Are you confused about Hootsuite vs. Later, which would be a better fit for your business? To select the right tool, you’ll have to delve deep and compare them from every aspect to see which would help your brand grow on social media with minimum effort.
We’ve made your work easier by doing it for you!
This article thoroughly analyzes both Later and Hootsuite in terms of affordability, user experience, and advanced features. You’ll also find SocialPilot in the comparison mix, a cost-effective and user-friendly tool. It will help you make a well-informed and data-driven decision to grow your business on every social media channel.
Quick Summary: Hootsuite vs Later
Before we get into minute details, its necessary that you understand the more glaring facts about both the tools. So, we have aligned all the contenders and compared their high-level statistics about the the tools in consideration.
In the table below, we have compared the base pricing, quality of user experience, the ideal user base and the key functionalities of Hootsuite and Later along with SocialPilot.
 Hootsuite |
 Later |
 SocialPilot |
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|---|---|---|---|
| Number of Reviews | 4561 | 305 | 814 |
| Overall Star Rating | |||
| Ease of Use | |||
| Quality of Support | |||
| Ease of Setup | |||
| Minimum Pricing | $99/Month | $25/Month | $30/Month |
| Number of Social Accounts | 10 | 7 | 10 |
| Number of Team Members | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Scheduling & Publishing |
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| Analytics |
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| Social Inbox |
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| Collaboration |
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| Whitelabel |
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| Best For | Professionals, Brands, Big Businesses, and Enterprises. | Influencers and Small Business | Marketing Agencies, SMBs, Multi-Location Brands & Professionals |
| Learn More | Learn More | 14 Days Trial |
From the above information, we can conclude that Hootsuite is tailored for larger businesses and enterprises, while Later is more affordable and, hence, suited to solo marketers and smaller businesses.
While both tools seem to possess similar capabilities, Hootsuite is equipped is to accommodate growing businesses. Later is perfect fit for smaller organizations who want to establish themselves on multiple social networks while handling limited accounts.
Let’s discuss these tools one by one.
Hootsuite Overview
Hootsuite is a well-known tool to most social media marketers as a complete social media marketing suite. It covers all the major social media platforms and provides a centralized hub for users to monitor and manage their online activities.
While the platform’s highly sophisticated UI/UX hosts a number of features, it can be a bit difficult for new users to grasp. That is why Hootsuite has a steep learning curve and requires considerable support in the initial stages of usage.
It is a bit difficult for smaller businesses or individuals to use Hootsuite as its base price is $99 per month. However, when it comes to incorporating different aspects of social media management, Hootsuite comes across as an all-encompassing tool.
Its advanced content scheduling, analytics, social listening, and team collaboration provide the perfect hub for marketers to manage their online presence.
Andrea Martínez E.
It’s great for managing multiple social media accounts from a single dashboard, which is super helpful for staying organized and efficient. The ability to schedule posts, track engagement, and analyze performance all in one place is a huge plus. Plus, the integration with various apps and tools can really streamline workflows for social media management.
Later Overview
Later is rather well-known for being a user-friendly tool with effective visual content planning capabilities. Though it had started out as an Instagram scheduler, over time it has evolved into a platform which more or less supports all the main social channels.
At the risk of sounding repetitive, Later scores high on the scale of ease of use and set up s its a simple tool to get started with. Although it supports accounts as social sets, it still allows users to connect and run seven different social profiles with its lowest-tiered plan.
However, Later is seen to lack whitelabel, which is a vital factor for agency usage. This means users can’t provide branded dashboards and reports to their clients which might be a detrimental gap. Maybe this is the reason why its main audience comprises of single users or business entities.
Emily F.
It is easy to use and affordable. I’m able to handle scheduling for multiple clients on multiple channels with ease. It can handle photos and videos and allows me and the client to schedule to the calendar.
SocialPilot is a go-to platform for social media teams, SMBs and agency users. This is because of its streamlined design, its advanced scheduling automation features and its pocket-friendly pricing. It does not compromise on social media automation capabilities to be an affordable solution for small businesses, doing both seamlessly.
It is especially favored by agencies due to functionalities like client onboarding, bulk content scheduling and especially, white labeling.
Shayne W.
Social Pilot allows me to utilize automation to ensure consistent content posting. On top of this the dashboard provides a nice single pane of glass to see what I will be posting this month with the capability to edit and schedule mroe posts. Basically 4 hours of work allows me to keep constant communication for an entire month whihc has proven invaluable for us as a business who does not imploy internal marketing. The setup to my social media platforms was easy and the integration has not had a single issue.
Hootsuite Vs. Later: Head-to-Head Feature Comparison
Scheduling and Publishing
When we talk about scheduling and publishing, they are the key functionalities required from social media tools. We have made a in-depth comparison for Hootsuite vs. Later in regard to see which one is better.
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Hootsuite |
Later |
SocialPilot |
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| Smart & Advanced Queueing |
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| Customize Post for Each Platform |
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| Post Preview |
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| Canva Integration |
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| Unsplash Integration |
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| Slack Integration |
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| URL Shortener |
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| Visual Post Support (Image, Video, GIF) |
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| UTM Parameters |
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| Cloud Storage |
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| Hashtag Suggestions |
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| Advance Publishing Capabilities | |||
| Save Draft Posts |
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| AI Assistant |
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| Watermark on Images |
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| Bulk Scheduling |
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| Auto publishing from RSS |
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| Social media calendar |
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| Mobile App |
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| Browser Extension |
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| Advance Facebook Publishing Capabilities | |||
| Reel Scheduling |
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| Support Album Posts |
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| Support Carousel Posts |
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| Alternate Text on Image |
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| Support Facebook First Comment |
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| Audience Targeting |
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| Boost Post Scheduling |
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| Support Mention and Hashtags |
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| Advance Twitter Publishing Capabilities | |||
| Location Tagging |
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| Support Mention and Hashtags |
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| Support Multiple Image Posts |
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| Threads Scheduling |
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| Advance Instagram Publishing Capabilities | |||
| Reel Scheduling |
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| Story Scheduling |
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| Tag Profiles on Images |
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| Location Tagging |
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| Support Instagram First Comment |
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| Instagram Grid |
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| Advance LinkedIn Publishing Capabilities | |||
| Audience Targeting |
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| Support LinkedIn First Comment |
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| Advance YouTube Publishing Capabilities | |||
| Shorts Scheduling |
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| Mention of Other YouTube Accounts |
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| Learn More | Learn More | 14 Days Trial | |
It is seen that Hootsuite and Later bring a lot in terms of scheduling functionalities.
Both of them provide multiple features for content customization such as visual content support, platform-specific customizations, cloud storage for media assets, Canva integration, hashtag suggestions and much more. Hootsuite stands out with audience targeting, boost posting, and RSS feed scheduling which are great assets for garnering engagement.
Although the comparison draws commons from both tools, Later’s inclination of supporting advanced functionalities for only Instagram is clear. While Hootsuite performs as a more versatile tool and, hence is a winner in this aspect of content management.
When compared to these tools, SocialPilot comes across as a more balanced option. While social media scheduling is its strongest suit, it is equally capable of supporting all formats of posts. From creating custom publishing queues, bulk scheduling up to 500 posts at once, RSS automation, to integrations with multiple apps, SocialPilot streamlines the workflow from every aspect.
Along with being loaded with features, it is capable of managing the content scheduling on all social platforms equally, unlike Later. Additionally, content calendar dashboard is a dynamic space from which users can visualize, plan, create and manage all their social media posts.
Lauren F.
We love the calendar feature & duplicate post. Calendar is great when scheduling. I love that we can plan out pretty far, we can plan multiple platforms and it is seamless. I have used other platforms and they disconnect. I have not had this issue with SocialPilot.
Now, in this section, the analytics capabilities have been kept in the spotlight to compare Hootsuite vs. Later. We have also takes reporting features into consideration.
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Hootsuite |
Later |
SocialPilot |
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| Whitelabel Downloadable Report in PDF Format |
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| Email PDF Report to Client |
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| Auto Schedule Report with Team and Client |
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| Custom Report Builder |
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| Learn More | Learn More | 14 Days Trial |
If we compare the data given in the table, it gives us an idea that Hootsuite is ahead in the analytics department than Later. Even if both of them seem to provide detailed social media analytics and engagement metrics, Hootsuite covers more platforms than Later. It also integrates with Google analytics and provides data on paid ads for Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and X (formerly Twitter).
Later, on the other hand, it provides comprehensive analytics data for Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest, Facebook, and X, which is easily understandable. It shows individual post-performance data as well as hashtag recommendations.
However, Hootsuite can present combined analytics for multiple accounts which Later cant do. Along with this, custom report creation, downloadable PDFreport generation is something Hootsuite can boast, which helps brands and businesses to understand their overall social media performance.
The absence of these advanced capabilities makes Later less than ideal for businesses who seek robust reporting from theri social media management tool. However, it must be remembered that advanced analytics require additional charges in Hootsuite.
When we compare the analytics and reporting features of Hootsuite and Later to those of SocialPilot, there are a few aspects that vary. While Hootsuite and SocialPilot both provide robust analytics, Later lacks in that aspect. However, SocialPilot’s pricing is much more affordable and does not require additional charges for analytics, unlike Hootsuite.
Moreover, SocialPilot provides white-labeled analytics, which can be downloaded and scheduled to be sent by email periodically. Later isn’t capable of such advanced reporting tasks.
Rebecca G.
The reason that makes me suggest SocialPilot to other businesses is that they have a wide variety of white-label reporting options for analytics. They also let users add team members, and client accounts for collaboration and approval. While we don’t use this feature, I think it’s an excellent option for customers to have. When we’ve implemented this before, it has been straightforward and fast.
Now, we come to another set of important features required from social media marketing tools: managing engagement online. We have explored the capabilities of both tools to determine which is better equipped in this regard.
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Hootsuite |
Later |
SocialPilot |
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| Can Reply to Messages |
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| Can Reply Questions and Reviews |
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| Can Reply on Visitor Posts |
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| Learn More | Learn More | 14 Days Trial |
The results as we can conclude from the data given in the table, is that Hootsuite is slightly more effective in handling communication with an audience on social media. It has a unified social inbox, which enables users to reply to comments, direct messages, and even reviews coming their way.
Compared to this, Later only lets its users respond to comments from Instagram and TikTok, leaving out DM and review management entirely. Furthermore, Later does not have a dedicated space to address communication, which can seriously hamper brands’ reputation management efficacy.
SocialPilot, in comparison to Later, has a well-equipped social inbox for all the major social media platforms. Users can monitor and respond to all kinds of incoming communication from their followers. They can filter out the messages, comments, and reviews based on their category and whether they’ve been answered or not.
This also helps you solve queries and handle any type of complaint or negative review proactively, boosting your social media reputation. The streamlined design and permission-based access make SocialPilot’s inbox more effective than even Hootsuite’s.
Since we’re addressing the needs to businesses and social media teams, it is important to vet the collaboration and team workflow capabilities. We have explored Later and Hootsuite in this regard to determine which one of them is better capable of handling social media teams.
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Hootsuite |
Later |
SocialPilot |
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| Free Unlimited Client Onboarding |
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| Per Post Multi-User Collaboration |
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| Access Management |
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| Content Approval Workflow |
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| Learn More | Learn More | 14 Days Trial |
We have found that Hootsuite, as well as Later, possess team collaboration capabilities. Although the former is tailored to serve larger teams and enterprise-level organizations, Later too can handle the limited needs of smaller teams.
The ability to invite and integrate clients into the workspace is available under Hootsuite, which Later lacks. However, collaborating on individual content cards is possible only in Later. Also, the content approval workflow is way more granular in Hootsuite as compared to Later.
But a notable fact is that setting up the permissions and controlling access for each and every member makes brings a new level of difficulty to Hootsuite’s collaboration features.
SocialPilot, being a tool for agencies and small businesses, also has team and client collaboration capabilities. It allows users to invite and onboard an unlimited number of clients to their workspace and make them a part of the approval workflow.
Multiple users can work and contribute to creating social media worthy posts and leave comments as feedback, all based on the extent of permission the account admin grants. And these permissions can be controlled to a granular level. Team members can seek approval for posts they create from internal members and clients to ensure multiple layers of review.
This ensures quality content is being published on their social media. This provides a streamlined space for teams to work together without any hassle.
Marisol S.
Combined Reports are helpful and convenient when dealing with multiple clients. It’s easy to customize the text for each platform for one post, and fast customer support is available. Our Marketing Agency uses it daily because it’s easy for us to implement within each staff member. As a team, we can help each other by viewing all posts with the ease of integrating several platforms, making it easy for all of our clients to use.
Pricing Comparison
Pricing is the most crucial criteria for marketers to consider while selecting a social media marketing tool. Here, we have compared each pricing plan of Hootsuite and Later to understand which one of them is more affordable while rationing scalability as well.
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Hootsuite |
Later |
SocialPilot |
|---|---|---|
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Professional
$99/per month
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Starter
$25/per month
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Essentials
$30/per month
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Small Team
$249/per month
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Growth
$45/per month
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Standard
$50/per month
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Enterprise
Custom
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Advanced
$80/per month
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Premium
$100/per month
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| - |
Agency
$200/per month
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Ultimate
$200/per month
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30 Days Free Trial
Credit Card Required
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14 Days Free Trial
Credit Card Required
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14 Days Free Trial
No Credit Card Required
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| Learn More | Learn More | Start Your free Trial |
Hootsuite and Later are tailored for different types of users in terms of pricing, as the data given above demonstrates. Hootsuite’s base price starts from $99 per month for its Professional plan, while the same costs $25 for Later, both supporting a single user. This makes Hootsuite seem like a pretty expensive deal, but its smallest plan allows ten accounts to be connected, while Later supports only seven.
Later hosts a free plan which lets users connect up to three social accounts. Hootsuite does not have any such facility for its users except for the free trial period it offers.
Additionally, Later provides a lot of flexibility by having four fixed pricing plans with the option to add more social media accounts and users. Hootsuite does not allow any additional users to be added than the defined limit. Any additional requirements can only be accomodated under the Enterprise plan, which although does not have definite price, is quite expensive.
If we compare the Agency plans for Later with Hootsuite, the former costs $133.33 to support a team of 10. On the other hand, Hootsuite is priced at $249 for a team of a mere three with no scope for adding users to the workspace.
When we see the pricing plans of SocialPilot compared to the other two platforms, it’s clear that it is more suited for smaller businesses and agencies. Its starting plan, the Professional plan costs $30 per month and Small Teams is priced at $50.
The Agency plan in SocialPilot costs $100 a month which is just a fraction of what it costs in Hootsuite and lesser than the corresponding plan in Later. Its enterprise-level plan starts from $200 a month. Notably, SocialPilot allows addition of users and accounts to a workspace at very minimal prices.
Many of the advanced functionalities which are restricted under higher prices for Hootsuite and Later are available for SocialPilot users. Having a social media tool like SocialPilot helps small businesses scale easily while staying in their respective budgets.
Meghan H.
It’s the most upfront pricing of any platform, fit exactly what I need and is really affordable. Blows competition out of the water in that sense! I use it to manage around 120 different location pages for a large retailer and am able to group them by franchise group so it is super organized in that way. It was really easy to set up groups and get all my pages connected. Customer support is SO fast to respond whenever I need specific help on something. I use this platform nearly every work day.
Customer Support
Last but not least, we’ll examine the customer care traits, comparing Hootsuite and Later in that regard. We consider this aspect of a tool as vital as any other when selecting, which many people do. The quality of customer support determines the kind of user experience the platform provides.
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Hootsuite |
Later |
SocialPilot |
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| Live Chat Support |
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| Email Support |
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| Training |
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| Setup Support |
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| Dedicated Account Manager |
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| Learn More | Learn More | 14 Days Trial |
Both Hootsuite and Later cover all the bases of customer support by providing assistance through live chat, email, and help documentation. Even new users are provided with proper support and means for training during the setup process,
However, Later does not assign a dedicated account manager to their users which is available with Hootusite. On the other hand, the response time of the customer support team in Hootsuite has often been prolonged for some users compared to Later.
SocialPilot does a commendable job when it comes to customer support services. It has multiple channels through which it provides assistance to its users, including email, live chat, call, and social media channels. It provides dedicated assistance during the initial setup process to onboard new users with ease.
In comparison to Hootsuite, SocialPilot’s support team responds promptly and effectively, resolving users’ problems in the shortest time possible. Also, SocialPilot offers a wealth of knowledge and tutorial videos that help people familiarize themselves with the platform.
Daniela C.
I have had little to no issues when working from SocialPilot, which makes my life easier! If there are any issues, customer support is often very quick to get back to you! I use SocialPilot every day for work so I am very appreciative to have access to such an easy and neat tool!
Final Verdict
When considering and comparing Hootsuite and Later, both are proficient social media management tools in their own right. Which platform is better for you depends on your business needs and the features you require. Hootsuite on the one hand comes with some advanced features that are beneficial for brands and businesses but its complicated UI and restrictive pricing make it a difficult tool to get used to and sustain. Although Later is pocket-friendly compared to Hootsuite, has restrictive rules for connecting accounts and favors only Instagram and TikTok for providing advanced features.
SocialPilot on the other hand, is a user-friendly tool that is designed for a wider variety of businesses, from SMBs to agencies and even enterprises. Its flexible pricing structure allows users to customize their subscriptions according to their needs and still utilize all the features required to streamline their social media management.
