No more typing reviews! Try our Samantha, our new voice AI agent.

HootSuite vs Salesforce Marketing Cloud comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Feb 8, 2026

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

HootSuite
Ranking in Social CRM
2nd
Ranking in Social Media Management Solutions
2nd
Average Rating
8.0
Number of Reviews
19
Ranking in other categories
Social Media Analytics Software (2nd)
Salesforce Marketing Cloud
Ranking in Social CRM
4th
Ranking in Social Media Management Solutions
3rd
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
63
Ranking in other categories
Marketing Automation (1st), Marketing Management (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Social CRM category, the mindshare of HootSuite is 10.3%, down from 13.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Salesforce Marketing Cloud is 6.1%, down from 12.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Social CRM Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
HootSuite10.3%
Salesforce Marketing Cloud6.1%
Other83.6%
Social CRM
 

Featured Reviews

Calin Balaita - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Engineer at Wärtsilä
Consistent scheduling has amplified our global branding and simplified weekly content sharing
HootSuite does a good job at what it does, and I didn't have any issues with it. If I had to think about one thing that could make my experience even better, the interface on the iOS version could be a bit smoother and things could be more visible, but other than that, it works fine.
GauravSingh2 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Consultant at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Targeted email journeys have boosted campaign insight and now need better data access and support
I feel that Salesforce Marketing Cloud can be improved in how the data views are accessed; it would be better to have something more physical. With data extensions, you can view them directly, but for data views, it is very difficult as you can only send it out or load it into data extensions. Improvements can also be made in the connections to different external tools such as Azure or AWS. Customer support can be improved in Salesforce Marketing Cloud, as sometimes it is not clear what the issue is or how to approach solving it, and it also takes time to resolve issues.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"HootSuite has impacted my organization positively by making my social media marketing easier by ensuring that it got posted on time."
"If you are into social media marketing or any other digital media, then you should have knowledge of HootSuite because it is the industry standard that has been helping industry professionals."
"HootSuite has been truly useful and helpful in my organization because impressions have increased, there has been an increase in traffic, scheduling has become simpler, and approvals have been excellent."
"It has a social media presence outside of the hours people are able to devote to an organization."
"Customer Service: Great. Technical Support: Good."
"I love the usability of HootSuite, and it is easy to learn; that is one of the great things."
"HootSuite has an AI engine to suggest trending topics related to our business. The engine works really well and comes up with excellent suggestions for more posts."
"HootSuite has positively impacted my organization by making it easy for us to post our socials without having to add staff."
"If you want to be able to communicate with your client using email, WhatsApp, and push notifications, know if the client opened the communication or not, and create and automate their journey, Marketing Cloud is very good."
"It is a great solution. I like its stability, scalability, and performance."
"The most valuable feature is the ability to get quotes out in a timely manner."
"We use Marketing Cloud for marketing campaigns and engaging customers, and it is a business-focused application for a specific area of business, which is acquiring customers."
"This solution has improved organization brand awareness with prospects and clients."
"Datorama is part of Salesforce Marketing Cloud, which is quite a valuable feature that provides customer analytics."
"It is easy to use."
"Allows organisations to engage customers with one integrated platform to unify sales, service, and marketing."
 

Cons

"I think HootSuite can be improved with a better user interface."
"However, sometimes the admin dashboard and the backend panel can be a bit slow and clunky, so it could improve in terms of speed and managing its load."
"There are a few issues with it being somewhat glitchy and the timeline not showing up consistently as of recently, but overall, it is a great product."
"The company should reduce the pricing to make it easier for companies to deploy to larger social teams."
"HootSuite can be improved regarding their summarized AI brand sentiment."
"The pricing would be great if it were free. It costs $99 per month, which is quite expensive."
"I advise against using Hootsuite."
"If I had to think about one thing that could make my experience even better, the interface on the iOS version could be a bit smoother and things could be more visible, but other than that, it works fine."
"Customer support could be improved, especially for new features where I do not always receive proper solutions from the platform provider."
"Customer support can be improved in Salesforce Marketing Cloud, as sometimes it is not clear what the issue is or how to approach solving it, and it also takes time to resolve issues."
"To improve user experience, there should be clear workflows to assist the user through the setup processes."
"The query building's a bit weak if you want to build something new. It's a bit complicated."
"We would like an improvement to the 'Einstein Engagement Frequency'; the optimal range of emails that our subscribers will engage with."
"The dashboards should be more intuitive, as there are far too many items on them. You're not always sure what you're looking for."
"In a future release it would be great to have the ability to connect the data from social media and email marketing and have it in one dashboard."
"We need a development environment for Marketing Cloud. Currently, there is no development environment for this solution. Other Salesforce products, such as Sales and Service Cloud, have a development environment in which the developers can do some things and then post them in production. Currently, everything happens in the production for Marketing Cloud. There is only one environment, and the developers and the end-users have to work in the same environment, which seems to be challenging. If Salesforce can bring a developer environment for Marketing Cloud, it will be good."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"​I have only used the free versions.​"
"I don't know if my company pays for Salesforce Marketing Cloud monthly or yearly. It's a SaaS, so it's a recurring cost, but I have no information on its price."
"The price is expensive."
"Salesforce is an expensive solution."
"Salesforce Marketing Cloud is affordable, considering the significant improvements it brings to our campaign results."
"The solution is a bit expensive."
"The solution is paid for monthly."
"This solution is priced in the medium to high price range."
"Its licensing is on an annual basis. Customers are okay with its licensing cost, and they don't find it expensive."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Social CRM solutions are best for your needs.
908,858 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
20%
Outsourcing Company
10%
University
9%
Media Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
17%
Construction Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business14
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise10
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business20
Midsize Enterprise15
Large Enterprise34
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with HootSuite?
In terms of branding and brand mentions, it would be useful if we could use multiple sources to pull data from, which would be more helpful. Reporting would be somewhat more helpful if we were able...
What is your primary use case for HootSuite?
My main use case for HootSuite is scheduling social media posts and managing all our social and content calendars in a central location. We mainly use HootSuite to schedule our posts by bulk produc...
What advice do you have for others considering HootSuite?
HootSuite serves the purpose of what it is designed for. However, sometimes the admin dashboard and the backend panel can be a bit slow and clunky, so it could improve in terms of speed and managin...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Salesforce Marketing Cloud?
I did not work on any pricing or implementation aspects but learned on my own when dealing with Revenue Cloud products.
What needs improvement with Salesforce Marketing Cloud?
Regarding areas for improvement, the realization of value from Salesforce Einstein's predictive AI features is a notable challenge. Although the implementation partner highlighted these capabilitie...
What is your primary use case for Salesforce Marketing Cloud?
As a consultant, I partner with organizations to optimize their use of Salesforce Marketing Cloud (SFMC). My engagement often begins pre-implementation, where I lead the requirements gathering proc...
 

Also Known As

No data available
ExactTarget
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Vega, TicketLeap, Radio Italia, The PureMatter Agency, Kiva, The Vancouver Canucks
American Express, Financial Conduct Authority, KPN, Merck KGaA, Peterborough City Council, The Chapar, ADP, Financial Times, Stanley Black & Decker, SureFlap, Western Union, Philips
Find out what your peers are saying about HootSuite vs. Salesforce Marketing Cloud and other solutions. Updated: August 2026.
908,858 professionals have used our research since 2012.