15 Best Hootsuite Alternatives for 2024: Tried & Tested

15 Best Hootsuite Alternatives for 2024 Tried & Tested

Been using Hootsuite for years but want to try another social media tool? Or are you an overcharged customer of Hootsuite who is not satisfied with the features and looking for the best alternatives? If that sounds like you, then this tried and tested list of Hootsuite alternatives is exactly what you are looking for.

In the social media world, staying on top consistently can be challenging. But the right tool can make things easy. Hootsuite has been a big name for years. Initially launched in 2010, it currently has more than 18 million users. But it is not the only option in 2024.

If you are looking for something fresh and effective, keep reading as this will be your one stop guide. We have been testing Hootsuite alternatives for quite a time. Recently, we have completed our testing and found many free and paid alternatives to Hootsuite.

Why Look for a Hootsuite Alternatives?

Despite Hootsuite’s popularity, a number of users now find Hootsuite either overpriced or lacking advanced features and effective customer support.

As Businesses grow, they look for something more advanced, cost-effective, and reliable, and that is where alternatives come in. Here are some of the concerns people raised on multiple social media platforms.

Rising Costs

Hootsuite stopped offering extensive free plans in 2021. The company still offers a limited free plan but that is not worth it. Paid plans start right from $129 per month, which is even more than the highest price of some tools. 

Many users, especially small businesses and freelancers, feel they are extremely overcharged for the services. They feel paying too much for the features they may not fully use. If you are managing only a few social accounts or working with a tight budget, Hootsuite’s high prices can seem excessive.

Limited Features

Hootsuite’s basic plan offers quite limited features, such as no AI writing assistance and a lack of automated workflow. Advanced features, such as team collaboration, in-depth analytics, and additional integrations with tools like Canva, are locked behind a high price barrier.

Many paid and free Hootsuite alternatives offer these advanced features at an affordable price, even include these features in their basic plan.

Overwhelming Interface

Hootsuite presents an extensive interface, which sometimes leads to confusion, especially for new users. It packs a lot in a single interface and it may become difficult to navigate to other features. Due to this, users might face some technical complexities and glitches in the beginning.

So, if you are looking for a tool that is easier to navigate or has a simple design to understand, it might be the right time to consider another Hootsuite alternative.

Lack of Innovation

While it is still considered the leader in social media management, some old users feel the platform has not evolved its UI and advanced features since its debut.

Newer platforms come with innovative features such as AI-driven analytics, writing assistance, automation tools, or better integration with modern apps to uplift the overall experience of social media management.

Customer Support Issues

Several users showed frustration over delays and unhelpful customer support agents. For businesses that need quick fixes or immediate attention, this can be a major drawback. Here I am quoting Aimee F., a Hootsuite user’s feedback from a forum:

“Takes weeks to hear from anyone, including their chatbot. No issue is taken seriously. It has been months of an unusable platform, ignored via email and chat, without any resolution in sight.”

Many Hootsuite alternatives often provide flawless customer support, forcing the existing users to shift to other platforms.

15 Best Hootsuite Alternatives for 2024

Let’s discover the best available alternatives to Hootsuite that meet your specific needs and demands

1. Buffer

a screenshot of a social media post

Buffer is known for its simplicity. It is an all-in-one social media management tool that offers multiple accounts from a single dashboard. It is an excellent option for smaller teams or individuals, while Hootsuite offers more complex features.

Unlike Hootsuite, Buffer allows many third-party app integrations like Canva, Slack, and MailChimp, Discord, and HubSpot. The integration feature makes it an all-in-one tool, making it an ideal for those who want a more focused, streamlined tool, whereas Hootsuite provides broader functionalities.

Buffer offers a free plan which is not seen in Hootsuite. It offers 10 posts per social media channel at a time for an unlimited period.

Key Features of Buffer

Easy-to-understand interface

Content scheduling across multiple platforms

Analytics for engagement and reach

Instagram story scheduling

Team collaboration tools

Customizable posting time

Social media content calendar

Additionally, Buffer offers a Start Page facility to build a customizable landing page in a quick time.

Price Comparison with Hootsuite

When comparing the prices, Buffer offers an affordable and flexible plan as compared to Hootsuite. Buffer’s pricing starts at $6 per social channel per month in ‘Essential Plan’ making it ideal for small teams and individuals.

In contrast, Hootsuite’s professional plan starts at $99 per month for up to 10 social media profiles which can be costly if you are running a small team.

Why Choose Buffer?

Buffer is a strong option if you are looking for a lightweight, budget-friendly tool. It helps you schedule posts and analyze the performance based on user engagement with an easy to understand interface. It is particularly useful for small businesses, individuals, and freelancers.

2. Sprout Social

a screenshot of a Sprout Social

Sprout Social is another tool suitable for large companies and businesses. Sprout Social may seem more expensive than Hootsuite, but it offers advanced features such as content planning, team collaboration and social listening capabilities.

Additionally, Sprout Social supports unlimited social profiles in its Professional plan. Hootsuite, on the other hand, only allows 20 social accounts in its Team plan, which is similar in price. The Enterprise plan allows 50 profiles. If you are running a bulk of social media accounts, then bearing a few more pennies for advanced features will not hurt the bank.

Social Sprout also provides some extra features which you do not find on Hootsuite. One of them is social CRM which provides you all the necessary information about your social media users. A bot builder provided in Sprout Social, helps you to build your own robotic bots and customize the social media automation process.

I found that Hootsuite, with its ‘best time to post’ feature, still stands out in the list of social media marketing tools. Sprout Social does offer this feature but not with that accuracy and not personalized for different goals.

Key Features of Sprout Social

Advanced social media analytics and reporting to help you make adjustments to future content planning

Social listening tools for tracking the industry’s latest trends and growing sentiment of the public about your brand

CRM integration for customer data management

Unified inbox for multiple social media platforms, making it easy to answer public queries and DMs

Team collaboration on tasks such as making a content calendar helps streamline the tasks and distribution among the team members

Automated content publishing and scheduling tools take extra burden off your shoulders

Unlimited social profiles on the Professional plan and above

Price Comparison

Sprout Social’s pricing starts at $249 per month, which is significantly higher than Hootsuite’s Professional plan price. But Sprout Social with advanced features like social listening, detailed reporting, and customer relationship management (CRM) tools, justifies its high price.

Why Choose Sprout Social?

If your business thrives on detailed analytics and you are running more than 50 social media profiles, Sprout Social is the best choice for you. It is ideal for large businesses and teams that prioritize data-driven strategies. Sendible stands at the top in the list of Hootsuite alternatives.

3. Later

a screenshot of a later

Later is a social media scheduling platform, primarily designed for visual content platforms like Instagram but also supports Facebook, Pinterest, TikTok, and LinkedIn. The only social media platform supported by Hootsuite but not by Later, is YouTube.

Later is the ideal option for users who prioritize Instagram and other visual-based content platforms. The simple and easy-to-understand interface, along with the Creator Database, all at an affordable price, makes it a winner in the Later vs Hootsuite race.

Creator Database helps in influencer marketing and makes it easy for both influencers and brands to find each other. Influencers can register and join Creator Database with their targeted niche. Brands can easily identify the best suitable influencer for their products.

Later’s Calendar offers a drag-and-drop post-creation feature with ideal posting time and date suggestions. Later also offers ‘Access Groups’ or shared workplaces where team members can communicate about their roles and make necessary adjustments.

Key Features of Later

Visual Calendar for scheduling Instagram, Pinterest, and TikTok posts

Access Groups for better team communication and workflows

Drag-and-drop post-creation

Link-in-bio tool for driving traffic to your blogs or websites from Instagram

Media library for easy content creation

Analytics and hashtag suggestions

Later Pricing

Later offers a way more affordable pricing structure compared to Hootsuite. Later’s starter plan starts at $18 per month with 1 social set and 30 posts per profile.

Why Choose Later?

Later, with its drag-and-drop post creation and visual calendar features, it proved to be the best for visual platforms. If your strategy revolves around visual platforms like Instagram and TikTok, Later is an ideal option for you at an affordable price.

4. Agorapulse

Agorapulse

While Hootsuite focuses on content management and scheduling, Agorapulse makes your interaction with the audience easier. However, you can still perform all the functions with Agorapulse that you used to do with Hootsuite, but at a much lower price.

It also helps you manage multiple tasks, such as keyword monitoring, content publishing, social listening to analyze public sentiment and social media analytics. The feature I like the most about Agorapulse is the integration with Google Analytics. It tells you about money spent on ads and the revenue generated with it.

It is an ideal option for individuals but can be expensive for large teams, as Agorapulse charges per member and may lack advanced AI and automation tools.

Key Features

Unified inbox that manages all your social media conversations and assigns tasks to team members with inbox assistant rules

Plan, create, schedule posts, and publish to all your social media platforms, including Facebook, Twitter (X), Instagram, and Linkedin

Track brand mentions, hashtags, and users’ sentiments from discussions on forums and comments with social listening

With team collaboration features, it assigns tasks and responds to comments and DMs as a team

Create customizable reports on social media performance, competitor analysis, and audience engagement

Agorapulse Price

Starts at $49 per month for the Standard plan which includes 10 social profiles and up to 2 users. It is cheaper than the $99 Hootsuite plan with 10 social accounts and 1 user.

Why Choose Agorapulse

If your social media goal is to improve social engagement and customer interaction, Agorapulse is the best option for you. The tool’s unified inbox is perfect for managing messages and comments in one place. It is more cost effective than Hootsuite and offers advanced features like social listening and CRM integration at a lower price.

5. Zoho Social

a screenshot of Zoho Social

After testing both Zoho Social and Hootsuite, what stood out to me about Zoho Social is its affordability and ease of use. Zoho Social provides all the essential social media management features, but at a fraction of the cost compared to Hootsuite.

What I found best about Zoho Social is its simple interface, which is quite easy to understand and navigate to different features as compared to Hootsuite. It makes your marketing journey stress free.

Zoho Social seamlessly integrates with the rest of the Zoho suite, like Zoho CRM and this is a huge plus if you are already using their tools. It comes with a free version to ensure everybody gets to use Zoho Social to grow on social media, whereas the free feature is not offered by Hootsuite.

In addition to a whole free version, Zoho Social also offers a 15-day free trial to explore the products without making a purchase. It makes it easy to access the tool and make a decision. You do not need to add any credit card information to get the free trial.

On the other hand, Hootsuite asks for credit card information. You can still continue with the free version of Zoho Social after the free trial with limited features, but you are not allowed to continue the free trial in Hootsuite.

Another thing I found about Zoho Social is that in addition to traditional social media apps like, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Twitter (X). It also supports Mastodon which is not supported by Hootsuite.

Key Features

Schedule and publish posts across major social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and many more

Efficient team collaboration features allow you to work with your team by assigning roles and permissions, which is perfect for large businesses and agencies managing multiple social media accounts

Lets you keep track of brand mentions, keywords, and competitors to stay on top of your industry’s social conversations

Generate customizable reports on engagement, reach, and audience growth for a better understanding of your audience and their preferences

Allows integration with Zoho CRM, which is a plus sign, and it helps you manage leads and customer interaction effectively

Drag-and-drop content calendar simplifies the organization of upcoming posts and helps you simplify your planning process

Zoho Social Price

In comparison to Hootsuite, Zoho Social saves you 84.9% which is huge, isn’t it? Zoho Social starts at $10 per month for the standard plan which is way less than Hootsuite’s $99 basic plan. It offers a budget-friendly alternative for small teams and businesses. Must try this tool if you are looking for some good Hootsuite alternatives.

Why Choose Zoho Social

After testing the tool with this price range, I can tell you that if you are looking for Hootsuite alternatives free or low-cost, Zoho Social is a fantastic option to continue with. What I will appreciate the most about Zoho Social is its seamless integration with Zoho tools. Especially integration with Zoho CRM makes it a perfect choice for businesses already using Zoho tools.

6. Sendible

a screenshot of a website

After using this 4 times cheaper tool than Hootsuite, I found Sendible as one of the best alternatives to Hootsuite. It offers all the features that you can find in Hootsuite. Sendible stands out with its strong focus on client management, automation, and reporting.

Another thing I noticed about Sendible is that it streamlines management of multiple client accounts with a unified inbox and customizable client dashboards. Sendible automates the entire process from topic research, content creation, hashtags and keywords suggestions, and analytics. Sendible also offers a shared content library which is extremely helpful for large teams.

In comparison, Hootsuite does not offer deep automation features and client specific tools that Sendible offers. Sendible’s integration with many third-party tools like Canva and Google Drive further simplifies content creation and management.

Key Features of Sendible

Automated Posting and Scheduling: Easily manage and automate your recurring tasks like posting content across social media platforms from a single dashboard

Unified Social Inbox: Manage all the comments, queries, and inboxes from a single inbox connected with all of your social media platforms and streamline client communication

Client Dashboard and White Label Reports: Set up custom dashboards and reports for clients, making it easy to showcase your social performance

Social Listening Tools: Track hashtags, mentions, and competitors to see what actual users are talking about you and stay updated on industry trends and your brand’s reputation

Integration with Canva and Google Drive: Integrate directly from Sendible’s dashboard with Canva to automate the content creation process and with Google Drive to access and easily manage your data

Team Collaboration: Make plans, assign roles to team members, track their performance, and make an ideal workflow

Sendible Pricing

The standard plan starts at $29 per month, which allows 1 user to use their 6 services. The plan is scalable based on the number of accounts and team members. You can get a 14-day free trial if you want to try this Hootsuite alternative.

Sendible is still a cheaper option with all the necessary tools. In contrast, Hootsuite’s monthly pricing is 31% higher than the annual ones.

Why Choose Sendible

 I will pick Sendible over the war with Hootsuite. I found Sendible more efficient than Hootsuite in case of managing multiple clients and social accounts. It’s a blessing card for large agencies and businesses. Because of its automation features, integrations with Canva and Google My Business, client dashboards, and, most importantly, its ability to generate white-label reports, Sendile is one of the best Hootsuite alternatives.

I particularly admire the time-saving tools like auto-posting and social listening in the Sendible. It helps you understand growing public sentiment about your brand. So, it’s a win-win situation and a tool you must try as a Hootsuite-free alternative for 14 days.

7. SocialBee

Socialbee

After trying SocialBee, I found it to be the best Hootsuite alternative. It is a perfect fit for those who are in need of a strong content organization and scheduling tool at lower cost. While Hootsuite is good at general social media management, SocialBee focuses on content categorization and automation.

This feature makes it an ideal Hootsuite alternative for businesses focused on creating consistent content. SocialBee also offers AI image generation, AI post customization, content categorization, and hashtag collections which are not offered by Hootsuite.

Why I love SocialBee is because it allows you to categorize posts into different relevant content groups. This makes content planning for your social media much easier, especially when you want to keep a balanced mix of promotional and engaging content.

Compared to Hootsuite, SocialBee simplifies content management and gives better control over the posting schedule. For those exploring Hootsuite alternatives, free or budget-friendly options, SocialBee stands out as the best.

Key Features

Content Categorization: Organize your posts into relevant categories like educational, promotional, and evergreen content for easier scheduling

Automated Scheduling: Automate your posting across social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and X (Twitter) with the best time to post suggested by the tool for each social network

Evergreen Content Recycling: Keep your best-performing content in rotation by automatically re-posting it at the right intervals to stay visible to the target audience

Content Calendar: Create visually appealing content and schedule it to be posted at the right time and day without worrying about posting it manually

Team Collaboration: Assign tasks and collaborate with your team to streamline content creation and scheduling process

Analytics and Reporting: Analyze the performance of your existing content with optimized reports and streamline your future content planning

SocialBee Pricing

SocialBee starts at $19 per month for 5 social profiles and 1 workspace, offering a 21 times lower price than the starting price of Hootsuite ($99). If you are planning to try some Hootsuite alternatives, must try this out!

Why Choose SocialBee

Automated posting and content categorization with accuracy is what made my social media life so easy. You can benefit from this tool too! It is a lot easier to organize and automate content with this tool than with Hootsuite.

If you deal with evergreen content that needs posting on recurring phases, SocialBee is the best Hootsuite alternative for you. It offers more affordable pricing plans than Hootsuite, making it an ideal choice for individual and small businesses.

8. MeetEdger

Meetedgar

Another one on the list of Hootsuite alternatives that excels at automation and recycling of evergreen content. It helps make your best content visible without constantly having to reschedule again.

When I started using this tool, it quickly became clear to me that MeetEdger was specially designed for evergreen content reporting with minimal or no manual input. MeetEdger offers a vibrant rescheduling recurring publication calendar to streamline your content republication.

MeetEdger also suggests you more ideas from a single post and enhances your content strategy. I also admired its autopilot feature. If you have blog posts, promotional, and educational content that stays relevant to audience interests, MeetEdger ensures you get the most benefit out of this content by automatically republishing it at the right intervals. It is where Meetedger beats Hootsuite.

Anyone wanting to adopt a more automated approach to republish content, MeetEdger is an ideal tool for you. Especially, if you are searching for Hootsuite alternatives that help you get the most out of your existing content.

MeetEdger offers a web extension to help you pick unique content and ideas from different web sources and add them to your library or queue. You can use them to recreate some pieces of engaging content.

Key Features

Customizable Posting Times: Choose the best time and date for your content scheduling for each social media platform so you have more chances of visibility

Content Import: Easily import content from your blogs, RSS feeds, or social accounts to build a library of your most user-engaged content and set it to reschedule for more reach

Category-Based Scheduling: Organize your content into different categories like blogs, posts, promotions, or tips and create a balanced posting schedule

Auto- Variations: Automatically generate variations for your posts with advanced AI built-in features of MeetEdger and give your content a fresh look

Browser Extension: Easily save unique content and ideas from around the web to add to your queue, all with a touch of browser extension

MeetEdger Pricing

MeetEdger’s Eddie Plan starts at $29.99 per month or $24.91 when billed annually. It allows three social accounts and ten posts per week.

Why Choose MeetEdger

It is an ideal Hootsuite alternative for businesses focused on building a steady social media presence without constantly manually scheduling new posts. Its automatic recycling of posts saves a lot of time, and I love how easy it is to set and forget your content. You can give it a try as well!

9. CoSchedule

CoSchedule

CoSchedule is an all-in-one solution. If your social media strategy relies heavily on detailed planning and project management, CoSchedule is a Hootsuite alternative you should explore. CoSchedule is equipped with many AI-powered tools that help you in the content creation process. The tool can also perform recurring tasks with great efficiency.

I found that CoSchedule lets you perform social media management and content planning in one place. You do not need to perform one task with it and another task with some other tool. This tool is particularly helpful for marketers running multiple blogs, email campaigns, and social media posts. It aligns everything with a unified calendar for all.

On the other hand, Hootsuite lacks this kind of built-in project management, making CoSchedule a more organized option. Hootsuite focuses on increasing your brand’s visibility on social media platforms, while CoSchedule also aids in email marketing and blog management.

CoSchedule beats Hootsuite by providing several more features like drag-and-drop social calendar, best time for scheduling a post, reusable social templates, social media automation, and advanced audience targeting.

CoSchedule provides 80+ social media prompt templates, 500+ AI marketing prompt templates, and a built-in AI project assistant. Things we did not find in Hootsuite.

For those searching for Hootsuite alternatives free or tools that can handle not only social media but also handle in other tasks like email marketing campaigns, CoSchedule provides all solution in one place.

Here is what Mckenne Keller, content manager at Evernest, says:

“Since we’ve implemented CoSchedule, our company’s doubled in size, and our team hasn’t changed. Without this tool, we’d be floundering.”

Key Features

Marketing Calendar: A drag-and-drop helps you schedule and reschedule your content and manage your marketing plan, not only social media

Task Management: Create a plan, assign tasks to team members, set deadlines, and track the progress to keep your teamwork organized

Social Media Management: CoSchedule plan, schedule, and automate social media posts on more than ten social media platforms, ensuring consistent content publishing

Workflow Automation: Automate repetitive tasks and workflows to save time for other important tasks and increase efficiency for your entire marketing team

Collaboration Features: Team members can share their experience, perform tasks, collaborate on projects, share notes, and keep communication streamlined, all in one platform

CoSchedule Pricing

CoSchedule offers a forever free plan for individuals for basic social media content publishing that includes 1 user and 2 social profiles. The paid tool offers extended features, starts at $19 with 5 social profiles and allows 3 users.

Why Choose CoSchedule

If your goals go beyond just social media and include content marketing, email marketing, and blog management, CoSchedule is a far better option than Hootsuite. I found its project management features invaluable for keeping both social and content marketing efforts in sync.

Plus, if you are looking for a Hootsuite free alternative or with affordable price, CoSchedule is the tool for you.

10. Loomly

Loomly

Loomly is a favorite tool of large teams. It focuses on making the planning process easy for teams. It is a tool built for content creators, marketing teams, and agencies looking for a clear workflow. It allows you to plan, create, and publish content across the platforms without much manual assistance.

Loomly suggest post ideas and optimization tips which we did not find in Hootsuite. I also loved its simple interface, easy to understand, and navigate. Loomly provides a clean, user-friendly platform where everyone on the team can collaborate seamlessly.

It is a great option for companies wanting to keep the process efficient without sacrificing creativity.

Key Features

Post Mockups: Avoid repetitive mistakes and many rounds of edits with this feature

Approval Workflow: Create a customized approval workflow for your clients and team members

Post Ideas and Tips: Get suggestions for content based on current trends, social media holidays, and top-performing posts.

Content Library: Create content and save it to Loomly’s content library for the future or integrate Canva and Google Drive to directly import content from there

Post Previews: Preview posts for different platforms before they go live

Loomly Pricing

Loomly’s base plan starts at $32 per month with 2 users and 10 accounts, which is more affordable for small teams and agencies looking to optimize their social media content.

Why Choose Loomly

Loomly is an excellent choice for teams that want an easy-to-use, collaborative tool. It simplifies the process of creating, scheduling, and managing social media content. If you are looking for budget-friendly alternatives to Hootsuite, Loomly provides solid value. Loomly makes your team work smoother making it a must try tool for social media marketers.

11. Pally

Pallyy

Pally offers a different approach compared to Hootsuite. It focuses on simplifying social media interactions and audience engagement. For businesses that value social engagement and community building, Pally stands as the best budget Hootsuite alternative.

Pally allows auto content publishing on multiple social media platforms like, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter (X), Pinterest, TikTok, and Google Business Profile. It provides a user-friendly platform that is ideal for small teams or individual marketers who prioritize meaningful interactions over complex features like Hootsuite offers.

To me the most appealing feature of Pally is the emphasis it brings on engagement rather than just scheduling. The platform is designed to help you build natural connections with your target audience by simplifying responses and allowing you to focus more on conversations instead of performing the bulk of automated tasks.

Pally offers a unified inbox for all the connected social media platforms to manage DMs from a single inbox. Pally’s content calendar is integrated with its own media library, which makes scheduling the content as easy as drag-and-dropping the content onto the right date and time.

While some additional features are explained, Pally lacks the most important feature “Social Listening” tool. So using Pally may bring other benefits to you, but you cannot track public sentiment about your brand.

Key Features

Unified Inbox: Manage all your social interactions from a single inbox that deals with brand mentions and direct messages coming from different social media platforms

Post Scheduling: Simple scheduling tools to plan your posts ahead of time without the complexity of larger platforms

Customer Relationship: Pally focuses on responding to customers’ queries instantly, helping to build a more loyal fan base

Collaboration Features: Plan and work with your team to manage social interactions, ensuring all the stakeholders are on the same page

Paly Pricing

Paly offers a free plan with basic features and starts at $15 per month for premium features making it one the best Hootsuite free alternatives.

Why Choose Pally?

Pally is perfect for users who want to focus more on audience interaction than on advanced analytics or multiple features. If you are running a small business, this tool gives you everything you need without the added cost or complexities that Hootsuite brings. For anyone considering Hootsuite alternatives, Pally is worth considering.

12. Metricool

Metricool

Another Hootsuite free alternative that offers a lifetime free plan with 50 posts per month. Metricool shines with its in-depth analytics and reporting capabilities. For marketers and individuals, searching for Hootsuite alternatives free, Metricool offers a detailed view of your social media activities.

Metricool tracks everything in one place, from organic posts, ads, and website analytics. You also have the option to create a link-in-bio page for free with Metricool’s SmartLinks tool.

Metricool combines content scheduling with a deeper focus on performance and audience insights. An excellent tool for those who want to do basic post scheduling and understand what is working for them.

Metricool tracks both paid and organic efforts and gives a holistic view of your performance. Unlike Hootsuite, which is more focused on scheduling, Metricool focuses on analytics. Metricool also suggests the best time to post based on your social media users’ activities.

Key Features

In-Depth Reports: Easily generate customizable reports to analyze social media and ad performance

Competitor Analysis: Closely monitor what competitors are doing, and if they are successful, adjust your content strategy accordingly

Ad Management: Manage and optimize social media, including Facebook, Instagram, and Google Ads campaigns from a single platform

Real-Time Monitoring: Monitor live stats of your performance and change your strategies when trends shift

Content Planner: Schedule and automate posts for all major platforms with a color-coded content calendar and simplify your content posting strategies

Unified Analytics: Track all your social media profiles, ads and website metrics in one place for a complete view of your performance

Metricool Price

Metricool offers a free plan for individuals using basic features for social media optimization. Paid plans start at $18 per month, offering advanced analytics and multi-platform management.

Why Choose Metricool

If you are also a data-driven marketer like me, Metricool can bring ease to your life. It has the ability to track and report on everything from social media posts to ads and website performance. I also appreciate the competitive pricing, especially if you are looking for Hootsuite alternatives free or with lower costs.

Metricool’s focus on analytics is the best thing I liked using this tool. It is even better than Hootsuite in this regard. It not only analyzes your social media growth and engagement, but you can also research your competitors and influencers to find the best for influencer marketing.

13. Iconosquare

Iconosquare

Another Hootsuite alternative with strong analytics and reporting. Iconosquare focuses heavily on providing in-depth analytics for platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. Plus, it is also good at content planning, scheduling, and social listening. Iconosquare equips your team with all the essential tools to understand your audience, monitor your progress, and strategize with precision.

But what I loved about this tool is how seamlessly it goes beyond just posting and scheduling. Its analytics tools give you detailed insights into audience engagement, follower growth, and content performance.

While Hootsuite locks some features which are only accessible in premium plans, Iconosquare offers this discrimination free plan. All features are open for all the plans in Iconosquare. Another feature that Hootsuite lacks, but Iconosquare does not, is brand-customizable reports.

Plus, Iconosquare also keeps a check on newly gained and lost followers which you do not find in Hootsuite. It allows you to distribute your content to reach different age groups, targeting the exact audience you want to hit. Iconosquare also offers additional features like saved captions and social media events calendar.

However, Iconosquare also lacks some features like AI hashtag generator, existing content promotion, and direct messaging. The choice depends upon your goals, for those looking for Hootsuite alternatives with strong analytics capabilities, Iconosquare can be a good choice.

Key Feature

Detailed Analytics: Track follower growth, engagement, and content performance across Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter

Content Scheduling: Easily schedule posts across multiple social media platforms with a simple drag-and-drop calendar

Customizable Reports: A most interesting feature that lets you create detailed and visual reports to share with clients and team members

Instagram Stories Insights: Track the performance of Instagram Stories, giving you insights that many tools overlook

 Iconosquare Price: Paid plans start at $49 per month. A free trial is also available for new users to familiarize themselves with tool functionalities.

Why Choose Iconosquare

An ideal tool for data-driven marketers who want deep social media analytics. Iconosquare’s performance insights are way better than Hootsuite. I would recommend it if you are looking for alternatives to Hootsuite with better analytics.

This tool seamlessly creates reports, tracks competitors and helps you craft your future social media marketing campaigns.

14. Publer

publer.io

If Hootsuite feels too complex for you, Publer can be the alternative you are looking for. I love the focus that Publer brings on simplicity without sacrificing key social media management features. This simple user interface makes it easy to use, even for new users.

Publer supports all the social media networks that Hootsuite does with two additional platforms including Telegram and Mastodon. I found Publer performing better than my expectations.

As a new user, I did not have to spend hours trying to figure out how it works. Its intuitive interface makes planning, scheduling, and analyzing posts quite easy.

Publer also integrates with designing tools like Canva and Vista Create to create designs of your own media or edit images that you can simply import from connected media libraries. Plus, Publer’s users do not need to make a separate account on Vista Create to access its premium feature. You can use all the features without creating an account and with no extra charges.

Publer offers a unique feature “Shortcodes”. This feature is only found in Publer. This feature helps you deal with recurring phrases in your content, for example your brand’s slogan or your address. You can make a short code and use it in the content, it will automatically translate.

Key Features

Bulk Scheduling: Upload and schedule multiple posts with CSV files up to 500 at once and save your valuable time for other important tasks

Automated Watermarking: Automatically add watermark to your images for brand awareness

Link in Bio: Add a link in your bio in Instagram and drive traffic to your blogs and websites

Content Preview: Once done with all the editing and settings, get a full preview of your content before they are set to go live

User Interface: Easy to understand and navigate to all the features, find whatever you need just in seconds

Shortcodes: Only offered by Publer, allowing users to get rid of writing the same phrases again and again with the help of shortcodes

Publer Pricing

Publer can be a Hootsuite free alternative as it does not charge for the free plan allowing 5 accounts with lifetime free access. However, Publer’s paid plan starts at $15 per month which is still worth it and much lower than Hootsuite.

Why Choose Publer

With a simple user interface combined with strong analytics and Shortcodes features, Publer makes social media management quite easy and affordable. I found its recycling feature very useful for evergreen content. Its ability to bulk upload up to 500 posts saves you valuable time. Publer delivers everything you need from a social media management tool without the complexities that Hootsuite offers.

15. Crowdfire

a screenshot of a social media management

Crowdfire excels at various content creation, automation, and social listening. The tool also helps to discover content that is relevant to your audience. Crowdfire ensures your feed is fresh and engaging.

What I particularly enjoy about Crowdifre is its unique content curation tool. Crowdfire helps you find and share articles, images, and videos that resonate with your audience. Unlike Hootsuite’s basic social listening capabilities, Crowdfire offers advanced social listening with keyword projects, tracks brand mentions, analyzes conversations, identifies relevant hashtags, and creates exportable lists.

Crowdifre may lack a unified inbox, but create exceptional customized reports for Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest. It tracks brand growth, engagement, and post-performance.

These features set it apart and make it a good fit for businesses that want to enhance engagement without spending hours searching for new content.

Key Features

Content Curation: Discover relevant articles, images, videos and share them on your wall

Post Scheduling: Schedule posts across multiple platforms with ease

Content Calendar: Visualize your posts and manage your publishing schedule from a single dashboard

Analytics & Reports: Track how your content is performing with in-depth analytics and reports

Automated Updates: Automatically update content from your website, blog, and social media to keep your profile fresh with content curation tools

 Crowdfire Price

Crwodfire offers a free plan with basic features for individuals and small businesses. Paid plans start at $9.99 per month, which is still quite affordable. For users looking for free Hootsuite alternatives, Crowdfire is an excellent option.

Why Choose Crowdfire

I found Crowdfire best with its content curation feature. It is a game changer for those who do not want to spend hours finding new content ideas to share on their wall. It is easy to use, especially for content delivery, and I appreciate how affordable it is compared with Hootsuite.

If you are a small business or an individual who wants smart automation of their social media handles along with blogs, Crowdfire should be on your list.

Conclusion

Hootsuite has been leading the industry since 2008 and it was a top choice of every social media marketer. However, continuously steep pricing and complex interface forced many people to look for the alternatives, especially small businessmen, freelancers, and individuals who look for simple yet cost effective solutions.

Choosing the right Hootsuite alternative depends on your objectives and goals. If you need a tool with powerful analytics, tools like Iconosquare and Metricool might be best for you. For teams in need of seamless collaboration and post scheduling, Zoho Social and Publer can meet your needs. If content discovery and automation are your priority, Crowdfire and Sendible will save you valuable time.

In summary, Hootsuite may be a reliable tool but its high cost and complexity are diverting loyal fans towards more specialized and affordable options.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Are there free Hootsuite alternatives available?

Yes, there are many free alternatives to Hootsuite available. Tools like Crowdfire and Metricool offer free forever plans with some basic features, making them great options for individuals and small businesses.

Why should I consider alternatives to Hootsuite?

Hootsuite might be the top choice of many social media managers but its creeping prices and complex interface forcing new and existing users to find better alternatives. Many alternatives offer more simple interfaces and specialized features that meet particular needs of small businesses.

What factors should I consider while considering a Hootsuite alternative?

Consider factors like pricing, ease of use, available features like scheduling, analytics, integration options with third-party tools, and team collaboration features. Make sure to choose a tool that better suits your specific needs.

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