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Hootsuite dashboard with content calendar, analytics, social listening, and publishing features

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.

2,300+
That’s how many five-star reviews real customers have left for Hootsuite on G2. We’ve got thousands more across the web, too.
60%
Hootsuite plans cost 60% less than Sprout’s for the same number of users and double the social media profiles.
100+
Hootsuite has three times as many integrations as Sprout, which makes it much more customizable to your needs.

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

General

Price

Starts at $99

Starts at $199

Total customers

25 million

30,000

Platforms

decorative

Sprout social core icons

Integrations

100+

33

Scheduling and publishing

Facebook ads

Yes

No

Instagram ads

Yes

No

LinkedIn ads

Yes

No

X (Twitter) ads

Yes

No

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

TikTok videos

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

Meta Threads

Yes

Yes

Google Business Profile Updates

Yes**

Yes

Link shortener

Yes

with integration

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

Google Analytics integration

Yes*

Yes

Adobe Analytics integration

Yes*

No

Social ROI analysis

Yes*

No

Content creation

Canva

Yes

with integration

Post templates

Yes

with integration

AI hashtag generator

Yes

No

AI caption writer

Yes

Yes

AI caption enhancements (including fix spelling and grammar, optimize length, adjust tone, and inspire engagement)

Yes

Adjust tone only

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

Ad campaign management

Yes

No

Facebook ads

Yes

No

Instagram ads

Yes

No

LinkedIn ads

Yes

No

X (Twitter ads)

Yes

No

Boost LinkedIn posts

Yes

No

Split testing

Yes

No

Boost Instagram posts

Yes

Yes

Boost Facebook posts

Yes

Yes

Employee advocacy

Employee advocacy

Yes*

Yes

Messaging and customer service

Connect WhatsApp account

Yes*

No

Mute contacts

Yes***

No

Agent chat

Yes***

No

Auto-remove assignments on log out

Yes

No

Generative AI chatbot support

Yes*

No

Agent availability

Yes*

Yes

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

Salesforce integration

Yes*

Yes

Collaboration

Wrike integration

Yes

No

Monday.com integration

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

3

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 support

Yes*

Twitter and Facebook only

Creator tools

Track influencer trends

Yes*

Yes

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

Option to add publishing security with Proofpoint

Yes

No

FedRAMP certified

Yes

No

Multi-factor authentication

Yes

Yes

Single sign-on

Yes*

Yes

Access permission

Yes

Yes

Global publishing pause

Yes

Yes

Safeguards to prevent accidental publishing

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 integration ***enterprise only

Last updated Nov. 20, 2024

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.

Hootsuite analytics dashboard with graphs

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.

Hootsuite content calendar and best time to post tools

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.

Hootsuite social listening dashboard and quick search

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.

Hootsuite paid ad content calendar and advertising features

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.
Verified Reviewer

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. Sprinklr

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. Buffer

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.

Hootsuite vs. Later

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.

Compare plans

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.

Learn more

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.

Hootsuite’s social media inbox is better than Sprout’s for a few key reasons. Whether you simply want to respond to messages and comments across social media or you want a full-fledged customer service solution (more on that in the next FAQ), you’ll find an option for your needs with Hootsuite.

With Hootsuite inbox*, you can:

  • Respond to public comments and DMs across social networks and WhatsApp 

  • Automate your inbox with saved replies and auto-responders

  • Retweet, like, and hide comments across social networks

  • Send customer satisfaction surveys after a correspondence with a customer

  • View complete conversation histories to get the full context of messages

  • Avoid agent collision so you don’t reply to the same message as another agent

  • Mask customers’ personally identifiable information (PII) in messages

  • Leave contact and conversation notes for fellow agents to give context

And so much more!

*Please note that not all features are available in every Hootsuite plan.

Absolutely! Hootsuite offers many user-friendly customer care tools, many of which go beyond the capabilities of Sprout’s. The Hootsuite dashboard comes with an omnichannel social inbox that lets you bring all your social media messaging and comment management to one convenient view, but that’s really the tip of the Hootsuite customer care iceberg.

Here are a few more options for teams that need more robust customer care solutions:


If you’d like to try one of our customer care offerings, be sure to reach out to our sales team. They’d be glad to give you a quick demo of any of these products.

Woman holding laptop with Hootsuite graphs and logo

Why sprout when you can blossom?

See for yourself why Hootsuite is still the best social media management tool. No strings attached.