Comparison
Herd vs Metricool
A social media scheduling and analytics tool with a free tier, built for managing several brand accounts at once. This page puts it beside Herd for UK creators, with the pricing checked on 21 September 2026 and the places Metricool wins written down as such.
Herd at a glance
- Plans
- From £99/month for creators, in GBP
- Covers
- Creators, brands and agencies in one account, on the same deal record
- Based
- United Kingdom. Herd UK Ltd, registered in England & Wales
- Best for
- UK creators who want the content, the paperwork and the money in one system rather than in eleven tabs
Metricool at a glance
- Pricing
- There is a free plan, then Starter at €20 a month or €16 billed annually, Advanced at $67 a month or $53 billed annually, and a Custom tier.
- Head office
- Madrid, Spain
- Best for
- Social media managers and small agencies who publish and report across many client accounts and need nothing beyond that.
Pricing last checked 21 September 2026 from metricool.com.
Prices in EUR and USD; features change, check Metricool's site before deciding.
The short version
Metricool is a cheap, capable scheduler with reporting that beats ours, and it covers networks we do not. It has no answer for deals, contracts, invoices or payouts. If publishing is the whole job, use Metricool. If the money and the paperwork are the job, use Herd.
Metricool is run from Madrid, Spain. It suits social media managers and small agencies who publish and report across many client accounts and need nothing beyond that.
Herd is a UK product with three sides in one account. Creators run content, deals, contracts and invoices. Brands run campaigns, review content and pay creator invoices by card. Agencies run a roster with commission splits and white-label client portals. Herd costs from £99/month for creators, billed in pounds. That breadth is the whole trade: Herd covers more of the week, and in a few places it covers it less thoroughly than Metricool does.
Feature by feature
Every line in the Herd column is a feature that works today. The Metricool column is what its own site and the listings we read showed on 21 September 2026: a dash means we could not find the feature there, and a plan name in the Herd column is the plan the feature starts on.
| Feature | Herd | Metricool |
|---|---|---|
| Who it is for | ||
| Creators | Free, £99 or £299 a month | Free, then from €16 a month annual |
| Brands | £999 a month with campaigns and contracts | Scheduling and analytics only |
| Agencies | £1,999 a month with roster and commission | Multi-account scheduling |
| Content | ||
| Networks published to | Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, X | More networks, including LinkedIn and Pinterest |
| Content calendar and drafts | Yes | Yes |
| Post analytics and competitor reporting | Post and account metrics only | Yes |
| Video editor with server-side export | Yes | No |
| Media kit and rate card | Yes | No |
| Deals & paperwork | ||
| Deals pipeline | Yes | No |
| Proposals and contracts with e-signature | Pro | No |
| Money | ||
| Invoices with a card pay link | Starter and above | No |
| Payouts to your own bank | Stripe Connect | No |
| Expenses, cashflow and tax view | Pro | No |
| Agency commission splits | Yes | No |
| Communication | ||
| Gmail or Outlook inbox | Yes | No |
| Video meetings with guest links | Yes | No |
| Team & agency | ||
| White-label client portals | Yes | Not verified |
| Pricing & billing | ||
| Currency | GBP | EUR and USD |
| Free plan | Yes, for creators | Yes |
Where Metricool is stronger
Nothing below is a concession for the sake of looking fair. These are the parts of Metricool that Herd either does not have or does less well, and if one of them is the deciding factor for you, buy Metricool.
- A free plan that covers a single brand properly, where Herd Free cannot publish at all.
- Publishing and analytics across more networks than Herd, including LinkedIn and Pinterest.
- Competitor tracking and ads reporting, which Herd does not attempt.
- Very cheap per managed account compared with Herd.
- European, with EUR pricing on the entry tier.
What Herd adds
The other direction. These are jobs Herd covers that we could not find in Metricool's published feature list when we checked on 21 September 2026, taken from the same list as the table above, plus the differences in how the two are priced. Some of them sit on the higher Herd plans, and the pricing below says which.
- No deals pipeline, proposals, contracts or e-signature.
- No invoicing and no payments.
- No Gmail or Outlook inbox.
- No media kit, public profile or rate card.
- No brand campaign loop and no agency commission or payouts.
- No expenses, cashflow or tax view.
Pricing side by side
There is a free plan, then Starter at €20 a month or €16 billed annually, Advanced at $67 a month or $53 billed annually, and a Custom tier. Those figures are from Metricool's own pricing page, last checked on 21 September 2026. Herd is priced in pounds and costs from £99/month for creators, with 17% off when you pay for the year and a 14-day cooling-off period on every paid plan.
Herd, in pounds
For creators
- FreeFree, no card
- Starter£99/month, £986/year
- Pro£299/month, £2,978/year
For brands
- Brand£999/month, £9,950/year
For agencies
- Agency£1,999/month, £19,190/year
Annual billing saves 17% on creator and Brand plans and 20% on the Agency plan. 14-day cooling-off on every paid plan. Brands and agencies can book a live demo before subscribing.
Metricool, as published
- Free€0
- Starter€20/mo or €16/mo annual
EUR
- Advanced$67/mo or $53/mo annual
USD
- CustomOn quote
Pricing last checked 21 September 2026 from metricool.com.
Those figures are from Metricool's own pricing page, last checked on 21 September 2026.
Prices in EUR and USD; features change, check Metricool's site before deciding.
Invoices and money
The invoice, the pay link and the payout in one place
An invoice in Herd is attached to the deal it came from and carries a card pay link, so the brand can settle it without a bank transfer form. What it is not is a general accounting package: Herd does not replace your accountant, and it does not track billable hours.
- Send real invoices with a card pay link from Starter upwards.
- On Pro, Stripe Connect settles the money into your own bank rather than a platform wallet.
- Expenses, cashflow and a tax view sit beside the invoices in Financials.
Herd and Metricool, asked and answered
- No. Metricool has a free plan and Starter is €16 a month billed annually. Herd Starter is £99. If all you need is scheduling and reporting, Metricool is much better value.
- Herd takes nightly snapshots of your connected accounts and reports follower and engagement figures, with engagement worked out as the average of per-post rates. It does not do competitor tracking or hashtag research. Metricool is stronger here.
- No. There is no deals pipeline, no contract, no invoice and no payment. It schedules posts and reports on them, which it does well.
- Many do. Metricool for client account scheduling and reporting, Herd for the roster, the deals, the commission and the client portals. They sit either side of a clean line.
Simple pricing in pounds
One price per side of the market. Annual billing saves 17% on creator and Brand plans and 20% on the Agency plan.
Free
Have a proper look around
£0/month
No card needed.
- Content calendar and drafts
- One draft deal to set up
- Invoice preview
- Dashboard with sample data
- Video editor · 1 watermarked export a month
- Community
- Send invoices or activate deals
- Inbox, meetings, media kit
- 7 days of history
- No social integrations
Starter
Run the business by hand
£99/month
Billed monthly. Cancel from your settings at any time.
- Active deals · Up to 5 at a time
- Send invoices your clients pay by card through Stripe
- Stripe payouts to your own bank
- Gmail or Outlook inbox and opportunities queue
- Live media kit, rate card and video meetings
- Video exports · 5 a month, no watermark
- Social integrations · 2 connected accounts
- Contracts, expenses, products and memberships
- 90 days of history
- No automated reminders
Pro
The whole business, no limits
£299/month
Billed monthly. Cancel from your settings at any time.
- Unlimited active deals and video exports
- Contracts with e-signature
- Proposals to brands and agencies
- Payments page with your Stripe balance and payout history
- Digital products and memberships
- Expenses, cashflow and tax-ready exports
- Asset library and email
- Unlimited social integrations
- Prices in GBP. VAT added where applicable.
- Annual billing saves 17% on creator and Brand plans and 20% on the Agency plan.
- 14-day cooling-off period on every paid plan.
- Card payment through Stripe. Cancel from your settings at any time.
- Platform fee on digital product sales: 5%.
Keep reading
The switching notes for Metricool, the other comparisons UK creators tend to read, and how Herd works day to day.
Herd has a page for each side of the market: creators, brands and agencies. The full list of what the product does is on the features page, and every plan and fee is on the pricing page.
- Metricool alternativeWhat changes if you move, what you give up, and the steps for leaving Metricool.
- Herd vs BeaconsA creator toolkit built around a link-in-bio page, with a storefront, an auto-updating media kit, email and invoicing attached to it.
- Herd vs KitlyA media kit and collaboration tracker for creators, with a separate product, Kitly Business, for agencies managing a roster.
- Herd vs LaterA social media scheduler with a visual planner, publishing to seven or more networks, a link-in-bio page and post analytics.
- How creators use HerdA working week on Herd from the creator side, feature by feature.
Run the business side from one screen
Plan the week, send the invoice, sign the contract and watch the money land in your own bank account.
The free plan does not expire and needs no card.