How Much Does Social Media Management Cost?
Social media management runs from about $100 a month at the low end to several thousand at agencies that publish nothing. Ziwi prints both numbers: Social Starter is $197 a month for one platform and two posts a week, and Ziwi's social media management is $497 a month for the full plan.
Two plans, month to month
- $197/moSocial Starter, one platform
- $497/moSocial, the full plan
vsTypical freelance quote$400 for four posts a month, with no published benchmark
Posts built from your real work, written and published for you. Two a week on Starter.
See how we compareSocial media is the one line in a local marketing budget where nobody can tell you what normal looks like. "Social media management pricing" gets about 590 searches a month, and "social media management cost" another 260, roughly 920 a month across the whole cost cluster (our September 2026 pull). Almost none of the pages answering those searches end with a price. Below are the market numbers we could source, the two Ziwi prices, and the honest line between what a monthly fee covers and what it does not.
See the full social media management page
How much does social media management cost per month?
Expect $100 to $5,000 a month from an agency, with most small local businesses landing in the low hundreds. Ziwi charges $197 a month for Social Starter, which is one platform and two posts a week, and $497 a month for Social, the full plan. Both are month to month, and the accounts stay in your name. The $100 to $5,000 range is WebFX's published figure for agency social media marketing (webfx.com, checked September 2026).
| What you are buying | Typical market price, September 2026 | Ziwi's published price |
|---|---|---|
| Managed posting, one platform | $100 to $5,000 a month for agency social media marketing (WebFX) | $197 a month, Social Starter, one platform, two posts a week |
| Managed posting, multi-platform plan | $100 to $5,000 a month, same published range (WebFX) | $497 a month, Social |
| Scheduling software only, one user | Hootsuite Standard $99 per user a month, Sprout Social Standard $199 per seat a month | Included, you never see a separate software bill |
| Billing terms | Hootsuite and Sprout Social both publish a lower monthly rate for annual billing | Month to month, no annual commitment to get the price |
| Paid ad spend | Not included in a management fee anywhere | Not included, that is the $297, $497 or $797 ads ladder |
| Who owns the accounts | Varies, often unstated | You do, from day one, including the page and the content |
The software prices in that table come straight from the vendors' own pricing pages on 3 September 2026. Hootsuite lists Standard at $99, Professional at $199 and Advanced at $399 per user per month on annual billing. Sprout Social lists Essentials at $79 per seat per month on annual billing or $99 billed monthly, Standard at $199, Professional at $299 and Advanced at $399 per seat. Those are the tools, with no one writing or posting anything.
What do freelancers charge for social media?
There is no public benchmark for freelance social media rates, which is the honest answer. Freelancers usually price per platform per month or by the hour, and quotes for the same brief routinely differ by several hundred dollars.
The useful comparison is not their number against an agency number, it is total cost against output: how many posts, on how many platforms, written by whom, and who replies to the comments.
- Count the posts, not the retainer. Two posts a week is eight or nine a month. A $400 quote for four posts is more expensive per post than $197 for eight.
- Ask who writes and who designs. A scheduling-only arrangement still leaves you making the content, which is the part that takes the time.
- Ask who holds the logins. A page you do not control is a business risk, not a marketing choice.
- Ask what happens to the work if you stop. At Ziwi the pages, the posts and the assets are yours, and the plan is month to month.
What does $197 a month actually include?
Social Starter at $197 a month covers one platform and two posts a week, written, designed and scheduled for you. Social at $497 a month covers the wider plan across more platforms with more posting. Both include the tool cost, so there is no separate Hootsuite or Sprout Social bill on top, and both are billed month to month.
- 01
Included: the writing and the design. Posts are produced for you, not scheduled from a list you supply.
- 02
Included: the scheduling software. At published rates that is a $99 to $199 a month line item on its own.
- 03
Included: your brand, on your accounts. Everything is built inside profiles you own.
- 04
Not included: ad spend. Boosting or running campaigns is paid social, priced on the ads ladder, with spend paid to Meta on your own card.
- 05
Not included: promises about followers. Nobody can honestly promise reach or follower counts, so we sell the work and print the price.
Want the posting handled?
Is social media management the same as running Facebook ads?
No. Social media management is organic posting on your own pages, priced at $197 or $497 a month.
Facebook and Instagram advertising is a separate service with its own fee ladder, $297 a month with ad spend up to $1,500, $497 with spend from $1,500 to $3,500 and $797 above $3,500, plus the ad spend you pay Meta directly. The distinction matters, because posting reaches the people who already follow you and advertising reaches the people who do not. If your goal this quarter is new customers rather than presence, read what Facebook ads management costs before you buy either.
Is social media management worth it for a local business?
It is worth it when your buyers check your profile before they call, which is most of them, and it is not worth much when you expect it to replace search. A quiet page with a post from 2023 costs you trust at the exact moment someone is deciding. Two credible posts a week at $197 a month is a reasonable price to keep that check from going badly. Judge it on the questions in your inbox and the profile visits, not on likes.
- 01
Pick one platform and do it properly. For most local trades that is Facebook or Instagram, not four accounts posted to once a month.
- 02
Post at a rate you can keep up forever. Two a week beats a burst of daily posting that stops in March.
- 03
Send people somewhere that books. A profile link to a page that converts matters more than the caption.
- 04
Answer the messages fast. Comments and DMs are leads that arrived without a form.
- 05
Review the number after 90 days. Profile visits, messages and booked jobs, not follower count.
As of our SERP check on 3 September 2026, page one for "social media management pricing" is a Reddit thread plus posts from Cloud Campaign, Planable, LYFE Marketing and EmberTribe, most of which give a range and then ask for your details. Ziwi's numbers are on the page and on the invoice: $197 a month for Social Starter, $497 a month for Social. See what is in each tier on Ziwi's social media management service, or compare every plan on the published pricing page.