Hootsuite vs. Agorapulse: Social Media Software Comparison
Overall, SoftwarePundit believes that Agorapulse is superior to Hootsuite. Here's our key takeaways:
- Agorapulse is the clear winner in social media publishing and engagement, the two most important features. It also has a more intuitive interface that's easier to use.
- Agorapulse comes with basic social CRM capabilities. Hootsuite requires you to purchase social CRM through Nimble for $19/month.
- Hootsuite has more advanced social media listening and analytics tools.
- Hootsuite has integrations with free and for-purchase apps that you can add-on to augment its core application.
- Hootsuite and Agorapulse cost about the same for teams under 3. For teams over 3, Agorapulse is considerably cheaper.
Table of Contents
- How Much Do Hootsuite and Agorapulse Cost?
- Key Feature Comparison
- Ease of Use
- Customer Support
- Bottom Line
How Much Do Hootsuite and Agorapulse Cost?
Hootsuite and Agorapulse cost about the same for teams under 3. For teams over 3, Agorapulse is considerably cheaper.
Hootsuite charges extra fees for advanced reports and add-on applications. For example, if you want social CRM, you have to pay an extra $19/month for Nimble.
Key Feature Comparison
We've evaluated the key features of both social media management products. Read below to see our main takeaways and screen shots captured during our demos.
Social Media Publishing
- With Agorapulse, you can fine-tune posts for specific social media channels, place posts into queues, and schedule posts to repeat on an ongoing basis.
- The Hootsuite editor did not successfully import images from the link in our post. Agorapulse did this, and allowed us to choose which thumbnail we wanted to use.
- Agorapulse has basic team approval workflows; this feature is only available with the $599 Hootsuite plan.
Social Media Publishing on Hootsuite
Hootsuite is an effective tool for social media publishing. However, its interface is a bit clunky and it lacks some of the advanced features found in Agorapulse mentioned above.
- Integrated media library through Pixabay and Giphy to pull in content
- Boost posts on Facebook and Linkedin if ad accounts integrated (up to $500-$5,000/month)
- Basic Facebook audience targeting available
- Schedule posts to publish immediately, or in the future
Here's the Hootsuite publishing interface:
Social Media Publishing on Agorapulse
Agorapulse is a great tool for social media publishing. The editor is clean and easy to use. It has valuable advanced features such as the ability to fine-tune posts for specific platforms, save hashtags, scheduling queues, and basic team workflows.
- Images from linked URLs pull into editor, you can use any thumbnail in your post
- Save hashtags for future use
- Fine-tune each post for specific social media channels
- Schedule posts to publish immediately, in the future, or be placed in your queue
- Schedule posts to repeat once or on an ongoing basis
- Send posts to teammate for approval
Here's a look at the Agorapulse publishing interface:
Agorapulse also has a queue editor that you can use to streamline your posting schedule across campaigns:
Social Media Engagement
- Both systems have inboxes that aggregate social media conversations, but Agorapulse's inbox imports conversations that Hootsuite doesn't. Examples include social ad comments, reviews, & Twitter mentions.
- Both systems allow you to assign specific conversations to specific team members.
- In Agorapulse, you can filter conversations by type, date, who they're assigned to, and custom tags.
- Agorapulse comes with an Inbox Assistant that filters new conversations by keyword to automatically delete spam or assign conversation owners.
Social Media Engagement on Hootsuite
Hootsuite comes with an effective inbox to manage your company's social media conversations. However, this inbox cannot be used to manage many types of conversations including social ad comments & Twitter mentions. Hootsuite's engagement functionality is more basic and cumbersome in comparison to Agorapulse.
- Single inbox that pulls conversations from most social media channels
- Ability to assign conversations to specific teammates
- Ability to dismiss completed conversations
Here's the Hootsuite engagement interface:
Social Media Engagement on Agorapulse
Agorapulse's social media inbox is effective and includes many nice-to-have features. In contrast to Hootsuite, all types of conversations (e.g. comments, mentions, messages, reviews) are aggregated in this single dashboard. Agorapulse has also built an Inbox Assistant that can automatically sorts incoming messages based upon keywords.
- Single inbox that pulls all types of conversations from most social channels, including comments on your social ads
- Rich filtering functionality to search through conversations quickly
- Ability to label & bookmark posts, plus add internal notes
- Inbox Assistant to automatically filter incoming messages based upon keywords. Can be used to filter spam, categorize messages into topics, and identify most urgent messages.
Here's a look at the Agorapulse engagement interface:
Social CRM
- Agorapulse includes social media profiles for your top fans, followers, and those you've engaged with. This includes the ability to interact with others' posts from within the Agorapulse application.
- Hootsuite's native application provides very little information about social media profiles. You can use Hootsuite's integration with Nimble to access rich social CRM functionality, but this costs an extra $19/month.
Social Media CRM on Hootsuite
Hootsuite's native application comes with very basic social CRM functionality. Hootsuite has an integration with Nimble, which adds a rich set of social CRM features to the Hootsuite application. Nimble is an extra $19/month.
- Native application only includes basic profiles for each person you engage with
- Has an integration with Nimble, a social CRM application, that comes with a rich set of features
Here's an example profile from Hootsuite:
Social Media CRM on Agorapulse
Agorapulse social CRM functionality is sufficient for most SMBs. Agorapulse creates a profile for each of the individuals your brand has engaged with & your followers. Additional features include the ability to add internal notes, tag users into categories, and reply to each person's social media activity right from their Agorapulse profile.
- Profiles for individuals you've engaged with and followers
- Ability to add internal notes & user labels
- Ability to reply to each person's social media activity from their Agorapulse profile
Here's a look at the Agorapulse social CRM interface:
Social Media Listening
- In Hootsuite, you can create a Stream to monitor most types of engagement on all social platforms.
- Some social media content that is available in Hootsuite is not available in Agorapulse (e.g. your historical Facebook posts).
- Agorapulse pulls all content into a single inbox that makes it easy to filter and sort through.
Social Media Listening on Hootsuite
Hootsuite Streams allow you to monitor social media activity across channels. Each Stream monitors one type of activity for one social media channel. This approach can help organize different types of social content, but can also become overwhelming. If you're monitoring 4 social profiles with 5 types of content, you'll need to keep track of 20 Streams.
- Ability to create Streams for any social media platform
- Each stream only imports content for one thing: mentions, likes, retweets, new followers, etc.
- Ability to post to social platforms from the Stream dashboard
Here's the Hootsuite Stream interface:
Social Media Listening on Agorapulse
With Agorapulse, you can monitor some types of social media conversations, but not all. For example, you can monitor an unlimited number of Twitter hashtags, handles, phrases, & words. However, it's not currently possible to see some of types content that are available in Hootsuite (e.g. your historical Facebook posts).
- Single interface that makes it easy to filter and sort through social media content
- Ability to monitor any hashtags, handles, phrases, & words on Twitter
- Ability to monitor Facebook messages
Here's a look at the Agorapulse listening interface:
Analytics
- Hootsuite's dashboards are customizable – you can change data visualization and the modules on the dashboards.
- Hootsuite has slightly more options for exporting reports.
- Hootsuite allows you to compare different date ranges.
- Hootsuite Team and Business Plans come with free advanced reports. They cost $50 each for the Professional Plan.
Social Media Analytics on Hootsuite
Hootsuite comes with reports that provide data on the performance of each of your profiles. Nice-to-have analytics features include the ability to compare date ranges, customize data visualization, and export reports in multiple formats.
- Customizable data visualizations
- Ability to add, delete and move analytics modules on each dashboard
- Ability to export reports to PDF, PowerPoint, & email. The $599 plan includes Excel
- Ability to compare different date ranges
Here's the Hootsuite Twitter report:
Social Media Analytics on Agorapulse
Agorapulse comes with reports that provide insight into each of your social media channels, and individual posts. One thing to note is that the Facebook report only works if your page has over 100 fans. Agorapulse is currently developing unified reports that will provide a global view of your social media performance.
- Provides a performance report for each social media profile
- Provides a content report with data on the performance of specific posts
- Can filter reports by date range
Here's a look at the Agorapulse Twitter report:
Integrations
Hootsuite Integrations
Hootsuite integrates with the following social media channels:
- YouTube
Agorapulse Integrations
Agorapulse integrates with the following social media channels:
- YouTube
Ease of Use
- Agorapulse's publishing workflow has better design and functionality.
- Agorapulse's social inbox has valuable filters that streamline customer engagement.
- Hootsuite's Streams can get messy and feel overwhelming.
- Integrating apps with your Hootsuite account can be confusing.
Customer Support
- Hootsuite has 24/7 support through social media channels, live chat, and the ability to create support tickets.
- Agorapulse has 24/7 email and chat support, and the ability to create support tickets.
And the Winner Is...
Hootsuite and Agorapulse are both solid social media management options. For most SMBs, we believe Agorapulse is the better option due to its superior scheduling and engagement functionality. Hootsuite's key differentiators are social media listening and its app directory.
If you are interested, you can read SoftwarePundit's full reviews on Hootsuite and Agorapulse.
Click here to sign up for a free trial of Hootsuite or Agorapulse.