Whether you’re a small business owner or a marketer, maintaining a consistent online presence across different social platforms can be daunting.
Hence, there are social media management tools available that can do a lot for you in this regard. These tools allow you to run campaigns, automate posts, monitor social performances, and easily manage your accounts.
Amazing, right?
There are many tools available for you to choose from. In this blog, I will dive deep into two popular options: Hootsuite and Buffer. I will help you take a better look at both of them to help you decide which one will be the best for your social media needs.
Hootsuite vs. Buffer: The Basics
What should you know about these two social media management tools? Let’s discuss the basics.
Buffer’s main focus is on content posting and scheduling. Instead of adding other features to the main app, Buffer has different applications that have social media management needs. Buffer’s Publish app, for instance, allows you to create and schedule posts. Its Reply app is an engagement tool that allows businesses to respond to social messages through a unified inbox. Its Analyze app is a social analytics tool for measuring and analyzing social metrics and trends.
Hootsuite
Hootsuite is a powerful social media management tool that has considerable functions, including collaborative functions, team management, content creation features, and third-party integrations. Hootsuite works well for all businesses, especially small to mid-sized companies. It has a basic free plan that appeals to sole proprietors and small businesses. For large organizations, however, it just might lack sophisticated tools for team collaboration.
Buffer
Buffer is an easy-to-use tool with an intuitive interface that provides users with the necessary information needed to measure social performance, create analytical reports, and get recommendations on how to improve social media engagement and growth. Buffer is best for small businesses and individuals due to its ease of use and navigation.
Hootsuite vs. Buffer: Features
Both Hootsuite and Buffer have similar features. However, here is a detailed description of the features of each tool.
Hootsuite
Hootsuite comes with features like scheduling and sharing posts, social listening, and analytics. It also offers a specific inbox that shows all your social media messages and you can reply to them directly from the tool. Hootsuite offers third-party app integration like Zapier and HubSpot.
Buffer
Hootsuite vs. Buffer: Pricing Plans
These tools come with different pricing plans and each plan has its own features and functionality.
Hootsuite
Hootsuite offers a free plan, but the features are limited. To get the most from this tool, users need to use a paid subscription. The pro subscription plan starts at $29 per month per user. This plan allows users to add up to 10 social media profiles and comes with unlimited scheduling. For large organizations, the Hootsuite subscription plan costs $129 per month and it allows users to add 20 social media profiles, unlimited scheduling, and up to three (3) users.
Buffer
Buffer’s pro plan costs $15 per month and it adds up to 8 social media profiles, allows about 100 scheduled posts, and only one user. If you wish to use the Analyze app, you will be billed an extra $50, bringing your monthly plan cost to $65.
Hootsuite vs. Buffer: How do they differ?
In what ways do Hootsuite and Buffer Differ? Let’s take a look at four different ways:
Social Media Accounts
The most important aspect of social media marketing is deciding which social platforms you should create an account on. Many businesses strive to maintain a social presence on about two or more accounts at a time. Therefore, it is important that you choose a social management tool that allows publishing and scheduling of posts on multiple accounts. How do Hootsuite and Buffer fare?
Hootsuite – You can schedule posts and publish them on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram, which are all integrated. You can also add about a dozen accounts to Hoosuite. Some of these accounts are for premium or pro users.
Buffer – You can schedule and publish on 8 different profiles using the paid version. These profiles include Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.
Ease-of-Use
Social media make a huge part of any marketing campaign, which means you need an easy and interesting tool. So, how do both tools fare?
Hootsuite – Hootsuite is easy to use and you don’t need complex training to learn how to efficiently use the tool.
Buffer – This tool has a simple and intuitive interface that is easy to navigate and use. In this case, Buffer is more easy to use than Hootsuite.
Scheduling Features
The main purpose of using a social management tool is to schedule and publish content. So when choosing a tool, you need to ensure that it meets your criteria in scheduling posts. Let’s see how each tool fares:
Hootsuite – Hootsuite has a highly powerful scheduler. Its free plan also comes with unlimited scheduling features.
Buffer – Buffer’s scheduling capacity allows you to schedule up to 1 month of content.
Reporting and Analytics
For business owners, good reporting and analytics are important as they affect making better business decisions. What do Hootsuite and Buffer offer?
Hootsuite – Hootsuite delivers powerful reporting on how you fare on social media. You can see different social media platforms’ trends and analytics in a unified reporting dashboard and make better decisions.
Buffer – Buffer lets you click on each social platform to view their analytics differently. Reporting with the tool is less feature-packed than it is in Hootsuite.
Hootsuite vs. Buffer: Pros and Cons
Here are some pros and cons of Hootsuite and Buffer that stand out:
Hootsuite Pros
- Many third-party integrations
- Excellent customer support
- The free plan comes with a lot of features
- Free analytics
- Content curation
Hootsuite Cons
- Paid subscription plans are expensive
- Complex and hard-to-navigate interface
Buffer Pros
- Intuitive interface
- Scheduling features
- Better subscription plans
- Analytical reporting
- RSS integration
- External services
Buffer Cons
- Limited collaborative features
- Limited content creation features
- Paid analytics features
Hootsuite vs. Buffer: Which is Better?
Hootsuite and Buffer are perfect social media management tools you can use today.
Here is my verdict:
You can use Hootsuite if:
- You are a large company seeking to improve your social media management and marketing strategy
- You are a social media manager who manages different accounts for different clients
- You need a tool with a lot of scheduling features.
You can use Buffer if:
- You are a new content creator
- You are a small business owner or have a small team
- You need a simple content scheduler