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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 February 2025, in the Social CRM category, the mindshare of HootSuite is 9.1%, down from 10.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Salesforce Marketing Cloud is 12.7%, up from 10.8% 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

"The main improvement HootSuite offers is allowing my organization to run social media campaigns."
"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 automation is great. It saves us a lot of time and it makes us move faster."
"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."
"Its ability to integrate data and provide a comprehensive view of customer engagement sets it apart."
"The tool is flexible and helps us with insights and reports. Salesforce Marketing Cloud has improved our organizational functions by creating an environment where clients and internal staff can access information about various solutions. For instance, clients can apply for different projects, and internal staff can approve them based on donor requirements. This simplifies communication between clients, donors, and our company,"
"It is straightforward to set up."
"Marketing Cloud offers a 360 customers experience as it integrates with Service Cloud and Sales Cloud, the CRM portion of Salesforce. The different platforms integrate easily which makes it easy to manage customer communication using a single point of truth."
"Email automation is most valuable."
"Salesforce Marketing Cloud's integrations are seamless since it is a native application. It helps us with B2B and B2C send-outs and can handle large columns."
 

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."
"Salesforce Marketing Cloud should provide some debugging facilities for every user."
"The technicality of the solution can be streamlined."
"We would like an improvement to the 'Einstein Engagement Frequency'; the optimal range of emails that our subscribers will engage with."
"The product could use a little bit of BI in the sense of rule-based building."
"Salesforce Marketing Cloud should include more point-and-click functionality."
"Marketing Cloud's forecasting could be improved."
"In a future release, adding end-user personalization would be a benefit."
"The data extension tools are not very user-friendly."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"​I have only used the free versions.​"
"The solution's pricing is very high and should be more flexible for smaller companies."
"The solution is paid for monthly."
"This solution is priced in the medium to high price range."
"Salesforce has different versions of the solution and some are more suitable for smaller clients. However, Salesforce is expensive."
"Salesforce is an expensive solution."
"The licensing cost for the solution is on a yearly basis."
"On a scale where one is the lowest and ten is the most expensive, I rate the solution an eight out of ten."
"The price is expensive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
19%
Computer Software Company
16%
Manufacturing Company
13%
Educational Organization
9%
Educational Organization
60%
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 needs improvement with Salesforce Marketing Cloud?
In the SMS area, it is not up to the mark, compared to what has been developed for email.
 

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: February 2025.
837,501 professionals have used our research since 2012.