Hootsuite pricing & plans: How much does Hootsuite really cost?

Are you fully familiar with Hootsuite’s pricing plans, or are the hidden charges affecting your overall social media budget? If you’ve been scratching your head trying to understand Hootsuite pricing, you are certainly not alone!

Hootsuite is one of the most well-recognized names for social media management. Its pricing structure might seem straightforward at first glance, but there are many different aspects you need to understand.

In this comprehensive blog post, we will analyze the different Hootsuite pricing plans, including the differences between its monthly and annual plans, so you can choose the best social media management tool.

First, let’s discuss some basics.

What is Hootsuite?

Launched in 2008, Hootsuite is one of the first social media management platforms. It provides a centralized dashboard for businesses to handle their social media presence.

The platform integrates with major social networks, including Facebook, Instagram, X, LinkedIn, Threads, YouTube, Pinterest, etc. It allows users to manage their social media accounts from a single interface.

A huge benefit of unified social media management is that marketing teams can avoid constant platform-switching. Hence, teams can streamline their workflow and save valuable time.

At its core, Hootsuite offers features like post-scheduling, content curation, team collaboration tools, and analytics reporting.

However, the depth and availability of these features vary significantly depending on your chosen pricing tier – a crucial detail that often surprises users after they have subscribed to the tool.

Impact of Hootsuite pricing on social media management

Understanding Hootsuite’s pricing structure isn’t just about budgeting – it’s about making strategic decisions that can impact your business’s social media success.

The pricing plan of Hootsuite impacts businesses in 3 major ways:

1. Scalability

As your business grows, your social media also needs to evolve. As a result, what seems like an affordable solution today might become a financial burden tomorrow.

For instance, adding just one team member or a few more social profiles could force you to upgrade to a substantially more expensive plan. It can increase your costs by thousands of dollars annually.

2. Hidden charges

While Hootsuite’s base plans might seem reasonably priced, many essential features – like content approval workflows or team performance analytics – are locked behind higher-tier plans.

This means businesses often pay significantly more than expected or work without tools that could enhance their social media efficiency.

3. Long-term commitment

Hootsuite’s pricing structure heavily favors annual commitments, with monthly plans costing up to 60% more. This creates a significant financial decision point for businesses: commit to a full year, save money, or maintain flexibility at a premium price.

Understanding these pricing aspects becomes particularly crucial when you consider that social media management tools are no longer just optional extras – they’re essential investments that can directly impact your marketing ROI, team productivity, and, ultimately, your bottom line.

How much does Hootsuite cost?

One of the most significant aspects of Hootsuite’s pricing is the significant difference between monthly and annual billing options. Surprisingly, Hootsuite’s official pricing page is not quite upfront about the monthly and annual costs.

So, let’s cut through the complexity of Hootsuite’s pricing structure and reveal what you actually have to pay.

Hootsuite monthly cost

When you opt for monthly billing with Hootsuite, be prepared for significantly higher rates than what’s advertised on their main pricing page. The monthly cost of Hootsuite only becomes visible after you enter your credit card details.

Here’s a breakdown of Hootsuite monthly cost:

1. Professional Plan: $149 per month
2. Team Plan: $399 per month
3. Enterprise Plan: Custom pricing (typically starting at $18,000+ annually for 6+ users with no monthly payment option)

Hootsuite annual cost

Choosing annual billing provides substantial savings but requires a significant upfront investment. Here’s the breakdown when paying annually:

• Professional plan: $99 per month (billed at $1,188 annually)
• Team plan: $249 per month (billed at $2,988 annually)
• Enterprise plan: Custom pricing as per your specific requirements.

What’s particularly important to understand is that these base prices are just the starting point. The real cost of using Hootsuite effectively often includes additional expenses that aren’t immediately apparent.

For instance, if you need features like content approval workflows or advanced analytics, you’ll need to upgrade to the Enterprise plan – even if you’re a small team that otherwise fits within the Professional or Team plan parameters.

Moreover, the platform’s rigid user limits mean that growing teams often face a substantial price jump when they need to add just one more team member.

For example, if you have four team members but only need basic features, you’ll still need to upgrade to the Enterprise plan. It multiplies your costs several times over.

Comprehensive breakdown of Hootsuite pricing plans

Now that you are familiar with the basic differences between Hootsuite monthly and Hootsuite annual pricing plans, let’s dive deeper into the key aspects of each plan.

Hootsuite professional plan

The Professional plan, priced at $149/month, positions itself as a solution for individual users or small businesses. However, its limitations become apparent quickly as your social media needs grow.

Hootsuite professional plan provides the fundamental tools you need to maintain a basic social media presence. You get access to a unified social inbox, the ability to schedule unlimited posts, and basic analytics reporting.

The plan includes integration with popular platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc, allowing you to manage up to 10 social profiles.

Limitations

Hootsuite professional plan lacks several essential social media management features that can adversely impact your experience of using Hootsuite:

• Restricted to a single user with no option to add team members
• Limited to 10 social profiles with no ability to add more
• No access to content approval workflows
• Basic support with limited availability
• No social listening or competitive analysis tools
• No content library or asset management features

Hootsuite team plan

Building upon the Professional plan, the Team plan of Hootsuite expands capabilities to accommodate small teams of up to three users. This tier costs $399 per month and introduces collaborative features that enable basic team coordination, such as assigning posts and responses to team members.

Moreover, the Hootsuite team plan doubles the social profile limit to 20, making it more suitable for businesses managing multiple brands or locations. Users also get access to more sophisticated scheduling tools, including a team content calendar and basic approval workflows.

The analytics capabilities expand to include team metrics and more detailed engagement reporting, while the social inbox features allow for collaborative message management with basic assignment capabilities.

Limitations

• Fixed at three users with no ability to add more
• Limited to 20 social profiles with no add-on options
• No approval workflow
• No content library
• No advanced analytics or customized reporting
• No social listening capabilities

Hootsuite enterprise pricing plan

The Enterprise plan represents Hootsuite’s most comprehensive plan. As the name suggests, it is designed for larger organizations with complex social media management needs.

This tier removes most limitations found in lower plans by providing extensive customization options and advanced features. Moreover, users gain access to sophisticated workflow management tools, including multi-level approval processes and custom team permissions.

The plan includes advanced analytics with custom reporting capabilities, competitive analysis tools, and comprehensive social listening features.

By buying the Hootsuite enterprise pricing plan, you can also get access to priority support with dedicated account management and can utilize advanced security features like single sign-on (SSO) and custom API access.

Limitations

• A minimum annual commitment of at least $15,000 upfront
• Additional costs for extra users at anywhere between $1,800 to $2,000 per user
• Advanced features like social listening require additional payment
• Support limitations even at the enterprise level as you can get access to premier service and customized consulting and training as an add-on, leading to even more charges.

This detailed breakdown reveals that while each plan offers progressively more features, significant limitations exist across all tiers that could impact your social media management efficiency.

The inflexible structure of user limits and feature availability means that growing businesses often find themselves forced into higher-tier plans, even when they only need a specific feature from that tier.

Key features of Hootsuite

The following table summarizes the key features included in different Hootsuite pricing plans:

Feature	Professional ($99/mo)	Team ($249/mo)	Enterprise
Social accounts	10	20	Unlimited
Users	1	3	5
Additional users	❌	❌	Add-on (per user pricing)
Additional social accounts	❌	❌	Add-on
Departmental organization	❌	☑️	☑️
Publishing and scheduling
Unlimited posts	☑️	☑️	☑️
Draft, schedule, and publish	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
Multi-profile scheduling	☑️	☑️	☑️
Social content calendar	☑️	☑️	☑️
Social content calendar sharing	❌	☑️	☑️
Approval workflows	❌	❌	☑️
Bulk scheduling	☑️	☑️	☑️
Custom branded URL (vanity URL)	❌	1	Unlimited
Automated link tracking	❌	☑️	☑️
Suspend scheduled posts	❌	☑️	☑️
AI content generator	☑️	☑️	☑️
AI hashtag generator	☑️	☑️	☑️
Content curation
Content discovery streams	☑️	☑️	☑️
Content apps	☑️	☑️	☑️
Outgoing message content tagging	❌	❌	☑️
Hashtag suggestions	☑️	☑️	☑️
Stock photo library	☑️	☑️	☑️
Asset and content library	❌	❌	☑️
Design with Canva	☑️	☑️	☑️
Messaging and customer service
All-in-one centralized inbox	☑️	☑️	☑️
Contact management	❌	❌	☑️
Team assignments	❌	☑️	☑️
Agent collision	❌	☑️	☑️
Dashboard notifications	❌	❌	☑️
Tags and tag automations	❌	❌	☑️
Configurable auto-resolve conversations	❌	❌	☑️
Saved and suggested replies	❌	❌	☑️
Business hours	❌	❌	☑️
Build complete contact profiles	❌	❌	☑️
Auto-responder	❌	❌	☑️
Skill based routing	❌	❌	☑️
CSAT surveys and notifications	❌	❌	☑️
Advanced inbox	❌	❌	Add-on
Generative AI chatbot	❌	❌	Add-on
Salesforce integration	❌	❌	Add-on
Analytics
Report export – basic	☑️	☑️	☑️
Report export – advanced	❌	❌	☑️
Competitive benchmarking	2 competitors	2 competitors	20 competitors
Report export scheduling	☑️	☑️	☑️
Team productivity reporting	❌	❌	☑️
Advanced report customizations	❌	❌	☑️
Paid and organic ROI reporting	❌	❌	Add-on
Social listening
Quick Search (7 days)	☑️	☑️	☑️
Quick Search (30 days)	❌	❌	Add-on
Basic data sources	☑️	☑️	☑️
Advanced data sources	❌	❌	Add-on
Historical data (7 days)	☑️	☑️	☑️
Historical data (13+ months)	❌	❌	Add-on
Sentiment analysis	☑️	☑️	☑️
Image recognition	❌	❌	Add-on
Peak detection	❌	❌	Add-on
Forecasting	❌	❌	Add-on
Results exporting	❌	❌	Add-on
Scheduled reports and alerts	❌	❌	Add-on
Campaign tagging and reporting	❌	❌	☑️
Training & success
Standard service	❌	❌	☑️
Premier service	❌	❌	Add-on
Customized consulting and training	❌	❌	Add-on
Employee advocacy	❌	❌	Add-on
Social selling	❌	❌	Add-on
Social customer care	❌	❌	Add-on

Let’s dissect Hootsuite’s features in a way that matters for your day-to-day social media management processes.

Content creation and publishing

At its core, Hootsuite shines in content management and scheduling. Their content creation suite integrates seamlessly with Canva, allowing you to design eye-catching visuals without leaving the platform.

Moreover, the AI-powered assistance helps generate post ideas and relevant hashtags, potentially saving hours of creative brainstorming. What’s particularly impressive is the platform’s ability to customize posting times based on when your audience is most active.

Analytics and reporting

The analytics capabilities in Hootsuite operate on a tiered system, becoming more sophisticated as you climb the pricing ladder.

Starting with basic engagement metrics in the Professional plan, the platform expands to offer increasingly detailed insights into your social media performance.

Enterprise users gain access to custom report builders and competitive analysis tools, enabling them to track ROI across multiple campaigns and channels simultaneously.

Team collaboration and workflow

Here’s where things get interesting – and potentially expensive. While basic team features exist in the Team plan, the real collaborative power lies in the Enterprise tier.

Picture this: your content goes through a seamless approval process, team members receive automated notifications, and everyone works from a centralized content library. Sound perfect? It is, but only if you’re willing to invest in the Enterprise plan.

Social listening and engagement

Social listening capabilities vary dramatically across plans. Professional users get basic monitoring tools, while Enterprise subscribers access comprehensive social listening features that track brand mentions, sentiment analysis, and market trends.

Security and administration

Enterprise-level security features set Hootsuite apart, especially for large organizations. Single sign-on (SSO) integration, role-based access controls, and compliance tools create a secure environment for social media management.

However, these advanced security features come exclusively with the Enterprise package, leaving smaller organizations with basic security measures.

Integration capabilities

Hootsuite’s integration ecosystem is extensive, supporting connections with various third-party tools and platforms. However, the depth of these integrations varies significantly by plan.

Remember, features are only valuable if they align with your specific needs and contribute to your social media goals. As you assess these features, consider not just what’s available but how these tools will practically integrate into your workflow and whether they justify the investment required to access them.

Finding the right alternative to Hootsuite

After diving deep into Hootsuite’s pricing structure, it is evident that the platform does not have a balance between essential social media management features and its pricing.

The good news?

The social media management tools have evolved significantly since Hootsuite’s early days, and modern Hootsuite alternatives have emerged to address these exact pain points:

• Costly annual commitment: Hootsuite’s pricing structure heavily penalizes monthly subscribers with up to 60% higher rates. It forces businesses into annual contracts that require substantial upfront investment and reduce financial flexibility.
• Growth penalty: Adding just one more team member or social profile beyond your plan’s limits triggers a mandatory upgrade to Enterprise pricing – turning what should be a celebration of growth into a financial burden.
• Lack of essential features: Essential features like approval workflows, content libraries, and advanced analytics are locked behind the Enterprise paywall. Hence, mid-sized businesses have to overpay for enterprise-level plans just to access basic necessities.
• Limited support: Despite premium pricing, even Enterprise users face limitations in support availability and channels. Hootsuite’s priority support is reserved for the highest-tier customers.
• Expensive add-ons: From mandatory annual commitments to unexpected upgrade requirements, businesses often find their actual Hootsuite expenses far exceeding their initial budgets.
• Scalability issues: The strict user and profile limitations create artificial barriers to growth, making it challenging for successful businesses to scale their social media operations cost-effectively.
• Inflexible middle ground: The massive price jump between Team and Enterprise plans leaves mid-sized businesses and growing agencies without a suitable option that aligns with their needs and budget.

These challenges highlight the importance of finding a more flexible, transparent, and scalable solution for your social media management needs.

That’s where ContentStudio comes in, offering a refreshing approach to social media management that addresses these pain points head-on.

Why ContentStudio is the best alternative to Hootsuite?

ContentStudio is a modern social media management tool suitable for all types and sizes of teams, brands, and agencies. It addresses the fundamental limitations of traditional platforms like Hootsuite while introducing innovative features that align with modern social media management needs.

Most importantly, compared to Hootsuite pricing plans, ContentStudio has a more affordable, flexible, and scalable pricing model that grows organically with your business and social media management needs.

The most obvious difference is that the starting cost of ContentStudio is $19/month, while for Hootsuite, it is $99/month.

Let’s look at the key differences between ContentStudio and Hootsuite:

Feature	ContentStudio	Hootsuite
Pricing model	Flexible pricing with gradual scaling options	Rigid tiers with large price jumps between plans
Pricing plans (Annual billing)	Standard: $19/mo Advanced: $49/mo Agency Unlimited: $99/mo	Professional: $99/mo Team: $249/mo Enterprise: Custom pricing
Team collaboration	Available across plans with collaborative features	Limited to Team and Enterprise plans with restrictions
Content creation	Advanced AI writing assistant for captions and content	Basic content creation tools with limited AI features
Approval workflow	Available in Advanced and Agency plans	Enterprise plan only
Analytics	Analytics across all plans	Advanced analytics limited to Enterprise plan
Content discovery	Built-in content discovery engine with AI suggestions	Basic content suggestions without AI integration
Customers support	Reliable support for all customers	Tiered support with limited availability for lower plans
Scalability	Gradual scaling with flexible user and profile additions	Fixed limits requiring complete plan upgrades
Content library	Available across plans with media management	Limited to Enterprise plan
Trial period	14-day free trial, no credit card required	30-day trial with credit card requirement

This comparison reveals several key advantages that ContentStudio offers over Hootsuite.

The most significant differences lie in ContentStudio’s approach to pricing flexibility and feature accessibility. While Hootsuite maintains a rigid tier structure that often forces businesses into expensive enterprise plans for essential features, ContentStudio adopts a more modern, scalable approach that allows businesses to grow naturally without facing sudden cost barriers.

So, if you are looking for a reliable Hootsuite alternative that can help you manage your social media accounts without breaking your bank, you should definitely try out ContentStudio.

Related: ContentStudio vs Hootsuite: Detailed comparison

Conclusion

While Hootsuite offers a comprehensive suite of tools, its rigid pricing structure and feature limitations can create unexpected challenges for growing businesses.

From substantial price jumps between plans to essential features locked behind enterprise-level subscriptions, organizations often find themselves paying more than anticipated for the functionality they need. Hence, it is clear that Hootsuite pricing plans is not suitable for all types of companies and marketing teams.

So, you need to choose an alternative to Hootsuite that empowers your growth, not restrict it. It should offer advanced features, collaborative workflows, and scalable pricing that aligns with your evolving needs.

Considering these key factors, you should try ContentStudio’s 14-day free trial and experience how the right tools can transform your social media management from a challenge into a competitive advantage.

FAQs

How much is Hootsuite each month?

Hootsuite’s monthly pricing varies by plan: Professional plan costs $149/month, Team plan costs $399/month, and Enterprise plans start at approximately $1,500/month.

Did Hootsuite go up in price?

Yes, Hootsuite has implemented several price increases over recent years. Most notably, they removed their Business plan option and increased the gap between Team and Enterprise plans, effectively pushing growing businesses toward more expensive Enterprise solutions.

Can I use Hootsuite for free?

No, Hootsuite no longer offers a free plan. Their entry-level option is now the Professional plan, starting at $99/month with annual billing or $149/month with monthly billing.

Can I pay Hootsuite monthly?

Yes, you can pay Hootsuite monthly, but it comes at a premium. Monthly billing costs approximately 60% more than annual plans. For example, the Professional plan costs $149/month with monthly billing versus $99/month with annual billing. Similarly, the Team plan costs $399/month versus $249/month with annual billing.

Does Hootsuite have a free plan?

No. Hootsuite no longer has a free plan as it was discontinued in 2023.

Is there a free alternative to Hootsuite?

Hootsuite has discontinued its free plan. However, ContentStudio offers a comprehensive 14-day free trial with full features and no credit card requirement. This allows you to test advanced features like AI-powered content creation, analytics, and team collaboration tools before committing to a subscription.