The open-source Social Champ alternative
GrowSocialelion is an open-source alternative to Social Champ: AGPL-3.0, free to self-host, with an AI agent that drafts and engages behind an approval gate you set per action. Social Champ is closed-source SaaS, from $4 per account monthly or $23.20 flat billed annually, with approvals starting on its $29 Standard plan. Its free tier and 12 networks, WhatsApp included, remain its strong cards.
GrowSocialelion
AGPL-3.0 · open source
An AI agent that drafts, schedules and engages across 8 networks today, every action behind an approval gate you set. The whole app is free to self-host, and 500+ free tools live now: character counters with sourced limits, generators, and more
Social Champ
closed source
Social Champ is a closed-source SaaS scheduler with a free 3-account tier and two paid models, per-profile from $4 per account monthly or flat plans from $29, publishing to 12 networks including WhatsApp.
What each side charges
GrowSocialelion
Self-hosted
$0
The full app under AGPL-3.0. Networks, the agent, approvals and the inbox are not billing units.
Hosted
Launching
No hosted pricing exists yet, so none is claimed here.
Social Champ
Free
Free
forever. 3 accounts, 15 scheduled posts, 1 user
Starter
$4/mo
per account per month billed annually; $5 billed monthly. 1 user, volume discounts past 10 accounts
Standard
$23.2/mo
per month billed annually; $29 billed monthly. 6 accounts, 2 users; basic approval workflow starts here
Professional
$47.2/mo
per month billed annually; $59 billed monthly. 12 accounts, 5 users, multi-layer approvals, WhatsApp
Agency
$119.2/mo
per month billed annually; $149 billed monthly. 30 accounts, unlimited users and workspaces
Read on Social Champ's pricing page on 2026-08-27.
Where each one publishes
GrowSocialelion
Publishing today
- X
- Threads
- TikTok
- YouTube
- Mastodon
- Pixelfed
- Bluesky
- Discord
- Slack
- Telegram
- Nostr
- Dribbble
- Lemmy
- Tumblr
- Misskey
- Twitch
- Kick
- LINE
- Wykop
- Plurk
- Dailymotion
- PeerTube
- Dev.to
- Qiita
- TabNews
- Hatena Blog
- Hashnode
- Ghost
- WordPress
In the catalog
- Farcaster
- VK
- Snapchat
- Naver Cafe
- Zalo Official Account
- Odnoklassniki
- RedNote
- Behance
- Product Hunt
- daily.dev
- Medium
- Substack
- Quora
Social Champ
8 of 31 in the comparison set
- Facebook Pages
- Google My Business
- TikTok
- X
- YouTube
- Bluesky
- Dev.to
- Discord
- Dribbble
- Farcaster
- Hashnode
- Kick
- Lemmy
- Listmonk
- Mastodon
- Medium
- MeWe
- Moltbook
- Nostr
- Skool
- Slack
- Telegram
- Threads
- Twitch
- VK
- Whop
- WordPress
Their own count: 12 networks per their own list, read 2026-08-27.
Social Champ vs GrowSocialelion, on the record
| Social Champ | GrowSocialelion | |
|---|---|---|
| AI content | Plan allowances, then credit packs at $9 per 100 credits | The agent drafts per network, in your voice, from live research |
| Approvals | Basic on Standard ($29 a month); multi-layer on Professional | Every agent action is approval-gated: human, semi-auto or autopilot, per action type, in the free app |
| Inbox / engagement | Social inbox on every plan, Free included | Inbox for replies and mentions on connected networks |
| Open source / self-host | Closed source, SaaS only | AGPL-3.0; free, self-host the full app |
| Cost at 10 accounts | $40 to $50 a month per-profile, or a flat plan plus add-on accounts | Self-hosted: $0, accounts are not billed |
We build GrowSocialelion, so read the table knowing that. Every Social Champ fact on this page comes from Social Champ's own pages, checked 2026-08-27. If a price changed since, their page wins.
Both sides of the ledger
What Social Champ does well
A permanent free plan: 3 social accounts and 15 scheduled posts for one user, with the social inbox and analytics included rather than paywalled. (source, 2026-08-27)
Two pricing models to choose from: per-profile plans from $4 per account per month billed annually with volume discounts past ten accounts, or flat plans with bundled accounts and users. (source, 2026-08-27)
Twelve networks including Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Threads, Bluesky, Mastodon and a WhatsApp channel few schedulers offer. (source, 2026-08-27)
Where Social Champ stops
The free plan caps at 15 scheduled posts across its 3 accounts, and its AI tools are limited to 3 lifetime uses each. (source, 2026-08-27)
Approval workflow starts on the $29 Standard plan; multi-layer approvals and WhatsApp Business need Professional at $59 a month billed monthly. (source, 2026-08-27)
AI beyond plan allowances is sold as credit packs at $9 per 100 credits, and social listening is a paid add-on on Professional at $29 to $49 a month. (source, 2026-08-27)
Closed source and SaaS only. There is no self-host option and no license to inspect. (source, 2026-08-27)
Who should stay with Social Champ
If you publish to Instagram, TikTok, YouTube or LinkedIn, stay with Social Champ for now. Those networks are planned in our catalog but they publish there today.
If WhatsApp is one of your channels, their Professional plan covers it and none of our 8 live networks do.
If you run 3 light accounts and queue a handful of posts a week, their free plan costs nothing and needs no server, and our hosted version has not launched.
Social Champ competes on price and coverage. The free plan is real, the per-profile model undercuts Buffer at $4 an account billed annually, and the network list runs to twelve, including WhatsApp, Mastodon and Bluesky. The catches are the usual SaaS ones: the free tier stops at 15 queued posts and 3 lifetime AI uses, approvals belong to paid plans, AI past your allowance is a $9 credit pack, and social listening is an add-on with its own monthly line.
GrowSocialelion takes the opposite structure. The AGPL app is free to run, so accounts are not a billing unit and AI use is not a credit balance. Approval is the core of the product rather than a plan feature: the agent proposes, you approve, per action type, in the free app. And because the code is public, the worst case is a fork, not a data export.
Asked before switching
How much does Social Champ cost compared to GrowSocialelion?
As of 2026-08-27, Social Champ runs $4 to $9 per account per month on its per-profile plans, or $23.20 to $119.20 per month billed annually on flat plans ($29 to $149 billed monthly). GrowSocialelion is free to self-host under the AGPL with no per-account billing; its hosted version is pre-launch.
Is Social Champ open source?
No. Social Champ is closed-source SaaS with no self-hosting option. GrowSocialelion's entire app is AGPL-3.0 on GitHub.
Does Social Champ have a free plan?
Yes: 3 social accounts, 15 scheduled posts and 1 user, with inbox and analytics included but AI limited to 3 lifetime uses per tool. GrowSocialelion's free offer is the whole app, self-hosted, with the approval-gated agent and no post cap.
Which networks does each support?
Social Champ publishes to 12 networks including Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, WhatsApp, Mastodon and Bluesky. GrowSocialelion publishes to 8 today (X, Bluesky, Mastodon, Telegram, Tumblr, Nostr, Lemmy, DEV) with 30 more researched in the catalog. If WhatsApp or Instagram is essential, that difference decides it.
Other alternatives
Try the part that is already free
The hosted app is still pre-launch, so we will not pretend there is a signup. What runs today: the open-source app on your own server, and 500+ free tools that need no account, including character counters whose every limit carries a source, something Social Champ's tools do not offer.