Hootsuite al­tern­at­ives: what do other social media tools have to offer?

Hootsuite is a practical tool for managing various social media channels. Hootsuite enables users to make their social media strategy more efficient by con­nect­ing multiple accounts. For example, users can plan and control the pub­lic­a­tion of social media posts. Ad­di­tion­ally, there are a number of useful analysis tools available to customers.

When used correctly, Hootsuite can save a lot of un­ne­ces­sary work spent on in­di­vidu­al social networks, by combining all your channels on one single platform. In addition, Hootsuite is also a useful tool for mon­it­or­ing social media. Hootsuite currently supports 35 different social networks globally, including Facebook, Google+, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest.

In terms of design, Hootsuite is based on popular, in­ter­act­ive boards, which has proven to be a very suc­cess­ful strategy. The online tool is also suitable for teams to com­mu­nic­ate ef­fect­ively with their target groups. The SaaS-based platform is quick and easy to access and can be used by multiple employees at a time. It’s not without reason that Hootsuite is an award-winning tool in the modern business world.

The tool has several problems that make con­sid­er­ing Hootsuite al­tern­at­ives worth­while.

• Hootsuite is often cri­ti­cised for its lack of in­volve­ment in modern web de­vel­op­ments. The last design update took place over 3 years ago. The tool is lacking some current design trends, such as a more uniform activity feed and extensive settings. Such factors make the tool seem slightly an­ti­quated. In addition to this, the Hootsuite interface is not very user-friendly and takes quite a bit of getting used to and training.
   
• The program still doesn’t allow users to manage the vis­ib­il­ity of comments. Toxic comments remain visible for a long time and can cause damage to a company or in­di­vidu­al. Negative comments on Facebook can have a par­tic­u­larly bad impact. This is a problem that Hootsuite fails to recognise.
   
• There is a lot of con­tro­versy sur­round­ing the in­ad­equate in­teg­ra­tion of the social media heavy­weight Instagram. Users don’t receive new posts sorted in­di­vidu­ally, but have to search for them in the re­spect­ive photo threads. For a platform with the sole purpose of making social media easier, this is very ag­grav­at­ing. After all, the point of the tool is to be able to com­mu­nic­ate with your target group quickly and easily – this proves more difficult if new posts and comments are not displayed.
   
• In terms of payment, Hootsuite is a re­l­at­ively expensive platform. The free version only supports a maximum of three social media accounts and does not allow for teamwork – even smaller busi­nesses will have to reach into their pockets at some point. For GBP 16 a month, one person can work on up to 10 social media profiles. For around GBP 80 a month these numbers increase to three people and 20 profiles. For around GBP 400 a month, up to five users can work on as many as 50 social profiles. Certain special analysis tools can increase the monthly flat rates. The cost of Hootsuite can explode if you want to run extensive social media man­age­ment.
   
• Hootsuite doesn’t have the best repu­ta­tion when it comes to support: there is no telephone support available and the e-mail support is con­sidered to be poor and slow. Because the support is mostly focused on en­ter­prise customers, small busi­nesses and in­di­vidu­als are often ignored when ex­per­i­en­cing problems with the platform. In a fast-moving industry like social media, this can be fatal.

Below, we introduce a number of note­worthy Hootsuite al­tern­at­ives – some of which are free while others come at a price.

With Buffer, users can publish content on various social networks; profiles from Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Instagram, and Pinterest can be connected. The program uses a so-called queue for planning posts. In­di­vidu­al posts can be published on one or more networks. Regular automated content sharing is also supported by the queue function. Posts can include text, articles, videos, images, and lots more. In­teg­rat­ing media can also be done easily via Buffer.

The algorithm of the queue function is very soph­ist­ic­ated and can save users a lot of time. The tool can even time the pub­lic­a­tion of your content when it is most likely to be noticed by your target audience. Buffer also supports con­veni­ent browser ex­ten­sions and is available as a mobile app for both Android and iOS. Extensive analysis tools provide users insight into the success of your marketing strategy or, more generally, the reach of your social media. The “Pablo” feature is a useful image editor tool that can optimise images for each network. The offer is completed with in­teg­rated RSS feeds.

For in­di­vidu­al users, the free version is extremely helpful. An expanded version costs around USD 15 a month. Teams that want to work together with Buffer require the business version, which, depending on the number of team members, can cost anywhere between USD 99 and 399.

With Stacker, users can manage their Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest accounts; it allows users to post on multiple platforms at the same time and schedule certain posts. Users can com­mu­nic­ate directly with other users who write or mention one another on social networks.

The con­veni­ent analysis tool sum­mar­ises in­ter­est­ing stat­ist­ics; users can see at a glance exactly how many likes, retweets, shares, views, and comments a post has received. Stacker’s timeline can be used to measure the success of social media posts, and as a whole, the program has an at­tract­ive and tidy ap­pear­ance, with in­di­vidu­al accounts divided into different tabs that can be accessed any time.

For in­di­vidu­al users, the Hootsuite al­tern­at­ive offers a free version that can contain 4 accounts. The “Amazing” version allows one employee and up to 12 accounts and costs around USD 10 a month. The “Team” plan costs USD 50 a month and allows up to 5 employees and 25 accounts, while the “Studio” version costs USD 100 per month and provides for up to 10 employees and 50 accounts. Finally, the most expensive plan, “Agency,” comes at the price of USD 250 per month with 25 employees and 150 accounts. The more you pay, the larger the timeframe for reports. Best suited for teams of up to five or in­di­vidu­als, Stacker is a re­l­at­ively cheap al­tern­at­ive.

Kuku only began in 2015 and has still got space for de­vel­op­ment. However, it is already supported by a broad selection of social networks including Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr, and LinkedIn, as well as the Russian networks vk.com and ok.ru. Both Reddit and Google+ are planned to be in­teg­rated in the future. Important features like CRM tools and API support are still missing, but are in planning. Kuku is most certainly not the complete service yet.

The interface is sur­pris­ingly min­im­al­ist­ic; the focus lies on creating and sharing posts. These posts are gathered in the “Channels” area and provide a con­veni­ent overview of all activ­it­ies. Analysis data can be accessed via the dashboard, but is only available with the paid version.

The Kuku pricing model is very simple. The Hootsuite al­tern­at­ive offers a free version with just one user, or you can pay around USD 30 a month per user for team-based work that is supported by analysis tools.

So­cial­Pi­lot is mostly aimed at companies that want to combine social media man­age­ment and CRM. The tool is con­sidered a marketing platform that can save time and money when it comes to creating marketing strategies and over­see­ing campaigns. With So­cial­Pi­lot, updates, posts, tweets, etc. can be shared and scheduled. To do so, the tool optimises content for each re­spect­ive platform. So­cial­Pi­lot supports Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, Tumblr, vl.com, and ok.ru – the program has the broadest offering in com­par­is­on to its com­pet­it­ors.

In terms of design, So­cial­Pi­lot is more complex than its com­pet­it­ors but does however score points for its depth in features like branding, schedul­ing posts, calendar, browser ex­ten­sions, analysis tools, and client man­age­ment. Due to the increased com­plex­ity, So­cial­Pi­lot requires some time to get used to and should be con­sidered an expert program. Its branding feature is es­pe­cially helpful for Facebook posts and is par­tic­u­larly worth­while for medium to large busi­nesses. The more important your brand is, the more valuable So­cial­Pi­lot will become.

The free version of So­cial­Pi­lot allows 10 posts per day with a maximum of three accounts, and leaves out a number of important features. The “In­di­vidu­al” version on the other hand, costs USD 10 per month, permits one user, and allows up to 10 profiles and 50 posts a day, but is still missing various important features. The “Pro­fes­sion­al” version comes at a monthly fee of about USD 30 and is a more team-oriented model that allows for up to 5 col­lab­or­at­ors, 50 accounts, and 200 posts a day. The “Small Team” version allows for up to 10 users and 100 accounts, and offers 500 posts for around USD 50 a month. The “Agency” version costs approx. USD 100 a month and allows for 20 users and 200 social accounts.

AgoraPulse is marketed as a social media marketing solution. As well as con­ver­sa­tion threads, the platform offers dash­boards, schedules, and tracking for all posts, a keyword search and keyword filter, countless reports and stat­ist­ics, different per­mis­sions for users, and lots of useful apps for creating posts. AgoraPulse supports Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, with all posts and feeds combined in the “Inbox Zero”, the core concept of the software.

The tool stands out with its excellent design and user-friend­li­ness, both making the tool very pleasant to work with. Users can navigate easily between in­di­vidu­al social media accounts and the different functions in the various tabs. Overall, AgoraPulse is a very elegant platform.

One of the downsides of the tool is the shortage of in­teg­rated networks. As long as AgoraPulse, for example, does not support Pinterest or Google+, the tool is un­for­tu­nately not the complete solution for many companies. For this reason, it is a re­l­at­ively in­ex­pens­ive option. After a two-week free trial in which users can try out all features, you then have to decide on one of the following models: “Small,” with 1 profile, costing around EUR 49 a month, “Medium” with 3 profiles and costing EUR 99 a month, “Large” with 6 profiles and costing EUR 199 a month, and “En­ter­prise” with 12 profiles and costing EUR 299 a month. The decisive factor here is that even the cheapest model contains all important features, making AgoraPulse a par­tic­u­larly at­tract­ive solution for in­di­vidu­al users.