Cheeky Merlin
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Comparison

Cheeky Merlin vs Sprout Social

Sprout Social is a dedicated social media management platform — publishing, engagement, listening, and analytics, priced per seat.

Feature Cheeky Merlin Sprout Social
Pricing modelFlat plan, seats includedPer seat — scales with team size
Predictive campaign scoring✓—
Covers ad platforms & CRM beyond social✓—
Social scheduling & unified inbox✓✓
Social listening—Yes, paid add-on
AI fulfillment agents beyond social20 agents—

Pricing shown reflects each company's publicly listed rates as of our last review — always confirm current pricing directly on their site before deciding.

What Sprout Social is good at

Deep, purpose-built social media tooling — a genuinely strong Smart Inbox, listening, and cross-network analytics for teams whose main job is social media.

How Cheeky Merlin is different

Sprout Social is a dedicated social tool — that's its whole job. Cheeky Merlin's social scheduler (Google Business, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, WordPress) is one feature among 20 AI agents covering the full agency workload: predictive scoring, ad optimization, PR, sales prospecting, and client reporting, under one flat plan with seats included instead of per-seat social-only pricing.

Sprout Social pricing

Essentials $79/seat/mo, Standard $199/seat/mo, Professional $299/seat/mo, Advanced $399/seat/mo, Enterprise custom — priced per seat, so cost scales directly with team size. Social listening and Employee Advocacy are paid add-ons even on the Advanced plan.

Cheeky Merlin pricing

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Per G2's aggregated reviews (6,872+ reviews), the top-cited complaints are cost — "Expensive" and "High Pricing" are the two most common negative tags — along with add-on features like Listening and Employee Advocacy costing extra on top of the base subscription.

FAQ

Questions, answered

Is Cheeky Merlin cheaper than Sprout Social?
Sprout Social prices per seat ($79-$399/seat/mo), so cost multiplies with team size. Cheeky Merlin's Studio plan is $299/mo flat with your whole team included — for a team of 5-10 people that is usually well under Sprout's per-seat total, and it covers the rest of the agency's workload rather than social alone.
Does Cheeky Merlin do everything Sprout Social does for social media?
Cheeky Merlin covers real social scheduling and publishing across Google Business, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and WordPress, but it isn't a dedicated social listening tool the way Sprout Social is. If deep social listening is your main need, Sprout's purpose-built for that; if you need social plus the rest of an agency's workload in one platform, that's where Cheeky Merlin is different.
Why does Cheeky Merlin charge a flat rate instead of per seat like Sprout Social?
So cost doesn't multiply every time you add a team member. Studio is $299/mo flat and Agency is $499/mo flat, both with team seats included — hiring a coordinator changes your bill by nothing. What scales instead is active clients, which is the thing that actually costs us anything to run.

Try it against Sprout Social yourself

Fourteen days, no card. Score one campaign in both and compare the maths.

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