HubSpot social media tool: what it does, which plan you need, the limits

HubSpot's social media tool is part of Marketing Hub, not a product you can buy on its own: it schedules and publishes posts to Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, X, TikTok, YouTube and Reddit, and links them to your CRM contacts and campaigns. Scheduling needs Marketing Hub Professional or Enterprise, and Professional starts at $800 a month ($890 on HubSpot's monthly figure) with 3 core seats, plus a required one-time $3,000 onboarding fee.

What this means for you

If your company already runs on HubSpot, the social tool is worth switching on, because each like, comment and click can land on a real contact record. If you only want to plan posts, you'd be paying for a whole marketing suite to get a scheduler. The free tools and Starter don't include social publishing at all. Our tool page has the short version: HubSpot Social Media Tools.

The details

What each Marketing Hub tier includes for social

Where each cell comes from: accounts, posts, approvals, the Instagram inbox and the Starter "No" are from HubSpot's product catalog. The Free column, analytics, competitor feeds and draft-only are from HubSpot's knowledge base, which lists only Professional and Enterprise for social publishing. The agent is from HubSpot's Social Media Agent page, and prices are from the pricing page and catalog.

Three things on HubSpot's own pages don't line up. The pricing page shows Professional at $800 and $890 next to "Pay Monthly" and "Pay Annually" options without saying which figure is which; the catalog lists $890. Extra Professional seats start at $45 a month on the pricing page and $50 in the catalog. And the catalog lists social approvals on Professional, while the approvals help article says Marketing Hub Enterprise is required for social posts. Ask HubSpot sales to put the approvals answer in writing if you need it. HubSpot also offers a 14-day trial from inside your account.

Which networks it publishes to

From HubSpot's account connection article:

• Facebook: Pages only, not personal profiles. Connected Pages need re-authorizing every 90 days. Feed posts and stories.
• Instagram: professional accounts linked to a Facebook Page you manage. Photos, carousels of up to 10 files, reels and stories.
• LinkedIn: your personal profile plus Company or Showcase Pages where you're an admin. LinkedIn Groups can't be connected.
• X, TikTok (personal and business accounts), YouTube (your channel or a brand account) and Reddit (a subreddit or your own profile).

Threads, Pinterest, Bluesky, Google Business Profile and Mastodon don't appear in HubSpot's list of accounts you can connect. If you need them, see the network hubs for other options.

What it can't do

• Links in Instagram and TikTok captions show as plain text, not clickable links. You can't use custom tracking URLs, and you can't add alt text to Instagram images.
• Published Instagram and TikTok posts and Facebook stories can't be deleted through HubSpot. You delete them in the app itself.
• TikTok and Reddit posts are desktop only. TikTok posts can't mix photos and video.
• The mobile app publishes to Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, X and YouTube, but not Facebook stories.
• The calendar shows only posts published or scheduled through HubSpot. A beta lets Super Admins show outside posts too.
• Bulk upload takes up to 300 posts and 50 accounts per file, can take 15 minutes to 24 hours to process, and can't @mention on Facebook or LinkedIn.
• The social inbox covers Instagram direct messages only, on the web, not in the mobile app.
• Keyword feeds are X only and show the past seven days.
• Reports leave out boosted posts and ads, hold nothing before July 1, 2025, collect post data for 30 days after publishing, and delete LinkedIn data after a year.

Team use and the social calendar

On Professional and Enterprise, everyone with social permissions can review drafted, scheduled and published posts on the calendar and filter by account, campaign, post type, status or the user who created the post. HubSpot's calendar article doesn't mention comments or notes on posts. Permissions come in three levels: all accessible accounts, only their own connected accounts, or draft only. Draft only is Enterprise. Those users can save drafts but not publish, and someone with full access approves them from the Drafts view. A "Publish like a human" setting shifts each post up to 10 minutes either side of its slot so it doesn't land on the exact minute.

Integrations

The point of the tool is the CRM: HubSpot says social interactions connect to contacts and posts can be tied to marketing campaigns, so reports show visits, leads and deals from social. It can share blog posts automatically when they're published, connect Bitly for branded short links, and post from a Chrome extension. Going the other way, Agorapulse and Sprout Social both list a HubSpot integration, so you can keep a dedicated scheduler and still send data to HubSpot.

AI and the social agent

• Breeze Assistant writes captions and hashtags, and can turn a blog post into a social post. An admin has to switch it on in AI settings. Generating images needs a Content Hub subscription.
• Social Media Agent (beta) suggests posts, helps plan and schedule them, and uses your past performance data. HubSpot says you review and approve every post before it's published or scheduled.
• AI post generator (beta) and AI sentiment insights (beta) are on the product page.

Professional includes 3,000 HubSpot Credits a month and Enterprise 5,000. HubSpot's social pages don't say how many credits the social AI features use.

Who it suits, and who should pick something else

It suits teams that already pay for Marketing Hub Professional, or plan to for email and automation anyway. For them, social is included and the CRM link is something dedicated schedulers can't fully copy.

Pick a dedicated scheduler if social is the main job:

• Free or built-in first: if you post to one or two networks, their own schedulers may be enough: Meta Business Suite, LinkedIn and YouTube Studio. Zoho Social has a free plan for 1 brand with 6 channels, and its Premium plan ($40 a month billed yearly) adds approvals.
• Approvals at a flat price: SocialPilot Standard is $42.50 a month billed yearly for 15 accounts, 3 users, an inbox and approvals, and it covers Threads, Pinterest, Bluesky and Google Business Profile.
• An inbox for a small team, with a HubSpot link: Agorapulse starts at $79 per user a month billed yearly for 10 profiles.
• Deep analytics, still connected to HubSpot: Sprout Social Essentials is $79 per seat a month billed yearly for up to 5 profiles.

At 3 users, Agorapulse Standard costs $237 a month billed yearly, against $800 for HubSpot Professional before the $3,000 onboarding fee. For your own mix of networks and team size, try the scheduler picker.

What to do next

• Business owners: If you're not on HubSpot Professional already, don't buy it for social. Start with Zoho Social's free plan or SocialPilot.
• Marketers and agencies: Already on Professional? Connect your accounts and check the Instagram, TikTok and approval limits above before you move your calendar over.
• Developers: HubSpot's social pages say nothing about a social publishing API, so plan on the UI, the bulk CSV upload or a scheduler that has an API.