SOCIAL STUDIO / COMPARE
Social Studio vs Hootsuite
Hootsuite is a full social media suite with listening, a shared inbox and enterprise features. Social Studio is a focused planner for preparing posts, getting them approved and publishing them. The right choice depends on how much of that suite you need.
At a glance
| Social Studio | Hootsuite | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | Free for 1 brand. Advanced $19/month and Pro $49/month for the whole account. | Standard from $99 per user per month, billed annually. Professional from $199; Advanced up to $399; Enterprise custom. |
| Free plan | Yes, with 30 post slots a month. No card needed. | No free plan. A 14-day free trial on paid plans. |
| Approvals | Exact-version approvals on every plan. Client review links, including one link for a whole week or month, on paid plans with unlimited external reviewers. | Content approval listed on the Advanced and Enterprise plans. |
| Social accounts | Brands per plan: 1, 3 or 10, each with its own connected profiles. | 10 social accounts on Standard; unlimited on Professional and above. |
| Listening and inbox | Not included. Social Studio is not a listening suite or shared inbox. | Brand and competitor monitoring, and an inbox for messages, from Standard up. |
| AI assistants | Hosted MCP connection on every plan for Claude, ChatGPT, Codex and other MCP assistants. You choose read only, draft editing, or drafts and approvals. AI generation is not included. | Built-in AI features on every plan for drafting posts, recommendations and analysis. |
Hootsuite details from its public pages, checked October 22, 2026: Hootsuite plans. Prices are in USD before tax and can change; check their site for current terms. Hootsuite is a trademark of its owner, and Social Studio is not affiliated with it.
Where Hootsuite is the better fit
Choose Hootsuite if you need social listening, a shared inbox for comments and messages, message routing, or enterprise controls. It also supports more networks than Social Studio publishes to today. Those features are not part of Social Studio.
Where Social Studio is the better fit
If what you need is a calendar, media, an approval step and publishing for a handful of brands, Social Studio costs much less. Advanced is $19 a month for the account, compared with Hootsuite Standard from $99 per user per month, and Hootsuite lists approvals on its Advanced plan.
Social Studio approvals are tied to the exact saved version, clients review on a private link without an account, and paid plans include unlimited external reviewers.
Moving a workflow over
Start on Free, add your brands and connect the networks Social Studio can publish to. Use the CSV import to bring in planned posts as drafts, then review them before anything is scheduled.
Try it with your own posts
Create a free workspace, add a brand and plan your first post. No card needed.