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HootSuite vs Salesforce Marketing Cloud comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 12, 2025

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
4th
Ranking in Social Media Management Solutions
3rd
Average Rating
8.8
Number of Reviews
5
Ranking in other categories
Social Media Analytics Software (2nd)
Salesforce Marketing Cloud
Ranking in Social CRM
2nd
Ranking in Social Media Management Solutions
2nd
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
55
Ranking in other categories
Marketing Automation (1st), Marketing Management (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2025, in the Social CRM category, the mindshare of HootSuite is 9.2%, down from 10.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Salesforce Marketing Cloud is 13.0%, up from 11.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Social CRM
 

Featured Reviews

Kapil Rampal - PeerSpot reviewer
Good customization and social media management with helpful AI capabilities
It has made access control very easy. We don't need to share the actual account credentials with any employee. They can work through HootSuite. We can also manage all our social media in one interface with personalization. It has improved efficiency and security and has delivered significant cost savings. In the enterprise edition, there is also an option to manage user access, and you can limit or grant access, depending on the business needs. For example, marketing can be given access to analytics, customer support to messages, and social teams to the postings. Also, you can have levels for approvals.
SantoshKrishna - PeerSpot reviewer
Easy to deploy, stable, and scalable
The encryption and decryption have room for improvement. We need to be confident that the customer's data is secure when shared outside of the organization. I would like to request additional mobile app features that go beyond push notifications. As the mobile development industry continues to advance with new technologies, such as AI components, it is important to consider these advancements when setting up campaigns. Currently, campaigns are scheduled to be sent to customers at a prescribed time, but they may not be relevant to the customer unless they see them as valuable. For example, if I want to run a campaign offering loans, I would need to consider the customer's needs and balance. In the future, I hope Salesforce can incorporate an AI component that utilizes the shared data, rather than just scheduling campaigns.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"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."
"It has a social media presence outside of the hours people are able to devote to an organization."
"The main improvement HootSuite offers is allowing my organization to run social media campaigns."
"It is easy to use."
"Salesforce allows for the integration of different data sources."
"The most valuable of Salesforce Marketing Cloud is seeing the customer's journey."
"The most valuable part of the solution are the selling features."
"Marketing Cloud has improved our productivity and our team enjoy using it."
"The most valuable feature is the ability to get quotes out in a timely manner."
"The most valuable feature of Salesforce Marketing Cloud is the seamless conversion of lead to opportunity, in relation to orders is good. That seamless connection is beneficial and simple."
"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."
 

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."
"The majority of my clients are happy, but when it comes to the CDP of Salesforce, the client gets confused. They have no clue that Salesforce has a CDP platform too. If my clients want to go ahead with the same vendor, Salesforce, they get confused about the different marketing suites which are available. There is no clear marketing done for the suites available for the clients, this is where the client is facing the real challenges."
"I found that the tool is more complex than expected. It requires a deeper understanding to utilize its capabilities thoroughly."
"There is a lot of room for improvement in Salesforce Marketing Cloud's dashboards and the visualization of information in each journey."
"Managing large volumes of data takes too long."
"It should contain artificial intelligence, in my opinion."
"Salesforce Marketing Cloud is expensive. The email functionality should be more modern and user-friendly."
"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."
"The processing speed, the way information displays, and scrolling options can be improved."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"​I have only used the free versions.​"
"Salesforce Marketing Cloud is affordable, considering the significant improvements it brings to our campaign results."
"The solution is a bit expensive."
"We have two types of licensing. We have a yearly license for end users and we have a concurrent login for selling."
"Salesforce Marketing Cloud is a highly expensive solution, it needs to be less expensive. We are on an annual license to use the solution."
"The price is expensive."
"Salesforce is an expensive solution."
"We did a yearly license. We negotiated and got a great deal. I don't think we would have gotten far with the regular price, but they negotiated, so it was worth that."
"This is a low cost solution suited to larger organizations."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
19%
Computer Software Company
16%
Manufacturing Company
14%
Educational Organization
9%
Educational Organization
59%
Computer Software Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
5%
Manufacturing Company
4%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about HootSuite?
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.
What needs improvement with HootSuite?
The key features of the product are available just in the enterprise versions. In the normal paid versions, competitive benchmarking is limited to two competitors. Team and Productivity ratings als...
What is your primary use case for HootSuite?
We use HootSuite to manage our social media, including regular posts, advertising campaigns, and responding to messages. The product allows the users to add all the social accounts on a company on ...
What do you like most about Salesforce Marketing Cloud?
Datorama is part of Salesforce Marketing Cloud, which is quite a valuable feature that provides customer analytics.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Salesforce Marketing Cloud?
The solution's pricing is very high and should be more flexible for smaller companies.
What needs improvement with Salesforce Marketing Cloud?
I would like to see more ways to accomplish specific tasks. Instead of having one set method, there should be multiple options available. Additionally, sometimes the integration between Salesforce ...
 

Also Known As

No data available
ExactTarget
 

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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: January 2025.
831,265 professionals have used our research since 2012.