With over 18 million users, Hootsuite has become one of the most popular social media management platforms.
However, while Hootsuite offers a wide range of useful features for scheduling posts, analyzing social data, and managing multiple social profiles, it does come with limitations.
Hootsuite’s free plan feels restricted and the paid plans can be expensive for solopreneurs, small businesses, and individuals managing their personal brand.
Thankfully, several capable Hootsuite alternatives offer more features for free or at a lower cost.
In this article, we’ll look at some of the top alternatives to Hootsuite across different categories and use cases — whether for scheduling, social analytics, team collaboration, or connecting multiple social media dashboards.
We’ll compare the features and pricing to help you determine if switching from Hootsuite could be beneficial for your needs.
Why Consider a Hootsuite Alternative
There are compelling reasons why you may want to consider alternative options. Here are a few Hootsuite limitations.
💰Cost
Hootsuite’s pricing plans can be quite expensive, especially for small businesses and solopreneurs
The free plan is limited, and the paid plans start at $129 per month up to $599 per month for the most advanced plan. Many lower-cost alternatives offer similar or even more robust features at a fraction of the cost.
Hootsuite ended its free plan option in 2021. Existing users have expressed frustration with steep price hikes for social media management capabilities that previously cost less:
“I am unhappy with doubling the price starting next month. I understand pricing can go up, but double? That’s ridiculous.” (Melissa R.)
📝 Feature limitations
Hootsuite lacks some features competitors offer, such as no AI assistant for writing social media posts, fewer options for building automated workflows, and fewer integrations with other popular marketing & sales tools.
🖥 Ease of use
While Hootsuite offers a slick user interface, some users report a steep learning curve that might not suit beginners.
Users might also face some technical complexities and glitches that disrupt scheduled social media posts, introducing workflow headaches for social media managers like Rachel R.:
“…it always glitches and messes up your live posts, doesn’t show companies or people to tag even when I am copying and pasting the exact names and can see they have a profile, and you are limited in how you can ‘schedule.’”
You’ll want a solution that’s simple with intuitive tools and without advanced complexities.
☎️ Customer support
Some users report frustrating experiences with long wait times and unhelpful agents. Responsive, caring support should be a priority.
Users like Aimee F. detail frustratingly long wait times to receive responses from Hootsuite’s customer service channels:
“Takes weeks to hear from anyone, including their chatbot. No issue is taken seriously. It has been months of an unusable platform, ignored via email and chat, without any resolution in sight.”
This leaves teams stranded when issues arise.
Nearly every social media management platform matches Hootsuite’s core features like content scheduling, inbox monitoring, and reporting. But for teams seeking additional capabilities, strong Hootsuite alternatives are worth evaluating.
Top alternative platforms can provide advantages like:
- Competitive and transparent pricing
- Platform stability and reliability
- Stronger optimization for content targeting
- Analytics dashboard customization
- Wider platform and app integrations
- Superior customer support access
Top 5 Hootsuite Alternatives in 2024
⏳Short on time? Here are the top five alternatives to Hootsuite at a glance. Pricing plans vary depending on the number of social media profiles, team users, and platform functionality.
| Social Media Tool | Best For | Key Features | Monthly Pricing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nextiva | Small teams | Unified inbox, alerts, routing, chatbot | Essentials: $59/user Professional: $99/user |
| Agorapulse | Paid media, content moderation | Publishing, inbox, reporting, listening | Free (limited) Standard: $49/user Advanced: $119/user |
| Social Pilot | SMBs, agencies, multi-location | Scheduling, collaboration, white-labeling | Pro: $30/month (1 user) Agency: $100/month (6 users) |
| Sprout Social | Large organizations, brand monitoring | Management, scheduling, analytics, advocacy | Standard: $249/month (1 user) +$199/additional user Professional: $399/month (1 user) +$299/additional user |
| Buffer | Small teams, Twitter focus | AI publishing, analytics, drafts | Free (3 channels) Essentials: $6/month (1 channel) Team: $12/month (1 channel, unlimited team members) |
1. Nextiva
Nextiva is an all-in-one cloud communications and collaboration platform best suited for small to medium-sized businesses.
At a fraction of Hootsuite’s cost, Nextiva provides a robust social media management tool to oversee multiple social media networks from one place.
A huge benefit of Nextiva is its collaboration functionality. The platform can seamlessly operate alongside reputation management and customer support tools to keep your entire team aligned.
Nextiva also integrates with popular CRMs like Salesforce and Dynamics 365.
Key features
- Social media scheduling tool to publish posts across social media channels
- Social inbox for managing messages, comments, tags, and mentions from social networks
- Reporting & social media analytics to aid decision-making
- Seamless connection to other marketing and customer success tools
Why it’s better than Hootsuite
- Bulk messaging to reply to multiple posts at once
- Escalate notifications based on set parameters, making it easy to collaborate with customer success teams
- SLA management keeps your customer support team on track
- Collects customer feedback with social media surveys
Pricing
Nextiva’s pricing model is simple. The Social Essentials plan is $59/month per user, and the full-featured Social Professional plan is $99/month.
The professional plan has additional features like support SLAs, chatbot tools for inbox management, intelligent inbox routing, and robust social media analytics capabilities.
Who is Nextiva best for?
Nextiva is ideal for small businesses that want an affordable but full-featured social media management platform with tight integration between marketing, sales, and support teams. The collaboration features streamline communication and workflows.
Nextiva is renowned for its virtual phone service, which over 100,000 companies use today.
2. Agorapulse
Agorapulse covers all the basics of social media management exceptionally well: reliable scheduling, inbox monitoring, reporting, and team collaboration.
While it may lack some advanced AI and automation tools, Agorapulse offers a strong suite of fundamentals.
Agropulse is known for its intuitive user interface and excels at supporting larger teams with complex approval workflows. The platform scales easily as your social media efforts grow.
Key features
- Social listening tools to monitor brand mentions and track competitors
- Robust social media calendar to schedule content across multiple networks
- Unified inbox for managing incoming messages, comments, tags, and mentions
- In-depth reporting and analytics to demonstrate campaign ROI
Pricing
Agorapulse’s pricing starts at $99 per user, per month. Its Premium plan with additional features like campaign templates, social listening, and custom reporting starts at $199 per user, per month.
Who is Agorapulse best for?
Agorapulse is ideal for mid-size to larger businesses that want a user-friendly platform to manage high-volume social media accounts with cross-team collaboration. The workflow automation helps streamline approvals.
3. SocialPilot
SocialPilot is an affordable yet powerful social media management platform ideal for SMBs, agencies, franchises, and multi-location businesses managing numerous social media profiles.
Its white-label solutions and custom branding options allow agencies to offer a personalized experience for each client. SocialPilot makes it easy to collaborate while tailoring content across different brands, locations, and audiences.
Key features
- Visual social media calendar to schedule posts across multiple platforms
- Collaboration tools to streamline post design and get content approvals
- In-depth analytics and reporting
- White-labeling options for agencies to customize branding
Why it’s better than Hootsuite
- Easily customize each post for individual channels
- Schedule Instagram posts including carousels
- Integrates with Canva for intuitive graphic design
- Queue Instagram comments before publishing
Pricing
SocialPilot’s Pro plan starts at just $9/month. Their popular Agency suite is $49/month supporting up to 5 users and 100 connected accounts. All plans have a free 14-day trial.
The affordable pricing, flexibility, and customization make SocialPilot a leading social media software, especially for agencies and franchise/multi-location businesses.
Who is SocialPilot best for?
SocialPilot shines for organizations juggling many social media accounts, creators, workflows, and approval processes. The flexible plans fit solopreneurs up to large agencies alike.
4. Sprout Social
Sprout Social is another powerful social media management platform for brands and agencies seeking robust publishing, scheduling, reporting, and collaboration functionality.
While not the most affordable alternative to Hootsuite, Sprout Social offers excellent value by packing many premium features into each pricing tier.
Key features
- Visually plan, collaborate, and publish content across social networks
- Tight integration with design tools like Canva for intuitive graphics creation
- Comprehensive analytics and reporting to demonstrate campaign ROI
Why it’s better than Hootsuite
- Deep platform integrations allow extensive customization for individual channels
- Schedule carousel and multi-image Instagram posts
- Real-time alerts notify you of engagement spikes
- Uses AI to optimize posting times for maximum visibility
Pricing
Sprout Social’s Essential plan starts at $99/mo supporting 5 profiles. Its Professional suite is $249/mo for up to 10 profiles plus deep analytics. All plans have free 30-day trials. Custom quotes are available.
With robust features and analytics packed into each tier, Sprout Social offers excellent value, especially for digital agencies and mid-market social media managers.
Who is Sprout Social best for?
With advanced functionality plus intuitive workflows, Sprout Social excels for mid-market companies and digital agencies that manage multiple social media profiles with larger creative teams.
5. Buffer
Buffer is a social media management platform built to simplify social media for solopreneurs, influencers, and small teams who need an intuitive, affordable toolkit.
While Buffer lacks some advanced functionality of other tools, it excels at social publishing, engagement, analytics, and team workflow fundamentals. The intuitive interface and flexible plans make Buffer extremely accessible.
Key features
- Cross-channel social media scheduling
- Analytics reporting to optimize campaigns
- Social inbox for managing mentions and messages
- AI Assistant for writing & ideation
Why it’s better than Hootsuite
- Highly intuitive interface to manage workflows
- Drag-and-drop Landing Page builder included
- Generous free plan available
- AI Assistant saves time creating content
Pricing
Buffer’s basic plan is free for up to 3 connected profiles. The Pro plan is just $15/mo and lets you manage 8 profiles and 10 team members. All tiers come with a 14-day free trial.
Who is Buffer best for?
With its simple but complete feature set and very affordable pricing, Buffer does the best job at serving solo entrepreneurs, microbusinesses, and content creators getting started with social media management.
6. Sendible
Sendible is an intuitive social media management platform built to simplify multi-channel scheduling, reporting, and client collaboration for small businesses and agencies.
While Sendible may lack some sophisticated features of competitor tools, it excels at social media fundamentals through an easy-to-navigate interface paired with excellent customer support.
Key features
- Multi-channel social media scheduling
- Unified inbox for message management
- Audience analytics reporting
- Client collaboration tools
Why it’s better than Hootsuite
- Schedule Instagram Stories and TikTok videos
- Client-specific reporting dashboards
- Unique ideation tools like RSS feed integrations
- Top-rated customer support team
Pricing
Sendible’s Essential plan starts at $29/mo for 1 user and 10 connected profiles. Their Agency tier at $99/mo supports 5 team members and 50 social accounts. All plans offer a free 14-day trial period.
Who is Sendible best for?
Sendible stands out as an ideal social media software for microbusinesses, boutiques, and freelance consultants who want simplicity without sacrificing core features.
7. SocialOomph
SocialOomph is a long-standing social media scheduler built for bloggers and solopreneurs who want to manage both website content and social media from one place.
While SocialOomph has limited platform support compared to other tools, they excel at core scheduling features paired with excellent customer service. The blog integration fills a unique niche.
Key features
- Unified social media and blog scheduling
- AI-powered post ideas and writing assistant
- Zapier and API integrations
- Top-tier customer support
Why it’s better than Hootsuite
- Seamlessly schedule WordPress and Ghost blog posts
- Optional post “self-destruct” feature
- Create custom connections through API and Zaps
- Small business-focused customer service
Pricing
SocialOomph has a free plan for one connected account. The Pro suite is $25/mo supporting up to 10 profiles and 5 blogs. All paid plans include a 30-day free trial period.
Who is SocialOomph best for?
SocialOomph stands out for bloggers, solopreneurs, and microbusiness owners who want a streamlined way to organize both blogging and social media efforts in one dashboard.
8. Planable
Planable is a social media management platform built specifically to simplify and streamline content ideation, design collaboration, and approval workflows for teams.
While Planable does not cover every aspect of social media management, it provides an intuitive hub for creative teams to seamlessly plan and manage content across multiple channels and stakeholders.
Key features
- Visual content calendar across social and beyond
- Built-in team collaboration functionality
- Flexible feeds to house all creative assets
- Approval workflows to streamline review
Why it’s better than Hootsuite
- Pixel-perfect post previews eliminate errors
- Consolidates emails, social posts, and more in one feed
- Choose calendar, kanban, list, or feed views
- Dashboard customization
Pricing
Planable offers a free plan for up to 50 scheduled posts. Their Pro suite is $29/mo per user including unlimited posting, branding, and priority support. Volume discounts are available.
Who is Planable best for?
With its emphasis on smooth content design/approval workflows, Planable shines for mid-size to larger businesses and digital agencies that juggle numerous stakeholders in the creative process.
9. CoSchedule
CoSchedule is an all-in-one marketing work management platform built to wrangle workflows, projects, approvals, and assets across an organization’s entire marketing team.
While not solely focused on social media scheduling, CoSchedule provides robust calendar management alongside deep marketing collaboration tools — making it easy to consolidate workflows enterprise-wide.
Key features
- Unified marketing calendar for campaigns, events, and content planning
- Tools like Headline Studio to ideate and craft high-performing copy
- Education via CoSchedule Academy marketing courses
- Team messaging, task management, and project collaboration
Why it’s better than Hootsuite
- An all-in-one solution goes beyond just social media
- Deep integrations with the full CoSchedule stack
- Robust training & courses on marketing best practices
- End-to-end workflow automation
Pricing
CoSchedule offers a free plan including basic calendar features. The Pro Suite is available for $29/month per user which unlocks team collaboration, custom views, priority support, and more.
For larger marketing teams, CoSchedule provides the ability to truly orchestrate complex workflows across departments — making it easy to scale marketing efforts.
Who is CoSchedule best for?
CoSchedule excels for larger organizations and agencies seeking an intuitive “command center” to manage marketing workflows, projects, teams, and content under one roof.
10. MeetEdgar
MeetEdgar is a unique social media scheduler focused on automation tools to efficiently recycle evergreen content across social channels.
Rather than taking a manual approach to content creation and engagement, MeetEdgar shines by providing robust functionality to build a library of reusable content that can be automatically optimized and re-shared.
Key features
- Central evergreen content library for reuse
- Auto-queuing and scheduling based on AI
- A/B testing for posts
- Built entirely around automation
Why it’s better than Hootsuite
- Tools to effortlessly repurpose existing content
- Less time spent manually planning content calendars
- Lighter-weight platform than competitors
- Learns from your audience over time
Pricing
MeetEdgar starts at $29/mo and supports up to 5 social profiles. The Pro suite is $79/mo for 25 accounts plus more automation power. All plans have a free 7-day trial.
For small teams that want to work smarter, not harder, MeetEdgar provides automation to simplify social media engagement.
Who is MeetEdgar best for?
With its focus on content recycling and automation, MeetEdgar stands out for solopreneurs, microbrands, and boutique agencies seeking to streamline social publishing and lighten the content creation workload.
11. SocialFlow
SocialFlow is an enterprise-grade social media publishing platform built specifically for major media publishers and large-scale brands.
While SocialFlow does not offer tools beyond publishing and analytics, it excels at providing robust AI optimization, security features, and customization for organizations with vast audiences and content libraries.
Key features
- AI-optimized publishing at mass scale
- Advanced security like MFA and SSO
- Deep platform and API customization
- Specialization for major publishers’ needs
Why it’s better than Hootsuite
- Metrics focused on critical publishing KPIs
- Enterprise-grade security and permissions
- Leverages advanced AI for optimization
- Solutions built for publishing at scale
Pricing
SocialFlow pricing is not publicly listed. Quotes are available upon request.
Who is SocialFlow best for?
With advanced functionality catered toward major publishers, SocialFlow stands out for large media outlets, major enterprises, and complex organizations with security concerns managing huge volumes of content and audiences.
12. Crowdfire
Crowdfire focuses on simplifying content creation through intelligent recommendations, curation tools, and competitor benchmarking.
While Crowdfire has limited functionality beyond content workflows, they provide robust AI-powered suggestions to streamline ideation and curation for multiple platforms.
Key features
- AI-powered content recommendations
- Multi-channel publishing and scheduling
- RSS feed and link curation tools
- Competitor analysis
Why it’s better than Hootsuite
- Guided suggestions for articles and images
- See how you compare against competitors
- Content aggregation from RSS feeds
- Schedule posts across 5 platforms
Pricing
Crowdfire offers a free plan for 3 connected profiles and 10 scheduled posts. The paid Pro plan starts at $12/mo with additional curation sources. Volume discounts are available.
Who is Crowdfire best for?
With its emphasis on content creation, Crowdfire shines for solopreneurs, microbrands, and boutique agencies that want to simplify and enhance ideation and curation.
13. eClincher
eClincher is a feature-rich social media management platform tailored to agencies and enterprise brands managing complex workflows across multiple brands, locations, and stakeholders.
While not as intuitive as some competitors, eClincher provides extensive functionality like multi-channel publishing, reputation management, workflow automation, and integrations with AI content tools.
Key features
- Reputation monitoring and brand listening
- Multi-channel content scheduling
- Unified inbox management
- Content automation tools
Why it’s better than Hootsuite
- Auto-queueing for rapid content scheduling
- Easy content archiving and reuse
- Sentiment analysis of audience moods
- Support for large, complex teams
Pricing
eClincher starts at $65/month for 1 user and 10 profiles. Its Agency Suite is $175/mo with more collaboration tools, reporting, and priority support.
Who is eClincher best for?
eClincher stands out most for large agencies, enterprise brands, and franchises that need to streamline social media workflows across many stakeholders while maintaining brand governance.
14. MavSocial
MavSocial is a specialized social media platform built to empower large franchises, dealerships, agencies, and retail brands to streamline localized social media campaigns across all locations.
With extensive functionality around managing ad campaigns and digital assets tailored for multi-location entities, MavSocial solves unique challenges brands face by collaborating with local branch teams.
Key features
- Tools to coordinate regional collaboration
- Localized campaign reporting
- Paid ad campaign management
- Asset management and workflow automation
Why it’s better than Hootsuite
- End-to-end ad campaign creation and tracking
- Bulk ad creation for different locations
- Unified view of regional performance
- Asset management and approval workflows
Pricing
MavSocial starts at $78/month for 3 users and 30 profiles. Enterprise options are also available.
Who is MavSocial best for?
MavSocial is an ideal social media management platform for large retail brands, auto dealership groups, franchises, agencies managing regional clients, and other multi-location entities that need to collaborate on social media campaigns across numerous local outlets while maintaining brand governance.
15. ContentStudio.io
ContentStudio is a user-friendly social media management platform built to simplify planning, collaborating, creating, approving, scheduling, and analyzing content.
While the tool may lack some sophisticated enterprise features, ContentStudio makes it easy for small teams to streamline multi-channel content workflows.
Key features
- Plan, create, and schedule posts across channels
- Built-in content approval process for large organizations
- Customizable social media tracking and performance reports
- Content aggregation features and AI to help create post ideas
Why it’s better than Hootsuite
- Very user-friendly dashboard
- Affordable pricing tiers fit small teams
- AI tools for writing assistance
- Attractive UI design
Pricing
ContentStudio’s starter plan is $25/month, including one workspace and five social accounts. The pro plan, at $49/month, includes team functionality and publishing to blog sites. All plans come with a 14-day free trial.
Who is ContentStudio best for?
ContentStudio provides an affordable, intuitive solution perfect for solopreneurs, influencers, entrepreneurs, and small teams needing an integrated platform to manage content workflows across social media and websites.
Final Verdict: Best Alternative To Hootsuite
Finding the best social media management tool doesn’t have to be so hard. You can make a more informed choice with our list of worthy Hootsuite competitors.
All solutions considered, Nextiva offers small businesses the best balance of social media monitoring and publishing features. Its pricing is also attractive to most small businesses.
Most social media management tools will include scheduling, reporting, and inbox management. Along with all of these features, Nextiva includes:
- Tools for customer support teams. Beyond inbox management, Nextiva enables support SLAs, triages social media posts to external support, and integrates with existing CRM and marketing tools.
- Surveys to amplify customer voices. Nextiva offers unique surveys and analytics to identify customer sentiments and trends across social media channels.
- Detailed dashboard analytics. Track your social media presence, competitor sentiment, team collaboration, and other insights across comprehensive dashboards.
At a fraction of the cost of Hootsuite, Nextiva provides a total solution that supports social media marketing and customer support teams alike.
Features To Look for in a Hootsuite Competitor
Here are some features to look for in a Hootsuite alternative.
Social Media Scheduling
- Multiple platform support: Ensure the software supports scheduling posts on various social platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, and more.
- Time-saving features: Look for options like bulk scheduling content, content calendar, and auto-scheduling to make the scheduling process more efficient.
- Visual content preview: Preview how your content will appear on different social media platforms before publishing.
- Evergreen content management: Consider options that allow you to easily recycle past posts.
Team Collaboration
- Role-based access: Assign specific roles and permissions to team members for better control over the content creation process and approval workflows.
- Task and workflow management: Track and manage tasks, deadlines, and team communication within the software for a smoother collaboration process.
- Content approval system: Establish a content review and approval system within the software to maintain the quality and consistency of your social media posts.
Analytics Capabilities
- Comprehensive reports: In-depth analytics and reporting features to provide insights into your social media performance and audience engagement.
- Customizable dashboards: Personalize your social media analytics dashboard to focus on the metrics that fit your business plan.
- Data export & integration: Export data in various formats and integrate with other tools for further analysis and insights.
Pricing Plans
- The number of social media accounts: Consider the number of social media accounts/channels each price plan supports. Similarly, think about the number of accounts you actually need.
- Pricing per user: The cost per user could be a limiting factor since people tend to use social media tools differently. Consider extra users such as business owners, marketing leaders, clients, and social media content creators.
- Support and onboarding: Migrating your existing content and brand standards (templates, locations, permissions, replies, dictionaries, etc.) could be complex. Get clear on what kind of support and onboarding process looks like. Some platforms offer comprehensive 24/7 support, while others are limited to a help center or chatbot.
How To Choose The Best Hootsuite Alternative
- Narrow your picks: Take the time to research and compare social media management platforms. Read reviews, consider recommendations, and conduct a thorough analysis of each tool’s features and pricing plans.
- Schedule a live demo or start a trial: Most platforms offer free trials or live demos. Before committing to paid plans, take advantage of these opportunities to test the software, ask questions, and see if it meets your needs and expectations.
- Check integrations: Ensure that the alternative you choose integrates with your business’s social media platforms. Additionally, consider how well the software integrates with other business tools and systems you’re currently using.
- Confirm customer support: Consider the level of customer support the social media tool provides. Quality support can make a world of difference in your overall experience with the tool.
FAQs
While every business has unique needs, Nextiva is the best social media management tool that replaces Hootsuite for small businesses. In addition to basic scheduling and inbox management tools, Nextiva includes functionality for customer support teams, such as SLA support, reputation management, and more.
When vetting social media tools, consider their scheduling features, collaboration tools, content curation, and any additional features important to your business. Additionally, you want to take advantage of workflow automation so social media posts don’t fall through the cracks. Lastly, an important factor is how its pricing plan is billed (monthly or annually).
Yes, there are several affordable alternatives to Hootsuite with flexible pricing plans. Check out these top five Hootsuite competitors: Nextiva, Agorapulse, SocialPilot, Sprout Social, and Buffer. When evaluating them, consider your social media publishing needs and how social media fits with your business plan, such as customer retention, demand generation, and brand management.
