How to Use Hootsuite (2026 Beginner's Guide to Hootsuite Social OS)
Published by HootsuiteWatch on YouTube
Updated Oct 5, 2026
Social Media Management
Hootsuite
Social media suite with inbox, listening and ads, priced per user
From $99/mofree trial
Hootsuite at a glance
from our research
Social media suite for marketing and care teams, covering publishing, inbox, listening, analytics and ads
Every plan publishes and reports on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and X ads next to organic posts
Standard allows 10 social accounts; approvals and message assignment start on the Advanced plan
Standard: $99 per user a month billed yearly, or $149 month to month; every teammate needs a seat
Overview
What is Hootsuite?
Hootsuite is a social media management platform from Hootsuite Inc., a Canadian company founded in 2008; Hootsuite says it began when its founder's digital marketing agency needed a way to manage social media. The product is sold as Hootsuite Social OS: Perch handles planning and publishing, Nest the shared inbox and customer care, Lumen listening and insights, and Wisdom the AI features, while Parliament adds employee advocacy on Enterprise.
Social accounts are connected to an organization and shared with the teams inside it. A post is written once for any mix of accounts, then published straight away or scheduled, and the calendar shows it in list, week or month view; in week view a post can be dragged to a new slot. Bulk Composer schedules up to 350 posts from a CSV file. Instagram posts and Reels publish directly to Business profiles, while Creator profiles and Stories with several images go through a phone notification. The inbox collects public comments and private messages across networks, Quick Search finds recent mentions and trends, and every plan can publish and report on ads for Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and X next to organic posts.
Hootsuite runs in the browser and has a mobile app. It publishes to Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, X, LinkedIn, Threads, Pinterest and Bluesky, and WhatsApp conversations can come into the inbox. Integrations include Canva, Adobe Express, Slack and Bynder, with Salesforce on Enterprise. Plans are sold per user seat; Standard connects up to 10 social accounts and the higher plans have no cap.
Our verdict on Hootsuite
Updated Oct 5, 2026Pricing checked Oct 5, 2026
Hootsuite fits a marketing team that wants scheduling, a shared inbox, listening and paid social in one place. Ads on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and X can be published, managed and reported on from every plan, and posts on the first three can be boosted. A team running organic and paid posts side by side doesn't need a second dashboard for the ads. Listening starts on Standard too, with a 7-day Quick Search and benchmarks against five competitors. For larger organizations, Hootsuite says it is audited yearly against SOC 2 Type II and holds FedRAMP Tailored authorization, and Enterprise adds SSO, Salesforce and 13 months of listening history.
The plans are where it gets harder. Standard stops at 10 social accounts, and its plan table lists PDF and PowerPoint report exports, scheduled reports, Bitly links and DM automations from Professional up. Post approvals, internal comments and message assignment wait for Advanced. Instagram has gaps of its own: Creator profiles and multi-image Stories need a phone to finish, and link stickers and trending audio can't be added in Hootsuite.
Every person who logs in needs a seat, and the seat price is the plan price. Standard costs $99 per user a month billed yearly, or $149 month to month. Professional costs $199 or $299, and Advanced $399 or $499, on the same terms. A three-person team on Standard pays $297 a month on annual billing, or $447 paying monthly. Plans renew automatically, and cancelling doesn't refund the rest of the term, so the 14-day trial is the time to check that the workflow fits before any seat is paid for.
Choose Hootsuite when one team handles organic posts, paid social and listening, and the per-seat cost fits its headcount. Teams that mostly schedule posts will pay less with Buffer, which charges per channel and includes unlimited users on its Team plan at $12 a channel a month, or $10 billed yearly. Teams that need approvals and message assignment on a smaller budget should compare Sprout Social, which puts case assignment on its Standard plan at $199 per seat a month billed yearly and approvals on Professional at $299.
Written by Lokesh Kapoor
Pros & cons
Hootsuite pros and cons
What it does well
- Ad publishing, campaign management and reporting for four networks come with every plan
- Standard includes listening with a 7-day Quick Search and benchmarks against 5 competitors
- Bulk Composer schedules up to 350 posts from one CSV file
- 14-day trial needs no credit card and doesn't convert to a paid plan on its own
Where it falls short
- No free plan, and each user needs a seat at the full plan price
- Plan table lists report exports and scheduled reports from Professional, not on Standard
- No refund after cancelling; the rest of a monthly or annual term is still owed
Editor's assessment from vendor documentation and published pricing
Pricing
Hootsuite pricing
Hootsuite's paid plans start at $99/user/month, above the $20 median across the 5 tools in our Social Media Management ranking. You can test it on a 14-day free trial.
Standard
$99/mo
per user, per month
or $149/mo billed monthly
- 10 social accounts
- Unlimited post scheduling
- Unified inbox for messages
- Social listening, 7-day Quick Search
- Benchmarking against 5 competitors
Usage: Sold per user: each team member needs a seat. $99 a user a month on annual billing ($1,188 a user a year) or $149 a user a month paid monthly. Capped at 10 social accounts.
Professional
$199/mo
per user, per month
or $299/mo billed monthly
- Unlimited social accounts
- Automated inbox replies and DM workflows
- Custom performance reports
- 90-day social trend forecasting
- Benchmarking against 20 competitors
Usage: Sold per user: each team member needs a seat. $199 a user a month on annual billing ($2,388 a user a year) or $299 a user a month paid monthly. No cap on social accounts.
Advanced
$399/mo
per user, per month
or $499/mo billed monthly
- Post approval workflows
- Message assignment and skill-based routing
- Inbox team productivity reporting
- Report logo and external email delivery
- Unlimited social accounts
Usage: Sold per user: each team member needs a seat. $399 a user a month on annual billing ($4,788 a user a year) or $499 a user a month paid monthly.
Enterprise
Custom
Tailored pricing for larger teams
- Advanced analytics and ROI reporting
- Advanced social listening, 13 months of data
- Single sign-on (SSO)
- Custom compliance integrations
- Expert-led onboarding
Usage: Priced by quote through a sales demo, billed annually; the page lists user seats and AI credits as custom.
Checked against Hootsuite Inc.'s pricing page on October 5, 2026 · see the full breakdown
Capabilities
Hootsuite features
Checked against the same feature list as every other tool in its category.
Publishing
- Included:Approval workflowsRoute posts for internal or client sign-off before they publish.Advanced plan and up
- Included:Bulk schedulingUpload many posts at once from a spreadsheet or media batch.
- Included:Instagram first commentAutomatically posts hashtags or links as the first comment.
- Included:Link-in-bio pageHosted landing page linking profile traffic to your content and products.
- Included:Multi-network schedulingQueue posts across every connected network from one calendar.
- Included:Reels & TikTok publishingDirect publishing of short-form video rather than a push notification reminder.
- Included:Visual content calendarDrag-and-drop calendar showing the published grid as followers will see it.Grid preview only via third-party app
Engagement
- Included:Saved replies & automationCanned responses and rules for routine comment and message handling.
- Included:Social listeningMonitors mentions and keywords beyond your own accounts.
- Included:Unified inboxComments and messages from every network in one queue with assignment.Assignment on Advanced plan and up
Measurement
- Included:Competitor benchmarkingCompare your performance against named competitor accounts.
- Included:Cross-network analyticsPerformance across every network in one comparable view.
- Included:Paid & organic togetherAd performance alongside organic in the same reporting view.
- Included:Scheduled client reportsBranded reports generated and emailed on a schedule.Professional plan and up; branding on Advanced
Ecosystem
Hootsuite integrations
- Canva
- Google Analytics
- Meta Ads
- Salesforce
- Slack
- Zendesk
Videos
Watch Hootsuite in action
Product walkthroughs from Hootsuite's own YouTube channel.
How to Use the Hootsuite Mobile App
Published by HootsuiteWatch on YouTube
Alternatives
Top Hootsuite alternatives
Tools that do the same job, from the same category.
Sprout Social
Best for in-house social teams that handle customer messages and reviews as a shared queue
From $79/mo
Buffer
Best for small businesses and solo marketers publishing to a handful of social accounts
Free plan
Metricool
Best for freelancers and small agencies reporting on organic and paid social for several brands
Free plan
Fit check
Will Hootsuite fit your team?
Support
- Email support
- Live chat
- Phone support
- Knowledge base
Training
- Live online
- Webinars
- Documentation
- Video tutorials
Deployment
- Web
- iOS
- Android
Typical users
- Small businesses
- Mid-size companies
- Enterprises
FAQs
Hootsuite FAQs
Written by our editorial team.
Does Hootsuite have a free plan?
No. Hootsuite offers a 14-day free trial of Standard, Professional and Advanced instead. The trial needs no credit card and you aren't charged when it ends; to keep using Hootsuite, you pick a plan and enter payment details. Trial accounts can publish 10 to 20 posts a day per organization, depending on the plan, and can't use bulk scheduling. After the trial, Standard costs $99 per user a month billed yearly, or $149 month to month. See Hootsuite pricing.
How much does Hootsuite cost per user?
Every user needs a seat at the plan's full price. Standard costs $99 per user a month billed yearly, or $149 month to month; Professional costs $199 or $299, and Advanced $399 or $499. Enterprise is priced by quote. Hootsuite's plans page shows the yearly figures. A team of three on Standard pays $297 a month on annual billing. Standard connects up to 10 social accounts, and the higher plans have no cap. For a tool billed per channel instead, see Buffer vs Hootsuite.
What's the difference between Hootsuite Standard, Professional and Advanced?
Standard covers the basics: up to 10 social accounts, scheduling, the shared inbox with saved replies, ads, 7-day listening and benchmarks against 5 competitors. Professional, at $199 per user a month billed yearly, removes the account cap and adds report exports and scheduled reports, DM automations, message tags, 30-day listening and 20 competitors. Advanced, at $399 on the same terms, adds post approvals, internal comments, message assignment with skill-based routing, customer surveys, and reports with your logo sent to outside email addresses.
Does Hootsuite use your content to train AI?
It can use it for its own AI features, but not to train other companies' models. Hootsuite's AI terms let it use your content, and the outputs its AI features generate, to develop and improve those features, during and after your contract. The same terms say this data won't be used to train the models of the third-party AI providers Hootsuite relies on, and won't be shared with other customers. Rights in outputs unique to you belong to you.
Can you cancel Hootsuite and get a refund?
You can cancel at any time, but there's no refund. Hootsuite's terms say that if you cancel or downgrade a paid self-serve plan, you keep paying for the rest of the term and aren't entitled to a refund. Monthly and annual plans renew automatically unless they're cancelled before the term ends. Prices can change with 30 days' notice, though never during a term you've already started.
Sources & methodology
Product details come from Hootsuite Inc.'s public website and documentation (Canada). Every plan and price was checked against the vendor's pricing page on October 5, 2026. We haven't tested this product hands-on; the verdict is a desk assessment. How we research and rank tools
- Founded 2008
- 7 languages supported
- hootsuite.com
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