Every other page in this format asks which vendor buyers move to. Here the answer is split: most leavers moved to another vendor, but going back to the networks themselves is as common an exit as any single vendor. That makes the question partly which social tool and partly does the layer between you and the platform still earn its place. For the category view, see what social media buyers wish they'd known.
The alternatives, by what they are
Every option buyers name, sorted into lanes by what the thing is. The bottom lane is the one that makes this category unusual: it holds no product, carries no rating, and drew as many departures in this corpus as Sprout Social.
What lower-rating Hootsuite buyers complain about
Reliability, and it is the most concrete theme on the page. One buyer says “connections are always breaking” and “there are always issues with it.” Another reports posts not going up at all and describes being cautious about the platform’s performance as a result. These are not feature complaints; they are about whether the scheduled post appears.
Then trust in the numbers. A buyer who inherited the platform reports that “the data that’s in Hootsuite from an analytics perspective doesn’t match up with what’s in Meta.” Another names analytics discrepancies against the networks alongside missing analytics for collaborative posts. A third attributes reporting inconsistency to the frequency with which the platforms change their own APIs and metrics — which, if right, is a category problem rather than a vendor one.
And a quieter theme that is really about commoditisation. One buyer calls it “a little dated.” Another says it is adequate and fulfils its purpose but that “there's a lot of other tools that do what it does.” A third describes the framework as confusing because it tries to “pack too many things into one box.” None of these buyers is describing a platform that fails; they are describing one they are not sure they need.
Support is the complaint that comes from satisfied buyers. Several who rate Hootsuite 8 still name human support and account management as the weak point — one citing the “level of human support,” another saying customer service could be better even while praising the platform. One buyer rating it 5 puts it differently: the platform is good but their people were not skilled enough to operate it, and the support to close that gap was not there.
Where buyers go
More than a dozen companies in this corpus have left Hootsuite. Most moved to a competing tool, Sprout Social most often; as many went back to the platforms themselves as chose Sprout Social, and one handed the work to an agency.
Back to the platforms — level with Sprout Social
One buyer discontinued the tool in favour of working natively in each platform, citing the tradeoffs. Another says the team now handles posting directly. A third says “I feel like Meta solves a lot of the scheduling and things like that.” The stated mechanism is specific: one reports “engagement goes down if we use Hootsuite” against posting directly.
No head-to-head published yet
One moved the work to an agency rather than another tool, and one more moved off without saying where to. Worth naming because a category page would usually leave this out, though it is the smallest group here.
No head-to-head published yet
The competing tools buyers move to
Named by four departures, more than any other tool: one left after a price increase, two out of dissatisfaction they do not spell out. Its buyers talk about listening and analytics far more than Hootsuite’s do, which is the clearest difference in what the two are used for. The traffic runs mostly one way, but not entirely: one buyer dropped Sprout Social and kept Hootsuite, and another Sprout Social buyer rates it a six over weak social listening and is actively considering Hootsuite.
Named in the category rather than by anyone leaving Hootsuite in these interviews, and the lowest-rated of the three. It is the enterprise end of the shelf, and buyers weighing it describe a heavier platform rather than a cheaper one.
No head-to-head published yet
Four other tools each took one departure: Emplifi, SocialPilot, Metricool and Later. Two of those moves were on price — one buyer says the new tool “does the exact same thing as Hootsuite but much cheaper.”
The ranking is the point: most leavers moved to another tool, and the one they chose most often, Sprout Social, rates only modestly higher, while as many went back to the platforms as chose Sprout Social. A category where a common exit is to stop paying for the category is a different decision from one where a better product is waiting, and the next section takes that seriously.
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Start my checkup →When does staying on Hootsuite make sense?
When ease of use is the constraint, which for this category it often is. The most consistent praise is that anyone can pick it up: one buyer says it is very easy for anybody to step into and use with no specialised training required. Another says it “helps us stay organized and stay scheduled across multiple social media channels.” Social posting is frequently run by small teams or by people whose main job is something else, and that is the situation this platform’s happiest buyers describe.
When you are running many channels or many markets. Buyers rating it well describe it unifying all their social channels and improving team efficiency, and one describes it handling global scale. The buyers rating it poorly are disproportionately the ones running it in a narrow slice — one rating it 5 says the tool is “not totally deployed” and that this makes it “super complex to give you a true evaluation of it.”
And cost-efficiency is named by the people who like it, not the people who do not. One buyer chose Hootsuite over Sprout Social because it “had the most features for the most reasonable cost,” and praises a dedicated rep. Another calls it cost-effective while acknowledging more fully featured tools exist. But price still drives exits: among leavers who give a reason, it is tied for the most common, and two describe Hootsuite raising what it charged.
The reason to re-examine is not only dissatisfaction. It is also whether the layer earns its place. What moved the buyers who left varied: some found posting natively worked better, others left over a price increase or a tool that kept breaking, and most of those went to another tool. The implication — ours, not a buyer’s — is that the question worth asking is not only which social tool to buy but how much of the job the networks now do for free, and the corpus does not settle that: the buyers who went native describe better engagement, but none of them measured it.
For what social media tools cost, from Hootsuite and Sprout Social to Sprinklr, see what buyers actually pay for social media management tools.
Common questions
Why do buyers leave Hootsuite?
Most do not — Hootsuite rates 7.3/10 and buyers scoring it 8 or better outnumber those scoring it 6 or below. Among the ones who left, most moved to a competing tool — Sprout Social most often, and Emplifi, SocialPilot, Metricool and Later once each — while as many went back to posting natively on each platform as chose Sprout Social, and one handed the work to an agency. Among leavers who give a reason, price and reliability are cited most often. The complaints behind the lower ratings are about reliability and trust in the numbers rather than missing features: one buyer reports that “connections are always breaking”, another that the analytics “doesn't match up with what's in Meta”, and a third that posts sometimes did not go up at all. One says plainly that “engagement goes down if we use Hootsuite” compared with posting directly.
Is Hootsuite better than Sprout Social?
Buyers describe them as answering the same brief differently rather than one beating the other, and the movement in this corpus runs mostly one way — four buyers replaced Hootsuite with Sprout Social, and one made the reverse move, dropping Sprout Social and keeping Hootsuite; another Sprout Social buyer is actively considering it. But at least one buyer chose Hootsuite over Sprout deliberately, saying it “had the most features for the most reasonable cost” and praising a dedicated rep. Sprout Social rates 7.4/10 against Hootsuite's 7.3/10, and its buyers talk about listening and analytics far more than Hootsuite's do, which is the clearest difference in what the two are actually used for. The head-to-head read goes through the detail.
What do buyers use instead of a social media management tool?
Often, the platforms themselves. Going back to working natively in each network is as common a destination for departing Hootsuite buyers as Sprout Social, the competing tool they choose most often. One describes discontinuing the tool in favour of working natively because of the tradeoffs involved; another says the team now handles posting directly on the platforms; a third says Meta's own tools now cover the scheduling. The stated reasons are consistent — engagement compares unfavourably with native posting, connections between the tool and the networks break, and the platforms' own tools now cover the job. Whether those things are true of the platforms generally or of particular setups, the corpus cannot say.
What do buyers like about Hootsuite?
Ease of use, first and most consistently. One buyer says it is very easy for anybody to step into and use with no specialised training needed; another that it “helps us stay organized and stay scheduled across multiple social media channels”. Cost-efficiency is the second theme, and it comes disproportionately from buyers rating the platform highly rather than from the ones rating it poorly — several describe it as the reasonable-cost option that covers the job. Scale is the third: buyers running many markets or many channels describe it unifying them and improving team efficiency. The recurring caution from the same buyers is human support and account management, which several who rate it 8 still name as the weak point.
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