Bitly vs Hootsuite | TrustRadius

What users are saying about

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Score 8.6 out of 10

Based on 127 reviews and ratings

Score 8 out of 10

Based on 905 reviews and ratings

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Feature Set Ratings

Listening/monitoring

Bitly

Feature Set Not Supported

N/A

7.6

Hootsuite

76%

Hootsuite ranks higher in 4/4 features

Boolean keyword searches

N/A

0 Ratings

7.5

75%

135 Ratings

Filtering out noise/spam

N/A

0 Ratings

7.2

72%

146 Ratings

Sentiment analysis

N/A

0 Ratings

7.5

75%

137 Ratings

Broad channel coverage

N/A

0 Ratings

8.2

82%

190 Ratings

Publishing

Bitly

Feature Set Not Supported

N/A

8.2

Hootsuite

82%

Hootsuite ranks higher in 4/4 features

Content planning and scheduling

N/A

0 Ratings

9.0

90%

261 Ratings

Audience targeting

N/A

0 Ratings

7.8

78%

181 Ratings

Content optimization

N/A

0 Ratings

7.9

79%

216 Ratings

Workflow management

N/A

0 Ratings

8.2

82%

222 Ratings

Engagement

Bitly

Feature Set Not Supported

N/A

7.8

Hootsuite

78%

Hootsuite ranks higher in 3/3 features

Automated routing and prioritization

N/A

0 Ratings

7.7

77%

159 Ratings

Customer interaction histories

N/A

0 Ratings

7.8

78%

168 Ratings

Bulk actions

N/A

0 Ratings

8.0

80%

190 Ratings

Marketing

Bitly

Feature Set Not Supported

N/A

7.5

Hootsuite

75%

Hootsuite ranks higher in 4/4 features

Lead generation

N/A

0 Ratings

7.0

70%

131 Ratings

Content marketing

N/A

0 Ratings

8.2

82%

192 Ratings

Paid media management

N/A

0 Ratings

7.4

74%

123 Ratings

Campaigns and promotions

N/A

0 Ratings

7.6

76%

165 Ratings

Channel coverage/integration

Bitly

Feature Set Not Supported

N/A

8.5

Hootsuite

85%

Hootsuite ranks higher in 7/7 features

Twitter

N/A

0 Ratings

9.1

91%

240 Ratings

Facebook

N/A

0 Ratings

8.9

89%

248 Ratings

N/A

0 Ratings

8.7

87%

222 Ratings

Google+

N/A

0 Ratings

8.9

89%

60 Ratings

Instagram

N/A

0 Ratings

8.2

82%

219 Ratings

N/A

0 Ratings

7.7

77%

121 Ratings

YouTube

N/A

0 Ratings

7.9

79%

117 Ratings

Reporting/analytics

Bitly

Feature Set Not Supported

N/A

7.8

Hootsuite

78%

Hootsuite ranks higher in 3/3 features

Campaign success analytics

N/A

0 Ratings

7.8

78%

194 Ratings

Real-time tracking

N/A

0 Ratings

7.9

79%

201 Ratings

Competitor analysis

N/A

0 Ratings

7.7

77%

134 Ratings

Account management

Bitly

Feature Set Not Supported

N/A

8.2

Hootsuite

82%

Hootsuite ranks higher in 2/2 features

Role-based user permissions & privileges

N/A

0 Ratings

8.4

84%

192 Ratings

Mobile access

N/A

0 Ratings

8.0

80%

212 Ratings

Attribute Ratings

Bitly is rated higher in 3 areas: Likelihood to Recommend, Likelihood to Renew, Usability
Hootsuite is rated higher in 5 areas: Availability, Performance, Support Rating, Online Training, Implementation Rating

Bitly

87%

56 Ratings

8.3

Hootsuite

83%

318 Ratings

Bitly

100%

2 Ratings

8.8

Hootsuite

88%

80 Ratings

Bitly

95%

6 Ratings

9.0

Hootsuite

90%

27 Ratings

Bitly

90%

2 Ratings

10.0

Hootsuite

100%

36 Ratings

Bitly

90%

2 Ratings

10.0

Hootsuite

100%

32 Ratings

Bitly

80%

15 Ratings

8.1

Hootsuite

81%

205 Ratings

Bitly

N/A

0 Ratings

6.0

Hootsuite

60%

1 Rating

Bitly

70%

1 Rating

10.0

Hootsuite

100%

8 Ratings

Bitly

80%

2 Ratings

10.0

Hootsuite

100%

65 Ratings

Bitly

90%

1 Rating

Hootsuite

N/A

0 Ratings

Pros

Shorten and link branding: Bitly helps to turn long URLs into short ones that can also be customized to suit any business name.
Tracking and analytics: A great thing to be able to see the social media channels that visitors are clicking from and where they are in the world.
Integrations: Bitly integrates well with third-party tools to help improve workflow and tech tools.
Free plan: There are some great features on the paid plan but for those not yet ready to invest Bitly provides a great free option.

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Ayo Bamgbose, Assoc CIPD, MSc

Online digital business coach

Self-employedE-Learning, 1-10 employees

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The product has a really interactive media library which is very helpful even when we are out of images.
Customer support of this tool is also very understandable and interactive due to which the experience goes very smoothly.
It would not be wrong to say that the usability of this product is one of the greatest strengths of Hootsuite.
With this tool modification of scheduled posts is just so simple and easy to do which yields great results as well.

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Jake Widner

Chief Software Architect

Crossover for WorkInformation Technology & Services, 1001-5000 employees

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Cons

One thing I've noticed is that if you're shortening a link that you didn't create - for example shortening the link to a news article that you then want to share on Twitter - the analytics will continue to pull data from the original URL as a whole, and not just your unique Bitlink. It would be nice to be able to pull out the traffic that just my efforts are pulling to the site, and not every single source of traffic that site is getting.

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Corinne Aherne

Social Media Coordinator

CarahsoftComputer Software, 201-500 employees

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Influencer recruitment - we would like to be able to research potential influencers to join our program.
Poor reporting and analytics within each platform within the Pro version.
Somewhat expensive for the functionality provided.
Only 1 user account provided in the Pro version.

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Jeff Thomas

Head of Digital

ShoebaccaRetail, 51-200 employees

View all 318 answers on this topic

Pricing Details

General

Free Trial

—

Free/Freemium Version

—

Premium Consulting/Integration Services

—

Entry-level set up fee?

Starting Price

Bitly Editions & Modules

Edition

Free	Free
Basic	$35²
Customized	Contact sales team

none
per month
none

Additional Pricing Details

—

General

Free Trial

Yes

Free/Freemium Version

Yes

Premium Consulting/Integration Services

Yes

Entry-level set up fee?

Optional

Starting Price

$49 per month

Hootsuite Editions & Modules

Edition

Professional	$49¹
Team	$129¹
Business	$739¹
Enterprise	Contact for Pricing

per month
none

Additional Pricing Details

Free - 1 user / 2 social accounts Professional @ $49/month - 1 user / 10 social accounts Team @ $129/month - 3 users / 20 social accounts Business - starting @ $739/month - 5 users / 35 social accounts Enterprise - contact for pricing, unlimited users / 50+ social accounts

Likelihood to Renew

Bitly 10.0

Based on 2 answers

We've had great success with Bitly and will continue using it.

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Verified User

Manager in Marketing

Telecommunications Company, 501-1000 employees

View all 2 answers on this topic

Hootsuite 8.8

Based on 80 answers

At this time we are satisfied that Hootsuite offers the most of what we are looking for at the most reasonable price point. As the social media landscape and monitoring/scheduling software changes, so do our needs. We re-evaluate our tools semi-annually or as new tools emerge onto the market. If we find at any point that we aren't gaining an advantage, then we are open to switching products.

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Laura Pence

President/Owner

Social Savvy Geek, LLCMarketing and Advertising, 1-10 employees

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Usability

Bitly 9.5

Based on 6 answers

Using Bitly to create shareable, trackable short links for social media couldn't be easier. Bitly is super easy to manage and offers easy monitoring of short links. Even with the few shortcomings or cumbersome features, Bitly is ranked number 1 for shortening links for our organization because of how simple it is to use.

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Stefanie Cash

Digital Marketing Manager

Caradonna AdventuresHospitality, 11-50 employees

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Hootsuite 9.0

Based on 27 answers

The layout of horizontal columns for each stream or search is a very cumbersome way to display information. There isn't an easy way to sort, filter, or otherwise re-organize the streams to limit the current view to relevancy. This is one of the primary reasons why we plan to move to another platform.

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Matthew Hardesty

Founder

UpticaMarketing and Advertising, 1-10 employees

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Reliability and Availability

Bitly 9.0

Based on 2 answers

I've witnessed very little availability issues with Bitly. This includes very rare occurrences of application errors and unplanned outages, of which I very much appreciate. When there are application errors or outages, Bitly does a great job of handling the issues in a timely manner and I am rarely out of the site for long at all. This is great, considering I was using Bitly for nearly every link that was posted to our social media accounts.

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Holland Pintarch

Marketplace Manager, Happiness Hero

Growth GeeksMarketing and Advertising, 1-10 employees

View all 2 answers on this topic

Hootsuite 10.0

Based on 36 answers

Any outages are communicated in advance and have not been a problem. We let our clients know based on communications from HootSuite.Since we operate 24/7 with multiple shifts, planned outages can interfere with our operations, but we can always work around it.

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Verified User

Manager in Marketing

Marketing and Advertising Company, 51-200 employees

View all 36 answers on this topic

Performance

Bitly 9.0

Based on 2 answers

I have used Bitly's service on a variety of computers, systems, and browsers. With this being said, I have not noticed much of a change at all between the browsers and computers, and Bitly's performance is top notch. Reports are also completed in a reasonable time frame, and I have had very little problem with lag time on loading different pages on the site. Pages tend to load quite quickly.

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Holland Pintarch

Marketplace Manager, Happiness Hero

Growth GeeksMarketing and Advertising, 1-10 employees

View all 2 answers on this topic

Hootsuite 10.0

Based on 32 answers

Hootsuite makes passing on articles from the web very easy- when it works! I have had a number of gliches with Chrome where it does not open properly and the solution (after some toing and froing with support) was to uninstall and reinstall. The support staff are always very helpful (which is great!) but the gliches..... well, they suck when you are already busy!

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Michael Royal

CEO

Emma McLean KindergartenManagement Consulting, 1-10 employees

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Support Rating

Bitly 8.0

Based on 15 answers

For us, Bitly is a Godsend an an almost perfect solution. I have no complaints and would recommend them to almost anyone. I guess I would hold back from a 10/10 because short URLs can sometimes look spammy. For us, and what we need it for, it's just about perfect!

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Verified User

General Manager in Other

Music Company, 11-50 employees

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Hootsuite 8.1

Based on 205 answers

It works well for my needs. It's not perfect and has occasional small glitches, but so does everything else. I would recommend Hootsuite to teams that need a simple solution to plan and schedule out social media posts, with the added bonus of being able to see quick analytics and dive a lot deeper into follower engagement depending on the amount of time you have to invest.

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Verified User

Program Manager in Sales

Non-Profit Organization Management Company, 51-200 employees

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In-Person Training

No score

No answers yet

I did not receive any in-person training, as I felt that I didn't need this type of training in order to understand and learn Bitly. It was quite easy for me to explore Bitly and learn the features myself without needing a person to give me a demo or tutorial. Kudos to making a platform that is very straightforward.

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Holland Pintarch

Marketplace Manager, Happiness Hero

Growth GeeksMarketing and Advertising, 1-10 employees

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Hootsuite 6.0

Based on 1 answer

Very easy to teach and learn

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Jessica Rudolph

Search Specialist

MindshareMarketing and Advertising, 11-50 employees

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Online Training

Bitly 7.0

Based on 1 answer

I haven't experienced direct online training - However, several times while learning Bitly by myself I went to the main Bitly page to answer a few questions I had. This includes determining exactly what features I was receiving and then I would explore the website and find these features. Also, I went to the Enterprise tab when both deciding to purchase that upgrade, as well as after I purchased this upgrade. It was very helpful in learning exactly what came with that package and after the upgrade, I was able to look there and learn some of the aspects of the upgrade that I was missing

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Holland Pintarch

Marketplace Manager, Happiness Hero

Growth GeeksMarketing and Advertising, 1-10 employees

View all 1 answers on this topic

Hootsuite 10.0

Based on 8 answers

Would rate it a 10. We received two hours of online training and it was of very high-quality. HootSuite also offers HootSuite University which is an extremely comprehensive training portal with self-paced quizzes, training webinars and videos, best-practice papers, product certification, and access to a network of external experts. This is a fantastic resource.

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Verified User

Employee in Information Technology

Media Production Company, 11-50 employees

View all 8 answers on this topic

Implementation Rating

Bitly 8.0

Based on 2 answers

Very excited to use bitly for link tracing - I was very excited to begin using Bitly for this company, and I've had very favorable impressions of using Bitly in the past for a variety of different jobs. Knowing the amount clicks on each link is important for our overall strategy.

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Holland Pintarch

Marketplace Manager, Happiness Hero

Growth GeeksMarketing and Advertising, 1-10 employees

View all 2 answers on this topic

Hootsuite 10.0

Based on 65 answers

One person of the organization must take the time to understand the product throughly. Next that person should work with the Hootsuite team to maximize the architecture of your platform and mitigate any problems that may crop up. Also, if a team members voices a concern or is having a problem roll your sleeves up and help them if not it can kill support for the product and end any chances of a renewal. Lastly, set aside enough time to allow for training and refresher training. Solve all problems ambiguity can not be permitted

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Edgar Carpenter IV

Director of Social Media

United States Marine CorpsMilitary, 1001-5000 employees

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Alternatives Considered

We use Pretty Links for custom URLs from our Word Press website. When that is not possible because the URL doesn't originate from the website, we use Bitly. It definitely has a purpose in our day-to-day operations. We also appreciate the information you receive like total clicks, top referrer and top location.

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GAIL PABST

Marketing

NATIONAL GARDEN BUREAUNon-profit Organization Management, 1-10 employees

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Hootsuite was a great entry-level tool v/s some of the other tools like Falcon and Netbase in terms of breadth of features and solutions across verticals. I feel Hootsuite does a great job for D2C brands v/s enterprise solutions that need a more robust set of features and deeper analytics.

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Mithil Patel

Growth Marketing Director

Trevelino/KellerConsumer Services, 11-50 employees

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Scalability

Bitly 9.0

Based on 1 answer

Bitly's scalability is great. When I began using it, I only used it once in a while to promote blog articles from our WordPress site on Twitter. This was due to Twitter's character limit and URL shortening was necessary. However, once I became more familiar with it and started seeing the benefits of many of Bitly's features, I began using it for nearly every link I posted across all of our social media accounts. This increased the workload I filtered through Bitly, and we also upgraded from free to a paid account. This growth was handled very well by Bitly and I was very pleased with its ability to scale so easily.

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Holland Pintarch

Marketplace Manager, Happiness Hero

Growth GeeksMarketing and Advertising, 1-10 employees

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No score

No answers yet

We haven't needed to scale it all.

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Verified User

Strategist in Marketing

Hospital & Health Care Company, 1001-5000 employees

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Return on Investment

We have seen an increase in event surveys since user Bitly in addition to the QR code
There are less technical issues when users are trying to use the Bitly URL
Can't beat free and when we have the budget would upgrade as the costs for benefits is worth it

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Shannon Miller

Project Manager, Talent Development

Endeavor AirAirlines/Aviation, 1001-5000 employees

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Really helps with content management
Helps show a visual representation of the number of posts per month/quarter as well as results on those posts
Helped manage inbound messages from consumers on our social channels, and was especially helpful on Twitter and Facebook where we got a lot of customer service messages

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Corinne Malo

Social Media Specialist II

Spectrum Brands - HHI DivisionConsumer Goods, 5001-10,000 employees

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Screenshots

—

See All (6) Hootsuite Screenshots

Bitly

Hootsuite

Bitly

Hootsuite

Boolean keyword searches

Filtering out noise/spam

Sentiment analysis

Broad channel coverage

Bitly

Hootsuite

Content planning and scheduling

Audience targeting

Content optimization

Workflow management

Bitly

Hootsuite

Automated routing and prioritization

Customer interaction histories

Bulk actions

Bitly

Hootsuite

Lead generation

Content marketing

Paid media management

Campaigns and promotions

Bitly

Hootsuite

Twitter

Facebook

LinkedIn

Google+

Instagram

Pinterest

YouTube

Bitly

Hootsuite

Campaign success analytics

Real-time tracking

Competitor analysis

Bitly

Hootsuite

Role-based user permissions & privileges

Mobile access

Bitly

Hootsuite

Bitly

Hootsuite

Bitly

Hootsuite

Bitly

Hootsuite

Bitly

Hootsuite

Bitly

Hootsuite

Bitly

Hootsuite

Bitly

Hootsuite

Bitly

Hootsuite

Bitly

Hootsuite

Likelihood to Recommend

Bitly

Hootsuite

Pros

Bitly

Hootsuite

Cons

Bitly

Hootsuite

Pricing Details

General

Free Trial

Free/Freemium Version

Premium Consulting/Integration Services

Entry-level set up fee?

Starting Price

Bitly Editions & Modules