flottra vs TweetDeck (X Pro): reading columns or running many accounts

This page is for people who searched for a TweetDeck alternative and found that TweetDeck is now X Pro, sold only with X’s most expensive tier. If you used it to watch columns, it will tell you what X Pro does today. If you used it to juggle many accounts, it will tell you where flottra fits and where it does not.

Short version: X Pro is a reader and a manual posting client, made by X. flottra is not a reader at all. It runs many accounts on their own, from your computer. Those are different jobs, and the right answer depends on which one you had.

At a glance

What X Pro is, and what it does well

X’s help page says it has launched "a new version of X Pro (formerly known as TweetDeck) globally". So there is no separate TweetDeck to go back to: searching for x pro tweetdeck lands you on the same product. According to X’s X Pro help page, the current version has:

• Columns and Decks. Multiple timelines side by side, with column types for profiles, topics, explore, events and bookmarks, grouped into Decks.
• A full post composer. Threads, photos, videos, GIFs and polls, "including scheduled posts".
• Advanced search, including "Search X" from inside a column, and video docking so a video keeps playing while you move around.
• Account Switching. "You can add multiple accounts into Pro with the Account Switching feature", toggling between them as on x.com. The separate Pro Teams feature is, in X’s words, still being redesigned.

The X Premium help page lists it under "Only for Premium+ Tier": "View multiple configurable timelines simultaneously which can refresh in realtime, advanced search, add contributors and admins to your account, and more with X Pro." X also says "Pro is not available on mobile" and needs a browser window wider and taller than 500 pixels.

What it does well is simple: it is X’s own product. Columns refresh in real time, the composer can do everything the X app can, and nothing you do in it breaks a rule. For a person watching a few accounts, lists and searches and replying by hand, that is hard to beat.

How flottra differs: a runner, not a reader

flottra does not show you timelines. It is a panel on flottra.com that holds what each account should do and when, plus a Windows app that does it. The app opens a real, visible browser for each account on your own computer and does the work there. No browser runs on flottra’s servers, and it never runs headless.

• One profile, one proxy, one fingerprint per account. Each account keeps its own persistent browser profile, with cookies in its own folder on your disk. A proxy is required: without one, the account’s browser does not open. The browser is flottra’s own Chromium-based engine with a fixed fingerprint per account, and time zone, language and location come from the proxy’s exit IP. More on why that matters in antidetect browsers for X accounts and proxies for X accounts.
• Paced follows. Paste up to 500 usernames at a time for an account, or let it find candidates through X people search from the account’s persona terms. By default an account follows at most one every five minutes, six an hour and 80 a day, between 09:00 and 22:00 in its own time. See how auto follow works.
• Text posts. One-off posts you write in the panel, or a posting routine whose text is written with your own AI key, or by your own Claude Code through the MCP server. flottra does not sell AI credits.
• Likes and replies, narrowly. Only through Pods (Pro and Team plans: 3 to 6 of your accounts pointed at one target, in mixed order and spaced out) or through tasks an AI agent schedules over MCP. You or your agent supply the reply text.
• Profile work and checks. Display name, bio, website, avatar, header, username and password, one account or many at once, plus a session check that tells you whether an account is logged in, locked or suspended.
• A warming gate. Counted from the day an account is added: 3 actions a day and no follows for days 0 to 2, then 6, then 12, open from day 14. The details are on the account warming page.

When you want to look at an account yourself, "Start now" opens that account’s own browser, with the same profile, proxy and fingerprint. That is the closest flottra comes to a client, and it is one account per window, not columns.

Where X Pro is the better choice

• You want to read X. Real-time columns, lists, searches and Decks are the whole point of X Pro. flottra has none of that.
• You want zero rule risk. X Pro is X’s own client. flottra drives the X website in a browser, which X’s rules name as a form of automation that may lead to permanent suspension.
• You post more than text. X Pro’s composer does threads, images, video, GIFs, polls and scheduled posts. flottra posts text only.
• You work with other people on one account. X Pro adds contributors and admins to your account. flottra has no team seats or invites.
• You are on a Mac or Linux. X Pro runs in a desktop browser. The flottra app is Windows only.
• You already pay for Premium+ for its other features, such as the ad-free experience and SuperGrok. Then X Pro costs you nothing extra.

What flottra does not do

Measured against what people used TweetDeck for, the gaps are real:

• No columns, timelines, search monitoring or notifications view.
• No retweets, quotes, threads, polls, images or video: posts are text, up to 280 characters.
• No DMs, no unfollowing, and no automatic like or reply routine.
• No post analytics such as impressions or engagement.
• No macOS, Linux or mobile app; no cloud browser, so jobs wait while your PC is off.
• No captcha solving: an email or phone check at login stops and waits for you.
• No team seats, and no 2FA on the panel itself.

X rules and risk

X Pro carries no automation risk because it is not automation: every action is yours, in X’s own product. flottra is on the other side of that line. X’s automation rules (updated April 2026) tell you not to "Use non-API-based forms of automation, such as scripting the X website. The use of these techniques may result in the permanent suspension of your account." They also say "You may not like posts or hide replies in an automated manner" and "You may not follow or unfollow X accounts in a bulk, aggressive, or indiscriminate manner."

flottra does not claim to comply with those rules. Every tool that drives the X website in a browser carries the same risk. What flottra changes is how the work is done: a warming gate for new accounts, hourly and daily caps, a separate profile, proxy and fingerprint per account, and your own computer instead of a shared server. That lowers how aggressive an account looks; it does not remove the risk. Our guides on what X automation still works and why X accounts get suspended go further.

Pricing compared

X Pro has no price of its own. It comes with Premium+, and X lists these US web prices on its Premium help page, plus any tax, checked 24 September 2026:

Premium Business and Premium Organization accounts get Premium+ included. The switch to Premium+ only was reported by MacRumors and Engadget as happening on 26 March 2026; before then, Premium at $8 included X Pro. X’s pages do not say whether each account you add through Account Switching needs its own subscription.

flottra prices by the number of accounts, with unlimited computers on every plan: Free ($0, 2 accounts, no card), Starter ($39 a month, 10 accounts), Pro ($99 a month, 40 accounts) and Team ($299 a month, 150 accounts), with extra accounts at $4 a month. Pods are on Pro and Team only. flottra is in open beta and card payment is not open yet, so paid plans are set up directly. Prices exclude VAT. Details are on the pricing page.

Is there a free TweetDeck alternative?

We could not verify a free multi-column client for X, so we do not name one. What is free and sourced: X itself, where you can switch accounts on x.com and in the app; the Buffer free plan (up to 3 channels, 10 scheduled posts per channel); and the Typefully free plan (one social set, 10 posts a month), both checked 24 September 2026. Neither is a column reader. flottra’s free plan covers two accounts, for a different job.

Which one to choose

• Choose X Pro if you want to read, search and reply in columns, post media and threads by hand, share an account with contributors, or stay entirely inside X’s rules. If you wanted a better TweetDeck, this is the same product, updated.
• Choose flottra if you have many accounts and want each of them to run on its own: paced follows, text posts on a routine, profile work, each from its own browser, proxy and fingerprint on your computer, and you accept the rule risk that comes with browser automation.
• Use both if you read and reply by hand for one main account in X Pro while flottra runs a separate set of accounts. We would not add the flottra accounts to X Pro’s Account Switching, since sharing one browser undoes the point of a separate profile and proxy per account.

For how many accounts one person can reasonably run, see how many X accounts you can have. Other tools are compared on the comparison hub, including Circleboom.

Moving your accounts from X Pro to flottra

There is nothing to export from X Pro; you bring the accounts themselves.

• Import them. One line per account, in the form username:password[:email[:emailpassword[:2fasecret]]][:auth_token]. An auth_token cookie is the recommended way in; username, password and a 2FA secret also work, with the code generated in the app.
• Give each one a proxy. Residential, mobile or ISP HTTP proxies; datacenter proxies are not accepted, and flottra does not sell proxies.
• Pair your computer. The app pairs with an 8 character one-time code and only makes outgoing connections, so there is no port to open.
• Expect a slow start. The warming gate counts from the day an account is added to flottra, not from the account’s age on X, so an old account still starts at 3 actions a day and routine posting waits 14 days.

You can start with two accounts on the free plan from the beta page, or read everything flottra does today first.

TweetDeck and X Pro are trademarks of their owner. flottra is not affiliated with TweetDeck or with X Corp.