Sprout Social is a popular social media management tool that helps brands maintain a presence on social media platforms by offering a suite of publishing, engagement, and reporting solutions.

Founded in 2010, Sprout Social’s initial focus was catering to small and medium-sized businesses. But with time, the platform expanded its offerings to larger organizations and enterprises.

Even though Sprout Social is a tool of choice for many, it comes with a set of limitations that make it unsuitable for some brands. The hefty pricing, slower response times, and lack of streamlined analytical reporting are just a few disadvantages many users report.

In this comprehensive Sprout Social review, we will discuss the features of the platform that make it a tough choice for several users. We will also look at a few Sprout Social alternatives.

Disadvantages of Sprout Social

Even though Sprout Social offers a decent set of features to users, the platform’s continued use throws up varied problems and disadvantages. Some of the most notable pros and cons of Sprout Social are:

1. Sprout Social Pricing

When you talk about Sprout Social pricing, you first need to know of the four paid plans: Standard, Professional, Advanced, and Enterprise plans of Sprout Social.

Many people also ask, ‘Is Sprout Social free?’ While the platform doesn’t offer a free plan, you can try it for free with a 30-day trial. Again, this can be a major inconvenience for a vast number of users as observed in Sprout Social reviews.

The Standard plan comes at $249 per month. A major flaw in the Sprout Social pricing is that for each additional user in this plan, you would have to pay $199 per month. The Professional plan, on the other hand, costs $399 per month, and for each additional user, you’ll pay $299 per month in this plan.

For the Advanced plan, a user needs to shell out $499 per month. And, for each additional user, you need to pay $349 per month. To know the cost of Sprout Social’s Enterprise plan, you need to get in touch with them.

One look at the pricing of Sprout Social’s plans, and it’s evident that the tool comes with a hefty price tag. But what makes things worse is that the Sprout Social cost model is on a per-user basis, making it difficult for small businesses .

Let’s see what a monthly investment in regard to the Sprout Social pricing looks like. How much does Sprout Social cost if you go for the Standard plan, for instance? You would have to pay a minimum of $249/month for just one user. For any additional user, it would cost you $199/month. Now, in case you need 10 users, you would have to pay more than $2000/month, and that is for only 5 social media profiles.

If you look at Sprout Social alternatives, you will find tools that offer more users even for their higher plans, with no additional cost involved. SocialPilot, a strong contender in the list of Sprout Social’s alternatives, offers plans starting from as little as $30 per month.

2. Limited Social Media Profiles

If you go for Sprout Social’s basic plan, i.e., the Standard plan, you will get to connect 5 social media profiles. For a plan that costs $249 a month, these profiles are extremely limited. You can find other alternatives in the market offering as many features, yet more profiles at a fairly lesser price.

Also, if you want to connect more accounts, you have no option but to purchase the next plan, which is the Professional plan that costs more at $399/month.

Thus, many Sprout Social reviews read that, the number of social profiles offered in the already pricey base plan can hinder many smaller businesses from even considering its purchase.

3. Steep Learning Curve

The platform comes with several tools and features, which can make it daunting for any new user to learn the ropes. Features such as reporting can overwhelm any new user, especially those still learning to navigate social media management.

Hence, several users stated in their Sprout Social reviews about a steep learning curve with the scheduling tool. You need to take considerable time to train yourself in using this tool, so bear this in mind before deciding to adopt it.

If you don’t have the resources or time to learn the intricate features of this platform, then going for it can pose a considerable challenge. Instead, you can opt for simpler Sprout Social alternatives like SocialPilot, known for a comprehensive resource library and ease of usage.

4. Slower Response Times

Who doesn’t love a good customer service experience? It holds significant power to make or break a business.

Many users have recorded a poor experience with Sprout Social customer service. They have reported having experienced slower response times resulting in lower customer satisfaction. Sprout Social’s support team is sometimes found to take too long to provide responses on issues and keep the user waiting.

For instance, if a user uses the chat support feature of Sprout Social, the responses often get redirected to email, and it can take up to a day to get an initial response.

No one likes to be stuck in a never-ending loop, waiting for the help desk team to get back with a response. So, before you choose Sprout Social, you need to be aware of this limitation in its customer support.

5. Lack of Important Features for Scheduling & Reporting

Another downside of using Sprout Social is the unavailability of some important features related to scheduling and analytical reporting.

For instance, the tool doesn’t offer an easy way to store frequently used hashtags. This makes the process of organizing and tagging content more time-consuming.

Also, every business finds the need to tag other profiles in posts every now and then. But, you cannot always rely on the Sprout Social process of social tagging other profiles in posts. The frequent bugs and glitches make the steps cumbersome.

Apart from this, users also face difficulties in tagging people on Instagram when creating a post using this tool. For brands relying on Instagram for their social media marketing, this is a must-have feature.

With regard to reporting, Sprout Social offers a large volume of reports that can easily overwhelm any user. When you get down to the nuts and bolts, navigating and extracting the necessary information from these reports becomes challenging.

A Reddit user has also pointed out that the tool doesn’t offer a way to compare reports:

The bottomline? The overall lack of a streamlined reporting feature can make using the tool time-consuming for businesses and agencies.

6. Limited Core Social Media Publishing Options

As a social media publishing platform, Sprout Social comes with limited core publishing options compared to some other such management tools. For example, Sprout Social doesn’t support Instagram Reel scheduling. For businesses relying heavily on Instagram for their social media marketing campaigns, this option is vital.

Also, businesses are increasingly looking for core publishing features, such as Facebook first comment and LinkedIn first comment, in any competent social media management tool today. The first comment feature lets you add a first comment to your social media posts so that you can automatically start a conversation. This, in turn, leads to more engagement.

The presence of such features has become more of a norm in times when businesses need to keep their social media game stronger than ever. You can switch to SocialPilot to access these core publishing features that Sprout Social lacks. About 1000 Sprout Social users are migrating to SocialPilot to access more features at an affordable price.

Are There Any Advantages to Sprout Social?

Sprout Social offers a variety of tools for scheduling and publishing social media content, helping you smoothly manage several social accounts. The tool also enables you to create, view, and edit a customizable publishing calendar to plan and schedule your content for social media well in advance.

Sprout Social’s social media listening tool also offers useful insights from social conversations. Sprout’s Listening provides a view of hashtags, keywords, industries, brands, and multimedia content. This allows you to analyze sentiment and discover trends on major social platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

Bottomline: Is Sprout Social Worth It?

Now’s the time to finally put this question to rest – Is Sprout Social worth it? The answer is yes, and probably no. If you are looking for a social media business solution, irrespective of the price, you should go ahead with the platform. Sprout Social reviews point to the fact that the tool offers a feature set that helps take care of the publishing process as part of the social media marketing strategy.

But, if you are a brand or organization that simply can’t afford the Sprout Social pricing model, going for a less costly alternative will be your best bet. The tool also comes with several limitations, as reviewed above, which can render it unsuitable for many businesses.

What Are the Alternatives to Sprout Social?

You can find many alternatives offering similar and additional features to Sprout Social.

Let us look at five social media management tools that are strong contenders as Sprout Social alternatives.

1. SocialPilot

SocialPilot is a robust social media management tool you can rely on to boost your brand’s presence across different social media platforms. Specifically designed for businesses and small digital marketing agencies, the tool helps you execute a well-planned social media posting schedule, thanks to the easy-to-use interface and rich feature set.

The tool’s key features include publishing support on 10 platforms, advanced scheduling with the bulk schedule feature, content curation, analytics and reporting, team and client feedback and collaboration workflow, and much more.

If you use SocialPilot, you can tailor posts for different social media platforms, including Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, TikTok, YouTube, and Facebook.

Today, SocialPilot is considered one of the best alternatives to Sprout Social, and with good reason. As mentioned before, the tool offers plans starting from as low as $30 per month. Sprout Social plans, on the other hand, begin from $249 per month. You also need to pay more for every additional user.

With SocialPilot, you can also enhance your content by adding elements like CTAs, GIFs, emojis, videos, images, etc. This improves your chances of receiving more likes and shares. You also get to boost your content’s performance on Facebook and LinkedIn with the first comment feature.

Ultimately, a Socialpilot vs. Sprout Social comparison shows that the former offers high functionality, an easy-to-use interface, and unmatched overall value at a very affordable price.

2. Buffer

Buffer is a well-known social media management tool that facilitates publishing on social media platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter. This tool integrates over 60+ apps, enables inter-team collaboration, and allows easier team management.

You can use Buffer to schedule posts for multiple accounts at once. It lets you access analytics that prompt you to update popular posts for resharing. The tool also offers helpful customer support and works well with smartphone apps.

If we carry out a Buffer vs. Sprout Social comparison in particular, you will see that Buffer offers more robust site analytics, allowing users to view the interactions and other metrics for a post. However, Buffer does come with certain limitations as well. For instance, the inbox/listening capabilities of Buffer are limited. You also don’t have access to features such as emailing PDF reports to clients and auto-scheduling reports for teams and clients.

3. Spinklr

Allowing access to all important marketing platforms in one single location, Sprinklr is an effective tool for managing social media. You can manage your social presence across different platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and more.

Besides letting you create and publish social media content, Sprinklr allows you to monitor hashtags, conduct competitive analysis, and look for industry-wide trend predictions to make smarter decisions. Powered by AI, this platform also provides you with a comprehensive view of your online presence by integrating over 30 digital channels.

For people searching for Sprout Social vs. Sprinklr on the web, it’s important to know that Sprinklr is a good alternative to Sprout Social because of the unique set of features it offers. However, it’s worth noting that beginner users consider Sprinklr a complex tool.

4. Loomly

Loomly is another popular social media management tool you can find in the list of Sprout Social alternatives.

This tool lets marketing teams develop brands online with the help of collaboration, publishing, and analytics features. With Loomly, you can manage platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Youtube, Google My Business, Instagram, Pinterest, TikTok, and Snapchat.

The platform also lets you manage all digital assets in one place. You can store images, videos, posts, and notes, all in one library. You also get post suggestions and ad previews. A user can respond to reactions and comments with this tool.

If we make a Loomly vs Sprout Social comparison, the latter is pricier. Loomly’s base plan is priced at $35/month, with which you can manage 10 social media accounts and 2 team members. This makes it far less costly than Sprout Social.

However, it’s also worth noting that Loomly’s photo size limit can bother users as it doesn’t allow posting full videos or photos. This can severely compromise the quality of your content.

5. Later

Later has expanded beyond the original purpose of scheduling Instagram posts and now offers scheduling options for LinkedIn, TikTok, Pinterest, Facebook, and Twitter. If your primary focus is on visual marketing, Later is a good option.

In addition to scheduling your branded content, Later also allows you to share posts from other users. This feature is particularly beneficial for those who heavily rely on user-generated content for promotion. Other key features of the tool include adding a personalized touch to curated content and reporting features with insightful metrics.

Now coming to the Sprout Social vs. Later comparison: Sprout Social is suitable for businesses with fairly large teams and budgets. Later, on the other hand, is affordable even for a freelancer looking for effective social media management.

Having said that, it’s worth noting that some users of Later have reported slower response times with customer support. The tool also has limited social listening features.

Conclusion

Overall, the established credibility and several rave Sprout Social reviews have made it a preferred social media management tool for many. If you can justify the cost of this platform, it could be a great addition to your marketing strategy.

But, for businesses, small teams, and agencies looking for a much more affordable tool, it’s wise to take into consideration the Pros and Cons of Sprout Social and go for alternatives such as SocialPilot. The tool offers all the essential social media management features without you having to break the bank.

The post Sprout Social Pros and Cons: Review & Alternatives 2024 appeared first on Social Media Marketing.

Hootsuite is among the oldest and most well-known social media management players. Ryan Holmes and his partners launched this tool’s first version on November 28, 2008, as BrightKit, which offered a Twitter dashboard. Holmes then recognized the tool’s potential for other businesses looking to manage multiple social media accounts.

Hootsuite’s current popularity can be attributed to the wide range of features, which include scheduling posts, managing comments and mentions, monitoring social media conversations, and their social media analytics tools.

But did you know that with all the fame & popularity, there are a fair share of disadvantages of Hootsuite, too? The platform’s high pricing, steep learning curve, and intimidating interface are a few obvious cons.

In this in-depth article, we will look at Hootsuite features that make it a tough choice as a tool for many users, as well as a few alternatives to Hootsuite.

How Hootsuite Hasn’t Changed Much Over the Years Since It Peaked

On the back of being the first social media management platform, Hootsuite cultivated a decent following, and by 2010, it had over 1 million users. However, Hootsuite couldn’t remain a lone wolf in the space as competitors like Sprout Social and Buffer broke the former’s monopoly, positioning themselves in the market in 2010.

Still, Hootsuite has grown at an impressive rate and earned a fair share of goodwill over the years. Despite this constant growth, the only thing that has changed drastically on the ground is the Hootsuite pricing model. The platform has hiked its pricing plans almost eight times since it began charging customers. This is one of the prominent challenge Hootsuite users face – and it shows in the Hootsuite reviews.

A keen look at the platform shows it hasn’t added many new features, which would be expected for pricing that stacks much higher against the competition. Another thing that has not changed is the Hootsuite interface, which can still seem as complicated as it did several years ago.

With that said, let’s now weigh the disadvantages of Hootsuite against the platofrm’s pros to better understand the overall capabilities.

Disadvantages of Hootsuite

Despite the seemingly great features of the platform, comprehensive and continued use of Hootsuite throws up a good number of problems and disadvantages. Here are the most prominent ones:

1. Hootsuite Pricing

There are four different offerings for Hootsuite’s pricing plan: The Professional plan costs $99 per month, the Small Teams plan costs $249 per month, the Business plan comes at a whopping $739 per month, and the Enterprise plan is available on request and is bound to be the most expensive.

Even with the current cost of Hootsuite, the social media management tool has limited the user numbers to 3 and 5 team members for the Team and Business plans, respectively. So, the Hootsuite affair will become pricier if you want to increase team member capacity for the business and enterprise plans.

How much do the Hootsuite add-ons cost?

The add-on feature for additional users is priced per user only under the Business and Enterprise plans, making the tool’s use more restricted and expensive.

Is Hootsuite free?

Hootsuite has officially revoked its free plan in 2023, which it had been offering since launch. In March 2023, it officially notified users to either upgrade to a paid account or permanently delete their free account.

Overall, Hootsuite may not deliver the desired value for money if you are a team, business, or enterprise-level customer seeking a large team capacity or nifty features at an affordable rate.

2. User Interface: Our Hootsuite Review

Hootsuite’s interface may benefit a few users by encapsulating everything on a single screen. But for those who prefer a segregated viewing experience, the platform’s crowded dashboard is confusing and not easy to navigate.

The many tabs for the various social profiles appearing together make for a clunky UI that is bound to confuse users.

Also, there have been numerous technical issues reported with the Hootsuite app, such as, performance issues during peak usage times. This can be frustrating for users who need to manage social media accounts in real-time and is another major complaint from users in a lot of Hootsuite reviews.

3. Steep Learning Curve

Hootsuite can be overwhelming for social media marketing beginners or users who are still learning the ropes of social media management tools. The platform has many features, and it can take time to learn how to use them all effectively.

Hootsuite is designed almost completely for teams and enterprise-level customers. If you are an individual user or a group of two to three team members, the platform is not worth investing in, given, the cost of Hootsuite’s pricing plans.

In these and other cases, you should consider alternatives to Hootsuite like SocialPilot, known for its ease of use and comprehensive resource library. SocialPilot is an ideal tool for individuals, teams, and enterprise-level customers as it offers dedicated plans to support all levels of users.

4. Limited and Unreliable Customer Service

Customer service holds a high level of relevance if you’re a business or enterprise-level customer with big teams working across time zones.

Unfortunately, the Hootsuite customer service remains accessible only during business hours in Eastern time zones.

Moreover, only the Enterprise and Business plans specify customer support under the main list of features. The platform’s pages do not elaborate on the limited customer support offered, unlike its competitor SocialPilot, which clearly states all the customer service options, including real-time call support, under every plan.

Additionally, Hootsuite’s support page is not very self-explanatory. Many Hootsuite reviews show users’ frustration about the unreliable customer care. A deeper look at the page reveals access to a self-serve help center, chat support, Twitter and Facebook DMs, and email requests as the various support options.

The lack of real-time customer service from experienced representatives can seem a big letdown against the investment in a reputed SaaS platform. Herein is a recent review shared by a Hootsuite user.

5. The URL Shortener – Are You Overpaying?

Hootsuite has a proprietary URL shortener, Ow.ly, which works as a link shortener and performance tracker. Ow.ly allows you to view traffic from every link and analyze total clicks for every link via your Hootsuite dashboard.

Sounds good, right? But you will need to set aside extra dollars for Ow.ly, even if you are a business or enterprise-level customer. Another limitation of Ow.ly is its capability to work only with an Hootusite account.

A highly affordable alternative to Hootsuite, the SocialPilot social media management tool offers URL shortening capabilities for free under all the nominally structured pricing plans. What’s more, with this URL shortener integration feature, you can choose from independently usable tools like Bitly, Sniply, and Rebrandly.

6. Hootsuite for Content Queuing

Many social media management tools offer post-scheduling and immediate publishing capabilities. This allows users to pre-plan and organize their content. Some tools even allow bulk importing of content and scheduling it at specific intervals.

Social queues work a little differently. With social queues, you create a schedule for each social network, specifying time slots throughout the week when content will be posted. This allows you to establish a consistent weekly schedule.

These slots can be the same or different for each day. Users have control over how often content is posted on their social media, whether it’s multiple posts a day or a few every week. Drawing up queues of content simplifies the entire process of scheduling and publishing posts on various social media accounts, at once.

Unfortunately, Hootsuite doesn’t offer social content queueing capabilities in any of the plans. Users looking to manage bulk scheduling for multiple accounts can opt for the SocialPilot tool instead, which includes seamless content queuing functionalities.

Are There Any Advantages to Hootsuite?

Hootsuite comes with a decent interface and customization options, which makes it a popular choice among businesses of all sizes. If we talk about the platform’s advantages, Hootsuite offers integrations with various social media platforms including Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram, etc.

This tool also offers social media analytics to understand post performance and make data-driven decisions. It also comes with decent core publishing capabilities and allows you to customize posts for every platform.

Hootsuite also offers a fair amount of dashboard customization capabilities with over 150 integrations to suit varied needs. The platform also enables report customization and enhanced distribution for the user’s convenience.

Bottomline: Is Hootsuite Worth It?

Yes and probably no. If you are a business seeking an all-in-one social media management platform, irrespective of pricing, Hootsuite can be your tool.

However, the social media management tool can be a steep investment for individual and small team users as the cost of Hootsuite doesn’t exactly match the limited features it offers and is one of the biggest disadvantages of Hootsuite.

So, if you’re restricted by your budget, Hootsuite’s pricey analytics reports, add-on custom URL shortener, and shaky customer service may pose far too many cons for a decent ROI. If you have already purchased a paid plan, it is fairly simple to cancel the Hootsuite plan as well.

What Are The Alternative Social Media Management Tools?

Laying a strong ground for this comparative review are the Hootsuite alternatives that offer similar and additional features to Hootsuite.

Let us look at the top five social media management tools you can consider as a Hootsuite alternative:

1. SocialPilot vs Hootsuite

If you are a social media agency managing multiple social media accounts for various clients or a business managing numerous social accounts, SocialPilot can be your tool. With SocialPilot, you can strengthen your brand’s presence across major social media platforms and execute a well-planned social media posting schedule using advanced features.

We have drawn up an easy comparison between SocialPilot & Hootsuite that can help you choose the right social media scheduling tool for you.

Unlike HootSuite, SocialPilot has a user-friendly interface that makes it easy to manage multiple social media accounts, schedule posts, create content queues, and easily shorten social media URLs.

This tool is an excellent option for those who want to increase their brand’s visibility and engage with their followers effectively. Moreover, SocialPilot provides advanced features such as bulk scheduling, social media analytics, and team collaboration capabilities.

With bulk scheduling, you can save time by scheduling unlimited posts without losing extra bucks. Social media analytics enables you to track the performance of your posts and campaigns, helping you to optimize your social media strategy.

SocialPilot also supports multi-location brands effortlessly by allowing you to work with team members in streamlining your social media marketing strategies. Users can also count on an active support team accessible through phone calls, chat, and social media DMs around the clock.

With all these features and more, SocialPilot is an excellent option for businesses looking to enhance their social media presence without breaking the bank.

2. Hootsuite vs Sprout Social

Sprout Social comes with an easy-to-use dashboard that presents data in an organized manner. It offers team collaboration features and can help simplify the social media management process.

It’s a good option for businesses managing customer relationships and extending a comprehensive CRM system like Zoho. However, it is also an expensive alternative to Hootsuite and levies extra charges for every additional team member.

In terms of integration capabilities, Sprout Social allows you to integrate with Zendesk, UserVoice, and Salesforce to facilitate collaboration between your sales, support, and social media teams. It also enables users to create a Facebook Messenger bot to connect with customers during and after office hours.

3. Hootsuite vs Agorapulse

Agorapulse is a comprehensive social media management tool designed to aid small businesses in building and moderating their online communities. Aided by the user-friendly interface, you can get acquainted with the platform with minimal training.

When it comes to customer support, Agorapulse is better than Hootsuite. Moreover, Agorapulse can seamlessly integrate with major social media platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram. The tool offers various features, including post-scheduling, competitor analysis, user engagement automation, and detailed reports.

Other key features include a unified inbox, customized publishing options, social listening, advanced analytics, and customer engagement. However, Agorapulse integrates limited capability to handle reviews and queries, as it doesn’t allow you to reply to questions, visitor posts, and reviews.

4. Hootsuite vs Buffer

Buffer enables you to easily share and manage multiple social media accounts. While it is primarily known as a scheduling tool, Buffer provides features to optimize social media posting times for target audiences.

Buffer offers a free plan with limited features. However, you can also try out the paid ones with a 14-day trial period. It supports various social media platforms and allows users to log into all of them at once.

With the Buffer browser extension, users can instantly share content or schedule it to be shared later with a single click. Buffer also offers integration with WordPress, Chrome, and other important tools.

Some other notable features of Buffer include detailed social media analytics, team management, and insights. The tool is designed to be user-friendly, making it suitable for small businesses and newcomers to the industry. However, Buffer falls short in offering social listening capabilities.

5. Hootsuite vs Sendible

Sendible helps businesses enhance their brand’s social media presence. This agency-focused tool enables users to connect with teams and clients with ease.

Sendible is compatible with all major social media platforms, as well as blogging platforms such as WordPress, Medium, and Tumblr. Sendible’s dashboard is equipped with a range of features, including a unified social inbox, custom social media reports, team collaboration, social media calendar, and social media listening. However, it lags in offering competitor tracking and audience targeting capabilities.

Conclusion

Overall, Hootsuite is preferred by many for being a credible tool with a decent range of features. However, it may not be a tool for small teams, agencies, and businesses seeking an affordable tool in the social media management space.

So, it’s definitely worth trying affordable Hootsuite alternatives like SocialPilot, which offers all-important social media management features without all the disadvantages of Hootsuite.

The post Disadvantages of Hootsuite & it’s Alternatives in 2024 appeared first on Social Media Marketing.