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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Sprout Social

    Score8.4 out of 10
    N/ASprout 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

    VerticalResponse

    Score10 out of 10
    N/AVerticalResponse is an email campaign management software and services platform from Deluxe. In addition to providing email marketing tools, VerticalResponse offers fully managed email marketing services from campaign launch and management to reporting and analysis.

    $9

    per month

    Pricing
    Sprout SocialVerticalResponse
    Editions & Modules
    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
    Basic
    $11.00
    per month
    Pro
    $16.00
    per month
    Pro Plus
    $196.00
    per month
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Sprout SocialVerticalResponse
    Free Trial
    YesYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Sprout SocialVerticalResponse
    Considered Both Products
    Sprout Social
    No answer on this topic
    VerticalResponse
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    94%
    Would buy again
    106 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Delivers good value for the price
    94%
    Delivers good value for the price
    93 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Happy with the feature set
    96%
    Happy with the feature set
    108 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    96%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    86 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation went as expected
    96%
    Implementation went as expected
    92 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Features
    Sprout SocialVerticalResponse
    Listening/monitoring
    Comparison of Listening/monitoring features of Sprout Social and VerticalResponse
    Feature
    Sprout Social
    7.3
    114 Ratings
    5% below category average
    VerticalResponse
    -
    Ratings
    Boolean keyword searches6.980 Ratings00 Ratings
    Filtering out noise/spam7.196 Ratings00 Ratings
    Sentiment analysis7.077 Ratings00 Ratings
    Broad channel coverage8.090 Ratings00 Ratings
    Publishing
    Comparison of Publishing features of Sprout Social and VerticalResponse
    Feature
    Sprout Social
    8.3
    145 Ratings
    2% above category average
    VerticalResponse
    -
    Ratings
    Content planning and scheduling9.2145 Ratings00 Ratings
    Audience targeting7.2110 Ratings00 Ratings
    Content optimization8.2126 Ratings00 Ratings
    Workflow management8.4126 Ratings00 Ratings
    Engagement
    Comparison of Engagement features of Sprout Social and VerticalResponse
    Feature
    Sprout Social
    7.9
    132 Ratings
    3% below category average
    VerticalResponse
    -
    Ratings
    Automated routing and prioritization7.687 Ratings00 Ratings
    Customer interaction histories8.1116 Ratings00 Ratings
    Bulk actions8.1115 Ratings00 Ratings
    Marketing
    Comparison of Marketing features of Sprout Social and VerticalResponse
    Feature
    Sprout Social
    7.1
    96 Ratings
    9% below category average
    VerticalResponse
    -
    Ratings
    Lead generation6.869 Ratings00 Ratings
    Content marketing8.192 Ratings00 Ratings
    Paid media management6.23 Ratings00 Ratings
    Campaigns and promotions7.24 Ratings00 Ratings
    Channel coverage/integration
    Comparison of Channel coverage/integration features of Sprout Social and VerticalResponse
    Feature
    Sprout Social
    8.4
    144 Ratings
    1% above category average
    VerticalResponse
    -
    Ratings
    Twitter8.8126 Ratings00 Ratings
    Facebook8.7143 Ratings00 Ratings
    LinkedIn8.6130 Ratings00 Ratings
    Google+7.846 Ratings00 Ratings
    Instagram8.6132 Ratings00 Ratings
    Pinterest8.246 Ratings00 Ratings
    YouTube8.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Reporting/analytics
    Comparison of Reporting/analytics features of Sprout Social and VerticalResponse
    Feature
    Sprout Social
    8.2
    146 Ratings
    6% above category average
    VerticalResponse
    -
    Ratings
    Campaign success analytics8.6138 Ratings00 Ratings
    Real-time tracking8.1134 Ratings00 Ratings
    Competitor analysis7.8120 Ratings00 Ratings
    Account management
    Comparison of Account management features of Sprout Social and VerticalResponse
    Feature
    Sprout Social
    8.1
    138 Ratings
    2% above category average
    VerticalResponse
    -
    Ratings
    Role-based user permissions & privileges8.8132 Ratings00 Ratings
    Mobile access7.3124 Ratings00 Ratings
    Email & Online Marketing
    Comparison of Email & Online Marketing features of Sprout Social and VerticalResponse
    Feature
    Sprout Social
    -
    Ratings
    VerticalResponse
    9.9
    8 Ratings
    21% above category average
    WYSIWYG email editor00 Ratings10.07 Ratings
    Dynamic content00 Ratings10.05 Ratings
    Ability to test dynamic content00 Ratings10.04 Ratings
    Landing pages00 Ratings10.04 Ratings
    A/B testing00 Ratings10.05 Ratings
    Mobile optimization00 Ratings10.05 Ratings
    Email deliverability reporting00 Ratings10.08 Ratings
    List management00 Ratings10.08 Ratings
    Triggered drip sequences00 Ratings9.02 Ratings
    Reporting & Analytics
    Comparison of Reporting & Analytics features of Sprout Social and VerticalResponse
    Feature
    Sprout Social
    -
    Ratings
    VerticalResponse
    10.0
    9 Ratings
    27% above category average
    Dashboards00 Ratings10.09 Ratings
    Standard reports00 Ratings10.09 Ratings
    Custom reports00 Ratings10.06 Ratings
    Pre-Send Testing
    Comparison of Pre-Send Testing features of Sprout Social and VerticalResponse
    Feature
    Sprout Social
    -
    Ratings
    VerticalResponse
    10.0
    1 Ratings
    20% above category average
    URL Validation00 Ratings10.01 Ratings
    Link Tracking00 Ratings10.01 Ratings
    Image Validation00 Ratings10.01 Ratings
    Inbox Display00 Ratings10.01 Ratings
    Email Accessibility Tools00 Ratings10.01 Ratings
    Spelling and Grammar Check00 Ratings10.01 Ratings
    Spam Testing00 Ratings10.01 Ratings
    Email Previews00 Ratings10.01 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Sprout SocialVerticalResponse
    Small Businesses
    Sendible
    Score6.9 out of 10
    Mad Mimi
    Score10 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    CoSchedule
    Score10 out of 10
    Campaign Monitor by Marigold
    Score9.1 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Salesforce Marketing Cloud Social Studio (discontinued)
    Score8.1 out of 10
    Emma by Marigold
    Score8.4 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Sprout SocialVerticalResponse
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.4
    (203 ratings)
    10.0
    (28 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    9.2
    (67 ratings)
    8.6
    (19 ratings)
    Usability
    8.5
    (130 ratings)
    9.0
    (5 ratings)
    Availability
    7.7
    (8 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Performance
    8.0
    (7 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Support Rating
    1.6
    (39 ratings)
    8.0
    (4 ratings)
    Online Training
    7.3
    (3 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    1.0
    (12 ratings)
    10.0
    (4 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    8.1
    (42 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Sprout SocialVerticalResponse
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Sprout Social
    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
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    VerticalResponse
    For businesses requiring advanced email marketing features like sophisticated automation, in-depth analytics, and extensive customization, VerticalResponse might fall short due to its limited featuresVerticalResponse is ideal for small businesses or freelancers who need a simple, straightforward email marketing tool. Its ease of use and basic features make it suitable for those without extensive technical expertise in email marketing
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Sprout Social
    • 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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    VerticalResponse
    • I love the ease of list builder because we often times have a lot of data to import. It would be simply impossible without this tool, considering the amount of customer data we have for any one given email.
    • We really enjoy the ease of use of the HTML wizard as well. It helps even a novice be able to make a beautiful and attention grabbing email.
    • The dashboard is functional and easy to find when you need with a quick search.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Sprout Social
    • I would like for Personal Instagram Accounts to be able to integrate with Sprout Social's Employee Advocacy platform. You are able to connect personally accounts to Sprout Social itself, which is great, but for employee re-sharing internal stories, this is not possible unless it is with a Business Instagram account.
    • I would like for the left hand tool bar to be more user friendly. There are so many tools and settings that are available, and I would like for it to be simplified in a way that makes it less cluttered.
    • An improvement can be made with the Sprout Social Mobile App. The user friendliness of the app does not allow as much autonomy as the regular webpage.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    VerticalResponse
    • The type face is small. Not sure if this is to avoid overwhelming the reader, but I could see this being an issue with vision-impaired people or people who don't see small print well.
    • Sometimes I find it takes multiple clicks to make one simple change. I wish there was a search field at the top of the screen that allowed me to jump directly to a client's entry to update it there.
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Sprout Social
    Sprout Social is the best platform out there for social-media management, and now that I have all my clients using Sprout Social, it would be sort of silly for me to walk away format at this juncture. The only cloud on the horizon would be if Salesforce bought it (as has been rumored) and put it inside its walled garden.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    VerticalResponse
    Product is easy for both technical and non-technical people to use. A cost effective solution for sending out large number of messages. We can manage unsubscribes by individual accounts, so we can have multiple multiple accounts combined to maximize our buying power on credits. Effective API for sending/receiving data makes tool a valuable asset.
    Read full review
    Usability
    Sprout Social
    Sprout Social is straightforward to use - built for anyone regardless of tech experience to be able to navigate. It integrates pretty seamlessly to the native platforms and brings a lot of things together to make a seamlessly experience for seasoned social media managers.
    Incentivized
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    VerticalResponse
    I truly love this product. We are moving to an all-in-one system next year and my greatest fear in doing so is how much I will miss this platform. Although we are excited for things ahead, I will always keep Vertical Response in my back pocket incase I don't love the new platform as much
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    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.
    Read full review
    VerticalResponse
    Never had an issue with uptime
    Read full review
    Performance
    Sprout Social
    It is quick to post, however you have to refresh the page every time you add a new scheduled item.
    Read full review
    VerticalResponse
    No issues
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    Sprout Social
    The chat and online resources are great. The managers are too. They go through account reps pretty fast. Also, not a lot of onboarding once a product or service is sold. The ticket request system is terrible, they have too many people switching off roles, they take a long time to get back to you and don't plan on anything being fixed over a weekend - even if you have a problem. Their customer service via tickets is the worst.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    VerticalResponse
    At Vertical Response the help desk associates are courteous, knowledgeable and helpful. You can tell they enjoy what they do. And clearly, they are well trained because most times, the first point of contact is able to resolve any issue you may have. There have been very few times where an associate has needed to get back to me or escalate me to a supervisor
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Online Training
    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
    Read full review
    VerticalResponse
    Basic functions and online help...we used what was needed, at the time, and will continue to explore other online trainings as our functional needs expand
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    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.
    Read full review
    VerticalResponse
    Salesforce integration never worked right. We had to abandon.
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    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 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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    VerticalResponse
    In addition to using Vertical Response personally I also manage email marketing for clients that already use Mailchimp, Robly and Constant Contact. While most of these platforms all offer similar features I choose Vertical Response first if the client does not have a platform in place. Typically I am also teaching the client how to use this tool and the Vertical Response visual interface is very easy for me to teach a client how to navigate and create their own campaigns.
    Incentivized
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    Return on Investment
    Sprout Social
    • One positive impact has been a huge time saver for our team. Where we once had multiple systems and delays from producing content to approval to publishing, now everything is seamless.
    • Another positive impact is streamlining the onboarding process for new team members. Sprout Social is user-friendly and intuitive, making it easy to study even for someone completely new to social media.
    • One negative impact has been the time it takes to wade through irrelevant social listening posts. The filtering is not effective enough to eliminate the noise.
    Incentivized
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    VerticalResponse
    • We were able to blast out promotions our company was having to customers which created an increase in business.
    • By blasting out any service issues, it keeps our customers informed so that they are not wondering what is going on.
    • Allows us to store unsubscribed emails so that we are not constantly pestering people who do not want to be emailed.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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.