Compared by record
Buffer, Later and Sprout Social compared with Hootsuite on what they report going wrong, what each plan really limits and who each one suits.
Sprout Social has the strongest record of these 4 right now, with 7 reported problems and no major outage in the last 90 days. Hootsuite sits 2nd, with 8 reported problems and no major outage in the last 90 days.
| # | App | Now | Uptime | Problems, last 90 days | Typical fix | Free plan | Paid from | Website |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Sprout Social | Working normally | 100% | 7 | 13 h | No, 30-day trial | $79 per seat a month, billed yearly | Visit |
| 2 |  HootsuiteStarting point | Working normally | 100% | 8 | 1 h 31 min | No, 14-day trial | $99 per user a month, billed yearly | Visit |
| 3 |  Buffer | Working normally | 99.95% | 21 | 1 h 20 min | 3 channels | $5 per channel a month, billed yearly | Visit |
| 4 |  Later | Working normally | 99.94% | 5 | 2 h 14 min | No, 14-day trial | $18.75 a month, billed yearly | Visit |
Ranked by uptime (the share of time without a major outage, as each company rates its own problems), then time free of any reported problem, then problems per month, all from each company's own status page. Some companies never rate a problem as major, so read the problems column too. Typical fix is the middle time a post stayed open across its whole record, so a company that posts late looks quicker. A low count can mean few problems or few posts. Prices are the lowest paid plan in US dollars unless marked, checked on each company's own site on 1 Nov 2026. See how Appys checks apps.
Price, mostly. Hootsuite’s plans page shows no free plan, and Standard starts from $99 per user a month, billed yearly, for up to 10 social accounts. Unlimited accounts start at Professional, from $199. That’s a lot of tool if one person is scheduling a few channels.
If your team lives in the inbox, the sums change. Hootsuite’s own Standard page says that plan isn’t built for advanced approvals, routing or high-volume messaging, so compare the plan you’d really need, not the cheapest one. Hootsuite’s recent problems are listed on its Appys page.
Solo creators and small brands with a few channels
Free for three channels, with 10 scheduled posts on each at a time. After that you pay per channel, not per person: Essentials is for one user, and Team adds unlimited users and approvals at $10 a channel a month, billed yearly. It also reaches Bluesky, Mastodon and Substack. Its bulk upload takes a CSV, 100 posts at a time on a paid plan, one channel per upload, text and single images only.
21 reported problems in the last 90 days, up 99.95% of the time; typically fixed in 1 h 20 min.
Visual planning for Instagram and TikTok brands
Built around a visual planner, with Link in Bio on every plan. Starter covers one social set, which is eight profiles, and one user, but it stops at 30 posts per profile and has no social inbox. Listening and benchmarking are on Scale only, at $82.50 a month billed yearly. X isn't in the platform list on its pricing page, so check before you commit if you post there.
5 reported problems in the last 90 days, up 99.94% of the time; typically fixed in 2 h 14 min.
Teams that live in the inbox and reports
The closest like for like. Smart Inbox and review management across app stores, Google, Facebook and Yelp are core features. The headline saving is smaller than it looks: Essentials is $79 a seat against Hootsuite's $99, but it allows 5 profiles against Hootsuite's 10, and unlimited profiles start at $299 against $199. Listening and Premium Analytics cost extra.
7 reported problems and no major outage in the last 90 days; typically fixed in 13 h.
Export first. Hootsuite’s help centre covers exporting scheduled posts to CSV and analytics reports to PDF or a spreadsheet, and warns that removing a social account deletes its scheduled content and analytics. So get your files before you disconnect anything.
We couldn’t find a Hootsuite import on Buffer, Later or Sprout Social, so expect to reconnect your accounts and load upcoming posts again by hand or by CSV. Run both for a week or two so nothing goes unposted. Every tool here is also tracked on our social media apps page, so you can see how your new one behaves.
Email alerts
Email us once with the app’s name and we’ll tell you when it reports a major outage, and when it’s working again. No forms, no account, no password.
You sign up by sending one email, so nobody else can use your address. Every alert has a stop link. Add "all problems" to the subject to hear about small problems too.
