There are many social media marketing platforms out there that can help you with your brand, and two of the most popular options are Buffer and Hootsuite. Both of them are of high quality and have good intentions for their clients.
So, with this in mind, which one do we think would come out on top if they were compared? Of course, our answer is going to be it depends.
This is because both social media marketing companies take a different approach to how they help you grow and schedule your online content. They also prioritize different features, which is why it is worth checking one out against the other.
Let’s take a look at whether Buffer or Hootsuite is a better option for your social media growth right now.
Buffer Key Features
One of the greatest advantages of using Buffer for your social media growth is that you can consistently add posts to your social media queue, which they can then schedule for you based on when you want to upload them.
Of course, the more content that you add to the queue, the more content they have to upload for you, which means that you can remain consistent and engaged with your audience online.
One of their main focuses is on posting and content scheduling. They are one of those simple companies that prefer not to add lots of features to the main app, and they even work with other brands to come up with apps that are specified for certain tasks.
This means that you can choose which Buffer app you use depending on what kind of engagement you are hoping to cover with them.
Their most popular app is called Buffer Publish, and it means that you can create posts and then schedule them through the app so that they can be uploaded when you want them to. They have an app called Buffer Reply, which is their main engagement tool.
This can help you respond to many different social conversations all from one dashboard. Lastly, they are working on developing an app that can analyze statistics and reports for you.
Hootsuite Key Features
Hootsuite is similar to Buffer because they prefer to separate their features into different apps as well. Their main app focuses on scheduling and social sharing, while their insights app is focused more on the engagement side of things.
Hootsuite prefers to focus on social streams as opposed to creating queues for your posts. On their streams page, you can create a tab for each of your social media platforms.
One thing that we like about Hootsuite is that they’re quite flexible when it comes to the streams they allow their users. This means that you can make your own streams as a replacement for your social media platforms and end up doing everything within their dashboard.
As well as their user-friendly dashboard, you also get access to an inbox that can help you reply to all incoming messages.
How Are They Different?
Pricing
If scheduling and posting is your main focus when it comes to using social media growth companies like Buffer and Hootsuite, then we think that both options are affordable. However, if you make the most of their extra apps, you can expect to pay a lot more.
They will end up being just as expensive as other options out there that are all in one.
Both Buffer and Hootsuite offer free plans, which of course, are limited. However, if you only have a small amount of content that you need scheduling, their free plans might be all that you need. With both apps, you can join up to three social media platforms, and Buffer will let you schedule 10 posts for free, whereas over on Hootsuite, you can schedule up to 30 posts for free.
In all honesty, their free plans are only there to tempt you to sign up for a paid plan. This is because the basic features are too limiting to be used regularly.
For Buffer, you can expect to pay from $15 a month, and for Hootsuite, $29. However, now that we are at this level, it is a bit more difficult to compare the two platforms. This is because Buffer has a limit of 100 scheduled posts across eight different social media accounts, in contrast to Hootsuite that had unlimited posts across ten social media platforms.
When it comes to other plans that Buffer and Hootsuite offer, they are more aimed at businesses, both big and small. Buffer says that their small business plan is going to cost you $99 a month, their medium business plan is going to cost you $199 a month, and their large business plan is going to cost you $399 a month.
Of course, with each increase, you get more social media platforms to work with and more scheduled posts.
For Hootsuite, you get a team plan that is going to cost you $129 a month, a business plan that is going to cost you $599 a month, and then a custom plan that you have to get in touch with them about.
Again, the biggest difference between these plans is how many social media accounts you can use the features on and how much scheduling you can do.
The Features
The biggest difference is between these two social media growth apps as the core approaches that they have behind each feature. In this way, Buffer is pretty simple and straightforward with their idea of creating an endless queue of posts, which means that they don’t attempt to replace your social media apps completely.
On the other hand, Hootsuite does act as a replacement for your social media networks and wants to ensure that you can get everything done through their dashboard.
Social Networks
When it comes to using Buffer, you can apply it to many different social media networks. From Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest, Buffer can help you schedule all of your posts ahead of time, which is obviously going to be a pretty big time saver.
Hootsuite offers help with all of the social networks that Buffer can help you with, except that they can help you with YouTube as well. This means that they can easily schedule and share your YouTube content across all of your different social media platforms, and it helps you easily monitor your YouTube activity as well as moderate the comments.
One perk to using Hootsuite for your YouTube activity is that you can schedule and upload content to your channel without having to leave the Hootsuite app.
Hootsuite has the option of including a wide range of different apps, which means that it is a little bit more diverse when it comes to how it can help you.
Posting and Scheduling
As you probably already know by now, Buffer has a very simple and straightforward approach to scheduling and posting. Their interface is super easy to navigate, which means that if you are relatively new to the idea of using a third party company for your social media growth, you will quickly adapt.
When it comes to Buffers paid plans, they offer a lot of flexibility when it comes to coming up with the ideal posting schedule. We recommend setting up a different publishing schedule for each of your social networks.
This means that you won’t have to think about times and dates when you are creating your posts. You can edit posting dates and times easily within their dashboard, and Buffer will automatically include any new posts in the right place in their queue.
When it comes to Hootsuite, you might find it a bit more difficult if you’re a beginner. Their features are definitely a bit more advanced than buffers, which means that it is going to take you a bit of time to get used to them if you don’t consider yourself to be a tech expert.
However, once you have connected all of your social media platforms and decided on the right streams for your content, it gets a lot easier. You can then go on to create new posts from scratch or share existing content on other networks.
These features are particularly helpful if you have Twitter. As well as being able to check out your Twitter inbox whenever you need to, you can also create individual streams for all of your Twitter lists.
You can go through each stream and easily retweet any content that you find without having to go onto the Twitter app itself. Both apps come with Chrome extensions so that you can easily share all of your social content anywhere online.
Additional Features
Both social media sharing apps have a certain level of conversation management. As we have talked about, with Hootsuite, you can get an inbox where you can see social conversations across the board in one place.
Another thing that we mentioned earlier is that when it comes to Buffer’s inbox features, you will find them in a separate app called Buffer reply. While you do have to pay separately for this other app, it does have a lot of in-depth features.
Both companies can analyze your social performance, and while Buffer might offer a pretty basic reporting system, if you opt to sign up for their analyzing app, you will get a lot more options. Hootsuite keeps analytics in the main app and has a lot of reporting features that you can use.
Buffer comes with a unique content creation tool named Pablo, where you can look up over 600,000 images and add filters and text overlays. You can also upload your own logo.
If you want to create a Facebook ad, you can use the Boost tab in Hootsuite’s app so that you can manage all of your posts within the app and not through Facebook.
Top Tools to Grow Your Instagram
| Rank | Service | |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | Seek | Visit |
| 2 | Kicksta | Visit |
| 3 | Nitreo | Visit |
Final Thoughts
So, as you can see, both social media growth services are strong contenders for everything you might need to do online when it comes to your brand. While this might make it difficult to decide which one to go for, it does mean that you have choice on your side, and there is also nothing wrong with checking out both as you can make the most of their free packages.
See how you go so that you can find the option that is going to be best suited for your brand’s online presence.
