7 Reasons NOT to use Sprout Social
By 
Sprout Social Review
Currently being updated for 2018
With more and more businesses seeing the power of social media to market themselves, social media management tools such as Hootsuite and Sprout Social are being seen as vital.
A Social Media Management Tool (SMMT) or Social Media Management System (SMMS) allows you to manage multiple social networks from one dashboard and potentially share and delegate tasks amongst a team. Of course, the word “management” is perhaps a little vague and can mean different things depending on the tool you use. All social media management tools allow you to publish to at least one social network and hopefully allow you to do many other things such as monitor schedule, analyse, produce reports and more.
Hootsuite is no doubt the most popular of Social Media Management Tools. They were one of the first, have done a great job at marketing their tool and have a reasonably full-featured free version. However, it’s far from the only social media management tool out there. There are literally dozens and dozens of them (and I’ll introduce you to quite a few at the end of this article).
One of the most famous (other than Hootsuite) is Sprout Social. It’s a premium tool- aimed at small to large businesses as well as the enterprise sector and it’s got a loyal following of super fans. With such a provocative blog title, I’m actually quite afraid of these superfans- so if you are one, please be kind to me- I aim to be as balanced as possible in my approach!
The History of the Sprout
The History of the Sprout
Sprout Social had its beginnings in 2009 when the current CEO Justyn Howard was frustrated by the lack of social tools that allowed him to connect with customers- particularly tools that were focussed towards businesses and brands.
The following year Justyn and current CTO Aaron Rankin founded Sprout Social together with Gilbert Lara (Creative Director) and Peter Soung (director of web/mobile).
Justyn Howard
CEO
Aaron Rankin
CTO
Gilbert Lara
Creative Director
Peter Soung
Director of Web & Mobile
They’re a privately held company and had over $11 million in investment since their founding. They are based in Chicago in the US.
You can read more about how Sprout Social came to be in this interview with Sprout Social, Justyn Howard.
Reasons you SHOULD use Sprout Social
There are so many great features about Sprout Social, and I'll be going into these in more detail in a forthcoming article. For the time being, I'd like to highlight the following "pros":
- Has an in built Customer Relationship Management system (CRM)
- Monitoring (although not quite as comprehensive as Mention or the likes of Brandwatch)
- Support for teams (drafts, calendar, tasks etc)
- Support for multiple profiles, departments, and companies
- Security and ability to set specific permission levels and roles
- Analytics & Reports
- Helpdesk facility (on Premium and above plans) to use social media for customer support
- Mobile apps for iPhone, iPad and Android
- Integrates with Feedly (for your RSS feeds)
What is this Article About?
A few years back I wrote an article called “7 Reasons NOT to use Hootsuite” which has become an incredibly popular article. That article came from my frustrations from using Hootsuite and to point out some of the downsides and potential deal killers in using Hootsuite as your social media management tool. I wrote a follow-up article on the reasons why you might want to use Hootsuite to try and be as balanced as possible.
This article is slightly different because I’ve never been a long time Sprout Social user and when I have used it, I haven’t found myself becoming frustrated in the same way as I did with Hootsuite. I really like Sprout Social and I do think it will be the right fit for many people. Having said that, there are frustrations, and I wanted to share these with you.
There is a lot of love from Sprout Social users and with good reason. Sprout Social is an impressively robust social media management tool and a joy to use. It’s actually very hard to find reviews on the web that mention anything bad about Sprout Social except for the odd niggle.
However, the quite a bit of the love comes from long standing customers who are paying a substantially lower rate ($39/user/mth, $29/user/mth or even $9/user/mth).
The entry price (now the Premium plan) is $99/user/month, and that is going to be quite a leap for individuals and small businesses. However, I am getting ahead of myself, I’ll cover the pricing further down in this article.
Sprout Social will be the right tool for some businesses, and perhaps even you. My aim is to give you enough information to help you make the right choice. If, after looking through the potential downsides in this article you’re still impressed with Sprout Social - then it’s obviously the right tool for you. I also know that Sprout Social are continuously evolving and adding new features. Fairly recently they added the ability to publish to LinkedIn company pages and I know they are looking at adding new features over the coming year. It’s my hope that Sprout Social will look at my article and as a result make their tool even better than it is today.
So without further ado, let’s dive into some of the cons in using Sprout Social
Reasons NOT to use Sprout Social
#1 Expensive – especially for teams
Update (July 2018) - Sprout Social no longer offer the $59/user/month Deluxe plan anymore. It's called the Standard plan for existing customers. Since December 2017, the cheapest plan is the Premium $99/user/month plan.
Update (April 2017) - Sprout Social have updated their team and enterprise pricing. They now charge per user and have reduced the minimum number of users down to one.
Update (June 2016) - Sprout Social have reduced the number of social networks for each plan. The Deluxe plan used to have 10 profiles, now it as 5. The Premium used to manage up to 20, but now it's only 10. You can purchase an extra batch of 5 profiles for $25/month
This is the biggie and the one that Sprout Social gets the most criticism for...
It takes a huge amount of investment to build a tool as comprehensive as Sprout Social. They will have large monthly server costs, salaries to pay for a large team, development costs and a big marketing budget. As consumers, we have become used to low costs on the internet and find it easy to forget the true cost of building something great.
It’s a difficult job for tool vendors to work out pricing, and I have no doubt Sprout Social have spent a huge amount of time and research into their pricing structure. But for many, Sprout Social will just be too expensive.
Prices now start at $99 per user per month for the Premium Plan. Sprout have axed their $59/user/month Deluxe plan for new users. This plan is for small to medium-sized businesses and allows you to manage up to 10 social profiles.
The corporate plan which will suit bigger agencies as well as bigger brands and businesses costs $149 per user per month. Sprout
It's important to say that Sprout Social isn’t really aiming at the casual blogger or the individual. They grew out of wanting to cater for businesses and brands- and hence the higher price tag.
Over the years, the prices have increased as you would expect. And Sprout Social have been supportive of their long standing customers by keeping the prices the same. However, the prices have significantly increased over the years. Back in 2012, it cost $9/mth for a Pro account and $49/mth for a business account.
Back in 2014 the entry cost was $39/user/month. And now it is $99/user/month- a significant increase.
It’s particularly expensive for teams. Social media management tools are particularly important for teams- not just for delegating tasks and managing updates. It’s also important from a security standpoint. If you are managing social media accounts amongst a team, you should NOT be sharing social networking passwords. What would happen if one of your team moves jobs or is sacked or if they’re a victim of a phishing attack? There are too many horror stories of businesses’ and brands’ social accounts being hijacked by rogue employees or hackers.
Sprout Social, Hootsuite and other social media management tools allow you to manage your social networks without sharing the passwords. Each team member can have their own sub-account with its own username and password. An administrator can choose which accounts they have access to and remove them if they no longer work at the company. In my view, it is perfectly acceptable for there to be a cost involved on a per user basis.
However, when the cost per user is already quite high, this is going to make it difficult for a small business to afford. It will cost a business $2,832 per year for a small team of 4 to use Sprout Social’s entry plan. If they were to be on the Premium plan, this would cost $4,752 per year.
| Total Users | Description | Hootsuite Cost/yr (If paying mthly) | Sprout Social Deluxe Cost/yr (If paying mthly) | Sprout Social Premium Cost/yr (If paying mthly) |
| 1 | Hootsuite free plan only includes up to 3 social profiles. Sprout Social Deluxe includes up to 10 and Premium up to 20. | $0 | $708.00 | $1,188.00 |
| 2 | Hootsuite Pro plan includes up to 2 members (including yourself) and includes up to 50 social profiles. Sprout Social includes up to 10 and Premium up to 20. | $119.88 | $1,416.00 | $2,376.00 |
| 3 | Hootsuite Pro includes 2 team members (+1 extra user at $9.99/mth). | $239.88 | $2,124.00 | $3,576.00 |
| 4 | Hootsuite Pro includes 2 team members (+1 extra user at $9.99/mth + 1 user at $14.99/mth) | $419.88 | $2,832.00 | $4,752.00 |
| 5 | Hootsuite Pro includes 2 team members (+1 at $9.99/mth +2 users at $14.99/mth) | $599.88 | $3,540.00 | $5,940.00 |
| 6 | Hootsuite Pro includes 2 team members (+1 at $9.99/mth +3 users at $14.99/mth) | $779.88 | $4,248.00 | $7,128.00 |
| 7 | Hootsuite Pro includes 2 team members (+1 at $9.99/mth +4 users at $15/mth) | $959.88 | $4,956.00 | $8,316.00 |
| 8 | Hootsuite Pro includes 2 team members (+1 at $9.99/mth +5 users at $14.99/mth) | $1139.88 | $5,664.00 | $9,504.00 |
| 9 | Hootsuite Pro includes 2 team members (+1 at $9.99/mth +6 users at $14.99/mth) | $1319.88 | $6,372.00 | $10,692.00 |
| 10 | Hootsuite Pro includes 2 team members (+1 at $9.99/mth +7 users at $14.99/mth) | $1499.88 | $7,080.00 | $11,880.00 |
| 11 | The maximum number of users in Hoostuite Pro is 10, to add more users you will need a Hootsuite Enterprise account. Hootsuite don't publish the prices for Enterprises, so this is the last known price. Hopefully it should be cheaper than this. | $17,988 | $7,788.00 | $13,068 |
At least Sprout Social’s pricing system is transparent and simple to understand. You can see from the above table how complicated Hootsuite's are!
With Sprout Social, there are no hidden prices as far as I can tell. You know how many social profiles are included in your plan and you know how much extra it will cost for an extra team member. You get full reports included in all the plans (although you get more snazzy ones in the Premium and above plans).
That’s very different with Hootsuite which have a strange pricing tier for team members and require you to upgrade to the Enterprise plan (for which they don’t publish prices for, but is likely to be well over the $20,000 per year mark).
#2 Lack of YouTube and other visual platforms
Update June 2015 - Sprout Social have, as expected, added Instagram integration! I've updated the article accordingly.
If you are wanting to monitor your Pinterest or YouTube account, you will be disappointed with Sprout Social’s lack of integration. Sprout Social only supports Twitter, Facebook (profiles & pages), Google+ pages, Instagram & LinkedIn (profiles & pages). Although Hootsuite doesn’t offer Pinterest, or YouTube out of the box, you can add them via their comprehensive app directory. This allows you to add visual networks such as Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest and many others. There are a few other social media management tools that have Instagram integration, but there are certainly fewer of them. Examples that integrate with Instagram and YouTube include Jollor and Sendible, and AgoraPulse integrates with Instagram.
It is important to note that no social media management tool can post directly to Instagram via the official Instagram API. Instagram only allow 3rd party tools to allow liking and commenting of posts and be able to search. There are tools that effectively allow posting to Instagram, but they quite often get around the system by using multiple smartphones connected to servers. There have been reports of Instagram suspending accounts that have used such tools. The only way to post to an Instagram account is via the official Instagram account. If you are interested in scheduling your Instagram posts, then consider a mobile app such as Latergramme which won’t actually post your photos, but will handle them and alert you when the next one should be posted.
However, although you may not be able to post to Instagram using a social media management tool, being able to monitor your stream, likes, comments, as well as your followers, friends and competitors posts, is very powerful. Being able to monitor and analyse your Pinterest boards and YouTube channel would be incredibly powerful from your social media dashboard.
When I reached out to Sprout Social to ask them of their plans here, their official reply was:
“We’re always keeping our eyes on social networks that are widely used by our users and evaluating both how they can be integrated into our platform and what we can add to the existing network (whether it is enhanced engagement, streamlined management or advanced analytics) through that integration.”
#3 Lack of Facebook and LinkedIn group publishing
Update June 2015 - Things have been a bit mad in the 3rd party apps world over the past few months. LinkedIn decided to ban posting to groups via 3rd party apps. It looked like Facebook were going to do the same thing, but they now allow 3rd party apps to post to groups where you are the administrator. So Sprout Social will never be able to post to LinkedIn groups. As for Facebook groups, SproutSocial added a feature where you can see Facebook group posts in your timeline. However, you can't post to Facebook groups from SproutSocial
Sprout Social does integrate with both Facebook and LinkedIn, but so far they are yet to support posting or monitoring groups. I do know they are looking at the possibility of adding these in the future, so there is hope. They finally added support for LinkedIn company pages in December 2014, it is good to see they are looking to move the tool forwards.
Although I am not a fan of LinkedIn groups from a design and user interface perspective, they are a powerful networking and relationship area. Being able to post to and monitor LinkedIn groups would be really helpful- particularly for businesses in the B2B sector (business to business). And then there are Facebook groups- for many years ignored by businesses and brands, but are having a recent surge in popularity. Facebook groups don’t suffer from the design or user interface problems of LinkedIn groups. They are a joy to use (and easy to use) and are great in building a community. Sprout Social need to support posting to and monitoring Facebook and LinkedIn groups. My favourite social media scheduling tool, Buffer, has supported them for a long while and Hootsuite has too. Oktopost does a fantastic job of posting and scheduling to LinkedIn groups and would be my social media management tool of choice if LinkedIn groups are a must for your business.
I asked Sprout Social if they had plans to add LinkedIn and Facebook group integration. They responded…
“We’re always evaluating different social networks to integrate with as well as expanding on the ones we currently support. Unfortunately, we don’t have any specifics to share, but we can say we are exploring the social options that are currently available.”
Again, not very helpful and quite general, but not an unexpected answer. I think the truth is that Sprout Social are looking at all the options, but how high groups are on their agenda, I have no idea. We’ll have to wait and see.
#4 Unified Inbox & No side by side streams
Where would we be without our social streams? Whether it be your Twitter home stream, a Twitter list, a keyword search, your LinkedIn connection updates, Facebook page updates or more, social streams allow us to monitor what is happening across our social media empire and our competitors’.
Sprout Social offer two types of social streams- “feeds” and “discovery”. The feeds are a list of posts from the connections you follow or the posts from accounts on your Twitter lists. Discovery allows you to set up a stream of updates for a search term. Sprout Social made the decision to display only one stream at a time. On the streams section, you have to toggle between different social accounts (Twitter, Facebook etc), and you have to toggle between different Twitter lists. If you want to view a search stream for a particular hashtag or key phrase, you need to click the discovery tab and view it there.
Users familiar with Hootsuite and TweetDeck will be used to the way you can add many columns of streams so that you can monitor multiple streams and profiles on one page. On TweetDeck, I can easily see mentions and replies to my 3 main Twitter accounts, as well as my main Twitter list and a Twitter search term- all one view. Hootsuite allows you to do that for all your social networks (such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+).
Sprout Social fans will already be shouting “but what about Smart Inbox”? Yes, of course. I love Smart Inbox too and this gives you more functionality than I was mentioning above. Smart Inbox displays all the updates that Sprout Social thinks are important in one stream or a unified stream. I’ll go into more detail in my next point, but again, Smart Inbox only displays one stream at a time on the page.
The lack of ability to display streams will no doubt divide many opinions. Some won’t mind and some will find it frustrating. Sprout Social’s decision not to offer multiple streams per page is deliberate, and this was confirmed by the CEO, Justyn Howard in a reply to a tweet of mine whilst I was writing this article:
[start_centertweets]
@iagdotme We're big fans of a single column. It may not be for everyone, but we believe it's a lot cleaner and streamlines workflow!
— Sprout Social (@SproutSocial) February 16, 2015
@iagdotme also columns become ineffective once you've got more than a couple profiles. Hunting around on tabs is problematic. @SproutSocial
— Justyn Howard (@Justyn) February 16, 2015
@iagdotme stitching them all together is very technically challenging, so trust we did it for good reason 🙂
— Justyn Howard (@Justyn) February 16, 2015
[end_centertweets]
I can see their thinking, and a single column view might well increase productivity for businesses and brands. It will also come down to getting used to a different way of working. For me, I find it frustrating, and I’m not alone. Friend, digital marketer and Sprout Social user, Liz Jostes from Eli Rose Social Media feels similarly:
[start_centertweets]
@iagdotme I feel like it would be a big improvement for SS. Just having all the feeds for 1 account on 1 page would be HUGE.
— Liz Jostes (@LizJostes) February 16, 2015
@iagdotme @Justyn FWIW, I'd put my SS subscription to use if columns were easier to access. The one complaint I have for SS.
— Liz Jostes (@LizJostes) February 16, 2015
[end_centertweets]
Marketing Director, Joe Morris feels the same:
[start_centertweets]
@iagdotme @SproutSocial like Tweetdeck Column options and adding a Klout score would be helpful as well
— Joe Morris (@jspeedymorris22) February 16, 2015
[end_centertweets]
It’s not a case of multiple columns being difficult to implement as Justyn Howard clarified, he feels a single and combined view is more powerful:
[start_centertweets]
@LizJostes @iagdotme I meant more technically difficult to NOT do columns, but it allows us to do many other unique things so we deal 🙂
— Justyn Howard (@Justyn) February 16, 2015
@LizJostes @iagdotme columns are easier, but limited
— Justyn Howard (@Justyn) February 16, 2015
[end_centertweets]
He is obviously not alone in thinking that (there are plenty of happy Sprout Social Users) and obviously the team at Sprout Social do. A friend, digital marketer, speaker and Sprout Social user, Brooke Ballard also likes the single stream view and had this to say:
I prefer one stream on one page — it helps with SMM ADHD! Plus, with the Smart Inbox you can see a little green light when another stream (brand/client) has an incoming message, AND you can even check that message from a preview screen before clicking over to respond. Example: Sometimes it's just a follower notification of a "you're welcome" that doesn't need an immediate response — great for time management.
Brooke Ballard, B Squared Online Media
So perhaps the jury is out on this one. In addition, Sprout Social is not the only social media management tool that prefers the single stream view. Sendible, MavSocial and AgoraPulse all adopt the single stream view and it is fair to say that Hootsuite and Tweetdeck are the most famous examples which allow you to view multiple streams on one page. I am open to being convinced that single view is better- and maybe I could get used to only viewing one stream at a time. However, I would like to have a more advanced way of filtering the results, which brings me on to…
#5 Limited filtering
Smart Inbox does a really good job at displaying the most relevant updates and you can easily reply and follow as well as create a task (for example delegate to another team member) or complete.
There are also some helpful filters to allow you to zoom in to the posts you really want to see. For example, you filter the smart inbox to show only mentions, direct messages, retweets or new followers. You can also filter by brand keywords and you can use Twitter’s advanced search operators. This allows you to search for tweets mentioning a keyword, filter by location, filter out tweets with images and more.
That's all great, but it doesn’t give you quite the same control as tools such as TweetDeck or Hootsuite and doesn't allow you to filter your Twitter list streams. For example, if I wanted to display tweets from a Twitter list and then filter out tweets with no images or links, I am stuck.
Although using Twitter's advanced search operators are great, they're not going to be apparent to less technical users and it would be great if Sprout Social added a few more filters and options to help dig a little deeper into the streams.
I have to say, Sprout Social support were very quick to get back to me when asking them on this subject:
[start_centertweets]
@iagdotme In your brand keyword, for tweets to exclude images, you can use the operator: "keyword -Filter:Images". We hope this helps!
— Sprout Social (@SproutSocial) February 16, 2015
[end_centertweets]
#6 You can't assign a different bitly account per profile
I admit this is unlikely to be a big issue for many, however, I wanted to highlight it since it affects me.
One of Sprout Social’s helpful features is the way you can group social channels. These groups could be for different departments within a bigger company or organisation or even different companies all together (for example if you are an agency managing multiple brands). This is particularly useful if you have different teams of people managing different groups of social channels. You can assign a different bit.ly account to shorten your links for each group- something that is really helpful.
With Hootsuite you can’t use bitly at all- you’re forced into using the Hootsuite url shortener ow.ly. If you use another social tool in addition to Hootsuite, your social analytics will be fragmented since Hootsuite can only track clicks through their ow.ly url. If you want to use a custom short domain (for example I use to.iag.me and select.social) you will have to pay over $588 per year for this feature with Hootsuite- and you can only use it within Hootsuite. The url shortener bit.ly allows you to set up a free custom short domain and works with many social tools such as Buffer, Friends+Me and SproutSocial.
I have two short urls with bit.ly. I use to.iag.me to shorten links on my Seriously Social profiles and I use select.social for my Select Performers accounts. In Sprout Social, I could put my Seriously Social profiles in one group and my Select Performers in another, but this completely separates them- effectively treating them as separate companies. It also means I can't cross post two accounts in separate groups. With Buffer, I can assign a different bit.ly account for each social profile. This means I can cross post and share content across my profiles easily and the correct url shortener will be used.
Sprout Social don’t seem to have any plans to change this in their response to me, although perhaps they were trying to tantalise me with their use of the word “currently”!
“We currently allow customers to connect a separate bit.ly for each group that they have.”
As I said, this won't be an issue for many, but I hope Sprout Social allow us to assign a different bit.ly account per profile in the future.
#7 Scheduler only allows different times for weekdays and weekends
Many of you will have heard of the social scheduling tool, Buffer. When Buffer was created, it was set to do only one thing- schedule social media posts throughout the week. It allows you to set a schedule for each day of the week for when your social media updates are posted. You can set a different schedule for each network. Hootsuite and Sprout Social followed with their own versions some time later- with Sprout Social calling theirs Sprout Queue. It’s a very helpful feature, and if you’re on the Premium or above plan it becomes more powerful with Sprout’s ViralPost feature.ViralPost works out the best times to post your content- so that the most people will see it. You can set the specific time frames to post for weekdays and weekends:
[start_centertweets]
@iagdotme Account Owners can set the timeframes for weekdays and weekends that they'd like ViralPost to optimize from. We hope this helps!
— Sprout Social (@SproutSocial) February 16, 2015
[end_centertweets]
Unfortunately, you can only set schedules for weekdays and weekends- not a different schedule for each day (and the maximum number of posts per day is 10):
[start_centertweets]
@iagdotme Yes, that's correct. The maximum amount of messages that can be published utilizing ViralPost is 10 per day.
— Sprout Social (@SproutSocial) February 16, 2015
[end_centertweets]
This is not going to affect everyone, but I prefer to set a different schedule each day. I may want to post a few on a Saturday and I usually don’t schedule anything on a Sunday. Unfortunately you can’t currently do that with Sprout Social. With Buffer I can set a different schedule each day and I can set more than 10 posts per day if I wanted to. Whilst I love the sound of ViralPost, it doesn’t give me the flexability I would like, particularly as I am used to Buffer. Maybe this is something they can improve over time?
More Reasons
Were 7 Reasons not enough for you? Here are some more!
#8 No Multiple image Support
You can only add one image per post (multiple images aren’t supported). Hootsuite allows you to post multiple images (although it will take the visitor to a Hootsuite branded page if they click on them) and TweetDeck supports multiple images for Twitter (but won’t allow you to schedule the post if it contains more than one image)
#9 Reports Great but not the Best
I really do like the reports in Sprout Social- they are very engaging and easy to understand. It’s been one of the many reasons why I’ve recommended Sprout Social to friends and clients over the years – particularly over Hootsuite’s offerings.
Sprout Social give you a group report, engagement report, team report, Twitter profiles report, trends report, Twitter comparison and sent messages. As you can see in the following screenshot, the reports are very pleasing to the eye and easy to understand. You can also export as a pdf or a csv file.
Sprout Social Group Report
However, there are many tools out there that do as good a job or better job in my opinion. For example the reports generated by Klear are more comprehensive, look great and give you the ability to filter the data on a finer level. It allows you to compare with your competitors and integrates with Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
Klear Report
AgoraPulse’s reports also are really well designed and visually engaging as well as powerful. It allows you to export as a PowerPoint presentation
AgoraPulse Powerpoint Report Sample
If reports and analytics are important to you, there are better tools out there. However, you could use a reporting tool as well as using Sprout Social. Unlike Hootsuite, SproutSocial make it very easy to use other tools in addition. Hootsuite lock you into their ecosystem due to the compulsory owly url shortener. That means many of the Hootsuite reports only show you data from the times you have used Hootsuite. SproutSocial allow you to use bitly, which is a much more portable url shortener- supported by many other tools.
There are many users who love Sprout Social's reports, and if you do, please let me know in the comments. For example Brooke Ballard definitely loves them! -
Thus far I have yet to find a dashboard or management tool that has better reports than that of Sprout Social. They are also nice and "pretty" -- which the client always appreciates. We send raw data reports in Excel and 9 times out of 10 they prefer the "pretty" ones.
#10 Difficult to See which Mentions & Comments You've Already Replied To
For me, this is a big issue for almost all social media management tools out there. If you have a lot of mentions, replies and comments to respond to each day it can become difficult to know which ones you've responded to already. That might not be such an issue if you reply all in one go, but if you reply in batches or work within a team it can get difficult. It's a particular issue for Hootsuite, but Sprout Social isn't much better. I particularly like one alternative tool, AgoraPulse which treats your social mentions and comments like a kind of social inbox. As soon as you reply, they disappear from view so you know you've responded to them. The same is true when team members respond. You'll never get the situation where you reply once or more than one team member responds to the same message.
Sprout Social Alternatives
Social Media Management Tools
Agorapulse
Free Trial, then from $49/user/month
Publishing:
Facebook Pages Twitter Twitter DMs LinkedIn profiles LinkedIn pages Instagram
Monitoring:
Facebook Pages Twitter Mentions Twitter Search Twitter DMs LinkedIn profiles LinkedIn pages YouTube Instagram
Other features:
Official Instagram Partners, Official Facebook Partners, iOS mobile app, Android mobile app
A powerful social media management tool for Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube which aims to offer enterprise-level features at a low monthly price. It has an inbox zero feature which allows you to get through your social comments and messages really easily or delegate them to team members. There is a very handy automated moderation rules feature for social networks which can filter spam out for you or automatically delegate or review certain messages.
AgoraPulse has a built-in customer relationship management tool (CRM) allowing you to build up a list of your social contacts. The integrated reports and analytics are detailed and engaging and you can also export to a Powerpoint presentation (useful for agencies).
There is a mobile app for iOS and Android devices. Agorapulse was rated top Social Media Management Tool of 2017.
Sprout Social
Free trial, then from $99/user/month
Publishing:
Facebook Pages Facebook Groups Twitter Twitter DMs LinkedIn profiles LinkedIn pages Pinterest Instagram
Monitoring:
Facebook Pages Facebook Messenger for Pages Facebook Groups Twitter Lists Twitter Mentions Twitter Search Twitter DMs LinkedIn pages Instagram
Other features:
Official Instagram Partners, iOS mobile app, Android mobile app
A big competitor to Hootsuite with some awesome features (really snazzy reports, multiple bit.ly URL shortener integrations etc) - it does have a hefty price tag though- prices start at $99/user/month (sadly, they recently removed the entry $59/user/month plan). There is no free account but they offer a free trial. Do have a look at my related article 7 Reasons NOT to use Sprout Social.
Sendible
Free trial, then from $29/mth (for one user)
Publishing:
Facebook Pages Facebook Groups Twitter Twitter DMs LinkedIn profiles LinkedIn pages Instagram
Monitoring:
Facebook Pages Twitter Lists Twitter Mentions Twitter Search Twitter DMs LinkedIn profiles LinkedIn pages YouTube Instagram
Other features:
Official Facebook Marketing Partners, Instagram Partners, Google Chrome browser extension, Review Monitoring (including sites like Yelp and TripAdvisor), RSS Feed Importer (adding RSS feeds in bulk), iOS mobile app, Android mobile app
Similar to Hootsuite and SproutSocial with an impressive array of features. Sendible integrates with a huge number of social channels including Twitter, Facebook (profiles, pages & groups), LinkedIn (profiles, pages & groups), Foursquare, Flickr, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube and more. You can have as many team members as you like (although you will have to pay per user above your allocated amount) and it integrates with bit.ly and other URL shorteners.
There is no free account but they offer a free trial. Be aware that Sendible includes a certain number of "services" for each plan. For the basic Micro plan you get 12 "services", with the Small plan 48 services and with the large plan you get 192 services. Services can get a little confusing, because a Twitter list stream, Twitter mention stream, Twitter Search stream, Facebook Group and Facebook Profile stream are all classed as separate services. You can find yourself running out of services very quickly.
MavSocial
Free Trial, then from $19/mth for 10 profiles
Publishing:
Facebook Pages Facebook Groups Twitter LinkedIn profiles LinkedIn pages YouTube Instagram Tumblr WeChat
Monitoring/Engagement:
Facebook Pages Facebook Messenger for Pages Facebook Groups Twitter Lists Twitter Mentions Twitter Search Twitter DMs LinkedIn pages YouTube Instagram WeChat
Other features:
Official Instagram Partners, iOS mobile app, Android mobile app
A simple and affordable social media management tool for curating, scheduling and managing your socials all in one platform. Integrating Facebook, Instagram (direct publishing), Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Tumblr and WeChat, it streamlines the entire social media process from content discovery to audience engagement to reporting. WeChat integration is only available on the business/enterprise plans which start at $199/month.
MavSocial has an AI-powered digital asset management system, scheduling calendar and post recycling tools, Social Inbox, comprehensive real-time and exportable reports, and customizable team management features. Social listening to be released shortly
A mobile app for iOS and Android is available to make social media management even easier on the go.
Social Report
Free trial, and from $49/month
Social Report launched back in 2011 and has a robust all-in-one solution covering publishing and scheduling, analytics, reporting, a “smart inbox”, team management and automation. They integrate with most networks out there, including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Google+, Pinterest and more. They’re going to be shortly launching direct publishing for Instagram too. It's cost-effective and cheaper for teams when compared to Hootsuite, Sprout Social and Buffer.
MusterPoint
From $18/user/month
MusterPoint was created in 2012 specifically for the public sector and emergency services. The founder, Christine Townsend, has a lot of experience in communicating in this space. With that in mind, MusterPoint takes into account the unique challenges for such organisations - that need to be publicly accountable or responsible for emergency comms.
It provides in-depth audit and accountability and is very flexible in terms charging a small amount per user. It's perfect for small cash-strapped teams and large-scale organisations wanting to communicate en masse. It also supports collaboration between different agencies and supports excellent knowledge sharing protocols meaning both private and public sector organisations can seamlessly integrate their social media.
MusterPoint integrates with Twitter and Facebook, and has a media management functionality, allowing organisations to log media enquiries, publish press releases and track issues. It's been built with the public affairs communicator in mind. In addition to the software, MusterPoint also provides crisis communications and exercise simulation training.
Jollor
Free Trial, then from $5/month
Publishing:
Facebook Pages Twitter LinkedIn profiles LinkedIn pages YouTube Instagram VKontakte Odnoklassniki
Jollor isn't as well known as the likes of Hootsuite and SproutSocial, but it's a really good looking social media management tool that integrates with Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube as well as the Russian networks VK and Odnoklassniki. They don't integrate yet with bit.ly, but they have some enterprise features such as team and role management and delegation. Analytics look very impressive. There is a mobile app coming, but the website is fully responsive and can be used well on a mobile or tablet. They have a very transparent pricing scheme starting at $5. It basically costs $5 per network, and you can add extra team members for $5 per month as well as other features.
TweetDeck
Free
Publishing:
Twitter
Monitoring:
Twitter Twitter Lists Twitter Mentions Twitter Search
Twitter Management Only.
This used to be one of my top recommendations, but Twitter has done their best to make this less useful. But Tweetdeck is a free way of managing multiple Twitter accounts and useful for scheduling posts as well as managing Twitter Chats.
Social Media Planning & Publishing Tools
ContentCal
Free plan, and from $49/month
Other features:
iOS mobile app
ContentCal is a great visual tool to help solo freelancers, small business owners or agencies (and beyond) manage their social channels. A content calendar is central to ContentCal, giving you a 'birdseye view' of all the social posts going out across multiple channels. It currently integrates with Facebook (Pages), LinkedIn (Pages, Profiles) and Twitter. It has very affordable plans despite some very enterprise focussed features.
Kontentino
Free and from $10/month
Kontentino is a content planning and publishing tool which has packed some amazing features. It has team planning and collaboration at heart, and it's perfect for agencies who want to work with their clients and get approval. Clients can approve work directly through the web app or on mobile with the click of a button. You can preview how your content looks across all platforms including all the major Facebook ad formats. Kontentino sends over all the scheduled posts to Facebook and allows Facebook to schedule them. This allows you to tag posts and do things that can only be done directly on Facebook.
Social Media Publishing & Scheduling Tools
Buffer
Free or $15/mth for Pro Plan. Business plans from $99/month
Publishing:
Facebook Pages Facebook Groups Twitter LinkedIn profiles LinkedIn pages Google+ pages Google+ profiles Pinterest Instagram
Monitoring/Engagement:
No Monitoring/Engagement available,
Other features:
Official Instagram Partners, iOS mobile app, Android mobile app.
Allows you to post or cross-post to Twitter, Facebook (profiles, pages or groups), LinkedIn (profile, groups or company pages), Instagram, Pinterest or Google+ business profiles/pages. You can either post straight away or create a schedule for each social network. Buffer is an amazing tool and one that I use every day.
Friends+Me
Free or from $3/mth
Friends+Me turns Google+ into a fully fledged Social Media Management tool. It allows you to selectively cross-post to Google+ pages, Twitter, LinkedIn (profiles, pages & groups), Facebook (profiles, pages & groups) and Tumblr. It has a scheduling system similar to Buffer and cross-posts intelligently to other networks (including using full images, headings and descriptions). It's something I use every day and couldn't do without it.
Social Champ
From $10/month
Social Champ allows you to schedule and publish content to a wide variety of networks, not just once, but many times in a cycle. You can also link up your RSS feed and set up filters.
Social Media Relationship Tools
Commun.it
From $19.99/month
Commun.it is a social media community management tool or CRM. As well as being able to manage multiple Twitter accounts you can find out who is relevant to your Twitter community. Examples include your influencers or people who support you. You can also find out who is talking about you or your business or who is linking to your website and interact with them straight away.
I don't have enough room to go into it here, but please see my Complete Guide on how to Manage your Twitter Community using Commun.it together with its walkthrough video.
Tool Comparison Table
Scroll to see more
| Tool | URL | Parent Company | Year Founded | Head Office Location | Free Plan? | Number of users in free plan | Max number of users in free plan | Cheapest Paid Plan | Number of users in cheapest paid plan | Max Number of users in cheapest paid plan |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hootsuite | hootsuite.com | N/A | 2008 | Vancouver, Canada | Yes | 1 | 1 | $45/user/mth/billed annually | 1 | 1 |
| Agorapulse | agorapulse.com | N/A | 2011 | Paris, France | No | N/A | N/A | $49/user/mth $39/usr/mth if paid annually | 1 | Unlimited (extra users $39/user/mth) |
| Sprout Social | sproutsocial.com | N/A | 2010 | Chicazgo, US | No | N/A | N/A | $99/user/mth | 1 | Unlimited (extra users $99/user/mth) |
| Sendible | sendible.com | N/A | 2009 | London, UK | No | N/A | N/A | $29/user/mth $24/user/mth if billed annually | 1 | 1 |
| Zoho Social | zoho.com/social | Zoho | 2015 | Chennai, India | Yes | 1 | 1 | $10/user/mth $8.33/user/mth if billed annually | 2 | Not specified/addit'l user $10/mth |
| ContentCal | ContentCal | N/A | 2014 | London, UK | Yes | 1 | 1 | £15/mth billed annually | 1 | Not specified/addit'l user £15/mth |
| Social Report | socialreport.com | N/A | 2010 | New York, NY | No | N/A | N/A | $49/mth | 5 | 5 |
| Muster Point | musterpoint.io | N/A | 2012 | London, London | No | N/A | N/A | $35/£25 per month per user | 1 | Not specified/addit'l user $35/£25/mth |
| Jollor | jollor.com | N/A | 2014 | Prague, Czech Republic | No | N/A | N/A | $5/per mth | 2 | Not specified/addit'l user $5/mth |
| MavSocial | MavSocial | N/A | 2012 | San Francisco, CA | Yes | 1 | 1 | $16/mth billed annually | 1 | 1 |
| Tweetdeck | tweetdeck.twitter.com | N/A | 2008 | Yes | 1 | 1 | N/A | N/A | N/A | |
| Kontentino | Kontentino | N/A | 2014 | Bratislava, Slovakia | Yes | 1 | 1 | $10/mth | 3 | 3 |
| Lately | trylately.com | N/A | 2014 | New York, US | No | N/A | N/A | $79/mth | 1 | 1 |
Other Resources
Other Resources
If you need to get started with SproutSocial and ask them some questions, then there are many articles out there to help. Also, Sprout Social are fantastic at engaging with you. They're fairly quick at getting back to you and they've done a great job at building up a community of superfans (something other social media management tools could do with learning from).
Here are some other articles that you might find helpful:
- Throw Out Hootsuite and Use Sprout Social? (Ian Cleary, RazorSocial)
- My Honest and Unbiased Review of Sprout Social (Aaron Lee, written in 2012)
- Social Media Management Tool: A Review of Sprout Social in 2013 (John D Saunders, Social Media Today)
What Next?
So there are 7 reasons why you might not want to opt for Sprout Social as your social media management tool. However, it might be after reading this that you've decided that Sprout Social is the perfect tool for you. If so, great! However, maybe you agree with some of my points. Either way, please do give me your thoughts in the comments below!
Let me help Choose the best tools for you!
I hope this article has helped you, but perhaps you feel you need some expert help. As well as asking a question in the comments below, you might benefit from a one to one service. I offer a social media consultation service in which I can help find the best selection of tools and solutions for you or your business. If you are interested, get in touch!
About Ian Anderson Gray
Ian is a Confident Live Marketing Coach and founder of Seriously Social. He’s an international speaker, trainer, teacher, web developer and consultant. He has a passion for making the techno-babble of live video and social media marketing easy to understand. Ian is co-founder of Select Performers – a family run web agency. As well as being a geek, husband, and dad to two kids, Ian is also a professional singer and lives near Manchester in the UK. Find out more
The Seriously Social Community
What do you think? Join the fun & Let me know below...
Nicely done Ian…great comparison charts! We (large non-profit) use CoSchedule for scheduling social posts, seems to function quite well also.
Thanks, Steve! Glad you liked it. I need to spend some time updating this article, since Sprout Social have made some improvements. I like CoSchedule too – definitely recommended! Ian
I’m looking for a program to auto post to FB groups that we’re members of (about 600 different groups). Is this within your program’s capability?
Hi Joe. Thanks for your comment. What you are wanting to do goes against Facebook’s terms and conditions and is likely to get you flagged by Facebook or the group owners. I know it probably feels like an amazing idea, and I have seen some people do this. I’ve even come across a tool that supposedly does this. But I could never advocate such a tool or method since it’s likely to get you banned from Facebook. Sorry for the bad news!
Hi Ian, thank you for this helpful information. I came across eClincher would like to know what you think about this tool. Have you already tried it? Thank you!
Hi Mariel, Thanks. Yes, I have come across eClincher and I tried it out. One of the big advantages is the feature set – it does so much in one tool. However, that’s also its downside. It’s a little bit clunky and difficult to use sometimes. But, if you want to have a tool with a rich feature set and are happy with its user interface, it’s definitely worth a go!
Hi Ian,
Great insight. Thanks for breaking everything down. We are a fairly new company and definitely want to tap into and grow our social media presence. We are seeking a management tool to help us manage our social media. We have made some great strides via FB and have tapped into Instagram. We run an online cigar store so we are limited with restrictions due to our industry and want to do all we can to gain every advantage we can to grow our business. I am new to much of this and I am researching ways to market and grow our business. I was hoping you could suggest a direction for us through your experience. Thanks again Ian!
Hi Neil. Not all social media management tools integrate fully with Instagram, so it’s important to choose one that helps here. Happy to help! Ian
Hello Ian,
Very interesting article–thank you! I am just getting started with Social Media for my consulting business. I was wondering if you could suggest a management tool that would be ideal for a luxury good consulting brand. I am starting a blog and will use Twitter to cultivate relationships with industry execs as well as influencers. I love video and storytelling and intend to showcase the beauty of the products in the luxury brand categories, (beauty, jewelry and fashion accessories). Thank you again!
Hi Natalie, thanks for getting in touch. It will really depend on which social networks you want to manage via the tool. From the limited information you’ve given me, AgoraPulse and SproutSocial should be great contenders for your go-to tool. They support video and image upload and integrate with most of the main social networks. I particularly like Agora Pulse because of the zero inbox feature – it’s just so easy to get through all my social mentions quickly. Also, their reports and team management are great. It’s perfect for Twitter and it also integrates well with YouTube and Instagram (and of course Facebook). I think using stories on Instagram will be really great for you, but you’ll need to do that manually on Instagram. No tool can upload and manage stories due to the API not allowing that. Hope that helps! Ian
Ian – thanks so much for these articles – you clearly know a lot about this! Can I ask your advice? Is there a tool that allows an individual to see posts from facebook groups that I am a member of (not admin) in one place? For example, there are great facebook groups out there that I’m a member of, for job postings, but it’s hard to keep up. It would be great to see them all in one place, but Buffer requires I am an admin of those groups. Thanks in advance for any help!
Hi Hannah. Thanks! Now, that’s a great idea. However, I know of no tool that allows this. And Facebook is locking down access to groups via the API, so it’s becoming more difficult for tools to work with that. I bookmark all the groups that I am a member of and have them in a drop down in my bookmark bar. It’s not what you want, but it’s a little easier. Ian
I was wondering if you can suggest a Social Media Management Tool (2018) that allows me & my team to have MULTIPLE DIFFERENT CLIENTS so my team can POST NATIVE VIDEO ONTO our clients SOCIAL MEDIA SITES (particularly: LinkedIN, IG, GOOGLE PLUS, FACEBOOK, TWITTER)?
For example: We have 10 different clients/businesses we shoot video for… as well as many other things. My company currently POSTS onto their pages and it is time consuming! IS THERE A company that it like Sprout Social but that is for businesses like mine… an advertising agency… to post video content onto EACH of my clients individual pages?
LOOKING FORWARD TO YOUR ANSWER. THANK YOU!
Hi Erin, You can post videos to Facebook and Twitter via HootSuite, Sprout Social and AgoraPulse. However, it’s not possible to publish video to LinkedIn, Google+ or Instagram – due to the API. So, for those, you’ll need to post natively or link to the video on another platform such as YouTube. I’d definitely check out AgoraPulse or Sprout Social as this will certainly help for YouTube and Twitter. Hope that helps. Ian
Hi Ian! Thank you for this biiiig article, very well detailed. The comparison is very useful for me. I’m still hesitating about which tool to choose: i don’t need to publish with own accounts, but just a powerful monitoring ans searching tool to make benchmarks, identify trends, views hashtag metrics to make campaign reports… and exclusively for instagram, don’t need the rest. Do you think Sprout could fit my need?
Hi Romain, glad you enjoyed the article. So you don’t really need a social media management tool. Both Sprout Social and Agora Pulse have excellent reports and integrate with Instagram. But they also have a great deal of features for publishing and engagement. For Instagram, you could check out Klear, but it’s a bit expensive. There is also Brandwatch, but that is very expensive. Both those tools are excellent though – and Brandwatch is amazing for identifying trends and hashtag metrics. But you could use Sprout or Agora Pulse for the same – and for a much lower cost. It’s worth checking out by using the trial.
Thank you for this! I just signed up for Later and am very disappointed. I was just about ready to pull the trigger on Sprout Social but I think I see some other ones in your lists that would be a better fit. Thank you for saving me a ton of time!
Hi Chelsie, Thanks for your comment. So sorry that you had a bad experience with Later.
I’ve used their service for a while and not had any issues. Could you tell me what issues you had? Sprout Social could well be the best tool for you, but it is worth looking at some the others. Agora Pulse is a strong contender, as it is a really robust tool. Glad I saved you time. That’s my mission!
Geat insightful article Ian. Well informed and best reviews I have read on HootSuite and sprout social. I was also looking for one amazing automation tool for my social media. I have found one more if you want to try your hands on. Here is https://socialpilot.co. I haven’t tried yet. But thinking to switch on. Would love to know your thoughts on this as well.
Regards
Panth Mehta
Thanks. I’ve heard positive reports about Social Pilot but I haven’t tried it myself. Let me know how you get on! Ian
PinPinterest is an automation and marketing tool for pinterest that is free to use and runs on the cloud. It is mobile optimised and has Pin Scheduler and Speed control options.
I’ve personally gained more than 55k followers for my pinterest account since I’ve started using PinPinterest, and a lot of them are now regular readers on my travel blog, TravelMagma.
The best feature of PinPinterest is its sophisticated content detection technology, which detects pins relevant to my business and pins them on my account. Also, it makes sure my account is ban-safe by imitating a human-like speed . .
Truly a tool of 2017, PinPinterest is a must-use for everyone!
This is something I definitely would NOT recommend.
Firstly, I am going to assume require your Pinterest password. You should never give your password to a third party tool like this. I assume it requires your Pinterest password, because Pinterest don’t allow automated following like this. That’s my second point – it goes against their terms and so could get you suspended. I am sure it can boost your followers in the short term. But at what expense?
Hello, I love this article. Thank you very much – it was very insightful. One issue I am currently experiencing is that the contract with the advertising agency we used to do our social media has been cancelled. My fear now is that when we post or continue with the social media in our own marketing division, they can still view our activity/data in their Sprout account……… Do you maybe know how I can ensure that these “third party” posting tools no longer have access to my Facebook page.
You can remove any 3rd party apps from Facebook and Twitter. If you go to the settings page, you’ll see an option to view connected apps. Go there, and then revoke permissions for any apps you don’t want any more. Hope that helps!
Hey Ian,
Thankyou for such a detailed, objective and balanced review. Interesting that you have also updated to keep context and relevance.
However, regarding the ‘keeping up with answered messages’ comments, SS allows you to ‘mark as completed’ (often as default). So for example, you can plough through DMs, mentions etc. and then skip over one with the keyboard shortcut, to leave to another time. As long as you have ‘mark completed’ selected with a tick mark, it will update accordingly.
Keep up the great work!
Thanks for this. I’ll need to check Sprout Social again. Last time I checked, it definitely allowed you to mark as completed, but it didn’t feel as intuitive as Agora Pulse. Thanks.
Hi Ian,
Thank you so much for the article, I tried every service you listed, but none of them have one crucial feature: posting one @mention which would then be translated to all native appropriate formats (facebook, twitter)
For example, if I post “hi @aliciakeys” this will only translate to apropariet @mention in Twitter, but not in Facebook. But if I use facebook format, it will not post as a clickable @mention in Twitter.
Do you know of any website that offers that small but crucial feature?
Thank you,
Sergey
Hi Sergey, thanks for your comment – you make a great point. I’ve spoken with quite a few of the tool companies about this in the past. Some tools such as Sprout, Agora Pulse and Buffer have an autocomplete feature for @mentions on Twitter. But making it work cross platform would be very very difficult to achieve. The tool has no way of knowing what the Facebook page (or profile) belongs to the Twitter name @aliciakeys. The only way round this would be to manually add these to their system. That way, the tool could mention the right Facebook page or profile when you use their Twitter name. I think, however, this would be complicated to do and most tool companies wouldn’t see it as worth the investment. I’d love it if they would, though. I could have done with it a few times this week. Ian
Hi Ian
I still use Sprout Social, kind of getting used to it and not willing to test all the new tools out there. My main tools for social sharing and insides at this point, apart from native Facebook or Twitter analytics/business insides, are Sprout, MOZ, Canva, Feedly, Pocket and some Crowdfire on the smartphone. Easy to handle number, works great for me. Must admit that I do not use post automation though.
I commented here more than a year ago and this blog is still creating discussion! WOW!! That’s an evergreen piece of content, impressive. Also shows that the topic is never-ending, too
Hi, Frank. Yes, I know, lots of comments still coming! My article on Hootsuite from 6 years ago still gets comments, so the whole area of social media management tools does create lots of discussion! Sprout is great, but they are starting to be expensive for a lot of people. It looks like they’ve removed their cheapest plan, which means it will cost from $99/user/month. I love your selection of tools. I use Canva and Feedly. I used to use Pocket but although I love the app, I don’t find it fits into the way I work so much these days- I use Evernote and GMail/IFTTT now. I would use Moz, but havben’t quite justified it for my use since I use SEMRush. What do you think of Crowdfire? It isn’t something I have used myself. Ian
Hi Ian
Great article. Have you come across anything that offers push notifications for when someone comments on a post or a message is received?
Hi, Bianca. To be honest I haven’t tested the Sprout Social mobile app in a while. However, I know Agora Pulse offers push notifications on a mobile for messages and comments. Is that what you are looking for?
Hi Ian. Funny you say that because they told me they don’t as it would be too ‘spammy!’
Really? But with notifications you should have the option to switch them off, either in their entirety or selectively.
I just looked up Klear and it’s $249/month not $49/month. Ouch! Thanks for putting this together… very helpful and insightful… it’s too bad that I stopped blogging for a while and didn’t get on Sprout Social when it was yet affordable. Those were the days!
Thanks for letting me know. I think I updated the price in my other article, but not this one. Yes, Klear (formally Twttrland) have upped their prices a lot. A shame, but they have to make their money somehow! Ian
Hi Ian,
I work as a Social Media Manager for a Quick service restaurant (similar to Chipotle/Shakeshack). I am looking for a social media management tool with my priority being 1)Analytics and Reporting – In depth reporting like reach, ROI of my posts, finding out the best times to post, etc. A/B testing if possible – for ads)
2)Support for Facebook, Instagram and Twitter
3) Good scheduling capabilities (though nothing advanced required here)
I am currently evaluating SproutSocial, Agorapulse and Hootsuite. I was wondering if you can help me with identifying the most appropriate tool for my needs. My budget is under 100 dollars/month. I dont need advanced team features as of now but analytics and reporting remain my biggest need.
Thanks!
Thanks for your comment, Ajinkya! I’ve just published a new post which compares the pricing of Sprout, Agorapulse and Hootsuite – http://iag.me/socialmedia/the-hidden-pricing-of-social-media-tools-revealed/
I think you’re going to struggle to find a tool that will tick all those boxes – particularly your first point. You can get some idea of the reach and ROI from the reports from Sprout and Agorapulse and you can get an idea for the best time to post too. Sprout Premium has a optimized time scheduler which aims to post at the best times. I’ve not tested it though. Hootsuite has very basic reports unless you want to pay for their higher plans.
All 3 have good support for Facebook, Instagram and Twitter – well kind of. Only Agorapulse and Hootsuite support publishing to Instagram via their mobile app. I particularly like Agorapulse’s social inbox system which helps me get on top of my Twitter mentions very easily (ones I’ve dealt with disappear from view). Sprout works a little like this too.
I can’t see that anything other then twitter works for feeds. You mention toggling between but only twitter profiles seem to be showing up under SS feed.
Hi Anna, You can toggle your social profiles in the messages tab. For feeds, Sprout will only display Twitter, LinkedIn and RSS I think. For Twitter you can display Tweets from people you follow or get a feed from one of your Twitter lists.
Worth an update on pricing: Deluxe now only grants 5 profiles (same $59.00 fee) and premium gets 10. Additional profiles are available as groups of 5 for $25.00
Well spotted, Zach. I had already put the new prices on my new post – http://iag.me/socialmedia/top-5-social-media-management-tools/ but hadn’t updated this. It’s getting more pricey!
Ian
Hi Ian – great article, thanks for posting! I’m looking for a tool that works not only with the mainstream social networks, but also hotel/hospitality ones such as TripAdvisor. Do you have any recommendations?
Agree, Olivia!
I do management for many hotels and a TripAdvisor tab would be awesome.
Really interesting idea! I can see how useful it would be to be able to monitor and reply to Trip Advisor reviews through one system.
Unfortunately, to my knowledge there isn’t a tool available that does this.
Trip Advisor has an API, but it’s only for adding Trip Advisor content on your website- it’s not a system that allows you to send information (for example add a reply) to Trip Advisor. The only thing that could come close is a tool that monitors reviews such as Brandwatch or even Sendible.
Ian
Thanks so much. I’ve read dozens of articles and reviews on social media tools – and this one was the best and most useful by far.
Ian,
Echoing the thoughts of many here, loved the article. You’re expertise and first-hand experience is evident.
I am a social consultant as well, located in South Dakota, and I’ve been using Sprout now for about 7 months. I love the scheduling, unified feed, managing of different clients in folders, and the reporting. The main thing I went to Sprout for was for the monitoring, but there is a lot of spammy search results with it. Still, a great feature to have.
My two issues with Sprout:
— Lack of posting multiple images
— No ability to report on ad work via Twitter or, more importantly Facebook
In regards to the latter, I know that working this would be a difficult barrier to cross with how complex social advertising has become.
I’ve always been impressed by AgoraPulse and being a small-time social consultant with only a handful of clients, would making the switch be wise?
— Troy
Hi Troy, great to hear from you. Happy to chat to you further about this in the new year if that helps. However for now, I do think it’s worth checking out AgoraPulse. There are a lot of similarities and both have their pros and cons. AgoraPulse only integrates with Twitter, Instagram and Facebook currently- but they may be adding other networks in the future. Their publishing feature is not as powerful as Sprout- but this will change in the first quarter next year I believe- and what they are planning sounds great. However I love AgoraPulse’s social inbox view- it really allows me to get through my mentions much more quickly. Also the way it displays Facebook dark posts and their comments is really helpful. I don’t often work in a team or need to delegate tasks, but AgoraPulse is much more cost effective than Sprout for teams. Is it perfect, no, but worth checking out.
Ian
The more I read up on tools the more confused I get. I use Hootsuite Pro right now and it seems fine. However – the money charged for good reporting is an extra cost. You pay additional reports. And you pay a lot.
Some upcoming clients have Instagram as their most important channel. Ok. Hootsuite does Instagram now.
Now I also know which tools have a single column for different channels (seems weird to me – but maybe I am just too used to Hootsuite – anyway – I dont care that much as I havent been doing ANY community management up till now).
So. Conclusion: Hootsuite is good but as my requirements will change now (much more visual and not posting the same everywhere) I am not sure anymore. What do you guys say if I decide between Hootsuite, Agorapulse and Sproutsocial?
PS: good reporting is important to me and I dont want to use several tools…
It is very frustrating. I don’t any of the tools companies do a good job at explaining what they do. Most of them aren’t easy to scale either- if you have a lot of accounts or team members. Do you need team members? If not, Sprout Social might be a good option for you, but I know you find the single column a little weird. I’m not a massive fan of the unified feed, but I have become a fan of the single feed. It’s taken time though- I used to love the multi columns of Tweetdeck and Hootsuite, but now I find it too overwhelming and I am much more productive in working with a single column.
I think the reports in Sprout Social and Agora Pulse are among the best I’ve seen- and you don’t have to pay any extra for them. It then comes down to other features such as how the tools help you manage comments (Agora Pulse is my fave here because it has an inbox view allowing you to get through all your comments and mentions very quickly), whether you want unified (Sprout) or a different single column for each network (Agora). Also, which networks do you want to integrate with? AgoraPulse integrates with Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. SproutSocial does these and Google+ and LinkedIn.
Ian
This is the one of the best articles I came across reseraching Tools, Ian! I am running a small digital agency (fmwaechter.com) and I trialed nearly all the mentioned tools and apps. I started using Hootsuite and Buffer, as well as other different tools for Monitoring and Engagement. In the end, I also went directly to the different native apps for posting, like-unlike, etc. Finally, I switched to Sprout Social beside the (high for small biz) costs. Why? Using many tools is time consuming and I decided to make a fundamental (for me) desicion. All-in-one accepting up-&downsides vs. multiple accepting up&-downsides. Tweet Deck is fantastic, but like kind of stand-allone and not serving me without extra work for integration. I love scheduling with Buffer, and there is no better app than Buffer to do so. I like the low pricing of Hootsuite. I tried Sendible but it didn´t convince me from the user side, felt kind of clumsy to me. Agora is great, but I have too many Social Media Accounts which made it event more expensive than SS to me. I tried lots of tools like Manageflitter, Socialoomph, etc. All great tools, but in the end, none gave me the overall functionality which SS offers. You mention great and important downsides in you post and I agree to all of them. And you offer great alternatives, but again, if you want to have the 1000% perfect solution you have to use multiple tools. Maybe at the end of the day that will work out cheaper on a first view, but combining mulitple tools just takes too much time and time is money, too. (Also think about having to update and reserach multiple tools and their integration). At least this is my personal conclusion. For the moment! As you can… Read more »
Update (after reading all the fantastic comments) I will definitely check MavSocial. Not only because of Chris´ Time-ROI aproach.. liked it!
Thanks, Frank! I do like to do my research, but it does mean it takes me a little longer to write the articles. I do intend on writing a “7 Reasons why you SHOULD use Sprout Social” soon.
I totally agree with what you’ve said and I empathise with your experience. I too have been searching for the “One Tool that Rules them All”, but alas I’ve come to terms with the fact that it doesn’t exist. I’m actually quite happy in using a selection of tools- because I know what I am using each of them for. I personally use Buffer and Friends+Me for scheduling (with a sprinkling of Zapier and IFTTT in the background), Feedly and my blog for content, AgoraPulse for engagement and reporting, ManageFlitter, Commun.it and a few other tools for follower management and community. There are a lot of moving parts, but it works really well for me.
Sprout Social would be great, but it’s not as perfect a solution as what I have currently.
MavSocial is a great tool and I love the digital assets library. Let me know how you get on!
Ian
I tried all of them, but the only one that seems to work best is Mavsocial. However, you always have to select ALL the social networking sites you want to post and there’s no options to post recurring tweets.
Glad things are working out for you with MavSocial. It’s not the perfect tool- no tool is. Have you spoken to them about this? Maybe they can add it to their feature list.
Ian
Great points Ian! SoDash (www.sodash.com) could be a great alternative tool. It covers more social feeds than any other monitoring platform in the market. It also has very advance filtering features that can help you to cut through the noise of the social web and priorities incoming messages. Would be cool to include it in your alternative list
[…] someone about social media management platforms, the only two tools that come up are Hootsuite and Sprout Social. But these tools, although great in their own way, don’t fit everyone’s […]
I just spent the weekend searching for the best free alternatives to curate and share information manually and automatically connecting rss feeds. I am now using Buffer, EveryPost, TwitterFeed, and DLVR.it. Considering HootSuite, SocialPilot and IFTT as tools.
Thanks for your comment, Chris. I use a combination of Buffer, IFTTT, Zapier and Feedly to share to Buffer and other platforms. I also use Friends+Me with Google+. I’ve tried TwitterFeed and dlvr.it before and although they have their uses, I found that they were too automated for my liking. I don’t want to be a feed, but I can see some good uses for them. What would you use Hootsuite for? For engaging?
Great article indeed!
Thanks, Katie! Much appreciated. Ian
Actually Schedugram seems to be able to post through the API now on IG and so far I actually like that ability way more since I can manage it from the desktop. Not sure if anyone went over that yet, but it’s good to note. I just wish a single platform would integrate all the platforms to a level that’s available for small business users and corporations.
Thanks for your comment. Could you point to where you heard about Schedugram doing this?
The Instagram API is read only, meaning it’s impossible to post images through the official API. There might be other ways round it, but the main issues that tools such as Schedugram face is that they have to ask for your IG’s username and password and that goes against IG’s terms and conditions. I really do like Schedugram and I know the team behind it have the best of intentions, but it’s not something I will use at the moment.
I agree that it would be good to use one tool for all platforms. However I don’t think that will ever happen. There will never be a tool that integrates with all networks in the way that you like and works for your business.
Ian
Actually a company I was consulting with was using it so I went through and tested it on a dummy account. It works and at most, most companies I know are trusting strangers with their passwords anyway and they do seem to be pretty open about it and it does seem like an automated system. At first I was wondering if they somehow were hiring cheap labor to do auto-uploads, but I didn’t really see that as being a cost effective method so I asked a programmer I work with how it was possible and he said it is possible to program it that way. Overall if it were a legal issue for IG I wonder why they wouldn’t shut it down at this point? It seems like they’d know about it and since IG is under Facebook now I’d imagine they’d have the legal power to do so. It’s either that or they are planning to open the API eventually to do this and don’t care that much, which they really should do anyway.
I think Schedugram is a great app and it is well thought through. At the end of the day it’s up to the individual or business as to whether they want to use the app. However there has been much discussion about accounts being suspended after using tools such as Schedugram. Not much is known and it’s difficult to know if the accounts were suspended because of using the app.
Instagram’s terms do state (under no. 5):
Perhaps it is a bit ambiguous, but if you do give your password away to a 3rd party you could argue that you are not keeping it secure.
Some people will be totally ok with this and some people won’t. I just want people to understand the risks.
Personally I use an app called Latergramme. It’s similar to Schedugram, but it doesn’t require log in details. It doesn’t post the image for you, but it notifies you on your phone at the time it needs to be posted and launches Instagram with the image and text preloaded.
Personally I don’t think IG will ever make writing/posting available in their API, but I would be very happy to be wrong!
Ian
Yes, I am familiar IG’s terms. I did a search through Google and Quora after I found it and didn’t find any negative experiences from people using it, but again I’m not sure it’s much different than a company giving someone their logins to work on the account. Latergramme is okay, but it’s just as easy for me to set up notifications on my phone to remind me to post. I just found the app a bit pointless. I’m hoping you are wrong about the posting. I find when FB is involved they want to make advertisers happy and the advertisers would probably love a scheduling tool it just takes time to build out.
Great. You’ve done some great research there, but not all users will. As long as you are happy with your decision everything is ok.
Have you read the comments in this Social Media Examiner article on Instragram scheduling- http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/4-instagram-tools-scheduling-instagram-updates/ ? It’s quite interesting. A lot of discussion about whether it’s ok to give out your username and password and apps such as Latergramme and Schedugram.
Yes! I’ve been at this for awhile. I don’t recommend scheduling for all clients. I do, however, work with some clients that do entertainment news so it works out great for them to schedule. I just make sure to be careful and read the product terms. In some cases, I’ve actually had programmers build workarounds for me. On top of that it’s amazing how many times more accidents happen with an angry intern or ex-employee because they don’t change the password more so than a platform issue. This is why I always tell people when people leave make sure you change up the passcodes as your social media protocol, but a lot of people just don’t bother.
Cool. I love the way you’ve looked at workarounds- sounds like my kind of thing! Boy all this can become complicated, but I have to admit I quite enjoy getting all geeky with social media!
If i can throw in my 2 cents worth on a couple of these points.
i actually think out of the two things that could happen by disclosing your password to a third party (a) IG closes you down or b)your password/user name is used in a way you did not intend) that the last one is the bigger risk.
I completely get your point kgal1298 that companies do this all the time and give their passwords to their marketers /external agencies but i think the difference is they know who they are giving it to. But when you provide it an application, you are providing it to a complete stranger! Who knows what could happen to it- do they store passwords securely if they are hacked? Which employees have access to this information etc? Don’t forget that once you give them your password they have the keys to the castle. Caveat emptor!
Re IG opening up the API to publishing, Ian i think they will this year- i have spoken to a number of large FMCG brands who will be using IG for advertising.they had been vocal apparently in their discussions with IG that they need better tools to be able to manage their IG experience and they believe that this will occur – i guess we will see.
Chris I hope you are right about the API publishing being this year. I was thinking it might be a bit longer, but I also work with a couple agencies and I know they would benefit from having an API for publishing for the multiple clients. As for the password thing I agree with you, it just depends on a case by case. I’ve worked with people who give passwords to oDesk people no problem and I think that’s just as risky. Also, I think this platform might leave itself open to being sued if anything bad happens since they say in their own website rules that they basically use encrypted software for it. I think I might know what workaround they are using and if it’s true then I’d have to imagine they did find a way to encrypt it, but I only do this with clients permission as well. It’s safer that way and again I’ve seen more issues with interns than anything. I think it’s just best to make sure someone has the right contacts to fix it when it goes wrong. When I was with Maker they lost their own YouTube channel, but our Social Media Director there was able to get YouTube to give it back to them so for many brands it’s not an issue. Small to medium sized brands may want to be careful of course. The platform always has the power to re-instate an account, but sometimes it just depends on who you know.
Hi Ian! I just went through your entire post from top to all the comments. The community engagement you have created on this website should be made into a case study
My business is currently very small so I really haven’t started experimenting with full-fledged social media tools, but I vicariously learn a lot from your posts and will be prepared when I make the transition. I tried Hootsuite once but found it very slow to load and function in a browser. or may be I am missing something others know?
So far I have been a user of Buffer and SocialOomph which seem good enough for my current needs. Thanks.
Thanks, Hitesh. Wow, you’ve read the article and the comments?! That must have taken a long time! I am glad you found it helpful. Community is really important to me, and I do try and build a community around my posts.
I haven’t found Hootsuite that slow, but I don’t particularly like the interface. I like Buffer a lot for scheduling, but I never personally got on with SocialOomph despite their UI update some time back. Have you tried Edgar? Edgar is more expensive than SocialOomph but it is really powerful. I also use ManageFlitter to manage my Twitter followers. Agora Pulse is great as a powerful alternative to Hootsuite- worth checking out. Ian
Took a long time but the wealth of information you share is well worth it!
May be Hootsuite isn’t that slow but internet speeds aren’t that great in the eastern part of the world
I agree with your point on SocialOomph. Not very pretty to look at but does what it’s supposed to do. Thanks for the alternatives you mentioned. I’ll check them out.
You’re right about internet speeds- easy for tool vendors to not think about catering for those with slower speeds, because they probably take for granted high speeds in their tech hubs! Let me know if I can help any further. Ian
Really great writeup Ian! Blows my review of Sprout Social (still being written) out of the water. I actually don’t mind most of these reasons– especially the multi-column one. I don’t know how people operate with multi-columns, I can’t stand it! I won’t use any tool that has it. There’s three reasons why:
– The interface is REALLY bad on all the ones that do. It’s cluttered chaos and gives me anxiety. For people with ADD, I would think that this is the WORST way to operate. I’ve found that I have to intentionally limit my focus to stay effective.
– It destroys the unique experience that each platform has. It’s like looking at a chopped up, stripped, and unattractive version of what it should be.
– Because of the former, a disconnect happens, I believe, in visual communication/interpretation. You lose touch with the platform a bit.
But that’s just me, and I know everyone is different. The things that were a definite deal breaker for me were your points about bit.ly profiles, the scheduler and the price point. When compared feature for feature, Sprout just didn’t deliver and wasn’t nearly worth the price.
Thanks for stopping by, Dustin. Sorry my review blows your review out of the water, but I’m sure that isn’t true. First of all it will be hosted on your beautifully designed website (I just drool over it every time I visit it!) and secondly you will be bringing your take on it. Please let me know when it’s ready and I’ll add a link to this article.
Do you what, I am coming round to the single unified stream. It was actually writing this article and engaging with other commenters that has helped! I am currently using AgoraPulse which I love. It only currently integrates with Twitter and Facebook (with Instragram to follow), but I think Google+ is best managed on Google+. What do you think? As for LinkedIn, I haven’t found a great tool yet. I do totally agree with your points on why multi column isn’t great. My big issue with Sprout is the way Twitter lists aren’t available from this stream. I love Twitter lists!
Was happy to see you agree with me on bitly and the scheduler. The good news is (as @sprout_admin:disqus mentioned) they are looking to improve the scheduler. Don’t think they will sort out bitly though. The price though is the price. Not much will happen there I don’t think! Ian
I actually advocate that MOST of your social media engagement should be done natively. However, I do a lot of scheduling. That scheduling though is always based on when I will be on the platform (roughly).
I honestly don’t know how they can continue not supporting multi-bitly accounts. I need a minimum of 3 different bitly custom URLs (My own, Weal Media’s and Warfare Plugins).
Thanks, Dustin. I agree that it is a good idea to engage natively on the platform- particularly when it comes to Facebook. You don’t have much of a choice when it comes to Google+ profiles of course. It’s probably wise to post and engage natively on Google+ pages, basically because many 3rd party tools don’t do a particularly good job (I wasn’t impressed with Hootsuite for example. However, I don’t think it matters which platform you use when it comes to Twitter. What was your thinking behind why it is important to post natively?
As for multiple bitly accounts, I think we are in a rare situation. I don’t honestly think many individuals or businesses take the time to brand different groups of networks with custom short urls. It is a shame, because I think they can really help with brand awareness and they look professional.
With Twitter it’s not as bad but I still think a slight bit of culture/connection is lost when you’re interacting in a third-party interface. It’s slightly disconnected. But maybe that’s just me.
As far as our situation, I don’t know. Plenty of agencies out there managing multiple bitly accounts and being that Sprout is targeted at agencies it seems weird.
Good point about losing the culture and connection. I think if you are an individual then using the native interface makes a lot of sense. I’d only add that you can be more productive using a 3rd party tool. I’ve been using Agora Pulse recently (and am a big Commun.it fan) and both of these tools save me a huge amount of time. There is a difference though if you are managing social networks as a team. Although Facebook, Google+ and other networks allow team access (with various roles), Twitter does not. You obviously don’t want to be sharing your Twitter account’s username and password between your team members. Thankfully Tweetdeck now allows team access, but using another 3rd party app for team members makes sense.
I’d be interested to know what @sprout_admin:disqus thinks about our conversation on multiple bitly accounts. Is this something Sprout could add?
Hi Ian. As you know Sprout allows you to assign a unique Bit.ly account per group, which accommodates all of the use-cases we’ve encountered in the past. In thousands of user surveys and feature requests we’ve never had anyone suggest this didn’t meet their needs. That’s not to say your point isn’t worth considering but I was surprised it was a big enough deal to make your list. I guess then it would have been “6 Reasons Not To Use Sprout”.
When you write the followup “94 reasons to use Sprout” let me know and I’ll make sure we give you a proper demo
Thanks, Justyn. I think it is great that Sprout Social allows you to assign a unique bitly account per group- one of many reasons why I think Sprout Social is better for many businesses over Hootsuite which locks you into owly. I am sure our case (myself and @DustinWStout:disqus) is relatively rare, but I would hope you would listen and take it into account. I did mention in the article that this point was unlikely to affect many people, but it is an issue I encountered and it I didn’t add it just to make the “7”! (there were two other supplementary points which could have made it 9 Reasons).
Although I have already got more than 7 Reasons why you SHOULD use Sprout Social, I’d definitely be up for a proper demo. It would also be great to ask you some more questions and to include more of the history and thinking about Sprout and what sets you apart from other tools. Ian
Of course, and we definitely value all feedback. Drop me a line on LinkedIn if/when you want me to set you up with someone to do a thorough walkthrough and happy to contribute some thoughts in the future. Thanks again for spending some time with Sprout.
Thanks, Justyn. Much appreciated! It’s great to know you guys listen and care. Ian
These are such helpful and comprehensive reviews. So many “actionable takeaways!”
Thanks, Karen, glad I could help!
Ian – thank you for the incredible detail. I currently use Hootsuite but am always interested in pros/cons for different tools to ensure I am “parked in the right place” for the time being. I plan on checking out your Hootsuite articles as well. I haven’t been overly enamored with the reporting options on the pro subscription (and they charge you to run/generate additional reports which I wasn’t happy to learn), and was disappointed that they were charging for additional reports (beyond a very modest offering). Overall I’m pleased with Hootsuite, but I’m curious to know if Sprout Social has other “extra charges” beyond the subscription amounts (i.e,. adding additional report templates which may cost more than the monthly amount)?
Thanks for your comment! Many businesses and individuals use Hootsuite because they offer a free version and they are the most well known. It’s all very powerful in terms of features. It integrates with a huge number of networks and you have their 3rd party apps to use. As I said in my article, I still recommend Hootsuite to some clients, but Hootsuite is far from perfect. I go through the pros and cons in my Hootsuite articles. I’d be very interested to know what you think. Two big issues with Hootsuite are the way you have to pay for extra reports and they have a bizarre point system which makes it confusing.
Sprout Social don’t charge any extras- what you see is what you get! That’s one thing I really admire about them. They are more expensive than Hootsuite- at least in their entry prices, but as CEO @sprout_admin:disqus mentioned in the comments- they’re not trying to appeal to everyone- they’re trying to invest in a great product. Whether that product is right for you is another thing. Hopefully after reading this article you will be in a better situation to make that decision.
Do have a look at some of the other tools I recommended. I’m really enjoying using Agorapulse at the moment. Whilst it only integrates with Twitter and Facebook (pages) at the moment (with Instragram to come) it’s a really well thought through tool. I also like Oktopost and Mavsocial- they both have very compelling features which may make them right for you.
Ian
Thank you for the quick reply. I did start on Hootsuite free and then upgraded to Pro. For my needs it works well except for the analytics, but as business grows our needs may change, so your work is much appreciated! Thank you for sharing that you use Agorapulse. I plan to check that one out (and already had Oktopost on my list as well)… so many tools, so little time :). Have a great weekend.
Carla
If Hootsuite works well for you, then maybe that is ok. However you will probably find the likes of Sprout Social, Agoapulse, Oktopost and Mavsocial more flexible. Everything is included for the price (although Oktopost tends to only offer some of their services in their higher plans). What social networks do you need to manage?
LinkedIN, Twitter, Facebook, Google+ for now (and some LinkedIN groups). May branch to Pinterest in the near future.
That’s quite a collection of social networks! It sounds like Sprout Social might well be a good fit for you. They integrate with all the networks you mention (except for LinkedIn groups). I do like Oktopost for LinkedIn groups, but for the time being I am using Buffer to occasionally post to one or two LI groups. as for Pinterest, I use Tailwind. Really great tool.
You are giving me lots of great notes! Thanks again.
Carla
Glad I could help, Carla. Let me know if you have any more questions! Ian
Ian you have outdone yourself as usual. No wonder you have trouble publishing an article a week :> It is definitely worth the wait.
I have some things to learn from your approach – watch out!
I am not yet at the point of using a lot of these tools, as I try to limit my SM time, as the ROI has not yet been there for me. But in the future I can definitely see the need for something other than TweetDeck and Buffer combo. Although for now it is fine.
I also need severe Pinterest integration and as yet there are not many contenders for that prize (good Twitter and Pinterest) perhaps I am just a bit weird with my network choices :>
Thanks so much, Ashley. I really shouldn’t beat myself up about not publishing a weekly post, because I’m more into in depth articles- of which you could say this one is! Looking forwards to seeing more of your blog posts (and if anyone else is reading this, you need to check out some of Ashley’s articles on Mad Lemmings– they are really worth reading!)
I’ve always been quite like you in respect to SM tools. I’ve used a variety of tools and I do like Buffer and TweetDeck. I am also a big Commun.it fan as well as IFTTT, Zapier, Feedly and more. However, I am starting to use social media management tools such as Agorapulse a lot more- and I can definitely see the value in them.
I am always impressed by your Pinterest pinning- I have a lot to learn from you there. I do use Tailwind- but I never seem to have the time to set up a decent schedule of high quality pins. I think I need to listen to your wise words here. Let me know where I can read up on them sometime!
Thanks! Ian
Thanks for the thoughtful post Ian. As you can imagine I have some opinions on the items you’ve discussed but I also believe that the world benefits from differing opinions. Knowing and admitting that we won’t be the right fit for everyone allows us to be an amazing fit for those who benefit from our approach and the decisions we’ve made in building our software.
Not offering columns is an unpopular decision, except for the companies who love it and see productivity gains like Adam below. Higher pricing is an unpopular choice, except that it allows us to build and support some really great features that wouldn’t be possible otherwise. It also allows us to offer live support around the clock to every customer, to provide free training, include reports and record keeping and a host of other things we’re proud of.
I think because our industry was born from free tools like Seesmic and Tweetie, Tweetdeck and Hootsuite, there’s a perception that a few dollars a day for critical business software is expensive. I would challenge that premise. We pay a lot more for a lot less utility every day in business.
We’re not for everyone, which allows us to be an even better partner to the 15,000 businesses around the world who rely on us to make hard decisions and build great software. If we didn’t challenge popular opinion sometimes, a lot of people might like us, but few would love us.
Thanks again for taking a close look at Sprout. Oh, also Instagram and multiple schedule times are coming.
Justyn Howard / CEO
P.S. Have you discovered isolation-mode in the Inbox yet? Click on the text of one of your profile names. Makes the inbox even more efficient when you get the hang of it.
Hi Justyn and thanks so much for taking the time to respond to my blog post. It’s very encouraging to have the CEO of such a prominent social media management tool engage with an article that focuses on less positive aspects. As I mentioned in my article, I am a fan of Sprout Social and I think you’ve have built a great tool and concentrated on engaging with your customers and growing a community of super fans. Other social media tools should take note of this. It’s interesting that there are very few negative reviews of Sprout Social- and that speaks volumes. However, I wanted to look at the bits Sprout Social currently doesn’t do as well as things that Sprout Social does that might frustrate others. I will be writing an article in the future which shows the other side- all to give a good balance. Your point about “knowing and admitting that” you “won’t be the right fit for everyone” isn’t one that I hear that often in the tool world. There does seem a tendency to want to be liked by everyone and to get glowing reviews all round. The fact is, there is never going to be a perfect tool that will suit everyone. That being said, I don’t think many tool vendors do a particularly good job at communicating the thinking behind decisions or demonstrating how their tool will make a difference in their lives. I always wondered why you didn’t offer multiple columns, and I think now I understand your thinking. I am still undecided, but I can see where you are coming from. If I were to use a single and unified column, I think I’d like more flexibility and more powerful filters, but maybe I am not the kind of customer you… Read more »
Ian, this is incredibly in depth – awesome work.
I’ve been trying Sprout Social out recently and I have to say, while there are definite draw backs to it like you mention in this post, I have become at least 3x more productive than I was when I was using Hootsuite.
The time I’ve clawed back definitely makes up for how much more expensive it is in comparison to Hootsuite.
Thanks for your comment, Adam and for your kind words. I’ve tried to be as in depth as possible as well as balanced. As I mentioned I’m a Sprout Social fan- and it really is a robust platform. However, it isn’t going to be the perfect tool for everyone, and I wanted to cover the areas that Sprout Social could do with improving.
You raise a really important and interesting point- and that’s down to the ROI and increase in productivity when using a tool such as Sprout Social. This is very difficult to measure, and most social tool vendors do a very poor job at communicating how much money and time they could save you. It’s great to hear that it is helped you become more than 3 times productive. I’d love to know more – and in what ways this has helped you. Are there particular features in Sprout Social that have helped you?
If you are an individual, you may well be able to justify $59 or $99/mth- and you may be able to see how much time and money that could save you (and hopefully how many extra sales and profit you can make). However I was raising the issue of how much it costs for team members- they all have to pay for individual accounts and so the costs can rack up considerably. Again, businesses will need to look at the costs and the benefits of using the tool and work out whether Sprout Social is going to be the best tool for them. It might well be, but the costs are still significant when compared to other tools. Wow, that was a long reply- hope it made sense! Ian
No worries, Ian. Good point – really isn’t for everyone and definitely are areas where it can be improved.
It’s a basic feature, but the smart inbox (particularly the ‘mark as complete’ button) has been the main time saving feature (there are a few others).
I manage a bunch of accounts so with Hootsuite I used to lose track of who I’d responded to (partly because of using Hootsuite across 3 devices) and missed a bunch of mentions. It’s so straight forward to manage responses with Sprout Social.
Good point about businesses. Price definitely amounts up quick.
Thanks, Adam. The mark as complete feature is definitely important. I used Commun.it to do this in Twitter- it saves me a lot of time each day. AgoraPulse also does this, and it’s really quick and easy to zap through all your Facebook and Twitter pages/profiles and respond to mentions/comments. I am surprised Hootsuite don’t make that as easy. Ian
Awesome to know more tools have this feature – it’s super important. I’m surprised too, Hootsuite have a lot of catching up to do!
They certainly do. You know what? I am actually getting round to the single column mindset. I still think Sprout could do with improving things in terms of the UI and the ease of use, and I wish they had more powerful filters and the ability to display Twitter lists, but I do like the single column a bit more. I’ve been using Agorapulse and it’s saving me a lot more time- probably similar to the experience you’ve been having with Sprout. Do you use LinkedIn? I’ve not found a social tool that helps you manage LinkedIn well. Oktopost does a great job of publishing, but I’m looking for a way to keep tabs of my connections’ posts and be able to comment and like. The LinkedIn website does my head in, so if I could find a social tool that makes LI easier, I’d love it!
Same here, you’re right – especially about the Twitter lists. They’re a huge feature, crazy it’s not incorporated. Great to hear about how well Agorapulse has been working for you.
I don’t use LinkedIn as much as I’d like to, had the same issue finding a good tool. Like you say, Oktopost is great on the publishing front. Let me know if you find a good tool for LI!
Sprout Social do incorporate Twitter lists- but only in the feeds section. To be honest, I don’t think any tool gives us much control as I’d like. I had a go at creating my own Twitter tool (in the form of a WordPress plugin). It allows you to filter your Twitter home stream, user stream, Twitter lists, searches and more. You can filter by keyword (either contains or not contains), the name of the app that published the tweet (useful for filtering out scheduling apps), retweets and more. I find it useful to listen in to what people are saying in real time or find questions that people are asking.
As for LinkedIn, I totally see the power of it, but it’s a mess. I’ll continue to look for a decent tool. If I had the time or the money to hire a developer I’d build my own tool!
Ah yeah. Hope to see them incorporate it into their smart inbox.
True – I’ve found the same thing. Awesome that you created your own plugin!
Definitely a potential opportunity in creating a LI tool at some point.
As we’ve discussed, Ian, I live by my lists, so Sprout’s single list view is a big negative for me. It really cuts down on the ease of use. There are other niceties with Sprout, like being able to reply and react to comments and activities of all your connected accounts, and the analytics. Its scheduler is much more streamlined than HootSuite’s. I am grandfathered in at their $9/month price, which makes Sprout a steal. I wouldn’t be paying $59/month though if I were a potential new user considering it now.
As always, an awesome and thorough article!
Thanks, Liz. I am glad you love your lists- me too. I couldn’t use Twitter if it were not for my Twitter lists. It allows me to zoom into people in my local area (via my “local” Twitter list), I can then zoom into my marketers list or my “awesome” list for the people I never want to miss. I found it frustrating having to move over to the feeds view and clicking twice to change the list.
I found it interesting what you said about Sprout’s scheduler being more streamlined than Hootsuite. Is that in a good way? I use Buffer for my scheduling and just love the power and flexibility it gives. Also love Edgar- but it’s a bit more pricey!
Ian
Lists for me and my clients. The thing about Twitter is, if you want to take it seriously, you need lists and to use them. Once you are following more than a couple hundred people, you aren’t going to be effective without lists. It’s disappointing to me to read Justyn’s response tweets. Lists are too important a functionality to gloss over or disregard that users *do* want that feature.
As for Sprout and HS…yes, in a good way. I have always felt that HS was terribly clunky in just about every way. So between those 2 (since you can’t post from TweetDeck anymore to any platform besides Twitter), Sprout wins hands down. I adore Buffer, too, but I have different uses for it than Sprout.
Lists are definitely a powerful aspect of Twitter, but many businesses miss them.
Now that @sprout_admin:disqus has responded above, what do you think? Are you convinced? Do you think you could really love the single column unified inbox in Sprout Social?
No.
If you utilize lists on Twitter, you need them without having to work to get them (or see only 1 list at a time). There’s really no 2 ways about it.
Thought you might say that! I would like to see Twitter lists somehow added in to the inbox view. I am not sure how that would work in practice, but Twitter lists are vital to the way I work. Being able to then filter the unified stream would be really powerful (for example only sharing mentions / comments from fans or from a specific location and being able to filter out mentions sent via a specific 3rd party app).
Ian, once again i am amazed at the level of detail you put into your articles – congratulations another superb post. And thanks for mentioning MavSocial, though i am now a little nervous about what you would say if you decided to do “7 reasons not to use MavSocial”! As you rightly say there is no one tool that works for everyone, and that is the reason why there are tools out there ranging fro free or very low cost at one end of the spectrum and at the other end, you have platforms like social.com, adobe marketing cloud, sprinklr etc that can cost well over USD500k pa! Your comments about cost of teams is an interesting one and the way that we approach it is that if you want simple multi-user functionality then you can license a relatively low cost version but if you want Team and Brands i.e. you have lots of people managing lots of social networks, different brands, different teams, you want different permission levels on what they can do view, edit, post etc then you need to go our Enterprise version which of course cost more. But the one thing i think that is missing in all these discussions about cost of the tool is the ROI of the solution – all SMT tools in my view are basically efficiency tools and there is nothing that they really do that can’t be done manually/natively by combining 2,3,4 or maybe even 10 or 20 applications together. But the benefit is that they save you time (and hopefully lot of it!) and hence money. To me if i can prove to you that MavSocial can save you a certain amount of time etc and taking into account staff costs then your payback is say 2 or 3… Read more »
Hi Chris, thanks for your comment. How could I not mention, MavSocial? However I don’t think you need to be afraid of me writing a “7 Reasons NOT to use MavSocial”- I’m not planning one, but even if I did, I think these “NOT” articles can be a good thing for a tool vendor. My Hootsuite article kickstarted a lot of buzz about Hootsuite and there was a lot of traffic going to their website. I may have been discussing areas that they didn’t do so well, but many people appreciated the honesty of the article and still signed up. I actually think a “NOT” article can potentially be more beneficial for a tool vendor if it is honest and balanced and not overly critical (which I hope this article isn’t).
You raise a really good point about ROI. I totally agree, and I hope to add a bit more to this article when I get the chance. It’s so easy to look at the baseline prices at work out the affordability in your head. But how do you work out the ROI of a social tool? I don’t think tool vendors do a great job at demonstrating that. That’s because it’s really hard to do so, and it will depend on the type of business.
I’d love to hear more from you on this- it’s a very interesting topic! Ian
Ian – you are right on both counts, we don’t do a good job demonstrating what the return is because its hard to determine! But we need to otherwise when people evaluate the various offerings a key component is missing and it becomes a price/feature shoot out. Now some people might think this ultimately achieves the same thing but i don’t agree. And the reason is that even though the platforms might have the same feature, it is usually implemented it in different ways and because of this the amount of time you will save will change. The easiest example of this is how people create and publish posts – i have sent so many ways to create posts, some make it easy to create one post and then craft it to different networks, adding photo’s and scheduling etc, whilst others make you create individual posts which takes so much more time! But if i were to look at it purely on the basis that tools X & Y both post to Facebook and Twitter, and X is cheaper then we should go with X I believe you can break down the ROI of a solution into 3 component parts. a) Aspects of a solution that you can show with reasonable confidence what the ROI is. If i look at MavSocial (not that i am wanting to make this a commentary about our product but its obviously the thing that i know the best) we did an article awhile ago showing how you can calculate the ROI of just the visual content management part of the platform (http://mavsocial.com/honing-in-on-the-roi-for-visual-content-management-systems/). Similarly we have been able to show customers that some of our visual content analytics reporting saves them literally hours every week and also how much time is saved by using MavSocial… Read more »
I think price/feature shoot outs can be really helpful, but only if you put that in to the broader context of what the tools are trying to do, what problems they will solve and how they will make you more efficient and potentially generate more leads, clients and sales.
I agree with your comment on how a tool publishes a post. It’s just too easy to craft a quick message and bung a photo on and then cross post to all your networks. Whilst some tools do a good job at intelligently cross posting (such as Friends+Me), many do not- and it’s not to be advised since each network has a different mechanism and audience.
I won’t respond to your breakdown of ROI of a solution, except to say it’s incredibly helpful. Despite your explaination, it’s always going to be easier to compare by price and feature. That’s the problem, and it requires a bit more thought and research from both the tool vendor and the tool customer.
So how can a tool vendor demonstrate how much time they will save a customer? Is that even possible? It was interesting to see @adamjayc:disqus’s comment where he said he thought Sprout Social made him 3x as efficient.
Ian, thanks for mentioning Latergramme! Also, lots of new features on their way especially now that our Android app is out.
This article is amazing and thorough, I think overall though I’ve loved SproutSocial for it’s interface but pricing is prohibitive. Some balance between an inbox and streams would be interesting feature/product, maybe that is what Smart Inbox was suppose to be.
Hi Matt, thanks for stopping by. I’ve had my eye on Latergramme for a while, but not had the chance to use it since I’m an Android user. Sure, I could have used my iPad, but it’s not quite the same. Congratulations in releasing the Android app (which I think you did just today). It’s a really neat app, and great the way we can schedule to Instagram whilst keeping Instagram’s terms and conditions happy.
Hootsuite, Sprout Social and many of the other social media management tools out there all have their pros and cons- there isn’t going to be a perfect fit for everyone. Hopefully this article will help people make choosing the best tool for them a little easier!
Wow Ian great post, and I agree with Matt.. I used to be a user at 29 or 39 and I left it for a while and was shocked to see the price had doubled. I love Sprout but the price was too much when I can be productive and do what I need to do with other tools and I love Post Planner, Agorapulse (especially their twitter tool), Tailwind (Pinterest) and Latergram (just started using it and love it). I know that sounds clunky but in a way it also keeps me productive and focused. There will never be a one tool fits all but I think if Sprout Social even offered a “return at your old price” fee I would be interested… to reward users for coming back.
PS and I loved the single feed, but I am a notorious tab opener so it was for my own good ;o)
I think I’d be a fan of the single feed if it had a better filtering system- so that you could select which profiles it was showing and gave you Twitter lists.
Have you tried One Tab? A great Chrome Extension for Tabaholics!
As for tab opening, I think we all have issues with that!
Happy to see you here @sociallysorted:disqus
I’m preparing a group therapy for compulsive tab openers, and a rehab center, you’re in? 
Sounds like I will have to join Tabaholics Anonymous too!
@iagdotme:disqus , I’ll give you a discount! It’s a new breed of Therapy based on Margarita mixes. Scientific studies have shown that after 5 Margaritas, it’s very hard to open a new tab, and after 10 Margaritas, you can’t open any more tabs at all! Seems legit to me! I’m sure @sociallysorted:disqus can handle that kind of Therapy!
I assume we aren’t taking about cheese and tomato pizzas here?!
Thanks so much for stopping by here and leaving a comment, Donna! It is interesting that I keep on hearing a lot of Sprout Social love from users who are paying $9/mth or $29 or $39/mth. As I said in the article, they’ve obviously done their research before setting the pricing (at least I hope so!) There are many of us who can’t justify the high cost of the new Sprout Social prices. However, maybe they are not aiming at us? Also, as @hodgemch:disqus mentioned elsewhere in the comments, it is important to work out how much money a social tool can save us as marketers. Working out the ROI of a social tool is hard, and I don’t think tool vendors do a very good job at communicating that. I may add a little section on ROI when I get the chance. I like what @facebook-1155715715:disqus said in a recent podcast which was marketing shouldn’t actually cost you anything. You might be paying out $$$ for your tools, but if it actually generates far more sales than it would have done without then you’re on to a winner! I’m glad you are an AgoraPulse fan. I love the reports and I think they’ve done a great job with Twitter integration. I can’t wait to see what they’ve done with Instagram. I have used Post Planner in the past and it’s definitely a really neat tool. There’s also Edgar of course which I know you like (and I loved it when I was on an extended trial)- that’s a bit of a pricey tool though. Thanks for reminding me about Tailwind. I was going to add that in to the article, but then I forgot. I’ve added it in! I’m not sure Sprout Social will offer previous customers a “return… Read more »
Very detailed post, great job! No app is a good match for everyone, so it’s good to see who’s a good fit for an app, and who’s not!
I’ve always preferred Sprout Social over Hootsuite because I like their interface better. For example, I prefer their unified mailbox than the overwhelming number of tabs you get on Hootsuite. But this is probably a very personal thing.
The big no-go for me was the cost for teams, Sprout pricing was really through the roof for our team of 6 community managers, total deal breaker. But if you only need one admin, the pricing is pretty good! One size fits all doesn’t exist in our industry. That’s a good thing after all
Thanks, Emeric. I mentioned there is no perfect tool, but that’s more down to the requirements of the person or business. I’ve tried to highlight the differences between several social media management tools so that everyone can be in a better situation to make an easier choice. With so many tools, that isn’t easy!
More tools have adopted the unified inbox basically down to what you’ve said- it can become overwhelming having so many columns. I’m not a massive Hootsuite fan, but I suppose I’ve become accustomed to the multi-column layout. I think it’s more important to have decent filters and allow proper control over what is seen when you have a single column layout. Being able to show the posts from just one social network and then bring in the others is useful. Also, as I am a Twitter nerd, I’d like more support for Twitter lists.
But, I am glad you mentioned teams. Since so many social media teams are sharing passwords which is a big no-no from a security stand point, the price is the big issue. As I said, I am sure Sprout have their reasons, but the price has always put me off Sprout Social. Having said that, perhaps I am not in their target customer?!
I definitely agree, it all comes down to the requirements of each business/user, and at the end of day, they all have their own needs! That definitely make the choice uneasy for users… At some point, there would be value in building a comparison sheet that’s easy to read
I understand your comment about the multi columns, but having to check 4 or 5 colomuns for each of my FB pages and TW account just drives me crazy. On the other side of the fence, having everything grouped in a single feed can be disturbing too… You have to keep clicking on filters to make sense of it. There must be a better solution, I’ll work on it 
Support for Twitter list is definitely a good point, I’ll discuss that one further with you.
I like the idea of a comparison sheet. I’m going to wait until I get the chance to review other tools.
As for multi or single columns, I think it depends on how good the filtering is on the page. Being able to quickly switch/filter between different social networks on one page would be useful. I quite like how Jollor have done that for example. Also, Twitter lists is a must for power users. One thing that no tool does (as far as I am aware) is to filter out tweets made from a particular app. That might sound a little geeky, but sometimes I like to filter out tweets made via a scheduling app such as Buffer, SocialOomph, dlvrit or Twitter Feed.
I am definitely interested in your thoughts- we should chat sometime!
I’m not sure you can technically filter tweets by the way they were posted (via a tool or not), but I’ll definitely look into this. It would make sense to build our “priority inbox”
You definitely can! The API does currently pass on the app name. I have this as one of my filters in my WordPress plugin Twitter tool, Twools. It is a little clunky though, so I wish one of the social media management tools such as Agorapulse or SproutSocial would allow this. I love scheduling tools, but I sometimes like to filter out these (for example Buffer, dlvrit, TwitterFeed etc) and see what people are saying in real tone. You can filter out even more by also filtering out links and images. Great to engage with people who are asking questions (which are sometimes easy to miss). Does this make sense?
Are you thinking about a priority inbox? I think that would make total sense. Exciting stuff!
I just took a look at Jollor and it says “You have 14-Day Free Trial. No obligation. Start managing your social networks for as low as 20 € per month.” Where did you find 5 Euros pricing?
Well spotted, David! Jollor don’t overly advertise their prices. I assume they want you to contact them for more details (as is the way with most enterprise products). Their entry tool has always been 100 Euros. I’m not sure where the 20 Euros comes in. I’ve been in touch with the Jollor team and they mentioned the 5 Euros entry price. Hopefully they will chime in here and give more details. Thanks! Ian
Hi David, this is Tish from Jollor. That was certainly well spotted. We are currently in the middle of price changes, and in this case it moved a little quicker than we advertised. We’ve adjusted it on our homepage. Thanks for flagging.
Just to add, David, if you have any questions at all, please do contact me at [email protected] and I’d be more than happy to help.
Thanks for chiming in Tish, and for updating the website. Glad I could publish the prices hot off the press!
Wow, Ian. This is really robust. I still love Sprout, but I can see some strong arguments for why you would not want to use it. Price is always a factor for us. And hey, some of those “pretty” reports you have posted here are really catching my eye!
Thanks for showing the other side. You did it so nicely and will a lot of facts to back it up. That is REALLY impressive. Keep it up!
Thanks, Brooke. By a robust article you could also say it’s long! However I think it’s important to be detailed in these kinds of reviews and I wanted to be as balanced and constructive as possible. I know you love Sprout, and it obviously works really well for you. Price is always going to be a factor, especially when you manage your social channels amongst a team.
Ian
Oh, and congratulations on being the first person to comment!
Oh no, I forgot to respond to your kind comment! Thanks so much, Brooke, your comment means a lot to me.
Sprout is definitely a robust product, but it’s important to highlight some of the areas that might be a frustration for some.
Thanks again!
Ian