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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
3rd
Ranking in Social Media Analytics Software
1st
Average Rating
8.0
Number of Reviews
14
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Sprout Social
Ranking in Social CRM
4th
Ranking in Social Media Management Solutions
4th
Ranking in Social Media Analytics Software
2nd
Average Rating
8.2
Number of Reviews
14
Ranking in other categories
AI Customer Experience Personalization (31st), AI Content Creation (15th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2026, in the Social CRM category, the mindshare of HootSuite is 10.1%, down from 12.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Sprout Social is 8.3%, down from 11.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Social CRM Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
HootSuite10.1%
Sprout Social8.3%
Other81.6%
Social CRM
 

Featured Reviews

Tom Wondra - PeerSpot reviewer
CEO at Leonard and Sons
Social campaigns have been scheduled efficiently and posting now saves a full staff position
The best features HootSuite offers are that it connects to the social platforms that I'm interested in and it's easy to use and to understand. HootSuite is easy to use for me because it's intuitive in the way that you need to set up posting campaigns and to load the particular posts so that they show up the way you'd like them to and in the timing that you'd like them to. HootSuite has positively impacted my organization by making it easy for us to post our socials without having to add staff.
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

"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."
"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."
"Customer Service: Great. Technical Support: Good."
"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 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."
"HootSuite has positively impacted my organization by making it easy for us to post our socials without having to add staff."
"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."
"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 very helpful for scheduling and posting content on time in social media."
"Sprout Social impacts my organization positively by allowing me to gauge the sentiment around different topics and helping me to stay on top of my social media growth and reporting."
"Sprout Social has positively impacted my organization by providing me with reporting capabilities and allowing me to assess how my posts are performing."
"Sprout Social has positively impacted the organizations that I have worked with by helping us to be more efficient and it was much easier to use rather than manually going into these social channels."
"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."
"In my experience, the best features Sprout Social offers are the ability to manage multiple campaigns."
"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

"The pricing would be great if it were free. It costs $99 per month, which is quite expensive."
"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."
"Sometimes we received emails that due to some reasons, posts were not shared automatically. This was also one of the reasons why we left HootSuite."
"The company should reduce the pricing to make it easier for companies to deploy to larger social teams."
"I advise against using Hootsuite."
"Last I checked, you can't schedule Twitter threads where each tweet is a reply to a previous tweet."
"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."
"Sometimes the suggestions or the content suggestions that the OwlyWriter AI gives are not up to the mark that we want."
"Maybe trying to figure out the reason why sometimes the engagement could be less when posted through Sprout Social rather than manually."
"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."
"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."
"Sometimes, when it comes to user experience, it's really hard to tag businesses in the copy because the way they appear in the dropdown is really slow, and it doesn't always find them, even when I use the at symbol to tag them."
"There is a limitation for us with Sprout Social in publishing boosted content within LinkedIn, and we would appreciate that to be improved."
"I know Sprout Social is expensive; it is on the higher side."
"AI tool reliability and accuracy is a significant concern."
"Realistically, I find the pricing quite high."
 

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
14%
Media Company
11%
University
9%
Outsourcing Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
19%
Government
10%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Construction Company
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business8
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise8
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business5
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise17
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with HootSuite?
HootSuite can connect better with more social media platforms, maybe additional email platforms as well. As companies such as Instagram and LinkedIn are offering scheduling also in their platform, ...
What is your primary use case for HootSuite?
We have been using HootSuite to manage our clients' social media channels, ranging from Instagram to X to TikTok to LinkedIn and other social media channels. We have been scheduling posts for these...
What advice do you have for others considering HootSuite?
The features that I suggested are the ones that would be better to see in terms of scheduling and the price. I gave a high rating because it was very easy to understand the UX and navigate around. ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Sprout Social?
Our client is the one managing the pricing, setup cost, and licensing.
What needs improvement with Sprout Social?
Sprout Social could improve by keeping up with social media trends and enhancing their analytics capabilities. As we also use several different analytics tools as marketers, it would be beneficial ...
What is your primary use case for Sprout Social?
My main use case for Sprout Social is social media management for a client.
 

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: June 2026.
902,495 professionals have used our research since 2012.