Kevin JohnsonHootsuite is a social media management platform based in Vancouver, Canada. It was created in 2008 by Ryan Holmes to manage his company’s multiple social media networks.
Holmes partnered with colleagues at Invoke Media to market his solution globally as BrightKit.
In Feb 2009, BrightKit was renamed Hootsuite. The platform expanded its offering to support Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter and spun off from Invoke Media in Dec 2009.
In Jun 2022, Hootsuite had over 1,400 employees and more than 18 million users in 175 countries; however, the company laid off 30% of its staff in Aug 2022. [1]
As an independent company, Hootsuite Media expanded through acquisitions. The firm acquired Seesmic in Sep 2012, AdEspresso and LiftMetrix in 2017, and Sparkcentral in 2021. These acquisitions improved Hootsuite’s CRM, social media analytics, digital advertisement management, and customer engagement capabilities.
Hootsuite users can post and manage Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Pinterest from a single platform. In Nov 2022, the company unveiled its 7th annual Social Trends Report to guide brands’ marketing and social strategies.
Hootsuite faces stiff competition from Zoho, Sprout Social, Salesforce, Sprinklr, Khoros, Falcon.io, and Adobe. [2]
Here is an in-depth analysis of Hootsuite’s top competitors and alternatives:
1. Zoho Social
Year founded: 1996
Headquarter: Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
Zoho Social is a platform used by mid-sized businesses and agencies for social media management. It is part of Zoho’s comprehensive enterprise solutions, including Zoho People Plus, Zoho WorkDrive, Zoho Office Suite, and Zoho Docs. In 2022, Zoho had around 12,000 employees and more than 60 million users.
Zoho Social and Hootsuite are both social media management platforms. In Sep 2022, Zoho introduced TikTok, Instagram Reels and Stories, and YouTube Shorts on Zoho Social and now offers all mission-critical social media marketing channels. Zoho Social is the top Hootsuite competitor and alternative. [3]
2. Sprout Social
Year founded: 2010
Headquarter: Chicago, Illinois
Sprout Social is a full-fledged social media tool. It offers deep social media listening, social management, analytics, customer care, commerce, and advocacy solutions for large teams and enterprise companies. In 2022, Sprout’s unified platform served more than 34,000 brands and agencies.
Sprout allows users to manage Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest, YouTube, and LinkedIn accounts and pages in a single platform. It offers a social inbox, scheduling, a social calendar, built-in CRM, reports, trend analysis, chatbots, and automation tools.
In 2022, Sprout enhanced video management with Instagram Reels integration. Sprout Social is the best alternative to Hootsuite’s business and enterprise plans. [4]
3. Sprinklr Social
Year founded: 2009
Headquarter: New York City, New York
Sprinklr is a software company that offers a SaaS customer experience management platform. Its Sprinklr Social Core helps brands manage their social media pages, from content creation to posting promotions and upcoming events.
In 2022, Sprinklr had 918 employees and was ranked 22nd Best Place to Work in New York by Fortune Magazine. [5]
Sprinklr leverages advanced AI on its unified CXM platform to help brands deliver human experiences to every customer, every time. Since its founding, the company has worked with over 1,000 of the world’s most valuable enterprises.
Sprinklr Social clients include Microsoft, P&G, Samsung, and more than 50% of companies on the Fortune 100 list. Sprinklr Social is a formidable competitor for Hootsuite.
4. Khoros Social Marketing
Year founded: 2019
Headquarter: Austin, Texas
Khoros is a global customer engagement software company owned by Vista Equity Partners. It offers online community management, social media marketing and analytics, digital care, and content management software and services.
In 2022, the company’s client list included one-third of the Fortune 100 companies and over 2,000 global brands.
Khoros supports more than 500 million digital interactions daily. Its award-winning platform leverages AI and patented technologies to connect every facet of customer engagement
In Jul 2022, Khoros partnered with EveryoneSocial. This partnership allows digital markets to align content, messaging, and campaigns with their brand’s employee advocacy program. Khoros is an innovative Hootsuite competitor. [6]
5. Falcon.io
Year founded: 2010
Headquarter: Copenhagen, Denmark
Falcon.io offers a unified SaaS platform for managing social media and customer experience. Its features include analytics and social media listening, engaging, and publishing. Hootsuite also provides similar features, making Falcon.io the perfect alternative.
Falcon and Hootsuite offer comprehensive social media management tools; however, Falcon only provides two paid plans. So, users choose either the cheaper plan with limited features or an expensive option with a complete suite of features. Despite this shortfall, Falcon can give Hootsuite a run for its money. [7]
6. Salesforce Social Studio
Year founded: 2014
Headquarter: San Francisco, California
Salesforce is an American cloud-based software company. It offers Social Studio, a flexible social media scheduling tool with a user-friendly interface and advanced features. In 2022, Salesforce had around 73,500 employees.
Salesforce Social Studio simplifies social media scheduling by collecting data from different sources. In Jan 2022, Salesforce announced that it is retiring Social Studio in Nov 2024. The company hasn’t issued product renewals since Aug 2022.
Although Salesforce Social Studio has entered sunset mode, it is still a worthy alternative to Hootsuite. [8]
7. Adobe Social
Year founded: 1982
Headquarter: San Jose, California
Adobe Inc. is a multinational software company that offers industry-leading apps. The company provides Adobe Social as an innovative alternative to Hootsuite. In 2022, Adobe had over 25,000 employees and reported $4.53 billion in revenue. [9]
Adobe is renowned for developing creative apps, including Photoshop, Lightroom, Illustrator, XD, and Rush. These apps don’t compete directly with Hootsuite, but they are essential for social media marketing.
For example, a brand can use Adobe Photoshop to create content and leverage Adobe Social to post it across social media platforms. Adobe Social is one of the best alternatives to Hootsuite.
8. Hearsay Social
Year founded: 2009
Headquarter: San Francisco, California
Hearsay Social is a global leader in digital client engagement for financial services. It offers a cloud-based social customer managing software suite.
According to Hearsay, its platform serves over 200,000 advisors and financial firms like New York Life, Morgan Stanley, and Charles Schwab.
Both Hearsay Social and Hootsuite simplify social media management, but Hearsay focuses on financial service companies.
In Oct 2022, Hearsay launched a new client engagement platform to meet the needs of small and midsize registered investment advisors (RIAs). This offering has already attracted RIA Mercer Advisors, a conglomerate with 15 firms. Hearsay Social is the best alternative to Hootsuite for financial service providers. [10]
9. Agorapulse
Year founded: 2011
Headquarter: Paris, France
Agorapulse is a social media management solution. Over 31,000 social media managers and marketers use the platform daily to access valuable insights, analyze campaign performance, and prove social media ROI.
In Dec 2022, Agorapulse launched its TikTok integration to help companies publish and schedule content and engage with audiences. [11]
Both Agorapulse and Hootsuite offer powerful social media management features. Users can listen to customers, engage in conversations across platforms, and track results over time.
In Nov 2022, Agorapulse earned 20 awards in the G2 Grid Fall Reports. The firm won 8 first-place rankings across categories and the Best Estimated ROI in the Enterprise segment. Agorapulse is a formidable Hootsuite competitor. [12]
10. Semrush
Year founded: 2008
Headquarter: Boston, Massachusetts
Semrush is a SaaS platform that offers online visibility management. It provides insights and solutions to help companies build, manage, and measure marketing campaigns across digital channels. In 2022, Semrush had over 94,000 paying customers.
Like Hootsuite, Semrush allows businesses to plan and schedule posts on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and LinkedIn. However, Semrush offers more than Hootsuite as it simplifies SEO keyword research, pay-per-click, and content analysis across social media platforms.
In 2022, Semrush launched new collaboration and posting tools and attracted over 50,000 monthly active users. Semrush is the top Hootsuite competitor in online visibility management. [13]
11. Sendible
Year founded: 2008
Headquarter: London, United Kingdom
Sendible is a feature-rich tool used for social media management. Users can connect and manage content on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and other social networks using Sendible.
As of 2022, Sendible’s entry-level plan starts at $29/month with a 14-day free trial.
Both Sendible and Hootsuite offer robust tools. The main benefit of using Sendible is its Smart Posts feature for customizing posts with text, hashtags, mentions, and emojis to entice the target audience.
Social media marketers can also leverage Sendible to determine when and how often to post on social media. Sendible is a user-friendly alternative to Hootsuite. [14]
12. Buffer
Year founded: 2010
Headquarter: San Francisco, California
Buffer is a social media management platform geared toward small teams and businesses. It offers advanced features at a lower price than Hootsuite.
As of 2022, Buffer’s paid plans cost between $5 per month and $100 per month for unlimited users and ten social channels. However, the company offers the analytics suite as a separate package starting at $35 per month.
Buffer and Hootsuite offer essential functionalities, including social scheduling and listening, but only Buffer streamlines Instagram marketing with shop grids and a visual story builder. In 2022, Buffer added 51 features, including integrations with TikTok, Canva, and Google, that increased Buffer’s competitive advantage over Hootsuite. [15]
13. eClincher
Year founded: 2012
Headquarter: Mountain View, California
eClincher is a cloud-based tool used for social media management for SMBs. According to customer reviews, eClincher offers user-friendly publishing and scheduling features.
Most social media tools require users to schedule content and wait for notifications on their phones to copy and paste it on Instagram. eClincher eliminates this tedious process with direct Instagram publishing.
The main competitive advantage for eClincher over Hootsuite is its 24/7 live support. This offering can entice busy SMB owners because they don’t have time to manage their social media accounts during the day.
Overall, eClincher is one of the best alternatives to Hootsuite for small to medium-sized ventures. [16]
14. Statusbrew
Year founded: 2011
Headquarter: Amritsar, Punjab, India
Statusbrew is an integrated social media management platform geared towards brands and agencies. It offers multi-channel publishing, audience monitoring, and brand management tools.
As of 2022, Statusbrew is integrated with Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google My Business.
Statusbrew and Hootsuite help businesses implement, manage, and track social media marketing campaigns. The main advantage of Statusbrew is its strategic marketing features. For example, Statusbrew users can break down audience demographics and visualize them in 11 different formats. [17]
15. SocialPilot
Year founded: 2014
Headquarter: Walnut, California
SocialPilot is a SaaS platform founded by Jimit Bagadiya and Tejas Mehta. It offers a user-friendly digital marketing tool to help teams, professionals, and enterprises automate their social media management.
Since its founding, SocialPilot has attracted over 8,500 clients, including Walmart, the US Army, NYSU, and the United Nations. In Oct 2022, SocialPilot earned seven badges in 21 categories in G2’s Grid Fall Report. SocialPilot is one of the top Hootsuite alternatives for users on a tight budget. [18]
References & more information
- Bek, N. (2022, Aug 10). Hootsuite lays off 30% of staff to focus on financial sustainability amid the downturn. Geek Wire
- Hootsuite Media (2022, Nov 15). Hootsuite unveils the Top Social Media Marketing Trends for 2023. Yahoo Finance
- Mathew, S. (2022, Sep 8). Announcing TikTok, Instagram Reels and Stories, and YouTube Shorts on Zoho Social. Zoho.com
- Sprout Social (2022, Nov 3). Sprout Social announces Third Quarter 2022 Financial Results above Guidance Range. Globe Newswire
- Fortune (2022, Feb 2). Best Workplaces in New York. Fortune Magazine
- Khoros (2022, Jul 6). Khoros and EveryoneSocial Partner to strengthen Digital Marketing Strategies across Social Channels. Business Wire
- SP Editor (2022, Dec 18). Falcon Alternatives for Social Media Management. Social Pilot
- Amole, A. J. (2022, Apr 19). Salesforce Product Retirement: Social Studio sails into the sunset. The Spot for Pardot
- Rossolillo, N. (2022, Dec 18). Should you buy Adobe stock to kick off 2023? The Motley Fool
- Janowski, D. (2022, Oct 11). Hearsay rolls out the Client Engagement platform for IRAs. Wealth Management
- Agorapulse (2022, Dec 6).Agorapulse Integrates with TikTok to unleash the power of video marketing for customers. Globe Newswire
- Agorapulse (2022, Nov 10).Agorapulse earns 20 Awards in G2 Grid Fall 2022 Reports. Globe Newswire
- Semrush (2022, Nov 15). Semrush Announces Third Quarter 2022 Financial Results. Yahoo Finance
- Hartshorne, D. (2022, Dec 13). How often should you post on social media in 2023? Sendible
- Eckstein, M. (2022, Aug 29). Buffer 2022: 51 features to help you grow your audience. Buffer.com
- IMH Editor (2022, Nov 30). eClincher Review: Pricing and Features. Influencer Marketing Hub
- Das, R. (2022, Dec 12). The best times to post on Social Media in 2023. Statusbrew.com
- SocialPilot (2022, Oct 19). SocialPilot is Named a Leader in Social Media Management in The G2 Grid® Fall 2022 Report. 24-7PressRelease
- Featured Image by Rubaitul Azad
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Ava Abbott
Brianna Parker
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