The open-source Vista Social alternative
GrowSocialelion is an open-source alternative to Vista Social: AGPL-3.0, free to self-host, with an AI agent that drafts and engages behind a per-action approval gate. Vista Social is closed SaaS from $79 a month, with multi-stage approvals held back to its $149 plan and AI metered by credits. Its 13-network agency stack, reviews and listening included, remains the draw.
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
Vista Social
closed source
Vista Social is a closed-source SaaS suite for social teams and agencies, bundling publishing, a unified inbox, review management, listening and reporting across 13 networks, priced from $79 a month for 15 profiles.
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.
Vista Social
Professional
$79/mo
billed monthly. 15 profiles, 2 users; single-stage approvals; annual billing saves 20%
Advanced
$149/mo
billed monthly. 30 profiles, 4 users; multi-stage approvals and custom reports start here
Scale
$349/mo
billed monthly. 70 profiles, 8 users; white label lives here
Read on Vista Social'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
Vista Social
11 of 31 in the comparison set
- Bluesky
- Facebook Pages
- Google My Business
- Threads
- TikTok
- X
- YouTube
- Dev.to
- Discord
- Dribbble
- Farcaster
- Hashnode
- Kick
- Lemmy
- Listmonk
- Mastodon
- Medium
- MeWe
- Moltbook
- Nostr
- Skool
- Slack
- Telegram
- Twitch
- VK
- Whop
- WordPress
Their own count: 13 networks per their own list, read 2026-08-27.
Vista Social vs GrowSocialelion, on the record
| Vista Social | GrowSocialelion | |
|---|---|---|
| AI content | AI assistant metered by credits, 1,000 to 3,500 a month by plan | The agent drafts per network, in your voice, from live research |
| Approvals | Single-stage on Professional; multi-stage from Advanced at $149 a month | Every agent action is approval-gated: human, semi-auto or autopilot, per action type, in the free app |
| Inbox / engagement | Unified inbox with DM automations on all plans | Inbox for replies and mentions on connected networks |
| Cost model | $79 to $349 a month for 15 to 70 profiles, plus add-ons | Self-hosted: $0, profiles are not a billing unit |
| Source code | Closed SaaS, no self-hosting | AGPL-3.0; the whole app is public and free to self-host |
We build GrowSocialelion, so read the table knowing that. Every Vista Social fact on this page comes from Vista Social's own pages, checked 2026-08-27. If a price changed since, their page wins.
Both sides of the ledger
What Vista Social does well
Thirteen networks on every plan, including TikTok, YouTube, Snapchat, Pinterest, Threads, Bluesky and Tumblr next to the Meta and Google staples. (source, 2026-08-27)
The whole agency stack is one product: publishing, a unified inbox with DM automations, review management, listening, employee advocacy and, on Scale, white label. (source, 2026-08-27)
Bundle pricing rather than per-channel line items: $79 a month covers 15 profiles and two seats, and the 14-day trial needs no credit card. (source, 2026-08-27)
Where Vista Social stops
No free plan exists. After the 14-day trial the floor is $79 a month billed monthly, or 20% less on an annual contract. (source, 2026-08-27)
Professional gets single-stage approvals only; multi-stage approval workflows start on Advanced at $149 a month. (source, 2026-08-27)
The add-ons stack up: advanced X features are $29 a month, cross-platform listening is $75 a month, and employee advocacy is $199 a month for 25 employees. (source, 2026-08-27)
Closed source and SaaS only, with AI metered by credits: 1,000 a month on Professional, 2,000 on Advanced, 3,500 on Scale. There is no self-host option and no code to inspect. (source, 2026-08-27)
Who should stay with Vista Social
If you run an agency that white-labels reports and dashboards for clients, stay. White label is a Vista Social Scale feature, and GrowSocialelion has nothing comparable.
If review management, social listening or employee advocacy is part of your job, Vista Social sells all three in one product. We do not build any of them today.
If your channels are Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Snapchat or Pinterest, they publish in Vista Social now and sit in our catalog as planned, not live.
Vista Social built the suite agencies used to assemble from three subscriptions: publishing, a shared inbox with DM automations, review management, listening, advocacy and client reporting in one login, across thirteen networks. The bundle pricing is honest for what it is, and 15 profiles for $79 undercuts every per-channel scheduler on this list. The catches are the ones the pricing page itself documents: no free tier, approvals that mature only at $149, AI on a credit meter, and a stack of add-ons for X, listening and advocacy.
GrowSocialelion starts from the opposite premise. The app is AGPL-3.0 and free to run, so profiles, seats and posts are not billing units, and the approval gate is not a plan feature but the core operating model: the AI agent proposes, you approve, per action type, in the free app. What we do not have is Vista Social's breadth. Their reviews, listening and advocacy modules have no counterpart here, and their thirteen networks include five we have not shipped.
Asked before switching
How much does Vista Social cost compared to GrowSocialelion?
As of 2026-08-27, Vista Social is $79 a month for 15 profiles (Professional), $149 for 30 (Advanced) and $349 for 70 (Scale), billed monthly, with 20% off on annual billing and no free plan. GrowSocialelion is free to self-host under the AGPL with no per-profile billing; its hosted version is pre-launch.
Is Vista Social open source?
No. Vista Social is closed-source SaaS with no self-hosting option. GrowSocialelion's entire app is AGPL-3.0 on GitHub.
Does Vista Social have approval workflows?
Yes. Professional includes single-stage approvals; multi-stage workflows require Advanced at $149 a month. In GrowSocialelion, approval is the default operating mode of the free app: every agent action passes a gate you configure as human, semi-auto or autopilot per action type.
Which networks does each support?
Vista Social publishes to 13 networks, including Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Snapchat, Pinterest, Threads, Bluesky and Tumblr. GrowSocialelion publishes to 8 today (X, Bluesky, Mastodon, Telegram, Tumblr, Nostr, Lemmy, DEV) with 30 more researched in the catalog. If the visual networks are your workload, Vista Social covers them now.
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 Vista Social's tools do not offer.