Jared JamesMost marketing teams plan campaigns in one tool and publish social posts in another, and the work goes dark in the gap between the two.
Marketing planning software covers the upstream half: briefs, calendars, approvals, task assignment, and a timeline everyone can actually see. The execution layer turns that plan into published posts. This guide sorts thirteen tools worth considering and is honest about which layer each one belongs in, because the teams that ship consistently keep the layers separate.
Prices and plan limits were checked against vendor pages in August 2026.
The Short Answer
Maeve Social covers the execution slot: a Social Calendar across 9 publishing networks, an Instagram Grid Planner, approval workflows with client review links, analytics across seven supported networks, and a six-network social inbox. Plans start at $25 a month, while approvals and white-labeled reports start on Standard at $99.
For the planning layer, pick by team shape:
Maeve Social
The Social Calendar where the plan becomes published posts: drag-and-drop scheduling, approvals, and analytics from $25 a month flat.
See the Social CalendarPlan, preview, and publish in one workflow
What Separates Keepers From Tools You Abandon
Six things predict whether a planning tool survives past month three: real workflow management with dependencies and assignees rather than spreadsheet workarounds; a monthly calendar view across channels; approval workflows, because multi-stakeholder review is where plans break down; reusable campaign templates; integrations with the tools that execute the work; and reporting that lets leadership see the calendar without joining every meeting.
Not sure where to start? Begin with the cheapest tier that includes approval workflows. Teams outgrow a bare calendar much faster than they outgrow approvals.
The 13 Tools at a Glance
Vendor-listed prices as of August 2026, annual billing where noted.
| Tool | Layer | Starting Price | Free Plan |
|---|---|---|---|
| Maeve Social | Social execution | $25/mo flat | 3-day trial |
| ClickUp | All-in-one PM | $7/user/mo annual | Yes |
| monday.com | Visual campaign boards | $9/seat/mo annual, min 3 | Yes, 2 seats |
| Asana | Cross-functional PM | $10.99/user/mo annual | Yes, 2 users |
| Trello | Simple kanban | $5/user/mo annual | Yes |
| Airtable | Custom planning database | $20/seat/mo annual | Yes |
| Notion | Docs-first planning | $10/user/mo | Yes |
| Wrike | Agency PM and portals | $10/user/mo | Yes, unlimited users |
| CoSchedule | Marketing calendar + social | $19/user/mo annual | Yes, 1 profile |
| Planable | Visual content review | $39/workspace/mo | Yes, 50 posts |
| Buffer | Social-first planning | $6/channel/mo | Yes, 3 channels |
| Hootsuite | Enterprise social | $99/user/mo, annual | 30-day trial |
| HubSpot Marketing Hub | Marketing operating system | $9/seat/mo | Free tools |
1. Maeve Social, the Social Execution Layer
Maeve Social is where the plan turns into published posts. It is not a campaign-planning tool and does not pretend to be; the briefs and timelines stay in your PM tool, and Maeve handles drafting, approval, scheduling, publishing, and reporting for the social side.
The working surface: a Social Calendar with drag-and-drop scheduling across 9 platforms plus an Instagram Grid Planner, an AI assistant on monthly credits, a social inbox covering Instagram, Facebook, Threads, TikTok, YouTube, and Google Business Profile, analytics across seven supported networks, a Media Room, and, from Standard, approval workflows, client review links that need no client account, and white-labeled PDF reports. Pricing is flat within each tier's limits: 1 user on Basic, 5 on Standard, and unlimited on Premium.
The honest limits: approvals live on Standard at $99 rather than the entry plan, there is no social listening, and campaign briefs, task dependencies, and timelines belong in the PM layer, not here.
| Plan | Monthly | Social Connections | Workspaces | Users |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | $25/mo | 20 | 2 | 1 |
| Standard | $99/mo | 50 | 5 | 5 |
| Premium | $199/mo | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
2. ClickUp, the Most Features per Dollar
ClickUp tries to be everything at once: tasks, docs, whiteboards, chat, goals, dashboards. For a marketing team, the campaign brief, the calendar, the asset tracker, and team chat can all live in one product at the lowest mid-tier price in the category, $7 per user for Unlimited and $12 for Business with dashboards and serious automation quotas, plus a large template library that shortens setup.
The costs: the steepest learning curve in PM, AI as a separate add-on, and interface density that overwhelms new users. There is no native social scheduling.
3. monday.com, for Teams That Think in Boards
monday.com is the visual option: colorful boards, status columns, and several ways to view the same work. Teams that picture their pipeline moving from idea to in-progress to review to published click with it faster than with stricter list-based tools, and guest access on Standard covers client involvement.
The trade-offs: a 3-seat minimum on paid plans, time tracking and private boards on the $19 Pro tier, AI credit limits on lower tiers, and monthly billing well above the annual rates.
4. Asana, for Cross-Functional Campaign Planning
Asana is the most widely used PM tool in marketing for a plain reason: campaign briefs, task dependencies, timeline planning, and cross-team coordination genuinely work, with the gentlest learning curve among the serious tools. Goals and portfolios on Advanced map neatly onto marketing OKRs, and approvals and proofing arrive there too.
The costs: per-user pricing that climbs fast, about $250 a month for ten users on Advanced, time tracking gated to Advanced, and no native social scheduling.
5. Trello, Free and Simple Kanban
Trello keeps things simple: kanban boards, drag-and-drop cards, Power-Ups when you need more. For a small team that wants a content backlog and a now-next-published pipeline, it is honestly enough, and the free plan covers ten boards per workspace.
The limits: kanban-shaped thinking only, weak Gantt and timeline support, no marketing-specific features, and basic reporting.
6. Airtable, the Build-Your-Own System
Airtable is a spreadsheet-database hybrid that turns into a marketing planning system once you shape it: calendar, Gantt, kanban, and gallery views all read from the same records, so the campaign tracker, content calendar, and asset list stay in sync by construction. The flexibility is the product.
It costs you setup time up front and real money per seat, $20 a month on Team, and there is no social scheduling or marketing-specific automation.
7. Notion, Lightweight Planning Plus Docs
Notion is a flexible workspace rather than a PM tool, and small marketing teams lean on it as a planning hub because databases, calendars, and docs share one home: build the campaign hub once and reuse it for every launch after.
The limits: Notion now supports subtasks, dependencies, and timeline views, but its project controls remain lighter than dedicated PM tools. Business costs $20 per member monthly on annual billing, and a blank workspace takes time to shape.
8. Wrike, for Agencies That Need Client Portals
Wrike is built for service businesses: request forms, client portals, proofing, time tracking, and resource planning are core features rather than add-ons, with a free plan that allows unlimited users and a $10 Team tier serving small agencies up to its 15-user cap.
The trade-offs: the key agency features live on the $25 Business tier, and the interface feels dated next to Asana and monday.
9. CoSchedule, a Marketing Calendar With Social Built In
CoSchedule positions itself as a marketing calendar with social baked in. The free tier covers 1 user and 1 profile, Social Calendar at $19 per user a month on annual billing covers 3 non-X profiles with extra profiles at $5, and Agency Calendar at $59 adds client calendars, approvals, and white-label features, with the full Marketing Suite behind a sales call.
The catch that surprises buyers: X profiles are a separately billed $8 a month add-on per profile on both self-serve plans, and per-user pricing stacks on top, so a 3-person team pays $57 before any extra profiles.
10. Planable, for Visual Content Review
Planable is built entirely around content collaboration: posts preview exactly as they will appear on each platform, comments sit beside the content, approvals scale from optional to multi-level, and every plan includes unlimited collaborators.
The constraints: per-workspace pricing that adds up across clients, post caps of 60 and 150 a month, and analytics at $14 a month and engagement at $9 as add-ons. Planable includes AI writing assistance, but approvals and previews remain the main reason to buy it.
11. Buffer, Lightweight Social-First Planning
Buffer is one of the simplest schedulers around, and small teams that do not need an enterprise PM tool can plan content per channel with Buffer's calendar and tagging and never stand up a separate planning product at all. The free plan covers 3 channels, the AI assistant is unlimited even at $0, and the free Community inbox covers comments across its networks.
The limits: per-channel pricing compounds, approval workflows stay lightweight and live on the Team plan, and analytics are basic.
12. Hootsuite, Enterprise Social Plus Planning
Hootsuite is the enterprise incumbent on the execution side: limited listening with sentiment from Standard, competitor monitoring, its Wisdom AI assistant, compliance integrations, and add-ons for advocacy and deeper listening, with 350-post bulk scheduling and team approvals on the $399 Advanced plan.
Entry is $99 per user a month on annual billing for 10 accounts, monthly costs more, per-user pricing compounds with each seat, and there is no free plan, only a 30-day trial.
13. HubSpot Marketing Hub, the Full Operating System
HubSpot Marketing Hub is less a planning tool than a marketing operating system: email automation, landing pages, forms, ads, CRM, social publishing on the Professional tier, and campaign analytics with revenue attribution, all in one stack. For teams already on HubSpot, the planning calendar simply comes with it.
The costs are the story: Professional starts near $890 a month with a mandatory onboarding fee in the thousands, contact-based pricing escalates, and it is overkill for teams without CRM needs.
Why Most Teams Run a PM Tool and a Social Tool
A planning tool tells you what is going out. A social tool actually publishes it. The teams that ship consistently plan in Asana, monday, ClickUp, Notion, or Wrike, wherever work is already tracked, execute social in a scheduler with an approval workflow that matches the team size, and report from the execution layer's analytics.
The trap runs both directions: a PM tool cannot schedule social natively, and a social tool should not carry cross-functional campaign briefs. Pick the right tool per layer and connect them with integrations instead of overloading one product.
How We Put This List Together
Each tool was scored against five marketing-team needs: campaign planning, content calendar, approval workflows, social execution, and reporting. PM tools stay in the planning category and schedulers stay in execution. Prices and limits were checked against vendor pages in August 2026.
Maeve Social is our product. It holds the execution slot and does not plan campaigns, track tasks, or manage briefs; the two-layer recommendation stands even where the planning layer is somebody else's product entirely.
Frequently Asked Questions
The questions teams ask most about planning stacks.
Pick one tool per layer: a planner your team will actually open, and an execution layer that turns the plan into published, approved, reported posts. Every tool here is placed in the layer it genuinely serves, and the failure mode is always the same, stretching one across both.
Most of these have free tiers or trials. Plan one real campaign through a candidate pair before signing anything annual.
