Agorapulse vs Sprout Social: Reply Approvals or Care Reach

The short answer: if a newer colleague's replies must be checked before they post, Agorapulse puts that check on Professional at $149 per user a month on monthly billing, and Sprout Social puts approvals for replies on Advanced at $499, so a team of three pays $447 a month against $1,497 (checked on 26 October 2026 on the Agorapulse and Sprout Social pricing pages). Sprout earns its higher seat when the inbox is a full care channel: X, WhatsApp, Reddit and the review sites in the plan, unlimited profiles from Professional, and cases sent on to Zendesk, Salesforce or HubSpot on Advanced.

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Sprout Social changes how far the inbox reaches. Agorapulse is a social inbox with publishing and reports around it, 10 profiles per plan below Custom, and X sold as a separate add-on you ask sales about. Sprout's Standard plan already lists X, WhatsApp, Reddit, Glassdoor, TripAdvisor, Trustpilot and Yelp among its integrations, and its top tier connects the inbox to the helpdesk and CRM where customer cases live. Both charge per seat, and at each tier that shares a name, a Sprout seat costs more than twice an Agorapulse one.

Before either trial:

1. Count profiles, then add the extras. Below Custom, every Agorapulse plan stops at 10 profiles, and each further profile costs $10 a month on annual terms or $15 on monthly ones; Sprout's Standard holds 5 and Professional unlimited. For example, a brand on 14 profiles adds 4 x $15 = $60 a month to an Agorapulse plan on monthly billing, per its pricing page.
2. List where customers already write to you. WhatsApp, Reddit, Trustpilot or Yelp point to Sprout. Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, YouTube, Threads and Google reviews fit both inboxes.
3. Time replies from the customer's side. Take 20 messages from last week and note the minutes from message to first answer. That number, measured by hand, is the baseline both trials have to beat.

The ladder, rung by rung

The lowest tier where each inbox need appears, with the per-seat price billed annually and then monthly, from the Agorapulse pricing page and the Sprout Social pricing page, read on 26 October 2026:

The decision, in three parts

Who checks a reply

Agorapulse's inbox approval workflow pauses a reply, hide, delete or label from a chosen team member until an approver acts, and on Professional and Advanced you get one workflow pairing one person with one approver, per its approval guide. That covers a trainee or a freelancer. Sprout's approvals for replies sit on Advanced beside case routing, chatbots and CSAT surveys, which is the shape of a care team of ten, not a marketer and an intern.

Which channels arrive

Sprout's integration list on its pricing page includes X, Snapchat and Reddit on every plan, and WhatsApp plus Glassdoor, TripAdvisor, Trustpilot and Yelp from Standard. Agorapulse counts Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, X, YouTube, Threads, Pinterest, Bluesky and Google Business toward its profile limit, moderates Google reviews on every plan, and sells X publishing and inbox as X Lite and X Plus add-ons through sales. A brand whose complaints arrive on WhatsApp or Trustpilot has its answer here.

Where a case goes next

When a social complaint becomes a support ticket, Sprout's Advanced plan sends it to Zendesk, Salesforce, HubSpot or Microsoft Dynamics 365. Agorapulse keeps HubSpot and Salesforce for Custom. If your support desk lives in Zendesk, only one of these connects to it on a published plan.

An AI step: a Monday inbox digest

Agorapulse's MCP connector, in beta and on every non-legacy plan, gives Claude, ChatGPT or Copilot read access to the inbox, with filters for sentiment, item type and date, and reports community management metrics such as response times, per its MCP guide. Each Monday, ask it for last week's negative-sentiment items still without a reply, grouped by profile, and the response times per profile. The assistant writes the list; a person decides who answers what and assigns the items in Agorapulse. Replies sent through the connector wait for approval when a workflow is active, so even a reply drafted in chat meets the same gate.

Sprout's documented AI is narrower for this job. Its ChatGPT connection covers published TikTok post data only, and Trellis, its AI agent, works on Listening data, per its Trellis guide; Listening is an add-on.

Prices, written out

Agorapulse, per user a month on annual terms: $79 for Standard, $119 for Professional, $149 for Advanced; on monthly terms $99, $149 and $199. Custom is quoted (pricing). Listening, advocacy and competitive benchmarking are add-ons sold through a demo.

Sprout Social, per seat a month: Essentials $79 billed annually or $99 monthly, Standard $199 or $249, Professional $299 or $399, Advanced $399 or $499, Enterprise on request (pricing). Every user gets 100 Trellis credits a month; Trellis Plus is $28 per user a month on annual billing or $35 on monthly.

Run the free month on real messages

Agorapulse gives 30 days with no card asked, and its pricing FAQ promises no automatic charge at the end: the account falls back to the free plan. Sprout's trial is also 30 days without a card, after which you choose a plan and enter payment details. Plug your busiest profiles into both, set up the reply check you need, and repeat the customer-side timing from the list above in week four.

Agorapulse's response-time report stops the clock while a reply waits for approval, per its approval guide, so the team figure its dashboard shows leaves out the delay its own approval step adds; time the trial from the customer's side, not from the report. Then compare the two totals: seats times tier, plus extra profiles, against the minutes saved.

Choose Agorapulse if

• Your job is a small team's inbox, with one person's replies checked before they post.
• You answer on 10 profiles or a few more, and the budget is counted per head.
• You want an assistant reading the inbox and its response times through an MCP connector.

Choose Sprout Social if

• Your job is customer care across many channels, WhatsApp, Reddit and review sites included.
• Cases must reach Zendesk, Salesforce or HubSpot from the social inbox.
• You need unlimited profiles and reply approvals inside a care team with routing and surveys.

The Hootsuite angle on each is in Agorapulse vs Hootsuite and Hootsuite vs Sprout Social.

FAQ

Can Agorapulse require approval for a reply before it posts?

Yes, from Professional. An inbox approval workflow holds a chosen team member's replies, hides, deletes or labels until the approver acts; Professional and Advanced allow one workflow with one approver.

Does Sprout Social include X?

Yes. Its pricing page lists X among the integrations on every plan. Agorapulse sells X as the X Lite and X Plus add-ons, priced on request.

Is there a free plan?

Agorapulse has one: one user, three profiles, 10 scheduled posts and a basic inbox, per its homepage FAQ. Sprout Social offers only the 30-day trial.