Loomly

Loomly helps you plan, write, approve and schedule social posts in one calendar. It is aimed at teams and agencies that need a clear sign-off step before anything goes live. It also offers post ideas and optimisation hints in the composer, which can help when you are short of ideas.

It can fit a small team that needs approvals, for example an owner who wants to check posts written by staff or a freelancer. Reviewers praise the clear calendar and approval roles. The weaknesses are price jumps and support. Reviewers describe support as mostly automated, and a third-party review says the jump from the lower to the higher plan is steep.

A third-party review from a competitor, checked against Loomly's pricing page, gives Starter at $65 a month or $49 a month billed yearly for 12 accounts and 3 users. Beyond is $332 a month or $249 billed yearly for 60 accounts. Enterprise is by quote. Reviewers complain about price rises, so confirm current prices on the Loomly pricing page.

You can draft posts, preview them for each network, set approval steps with custom roles, schedule publishing, and use Canva export, Unsplash, Giphy and Google Drive uploads. It has link shorteners with their own analytics and mobile apps. Reviewers say it has no comment or DM handling, and social listening is capped, so it is a planning tool first.

Loomly helps; it does not replace a person. It organises and publishes, and the idea prompts can speed up drafting, but someone still has to write well, choose images and reply to followers. Since there is no inbox for comments or messages, you will answer those in each network yourself.

Third-party reviews mention Canva, Unsplash, Giphy and Google Drive. We could not confirm a full list of supported networks or other integrations, though one review says it covers every major network. Reviewers also say Instagram publishing often needs manual steps. Ask the vendor about the exact networks and tools you use.

Check Instagram publishing first, because reviewers report problems and dropped connections. Also check how many accounts you will have, since the plan limits are firm, and how you would export your content, because one review mentions charges for that. To test it, use the trial to connect your accounts, push a week of real posts through approval, and see whether each one publishes correctly without manual steps.