Maximize your social media game in 2024. Learn about Hootsuite vs Sprout Social in our detailed comparison. Improve your strategy today!
Managing social media accounts is important for businesses. You can schedule your posts, get an understanding of your data through analytics, and improve your strategy accordingly. Social media management tools are important for social media managers to make their work easy and efficient. Which is why choosing the right social media management tool is also an important decision for many social media managers. There are two big names in social media management tools: Hootsuite and Sprout Social. But which one is suitable for your business? Let’s find out.
What is Social Media Management?
The continuous process of producing and planning content for social media platforms with the goal of developing and maintaining a following is known as social media management. This consists of, but is not limited to:
- Content strategy for social media
- Online reputation management
- Paid social media campaigns- their strategy and implementation
- Management and growth of team members
- Community Management
There are many benefits to social media management. These include increasing brand recognition, staying updated on the latest trends, building relationships with the audience, and establishing trust in the community. Did you know that internet users are more likely to spend 1/3 of their internet consumption on social media? This means multiple opportunities to get in touch with your target audience.
What is Sprout Social?
Sprout Social is a social media management tool, more like a suite. It’s mobile and web applications are divided into many features, from managing your mailbox to mentions to social media calendars and understanding statistics. The software is compatible with Instagram Business Accounts, X, Facebook pages, Pinterest, YouTube, and LinkedIn for basic social media. You can link your Google My Business account, Google Analytics, Trip Advisor, and Glassdoor when you connect a profile.
Sprout Social is a popular social media management tool that provides scheduling, analytics, and interaction options. With their all-in-one platform, you can manage your social media from one place and gather insights to understand your audience and KPIs. Data-driven insights assist companies in becoming more responsive. Sprout Social ranked as Forbes Advisors’ No. 5 best social media management tool in 2024. According to the reports, it is considered best for analytics.
| Features | Pros | Cons |
|---|---|---|
| – Publish, schedule, draft and queue posts – Content library – Monitor mentions – Social media calendar – Suggested send times – Monitor profiles and keywords – Monitor and engage with reviews – Integrations with helpdesk and CRM software – Feedback surveys from X – Reports for individual profiles, competitor profiles, specific post types, X keywords and hashtags – Social media listening | – User-friendly publishing calendar – Competitive analysis feature – Easy to use interface – Strong reporting | – Support can be slow – Expensive price tag – No native support for some social media networks |
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What is Hootsuite?
Hootsuite is a social media management tool that helps you plan and organize messages for several accounts across various social media platforms. This includes Facebook, Instagram, and X. It can be free or paid for based on consumption, with a variety of subscription options available. With the help of Hootsuite, businesses of all sizes can link their social media accounts and oversee all operations from a single, central management dashboard.
The platform offers a single user interface to design, schedule, and publish content and advertisements. It also offers real-time analytics and reports to improve the results of audience engagement, advertising, and content. It is offered as cloud-based software-as-a-service and is scalable. Hootsuite ranked as Forbes Advisors’ No. 3 best social media management tool in 2024.
| Features | Pros | Cons |
|---|---|---|
| – Social media calendar and planner – Social media scheduler – Hashtag generator – Content discover streams – Content generator – Social media listening tools – Social media monitoring – Reports and analytics | – Scheduling with several profiles – All plans include infinite postings – Plan and publish straight from Hootsuite – Includes stock images – In-built Grammarly | – Offers no free plan anymore – It is expensive – Support responds slowly – Does not integrate Google Business Profile |
Hootsuite vs Sprout Social: A Quick Review
| Feature | Hootsuite | Sprout Social |
|---|---|---|
| Social Network Integration | Supports a wide range of social networks, including Facebook, X, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, and more. | Integrates with major platforms such as Facebook, X, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, and Google+. |
| Dashboard and Interface | Customizable dashboard for managing social media streams and activities. | Intuitive and user-friendly interface with a Smart Inbox for unified communication. |
| Post Scheduling | Allows users to schedule posts in advance across multiple platforms. | Offers a ViralPost feature for optimal posting times and scheduling capabilities. |
| Social Listening | Provides basic social listening tools to monitor brand mentions and relevant keywords. | Offers advanced social listening capabilities to track brand mentions, industry trends, and sentiment analysis. |
| Analytics and Reporting | Provides basic analytics for tracking engagement, follower growth, and post performance. | Offers in-depth analytics with customizable reports for detailed insights into social media performace. |
| Team Collaboration | Supports team collaboration with user roles, assignments, and approval workflows. | Facilitates team collaboration with message assignments , approval workflows, and team performance tracking. |
| Content Curation | Allows users to curate and schedule content from various sources. | Provides content suggestions and a content library for easy curation and publishing. |
| Social CRM | Offers basic social CRM features for managing customer interactions. | Includes advanced social CRM tools for customer engagement, lead generation, and relationship management. |
| Mobile App | Has a mobile app for on-the-go social media management. | Provides a mobile app with features for managing social media activities from mobile device. |
| Pricing | Offers various pricing plans based on the number of users and features required. | Pricing is based on the number of users and the level of features needed, with different plans available. |
| Customer Support | Provides customer support through various channels, including chat, email, and knowledge base. | Offers customer support through multiple channels, including chat, email, phone, and a knowledge base. |
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Hootsuite vs Sprout Social: A Detailed Review
Hootsuite vs Sprout Social: Ease of Use
| Hootsuite |
|---|
| Using Hootsuite is easy since all your features and tools are located on the left-hand sidebar. The only problems with this platform are periodic glitches that might irritate social media managers sometimes and dashboard clutter. |
| Sprout Social |
|---|
| Sprout Social is one of the easiest social media management platforms. The reporting features are simple to use and comprehend. With its straightforward features, this social media management tool is intended for larger enterprises but can also be used by anyone. There is a misconception that enterprise-level software is inherently complex. But with its intuitive features, pre-made social analytics reports, and pre-populated, automatic social answers for your account inboxes, it completely defies the idea. |
Verdict: While Hootsuite delivers a solid experience for most users, ease of use is one aspect where Sprout Social shines, making it the better solution in this category.
Hootsuite vs Sprout Social: Pricing
Verdict: Hootsuite’s price is superior in almost every way. Sprout Social’s pricing seems costly in comparison to Hootsuite’s due to the abundance of features available with the former, such as its free option and the platform’s per-user costs.
Hootsuite vs Sprout Social: Support
| Hootsuite |
|---|
| Hootsuite provides three different kinds of customer service. Although there isn’t a typical phone option available for any of these help channels, you can still discover the answers to your issues. The first and most fundamental kind of assistance is the feedback button that is included in the program itself. Using this button, you can provide Hootsuite comments describing your opinions about the platform in no more than 500 characters. The second format is the knowledge base, which offers assistance articles for a variety of platform queries. The website help section contains a support ticket form, which is the last avenue of assistance. You can register and manage all of your concerns with the support team in one location by using their ticket system. |
| Sprout Social |
|---|
| Sprout Social provides phone support, email inquiries, webinars, Q&A sessions, and a platform knowledge base, among other forms of assistance. Irrespective of the urgency of your inquiries, you can either file issues or get solutions with this level of service. It is nice that Sprout Social responds to inquiries from customers via social media as needed. |
Verdict: Sprout Social wins in terms of customer support. Although Hootsuite provides its users with a good amount of assistance, Sprout Social’s wide range of choices is difficult to match.
Hootsuite vs Sprout Social: Integration with apps/software/networks
| Hootsuite |
|---|
| Hootsuite thrives due to its extensive array of software partnerships, applications, and social network integrations, which includes: Social: Instagram, X, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest, Google My Business Tools: Trello, Slack, Adobe, Zendesk, Salesforce, Strava, ReviewTrackers Hootsuite offers an extensive number of connections for marketing, teamwork, and analytics requirements. |
| Sprout Social |
|---|
| All of the main social networks and a plethora of well-known tools are integrated with Sprout Social, including: Social: Facebook, Instagram, X, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Google my Business, YouTube, Trip Advisor Tools: Google Analytics, Bitly, Zendesk, UserVoice, HubSpot, Dropbox, Feedly, Google Drive |
Verdict: There is a tie! Both of these platforms include a long list of external interfaces and are integrated with several social networks.
Hootsuite vs Sprout Social: Features
| Hootsuite |
|---|
| Hootsuite has all the standard functions, including social analytics, team administration, post scheduling, feed monitoring, and post sharing. You can use Hootsuite if you need to implement a detailed social media marketing strategy. However, it is challenging to locate certain metrics in their social media analytics report. |
| Sprout Social |
|---|
| Sprout Social is an all-in-one platform for managing social media that can do almost everything you ask of it. It can help, regardless of whether you need to plan a posting campaign weeks in advance or want to do a thorough social media audit with detailed data. All of the main elements of your social media campaigns are summarized in the Sprout Social dashboard, from channel messaging and posting to-do lists to daily engagement metrics. Beyond the dashboard, there are a plethora of other tools available, ranging from basic posting methods to an elaborate Sprout Social calendar that allows you to plan and keep an eye on your social media feeds far in advance. Sprout Social excels at social listening, but it also offers post automation, team workflows for managing your social media activities, and even an internal inbox for managing your marketing strategy. |
Verdict: Although the feature lists of these two platforms are comparable, Sprout Social surpasses Hootsuite because of its social listening functions and better analytics reporting.
Hootsuite vs Sprout Social: Conclusion
In terms of functionality, usability, support, onboarding, and user experience, Sprout Social is the winner. When it comes to an almost perfect user experience, Sprout Social is the best choice of the two, making it a fantastic choice for both beginners and seasoned social media managers.
But cost also plays an important role. This is where Hootsuite surpasses Sprout Social. In terms of value, Hootsuite surpasses Sprout Social in almost every aspect, including its free option and cheaper cost per user. In the end, the issue is which is more important to your business: cost, or features, or user experience?
FAQs
Is Sprout Social better than Hootsuite?
The features list of both the platforms are comparable. Sprout Social surpasses Hootsuite because of its social listening functionality and better analytics reporting.
Is Buffer better than Hootsuite?
Hootsuite is the winner. In terms of analytics, inbox management, publishing, and content generation, Hootsuite outperforms Buffer. use customizable Canva templates in Hootsuite to quickly create eye-catching posts.
