Planable vs Loomly: Paying per Client or per Approver

The short answer: if each client has its own approvers, the crossover sits at six clients. Planable Pro costs $59 per client workspace a month on monthly billing with unlimited users, so five clients come to 5 x $59 = $295, while Loomly counts every approving client as a user and moves a team past 3 users or 12 accounts to Beyond at a flat $332 (Planable pricing file, Loomly pricing, checked on 26 October 2026). One in-house brand run by three people fits Loomly Starter at $65; up to five clients with line-by-line feedback fit Planable; from six clients on one flat bill, Loomly.

Disclosure: I may earn a commission through some links on this site. It does not change what this page says.

Both tools are built around the approval. They disagree about what to charge for. Planable bills the client, as a workspace, and lets anyone in. Loomly bills accounts and people, and its help centre is explicit that a client who only ever clicks approve is one of those people.

Who signs, and what each tool charges for them:

1. Price your real roster. For example, four clients with two approvers each and a team of three make 3 + 4 x 2 = 11 Loomly users, past Starter's 3, so Beyond at $332 a month or $249 billed yearly. Planable Pro for the same four is 4 x $59 = $236, or 4 x ($59 + $14 + $9) = $328 with the analytics and inbox add-ons, using the Loomly and Planable pricing pages.
2. Write down the chain you run today. For each client: who drafts, who comments, who gives the final yes. In Loomly, the Client role can approve and schedule but cannot create or edit posts or see drafts, and a Viewer can only comment (permissions article). In Planable, a client invited as a Client member with Approver permission signs off, and a public link lets others read and comment without an account (client approval guide).
3. Count the rounds before you move. Take the last ten posts per client and note how many versions each went through and how many days it waited. Count again after a month in the new tool; if neither number fell, the tool is not the bottleneck.

Side by side

Sources: Planable's pricing file and approvals article; Loomly's pricing page, homepage, integrations page and workflows article.

Where they part

Who pays for the person saying yes

Loomly's user article says each person in a calendar, including clients who simply approve posts, is a user. Planable never counts heads. An agency whose clients bring a marketing manager, a founder and a legal reviewer pays for none of them on Planable, and for all of them on Loomly once Starter's three seats are full.

Caps on posts, or caps on accounts

Planable's ceilings sit on each client: 4 social pages and 60 posts a month per workspace on Basic, 10 and 150 on Pro. Loomly schedules without a post cap and limits accounts across the plan instead. A client who posts twice a day on five networks needs Planable Enterprise; twelve small clients with four accounts each need Loomly Beyond. Neither is wrong; they suit different client lists.

What the base price carries

Loomly's Starter includes analytics, replies to comments and messages, and a small listening allowance. Planable sells analytics, the inbox and listening per workspace, each with a 30-day trial (Planable pricing file). A team that only needs sign-off pays for exactly that on Planable; one that needs the full loop closes the gap with add-ons.

What each team shape costs

USD per month, checked on 26 October 2026 on Planable's pricing page and file and Loomly's pricing page; the sums are mine. Loomly bills its yearly plans up front, $588 for Starter and $2,988 for Beyond, and its FAQ rules out ending a yearly plan early.

One AI step: client views built by an assistant

Planable's MCP connector, on every plan, lets an assistant in Claude, ChatGPT or Gemini create and manage calendar, feed, grid and list views with filters, public shareable links included, per its MCP guide. Ask it each month to build, for every client workspace, a view of next month's posts awaiting approval. The account manager opens each view as the client will see it before the link goes out, because a public link shows the posts to anyone holding it, and approval still needs the client's own login. Loomly's pages list an AI assistant chat, post generation and Zapier, and no MCP server.

Choose Planable if

• Your job is getting a yes from clients who comment line by line, with up to five clients on the books.
• Clients bring several approvers each, and none of them should cost a seat.
• Posts go to X, or newsletters and ads go through the same review.

Choose Loomly if

• Your job is one brand's calendar, run by three people or fewer, with analytics and replies in the base price.
• You manage six or more small clients and want one flat bill for up to 60 accounts.
• A client approving and scheduling, without editing, is the role you want to give them.

Paper first, then the free starts

The approval chain from the list above is the free test, and it usually decides the tool. Then use both free starts on one real client: Planable's 50 free posts have no time limit, though Required approval and X publishing wait for a paid plan, and Loomly's trial runs 7 days without a card.

Loomly's help centre counts every person in a calendar as a user, approving clients included, and Starter stops at three. On an agency's roster the client's yes is what moves the bill from $65 to $332 a month on monthly billing (Loomly pricing), so count approvers before choosing a plan, not after inviting them. For Planable against other tools, see Planable vs Buffer and Planable vs Metricool.

FAQ

Does a client need a paid seat to approve in Loomly?

A client needs a Loomly account, which is free as long as they create no calendars of their own, and counts as one of the users your plan allows, per Loomly's invite article.

Can either publish to X?

Planable can, limited to one post every 24 hours on Basic and not during the free trial. Loomly's integrations page lists Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, Threads, Google Business Profile, Pinterest and Snapchat, and not X.

Can a Planable client approve from a public link?

No. Public links let people view and comment without an account; approving needs a Client member with Approver permission, per the client approval guide.