Buffer vs. Hootsuite vs. Sprout Social

Hootsuite

Sprout Social

Overview
Product	Rating	Most Used By	Product Summary	Starting Price
Buffer	Score 8.1 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
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

Buffer

Hootsuite

Sprout Social

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

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
Buffer	Hootsuite	Sprout Social
Free Trial
Yes	Yes	Yes
Free/Freemium Version
Yes	Yes	No
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
No	Yes	No

Entry-level Setup Fee

No setup fee

Optional

No setup fee

Additional Details

Here 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

Pricing Plans

Community Pulse
	Buffer	Hootsuite	Sprout Social
Considered Multiple Products	Buffer Verified User C-Level Executive 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 … Incentivized Helpful? FH Frankie Heath Director of Social Marketing 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. Incentivized Helpful? Heather Robinette, MBA Marketing Manger 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 … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Employee Chose Buffer Hootsuite and Buffer are pretty similar. I prefer Hootsuite over Buffer personally because I have used Hootsuite for a longer time in my career. Incentivized Helpful? Whitney Knight Marketing Specialist - Writer 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 … Incentivized Helpful? Andrew Folts Digital Strategist 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. Incentivized Helpful? Katie Hecox Lead Digital Strategist 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. Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Administrative Assistant 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 … Incentivized Helpful? Ronnie Rask Director of Marketing 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 … Incentivized Helpful? Ameer Hamza Corporate Communications Manager 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 … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Employee 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. Incentivized Helpful? Michelle Messenger Garrett Writer/Content Creator/Public Relations Consultant Chose Buffer I've used Sprout Social for two clients now and find it somewhat difficult to use. I'm sure there are ways to circumvent the issues, but I've even tried talking to/working with customer service and one issue just couldn't be worked out. Buffer is easy. I've maybe had to contact … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Employee 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 … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User C-Level Executive 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 … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User C-Level Executive 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 … Helpful? Luke Paulin Marketing Director 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. Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Manager Chose Buffer Buffer has a clear, easy to use interface and a reliable scheduling calendar. Incentivized Helpful? Trigun Prakash Computer software 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. Incentivized Helpful? LE Luz Ellis Senior SEO Project Manager 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. Incentivized Helpful? Shorombo Mooij Life Coach en Health Coach Chose Buffer Buffer wins it on simplicity and ease of use. Furthermore, it is multichannel whereas Later, for example, is only Instagram. Incentivized Helpful? Len Gordon Art Relations 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. Incentivized Helpful? Ben Caplan Risk Manager, and Insurance Agent 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 … Incentivized Helpful?	Hootsuite Verified User Manager Chose Hootsuite Hootsuite is a much more cost-effective option, despite many of the strengths, that both Sprout Social and Agorapulse have to offer. Even with a tool like Tweetdeck, Hootsuite's offering is more in-class and good for an organization just starting out or looking to scale a … Incentivized Helpful? Eligreg Lopez Web UI Developer Chose Hootsuite Buffer was the only one that could compete with Hootsuite, but [no] other has [had a] real impact on the social media scheduling tool world. Semrush, to me, was a disaster, and Sprout Social is not as accurate as Hootsuite. I guess Hootsuite is just the most popular tool … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Employee Chose Hootsuite Hootsuite was a more effective social media management platform than Sprout Social, which felt less comprehensive at a similar price point. Hootsuite also has some excellent tools that were not widely available on many of the other competitors despite the competitors being … Incentivized Helpful? Sarah Carrig (Iddings) Social Media Coordinator Chose Hootsuite Ultimately, we selected Hootsuite for the benefits-to-cost ratio it had. Sprout Social has an incredibly robust platform with great social listening, a nice scheduling calendar, and a lot of metrics you can view, plus team post creation and approval flows. It's an impressive … Incentivized Helpful? PP Parag Poddar Marketing Lead Chose Hootsuite Hootsuite is way better than Sprout Social as it is much easier to use and understand and the analytics capabilities and dashboards are far more intuitive and useful for social media strategy. Sprout Social use cases are not as extensive as Hootsuite, although Sprout Social is … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Strategist Chose Hootsuite Hootsuite has a few less features than Sprout Social; however, the price point is much more favorable for a small business to utilize. Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Employee Chose Hootsuite Overall, Hootsuite is very similar to Sprout Social. some of the analytics are a little different, but the posting process is similar. Sprout does have a social listening too, but i can't remember how it compares to Hootsuite. Compared to Hubspot, Hubspot is a all in one … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Employee Chose Hootsuite Hootsuite lacks many features as i've said before. I think their reporting is also not as great as other platforms. I find the interface really messy and hard to navigate. The metrics also vary a lot between platforms which makes comparing success between channels very … Incentivized Helpful? Jacquelyn Anne Dolly CEO (Chief Executive Officer) Chose Hootsuite Hootsuite’s free service is most useful to me at this time as social media management does not have a large budget within my business. However, they are no longer offering it at this time which has led me to go to another service. Over the years, Hootsuite has been taking away … Incentivized Helpful? JB Joe Brown CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) Chose Hootsuite Very similar, but less expensive. Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Manager Chose Hootsuite Hootsuite is great for managing multiple accounts across multiple platforms. Incentivized Helpful? JD Jeremy Detgen Marketing Director Chose Hootsuite We selected Hootsuite due to the pricing and past experience of ease of use in the tool. We knew they could deliver an easy-to-use tool to achieve what we needed. We have a growing social media marketing team, and Hootsuite is able to make the best use of its time, allowing for … Incentivized Helpful? JD Jessica Davenport Account Manager Chose Hootsuite Hootsuite is better because we do not have so many failed posts. We can set up or schedule a post without having to worry whether or not our post will go through. Sometimes we could be on Holiday and we would get a notification from the previous company about the post failing. … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Account Manager Chose Hootsuite Hootsuite has a better interface and overall usability. Incentivized Helpful? Jessica Terrones Social Media Strategist Chose Hootsuite 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. Incentivized Helpful? Daniella Cracknell VP, Marketing & Public Relations Chose Hootsuite The cost is more within our budget and ease of use is similar in both products so we chose Hootsuite over Sprout as affordable for our basic news, but we hope to grow with Hootsuite and be a larger partner as we expand. Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Manager Chose Hootsuite Hootsuite exceeds any other social media management platform on the market in terms of usability and value. The interface simply suits the way I and my colleagues like to work. Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Professional Chose Hootsuite I found Hootsuite much more user-friendly. Incentivized Helpful? Kimberly Phan Director of Analytics Chose Hootsuite Comparably, Sprout would be similar from a cost point but its interface is much smoother. Falcion.io is also similar, however, they have poor customer support. Incentivized Helpful? Mithil Patel Growth Marketing Director Chose Hootsuite 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 … Incentivized Helpful? John Hinson Editorial Director Chose Hootsuite Hootsuite is way too expensive for a large number of accounts. It's fine if it's just for you. Incentivized Helpful? JT Jeff Thomas Head of Digital Chose Hootsuite Hootsuite really doesn't provide a level of functionality that meets these other players in the space. While Hootsuite was an early entrant into the space and has benefited from this, they lack the innovation, functionality, and flexible pricing options that these other … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Professional Chose Hootsuite Hootsuite is a budget-friendly option for us because it has a free version. I know that the other social media management software is more powerful, but they are also a lot more expensive. We've used the free version and been happy with the benefits it can provide. It's also … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Director Chose Hootsuite It's easier to work with, it's the one that's been around to my knowledge. I've used it in different companies because it's the one they [chose] to use before I arrived. It has great connectivity. It allows you to add different companies to one account. It allows you to invite … Incentivized Helpful?	Sprout Social Daniela Belevan Marketing Coordinator Chose Sprout Social We are HubSpot partners so we still use HubSpot. We also have a free Hootsuite account. We use Sprout Social because we liked the tools and the reporting. Incentivized Helpful? Verified User C-Level Executive Chose Sprout Social Sprout Social had a much better UI and also enabled us to scale. I liked the Sprout social platform due to the ease of use and adoption across our team. It seemed better fit for agency management. However, Hootsuite has improved their offering and with the change in social … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Director Chose Sprout Social Sprout Social's hashtag trend identification and analysis capabilities, overall real-time analytics, and simple ramp-up were the major draws of the product for our team. By comparison, Hootsuite's column-oriented dashboard is the most customizable and optimal for seeing "the … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Manager Chose Sprout Social Sprout Social's power shines in reporting and analytics when compared to Hootsuite Enterprise. In a market that is filled with social media management platforms, Sprout Social was a breath of fresh air with its clean interface and easy to digest social media analytics graphs. Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Consultant Chose Sprout Social I didn't select Sprout. Clients selected it. I would recommend Buffer. I also wanted one client to evaluate AgoraPulse. I haven's used Hootsuite enough to know it would stack up. The primary reason the one client selected Sprout was for the approval ability. I definitely feel … Incentivized Helpful? Nate Casimiro Marketing Operations Manager Chose Sprout Social Personally, I found the interface for Hootsuite less user friendly, and felt Spout Social had a cleaner interface that was easier to use. Feature to feature, Hootsuite and Sprout were fairly comparable, but I found Sprout Social to be more affordable. Regarding publishing … Incentivized Helpful? Todd Terwillegar, Content Marketing Certified Digital Content Marketing Manager Chose Sprout Social Sprout is better for social listening and responding to issues, where Hootsuite is better for collaboration with team members on tasks. Hootsuite is also better for scheduling out bulk content. I was not part of the selection process for Sprout Social but was brought on board … Incentivized Helpful? Meagan McKinnon Head Of Customer Experience Chose Sprout Social We found that Sprout had everything we wanted and at a good price, so we didn't really compare. We just knew that Hootsuite was not at all what we needed in anyway shape or form. Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Employee Chose Sprout Social I've found that Sprout Social has more capabilities than other social platforms, and goes above and beyond in its functionality and support. I also think that Sprout Social has one of the cleanest, easy to use interfaces of all the social platforms. Hootsuite and TweetDeck, for … Incentivized Helpful? Sarah Carrig (Iddings) Social Media Administrator Chose Sprout Social I've used Hootsuite, which does not offer half as much functionality as Sprout Social, however it was more cost effective for my company's primary social channels and provided the base functionality I needed for automatically posting Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest … Incentivized Helpful? Adrienne Hardin Content Specialist-Social Media Chose Sprout Social We needed something more thorough than the free products we had tested (Hootsuite and TweetDeck), but the more robust products (Falcon) were out of our budget. Sprout hit the sweet spot of having everything we needed at the time for the right price. Helpful? Jenna Carpentier Digital Communications Specialist Chose Sprout Social We have used Hootsuite in the past and we prefer Sprout Social because it's easier to use, more intuitive and visually appealing, provides more robust analytics, and is better organized so we can find things more easily. Incentivized Helpful? LL Lydia Lee Marketing Manager Chose Sprout Social I haven't used Hootsuite in years. But we switched over because Hootsuite would allow you to schedule content in advance but you would still have to publish within an app on your phone. Sprout Social published on its own once schedule in the software. Sprout Social also offered … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Executive Chose Sprout Social Although the products are very similar, I've just found Sprout Social more intuitive to use. The dashboards they provide and how they've streamlined processes within the platform, prove for a very positive user experience for us. In my opinion, everything is simply laid out, … Helpful? Jesse Sumrak Content Writer Chose Sprout Social Sprout Social is probably my top pick of the lot, mainly due to its simple navigation and content calendar. While some of the other platforms have more robust functionality and integrations, I've found I'm more comfortable using Sprout Social and would prefer a seamless user … Incentivized Helpful? Bill Braun Copywriter/Social Media Chose Sprout Social For the money, I have not found Sprout's equal. Admittedly no service is perfect, which is why your tech stack is in fact a stack. For the time it saves, the reports it generates, and the tabs it allows me to keep on an inordinately large competitive landscape, Sprout is and … Helpful? Verified User Director Chose Sprout Social Sprout is more intuitive and it's more reliable. Helpful? JB Jess Burton Director of Social Media Chose Sprout Social Sprout is more user-friendly, covers more platforms, and is simple to navigate. Helpful? Kaleigh Glaza Co-Founder Chose Sprout Social Though those were less expensive, they weren't nearly as easy or good as Sprout! Helpful? Verified User Executive Chose Sprout Social More features for the price point, easy to understand, always adding additional features, streamlined. Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Director 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 … Helpful? Verified User Director Chose Sprout Social I've used many tools and this is one of the easiest. Very easy to set-up, pull reporting and get started. Others only have a boolean search which is very complicated. The pricing is reasonable and I highly recommend this product. Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Professional Chose Sprout Social Sprout is more user-friendly and efficient at consolidating. Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Manager Chose Sprout Social As a CMS, Sprout Social, in my opinion, is the best. Their customer service is terrific. Where they lose me is on price and the ability to add a number of users to the platform. Incentivized Helpful? Sylvia Flores Chief Creative Officer + Founder Chose Sprout Social For my clients who are using Sprout Social over the other available options, it came down to ease of setup and use, the insane quality of customer support, their social reporting, and analysis, influencer identification, social measurement, and engagement, scheduling, and … Incentivized Helpful?
Top Pros	Pro Social media Pro Easy to use Pro Schedule posts	Pro Social media Pro Easy to use Pro Schedule posts	Pro Social media Pro Easy to use Pro Customer service
Top Cons	Minus Free version Minus Calendar view Minus One platform	Minus Free version Minus Analytics reports Minus Custom url	Minus Google analytics Minus Scheduled posts Minus Management tool

Features

Buffer

Hootsuite

Sprout Social

Publishing

Comparison of Publishing features of Product A and Product B
	Buffer 7.6 64 Ratings 5% below category average	Hootsuite 8.3 367 Ratings 4% above category average	Sprout Social 4.9 57 Ratings 48% below category average
Content planning and scheduling	9.364 Ratings	8.9366 Ratings	7.157 Ratings
Content optimization	6.457 Ratings	7.8299 Ratings	3.549 Ratings
Workflow management	7.053 Ratings	8.2308 Ratings	5.952 Ratings
Audience targeting	00 Ratings	8.1251 Ratings	3.048 Ratings

Reporting/analytics

Comparison of Reporting/analytics features of Product A and Product B
	Buffer 7.8 59 Ratings 1% below category average	Hootsuite 7.8 291 Ratings 1% below category average	Sprout Social 5.9 58 Ratings 28% below category average
Campaign success analytics	7.859 Ratings	7.8267 Ratings	4.154 Ratings
Real-time tracking	00 Ratings	7.9268 Ratings	6.555 Ratings
Competitor analysis	00 Ratings	7.8181 Ratings	6.947 Ratings

Account management

Comparison of Account management features of Product A and Product B
	Buffer 8.4 61 Ratings 3% above category average	Hootsuite 8.2 303 Ratings 1% above category average	Sprout Social 7.6 58 Ratings 7% below category average
Role-based user permissions & privileges	7.649 Ratings	8.4256 Ratings	7.655 Ratings
Mobile access	9.259 Ratings	7.9281 Ratings	7.551 Ratings

Listening/monitoring

Comparison of Listening/monitoring features of Product A and Product B
	Buffer - Ratings	Hootsuite 7.6 261 Ratings 0% below category average	Sprout Social 7.3 53 Ratings 4% below category average
Boolean keyword searches	00 Ratings	7.5177 Ratings	6.839 Ratings
Filtering out noise/spam	00 Ratings	7.0185 Ratings	7.043 Ratings
Sentiment analysis	00 Ratings	7.5179 Ratings	7.124 Ratings
Broad channel coverage	00 Ratings	8.3244 Ratings	8.334 Ratings

Engagement

Comparison of Engagement features of Product A and Product B
	Buffer - Ratings	Hootsuite 7.8 294 Ratings 4% below category average	Sprout Social 6.0 55 Ratings 30% below category average
Automated routing and prioritization	00 Ratings	7.8212 Ratings	2.725 Ratings
Customer interaction histories	00 Ratings	7.6229 Ratings	7.851 Ratings
Bulk actions	00 Ratings	8.0252 Ratings	7.446 Ratings

Marketing

Comparison of Marketing features of Product A and Product B
	Buffer - Ratings	Hootsuite 7.4 284 Ratings 3% below category average	Sprout Social 4.7 39 Ratings 48% below category average
Lead generation	00 Ratings	6.6170 Ratings	2.431 Ratings
Content marketing	00 Ratings	7.8254 Ratings	3.035 Ratings
Paid media management	00 Ratings	7.6169 Ratings	6.23 Ratings
Campaigns and promotions	00 Ratings	7.8217 Ratings	7.24 Ratings

Channel coverage/integration

Comparison of Channel coverage/integration features of Product A and Product B
	Buffer - Ratings	Hootsuite 8.7 363 Ratings 2% above category average	Sprout Social 7.5 59 Ratings 13% below category average
Twitter	00 Ratings	8.9332 Ratings	7.757 Ratings
Facebook	00 Ratings	9.1347 Ratings	6.359 Ratings
LinkedIn	00 Ratings	8.7303 Ratings	8.352 Ratings
Google+	00 Ratings	8.960 Ratings	7.721 Ratings
Instagram	00 Ratings	8.6306 Ratings	7.249 Ratings
Pinterest	00 Ratings	8.2157 Ratings	7.214 Ratings
YouTube	00 Ratings	8.2144 Ratings	8.01 Ratings

Best Alternatives
	Buffer	Hootsuite	Sprout Social
Small Businesses	Publer Score 9.8 out of 10	Publer Score 9.8 out of 10	Publer Score 9.8 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies	Social Suite by Reputation.com Score 9.3 out of 10	Social Suite by Reputation.com Score 9.3 out of 10	Social Suite by Reputation.com Score 9.3 out of 10
Enterprises	Social Suite by Reputation.com Score 9.3 out of 10	Social Suite by Reputation.com Score 9.3 out of 10	Social Suite by Reputation.com Score 9.3 out of 10
All Alternatives	View all alternatives	View all alternatives	View all alternatives

User Ratings
	Buffer	Hootsuite	Sprout Social
Likelihood to Recommend	8.2 (84 ratings)	8.5 (426 ratings)	7.5 (115 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew	8.0 (14 ratings)	9.2 (89 ratings)	9.0 (62 ratings)
Usability	8.1 (23 ratings)	8.2 (65 ratings)	7.0 (42 ratings)
Availability	8.2 (2 ratings)	9.5 (21 ratings)	7.7 (8 ratings)
Performance	8.0 (2 ratings)	9.5 (19 ratings)	8.0 (7 ratings)
Support Rating	6.3 (23 ratings)	7.3 (263 ratings)	5.2 (37 ratings)
In-Person Training	- (0 ratings)	6.0 (1 ratings)	- (0 ratings)
Online Training	- (0 ratings)	9.0 (17 ratings)	7.3 (3 ratings)
Implementation Rating	8.0 (2 ratings)	8.1 (39 ratings)	10.0 (11 ratings)
Configurability	10.0 (1 ratings)	7.1 (3 ratings)	- (0 ratings)
Ease of integration	- (0 ratings)	8.2 (2 ratings)	- (0 ratings)
Product Scalability	8.6 (2 ratings)	8.3 (3 ratings)	- (0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale	- (0 ratings)	8.5 (3 ratings)	9.1 (1 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale	- (0 ratings)	8.3 (18 ratings)	9.1 (1 ratings)

User Testimonials
	Buffer	Hootsuite	Sprout Social
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. Mishka Panwar Researcher 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. Verified User Anonymous 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 Incentivized Verified User Anonymous 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. Incentivized LE Luz Ellis Senior SEO Project Manager 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. Incentivized Mark Jennings IV Social Media Specialist 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. Incentivized Sasha Brito Marketing Director 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. Incentivized Whitney Knight Marketing Specialist - Writer 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 Incentivized Nicolas Rigaud Demand Generation Marketing Manager 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. Incentivized Talissa (Beall) Navarro Sr. Social Media Manager 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 Incentivized FH Frankie Heath Director of Social Marketing 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. Incentivized Laura Pence President/Owner Read full review	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. Incentivized Jennifer Wagner Editor 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 Incentivized Verified User Anonymous 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! Incentivized MT Maria Trujillo Publicist 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. Incentivized Verified User Anonymous Read full review
Reliability and Availability	Buffer Buffer is always on hand and very reliable, their software suite rarely has outages Incentivized Len Gordon Art Relations 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. Verified User Anonymous Read full review	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. Verified User Anonymous 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 Incentivized FH Frankie Heath Director of Social Marketing 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! Michael Royal CEO Read full review	Sprout Social It is quick to post, however you have to refresh the page every time you add a new scheduled item. Sarah Zibanejadrad Social Marketing Director Read full review
Support Rating	Buffer It really helped to my business to grow online. I was able to take actions mindfully as the analytics are damn good. Also used for managing clients social media accounts and it proved to be a best resource. Clients were really happy as they got high demand and growth on internet and the secret is Buffer. The user interface is really easy to understand and manage. Support is 24/7 available to help. Incentivized Verified User Anonymous 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 SS Shreya Sharma Solution Specialist 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. Incentivized Diana R. Krueger Assistant to the Dean Read full review
In-Person Training	Buffer No answers on this topic	Hootsuite Very easy to teach and learn Jessica Rudolph Search Specialist Read full review	Sprout Social No answers on this topic
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. Wes Horrocks Corporate Communications Manager Read full review	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 Ryan Montano Social Marketing Manager 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 Incentivized FH Frankie Heath Director of Social Marketing 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. Verified User Anonymous Read full review	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. Valentin Vesa Social Media Manager 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. Incentivized AK Ann Korb 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. Incentivized RB Rob Bynder President 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. Incentivized Peter Slayton Social Media Manager 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 Incentivized Len Gordon Art Relations Read full review	Hootsuite We are only using in marketing and have been able to scale. Incentivized PP Parag Poddar Marketing Lead Read full review	Sprout Social No answers on this topic
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 Incentivized Joseph Kahn President and Director of Marketing 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. Incentivized HK HEIDI KAY Director of Social Media and Brand Management 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. Incentivized Verified User Anonymous Read full review
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