Influence vs Vista Social in 2026: AI-guided publishing vs an agency social operations suite
Influence makes AI-assisted drafting, account-specific post versions, and a final publishing review accessible to an owner or creator. Vista Social costs more, but adds the inbox, reporting, approval depth, client delivery, and integrations a working agency needs.
Influence
Vista Social- Influence starts at €170 per year for 50 posts a month, 1,500 Influence IQ credits, unlimited account connections, and a seven-day trial.
- Vista Social Professional starts at $99 per month for 15 profiles, two users, unlimited scheduling, inbox tools, reporting, review monitoring, and 1,000 AI credits.
- Influence requires a final review before publishing or scheduling, including assistant-originated work, and keeps a separate text and media version for every selected account.
- Vista Social Advanced adds multi-stage approvals, custom reports, Zapier and Make, while Scale adds white-label reports, dashboard access, and client profile connection.
- Influence publishes account connections and content allowances, but does not publish included collaborator allowances, a named approval chain, or a service commitment.
- Vista Social has a Smart Inbox for connected comments, messages, mentions, and reviews, plus assignments, notes, DM automations, and Zendesk ticket creation.
- Vista Social sells cross-social, web, and news listening from $75 monthly, and its X publishing, boosting, automations, and analytics add-on is $29 monthly.
Vista Social is the better purchase for an agency or an established team with clients, inbox work, and reporting obligations. Influence is the more focused choice for a creator or owner who wants an AI assistant to help build a calendar without losing control of the final post. The difference is not a minor feature checklist. Influence treats a post as a reviewed, channel-specific publishing task, with annual plans based on post volume and IQ credits. Vista Social treats social as an operating system, bundling profiles, users, approvals, customer engagement, reporting, reviews, and integrations from $99 per month. Choose Influence when a small team needs writing help and a dependable final review. Choose Vista when people, client handoffs, and social care are the work, then price its X, external-listening, and advocacy add-ons separately.
The tools at a glance
Influence
AI social media scheduler for brand-guided drafts, review, and multi-channel publishing
Influence is a publishing workspace for someone who wants an AI-assisted social routine without handing the last click to an assistant. A Single Post or Campaign can be adapted for every selected connected account, keeping text and media previews separate rather than forcing one caption across the entire calendar. Before a post sends or schedules, Influence opens a review of its account, copy, media, settings, time, and time zone. Activity then distinguishes a confirmed publication from a result that needs checking.
Its range is wider than a standard social scheduler. The public directory includes major social networks plus community, messaging, and publishing destinations such as Discord, Slack, Telegram, WhatsApp, WordPress, Ghost, and Discourse. Influence IQ can work from saved Brand Guidelines to draft or revise a post or campaign. Compatible assistant connections can work with drafts, media, scheduling, and available insights, but assistant-originated work still needs a fresh approval. That is a worthwhile guardrail for a founder using AI to accelerate a calendar.
The trade-off is operational depth. Starter is €170 annually for 50 monthly posts and 1,500 IQ credits; Growth increases those allowances to 150 and 3,750, with a first-year promotional annual price. The public plans do not establish included seats, routing rules between reviewers, a shared service inbox, or a white-label reporting tier. Influence is strongest when the bottleneck is producing and safely approving content, not running a client-service social desk.
| Feature | Starter €170/year | Growth €170 for the first year, then €340/year | Pro €610/year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Posts per month | 50 | 150 | Unlimited |
| Influence IQ credits per month | 1,500 | 3,750 | 7,500 |
| Connected accounts | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Publishing platforms | 20+ | 20+ | 20+ |
| Assistant or IQ scheduling allowance, rolling 24 hours | 20 destinations | 50 destinations | 100 destinations |
| Trial | 7 days | 7 days | 7 days |
Vista Social
AI-assisted social media command center for publishing, engagement, reporting, listening, reviews, and employee advocacy
Vista Social is made for the social team whose calendar is only one part of the job. Professional bundles 15 profiles, two users, unlimited scheduling, a Smart Inbox, reporting, review monitoring, approval workflows, and 1,000 monthly AI credits. Its publishing scope includes Instagram, Facebook, X, LinkedIn, TikTok, YouTube, Pinterest, Threads, Reddit, Snapchat, and Tumblr, with documented direct-publishing details that vary by network. This is the better fit when the person scheduling also has to answer comments, manage reviews, and report back to a client or manager.
The agency story gets stronger on the upper plans. Advanced brings multi-stage approvals, custom reports, Zapier and Make, advanced DM automation, and custom Vista Page domains. Scale moves to 70 profiles and four users, then adds white-label reports and dashboard access plus client profile connection. The Smart Inbox supports assignments, tags, notes, contact records, engagement actions, automations, and Zendesk ticket creation. Those are concrete work-management functions, not just more places to schedule a caption.
Vista is not the cheap route to a simple queue. Published self-serve pricing begins at $99 monthly, and the add-ons matter: X capability costs $29 monthly and external listening begins at $75 monthly. Employee advocacy has separate pricing after three advocates. For a solo creator, that is more apparatus and cost than Influence supplies. For an agency that otherwise maintains separate tools for publishing, review monitoring, engagement, reporting, and client approvals, the bundled workflow can be easier to justify.
| Feature | Professional $99/month or $950/year | Advanced $199/month or $1,910/year | Scale $449/month or $4,310/year | Enterprise Custom pricing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Included social profiles | 15 | 30 | 70 | Customizable |
| Included users | 2 | 3 | 4 | 8+ |
| Post scheduling | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Approval workflows | Single-stage | Multi-stage | Multi-stage | Multi-stage |
| White-label reports and dashboard | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | Customizable |
| Trial | 14 days, no card required | 14 days, no card required | 14 days, no card required | Request a demo |
Head-to-head feature comparison
| Feature | Influence | Vista Social |
|---|---|---|
| Primary job | AI-assisted content and reviewed multi-channel publishing | Agency social operations, engagement, reporting, and publishing |
| Published entry price | €170/year | $99/month |
| Planning capacity | 50 posts/month; unlimited connected accounts | 15 profiles and 2 users; unlimited scheduling |
| AI content allowance | 1,500 IQ credits/month | 1,000 credits/month |
| Final publish review | Yes, for web and assistant-originated publishing | Publishing controls and approval workflows listed |
| Approval workflow | Final individual review; multi-person workflow not published | Single-stage on Professional, multi-stage from Advanced |
| Unified engagement inbox | Not published in profile | Smart Inbox with comments, messages, mentions, reviews, assignments, and notes |
| Reporting and client delivery | Channel insights where available; white-label reporting not published | Custom reports from Advanced; white-label reports and dashboard on Scale |
| External listening | Not published in profile | Internal-profile listening included; cross-social, web, and news from $75/month |
| Trial | 7 days | 14 days, no card required on self-serve tiers |
Which should you choose?
InfluenceVista SocialVista SocialInfluenceVista SocialVista SocialInfluenceInfluence makes the better promise for an owner who wants AI to help produce content while keeping a human at the precise moment a post is sent. Vista Social is the better operating environment for a team because it publishes what each tier adds in profiles, users, approvals, reporting, and client delivery. The important distinction is not which one has AI. It is whether the work ends at a reviewed publishing calendar or continues into inbox response, reputation management, reporting, and client coordination.
Bottom line
Choose Influence if your social process is one or two people turning brand guidance into channel-specific drafts and reviewing each final destination before it publishes. Its annual plans and unlimited account connections make that a sensible creator or small-business workflow, as long as post and credit allowances fit. Choose Vista Social if the calendar has to serve an agency or customer-care operation. Advanced is the relevant tier for multi-stage approvals and custom reporting; Scale is the relevant tier for white-label client delivery. Do not treat Vista add-ons as included base-plan features.
Frequently asked questions
Is Influence or Vista Social better for a small business using Claude or ChatGPT to draft social content?
Influence is the better choice for a small business using an assistant to draft social content because it requires a final review and fresh approval before assistant-originated publishing or scheduling. Vista Social also includes AI assistance, but its value is broader team operations rather than that explicit assistant-review safeguard.
Which tool is better for a social media agency that needs white-label client reports?
Vista Social is the better documented choice for white-label client reports because Scale includes white-label reports and dashboard access, plus client profile connection. Influence does not publish a white-label reporting tier in its reviewed profile.
Can Influence replace Vista Social for social inbox and customer-service work?
Influence is not a documented replacement for Vista Social’s social inbox and customer-service workflow. Vista Social lists a Smart Inbox, assignments, notes, reviews, DM automations, and Zendesk ticket creation, while Influence’s reviewed profile centers on publishing and channel insights where available.
How do Influence and Vista Social pricing differ for a creator versus an agency?
Influence starts at €170 per year for a creator-oriented 50-post monthly allowance and unlimited account connections, while Vista Social starts at $99 per month for 15 profiles and two users. Vista is priced around a working team and its operating tools; Influence is priced around publishing volume and AI credits.
Does Vista Social include social listening in the base subscription?
Vista Social includes listening for content on a team’s own profiles, but cross-social, web, and news listening starts at $75 per month. Teams comparing it with Influence should price that add-on separately rather than assume all listening is part of Professional.
Reviewed by Filipe Lins DuarteCo-Founder & CEOVast experience talking to customers and users to understand what good software looks like. Background spans commercial and product roles.
Checked by John RiceCo-Founder & CTO15+ years building tech products and web applications. Conducted hundreds of user interviews to know what a good product looks like.
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