Hootsuite vs Sked Social
We give Hootsuite a 2.6 GPA and Sked Social a 2.2, out of 4.0. Hootsuite grades higher on features and ease of use. Sked Social grades higher on value for money. They get the same grade on the free plan and platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Hootsuite
Social media suite for publishing, inbox, listening and reports
Sked Social
Social media scheduler for teams that need approvals and reports
How we grade them
| 2.6GPAHootsuiteGood | 2.2GPASked SocialFair | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | DStandard is $99 a user a month billed yearly, so two people managing five profiles pay $198 a month and three pay $297. That's in this category's dearest tenth, which starts at $99. Listening and competitor benchmarks are what the money buys over cheaper tools. | CGrow is $690 a year, about $58 a month, for 6 profiles and 3 users, so a team of two or three pays that. It sits right on this category's $58 dearer-quarter line, the top of the ordinary range. Approvals cost more, on Accelerate. |
| Free plan and trial | CNo free plan, but a 14-day trial with no card needed. Trial accounts are held to 10 to 20 posts a day and can't bulk schedule, which is fine for a look around. | CNo free plan, but a 14-day trial with no card needed. The account pauses when it ends unless you pick a plan. |
| Features | BPublishing to nine networks, a shared inbox with WhatsApp in it, listening, benchmarks against 5 competitors and analytics on the first plan. Nothing in the listing shows a gap in the core job; approvals and routing just cost more, on Advanced. | CAuto-publishing to eight channels, a planner and queue, an inbox on every plan, dashboards, listening and AI captions. The gaps it shows: Threads and Snapchat only go out by notification, and Grow has no approvals, just two fixed post statuses. |
| Ease of use | AIts iPhone and iPad app averages 4.7 from about 34,300 ratings. Connecting profiles and setting up approvals takes a little time, but people clearly get on with it. | CThere's no App Store rating on record for us to go by, and you'll connect profiles and set up content pillars and the inbox first. So it gets the ordinary grade. |
| Platforms and integrations | BWeb, iPhone and Android, with more than 100 apps in its directory, among them Canva, Salesforce, Slack and monday.com, plus MCP connectors for ChatGPT and Claude. No desktop app, which an A needs. | BWeb, iPhone and Android, with Canva, Google Drive, Dropbox, Frontify, Notion, Asana, Trello and OneDrive, plus an MCP server. No desktop app, which an A needs. |
| Best for | publishing, inbox and listening in one place | brand teams that need sign-off |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: Hootsuite and Sked Social. How we grade
Price against what you get
Hootsuite starts at $99 a month for each person and scores 3.3 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. Sked Social starts at $58 a month and scores 2.3.
Hootsuite scores higher, and starts $41 a month higher: the question is whether the extra is worth that to you. Of the other social media schedulers on the chart, none scores higher than Hootsuite for less, and 8 score higher than Sked Social for less.
Features, ease of use and platforms, averaged
What paid plans start at, a month (each step along is roughly double) →
- The best score at each price
- Has a free plan
- No free plan
Where they differ
- Hootsuite starts at $99 per user / month, billed annually. Sked Social starts at $58 per month for up to 6 social profiles, billed annually ($69 monthly).
At a glance
| Hootsuite | Sked Social | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free trial | Free trial |
| Starts at | $99 per user / month, billed annually | $58 per month for up to 6 social profiles, billed annually ($69 monthly) |
| Free plan | None | None |
| Free trial | 14-day free trial, no credit card required | 14-day free trial, no credit card required; the account pauses if no plan is chosen |
| Web | ||
| iOS | ||
| Android | ||
| Made by | Hootsuite Inc. | Sked Social |
| Price read from | hootsuite.com | skedsocial.com |
| Checked | Oct 17, 2026 | Oct 17, 2026 |
Who each one suits
Hootsuite
- Marketing and social teams that also handle customer messages on social
- Brands that want listening and competitor tracking beside publishing
- Larger organizations that need approvals, routing and single sign-on
Sked Social
- Brand teams that need sign-off before anything is posted
- Agencies collecting client approval without client logins
- Multi-location businesses posting to Google Business Profile
Worth knowing
Hootsuite
- There is no free plan. Trial accounts are limited to 10 to 20 posts a day and cannot bulk schedule.
- Every user is a paid seat, and Standard stops at 10 social accounts; unlimited accounts need Professional at $199 per user / month.
- Approval workflows and message assignment need Advanced at $399 per user / month; single sign-on is Enterprise only.
- Monthly billing is offered at a higher rate than the annual figures the plans page shows, but the monthly price is not published there.
Sked Social
- There is no free plan; after the 14-day trial the account pauses until a plan is chosen.
- Approvals, PDF and Excel exports and the custom report builder need Accelerate at $166 a month billed yearly.
- Grow is fixed at 3 users; extra users are sold only on Accelerate, at $15 a month ($150 a year) each.
- Extra social profiles cost $8 a month each on Grow and $10 a month each on Accelerate.
Key features
Hootsuite
- Publishing calendar
- Posts for Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, X, LinkedIn, Threads, Pinterest and Bluesky are planned on one calendar, with best-time suggestions and bulk scheduling.
- Shared inbox
- DMs and comments land in one inbox, WhatsApp included, with saved and suggested replies. Professional automates replies; Advanced adds assignment and routing.
- Listening and competitors
- Track mentions, trends and competitors' posting. Standard benchmarks 5 competitors and Professional 20; Enterprise covers 13 months of history across more sources.
- Analytics and reports
- Performance analytics come with every plan. Custom, scheduled and exported reports start on Professional, and branded reports shared outside the account need Advanced.
- Wisdom AI and MCP connectors
- An AI assistant drafts posts, recommends and analyzes on every plan, and MCP connectors let ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot and Gemini run Hootsuite tasks.
- App directory
- More than 100 apps plug into the dashboard, among them Canva and Adobe Express in the composer, Salesforce, Slack, monday.com and Google Business Profile.
Sked Social
- Publishing to ten channels
- Auto-publishes to Instagram, including Stories with link stickers, Facebook, TikTok, LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest, X and Google Business Profile. Threads and Snapchat can go out by notification.
- Visual planner and posting queue
- A calendar planner, automatic posting queue, bulk scheduling, campaigns and content pillars, and an ideas board that can pull tasks from Notion, Asana or Trello.
- Approvals and review portals
- Accelerate adds internal and multi-step external approvals, with portals and calendar previews that clients can review without logging in. Grow has two fixed post statuses.
- Shared inbox
- DMs, comments and mentions from every channel in one inbox on every plan, with quick replies, team tagging, Google review replies and Meta ad comment moderation.
- Analytics and listening
- Live dashboards for organic and paid Meta results on every plan. Accelerate adds a custom report builder, PDF and Excel exports, and brand sentiment and keyword trends.
- AI captions and MCP
- AI reads a brand's site and past posts to draft captions and ideas in its voice, and the Sked Social MCP lets an AI agent work inside the workspace.
Plans
Hootsuite
Standard$99
per user / month, billed annually
Up to 10 social accounts, unlimited scheduling, AI posts and images, a shared inbox, listening and benchmarks against 5 competitors.
Professional$199
per user / month, billed annually
Unlimited social accounts, automated inbox replies and DMs, 30-day Quick Search, 90-day trend forecasts and custom scheduled reports.
Advanced$399
per user / month, billed annually
Approval workflows, internal comments, message assignment and routing, satisfaction surveys, team productivity and branded reports.
EnterpriseCustom
Single sign-on, compliance tools, 13 months of listening history, attribution and ROI reporting, employee advocacy and onboarding.
Sked Social
Grow$58
per month for up to 6 social profiles, billed annually ($69 monthly)
3 users, unlimited scheduling, AI captions, the shared inbox, live dashboards and 5 tracked competitors. Billed as $690 a year.
Accelerate$166
per month for up to 10 social profiles, billed annually ($199 monthly)
6 users, internal and external approvals, no-login review portals, PDF and Excel exports, custom reports and 20 competitors. Billed as $1,990 a year.
Custom$249
per month and up, billed annually ($299 billed monthly)
Quoted to the team through sales: more profiles and users, a dedicated success manager, invoice billing and security reviews.
Ways to pay less
Hootsuite
- Nonprofit
Up to 60% off for nonprofits
The HootGiving program gives approved nonprofits a discount of up to 60% on the Standard, Professional and Advanced plans, by application.
Sked Social
- Annual discount
Save 17% with annual billing
Grow costs $690 a year instead of $69 a month, and Accelerate $1,990 a year instead of $199 a month.
- Nonprofit
Program for registered nonprofits
The pricing FAQ says Sked Social runs a program for registered nonprofits and partners with some universities; terms are given on request.
