Later's inbox in 2026: what it costs and what it skips

Later puts its inbox, called Conversations, on the Growth plan at $50 a month, or $37.50 billed yearly, as of September 2026. That inbox has no YouTube or LinkedIn conversations, so stay on Later if Instagram, Facebook and TikTok comments are all you answer. BetterSocials is the best fit for one owner who sells in comments and DMs across six platforms, from $29 a month, or $24 billed yearly, for four accounts.

Agorapulse suits teams that assign messages to each other. Buffer suits a tight budget when you only answer comments.

Where Later's inbox stops, priced plan by plan

Later's Conversations inbox only opens on its middle plan, and that sets the price of staying. We took the cost question for this log: what each tool charges before its inbox opens, and what the inbox reads once it does.

Later sells three plans, as of September 2026. Starter is $25 a month, or $18.75 billed yearly. Growth is $50 a month, or $37.50 billed yearly, and Scale is $110 a month, or $82.50 billed yearly.

Conversations starts on Growth. It holds Instagram DMs and comments, Facebook DMs and comments, and TikTok comments. Later has no YouTube conversations and no LinkedIn conversations.

Stay on Later if your buyers write to you on Instagram and Facebook and your TikTok traffic is comments. Look elsewhere if your questions arrive under YouTube videos, on a LinkedIn Company Page or in TikTok DMs.

Which Later alternative fits your inbox and your budget?

BetterSocials is our pick for a solo owner or small business whose comments and DMs bring in customers. Its inbox holds comments and DMs from Instagram, Facebook and TikTok, plus comments from YouTube, Threads and LinkedIn Company Pages. Creator is $29 a month, or $24 billed yearly, for four accounts and one login, with unlimited contacts.

Agorapulse is the pick for teams. It costs $79 per user a month on annual billing, as of July 2026. Its inbox lets a team assign comments and messages, catch reply collisions and use AI reply suggestions, and the Agorapulse Inbox Explained guide walks through it.

Hootsuite and Sprout Social suit larger teams with a budget. Hootsuite's inbox starts on Standard at $99 per user a month, and Sprout Social's starts on Standard at $199 per seat a month. Both are billed annually, as of October 2026.

Metricool and Buffer suit a tight budget. Metricool's inbox opens on its free plan and reads YouTube comments. Buffer charges $5 a channel a month on annual billing, as of October 2026, and its inbox covers comments only, with no DMs.

Eight schedulers with an inbox, and the plan that opens it

BetterSocials and seven rivals schedule posts and also hold the replies that come back. The table shows where each inbox starts and what it reads, with prices as of October 2026 except Later (September 2026) and Agorapulse (July 2026).

Pallyy's inbox covers Instagram DMs and comments, Facebook messages and comments, LinkedIn comments, TikTok comments and Google reviews, with no YouTube. It starts at $25 a month, or $20 billed yearly. BetterSocials costs a few dollars more at both billing periods.

For those few dollars, BetterSocials brings YouTube comments into the inbox, where Pallyy's inbox has no YouTube. BetterSocials also includes AI replies to comments and DMs, and keyword comment-to-DM, which means a keyword in a comment sends that person a DM with your link.

Vista Social Professional is $99 a month, or $80 billed yearly, with two users. It pairs a real inbox with DM automations.

Buffer, Metricool and Agorapulse inboxes, side by side

Buffer's Community inbox comes with every plan and covers comments only, so Instagram and Facebook DMs stay in the phone app. It does read YouTube comments. Buffer wins on price: four channels cost 4 x $5 = $20 a month on annual billing.

Metricool's inbox opens on the free plan, which allows one brand and 20 scheduled posts a month, and it reads YouTube comments there. Starter is $25 a month, or $20 billed yearly, for five brands, and LinkedIn joins the inbox on Starter. Advanced is $67 a month, or $53 billed yearly, per Metricool's pricing page.

Metricool's free inbox suits you if you want analytics and you answer every message yourself. For a comment that sends your link by DM, BetterSocials does that with a keyword on Instagram and Facebook.

Agorapulse's pricing page lists comment moderation, inbox labels, saved replies, assignment, reply collision detection and AI reply suggestions. Automated moderation gives one free rule per social profile on the lower tiers and unlimited rules on the top tier. At $79 per user a month on annual billing, it fits a team that splits the inbox between people.

Which inboxes read YouTube and LinkedIn comments

BetterSocials reads YouTube comments on videos and Shorts, and comments on LinkedIn Company Pages, with public replies from the same inbox. Buffer, Metricool and SocialBee also read YouTube comments. SocialBee's plan page lists YouTube comments and LinkedIn Company comments in its engagement inbox, as of October 2026.

BetterSocials puts YouTube comments in the same inbox as Instagram and Facebook DMs. YouTube has no DM API for any tool, so every scheduler answers YouTube with public comment replies only.

LinkedIn doesn't let any app read a personal profile's comments or messages. Any LinkedIn comment you see in a scheduler's inbox comes from a Company Page.

Two more platform rules shape every inbox. Instagram only lets a business reply to a DM within 24 hours of the person's last message. TikTok DMs are reply-only, with ten replies within 48 hours of the person's last message, and the account must be a Business account.

What four and six accounts cost each month

BetterSocials Creator covers four accounts for $29 a month, or $24 billed yearly. Pro covers six accounts for $49 a month, or $39 billed yearly. Team covers 12 accounts and unlimited teammates for $99 a month, or $79 billed yearly.

Buffer is cheaper at matching counts. Six channels on Buffer cost 6 x $5 = $30 a month on annual billing. On yearly billing, BetterSocials costs a few dollars more at four accounts ($24 against $20) and under ten dollars more at six ($39 against $30).

What the gap buys is the DM side of the inbox, AI replies and keyword comment-to-DM. If you only answer comments, Buffer's price is the better deal.

Agorapulse and Hootsuite charge per user. One person pays $79 a month on Agorapulse and $99 a month on Hootsuite Standard, both billed annually. A second teammate doubles each bill.

Later's Growth plan, where Conversations starts, is $50 a month, or $37.50 billed yearly.

What BetterSocials charges and what its inbox does

BetterSocials sells three plans: Creator, Pro and Team. Every plan has unlimited contacts and unlimited keyword automations, and nothing is billed per contact. Each plan comes with a 7-day free trial (card required) and a 30-day money-back guarantee on the first paid charge.

BetterSocials splits AI replies into two sections, Comments and DMs, each set to Off, Draft for me or Reply in my voice. Draft for me writes a draft the moment a comment or DM arrives, and nothing posts until you approve it. Reply in my voice answers everyday comments 1 to 5 minutes later and answers a DM about a minute after it arrives.

Questions wait in Needs reply unless you turn on Answer questions too. That switch only turns on once you've written at least one AI rule, such as your prices, hours or booking link. Each AI reply or draft uses 1 AI credit, and Creator includes 1,000 credits a month.

Keyword comment-to-DM sends a private DM with your link on Instagram and Facebook. On TikTok, YouTube, Threads and LinkedIn Company Pages, the keyword posts a public reply with the link instead. Posting and scheduling to all six platforms sit in the same app.