and enterprise tools at higher prices. SocialBee focuses on evergreen content categories. Choose Metricool if you manage several brands and want scheduling, analytics and ads reports in one affordable tool.