In the event you’re on the hunt for a social media administration software, chances are high that Buffer and Hootsuite are among the first names that pop up — with good purpose.
These two choices are among the many greatest, and each come full of options to make social media administration straightforward and make it easier 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 software is best for you?
Whereas each Buffer and Hootsuite provide related core options — social media administration, scheduling, and analytics — they had been constructed with fairly completely different customers in thoughts.
Usually talking, Buffer serves small to medium companies, solopreneurs, and creators. Hootsuite, alternatively, is primarily targeted on giant social media advertising and marketing groups at greater 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, should you’re on a big advertising and marketing workforce, Hootsuite is robotically the best choice for you. Crucial issues to think about when weighing Buffer vs. Hootsuite are the next:
Let’s take a better have a look at the 2 instruments.
Buffer vs Hootsuite function overview
Here is a fowl’s-eye view of the important thing options and the price of each instruments. I will go over most of those in larger 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 person
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
Crew members
✅ Paid plans solely
✅ Paid plans solely
AI-assisted content material era
✅ Buffer AI Assistant (all plans, limitless use)
✅ OwlyWriterAI (all plans, restricted tokens)
Social listening
❌
✅ Paid plans solely
Web site/link-in-bio software
✅ Begin Web page (on all plans, together with Free)
✅ Paid plans solely
Plans and pricing
The price of a software 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 value.
That is significantly necessary 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) — $0Essentials plan — $5 per channel per 30 days, paid yearly (or $6 paid month-to-month)Crew 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
Customary plan — $99 per person per 30 days, paid yearly (or $149 paid month-to-month)Superior plan — $249 per person 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 completely different angles, which immediately impacts what you’ll pay at first and the way prices improve as your wants increase.
For creators: Hootsuite does not provide a free choice, so you may pay a minimum of $99 per 30 days to handle as much as 5 social accounts. Buffer offers you 3 social channels for free of charge, and should you want extra, paid plans begin at simply $5 per 30 days per channel.
For groups: Hootsuite’s pricing grows with every person, 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 should you pay month-to-month). With Buffer, you’d pay $20 per 30 days (or $24 month-to-month). You possibly can have limitless customers on the Crew plan.
Free trials
Each Buffer and Hootsuite provide free trials of their plans, so you possibly can put just about the entire above to the check with out paying a cent.
Buffer free trial: 14 days on Necessities and Groups plans. (Keep in mind, you should utilize as much as three social media channels on Buffer’s forever-free plan.)
Hootsuite free trial: 30 days on their Customary and Superior plans, after which you may be charged $99 or $249 per person month, respectively.
Ease of use
How easy the software is performs a giant position in whether or not you possibly can hit the bottom operating or spend time wrestling with it. The sooner you are feeling comfy inside a software, the sooner you possibly can focus in your content material technique.
Buffer: There’s no losing time with Buffer — you possibly can join your social media accounts, arrange a posting queue, and begin publishing immediately. The onboarding stream walks you thru methods to 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 helpful extra options (like paid posts), and it’s a strong platform for managing your complete social media presence. This additionally means there’s a little bit of a studying curve to be sure to get essentially the most bang in your buck.
You possibly can anticipate to spend a while determining the place to search out completely different options and methods to use them. I positively needed to make just a few journeys to their information base to search out my manner round.
Each Buffer and Hootsuite are complete social media scheduling instruments and provide a social media content material calendar and queue system that can make it easier to simply plan and schedule your posts.
Let’s dive into the small print of how every software handles planning and scheduling your social posts.
Accessible channels
You possibly can 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 assorted social media platforms every software 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 affords 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.
Among 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 straightforward to draft a put up as soon as and share it throughout a number of accounts in a single go. You may as well tweak the textual content or photos for every channel at this step, so that you don’t have to begin from scratch each time you wish to put up the identical content material to a distinct channel.
Bulk scheduling posts: In the event you’re sharing a whole lot of posts throughout channels, you possibly can bulk schedule your posts on each channels, with just a few 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 possibly can merely add a second CSV file, since there isn’t a restrict on what number of you possibly can 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 function. For big groups managing a heavy posting schedule, that additional capability might be useful.
AI help: Each instruments have AI constructed proper into the composer. Buffer’s AI Assistant is offered on each plan, even the free one, with no cap on what number of posts or concepts you possibly can generate. Hootsuite’s OwlyWriterAI is included on paid plans, nevertheless it comes with limits, so that you’ll should be extra selective about if 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.
Cowl photos for short-form video: Hootsuite doesn’t let you choose covers or thumbnails for Instagram Reels created from Creator accounts or TikTok movies. This will likely not give you the results you want if you need management over how your video seems in your grid.
Crossposting to Pinterest: On Hootsuite, you possibly can’t crosspost on to Pinterest. Pins are dealt with in another way from posts on different platforms, so it’s important to create and schedule them individually.
Calendar views: Each instruments embrace a calendar, however the layouts aren’t the identical. Buffer exhibits you channel-specific posts in each week and month views, so you possibly can see precisely what’s deliberate. Hootsuite offers you the put up particulars in its calendar week view. Within the month view, you possibly can 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 an alternative, it affords a free Instagram hashtag generator that anybody can use, even with out an account. Contained in the app, Buffer affords a hashtag supervisor, which helps you to save and manage teams of hashtags to shortly drop into your posts.
Capturing concepts and content material planning
Planning forward appears to be like completely different relying on the software you employ. Buffer offers a devoted house to collect and manage social media content material concepts, whereas Hootsuite leans on AI to assist spark and form them.
Buffer: On the planning entrance, Buffer affords the Create Area — an concepts hub the place you possibly can retailer any put up content material concepts, textual content, and media to entry if you’re able to publish them.
Options like tags and a Kanban board view make it straightforward to arrange this library, serving to you flip it into a versatile house that works for you.Tags and a Kanban board view make it easier to hold this library structured, and built-in templates plus the AI assistant make it easier to shortly flip a saved thought right into a draft.
Hootsuite: Hootsuite takes a distinct strategy. Its planning options as a substitute middle on AI, with OwlyGPT performing as a chatbot that provides personalised strategies based mostly in your related manufacturers and accounts. You should use it to generate marketing campaign concepts, write posts or video scripts, and even construct a drafting schedule for one channel or in 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 can save your put up as a draft as a workaround.
Each Hootsuite and Buffer provide social media engagement options that can make it easier to keep on prime of messages and feedback throughout a number of social media platforms.
Buffer’s engagement options
Buffer’s Group function is designed that will help you construct real connections throughout all of your social media accounts. You possibly can leap into conversations proper from the Group tab in Buffer, and if you’re caught on what to say, the AI Assistant affords strategies 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 shortly and persistently you reply — so you possibly can perceive the place engagement feels robust and the place it’d want consideration.
The Group software additionally offers 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 kind in a query about what you would like to grasp, and the AI will provide insights on how your viewers is reacting. It could possibly additionally counsel new put up concepts and provide methods to maintain viewers engagement going.
Hootsuite’s engagement options
Hootsuite’s Inbox 2.0 is a dialog administration function that works like a buyer assist software. You possibly can assign messages to workforce members, route them to the suitable place, and even arrange automated responses.
It additionally works like a mini buyer relationship administration (CRM) software — you possibly can replace a dialog with the person’s electronic mail addresses, telephone numbers, and URLs so your workforce has all of the necessary data at their fingertips when replying to messages.
Price mentioning right here is Hootsuite’s social listening software. In the event you’re occupied with monitoring mentions of and sentiment in the direction of your organization or model, Hootsuite has some highly effective choices. You may have entry to ‘primary’ social listening options like these inside the instance under, however full entry to the software is barely accessible on their price-on-request Enterprise plan.
Social media analytics instruments could be a game-changer should you’re trying to construct your following and scale your social media presence throughout platforms.
Once more, each Buffer and Hootsuite have you ever lined, although the completely different person focuses are positively evident within the complexity of the social media analytics choices.
Buffer’s analytics options
Buffer analytics are straightforward to grasp and interpret. You may have entry to put up analytics for all of the social media channels supported and might 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 straightforward to become familiar 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 may get an in depth have a look at necessary 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 may discover:
Your private greatest time to put up (for X/Twitter, you may get the most effective day to put up)Your greatest kind of contentYour greatest posting frequency
All the metrics talked about above might be become 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, reminiscent of monitoring the efficiency of your social media posts and viewers progress, and offering really useful instances to publish for every channel.
Hootsuite brings some helpful extras if you wish to dig deeper into your analytics. You possibly can observe how your adverts are performing, and you may as well see how your general outcomes examine to others in your business.
There’s additionally competitor monitoring — as much as 5 rivals on the Customary plan and as many as 20 on the Superior plan — so you possibly can see how your content material stacks up facet by facet.
Crew collaboration options
Teamwork in social media administration brings loads of shifting elements, like managing who has account entry, what permission settings to make use of, and creating approval workflows that make working collectively really feel straightforward.
Each Buffer and Hootsuite provide function wealthy workforce collaboration instruments, though with completely different approaches.
Working with groups in Buffer
Crew administration in Buffer is easy — you possibly can add limitless customers to the platform on the Crew plans.
For every channel, you possibly can select from three ranges of entry to provide every particular person on the workforce:
Full posting entry: Their posts and concepts will likely be printed when scheduled. Approval required: Every part they create will should be authorized 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 may see from the screenshot under, the collaboration system is versatile sufficient to will let you give customers admin entry, whether or not they have full posting entry or not.
Working with groups in Hootsuite
Hootsuite was designed with giant groups in thoughts, so entry and approvals is a posh, layered system that permits customers to get actually granular on who can see and entry what.
With completely different ‘organizations,’ groups, and channels, you possibly can create an intricate system for a giant social media advertising and marketing workforce (or a number of). Organizations are the very best tier within the system.
Inside a company, you possibly can 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 may as well assign duties to members or groups, route messages to particular groups, and management entry to social accounts.
You may as well 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 affords the Content material Library that is targeted explicitly on saving templates and media recordsdata for everybody on a workforce to make use of. You possibly can create as many content material libraries as you want, and assign them to groups relying on what media property they want entry to.
That mentioned, Hootsuite’s pricing relies on the variety of customers, so giant groups should 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 is no one-size-fits-all strategy on the subject of the most effective social media administration resolution in your model and enterprise.
Hootsuite affords a strong set of options when you’ve realized your manner 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.
In the event you’re on the lookout for one thing not talked about right here or extra choices, positively take a look at our round-up of Hootsuite alternate options.
In the event you do resolve on Buffer (yay!) and have any questions, please do not hesitate to achieve out through hey@buffer.com. We’re a worldwide workforce, so there’s at all times somebody on-line to assist!
