If your business is active on social media, you may find that a lot of time is spent posting and updating content on so many platforms: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Linkedin, etc. The good news is that there are some useful social media management tools to help you manage your accounts: Hootsuite, Buffer and several other tools can let you painlessly promote, listen, respond, react and save hours of manual effort.

Hootsuite and Buffer let you Prioritize and Schedule your tasks smartly, and channel your resources and time to get you on the right track. Which is the best social media management tool for your business? Well, that depends on what you are looking for! Here is a comparison of Hootsuite Vs Buffer.

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Hootsuite

Launched in 2008, Hootsuite is one of the most popular social media management tools out there in the market. It is used by millions of users in over 175 countries to promote their business on different social media platforms in an efficient manner.

HootSuite brings a powerful set of features that can manage your social media strategies across multiple networks from a single dashboard. In Hootsuite’s extensive social listening dashboard, you can schedule, publish, source content, respond and regularly monitor all your social media activities.

List of Features

• Managing profiles from over 35 popular social networks—including Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram,—in one dashboard
• Curate online content and schedule social media posts across platforms
• Monitor topics online and respond quickly
• Get in-depth analytics on your social media accounts
• Use built-in social media contests and campaigns to grow your audience
• Manage your team with assignment and approval workflows
• iOS and Android apps available

Pricing

• Individual – Free forever – Up to 3 social profiles. Offers message scheduling, basic analytics.
• Professional – $228/year- Up to 10 social profiles. Offers real-time analytics, auto content scheduling, bulk scheduling, social sweepstakes, unlimited RSS integrations, in-dash live-chat support.
• Team – $1188/year – Supports 3 users with up to  20 social profiles. Offers the same features of ‘Professional’, including customized analytics views, team assignments, 6 contest templates (1 user), custom branded URL, and a social media certification.
• Business –  $5988/year- Supports a minimum of  5 users with up to 50 social profiles. Offers of the same features of ‘Team’ plan including advanced analytics with data exports, 6 social campaign templates (multi-user), customized and shortened URLs, platform & social marketing certifications, 24/7 priority support, 4 social media certifications.

Cons:

• The complex dashboard can initially be difficult to get.
• The plans are very costly. The free and professional plans are limited and the business plan is very expensive.

Buffer

If you are looking for a social media management tool that is a simpler and easier tool to use,  then Buffer should be on top of your list.

Released in 2010, Buffer not only automates your posting schedule on several social platforms but also provides valuable insights about your social media engagements to improve your marketing strategy.

Buffer lets you create and schedule posts on different social channels up to a week in advance. It also has the ability to recommend the best posting times based on the engagement of your audience.

Buffer comes with an inbuilt analytics tab to keep track of all your posts and get reports on the performance of your social media activities.

Features

• Share scheduled posts on multiple social media accounts from one place
• Automate your Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Pinterest posts
• Schedule posts in week advance and create optimized posting schedules
• View engagement and activity analytics
• Add videos and images to posts, or create your own visuals
• Automatically publish posts from RSS feeds and automations
• iOS and Android apps available
• Google chrome extension available

Pricing

• Individual – Free forever –  up to 3 social media accounts, 1 user, 10 scheduled posts, and core features
• Pro – $14 a month – up to  8 social accounts, 1 user, 100 schedule posts, RSS scheduling, and social analytics
• Small – $99 a month-  25 social accounts, 5 users, 2000 scheduled posts, and full features
• Medium – $199 a month – 50 social accounts, 10 users, 2000 scheduled posts, and full features
• Large – $399 a month –  150 social accounts, 25 users, 2000 scheduled posts, and full features

Cons:

• Buffer isn’t suitable for multiple accounts and has limited features
• It doesn’t allow you to interact with your users/followers or even view the feed.

And the winner is…

Both Hootsuite and Buffer are very useful tools that enable you to organize and plan your social media campaigns. Overall, the Buffer Vs Hootsuite debate really comes down to personal preference.

In terms of capabilities, HootSuite beats Buffer with more features, integrations, and bigger analytics. If you have a large following or to manage multiple accounts then Hootsuite is probably your best option, although you need to put in the time to know how it works.

In terms of pricing, Buffer is more cost efficient than Hootsuite. If you’re tight on time, want quick results and are looking for a cost-efficient powerful social media management tool, Buffer is the one for you.

Both Buffer and Hootsuite have evolved over the years. In terms of which is better, it depends on your personal needs. Try to consider what your objective is for applying a social media-scheduling tool and evaluate which one would support your business more appropriately.

Attributes	Buffer	Hootsuite
Broad Function	Publishing Platform	Publishing + Analytics tool
Works With	Twitter, Facebook (profile, page, group), LinkedIn (profile, page), Google+, Pinterest	Twitter, Facebook, Google+, WordPress + Large app directory (for other platforms)
Specific Characteristics	Content Publishing and Scheduling	Content Publishing, Scheduling and User Interaction (replying, retweeting, etc.)
Calendar Scheduling	✓	✓
RSS Feeds Integration	✓	✓
Social Automation	Elementary, Useful	Effective, Evolved (allows automation through IFTTT)
URL Shortening	✓ (bit.ly) or (buff.ly)	✓ (ow.ly)
Analytics	Only for posts made via Buffer	For posts made via Hootsuite, plus overall social content analytics
Teamwork Security	Email integration for team members (Workplace model) Mid-Level assignments (Manager and Contributor Profiles)	Email integration for team members (Workplace model) High-Level assignments (Customized defined permissions for different teams and tasks)
Integrations	Plugin Extensions allowed	Extensions through Hootlet (140+ extensions)
Pricing	Individual: Free Pro: $15/month Small: $99/month Medium: $199/month Large: $399/month	Individual: Free Professional: $228/year Team: $1188/year Business: $5988/year
Winner	Tie	Tie