Hootsuite vs SproutSocial: Which Is the Right Choice? (2025 review)

Social media managers face a critical choice when selecting between Hootsuite and Sprout Social – two leading platforms that help brands monitor conversations and engage with audiences across social networks. These robust tools offer distinct approaches to social listening, analytics, and team collaboration, though they differ significantly in their feature sets, pricing structures, and overall user experience. Understanding these key differences helps organizations make an informed decision based on their specific needs and resources.

This analysis draws from extensive platform documentation, pricing details, and verified user reviews to provide an objective comparison of Hootsuite and Sprout Social’s core capabilities. The insights shared come from publicly available data and real-world implementation experiences across various business sizes and industries.

As organizations invest more heavily in social listening and monitoring, choosing the right platform becomes increasingly crucial for achieving marketing objectives and maintaining efficient workflows. Whether prioritizing comprehensive analytics, streamlined team collaboration, or cost-effectiveness, this detailed comparison will help readers evaluate which solution best aligns with their unique requirements and constraints.

Pricing & Plans

When comparing social media management platforms, Hootsuite and Sprout Social offer distinct pricing structures and features. Hootsuite’s Professional plan starts at $99/month, while Sprout Social’s entry-level Standard plan begins at $199/seat/month. Both platforms provide monthly and annual billing options, with annual commitments offering cost savings.

Free Trials and Demos

Both platforms offer free trials – Hootsuite provides a 30-day trial of their Professional plan, though it excludes advanced social listening features. Sprout Social offers a 30-day trial of their Standard plan. Both companies provide comprehensive product demos for potential enterprise clients who want a guided tour of advanced features.

Plan Features and Limitations

Hootsuite’s Professional plan includes 10 social accounts and one user, while their Team plan ($249/month) accommodates 3 users and 20 social accounts. Sprout Social’s per-seat pricing model starts at $199/month for the Standard plan, with Professional ($299/seat/month) and Advanced ($399/seat/month) tiers available for scaling teams.

Add-ons and Extra Costs

Hootsuite offers several add-ons including advanced social listening, analytics, and inbox features. Their enterprise-level tools like employee advocacy and automated engagement require custom pricing. Sprout Social’s most significant add-on is their social listening feature, starting at $999/month, with additional social profiles costing $25 each.

Payment Options and Billing

Both platforms accept major credit cards (Visa, Mastercard, American Express) and PayPal. They also accommodate enterprise billing methods including wire transfers, ACH, and checks. Custom billing terms are available for enterprise clients.

Refund Policies

Both platforms maintain strict no-refund policies for prepaid subscriptions. Hootsuite may consider refund requests on a case-by-case basis, while Sprout Social explicitly states they don’t issue refunds or credits for unused portions of subscriptions.

For small to medium businesses seeking basic social media management, Hootsuite offers a more affordable entry point. However, larger teams requiring advanced features and multiple seats might find Sprout Social’s per-seat model more scalable, despite the higher initial investment.

Features

Dashboard Overview

Both platforms offer distinct dashboard layouts that reflect their monitoring approaches. Hootsuite’s interface emphasizes real-time monitoring with a clean, multi-column layout that allows users to track multiple social feeds simultaneously. SproutSocial takes a more analytics-focused approach, featuring comprehensive data visualizations and trend graphs in its dashboard design.

Alert Creation Capabilities

Hootsuite provides extensive Boolean operator options, including proximity-based, content-related, and demographic operators. Users can create sophisticated alerts using URL-based, social platform, and metric-related parameters. SproutSocial offers AI-assisted query building with pre-built templates for brand health and competitive analysis, though it takes 3-5 minutes to display initial mentions. The platform uniquely allows users to exclude specific content types like sales listings and cryptocurrency mentions.

Metrics and Filtering

Hootsuite tracks comprehensive engagement metrics, including potential reach, trending scores, and net sentiment across multiple parameters. SproutSocial provides detailed network-specific analytics, with robust filtering options including device demographics, location data, and smart categories. However, Instagram and YouTube comment tracking is limited in SproutSocial’s system.

Data Coverage

Hootsuite, powered by Talkwalker, accesses 150 million data sources across 30+ social networks. Historical data ranges from 28 days to 12 months, with support for more than 60 languages. SproutSocial offers varying historical data depths: complete Twitter history, two years of Facebook data, and limited access to older YouTube and Tumblr content. LinkedIn monitoring is restricted to owned pages, and Instagram Business historical data isn’t available.

Sentiment Analysis

Hootsuite employs advanced sentiment analysis using deep learning, neural networks, and NLP, achieving up to 90% accuracy across 186 languages. SproutSocial utilizes a Deep Neural Network for sentiment analysis, though accuracy metrics aren’t publicly disclosed.

Reporting Capabilities

Both platforms offer comprehensive reporting features. Hootsuite supports multiple export formats including PNG, PDF, CSV, XLS, and PPTX, with customizable spike alerts. SproutSocial provides detailed cross-network reports with topic comparison capabilities and allows PDF exports shareable with up to 25 recipients. Both platforms offer automated report scheduling and customizable templates.

Collaboration Tools

Hootsuite features Inbox 2.0 with team permissions and approval processes. SproutSocial includes message approval workflows, internal commenting systems, and case management for mentions, along with role assignment capabilities.

AI Integration

Hootsuite offers AI mention forecasting, while SproutSocial provides broader AI functionality including industry theme analysis, mention summarization, and ViralPost optimization. Both platforms leverage AI for workflow automation and content optimization, though they approach it differently.

Customer Service

Hootsuite Customer Service

Hootsuite’s help center stands out with comprehensive coverage across 15 major categories, available in six languages including English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and German. Their support hours are region-specific, with dedicated time slots for different time zones, though this means support isn’t available 24/7. While email support is offered in English, French, and Spanish, live chat and phone options are notably limited.

The platform’s training resources are particularly robust, featuring Hootsuite Academy, webinars, and a social media bootcamp that provides structured learning paths. Enterprise customers benefit from dedicated account managers, though this personalized support isn’t available to users on lower-tier plans. The ticket submission system serves as a backup when other support channels aren’t accessible.

Sprout Social Customer Service

Sprout Social delivers 24-hour support on weekdays through multiple channels including live chat, phone support, and ticket systems. While their help center is primarily in English, it leverages Google Translate to serve international users across 19 comprehensive categories, from AI automation to platform-specific guidance.

The platform’s training approach focuses on self-service resources, offering pre-recorded webinars and detailed product guides. Account manager access isn’t limited to specific tiers, making personalized support more accessible across different plan levels. The combination of round-the-clock support and diverse communication channels makes Sprout Social particularly responsive to immediate customer needs.

Key Takeaway: Hootsuite excels in multilingual documentation and structured training programs, making it ideal for global teams who prioritize self-paced learning. Sprout Social’s 24-hour support availability and comprehensive live support options make it the better choice for organizations requiring immediate, hands-on assistance regardless of time zone.

Customer testimonials

Hootsuite User Reviews

Hootsuite maintains a strong presence on review platforms with 8,713 total reviews and a blended rating of 4.29/5. On G2, it holds a 4.2/5 rating from 4,927 reviews, while on Capterra, it scores 4.4/5 from 3,786 reviews.

“The customer service is focused on the success of their clients. Not on how much money clients must spend to get quality services… We feel confident with our social media success because we feel supported by Hootsuite’s amazing employees every step of the way.” In contrast, some users note limitations: “The social listening tool doesn’t work for a company like us, although we’re paying for this service… Our industry is very niche and our brand name is a common name depending on the country, which makes it difficult to filter.”

Sprout Social User Reviews

Sprout Social has garnered 4,411 total reviews with a blended rating of 4.40/5. The platform receives a 4.4/5 rating on G2 from 3,818 reviews and maintains a 4.4/5 score on Capterra from 593 reviews.

“Sprout has everything you could possibly need from a social scheduling and reporting tool… It helps both our social media specialist but also our brand campaign initiatives and we can pull reports for specific campaigns or topics.” However, some users experience onboarding challenges: “Our onboarding was horrendous. It took over 2 months to schedule the meetings, and our rep changed in the middle without notice or much communication.”

Based on user testimonials, Hootsuite’s strength lies in its customer service and platform evolution, though some users struggle with its listening tools in niche industries. Sprout Social shines with its comprehensive feature set and reporting capabilities, but initial setup and onboarding can prove challenging for new users.

SproutSocial vs Hootsuite: Final verdict

Hootsuite stands out with its comprehensive social media management capabilities and extensive app directory, making it ideal for large teams managing multiple channels. SproutSocial excels in analytics depth and user-friendly reporting, which is perfect for data-driven organizations needing actionable insights. However, both platforms come with notable trade-offs – Hootsuite’s interface can feel overwhelming for smaller teams, while SproutSocial’s higher price point may strain limited budgets.

When choosing between the two, consider your organization’s scale and priorities. Hootsuite’s strength lies in its versatility and integration options, though its learning curve requires investment in team training. SproutSocial delivers superior analytics and engagement tools but lacks some of Hootsuite’s advanced scheduling features and third-party integrations.

For teams seeking an alternative that bridges these gaps, Mention offers an impressive solution with real-time monitoring across billions of sources, industry-leading sentiment accuracy, and extensive historical data access. Experience Mention’s comprehensive features firsthand – start a free trial to explore their intuitive reporting tools, or schedule a demo to see how their platform can complement your social listening strategy.