Top 8 Hootsuite Alternatives for Social Media Management (2022)

We all know that social media marketing is a must for a brand, no matter if it finds itself in a B2B or B2C niche. It’s also a lot of fun – you get to create engaging content and interact with your followers.

But with all the fun also comes responsibility – you need to track your data, build a content strategy, follow a strict schedule, and continuously optimize your performance. 

On top of that, social media management can turn into real hell. A normally inexpensive social media marketing strategy can start leaking money if you don’t allocate your resources correctly. 

So, what should you do?

Turn to automation for help, of course. Luckily, there is no shortage of solutions. Take Hootsuite, for example – it has all the tools you need to run social media successfully. 

That said, Hootsuite can also be quite costly, especially if your brand is running on a shoestring budget. 

If this is your case, don’t worry – we have a list of eight best social media management alternatives to Hootsutie with prices fit for every pocket.

What is Hootsuite?

Before we jump to the list of other options, we need to figure out what Hootsuite can do for your business and which features it offers. 

Hootsuite is a social media management and CRM platform that helps strengthen your presence on social networks. It has many features that both businesses and agencies will find useful. 

The list of Hootsuite solutions includes:

• Content marketing scheduling
• Social inbox – managing all incoming messages from your followers
• Data monitoring and analytics
• Ad campaign management
• Competitor analysis and brand monitoring

This platform integrates with all popular social media services:

Most people praise this solution for its dashboard – it’s intuitive, keeps all the data up-to-date, and there is no need to switch between social media accounts. You can also run Hootsuite with the Teams feature, which allows you to collaborate and schedule content for the upcoming months. 

If you’re using Instagram for your business a lot, Hootsuite will also be an excellent addition to your toolkit. Using its mobile app, you can schedule Instagram Stories – the platform will upload them automatically, and you won’t have to break a sweat. 

The Hootsuite feature we personally adore is its data management solution. You get the freshest updates on your social media performance, which helps you better understand your social media presence. 

Now, what about the prices?

Hootsuite has a free trial which gives you access to all tools with certain limitations. If you need more features, you need to choose from one of these pricing plans:

As you can see, the Hootsuite pricing starts at $19 a month, which is not very expensive even for a small startup. However, you might need additional features such as Teams, 24/7 priority support, and more reporting options. This is one of the reasons why people consider Hootsuite alternatives, and you can check out the best of them below.

1. Buffer

The first on our list of Hootsuite competitors is Buffer. It is an all-in-one social media management software that allows you to create your strategy from scratch. You get to plan content, analyze your activities, interact with followers, and boost engagement – all without leaving Buffer’s dashboard. 

One thing that differentiates Buffer from Hootsuite is that Buffer’s solution already has a built-in collaboration tool. Your team of marketers can work on post drafts, assign tasks, and run campaigns without switching between social media profiles.

Buffer features

Now, what does Buffer offer to its users?

Essentially, the list is the same as with Hootsuite:

• Schedule and publish content
• Create social media posts
• Analyze social media performance
• Navigate comments and messages to interact with the followers
• Track brand mentions across several social media channels

The scheduling feature, for instance, is very easy to use – you can upload content and write a post right in the calendar, and the tool will upload it automatically:

The best part is that this scheduling feature is actually free, and most users praise it for delivering to their expectations. Another perk that customers highlight is the ability to post across multiple channels at once and collaborate on social media campaigns in real time. 

One more great feature buffer has is an Android and iOS-friendly app. Thus, if you need to manage an urgent task, you can do it on the go. Besides, it’s also very convenient as it sends notifications right to your phone.

Buffer pricing

How expensive is Buffer?

Not too expensive, if you ask our opinion. You can use it as a free alternative to Hootsuite, and the free version allows you to:

• Connect up to three social media profiles
• Schedule 10 posts per channel a month
• Add one user

Sure, the Essentials plan, which costs $5 a month, allows access to more benefits. Compare these two subscription options:

You can also purchase the Team Pack add-on, which allows adding unlimited team members and clients, drafting workflows, and creating informative analytics reports.

2. SocialPilot

The runner-up on our list is SocialPilot. It’s a social media management platform with the features to create, schedule, and update social media content and analyze your activities in real time. 

SocialPilot is one of those marketing tools that integrate with TikTok. You can use it to create a TikTok strategy from scratch, run advertising campaigns and collaborate with influencers while growing your following base.

SocialPilot features

Here’s what you can do with this management tool:

• Social media scheduling
• Bulk scheduling
• Content planning with social media calendar
• Content curation
• RSS Feed automation

Like Buffer and Hootsuite, SocialPilot also allows you to create a post without leaving the platform. However, SocialPilot has a noticeable perk – integration with Canva:

This is the above-mentioned Content Curation feature in action – you can create and collaborate on posts with other social media marketers in real time. This feature can also come in handy during influencer marketing campaigns. 

Another perk that most users love is SocialPilot’s integration with over 75 social media networks. No, it’s not a mistake – you can connect your social media accounts, messengers, and profiles on forums like Reddit and Quora. All for the sake of more efficient social media marketing. 

What other benefits do you get to enjoy?

Integration with Zapier can also be quite helpful.

SocialPilot pricing

SocialPilot has plans for businesses of different sizes:

If your brand is small, we recommend the Professional plan. It allows adding up to 10 social media profiles, gives access to all content curation and scheduling features, enables multiple image posts, and provides a URL shortener (among many other things).

Not sure if SocialPilot is for you?

Start with a free trial – it is available for 14 days, no credit card required.

3. CoSchedule

CoSchedule is a marketing suite that not only helps manage social media activity but your entire marketing strategy in general. Its strongest suit is content curation – CoSchedule has tools for planning, content ideation, and scheduling. 

If you are interested in automating social media posts, CoSchedule is also a solid option to consider. All you need to do is add your content to the calendar, set the time, and voila – your post is published.

CoSchedule features

This solution has two main products:

• Content calendar
• Marketing suite (includes calendar, content, work, and asset organizers)

So, you can use CoSchedule solely as a post scheduler or opt for a marketing toolkit to run all marketing activities. The Marketing Suite also allows team collaboration, making it possible for you and your colleagues to work on posts and track campaigns. 

Most positive reviews praise CoSchedule for its visualization features, primarily when it comes to analytics and reporting. Users can track all social media accounts on one dashboard page and even get a comparative analysis of all profiles. 

Apart from paid tools, you can also take advantage of CoSchedule’s ROI Calculator:

Your task is to answer four questions regarding your industry, company, your marketing team’s top problem, and the current marketing stack you’re using. CoSchedule then calculates your answers and compares them to the real customer feedback. As a result, you get the ROI you can achieve if you start using CoSchedule:

This is a nice tool to see the real value this platform can deliver.

CoSchedule pricing

CoSchedule has a free trial with limited features, but it works only for the Content Calendar tool. If you like the calendar and want to keep using it, it costs $29 a month. The situation is a bit different with the Marketing Suite solution:

As you can see, there is no pre-set price for the Marketing Suite. You need to contact the sales team, and they will determine the cost based on your marketing goals and needs.

4. Sendible

If your goal is to grow your social media following base, then Sendible is the right tool for it. The main purpose of this solution is to help you run your social media activities to grow your audience via informative reports and detailed analytics. 

The Integrations package Sendible offers is definitely its strongest suit. It connects with the most popular social media networks (except TikTok) and can import data from Google Analytics, manage your assets in Dropbox, and supply you with numerous content suggestions.

Sendible features

Sendible has a bunch of helpful social media management features:

• Unified dashboard with intuitive user interface
• Social media publishing and content curation
• Team collaboration
• Social media analytics
• Social listening and brand mentions monitoring

Sendible’s dashboard is indeed very unique – it offers a wide variety of graphs to help you better understand your social media performance. For instance, this graph illustrates how you can track brand mentions:

You can see positive, negative, and neutral feedback in proportions, which helps show how people generally perceive your brand’s activity online. 

What do users say?

The G2 reviews praise Sendible for its Content Suggestions feature, which can especially come in handy if you’re running an agency and need to supply your clients with content ideas. 

Some customers also like Sendible’s RSS Feed feature – the tool uses a special integration to load all content from RSS feeds into one dashboard. As a result, you can collect brand mentions from forums in a blink of an eye.

Sendible pricing

You can start using Sendible by subscribing to a 14-day free trial that gives you access to all features. Also, no credit card is required, which is a definitive perk. 

Paid plans start at $25 a month (if you choose a yearly subscription, you save 15%):

If your business only has one person in the marketing department, then the Creator plan is perfect for you – it allows connecting up to six social profiles and generating unlimited reports.

5. AgoraPulse

Over 31K social media managers use this tool – at least that’s what the AgoraPulse homepage says. Indeed, the tool is very popular, and for a good reason. AgoraPulse is one of the most versatile tools for social media management. 

What makes this solution different from Sendible, CoSchedule, Buffer, SocialPilot, and Hootsuite?

First of all, its intuitive publishing solution. You can use it to collaborate with your colleagues on creating a big-picture content overview, which your marketing team can later use to analyze and grow your social media presence. 

On top of that, you will love AgoraPulse if you’re an agency owner. You can use it to work with your clients in real time, approve content plans, schedule posts, and analyze their activity via a single dashboard.

AgoraPulse features

AgoraPulse’s toolkit includes the following key features:

• Social Media Inbox
• Social Media Publishing
• Social Media Monitoring
• Social Media Reporting

You can also use AgoraPulse to understand your social media followers better. You can filter them by activity and find the profiles that are more likely to become brand ambassadors (if you’re planning to launch such a campaign in the future). 

When it comes to content publishing, AgoraPulse is pretty straightforward. You can write a post and preview it in the same window, which is very handy. Next, simply use the social media scheduling tool to upload your content:

Most users also like AgoraPulse for allowing them to track all social media accounts via one dashboard without having to switch between profiles. Some also praise its Social Inbox and Brand Monitoring features. All in all, AgoraPulse has everything you need to manage your social media strategy.

AgoraPulse pricing

For everyone who wants to give AgoraPulse a try but is not ready to commit to a full subscription, the platform offers access to a 30-day free trial, no credit card needed. If you like AgoraPulse, you can choose one of the following plans:

You can keep using AgoraPulse’s free plan, but it only allows one user and has limited features.

6. SproutSocial

SproutSocial is one of the old-timers in the social media management market. It is similar to Hootsuite in that it can help you schedule and plan social media content. However, there are several other features, which make SproutSocial superior to other tools. 

First and foremost, this platform has a different set of solutions for an enterprise, a small business, and an agency. It’s convenient since there is no one-size-fits-all approach in social media marketing. 

On top of that, SproutSocial’s sales team can create a custom plan depending on your industry, which can help you win over bigger audiences and outrun competitors on social networks.

SproutSocial features

You can take advantage of the following automation tools by subscribing to SproutSocial:

• Publishing and scheduling
• Content curation
• Social inbox
• Brand mentions tracking
• Analytics
• Social listening
• A helpful Chrome extension

Apart from that, you can also use Sprout Social to run employee advocacy campaigns. The platform has specially created a solution called Bambu that allows your employees to share curated content on their social networks, improving your reach and growing your follower base. 

SproutSocial has an intuitive, user-friendly interface that helps you easily access all your social media profiles and connect other team members to work on content:

Users absolutely adore SproutSocial for its Analytics functionality. The platform delivers excellent in-depth reports helping you spot the gaps in your social media strategy and identify growth opportunities. 

SproutSocial also gives you an opportunity to track your audience activity. As a result, you can identify the best times to post on TikTok, Instagram, and other social media platforms.

SproutSocial pricing

Sprout Social has a 30-day free trial with limited features. There’s also an option to request a demo if you’re planning to purchase a custom plan. The most basic subscription costs $89/month (if paid annually):

You can also purchase advanced features like Listening, Advanced Analytics, and the Employee Advocacy tool.

7. Later

Later is an all-in-one social media management tool that connects to Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, LinkedIn, and TikTok. However, the main focus of this platform is on Instagram – Later even has an Instagram Training program for businesses. 

Most users praise Later for offering the same functionalities as CoSchedule and Hootsuite for lower prices. So, if your budget is tight, this platform is more cost-effective. But let’s talk about prices later and take a look at Later’s main features first.

Later features

The platform’s toolkit includes the following solutions:

• Scheduling
• Instagram analytics
• Linkin.bio (shoppable blocks)
• Curation of user-generated content
• Instagram Stories
• Instagram hashtags
• Pinterest scheduling
• LinkedIn scheduling
• TikTok scheduling

Later’s homepage claims that its main asset is the dashboard that focuses primarily on visualization. And indeed, the calendar is entirely visual, customizable, and allows you to review posts without clicking on them:

You can also upload all your visual assets to the Media Library and download them any time you want. If you’re not sure how to operate the dashboard, there’s a Learning Center available to all users. 

If you’re striving to improve social media engagement and reach, Later can help you achieve that, thanks to its Hashtag analyzer. It provides hashtag suggestions based on your follower’s preferences and supplies you with hashtag analytics to find the most popular options. 

Finally, we cannot forget to mention Later’s social media analytics solution. You can use it to track your presence. This tool also generates reports with insights into your social media growth.

Later pricing

Later is available for free for an unlimited time. The access to features will be limited, though. Paid plans start at $8 a month:

The most optimal plan is the Starter pack, which includes:

• 1 user
• 60 posts per profile
• Unlimited hashtag suggestions
• Multi-profile scheduling tool
• Media editing

However, if you need more advanced analytics, for instance, on your Instagram Stories, choose Growth or Advanced packs.

8. eClincher

The final pick on our list is eClincher – a social media marketing and management platform to help you manage brand reach and grow your reputation online. This solution connects to the most popular social media networks like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google My Business, Pinterest. It also integrates with Google Analytics to create reports. 

The most outstanding feature of eClincher is its customer support. It’s available to users 24/7 regardless of your plan. The tool is perfect for franchises, small, medium businesses, enterprises, and agencies. If you’re a solo entrepreneur, you will also find it helpful.

eClincher features

The list of eClincher’s features includes:

• Publishing and scheduling posts
• Visual calendar
• Auto-post with smart queues
• Auto-post with RSS feeds
• Social media campaign manager
• Bulk upload and scheduling
• Instagram drag-and-drop
• Link shortener and tracker
• Visual library and editor
• Social Inbox
• Collaboration
• Advanced analytics and reporting
• Reputation management

As you can see, the list is quite extensive. Thankfully, you can choose the set of features based on specific plans for small and medium businesses and for agencies and enterprises. 

EClincher’s dashboard is also very easy to use. You can create content without resorting to other tools and add visuals such as free animated gifs. You can also edit your visuals thanks to the integrations with Canva and Wave Video:

When you’re done with the post draft, you can schedule it based on the time your audience is most active. As a result, you have yourself a perfect digital marketing solution. 

Users also like eClincher for the Social Inbox that helps manage all social media accounts at once. People also enjoy the hashtag effectiveness reporting feature, brand monitoring, social listening, and post queues. 

Finally, agencies will love the ability to get client approvals without having them log in first. You can simply share the URL, through which they can see, edit, comment, approve, and reject posts.

eClincher pricing

If you’re not sure whether eClincher is the right tool for you, start with the free trial – you don’t have to enter your credit card details. The most affordable plan starts at $59 a month:

The most basic plan gives you access to all integrations but allows only 10 social profiles and no access to the content library. If you need an Enterprise plan, contact the sales team.

Now Over to You

So, what’s the best Hootsuite alternative?

It wouldn’t be fair to speak in favor of the solutions we’ve listed in our article – all of them offer enough functionalities to create a successful social media marketing strategy. 

How do you choose the right one for your company?

First and foremost, think about your budget. If you’re a small business, don’t splurge on big subscription packs simply because you won’t need so many add-ons and features. 

And, of course, consider your social media goals. Whether you need to get more followers, optimize your content, or outrun competitors – these details will help you determine the right plan for your needs. 

Wondering what other tools can come in handy in digital marketing? Stay tuned for more similar content pieces on our blog!