For those who’re on the hunt for a social media administration instrument, likelihood is that Buffer and Hootsuite are a few of the first names that pop up — with good cause.
These two choices are among the many greatest, and each come full of options to make social media administration simple and enable you to develop your following.
So, which one is greatest? It is an attention-grabbing query with no simple reply. Maybe a greater query could be: Which social media administration instrument is best for you?
Whereas each Buffer and Hootsuite supply comparable core options — social media administration, scheduling, and analytics — they have been constructed with fairly totally different customers in thoughts.
Typically talking, Buffer serves small to medium companies, solopreneurs, and creators. Hootsuite, however, is primarily centered on massive social media advertising groups at larger companies.
You may see these goal customers mirrored in several methods throughout the instruments, from how options work to the pricing construction (we’ll break down the specifics under).
That is to not say that, in case you’re on a big advertising workforce, Hootsuite is routinely the most suitable choice for you. A very powerful issues to contemplate when weighing Buffer vs. Hootsuite are the next:
Let’s take a more in-depth have a look at the 2 instruments.
Buffer vs Hootsuite characteristic overview
Here is a chook’s-eye view of the important thing options and the price of each instruments. I am going to go over most of those in better depth in the remainder of the article.
Buffer
Hootsuite
Free plan
✅ Three social channels/social media accounts
❌ No free plan
Paid plans
Begin at $5/month
Begin at $99/month per consumer
Supported social media channels
Instagram, Fb, X/Twitter, LinkedIn, TikTok, Pinterest, Google Enterprise, Mastodon, Begin Web page, YouTube Shorts, Threads, Bluesky, Shopify
Instagram, Fb, X/Twitter, LinkedIn, TikTok, Pinterest (picture solely), YouTube, Threads
Cell apps
✅ iOS, Android
✅ iOS, Android
Content material planning
✅ Create Area (on all plans, together with free)
✅ OwlyGPT (paid plans solely)
Engagement
✅ Paid plans solely
✅ Paid plans solely
Analytics, Insights, Reporting
✅ Free plan (fundamentals) and paid plans (superior)
✅ Paid plans solely
Staff members
✅ Paid plans solely
✅ Paid plans solely
AI-assisted content material technology
✅ Buffer AI Assistant (all plans, limitless use)
✅ OwlyWriterAI (all plans, restricted tokens)
Social listening
❌
✅ Paid plans solely
Web site/link-in-bio instrument
✅ Begin Web page (on all plans, together with Free)
✅ Paid plans solely
Plans and pricing
The price of a instrument is a dealbreaker for a lot of, so let’s discuss in regards to the starkest distinction between Buffer and Hootsuite proper up entrance: the worth.
That is significantly vital when a few of your important options may solely be accessible on particular plans or value additional.
Here is a big-picture have a look at the pricing construction for each instruments.
Buffer pricing
- Free plan (as much as 3 social media accounts/channels) — $0
- Necessities plan — $5 per channel per 30 days, paid yearly (or $6 paid month-to-month)
- Staff plan — $10 per channel per 30 days, paid yearly (or $12 paid month-to-month)
See Buffer’s full pricing information right here →
Hootsuite pricing
- Normal plan — $99 per consumer per 30 days, paid yearly (or $149 paid month-to-month)
- Superior plan — $249 per consumer per 30 days, paid yearly (or $399 paid month-to-month)
- Enterprise plan — Contact for pricing
See Hootsuite’s full pricing information right here →
What this implies for you
Buffer and Hootsuite strategy pricing from totally different angles, which straight impacts what you’ll pay at the beginning and the way prices improve as your wants develop.
For creators: Hootsuite does not supply a free choice, so you will pay a minimum of $99 per 30 days to handle as much as 5 social accounts. Buffer provides you 3 social channels for gratis, and in case you want extra, paid plans begin at simply $5 per 30 days per channel.
For groups: Hootsuite’s pricing grows with every consumer, whereas Buffer’s grows with every channel. A workforce with two customers and two social media channels would value you $198 per 30 days on Hootsuite (or $298 in case you pay month-to-month). With Buffer, you’d pay $20 per 30 days (or $24 month-to-month). You may have limitless customers on the Staff plan.
Free trials
Each Buffer and Hootsuite supply free trials of their plans, so you may put just about the entire above to the take a look at with out paying a cent.
Buffer free trial: 14 days on Necessities and Groups plans. (Bear in mind, you should use as much as three social media channels on Buffer’s forever-free plan.)
Hootsuite free trial: 30 days on their Normal and Superior plans, after which you will be charged $99 or $249 per consumer month, respectively.
Ease of use
How easy the instrument is performs a giant function in whether or not you may hit the bottom working or spend time wrestling with it. The sooner you’re feeling snug inside a instrument, the sooner you may focus in your content material technique.
Buffer: There’s no losing time with Buffer — you may join your social media accounts, arrange a posting queue, and begin publishing straight away. The onboarding move walks you thru draft and publish content material, so that you’re able to go inside minutes of signing up.
Hootsuite: Hootsuite’s social media administration instruments boast some useful further options (like paid posts), and it’s a strong platform for managing your whole social media presence. This additionally means there’s a little bit of a studying curve to be sure you get probably the most bang on your buck.
You may anticipate to spend a while determining the place to search out totally different options and use them. I undoubtedly needed to make a number of journeys to their information base to search out my approach round.
Each Buffer and Hootsuite are complete social media scheduling instruments and supply a social media content material calendar and queue system that can enable you to simply plan and schedule your posts.
Let’s dive into the main points of how every instrument handles planning and scheduling your social posts.
Obtainable channels
You may join a number of social media accounts and handle them from a single dashboard on each Hootsuite and Buffer.
Here is a fast breakdown of the varied social media platforms every instrument helps:
Buffer
Hootsuite
Fb
✅Pages and Teams
✅Pages solely
✅ Creator, Enterprise, and Private profiles
✅ Enterprise and Creator profiles solely
TikTok
✅ Private and Enterprise accounts
✅
YouTube
✅
✅
✅
✅
X/Twitter
✅
✅
Threads
✅
✅
✅
✅
Bluesky
✅
❌
Mastodon
✅
❌
Google Enterprise Profile
✅
❌
❌
✅
Buffer helps natural social media administration throughout all its accessible channels. Hootsuite provides the identical for natural posts and in addition consists of instruments for managing paid advert campaigns on Fb, LinkedIn, and X/Twitter.
Creating and scheduling posts
Each Buffer and Hootsuite cowl the necessities of content material creation and put up scheduling — issues like calendar views, bulk scheduling, crossposting throughout platforms, AI help — however the particulars differ.
A number of the variations between the platforms could also be a deal breaker for some social media managers and creators.
Posting throughout platforms: Each Buffer and Hootsuite make it simple to draft a put up as soon as and share it throughout a number of accounts in a single go. You can too tweak the textual content or photographs for every channel at this step, so that you don’t have to begin from scratch each time you need to put up the identical content material to a special channel.
Bulk scheduling posts: For those who’re sharing a whole lot of posts throughout channels, you may bulk schedule your posts on each channels, with a number of variations in limitations.
Buffer helps importing and scheduling as much as 100 posts at a time from a CSV file on paid plans, which ought to cowl most wants for creators and small groups. When you have extra to add, you may merely add a second CSV file, since there is no such thing as a restrict on what number of you may hold in your queue.
Hootsuite raises the majority add cap to 350 posts, and also you’ll want their Superior or Enterprise plans to entry this characteristic. For big groups managing a heavy posting schedule, that additional capability could be useful.
AI help: Each instruments have AI constructed proper into the composer. Buffer’s AI Assistant is obtainable on each plan, even the free one, with no cap on what number of posts or concepts you may generate. Hootsuite’s OwlyWriterAI is included on paid plans, nevertheless it comes with limits, so that you’ll should be extra selective about while you use it.
Here is a comparability of the put up composer window in each Buffer and Hootsuite for scheduling an Instagram Reel and TikTok.
Scheduling an Instagram Reel and TikTok with BufferScheduling an Instagram Reel and TikTok with Hoosuite
Cowl photographs for short-form video: Hootsuite doesn’t let you choose covers or thumbnails for Instagram Reels created from Creator accounts or TikTok movies. This may occasionally not be just right for you if you’d like management over how your video seems in your grid.
Crossposting to Pinterest: On Hootsuite, you may’t crosspost on to Pinterest. Pins are dealt with in another way from posts on different platforms, so you must create and schedule them individually.
Calendar views: Each instruments embrace a calendar, however the layouts aren’t the identical. Buffer reveals you channel-specific posts in each week and month views, so you may see precisely what’s deliberate. Hootsuite provides you the put up particulars in its calendar week view. Within the month view, you may see put up standing, like what number of posts are scheduled, however not which platforms they’re for.
Hashtag assist: Buffer doesn’t have hashtag suggestions constructed into the composer like Hootsuite. As a substitute, it provides a free Instagram hashtag generator that anybody can use, even with out an account. Contained in the app, Buffer provides a hashtag supervisor, which helps you to save and arrange teams of hashtags to rapidly drop into your posts.
Capturing concepts and content material planning
Planning forward seems to be totally different relying on the instrument you employ. Buffer supplies a devoted house to assemble and arrange social media content material concepts, whereas Hootsuite leans on AI to assist spark and form them.
Buffer: On the planning entrance, Buffer provides the Create Area — an concepts hub the place you may retailer any put up content material concepts, textual content, and media to entry while you’re able to publish them.
Options like tags and a Kanban board view make it simple to prepare this library, serving to you flip it into a versatile house that works for you.Tags and a Kanban board view enable you to hold this library structured, and built-in templates plus the AI assistant enable you to rapidly flip a saved concept right into a draft.
Hootsuite: Hootsuite takes a special strategy. Its planning options as a substitute middle on AI, with OwlyGPT appearing as a chatbot that provides personalised ideas based mostly in your linked manufacturers and accounts. You need to use it to generate marketing campaign concepts, write posts or video scripts, and even construct a drafting schedule for one channel or on your social presence as a complete.
There’s no devoted house for storing unfinished put up concepts as you’re employed on them, and you possibly can save your put up as a draft as a workaround.
Each Hootsuite and Buffer supply social media engagement options that can enable you to keep on high of messages and feedback throughout a number of social media platforms.
Buffer’s engagement options
Buffer’s Neighborhood characteristic is designed that will help you construct real connections throughout all of your social media accounts. You may bounce into conversations proper from the Neighborhood tab in Buffer, and while you’re caught on what to say, the AI Assistant provides ideas to get the dialog flowing.
If you end up answering the identical questions again and again, it can save you these responses and pull them up everytime you want them as a substitute of typing the identical factor repeatedly.
You may additionally see a remark rating for every channel — based mostly on how rapidly and constantly you reply — so you may perceive the place engagement feels robust and the place it’d want consideration.
The Neighborhood instrument additionally provides you a window into how your viewers is responding, whether or not that is feedback on particular person posts or replies and mentions throughout a whole social media account.
Simply sort in a query about what you want to know, and the AI will supply insights on how your viewers is reacting. It could actually additionally counsel new put up concepts and supply methods to maintain viewers engagement going.
Hootsuite’s engagement options
Hootsuite’s Inbox 2.0 is a dialog administration characteristic that works like a buyer assist instrument. You may assign messages to workforce members, route them to the best place, and even arrange automated responses.
It additionally works like a mini buyer relationship administration (CRM) instrument — you may replace a dialog with the consumer’s e mail addresses, telephone numbers, and URLs so your workforce has all of the vital info at their fingertips when replying to messages.
Price mentioning right here is Hootsuite’s social listening instrument. For those who’re concerned with monitoring mentions of and sentiment in direction of your organization or model, Hootsuite has some highly effective choices. You may have entry to ‘primary’ social listening options like these throughout the instance under, however full entry to the instrument is simply accessible on their price-on-request Enterprise plan.
Social media analytics instruments generally is a game-changer in case you’re seeking to construct your following and scale your social media presence throughout platforms.
Once more, each Buffer and Hootsuite have you ever coated, although the totally different consumer focuses are undoubtedly evident within the complexity of the social media analytics choices.
Buffer’s analytics options
Buffer analytics are simple to know and interpret. You may have entry to put up analytics for all of the social media channels supported and may hold observe of content material efficiency at a look.
In-depth analytics (accessible on paid plans) are the following step up, they usually’re simply as simple to familiarize yourself with. You may get complete metrics for Fb Pages, Instagram Enterprise and Creator accounts, Twitter/X, and LinkedIn Pages.
For every of the channels talked about above, you will get an in depth have a look at vital social media metrics, plus — and that is the place the magic occurs — suggestions based mostly on these numbers.
Not solely does Buffer floor all a very powerful numbers. it additionally interprets them and suggests particular actions to assist enhance your social media efficiency.
Below the Solutions tab, you will discover:
- Your private greatest time to put up (for X/Twitter, you will get the very best day to put up)
- Your greatest sort of content material
- Your greatest posting frequency
The entire metrics talked about above could be was lovely customized social media experiences by merely clicking the ‘+’ button subsequent to every part.
Hootsuite’s analytics options
The place Buffer shines for creators and small companies, Hootsuite can present insights for bigger groups.
Hootsuite consists of the identical core analytics you’ll discover in Buffer, corresponding to monitoring the efficiency of your social media posts and viewers progress, and offering really useful occasions to publish for every channel.
Hootsuite brings some useful extras if you wish to dig deeper into your analytics. You may observe how your advertisements are performing, and you may as well see how your general outcomes evaluate to others in your business.
There’s additionally competitor monitoring — as much as 5 opponents on the Normal plan and as many as 20 on the Superior plan — so you may see how your content material stacks up facet by facet.
Staff collaboration options
Teamwork in social media administration brings loads of transferring elements, like managing who has account entry, what permission settings to make use of, and creating approval workflows that make working collectively really feel simple.
Each Buffer and Hootsuite supply characteristic wealthy workforce collaboration instruments, though with totally different approaches.
Working with groups in Buffer
Staff administration in Buffer is simple — you may add limitless customers to the platform on the Staff plans.
For every channel, you may select from three ranges of entry to provide every particular person on the workforce:
- Full posting entry: Their posts and concepts shall be printed when scheduled.
- Approval required: All the pieces they create will should be permitted by somebody with full posting entry earlier than it’s printed.
- No entry: They will not see the social media channel of their Buffer workspace in any respect.
As you will see from the screenshot under, the collaboration system is versatile sufficient to mean you can give customers admin entry, whether or not they have full posting entry or not.
Working with groups in Hootsuite
Hootsuite was designed with massive groups in thoughts, so entry and approvals is a posh, layered system that enables customers to get actually granular on who can see and entry what.
With totally different ‘organizations,’ groups, and channels, you may create an intricate system for a giant social media advertising workforce (or a number of). Organizations are the very best tier within the system.
Inside a corporation, you may have a number of groups, assign workforce members to as many groups as they want entry to, and assign social media accounts to those groups. You can too assign duties to members or groups, route messages to particular groups, and management entry to social accounts.
You can too set default permission ranges for brand spanking new members — whether or not their posts want approval or not, or if their entry is restricted to the Inbox — and get as detailed as your workforce wants.
Along with groups and entry ranges, Hootsuite additionally provides the Content material Library that is centered explicitly on saving templates and media information for everybody on a workforce to make use of. You may create as many content material libraries as you want, and assign them to groups relying on what media belongings they want entry to.
That mentioned, Hootsuite’s pricing relies on the variety of customers, so massive groups must pay additional to have something greater than 5 customers per account, even on Hootsuite’s premium Enterprise plan.
As I touched on above, it actually relies upon! There isn’t any one-size-fits-all strategy on the subject of the very best social media administration resolution on your model and enterprise.
Hootsuite provides a strong set of options when you’ve discovered your approach round. Buffer clients worth its easy-to-use interface, the pliability so as to add or take away channels, and the choice to usher in workforce members with out additional value.
For those who’re on the lookout for one thing not talked about right here or extra choices, undoubtedly try our round-up of Hootsuite options.
For those who do determine on Buffer (yay!) and have any questions, please do not hesitate to achieve out through hiya@buffer.com. We’re a world workforce, so there’s all the time somebody on-line to assist!
