Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Buffer
Score 8.2 out of 10
Small Businesses (1-50 employees)
Buffer is a social sharing tool. When browsing content, clicking on the Buffer icon automatically stores the content and schedules posts to social media channels throughout the day.
$15
per month
Hootsuite
Score 8.3 out of 10
N/A
Hootsuite is a social media management platform for building brand awareness, engaging with customers, and driving business results. Users can schedule posts across multiple social networks (including Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and YouTube ), manage organic and paid social content together, keep track of customer conversations, integrate with over 200+ applications, and gain actionable real-time insights from social media to make critical business decisions from…
$99
per month
Pricing
BufferHootsuite
Editions & Modules
Publish Pro
$15
per month
Analyze Pro
$35
per month
Analyze Premium
$50
per month
Publish Premium
$65
per month
Publish Business
$99
per month
Professional
$99
per month
Team
$249
per month
Business
$739
per month
Enterprise
Contact for Pricing
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
BufferHootsuite
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
YesYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoYes
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeOptional
Additional DetailsHere are the prices of our various plans: Pro: $15/month Small Business: $99/month Medium Business: $199/month Large Business: $399/month Enterprise: Feel free to get in touch with us at onboarding@buffer.com. All plans can be paid on either a monthly or yearly basis. If you choose to pay yearly, you would receive a 15% discount, which works out to be approximately two months free per year.*Prices displayed in USD, based on annual billing, but do not include applicable taxes. Free - 1 user / 2 social accounts Professional @ $99/month - 1 user / 10 social accounts Team @ $249/month - 3 users / 20 social accounts Business - starting @ $739/month - 5 users / 35 social accounts Enterprise - contact for pricing, unlimited users / 50+ social accounts
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
BufferHootsuite
Considered Both Products
Buffer
Chose Buffer
I've always found Hootsuite's user interface to be a bit clunky when compared to Buffer. I find myself troubleshooting issues more often on Hootsuite, as well. I think that you can connect more accounts and add more posts to Hootsuite at a time but have found Buffer's limits to …
Chose Buffer
As I stated before, I believe Buffer is more for a single company that is looking to manage just their social media platforms. When comparing to Hootsuite and PromoRepublic, I still believe that is the best way to describe Buffer. Hootsuite can also be qualified in this fashion …
Chose Buffer
The biggest selling point for us for Buffer over Hootsuite is the price point. We are paying less per month for buffer and we feel that we are getting more for our dollar amount. We were also having a ton of trouble getting posts to actually go through on Hootsuite.
Chose Buffer
While Hootsuite had more features, it wasn't worth the cost when I could use the free version of Buffer. While it did lack some features, it still met my main needs so it was tough to want to pay for something similar. I also wasn't a fan of the Hootsuite platform. It wasn't …
Chose Buffer
Airtable is more of a planning tool and does not link to social media directly, so we more use it to brainstorm and maintain a calendar of ideas that are later translated into Buffer.

Later is a good product that offers many of the same and even additional features (such as a …
Chose Buffer
Quite simply, I am not yet generating revenue as a content creator and Buffer's free tier was appealing to me. I also like the interface better than Hootsuite. It's more modern.
Chose Buffer
As stated in a previous point, for basic content scheduling Buffer offers simplicity and stability like no others. It doesn't have the Instagram-specific features like Later does, the evergreen content categorization and sending like MeetEdgar, or the ad campaign integration …
Chose Buffer
The price point is very affordable compared to other products that offer more features but charge a lot more. For my entire team, the price point has made it easy to get a good ROI. More than anything, it allows us to do what's necessary. Hootsuite definitely provides more …
Chose Buffer
Both Hootsuite and Buffer are excellent tools but they both target different users. If you're an individual user, small firm, or non-profit and you want to simplify your social media challenges, then Buffer is likely your best option. Hootsuite on the other hand is more likely …
Chose Buffer
Buffer is the first one I have used, and then I tried other platforms like Hootsuite, and HubSpot, but still, the other two haven't matched up to that level of ease and comfort, and the features I like of Buffer. So I switched back to Buffer.
Chose Buffer
Buffer and Hootsuite are considered as best tools for managing your social media accounts . The only difference which I feel between the two is Buffer is [more] focused on pre-scheduling and Hootsuite is a advanced version of Buffer you can say it allows you full -fledged …
Chose Buffer
We selected this tool to maintain the activity of publication in social networks at a low cost and good productivity, we consider that it adds to our objectives of brand awareness or discovery, since it allows us to keep our channels active with information and content that we …
Chose Buffer
In my opinion, Hootsuite has it all, except TikTok, which hopefully will open up some sort of interface soon. It is a much smoother and more customizable experience. I have not had any posts missing after scheduling, like I have had with Buffer in my past experience. Just an …
Chose Buffer
Buffer had the best free version, but Zoho Social had the most social media channels available in the price range.
Hootsuite was the tool we first wanted, but the price was considerably more, for tools we are not sure if we need at this time.
Chose Buffer
Buffer has a clear, easy to use interface and a reliable scheduling calendar.
Chose Buffer
Both software are good, but personally I like Buffer just because it is easy to use and it has good costumer support. Buffer lets me put my updates on a schedule so I can set it up for weeks at a time and then not have to worry.
Chose Buffer
Buffer has all the analytics tools and features that allow us to determine whether the result of our marketing is positive or negative. There are more complete alternatives, but Buffer is all I need at the moment.
Chose Buffer
Buffer wins it on simplicity and ease of use. Furthermore, it is multichannel whereas Later, for example, is only Instagram.
Chose Buffer
Initially we selected Buffer because it is an effective tool for a low cost, especially compared to Sprout Social.

It’s pared down and doesn’t have as many bells and whistles but that is nice when you want to simply accomplish posting.
Chose Buffer
I would recommend Buffer for ease of use, social media intergration and costs, also Buffer rarely has any issues or downtime. If they do they warn you well in advance.
Chose Buffer
In my opinion, Buffer stacks up quite well compared to these alternatives. It stacks up best in the price arena because Buffer is more competitively priced than these alternatives. Buffer is capable of doing almost everything these alternatives are capable of. You can set up a …
Hootsuite
Chose Hootsuite
I find Hootsuite better for teams to manage social media posts. It's easy for multi-channel and has link shortening within the software and makes basic reporting and analytics easy to comprehend.
Chose Hootsuite
I don't remember the name now but there was another tool I used when I first started and it was messing up all of my posts. I would find links to one post were showing up on another and the images were swapped as well. Once this started happening, I immediately stopped using …
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
BufferHootsuite
Publishing
Comparison of Publishing features of Product A and Product B
Buffer
7.6
64 Ratings
4% below category average
Hootsuite
8.3
368 Ratings
5% above category average
Content planning and scheduling9.364 Ratings8.9367 Ratings
Content optimization6.457 Ratings7.8300 Ratings
Workflow management7.053 Ratings8.2309 Ratings
Audience targeting00 Ratings8.1252 Ratings
Reporting/analytics
Comparison of Reporting/analytics features of Product A and Product B
Buffer
7.8
59 Ratings
1% below category average
Hootsuite
7.8
292 Ratings
1% below category average
Campaign success analytics7.859 Ratings7.8268 Ratings
Real-time tracking00 Ratings7.9269 Ratings
Competitor analysis00 Ratings7.7182 Ratings
Account management
Comparison of Account management features of Product A and Product B
Buffer
8.4
61 Ratings
3% above category average
Hootsuite
8.1
304 Ratings
1% below category average
Role-based user permissions & privileges7.649 Ratings8.4257 Ratings
Mobile access9.159 Ratings7.9282 Ratings
Listening/monitoring
Comparison of Listening/monitoring features of Product A and Product B
Buffer
-
Ratings
Hootsuite
7.6
262 Ratings
1% below category average
Boolean keyword searches00 Ratings7.4178 Ratings
Filtering out noise/spam00 Ratings7.0186 Ratings
Sentiment analysis00 Ratings7.4180 Ratings
Broad channel coverage00 Ratings8.3245 Ratings
Engagement
Comparison of Engagement features of Product A and Product B
Buffer
-
Ratings
Hootsuite
7.8
295 Ratings
3% below category average
Automated routing and prioritization00 Ratings7.8213 Ratings
Customer interaction histories00 Ratings7.6230 Ratings
Bulk actions00 Ratings8.0253 Ratings
Marketing
Comparison of Marketing features of Product A and Product B
Buffer
-
Ratings
Hootsuite
7.4
285 Ratings
3% below category average
Lead generation00 Ratings6.6171 Ratings
Content marketing00 Ratings7.8255 Ratings
Paid media management00 Ratings7.5170 Ratings
Campaigns and promotions00 Ratings7.8218 Ratings
Channel coverage/integration
Comparison of Channel coverage/integration features of Product A and Product B
Buffer
-
Ratings
Hootsuite
8.6
364 Ratings
1% above category average
Twitter00 Ratings8.9333 Ratings
Facebook00 Ratings9.1348 Ratings
LinkedIn00 Ratings8.7304 Ratings
Google+00 Ratings8.960 Ratings
Instagram00 Ratings8.6307 Ratings
Pinterest00 Ratings8.2158 Ratings
YouTube00 Ratings8.2145 Ratings
Best Alternatives
BufferHootsuite
Small Businesses
Publer
Publer
Score 9.8 out of 10
Publer
Publer
Score 9.8 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Social Suite by Reputation.com
Social Suite by Reputation.com
Score 9.3 out of 10
Social Suite by Reputation.com
Social Suite by Reputation.com
Score 9.3 out of 10
Enterprises
Social Suite by Reputation.com
Social Suite by Reputation.com
Score 9.3 out of 10
Social Suite by Reputation.com
Social Suite by Reputation.com
Score 9.3 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
BufferHootsuite
Likelihood to Recommend
8.2
(84 ratings)
8.5
(427 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.0
(14 ratings)
9.2
(89 ratings)
Usability
8.1
(23 ratings)
8.2
(65 ratings)
Availability
8.2
(2 ratings)
9.5
(21 ratings)
Performance
8.0
(2 ratings)
9.5
(19 ratings)
Support Rating
6.3
(23 ratings)
7.4
(264 ratings)
In-Person Training
-
(0 ratings)
6.0
(1 ratings)
Online Training
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(17 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.0
(2 ratings)
8.1
(39 ratings)
Configurability
10.0
(1 ratings)
7.1
(3 ratings)
Ease of integration
-
(0 ratings)
8.2
(2 ratings)
Product Scalability
8.6
(2 ratings)
8.3
(3 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
-
(0 ratings)
8.5
(3 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
-
(0 ratings)
8.3
(18 ratings)
User Testimonials
BufferHootsuite
Likelihood to Recommend
Buffer
It helps me save hours by devoting only half an hour in a month's worth of posting, in addition to that it is quite simple to use. Buffer for scheduling social posts well in advance, but I have begun using it instead of posting natively on the social apps themselves because it makes it super easy to post the same messages to more than one platform.
Read full review
Hootsuite
I really like that I can just go into hootsuite, connect all the our social channels and be able to have a great overview on what our social feeds look like. It's super handy not having to spend time going into each social platform to do the same post, and I can spend one day scheduling out that month's social plan. I much prefer sorting out boosting post from Hootsuite, the only downside is that they have a limit to what you can boost a month so a lot of the time I have to grin and bear it and use Meta Business Suite instead for boosting posts.
Read full review
Pros
Buffer
  • I can plan and publish content on social channels.
  • Buffer's interface is quite tidy and generates the necessary facilities to save us time in publishing consistent content.
  • It has a special price; it is pretty affordable.
  • It has the possibility of integrating with other tools to improve its functions.
Read full review
Hootsuite
  • Scheduling of content. The ease of use for Hootsuite's planner abilities is top of the industry. It is simple and effective in posting content to different channels and accounts.
  • Analytics are superior on Hootsuite. Their custom reports allow you to view very specific KPI's that you can adjust for each channel or account. The reports are also exportable to be used for others in the company.
  • Inbox management. The inbox manager is superior to any in the industry. Hootsuite allows you to tag certain phrases or keywords to better filter messages based on importance or topic.
Read full review
Cons
Buffer
  • Expensive Analytics: The upgrade you need to access your analytics is quite expensive, and I have come across other tools that provide the same or even more for a lesser priced plan.
  • No Media Library: The one feature I have found on another social media planning tool that I wish Buffer had is a media library. This allows you to upload photos you aren't using right away to have them readily available when you do decide to use them. This is not a feature in Buffer.
Read full review
Hootsuite
  • Because of the way algorithms works, we would have loved to be able to automate making a post with no link and posting the first comment with a link (hello LinkedIn)
  • We would have loved an easy way to post from a main account and repost the post for other accounts we administrate, for instance a corporate post reposted by individuals for LinkedIn, or retweets from one main account by child accounts
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
Buffer
I am giving buffer this rating because of a couple issues that it has compared to other platforms. It does not always post to instagram and you will need to go in an manually post. Also, one of the biggest qualms that we have with buffer is the price it costs to have robust analytics
Read full review
Hootsuite
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.
Read full review
Usability
Buffer
We use Buffer for certain website content that should be shared on social networks, having this tool helps us to do it faster and easier since we can send the publications from the internet browser and the stack of scheduled messages. It is really fast and easy for all team members who share access to the account, so at the same time that we analyze the information that we can share, the message stack is prepared
Read full review
Hootsuite
Hootsuite is probably the easiest to use social media scheduler of all the ones that I've used. It's been easy to teach clients how to use the software themselves and it can be accessed easily on anyone's phone through their mobile app. Highly recommend for anyone that wants a software that is easy to learn!
Read full review
Reliability and Availability
Buffer
Buffer is always on hand and very reliable, their software suite rarely has outages
Read full review
Hootsuite
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.
Read full review
Performance
Buffer
Buffer performs well on both desktop and mobile platforms. The one area as I have stated before is that it does not always want to automatically push to Instagram and the user will have to go do it manually. Buffer works very well pushing to other platforms. The instagram issue is the only reason buffer does not get a 10 on this section
Read full review
Hootsuite
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!
Read full review
Support Rating
Buffer
  1. It really helped to my business to grow online.
  2. I was able to take actions mindfully as the analytics are damn good.
  3. Also used for managing clients social media accounts and it proved to be a best resource.
  4. Clients were really happy as they got high demand and growth on internet and the secret is Buffer.
  5. The user interface is really easy to understand and manage. Support is 24/7 available to help.
Read full review
Hootsuite
I can manage all of my accounts on one site! It's absolutely amazing!
The dashboard is helpful to see how you are doing as well. Still
getting to understand the analytics and may need to reach out for help
on this
Read full review
In-Person Training
Buffer
No answers on this topic
Hootsuite
Very easy to teach and learn
Read full review
Online Training
Buffer
No answers on this topic
Hootsuite
The online training is decent; however, it takes a lot more time to search for answers to my questions. Having a training session with a live person was much more effective as they were able to quickly address the business needs I have.
Read full review
Implementation Rating
Buffer
We were very satisfied with the implementation of Buffer. We had no issues switching from the platform that we were using over to buffer. Our staff did not even miss a beat when it came to posting content. It was an easy transition and I feel that is something that buffer has really done well. They have an "out of the box" usability platform
Read full review
Hootsuite
• Combination of vendor and internal. The vendor bumped up our account to the Enterprise version (quite simple and easy) and then set up our organization and team structure. We then had to log in and set up team members and assign members to social media accounts. This was pretty easy to do as they have a great user interface. We simply had to drag and drop people into the correct team giving them access to specific social media accounts.
Read full review
Alternatives Considered
Buffer
I also used Combin which is easy and free to use. However, Combin only posts when the computer is active and connected to the internet. So, posting while you are not actively using your computer at that moment is not possible, therefore Buffer is much more efficient as you can even post while being on vacation without working.
Read full review
Hootsuite
Hootsuite's free account was sufficient for use on behalf of our client. When they restructured their pricing model and eliminated free and affordable subscriptions suitable for a small business, we found that Zoho Social was an excellent replacement. The interface was simpler and the pricing was affordable and suitable for a small business.
Read full review
Scalability
Buffer
Buffer does what it say on tin as they say! you can always count on Buffer. Buffer can be scale to 25 social account with 2,000 scheduled post which is enough for most agencies or businesses
Read full review
Hootsuite
We are only using in marketing and have been able to scale.
Read full review
Return on Investment
Buffer
  • It has saved money by allowing us to automate our social using one person
  • It allows us to connect one channel at a time instead of wasting money on larger account management tools
  • We are making money, because it has already delivered several clients
Read full review
Hootsuite
  • I have been able to evaluate which posts, in general, do well and figure out what types of posts to make (content)
  • It's been harder however to compare on social medial platform compared to another because it's hard to duplicate a post with a new owly (I think you used to be able to) but more so, you also can't assign it a custom owly link so I can see at a glance which owly link was associated with what platform.
Read full review
ScreenShots

Buffer Screenshots

Screenshot of The Buffer dashboardScreenshot of Customizable posting scheduleScreenshot of Tailored PostsScreenshot of List or calendar view of scheduled postsScreenshot of Browser extensionScreenshot of Social media analytics

Hootsuite Screenshots

Screenshot of Monitoring: Monitors social media profiles in one place and tracks the topics that matter to the brand.Screenshot of Publishing: Create, publish and schedule engaging posts across social channels.Screenshot of Customer Engagement: A consolidated stream of messages across networks that can be triaged and assigned to respond to customers faster. Provides optional chatbot handover for automated responses.Screenshot of Scheduling: Social content can be planned as a team with a shared calendar that features collaborative post drafts and built-in approval workflows.Screenshot of Analytics & Reporting: Measures the effectiveness of a social media strategy to help turn strategy into execution with meaningful and actionable insights. Reports can be customized and shared according to unique business goals and objectives.Screenshot of Best Time to Publish: Helps to find the best time to publish so posts are seen more often by fans and followers.