If you're evaluating social media options, here's the honest side-by-side. Real costs, real time, real results — for the three ways local Saudi businesses actually run social media today.
Side-by-side comparison
Same business, three approaches — what each one actually costs and delivers
Feature
DIY (you)
Agency
Stackq
Monthly cost
Free (your time)
4,000–15,000 SAR/mo
From 499 SAR/mo
Setup time
Days of research
2–4 weeks onboarding
Under 10 minutes
Weekly time commitment
5–10 hours
30 min reviews
~10 min approvals
Scalability
Posting consistency
Inconsistent
4–5 posts/week
5+ posts/week on schedule
Content quality
Inconsistent
High
High (AI + approval)
Speed to first post
Days to weeks
1–2 weeks
24 hours
Approval workflow
Email / Slack threads
Analytics
Manual
Monthly PDF reports
Live dashboard
Long-term contract
Typical results
Slow / unclear
+20% engagement
+27% engagement lift
What "AI + 10 minutes a week" actually delivers
Real numbers from real Riyadh and Jeddah businesses
Barbershop · Riyadh
+44% followers in 30 days
Al Qasr Barbershop went from posting twice a week to five — without lifting a finger.
Restaurant · Jeddah
5 posts/week consistently
Naseej Restaurant runs a full weekly calendar approved in under 10 minutes each Sunday.
Salon · Riyadh
0 hours/week from you
Glow Beauty Salon approves posts between clients — Stackq handles the rest end-to-end.
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See the comparison in your own dashboard. No card on file, no commitment.
The questions our team hears most from businesses in research mode
Yes — for the kind of content local businesses need (offers, behind-the-scenes, tips, reviews, promos). Every post goes through your approval dashboard before it goes anywhere, and you can request a rewrite with one click. Our case study clients average +27% engagement lift, which is what you should measure "good enough" against.
Most of our clients switched from an agency, not in addition to one. The typical math: a Riyadh agency retainer runs 4,000–15,000 SAR/month, takes 2 weeks to onboard, and produces 8–12 posts. Stackq starts at 499 SAR/month, sets up in 10 minutes, and produces 20+ posts. If your agency is delivering real results and you enjoy paying 8x more for the same thing — keep them. Otherwise, take the 14-day free trial and run the comparison yourself.
It's not bad — it's just expensive in a way that doesn't show up on a credit-card statement. The average business owner spends 5–10 hours/week on social media (writing, designing, scheduling, replying). That's 20–40 hours/month your business doesn't get back. Stackq gives you back those hours and produces more content in the process — for less than the cost of a part-time hire.
Hootsuite/Buffer/Later are scheduling tools — they make it easier to post content you (or someone) still has to create. Stackq creates the content itself. Think of it as the difference between a content calendar (Buffer) and an actual content team (Stackq). We replace the "what should I post this week?" question with a fully written, captioned, hashtagged calendar waiting for your approval.
Our Pro plan includes a dedicated human content strategist on top of the AI. They review every post before it lands in your dashboard, attend a monthly strategy call, and can produce custom content themes for your brand. Most clients find the AI alone covers 90% of their needs and treat the human as a quality-and-strategy layer rather than a content mill.
Day 1: you connect Instagram via Meta OAuth and answer a 3-question brief. Day 2: your first week of posts lands in the approval dashboard. Days 3–14: you approve, reject, and refine. Day 15: pick a plan (or don't — your account simply pauses). No card on file means no surprise charges. Cancel anytime from your dashboard.