In the ever-evolving landscape of digital marketing, where the tides of social media shift with the moon, choosing the right tool to navigate these waters can mean the difference between sailing smoothly and being left adrift. Among the myriad of compasses available to the modern marketer, Later and Zoho Social stand out as beacons for those looking to chart their course through the social media sea. Whether you’re a small business owner, a burgeoning content creator, or a seasoned digital marketing sailor, the decision between Later and Zoho Social could steer your social media strategy towards uncharted success or into the doldrums. Lets set sail into this comparison.
| Later | Zoho Social |
|---|---|
 |  |
| G2 Score -4.5 out of 5 | G2 Score -4.6 out of 5 |
| TrustRadius Score -8.4 out of 10 | TrustRadius Score -9.1 out of 10 |
Ease of Use and User Experience (UX)
In the bustling ports of social media, where every post is a message in a bottle hoping to reach an audience ashore, the usability of your chosen tool is paramount. Here’s how Later and Zoho Social fare in offering a seamless, user-friendly experience.
Later: The Visual Content Voyager
Later prides itself on its intuitive interface, designed with a keen eye for the visual content creator. Its streamlined design is particularly suited for platforms like Instagram and Pinterest, offering a visually oriented content calendar and scheduling tools that allow for easy planning and visualization of your social media feed. This focus on aesthetics makes Later especially appealing for brands and creators who prioritize a cohesive and engaging visual narrative.
One of Later’s hallmark features is its “Visual Instagram Planner,” which allows users to meticulously plan their feed to ensure that each post aligns perfectly with their visual strategy. This tool is invaluable for maintaining a curated appearance, making Later a favored choice for those navigating the visual waters of social media.
Zoho Social: The Strategic Social Navigator
Zoho Social takes a broader tack, offering a comprehensive suite of tools designed for businesses and agencies managing a multi-platform strategy. Its interface, while robust, emphasizes functionality and strategic planning across various social networks, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Google My Business. Zoho Social’s strength lies in its ability to cater to the strategic marketer, offering detailed analytics, CRM integration, and team collaboration features.
Zoho Social’s SmartQ feature, which suggests the optimal times for posting based on audience activity, exemplifies its focus on strategic engagement. This, combined with its advanced listening and collaboration capabilities, makes Zoho Social a powerful tool for those steering a course through the complex waters of multi-platform social media management.
Content Management and Scheduling
Effective content management and scheduling are akin to setting the sails of your social media ship, guiding you to engage with your audience consistently and efficiently. Let’s examine how Later and Zoho Social support you in these crucial tasks.
Later: The Visual Content Captain
Later’s content management and scheduling features are meticulously designed for visual impact, making it particularly suitable for Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, and Twitter. Its user-friendly drag-and-drop calendar allows for seamless planning, enabling you to curate your social media feed visually. This focus on aesthetics is crucial for brands and creators prioritizing a cohesive and visually appealing online presence. Later supports auto-publishing on major platforms, enhancing efficiency by enabling you to schedule posts in advance to go live automatically. The ability to schedule Instagram Stories and carousels further enriches Later’s utility, catering to the diverse content types popular on visual platforms.
Zoho Social: The Strategic Content Navigator
Zoho Social offers a broad suite of content management and scheduling tools designed for businesses and agencies managing a multi-platform strategy. Its interface facilitates detailed planning and organization across various social networks, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Google My Business. Zoho Social’s strength lies in its strategic features, such as the SmartQ for optimal posting times, advanced listening tools, and collaboration features for team-based social media management.
Zoho Social’s bulk scheduling and content calendar provide a comprehensive overview of your social media plan, enabling efficient management of your content strategy. Its integration with Zoho CRM and other Zoho products further enhances its capability, making it a powerful tool for businesses looking to integrate social media deeply into their overall marketing strategy.
Analytics and Reporting
In the voyage of social media management, having robust analytics and reporting tools is akin to navigating with a sextant and stars, guiding your decisions with precision and insight. Let’s delve into the analytics and reporting capabilities of Later and Zoho Social.
Later: Insightful Visual Analytics
Later focuses on providing analytics primarily suited for visual content platforms, with particular emphasis on Instagram. It delivers insights into key performance metrics such as reach, impressions, engagement rates, and follower growth. For brands and creators heavily invested in Instagram, Later’s analytics offer valuable insights into stories and feed posts, helping to gauge content performance and audience interaction effectively.
Later’s analytics are presented in an intuitive, visually appealing format, making it easy for users to digest data and derive actionable insights. This approach allows for quick assessment and adjustment of strategies to enhance content performance and audience engagement on visual platforms.
Zoho Social: Comprehensive Multi-Platform Analytics
Zoho Social offers a broader analytics suite, providing detailed insights across multiple social media platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Google My Business. Its analytics encompass a wide range of metrics, from basic engagement statistics to more advanced analysis like the best times to post, audience demographics, and social media ROI.
Zoho Social’s reporting tools are particularly robust, allowing users to generate custom reports that can include a variety of metrics tailored to specific business needs. This level of customization and comprehensive analysis makes Zoho Social a powerful tool for businesses and agencies seeking to understand and improve their social media strategy across various channels.
Pricing
| Later | Free Plan: Later offers a free plan that includes 1 social set (Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest), 30 posts per social profile, and 1 user. Starter Plan: Starting at $15 per month, offering 1 social set, 60 posts per social profile, and 1 user, along with basic analytics. Growth Plan: Starting at $25 per month, with 1 social set, 150 posts per social profile, and 3 users, including more advanced analytics and features. Advanced Plan: Starting at $40 per month, this plan includes 1 social set, unlimited posts, and 6 users, with the most advanced analytics and features. |
| Zoho Social | Standard Plan: Starting at $10 per month (billed annually) for 1 brand (7 channels) and 2 team members, including basic publishing and monitoring features. Professional Plan: At $30 per month (billed annually), adding more advanced features like the bulk scheduler and custom reports for 1 brand. Premium Plan: Starting at $40 per month (billed annually), for 1 brand with additional features like ad integration and advanced analytics. Agency Plan: At $200 per month (billed annually), managing up to 10 brands, designed for agencies and larger teams. Agency Plus Plan: Starting at $300 per month (billed annually), with the capacity to manage up to 20 brands. |
Integration and Compatibility
The integration capabilities of a social media management tool can turn it from a standalone application into a central hub for your entire online marketing operation. Let’s assess how Later and Zoho Social fare in this crucial area.
Later: Streamlined Integration for Visual Platforms
Later is designed with a focus on visual content, offering integrations that complement its core functionality as a social media scheduling tool. It integrates directly with major social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest, facilitating content scheduling and publishing directly from the Later interface. In addition to social platform integrations, Later offers connectivity with Shopify, enabling e-commerce businesses to link their products directly in their social media posts, creating shoppable content that drives sales directly from social media feeds.
This integration is particularly valuable for brands leveraging Instagram as a key component of their e-commerce strategy. While Later’s integrations are somewhat specialized, focusing mainly on visual content platforms and e-commerce, its targeted approach ensures users have the tools needed to enhance their visual marketing strategy effectively.
Zoho Social: Broad Integration Across the Marketing Stack
Zoho Social offers a wider range of integration options, designed to fit seamlessly into the broader Zoho ecosystem and beyond. Its integration with Zoho CRM is a standout feature, allowing businesses to connect their social media activities directly with their customer relationship management processes. This integration enables a more unified approach to customer engagement, lead generation, and sales activities. Beyond the Zoho ecosystem, Zoho Social integrates with a variety of other platforms and services, enhancing its utility as a comprehensive social media management tool. These integrations support a more connected and efficient workflow, allowing businesses to leverage social media insights across their marketing and sales operations.
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Customer Support
The availability and quality of customer support can significantly impact your ability to effectively utilize a social media management tool, influencing everything from troubleshooting to strategic implementation.
Later: Emphasis on User Support
Later places a strong emphasis on user support, offering a comprehensive Help Center filled with articles, guides, and video tutorials aimed at helping users navigate the platform, troubleshoot issues, and maximize the use of Later’s features. For direct inquiries, Later provides email support, ensuring users can seek personalized assistance for more complex challenges they encounter. While Later may not offer live chat or phone support, the depth and accessibility of its self-service resources, combined with the responsiveness of its email support, effectively cater to the needs of its user base, ensuring assistance is readily available when needed.
Zoho Social: Comprehensive Support Across Channels
Zoho Social offers a robust customer support framework, featuring multiple channels including email support, live chat, and a detailed knowledge base. The inclusion of live chat is particularly noteworthy, offering users the opportunity to receive immediate assistance for urgent queries or operational challenges, ensuring minimal disruption to their social media activities. Zoho Social’s commitment to providing timely and helpful support is evident in its proactive and responsive support system, designed to address user issues efficiently and enhance the overall user experience.
Educational Resources
Beyond immediate support, educational resources are crucial for mastering a platform and staying informed about the latest social media trends and strategies.
Later: Focused on Visual Marketing Education
Later provides a wealth of educational content, particularly tailored to visual social media marketing. Through its blog, webinars, and newsletters, Later offers actionable insights, platform updates, and strategic advice, especially useful for brands and creators focusing on Instagram and Pinterest. This commitment to educating its users extends to offering tips on visual storytelling, content planning, and leveraging social media for brand growth.
Zoho Social: Broad Spectrum of Digital Marketing Insights
Zoho Social’s educational offerings include a comprehensive blog and online guides that cover a wide range of topics, from social media strategy and content creation to analytics and team collaboration. Focused on providing users with the knowledge to optimize their social media presence, Zoho Social’s resources are designed to support a broad audience, including businesses and agencies looking for in-depth social media marketing insights.
Final Insights
Later stands out as a particularly user-friendly platform, especially favored by brands and creators with a strong focus on visual content. Its intuitive design, combined with powerful scheduling features for platforms like Instagram and Pinterest, makes it an ideal choice for those prioritizing aesthetics and engagement through visually compelling content. Later’s Shopify integration further enhances its appeal to e-commerce businesses seeking to leverage social media for sales. The platform’s extensive educational content and responsive email support equip users with the tools and knowledge to navigate the evolving landscape of social media marketing effectively. Zoho Social, on the other hand, excels as a comprehensive social media management solution designed to meet the needs of businesses and agencies managing a multi-platform presence. Its robust suite of features supports detailed analytics, CRM integration, and team collaboration, making it a powerful tool for strategic social media management. Zoho Social’s broad range of integrations, coupled with its proactive customer support across multiple channels and a wealth of educational resources, positions it as a versatile platform for users seeking to deepen their social media strategy and integration within the broader marketing ecosystem.
