Updated October 2026. We make Vamos, and it's on this list in the job it does. We've tried to be as fair to every other tool as we'd want them to be to us. Prices are from each tool's own site in October 2026.

How to use this list. A social team does five jobs: find out what's working, write the content, research ads, publish, and listen. No tool does all five well, so pick one per job.

1. Research: what's working for competitors and in your niche

Vamos. Best for brand and agency teams that want the research turned into next week's content.

• What it does: tracks your competitors and the creators in your niche on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube, watches the videos, reads the comments, and finds the outliers and trending formats. Then it writes hooks, scripts and posts in your brand's voice, and runs again every week. It searches the Meta Ad Library too.

• Price: free plan with 100 credits. Pro $39 a month, Business $99 a month with 3 workspaces.

• Keep in mind: it researches and writes. It doesn't publish, schedule or edit video, so pair it with a scheduler.

Sandcastles. Best for short-form creators who want outlier research and scripting frameworks.

• What it does: watchlists across TikTok, Instagram and YouTube Shorts, outliers scored against each channel's 90-day median, hook and script tools, 100+ curated collections of outlier examples, and a Claude plugin.

• Price: $5 Starter for new accounts. Pro $49 a month, or $39 a month billed yearly.

• Keep in mind: its FAQ says it doesn't refund subscriptions.

Virlo. Best for agencies that want research agents running in the background, with alerts.

• What it does: a research agent for TikTok, Reels and Shorts. It finds outlier videos in your niche, explains why they went viral, writes scripts, tracks accounts, and can keep searching every day, week or month, with Slack and Discord alerts.

• Price: $49 a month, or $199 a month with 3 seats. Free trial.

• Keep in mind: a research agent run costs 100 credits, so the $49 plan's 2,000 credits cover about 20 runs. Meta ads and seats start on the $199 plan.

LightReel. Best for brands and agencies running a UGC creator program.

• What it does: a chat AI over TikTok and Instagram that finds creators (by place, follower range and content, with a contact email), hooks, formats and trends, and reviews your account and scripts.

• Price: one plan, $199 a month, with a 3-day free trial.

• Keep in mind: team collaboration on that plan is sharing links.

Spyglass. Best for DTC and app teams that live in paid social.

• What it does: one search across Meta ads, TikTok, Instagram and YouTube: competitors' ads and organic posts, the landing pages behind them, and which creators each brand pays. Follow a brand and it sends a weekly brief.

• Price: $20, $40 or $80 a month, with unlimited team seats on every plan.

• Keep in mind: no free plan or trial is shown; the first month is discounted.

2. Writing in your brand's voice

ChatGPT. Best for everything that isn't social research: captions, emails, rewrites, ideas.

• What it does: writes anything, searches the web, remembers your context in projects, and reaches other tools through plugins and connectors.

• Price: free plan. Plus $20 a month; Business from $20 a user a month billed yearly.

• Keep in mind: it works from what it can search or what you give it. Connect a research tool for the social side.

Claude. Best for teams that want one assistant connected to all their tools.

• What it does: searches the web, creates files, runs code, remembers across chats, and connects to about 900 apps, social data tools such as Apify, vidIQ and Metricool among them. Research tools like Vamos connect as custom connectors.

• Price: free plan. Pro $20 a month; Team from $25 a seat a month.

• Keep in mind: the social research comes from the connectors you add.

Poppy AI. Best for teams that like to think on a board.

• What it does: a visual board where you drop in YouTube videos, Instagram posts, Meta ads, landing pages, transcripts, PDFs and notes. The AI finds the hooks and angles and writes scripts, posts, ads and emails.

• Price: from $33 a month billed yearly ($399 a year); $189 a month billed yearly with 3 seats. $1 for the first 7 days.

• Keep in mind: the prices shown are yearly commitments.

3. Ad research

Spyglass, above, covers paid and organic together.

Foreplay. Best for paid social teams building swipe files and briefs.

• What it does: saves ads from ad libraries and Instagram into swipe files, searches a large ad library, tracks competitors' ads, analyses your own Meta and TikTok ads, and writes briefs. Its team plan connects to Claude and ChatGPT.

• Price: $59 a month for one user, $175 for five; less billed yearly. 7-day trial with a card.

• Keep in mind: yearly plans have no pro-rated refunds.

Motion. Best for performance creative teams with real ad spend.

• What it does: creative analytics for your own Meta, TikTok, YouTube and LinkedIn ads: visual reports, AI tags on every creative, competitor ad tracking, and an AI teammate that answers in Slack.

• Price: $750 a month up to $50K a month of ad spend, $1,200 above that. Free trial, no card.

• Keep in mind: the price follows your monthly ad spend.

Meta Ad Library. Best for a free look at any brand's live ads.

• What it does: every active ad on Facebook and Instagram, searchable by advertiser or keyword.

• Price: free.

4. Publishing and scheduling

Buffer. Best for small teams that want cheap scheduling with AI help.

• What it does: schedules to 12 networks, with analytics, a comment inbox, link in bio, and an AI Assistant that drafts, rewrites and repurposes posts per channel.

• Price: free for 3 channels. From $6 a channel a month, or $12 a channel on the team plan. 14-day trial.

• Keep in mind: team members and approvals come with the team plan.

Later. Best for brands that run influencer programs next to their own posts.

• What it does: plans, schedules and analyses posts, runs link in bio and an inbox, and sells an influencer marketing service. The top plan adds brand mentions, sentiment and competitive benchmarking.

• Price: from $25 a month, or $18.75 billed yearly. 14-day trial.

• Keep in mind: AI tools run on credits: 5 a month on the first plan, 100 on the top one.

Metricool. Best for agencies managing many brands on a budget.

• What it does: plans, schedules and analyses organic social, benchmarks competitors, reports, and shows ad campaigns, with an AI assistant and a connector for Claude and ChatGPT.

• Price: free for one brand. From $25 a month for up to 5 brands.

• Keep in mind: the free plan leaves out LinkedIn and X.

5. Listening and analytics at scale

Sprout Social. Best for larger teams that need publishing, inbox, listening and reporting in one place.

• What it does: publishing, a shared inbox, analytics, listening, advocacy and influencer marketing, with Trellis, an AI agent that sums up trends and competitor themes.

• Price: from $79 a seat a month billed yearly; most teams land on the $199 or $299 plans. 30-day free trial, no card.

• Keep in mind: listening and premium analytics are add-ons from the Standard plan up.

Hootsuite. Best for teams that want one place for publishing, inbox and listening.

• What it does: publishing, an inbox, listening and insights, analytics and ads, connected by Wisdom, an AI teammate that knows your inbox, calendar and listening dashboard.

• Price: from $99 a user a month billed yearly. 14-day free trial, no card.

• Keep in mind: plans are sold per user seat.

How we'd put it together

• A brand team: Vamos for research and next week's content, a scheduler to publish, and an ad tool if you run paid.

• An agency: Vamos with a workspace per client, plus a scheduler with client reporting.

• One marketer: Vamos Pro, ChatGPT or Claude for everything else, and a free scheduler plan.

FAQ

What's the best AI tool for social media research?
It depends on the job. For finding what's working on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube in your niche and turning it into content, Vamos, Sandcastles and Virlo are built for it. For listening and reporting across your own channels, Sprout Social and Hootsuite. For ads, Spyglass and Foreplay.

Is there a free AI social media strategist?
Vamos has a free plan with 100 credits and no card. ChatGPT and Claude are free too, and can do social research with the right connectors.

Can one AI tool run a whole social team's workflow?
Not yet. The research and writing tools don't publish, and the schedulers don't research. Most teams pair one of each.