Hootsuite vs. Sprout Social: Get ahead with the best social media tool
With over 16 years as the industry leader, Hootsuite still reigns supreme as the best social media management tool. Lower prices, better publishing tools, and smarter analytics are a few of the reasons why social media managers consistently rank Hootsuite above Sprout.
Let’s compare the numbers.
Spoiler alert: There is no Hootsuite alternative. Here’s why.
More bang for your buck
Hootsuite is cheaper than Sprout Social, making it a smart choice for budget-savvy and fast-growing teams.
More customizable analytics
Strategize intelligently and prove the value of your efforts with customizable analytics right out of the box.
Post to multiple networks at once
With Hootsuite, you can post to multiple networks at once and customize posts for each network. You can’t do that with Sprout.
Deeper social listening
Unlike Sprout, every Hootsuite plan comes with social listening. And we have the broadest coverage on the market with 150+ million sources.
Feature | Hootsuite | Sprout Social |
|---|
Price | Starts at $99 | Starts at $249 |
|---|---|---|
Avg. cost per user seat | $110 | $332 |
Total customers | 25 million | 30,000 |
Platforms |
|
|
Integrations | 100+ | 26 |
Zapier integration (lets you connect 5,000+ apps) | Yes | No |
Google My Business integration | Yes | No |
Scheduling and publishing | ||
Facebook ads | Yes*** | No |
Instagram ads | Yes*** | No |
LinkedIn ads | Yes*** | No |
X (Twitter) | Yes | Yes |
Meta Threads | Yes (Beta) | No |
Calendar view | Yes | Yes |
Instagram posts | Yes | Yes |
Instagram carousels | Yes | Yes |
Instagram Stories | Yes | Yes |
Instagram Reels | Yes | Yes |
Facebook posts | Yes | Yes |
Facebook group posts | Yes | Yes |
TikToks | Yes | Yes |
LinkedIn page posts | Yes | Yes |
LinkedIn personal profile posts | Yes | Yes |
Pinterest Pins | Yes | Yes |
Pinterest boards | Yes | Yes |
YouTube videos | Yes | Yes |
Google Business Profile Updates | Yes** | Yes |
Analytics and reporting | ||
Recommended time to publish based on goal | Yes | No |
Paid and organic reporting | Yes | Yes |
Competitive benchmarking | Yes | Yes |
Customizable reports | Yes | Yes |
Report templates | Yes | Yes |
White-label reports | Yes | Yes |
Web analytics integration | Yes* | Yes |
Social ROI analysis | Yes* | No |
Link shortener | Yes | with integration |
Content creation | ||
Canva | Yes | with integration |
Grammarly Pro free | Yes | No |
Post templates | Yes | No |
Hashtag generator | Yes | No |
AI caption writer | Yes | Yes |
Photo editor | Yes | Yes |
Content suggestions for reposting/content curation | Yes | Yes |
Automated link tracking | Yes | Yes |
Social listening | ||
Social listening | Yes, all plans | Enterprise only |
Search mentions, keywords, hashtags, and topics | Yes, all plans | Enterprise only |
Sentiment analysis | Yes, all plans | Enterprise only |
Expanded data coverage | 130+ million sources, 30+ social media channels | Limited |
Detect mentions and logos in images, videos, gifs with Blue Silk AI™ | Yes | No |
Blue Silk AI™ alerts | Yes | No |
Blue Silk AI™ summaries and reports | Yes | No |
Blue Silk AI™ peak detection | Yes | No |
Blue Silk AI™ trend forecasting | Yes | No |
Conversation clusters | Yes | No |
Advertising | ||
Facebook ads | Yes | No |
Instagram ads | Yes | No |
LinkedIn ads | Yes | No |
Boost Instagram posts | Yes | No |
Boost LinkedIn posts | Yes | No |
Boost Facebook posts | Yes | Yes |
Ad campaign management | Yes*** | Yes |
Employee advocacy | ||
Employee advocacy | Yes* | Yes |
Messaging and customer service | ||
Agent availability | Yes* | No |
Unified inbox for all comments and DMs | Yes | Yes |
Message spike alerts | Yes* | Yes |
Message prioritization | Yes | Yes |
Saved and suggested replies | Yes* | Yes |
Business hours | Yes* | Yes |
Message tags and topics | Yes* | Yes |
Auto-resolve conversations | Yes* | Yes |
Auto-responder | Yes* | Yes |
Team performance metrics | Yes* | Yes |
Chatbot support | Yes* | Twitter and Facebook only |
Collaboration | ||
Project management integrations | Yes | No |
Roles and permissions | Yes | Yes |
Assign posts to team members | Yes | Yes |
Approval workflows | Yes*** | Yes |
Give feedback on drafts | Yes | Yes |
Export content calendar for stakeholders | Yes | Yes |
Shopping | ||
Social commerce integrations | 7 | 3 |
Shoppable Instagram posts | Yes* | Yes |
Artificial intelligence (AI) | ||
AI caption writer | Yes | Yes |
AI copywriting integrations | Yes | Yes |
AI hashtag generator | Yes | No |
Chatbot integration | Yes | Twitter and Facebook only |
Work-life balance | ||
Save difficult comments for later | Yes | No |
Global publishing pause | Yes | Yes |
Creator tools | ||
Fourstarzz integration | Yes | No |
Insense integration | Yes | No |
Track influencer trends | Yes* | No |
One centralized inbox to communicate with influencers across platforms | Yes | Yes |
Manage Twitter lists | Yes | Yes |
Content curation and user-generated content (UGC) | ||
Collect the best customer content from social media and clear the rights | Yes** | No |
Streams to follow and reshare relevant content | Yes | Yes |
Compliance | ||
Safeguards to prevent accidental publishing | Yes | No |
Option to add publishing security with Proofpoint | Yes | No |
Multi-factor authentication | Yes | Yes |
Single sign-on | Yes* | Yes |
Access permission | Yes | Yes |
Strategy guidance | ||
In-app Social Score to help you improve in real-time | Yes | No |
Exclusive live social media coaching sessions | Yes | No |
Webinars | Yes | Yes |
Platform certification training | Yes | Yes |
*available with add-on **available with free integration ***enterprise only
What we do better
If you’re in the market for a Sprout Social alternative that gives you more but costs less, you’ll love Hootsuite.
Grow your brand faster with better performance tracking
Build customized analytics reports right out of the box. No need to pay for advanced analytics add-ons to get the information you need. Plus, Hootsuite will tell you the exact best time to publish content based on the goal you set — extend reach, build awareness, increase engagement, or drive traffic. Sprout’s timing recommendations are more generic and not as likely to help you succeed.
Boost engagement with world-class publishing tools
Hootsuite comes with a ton of easy-to-use content creation and publishing tools that you won’t find elsewhere. Write engaging captions in seconds the best AI writer, create attractive posts fast with Canva templates, and boost your chances of going viral with an automated hashtag generator.
Stay on top of trends with superior social listening
Instantly analyze millions of real-time conversations about your brand online. With Hootsuite, you get a year’s worth of search data, alerts that notify you when people are talking about your brand, and unlimited quick searches. With Sprout, there’s no quick search feature. You have to save individual searches, which costs you money every time.
Get more out of your ad spend with better paid ad tracking
Hootsuite out-ranks Sprout when it comes to paid campaign tracking, optimization, and planning. Every Hootsuite plan includes social ads campaign management, meaning you can plan, publish, and optimize your ad campaigns across social media right alongside your organic content from within the Hootsuite dashboard. Sprout does not allow you to schedule or publish paid ads.
Hootsuite was a more effective social media management platform than Sprout Social, which felt less comprehensive at a similar price point. I would recommend Hootsuite over Sprout Social and many of the other major platforms.See why Hootsuite beats the competition every time
Still weighing your options? Visit our comparison pages to get a feature-by-feature breakdown of why Hootsuite is the best.
Hootsuite vs. Sprinklr
Hootsuite costs significantly less than Sprinklr, which has limitations on publishing, exporting content calendars, and storing assets.
Hootsuite vs. Buffer
Buffer has limited features compared to Hootsuite. For example, it doesn’t offer a universal inbox and you can’t use it to schedule or analyze paid content.
Hootsuite vs. Later
Later doesn’t offer any social listening features and has much more limited analytics, publishing, and messaging features when compared with Hootsuite.
Frequently Asked Questions
Hootsuite beats Sprout Social across the board. It can help you grow your business online faster with easier publishing to all your channels.
The best part about Hootsuite? You can complete the same tasks in fewer clicks compared to the competition. Publish and track social media ads alongside organic posts from the same dashboard.
Plus, Hootsuite improves your strategy with smarter social media analytics. It tells you the best time to post based on the unique goal you set. Get recommendations on when to post to extend reach, build awareness, increase engagement, or drive traffic.
Hundreds of integrations — including project management and social commerce apps—bring all your tools to one tab. Time-savers like Canva, Grammarly, post templates, and a hashtag generator are built-in.
No. You’ll pay a flat rate for Hootsuite Professional, Team, and Business and get up to five user seats with no extra fee. Sprout charges up to $349 per month per additional user. Hootsuite’s team plans support between three and five users, while Sprout’s support only one.
Hootsuite. And there’s no contest. That’s because we acquired Talkwalker, the industry leader in social listening, in early 2024. Now we provide AI-powered social media monitoring and sentiment analysis to every single one of our customers.
That means even small businesses and creators can track brand mentions, discover the latest social media trends, and use data to enrich content creation and social media strategy.
Sprout social listening doesn’t even offer basic functionality that comes with every Hootsuite plan, such as Quick search. Plus, Hootsuite users get better filters (including city or state filters) and a much more intuitive social listening interface.
Businesses who want a deeper solution can upgrade to Hootsuite Listening to get access to the broadest social listening coverage on the market, across 150 million websites and 30 social media channels in 187 languages.
Hootsuite Amplify—the original employee advocacy platform—is the best of the bunch. We hear time and time again that Amplify is easier to use and more powerful than any competitor’s version.
Amplify lets you set your team up to share relevant, on-brand content to send your message further. Quickly boost reach and engagement by tapping into your team's personal network.
Hootsuite has the best social media analytics tools, period. Boost engagement by learning the best time to post based on your audience and goals. Plus, see your top-performing posts and how your ads are performing.
Want to know how you stack up to the competition? Hootsuite provides industry benchmarking and competitive analysis. Compare performance against similar brands and industry leaders to take your message further.
One more thing! Hootsuite’s analytics are more customizable than the competition. Compare custom time frames, create attractive custom reports, and white-label reports as needed. Note: Sprout charges extra fees to access many of these features.
Why sprout when you can blossom?
See for yourself why Hootsuite is still the best social media management tool. No strings attached.