Buffer vs Hootsuite: Take Your Personal Social Media Empire to the Next Level

Michael Olsen
Jul 23, 2017 · 6 min read

When it comes to managing and scheduling social media posts, there are two big players: Hootsuite and Buffer. Each service provides a myriad of ways to schedule, manage and track social media posts. Using either tool will level up your social media game. So which one is best suited to for your personal social media empire? Let’s dive in.

Each service offers multiple plans, from free versions to enterprise clients, and have tools to take a team approach to social media. However, this will take a look at a very specific use for these services: managing one person’s social media accounts.

So Why Use a Service to Manage your Social Media?

For me, I have several accounts across Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn that I want to stay active all day, but my 9 to 5 job and family would prefer I not be buried in social media all day. These services allow me to queue up several posts that get posted throughout the day. Specifically, here are the current social media accounts:

My personal Facebook profile
A Facebook page dedicated to family friendly video gaming
A Facebook page dedicated to technology stories
My main twitter account, mostly used to discuss technology and share technology stories
A twitter account dedicated to just technology news
A twitter account dedicated to just family friendly video game news
My Google Plus profile to post about and discuss technology
A Google Plus page dedicated to family friendly video gaming
My LinkedIn account for networking

Let me stop right there. Yes that’s alot. I just happen to be a content nerd and a tech geek, and I enjoy sharing out a range of curated information.

Stepping out a bit, you will see that I am mostly dealing with just two types of content: tech news and family-friendly video gaming. I just happen to be sharing that info across several platforms: Twitter, Facebook and Google Plus.

Let’s say you use Twitter to promote your photography and videography. If you are not on Facebook and Google Plus sharing out that same content, you are missing out on valuable interactions. Facebook pages are super easy to set up and can drive a lot of attention to your work. Same thing with Google Plus, where you can still find a bunch of communities and interest-based groups.

Clearly there is a benefit to running several social media accounts, and both Hootsuite and Buffer provide a powerful, simple, efficient way to manage and schedule your content. While a limited free tier exists for each service, to get any value you will need to pony up a small monthly fee for each service. Here are the two plans we are comparing:

Buffer:

“Awesome” Plan
$10/month
Up to 10 social media accounts
Native Services: Twitter; Facebook profile, pages, and groups; LinkedIn profile and page, Google Plus profile and pages; and Pinterest

Hootsuite:

“Pro” Plan
$15 a month
Up to 50 social media accounts
Native Services: Twitter; Facebook profile, pages, and groups; LinkedIn profile and page, Google Plus profile and pages; Wordpress blogs hosted on wordpress.com; and YouTube Channels

Additionally, Hootsuite is a true platform. There are a bunch of free and paid integrations for a ton of services. Hootsuite also serves as a client for all the major services, meaning you can see all your social media feeds in one area.

IOS and Android apps are available for each service, allowing you to create and schedule posts from your mobile device. A chrome extension from each service allows for quick and easy sharing from your PC.

Sharing from PC

Both service easily share any content out from Google Chrome via extensions. When on a web page you want to share out, click the browser extension, select the social media accounts you want to share to, and share out.

Hootsuite:

On Hootsuite, you can add text to your posts, and whatever text you enter is shared across all the social media accounts you chose. Your sharing options are Post Now, Post Later, and AutoSchedule. Post Now shares out immediately, Post Later lets you choose a date and time, and AutoSchedule will do just as you would expect, schedule the post automatically for you. AutoSchedule is great with one huge caveat: the most you can auto schedule is 10 posts per network per day. I often bump into that limit, and if I’m not careful, my posts will be bumped to the next day.

Buffer:

Buffer’s Chrome extension is similar to Hootsuite’s, but has a couple of advantages. When sharing, you can quickly and easily customize the message for each social media account you are sharing to, allowing you to tailor your message to each particular audience. Additionally, instead of auto scheduling, Buffer uses a queue system. For each social account, you can set up a predetermined schedule. For instance, on my social media accounts, I set up 20 time slots between 9am and 10pm. Once you set this up, every time you share out you can select Add to Queue, and it will schedule your post for the next available time slot. You can also choose Share Next to move it to the top of the Queue, Share Now, or Schedule Post.

Web Client

Each service has an online dashboard where you can share text, videos and photos, manage your schedule and ad content feeds.

Buffer:

Hootsuite:

This is really where Hootsuite shines, as it truly is a platform where you can add multiple incoming and outcoming streams from a ton of service. If you want one place to see all your incoming and outgoing content, and feed in content from outside feeds, Hootsuite is hard to beat. In fact it can be almost overwhelming at times.

Mobile Apps

Mobile apps are available for both services for Android and iOS that allow for native sharing and viewing scheduled posts. Unfortunately, Hootsuite currently does not allow sharing to Google Plus from the app. If you are active on Google Plus, this can be a deal breaker.

So What’s the Best Service?

That depends on you and your needs. The strengths of Hootsuite’s Pro Plan is the ability to add up to 50 social media accounts and an amazing web client. Buffer’s Awesome Plan offers more scheduling flexibility and a better mobile app.

I suggest trying both. Each offers a free version and a limited trial of the paid tier. Whatever one you end up using, you won’t be disappointed. Both services are exceptional and worth the price. For me personally, I haven’t decided which plan to cancel yet…..


Cross posted to Nerdient. Follow my Twitter for curated tech news and geeky goodness.

Michael Olsen

Written by

Tech News Junkie, Occasional Journalist

Welcome to a place where words matter. On Medium, smart voices and original ideas take center stage - with no ads in sight. Watch
Follow all the topics you care about, and we’ll deliver the best stories for you to your homepage and inbox. Explore
Get unlimited access to the best stories on Medium — and support writers while you’re at it. Just $5/month. Upgrade