Sprout Social vs Hootsuite

by Gralio Feb 27, 2025

Sprout Social and Hootsuite are both leading social media management platforms, but they cater to different needs. Sprout Social excels in Instagram management and engagement features, while Hootsuite offers broader platform integration and stronger social listening. Both platforms provide scheduling, analytics, and reporting tools, making them suitable for businesses of various sizes.

At Gralio.ai we help to simplify your decision-making process by offering detailed, side-by-side software comparisons like this one, to help you confidently choose the tool that aligns with your business goals.

This comparison was created by analysing 7500 reviews and 60 websites, saving 1 day, 18 hours, 10 minutes of reading.

Sprout Social

Website LinkedIn Twitter

Hootsuite

Website LinkedIn Twitter

About

Sprout Social is a social media management platform designed for businesses of all sizes. It offers a suite of tools to manage social media interactions, schedule posts, analyze performance, and listen to what customers are saying online. Sprout Social aims to streamline social media activities, provide data-driven insights, and help businesses maximize the impact of their social media presence.

Hootsuite is a social media management tool that lets companies schedule posts across various platforms like Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. It offers tools to manage content, track customer conversations, gain social media insights, and analyze data to improve social media strategies. Hootsuite is used by businesses of all sizes and is known for its user-friendly dashboard that consolidates multiple social media functions in one place.

Summary

Main difference

Sprout Social is a better choice if you prioritize in-depth analytics and engagement features, especially for Instagram, and need a platform known for its user-friendly interface. Hootsuite is a stronger option if you require extensive platform integrations, including LinkedIn, and robust social listening capabilities, and prefer a wider range of pricing options.

Relative strengths of Sprout Social (compared to Hootsuite)

Superior Instagram Integration: Sprout Social offers more comprehensive Instagram scheduling and management features, including support for both business and creator accounts, compared to Hootsuite's more limited Instagram functionality.
Stronger Engagement Features: Sprout Social provides robust tools for managing social interactions, including a Smart Inbox that aggregates messages and mentions, and detailed engagement analytics.
User-Friendly Interface: Sprout Social is widely praised for its intuitive and easy-to-navigate interface, making it a good choice for users of all technical levels.

Relative weaknesses of Sprout Social (compared to Hootsuite)

Limited LinkedIn Integration: While Hootsuite supports scheduling for both LinkedIn personal and business pages, Sprout Social's LinkedIn integration is less extensive.
Fewer Platform Integrations Overall: Hootsuite offers integrations with a broader range of social media platforms and other marketing tools.
Less Robust Social Listening: Hootsuite's social listening capabilities, including real-time monitoring and sentiment analysis, are more advanced than Sprout Social's.

What companies are using Sprout Social and Hootsuite?

No data

Chandos Construction

Remax Excellence

Freedom 55 Financial

Who should use Sprout Social VS. Hootsuite

Sprout Social is a comprehensive social media management platform ideal for medium to large businesses across various industries, especially marketing and advertising. Users praise its intuitive interface, unified inbox, and robust reporting. Some users have reported issues with data accuracy and Instagram integration. Consider Sprout Social if your business needs a scalable solution for managing social media engagement, scheduling, and analytics.

Hootsuite is a user-friendly social media management platform ideal for businesses of all sizes seeking to streamline their social media presence. Users praise Hootsuite's intuitive interface, scheduling features, and calendar view. However, some users have noted occasional bugs and inaccurate analytics data. It offers various pricing plans to accommodate different needs, from individual users to large organizations.

Best fit for medium to large businesses seeking a robust social media management solution.
Strong fit for marketing & advertising, suitable for most other industries.

Best for small to medium businesses (1-1000 employees), also suitable for larger enterprises.
Suitable for businesses across various industries, including healthcare, finance, e-commerce, retail, and more.

Sprout Social and Hootsuite features

Supported

Partially supported

Not supported

Type in the name of the feature or in your own words tell us what you need

Social media publish scheduling

Supported

Sprout Social allows scheduling content across multiple platforms with a user-friendly interface, ensuring a consistent social media presence.

Supported

Hootsuite supports scheduling across multiple platforms with a user-friendly interface.
Twitter integration

Supported

Sprout Social allows scheduling single Tweets, but not threads.

Supported

Hootsuite allows scheduling tweets, and managing them via bulk scheduling and analytics features.
Instagram integration

Supported

Sprout Social allows scheduling posts to both Instagram business and creator accounts.

Partially supported

Hootsuite supports scheduling posts for Instagram Business accounts but not Creator accounts.
LinkedIn integration

Partially supported

Sprout Social allows scheduling posts to LinkedIn Company Pages, but not to personal profiles.

Supported

Hootsuite supports scheduling posts to both LinkedIn personal and business pages.
Impressions and reach

Supported

Sprout Social offers robust analytics with detailed reports on impressions and reach. It provides a comprehensive view of content performance across various platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and TikTok.

Supported

Hootsuite tracks engagement metrics, including views, clicks, and interactions, which are related to impressions and reach.
Facebook integration

Partially supported

Sprout Social allows scheduling posts to Facebook pages. The possibility of scheduling posts to Facebook groups is not clear.

Partially supported

Hootsuite allows scheduling posts to Facebook pages but not groups.

Qualities

Value and Pricing Transparency

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Customer Service

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Ease of Use

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Reliability and Performance

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Ease of Implementation

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Scalability

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Sprout Social and Hootsuite Pricing

No data

See full Pricing page

Hootsuite offers three plans: Professional for individuals, Team for small teams, and Enterprise for large organizations.

Plans

See full Pricing page

Sprout Social and Hootsuite review insights

Users love

Intuitive and user-friendly interface, praised for ease of navigation.
Smart Inbox effectively aggregates messages, comments, and mentions.
Robust reporting features provide valuable insights and easy report generation.
Seamless integration with other platforms for social media publishing.

User-friendly interface and easy to navigate.
Scheduling features for multiple platforms save time and effort.
Calendar view provides a visual overview of scheduled posts.
Analytics and reporting features are helpful for tracking performance.
Streams effectively monitor social conversations, hashtags, and mentions.

Users dislike

Data retrieving issues: Some users report issues with data accuracy and APIs.
Connecting Instagram accounts can be a bit of a task.
Social listening data loading can be slow when changing queries.
Limited Instagram Story functionality, especially on mobile.

Analytics data can be inaccurate and doesn’t always match platform native analytics.
Instagram integration is limited, especially for stories and reels.
Occasional bugs and glitches, including posts failing to publish.
Social accounts frequently disconnect and need to be reconnected.
Pricing is considered high, especially for small businesses and individual users.

Sprout Social and Hootsuite Ratings

G2

4.4/5

(2515)
TrustPilot

2.0/5

(51)
Glassdoor

4.1/5

(568)

G2

4.2/5

(2606)
Capterra

4.4/5

(2346)
Glassdoor

4.0/5

(745)

Company health

Employee growth

5% increase in the last year

18% increase in the last year

Web traffic

9% decrease in the last quarter

13% decrease in the last quarter

Financing

September 2018 - $111M

December 2017 - $300M

How do Sprout Social's and Hootsuite's Instagram integration features compare?

Both Sprout Social and Hootsuite offer Instagram integration, allowing users to schedule posts for business and creator accounts. However, user reviews indicate that Hootsuite's Instagram integration is more limited, especially for features like Stories and Reels, and users have reported issues with accounts disconnecting. Sprout Social also has some limitations with Instagram Stories functionality, particularly on mobile, but overall seems to offer a more robust and reliable Instagram integration experience.

Which product offers more robust and accurate social media analytics data?

While both platforms offer social media analytics, Sprout Social appears to provide more robust and accurate data, despite some user-reported issues with data retrieval. Hootsuite users specifically mention inaccuracies in their analytics data, with discrepancies noted between Hootsuite's data and the native analytics of the social media platforms themselves. Therefore, for accuracy in social media analytics, Sprout Social seems to have a slight edge.

What are the advantages of Sprout Social?

Sprout Social offers robust analytics with detailed reports on impressions and reach across various platforms, including TikTok, which is not mentioned for Hootsuite. Users praise Sprout Social's intuitive interface, effective Smart Inbox, and seamless integrations. While both target similar customer profiles, Sprout Social's pricing information isn't available in this context to compare affordability.

What are the disadvantages of Sprout Social?

Sprout Social's disadvantages include occasional data retrieval issues and API-related problems, some difficulties connecting Instagram accounts, slow loading times for social listening data, and limited Instagram Story functionality, especially on mobile.

Alternatives to Sprout Social and Hootsuite

Dash Hudson

Dash Hudson is a social media management platform designed for businesses of all sizes. It provides tools to schedule posts, analyze performance, and track social media trends. Dash Hudson emphasizes its Vision AI feature for predicting content success and claims it can increase social media engagement. The software also offers tools to manage influencer marketing campaigns and track their effectiveness.

Sprinklr Social

Sprinklr Social is a comprehensive social media management tool designed for large enterprises. It offers a suite of features for managing your brand's presence across multiple social media platforms. With Sprinklr Social, you can publish and schedule content, track performance, analyze sentiment, and engage with your audience. Its strengths include AI-powered insights, workflow automation, and robust reporting capabilities, making it suitable for managing complex social media strategies across various departments.

Later

Later is a social media management platform designed to streamline your online presence. It allows you to schedule posts across various platforms like Instagram and TikTok, analyze performance data, and even turn posts into shoppable links. Later aims to save you time and help you understand what content resonates with your audience. They offer different plans, including a free trial, to fit various needs.

Agorapulse

Agorapulse is a social media management tool that helps businesses manage their presence on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. It allows you to schedule posts, monitor social activity, and generate reports to analyze performance. Agorapulse is known for its user-friendly interface and responsive customer support, making it a suitable option for businesses of all sizes.

RADAAR

RADAAR is a social media management platform designed to streamline your online presence. It allows you to schedule and publish content, monitor social media activity, engage with your audience, and analyze your performance, all from one central location. RADAAR offers solutions for businesses of all sizes, from small businesses and agencies to large enterprises. It supports a wide array of social media platforms and provides tools to improve efficiency and collaboration.

Buffer

Buffer is a software tool that helps you manage your company's social media. Schedule posts across platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter all in one place. You can also track how your posts perform and get insights to improve your strategy. Buffer is designed to be user-friendly for teams of all sizes.

Page co-authored by

Michal Kaczor

CEO at Gralio

Michal has worked at startups for many years and writes about topics relating to software selection and IT management. As a former consultant for Bain, a business advisory company, he also knows how to understand needs of any business and find solutions to its problems.

Tymon Terlikiewicz

CTO at Gralio

Tymon is a seasoned CTO who loves finding the perfect tools for any task. He recently headed up the tech department at Batmaid, a well-known Swiss company, where he managed about 60 software purchases, including CX, HR, Payroll, Marketing automation and various developer tools.

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