Later vs Hootsuite: Which Social Media Management Tool Works Best for You?
When you buy something through one of the links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.
If you want to manage your social media channels, it helps to ensure that you have the right tools on your side. This minimizes the amount of hands-on time you need to spend managing content and allows you to focus more of your time on engaging with fans of your business. Lots of tools promise to help you manage multiple social media platforms, but Later and Hootsuite are some of the biggest names. Which one wins in a head-to-head comparison: Later vs Hootsuite?
Before you invest in a social media management platform, here is what you need to know about the two leading brands.
Let's dive right in.
Contents
TL;DR: Later Vs Hootsuite - Who Wins?
If you're in a hurry and want to know which social media management platform wins, Hootsuite is the more robust option that can handle multiple networks, marketing, integrations, and more.
However, it is almost four times the price of Later's starter plan. It's best for those who have a sizable budget and who want to get serious about their social media marketing.
For those who want to schedule social media posts on a budget, respond to public comments from the dashboard, and who may not be as active, Later is a great budget-friendly option for Instagram marketing, starting at just $25 per month.
Hootsuite Overview
Around for more than 15 years, Hootsuite has been a major player when it comes to managing your social media marketing.
They have upwards of 200,000 users and 4,000 enterprise customers, including leading brands like IKEA, Domino's, and the World Health Organization.
From the convenience of their dashboard, you can manage everything related to your social media, including:
- Scheduling posts with your branding
- Responding to messages from your customers
- Responding to public comments on your posts
- Tracking performance of social media posts
Plus, you can keep up with the current trends with their Streams feature. This enables you to look at the mentions of your company, hashtag suggestions within your industry, and keyword research for the topics that matter to you, your brand, and your audience.
Not to mention, keeping tabs on these items can help you to nip negative feedback in the bud before it spirals out of control.
All of this combines to help you grow your social media following exponentially.
You can also find our list of comprehensive Hootsuite alternatives here!
Later Overview
A close competitor to Hootsuite, Later is similarly versatile as a social media management platform for a savvy marketer. You can create, edit, and post your messages all from the convenience of Later, much the same as you can with Hootsuite.
Later is great for social media marketing, though it's relatively light on the platforms it can be used with (more on this in a moment).
However, it does include a detailed analytics feature that helps you better grasp your engagement and audience data so that you can streamline your marketing efforts.
One of the best features that sets Later apart from Hootsuite is the Link in Bio. On platforms like Instagram or TikTok, you can redirect traffic back to your website or shop from your social media pages.
It allows you to create a customized link where you can track clicks that head straight back to your page.
Later vs Hootsuite: What's the Difference?
When it comes to Later vs Hootsuite, many people make the decision based on the differences between them. There are some marked differences that you should note when searching for a social media management solution. Here's a quick rundown of the two platforms in the categories that matter most.
Social Media Platforms
A big advantage to choosing Hootsuite is that it allows you to manage just about any social media marketing platform you can think of.
Hootsuite integrates with all of the platforms you would expect: Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter. Additionally, you can manage YouTube, LinkedIn, and even Pinterest.
Perhaps the biggest difference between Later and Hootsuite is that Hootsuite also allows you to monitor what people are saying on your Google business profile, manage your email campaigns with MailChimp, and use the robust Canva platform in your dashboard.
On the other hand, Later might be better suited to those who just want to stick to a social media platform like Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, or LinkedIn.
Post Limits for Later vs Hootsuite
Hootsuite allows you to manage multiple social media accounts, and they also offer generous post limits to keep your information fresh and current.
Social media marketers will be able to include 500 scheduled, reviewed, and draft posts each week.
Later has several different tiers you can sign up for, and each one has a different post limit.
The lowest tier plan allows 30 posts per social profile per month, while the Growth plan expands this to 150 posts per month on each social profile. Enterprise clients will find an unlimited number of social media posts available, but it will cost you.
Publishing Advertisements on Social Media
Hootsuite is great as more than just a tool that can schedule social media posts. It also allows you to transform top-performing posts into advertisements across social media platforms on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
Track paid and organic content, as well as manage the ROI on each of your advertising endeavors from one convenient dashboard.
On the other hand, Later does not offer this same functionality. Marketers who want to keep their ads and social posts all under one umbrella will usually find that Hootsuite is the more robust platform.
Integrations for Later vs Hootsuite
This is another category where Hootsuite is favored by users over Later's less advanced integrations.
You can track not only your Facebook or Instagram posts but you can also monitor user-generated content on platforms like Google My Business, where users can leave reviews.
Other integrations available on Hootsuite include:
- Google Drive from your dashboard
- Panoramiq Insights (Instagram)
- MailChimp
- Canva
- HubSpot
- Shopview for Shopify
You can see a full list of the countless Hootsuite integrations here.
Later is better for people who only want to focus on social media marketing with organic posts.
It assists you with managing a social media calendar on various channels, but it won't be nearly as robust (or as expensive) as Hootsuite.
Content Curation and User-Generated Content
User-generated content curation is an absolute must for brands who want to expand their reach and come up with more creative ways to market their goods and services.
Examples of this type of content curation include someone posting a review of your products, posting a picture of themselves in your apparel, or posting unboxing videos when your goods show up on their doorstep.
Hootsuite Streams can help you to manage UGC on several social media platforms.
Streams allows you to monitor the engagement on your own posts, but it goes even further. You can also search for mentions on various social media channels, tapping into mentions, conversations, and tags.
At the same time, you can immediately respond to UGC platforms directly from Hootsuite instead of navigating to each individual platform.
Later offers a similar capability, allowing you to save UGC to your library for future use. If you aren't ready to commit to social media scheduling right now, you don't have to lose access to this important content that could spark more sales.
Keep in mind that it is mostly designed for Instagram social media marketing needs.
Social Media Management Tools and Communication
Both Hootsuite and Later offer access to a number of important social media networks that you likely use on a daily basis.
Social media managers tend to favor Hootsuite over Later because it is more robust in terms of social media management tools and communication with your audience, but Later has solid options in its platform as well.
Hootsuite allows your team to respond to just about anything directly from your dashboard, including public comments, mentions, and even private messages.
You won't need to navigate out of the Hootsuite dashboard to really do anything else.
On the other hand, Later only allows you to manage forward-facing communication on your social media accounts.
This means that while you can respond to comments and mentions, you won't be able to manage your private messages from the same convenient dashboard.
Hootsuite Important Features to Consider
As mentioned in the last section, Hootsuite offers more robust social media tools that can help you to manage your brand with one convenient login.
It not only posts to almost all social media networks, but it also allows you to respond to any incoming messages without transferring to those specific platforms.
The integrations are far more robust and even allow you to manage advertisements for some social media platforms.
Scheduling tools are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes time to publish content across the multiple platforms that Hootsuite specializes in.
If you want all the features and don't mind the price, Hootsuite might be the best option for you.
Later Important Features to Consider
One of Later's most important features is the Link in Bio, but it may not be as unique as it seems. Many of its users love this feature because it keeps their social media management all in one convenient location.
However, you can also use sites like Link Tree for free to the same effect if you prefer the unique features and versatility of Hootsuite.
Keep in mind that it may be easier to track clicks and conversions using the Link in Bio feature of Later.
Later is very driven by the numbers, which is what draws many people to the social media management software.
You can see the best time to make your Instagram posts (Best Time to Post function), find what works best with your unique audience, and even rank your Reels and Stories analytics by performance over the course of three months.
Later vs Hootsuite Pricing
Pricing is one area where Later tends to pull ahead of Hootsuite for small businesses that are bootstrapping their startup costs.
It starts at $25 per month for one set of socials and one user but is limited to just 30 posts per profile per month. Upgrading to their Growth plan ($45 per month) gives you three social sets, access for three users, and 150 posts per profile per month.
Enterprise plans are also available for unlimited posts per month.
Hootsuite is a significant step up when it comes to pricing, starting at $99 per month for one user and ten social accounts. However, it offers unlimited posts, which makes it perfect for those who are seriously active on any given social media platform.
For more users or more social accounts, you can upgrade to their team plan (3 users and up to 20 social accounts) for $249 per month or their business plan (5 users and up to 25 social accounts) for $749 per month -- a definite difference between Later vs Hootsuite.
Later vs Hootsuite: Final Thoughts
While both Hootsuite and Later are robust platforms that allow you to schedule posts in advance and have a more hands-off approach to your profiles, Hootsuite is easily the preferred option for everything but the price. If you are extremely active on social platforms and want to get serious about tracking post performance with some budget to spend, Hootsuite is the best option.
Some users might just be getting started with social media and may not have the cash to spend on Hootsuite out of the gate. Later is still a great option for social media marketing if you don't mind fewer integrations.
Consider what you can spend and how many of the tools you would use between these two schedulers to determine what is right for your brand!
Learn more about creating a blog content calendar to stay ahead of the curve with either of these two platforms here!
Related Posts
Want to learn step-by-step how I built my Niche Site Empire up to a full-time income?
Yes! I Love to Learn
Learn How I Built My Niche Site Empire to a Full-time Income
- How to Pick the Right Keywords at the START, and avoid the losers
- How to Scale and Outsource 90% of the Work, Allowing Your Empire to GROW Without You
- How to Build a Site That Gets REAL TRAFFIC FROM GOOGLE (every. single. day.)
- Subscribe to the Niche Pursuits Newsletter delivered with value 3X per week
My top recommendations
