Hootsuite is considered one of the most popular solutions for complex social media management. However, is it the best one? You might be doubting this yourself if you stumbled upon this article.
Today, we’ll show you some alternatives to Hootsuite that might be better for your business – with a detailed comparison and explanation of why.
We considered a few main criteria when comparing Hootsuite alternatives:
If you’re looking for a social media management tool that combines a powerful team collaboration engine, user-friendly content calendar, and a set of extra features to boost your social media presence, look no further.
Kontentino is the best Hootsuite alternative for you.
Kontentino was designed by an agency for agencies, which means that it offers a pack of features that are actually sought after by social media managers, digital companies, and those who manage multiple social media accounts.
Quick, precise, and helpful customer support is what Kontentino promises to its customers. And it does live up to its standards – the Kontentino team answers questions in a few hours, or even minutes on average.
It offers live chat support, which, as you’ll see in this article, is not common practice for social media management platforms.
Agorapulse is another alternative to Hootsuite that you might want to consider for your social media networks.
It’s a social media management solution for agencies and mid-size businesses, but one that’s not without its drawbacks.
Agorapulse offers a user friendly interface with a drag and drop calendar, helpful for marketing campaigns. For many, it’s better than Hootsuite.
Free and Standard plans lack any approval or collaborative features. Bulk approval comes as a feature only from the Advanced plan – and this has quite a price tag of 149 EUR a month.
If we were to give stars to customer service, we’d give Agorapulse 3 out of 5 – the support is okay, but free and standard users can only use email support avenues.
Email, chat, and phone support are only available on Pro plans and above.
The prices are relatively affordable if you compare them vs Hootsuite – the cheapest plan (Standard) offers 3 users and 10 social profiles for €69 per month, with a free trial available.
This social media scheduling tool also offers a free plan, but it’s extremely limited, allowing you to schedule only 10 posts a month.
As an alternative to Hootsuite, Buffer has been a good choice for small businesses and startups.
Thanks to its intuitive user interface, powerful analytics and the ability to schedule posts from your desktop or mobile device, Buffer is a good option for those who want an easy-to-use social media tool for most social media platforms.
Buffer’s user interface is often described by users as having a sophisticated appearance, yet it is also noted for its simplicity, making it extremely user-friendly. Overall, the user experience (UX) of Buffer is widely regarded as intuitive and easy to navigate.
Basic Notes are available in each Plan. To use Approval Workflow Tools, or give Custom Access/Permissions, you need to subscribe to (at least) the Team plan. As it costs $12/month per channel, it can quickly increase the overall price you need to pay for Buffer.
Support is not limited to any of the plans, and there are a few methods of communication with the Buffer team.
You can contact them via email, social media channels, or look for answers yourself in a Self-Service Knowledge Base.
Buffer is one of those Hootsuite alternatives you might have to cough up a bit more money for. $6 a month gives you access to managing just one social media channel.
For 10 profiles, you need to pay $120 a month – way more than for Kontentino in the same setup. A 14-day free trial for paid packages is available.
CoSchedule is one of the most popular Hootsuite alternatives for social media planning.
It’s a solid tool, and its features go beyond the standard functionality of a regular social media management platform.
Some users have expressed that the user interface (UI) of the tool feels outdated and does not effectively keep pace with the rapidly changing demands of digital marketing.
Limited collaboration options are available in the paid Social Calendar plan. If you need to build approval workflows in CoSchedule, you need to use a custom Marketing Suite for it, priced individually based on your needs.
Depending on your plan, you can get support from CoSchedule’s customer care through their knowledge base and basic/priority support.
The free plan comes with almost no customer support at all, so bear in mind that you’re on your own here.
CoSchedule’s offering consists of two plans: a free plan (free Calendar) allows 1 user to schedule posts (just 5 messages a month) on only 2 social profiles, or the Social Calendar comes with a price of $29 per user per month.
The latter makes CoSchedule a pricey option for any social media team, as these usually involve more than just one person.
ContentCal used to be one of the best alternatives to Hootsuite for social media management – it’s an all-in-one platform that allows you to manage your social media profiles under one roof.
However, since its acquisition by Adobe, it has become a part of the Adobe Experience Cloud, not accepting new customers and instead redirecting them towards Adobe Express.
Adobe is known for its spotless user experience and ContentCal, by merging with Adobe, is sure to deliver the same.
Nearly non-existent/limited features in the standard Adobe plan – to use collaboration features for content creation, you must sign up for a $12.99 per month per seat plan. For social media teams, this might not be the most sustainable option available.
As part of Adobe, ContentCal can access various customer service channels like email, phone, and chat support. However, as a standalone product, it’s not available anymore, so the exact support features are now unknown.
ContentCal used to have its pricing plans before being acquired by Adobe. Now though, to use its features, you need to purchase an Adobe Express for $9.99 a month. You can also use a free plan that allows you to schedule two posts per calendar month.
So, if you’re a lone social media manager looking for a basic Hootsuite alternative, this Content Scheduler might be a good choice. However, remember that it’s only available through Adobe Express, and it’s not even known by this name any longer.
Sprout Social‘s social media calendar is an ideal option for businesses of all sizes who are looking for a comprehensive social media management platform.
This Hootsuite alternative offers an array of features designed to help you reach your target audience via multiple social networks and improve social media performance.
Many users often praise the simplicity and ease of use of SproutSocial for their social media game.
To use collaboration features (custom workflows or approvals) in Sprout Social, you need to sign up to at least Professional plan ($399 per user per month).
Not specified in terms of its range. Email and phone support are available, but there is no trace of live chat support on the Sprout Social website.
Sprout Social is a rather expensive Hootsuite alternative – the cheapest plan costs $249 a month and gives you access to only 5 social media profiles.
Each additional social media manager costs a whopping $199 a month.
There are other paid plans available, including Professional and Advanced paid plans, for $399 and $499 a month, respectively. In those Sprout Social plans, adding each extra user would cost you $299 or $349 monthly! Even though a free 30-day trial is available, too, Sprout Social’s business plan is reserved for rather huge marketing budgets. If you’re tight on budget, you might want to look for a better Hootsuite alternative.
Among the alternatives to Hootsuite that are more on the budget side of things, SocialPilot is one of them.
Coming across as a decent tool to save money while still being able to manage multiple social media networks, SocialPilot is widely used by small businesses and startups in the scheduling process.
Feedback on the tool is generally positive, but there’s a common sentiment among users that it could benefit from an update. Many suggest that the interface, while functional, has an old-fashioned appearance and would be improved by a redesign. Additionally, there’s a call for enhanced intuitiveness, with recommendations for a more user-friendly interface that simplifies navigation between various menus.
Available, yet restricted to higher plans. For example, the Client Approval feature is only accessible for Agency and Agency+ plans.
Multiple support channels are accessible, from regular emails and calls to live chat (where the response time is stated to be a few hours).
Paid plans start from $30 monthly for 1 user with 10 social media profiles. White-label options (Agency+) start at $200 a month. A 14-day free trial is available.
This social media tool is considered to be one of the best Hootsuite alternatives for B2B marketers, as Oktopost comes with a set of features tailored to their needs.
However, small businesses can benefit from it as well.
Users consistently praise Oktopost for its user-friendly interface.
Oktopost offers a couple of collaboration boosters for team members, including content approvals, roles & permissions, and social compliance.
Available through a website form or email. No live chat options.
No information about a 14-day free trial available, and to undercover pricing plans you have to request a demo.
Of all the social media management tools that are alternatives to Hootsuite, MeedEdgar is one that mainly focuses on content recycling and scheduling.
It’s a good choice for businesses that want their content to achieve maximum exposure across multiple platforms.
It’s simple to use, but lacks some basic features such as a drag-and-drop calendar to create posts.
MeetEdgar is not the most collaborative tool in our ranking. It allows multiple user accounts to be connected, yet it doesn’t offer any social media tools for content approval or streamlining workflow on social channels.
You can reach out to their customer service team via email or a website form, as well as ask a question on live chat with a fairly quick response time.
MeetEdgar offers two paid plans: the Eddie monthly plan costs $29.99 and allows you to manage 5 social media pages, while the Edgar monthly plan costs $49.99 for more features and the availability to manage more social accounts (25 vs 5).
A 7-day free trial is available.
Boosting your social media presence is much easier with NapoleonCat – this Hootsuite alternative comes with a host of features to make the most out of your content.
Generally stands well in user ratings.
It offers a few team collaboration options for better content creation, such as task management, moderations reports for team members, social CRM.
You can reach out for assistance via live chat or email, as well as look for answers in the help center and via social accounts.
Highly customizable and dynamic pricing for both the number of users and the number of social networks to manage.
For 3 profiles and 1 user seat in this scheduling tool, you need to pay $32 per month. A free 14-day trial is available.
One of the best social media management platforms that could replace Hootsuite, Crowdfire is a robust social media tool which allows you to schedule posts, manage your profiles, keep track of your performance, and grow your social presence.
Based on numerous reviews, the overall experience with Crowdfire is positively viewed.
It doesn’t offer standard collaboration features beyond team members & profiles at all.
Compared to other social media marketing solutions on this list, Crowdfire offers very few support options.
Email support is unavailable for either Free or Pro plans, and Priority Support can only be used by VIP users. On top of that, free plan users don’t get an ad-free experience on the mobile app.
Fairly affordable, with a plan for free. However, it is very limited with only 10 scheduled social media posts per account per month.
Paid plans start from $9.99 a month, and all plans offer unlimited content curation features.
If you’re looking for Hootsuite alternatives for taking care of visual social media platforms, Later might be the one to go with.
Appealing user interface and straightforward, essential features.
Collab tools and team management features are not available in the cheapest plan. They are offered in the Growth plan, for $45 a month. While you can share your content calendar with a team, there are no approval options built in.
Self serve and human support (via chatbot) are available on all plans, but for a 1:1 live chat you need to be a user of the Advanced plan.
Starting at $25 a month for only 1 user and 1 Social Set (6 social media accounts, one of each platform) puts Later as one of the most expensive tools on this list.
The Advanced plan comes with unlimited social media posts, but only 6 Social Sets, and 6 users.
Looking for a tool that can handle your social accounts yet comes with powerful analytics? Loomly might be the right Hootsuite alternative for you.
Often rated better than Hootsuite.
Quite a few to choose from: approval workflow, commenting system, and version logs. However, they are only accessible in Advanced ($175/mo) plans and higher.
FAQ, chat, and email can be used on all plans, as well as direct contact with customer support specialists and account managers on the Enterprise package.
If you’re a social media manager of an SMB, Loomly offers an entry-level plan to start with. It costs $42 per month for 2 users and up to 10 social profiles. No business plan for free is available.
The price of paid plans varies from $79 to $369 and more for the Enterprise option.
A 15-day free trial is available.
Below are the most common reasons why people decide to switch from Hootsuite to another social media scheduler.
Social accounts you manage deserve the best tools tailored to your unique needs. Explore your options and choose the ideal Hootsuite alternative today to elevate your social media game to new heights. Good luck!
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