Answers that name a competitor

For a 12-client social media agency, I’d shortlist Agorapulse vs. Sprout Social, with Agorapulse as my pick if client/workspace separation is the priority.

My recommendation: Agorapulse

Agorapulse lets you create workspaces and restrict individual team members to specific workspaces, while also controlling permissions at both the organization and individual social-profile level. Its current documentation specifically describes workspace access management and client-facing roles. Agorapulse Help Centre Agorapulse Help Centre

That maps nicely to something like:

• Client A workspace → accounts + assigned account manager
• Client B workspace → accounts + assigned account manager
• …
• Client L workspace
• Agency owner → everything
• Content team → only assigned clients
• Client → approval/viewing access only

You can also let clients approve/reject content through shared calendars without giving them a full Agorapulse account. Agorapulse Help Centre

The important caveat is billing separation: Agorapulse's standard structure is an organization subscription rather than 12 completely independent client subscriptions. Its Custom plan is where the more sophisticated workspace/enterprise controls live. Agorapulse Help Centre Agorapulse

When I'd choose Sprout instead

I'd choose Sprout Social if you care more about sophisticated agency reporting, permissions, and client-specific environments than minimizing cost. Sprout supports client-specific Groups, permissions, approval workflows, and separate environments for client accounts. Sprout Social Sprout Social

It also has explicit permissions for billing, profile/permission management, and feature-level access. Sprout Social Support

One useful distinction: neither platform is really designed around 12 totally independent billing accounts inside one master agency account. If by "billing separation" you mean each client should have their own subscription/invoice/card and absolutely no financial cross-contamination, I'd evaluate the platforms differently.

For your setup, I'd rank them:

1. Agorapulse — best overall fit for 12-client agency operations.
2. Sprout Social — best if premium reporting/enterprise controls justify the higher spend.
3. Hootsuite — capable permissions/team structure, but I'd put it behind the two above for your specific client-workspace requirement. Hootsuite Help Center

If you tell me how many people are on your team and whether clients need login/approval access, I can narrow this down to the cheapest setup for all 12 clients, including estimated monthly cost.

I'd choose Sprout Social if you care more about sophisticated agency reporting, permissions, and client-specific environments than minimizing cost. Sprout supports client-specific Groups, permissions, approval workflows, and separate environments for client accounts. sproutsocial.com sproutsocial.com

It also has explicit permissions for billing, profile/permission management, and feature-level access. support.sproutsocial.com

One useful distinction: neither platform is really designed around 12 totally independent billing accounts inside one master agency account. If by "billing separation" you mean each client should have their own subscription/invoice/card and absolutely no financial cross-contamination, I'd evaluate the platforms differently.

For a remote agency managing social/content work, I’d prioritize a tool that has:

• Per-post comments and internal discussion
• Clear review → revision → approval workflows
• Client approval requests without giving clients your whole workspace
• Content calendars / scheduling
• Notifications and an audit trail of who approved what

Best fits

1. Planable — probably my first choice. It’s built around content collaboration and approvals, so clients can review individual posts, comment, request changes, and approve. Great for agencies.
2. Airtable — best if you want highly customizable workflows. You can build statuses like Draft → Internal Review → Client Review → Changes Requested → Approved → Scheduled, with automations and client-facing views.
3. ClickUp — best if the social workflow is part of a broader agency operation. Strong tasks, comments, approvals, dependencies, and team management, though the client-review experience isn't as specialized as Planable.
4. Frame.io — excellent if you're primarily reviewing video/design assets and need detailed, asset-level client feedback. Less ideal as the central social publishing calendar.

My pick: If your main problem is “client needs to approve each post before we publish it”, start with Planable. If you need a broader agency operating system with lots of custom processes, choose Airtable or ClickUp.

If you tell me how many clients/posts you manage per month and whether you also need scheduling/publishing, I can narrow this to the best 2–3 options and compare pricing/features.