Overview
What Is Hootsuite Used For?
Hootsuite is the first social media management tool of its kind. It is used extensively by agencies, brands, and businesses, small and large, as well as enterprises, to handle the social media part of their marketing ventures.
This includes assisting marketers in automating many of their daily duties, so they can spend time strategizing things. And Hootsuite, an all-rounder, can handle everything, from creating posts and customizing them for specific platforms to scheduling them in bulk to be published at their designated times.
Hootsuite integrates all the major social platforms, including Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Twitter, Youtube, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and Google Business Profile. This makes it an all-rounder social media hub.
Besides automation, Hootsuite also provides analytical insights, robust social listening, and inclusive team and client workflows, so a team handling social media is well-equipped to execute their marketing strategies efficiently.
What Is Agorapulse Used For?
Agorapulse is an intuitive social media management tool that is used by brands, businesses, agencies, and enterprises to centralize all of their social media activities and automate much of their content scheduling.
Agorapulse is highly efficient in scheduling all forms of content for various social media platforms from its dashboard. This negates the problem of users going to each page on every native social channel to post.
This software, similar to hootsuite, integrates with several major social media channels, including Facebook, Google Business Profile, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, Youtube, and TikTok.
Agorapulse is especially preferred over its alternatives because of its strong social listening capabilities. Using the listening feature, users can monitor specific keywords, industry trends, campaigns, and even online competitors’ activities. This makes Agorapulse stand out from its peers.
Best Suitable for
Hootsuite
Start with $149
Professional Teams, Small business, Enterprises
Agorapulse
Start with $69
Agency, Small Business, Enterprise
SocialPilot
Start with $30
SMBs, Agencies, Multi-Location Brands
Summary
Users have rated both of these tools based on the ease of using them. So let us see how they fared in giving a smoother user experience.
As surprising as the results might be, they are true. Despite being hailed the market leader, Hootsuite has been trumped by Agorapulse in overall ratings by quite a margin. When we came to the process of setting up and ease of usage, although the margin was lesser, Agorapulse still took the lead over Hootsuite.
And when it came to the quality of customer support, the difference was the highest, and Agorapulse remained ahead.
Here are all the average user ratings based on their experiences of Hootsuite and Agorapulse, along with SocialPilot for a frame of reference.
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Hootsuite |
Agorapulse |
SocialPilot |
|
|---|---|---|---|
| Number of Reviews | 3781 | 865 | 741 |
| Overall Star Rating | |||
| Ease of Use | |||
| Quality of Support | |||
| Ease of Setup | |||
| Learn More | Learn More | 14 Days Trial |
Quick Comparison
In this section, we will go through all the vital functions of both tools that we must take into account while comparing Agorapulse and Hootsuite to make the right decision.
One look at the prices clarifies that Agorapulse is more cost-effective than Hootsuite. The former charges less than half of the latter one to manage almost as many social accounts. But Hootsuite’s plans allow a certain number of users to work on the same profile while Agorapulse charges per user.
Hootsuite and Agorapulse support all the same social channels, with only Pinterest being unavailable to Agorapulse. Also, Agorapulse does not provide users the customized white-label solutions, which is an essential feature for agencies to give their clients a branded experience. Hootsuite has white-label solutions available, albeit at a very high price.
Note: SocialPilot offers its clients white-label solutions at a much lower price point than Hootsuite. This makes SocialPilot a great Hootsuite alternative for agencies looking to cut costs.
Here’s a bird’s eye view of all the primary capabilities comparing Agorapulse vs. Hootsuite, along with SocialPilot for raising the bar.
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Hootsuite |
Agorapulse |
SocialPilot |
|
|---|---|---|---|
| Can't Miss to Compare | |||
| Minimum Pricing | $149/Month | $69/Month | $30/Month |
| Number of Accounts | 35 | 10 | 10 |
| Number of Team Members | 5 | 1 | 2 |
| Number of Posts that Can Be Scheduled | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Core Capabilities | |||
| Scheduling & Publishing |
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| Analytics |
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| Inbox |
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| Collaboration |
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| Competitor Tracking |
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| Whitelabel |
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| Localization | English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish | German, English, French, Portuguese, Spanish | German, English, French, Portuguese, Spanish |
| Support | Email, Chat, Tweet for Support | Priority Email & Chat Support | Email, Chat, Social Media, Phone |
| Learn More | Learn More | 14 Days Trial | |
Reviews
Positive
- With Hootsuite, you can effortlessly manage and schedule posts on multiple social networks in one place, saving your time and increasing your social media productivity.
- The tool provides the best time to post on the networks so that your large audience can see your post.
- Hootsuite has an analytics section that allows one to customize how the report looks and has multiple analytical reports for each platform which can be shared with anyone.
Negative
- Hootsuite has a limitation of size for uploading, due to which you can't schedule large files such as animations.
- Hootsuite doesn't provide competitor analysis to keep track of one’s own performance with respect to competitors. This can make it more challenging to gauge one’s standing in the market and make informed decisions for future strategy.
- While Hootsuite provides valuable reporting capabilities, you are limited in your ability to distribute reports to multiple stakeholders internally unless you are on the highest-level subscription plan.
Positive
- Agorapulses' well-designed dashboard offers insightful analytics and data. With this feature, users can track the performance of their social media campaigns and make informed decisions based on the data.
- The integration of social listening is a major advantage. By monitoring all mentions from one place, Agorapulse streamlines the process of tracking online conversations and helps ensure that no opportunity for interactions is missed.
- The direct sharing feature with people in the contact lists in Agorapulse helps increase engagement and amplify the reach of various posts and promotions, resulting in a more effective and impactful social media strategy.
Negative
- Agorapulse is prone to frequent crashes, causing inconvenience for its users. Furthermore, the solutions provided by the customer support team are often unfeasible.
- The lack of control over linking images and URLs in Agorapulse can be a drawback for users, as the URL is automatically linked to the thumbnail image and cannot be separated.
- In Agorapulse, there is no way to re-distribute a post once its sent, making it difficult for users to make changes or corrections to their content after it's published.
Positive
- You get a social media calendar screen in SocialPilot, which gives a bird-eye view of all the scheduled content as well as create and schedule new content from. You can also change the publishing time and date of any queued posts right from the calendar and reschedule it.
- SocialPilot allows users and clients to collaborate efficiently and save a great deal of time managing social networks.
- Users get to see how each and every post would look on the social platform it is meant for even before it is published. The newly designed SocialPilot dashboard generates a preview of the post with all the content and customizations, before scheduling it. This gives insights as to how the customer would see the post content.
Negative
- Some users have reported receiving error messages with scheduled posts. However, they acknowledge that this issue is not unique to SocialPilot and is also present in other social posting platforms. It is simply a minor inconvenience at times.
- Some users have noted that specific posts require follow-up actions, such as importing them into Instagram and manually posting when they appear in the schedule. While this process may be necessary for particular posts, users find it frustrating.
- One disadvantage of SocialPilot not offering a social listening feature is that it may not be the best choice for businesses or individuals who require comprehensive social media monitoring and analysis.
Hootsuite Vs Agorapulse Pricing
Now, we will compare the paid subscription plans of both these tools as this aspect proves to be a deciding factor for customers.
Both tools have four paid subscriptions. Both tools’ lowest plans, designed for single users, start at $99 and $59 per month for Hootsuite and Agorapulse, respectively. But we will directly go to the agency-level plans, which are the most popular amongst their target audiences.
Hootsuite charges a hefty amount of $739 per month for allowing up to 5 users to connect 35 social accounts and schedule as many posts as they want. This makes a lot of users turn to Hootsuite alternatives since such a monthly cost is unaffordable to them.
However, Agorapulse has a slightly different pricing model. It costs $149 monthly but allows only one user to connect up to 20 accounts. If the account owner wants to add more team members, they need to pay extra charges.
Note: Despite costing a fraction of Hootsuite’s costs, SocialPilot provides almost the same number of users and social accounts in its agency-level monthly plan. And even if Agorapulse is closer to it in terms of cost, it allows only a single user to use the profile, while SocialPilot accommodates six team members.
Here are all the pricing plans compared side by side for Hootsuite vs. Agorapulse. We have taken the liberty to include SocialPilot as well to get a better frame of reference.
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Hootsuite |
Agorapulse |
SocialPilot |
|---|---|---|
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Professional
$149/per month
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Standard
$69/per month
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Professional
$30/per month
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Small Team
$399/per month
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Professional
$99/per month
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Small Team
$50/per month
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Enterprise
Custom
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Advanced
$149/per month
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Agency
$100/per month
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Enterprise
Custom
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Agency+
$200/per month
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30 Days Free Trial
Credit Card Required
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30 Days Free Trial
No Credit Card Required
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14 Days Free Trial
No Credit Card Required
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| Learn More | Learn More | Start Your free Trial |
In-depth Scheduling and Publishing Capabilities Comparison
Here, we will discuss the most important capability a social media management tool must possess. Social media scheduling is the prime need of businesses and agencies when they turn to scheduling tools. So let’s see which one of our contenders does it better.
Regarding scheduling, both Hootsuite and Agorapulse are similarly capable, having features like content management, platform-specific customization, visual content support, and much more. However, there are bound to be some discrepancies.
Agorapulse lacks in Facebook publishing, being incapable of scheduling reels, and carousel posts, while Hootsuite has all these abilities. However, the latter cannot schedule first comments with Instagram posts, a much-used feature in Instagram marketing. Also, Hootsuite doesn’t allow posting YouTube shorts, which is a significant gap in the video marketing ability that is filled by Agorapulse.
Note: First comment scheduling is a feature that is becoming more popular in social media scheduling to keep the actual posts clean and give them more reach and engagement at the same time. SocialPilot, a versatile tool, provides the facility of scheduling first comments for Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn as opposed to Agorapulse, which only has the feature available for Instagram. This makes SocialPilot a strong Agorapulse alternative.
Here are all the scheduling and publishing features, Agorapulse vs. Hootsuite, and SocialPilot, a powerful social media scheduling tool, for better reference.
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Hootsuite |
Agorapulse |
SocialPilot |
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| Smart & Advanced Queueing |
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| Customize Post for Each Platform |
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| Post Preview |
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| Canva Integration |
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| Unsplash Integration |
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| Slack Integration |
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| URL Shortener |
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| Visual Post Support (Image, Video, GIF) |
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| UTM Parameters |
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| Cloud Storage |
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| Hashtag Suggestions |
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| Advance Publishing Capabilities | |||
| Save Draft Posts |
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| AI Assistant |
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| Watermark on Images |
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| Bulk Scheduling |
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| Content Curation |
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| Auto publishing from RSS |
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| Social media calendar |
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| Mobile App |
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| Browser Extension |
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| Advance Facebook Publishing Capabilities | |||
| Reel Scheduling |
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| Support Album Posts |
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| Support Carousel Posts |
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| Alternate Text on Image |
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| Support Facebook First Comment |
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| Audience Targeting |
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| Boost Post Scheduling |
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| Support Mention and Hashtags |
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| Advance Twitter Publishing Capabilities | |||
| Location Tagging |
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| Support Mention and Hashtags |
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| Support Multiple Image Posts |
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| Threads Scheduling |
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| Advance Instagram Publishing Capabilities | |||
| Reel Scheduling |
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| Story Scheduling |
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| Tag Profiles on Images |
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| Location Tagging |
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| Support Instagram First Comment |
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| Instagram Grid |
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| Advance LinkedIn Publishing Capabilities | |||
| Audience Targeting |
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| Support LinkedIn First Comment |
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| Advance YouTube Publishing Capabilities | |||
| #shorts Scheduling |
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| Mention of Other Youtube Accounts |
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| Learn More | Learn More | 14 Days Trial | |
In-depth Analytics Capability Comparison
Analytics are the pointers, directing social media marketers to move in the correct direction strategically. And when we see the analytical capabilities of both the tools, they are very similar in this aspect.
They provide robust insights on page and content performance for users’ business profiles on all the supported social media marketing platforms. They also generate downloadable PDF reports for users and even email them to all the concerned stakeholders, such as team members, clients, and investors.
Below is the list of all the analytical and reporting abilities of both the tools in question, along with SocialPilot.
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Hootsuite |
Agorapulse |
SocialPilot |
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|---|---|---|---|
| Whitelabel Downloadable Report in PDF Format |
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| Email PDF Report to Client |
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| Auto Schedule Report with Team and Client |
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| Custom Report Builder |
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| Learn More | Learn More | 14 Days Trial |
In-depth Inbox/Listening Capability Comparison
Monitoring audience engagement and responding to them proactively helps a brand build a positive image among its audience. Hence it’s crucial that we address the social listening capabilities of these tools.
Both of them have social listening features to some extent. Agorapulse has better features to monitor specified keywords on social platforms, blogs, and other forums. Both of them enable users to real-time listening and reply to DMs from their audience. However, only Hootsuite has the ability to monitor and respond to queries and reviews from the public.
Note: SocialPilot has an integrated social inbox that allows users to see real-time messages, comments, and reviews on multiple platforms. Marketers can proactively respond to these from a single dashboard, saving their time and building a positive image.
Here are all the listening features compared of Agorapulse and Hootsuite, with SocialPilot added to the mix as well.
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Hootsuite |
Agorapulse |
SocialPilot |
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| Can Reply Message |
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| Can Reply Questions and Reviews |
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| Can Reply on Visitor Posts |
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| Real-Time Social Listening |
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| Learn More | Learn More | 14 Days Trial |
In-depth Social Media Collaboration Capability Comparison
Last but not least, we will see how these social media tools are equipped to facilitate a whole social media team working together to manage the online marketing aspect of a business.
And it’s no surprise that both tools have multi-user content collaboration features. The account admins can give selective permissions to team members to limit their access for better workflows. Users can also invite clients and involve them in the collaborative processes.
Here’s a comparative view of Hootsuite vs. Agorapulse’s collaboration features along with SocialPilot’s for a broader picture.
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Hootsuite |
Agorapulse |
SocialPilot |
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| Free Unlimited Client Onboarding |
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| Per Post Multi-User Collaboration |
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| Access Management |
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| Content Approval Workflow |
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| Learn More | Learn More | 14 Days Trial |
