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. 

• Best free software for SMBs of 2024

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. 

• Best free office software of 2024

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. 

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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.

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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. 

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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 has been building its reputation as one of the best social media management tools since 2008. If you need social media management or analytics, it's one of the oldest options available in the market. However, it's worth noting that recent concerns about its contracts with the US Department of Homeland Security and ICE, which include its social listening features, have caused a stir in the industry.

Hootsuite's 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 later publishing on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, YouTube, and X.

• Sign up for a Hootsuite plan

There’s a limited free trial that’ll help you get started and explore its potential, but paid-for plans are the only way to keep using the platform long-term, which you'll find outlined in detail throughout this review.

We've spent hours testing social media management platforms like Circleboom, Buffer, and HubSpot. Each of them is promising, but offers something different in terms of core usability.

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

• 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 even a 30-day trial available for those who want to dip their toes into social media management tools.

But if you’re looking to use it long-term, Hootsuite's paid plans start at $199/month per user for teams that require up to 10 accounts.

Going deeper, the Advanced plan costs $399 per month per user, while the beefy Enterprise package requires contacting sales for a quote but delivers hefty performance and high-end customization.

Interestingly, Hootsuite is currently running a promotion that gives you 10% off if you skip the trial completely. But compared to its rivals, Hootsuite's plans are more on the moderate-to-expensive side, suitable for growing organizations and enterprises only.

• Best business intelligence platform of 2024

Hoosuite: Basic features

As is the case with any software program, the Standard edition of Hootsuite will offer much less in the way of features and functions compared to the Advanced or Enterprise plans.

The Starter 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 work with 10 social accounts. If you want to add more, you'll need to upgrade to the $399/month plan for unlimited 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 and AI

Hootsuite's entry-level Standard plan lets you plug into 10 social media accounts, with the ability to schedule unlimited posts and to access all communications in one inbox.

Those with more muscular social media requirements will prefer the Advanced edition, which comes with the ability to integrate with unlimited social accounts, plus extended functionality like custom reporting and approval workflows.

Hoosuite also adds on extra "social listening" analytics, employee advocacy, an advanced inbox, and review management. Take a look at Hootsuite's website to check which plans it has available now.

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

Hootsuite has significantly enhanced its platform with AI through OwlyWriter and the newly launched OwlyGPT in 2025. You'll find these tools integrated throughout the platform, designed to speed up content creation and eliminate writer's block.

OwlyWriter AI helps you generate social media captions in seconds. You can create posts from scratch by providing a simple prompt, or paste a URL and let it summarize articles into engaging social content. The "Get Inspired" feature generates endless post ideas based on keywords you provide, perfect for filling your content calendar. OwlyWriter can also identify your top-performing posts and suggest fresh ways to repurpose them.

OwlyGPT takes things further with new capabilities introduced in 2025. It can now generate original images to accompany your posts (currently in beta). Just describe what you need and it creates graphics automatically. The tool also personalizes output by analyzing your past posts and mimicking your brand voice, ensuring consistency even when multiple team members create content. OwlyGPT uses Talkwalker's social listening technology to incorporate real-time insights from live social feeds, making your content more relevant and timely.

The platform provides various copywriting formulas like HOOK, AMP, WIIFM, and AIDA to boost engagement and conversions. You get 300 AI tokens that renew monthly on paid plans, with each caption creation using one token. This gives you plenty of capacity for regular content generation without running out.

All Hootsuite plans include OwlyWriter AI at no extra cost. The AI integrates seamlessly with Hootsuite's scheduling, approval workflows, and compliance tools, so you maintain control over what gets published.

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" your social media ROI, useful in e-commerce or with cash-strapped startups and scale-ups. The service also offers ways to boost your engagement by tracking engagement across time.

If you’re looking for visual data to take back to your bosses, Hootsuite is great with graphic reporting. Advanced plan 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 cheaper 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.

Hootsuite: User interface

Having that central dashboard at your disposal makes Hootsuite a breeze to the administrator, 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

You'll really want to invest in the Enterprise plans if you think your staff 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 expense.

Hootsuite also has a dedicated help center that makes a good place to start if you’re looking for assistance with the package. Yet 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 a bit on the costlier side.

You’ll get more done with the beefier plans too ($399+) and the Enterprise edition packs in everything needed to handle social media for a global organization. We appreciate the depth of features on offer here, but feel conflicted about the removal of the free and more budget-friendly plans that were available before.

• Sign up to Hootsuite

Adobe Premiere Pro arguably sets the Hollywood gold standard for the best video editing software. And while you now find countless of the best alternatives to Adobe Premiere Pro, in our experience, it remains a top choice for anyone serious about video editing. 

Its extensive toolkit, firmly focused on videography, has made it a popular choice across Tinsel-town and well beyond - from ad agencies and marketing departments to social media influencers and YouTubers. Add in full integration with the likes of Audition and After Effects, our pick for best VFX software, and you’re suddenly working with a comprehensive, professional post-production suite.

The non-linear video editor is available on Windows and Mac with a Creative Cloud subscription (bad news for those looking for the best free video editing software - although we’ve covered how to download Adobe Premiere Pro on a free trial). 

In our tests, we found Adobe Premiere Pro to be a powerful video editor packed with industry-standard features and effects - and, of course, complete integration with Creative Cloud apps. 

For a simpler editing experience, Adobe also has the beginner-friendly Premiere Elements and Premiere Rush, one of the best video editing apps on mobile. We’ve also rounded up the best video editing software for beginners.  

• See how the video editor compares to alternatives in Adobe Premiere Pro vs Apple Final Cut Pro and Adobe Premiere Pro vs Lightworks.

New import focus

The latest version of Premiere Pro has a focus on your media. This is apparent from the very start, with a redesigned import window that showcases your clips above all else. 

Locate them, select the ones you wish to work with, and click on Import. A new project will be created for you. Those clips will be added to your sequence. No need to fiddle with settings, or anything like that.

Of course, nothing stops you from altering your Sequence Settings after the fact, which is crucial if you need to create a project for a specific social media format. 

But more often than not, just getting right down to working with your clips in their native format will be what people choose to do. This removal of potentially unnecessarily complex tweaking is most welcome.

Transcription tools 

One stellar new feature is Speech to Text. The simple name belies a range of truly fantastic speech-to-text tools, including the useful automatic transcription. Premiere Pro currently supports 14 different languages.

How it works is so simple: go to the Captions and Graphics workspace, then click on ‘Transcribe Sequence’. You have a series of fine tuning options, such as selecting the language (an important one, that), or even giving Premiere Pro the ability to recognise different voices, marking that in the transcript itself.

Now, of course, it’s not perfect, but it’s pretty great. And it’s easy to make alterations and fixes to the transcript, even replacing all the errors at once, if it couldn’t quite get someone’s name right, for instance.

Coupled with that is a link to a spellcheck. So, if you made a typo, you’ll be informed of that with the usual little red squiggly line under the problem word.

But that’s not all. As you play your sequence, you’ll be able to track the progress on the transcript itself. 

This means Premiere Pro knows where the spoken words are located on the sequence. Why is that important? Because there’s a handy search field at the top. Search for a word or a phrase, and you’ll be taken straight there in the recording. 

From now on, if you remember that someone mentioned something in an interview, you’ll be able to find it in seconds, rather than desperately play sections until you hope you bump into the right bit, usually by accident.

But it gets even better, as with the click of a button, you can create automatic captions for your videos based on that transcript. Now, you can make movies that are even more accessible to audiences. 

That’s a really important step up for creators, and we’re delighted at how well the feature actually works.

New titling options 

Speaking of text, Premiere Pro also has interesting new styling tools. For instance, you’re now able to add multiple shadows to your text layers, creating more unique and distinctive styles.

The spell checker and replace options mentioned above are present anywhere text is used in your project. This applies to multiple languages, too. Prior to this current version, working in multiple languages was a serious pain, as you had to take a trip to the Settings each time you needed to switch languages. 

In the latest version of Premiere Pro, just type in the other tongue, and the tool will understand and conform. Left to right or right to left settings are set straight from the Essential Graphics panel. 

Even better, you’re able to apply different scripts within the same graphic elements. This is bound to be a boon for multi-linguist movie-makers.

AI tools

Premiere Pro, like most of Adobe's creative software suite, is packed with AI tools that work incredibly well.

One of these is Remix. This is a tool designed to retime songs so your chosen tune fits the video perfectly. Usually this is a painstaking process, involving a lot of cuts, fades, and trial and error to make it work.

We tested this with an original song, to remove any possibility that the AI was basing its knowledge on some well known track, and we were mightily impressed. 

The process took a few seconds to perform (this undoubtedly depends on your CPU’s prowess), but the end result was excellent.

Adobe is constantly adding new artificial intelligence tools to the program, too. One of the newest here is what Adobe dubs an "AI-powered media intelligence and search panel". Currently in beta, this will let editors find the right video clip when working with large file libraries, speeding up the workflow.

Announced ahead of Sundance 2025, there's also a new caption translation tool that will automatically - you guessed it - translate captions so videos have greater global appeal. We were already impressed with Adobe's AI work in this area, so it's great to see extra work going into this.

Native Apple Silicon support

Great news for Mac creatives: Premiere Pro offers native support for Apple’s proprietary silicon chip. According to Adobe’s own internal tests, “thanks to new hardware acceleration, 4k, and 8K ProRes are now up to 5x faster on M1 Pro and M1 Max MacBook Pros.”

This also includes impressive hardware acceleration when working with the hi-res HEVC file format. Adobe says exports in HEVC “are faster with macOS 12 on M1 Macs. Hardware encoding is now enabled for DCI 4K and 8K HEVC exports, resulting in significantly faster performance.”

It’s always good when the big players back a new silicon endeavor. It's one of the reasons why the Macbook tops our round-up of the best video editing laptops.

Final verdict

It’s not hard to see why Adobe Premiere Pro is one of the most popular editors on the market. It’s a stable video editing powerhouse with a huge list of features designed to help you intuitively build professional-grade projects. 

There’s a natural learning curve to mastering the software. But the juice is worth the squeeze. Especially with some of the fantastic new tools - with transcription features a real stand-out among the pack. 

If you’re serious about video editing, you should really take a long hard look at Adobe Premiere Pro. 

• Power up Premiere Pro on the best video editing computers

One of the biggest problems affecting Windows users is how third-party software accesses and appends the system registry. If everything is working well, you can be reasonably confident that the registry – an index of software and settings – is more or less “clean.”

But when your PC begins to experience unexplained hangs and shutdowns and the dreaded blue screen of death, one of your first steps will be to clean the registry. Various PC maintenance tools for Windows 11 are available, including Wise Registry Cleaner.

Developed by Lespeed Technology Co. Ltd, under the name “WiseCleaner,” Wise Registry Cleaner was first released in 2005, and focuses on freeware and shareware distribution. A whole library of “Wise” utilities is available, with data recovery, uninstaller, and video converter tools also available.

We’ve assessed the software based on price, features, how it compares to the competition, and some other factors to help you decide if this is the best option to optimize your PC’s performance.

Wise registry cleaner: Plans and pricing

Wise Registry Cleaner is available with a free version and an upgraded “Pro” version. Wise Registry Cleaner Pro is available for $19.95, with payment by credit card, PayPal, or Google Pay (other payment methods are available, depending on territory). Note that this is an introductory price.

Billing recurs every 12 months, with automatic renewals costing $29.95. 

There are a few differences between the two versions, with the Pro version mainly intended to clean multiple Windows profiles, rather than just the one accessible with the free version.

Note that there is a box in the bottom-right corner of the software promoting other tools from WiseCleaner.

Wise registry cleaner: Features

Wise Registry Cleaner features several tools to help you optimize your PC’s performance. These are grouped into registry cleaner, system tuneup, and registry defrag tools.

Registry Cleaner

The core component of this software, the tool covers all sorts of registry entries, from firewall settings and DLLs to uninstaller leftovers, startup programs, and more. If there are items in the Windows Start menu that should no longer be there, these can be discarded with the registry cleaner, as can ActiveX/COM components.

Clean-up is via a single button press; scans and clean-ups can be scheduled to run at your convenience. You can make a backup or set a Windows Restore Point before running the cleaner.

System Tuneup

Intended primarily for optimizing your PC, the System Tuneup tool tidies up boot and shutdown procedures ensures improved system stability and speeds things up.

Each of these is achieved with a collection of tiny fixes (e.g. removing the word “shortcut” from shortcut icons), all initiated by checking a box to select and hitting the Optimize button.

Registry Defrag

A bloated registry will slow down your PC. Wise Registry Cleaner includes a tool to tidy and compress the Windows system registry. This feature can boost the launch speed of games and applications and takes just a few moments to complete.

Additional features

As well as supporting multiple languages, Wise Registry Cleaner also offers light and dark modes and command line access. It also includes a tool to create a portable version for use on a USB stick.

The software also has a clear user interface, with the key tools intuitively arranged across the top of the app window. As such, it is easy to use, it feels modern, and this helps to build trust.

System requirements

Wise Registry Cleaner is for Windows 11, but will also run on Windows XP through to Windows 10. It has 32-bit and 64-bit versions available.

If you have a Windows 11 PC, the software should run without issue. Older systems need at least a Pentium 1GHz CPU, 4GB of RAM, and 20MB of disk space.

Wise registry cleaner: Interface and in use

We found it quite effortless to download, install, and use Wise Registry Cleaner. You can download the setup file at any time from WiseCleaner’s official website. Afterwards, run the setup file, and installation begins. Ours took about a minute to finish installing, and we immediately launched the app.

Upon launching Wise Registry Cleaner, you should notice its neat, uncluttered user interface. All the app’s features fit into just three menus, so there’s no stress finding anyone. Any PC user can easily understand it. 

However, one drawback in the user interface is that WiseCleaner advertises its other software tools within the app. These ads feel intrusive.

Wise registry cleaner: Support

The Wise Registry Cleaner portion of the Wise Cleaner website has a heavy focus on software support.

Here, you’ll find links to a video guide explaining how to use the software, online help documentation, and a user forum. There are also instructions on uninstalling software and a list of changes made to the utility over the past two years. The support tools can be accessed via the Wise Registry Cleaner’s menu, as well as by visiting the website.

The support center provides various FAQs, solutions to license issues, and a contact form. You can expect a response within 1 working day should you need to contact Wise Cleaner. 

Customer response to Wise Cleaner’s support is positive. On Trustpilot, it has a score of 4.4.

Wise registry cleaner: Competition

If you’re considering a registry cleaning tool to boost your PC’s performance, Wise Registry Cleaner probably isn’t the only option on your list. Key competition comes from AVG Tuneup, Ashampoo WinOptimizer, and CCleaner.

All of these tools offer free versions or free trials, with Wise Registry Cleaner the second cheapest option of the tools we’ve looked at (behind Ashampoo WinOptimizer at just $14).

Unlike other aspects of the PC optimization market, registry cleaners are almost identical in performance, for the core purpose at least. When choosing a registry cleaner, ensure it meets your minimum requirements, then look at the extra features and whether these match what you expect from the price.

As it is, unless you require tech support, the free version or another tool should be all you need to clean the Windows registry.

Wise registry cleaner: Final verdict

Cleaning the registry is going to improve performance on Windows, whichever tool you use. Wise Registry Cleaner is a strong option that does exactly what the name implies and is easy to get to grips with.

It is not, however, perfect. The presence of adverts for other WiseCleaner products is tawdry, and hiding the developer behind the WiseCleaner name on the website (I found it by checking the Windows Store) doesn’t instill the level of trust we expect from tools that can potentially break your PC.

If you need the paid version of Wise Registry Cleaner, you may find that alternative tools offer much the same level of licensing and support. But if you just need a free registry cleaner for your own PC, Wise Registry Cleaner is a good alternative to CCleaner.

• Keep your PC running smoothly with one of the best registry cleaners

WinZip Driver Updater is a driver updater tool from WinZip Computing LLC, a leading Canadian software company. Since 2006, it has been a subsidiary of the Corel Corporation, one of Canada’s biggest homegrown software companies. 

Driver Updater is one of many system optimization and security software products developed by WinZip. The company released the first version of the software over a decade ago. Since then, it has dropped many more updated versions, including the latest in February 2022. 

WinZip also creates a number of solutions. It is best known for its file compression software that gives the company its name, but it also manufactures a PDF editor and an entire suite of tools that can be used for file transfers. 

In this review, however, we're focusing specifically on WinZip Driver Updater, helping you decide whether it's the right tool for you or not. We’ll assess the software based on various criteria, including features, ease of use, pricing, customer support, and more. 

WinZip Driver Updater review: Plans and pricing

WinZip Driver Updater is a piece of freemium software that has both a free and a premium version. Anyone can download and use the free version, but it has limited functionality. On the other hand, the premium version unlocks all the features.

The premium version costs $32 for a yearly subscription. You can pay for it directly on WinZip’s official website through PayPal or a credit/debit card. The price includes a one-year license for a single computer, which gives you free product updates and upgrades, as well as 24/7 premium support. WinZip also offers a 30-day money-back guarantee for every purchase, which allows you to cancel your subscription before you've committed yourself financially. 

Features

WinZip Driver Updater’s core feature is exactly as its name suggests. It runs an extensive PC scan to pick out outdated or corrupt drivers. Afterwards, it lets you update the outdated ones or download new versions of the corrupt ones.

The app includes a prominent “Start Scan Now” button. Clicking it starts a scan of your computer that shows results in a relatively short time. WinZip checks your PC’s drivers against a database of over 4 million drivers during its scan. Usually, the first time you install the software, it automatically runs this scan for you without clicking a button.

In our tests, the scan took less than a minute. The software found 21 outdated drivers and listed them in a tabular format. You can update them individually or collectively with the click of a button. The ability to update all at once is reserved for premium users. 

You can set schedules for WinZip’s Driver Updater to scan your PC’s drivers automatically. It could be daily, weekly, monthly, or anytime your computer boots up afresh. This way, you ensure that you continually update your drivers without opening the app every time.

WinZip’s Driver Updater also lets you backup drivers and restore them later. This feature is helpful because some driver updates could make your PC malfunction. If you fall into that category, you can simply restore the previous driver settings to make your PC function as usual. The ability to restore your PC to its old drivers lets you roll back the clock in a similar way to the versioning that you see with some cloud storage programs. 

The Driver Updater also shows you detailed information about your PC. It’s similar to the in-built “System Information” app included with every Windows PC.

Interface and in use

We found WinZip Driver Updater easy to download, install, and use. We downloaded the setup file from the official website, and installation took less than a minute. Afterwards, we began using the app. 

Driver Updater has a neat, uncluttered interface. Its features fit into just three menu bars, so they’re easily accessible. You'll find five options at the top of the screen: Home, PC Scan, Backup, Options, and Register. Beneath this, there's a list of the number of outdated drivers that were found during your last scan, as well as when this took place. 

It's also easy to download all the relevant drivers in one go or apply updates manually. Finally, drive details can be reviewed before you commit to a download and you can exclude drivers from future scans.

The software is also multilingual, supporting various languages, including English, French, Korean, Turkish, German, Italian, and many more. 

Support

WinZip provides customer support through email only. It also provides a detailed FAQ page and user guide for WinZip Driver Updater. Some of the questions listed include how to register the driver updater and general troubleshooting tips.

There's also a very clear guide on how the process of updating your drivers works. It takes users from the very beginning, starting with how to download WinZip Driver Updater. It then talks you through the program's automatic launch, scanning and other features.  

The fact that WinZip Driver Updater only comes with email support is something of a shame when compared to competitors, however. Many competing tools offer live chat and telephone support. 

The competition

Standard alternatives to WinZip’s Driver Updater include Auslogics Driver Updater, DriverFix, and IObit Driver Booster. They offer similar features, but WinZip’s Driver Updater is the most expensive in the cohort. 

On the other hand, WinZip Driver Updater comes with a well-known name in the industry and a reputation built over many years. There's also the option of accessing other tools from the same vendor like you see with some other providers of driver updater solutions, such as Fortect.

Final verdict

WinZip’s Driver Updater is a proper tool to ensure you never have outdated or corrupt drivers for a significant time. It effectively prevents any problems caused by faulty drivers. It’s a valuable tool for every computer user who values speed and performance. 

While the support options could be better and the pricing could be lower, this is still a very respectable driver updater. The fact that the program sources drivers from original equipment manufacturers only should also be reassuring to users.

• Ensure you're running all of the latest drivers on your Windows PC with the best driver update software