Best Hootsuite Alternatives: Overview of Integration, Pricing & API

As a top-tier social media management platform, Hootsuite offers robust features and integrations that empower businesses to efficiently manage their social media accounts. However, it's not the only option available.

Whether you're an overwhelmed Hootsuite user seeking relief or simply looking to enhance your approval and collaboration capabilities, we have your back.

To help you out, we have curated a list of 4 Hootsuite alternatives that offer unique features and benefits to elevate your social media management experience.

Why Seek Hootsuite Alternatives?

Hootsuite Overview

Hootsuite, a social media management tool created by Ryan Holmes in 2008, has grown to become one of the largest platforms in the industry, with over 18 million users. It offers a range of features, including social media post scheduling, monitoring, performance reporting, and task management, making it a valuable tool for teams handling diverse content creation and performance tasks. Compared to other social media management platforms, Hootsuite stands out for its comprehensive feature set and large user base, though potential users should also consider factors like pricing and functionality when evaluating alternatives.

Calendar Features for Social Media Scheduling

Within Hootsuite’s dashboard UI, the Calendar is located under “Planner.” This section provides access to both the Calendar and another area called “Content,” allowing users to schedule social media posts across various platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

Key aspects of Hootsuite’s Calendar include:

• View Options: List, week, and month views.
• Sub-Views/Filters: View by post status or by social network.
• Drag & Drop Functionality: Available only in weekly view.
• Post Details: Visuals and copy are visible only in the weekly view.

The Content section acts as a command center, containing:

• Drafts
• Scheduled
• Past Scheduled
• Require Approval
• Expired Approvals
• Rejected

These filters help teams easily track the status of their content. The UI/UX is well-structured and user-friendly.

Calendar Takeaway: Hootsuite offers a solid content calendar, albeit somewhat limited. Its primary drawback is the tendency to hide useful features within multiple menu layers, making navigation challenging.

Collaboration Features

Hootsuite’s collaboration tools for social media managers include:

• Task Assignment: Assign social media posts to team members. This is crucial for teams with diverse roles and responsibilities.
• Roles & Permissions Control: Straightforward and easy to use.
• No Centralized Media Library: A significant disadvantage. While you can connect Google Drive and Dropbox, this workaround is not ideal.

Collaboration Takeaway: Hootsuite’s collaboration features are limited compared to other tools. A notable drawback is the lack of a centralized, in-app media library for asset storage.

Approval Features

Hootsuite offers approval workflows, but only on Business plans. The approval feature, along with all the advanced features, is not available on trial or team plans, and the only way to see it in action is by booking a demo.

Approval Takeaway:

• Custom approval workflows with multiple approvers.
• Posting permissions for individual team members (Limited, Editor, Advanced, Custom).
• Notifications for approvers in a dedicated notification center and via email.
• Approvers can review content in the “Publisher” tab.
• Option to send back rejected posts with a message.

Final Takeaway

Hootsuite is an excellent choice for large organizations, but its limited approval and team collaboration features, along with a high entry cost, make it less suitable for agile, collaborative teams. Collaboration and approvals, essential for any team with more than two members, start at a steep price of $739/month.

With that said, let’s explore the best hootsuite alternatives worth considering.

Best Hootsuite API Alternatives: Social Media Management Tools

Sprout Social 

With the Sprout Public API, you can extend your workflows beyond Sprout by integrating with its publishing and analytics tools. This allows you to merge your owned social data with external analytics and business intelligence tools. Sprout Social's social media analytics capabilities enable users to monitor engagement metrics, generate reports, and inform content strategies. Use the API to meet unique reporting needs, integrate social data into broader tools and processes, and send content directly into Sprout from your marketing tech stack.

Note: Only Account Owners with Premium Analytics can access the API. To use this API, contact your Customer Success Manager.

Key Features: Social Media Analytics

• Owned Profiles: Retrieve data like follower counts, impressions, and engagement metrics for your social media profiles on various platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc.).
• Posts: Access detailed information about your published posts, including content, creation date, and lifetime analytics.
• Messages: Get in-depth details about messages received and sent through Sprout Social, including inbox messages, replies, reviews, and customer care interactions.
• Demographics: (For Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and TikTok profiles) Gain insights into your audience demographics through the API.

• Scheduling: While not as comprehensive as Hootsuite, Sprout Social API allows scheduling posts to your social media profiles.

• Authentication: Secure access to the API using API tokens generated within your Sprout Social account.
• Endpoints and Requests: Interact with various data points through a well-defined set of API endpoints and request methods.
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Takeaway

The Sprout Public API is a powerful tool for businesses looking to enhance their social media management by integrating Sprout’s capabilities with external analytics and business intelligence tools. With features that support custom dashboards, reports, and KPIs, as well as the ability to create draft posts, the API offers a flexible solution to meet diverse business needs.

Sendible

Sendible is a social media management platform designed to help businesses, agencies, and marketers manage their social media presence. It offers a range of features for scheduling posts, monitoring social media channels, and analyzing performance across various platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and more. Additionally, Sendible allows users to manage connected social media accounts, aggregating messages and comments into a single stream for efficient monitoring and response.

Key Features for Social Media Presence

• Publishing & Scheduling: Schedule and publish posts across various social media platforms directly through the API.
• Bulk Actions: Manage multiple social media accounts and posts efficiently with bulk actions for scheduling, publishing, and deleting content.
• Content Library: Organize and store pre-approved social media content for easy access and reuse within the API.

• Social Listening: Monitor conversations and brand mentions across social media platforms to understand audience sentiment and brand perception.
• Reporting & Insights: Generate reports on social media performance metrics like engagement, reach, and follower growth through the API.
• Profile & Audience Insights: Access detailed data about your social media profiles and audience demographics.

• Team Management: Assign roles and permissions to team members to facilitate collaboration and manage access within the API.
• Approval Workflows: Set up approval workflows for social media content to ensure brand consistency and messaging.
• Client Reporting: Generate automated reports for clients with key social media metrics directly through the API.

• Customizable Integrations: Integrate Sendible API with other marketing tools and platforms to streamline your workflow.
• White-Labeling: Customize the API interface to match your brand for client presentations.
• Scalability: The API scales to accommodate the needs of growing businesses and agencies managing numerous social media accounts.

Takeaway

Sendible API is a versatile tool for managing social media scheduling, content, data access, and team collaboration. It caters to businesses and agencies seeking a comprehensive solution for social media management through code.

Aryshare

Ayrshare is a platform that provides a comprehensive API for social media management. It allows businesses to manage their social media presence by enabling the scheduling of posts, accessing advanced analytics, managing comments, and exchanging direct messages across multiple platforms, including X/Twitter, Facebook Pages, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, Reddit, Google Business Profile, Pinterest, TikTok, and Telegram. Ayrshare's social media tools offer multifunctional features such as content scheduling, team collaboration, and analytics, catering to different marketing needs and team sizes. Ayrshare is designed with an API-first approach, making it particularly suitable for developers who want to integrate social media capabilities into their apps or platforms easily.

Key Features

• Affordable: Use the chat box in the lower right corner to get a quote, and you'll be glad you did. The more profiles you need, the lower the price per profile.
• Continuously Improving API: Ayrshare releases updates and new capabilities every few weeks to keep up with the ever-changing social networks.
• Great Documentation: Ayrshare provides detailed and easy-to-read documentation, essential for developers.
• Send Posts: Create posts and send them immediately or schedule them for a future date or time.
• Delete Posts: Delete your posts from all social media networks by sending the post ID to the delete endpoint.    
• Auto Hashtags: Automatically add hashtags to your posts based on the most relevant keywords, considering real-time hashtag popularity.
• Free Link Shortening: Submit a URL to get a short URL, saving characters in your posts without the need for a separate link shortening service.
• Comment Management: Retrieve, post, and manage comments on a post to maximize engagement. 
• Analytics: Obtain advanced analytics for your users and post links, including likes, retweets, and clicks.
• Auto-Schedule: Create a schedule to have your posts automatically sent at those times.

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Takeaway

Ayrshare is a powerful and cost-effective social media API solution, continually evolving to meet the needs of its users. Its comprehensive features, from post-scheduling to advanced analytics, make it an excellent choice for businesses of all sizes looking to enhance their social media management capabilities.

Phyllo API

Phyllo is an advanced influencer marketing API platform offering a wide array of features for influencer discovery, analytics, tracking, content management, and influencer relationship management. Supporting over 250 million creators across 20+ social media platforms, Phyllo tracks creator and campaign data across 100+ data points.

Phyllo’s universal API sources creator data directly from social media platforms, saving time and money by eliminating the need for multiple APIs as your business scales. Additionally, Phyllo provides robust social media management tools to streamline scheduling, analytics, and engagement across various channels.

Key Features

Influencer Discovery & Analytics: With over 50 search filters and metrics, Phyllo helps businesses find the right influencers using criteria like creator and audience lookalikes, brand affinities, credibility scores, content reach, and impressions.

‍Post Scheduling: Seamlessly schedule posts on platforms like Instagram, Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), YouTube, and more. Plan and manage your content calendar efficiently to ensure consistent engagement across all channels.

‍Instant Onboarding: Quickly onboard influencers from any social media network without manual intervention, streamlining the setup process.

‍Influencer Grouping: Organize influencers based on their market niche for targeted brand collaborations and affiliate marketing campaigns.

‍Real-Time Ad Evaluation: Evaluate the effectiveness of your ads in real-time using KPIs like follower numbers, engagement rates, ROI, and more to optimize your marketing strategies.

‍Content Effectiveness Analysis: Examine the impact of paid and sponsored posts across various social media networks to refine your content strategy.

‍Streamlined Communication: Facilitate smooth communication with creators through Phyllo Connect SDK, which grants you access to their data for better collaboration.

‍Nano-Influencer Tracking: Track influencers with as few as 1,000 followers, ideal for brands looking to partner with nano-influencers.

Takeaway

Phyllo is a comprehensive influencer marketing API platform designed to simplify and enhance influencer management. With robust features for influencer discovery, analytics, post-scheduling, and real-time evaluation, Phyllo is an indispensable tool for businesses looking to optimize their influencer marketing efforts and achieve better results across multiple social media platforms.

Conclusion

Phyllo stands out as a comprehensive influencer marketing API platform, offering an extensive range of features to support influencer discovery, analytics, tracking, content management, and influencer relationship management. Its robust capabilities, including seamless post scheduling on platforms like Instagram, Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), YouTube, and more, make it an ideal solution for businesses of all sizes. Phyllo’s ability to source creator data directly from social media platforms through its universal API saves time and resources, eliminating the need for multiple APIs as your business grows.

Whether you need to onboard influencers instantly, organize them for targeted brand collaborations, or evaluate ad effectiveness in real time, Phyllo provides the tools you need to optimize your influencer marketing efforts. Its advanced features, such as nano-influencer tracking and streamlined communication through the Phyllo Connect SDK, make it a versatile and powerful solution for achieving better results across multiple social media platforms.

In your search for the best hootsuite alternative, Phyllo, along with other options like Sprout Social, Sendible, and Ayrshare, offers unique features and benefits that can elevate your social media management experience and meet your diverse business needs.

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