PostWireA social media tool with approvals for a small team: roles, seats and brands
The roles, how a post from a junior teammate or an AI agent ends up waiting for the right person, and what it costs next to Buffer, Hootsuite, Later, Planable and Sprout Social today.
Updated . Written from PostWire's own code; vendor prices read on Oct 7, 2026. Live networks: TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn (personal profiles), Facebook Pages, Bluesky, Mastodon, Telegram, Discord, and X on paid plans.
Set up the team, step by step
- Create the account
Open postwire.io/dashboard.html, type your email and press Create my free account; PostWire emails a link to confirm the address. No password and no card. Seats, the owner included: Free 1 (just you), Starter 3, Pro 25, Agency 100. See every plan on the pricing page.
- Invite your teammates with a role
Open Settings & plan → Team. Under Invite someone, type their email, pick a role and, if you want, only some brands, then press Send invite. The invitation is a link that works once, only for that address, for 7 days. Each person signs in with their own account (emailed code, Google or Apple).
- Give each person the role that fits
Contributor is the role for someone whose posts must be checked: every post they make waits for approval, whatever the brand's rules. Approver is for someone who only checks: they see the approvals inbox and nothing else. The full list is below.
- Turn on the brand's approval rules
Open Approvals; under Rules each brand has its own card. Switch on Require approval. Under Posts from, tick where the posts that must wait come from: Posts written in the PostWire dashboard is off by default — tick it if you write in the dashboard — and posts from API keys, AI agents (Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor) and n8n, Make or Zapier are ticked. Optionally narrow it On these networks, or to posts that contains a link, mentions a price or use a word from your list (one per line; guarant* matches guarantee and guaranteed). The account owner is the approver by default; teammates with the Owner, Admin or Approver role can decide too, in the dashboard. Press Save rules.
- Approve from the inbox
Waiting posts are in Approvals → Pending, each with every network's version side by side and why it waits ("Posts from AI agents need approval", "Contains a link: …"). Approve all, approve some networks, edit the text, pick another time, or reject with a reason. By default the owner also gets each one by email.
- See who did what
Activity names the person behind every post, approval and change, with the source — the dashboard, an API key by name, an AI app, n8n. Starter keeps 30 days, Pro 90; export it as CSV.
An API key or a connected AI app acts with the current role of the teammate who created it: a viewer's or an approver's key can't publish, and when someone leaves, their keys and apps stop at once. Per-key limits (a monthly cap, the networks and brands it may use, "always needs approval") are in API & MCP. Details: teams docs.
Approvals and seats in other tools
Read on each vendor's own pricing page on Oct 7, 2026. Prices as each page shows them.
| Tool | Plan with approvals | Price | People included |
|---|---|---|---|
| PostWire | Starter; client links on Pro | $9/mo for the workspace; Pro $29 | 3 seats on Starter, 25 on Pro, six roles |
| Buffer | Team | $10/mo per channel, billed yearly | Unlimited users |
| Hootsuite | Advanced | $399 per user/mo, billed annually | Each user is a paid seat |
| Later | Growth | $37.50/mo, billed yearly | 2 users; extra users $3.75/mo each (billed yearly) |
| Planable | Pro (required approvals) | $59 per workspace a month | Unlimited users |
| Sprout Social | Not listed | From $79 per seat/mo, billed annually | Priced per seat |
Checked on Oct 7, 2026 (2026-10-07) on each vendor's own pricing or docs page, linked in the first column and below. Monthly billing in USD unless noted. "Not listed" means we could not find it on their page, not that it is missing.
Where PostWire is ahead
- Three people with approvals for $9 a month, all networks of a business included. On Hootsuite, approvals are on Advanced at $399 per user (billed annually).
- A contributor role whose posts always wait for an approver — for a junior teammate, a freelancer or an AI agent's key.
- Per workspace, not per person: 25 seats on Pro at $29.
- Every network's version written from one idea, so the approver checks finished drafts, side by side.
- Rules by link, price or word, so only the risky posts wait and the rest go out on schedule.
- Buffer pricing (Team: approval workflows, access levels, unlimited users; per channel, billed yearly): buffer.com/pricing
- Hootsuite plans (approvals on Advanced; priced per user, billed annually): www.hootsuite.com/plans
- Later pricing (Growth: approvals, 2 users; social sets; billed yearly): later.com/pricing/
- Planable pricing (per workspace; Required approvals on Pro): planable.io/pricing/
- Planable pricing for AI agents (monthly prices per workspace): planable.io/wp-content/uploads/downloads/planable-pricing.md
- Sprout Social pricing (per seat, annual billing): sproutsocial.com/pricing/
- Sprout Social publishing features (Message Approval Workflows): sproutsocial.com/features/social-media-publishing/
The six roles
- Owner: billing, members, deleting the workspace, and everything else.
- Admin: everything except billing and ownership — members, brands, connections, approval rules, keys.
- Editor: writes, schedules and publishes posts, within each brand's approval rules.
- Contributor: drafts and schedules posts; every one waits for approval before it goes out, whatever the brand's rules.
- Approver: only the approvals inbox — sees the previews, approves or rejects.
- Viewer: read-only — sees posts, the queue, accounts and activity.
Editors, contributors, approvers and viewers can be limited to some brands: they see and act only on those. Every request is checked on the server against the role, the dashboard and the API alike.
Seats and brands per plan
- Free: just you (1 seat), 1 brand, no approval rules.
- Starter, $9/mo: 3 seats, 3 brands, approval rules, you or a teammate approve.
- Pro, $29/mo: 25 seats, 10 brands, plus 5 client approvers per brand who approve from a link.
- Agency, $99/mo: 100 seats, 50 brands, 25 client approvers per brand.
Client approvers who only approve from a link are not seats. On a downgrade nobody is removed: members past the new plan's seats become read-only until a seat is free. Every plan and limit: pricing.
What it does not do
- Seats come with the plan; single extra seats are not sold — the next plan has more.
- Six fixed roles, no custom ones.
- Approval emails go to the account owner and to client approvers; teammates with the Approver role decide in the dashboard's inbox.
- One decision settles a post; there is no multi-step chain.
Questions people ask
What is the cheapest social media tool with approvals for a small team?
PostWire's Starter plan is $9 a month for the workspace: 3 seats with roles, 3 brands, every network in each post and approval rules per brand. Pro ($29) adds client approval links and 25 seats.
Can a junior teammate's posts always wait for approval?
Yes: invite them as a Contributor. Every post they make waits for an Owner, Admin or Approver, whatever the brand's rules.
Can someone only approve, without publishing?
Yes: the Approver role sees only the approvals inbox — the previews — and can approve or reject. It cannot write or publish.
Can I limit a teammate to some brands?
Yes. Editors, contributors, approvers and viewers can be limited to some brands when invited or later; they see and act only on those.
Do I pay per user?
No. Seats come with the plan: 3 on Starter, 25 on Pro, 100 on Agency. Client approvers who approve from a link are not seats.
Can an AI agent's posts wait for a person?
Yes. Posts from AI agents over MCP, API keys and n8n, Make or Zapier are sources a brand's rules can hold, and an API key or AI connector can never approve. A key acts with the role of the teammate who created it.
Try it on one business, free.
The free plan is 1 business, 20 posts a month, 5 AI drafts a day (about 20 a month) and 2 networks per post — every network connects free, no card, no time limit. Paid plans start at $9 a month and have a 14-day refund; after your first published post, Pro can be tried free for 3 days.