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.
$6
per month per channel
Hootsuite
Score 8.1 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…
$249
per month per user
Sendible
Score 9.2 out of 10
N/A
Sendible is a social media marketing platform that allows users to engage with their audience and track results across multiple social media channels at any time.
$29
per month 1 user and 6 profiles
Pricing
Buffer
Hootsuite
Sendible
Editions & Modules
Free
$0
Essentials
$6
per month per channel
Team
$12
per month per channel
Standard
$199
per month (billed annually) Starts at 1 user, 10 social accounts
Advanced
$399
per month (billed annually) Starts at 1 user, unlimited social accounts
Enterprise
Custom Pricing
per year
Creator
$29
per month 1 user and 6 profiles
Traction
$89
per month 4 users and 24 profiles
Scale
$199
per month 7 users and 49 profiles
Advanced
$299
per month 20 users and 100 profiles
Enterprise
$750
per month 80 users and 400 profiles
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Buffer
Hootsuite
Sendible
Free Trial
Yes
Yes
Yes
Free/Freemium Version
Yes
No
No
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
No
Yes
No
Entry-level Setup Fee
No setup fee
Optional
No setup fee
Additional Details
A discount is offered for annual billing.
Plans can be paid monthly or annually, with a discount for annual pricing.
15% discount if paying annually.
15% monthly discount or 25% annual discount offered to non-profits.
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.
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 …
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 …
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 …
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.
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 …
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 …
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 …
I think Sprout Social and Hootsuite provide more comprehensive tools and analytics, but they have more expensive plans that don't cater to businesses of all sizes. Plus, all of that complexity can make it hard to find what you're looking for. That's where Buffer excels. It's …
Hootsuite is good if you have the budget for social media baked into your communications budget/a communications budget in and of itself. Buffer is better for small teams, teams that may have a more limited budget or organizations that don't have a large social media …
Buffer is comparable to those mentioned. Not as great as Hootsuite and Meltwater, but it holds its own and gets the job done. Buffer comes off more like the budget friendly option and lacks some of the overall bells and whistles Hootsuite and Meltwater offers. Buffer is really …
Buffer is much more affordable than Hootsuite. Another benefit is that Buffer allows more accounts to be loaded onto the platform. Hootsuite charges in tiered levels based on how many accounts you want to load onto the software. This makes it difficult to schedule and post for …
Buffer keeps it simple. It was great for when I worked at smaller companies and also for when I have done freelance social media work. Put it this way, Buffer is an accessible tool. The functionality is basic and intuitive so anyone can learn to use it. They also have a free …
Buffer's interface when logged in is more beautiful and easier to use than the others I've tried. Especially HighLevel which does a lot of other stuff as well - the difference with Buffer is that it is ONLY for social scheduling so it does that really well and the entire screen …
Buffer is way more user-friendly and gets straight to what I need to do. There is no frilly extra stuff—it's straight to the point. Buffer incorporates all the parts of the apps as well.
They all solve the same problem. Buffer initially started as a way to post content without worrying about the "when". Just add to the queue, and Buffer would post at a specified cadence. Buffer's price point is very reasonable for the services that it offers. They've grown …
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.
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.
Sendible is more professional and used by the agency as it is developed and designed for the agencies, Selecting Hootsuite against Sendible, was because we had very few clients and Hootsuite was cheaper at that time.
Hootsuite offers a wide range of tools at a somewhat steeper cost. If you manage multiple platforms and want to survey the content being shared and interacted with across all of them, Hootsuite seems to have an easier platform to do that with. HubSpot CRM allows us to integrate …
Hootsuite is a bit less busy and easier to use,they also offer a lot of learning resources and tools. I like the simple interface in comparison to others.
Assistant Director, Master of Science in Entrepreneurship and Innovation
Chose Hootsuite
We love saving time by having our content scheduled through Hootsuite, so we do not have to worry about posting every day. Also, we no longer have to search and scroll to find and engage with our target market; they are all right there on our home page on Hootsuite. Plus, when …
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.
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 …
Sprout Social, Shoutlet, Sendible, others. We liked Hootsuite's flat-fee approach, and the fact that it was the most popular and most widely used platform at the time (and probably still is).
Sendible
Verified User
Manager
Chose Sendible
We used a combination of Hootsuite and Sendible. Sendible allowed us to fill holes that Hootsuite could not provide coverage for at the time.
Sendible is a step beyond tools such as Buffer and Hootsuite Pro. Sendible is a slightly more professional platform than these, adding features that agencies will benefit from.
Compared to similar products such as Sprout Social, the pricing made a lot more sense with Sendible …
Sendible is much more updated, both in aesthetics and function, than Hootsuite is. When I open our content manager, I don't want to immediately feel stressed by the amount of things on the screen. Sendible's UI is wonderfully clean and easy to learn/follow. I feel much more in …
We have used Hootsuite since 2013, but their pricing is high and we can't afford that since we are a small team. Then we tried Buffer, but Buffer is limiting the number of social media platforms that you can manage. Buffer doesn't have a lot of functions and their analytics …
While lacking in some features compared to those big alternatives, Sendible doesn't stop releasing new features every few months and doesn't cost nearly as much monthly as they do for the amount of profiles they allow to manage. Overall I'd say it's a solid competitor if they …
Sendible totally knocks the rest of the competition out of the water. I have literally tried every single other scheduling app that out there and this platform is the best to view and keep scheduled posts up with ease. You can read and respond to messages right from the home …
I don't think the other listed platforms are "bad" per se. I really wanted/needed a more robust platform that was easy to use and implement and I felt the others fell short in terms of what I needed it for. For instance, I think that Buffer has a great company, and a great …
I've used full marketing automation platforms, which contain this functionality and much more. I've used HootSuite. Sendible is cheap and doesn't work very well. Give it a trial. If it works for you, great! But consider what your social media goals are. Saving yourself time on …
Features
Buffer
Hootsuite
Sendible
Publishing
Comparison of Publishing features of Product A and Product B
Buffer
7.9
77 Ratings
2% below category average
Hootsuite
7.9
434 Ratings
2% below category average
Sendible
8.3
15 Ratings
3% above category average
Content planning and scheduling
8.677 Ratings
8.9433 Ratings
10.015 Ratings
Content optimization
7.470 Ratings
7.6356 Ratings
7.713 Ratings
Workflow management
7.866 Ratings
7.9368 Ratings
8.414 Ratings
Audience targeting
00 Ratings
7.0295 Ratings
7.113 Ratings
Reporting/analytics
Comparison of Reporting/analytics features of Product A and Product B
Buffer
7.2
70 Ratings
7% below category average
Hootsuite
7.8
351 Ratings
1% above category average
Sendible
7.0
11 Ratings
10% below category average
Campaign success analytics
7.270 Ratings
8.0323 Ratings
7.111 Ratings
Real-time tracking
00 Ratings
7.5325 Ratings
6.99 Ratings
Competitor analysis
00 Ratings
7.8225 Ratings
7.05 Ratings
Account management
Comparison of Account management features of Product A and Product B
Buffer
8.3
72 Ratings
4% above category average
Hootsuite
7.7
358 Ratings
3% below category average
Sendible
6.0
14 Ratings
28% below category average
Role-based user permissions & privileges
8.559 Ratings
8.0305 Ratings
9.714 Ratings
Mobile access
8.168 Ratings
7.3329 Ratings
2.310 Ratings
Listening/monitoring
Comparison of Listening/monitoring features of Product A and Product B
Buffer
-
Ratings
Hootsuite
6.7
314 Ratings
13% below category average
Sendible
6.4
9 Ratings
17% below category average
Boolean keyword searches
00 Ratings
6.6206 Ratings
6.06 Ratings
Filtering out noise/spam
00 Ratings
6.2218 Ratings
6.05 Ratings
Sentiment analysis
00 Ratings
6.5215 Ratings
6.56 Ratings
Broad channel coverage
00 Ratings
7.6289 Ratings
7.08 Ratings
Engagement
Comparison of Engagement features of Product A and Product B
Buffer
-
Ratings
Hootsuite
7.6
350 Ratings
6% below category average
Sendible
7.6
12 Ratings
6% below category average
Automated routing and prioritization
00 Ratings
7.3254 Ratings
7.511 Ratings
Customer interaction histories
00 Ratings
7.5272 Ratings
5.59 Ratings
Bulk actions
00 Ratings
7.9302 Ratings
9.911 Ratings
Marketing
Comparison of Marketing features of Product A and Product B
Buffer
-
Ratings
Hootsuite
6.9
329 Ratings
11% below category average
Sendible
7.0
9 Ratings
9% below category average
Lead generation
00 Ratings
6.6202 Ratings
9.04 Ratings
Content marketing
00 Ratings
7.6296 Ratings
9.09 Ratings
Paid media management
00 Ratings
6.8201 Ratings
1.01 Ratings
Campaigns and promotions
00 Ratings
6.6250 Ratings
9.02 Ratings
Channel coverage/integration
Comparison of Channel coverage/integration features of Product A and Product B
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.
Hootsuite is well-suited for agencies managing multiple clients or scheduling multiple posts regularly across different channels. It's also appropriate for companies where the review process isn't streamlined or well-defined. But it's not well-suited for small brands that aren't regular on social media or for brands that focus heavily on real-time or trend-driven content, like TikTok or Twitter.
I have a fairly straightforward use case for Sendible and it meets almost all of my needs. If you are a small company that needs a collaborative solution to social media content creation, and likely has a small team (or no team) to manage social media postings, I think Sendible is likely a great tool to schedule posts and largely automate social media marketing. A larger company or more involved marketing team could still use Sendible to schedule and collaborate on posts. However, there may be additional features they may want or need (like the ability to promote posts) that may not be available with Sendible.
Reporting. We are able to pull accurate and concise data points on our channels.
Planning and calendaring. We love that we are able to have our teams plan out content across months so that we are never feeling behind schedule on getting content out there.
Easy to schedule and post to all of your social media platforms.
Customer support is very accommodating and always there to help. I have never had an issue with reaching someone whether it was for a quick question or to demo other features.
They have an awesome affiliate program (example: I earned over $600 from one company clicking through an signing up from my affiliate link - yay!)
Compared to other social media platforms, Sendible has been the most robust with features and ease of use.
They are always making advances and upgrades to their service offerings to better meet the needs of their customers.
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.
TikTok is an area for improvement as it's newer to Hootsuite. It would be beneficial to be able to link non-business profiles on TikTok to Hootsuite as many businesses use personal accounts to access TikTok's expansive music library.
Hootsuite does have room to improve the analytics capabilities. There could be more ways to customize each aspect of their reports. There isn't much manipulation of data in each type of data set.
Simplicity is an area of improvement for Hootsuite. The streams are one example of an area that is super cluttered and difficult to view. Their platform could really use an aesthetic overhaul to make things look more pleasing.
Inbox. The inbox of incoming messages/posts is very clunky. Threads are separated into individual messages, making it difficult to follow conversations.
Reporting. The included reporting features are limited and don't allow for enough customization to be worth using.
Hashtags. When discussing the 10 most common mistakes (or whatever the title might be), we are unable to say "You won't believe #3" because the system reads this as a hashtag to link rather than just a number. It adds on editing time when approving posts.
Default settings. As a Social Media Manager, it is annoying to have myself set as default when looking at the content calendar. I don't write the posts, just approved and schedule them, so manually entering in my writers' names in the filters could be made easier by making this an editable feature.
Instagram. You cannot post multiple images in a single Instagram post from Sendible.
Service Lists. They are supposed to be helpful in grouping your services (we do this by brand), however, these lists don't pull the information you put on individual services. So if I have a list with Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest for Brand A, you can't just add the Brand A Service List filter onto the calendar and see all of those posts that are scheduled. They don't seem to have much purpose at all.
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
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.
If I am given a larger budget to work with then I'd like a program that tracks and collects my PR hits, as well as sends me important info to respond to. I realy like the way New Brand Analytics tracks my Trip Advisor,etc ratings
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
Hootsuite is straightforward and does a great job of onboarding new users directly within the platform. Connecting social media accounts, regardless of whether you are managing multiple profiles on one platform, is easy enough. You can also easily toggle between platforms to see interactive dashboards showing how people are engaging with your posts.
Sendible is 100% web based so managing social media platforms can be done from anywhere with internet connectivity. During registration, Sendible takes its users on a tour of its main features. The sleek design was engineered by professionals who have great interest in social media marketing. There is ample support in case users get lost and there is no learning curve.
Gliches have made it a bit of a bind, particularly when you just want to 'click and send' a web article after you have read it - and then you have to deal with support (a great team but not always able to solve the problems with the gliches). Gliches with it loading properly, gliches with 'double ups in FB on the posts (the personal page and the business page if both clicked will lead to 2 lots of postings to each page!)
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
HootSuite does everything it is designed to do very well: the product's performance is very reliable and efficient. Like other tools, there is always a room for new developments and updates, and the HootSuite team recognizes this and focuses on new development as well.
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
Sendible has a great resource center which I have used multiple times throughout my year using the platform. There are plenty of troubleshooting articles and guides that make it easy to uncover the root of any small issues I may have.
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.
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
Simple and easy to use, and have never had any issues. We like how it saves me time and allows me to plan in advance. I plan on using this for as long as I can and will encourage others to use it too. If you haven't tried it you should. I hope my review is helpful to everyone.
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.
Metricool is free and we can shedule up to 50 posts per month, however Hootsuite allows us to do just a little bit more. For the price Agorapulse and Hootsuite are in tight competition but we prefer the Hootsuite format, although some chamber partners do find it a bit on the older school side we do not. We like the Hootsuite system
While lacking in some features compared to those big alternatives, Sendible doesn't stop releasing new features every few months and doesn't cost nearly as much monthly as they do for the amount of profiles they allow to manage. Overall I'd say it's a solid competitor if they keep the updates coming and optimize the platform a little
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
For our organization, all ROI was on time saved and efficiency: for creating posts, for scheduling and publishing, for interacting with users, and for analyzing performances. It all comes in one place and this makes a very huge difference in your workflows. We would say that Hootsuite went beyond our expectations on this front, for example with the dynamics UTMs and the media library. Saving time was the main reason why we wanted to purchase the platform and it did not disappoint at all.
The ROI in time was also fast to get. The learning curse is very short and this is also an important element. Benefiting from the platform did not take long to be experienced.