Hootsuite vs. Meltwater

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
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
Meltwater
Score 8.0 out of 10
N/A
Meltwater Media Intelligence platform is a set of public relations software tools for media monitoring, social media monitoring, and collecting brand insights. The four areas of functionality are Monitor, Analyze, Distribute, and Engage. (Note that this product combines features from the vendor Meltwater's former Buzz, Press, and News products.)N/A
Pricing
HootsuiteMeltwater
Editions & Modules
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
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
HootsuiteMeltwater
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
YesNo
Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalNo setup fee
Additional DetailsPlans can be paid monthly or annually, with a discount for annual pricing.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
HootsuiteMeltwater
Considered Both Products
Hootsuite
Chose Hootsuite
Hootsuite's ability to post to all the channels we need is far above what Meltwater offered. Hootsuite also goes above and beyond in the category of analytics too. Hootsuite's custom report is far more detailed and easily digestible than Meltwater's. I would say that Hootsuite …
Chose Hootsuite
Seems pretty similar, but I haven't taken a deep enough dive into each tool to do a direct comparison. I've used both Sprout Social and Hootsuite across two different roles for posting and basic analytics, and they both do the job.
Chose Hootsuite
We actually use Hootsuite's classroom program along with Meltwater and Google Analytics. By selecting Hootsuite in concert with either Meltwater or Brandwatch, and (at times) Facebook Insights, students can get the real-world feeling of how brands and businesses choose the …
Chose Hootsuite
Hootsuite is better at creating and scheduling content. Meltwater is better at social monitoring and listening.
Chose Hootsuite
Meltwater is much more expensive, however, it provides vast more analytics than Hootsuite. Meltwater is excellent for really large corporations that have someone dedicated to analytics all the time.
Chose Hootsuite
We used it in testing, but it seems to be more robust because of social listening capabilities.
Chose Hootsuite
Tried Meltwater Buzz / Jitterjam, Sysomos and Sprout Social.
Use HootSuite Enterprise to listen and engage with Facebook and Twitter profiles only.
Currently using HootSuite Enterprise in conjunction with Radian6 and Simply Measured for analytics.
Meltwater
Chose Meltwater
They are both similar and different. Similar in that they provide analytics, but different in the type of analytics and tracking. I thnk that I enjoy Hootsuite a little more than Meltwater because it was easier to use. This probably stemmed from the fact that it was just a …
Chose Meltwater
The only other monitoring services I have used live within social media channels including Facebook analytics, Twitter analytics and Instagram analytics. I also use Hootsuite to manage and monitor all social channels almost exclusively. These are simple programs, that can be …
Chose Meltwater
While we use Google and Hootsuite as part of our class education, Meltwater's platform is our go-to every semester. Meltwater provides a dashboard that makes it easy for the new and/or experienced user to understand the data, share it with a class or group, and offers room for …
Chose Meltwater
Meltwater serves as an all-in-one platform, so it has benefitted us greatly in being able to service a variety of needs in one place. Having a streamlined platform is important to our team since it can feel counterproductive to visit a variety of products to service one …
Chose Meltwater
I have tried several platforms but continue coming back to Meltwater. Even though we are a national company, I like the global reach that Meltwater offers.
Chose Meltwater
Meltwater is the most expensive option with the worst customer service. Terrible experience.
Chose Meltwater
We have yet to use other platforms as a comparison.
Chose Meltwater
We love Meltwater for all the extra features, with the abilities to customize. A lot of other PR software doesn't allow for that kind of drill-down, so I really appreciate that from Meltwater.
Chose Meltwater
I feel that the Meltwater platform is much more user-friendly and Meltwater's customer service was superbly higher than that of Cision's.

Note: my experience with Cision was more than 3 years ago.
Chose Meltwater
Very reliable and easy to use for a great price!
Chose Meltwater
You can't customize your email templates as well as in Constant Contact or MailChimp. The analytics with meltwater are a great way to see what types of journalists are opening your press releases, instead of just an email address. Also, with the other two, you need to have a …
Chose Meltwater
I have only ever used Hootsuite previously for social media planning and scheduling but that did not allow for listening or analysis options so can't really be compared.
Features
HootsuiteMeltwater
Listening/monitoring
Comparison of Listening/monitoring features of Product A and Product B
Hootsuite
6.7
314 Ratings
13% below category average
Meltwater
-
Ratings
Boolean keyword searches6.6206 Ratings00 Ratings
Filtering out noise/spam6.2218 Ratings00 Ratings
Sentiment analysis6.5215 Ratings00 Ratings
Broad channel coverage7.6289 Ratings00 Ratings
Publishing
Comparison of Publishing features of Product A and Product B
Hootsuite
7.9
434 Ratings
2% below category average
Meltwater
-
Ratings
Content planning and scheduling8.9433 Ratings00 Ratings
Audience targeting7.0295 Ratings00 Ratings
Content optimization7.6356 Ratings00 Ratings
Workflow management7.9368 Ratings00 Ratings
Engagement
Comparison of Engagement features of Product A and Product B
Hootsuite
7.6
350 Ratings
6% below category average
Meltwater
-
Ratings
Automated routing and prioritization7.3254 Ratings00 Ratings
Customer interaction histories7.5272 Ratings00 Ratings
Bulk actions7.9302 Ratings00 Ratings
Marketing
Comparison of Marketing features of Product A and Product B
Hootsuite
6.9
329 Ratings
11% below category average
Meltwater
-
Ratings
Lead generation6.6202 Ratings00 Ratings
Content marketing7.6296 Ratings00 Ratings
Paid media management6.8201 Ratings00 Ratings
Campaigns and promotions6.6250 Ratings00 Ratings
Channel coverage/integration
Comparison of Channel coverage/integration features of Product A and Product B
Hootsuite
8.2
426 Ratings
2% below category average
Meltwater
-
Ratings
Twitter7.7384 Ratings00 Ratings
Facebook8.6409 Ratings00 Ratings
LinkedIn8.3356 Ratings00 Ratings
Google+8.960 Ratings00 Ratings
Instagram8.4363 Ratings00 Ratings
Pinterest8.1179 Ratings00 Ratings
YouTube7.7169 Ratings00 Ratings
Reporting/analytics
Comparison of Reporting/analytics features of Product A and Product B
Hootsuite
7.8
351 Ratings
1% above category average
Meltwater
-
Ratings
Campaign success analytics8.0323 Ratings00 Ratings
Real-time tracking7.5325 Ratings00 Ratings
Competitor analysis7.8225 Ratings00 Ratings
Account management
Comparison of Account management features of Product A and Product B
Hootsuite
7.7
358 Ratings
3% below category average
Meltwater
-
Ratings
Role-based user permissions & privileges8.0305 Ratings00 Ratings
Mobile access7.3329 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
HootsuiteMeltwater
Small Businesses
CoSchedule Marketing Suite
CoSchedule Marketing Suite
Score 10.0 out of 10
Cision Communications Cloud
Cision Communications Cloud
Score 8.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
CoSchedule Marketing Suite
CoSchedule Marketing Suite
Score 10.0 out of 10
Cision Communications Cloud
Cision Communications Cloud
Score 8.0 out of 10
Enterprises
Social Suite by Reputation.com
Social Suite by Reputation.com
Score 9.4 out of 10
Cision Communications Cloud
Cision Communications Cloud
Score 8.0 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
HootsuiteMeltwater
Likelihood to Recommend
8.3
(486 ratings)
7.4
(73 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.7
(89 ratings)
10.0
(10 ratings)
Usability
8.2
(125 ratings)
6.4
(5 ratings)
Availability
9.8
(21 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Performance
9.8
(19 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
7.0
(263 ratings)
10.0
(29 ratings)
In-Person Training
6.0
(1 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
Online Training
9.0
(17 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.0
(39 ratings)
6.1
(2 ratings)
Configurability
7.2
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
7.6
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
8.1
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
8.9
(3 ratings)
1.0
(1 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
8.3
(18 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
HootsuiteMeltwater
Likelihood to Recommend
Hootsuite
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.
Read full review
Meltwater
Meltwater is well-suited for agencies that have an engagement team who is looking to service a variety of client needs such as social media reporting, public relations outreach, and community management. If you're looking to have a platform serve just one need, you can still use Meltwater but will get more bang for your buck if you are needing a variety of tools.
Read full review
Pros
Hootsuite
  • 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.
  • Creating content natively in the platform!
Read full review
Meltwater
  • Media research - you can search for relevant publications and journalists to add to your media list.
  • Earned media coverage - you can search for coverage of your brand and find news stories that also include data that may be useful (how many people did the story reach for example).
  • Building media lists - if you have no current existing list, you can build and export one in Excel for example.
Read full review
Cons
Hootsuite
  • 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.
Read full review
Meltwater
  • The dashboards are not user-friendly, customizable (color, font size, etc.), or worthy of presenting to a client. All of the insights from a dashboard get pulled from the platform and placed into a more client-friendly presentation.
  • Paywalls for certain publications connected to who-knows-what. DowJones racket limits media monitoring capabilities and results in manual searches for a growing number of publications.
  • TVeyes, the broadcast monitoring arm of the media monitoring capabilities, just needs TLC and to become more client-facing. Currently, the links produced to share clips look sketchy, and they have a relatively short shelf life.
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
Hootsuite
At this time we are satisfied that Hootsuite offers the most of what we are looking for at the most reasonable price point. As the social media landscape and monitoring/scheduling software changes, so do our needs. We re-evaluate our tools semi-annually or as new tools emerge onto the market. If we find at any point that we aren't gaining an advantage, then we are open to switching products.
Read full review
Meltwater
Meltwater works well for our organization and has allowed us to meet our internal goals. We are always open to new products and services that may be able to provide similar or better features; however, our experience has been that many of Meltwater's competitors are not up to the task.
Read full review
Usability
Hootsuite
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.
Read full review
Meltwater
Once you get some basic training it's pretty easy to use. I would like to see training manuals, or instructional videos to help me explore features I'm not currently using.
Read full review
Reliability and Availability
Hootsuite
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!)
Read full review
Meltwater
No answers on this topic
Performance
Hootsuite
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.
Read full review
Meltwater
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
Hootsuite
I can manage all of my accounts on one site! It's absolutely amazing!
The dashboard is helpful to see how you are doing as well. Still
getting to understand the analytics and may need to reach out for help
on this
Read full review
Meltwater
Our account rep at Meltwater went dark for a long time. Then, a couple of weeks ago, our new account manager reached out to set up a meeting. Apparently, they had a big shakeup in the company, and there were some personnel changes. Our new account rep was great in discussing the platform's capabilities that were available to us and even offered to schedule a follow-up meeting with his technical team to introduce our new social media team members to the platform and how it could help them with their jobs.
Read full review
In-Person Training
Hootsuite
Very easy to teach and learn
Read full review
Meltwater
Again, really in-depth and helpful for a program that is really easy to use.
Read full review
Online Training
Hootsuite
The online training is decent; however, it takes a lot more time to search for answers to my questions. Having a training session with a live person was much more effective as they were able to quickly address the business needs I have.
Read full review
Meltwater
Walked step by step through program. Very informative on a program that doesn't require much training.
Read full review
Implementation Rating
Hootsuite
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.
Read full review
Meltwater
You are only allowed 15 users, so make sure you've identified who will have access to use the tool.
Read full review
Alternatives Considered
Hootsuite
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
Read full review
Meltwater
I was looking for a full-service option. I did some research. What really sold me was the presentation. They offered products that were helpful, and I wasn’t even aware of them. It is more expensive than the other products that are out there, but you get more. The other companies are good, but Meltwater Media Intelligence is more full service.
Read full review
Scalability
Hootsuite
We are only using in marketing and have been able to scale.
Read full review
Meltwater
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
Hootsuite
  • 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.
Read full review
Meltwater
  • As a PR firm, we rely on the media databases that [Meltwater Media Intelligence Platform] supplies to deliver the media exposure that they expect from us.
  • We utilize their tracking of media hits for our overall reporting to our clients.
  • Both of these are advantageous in helping us to not only keep our existing clients happy but also to gain new clients (and, in turn - revenue), as well.
Read full review
ScreenShots

Hootsuite Screenshots

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