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Prices read 12 October 2026

Social media management pricing

What one month of managing two platforms costs, from Upwork sellers to agencies, converted to the same spec and checked for the line that moves the price most: whether anyone replies.

The short answer

$140 to $7,500

per month, two platforms, from people and companies. AI tools are priced separately below.

Freelance marketplace, middle
$190
Writing or production platform, middle
$249
Independent specialist, middle
$575
Agency or studio, middle
$1,500

Priced for: One month managing two platforms (for example LinkedIn and Instagram): 12 to 20 original posts with graphics, scheduling, replies to comments and messages, and a monthly report. No paid ads, no influencer work.

Prices read
145
Providers checked
74
Publish nothing
14
Key takeaways
  • 01Social media management pricing turns on replies more than posts. The cheapest done-for-you plans leave comments and messages to you, and one agency charges $795 without them and $1,145 with them.
  • 02The same two-platform month ran from $140 on Upwork to $7,500 at an agency. The five agencies whose packages matched the spec exactly sat between $750 and $2,750.
  • 03'A post' is not a fixed unit. Some providers count one piece cross-posted to every platform, others one per platform, so twelve posts can mean twelve or twenty-four.
  • 04Some fees include ad spend. One $2,750 package contains $500 of boosting, so the price of the work itself is $2,250.
  • 05Four of the six top-ranking guides quote the same $500 to $5,000 a month, and none of the four says where the range comes from.

This page prices one month of managing two platforms: 12 to 20 original posts with graphics, scheduling, replies to comments and messages, and a report. For each provider, the figure is the cheapest package that covers that spec, read from its own page or listing on 12 October 2026.

Most social media management pricing online repeats one uncited range. The figures here come from each provider's own page, and where a package leaves out replies or reporting, its row says so instead of stretching the match.

If you are a freelancer setting your own rates, the marketplace and survey rows are the ones you are priced against, and the seniority driver below carries the freelance social media manager rates HeyOrca measured in its 2024 survey.

The price, by route

Social media management pricing, route by route

Each bar runs from the cheapest to the most expensive published price we read for this route, normalised to the same spec. The dot is the middle price. The axis is logarithmic: each gridline is ten times the one before.

  • Freelance marketplace

    12 prices

    $140 to $1,000

  • Writing or production platform

    4 prices

    $159 to $500

  • Independent specialist

    2 prices

    $500 to $650

  • Agency or studio

    22 prices

    $300 to $7,500

  • Rate surveys

    2 prices

    $400 to $2,000

  • AI tools

    7 prices

    $12 to $199

  • In-house hire

    computed

    $4,063 to $8,125

In-house is not sampled. It uses the salary data for Social Media Marketing Manager (mid-level median, $75,000 base), loaded at 1.3x and divided by 1 to 2 brands run at this spec. A full-time manager covers this spec with time to spare, so the range runs from one brand to two. A single company pays the whole salary.

The evidence

Every price we read

145 published prices, each read on the page it links to, in US dollars from a US view. The third column converts each one to the same spec, with the arithmetic. A price that buys something materially different is shown and left out of every range.

  • Upwork seller Samin S.

    Freelance marketplace

    $140 (Advanced)

    30 days, 3 accounts, 15 posts and 10 reels, captions.

    $140

    Advanced $140 covers a month. Match: partial: engagement and reporting not stated.

    2026-10-12

  • Upwork seller Hanzla S.

    Freelance marketplace

    $150 (Advanced)

    28 days of management (compare table), 3 designed posts a week, captions, scheduling; gig description lists 'Audience engagement'. Platforms per package not stated (gig lists Instagram, Facebook, TikTok).

    $150

    Advanced covers a month on its own: 3 posts/week x 4 weeks = 12 posts. $150 = $150. Match: partial: platform count per package and reporting not stated.

    2026-10-12

  • Upwork seller Raman K.

    Freelance marketplace

    $150 (Advanced)

    25 designed image posts with hashtags and posting on Facebook and Instagram; 30 days of management (compare table).

    $150

    Advanced $150 covers 30 days on FB + IG. (Standard $99 = 10 designs over 14 days; x2 = $198, dearer.) Match: partial: engagement and reporting not stated.

    2026-10-12

  • Upwork seller Muhammad H.

    Freelance marketplace

    $175 (Advanced)

    30 days of posting, 30 pieces of content with captions, 3 platforms.

    $175

    Advanced $175 covers a month. (Standard $99 = 15 days, 15 posts, 2 platforms; x2 = $198, dearer.) Match: partial: engagement and reporting not stated.

    2026-10-12

  • Upwork seller Delwar H.

    Freelance marketplace

    $180 (Advanced)

    Two accounts, one designed post a day each, 30 days.

    $180

    Advanced $180 covers two accounts for a month. Match: partial: engagement and reporting not stated.

    2026-10-12

  • Upwork seller Ragini R.

    Freelance marketplace

    $180 (Advanced)

    30 days, 5 posts a week, content curation (not stated as original).

    $180

    Advanced $180 covers a month. (Standard $65 = 7 days, 4 posts/week; x4 = $260, dearer.) Match: partial: 'content curation' rather than original posts; engagement not stated.

    2026-10-12

  • Upwork seller Kamal S.

    Freelance marketplace

    $199 (Advanced)

    25-30 posts, daily engagement, weekly report, one month. Platforms per package not stated (gig lists Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok).

    $199

    Advanced covers one month: $199. (Standard $135 covers 15 days with 10-15 posts; x2 = $270, dearer.) Match: partial: platform count per package not stated.

    2026-10-12

  • Upwork seller Pooja G.

    Freelance marketplace

    $50 per week

    One weekly package: 5 posts a week plus daily engagement (gig covers IG, FB, LinkedIn).

    $200

    Only package is 7 days; round(30/7) = 4 purchases x $50 = $200 for about 20 posts. Match: partial: platform count per package and reporting not stated.

    2026-10-12

  • Upwork seller Shakir H.

    Freelance marketplace

    $200 (Advanced)

    30 days, 2 posts a day, content curation.

    $200

    Advanced $200 covers a month. (Standard $100 = 10 days; x3 = $300, dearer.) Match: partial: 'content curation' rather than original posts; engagement not stated.

    2026-10-12

  • Upwork seller Sanjay L.

    Freelance marketplace

    $150 per platform (Standard)

    One platform, one designed post a day for 30 days.

    $300

    Packages are per platform: 2 platforms x Standard $150 = $300. Match: partial: engagement and reporting not stated.

    2026-10-12

  • Upwork seller Muhammad B.

    Freelance marketplace

    $599 (Advanced)

    4 accounts, 6 posts a week, 30 days of management (compare table).

    $599

    Advanced $599 covers 30 days. (Standard $399 = 2 accounts, 4 posts/week, 14 days; x2 = $798, dearer.) Match: partial: exceeds on accounts; engagement not stated.

    2026-10-12

  • Upwork seller Tozammel H.

    Freelance marketplace

    $1,000 (Advanced)

    5 accounts, 3 posts a week, captions; compare table gives 25 days of management.

    $1,000

    Cheapest way to cover a month on 2+ accounts: Advanced $1,000 (Standard $500 covers 14 days on 3 accounts; x2 = $1,000, the same). Match: partial: exceeds on accounts; engagement not stated.

    2026-10-12

How the marketplace prices were drawn: Upwork Project Catalog, search URL https://www.upwork.com/services/search?q=social%20media%20management (99,066 projects), read 2026-10-12 in local headless Chrome, default order as served (no sort applied), first page = 24 projects. Exclusion rule, stated before reading: drop projects whose title sells something other than ongoing account management (#4 X follower growth, #7 caption writing only, #15 LinkedIn connections/followers, #23 consultation). #22 and #24 returned a Cloudflare challenge twice and were not read. 18 projects read. For each, the three tiers were read from the page state (title, price, tier description) and the compare table (management days; a dash = not included). Package used: the cheapest published way to cover at least 12 posts across a month, repeating a shorter package round(30/days) times where that is cheaper, and buying one package per platform where packages are per platform. Listings whose packages state no post count are recorded with normalisedUsd null. Upwork prices are set in USD by the seller and show identically to all visitors. Fiverr could NOT be sampled: every route (headless Chrome, Jina in three engines, ScreenshotOne US, WebFetch) returned Fiverr's PerimeterX 'It needs a human touch' challenge or a 403.

Checked, and publish no price

14 of 74 providers checked

Not a criticism. Quoting per project is normal when the work varies. It does mean the ranges above describe the providers who publish, and the ones who do not are rarely the cheapest.

  • SocialBee ConciergeBee · Service page lists concierge services with no prices; purchases go through a store inside the logged-in app.
  • MixBloom (white label social media service) · Pricing link leads to 'Get started. Book a call'; no price shown.
  • Thrive Internet Marketing Agency · Contact form only; no price.
  • Socialfly (New York) · 'Contact Us' only.
  • Sociallyin · 'Request Your Custom Proposal'; budget options start at '$6,000 - $7,500/month'.
  • NoGood · No package price; states 'Our average retainer is above $20,000/month'.
  • Viral Nation · 'Contact Us' only.
  • Hibu · 'See how our custom pricing works'; no figure.
  • Ignite Visibility (own site) · 'REQUEST A FREE PROPOSAL' only, although its Clutch listing publishes $3,000 / $5,000 / $10,000 tiers.
  • Disruptive Advertising · 'Get a Free Audit' / 'BOOK A CALL'; no price.
  • NinjaPromo · 'Book a call'; no price.
  • HawkSEM · Publishes a market pricing guide ($1,500 to $12,000 a month for agencies) but no price of its own.
  • Fresh Content Society · Publishes market tiers ($2,000 to $25,000+ a month) and warns that under $1,500 'almost always means limited strategy'; no own price.
  • SocialSellinator · Pricing article with generic ranges only; 'we offer tailored solutions'.
What moves the price

Why one month of management costs 53 times another

Whether anyone answers the comments and messages, not how many posts go out.

  1. 01

    Posts per month

    Most social media management packages step up by post count. Coozmoo sells 12, 20 and 30 posts at $795, $1,145 and $1,545 a month; $99 Social sells 10 to 30 posts from $99 to $279.

    $99 Social pricing
  2. 02

    Whether anyone replies

    The single line that moves a tier. Coozmoo's $795 package shows a dash for community management and its $1,145 package a tick; White Unicorn charges $5,000 without it and $7,500 with it.

    Coozmoo packages on Clutch
  3. 03

    Number of platforms

    Each extra network is priced separately, and the add-on varies by provider: $10 a month at $99 Social, $150 at LYFE Marketing on Clutch, $200 at Marketing Deck.

    LYFE Marketing packages on Clutch
  4. 04

    Video instead of static images

    LYFE Marketing sells 12 image posts on Facebook and Instagram for $750 a month and 12 vertical videos on Instagram and TikTok for $1,350, so the format nearly doubles the price at the same count.

    LYFE Marketing pricing
  5. 05

    How fast replies come

    A response-time promise is sold as a tier. Sasquatch Digital commits to replying within three, two or one hours across packages at $3,000, $5,000 and $7,000 a month.

    Sasquatch Digital packages on Clutch
  6. 06

    Seniority

    HeyOrca's 2024 survey found freelancers with one to three years' experience charging $46.71 an hour and those with seven or more charging $92.23, roughly double for the same work.

    HeyOrca pricing survey
Building it with AI

What the machine costs, and what it does not

Scheduling software and AI post generators now cover most of the production. The receipt prices the cheapest tools that would run this spec, then adds the hours they leave: checking every post and answering every comment and message.

What AI cannot do here
  • Reply to a customer in your voice when it matters
  • Know what happened in your business this week
  • Take the photos and video that perform best
  • Decide what social media is for at your company

Receipt · one month of management

  • Scheduling on two channels$12

    Buffer Essentials, $6 a month per channel, billed monthly: 2 channels x $6. Price read 2026-10-12

  • AI-generated posts and graphics$32

    Predis.ai Core, $32 a month, billed monthly: one plan, monthly billing. Price read 2026-10-12

Tools and model time$44
Human edit, 8 to 20 h at $47/h$375 to $938
Publishable$419 to $982

Edit hours: Our editorial estimate for checking and correcting 12 to 20 generated posts and replying to comments and messages, which none of these tools does for you. The hourly rate is the same loaded in-house figure used for the in-house route, so the two are comparable.

How long it takes

Turnaround, as each route publishes it

From brief to first draft or delivery, in the provider's own words. Where a provider states no turnaround, it is not listed.

  1. Writing or production platform

    first full month of posts within 7 business days

    $99 Social

  2. Writing or production platform

    revisions inside 24 hours

    $99 Social

  3. Agency or studio

    a few weeks of setup before the first month of content

    SmartSites

  4. Agency or studio

    replies to messages or comments within 3 / 2 / 1 hours by tier

    Sasquatch Digital (Clutch)

  5. Freelance marketplace

    7 / 16 / 30 days delivery for 7 / 14 / 28 days of management

    Upwork: Hanzla S.
Doing it yourself

What a month of management takes to do yourself

Sprout Social's survey of 500 social marketers found content creation and approvals alone take about 5 hours a week. The rest of this list is our estimate for the same two-platform month.

Sourced

"content creation and approvals (5 hours per week, on average)" Sprout Social survey, via MarketingProfs, 2024

At the same loaded rate as an in-house hire ($47 an hour), your 18 to 35 hours are worth $844 to $1,641.

  • Plan the month's calendar2 to 3 h
  • Write and design 12 to 20 posts10 to 20 h
  • Schedule them on both platforms1 to 2 h
  • Reply to comments and messages4 to 8 h
  • Pull the monthly report1 to 2 h

You also need

  • A scheduling tool
  • A design tool with your brand set up
  • Photos or video from inside the business
  • Someone who can answer customers
Who to buy it from

Agency vs freelancer vs fractional vs in-house

Cost is one row of six. The rest are where the four routes differ, and the fractional column does not win all of them.

Agency
Freelancer or marketplace
Fractional lead
In-house hire
Cost, per month, two platforms
$300 to $7,500
$140 to $1,000
Not priced by the piece. From $5,000 a month to lead the work, plus production from $2,000 a month
$4,063 to $8,125, with a monthly commitment of $8,125
Who replies to customers
Included from the middle tier, as published
Often a separate package
Through a person, on your accounts, to an agreed response time
The hire, with the fastest context
Who decides what to post
A content calendar you approve
You, or a calendar you approve
I do, from what customers ask and what the numbers show
The hire, once they know the business
Photos and video from inside the business
A shoot day, priced separately
Whatever you send them
Whatever you send, turned into a month of posts
Easiest: they are in the building
Smallest commitment
Often three months, plus a setup fee
One month
A month
A salary
Best when
You want several platforms run with a team behind them
One or two platforms and a clear brief
Social is one channel in a plan nobody owns yet
Social is a main channel and there is enough to fill a week

Agency and freelancer costs are the published ranges above. The fractional column is busyless, priced as it is sold. In-house uses the salary data for Social Media Marketing Manager, loaded and divided by monthly output.

Before you sign

Where the quote and the invoice come apart

Each of these is visible on a published price list, linked where it is.

01

'A post' means different things

SmartSites counts one piece of content sent to every channel as one post; Beach Chair prices 12 to 15 posts per channel. The same 'twelve posts' can be twelve pieces or twenty-four. Ask which before you compare.

SmartSites pricing
02

The cheapest plans leave replies to you

$99 Social says in its FAQ that replies to comments and DMs stay with you, and Feedbird's plans list design, captions and posting only. Below about $500 a month, find the line about replies before assuming anyone answers your customers.

$99 Social pricing
03

One company, two price lists

LYFE Marketing's own site and its Clutch listing publish different tiers, and only one charges a $300 setup fee. SmartSites' two lists disagree as well. Ask for the price in writing, from the page you will be invoiced against.

LYFE Marketing pricing
04

Ad spend inside the fee

SmartSites' $2,750 package includes $500 of boosting, and Socinova's $500 Growth package includes $100 of ad spend. Subtract it before comparing either with a package that buys only the work.

SmartSites pricing
05

The marketplace 'from' price buys a week

Upwork entry tiers are seven days of management or a 30-minute consultation. The packages that actually cover a month started at $140 in our sample.

Upwork Project Catalog
06

Software prices answering a service question

One ranking page for this question answers with scheduling software plans from $5 to $800 a month. A tool is a sixth of the work at most; the rest is the hours in the receipt above.

The software answer
The cost of doing nothing

What not having it costs, in your numbers rather than ours

A quiet account costs something, but only your numbers can say how much. Here is where it shows up, and a sum you can do from your own inbox.

  • Silence is a public answer

    An unanswered comment or message stays visible to every later visitor, so the silence reads as the business's reply, including to a complaint.

  • A stale profile reads as closed

    Buyers often check a company's profile before its website. A last post from months ago suggests it may have stopped trading.

  • Restarting is rebuilding

    Feeds show what accounts post now. An account that stops stops appearing, and coming back means rebuilding a cadence rather than resuming one.

Work it out

Messages and comments left unanswered a month × share that were buying questions × value of a first order

Left unanswered a month
Count them in each platform's inbox
Share that were buying questions
Read twenty and count the ones about price, stock or availability
Value of a first order
Your average first invoice
How I price it

Why there is no per-piece price from me

busyless runs on a retainer. A Fractional Head of Content, from $5,000 a month and month to month, owns the system: which channels we bet on, the editorial standard, customer interviews, the conversion path and the monthly report.

Production sits underneath as execution capacity, from $2,000 a month, through agents I have built or people I manage. We make as much as growth needs, so a price per piece would measure the count rather than whether it worked.

Most clients start with Discovery: two weeks and $2,500 for the diagnosis and a 90-day plan, theirs to keep either way.

See how the retainer works
Discovery, two weeks
$2,500
Fractional Head of Content
from $5,000/mo
Execution capacity
from $2,000/mo
Price per piece
None
What other pages quote

The ranges you will find elsewhere, and where they come from

The top US results when we read them on 12 October 2026. 8 of 11 name no source for the figure they give, and 1 answer a different question altogether.

Searched: social media management pricing

  • expertmarket.com

    Most US businesses spend $500-$5,000 per month; agency $500-$10,000 per month; freelancers $35-$350 per hour

    No source
  • tech.co

    $5 to $800 per month (software)

    Different question
  • hawksem.com

    $1,500 to $12,000 per month for agency rates, $50 to $150 per hour for freelancers

    No source
  • planable.io

    $500 to $5,000 per month; NY agencies $40-$190 per hour; 'A standard social media marketing package costs around $700 per month'

    No source
  • socialbu.com

    $500 and $5,000 per month

    No source
  • sproutsocial.com

    $500–$5,000 per month basic; comprehensive roughly $5,000 per month; freelance $20–150 per hour

    No source

Searched: freelance social media manager rates

  • ruul.io

    $300 to $5,000 a month

    No source
  • solidgigs.com

    $20-35 / $35-75 / $75-150+ per hour by experience; packages $750-1,500 / $1,500-3,000 / $3,000-7,000+

    No source
  • agorapulse.com

    ZipRecruiter salary figures (about $52,000 a year)

    Cites a source
  • heyorca.com

    $66.96/hour average; retainer $2,107.14

    Cites a source
  • yunojuno.com

    $54 average hourly

    Cites a source
Keep pricing

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Let's build

One call. Real plan, not a pitch.

30 minutes. We talk about what's already working, who owns content today, and whether a fractional Head of Content is actually the right move. If it isn't, I'll say so.

Direct calendar

Book a 30-min intro call

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One sentence on the bottleneck. I'll reply within 24h with a sharper next step.

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FAQ

Frequently asked

  • Why do social media management quotes range so widely?
    Because the same words buy different work. Across the prices on this page, a two-platform month ran from $140 to $7,500. Replies to customers, video, the number of platforms and how fast someone answers each move the price more than the post count does.
  • What does a cheap social media package usually leave out?
    Replies, first of all. The productised plans around $100 to $200 a month design and post, and leave comments and messages to you. Reporting and original photography are the next most common gaps. Check the package list for a line about community management before comparing prices.
  • Is social media marketing pricing the same thing?
    Not quite. Marketing usually adds paid ads, and ad management is priced separately on top of the ad budget itself. This page prices organic management only; where a provider folds ad spend into the fee, its row says so.
  • How much does a social media manager cost to hire in-house?
    A mid-level social media marketing manager's median base is $75,000 on our salary data, about $8,125 a month once loaded for payroll and benefits. That is the cost whether the role covers two platforms or five, which is why one brand rarely needs it full-time.
  • Can AI tools run social media management on their own?
    They can schedule and draft. The tools priced here cost $12 to $199 a month, and none of them replies to customers or knows what happened in the business this week. Budget the hours to check every post and answer every message, which is most of the work.
  • How soon does a social media manager start posting?
    The productised services publish their timelines: $99 Social delivers a first month of posts within seven business days, and one larger agency describes a few weeks of setup first. Results take longer and are worth measuring as enquiries rather than followers.
  • Should social media be priced per post or per month?
    Per month, with the post count written down and defined. Per post invites a count nobody planned and leaves replies unpriced. Whatever the unit, ask whether a cross-posted piece counts once or once per platform.
  • Does busyless sell social media management?
    Not as a package. Founder-led social is one of the channels I may pick for a client, run as part of a fractional engagement from $5,000 a month with production from $2,000 a month. If you only need posting and replies, the routes on this page are the way to buy them.