# Hootsuite

> Social media suite for publishing, inbox, listening and reports

Hootsuite is a social media management suite sold per user. It schedules posts to the major networks from one calendar, gathers comments and messages into a shared inbox, tracks competitors and brand mentions, and builds performance reports. Its AI assistant, Wisdom, runs on every plan, and higher tiers add inbox automation, approvals and message routing for larger teams.

- **Category:** Social Media Schedulers
- **Made by:** Hootsuite Inc. (since 2008)
- **Website:** https://www.hootsuite.com
- **Runs on:** Web, iOS, Android
- **Facts last checked:** Oct 17, 2026

## Pricing

Hootsuite is a paid product with a free trial, starting at $99 per user / month, billed annually.

- **Pricing model:** Free trial
- **Free plan:** None.
- **Free trial:** 14-day free trial, no credit card required.

| Plan | Price | What you get |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 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. |
| Enterprise | Custom | Single sign-on, compliance tools, 13 months of listening history, attribution and ROI reporting, employee advocacy and onboarding. |

Read from https://www.hootsuite.com/plans on Oct 17, 2026. Prices change, so confirm with Hootsuite before buying.

## Ways to pay less

- **Up to 60% off for nonprofits** (Nonprofit): The HootGiving program gives approved nonprofits a discount of up to 60% on the Standard, Professional and Advanced plans, by application. Source: https://www.hootsuite.com/about/hootgiving

## Key features

- **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.

## Good for

- 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

## Worth knowing

- 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.

## ToolGPA grades

**GPA: 2.6 out of 4**, graded Oct 17, 2026. Hootsuite does the whole job: one calendar, a shared inbox that takes WhatsApp too, listening and competitor benchmarks, and its Wisdom AI on every plan. The problem is the bill. At $99 a user a month billed yearly, two people pay $198, several times what most tools here cost.

- **Value for money: D.** Standard 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.
- **Free plan and trial: C.** No 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.
- **Features: B.** Publishing 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.
- **Ease of use: A.** Its 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.
- **Platforms and integrations: B.** Web, 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.

These are ToolGPA's own grades. Graded from this listing, whose facts were read from Hootsuite's own pages on 17 October 2026, and its App Store rating. Not based on using the product, and shorter than our full reviews.

## Where it stands among social media schedulers

- Hootsuite's GPA of 2.6 is higher than 15 of the 19 other social media schedulers we grade, and level with 3.
- It stands best on ease of use (A, above 17 of 19) and worst on value for money (D, above 0).
- Its paid plans start at $99 a month for each person, against a middle price of $27.25 for the category: 18 of the 19 others that charge start lower.
- On features, ease of use and platforms it scores 3.3 out of 4, and no tool on the category's chart scores higher without costing more.

The category's chart of price against score: https://toolgpa.com/charts/social-media

## Keep it, or make your own?

**Keep it.** To replace Hootsuite you would be making one mailbox that several people work at once. That is not a weekend's work, with an AI app builder or without one. It is one of the better ones too: its GPA of 2.6 is higher than 15 of the 19 other social media schedulers we grade. It costs $1,188 a year.

- You could make: Calendar and reports: an app builder makes these well.
- You could not: One mailbox that several people work at once.
- You could not: A real app for iOS and Android. Something home-made would be a web page.
- You could not: It is priced for each person, which means accounts and billing for a team.
- You could not: It plugs into other products, Canva, Adobe Express and Salesforce among them.
- You could not: AI features, unless you pay a model provider for each request yourself.
- You could not: The depth: we grade its features B, which means it covers the whole job.

A judgement by ToolGPA from this listing, by rules that are the same for every tool. Nothing was built to test it.

## What people say

- **App Store rating of the iPhone and iPad app:** 4.7 out of 5 from 34,293 ratings in the United States, read Oct 17, 2026. This is the store's rating of the app, not a score from ToolGPA. Source: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/id341249709

## Works with

Canva, Adobe Express, Salesforce, Slack, monday.com, Wrike, Bynder, Google Business Profile

**Tags:** Calendar, Shared inbox, Reports, AI features

## Alternatives

- [Sprout Social](https://toolgpa.com/tools/sprout-social): Social media management with a shared inbox, listening and reports. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/hootsuite-vs-sprout-social)
- [Agorapulse](https://toolgpa.com/tools/agorapulse): Social media inbox, publishing and ROI reports, priced per user. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/agorapulse-vs-hootsuite)
- [Sendible](https://toolgpa.com/tools/sendible): Social media management for agencies, with unlimited users. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/hootsuite-vs-sendible)
- [SocialPilot](https://toolgpa.com/tools/socialpilot): Social media scheduler for agencies and small teams, priced by plan. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/hootsuite-vs-socialpilot)
- [Vista Social](https://toolgpa.com/tools/vista-social): Social media management with inbox, DM automations and reviews. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/hootsuite-vs-vista-social)

## Sources

The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Oct 17, 2026:

- https://www.hootsuite.com/plans
- https://www.hootsuite.com
- https://www.hootsuite.com/about
- https://www.hootsuite.com/platform/integrations
- https://www.hootsuite.com/about/hootgiving

Page: https://toolgpa.com/tools/hootsuite
Listed by ToolGPA (toolgpa.com).