Hootsuite vs Metricool vs Sprout Social: Best Social Media Scheduling Tools

Once a scheduling tool’s price climbs past $75 or $100 a month, the reason is almost never the scheduling itself: it’s the social media analytics, listening, or reporting layered on top. Hootsuite vs Metricool vs Sprout Social sits squarely in that price bracket, and each one justifies the cost with a different combination of those features.

None of the three is priced like a budget scheduler, but they aren’t priced the same as each other either, and the gap between them says more about what each one considers its core analytics strength than any scheduling feature does.

I tested Hootsuite vs Metricool vs Sprout Social for 30 days, comparing what each platform’s analytics surfaced for the same set of posts and tracking which reporting features were bundled in versus gated behind a higher tier. Here is the honest comparison, including which of the three delivers the most analytics depth per dollar rather than the most analytics overall.

How We Tested

Five criteria shaped the testing:

1. Listening depth: whether reporting stops at brand mentions or extends to sentiment and competitive tracking
2. Ads and organic reporting: whether paid and organic performance show up in one dashboard or require separate tools
3. Price-to-analytics ratio: how much reporting depth comes at each tier relative to its cost
4. Customer care tools: how well each platform handles high-volume engagement beyond scheduling
5. Team scaling cost: what analytics access costs once more than one person needs it

Hootsuite Review: Listening Bundled In, But Shallower Than Either Specialist

Free plan: No, 30-day trial requires a credit card
Starting price: $99/seat/month (Standard), 10 social accounts included
Best plan for most users: Standard, $99/seat/month, includes basic listening
Platforms: Web, iOS, Android
Affiliate program: Yes, Hootsuite affiliate program

Hootsuite bundles a form of listening into its lowest tier, which sounds like the best deal of the three until the depth of that listening gets compared against Sprout Social’s dedicated approach.

What Hootsuite does best

Basic brand and competitor mention tracking comes included at Standard, the only one of the three to bundle any listening feature into its entry tier without an add-on or upgrade. For a team that wants a taste of listening without committing to Sprout Social’s Professional-tier pricing, Hootsuite’s bundled version covers the basics reasonably well.

The unified inbox also handles day-to-day engagement cleanly, and Professional’s 90-day trend forecasting is a forward-looking feature neither Metricool nor Sprout Social offers in quite the same form.

Where Hootsuite falls short

The listening Hootsuite bundles at Standard is noticeably shallower than what Sprout Social offers starting from its own Standard tier: Hootsuite’s version searches recent mentions and basic sentiment, while Sprout Social’s builds toward full competitive reports and message-volume alerts by Professional. Hootsuite doesn’t reach that same depth until Advanced, at $399/seat/month.

Ads reporting also isn’t part of Hootsuite’s toolset at any tier tested here, a gap Metricool closes from its much cheaper Starter plan. A team running paid and organic social side by side will still need a separate tool for the paid half regardless of which Hootsuite tier is chosen.

Hootsuite pricing

Hootsuite: Pros and Cons

Pros:

• Only one of the three bundling any listening into its entry tier
• 90-day trend forecasting at Professional, a feature neither competitor matches
• Unified inbox handles day-to-day engagement well
• No add-on fees for individual platforms the way Metricool charges

Cons:

• Listening depth trails Sprout Social’s from a comparable price point
• No ads reporting bundled at any tier
• Deeper competitive tracking doesn’t arrive until the $399/seat Advanced tier
• Per-seat pricing multiplies fast for any team larger than one person

Rating: 3.9 / 5, a reasonable middle ground on analytics that doesn’t lead in either listening depth or ads reporting compared to the two specialists here.

Metricool Review: The Most Analytics Per Dollar, With Add-On Costs to Plan For

Free plan: Yes, 1 brand, 20 posts/month, no LinkedIn or X
Starting price: $25/month (Starter), $20/month billed annually, up to 5 brands
Best plan for most users: Starter, with LinkedIn and X add-ons factored into the total cost
Platforms: Web, iOS, Android
Affiliate program: Yes, Metricool affiliate program

Metricool delivers competitive benchmarking and ads reporting at a fraction of what either Hootsuite or Sprout Social charges for comparable depth, which is the clearest reason to consider it in this specific comparison.

What Metricool does best

Ads performance reporting alongside organic analytics, available from Starter at $25/month, is a combination neither Hootsuite nor Sprout Social offers below their most expensive tiers, if at all. For a team running paid and organic campaigns together, seeing both in one dashboard from an entry-level plan is a clear price-to-value advantage over either competitor, especially when syncing those paid leads into your core small business CRM.

Competitor benchmarking is also available at a meaningfully lower cost than Hootsuite’s or Sprout Social’s equivalent features, making Metricool the most accessible route to usable competitive data in this comparison.

Where Metricool falls short

What Metricool offers isn’t true social listening in the sentiment-tracking sense Sprout Social builds its Professional tier around: Metricool’s strength is structured analytics and benchmarking, not open-ended mention and sentiment monitoring across the wider web. A brand specifically needing to track how it’s being talked about in unstructured conversation will find Sprout Social’s approach goes further.

The LinkedIn and X add-ons, at roughly $5/month per connected account, apply on every paid tier, and team access doesn’t unlock until the $67/month Advanced plan. A small team wanting Metricool’s analytics plus collaboration will land closer to Hootsuite’s price point than the $25/month headline implies, which is an important budget factor for agencies already paying for dedicated freelancer and proposal tools.

Metricool pricing

Metricool: Pros and Cons

Pros:

• Ads reporting bundled with organic analytics from the entry paid tier
• Competitor benchmarking at a lower cost than either competitor’s equivalent
• Free plan requires no credit card
• Best price-to-analytics ratio of the three tools tested

Cons:

• Not true sentiment-based listening the way Sprout Social approaches it
• LinkedIn and X add-ons apply on every paid tier
• Team access gated to the $67/month Advanced tier
• Total cost with common add-ons regularly exceeds the advertised Starter price

Rating: 4.2 / 5, the strongest analytics value in this comparison, with add-on costs and a narrower definition of listening to account for.

Sprout Social Review: The Deepest True Listening, at the Steepest Price

Free plan: No, 30-day trial only
Starting price: $79/seat/month (Essentials), 5 social profiles
Best plan for most users: Professional, $299/seat/month, unlimited profiles and full listening
Platforms: Web, iOS, Android
Affiliate program: Yes, Sprout Social partner program

Sprout Social builds its entire pricing structure around listening and customer care depth, positioning social media scheduling as the entry point to a much larger analytics and engagement platform.

What Sprout Social does best

Sentiment analysis, competitive reports, and message-volume alerts at Professional go further than either Hootsuite’s bundled listening or Metricool’s structured analytics, tracking open-ended brand conversation rather than just scheduled-post performance or defined competitor benchmarks. For a brand managing reputation risk specifically, that depth is the reason to pay Sprout Social’s price rather than either alternative’s.

The customer care tools, including message tagging and saved replies, also handle high-volume engagement more capably than Hootsuite’s inbox or Metricool’s more analytics-first interface, built for teams fielding meaningful support volume through social channels.

Where Sprout Social falls short

None of that listening depth is available below Professional at $299/seat/month: Essentials and Standard, at $79 and $199/seat, offer only keyword and location monitoring, a lighter feature than the full listening suite the higher tiers unlock. A team expecting Sprout-level listening at the entry price will be disappointed until reaching the third tier up.

Ads reporting also isn’t bundled the way Metricool includes it, and the per-seat pricing means a team of three on just Standard runs close to $600/month before reaching the tier where the platform’s signature listening features come into play.

Sprout Social pricing

Sprout Social: Pros and Cons

Pros:

• Deepest true sentiment and competitive listening of the three tools tested
• Strongest customer care tools for high-volume engagement
• Message tagging and saved replies built for demanding support workflows
• Unlimited profiles from Professional upward

Cons:

• Full listening doesn’t unlock until the $299/seat Professional tier
• No ads reporting bundled at any tier
• Per-seat pricing makes a small team’s realistic cost the highest of the three
• Essentials and Standard’s monitoring is noticeably lighter than the Professional-tier feature set

Rating: 4.1 / 5, the deepest listening available in this comparison, priced for teams that specifically need it rather than teams that might.

Head-to-Head Comparison

Which Should You Choose?

Choose Hootsuite if a taste of listening bundled into scheduling is enough, and neither true sentiment tracking nor ads reporting is a firm requirement.

Choose Metricool if ads reporting and competitive benchmarking matter more than open-ended sentiment listening, and the LinkedIn/X add-on costs are budgeted in from the start.

Choose Sprout Social if brand reputation tracking and deep sentiment analysis are the core reason to pay for analytics at all, and the per-seat cost at Professional fits the budget.

Our Recommendations

Based on 30 days of testing across listening, ads reporting, and customer care workflows, here is the recommended setup by situation:

Brand managing paid and organic campaigns together on a limited budget: Metricool Starter, for the ads-plus-analytics combination no competitor matches at that price.

Team wanting basic listening without committing to enterprise pricing: Hootsuite Standard, understanding that its listening depth is lighter than Sprout Social’s.

Brand or agency where reputation monitoring is a core business risk: Sprout Social Professional, where full sentiment listening and competitive reports justify the per-seat cost.

Customer support team fielding high social engagement volume: Sprout Social, for the message tagging and saved-reply tools built specifically for that workload.

Agency reporting to clients on both organic reach and ad spend: Metricool, since neither Hootsuite nor Sprout Social bundles ads performance into their core reporting.

Final Verdict

Hootsuite, Metricool, and Sprout Social each treat analytics as their reason to charge more than a basic scheduler, but none of them defines “analytics” the same way.

1. Metricool (4.2 / 5): the strongest analytics value per dollar, especially for ads-plus-organic reporting
2. Sprout Social (4.1 / 5): the deepest true listening, priced specifically for teams that need it
3. Hootsuite (3.9 / 5): a reasonable middle ground that doesn’t lead in either listening depth or ads reporting

The right pick here comes down to which specific analytics capability is the firm requirement. Sentiment and reputation tracking point toward Sprout Social. Ads-and-organic reporting on a budget points toward Metricool. Wanting a bit of both without committing fully to either specialist is the only scenario where Hootsuite’s middle-ground approach makes the most sense.

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