Does your social media posting schedule keep you up at night? The thought of tracking all engagement metrics leaves you with a cold sweat? Well then, you are in dire need of some efficient assistance.
And two of the best contenders for this are SocialPilot and Hootsuite. These tools work like magic in social media marketing management to make your life easier. But the choice of SocialPilot vs Hootsuite can get confusing.
Table of Contents
Overview
When it comes to managing one’s social media profiles, these tools have a lot to offer. Hootsuite is one of the market leaders in this category. Established in 2008, it helps many large organizations handle their needs, in turn saving time and effort.
SocialPilot is one of the key social media scheduling tools, taking the competition by storm. It has shown an exemplary understanding of the social media needs of small businesses and agencies.
SocialPilot
Since being established in 2014, SocialPilot has become a clear preference among medium to small brands and agencies. It provides a healthy collection of features that all its competitors offer and more.
SocialPilot pricing is quite cost-effective while providing outstanding services. This is the main value proposition if you directly compare it with its main competitor, i.e., Hootsuite.
Hootsuite
Having had the early-entrant advantage in the industry, Hootsuite is a well-known name amongst the best social media marketing tools. Its wide range of features is well-suited to cater to larger enterprises. A sizable external-apps library providing added functionality makes it one of the highly functional social media automation tools to work with.
But fancy features come at a cost. Hootsuite prices are on the higher side. This reflects the fact that its primary target customer is larger organizations. For small to medium-sized businesses, it is quite unaffordable.
Now we’ll give you a glimpse of how the tools interact with their users.
User Interface
The user interface is the first impression of the tool. This can either draw us in or scare us away. For this category, SocialPilot vs Hootsuite comparison can give us some surprising results. Here we’ll give you a surface view of the tools and their user interfaces.
SocialPilot
SocialPilot prides itself on its user-friendly interface. Straightforward features make using it a cakewalk. No tutorials are necessary to learn its use. Just a few trials, and you’ll be an expert. This is because the interface has been designed keeping in mind to make the usage as hassle-free as possible.
The main dashboard gives the user an overall view of their recent activities under Posting History. The daily posts and the type of content they put out are summed up in a comprehensive graph.
Accessing other features like Analytics, post creation, content curation, team collaboration & management, social inbox, etc., all are available right from this dashboard. You can also connect and manage your social media profiles from the Accounts section on the left menu panel.
Hootsuite
Due to its versatility, the user dashboard of Hootsuite has a lot to offer. The central part of the interface is Streams. These are vertical columns that the user can customize. They can show any activity or feed such as tweets, liked posts, mentions, timelines, etc.
Users can monitor their profiles and interact with their audience from a Stream itself. But there is a con to this feature. In an effort to be overly convenient and customizable, the heavily feature-loaded dashboard comes across as clunky and crowded. Hence if you are looking for easy-to-use social media automation tools, Hootsuite is not the one for you.
Other than that, there are features such as in-depth analytics, content calendar, and post creation that any good social media management tool might have. Just the running theme being users finding it a bit difficult to navigate.
The Target Audience
If you take a good look at both tools, it’s pretty clear they are highly audience-focused. Their features, user interfaces, and especially prices are tailored to appeal to all.
SocialPilot
SocialPilot is a tool for businesses of all sizes. But it is more specifically focused on small to medium brands and agencies. It has features like workflow approval and easy team collaboration tools that make working in small groups a smoother process. Also, accounts with multiple user access and easier automation processes make managing social channels easier. SocialPilot pricing comes in more economical plans compared to the competition.
Hootsuite
This is an all-rounder of social media management tools. With its broad extent of app integrations, dynamic dashboard, and intuitive analytics, it is a hub of activities for a social media marketer. But Hootsuite prices are on the higher end of the spectrum. This is why it is more practical for larger companies and enterprises.
The main point of contention regarding Hootsuite vs SocialPilot is the pricing. Hence we need to see why SocialPilot and Hootsuite reside on opposite ends of the spectrum.
Pricing Propositions
SocialPilot
It offers 4 types of paid plans: Professional, Small team, Studio, and Agency. Is Hootsuite worth it? Or does SocialPilot take the cake? These are the dilemmas we are trying to resolve. Here are the features and prices involved in a quick glance.
These are all the SocialPilot pricing outlines, along with the features they offer under each plan. We have not gone into much detail about the features. We’ll discuss them in the latter sections.
Hootsuite
Like SocialPilot, Hootsuite also has 4 paid plans. They also have a free plan, but it has minimal functions. Here are the details on the Hootsuite prices.
One might notice the expanse of features Hootsuite provides comes at a very dear cost. The starting basic team plan is priced at $129, whereas SocialPilot costs only $50 for the same. This further proves the point we earlier mentioned about Hootsuite being a tool only for larger businesses. That’s a decision for you to make, but we can make things a bit easier for you by listing the facts.
SocialPilot vs Hootsuite: Features Face-off
In this section, we’ll compare both tools, feature-by-feature. That’ll help us understand which one gives more value to its respective user.
Social Platforms Supported
SocialPilot
In terms of integration with various channels, SocialPilot wins over its competitors by sheer numbers. It supports all the major platforms that include the following:
- Google My Business
- Tumblr
- VK
- TikTok
SocialPilot trumps many of its major competitors in numbers. It integrates with significant platforms like Tik Tok, Tumblr, and VK, which other tools don’t support. This gives its users added advantage of increasing their reach to their audience.
Hootsuite
Although it doesn’t support as many social media platforms as SocialPilot does, Hootsuite allows connecting with all the major platforms. These platforms are given below.
- Youtube
Youtube is an added area where Hootsuite extends its services where SocialPilot doesn’t. But its expertise lies with Twitter the most. Instagram stories are supported only on a higher subscription.
Posting and Scheduling
SocialPilot
Keeping in sync with the theme of the tool, creating and posting content is quite streamlined. It provides functional automation like suggested timing for posts and fitting ad-hoc scheduling with the pre-defined sequence. You don’t have to overthink this tool. At the same time, you will find all the resources a social media marketer needs to keep a regular stream of content incoming.
Canva is inbuilt in the post creation window of SocialPilot. This is one of the user-favorite integrations in the tool. It is an easy way to create aesthetic post designs.
Along with the creation part, you also can use content curation tools and RSS feeds, which are for content suggestion & automation. These sources help immensely in maintaining your social media streak.
Another device SocialPilot has provided users that makes impromptu-posting very easy is its browser extension. This is a quick way by which you can share. When you come across an interesting article or blog you want to share, just click o the icon. It’ll directly be composed into a post by the tool. You can then schedule it as you wish!
Hootsuite
This is a feature-heavy tool in many ways. Creating and scheduling on Hootsuite is not a hard feat. It’s almost similar to a lot of social media management tools. The robust integrations make composing and designing easy here. They provide the facility to make customized aesthetic feeds for Instagram and pins for Pinterest.
Another helpful feature here is the preview generator. When your post is composed, the tool generates a sample of how your post will look on the chosen social media platform. The content calendar is where you can get the whole scope of your recent and upcoming posts.
Unlike SocialPilot, Hootsuite doesn’t have strong content curation and automation tools.
Analytics
Posting regularly on social media profiles is as important as gathering the effect your content is having online. This is made with the help of powerful analytics of social media management tools.
So let’s see what Hootsuite and SocialPilot have to offer
SocialPilot
SocialPilot provides a very comprehensive view of analytics. These stats are generated from your content and surrounding activities like engagement, views, etc. Users can gather valuable insights from the analytics and reporting tool’s framework.
The main advantage of these reports is that users can easily interpret them. This is convenient for solopreneurs and small businesses.
Hootsuite
Known for its versatile features, Hootsuite provides its users with in-depth and insightful reports generated from the analytics. The details covered are beneficial to any social media marketer. You can see organic, owned, and earned figures from Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram.
These reports are available in PDF, Excel spreadsheet, PowerPoint, or CSV files. The visualization of the generated data is somewhat helpful to decipher the otherwise complicated stats.
Interesting read: 5 Tremendous Social Media Reporting Tools You Need to Try
Integrations
When comparing external app integrations, SocialPilot vs Hootsuite can give some unexpected results as they take wholly different approaches.
SocialPilot
When it comes to external app integrations, the collection is kept simple. There is a limited number of visible apps which SocialPilot gives you. But in this case, don’t go by the numbers alone. The available ones are more than enough to take care of the needs of any social media enthusiast.
Users can connect thousands of external apps, generate custom URLs, create and edit graphics, do cloud-based content management, and much more.
Hootsuite
Hootsuite is a cornucopia of 250+ external app integrations. These include Microsoft Dynamic 365, Zendesk, Slack Pro, Spotify, different programs from Adobe, Canva, and many more.
Some apps are included in the subscriptions, but many cost extra to be added. While this makes lots of apps unaffordable to some users, it can’t be denied that these integrations boost the available functionality of the tool.
Team Collab Features
SocialPilot
This tool has been developed keeping in mind small businesses and agencies. Hence team collaboration and workflow features become important. Everything is available in one efficient dashboard, from adding teammates to collaborating with clients.
The control over all accounts is centralized and distributed on a need basis. The primary user is the authority who decides the degree of access each team member and client has. This stretches to content scheduling, post-approval, and giving selective permissions. This makes for smooth multi-user functioning.
Hootsuite
On the other hand, Hootsuite was built for larger organizations. It has efficient team management functions too. They have the primary user or an owner for each social account and team members and clients they add. The profile ownership is flexible and can be transferred on will.
This flexibility looks pretty convenient for groups working together. But with many accounts being handled and each one having a different owner, things are a bit confusing at times.
Interesting read: 5 Wonderful Social Media Collaboration Tools for Your Marketing Team
Customer Support
SocialPilot
SocialPilot is a bit of an overachiever when it comes to customer support. Customer reviews have stated that despite the website showing a response time of 4 hours which is impressive, they reach back in 2 hours. This facility is available 24×5 a week.
SocialPilot provides chat & email support and readily available answers to common questions.
This promptness is because they know that solopreneurs and small organizations need that extra bit of support to crack into the market.
Hootsuite
Hootsuite is upfront about providing customer support and feedback. They give in-product assistance through their library of support articles. Users can also tweet their grievances.
But reaching out getting direct support from Hootsuite is a hassle. Users have complained that they take at least a couple of days to reply from the support team. This can be a problem for people who need immediate assistance.
Hence, in this aspect, SocialPilot comes across as the clear winner in the ongoing SocialPilot vs Hootsuite competition.
SocialPilot vs Hootsuite: User Testimonials
After going through the comparative accounts of both the tools’ significant features, you might have garnered some idea of where they stand in the scale of fulfilling your requirements. Yes, there is a lot of fuss regarding which one is more adept in its function.
If we look at pricing, is Hootsuite worth it, or is SocialPilot the one for you? We’ll give you logs of first-hand experiences through user testimonials. This might help you make the right choice.
SocialPilot
Saila N
“Great value/ Full view on social media planning”
The great part about Social Pilot is that we can tag accounts in our post; this stands out from other social media planning platforms. As a marketing manager, I have a full view of our social media planning across our accounts, which is excellent for managing our strategy. The platform offers great value for the price compared to other platforms.
Jennifer W
“Saves so much time!”
I love being able to schedule multiple posts for multiple accounts and batch content. The analytics are good too. We can have way more accounts vs some of the other sites out there. I also love that I can set groups and select multiple accounts with one click. There is an option to export reports with your company logo on them to look very professional. Another feature that I absolutely love is the hashtag counter. SocialPilot is the only program I’ve seen that includes this, and it’s a game-changer!
Daniel Cooper
“Affordable, big time saver and easy-to-digest analytics”
SocialPilot is the social media advertising software that provides us with powerful features that help in content creation, scheduling, publishing on social media, and the management of all social media channels from a centralized location. It supports all major social media platforms, and we can customize the posting schedule as soon as we connect a social account.
Hootsuite
Mike L
“Hootsuite is reliable and offers an extensive array of features.”
I don’t think I’ve ever had a post fail using Hootsuite before, which is more than I can say for other social media scheduling platforms. They also offer great social listening features.
But Hootsuite’s dashboard looks very busy and complicated, which, at times, can be annoying. It might sound trivial, but those with little time would prefer to access their information as quickly as possible. I would suggest a more minimalist dashboard design.
Emily Joy J
“Hootsuite: a scramble to set up and not worth the $$”
Hootsuite is probably the best known and oldest social scheduler and insights tool and so has many great features. But it takes a while to set up because it’s almost too customizable for each social platform and to figure out which monthly and daily reports you want. Also not clear how to duplicate posts in an easy way from platform to platform. AND THE COST! To have something that really works well, you’re paying lots more than other platforms.
Manny S
“Too Pricey and a Bit Complicated to Use!”
I like that you can connect all your profiles and send them as a group each time that you want to send them. No need to re-select the profiles. But the platform is way too pricey! The $75 monthly is for very few profiles. Also, after 10 years with them, basically grandfathered, they jacked my price up from $9.99 to $75.00. Not much customer service and consideration for those who started early on in the history of Hootsuite. Also, the analytics are complicated and not very user-friendly. I can’t set up individual reports easily.
Conclusion
SocialPilot and Hootsuite are competent tools that can benefit any user and boost their presence in the social media scene. They provide similar functionalities, which one would expect in a good marketing tool.
If we compare the scorecards, in the case of overall versatility, Hootsuite is a strong contender with its massive app directory and highly dynamic dashboard through Streams.
But SocialPilot gives their user one thing for which social media marketers are desperately looking —ease of use in their functionality. A unified space to manage all their social engagements. You have everything readily available at hand for creating and easy publishing. Automated timing and RSS feeds are also trump cards against its competition.
All in all, SocialPilot seems like a better option if you want to manage your social presence in the easiest way possible. It provides you with all the pros of a tool like Hootsuite at affordable prices minus the cons. It’s the best Hootsuite alternative tool for any budding agency.
It’s up to you, which one you would prefer.
We hope we have helped solve your conundrum regarding the debate of SocialPilot vs Hootsuite. Watch out for more insights regarding the social media market and tricks of the trade. If you want to voice your opinions, write to us.
Frequently Asked Questions
🌟 Is anything better than Hootsuite?
Hootsuite is a great tool, but many better options come with the same functionality but at a much reasonable price. SocialPilot is one of the best options preferred by social media marketers. It has a very easy-to-use interface and automated features, making it an excellent management tool.
🌟 What are alternatives to Hootsuite?
Here are the top 5 alternatives to Hootsuite:
- SocialPilot
- Sprout Social
- Sendible
- Buffer
- Agorapulse
🌟 Is SocialPilot worthwhile?
SocialPilot is an excellent social media management tool that gives its users value for money which others like Hootsuite don't. It has all the features required to effectively create and publish content without any difficulty. Its comprehensive nature, from its dashboard to the reporting framework, makes the user's job very easy.
🌟 Does SocialPilot have a free version?
SocialPilot provides its new users a free trial period of 14 days, giving them the experience of their Studio plan, including all its premium services. After that, you can switch to a paid subscription. The lowest costing Professional plan costs only $30 per month, and if you pay annually, it comes with a 15% discount.
🌟 How much does SocialPilot cost?
SocialPilot's most basic plan costs $35 per month. But if you opt to pay for the tool annually, it'll cost a mere $10 per month. Here are all the pricing plans by SocialPilot-
- Professional: $35 / month
- Studio: $75 / month
- Agency: $150 / month
