Sprout Social vs. Hootsuite: The best tool for your brand in 2024

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 06/27/2024, 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.

For their Best Software Awards, G2 combines Market Presence and Satisfaction scores to rank vendors. Sprout has earned G2 accolades and the high scores you’ll see in this article are from customer feedback.

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 has earned us accolades across the board, including G2’s 2024 Software Awards. Sprout was named #1 Best Software Product, which means we earned the number one spot compared across products in every software category, not just social media management.

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

Along with those historic accolades, Sprout secured over 200 badges from G2’s Summer 2024 Reports. Sprout ranked #1 in 88 reports, including the Grid® Report for Social Customer Service, Social Media Analytics, Social Media Suites, Social Media Listening Tools as well as the Enterprise Results Index for Social Media Management.

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

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.

But per the ratings on G2’s comparison page, Sprout was 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 7.5. Reviews have mentioned the platform’s UX and UI feels clunky and less streamlined than other scheduling tools.

Sprout continues to invest in R&D

Our Sprout’s mantra of “never stop growing” rings true. We prioritize new features and integrations by listening to the customer and maintaining an unrelenting focus on the social space. Team Sprout is forward-thinking because we understand the dynamic nature of social media and emerging challenges brands face.

Sprout’s 2023 acquisition of Repustate enables us to expand our in-house artificial intelligence (AI) offerings faster. And our integration with OpenAI’s GPT empowers customers to create more impactful content and analyses with AI-generated Listening queries and copy suggestions. These AI developments build on Sprout’s existing automation capabilities—like Optimal Send Times for publishing and our Social Listening solution. For example, Sprout’s AI Assist features are seamlessly integrated into our Publishing, Engagement and Listening solutions, empowering customers to work with intention and achieve greater impact.

Sprout also acquired Tagger, now Sprout Social Influencer Marketing, to enhance our customers’ ability to drive deeper insights from social and provide them with an all-in-one platform that offers AI-powered features and influencer marketing solutions.

Our dedication to innovation shines through our continued investment in customer care functionality like Social Customer Care by Sprout Social, too. Sprout’s Case Management solution enables teams to provide faster, more expedient support. It streamlines the handling of inbound messages across networks, integrations, geographies and languages so your service agents can provide better service in less time. And with automation built into Sprout’s platform, the load from manual work lightens even more so your teams can focus their time on what’s most important—nuturing customer relationships.

We’re always looking for solutions and integrations that help our customers work smarter. Sprout’s Salesforce Service Cloud integration streamlines Salesforce users’ social media and customer care efforts. And our TikTok integration eliminated inefficient steps for social teams as they started investing more into this channel.

Team Sprout doesn’t just form a vision—we weave our innovations into the customer experience so they can create a memorable brand experience.

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 8.4 score. In Sprout reviews, customers describe our platform as “intuitive and visual,” “easy to navigate,” “user-friendly” and “really easy 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 expands, it’s imperative that your tools are easy to learn and start using quickly. Sprout scored an 8.7 for ease of setup on G2, compared to Hootsuite’s score of 8.4.

Your team can test how Sprout enhances their workflow before you commit. Start your 30-day free trial so your team can try before you buy.

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Ease of admin

For ease of admin, Sprout earned an 8.8. And in Summer 2024, we were recognized with G2’s “Most Implementable” 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’s team was incredibly helpful in allowing us to run a pilot so we understood how to use the tool, onboarding our 100’s of social accounts and ensuring we knew how to use all of the most relevant features for our small team to accomplish our social goals. The software is also social first—their roadmap has some great features we’re looking forward to using.

– Holly S., 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 8.0 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: Competitor analysis

There’s a reason 40% of brands use social data for competitive insights. Analyzing your competitors’ social performance informs your strategy by assessing how you stack up and how your strategy needs to evolve.

This type of analysis is crucial if you want a proactive edge over your competitors. To do this efficiently, you need a tool that provides greater visibility into their performance.

Let’s compare Hootsuite vs. Sprout Social competitor analysis.

Sprout leads Hootsuite in competitor analysis

On G2, Sprout outranked Hootsuite for competitor analysis for social analytics and listening.

Sprout scored an 8.0 for competitor analysis for Social Analytics for Social Media Analytics Software and an 8.0 in competitor analysis for Monitoring and Listening for Social Media Listening Tools. Compare this to Hootsuite’s scores of 7.5 and 7.6, respectively.

To strengthen your brand’s market position, your competitive analysis efforts have to be agile and scalable. Sprout’s suite of competitor analytics tools and reports uncovers high-sophistication, clearly-presented insights that have business-wide impact.

Uncover competitor insights with Sprout’s competitive analysis reports

Comparing your performance to your competitors’ side-by-side gives you a sense of where your brand excels and where there’s room to improve. Sprout offers multiple ways for you to hone in on and present the data that matters.

Sprout’s customizable reports enable social teams to use preferred metrics, including competitor data. On G2, our report customizability stood out against the competition, scoring an 8.1 against Hootsuite’s 7.9.

Our automated competitor reports give you a holistic view of your competitors’ performance. Sprout’s Cross-Network Competitor Performance and Competitor Posts Reports provide a broad view of your competitors’ channel and content data.

If your team is focused on certain priority-specific channels, our Competitors by Network Reports enable you to dig into competitor performance on Facebook, Instagram and X (formerly known as Twitter).

Finally, if you want a qualitative, high-level comparison, tap into Sprout’s Social Listening. Run a competitor Listening analysis to uncover your share of voice against your competitors, sentiment comparison and more to share with leadership.

Sprout Social vs. Hootsuite: ROI

Social media management platforms are a key investment. The quicker you see the investment pay off for your team, the better equipped your team is to collaborate and uncover valuable data that grows your business.

Let’s see how quick that return is for Sprout.

Sprout Social has a faster ROI vs. Hootsuite

Sprout customers see their return on investment (ROI) faster than our competitors’ customers. According to G2’s Enterprise Grid® report for Summer 2024, Sprout customers’ payback period after adopting the platform is about 13 months for enterprise users.

Compare that to the 19 months it takes for Hootsuite’s enterprise customers to see ROI. It’s clear that with Sprout, you and your team see the value from your investment faster.

Sprout Social is the winner for helping teams prove their impact

Proving ROI is one of the top challenges for social teams, according to The 2023 Sprout Social Index™. But it’s one of the most direct ways to prove the business impact of social.

Proving ROI starts with best-in-class social media analytics. For social reporting within the Data Management and Analysis for Social Media Listening Tools category, Sprout Social scored 8.7. Hootsuite scored 7.9.

Our analytics tools are designed to make reporting on social data and proving ROI easier. Our portfolio of ready-made reports presents your key data in clear visuals. And our Publishing tool enables UTM tracking within the scheduling workflow, making it easier to attribute wins to your social efforts.

*The comparison data in this article is based on G2 data from 06/27/2024, unless stated otherwise.

FAQs

Which platform is better: Sprout Social or Hootsuite?

You are the expert on your brand and what will meet your social team’s needs. But we’re confident in our platform’s ability to deliver deeper value, more impactful data and streamlined workflows to our satisfied customer base of more than 30,000 innovative brands. 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.