Best CRM for Social Media Agencies in 2026: Retainers

What a CRM for social media agencies is (and what it is not)

A CRM for a social media agency is the business side of retainer work: who the client is, what you promised each month (say 12 posts, 4 reels and community replies), who approved the plan, what time went in and what is unpaid. It is not a publishing scheduler, a comment inbox or a network analytics dashboard. Those jobs belong to tools such as Planable or Sprout Social. The leak this guide targets is the gap between them: a client asks for ten extra posts in a chat, nobody prices it and the retainer quietly loses margin.

How we compared these tools

We compared each tool on the same five points, using only the vendor's own pricing and product pages:

1. Entry price and a five-person price, from the listed per-seat or per-plan figures on October 17, 2026.
2. Retainer coverage on that plan: retainers or recurring billing, time tracking and invoices.
3. Client-facing pieces: a client portal, proposals, tasks and approvals.
4. Hard limits: active projects, seats, sub-accounts and usage-based charges.
5. Trial terms: length, and whether the vendor states that a card is needed.

We did not test speed, support or reliability, and we did not use third-party ratings. Order reflects fit for an agency that sells monthly content retainers. None of the six tools below schedules your posts except HighLevel, which lists social media management as a core feature.

The best CRM for social media agencies in 2026

1. Workspace369, best for retainer-based client work

Workspace369 puts the client record, a proposal the client approves online, a retainer with payment schedules, content tasks on boards, time tracking with timesheets, a private client portal and invoices in one place. Cadet is $29 a month for one seat ($23.25 billed yearly); retainers, recurring invoices, dashboards and reports, and billable time that becomes invoice lines are on every plan. Voyager is $74 a month with two seats and a shared inbox, and extra seats are $10 a month, so a five-person team is $104 a month. Specialist is $149 a month with 10 seats; Commander is $299 with 20. The screenshot is a demo record, not a customer result.

Limitations: it does not schedule or publish posts, moderate comments or report on network analytics. Cadet allows 5 active projects and one seat. Approvals are proposal approval and client messages that record each decision; there is no image-markup proofing, so post-level sign-off belongs in a scheduler. Project profitability starts at Specialist. HighLevel Starter, ClickUp and Moxie list lower entry prices at some team sizes. The 14-day trial needs a card.

Best for: agencies of 1 to 15 selling monthly retainers who want scope, approvals, time and invoices on one record.

2. HighLevel, best for an all-in-one marketing platform

HighLevel's pricing page lists Starter at $97 a month (3 sub-accounts), Unlimited at $297 a month (unlimited sub-accounts and basic API access) and Agency Pro at $497 a month. All plans list unlimited contacts and unlimited users. Its core features include a CRM with pipelines, social media management, workflow automation, custom dashboards and reporting, payments and invoicing, and email and SMS marketing. The trial is 14 days, and HighLevel's CRM page says a credit card is required, and billing begins automatically after it unless canceled.

Limitations: each client usually needs a sub-account, so Starter covers three clients. Phone, SMS, email and AI carry usage-based charges. The branded client portal app is an add-on at $49 a month per sub-account. The page does not list retainer billing or time tracking, so confirm both for a retainer model.

Best for: agencies that want publishing, lead capture, automations and messaging in one platform and can absorb a longer setup.

3. ClickUp, best for content calendar tasks

ClickUp's Free Forever plan lists unlimited tasks, unlimited free plan members, Kanban boards, a calendar view and collaborative docs. Core is $9 per user a month billed yearly ($12 monthly) and adds native time tracking (a trial on Free), unlimited custom fields and forms and guests. Business is $17 per user a month billed yearly ($25 monthly) and adds advanced dashboards, resource management and 10,000 automations a month. For five users, Business is $85 a month on the yearly price.

Limitations: the pricing page lists no CRM pipeline, invoicing, retainers or client portal, so you would build the client side or add another tool. Guests are listed on Unlimited and up, and time tracking is not on Free Forever. AI credits are pooled and additional credits are sold separately.

Best for: agencies whose main problem is the production board, who will connect billing elsewhere.

4. Moxie, best for freelancers growing into a small team

Moxie's pricing page shows Starter at $12 a month, Pro at $25 and Teams at $40, and the page also offers a yearly discount. Starter lists client and project management, invoicing and payments, proposals, quotes and contracts, time tracking, a sales pipeline, forms and meeting schedulers. The white-labeled client portal, request management and workflow automations are in Pro. Teams adds up to five team members.

Limitations: the pricing page does not name recurring retainer billing or approval workflows, and Teams stops at five team members. Trial and card terms are not stated beyond "Try for free".

Best for: a solo social media manager or a team of up to five who want a low monthly price for proposals, time and invoices.

5. Productive, best for agency resource planning

Productive's Essential plan shows $10 per user a month billed yearly (about $50 for five users) and lists budgeting, resource planning, project and task management, time tracking, expense management and reporting. Professional shows $25 per user a month billed yearly and adds retainer invoicing, recurring budgets, billable time approvals and rate cards. The page offers a free 14-day trial with no credit card required (checked October 19, 2026).

Limitations: the pricing page lists a deals pipeline with proposal PDF export but no client portal. It is an operations and budgeting tool, and it is built for teams that plan hours across several people. A solo manager would use little of it.

Best for: agencies of five or more that must plan who works on which retainer and track budget burn.

6. HubSpot CRM, best as a free contact list

HubSpot's free tools are $0 a month for up to 2 users with no credit card required. Starter shows from $7 per seat a month in a promotion for new customers, against a struck-through $20 list price. The page lists Marketing Hub, Sales Hub and Service Hub Starter tools; it does not list retainers, time tracking, a client portal or invoicing.

Limitations: it is a sales and marketing platform, so delivery work, approvals and billing live elsewhere. Per-seat prices rise on higher tiers.

Best for: agencies that mostly need a pipeline and contact history for new business.

Also considered: Agency Handy, Planable and Sprout Social

Agency Handy's homepage lists a CRM, proposals, file feedback, forms, a white-label client portal and a 7-day trial with no credit card required. Its pricing page returned a 404 on October 17, 2026, so we quote no price. See site before you decide.

Planable is a content approval tool rather than a CRM. Its Basic plan is $33 per workspace a month with unlimited users, 60 posts per workspace a month and 2 types of approval; Pro is $49 per workspace a month with 3 types. The first 50 posts are free with no credit card required. Sprout Social lists Standard at $199 per seat a month and Essentials at $79 per seat a month billed annually, with a 30-day trial and no credit card required; its pricing page does not name an approval feature, so check that on a trial.

Side-by-side comparison

Which tool fits your social media agency?

Run a month-end approval test during the trial

Take one fictional client through a month in each tool you shortlist:

1. Record the retainer: 12 posts, 4 reels and community replies, with the monthly fee.
2. Create the content calendar as tasks with owners and due dates.
3. Send a draft for approval, let it sit past the deadline, then record the client's reply.
4. Log time against the work, then add an extra request that exceeds the scope.
5. Turn the time and the retainer into an invoice and set up next month.
6. Export the client's records and check what comes out.

The best tool keeps the tasks, the decision, the time and the invoice on one record, and the invoice matches your timesheet. Price the extra work first with the free scope-change request builder, and check your margin with the billable utilization calculator.

See the client record in action

Use the social media marketing agencies product overview to find the agreement, the responsible person, the related work and the invoice. Retainers and invoice schedules are covered on the retainer billing software for agencies page. Test permissions with sample records, and check that a teammate can find the latest creative and the client's reply without help.

Prepare the agreed scope with Proposals, keep follow-up in communications, and set reminders with Workflow Automations, which create tasks, send email or SMS and notify the right people. Email automations are on every plan, SMS steps start at Voyager, and webhooks and the API start at Specialist.

Before you choose

Review date: October 17, 2026 (Productive's page re-read October 19, 2026). Prices exclude tax, and billing toggles can change what a page shows. Start with the plan that fits your seat count, then try the 14-day Workspace369 trial, which requires a card.