Sprout Social vs. Hootsuite: The best tool for your brand in 2025

Choosing the right social media platform for your team is crucial. You must invest in a platform that’ll keep your team agile so they can advance your strategy and grow your business. That starts with doing your research.

In this article, we’ll compare Sprout Social vs. Hootsuite using G2 review data to see what customers have to say*. The comparison data in this article is based on G2 data from 08/19/2025, unless stated otherwise.

Feel free to jump ahead to these stand-out Hootsuite vs. Sprout comparisons by clicking the table of contents on the left.

Sprout Social vs. Hootsuite: Overview

It’s hard to compare two platforms without knowing what each has to offer. Let’s start our Hootsuite vs. Sprout Social analysis with an introduction to each platform.

Our comparison sources data from authenticated user feedback from G2, the world’s largest software marketplace and most trusted source for customer reviews. G2 connects over 80 million industry professionals so they can make better software decisions, fueled by the authenticity of peer reviews.

Who is Sprout Social for?

Founded in 2010, Sprout Social has been at the forefront of social media management technology for over 10 years. Our industry-leading, cloud-based software continues to earn recognition from trusted sources across the industry.

In G2’s 2025 Summer Reports, we earned more than 150 leader badges, including top marks in the Enterprise Grid® Report for Social Media Suites, the Enterprise Results Index for Social Media Analytics and the Grid® Report for Social Customer Service.

We have also been recognized as a G2 Enterprise Leader every quarter since 2018, consistently ranking above our competitors—Hootsuite included.

In addition to G2, TrustRadius honored Sprout with eight 2025 Top Rated Awards, spanning categories like Social Media Marketing, Social Media Customer Service and Competitive Intelligence.

Regardless of size and industry, brands trust and rely on Sprout to maximize business impact through social media.

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Who is Hootsuite for?

Founded in 2008, Hootsuite has built a recognizable name for itself in the industry. Like Sprout, Hootsuite has different tools for every step of social media management. They offer solutions for scheduling and publishing content, engagement, customer care, analytics and reporting. They also have add-ons that support advocacy, advanced analytics, social listening and ads management.

According to G2, the majority of Hootsuite’s reviews (nearly 60%) come from small and medium-sized businesses, which highlights where their solutions are most commonly adopted.

G2 comparison data also reveals Sprout is the preferred choice for customers in terms of meeting requirements, ease of use, ease of setup, ease of admin, quality of support and product direction.

Sprout Social vs. Hootsuite: Innovation

Social media is constantly evolving, as is how marketers work. Social media management platforms must innovate in lockstep with these changes to meet their customers’ needs—or risk losing them.

Let’s compare how reviewers grade Sprout’s innovation and future outlook.

Sprout leads Hootsuite in product direction

Product direction is the outlook of a vendor’s product evolution, including future integrations, frequency of expanding features and functionality and how well they innovate to continue meeting customers’ needs.

On G2, Sprout is a clear winner, scoring an 8.9 in positive product direction. We need to be the best solution for our customers not just now, but for the long term. With more than 100 material product updates rolled out every year, we constantly improve our current offerings and anticipate what our more than 30,000 customers will need to keep up. In contrast, Hootsuite scored a 7.9. Reviews have mentioned the platform’s UX and UI feels clunky and less streamlined than other scheduling tools.

At Sprout Social, our product philosophy centers on speed with intentionality. That’s why our team is focused on building integrations that support the networks where brands are most active today, including TikTok, Reels and Threads. We’ve also expanded our publishing capabilities through our integration with Slate, making it even easier for marketers to distribute consistent, on-brand content across every channel that matters.

But content is only part of the story. To help brands connect social activity to the bigger business picture, we’ve deepened our CRM integrations with Zendesk, HubSpot and Microsoft Dynamics 365. These integrations bring social and sales data into the same view, offering a more complete understanding of the customer journey.

And because customer care is a cornerstone of that journey, we’ve built on our global partnership with Salesforce as well. Our Service Cloud integration simplifies workflows for care teams, while our recent integration with Salesforce’s Agentforce assistant adds real-time social insights and AI-powered case support—equipping agents to respond faster, smarter and with greater empathy.

Sprout continues to invest in AI

There’s been plenty of buzz around artificial intelligence (AI), but Sprout has moved beyond the hype. We’re delivering real, accessible AI solutions that help teams work faster, smarter and more strategically across the social workflow.

AI Assist, Sprout’s suite of generative AI capabilities powered by OpenAI’s GPT model, is deeply integrated across our Publishing, Smart Inbox, Analytics, Employee Advocacy and Listening solutions.

Unlike Hootsuite’s OwlyWriter AI, which restricts content creation to a limited number of tokens per month, Sprout’s AI Assist offers unlimited usage within each plan. From generating on-brand post copy to summarizing message threads or surfacing insights from millions of conversations, AI Assist helps teams cut down on manual tasks so they can focus on driving results.

Sprout also continues to invest in proprietary AI and automation features. Tools like Optimal Send Times, conversation trends and automated tag suggestions empower teams to make smarter decisions backed by real-time data. Our Social Listening solution sifts through millions of data points to deliver insights, trends and key learnings within seconds.

Sprout continues to invest in social customer service

Sprout has consistently earned high marks for helping brands deliver customer care on social. On G2, Sprout holds a score of 8.1 in the category of social media customer service, while Hootsuite doesn’t have enough ratings to qualify for a score, underscoring the difference in focus and maturity between the two platforms.

That focus comes to life in Social Customer Care by Sprout Social, which is built to meet the growing expectations of consumers who turn to social to share concerns, ask for help and advocate for the brands they love. With Case Management, agents can manage inbound messages across channels, regions and languages within a single streamlined workflow.

Sprout is also designed for simplicity and self-service. Agents can get up and running with just 30–45 minutes of basic training, while admins can adjust workflows, permissions and automations without technical support. That ease of use means teams can scale operations confidently and respond faster, without relying on vendor intervention for everyday changes.

Our Salesforce Service Cloud integration extends that efficiency even further by connecting social care data with the Salesforce ecosystem, ensuring agents have a complete view of every interaction and that no conversation slips through the cracks.

This combination of usability and innovation has earned Sprout industry recognition, including TrustRadius’ 2025 Top Rated Award in the Social Media Customer Service category.

Sprout invests heavily in influencer marketing

Influencer-led strategies are shaping the future of social. According to a Q2 2025 Sprout Social Pulse Survey, 64% of consumers—and 75% of Gen Z and Millennials—say they’re more likely to buy from a brand that partners with a creator they trust.

Hootsuite does not offer any native influencer marketing tools; instead, it points users to third-party workarounds. In contrast, Sprout is making ongoing investments into a powerful, integrated solution designed to scale with modern influencer programs.

Sprout Social Influencer Marketing equips teams with AI-powered discovery and relationship management, helping brands find the right creators, manage campaigns and measure performance in one place. With capabilities like Natural Language Creator Search, Brand Fit Scoring and AI-powered intelligent creator suggestions, marketers can identify and partner with creators based on how they talk about a topic—not just hashtags or demographics.

This focus on usability is reflected in customer feedback: on G2, Sprout Social Influencer Marketing earned an 8.6 rating for ease of use and an 8.8 for ease of setup and administration.

Sprout Social vs. Hootsuite: Ease of doing business

The perfect platform must check many functionality boxes for your team, and it should be easy to learn. When it comes to ease of doing business, Sprout leads the way. Let’s compare:

Ease of use

On G2, Sprout’s ease of use scored an 8.8, compared to Hootsuite’s 8.6 score. In Sprout reviews, customers describe our platform as “intuitive and visual,” “easy to navigate,” “user-friendly” and “extremely easy tool to use.” Social media moves fast, and social media teams must keep up to be proactive. Sprout’s enterprise-level sophistication, combined with intuitive design, enables your team to easily execute on, and grow, every level of your strategy.

Ease of setup

As your social team grows, you need tools that are simple to learn and quick to implement. On G2, both Sprout and Hootsuite scored 8.7 for ease of setup.

Where Sprout stands apart is in the experience that follows. Customers often report dissatisfaction with Hootsuite’s support—pointing to long response times and limited proactive engagement. Sprout, on the other hand, has maintained a 95%+ Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) score for over five years.

Ease of admin

For ease of admin, Sprout earned an 8.8. And in Summer 2025, we were recognized with G2’s “Best Usability” award.

Centralized management is crucial for your day-to-day operations and team collaboration. On the back end, Sprout makes it easy to manage different channels and different brands from a central hub. Our Message Approval Workflow streamlines collaboration and approval processes—even for external reviewers who aren’t in the platform.

Sprout’s Smart Inbox alleviates the administrative burden of always-on customer care and social management efforts. The inbox unifies multiple incoming message types across your channels in one view, so you never miss a chance to engage. And keywords you set, like your brand name or common misspellings, uncover unique opportunities to interact with audiences, even when you’re not tagged.

Enterprise and mid-market reviewers have called it “the best available out of the competitors,” “excellent for community management,” and “a life-saver.”

“Sprout Social has the best customer service in the industry, whether through the in-platform chat or their knowledgeable reps, the support is always fast, friendly, and genuinely helpful. They’re constantly innovating, rolling out new features, and staying ahead with direct platform relationships and early API access. The interface is clean, intuitive, and easy to navigate, making it a pleasure to use. Most importantly, Sprout saves us valuable time and turns social media management into something fun and rewarding.”

–Verified User in Hospital & Health Care Industry, Mid-Market

Sprout Social vs. Hootsuite: Customer support

When it comes to customer support, speed and quality are everything. Marketing teams shouldn’t be hindered by the platforms meant to help.

On G2, Sprout scored an 8.7 in quality of support. We pride ourselves on being a joy to work with. And reviews reflect that our service “exceeds expectations” and is “always quick to help.”

Our platform is designed with our users in mind, so all feedback is taken seriously. When we noticed customers increasingly asking for a dark mode, for example, we added this capability to provide a better experience.

Sprout offers 24/5 phone support

Social media doesn’t have an off button. That’s why Sprout offers 24/5 phone support, where Hootsuite’s support is limited to business hours on certain channels.

Sprout offers multiple ways to get in touch with us, including:

• Live chat directly in Sprout (where you can talk to a real person—not a bot)
• Live phone support
• Ticket support for less urgent issues
• A Premier Success option, which guarantees a two-hour response time
• Self-service training to get up to speed on the platform

We also offer a breadth of resources, including our Insights blog, Help Center and Learning Portal for video learning. Support can also be found from us, or other Sprout customers, in our peer networking community, The Arboretum.

On G2, Hootsuite scored an 8.1 for quality of support compared to Sprout’s 8.7. Reviews call out that their customer service isn’t always easy to contact and can be slow to respond.

When it comes to live, immediate support, Sprout’s expansive service is a stand-out.

Sprout Social vs Hootsuite: Reporting and social listening

According to the 2025 Impact of Social Media Report, more than two-thirds (67%) of marketing leaders are confident that social media drives brand awareness—but far fewer feel confident in their team’s ability to connect social activity to those outcomes.

Many point to their tech stack as the culprit for underwhelming insights. That’s why choosing the right social media management platform is so critical. The right solution equips your team with the data and tools needed to translate social activity into meaningful business impact.

Let’s take a closer look at how Hootsuite and Sprout Social compare when it comes to uncovering actionable insights from social data.

Sprout leads Hootsuite in social listening

When it comes to social listening, Sprout sets the standard. On G2, Sprout outperforms Hootsuite with an 8.1 rating compared to 7.8, reflecting customer confidence in both the ease of use and the impact of our solution.

Sprout Social Listening is built to deliver high-impact insights in a fully unified, easy-to-use platform. Insights flow directly into the Smart Inbox, automated workflows and Premium Analytics dashboards, so teams can act without switching tools. With listening widgets embedded in Premium Analytics, brands get a complete view of brand health, campaigns and competitive activity in one place—no analyst required.

And with the recent acquisition of NewsWhip, Sprout is taking listening even further. By pairing NewsWhip’s predictive intelligence with our platform, brands and publishers gain a combined view of the media and social landscape. These insights help teams detect critical signals earlier, so they can take action with confidence.

Sprout leads Hootsuite in social media analytics

Accurate, actionable analytics are the foundation of any effective social strategy—and Sprout gives teams the edge. On G2, customers rate Sprout an 8.0 for social media analytics, compared to Hootsuite’s 7.8.

With Sprout, teams can create fully customized, presentation-ready reports in minutes using intuitive drag-and-drop widgets. Instead of relying on static, time-consuming exports, stakeholders can access live, interactive links to real-time, auto-updating reports—keeping everyone aligned without extra manual work. While Hootsuite offers reporting capabilities, they lack the same depth and flexibility.

Sprout also helps teams move from data to decisions faster with AI-powered insights. Our Analyze by AI Assist automatically surfaces key takeaways from performance data, accelerating time to insight and making it easier to share meaningful results across the organization.

What’s best for your brand, Sprout Social or Hootsuite?

Of course, we say Sprout is the best option, but that’s because we truly believe it. We don’t just provide a platform. We build innovative solutions, deliver fast ROI and offer customer support across several channels because we want to help businesses unlock the full power of social, faster.

Join the thousands of brands using Sprout to grow their business and sign up for a free, 30-day trial.

*The comparison data in this article is based on G2 data from 08/19/2025, unless stated otherwise.

FAQs

Which platform is better: Sprout Social or Hootsuite?

You know your brand and what your social team needs best. Still, we’re confident Sprout delivers deeper value, more impactful insights and streamlined workflows for mid-market to large enterprises. The reviews and our G2 accolades are proof.

Does Sprout Social offer a free trial?

Yes, we believe in our platform. But we’ve also always believed that customers should try before they buy. Try Sprout Social free for 30 days to see what it can bring to your team’s workflows, strategies and insights. And if you have questions, a customer support rep is just a phone call, chat or email away—24/5.

Is Sprout Social or Hootsuite more effective for managing multiple social media accounts?

Both Sprout Social and Hootsuite support managing multiple social media accounts, but the experience differs. Sprout’s Smart Inbox consolidates messages from all major networks into a single view, making it easier for teams to manage conversations at scale. Sprout also offers a more integrated engagement experience for TikTok and YouTube within the Smart Inbox, along with native review management included in every plan tier. These features give teams a more streamlined way to manage engagement across multiple accounts.