hootsuite vs buffer

Hootsuite vs Buffer – Which Tool Is Better?

published on: 11.06.2021 last updated on: 08.10.2024

Businesses have known this for a long time, and marketers have been playing catch-up ever since, attempting to best leverage social media platforms for various purposes, which is a fantastic strategy.

Hootsuite vs Buffer is a constant, and these two social media management software continue to rule the industry.

Small and medium-sized firms, agencies, and freelancers continue to find both to be good alternatives.

In this post, we’ll compare Buffer and Hootsuite, two of the most popular social media management tools, to see where each one shines and which one could be ideal for you.

What Is Hootsuite?

Ryan Holmes created this utility tool in 2008. Initially, it was just available on Twitter as a Twitter social media management tool, but it is now used by over 15 million users globally on a variety of platforms, including LinkedIn, Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and WordPress. 

Hootsuite was created to manage many social media accounts and distribute duties to coworkers from a single interface. The process of getting in and setting up a Hootsuite account has progressed significantly. 

Hootsuite is a strong tool that has been enhanced with new features such as team management and collaboration, content approvals, and the ability to link with third-party applications and tools. Hootsuite’s free plan is still available, although it has restricted features.

What Is Buffer?

Buffer, on the other hand, is a social media scheduling and publishing software that works across a variety of social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, Instagram, Google+, and Pinterest.

Buffer is more of a utility that works in conjunction with other analytics and statistics tools to provide you with a clear and useful dashboard overview of your social media strategy‘s performance. 

You may utilise the programme to collect statistics, track the performance of individual posts, and determine which posts have the greatest influence on your target market.

The buffer may be readily incorporated as an extension to apps and browsers, such as Chrome, Firefox, and Safari for Mac, in order to function effectively with third-party programmes.

In this manner, you can use the programme to manage your social media networks as quickly and efficiently as possible, even across various operating systems. Respond and Pablo is two additional important Buffer products that you may choose to integrate with.

Hootsuite Vs Buffer Comparison

Here is a quick glance at the different main features that you can look up before making a decision about which one is better.

1. Pricing

We looked at pricing as a criterion. Even though social media management solutions are inexpensive, it does not appear to be a major worry for marketing professionals. When compared, Hootsuite vs Buffer have similar features.

They operate on a freemium basis, and their free versions are actually rather nice. They also provide business accounts, which allow for numerous users and are priced similarly.

Despite missing a powerful reporting capability at the base level, Buffer’s basic premium subscription is cheaper than Hootsuite. Thus, I give it a little edge over Hootsuite.

2. Post Scheduling Functionality

Using a social media tool mainly aims to publish material. As a result, it should be obvious and simple to do so.

Unless you work for a big company with a dedicated staff of social media marketers, the flexibility to plan posts as required gives the impression that you are extremely active on social media. Even if you are just signing in a few times a week and scheduling your posts.

Of course, social media requires a certain amount of proficiency. So, it is recommended to have a combination of scheduled and ad-hoc. This is, nonetheless, a very essential requirement.

Except for simplicity of use, it weighed the most strongly of all the factors. Buffer’s scheduling capabilities have advanced significantly. It’s not just a lot easier than in past years, but it also allows you to plan ahead more than a month.

They had the Instagram schedule capability long before Hootsuite. Hence, Buffer was upgraded from a three to a four out of five, tying them with Hootsuite in terms of schedule publishing capabilities.

Hootsuite’s scheduling capabilities are still quite strong. This is the true factor that distinguishes Hootsuite from all other social media management platforms.

3. The Number Of Social Media Accounts Available

This is one of the most crucial components of social media marketing and one that company marketing specialists will be scrutinizing the most.

The majority of users, whether they are thought leaders or small enterprises, have multiple social media accounts.

As a result, consumers seek social media management platforms that allow them to publish many accounts while assessing products.

With the Pro edition of Buffer, you may publish to eight different profiles, including Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Pinterest.

Hootsuite allows you to post directly to LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest. You may also include a dozen or so more people.

Some of the add-ons are considered premium apps. And you must pay an additional fee to use them.

In this category, Hootsuite has the upper hand over Buffer. Buffer, on the other hand, is available on all of the major networks.

4. Content Recommendations

A rookie social media manager who is still learning the ropes might benefit from content recommendations.

If you’re unsure what to write, content recommendations will suggest some topics that could be of interest to your audience.

While they are significant and may be used by most business users, the majority of them are still unaware of how to use them. 

The buffer used to provide content suggestions, however, they have since removed support for this feature.

Their explanation is sound: providing content suggestions was inconsistent with their goal and purpose. This category is won by Hootsuite. Between Hootsuite vs Buffer, Hootsuite performs a mediocre job with content suggestions.

Final Thoughts

When it comes to social media management software, there is no one-size-fits-all solution that will meet the demands of all organisations.

Each solution was created with a specific audience in mind. The comparison of Buffer vs Hootsuite is thus for you to have a basic understanding.

Small company owners that wish to automate social media post scheduling may profit from the solutions’ limited functionality and low prices.

As you can see, there is a lot of social media management software out there, and one of them will be ideal for you.

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A self-proclaimed Swiftian, Instagram-holic, and blogger, Subhasree eats, breathes, and sleeps pop culture. When she is not imagining dates with Iron Man on Stark Tower (yes, she has the biggest crush on RDJ, which she won’t admit), she can be seen tweeting about the latest trends. Always the first one to break viral news, Subhasree is addicted to social media, and leaves out no opportunity of blogging about the same. She is our go-to source for the latest algorithm updates and our resident editor.

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