Hootsuite vs Later

by Gralio Mar 07, 2025

Hootsuite and Later are both social media management tools, but they cater to different needs. Hootsuite offers a more comprehensive suite of features for managing multiple platforms and analyzing data, while Later excels in visual planning and scheduling, especially for Instagram and TikTok. Choose Hootsuite if you need broad platform coverage and in-depth analytics. Opt for Later if your focus is visual content and ease of use, particularly for Instagram and TikTok.

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 5249 reviews and 60 websites, saving 1 day, 5 hours, 39 minutes of reading.

Hootsuite

Website LinkedIn Twitter

Later

Website LinkedIn Twitter

About

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.

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.

Summary

Main difference

Hootsuite is a comprehensive social media management platform ideal for businesses seeking a wide range of integrations and robust analytics. Later focuses on visual planning and scheduling, particularly for Instagram and TikTok, making it a strong choice for visually-driven brands and influencers.

Relative strengths of Hootsuite (compared to Later)

Wider range of platform integrations (including LinkedIn and Twitter).
More comprehensive analytics and reporting features.
Better suited for managing multiple social media accounts across diverse platforms.

Relative weaknesses of Hootsuite (compared to Later)

More expensive, especially for smaller businesses or individual users.
Less intuitive visual planning interface compared to Later.
Limited Instagram story and reel scheduling capabilities.

What companies are using Hootsuite and Later?

Chandos Construction

Remax Excellence

Freedom 55 Financial

No data

Who should use Hootsuite VS. Later

Hootsuite is a user-friendly social media management platform ideal for businesses and individuals looking to streamline their social media presence. Users praise its intuitive scheduling and calendar features, while some find the analytics inaccurate and the Instagram integration limited. Best for small to medium-sized businesses seeking efficient content creation, scheduling, and engagement tools.

Later is a user-friendly social media management platform perfect for visually planning and scheduling content, especially on Instagram. Users praise its intuitive interface and hashtag features. However, some have noted limitations with Instagram Stories and pricing. Consider Later if you need an affordable, visual tool to simplify your social media workflow.

Best for small to medium-sized businesses (1-1000 employees), offering excellent fit.
Suitable for most industries, including Healthcare, Finance, E-commerce, Retail, and more.

Ideal for freelancers, small businesses, and agencies seeking streamlined social media management.
Best for marketing and advertising, e-commerce, and retail businesses.

Hootsuite and Later features

Supported

Partially supported

Not supported

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

SMS analytics

Not supported

Hootsuite does not support SMS analytics.

Not supported

Later does not appear to support SMS analytics.
Influencer marketing

Partially supported

Influencer discovery is not supported, but managing influencer content is available via Upfluence integration.

Supported

Later supports influencer discovery, management, and collaborations.
Social media management

Supported

Hootsuite allows planning, scheduling, and automatic publishing of social media posts.

Supported

Later allows planning, scheduling, and automatic publishing of social media posts.
Social media publish scheduling

Supported

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

Supported

Later allows scheduling social media posts across multiple platforms with an intuitive interface for 24/7 presence.
Twitter integration

Supported

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

Supported

Later allows scheduling various posts to Twitter (now X).
Instagram integration

Partially supported

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

Supported

Later allows scheduling posts to Instagram Business and Creator accounts.

Qualities

Value and Pricing Transparency

-0.62

Rather negative sentiment

-0.33

Rather negative sentiment
Customer Service

+0.13

Neutral sentiment

No data
Ease of Use

+0.82

Strongly positive sentiment

+1

Strongly positive sentiment
Reliability and Performance

-0.06

Neutral sentiment

No data
Ease of Implementation

+0.33

Rather positive sentiment

No data
Scalability

+0.2

Neutral sentiment

No data

Hootsuite and Later Pricing

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

Plans

User sentiment

Rather negative

-0.62

See full Pricing page

Later Social offers 5 pricing tiers for individuals, small teams, growing teams, agencies and large businesses. All plans include a 14-day free trial and a 33% discount on annual billing. Extra social sets, users and AI credits can be purchased for an additional monthly fee.

Plans

User sentiment

Rather negative

-0.33

See full Pricing page

Hootsuite and Later review insights

5249 reviews analysed from and

Users love

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.

Visual Instagram feed planner and grid preview.
User-friendly interface and drag-and-drop scheduling.
Hashtag suggestions and analytics.
Linkin.bio feature for driving traffic from Instagram.
Time-saving automation and bulk scheduling capabilities.

Users dislike

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.

No direct publishing for Instagram Stories and multi-photo posts, only push notifications.
Limited story customization options, such as stickers or tagging.
Free version limitations on post quantity and features.
Occasional delays in posting, bugs, and API connection issues.
Steep price jump between the free and paid versions.

Hootsuite and Later Ratings

G2

4.2/5

(2606)
Capterra

4.4/5

(2346)
Glassdoor

4.0/5

(745)

G2

4.5/5

(307)

Company health

Employee growth

18% increase in the last year

No data

Web traffic

13% decrease in the last quarter

No data

Financing

December 2017 - $300M

No data

How do Hootsuite's and Later's Instagram story scheduling features compare?

Hootsuite and Later both offer Instagram story scheduling, but with key differences. Later relies on push notifications to remind users to manually post stories, while Hootsuite offers direct publishing for stories (though users report it can be unreliable). Later has limited story customization options compared to Hootsuite, which likely leverages Instagram's native features more effectively. Therefore, Hootsuite theoretically offers a more complete solution, but its reliability issues may make Later's reminder system a more practical, albeit less automated, choice.

Which platform provides more robust analytics for overall social media performance?

Hootsuite provides more robust analytics for overall social media performance. While Later focuses on visual planning and scheduling, particularly for Instagram, Hootsuite offers more comprehensive analytics features including real-time monitoring, sentiment analysis, and AI-powered insights. Although some users report inaccuracies with Hootsuite's data, its breadth of analytics tools surpasses Later's offerings, making it better suited for businesses prioritizing data-driven social media strategies.

What are the advantages of Hootsuite?

Hootsuite offers a more comprehensive suite of features for managing multiple social media accounts, including robust analytics and social listening capabilities. It caters to a broader range of industries and business sizes compared to Later, which primarily focuses on visual content scheduling and Instagram marketing. While Later excels in visual planning and link-in-bio tools, Hootsuite provides a more holistic approach to social media management.

What are the disadvantages of Hootsuite?

Hootsuite's disadvantages include inaccurate analytics data that often differs from native platform analytics, limited Instagram integration, especially for stories and reels, occasional bugs and glitches causing publishing failures, frequent disconnections of social accounts requiring re-authentication, and high pricing that can be prohibitive for small businesses or individual users.

Is Hootsuite cheaper than Later?

Later is cheaper than Hootsuite. Later's pricing starts at $16.67/month, while Hootsuite's lowest plan is $99/month. Even with Later's discounts for annual billing factored in, Hootsuite remains significantly more expensive.

Alternatives to Hootsuite and Later

Nuelink

Nuelink is a cloud-based social media management platform designed for entrepreneurs and businesses of all sizes. It allows you to schedule and automate your social media posts across various platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, and more. Nuelink offers features like content scheduling, automated posting from blogs and online stores, AI-powered content generation, and performance tracking, enabling you to manage your social media presence efficiently from a single dashboard. It stands out with its automation features, simplifying content distribution and saving you time.

HubSpot Marketing Hub

HubSpot Marketing Hub is a comprehensive marketing platform designed for businesses of all sizes. It offers a suite of tools including email marketing, marketing automation, social media management, analytics, and SEO optimization, all within a single platform. This helps businesses streamline their marketing efforts, improve efficiency, and track results. Its focus on inbound marketing and lead generation makes it a popular choice for businesses looking to attract and convert leads into customers. HubSpot Marketing Hub integrates seamlessly with HubSpot's CRM platform for enhanced sales and marketing alignment.

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.

Sprout Social

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.

Loomly

Loomly is a social media management platform designed to streamline your online presence. It offers tools to create, schedule, and track content across various platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Loomly helps manage brand assets, provides post ideas, and offers analytics to measure performance. It simplifies team collaboration with approval workflows and a unified inbox for community management. Loomly is a good fit for marketing teams who want to improve their social media efficiency.

Zoho Social

Zoho Social is a social media management platform designed for businesses of all sizes and agencies. It offers a comprehensive suite of tools to manage multiple social media accounts across various platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn. With Zoho Social, you can schedule posts, track brand mentions, analyze performance with detailed reports, and manage social media activities effectively from a single dashboard. The platform also offers collaboration features, making it easy for teams to work together on social media campaigns. Zoho Social integrates seamlessly with other Zoho products like Zoho CRM and Zoho Desk, providing a unified platform to manage customer interactions and generate leads.

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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