Hootsuite vs Sprout Social: Seat Price or Earlier Approvals

The short answer: for a team of four that must approve posts before they go out, Sprout Social Professional at $299 per seat a month billed annually comes to $1,196, while Hootsuite reaches approvals only on Advanced at $399, or $1,596 for the same four (checked on 26 October 2026 on the Sprout Social and Hootsuite pricing pages). Without approvals the order reverses: Hootsuite Standard is $99 a seat for 10 accounts, against Sprout's Standard at $199 a seat for 5 profiles.

Disclosure: I may earn a commission through some links on this site. It does not change what this page says.

Concede the obvious first: people search for these two together for good reason. Both charge per seat, and both will run publishing, an inbox, reporting and AI for a brand team. Neither is wrong. They put the same features on different rungs, and the rung your must-have sits on sets the bill.

Price the seats, then the gaps:

1. The entry bill for your head count. For example, four seats on each Standard plan cost 4 x $99 = $396 a month at Hootsuite and 4 x $199 = $796 at Sprout, both billed annually; on Sprout's monthly billing the four cost 4 x $249 = $996 (Sprout pricing, Hootsuite plans).
2. The profiles and review sites you answer today. List every profile, then every review site where customers leave ratings. Sprout's Standard plan covers 5 profiles and includes review management; Hootsuite's covers 10 profiles, and its brand review monitoring is an Enterprise add-on, per the two pricing pages.
3. One service number to beat. Note your current average response time and the share of messages answered within a working day. Sprout reports engagement and response times from Professional; Hootsuite's team productivity reporting starts on Advanced. Pick the measure you can see on the plan you buy.

Each tier, priced per seat

Prices in USD, checked on 26 October 2026 on the Hootsuite plans page and the Sprout Social pricing page, whose FAQ lists the monthly rates. Hootsuite's FAQ says monthly billing costs more per user and does not print the figure.

Where the same feature sits

The differences that settle it

Approvals two rungs apart

Sprout puts a message approval workflow on Professional and adds external approvers, people outside the company who review posts without logging in, on Advanced (Sprout pricing). Hootsuite bundles approvals, internal comments and the ability to suspend scheduled posts into Advanced (Hootsuite plans). If legal or a regional manager signs off on every post, Sprout reaches that point $100 a seat lower.

Reviews in the same queue, or listening from day one

Sprout's Standard plan moderates reviews from Trustpilot, the app stores, Google, Facebook, TripAdvisor and Glassdoor beside social messages, per its plan table. Hootsuite's self-serve plans include listening instead: 7 days of Quick Search on Standard and 30 on Professional, with sentiment and peak detection, per its feature table. A hotel group or an app answers reviews daily. A brand watching a category conversation needs the listening.

An AI reply that waits for a second person

Sprout's Advanced plan pairs Enhance Reply by AI Assist with approvals for replies, so a drafted answer to a complaint can be held until a senior agent signs it off (Sprout pricing). Its AI teammate, Trellis, gives every user 100 credits a month, and Trellis Plus costs $28 per user a month billed annually or $35 monthly. Hootsuite's smart replies suggest a contextual answer that the agent accepts, rewrites or cancels before sending, and they do not cover Facebook or Instagram private messages. In both, the agent drafts and a person sends; only Sprout documents a second approver for replies.

Choose Hootsuite if

• Your job is publishing and listening across more than 5 profiles on a lower entry seat price.
• Approvals happen outside the tool, or only on a few campaigns.
• You want bulk CSV uploads and DM automations without the top tier.

Choose Sprout Social if

• Your job runs on sign-off: posts and replies approved by someone senior or outside the company.
• Customers review you on Trustpilot, Google or the app stores, and those reviews belong in the social queue.
• Your helpdesk is Zendesk or HubSpot Service Hub and social cases should reach it.

Test before either contract

Both trials ask for no card, so the free step is a fair test with your own data: Sprout gives 30 days, Hootsuite 14. Connect the profiles with the most traffic, route one week of real messages through each, and run your approval chain on ten real posts.

Sprout's FAQ describes annual billing as a single upfront payment for the whole term, and its headline $199 is that annual figure; the $249 monthly rate sits lower down the page, so a team that wants to keep the option to leave pays $50 a seat a month for it (Sprout pricing). Run the trial before you commit a year of seats.

If the trial shows that marketing, support and the regional teams each want their own rules for the inbox, the gap is ownership rather than software. That is a leadership question, and an interim CMO, work I sell, is one way to settle who owns social care.

FAQ

Does either have a free plan?

No. Hootsuite offers a 14-day trial and Sprout Social a 30-day trial, both without a credit card, per their pricing pages.

What does Trellis cost on Sprout Social?

Each user gets 100 Trellis credits a month in the base plan. Trellis Plus is $28 per user a month on annual billing or $35 on monthly, per the FAQ on the Sprout pricing page.

How many profiles does each entry plan hold?

Hootsuite Standard holds 10 social accounts. Sprout Social's Essentials and Standard plans each hold 5 profiles, and both vendors move to unlimited on Professional.