Vista Social vs Metricool: Reviews and DMs or Ad Reports

The short answer: for six restaurants that each answer Instagram, Facebook, Google and TripAdvisor, Vista Social holds all 24 profiles on its Advanced plan at $160 a month on monthly billing, reviews included. Metricool covers the same six locations' Instagram, Facebook and Google Business Profile on Starter for $45, because each Google location is its own brand, but TripAdvisor is not on its connection list (checked on 26 October 2026 on the Vista Social and Metricool pricing pages). Pick Vista when customers reach you through reviews and DMs and those conversations are the job. Pick Metricool when the job is a report per location with the Meta, Google and TikTok ad accounts in it.

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Vista Social is built on the view that most of a brand's social work happens after the post goes out: comments, direct messages, reviews and the leads inside them. Its profile list includes Yelp, TripAdvisor, OpenTable, Trustpilot and the app stores next to the social networks, per its pricing FAQ. Metricool is built around the before and the after of a campaign: plan the posts, run the ads, report on both, one brand at a time.

Before you switch:

1. Price X the way each vendor does. For example, six brands with an X account each add 6 x $10 = $60 a month on Metricool, which charges per connected X account, against one $29 add-on on Vista Social, per the Metricool and Vista Social pricing pages.
2. Map where customers already talk to you. List last month's reviews by site and DMs by network. If most sit on Yelp, TripAdvisor or Trustpilot, only Vista collects them; if they sit in Instagram and Facebook comments, both inboxes do.
3. Take two service numbers now. The share of last month's reviews that got an answer, and the median time to a first DM reply. Whatever you buy has to move those two within a month.

Side by side, linked

What tips the balance

Reviews and DMs as a sales channel

Vista's DM automations answer a keyword, or on Advanced an intent detected by AI, and can then ask for a name, email or phone number, check its format, retry on a bad answer and update the contact in a connected CRM, per its data collection article. Metricool's Flows limits follow Meta's rules closely: no link in the first Instagram DM, a 7-day window after the comment, one DM per comment, and no trigger on boosted posts or Stories. Neither tool's comment automation fires on paid ads. For a location business whose bookings start in comments and reviews, Vista does more of the work.

The report your manager reads

Metricool's brand holds the ad accounts, its pricing page lists PDF and PPT reports from Starter, and Advanced adds report templates and a Data Studio connector. Vista's reports cover social performance, posts, web analytics, reviews and competitors on every plan, with custom reports from Advanced, per its pricing page; none of them is an ad account report. If a regional manager asks what the Google Ads budget did for the Utrecht branch, only one of these can show it next to the posts.

Monthly and yearly, both vendors

Checked on 26 October 2026, USD.

Vista Social (pricing): Professional $80 a month or $950 a year for 15 profiles; Advanced $160 or $1,910 for 30; Scale $360 or $4,310 for 70. Yearly billing is paid upfront and saves 20%. Add-ons: X $29 a month, listening across social, web and news $75, employee advocacy $199 for 25 employees.

Metricool (pricing): one brand is free. Starter comes in two bands, 5 brands at $25 a month and 10 at $45, or $20 and $36 a month on annual billing. Advanced has three, 15 brands at $67, 25 at $107 and 50 at $210, or $53, $85 and $159 on annual billing.

Vista's plan cards list 2 users on Professional and 3 on Advanced, while its pricing FAQ says 3 and 6, and extra seats are marked customizable with no published price. Vista prints the profile price and leaves the seat price to a sales conversation, so a team that grows pays for its third or seventh person at a rate it only learns on request. Get the seat count in writing before the first invoice.

An AI step: a boost shortlist with a person on the budget

Vista's prebuilt agents run on Advanced and up, on a schedule you set, and one of them, Beck, the boost candidate scout, delivers a weekly shortlist of organic posts worth putting paid budget behind, per the agents article. The agent proposes. A person opens each shortlisted post, checks that its offer and price are still current, and decides whether any money goes behind it, and how much. On Metricool's side, the same person can ask the free MCP for the analytics of the ad account afterwards, to see what the last boost returned.

Choose Vista Social if

• Your job is answering reviews and DMs across many locations, and turning some of those conversations into captured leads.
• Customers review you on Yelp, TripAdvisor, Trustpilot or the app stores.
• You want scheduled AI agents watching the inbox, approvals and posting gaps.

Choose Metricool if

• Your job is one report per brand or location with the ad accounts beside the posts.
• Most conversations happen in comments you can answer from a basic inbox.
• The budget is tight: five brands for $25 a month on Starter, or one for nothing.

The Hootsuite angle on Vista's DM automations is in Vista Social vs Hootsuite.

Test the cheap version first

Two checks cost nothing. Answer last month's unanswered reviews by hand, site by site, and time it; that hour count is what Vista's inbox has to save. Then put your largest location on Metricool's free plan with its ad accounts and rebuild one monthly report. If the reviews took longer than the report, you know which tool to trial. Vista's trial runs 14 days without a card.

Before backing a shortlisted post with money, hold one region out: boost it in two locations and not in a comparable third, and compare bookings in your own system, not in Meta's reporting. If that test becomes a weekly routine, a causal attribution tool such as Causality Engine can run the comparison for you; disclosure: I founded it.

FAQ

Does Metricool connect review sites such as TripAdvisor?

Its brand guide lists a Google Business Profile location among the connections and no other review site.

How many users come with Vista Social Advanced?

The plan card and comparison table say 3; the pricing FAQ says 6. Ask Vista Social to confirm the number in writing.

Do Metricool's Flows work on boosted posts?

No. Its limits article says comments on boosted posts and on Stories do not trigger a Flow.