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HootSuite vs Sprout Social 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
Ranking in Social Media Analytics Software
1st
Average Rating
8.0
Number of Reviews
10
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Sprout Social
Ranking in Social CRM
1st
Ranking in Social Media Management Solutions
3rd
Ranking in Social Media Analytics Software
2nd
Average Rating
7.8
Number of Reviews
5
Ranking in other categories
AI Customer Experience Personalization (9th), AI Content Creation (10th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2026, in the Social CRM category, the mindshare of HootSuite is 9.1%, down from 9.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Sprout Social is 7.9%, down from 11.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Social CRM Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Sprout Social7.9%
HootSuite9.1%
Other83.0%
Social CRM
 

Featured Reviews

Babra Mishra - PeerSpot reviewer
Project Lead at Roche
Centralized planning has boosted campaign reach and simplifies managing multiple social channels
HootSuite is incredibly useful, as scheduling and connection to social accounts makes it much simpler to post and schedule content across social media platforms. 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 best features HootSuite offers include scheduling, posting, connection to social media channels, analytics, and a timeline feature, which has already disappeared, but I hope that it could return. HootSuite also offers a content library to load things as needed. The customer service works great, as if you are having a problem, they address it immediately. 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.
Andriana Sophos - PeerSpot reviewer
Financial Analyst at Honeywell
Centralized social monitoring has unified our branding and drives data-driven engagement decisions
The best features Sprout Social offers include the compose tool for social posts, reporting and analytics, and content management.What I appreciate most about the compose tool and the reporting and analytics features is that it helps to track engagements and other analytics and track social campaigns so that we are able to make data-driven decisions easily. I would add that social listening and explaining the spikes and the drops, a friendly user interface and easy to understand, great customer care integration, and statistics for organic social are also important features. Sprout Social has positively impacted my organization by saving time and increasing engagement. We have definitely streamlined our output and allowed us to access metrics, content performance, and engagement all within a few clicks, which improved our productivity in my organization by 20%.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It has a social media presence outside of the hours people are able to devote to an organization."
"Customer Service: Great. Technical Support: Good."
"HootSuite is an easy way to get social media posts out, as you're able to upload and schedule posts in the future, which saves time and allows for the continuity of having the same post across various platforms."
"The best features HootSuite offers in my experience are the pipeline and the order status."
"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 feels like an all-in-one tool; I can publish content on Hootsuite and then answer comments, which is what I do for my customers."
"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."
"The main improvement HootSuite offers is allowing my organization to run social media campaigns."
"Sprout Social is a really good, reliable tool for increasing our online presence and handling patient queries, messages, and comments all in one place without navigating through different social media accounts."
"Sprout Social has saved us a lot of time, provided the convenience of a single login to multiple socials, and requires less time for training, making it very easy to use and start using it."
"In my experience, the best features Sprout Social offers are the ability to manage multiple campaigns."
"One of the biggest advantages of Sprout Social is its user-friendly dashboard and clear visual reports, which make it easy to interpret data and present insights to clients."
"Sprout Social is the best; it is very good, actually, because I have used Intercom and Zendesk, but when I look at the different software I have used as a customer service agent, I would go for Sprout Social as it is more complete and easy to navigate."
 

Cons

"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."
"Before choosing HootSuite, I evaluated the sales team, which is acceptable, but I need the legal team, the finance team, and integration about the pipeline, which is not very good."
"Last I checked, you can't schedule Twitter threads where each tweet is a reply to a previous tweet."
"Last I checked, you can't schedule Twitter threads where each tweet is a reply to a previous tweet."
"The company should reduce the pricing to make it easier for companies to deploy to larger social teams."
"The pricing would be great if it were free. It costs $99 per month, which is quite expensive."
"Bulk scheduling."
"I advise against using Hootsuite."
"As of now, I have been using Sprout Social for almost two years, but there are some glitches in the back-end; sometimes the posts are not integrated or do not come with the proper details, proper dates, or proper content."
"Sprout Social can be improved by lowering the pricing."
"If you do not already have existing solutions and you are using the platform to help schedule out marketing campaigns, it will not be that helpful."
"Sprout Social can be improved because the user experience of having hundreds of channels to navigate can be quite fiddly, especially when trying to bulk post."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"​I have only used the free versions.​"
Information not available
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
University
8%
Educational Organization
6%
Financial Services Firm
23%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Construction Company
9%
Outsourcing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business5
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise7
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business2
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise11
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with HootSuite?
I really wish HootSuite automatically saved drafts. It frequently disconnects from accounts, and I am unsure if this occurs when the internet connection is weak. I would like to see improvements in...
What is your primary use case for HootSuite?
Having a variety of social accounts and needing to post across them is the primary use case for HootSuite, and it works really well for this purpose. The analytics feature is incredibly useful to h...
What advice do you have for others considering HootSuite?
For others looking into using HootSuite, I advise that it is well suited for any size of organization that is looking to schedule posts. It can handle accounts for multiple social media platforms o...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Sprout Social?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing is that Sprout Social delivers good value for the price, making it very cost-effective.
What needs improvement with Sprout Social?
The scheduling feature became less handy for me due to the enhancement of the social media platforms themselves. One limitation I have experienced with the features is that I cannot make custom mes...
What is your primary use case for Sprout Social?
My main use case for Sprout Social is scheduling out the calendar, social media campaigns, and then I use it for tagging those campaigns and reporting those metrics to funders. I use the tagging an...
 

Comparisons

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Vega, TicketLeap, Radio Italia, The PureMatter Agency, Kiva, The Vancouver Canucks
Hyatt, Stanford University, Coldwell Banker, Razorfish, UPS, Box, Zipcar, PepsiCo, YogurtLand, Dove, TechSmith
Find out what your peers are saying about HootSuite vs. Sprout Social and other solutions. Updated: April 2026.
891,869 professionals have used our research since 2012.