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HootSuite vs Salesforce Marketing Cloud 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
3rd
Ranking in Social Media Management Solutions
3rd
Average Rating
8.4
Number of Reviews
14
Ranking in other categories
Social Media Analytics Software (1st)
Salesforce Marketing Cloud
Ranking in Social CRM
2nd
Ranking in Social Media Management Solutions
2nd
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
62
Ranking in other categories
Marketing Automation (1st), Marketing Management (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Social CRM category, the mindshare of HootSuite is 8.4%, down from 8.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Salesforce Marketing Cloud is 5.9%, down from 13.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Social CRM Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Salesforce Marketing Cloud5.9%
HootSuite8.4%
Other85.7%
Social CRM
 

Featured Reviews

Gabriel  Waweru - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Software Engineer at Unilever Inc.
Centralized social media workflows have improved collaboration, insights, and customer response
HootSuite offers several valuable features that include an intuitive user interface, which makes it very easy for new users. It also provides a better understanding of what customers want with analytics and gathers those insights into actionable reports, which helps make data-driven decisions easy. Additionally, HootSuite manages and maintains our social presence from anywhere at any time with the HootSuite mobile app. I rely on all of these features, as they are very strategic and helpful in my organization. HootSuite turns real-time data into strategic insights by monitoring mentions of a brand, key industry topics, and competitors. HootSuite supports team collaboration by assigning tasks, managing approvals, and monitoring team performance. HootSuite has positively impacted my organization by streamlining how we manage multiple content on various social platforms, saving considerable time. It has helped us achieve 40% to 50% time savings in content operations, a 25% increase in engagement due to consistent posting, and improved lead response due to improved response time. I measure the time savings through content operation metrics. The 25% increase in engagement resulted from consistent posting on social platforms. HootSuite has also helped us with centralized reporting across different social media channels, enabling us to make data-driven decisions easily.
GauravSingh2 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Consultant at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Targeted email journeys have boosted campaign insight and now need better data access and support
I feel that Salesforce Marketing Cloud can be improved in how the data views are accessed; it would be better to have something more physical. With data extensions, you can view them directly, but for data views, it is very difficult as you can only send it out or load it into data extensions. Improvements can also be made in the connections to different external tools such as Azure or AWS.Customer support can be improved in Salesforce Marketing Cloud, as sometimes it is not clear what the issue is or how to approach solving it, and it also takes time to resolve issues.

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."
"Customer Service: Great. Technical Support: Good."
"The main improvement HootSuite offers is allowing my organization to run social media campaigns."
"Hootsuite feels like an all-in-one tool; I can publish content on Hootsuite and then answer comments, which is what I do for my customers."
"It has a social media presence outside of the hours people are able to devote to an organization."
"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."
"The main improvement HootSuite offers is allowing my organization to run social media campaigns."
"Salesforce Marketing Cloud has positively impacted my organization by reducing costs while significantly increasing the return on investment."
"The tool's most valuable feature is its automation. We can integrate data with the Salesforce hub. Its Einstein feature tells us whether our campaigns are on the right track. It also helps with ideas."
"This is a very powerful and scalable solution."
"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."
"The most valuable features of Salesforce are the automation and the ability to create dashboards which provide a wider picture of what is going on."
"Salesforce Marketing Cloud integrates with multiple systems seamlessly, enabling effective lead management."
"We are satisfied with the Salesforce Marketing Cloud products, which is why we have extended and acquired the Data Cloud as integration."
"The feature of Salesforce Marketing Cloud that has had the largest impact on improving my campaign outcomes is the recent WhatsApp integration, which allows Salesforce to connect with subscribers through different channels such as SMS, email, or WhatsApp."
 

Cons

"Last I checked, you can't schedule Twitter threads where each tweet is a reply to a previous tweet."
"Bulk scheduling."
"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."
"We would like an improvement to the 'Einstein Engagement Frequency'; the optimal range of emails that our subscribers will engage with."
"Salesforce Marketing Cloud should be linked to an email ID, so the features after 15 days can update on the opportunity. You should not have to update them manually to the next step."
"When you use your iPhone or Android phone, Salesforce is not as user-friendly as it could be. That UX needs to be improved."
"Query Studio in Salesforce Marketing Cloud needs to be improved because not all queries are supported and we cannot debug the AM Script or SSJS code, which makes code debugging manual."
"An additional feature needed would be better capacity for personalization."
"We would like an improvement to the 'Einstein Engagement Frequency'; the optimal range of emails that our subscribers will engage with."
"If someone wants to implement a best-of-breed solution, I'm uncertain whether Salesforce Marketing Cloud will be able to work, fit, or integrate smoothly."
"In terms of marketing, I don't think Salesforce invests the same level of intensity in promoting Marketing Cloud...Pricing is a concern and needs improvement, as some customers find the product a bit too expensive."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"​I have only used the free versions.​"
"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."
"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 licensing cost for the solution is on a yearly basis."
"Salesforce is an expensive solution."
"The solution is paid for monthly."
"It is a license per user."
"This solution is priced in the medium to high price range."
"The price is expensive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
11%
University
9%
Media Company
8%
Retailer
8%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Healthcare Company
7%
Comms Service Provider
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business5
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise7
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business19
Midsize Enterprise14
Large Enterprise31
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with HootSuite?
HootSuite is very seamless. I'm sure there might be more functionality that HootSuite offers, but I've only used it for basic social media posting. I can't really think of anything to improve on.
What is your primary use case for HootSuite?
My main use case for HootSuite is scheduling social media posts across various social media platforms. In the past we've had campaigns for various things, but I use HootSuite because it's really ni...
What advice do you have for others considering HootSuite?
I don't use it for reporting; it's mainly for analytics. You're able to get a dashboard of analytics from posts. If you post on LinkedIn, Facebook, or X, you're able to see everything all in one sp...
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?
I did not work on any pricing or implementation aspects but learned on my own when dealing with Revenue Cloud products.
What needs improvement with Salesforce Marketing Cloud?
I feel that Salesforce Marketing Cloud can be improved in how the data views are accessed; it would be better to have something more physical. With data extensions, you can view them directly, but ...
 

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: March 2026.
884,933 professionals have used our research since 2012.