Hootsuite vs Metricool: pricing, features and which to choose

Hootsuite is a social media management company founded in 2008. It provides a web workspace for publishing, engagement, analytics, listening, customer care, and team governance. The company serves small businesses, agencies, brands, and enterprises managing multiple social accounts. Hootsuite announced an agreement to acquire Talkwalker in 2024, extending its social listening capabilities. Hootsuite describes a platform used by more than 25 million users and hundreds of thousands of customers. The product is broader than a posting calendar, with inbox tools, analytics, competitor monitoring, approvals, routing, and enterprise controls. This breadth suits organizations with varied social responsibilities, although pricing is based on user seats and important collaboration capabilities are divided across paid tiers.

The main workflow begins with a shared content calendar connected to social profiles. Users can create or import posts, generate captions and images with AI, schedule publication, and monitor messages or mentions from a central inbox. Standard includes scheduling, one inbox, monitoring, and AI creation, making it suitable for basic multi-network coordination. Professional adds unlimited social accounts, inbox automation, trend forecasting, competitor benchmarking, and custom reports. Advanced adds approval workflows, assignments, message routing, customer-care coordination, and team measurement for more structured operations. Enterprise adds governance, SSO, compliance options, advanced listening, employee advocacy, Salesforce integration, and services. Connected networks still control permissions, formats, publishing rules, and available data, so account capabilities, workflows, and supported actions can vary by network.

Hootsuite’s breadth is useful, but costs can rise with additional seats, listening, analytics, and governance requirements. Those expenses matter most when responsibilities are divided among marketers, customer-care staff, and approvers. Buffer is easier to assess for straightforward scheduling and often fits smaller teams that do not need extensive monitoring or controls. Sprout Social is a closer premium comparison for inbox, reporting, and customer care. Later is stronger for visual planning and creator-oriented work, while Agorapulse emphasizes publishing, inbox management, and reporting. Hootsuite stands out when one organization needs publishing, engagement, measurement, listening, and governance in one service. Its limits include per-user billing, a trial instead of a free plan, tier restrictions, AI review requirements, and network-dependent capabilities. Choose Hootsuite when coordinated multi-network operations matter more than minimizing subscription cost.

Metricool was founded in Spain in 2016 and grew from a web and social analytics tool into a full social media management platform used by freelancers, small businesses and agencies. Its model is built around brands: each brand groups the social profiles, website and ad accounts for one business or client, and plans are priced by how many brands you manage instead of how many seats you need. Supported networks include Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, LinkedIn, X, Pinterest, YouTube, Threads, Bluesky, Twitch and Google Business Profile. The interface and help center are available in several languages, and Metricool has a large Spanish-speaking user base.

The planner schedules posts, reels, stories and carousels across networks from one calendar, with a post library, hashtag search and integrations with Canva, Adobe Express and Google Drive. Analytics cover each network with unlimited history on paid plans, plus website traffic through a tracking script. Ads reporting brings Meta, Google and TikTok ad campaigns into the same dashboard. Competitor analysis tracks up to 100 profiles on Starter. A social inbox handles comments and messages, SmartLinks provides link-in-bio pages, and PDF and PowerPoint reports can be scheduled for clients. Advanced plans add team and client roles, post approval, custom report templates and a Looker Studio connector.

Metricool's strengths are brand-based pricing that suits agencies, a usable free plan, combined organic and paid analytics, and MCP access on every plan. Its weaknesses are an interface that packs in many features, X support as a separate add-on, and AI credits that are modest per brand. Later is stronger for visual Instagram planning and Link in Bio. Buffer is simpler for light scheduling. Hootsuite and Sprout Social offer deeper listening and enterprise tools at higher prices. SocialBee focuses on evergreen content categories. Choose Metricool if you manage several brands and want scheduling, analytics and ads reports in one affordable tool.