10 Best Hootsuite Alternatives in 2022

Hootsuite is a social media management tool that makes social media managers’ roles easier. It helps them schedule posts, curate cool content, monitor team members, measure ROI, and more. As with any other social media app, Hootsuite also comes with disadvantages such as additional costs and a long learning curve. 

That said, looking for Hootsuite alternatives is recommended if you want to choose the most suitable social media management platform. We’ve gathered the 10 best Hootsuite alternatives and the top features you must look for in a social media management tool. 

What to Look for in Hootsuite Alternatives

Selecting the right social media management platform is easy as there are many options. Look for the top features to make your social media marketing and management more seamless. You might want to think about why you’re looking for Hootsuite alternatives by asking yourself these questions:

• What are you looking to accomplish from social media marketing? 
• What made you look for Hootsuite alternatives, and what features are lacking in your current social media management tool?
• How do you want your team to use the tool?
• How many people will use your new social media marketing tool?
• What is the frequency of your postings?

After you’ve decided on the basics, here are the most common and important social media management features to look out for:

• Scheduling system – Allows you to plan what content to post weeks or months in advance
• Queuing tool – Lets you queue social media posts that can be published at a scheduled time automatically
• Post optimization tool – Lets you post content at the best time, especially when your audience is online
• Geo-targeting – Allows you to share your posts to specific locations that are relevant to audiences in that area or country
• URL tracking – A URM (Urchin Tracking Module) feature allows you to track the URLs in terms of reach and clicks
• Messaging approval tool – Filters the types of messages you post on social media to ensure the messages are appropriate
• Tasking tool – Assigns social media messages to the most appropriate people who can best respond to those inquiries
• Collision detection – Lets you monitor if your team has responded to a message or not
• Account accessibility – Designates people or members with specific permission and accessibility options to modify and monitor your social campaigns
• Social media inbox – Aggregates all messages to reply to each message promptly
• Inbox message completion – Streamlines messaging engagement with followers by knowing if message responses are completed
• Keyword monitoring – Monitors conversations about your brand whether you’re being mentioned or not
• Conversation history tracking – Manages conversations with unique social users who need immediate attention
• Customer notes tool – Lets your write notes to your sales team about users who are likely to convert to augment pitching efforts
• Mobile features – A feature that makes the app mobile-friendly for you and your team whenever you’re on the go
• Push notifications – Notifies you whenever someone mentions your brand on social media
• Internal communication system – Lets you communicate with your team smoothly using an internal platform
• Individual network reporting system – Gives you reports on performances across social media channels
• Engagement reports – Compares results within your industry on how quickly you respond to social media messages
• Team reports – Provides reports on each of your team member’s performances
• Sent message reports – Compares the sent messages to monitor how well these messages performed
• Trends report – Shows which hashtags and topics are associated with your brand, frequently mentioned accounts, and more
• Custom branding tool – Allows you to integrate your brand logo into your social reports to get credit

10 Top Hootsuite Alternatives in 2022 (Pros and Cons)

Once you grasp what social media management features are important to your goals, you can start searching for the best Hootsuite alternative. Here are the top 10 Hootsuite substitutes that make it worth your while. 

Relevant Article: 12 Kickass SEMrush Alternatives for Beginners and Marketers

1. Sprout Social 

Sprout Social is a Hootsuite alternative that social media managers should look into. It’s known for its excellent publishing features, scheduling tools, and analytics. Moreover, this platform is also one of the social media management tools that integrates with most major social media channels. Some are Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Pinterest. This makes Social Sprout one of the most versatile social media management platforms. Last but not least, it also lets social media managers try the service for 30 days for free! 

Pros:

• Excellent analytics features
• Scheduling tools are easy to use
• Impressive all-in-one user dashboard to manage all social networks
• Longest free trial compared to others on this list

Cons:

• Expensive standard plan
• Limited management of social profiles

2. SocialPilot

SocialPilot offers more dynamic features than Hootsuite. The platform has excellent engagement, publishing, and analytics features. For instance, SocialPilot lets you schedule up to 500 posts at a time, including images. Plus, SocialPilot is also fantastic for small businesses as its cheapest plan lets you add up to three users. This is already a good deal compared to other platforms’ affordable plans, which are only limited to one user.

Pros:

• Has the most affordable plan, which is around $25 per month
• Manage at least 10 social media profiles on all plans
• 14-day free trial

Cons: 

• Basic plans don’t have that many useful features
• Can only get cheap monthly rates when you pay in bulk annually

3. Zoho

Zoho is an omnichannel that lets you plan and monitor your business’s various aspects such as accounting, email, and social media. Although this is listed as a CRM tool, you can select the plan that lets you use all the features, including social media management. Whether you buy the social media management tool separately, you still get the same features such as content planning and scheduling, content optimization, automation, and other engagement features. 

Pros:

• Considered as an all-in-one tool for businesses that don’t want to toggle between many tools
• Social media management tools can be integrated with all big social media channels
• Offers a free plan
• Cheap social media planning service that starts at $10 per month

Cons:

• Agencies may have to shell out at least $230 per month, which is quite expensive
• Other plans limits users between one and three members for free, you may have to pay more for additional members

4. MeetEdgar

MeetEdgar is one of the best Hootsuite alternatives in 2022 that social media advertisers use, and for a good reason. This platform is well-known for its automation features, best-suited for busy marketers. It generates posts within the same category to ensure you’re constantly engaging with your audience. You’ll also get your hands on an unlimited content library and automatically schedule the content. 

Pros:

• Executed continuous posting to save you time and effort
• Offers analytics to track responses and engagement
• Cheap Edgar Lite plan, which is at $19 per month

Cons:

• Free trial is only for seven days
• Limited social network integration with Twitter, Meta, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Pinterest
• No centralized inbox to manage and monitor messages and comments

5. eClincher

If you’re looking for an inventive dashboard, eClincher has it. Its best feature is a centralized inbox that lets you monitor messages and comments to ensure engagement with followers is up to par. Overall, choose eClincher if you’re looking for intelligent reporting, publishing, and monitoring systems. 

Pros:

• Provides better customer support
• Makes workflow seamless as it connects to most major social networks and sources such as bit.ly, Google Analytics, blogs, etc
• Lets you set up individual brand accounts
• Gives you access to free stock image services

Cons: 

• UI isn’t very easy to understand
• May need a learning curve

6. Buffer

Buffer’s upper hand over Hootsuite is creating different publishing schedules for various social media networks. This is an excellent feature as Hootsuite only lets you create a single schedule. Considered one of the best Hootsuite alternatives, Buffer has been known for its scheduling capabilities and multi-app integration. 

Pros:

• Cheapest plan starts at $5 per month
• Perfect for small businesses 
• Free plan lets you access up to three social media profiles
• 14-day free trial available

Cons:

• Limited integration to major social media platforms
• Doesn’t show notifications of direct messages and comments

7. Loomly

For large teams that want smooth collaboration, Loomly is a top choice as a Hootsuite alternative. The software’s top-tier plans let you add up to 30 users to ensure great collaboration on social media campaigns and projects. It offers features such as automated publishing, post sponsoring, audience targeting, interaction tracking, analytics, and more. 

Pros:

• Lets you post unlimited content
• Perfect for large teams
• All-in-one dashboard that lets you manage social assets
• Real-time post optimization
• 15-day free trial

Cons:

• Large team plan is costly at $269 per month

8. CoSchedule 

If you’re looking for a more unified social media management, then CoSchedule is for you. It has a powerful centralized management system that lets you automate scheduling, curate content, and more. Its best features are also the calendar and marketing suites. 

Pros: 

• Has Write Better Headlines feature that ensures headlines are click-worthy and SEO-optimized
• The marketing calendar is a top feature that can even let you recycle content
• You can publish and distribute to other social networks
• Easy drag-and-drop feature

Cons:

• Long learning curve
• Overwhelming interface
• Software isn’t intuitive 
• Will only work with WordPress

9. Sendible 

One of the best Hootsuite alternatives that lets you save time and effort is Sendible. This platform allows you to seamlessly plan and track your social media campaigns and all your online campaigns. The software stands out because of its 360-degree monitoring features and CRM capabilities. Some features are sentiment analysis, auto-responding, auto-following, detailed analytics, and more. 

Pros:

• Integration options with platforms such as Canva and Google Analytics
• All-in-one dashboard that tracks all your social media and online campaigns
• Not only focused on social media management 
• Savings of up to 15 percent when you pay in bulk annually

Cons:

• No free plan available
• Basic plans are limited to one user only

10. Agorapulse

If you’re looking for a powerful publishing tool, then Agorapulse is your best bet. However, you’ll also get other features such as keyword and hashtag monitoring, competitor research, unlimited upload options, a unified inbox, and more. 

Pros:

• Has an intuitive UI 
• Great for social listening
• Manage social interactions via a unified inbox
• Ability to post to all social media channels simultaneously 

Cons:

• No Instagram DM options
• Can’t publish on Instagram story
• Basic plan is expensive at $99 per month

The Bottomline

Before selecting the best Hootsuite alternative well-suited to your social campaigns, go over a couple of factors such as features, pricing, app integration, social network compatibility, and free trials. This way, you can weigh each tool’s pros and cons and ensure uninterrupted and effective social media marketing. 

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