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Social media management platforms are now an essential part of any business’ digital marketing toolkit. Without these tools, marketers would have to scramble trying to maintain all their social media profiles individually.

Being among the pioneer social media management tools, the loyal following that Hootsuite has amassed shouldn’t be surprising.

However, as with any social media management tool, Hootsuite is far from perfect, and may not be well-adapted for everyone. Luckily, since it first launched in 2008, several Hootsuite alternatives have been developed and each one offers unique advantages.

To fully appreciate the best alternatives to Hootsuite, it’s essential to first understand why Hootsuite is so popular, what it does best, and what features it lacks.

Quicklinks: 

What is Hootsuite?

Hootsuite is a social media marketing tool that enables marketers to manage various social media accounts through a single interface. It supports the most popular social networks including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, and LinkedIn. Through Hootsuite, small businesses and large enterprises alike have one dashboard from which to post, track, and maintain their online presence on various channels.

Hootsuite pros

Hootsuite’s advantages go beyond enabling you to post on various social media channels at once and from a single dashboard. For example, it is known for its scheduling feature, which makes content planning much more efficient.

It also offers an app directory, which lets you extend its features to manage your presence on platforms other than the basic social networks.

Hootsuite cons

Hootsuite is an undeniably powerful tool with many advanced features. However, that comes with a user interface that can quickly overwhelm any novice. It can take a while to get your business running with the basic functionalities, and longer still to maximize all its features.

Additionally, Hootsuite is primarily marketed to small businesses but its pricing is quite prohibitive. It offers a free plan that limits you to 2 social accounts and 5 scheduled posts. Beyond that, you’ll need to sign up for a paid plan, which starts at $49 per month (excludes taxes and must be paid annually).

Here’s a side-by-side comparison of all the best Hootsuite alternatives in 2022:

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Hootsuite Alternatives Comparison Table

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Hootsuite Alternatives: Quick Reference Feature Comparison

How we arrived at the above ratings:

We compared each Hootsuite alternative for five basic features:

• Social Media Management:
  • Can you automate, schedule, and batch social posts?
  • Do you have a visual calendar for content publishing?
  • Is it easy to cross post content across accounts?
  • Does the platform give you curated content options?
• Employee Advocacy:
  • Does the platform include an employee advocacy function natively?
  • Can you create different tags and topics for different types of content?
  • Can advocates suggest content?
  • Is the advocacy board easy to use and add content to?
• Social Listening:
  • Can you engage in brand monitoring?
  • Can you listen to your competitors?
  • Does the platform provide social sentiment analysis?
  • Can you follow relevant influencers and thought-leaders?
• Advanced Metrics:
  • Does the platform offer basic reporting and analytics?
  • Can you connect other channels to the platform (i.e. paid socials)?
  • Can you export reports in various formats?
  • Can you attribute dollar amounts to social leads?
• Crisis Mode:
  • Can you lock down all socials in the event of a crisis?
  • Can you easily stop all automations at once?
  • Can you control which users can post during delicate moments?
  • Does the platform allow you to ban terms and words from social posts?

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1) Hootsuite Alternative for B2B Business: Oktopost

Oktopost is primarily marketed as a social engagement suite for B2B organizations. This context switch alone offers a unique and powerful value proposition, since other social media management tools offer a one-size-fits-all approach to social media engagement.

One of the best social media management tools on the market, Oktopost offers a suite of tools adapted for B2B businesses.

Oktopost Top Features

• Social media management – Prepare and schedule multiple posts with ease. A calendar lets you see the full picture and then drag-and-drop posts as you go.
• Employee advocacy – Boost your reach by empowering your team members to become valuable brand advocates. You can transform your employees into both brand ambassadors and thought leaders,
• Social listening – Take part in all conversations that are relevant to your brand and learn what matters most to your followers.
• People database – Track people, not accounts. You’ll learn more about your followers as you see how they interact with your brand across all social media platforms.
• Social analytics – Built-in reports and powerful custom dashboards let you measure every metric your business requires.

Why is Oktopost a great Hootsuite alternative?

While Hootsuite is a powerful tool, it’s built mainly for B2C organizations. If your business targets other businesses, you’ll need to shoehorn its features to work for you. In contrast, Oktopost was specifically developed to meet the unique needs of B2B enterprise brands. Given its focus on enterprise-level solutions, it’s not surprising that the availability and quality of customer support are also far superior to Hootsuite’s.

Oktopost Pricing

Oktopost doesn’t offer standard packages. Instead, it provides custom services tailored to every organization. To get a good idea of what it might cost you, you’ll need to contact Oktopost directly and work with them to determine exactly the features you need.

Rating: 10/10

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2) Hootsuite Alternative for Brand Monitoring: Agorapulse

Agorapulse is often mentioned as one of the best alternatives to Hootsuite because of its intuitive user interface. It has all the features you’d expect from social media management tools and especially excels in social listening.

Agorapulse Top features

• Social media monitoring – Track social conversations that are relevant to your brand and jump in for maximum engagement.
• Joint social inbox – All comments, messages, and reviews appear in one place so they’re easy to manage.
• Easy publishing – It offers a simple, intuitive tool to create and schedule posts for all your channels.
• Actionable reports – See how your content performs, track trends, and get useful recommendations for improvement.

Why is Agorapulse a good Hootsuite alternative?

Agorapulse is better than Hootsuite if you have several social accounts to manage. Hootsuite’s cluttered interface makes social media management overwhelming once you’ve added three or more accounts. In contrast, Agorapulse is more organized, which helps you stay on top of reviews, comments, and direct messages.

Additionally, Agorapulse is much more cost-effective, especially for businesses that manage over 20 social media accounts or require access for more than 3 users.

Agorapulse Pricing

Agorapulse offers two paid plans: Pro for $99 per month and Premium for $199 per month. You can evaluate both through 15-day free trials and save 20% from the monthly rate if you sign up for annual plans. If you need to manage more than 20 social profiles or have accounts for more than 4 users, you’ll need to contact Agorapulse directly for a suitable enterprise plan.

Rating: 7 / 10

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3) Hootsuite Alternative for Mid-Size Agencies: Sendible

Sendible features are comparable to Hootsuite but it offers more cost-effective plans for solopreneurs and SMEs. Additionally, its interface is much more accomodating of teams and collaborative social media management.

Sendible Top features

• Supported integrations – Apart from Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn, Sendible lets you manage your presence on YouTube and Google My Business. You can also use it to publish posts on your WordPress sites.
• Built-in post editor – Gain more attention with awesome visual content. You can add photos and videos or create new graphics thanks to its integration with Canva.
• Approval workflows – Set up your process to support collaboration and keep your posts error-free by requiring approvals from the rest of your team.
• Custom reports – Access basic performance reports in seconds and create custom reports to inform you of follower engagement and trends.

Why is Sendible a good Hootsuite alternative?

Sendible offers a much more intuitive user interface than Hootsuite. Although Hootsuite has powerful collaboration tools, Sendible better facilitates teamwork. It is especially more beneficial for agencies that need to keep clients in the loop. Additionally, Sendible’s built-in analytics combined with the power of Google Analytics makes it much better than Hootsuite in terms of campaign monitoring. Sendible is also less expensive, especially for larger businesses.

Sendible pricing

Sendible offers four different plans. You can try any one of them for free for 14 days and also save 15% when you sign up for annual plans. Plans include:

• Creator ($29 per month) – 1 user, 6 social media profiles
• Traction ($89 per month) – 4 users, social media profiles
• Scale ($199 per month) – 7 users, 49 social media profiles
• Expansion ($399 per month) – 15 users, 105 social media profiles

Rating: 8 / 10

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4) Hootsuite Alternative for Small Agencies: NapoleonCat

Apart from a convenient social inbox, NapoleonCat is best known for its automation capabilities. It allows you to automate some communications so your customers can get immediate replies and you can focus your efforts on messages that actually need your attention.

NapoleonCat Top features

• Social inbox – View messages, comments, and reviews from all social media channels (including ads) in one place. Then, reply on the same platform.
• Social media automation – Automating some of your messages can enhance your customer experience. It also frees up time for communications that require more personal attention.
• Post organization – A content calendar makes it easy to see everything you’ve planned out, tweak your posts, and share with your team.
• Advanced analytics – Monitor not only your own campaign’s performance but also your competitors’. Use the same platform to compare your numbers against industry benchmarks and also track emerging trends in your niche.

Why is NapoleonCat a good Hootsuite alternative?

NapoleonCat shares many of the same important Hootsuite features but provides a better user interface. Where NapoleonCat excels is in automation, which improves team efficiency as well as the overall customer experience. Some communications you can automate include customer service responses, social sales, and ads moderation.

Additionally, NapoleonCat is much more affordable. Its pricing at the lower tiers makes it a more suitable social media management platform for individual content creators and small businesses.

NapoleonCat pricing

NapoleonCat lets you create your own plan based on the number of social media accounts you need to manage and how many team members need access. Plans start at $31 per month but you’ll need to shell out at least $64 to access advanced features like the automated moderation tools and customized reporting. You can try any plan through a 2-week free trial and get 3 months for free if you subscribe to annual plans.

Rating: 7 / 10

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5) Hootsuite Alternative for Content Discovery:Crowdfire

Going beyond the typical features of social media management tools, Crowdfire excels in content discovery. The platform helps you find content that might be relevant to your brand and would be worth sharing with your audience. This helps establish your expertise and become the go-to place for valuable information in your niche.

Crowdfire Top features

• Content discovery – Quickly find images and articles that your audience might enjoy so you can keep your timelines active.
• Website and blog promotion – Get post updates from your website, blog, or ecommerce store so you can easily create content to share with your followers.
• Content customization – Create your posts once and easily tailor them for several social networks.
• Social inbox – Monitor all mentions, replies, and comments all in one place and reply instantly.

Why is Crowdfire a good Hootsuite alternative?

Crowdfire is the better platform specifically for individuals and organizations that want to focus on curating and sharing content. Its content discovery tools help you stay on top of relevant conversations in your industry. Furthermore, its website promotion tools better enable you to leverage your social accounts for web traffic and lead generation.

Additionally, Crowdfire has free and lower-priced plans to suit solopreneurs and SMEs.

Crowdfire pricing

Crowdfire offers a free version that allows you to manage up to three accounts and schedule up to 10 posts at a time. If need more than that, you’ll need to subscribe to one of the following paid plans:

• Plus ($9.99 per month) – 5 social media accounts, up to 100 scheduled posts
• Premium ($49.99 per month) – 10 social media accounts, up to 100 scheduled posts
• VIP ($99.99 per month) – 25 social media accounts, up to 800 scheduled posts

You can save up to 25% of monthly fees if you opt for annual plans.

Rating: 7 / 10

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6) Hootsuite Alternative for Twitter: Tweetdeck

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Tweetdeck is the social media management platform owned and managed by Twitter itself. At certain points after its initial release in 2008, it integrated with various social networks like Facebook, MySpace, and LinkedIn. However, it is now solely a Twitter management tool.

Tweetdeck Top features

• Multi-account management – Manage several Twitter profiles in one platform. This allows you to monitor engagement and also reply to mentions and DMs without having to log in and out of your accounts.
• Topic monitoring – See new tweets based on hashtags and search terms in real time.
• Post scheduling – Schedule tweets in advance and let the tool post them automatically.
• Single view – You get a multi-panel view of whatever you need—timelines, search results, DMs, mentions, etc.

Why is Tweetdeck a good Hootsuite alternative?

Tweetdeck is an excellent Hootsuite alternative if you rely solely on Twitter for your digital engagement. It makes Twitter much more manageable and it enables you to track not only hashtags but also search results in real time. So, you’re better able to monitor conversations around your brand and happenings within your niche. Additionally, your dashboard is highly customizable, allowing you to see only what you need to manage your Twitter presence.

Tweetdeck pricing

Tweetdeck is completely free to use and offers no paid version.

Rating: 6 / 10

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7) Hootsuite Alternative for Simplified Socials: Buffer

Buffer is primarily known as a social media scheduler. It can be used to manage social media accounts on the most popular platforms including Facebook, Instagram (Stories included), Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest. Despite its feature-rich offering, it is best loved for its simplicity and affordability.

Buffer Top features

• Social media analytics – Access pre-made reports to track performance and engagement data. You can also create custom reports that you can easily brand and share.
• Campaign planning – Plan and schedule your posts on and manage them all in a single view. You can also create TikTok videos and stories and set up notifications to post them.
• Customer engagement – Get all your comments in one place, filter through unanswered comments, and quickly respond based on priority thanks to hotkeys and labels.
• Campaigns – Regardless of the channels, you can organize your content into several campaigns so you can monitor each one’s performance separately.

Why is Buffer a good Hootsuite alternative?

Both Buffer and Hootsuite have powerful post-scheduling features, allowing you to prepare hundreds of posts months in advance. However, Buffer has a simpler and cleaner interface that’s better suited for SMEs that don’t need so many bells and whistles. Buffer is also better at enabling you to post on the fly and doesn’t rely solely on scheduled posts.

Buffer pricing

Buffer offers a free version, which gives you access to basic publishing tools, manage up to three channels, and queue up a maximum of 10 posts per channel. Beyond that, you’ll need to sign up for one of the following paid plans:

• Essentials ($5 per month per channel) – a single user and up to 2,000 queued posts per channel
• Team ($10 per month per channel) – Unlimited users and up to 2,000 queued posts per channel
• Agency ($100 per month per 10 channels + $5 per additional channel) – Unlimited users and up to 2,000 queued posts per channel

Rating: 8 / 10

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Frequently Asked Questions About Hootsuite Alternatives

Here are answers to some of the most common questions related to Hootsuite alternatives in 2022:

Is there anything better than Hootsuite?

Hootsuite is a great social media management platform, but it is easily rivaled by newer tools. Depending on the nature of your business and types of campaigns you wish to run on your social networks, Oktopost, Agorapulse, Sendible, NapoleonCat, Crowdfire, Tweetdeck, or Buffer might be a more suitable and cost-effective Hootsuite alternatives.

What are free alternatives to Hootsuite?

Some of the best free alternatives to Hootsuite include Agorapulse, Sendible, TweetDeck, and Buffer. Although these might not have the same breadth of features some businesses might need for complex social media marketing campaigns, these free plans are more than enough for the average digital marketer.

What is the most popular Hootsuite feature?

Hootsuite is best known for its bulk schedule feature, which lets you upload up to 350 scheduled posts at one time. This lets you avoid the inconvenience of submitting and scheduling future posts one at a time. All you’d need to do is prepare a CSV file using the required format and upload it in one click.

What features does Hootsuite not have?

Oddly enough, Hootsuite allows you to bulk-schedule posts but not pause them. Sometimes, a campaign goes awry or situations change that make your scheduled posts stale or irrelevant. On such occasions, it’s useful to have an emergency pause button but Hootsuite lacks an easy way to stop the platform from posting. You’d have to resort to workarounds like revoking app permission from every social network.

Wrap up

There’s no denying that Hootsuite is an excellent social media management platform. However, there are other tools you should consider if you are to pick the best one for your organization. Depending on the nature of your business, there are Hootsuite alternatives that might prove to be more suitable as well as more cost-efficient.

For example, Tweetdeck is the better social media management tool if all the accounts you manage are on Twitter. Crowdfire has lower-priced plans that are better for small businesses while Oktopost is better for B2B engagement.