Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Buffer
Score 7.7 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.
$0
Sprout Social
Score 8.5 out of 10
N/A
Sprout Social provides social media management, marketing, customer care, data and intelligence, and employee advocacy solutions for brands and agencies, including Ticketmaster, Chipotle, Grubhub, Subaru, and Zendesk. Sprout’s platform is used to simplify social publishing, engagement, reviews, analytics and listening for customers. Sprout also provides customer success and technical support, to deliver consistent value to all users. Any organization, regardless of size or industry, receives…
$7,999
Verinovum
Score 0.0 out of 10
N/A
N/AN/A
Pricing
BufferSprout SocialVerinovum
Editions & Modules
Free
$0
Essentials
$6
per month per channel
Team
$12
per month per channel
Essentials
$79 per seat/per month annual / $99 per seat/per month monthly
Standard
$199 annual / $249 monthly
per user/per month
Professional
$299 annual / $399 monthly
per user/per month
Advanced
$399 annual / $499 monthly
per user/per month
Free Trial
Free
for 30 days
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
BufferSprout SocialVerinovum
Free Trial
YesYesNo
Free/Freemium Version
YesNoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsA discount is offered for annual billing.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
BufferSprout SocialVerinovum
Considered Multiple Products
Buffer
Chose Buffer
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 …
Chose Buffer
Honestly i’ve only mostly worked with Buffer and the big pro against meta business suite is that you can add social accounts from non meta apps.
Chose Buffer
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 …
Chose Buffer
Buffer is way easier to use and setup than Hubspot and Meta. You'd think Meta would make it easy to post on both Facebook and Instagram, but I have consistently run into issues when uploading files. I've never had an issue with Buffer.
Chose Buffer
Buffer is simple and easy to use and has a great free version.
Chose Buffer
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 …
Chose Buffer
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 …
Chose Buffer
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.
Chose Buffer
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 …
Chose Buffer
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 …
Chose Buffer
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 …
Chose Buffer
Buffer has a clear, easy to use interface and a reliable scheduling calendar.
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
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
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
Both of them are great at their own levels but I find Buffer quite easy to go and the way they perform every task is quite like my way of work so I personally like Buffer more, it has helped me save my most of the time hence improved my work efficiency and also the creativity …
Chose Buffer
We tried CloudCampaign and Social Bee (that wasn't on the list above) - and they all are good. Buffer is in a class of its own and super useful to individuals and companies alike.
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
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
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 …
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 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
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 …
Sprout Social
Chose Sprout Social
Sprout just has much more detailed reporting and analytics, and is easier to use and find best times to post. Later's interface feels out of date and Sprout has kept up with industry motion
Chose Sprout Social
Sprout Social is better from an enterprise/bulk standpoint. I’d recommend the other two for smaller organizations/organizations with only a few accounts. Sprout is expensive.
Chose Sprout Social
Sprout Social has more in depth reporting metrics and makes it easier to plan and keep track of your social media posts.
Chose Sprout Social
Sprout Social scheduling and analytics capabilities as well as the internal conversations and assignment features are what put it above the rest.
Chose Sprout Social
We started this agency using Later and switched to Iconosqaure because we needed more in-depth reporting. We switched from Iconosquare to Sprout Social because of the continuous scheduling bugs/issues we were having with our account and our terrible experience with their …
Chose Sprout Social
In my experience, Hootsuite was much glitchier and had issues with posting from it - was less reliable
Chose Sprout Social
Doesnt compare at all and your information isnt really safe with google much less platforms that can be added and tracked
Chose Sprout Social
We previously used Meltwater and Sprout Social was more intuitive to use. It was also less expensive.
Chose Sprout Social
Sprout Social is overall an easier platform to use, understand, train on and be trained on than Meltwater. While I do think that Meltwater has listening tools at a higher level than Sprout Social, every other aspect of the platform is harder to use and not as intuitive or …
Chose Sprout Social
Sprout Social is able to do all + more than the other platforms mentioned. And the user dashboard is easy on the eyes. Again, I'd like to add that Sprout Social puts an effort into their support team which makes it much more appealing to use the platform overall.
Chose Sprout Social
I think Sprout Social is much better. In my opinion, it is superior in its functions and user experience. I have also enjoyed the trainings and webinars a bit more here.
Chose Sprout Social
Sprout Social's Social Inbox and Listening Tools stood out, plus the sales and onboarding processes were well connected and helpful. They were flexible in the price point as a nonprofit and organization with unique needs in general. They also hit all the marks in what we needed …
Chose Sprout Social
Takes the best of all of these and puts them in one place. I am yet to find a feature that these have that are not on Sprout Social, while there are many missing features on these platforms that come with Sprout Social as standard.
Chose Sprout Social
Sprout Social has more features and is easier to use
Chose Sprout Social
Meta Business Manager, Hootsuite and HubSpot Marketing Hub
Chose Sprout Social
Hootsuite is more budget-friendly. Sprout Social is pricier but it has more features. Sprout Social also has better analytics and reporting. Hootsuite is good at scheduling posts and is pretty basic. There are paid add-ons that you can add such as listening. Listening is …
Chose Sprout Social
The tool is better in terms of the value it’s providing and the cost is also good but the user interface has to be improved so it can be made usable in fully. A new member may find it very difficult to use from day 1 so it’s something to be looked
Chose Sprout Social
Reporting is a big deal for us since we manage different clients, Sprout social let us to adjust and filter for all of them and also to get the reporting in different formats
Chose Sprout Social
It's been awhile since I've used these, except for Agorapulse - I used them more recently. Agorapulse was not intuitive to use, their features were not as regularly updated/integrated with Meta, their reporting wasn't as detailed as Sprout, and there were a lot of bugs/issues …
Chose Sprout Social
They are pretty similar in many ways. However, I'm now most comfortable in Sprout Social, both from having used Sprout Social the longest and finding the UX of its basic tools most intuitive in comparison to other products.
Chose Sprout Social
We use Sprout Social right now because it's very user friendly and has the features that we as a communications team need for the most part. We have used or looked into other scheduling platforms in the past, and mostly because of the cost of Sprout Social we have considered …
Verinovum

No answer on this topic

Features
BufferSprout SocialVerinovum
Publishing
Comparison of Publishing features of Product A and Product B
Buffer
7.9
Ratings
3% below category average
Sprout Social
8.2
Ratings
1% above category average
Verinovum
-
Ratings
Content planning and scheduling8.60 Ratings9.20 Ratings00 Ratings
Content optimization7.30 Ratings8.20 Ratings00 Ratings
Workflow management7.70 Ratings8.40 Ratings00 Ratings
Audience targeting00 Ratings7.20 Ratings00 Ratings
Reporting/analytics
Comparison of Reporting/analytics features of Product A and Product B
Buffer
7.0
Ratings
10% below category average
Sprout Social
8.2
Ratings
6% above category average
Verinovum
-
Ratings
Campaign success analytics7.00 Ratings8.60 Ratings00 Ratings
Real-time tracking00 Ratings8.10 Ratings00 Ratings
Competitor analysis00 Ratings8.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Account management
Comparison of Account management features of Product A and Product B
Buffer
8.2
Ratings
4% above category average
Sprout Social
8.0
Ratings
1% above category average
Verinovum
-
Ratings
Role-based user permissions & privileges8.40 Ratings8.60 Ratings00 Ratings
Mobile access8.00 Ratings7.30 Ratings00 Ratings
Listening/monitoring
Comparison of Listening/monitoring features of Product A and Product B
Buffer
-
Ratings
Sprout Social
7.3
Ratings
4% below category average
Verinovum
-
Ratings
Boolean keyword searches00 Ratings7.10 Ratings00 Ratings
Filtering out noise/spam00 Ratings7.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Sentiment analysis00 Ratings7.20 Ratings00 Ratings
Broad channel coverage00 Ratings8.10 Ratings00 Ratings
Engagement
Comparison of Engagement features of Product A and Product B
Buffer
-
Ratings
Sprout Social
7.9
Ratings
3% below category average
Verinovum
-
Ratings
Automated routing and prioritization00 Ratings7.60 Ratings00 Ratings
Customer interaction histories00 Ratings8.10 Ratings00 Ratings
Bulk actions00 Ratings8.10 Ratings00 Ratings
Marketing
Comparison of Marketing features of Product A and Product B
Buffer
-
Ratings
Sprout Social
7.1
Ratings
8% below category average
Verinovum
-
Ratings
Lead generation00 Ratings6.90 Ratings00 Ratings
Content marketing00 Ratings8.10 Ratings00 Ratings
Paid media management00 Ratings6.20 Ratings00 Ratings
Campaigns and promotions00 Ratings7.20 Ratings00 Ratings
Channel coverage/integration
Comparison of Channel coverage/integration features of Product A and Product B
Buffer
-
Ratings
Sprout Social
8.4
Ratings
1% above category average
Verinovum
-
Ratings
Twitter00 Ratings8.80 Ratings00 Ratings
Facebook00 Ratings8.80 Ratings00 Ratings
LinkedIn00 Ratings8.70 Ratings00 Ratings
Google+00 Ratings7.80 Ratings00 Ratings
Instagram00 Ratings8.60 Ratings00 Ratings
Pinterest00 Ratings8.30 Ratings00 Ratings
YouTube00 Ratings8.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
BufferSprout SocialVerinovum
Small Businesses
CoSchedule Marketing Suite
CoSchedule Marketing Suite
Score 10.0 out of 10
CoSchedule Marketing Suite
CoSchedule Marketing Suite
Score 10.0 out of 10
MediaMath
MediaMath
Score 7.4 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
CoSchedule Marketing Suite
CoSchedule Marketing Suite
Score 10.0 out of 10
CoSchedule Marketing Suite
CoSchedule Marketing Suite
Score 10.0 out of 10
Adobe Real-Time CDP
Adobe Real-Time CDP
Score 8.3 out of 10
Enterprises
Social Suite by Reputation.com
Social Suite by Reputation.com
Score 9.4 out of 10
Social Suite by Reputation.com
Social Suite by Reputation.com
Score 9.4 out of 10
Adobe Real-Time CDP
Adobe Real-Time CDP
Score 8.3 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
BufferSprout SocialVerinovum
Likelihood to Recommend
7.5
(0 ratings)
8.4
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.0
(0 ratings)
9.3
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
8.4
(0 ratings)
8.5
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Availability
8.2
(0 ratings)
7.7
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
8.0
(0 ratings)
8.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
7.0
(0 ratings)
2.4
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Online Training
-
(0 ratings)
7.3
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.0
(0 ratings)
1.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Configurability
10.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
-
(0 ratings)
8.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
8.6
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
BufferSprout SocialVerinovum
Likelihood to Recommend
It is a very interesting tool for entrepreneurs or CEOs of startups who do not have much time to manage social media communication and also have few resources at the beginning of their venture. It can also be convenient for small companies that do not have specific personnel with training in community management and require easy-to-use tools to carry out the basic actions of scheduled publication on social media.
Read full review
Sprout is typically the first platform that comes to mind when I think of social media content scheduling/platform management/social media management. However, Sprout is very pricey, and I don’t think there’s an obvious standout element that helps differentiate it from other scheduling platforms. For organizations with only a few social media profiles, I’d be more likely to recommend lower-cost or free platforms as opposed to Sprout. I’d probably only recommend Sprout for organizations with dozens or hundreds of social media accounts
Read full review
No answers on this topic
Pros
  • 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
  • Social Scheduling: Sprout Social makes it easier than any platform I've used to schedule posts with each, and to batch-schedule the same post to run on multiple dates. The scheduling platform is intuitive and easy to understand.
  • Social Reporting: With just a few clicks of the button, you can easily export reports that are easy for both social media experts and complete novices to understand. I like how you can get a report within 60 seconds or so if needed.
  • Customer Service/Help: Whenever I've had a question, both my Sprout Social rep and the Help Center have been extremely easy to contact and quick to reply. Problems are solved very fast and it's made easy to understand.
Read full review
No answers on this topic
Cons
  • Analytics-- The analytics on the Pro plan are limited at best. You can simply review your posts from the past 30 days, but you can't access any analysis (or even simple tallying of Likes, Shares, etc.) without upgrading to the Premium or Business plans, which are otherwise more than we need at the moment.
  • Publish+Reply+Analyze-- It's a bit tedious to have these basic social media functions/tools separated out as three distinct products, as well as overkill for a small nonprofit without a dedicated social media team. I imagine each tool is good at its job if you need 'em.
  • Linking to Accounts-- Buffer seems to lose touch with Facebook and LinkedIn somewhat frequently. It's vaguely annoying but very simple to fix, so I just roll with it.
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  • Social media platforms don't always play nice with Sprout so it will always be a challenge to get all integrations to work properly.
  • Sprout Social is a growing organization and they are acquiring new technologies, which can be good. However, they often spend time in meetings upselling new services. I like to learn about enhancements and opportunities but prefer to focus on my investments first.
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No answers on this topic
Likelihood to Renew
Ease of use, affordability, time saved and just love for the app and the team. It's not a miracle tool that will suddenly increase your company's value or leads, you still need to put in quality posts, thoughts and content but when used regularly and with thought, you'll be happy in the long run
Read full review
I like Sprout for our needs and I like that it is easy to use. We want something better than HootSuite but don't need a high-level fancy program. The only think I don't like is customer service (except for chat).
Read full review
No answers on this topic
Usability
Easy enough to use even my boss got it right away. It helps to off-set the workload to less active times, and we can preschedule way in advance, which also helps to keep the team on track as we know what we have planned and want to reach our milestones before posts go online.
Read full review
It's a largely very easy to understand, use and build around platform, with a lot of use in our particular industry, making onboarding for new hires significantly easier. While some features and functions are hidden away or harder to find and understand, for the most part, Sprout Social remains one of the best tools on the market for its use case.
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No answers on this topic
Reliability and Availability
Buffer is always on hand and very reliable, their software suite rarely has outages
Read full review
Uptime was OK, but given the fact that we are in Europe, there were some specific problems: They tended to take the system down for maintenance during the night in the US, which was during our workday. This was definitely problematic and hard to explain to our clients.
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No answers on this topic
Performance
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
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It is quick to post, however you have to refresh the page every time you add a new scheduled item.
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No answers on this topic
Support Rating
  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.
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Sprout Social's customer support is extremely responsive. They're also always looking for suggestions on how they can make the product better and will actually take your ideas to their team to see if they're worth implementing. I've never had an issue that couldn't be resolved by them in a timely manner.
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No answers on this topic
Online Training
No answers on this topic
Their training is good, but the promotion of it is even better. I don't need or have the time for training, but I was always happy to know it was there. They did a great job sending updates out and making me aware when there was a new feature that I may want training for. As for the training I never used it, so I can't comment on that
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No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
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
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Make sure you do it all the way. Do not break it into phases. Pour yourself a coffee, start it in the morning and you'll be done before you finish that coffee.
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Alternatives Considered
Both of them are great at their own levels but I find Buffer quite easy to go and the way they perform every task is quite like my way of work so I personally like Buffer more, it has helped me save my most of the time hence improved my work efficiency and also the creativity they put into my work is outstanding. The support I get whenever I run into problems they provide a quick response every time.
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We started this agency using Later and switched to Iconosqaure because we needed more in-depth reporting. We switched from Iconosquare to Sprout Social because of the continuous scheduling bugs/issues we were having with our account and our terrible experience with their Customer Service team. We are planning to close our Sprout Social account and move to HeyOrca because of cost, ease of use, and the basic scheduling features Sprout Social doesn't offer.
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No answers on this topic
Scalability
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
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No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
  • 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
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  • For the month of January 2025, On Sprout Social, through the Employee Advocacy platform, we have shared a total of 20 internal stores available for employees to share to their personal or business social media platforms. Based on each employees reach, and re-post data tracking, we have earned $1,669.00 in EMV (Earned Media Value) which took none of the companies spend budget towards Ad spend - all organic based earned income. I love this feature because individuals trust levels to convert is higher when the advertisement is coming from someone who is employed for the company/product being advertised.
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No answers on this topic
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

Sprout Social Screenshots

Screenshot of Sprout’s social media publishing tools, used to schedule and post messages to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and LinkedIn simultaneously from a single Compose window.