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HootSuite vs Sprout Social comparison

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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
1st
Ranking in Social Media Management Solutions
2nd
Ranking in Social Media Analytics Software
2nd
Average Rating
8.0
Number of Reviews
19
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Sprout Social
Ranking in Social CRM
2nd
Ranking in Social Media Management Solutions
4th
Ranking in Social Media Analytics Software
1st
Average Rating
8.2
Number of Reviews
17
Ranking in other categories
AI Customer Experience Personalization (9th), AI Content Creation (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2026, in the Social CRM category, the mindshare of HootSuite is 10.4%, up from 7.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Sprout Social is 8.0%, up from 7.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Social CRM Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
HootSuite10.4%
Sprout Social8.0%
Other81.6%
Social CRM
 

Featured Reviews

Calin Balaita - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Engineer at Wärtsilä
Consistent scheduling has amplified our global branding and simplified weekly content sharing
HootSuite does a good job at what it does, and I didn't have any issues with it. If I had to think about one thing that could make my experience even better, the interface on the iOS version could be a bit smoother and things could be more visible, but other than that, it works fine.
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

"HootSuite has positively impacted my organization quite significantly because we have seen a rise in applications, and I think we won an award for the best branding use of this technology."
"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 positively impacted my organization by reducing the man-hours needed for maintenance, our load to do a campaign has become shorter, so all our tasks resolve faster and can be done more efficiently."
"HootSuite has been truly useful and helpful in my organization because impressions have increased, there has been an increase in traffic, scheduling has become simpler, and approvals have been excellent."
"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."
"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."
"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."
"HootSuite has positively impacted my organization by making it easy for us to post our socials without having to add staff."
"The best features Sprout Social offers are the ability to post across all platforms from one place, the ability to review the performance of this post in one place, and also the ability to combine all the analytics from all these platforms into one report."
"Sprout Social has centralized all of our social media communications, saved us a lot of time, and allowed the team to be more organized and on top of what is going on in social."
"I have definitely seen a return on investment with Sprout Social, as it has led to time savings, improved efficiency, and financial returns since not everything had to be manually posted."
"Sprout Social has positively impacted my organization with enhanced engagements, enhanced reach for our social posts, and better ROI for our investment in our social channels."
"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."
"In my experience, the best features Sprout Social offers are the ability to manage multiple campaigns."
"Sprout Social has positively impacted my organization by allowing us to streamline the scheduling of content, get ahead of everything so we can focus on the present, and pivot when necessary based on what is happening or not happening."
"Sprout Social has saved us a lot of time, provided the convenience of a single login to multiple socials, and requires less time for training, making it very easy to use and start using it."
 

Cons

"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."
"HootSuite has a solid platform for social media publishing and monitoring, but I think it could be improved with more advanced analytics, deeper AI-powered insights and summaries, or more customizable reporting."
"The company should reduce the pricing to make it easier for companies to deploy to larger social teams."
"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."
"The pricing would be great if it were free. It costs $99 per month, which is quite expensive."
"I think HootSuite can be improved with a better user interface."
"Sometimes the suggestions or the content suggestions that the OwlyWriter AI gives are not up to the mark that we want."
"However, sometimes the admin dashboard and the backend panel can be a bit slow and clunky, so it could improve in terms of speed and managing its load."
"Maybe trying to figure out the reason why sometimes the engagement could be less when posted through Sprout Social rather than manually."
"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."
"Sprout Social could be improved by being able to schedule out Stories, which is a current limitation."
"There is a limitation for us with Sprout Social in publishing boosted content within LinkedIn, and we would appreciate that to be improved."
"My advice to others considering Sprout Social is that I believe it is a good platform to use temporarily for some clients, but it does not scale well for growth."
"It is not perfect. Sometimes its information or its syncing to platforms is clunky, so you end up having slightly wrong information or data."
"Realistically, I find the pricing quite high."
"Currently, in the pilots that I have done, I have not found it to be very highly accurate, so there is a felt need to get improvements in those areas."
 

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
19%
Outsourcing Company
11%
Educational Organization
10%
Media Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
16%
Outsourcing Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
10%
University
10%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business14
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise10
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business8
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise18
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with HootSuite?
I think HootSuite can be improved with a better user interface. I believe it could be a little clearer on the instructions.
What is your primary use case for HootSuite?
My main use case for HootSuite is marketing towards social media. A specific example of how I used HootSuite for my marketing is that I posted social media content for my law firm. HootSuite helped...
What advice do you have for others considering HootSuite?
My advice to others looking into using HootSuite is to check it out, try it out, and see if it works for you. I gave this product a rating of 8.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Sprout Social?
We do not mind the setup cost because the organization provides whatever we are asking for, and we are just working on it. We do not know much about pricing and setup costs as we have a separate te...
What needs improvement with Sprout Social?
I think enhanced AI features as well as APIs to talk to CRM programs would certainly make Sprout Social more efficient. Regarding Sprout Social's AI capabilities, I currently think they manage it w...
What is your primary use case for Sprout Social?
My main use case for Sprout Social is management of the social media channels at Harman, where we manage it for eight plus brands across key platforms like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, an...
 

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: September 2026.
913,806 professionals have used our research since 2012.