1. Home
  2. Social Media Management Tools
  3. Hootsuite Reviews
  4. User Review of Hootsuite
Hootsuite Pro: Affordable, but lacking in features.
June 20, 2016

Hootsuite Pro: Affordable, but lacking in features.

Matthew Hardesty | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Software Version

Hootsuite Pro

Overall Satisfaction with Hootsuite Pro

We use Hootsuite Pro to help monitor and manage multiple social media streams for our clients (as well as some of our own blogs). It's used primarily by our marketing department to help limit time spent logging in/out and scheduling posts across the multitude of social media platforms. In that respect, it's a big time saver.
  • It provides easy management of multiple social media accounts
  • Monitors multiple streams across social media platforms
  • It allows team member management and task delegation
  • The interface can be somewhat cumbersome at times
  • Some settings & configurations are hard to get to
  • Some advanced reports may cost extra/aren't included with the Pro plan
5 - The people that use Hootsuite Pro primarily work in the marketing and advertising department. More specifically, it's used by individuals who have a key responsibility to manage our clients' social media presence and efforts. While we provide access to them, it's not used as often by our end clients (since we manage the work).
  • Hootsuite Pro greatly reduces the time spent trying to log in/out of social media accounts (along with the time looking up or resetting passwords).
  • Since we've starting using it, we've encountered a lot of limitations. At this point, we're considering alternatives that will alleviate some of the common headaches and nuisances associated with Hootsuite Pro.
  • We're able to execute a more coordinated social media marketing effort at a reduced cost to our clients (when compared to when we weren't using any social media management platforms).
It's not the best set of software, but it's affordable (and marketed well) for SMBs. Hootsuite Pro, along with any similar social media management tool, only becomes useful when you need to follow a publishing schedule for multiple social media channels. That said, it's pretty cheap and offers entry to a better method of management (vs. trying to do it through each platform's account individually).
From a small business perspective, Hootsuite Pro is great if you are prepared to create and follow a publishing schedule and have discussed the KPIs you intend to measure. Essentially, the tool becomes useful when you need to execute on a plan made elsewhere. Otherwise, you won't be maximizing on the strengths it offers. From an agency perspective, Hootsuite Pro lacks refinement and is outclassed by other service providers like Falcon.io, Spredfast, or Sprout social.

Hootsuite Feature Ratings

5.7
Boolean keyword searches
6
Filtering out noise/spam
2
Broad channel coverage
9
4.5
Content planning and scheduling
10
Audience targeting
3
Content optimization
1
Workflow management
4
2.3
Automated routing and prioritization
2
Customer interaction histories
2
Bulk actions
3
4.7
Lead generation
4
Content marketing
7
Campaigns and promotions
3
6.2
Twitter
8
Facebook
7
LinkedIn
4
Google+
7
Instagram
5
Pinterest
Not Rated
6.7
Campaign success analytics
4
Real-time tracking
10
Competitor analysis
6
6.0
Role-based user permissions & privileges
5
Mobile access
7

Evaluating Hootsuite Pro and Competitors

  • Price
  • Product Reputation
When we made the decision initially, we went with Hootsuite Pro because the was clear and the service was quickly accessible. It was very easy to pay and prepare the account to be used by our team members with minimal effort and time to market.
We were initially driven to choose Hootsuite Pro by an approaching client deadline. That's why the accessibility and time to market was important to our decision making process. In hindsight, it would have been beneficial for us to spend more time exploring the products in the space more thoroughly prior to making a decision.

Using Hootsuite Pro

The layout of horizontal columns for each stream or search is a very cumbersome way to display information. There isn't an easy way to sort, filter, or otherwise re-organize the streams to limit the current view to relevancy. This is one of the primary reasons why we plan to move to another platform.
ProsCons
Easy to use
Technical support not required
Quick to learn
Familiar
Not well integrated
Inconsistent
Cumbersome
  • Easy to add new social media accounts
  • Easy to schedule social media posts across channels
  • Easy to add new team members
  • Tracking more than 5 streams is very cumbersome
  • Some settings or configurations aren't easily accessible
  • The interface has improved a little over time, but it's still not obvious to use out of the box. Spend some time becoming familiar with it.
Yes, but I don't use it