Meta Business Manager vs. Sprout Social

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Meta Business Manager
Score 7.5 out of 10
N/A
Meta Business Manager (formerly Facebook Business Manager, or Pages Manager) is a mobile app that supports management of up to 50 Facebook pages from a smart phone or tablet, allowing social media managers to see activity, post updates, and respond immediately to customers.N/A
Sprout Social
Score 8.1 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…
$249
per month per user
Pricing
Meta Business ManagerSprout Social
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
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
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Meta Business ManagerSprout Social
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Meta Business ManagerSprout Social
Considered Both Products
Meta Business Manager
Chose Meta Business Manager
Sprout Social / Agorapulse work much better for content management and overall marketing objectives. None of these can be used in lieu of Facebook Pages Manager simply because they can't control settings/admin the way that Pages Manager does. Again, you can't avoid using Pages …
Chose Meta Business Manager
While we looked at different possibilities, it just seemed that this program was designed for our key social media platforms. There really was no point in utilizing a different program when this was designed for these platforms specifically. The mobile app is an added …
Chose Meta Business Manager
While products like Sprout and Hootsuite will manage your Facebook Page along with the rest of your social media presence, using the official Facebook Pages [Manager] is superior when it comes to managing comments, placing ads, and reacting to customers quickly. The mobile app …
Chose Meta Business Manager
Facebook Pages Manager is the native analytics solution for Facebook. We've evaluated others, but found that for the most part, familiarity with this native platform is the best way to achieve ROI. Most other platforms must pull from this data source in one way or another, so …
Chose Meta Business Manager
I like how big the dashboard is on Sprout and Hootsuite, however, I prefer Facebook Pages Manager for my ability to track and promote my campaigns. I like the overall look of Hootsuite and Sprout as well but using Facebook directly for managing and monitoring makes me more …
Sprout Social
Chose Sprout Social
Sprout Social is easy to set up and use. It didn't take much time to get all of our marketing clients set up in the system, and it's an affordable social media management platform. Sprout allows us to manage multiple social media platforms for our clients and schedule their …
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
Meta Business ManagerSprout Social
Listening/monitoring
Comparison of Listening/monitoring features of Product A and Product B
Meta Business Manager
6.1
35 Ratings
23% below category average
Sprout Social
7.2
53 Ratings
6% below category average
Boolean keyword searches6.020 Ratings6.739 Ratings
Filtering out noise/spam5.326 Ratings6.943 Ratings
Sentiment analysis7.322 Ratings6.924 Ratings
Broad channel coverage6.125 Ratings8.134 Ratings
Publishing
Comparison of Publishing features of Product A and Product B
Meta Business Manager
5.9
49 Ratings
29% below category average
Sprout Social
4.9
57 Ratings
47% below category average
Content planning and scheduling7.049 Ratings7.057 Ratings
Audience targeting6.046 Ratings3.148 Ratings
Content optimization5.744 Ratings3.749 Ratings
Workflow management4.838 Ratings5.952 Ratings
Engagement
Comparison of Engagement features of Product A and Product B
Meta Business Manager
6.0
42 Ratings
29% below category average
Sprout Social
5.9
55 Ratings
31% below category average
Automated routing and prioritization5.434 Ratings2.825 Ratings
Customer interaction histories4.738 Ratings7.751 Ratings
Bulk actions7.925 Ratings7.246 Ratings
Marketing
Comparison of Marketing features of Product A and Product B
Meta Business Manager
6.1
47 Ratings
23% below category average
Sprout Social
4.7
39 Ratings
48% below category average
Lead generation4.838 Ratings2.531 Ratings
Content marketing5.742 Ratings3.135 Ratings
Paid media management6.239 Ratings6.23 Ratings
Campaigns and promotions7.543 Ratings7.24 Ratings
Channel coverage/integration
Comparison of Channel coverage/integration features of Product A and Product B
Meta Business Manager
6.3
49 Ratings
30% below category average
Sprout Social
7.5
59 Ratings
13% below category average
Twitter4.010 Ratings7.757 Ratings
Facebook8.148 Ratings6.459 Ratings
LinkedIn5.98 Ratings8.252 Ratings
Google+7.33 Ratings7.721 Ratings
Instagram7.334 Ratings7.049 Ratings
Pinterest6.05 Ratings7.214 Ratings
YouTube5.612 Ratings8.01 Ratings
Reporting/analytics
Comparison of Reporting/analytics features of Product A and Product B
Meta Business Manager
5.7
47 Ratings
32% below category average
Sprout Social
5.8
58 Ratings
30% below category average
Campaign success analytics7.246 Ratings4.354 Ratings
Real-time tracking5.943 Ratings6.455 Ratings
Competitor analysis4.027 Ratings6.847 Ratings
Account management
Comparison of Account management features of Product A and Product B
Meta Business Manager
6.2
49 Ratings
27% below category average
Sprout Social
7.6
58 Ratings
7% below category average
Role-based user permissions & privileges5.546 Ratings7.655 Ratings
Mobile access6.947 Ratings7.551 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Meta Business ManagerSprout Social
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Score 9.8 out of 10
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Score 9.8 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
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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
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Score 9.3 out of 10
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User Ratings
Meta Business ManagerSprout Social
Likelihood to Recommend
9.1
(49 ratings)
7.4
(115 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(62 ratings)
Usability
7.5
(15 ratings)
7.0
(42 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
7.7
(8 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
8.0
(7 ratings)
Support Rating
5.9
(14 ratings)
5.1
(37 ratings)
Online Training
-
(0 ratings)
7.3
(3 ratings)
Implementation Rating
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(11 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
Meta Business ManagerSprout Social
Likelihood to Recommend
Meta Platforms Inc
If using a desktop, Facebook Business Manage can help integrate and consolidate your workload when managing multiple pages for multiple clients. However, it can also be clunky when trying to use it on the go from a smartphone as the functionality is more limited. For those that sit at desks all day, it's a good program. For those of us that stay mobile, it can be frustrating.
Read full review
Sprout Social
Sprout [Social] is great for small businesses, small agencies and those who need a platform but don't want to spend a fortune. If you need multiple user log-in's, the cost will add up. This is great to share a log-in for different people to use or add one or two users
Read full review
Pros
Meta Platforms Inc
  • Stats and insights, to have data to back up assumptions and actions.
  • Scheduling posts, which is helpful when you can't always post in real time.
  • Messenger, which allows me to interact directly with potential customers.
  • Roles, which allows me to assign an intern to help manage the profile.
  • Ads, which allows me to target and advertise to potential customers.
  • Pixel, which connects my Facebook data with my website.
Read full review
Sprout Social
  • The Landscape system that Sprout Social offers allows me to modify all the images that I want to publish on my social networks. This service allows me to modify the size of the image, add filters, modify the colors and much more, it is a very important tool to be able to have a better presentation of the images that we use in our publications on social networks.
  • It offers me a perfect statistical system where I can consult all kinds of movements that have occurred in all my social networks, I can see statistics individually or generally. The statistics allow me to see group reports, participation, information on audience movement on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn and also allow me to view the activity that has occurred in my account.
  • Sprout Social allows me to view a record in real time that shows me all the movements that my social networks are having by my employees. As Director of the Marketing Sector, this is a very important role, as I can know what actions my employees are taking to improve marketing with social networks.
Read full review
Cons
Meta Platforms Inc
  • The only thing I have noticed is when on my device, it calls out a list of names that have shared your post, and it only shows one. On the computer it will let you scroll down and see all of them.
Read full review
Sprout Social
  • I'd love to see more robust tag reporting capabilities, but they mentioned that this is something in the pipeline for improvement.
  • I wish it was easier to batch content and shift it to approval or draft mode. Sometimes clients can change their mind and moving through each post individually can be a bit time consuming. This is a very minor thing.
  • I'd love to see more customization options come to its reporting feature so we can insert graphics. Currently it supports the insertion of text only.
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Likelihood to Renew
Meta Platforms Inc
No answers on this topic
Sprout Social
While I am currently no longer working with the company in which I was employed and utilized Sprout Social, I do know that the company is still utilizing Sprout Social on a daily basis and I do not foresee a time when the subscription would be cancelled.
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Usability
Meta Platforms Inc
I give Facebook Business Manager this rating because how I am able to edit and customize each client location page easily and can add users as needed without any hoops to jump through. I also appreciate the about of reach that Facebook has, so having a tool like this that's easy to use and can be in control of the backed of what people see is so important.
Read full review
Sprout Social
Sprout Social is extremely user-friendly. The publishing feature is easy to use, and provides previews of what your content will look like once posted. I also love the calendar view where you can view all posts you have scheduled for the month. The collaborative nature of the platform makes working directly in Sprout Social with clients a breeze, and we are seeing our content get approved much faster.
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Reliability and Availability
Meta Platforms Inc
No answers on this topic
Sprout Social
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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Performance
Meta Platforms Inc
No answers on this topic
Sprout Social
It is quick to post, however you have to refresh the page every time you add a new scheduled item.
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Support Rating
Meta Platforms Inc
The few times I've had to reach out for ad questions, Facebook Pages customer service is prompt and friendly with their advice. I've never waited longer than 24 hours to get a response, and generally it's just a few hours. They're also quick at removing spam from my Pages when I've needed them to.
Read full review
Sprout Social
Sprout Social's customer support is extremely prompt and always helpful. Not only do they provide quick and useful service, but the representatives follow up multiple times to ensure that the issue is fully address and/or completely resolved. The overall experience is exemplary; very few other companies provide comparable service.
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Online Training
Meta Platforms Inc
No answers on this topic
Sprout Social
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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Implementation Rating
Meta Platforms Inc
No answers on this topic
Sprout Social
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
Meta Platforms Inc
While we looked at different possibilities, it just seemed that this program was designed for our key social media platforms. There really was no point in utilizing a different program when this was designed for these platforms specifically. The mobile app is an added convenience that allows me to manage our social media on the go.
Read full review
Sprout Social
I used Buffer previous to Sprout Social for two years. It was a good solution as we were getting a handle on scheduling content. It was the first real tool we had for this. But we outgrew it and they began removing features that were critical to our workflow, such as the RSS Feed. While their 50% off policy for non-profits was very helpful, once we started adding up the cost to use features like Replies and Analytics, we discovered that our needs were simply too robust for Buffer to handle. Sprout Social was the solution suggested by all our peers and we've been very happy with it ever since.
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Return on Investment
Meta Platforms Inc
  • Most of our leads come from Facebook paid marketing.
  • Our business is centered around our content, which allows us to stand out from the completion. Facebook allows us to get the content in front of our audience.
  • Facebook Marketing is so dynamic that it takes loads of trial and error to get to a winning formula. And the errors can be expensive.
Read full review
Sprout Social
  • Sprout has given insights to lead our creative refreshes every quarter. As we have a healthy budget on paid social, it is crucial to understand the type of creative that works best.
  • Sprout has the ability to send notifications based on certain types of messages received. This is crucial for social media teams who don't have 24/7 coverage but need to be notified of urgent matters.
  • Sprout has saved me hours of time as I no longer pull analytics natively from each social platform. The generated reports give me a look at all of the platforms and can be customized.
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ScreenShots

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.