Hootsuite vs Sprout Social - Which is a Better Tool?

Detailed Comparison of Hootsuite vs Sprout Social  

Deciding the better tool between Hootsuite and Sprout Social isn’t about the longest feature list; it is crucial to understand how they execute their functions. The following sections compare key features of the two.

Pricing

Hootsuite and Sprout Social come with free and paid versions with the following features:

It is worth noting that the paid version of Hootsuite starts at $49/month, but for Sprout Social, it is $89/user/month. However, Sprout Social’s unique feature of automated responses to incoming communications compensates well for the high cost. 

Supported Social Networks

Both Hootsuite and Sprout social feature a long list of supported social networks, including:

Additionally, Sprout Social integrates with various apps, software, and tools, including 

• Zendesk
• Google Analytics
• Bitly
• Hubspot
• UserVoice
• Feedly
• Dropbox
• Google Drive

While Hootsuite integrates with the following

• Zendesk
• Strava
• Slack
• Trello
• Adobe
• Salesforce
• ReviewTrackers

Scheduling and Posting

In terms of publishing and scheduling, there isn’t much difference between the two. Both platforms facilitate composing a message, choosing the account it comes from, attaching photos, shortening links, and choosing a target audience using the main feed dashboard.

Hootsuite has a bulk schedule tool for scheduling posts at once by uploading a CSV file. Both platforms also offer a proprietary algorithm that decides which time is more suitable for you to post and elicit the most engagement from the audience.

Social Media Scheduling in Sprout Social

Additionally, Sprout Social comes with an audience discovery function. It highlights accounts you should follow and spam/bot accounts you shouldn't. This feature helps in identifying relevant influencers.

A marked difference that gives Hootsuite an edge over Sprout Social in terms of scheduling is that Hootsuite supports unlimited scheduling, while Sprout Social limits the number of posts scheduled per day to ten.

Dashboard Experience

You will come across a vertical menu on both Hootsuite and Sprout Social's dashboards. They contain Publisher, Inbox, and Analytics tabs, each button opening an additional menu of more granular features.

Sprout Social Dashboard

Both platforms are extremely intuitive and offer an easy path towards all their features with a few clicks. It will be tough to decide Hootsuite vs Sprout Social in terms of the dashboard. However, often users get drawn to Sprout Social for its clean and refreshing dashboard.  

Hootsuite Dashboard

Hootsuite has several usable features, if not an attractive dashboard. It displays your Twitter timeline, followed Instagram hashtags, or Facebook page mentions. 

Team Management

Sprout Social provides team workflows for organizing your social media efforts. It also comes with an internal inbox for coordinating your marketing plan. Additionally, Sprout Social also tracks the messages that have been responded to. It marks those messages with a green symbol, preventing multiple team members from responding to the same message. This minor feature reduces complications and enhances collaboration among team members. 

Hootsuite favors team management by allowing you to assign users any one of the three roles: admin, super admin, and default. You can also assign social media replies to your team members and prevent awkward double replies to customers. Using Hootsuite, you can also assign external agencies to specific social media profiles. 

Hootsuite Social Media Team Management 

Advertising

Hootsuite is better for ad creation and management as it allows you to launch and manage ad campaigns across several social media platforms through Hootsuite Ads— a separate product for advertising. It comes with an additional cost.   

Hootsuite Ads

Sprout Social does not have any comparable product or feature, but you can run ad campaigns via Google Ads and Facebook Ads, managing them separately in their tools.

Conversation Management

Hootsuite allows you to customize the dashboard and create a tab for your Twitter mentions, Facebook messages, and YouTube comments. You can reply to all messages and comments from the same spot. 

Similarly, Sprout Social lets you interact with the audience and reply to messages directly from your feed. It tracks messages that have been responded to and marks them. You can also assign team members to specific interactions. 

Content Curation

Content curation gets easier when you stay updated on the latest happenings worldwide. Both platforms let users flag specific keyword searches and track social feeds in general.

Hootsuite provides brand mention alerts and sentiment analysis available only as add-ons for Business or Enterprise plan users. Sprout Social offers an exceptional social listening feature as an add-on. It tracks mentions of your brand across channels and pulls them for review. It gives you insights into your customers’ feelings and helps you add or alter services to meet their needs.

Tracking and Analytics

Hootsuite’s free plan grants you analytical reports that help monitor your performance. It displays the published posts, follower counts, and a broad overview of engagement rates. The paid versions help measure which posts are adored by people and the demographics of the audience responding to them. Using the Enterprise plan, you can track which teams respond to your followers and how quickly they do so.

Hootsuite Analytics

Using Sprout Social, you will have to upgrade to higher packages to get competitor and advanced reports. Add-ons are available at various plan levels for premium analytics.

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Conclusion: Hootsuite vs Sprout Special: Which one is Better?

Both social media management tools help keep tabs on social media audiences in the modern world, but they take slightly different approaches to reaching these goals. While Sprout Social and Hootsuite offer a browser extension, unlimited posting, and functionality on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and YouTube, Sprout Social is best for providing customer service. At the same time, Hootsuite delivers an exceptional social media post publishing experience. 

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