Any business hankering after the best social media management tools should investigate Zoho Social, which offers the ability to co-ordinate all of your social campaigns from one place, lets any type of business to schedule posts, keeps track of the results, and compiles comprehensive reports.

Zoho Social's other benefit is working alongside other products in Zoho's portfolio, meaning a business should be able to exploit its power even more efficiently by integrating with Zoho Workspace, Campaigns, and CRM. 

Being able to work in a one-stop environment will be ideally suite to many companies, especially those who are looking to make workflow activities more efficient. Add on great iOS and Android apps and Zoho is an attractive tool. 

• Sign up for Zoho Social

Of course, there is still competition in the social media management space from the likes of Hootsuite, Buffer, HubSpot, and Circleboom, but for companies that have already bought into the Zoho suite, or are considering doing so, Social is one of the strongest options. 

Let's dive into our review of the Zoho Social social media manager. 

• How we test, review and rate on TechRadar

Zoho Social: Plans and Pricing

Zoho always tends to offer an easy way into using its software and that is no less evident than this social media management package. 

To start, there’s a free 15-day trial, which lets you explore the features and functions without committing to a contract, and then there’s the option to pay either monthly or yearly, so it’s pretty flexible.

Zoho's other great ideal is letting users switch plans at anytime, meaning it’s quick and easy to effectively upgrade if your business has outgrown its existing package, which is kind of the ideal mode for enterprise software. 

Zoho Social offers three plans, with each one having appeal for businesses of different sizes. First off, the Standard edition is cheapest, staring out at $10 per month if billed annually, and offering 10 channels and one team member. 

Next up, the Professional plan comes in at $30 per month, while the trio is rounded out by the Premium edition, which costs $40 per month. Both of these prices are billed annually, and monthly billing may cost more. 

The latter two packages have add-ons that mean individual brands can be added on at $14.50 per month, and team members added at $10 per month on the Professional plan. Premium offers the same thing, but brands costs $19.50 per month per brand, with additional team members costing the same $10 per month.

Zoho Social also comes packaged for agencies too: the Agency edition costs $230 per month when billed annually, and starts off with an allowance of 10 brands/90 channels, five team members, and 24/5 email support. 

The Agency Plus edition costs $330 per month, billed annually, and offers up 20 brands/180 channels, five team members, and the same 24/5 email support, making the tier a real heavyweight option.

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Zoho Social: Basic features

Even in its most basic incarnation, Zoho Social comes packed with a practical array of features and functions, and of course there is the 15-day free trial to get your head around what works for your business. 

Standard works for one brand and 10 channels, one team member, and includes compatibility with Facebook Pages, Facebook Groups, Twitter Profiles, Instagram Business Profiles, LinkedIn Profiles, LinkedIn Company Pages, Google My Business listings, and more. 

There’s a neat dashboard interface that helps to monitor posts, carry out multi-channel publishing, schedule your content, and compile a publishing calendar. 

Power tools include a link shortener, activity logging, user tagging, and the production of summary reports. An image editor also proves mighty handy if you don't want to splurge on Adobe Photoshop or similar. 

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Zoho Social: Professional features

The Professional tier ramps things up a bit, offering one brand and 10 channels, and a one team member allowance. Users also get all of the Standard features plus a ream of others, including livestreaming, notifications, repeat posting, a media library, rescheduling of posts, RSS feeds, messages, the ability to pause and resume content, and the muting and blocking of accounts where needed.

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Zoho Social: Premium features

Zoho has added a Premium edition to its portfolio, which is even better suited to larger businesses. You get all of the regular Professional features alongside a pile of extras, including the ability to export posts, collaborate between three team members, and use a dedicated reporting dashboard. 

In fact, the reporting capabilities of this package are pretty formidable, and there’s the added advantage of being able to use Social in tandem with Zoho CRM and Zoho Desk. It can also handle lead generation, so there is plenty of opportunity to get a decent return on your investment.

Zoho says the Premium option is its most popular and it's easy to see why, there's a good mix of high-end enterprise features without a huge cost. 

• Best CRM software of 2024

Zoho Social: User Interface

Zoho Social has been designed to offer a full suite of tools aimed at improving your social media management fortunes. 

Zoho is certainly a comprehensive solution, no matter which of the three packages you decide to go for, and the core structure of Zoho Social focuses on the structuring of campaigns and the subsequent monitoring of your social activity. 

Collaboration is a priority too, helping team members work together and make sense of analytics and the production of those all-important reports, which can then be fed higher up the chain. 

Setting up and scheduling posts is quick and easy, and there’s the ability to collaborate using a publishing calendar, create content queues, and also curate content as and when it's needed. 

In our testing, we found that Zoho Social has been nicely designed, meaning that it’s simple to monitor all of your social media activity, with a listening dashboard, live stream, and the ability to send direct messages.

The collaborational aspect of Zoho Social is particularly impressive, offering the ability to define workflows, have team discussions, and assign roles and permissions proving to be the most practical aspects. The same goes for the useability of the analytical tools: lookout for comprehensive stats, the ability to produce custom reports, and also the ability to receive scheduled reports for your regular meetings.

Capping things off, the iOS and Android apps are a pleasure to use, making on-the-go social media tasks that much easier. 

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Zoho Social: Support

All Zoho Social packages come with the same 24/5 email support, which should prove substantial enough for most needs. The Zoho website also comes with a very decent level of help files, tutorials, and supporting information designed to answer many common queries.

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Zoho Social: The competition

The social media management marketplace is a hive of activity, with plenty of options aimed at helping businesses get more from their campaigns, which is ultimately good news for your search. 

Alongside Zoho Social you can take your pick from key players, including Buffer, Sendible, Loomly, Hootsuite, and Circleboom, all of which are very decent competitors worthy of consideration.

It's worth checking out our guide to the best social media management tools to quickly see the pros and cons of each offering. 

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Zoho Social: Final verdict

Zoho Social has managed to pack in a great deal of features and functions into each one of these three social media management packages, which will make the suite instantly attractive to businesses of all shapes and sizes, although you’ll really want to head in the direction of the Premium editions to get the best set of tools. 

That’s especially so if you’re looking for detailed analytics and the ability to produce power-packed reports. Indeed, the Agency editions take that a step further and, while there is added cost involved, there’s no doubting the additional muscle these premium-priced products come with.

If you're already a Zoho customer across its CRM, Desk, Mail, Books, and Assist offerings, then tacking on Social is the best thing to do. 

• Sign up to Zoho Social

A big part of being successful in social media is by getting the best social media management tools, and Hubspot is a good choice for those looking to combine several business tasks in one package. 

By signing up for the Marketing Hub area of the HubSpot suite, you’ll have quick and easy integration with other areas, such as HubSpot CRM features, as well as customer service, a website builder, help desk tools, and more. 

While rival social media tools like Hootsuite, Circleboom, and Buffer offer complete packages, the fact that HubSpot offers so many different products could give them an edge, especially as the overall cost can decline when purchasing from its suite. 

• Sign up for a HubSpot plan

HubSpot markets its social media tools as, first and foremost, aiming to save you time by automating onerous parts of the process. Everything is collected together in one helpful dashboard, meaning your business will never miss a notification – good or bad – again, or that's the idea. 

One thing we would note at the start is that, unlike some of its rivals, HubSpot is focused more on the enterprise market, rather than smaller outfits. Luckily, there are other great options for SMBs, and HubSpot does offer an affordable Starter account, but its larger business plans can be pricey.

Let's dive into our HubSpot social media manager review.

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HubSpot: Plans and Pricing

HubSpot has a plan to suit any kind of requirement and the company actually has many useful free tools available, too. However, to get the best from HubSpot, chances are that you’ll want to invest in one of three core plans, which includes Starter, Professional, and Enterprise options.

All of the social media features come as part of a Marketing Hub plan, while the CRM, Services, CMS, Operations, and Commerce suites of tools can be found elsewhere. HutSpot does do deals for companies signing up for a few, or all, of these services, and so if your business is in the market, it's worth a look.

HubSpot also offers a range of free tools, mostly focused around CRM. 

With that out of the way, the social media plans are nicely tailored price-wise to suit all sort of budgets. HubSpot's other smart idea about the pricing page is that you can toggle the amount of marketing contacts you wish to add to your package and the prices adjust dynamically. 

We’ll stick with the defaults for the purpose of simplicity here, but it's worth getting specific with the sliders on HubSpot's website to calculate the true cost.

Starter begins at $45 per month, or $540 per year, with marketing increments of 1,000 for an additional $45 per month. 

Next up, there’s the Professional plan, which starts at $800 per month, or $9,600 per year, and includes 2,000 marketing contacts. Additional increments of 5,000 cost around $224 per month. 

Rounding out the selection is the Enterprise edition, priced from $3,200 per month, or $38,400 per year, and offer with 10,000 marketing contacts, while additional increments cost $100 per month for 10,000.

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HubSpot: Basic features

As we mentioned above, HutSpot classifies its social media tools as being part of its Market Hub, which gives users access to an extensive range of tools, all designed to improve your lot when it comes to social media marketing. 

A real bonus begins with several free features that come as part of the package, including email marketing and forms, contact management capabilities, and handy landing pages aimed at smoothing the task of boosting social media followers.

On top of that, there are live chat functions, Facebook, Instagram, Google, and LinkedIn ad functionality, which can be used very easily, alongside detailed traffic and conversion analytics that help to make sense your brand's online presence 

However, in order to really get the best from HubSpot, your business would most likely benefit from the Premium tools found in the paid editions.

Signing up for a full version of Hubspot, showcased via a demo first, means your business will have access to a variety of power tools. The thinking here is that it can help form a stronger overall CRM platform for your business, helping you to exploit the power big social media platforms while also integrating with other facets of HubSpot in order to get better returns.

We'll now look at what Starter, Professional, and Enterprise offers.  

HubSpot: Starter features

Alongside the free tools, choosing the Starter package adds the ability to remove HubSpot branding from forms, email marketing, landing pages, and also the live chat feature. While this might seem simple, it's powerful for projecting your brand online.

Starter users get up to 10 reporting dashboards, a product library of up to one million products, 50 active lists for segmentation, ad retargeting, basic SEO recommendations, up to 10 automated form actions, and much more. 

As if that wasn't enough, Starter also offers US-only payments alongside email and in-app chat. 

HubSpot: Professional features

Moving on up to the Professional package finds all of the Starter features plus a whole lot more, like omni-channel marketing automation, ABM tools and automation, dynamic personalization, multi-language content, and social media tools, plus video hosting and management alongside contact and company scoring.

Power users will appreciate the likes of collaboration tools, campaign management functionality, and the ability to work in teams. Businesses also stand to benefit from the likes of custom reporting, and there’s advanced support from HutSpot at the end of a phone line for anyone who needs help. Integration with Salesforce is another attractive feature with this plan.

HubSpot: Enterprise features

While you may find the pricing structure for the Enterprise edition a little eye-watering, it does come with all of the muscle you’d expect from a premium package. 

Enterprise users will enjoy all of the features of the Professional bundle, but in addition there are more options for managing teams and brands. Single sign-on, partitioning, hierarchical teams, permission sets, field-level permissions, and an email send frequency cap adds more heft. 

HubSpot also offers the capacity for extending this platform via custom objects, Salesforce custom object sync, adaptive testing, as well as sandboxes. The suite is much more adaptable as a result and will be better suited to larger concerns that need to get under the bonnet of their social media marketing campaigns. 

Needless to say, there is also much improved reporting with this package, as well as a host of clever technical trickery aimed at boosting its potential even more. 

• Empty list

HubSpot: User Interface

Considering the power and potential that comes packed into Hubspot, the interface is very intuitive, making the service appealing to companies with staff that need to jump in and out of it on a regular basis, while the support featured in higher-end editions will help ease the initial learning curve.

The starting point is that HubSpot puts pretty much everything any business could need in one dashboard. Measuring and optimising a business's social media reach is right there, alongside detailed reporting and the ability to automate away tedious parts of the job. 

Some of its rivals, like Circleboom and Loomly, might be a little more slick, but we never had a problem getting around HubSpot. 

• HubSpot Service Hub review

HubSpot: Support

HubSpot is a strong contender for your business in the social media marketing stakes not least because of its powerful support structure. 

Things kick off with a dedicated online help center, which contains useful information across many common themes that might come up on a daily or monthly basis. HutSpot has made neat guides and a searchable database to help, too. 

From there, support options depend on your package or product plan, which from Free to Starter, Professional, and Enterprise. All plans get a lively community, while Starter, Professional, and Enterprise offer email support. Chat options come with Starter, Professional, and Enterprise plans, too, while phone support is limited to Professional and Enterprise plans only.

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HubSpot: The competition

You’ll find the the likes of Buffer, Sendible, Loomly, Zoho Social, and, indeed, Hootsuite offer plenty of variations on the social media theme: they’re all sufficiently different to HubSpot, too, and, if CRM isn’t on your checklist of needs, might make better alternative choices to consider.

While HubSpot is essentially a complete solution for businesses that need a CRM on top, as opposed to just a social media management tool, the suite is ideal for those looking to integrate their workplace software. 

However, the social media management software market is a diverse one, and make sure to check our social media management tool guide to find the best. 

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HubSpot: Final verdict

Hubspot is well known for its very capable CRM platform, but there is much more to its software offerings than that. Indeed, if you’re looking for a social media management suite that can also work alongside other everyday business tools then it may be worth talking to the HubSpot sales staff in order to see if they can formulate a personalised plan to match your needs. 

In fact, that is one of the best things about HubSpot: it’s as much about the ability to customise as the extensive range of features on offer. Added together, the end product is a formidable one.

• Sign up to Hubspot

Buffer bills itself as a simple but effective, all-you-need social media toolkit for small businesses. It’s just one of many different social media management tools out there on the market, but the emphasis with Buffer is on affordability, which is always welcome given current trading challenges.

If you’re after a one-stop social media management solution then Buffer should do the trick, even within the confines of its free edition. To unleash its full potential though you’ll need to invest more time and money to access its full suite of tools.

• Sign up for a Buffer plan

Like its rivals in Hootsuite, Sprout Social, and Circleboom, among many others, Buffer aims to make the world of a social media manager – or whoever has the keys to the social accounts – that much easier by automating scheduling, helping visualise content, and more. 

If your company is based on the UK, Buffer is currently offering a free trial, so make sure to claim that, at least to try out its features. 

Let's dive into our review of the Buffer social media management tool. 

• Read more on how we test, rate, and review products on TechRadar

Buffer: Plans and Pricing

Buffer has kept a keen eye on simplicity with its pricing plans. 

There’s something for most if not all types of business, and payment can be done on a monthly or annual basis. If you’re simply starting out and want to gain some experience using a social medial management tool, the Free package makes a lot of sense. Better still, this comes with a £0 (or $0) price tag, which is ideal if you’re running to a tight budget and helps you manage up to three channels.

Next up is the Essentials package, which costs $6 per month or $5 annually per social channel. It’s easy to add additional channels when and if you need them, and by paying annually you’ll shave $12 off the overall cost over a year. You can try this plan free for 14 days and it’s suited to professionals who have to call on publishing, analytics and engagement tools as part of their daily brief.

The beefier Team package is aimed squarely at any businesses that have more of a collaborative arrangement going on. This offers much more user flexibility and costs $12 monthly, or you can knock $24 off the price by paying $120 annually. Additional channels can be added as and when they’re required, meaning lots of freedom for your business. 

Finally, Buffer also offers muscular Agency package, which is well suited to marketing agencies with 10 or more social channels. However, the pricing matches the potency at $120 per month for 10 social channels, though this drops from $1,440 to $1,200 per year if you choose to pay annually. You get all the features of the Team package, plus customs access and permissions and more besides. 

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Buffer: Basic features

As with any scalable social media management tool, Buffer can be used in its most basic incarnation, most suitable if you’re just starting out. Buffer users get an array of basic publishing tools and a handy landing page builder as standard, but if you’ve got a desire to really boost your potential, head for the Essentials or upwards. 

The free tier comes with three channels, basic scheduling, a landing page, the ability to schedule 10 posts per channel at any one time (with no monthly limit), and a useful new AI assistant. 

Meanwhile, the Essentials plan comes with everything in the free tier, plus as many channels as you can wish for, unlimited post scheduling, analytics, and engagement tracking. Those last two might prove the difference between paying nothing and going for the $5 per month per channel option. 

All of the teams get iOS and Android apps, which make working on the go much easier, and support for 30+ app integrations, plus two-factor authentication. 

Buffer: Advanced features

By upgrading to either Team or Agency, you business will instantly have the ability to do much more. For example, scheduled posts per channel are limited to just 10 per  on the free tier, rising to up to 2,000 on the higher tiers. Of course, it’s easy to work with the obvious social outlets including Instagram, Facebook, X (or Twitter), LinkedIn, and Pinterest on any edition of Buffer.

Similarly, on the higher tiers, there are assorted scheduling options, a calendar view, plus handy day to day features such as a link shortener capability and one for tweaking custom links, too. The paid-for editions also deliver features such as custom video thumbnails, multi-channel campaign delivery, and lots of cool options for tweaking Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook posts. 

To cut to the chase, the main features features that the non-free tier options get are analytics, insights, and reporting. Essentials, Team, and Agency all get a performance overview, data access, and much more, while Team and Agency gain branded reposts and a cover page. 

If you feel like any features are missing, check out Buffer's product roadmap. 

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Buffer: Analytics and reporting

Vital ingredients for more efficient social media management are inside Buffer too, such as the power tools for checking audience demographics via machine learning insights, which is basically a smart way of tweaking and fine-tuning your results.

Buffer is also great for its tools that cover the array of analytics and reporting. The ability to get a performance overview is paramount, and that comes packed inside Essentials and upwards, along with more specific history details in individual posts, plus historical insights that help businesses build up a bigger picture scenario.

Users of non-free tiers can see insights into post performance, individual post analytics, data storage, tag analysis, hashtag performance, audience demos, Instagram Stories analytics, Shopify performance, custom and exportable reports, and more besides. 

Adding to the appeal of Buffer is its extensive range of reporting tools. After all, if you have no data to present at meetings the validity of the purchase will soon come into question, no matter how nice the graphs look. 

Buffer offers custom reporting tools, including exportable reports on the higher tiers. However, corporate users will find these options invaluable and presumably not mind the added expense of getting them.

The app also offers important comment detection, giving insights into potentially good or bad posts, alongside hotkey support. 

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Buffer: User interface

One of the best things about Buffer has been the way the designers have made the interface a joy to use. Much of this is down to the simplicity of the layout, with little to get in the way of boosting your social medial management potential. This extends to the more complex and feature-heavy premium products, too, even those that pack in powerful reporting tools and comprehensive data analytics.

While some rival services can feel overburdened with features, Buffer manages to treat the line perfectly, and we never really encountered any issues getting around. 

The addition of an AI assistant also helps with discovery of new features and creating ideas from scratch, which could be useful in smaller organisations with less people to bounce things off. 

We're big fans, and for anyone who cares about UI and UX, Buffer has you covered. 

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Buffer: Support and transparency

We’ve been really impressed with the attention to detail displayed by Buffer support. Like everyone other social media rival, there’s a great starting point via an online help centre, which contains a searchable database of help topics, plus a whole host of tutorials and other insights into how to get the best from Buffer.

Anyone needing further help on a one-to-one basis can contact the Buffer Support team. The process is very straightforward: simply raise a ticket using one of the many different subject area options to trigger a response. The Buffer community is another aspect of the support options found inside this package that allows a wider range of contact options to users.

On top of support, Buffer offers some of the best transparency in the industry, regularly reporting everything via its transparency dashboard. For example, you can see that Buffer has over 154,000 MAUs, $1.5 million in MRR, and makes $27.17 per user on average. 

Buffer also publishes its staff's salaries transparently, breaks down what each subscription supports (eg, hosting, retreats, or salaries), and so much more. The addition really serves to build trust in Buffer as a company. 

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Buffer: The competition

While users with fairly basic needs will be able to make use of Buffer, this is a social media management package that will really come into its own for larger business concerns. So while the likes of Hootsuite, Sendible, Loomly, HubSpot, and Zoho Social are all competitor products worth looking at, Buffer's packages do have a great deal of scalability.

After spending many hours testing Buffer and its rivals, we can say that while some have more powerful features than Buffer at the absolute high-end, none of them manage to artfully combine so many features in a non-threatening and understandable way, which is a real plus. 

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Buffer: Final verdict

Buffer is one of the best full-service social media management suites you can get and there’s a package to suit all kinds of user. 

Naturally, the free edition lacks some of the muscle that comes with the premium editions, so it’s worth spending a little more if you want to boost your social media management potential. Along with its ease of use, there’s no doubting the potency of Buffer, while the capacity for expanding its capabilities is great, too.

For example, there are over 30 different third-party integration options, letting users harness the likes of Zapier and more. We’re also very keen on the ability to use Buffer quickly and easily on iOS and Android, creating room for more efficiency when you’re not able to carry out tasks at your desk. 

Overall, it’s easy to see why Buffer continues to draw in plenty of new customers since its 2010 launch, and we can't recommend its software highly enough. 

• Sign up to Buffer here

Looking for the latest version? Check out our 2024 Adobe After Effects review 

Adobe After Effects is the grade-A, pro-level, industry-standard for visual effects software. Used by countless professional editors, artists, and compositors to bring stellar VFX to the screen. 

It's not hard to see why it's one of the best VFX software tools on the market: After Effects is a feature-rich, intuitive special effects powerhouse. 

When we last reviewed Adobe’s video effects tool, the focus for improvement was on performance and time-saving features - something it delivered with aplomb. 

A lot of new tools have been added over the last two years, and we’ll be taking a look at some of the ones that impressed us the most through the course of this review.

Explore our round-up of the best Adobe After Effects alternatives 

Apple silicon 

Mac users will be delighted to find that, just like Adobe’s Premiere Pro, After Effects 2022 (version 22.3), offers native support for Apple’s new M1 family of processors. 

It’s extremely reassuring for those who prefer the Mac platform, that their software of choice is migrating to the new architecture. Users will experience shorter launch times, improved UI responsiveness, and faster rendering, thanks to this support.

Frame.io

Perhaps one of the biggest improvements to After Effects (and Premiere Pro), is the inclusion of Frame.io. You need to be logged into your Creative Cloud account in order to take advantage of these features, and Frame.io includes 100GB of storage in addition to your usual Creative Cloud allowance. 

You’re able to share up to 5 projects with 2 users and an unlimited number of reviewers. It can be accessed from a web browser, or directly within After Effects.

There’s an enhanced version of this service (which you can try free for 30 days), called the Frame.io Team Plan, which includes additional storage, and the ability to share an unlimited number of projects with up to 15 users.

As you can tell by what’s on offer, this service allows you to share projects and get real-time timecode-accurate feedback on the work in progress. This is an ideal and extremely useful tool when discussing work with colleagues and clients, and controlling exactly what and where changes should be made on a collaborative project.

Media swapping 

Media replacement is another impressive new feature. The way it works is really simple: use After Effects to create a template, just as you would normally. Once done, drag various elements to the Essential Graphics panel, select their editable properties, export it, and you’re pretty much done. 

Do note however, that not all properties of an item can be manipulated and altered from Premiere Pro, but the list is large enough to satisfy most, if not all, needs.

Objects such as text, images and video clips, can be made swappable turning your templates into highly useful and versatile tools, with as numerous editing options as are required. Creating various versions (depending on your needs) is also possible, further increasing your possibilities.

This is a great way to get a designer to create a template, while allowing a Premiere Pro editor the flexibility they need to make alterations without having to contact said designer for every needed change. It’s the sort of emphasis on efficient workflows that’s bound to increase post-production productivity.

Working in 3D

Creating 3D modelling designs can be tricky, especially when it’s all done via a 2D interface, so Adobe’s designers have worked to help ease this process.

One of the recent improvements is the inclusion of an optional 3D Ground Plane. With it activated, you’ll get a horizontal plane vanishing to infinity which can be used as a frame of reference when creating your scene. 

This is something that can be quickly toggled on or off so it never gets in the way, and is only there when you need it. The more complex a creation, the easier it is to get lost in it, so this is a most welcome addition to help you find your bearings.

Another great new feature is Draft Preview. Prior to it, you could access a ‘fast draft’ by drilling down a bunch of menus. Now, it’s a button located in the toolbar. Toggling it is highly useful if you have an older computer, or your project is getting very complex. 

Depending on the prowess of your video editing computer, and intricacy of your work, when activated, the quality will likely be reduced. But you’ll be able to manipulate objects more quickly and easily, saving you a lot of time, and going back to full quality is but a click away. 

Under the hood enhancements

But it’s not all big tentpole features. After Effects has seen a lot of subtle alterations designed to improve your workflow.

For instance, a lot of work has been done to optimise the visual effects software. After Effects now takes advantage of multiple cores in your computer or video editing laptop when previewing and rendering, taking over power at the expense of other processes and other running software.

This functionality may not be on by default, but you can find it After Effects’ Preferences. You’ll also notice that you can choose just how much of your computer’s CPUs are reserved for other apps (the default is 10%).

Also, if you work with the HEVC video format, new hardware-accelerated decoding is used to improve playback and editing, especially with 10-bit files, whether you’re working on a Mac or PC.

Flexible languages

One of the great advantages of the Adobe suite is the cross pollination of features from one app to another, and this is perfectly showcased with their new Universal Text Engine. 

We raved about this feature in our Premiere Pro review. It allows you to work with multiple languages much more easily, without having to constantly travel to the preferences to switch from one to another. 

There’s support for multiple languages, the latest addition being Cantonese, with left-to-right and right-to-left settings being accessible directly from the Essential Graphics panel. You can even apply different scripts inside the same graphic element. How’s that for flexibility?

Final verdict

All this is actually just scratching the surface of what’s been improved since we last took a look at Adobe After Effects. 

AE version 22.3 is highly impressive. It builds on strong foundations, offering a wealth of new features designed to make VFX quicker and easier. It’s no wonder After Effects is seen as the go-to video compositor. 

And Adobe are far from resting on their laurels, offering new features on a regular basis, making their subscription model an attractive one indeed if you’re a professional designer and editor.

Adobe Premiere Pro vs Adobe After Effects: what’s the difference?

Premiere Pro and After Effects are Adobe’s flagship post-production tools for video editors, designers, and motion graphic artists. 

When it comes to similarities and differences between Premiere Pro and After Effects, the biggest is this: Adobe Premiere Pro is video editing software and Adobe After Effects is VFX software. 

You can still cut videos and add basic effects with either program. Both deliver the familiar, effortless Adobe user experience that makes their tools accessible to beginners and professionals alike. And we awarded both 5 stars in our reviews for each tool for setting the industry standard and offering genuine powerhouse tools for content creators and creatives in film & TV. 

When you compare Premiere Pro and After Effects, it’s not quite accurate to think in terms of a face-off. It’s not really a case of Adobe Premiere Pro vs Adobe After Effects. The two tools are built for different parts of the process, seamlessly working together to deliver an efficient post-production workflow and professional results. 

For more help finding the video editor best apps for you, check out our guide to the best alternatives to Adobe Premiere Pro.  

Sprout Social has been around for a while now and, as a result, has become one of the go-to software options for anyone needing the best social media management or SEO tools. 

The package, spread across several paid tiers, comprises a heady blend of social tools and marries those to a potent analytics edge, which produces a great all-round package for small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs).

Anyone looking to take on social media channels for the first time, or to beef up their levels of participation, will find Sprout Social offers plenty. There’s a neat dashboard-style management setup, allowing for easy co-ordination, while the ability to lets multiple users access it means there’s appeal for larger organisations too.

• Sign up for a Sprout Social plan

While Sprout Social comes with a potent yet user-friendly array of social media management tools, the company has worked to still offer an affordable and good value option. Perhaps unsurprisingly then, Sprout therefore continues to be a hit with many business owners, who might not necessarily warm to a competitor like Hootsuite or Buffer. 

Let's dive into our Sprout Social social media management review. 

• Best affiliate marketing software of 2024

Sprout Social: Plans and Pricing

You can try Sprout Social for free using a 30-day trial, without the need for any credit card details, which is a great way to get to know the software. 

Following on from that, Sprout Social comes in three different packages, starting with the Standard edition, which currently costs $249 per user/per month, and is billed annually. Alternatively, you can choose to pay for the Standard package on a $199 month-to-month basis.

Stepping up to the next package, the Professional edition is Sprout Social's most popular plan, currently available for $399 per user/per month and, again, billed annually. There is also the option to pay $299 month-to-month with this one, too.

Meanwhile, an Advanced edition costs $499 per user/per month, again, billed annually. This has the option to pay $399 on a month-to-month basis if preferred. If you’re concerned about whether or not there will be enough benefits from the higher-end packages, requesting a demo is also possible, where a member of the Sprout Social team can talk you through the various features and functions.

Finally, there's an Enterprise tier, which is available for large organisations upon request. Sprout Social will tailor the app to your needs, and there is 24/5 support, plus a range of other features we'll get into below. 

• Best free project management software of 2024

Sprout Social: Basic features

As you’d expect from a Standard package, the entry-level edition is more of a slimline edition of the software. Nevertheless, it does come with a decent array of tools aimed at users with lesser social media management needs than bigger businesses. 

Starting off, the Standard edition bundles in five social profiles, an all-in-one social inbox, the ability to publish, schedule, draft, and queue posts, and a social content calendar, to keep everyone on the same page. 

Users can also carry out review management, monitor profiles, keywords, and locations, as well as deploying social CRM tools. Reporting offers up group, profile, and post-level options, plus there’s the ability to deliver paid promotion tools to boost Facebook posts. 

Sprout also offers handy iOS and Android apps for working on the go. 

Sprout Social: Professional features

You’ll really want to invest in Sprout Social's popular Professional edition to benefit from more power tools. While this does involve additional costs, the set of features covers an awful lot of bases. Look out for unlimited social profiles, plus everything that comes packed into Standard. 

On top of that there is competitive reporting for Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, incoming and outgoing message content tagging, as well as custom workflows for multiple approvers. More advantageously, there’s scheduling for optimal send times and the benefit of response rate and time analysis reports. 

Crucially, Pro users get trend analysis for Twitter keywords and hashtags, and the benefit of paid social reporting for Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Also useful for larger concerns is the helpdesk, CRM, and Social Commerce integration capabilities.

For most companies, Professional offers the perfect blend of features and price, and compares favourably to its rivals across the market. 

Sprout Social: Advanced features

Finally, larger business frequently have the need for even more power tools, which can often be a needless requirement for smaller companies. 

Social Sprout’s Advanced package features add a lot more muscle to the software, especially for companies with a major push going on with their social media management needs. The Advanced package comes with everything in the Professional edition, and then adds on the likes of Message Spike Alerts for increased message activity email and push notification alerts when traffic is high.

There’s a digital asset and content library, and chatbots with automation tools. Advanced users can also work with saved and suggested replies, make use of an inbox rule builder for automated actions, and enjoy automated link tracking. Twitter surveys to define CSAT or NPS come bundled good measure.

• Best free office software of 2024

Sprout Social: Analytics and reporting

By the same token, the reporting aspect of Sprout Social is as impressive as ever. 

Users can create detailed insights into social media campaigns, get a handle on what works and what doesn’t, as well as producing shareable information that should work a treat in the board room. Naturally, it’s easy to export reports in popular file formats, including CSV and PDF.

Sprout Social has always been handy with its chunky analytics tools and this is an aspect that has become stronger in recent years. The higher-end bundles pack in lots of advanced features for helping combine analytics with lead generation and suchlike, adding value. 

In fact, sales and marketing teams should find it invaluable, while a feature like the Chatbot tool should help improve efficiency too by allowing administrators to build an assistant to help customer needs.

• Best content marketing tool of 2024

Sprout Social: User Interface

Sprout Social has been in existence for quite a while now and has therefore evolved into a great on-the-go tool for anyone needing to manage their social media out in the field. 

Sprout Social offers iOS and Android mobile apps, both of which have been nicely produced and include more than enough functionality for most needs, even on the Basic edition. Considering its impressive feature set, Sprout Social is still fairly straightforward to setup and configure.

Even in its desktop incarnation, you’ll find Sport Social to be fairly logical with its layout, especially considering all of the tools that come contained within. There are quick access menu options to commonly used tools like Messages, Tasks, Feeds, and Publishing, helping to improve the overall workflow. 

Similarly, you can get to those vital reporting tools with relative ease too. There are practical considerations too, with a settings area that lets you configure language settings and suchlike for users in other geographical territories.

• Best ecommerce hosting of 2024

Sprout Social: Support

Anyone getting to grips with Sprout Social for the first time will find a whole host of great content at the online help center, including tips, tricks, and tutorials covering every aspect of the software, along with more advanced tools for helping to get the best from Sprout Social. 

If you need to get in touch there is a phone support number, the option to submit a request online or you can simply reach out via social media. The enterprise tier also includes 24/5 dedicated support, for any enquiries or help. 

While some rivals do go a little further when it comes to support, Sprout Social offers most of the things needed to make sense of the software and get the most out of your online social media presence. 

• Best graphic design software of 2024

Sprout Social: The competition

Social media management tools are reasonably plentiful and, if you’re working to a tight or non-existent budget, some of them can be had for free. 

Small business owners might struggle to justify the cost implications of the beefier editions of Sprout Social. With that in mind, heading for something like the basic edition of Hootsuite might make more sense, but there’s also the likes of Buffer, HubSpot, Zoho Social, and Circleboom to ponder over too.

All of the different services have their own pros and cons – especially depending on your specific social media needs – and checking out a variety of cheaper (or free) tiers, plus free trials, is likely the best way to definitively find the best. 

• Read more on how we test, rate, and review products on TechRadar.

Sprout Social: Final verdict

If your organisation has advanced social media management needs then Sprout Social offers plenty of appeal, including the ability to ramp up your efforts even more than that with the additional premium solutions. However, all of those extra features and functions add to the price tag, which for smaller businesses can soon make a Professional package seem like a sizeable investment.

Nevertheless, if you’ve got any kind of serious inclination to boost your standing in social media circles, and enjoy the data produced by Sprout Social, you’ll find this is a package that rarely disappoints. Even the Standard edition offers up a surprisingly potent dashboard of delights, via an interface that’s a joy to use, especially if you’re making full use of the iOS and Android apps. 

As we've said throughout the review, Sprout Social is far from an upstart in the space and so you can trust the company to maintain its product, offer quality support, and generally provide one of the best social media management tools in 2024. 

• Sign up to Sprout Social.

Sprout Social has been around for a while now and, as a result, has become one of the go-to software options for anyone needing the best social media management or SEO tools. 

The package, spread across several paid tiers, comprises a heady blend of social tools and marries those to a potent analytics edge, which produces a great all-round package for small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs).

Anyone looking to take on social media channels for the first time, or to beef up their levels of participation, will find Sprout Social offers plenty. There’s a neat dashboard-style management setup, allowing for easy co-ordination, while the ability to lets multiple users access it means there’s appeal for larger organisations too.

• Sign up for a Sprout Social plan

While Sprout Social comes with a potent yet user-friendly array of social media management tools, the company has worked to still offer an affordable and good value option. Perhaps unsurprisingly then, Sprout therefore continues to be a hit with many business owners, who might not necessarily warm to a competitor like Hootsuite or Buffer. 

Let's dive into our Sprout Social social media management review. 

• Best affiliate marketing software of 2024

Sprout Social: Plans and Pricing

You can try Sprout Social for free using a 30-day trial, without the need for any credit card details, which is a great way to get to know the software. 

Following on from that, Sprout Social comes in three different packages, starting with the Standard edition, which currently costs $249 per user/per month, and is billed annually. Alternatively, you can choose to pay for the Standard package on a $199 month-to-month basis.

Stepping up to the next package, the Professional edition is Sprout Social's most popular plan, currently available for $399 per user/per month and, again, billed annually. There is also the option to pay $299 month-to-month with this one, too.

Meanwhile, an Advanced edition costs $499 per user/per month, again, billed annually. This has the option to pay $399 on a month-to-month basis if preferred. If you’re concerned about whether or not there will be enough benefits from the higher-end packages, requesting a demo is also possible, where a member of the Sprout Social team can talk you through the various features and functions.

Finally, there's an Enterprise tier, which is available for large organisations upon request. Sprout Social will tailor the app to your needs, and there is 24/5 support, plus a range of other features we'll get into below. 

• Best free project management software of 2024

Sprout Social: Basic features

As you’d expect from a Standard package, the entry-level edition is more of a slimline edition of the software. Nevertheless, it does come with a decent array of tools aimed at users with lesser social media management needs than bigger businesses. 

Starting off, the Standard edition bundles in five social profiles, an all-in-one social inbox, the ability to publish, schedule, draft, and queue posts, and a social content calendar, to keep everyone on the same page. 

Users can also carry out review management, monitor profiles, keywords, and locations, as well as deploying social CRM tools. Reporting offers up group, profile, and post-level options, plus there’s the ability to deliver paid promotion tools to boost Facebook posts. 

Sprout also offers handy iOS and Android apps for working on the go. 

Sprout Social: Professional features

You’ll really want to invest in Sprout Social's popular Professional edition to benefit from more power tools. While this does involve additional costs, the set of features covers an awful lot of bases. Look out for unlimited social profiles, plus everything that comes packed into Standard. 

On top of that there is competitive reporting for Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, incoming and outgoing message content tagging, as well as custom workflows for multiple approvers. More advantageously, there’s scheduling for optimal send times and the benefit of response rate and time analysis reports. 

Crucially, Pro users get trend analysis for Twitter keywords and hashtags, and the benefit of paid social reporting for Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Also useful for larger concerns is the helpdesk, CRM, and Social Commerce integration capabilities.

For most companies, Professional offers the perfect blend of features and price, and compares favourably to its rivals across the market. 

Sprout Social: Advanced features

Finally, larger business frequently have the need for even more power tools, which can often be a needless requirement for smaller companies. 

Social Sprout’s Advanced package features add a lot more muscle to the software, especially for companies with a major push going on with their social media management needs. The Advanced package comes with everything in the Professional edition, and then adds on the likes of Message Spike Alerts for increased message activity email and push notification alerts when traffic is high.

There’s a digital asset and content library, and chatbots with automation tools. Advanced users can also work with saved and suggested replies, make use of an inbox rule builder for automated actions, and enjoy automated link tracking. Twitter surveys to define CSAT or NPS come bundled good measure.

• Best free office software of 2024

Sprout Social: Analytics and reporting

By the same token, the reporting aspect of Sprout Social is as impressive as ever. 

Users can create detailed insights into social media campaigns, get a handle on what works and what doesn’t, as well as producing shareable information that should work a treat in the board room. Naturally, it’s easy to export reports in popular file formats, including CSV and PDF.

Sprout Social has always been handy with its chunky analytics tools and this is an aspect that has become stronger in recent years. The higher-end bundles pack in lots of advanced features for helping combine analytics with lead generation and suchlike, adding value. 

In fact, sales and marketing teams should find it invaluable, while a feature like the Chatbot tool should help improve efficiency too by allowing administrators to build an assistant to help customer needs.

• Best content marketing tool of 2024

Sprout Social: User Interface

Sprout Social has been in existence for quite a while now and has therefore evolved into a great on-the-go tool for anyone needing to manage their social media out in the field. 

Sprout Social offers iOS and Android mobile apps, both of which have been nicely produced and include more than enough functionality for most needs, even on the Basic edition. Considering its impressive feature set, Sprout Social is still fairly straightforward to setup and configure.

Even in its desktop incarnation, you’ll find Sport Social to be fairly logical with its layout, especially considering all of the tools that come contained within. There are quick access menu options to commonly used tools like Messages, Tasks, Feeds, and Publishing, helping to improve the overall workflow. 

Similarly, you can get to those vital reporting tools with relative ease too. There are practical considerations too, with a settings area that lets you configure language settings and suchlike for users in other geographical territories.

• Best ecommerce hosting of 2024

Sprout Social: Support

Anyone getting to grips with Sprout Social for the first time will find a whole host of great content at the online help center, including tips, tricks, and tutorials covering every aspect of the software, along with more advanced tools for helping to get the best from Sprout Social. 

If you need to get in touch there is a phone support number, the option to submit a request online or you can simply reach out via social media. The enterprise tier also includes 24/5 dedicated support, for any enquiries or help. 

While some rivals do go a little further when it comes to support, Sprout Social offers most of the things needed to make sense of the software and get the most out of your online social media presence. 

• Best graphic design software of 2024

Sprout Social: The competition

Social media management tools are reasonably plentiful and, if you’re working to a tight or non-existent budget, some of them can be had for free. 

Small business owners might struggle to justify the cost implications of the beefier editions of Sprout Social. With that in mind, heading for something like the basic edition of Hootsuite might make more sense, but there’s also the likes of Buffer, HubSpot, Zoho Social, and Circleboom to ponder over too.

All of the different services have their own pros and cons – especially depending on your specific social media needs – and checking out a variety of cheaper (or free) tiers, plus free trials, is likely the best way to definitively find the best. 

• Read more on how we test, rate, and review products on TechRadar.

Sprout Social: Final verdict

If your organisation has advanced social media management needs then Sprout Social offers plenty of appeal, including the ability to ramp up your efforts even more than that with the additional premium solutions. However, all of those extra features and functions add to the price tag, which for smaller businesses can soon make a Professional package seem like a sizeable investment.

Nevertheless, if you’ve got any kind of serious inclination to boost your standing in social media circles, and enjoy the data produced by Sprout Social, you’ll find this is a package that rarely disappoints. Even the Standard edition offers up a surprisingly potent dashboard of delights, via an interface that’s a joy to use, especially if you’re making full use of the iOS and Android apps. 

As we've said throughout the review, Sprout Social is far from an upstart in the space and so you can trust the company to maintain its product, offer quality support, and generally provide one of the best social media management tools in 2024. 

• Sign up to Sprout Social.

Hootsuite is one of the best-known names in the world of social media, and one of the best social media management tools full stop. If you’ve got any kind need for tracking and analytics using SEO tools then Hootsuite is one of the best options, plus it’s been around since 2008, so has been nicely honed over the years.

The current incarnation lets you manage multiple social media accounts, all from within one interface that allows quick and easy administration. On top of that, Hootsuite can schedule content for the likes of Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest, plus LinkedIn and YouTube, while lining up tweets on Twitter (sorry, X) is simple. 

• Sign up for a Hootsuite plan

There’s a limited free plan that’ll help you get started and explore its potential, but the real power of Hootsuite lies in its paid-for plans, which are outlined in detail throughout this review. 

As companies move into the social media era, getting the right tools makes all the difference. We've spent hours testing various social media managers like Circleboom, Buffer, and HubSpot to find the absolute best and take your online content to the next level. 

Let's dive into our Hootsuite social media manager review. 

• Best small business software of 2024

Hootsuite: Plans and Pricing

Hootsuite has something to offer all sorts of social media managers and in any kind of business environment. There’s a free plan available for those with simple needs or anyone with little or no social media budget to play with. 

However, if you’re looking to boost your social media activities you’ll be wise to head in the direction of a Professional plan, with prices that start from $49 per month.

Going deeper, a Team plan costs $129 per month, while the beefy Enterprise package costs $739 per month but delivers hefty performance. Those with more specific needs should also investigate the Enterprise custom edition of Hootsuite. 

Meanwhile, get started with a 30-trial if you just want to see what’s on offer on any of the plans. (Interestingly, Hootsuite is currently running a promotion of 20% off for those that skip the trial completely.) 

Compared to its rivals, these pricing plans are very competitive and the range of features on offer, as we'll get into over the next sections, makes Hootsuite hard to beat, especially for organisations at large scales. 

• Best business intelligence platform of 2024

Hoosuite: Basic features

As is the case with any software program, the free edition of Hootsuite will offer much less in the way of features and functions compared to the paid-for plans. So while you’ll get a limited array of social media management tools, you’ll really want to head in the direction of one of the paid-for plans outlined above to see what Hootsuite can really do for your business fortunes.

The Professional plan offers unlimited post scheduling, timing recommendations, Canva integrations, and a hashtag generator, plus a variety of other features. The limitations are that you can only have one user and 10 social accounts. 

While many people enthuse about Hootsuite, a frequent bone of contention for some is the way the Hootsuite interface looks, feels, and behaves. It’s been improved over the years and the latest edition is perhaps the best to date, but it can be an acquired taste, especially compared to upstart rivals that focus on UI. 

Nevertheless, setting up a Hootsuite account is easy using an email and password combination to get going. Once you're into the interface, adding social networks is a slick procedure and these can be managed via a central dashboard. 

Hootsuite also offers up a full range of tools for monitoring and managing each social network. A real benefit is the ability to integrate any one of over 150 apps into your workspace, which further boosts the appeal.

Hoosuite: Professional features

We just spoke about the Professional plan, but a beefier option is the Team package, which offers three users, 20 social accounts, and the ability to schedule unlimited posts, along with the option to access message in one inbox. 

Team is a really well-featured offering and will cater to most organisations. Hoosuite lists it as the Most Popular and for good reason, as it strikes a balance between letting you get on with work but not costing a ton. 

Those with more muscular social media requirements will prefer the Business edition, which comes with a five user capacity, 35 social accounts, the same team options as above, plus extended functionality thanks to an array of premium apps.

Hoosuite also adds on extra "social listening" analytics, employee advocacy, an advanced inbox, and review management. Take a look at Hootsuite's plans website to check which plan has your must-have feature. 

• Best of the best: TechRadar's definitive buying guides

Hootsuite: Analytics and Reporting

There’s a whole area within Hootsuite that will let you tackle analytics, especially if you’ve gone for a beefier package. Depending on your tier, Hootsuite offers options for taking a deep dive into your social media stats, all of which can subsequently be compiled and readied for detailed reporting.

Hootsuite helps "prove" a social media ROI, especially useful in e-commerce businesses or those that sell products online, which can be combined with its best timing tools to pick out the perfect moment to make a post. The service also offers ways to boost your engagement via its tools. 

If you’re looking for data to report back to bosses with then Hootsuite is great, especially via its graphics. Pro users will really appreciate the quality and power of the reporting potential in the higher-end editions. You’ll struggle to get that same impressive reporting in the cheap and cheerful editions, though. 

On top of these features, Hootsuite offers specific tools for monitoring social media, including getting customer feedback and protecting a brand from negative publicity. By putting all social media data in one place, keeping track becomes much easier. 

There's a reason that brands as big as Ikea, Allianz, and Domino's use Hootsuite. 

Hootsuite: User Interface

Having that central dashboard at your disposal makes Hootsuite a breeze to administer, even when working with multiple accounts. There are some quirks, which may not suite everyone’s taste, but the platform feels stable on the whole. 

The Enterprise plan is a good one to chose if you have staff members who might feel the benefit of the 24/7 priority support that comes as part of the package. (Hootsuite also publishes online documentation and guides for many of its features.) 

There's a lot more to the interface than initially meets the eye, too, including some great integrations with Dropbox, Google Drive, and others, which offer a more seamless experience for busy social media executives. The software can also be used in conjunction with many of the Microsoft business apps, adding additional appeal especially to corporate users.

While the UI might not be as flashy as some of its rivals, Hootsuite gets the job done and we had very few problems finding our way around the online website or apps. 

• Best online marketing service of 2024

Hoosuite: Support

As mentioned above, you'll really want to invest in the Team or Enterprise plans if you think either yourself or your staff using the system will need the benefit of 24/7 support. That may mean more of an outlay, but to keep staff going if they get stuck along the way is often worth a little more expenditure. 

Hootsuite also has a dedicated help center that makes a good place to start if you’re looking for assistance with the package. Unsurprisingly, some of the best ways to contact support involve using social media companies like Facebook and Twitter.

• Best content marketing tool of 2024

Hootsuite: The competition

Not everyone will want all of the extra functionality provided by a business-focused edition of Hootsuite. There are plenty of alternatives in the social media arena however, with the likes of Sprout Social, Buffer, Sendible, Loomly, and Zoho Social all being perfectly decent competitors worth considering.

There's not enough space to go into loads of detail about all of these offerings, so we recommend checking out Hootsuite's feature list, seeing if what you need is there, and then checking out its rivals should that feature be absent. 

One thing we would say is that lots of Hootsuite's rivals don't offer the full range of services, especially in the Enterprise plan, and so it can be seen as something of a Swiss army knife. 

Hootsuite: Final verdict

Hootsuite continues to have plenty of appeal to all levels of social media managers, though anyone at the lower end of the business spectrum will find it’s basic edition a little too spartan. 

You’ll get more joy with the beefier plans though, with an Enterprise edition packing in everything needed to take care of social media requirements for companies of all shapes and sizes. There's a reason that Hootsuite has endured for so long, and it's definitely here to stay. 

• Sign up to Hootsuite

Hootsuite is one of the best-known names in the world of social media, and one of the best social media management tools full stop. If you’ve got any kind need for tracking and analytics using SEO tools then Hootsuite is one of the best options, plus it’s been around since 2008, so has been nicely honed over the years.

The current incarnation lets you manage multiple social media accounts, all from within one interface that allows quick and easy administration. On top of that, Hootsuite can schedule content for the likes of Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest, plus LinkedIn and YouTube, while lining up tweets on Twitter (sorry, X) is simple. 

• Sign up for a Hootsuite plan

There’s a limited free plan that’ll help you get started and explore its potential, but the real power of Hootsuite lies in its paid-for plans, which are outlined in detail throughout this review. 

As companies move into the social media era, getting the right tools makes all the difference. We've spent hours testing various social media managers like Circleboom, Buffer, and HubSpot to find the absolute best and take your online content to the next level. 

Let's dive into our Hootsuite social media manager review. 

• Best small business software of 2024

Hootsuite: Plans and Pricing

Hootsuite has something to offer all sorts of social media managers and in any kind of business environment. There’s a free plan available for those with simple needs or anyone with little or no social media budget to play with. 

However, if you’re looking to boost your social media activities you’ll be wise to head in the direction of a Professional plan, with prices that start from $49 per month.

Going deeper, a Team plan costs $129 per month, while the beefy Enterprise package costs $739 per month but delivers hefty performance. Those with more specific needs should also investigate the Enterprise custom edition of Hootsuite. 

Meanwhile, get started with a 30-trial if you just want to see what’s on offer on any of the plans. (Interestingly, Hootsuite is currently running a promotion of 20% off for those that skip the trial completely.) 

Compared to its rivals, these pricing plans are very competitive and the range of features on offer, as we'll get into over the next sections, makes Hootsuite hard to beat, especially for organisations at large scales. 

• Best business intelligence platform of 2024

Hoosuite: Basic features

As is the case with any software program, the free edition of Hootsuite will offer much less in the way of features and functions compared to the paid-for plans. So while you’ll get a limited array of social media management tools, you’ll really want to head in the direction of one of the paid-for plans outlined above to see what Hootsuite can really do for your business fortunes.

The Professional plan offers unlimited post scheduling, timing recommendations, Canva integrations, and a hashtag generator, plus a variety of other features. The limitations are that you can only have one user and 10 social accounts. 

While many people enthuse about Hootsuite, a frequent bone of contention for some is the way the Hootsuite interface looks, feels, and behaves. It’s been improved over the years and the latest edition is perhaps the best to date, but it can be an acquired taste, especially compared to upstart rivals that focus on UI. 

Nevertheless, setting up a Hootsuite account is easy using an email and password combination to get going. Once you're into the interface, adding social networks is a slick procedure and these can be managed via a central dashboard. 

Hootsuite also offers up a full range of tools for monitoring and managing each social network. A real benefit is the ability to integrate any one of over 150 apps into your workspace, which further boosts the appeal.

Hoosuite: Professional features

We just spoke about the Professional plan, but a beefier option is the Team package, which offers three users, 20 social accounts, and the ability to schedule unlimited posts, along with the option to access message in one inbox. 

Team is a really well-featured offering and will cater to most organisations. Hoosuite lists it as the Most Popular and for good reason, as it strikes a balance between letting you get on with work but not costing a ton. 

Those with more muscular social media requirements will prefer the Business edition, which comes with a five user capacity, 35 social accounts, the same team options as above, plus extended functionality thanks to an array of premium apps.

Hoosuite also adds on extra "social listening" analytics, employee advocacy, an advanced inbox, and review management. Take a look at Hootsuite's plans website to check which plan has your must-have feature. 

• Best of the best: TechRadar's definitive buying guides

Hootsuite: Analytics and Reporting

There’s a whole area within Hootsuite that will let you tackle analytics, especially if you’ve gone for a beefier package. Depending on your tier, Hootsuite offers options for taking a deep dive into your social media stats, all of which can subsequently be compiled and readied for detailed reporting.

Hootsuite helps "prove" a social media ROI, especially useful in e-commerce businesses or those that sell products online, which can be combined with its best timing tools to pick out the perfect moment to make a post. The service also offers ways to boost your engagement via its tools. 

If you’re looking for data to report back to bosses with then Hootsuite is great, especially via its graphics. Pro users will really appreciate the quality and power of the reporting potential in the higher-end editions. You’ll struggle to get that same impressive reporting in the cheap and cheerful editions, though. 

On top of these features, Hootsuite offers specific tools for monitoring social media, including getting customer feedback and protecting a brand from negative publicity. By putting all social media data in one place, keeping track becomes much easier. 

There's a reason that brands as big as Ikea, Allianz, and Domino's use Hootsuite. 

Hootsuite: User Interface

Having that central dashboard at your disposal makes Hootsuite a breeze to administer, even when working with multiple accounts. There are some quirks, which may not suite everyone’s taste, but the platform feels stable on the whole. 

The Enterprise plan is a good one to chose if you have staff members who might feel the benefit of the 24/7 priority support that comes as part of the package. (Hootsuite also publishes online documentation and guides for many of its features.) 

There's a lot more to the interface than initially meets the eye, too, including some great integrations with Dropbox, Google Drive, and others, which offer a more seamless experience for busy social media executives. The software can also be used in conjunction with many of the Microsoft business apps, adding additional appeal especially to corporate users.

While the UI might not be as flashy as some of its rivals, Hootsuite gets the job done and we had very few problems finding our way around the online website or apps. 

• Best online marketing service of 2024

Hoosuite: Support

As mentioned above, you'll really want to invest in the Team or Enterprise plans if you think either yourself or your staff using the system will need the benefit of 24/7 support. That may mean more of an outlay, but to keep staff going if they get stuck along the way is often worth a little more expenditure. 

Hootsuite also has a dedicated help center that makes a good place to start if you’re looking for assistance with the package. Unsurprisingly, some of the best ways to contact support involve using social media companies like Facebook and Twitter.

• Best content marketing tool of 2024

Hootsuite: The competition

Not everyone will want all of the extra functionality provided by a business-focused edition of Hootsuite. There are plenty of alternatives in the social media arena however, with the likes of Sprout Social, Buffer, Sendible, Loomly, and Zoho Social all being perfectly decent competitors worth considering.

There's not enough space to go into loads of detail about all of these offerings, so we recommend checking out Hootsuite's feature list, seeing if what you need is there, and then checking out its rivals should that feature be absent. 

One thing we would say is that lots of Hootsuite's rivals don't offer the full range of services, especially in the Enterprise plan, and so it can be seen as something of a Swiss army knife. 

Hootsuite: Final verdict

Hootsuite continues to have plenty of appeal to all levels of social media managers, though anyone at the lower end of the business spectrum will find it’s basic edition a little too spartan. 

You’ll get more joy with the beefier plans though, with an Enterprise edition packing in everything needed to take care of social media requirements for companies of all shapes and sizes. There's a reason that Hootsuite has endured for so long, and it's definitely here to stay. 

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