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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
2nd
Average Rating
8.0
Number of Reviews
19
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Sprout Social
Ranking in Social CRM
3rd
Ranking in Social Media Management Solutions
4th
Ranking in Social Media Analytics Software
1st
Average Rating
8.2
Number of Reviews
17
Ranking in other categories
AI Customer Experience Personalization (10th), AI Content Creation (2nd)
 

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 Sprout Social is 8.3%, down from 9.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Social CRM Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
HootSuite10.3%
Sprout Social8.3%
Other81.4%
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.
Mirella Karpiesiuk - PeerSpot reviewer
Social Engagement Manager at a healthcare company with 10,001+ employees
Centralized social channels have transformed daily engagement and reporting workflows
Regarding how Sprout Social can be improved, these are very minor areas. Sometimes we have this metric called action rate, which reflects how fast a message has been touched in Sprout Social, whether that is the message being tagged, responded to, or closed out. Apparently, we cannot get a 100% action rate because some responses come in that are auto-replied to, and that action rate misses that. I think this is one thing that can be improved: figuring out how to count those auto-responded messages. This is a niche area. Outside of that, I do not have much advice for improvements in Sprout Social; I truly think it is a hub of value and provides a lot for us. The user interface is great; it is super friendly. For someone who has never touched it before, I knew where everything was and maneuvered through it within a week of using it. The integrations are seamless with all of our social media accounts: Reddit, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and all of that. We can also export data and PDF files, which helps us with other projects. I see very minimal improvements needed on my end; I think it is a very valuable program that we use.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The best features HootSuite offers in my experience are the pipeline and the order status."
"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."
"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."
"One of the best things about HootSuite is their clear UX design that is easy to navigate around the platform, and also to see the social media calendar of the clients, so we can see on which channel which post is going when and how the posts look."
"Customer Service: Great. Technical Support: Good."
"It has a social media presence outside of the hours people are able to devote to an organization."
"HootSuite has positively impacted my organization by reducing the man-hours needed for maintenance, our load to do a campaign has become shorter, so all our tasks resolve faster and can be done more efficiently."
"With the centralized place for us to manage all our customer conversations and all of our social media engagement, HootSuite has helped us save a lot of time."
"Sprout Social has positively impacted my organization by allowing us to streamline the scheduling of content, get ahead of everything so we can focus on the present, and pivot when necessary based on what is happening or not happening."
"The only outcome I have seen in my workflow because of Sprout Social is the time, as the same thing if I do manually will cost me around maybe one day or two days, and using Sprout Social this time has shortened to maybe one hour or one and a half hour maximum."
"Sprout Social has centralized all of our social media communications, saved us a lot of time, and allowed the team to be more organized and on top of what is going on in social."
"My main use case for Sprout Social is enterprise-level social media management and analytics, and I use it for all my social media operations, from publishing, customer care, and social listening through one channel."
"I have definitely seen a return on investment with Sprout Social, as it has led to time savings, improved efficiency, and financial returns since not everything had to be manually posted."
"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."
"Sprout Social has positively impacted our organization by aligning with our team goals and being very efficient at scheduling, publishing, and pulling analytics."
"We would not be able to do it without Sprout Social, and it is very easy to use; the user interface is very friendly and intuitive."
 

Cons

"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."
"HootSuite has a solid platform for social media publishing and monitoring, but I think it could be improved with more advanced analytics, deeper AI-powered insights and summaries, or more customizable reporting."
"HootSuite can be improved regarding their summarized AI brand sentiment."
"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."
"Bulk scheduling."
"Sometimes the suggestions or the content suggestions that the OwlyWriter AI gives are not up to the mark that we want."
"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."
"Realistically, I find the pricing quite high."
"It is not perfect. Sometimes its information or its syncing to platforms is clunky, so you end up having slightly wrong information or data."
"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 could be improved by being able to schedule out Stories, which is a current limitation."
"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."
"There is a limitation for us with Sprout Social in publishing boosted content within LinkedIn, and we would appreciate that to be improved."
"Currently, in the pilots that I have done, I have not found it to be very highly accurate, so there is a felt need to get improvements in those areas."
"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
20%
Outsourcing Company
10%
University
9%
Media Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
17%
Manufacturing Company
10%
University
10%
Comms Service Provider
10%
 

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 Business8
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise18
 

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 Sprout Social?
We do not mind the setup cost because the organization provides whatever we are asking for, and we are just working on it. We do not know much about pricing and setup costs as we have a separate te...
What needs improvement with Sprout Social?
For me, I am open to suggestions, but currently, I do not think that it needs improvement or anything that needs to be changed or anything that needs to be added. For me, it is perfect at the moment.
What is your primary use case for Sprout Social?
The main use for Sprout Social in my field is that I sum up all the brands of the agency in it, and I take the comments, take the messages, and reply to the community messages. This is the main and...
 

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: July 2026.
908,877 professionals have used our research since 2012.