Last Updated on Januar 31, 2025 by Ewen Finser
If you are trying to figure out of Brandwatch or Hootsuite is the right platform do your business, you are in the right place.
I’ve been using social media automation tools for the last 10+ years in a variety of business use cases, including agencies, blogs, and ecommerce stores. The space has changed a lot (for the better), but my overall approach to evaluating these tools remains the same… can they drive measurable ROI.
In this context, I’ll be looking at Hootsuite (a tool I first used 8+ years ago) and Brandwatch (a more recent discovery).
I’ll first cover the stronger points of both, then compare their integrations and pricing, before looking at how they both fit in the competitive landscape. Finally, I’ll make some recommendations about the best use cases and ideal business fits for each respective platform.
First, let’s check out the main differences to properly set the stage…
Main Differences Between Brandwatch vs Hootsuite
- While Hootsuite has been moving upmarket, Brandwatch is historically and currently more focused on the enterprise social intelligence market.
- Hootsuite has a strong suite directly focused on social automation and listening, whereas Brandwatch leans more into consumer insights features.
- Hootsuite has a transparent two-tier pricing structure with an optional quote-based enterprise level, whereas Brandwatch is entirely walled into an opaque, quote-based system.
- Hootsuite offers a 30-day free trial, while Brandwatch does not.
- Hootsuite offers more customizable and exportable reports and data, while Brandwatch offers many common data presets but keeps most of it in-app.
- Brandwatch offers a dedicated influencer marketing suite, while Hootsuite doesn’t separate this out as a distinct suite.
- Hootsuite offers over 100+ native integrations, while Brandwatch offers about 30+ (zum Zeitpunkt der Erstellung / Aktualisierung).
What I Like About Brandwatch
These are some of the core standout features for me after giving Brandwatch a try:
- Broad Market Intelligence Data: The first thing I found that I loved about Brandwatch was their ability to collect and collate broad swathes of social sentiment across many channels beyond the typical social media networks. This includes networks like Twitch, forums, Tumblr, blogs, and news sources. This full spectrum intelligence solution means that your “social” buckets aren’t silo’d from the rest of your digital intelligence collection.
- Strategic, Not Just Operational: Brandwatch feels like a layer or two above Hootsuite and their peers in terms of digital visibility focus. I can see why larger enterprises might want this birds-eye, one-stop-shop approach (if it checks all the boxes).
- Influencer Marketing Tools: Unlike Hootsuite, Brandwatch does have dedicated influencer tools and views. If influencer is an important part of your referral mix, it’s worth considering whether opting for Brandwatch will save money (and switching costs) vs standing up a separate platform
- Large Enterprise Specialist: The overall vibe I get with Brandwatch is that it’s solidly geared towards larger enterprises, almost exclusively. This likely a helpful frame to know if you are in the right place. In other words, if you don’t have $3-5K+ per month to commit to a software suite, you probably won’t be able to maximize the features, either.
What I Like About Hootsuite
Similarly, this is where I see Hootsuite standing out compared to the field:
- Bulk Scheduling Capabilities: Hootsuite is fairly unique in that it natively supports bulk scheduling (via Excel / CSV files) up to 350 posts at once. This can essentially mean you can establish a baseline campaign for the better part of a year in just one action.
- Unified Social Inbox: Like many premium social media platforms, Hootsuite now features a unified “inbox” to handle messages and events across all of your linked social accounts. Big fan of these tools.
- Team Approvals & Workflows: Mit Hootsuite können Sie Aufgaben zuweisen, Inhalte genehmigen und Workflows verwalten, was es zu einem idealen Tool für Teams macht. I also like that you can customize these permission levels and workflows based on your business needs.
- Deep & Customizable Reporting: Hootsuite also has a fairly robust set of reporting frameworks and customizations to work with, specifically for social media.
- Paid Social Tools: Hootsuite offers a dedicated toolset for paid social marketers, a huge advantage if you dabble in this arena. This is available on all pricing tiers.
- Transparent Pricing: While Hootsuite might not be the cheapest option, they are still relatively affordable compared to Brandwatch AND transparent for the first two tiers. I much prefer this approach (more on that later).
Brandwatch vs Hootsuite Integrations
Integrations are a key consideration for me when evaluating a social media platform. Mostly because I personally use a lot of different tech stacks, but also as a key variable the leads to wider adoption.
Put simply, if it’s easier to ADD and integrate to your stack, it’s a lower stakes decision.
Both Hootsuite and Brandwatch feature integration partners, but Hootsuite offers a broader base. Especially if you include their robust Zapier integrations:
On the other hand, Brandwatch features just 16 integrations natively. They hint at other integration possibilities, but hide this (annoyingly) behind a sales lead gen form:
This “get in touch” is a theme for Brandwatch (more on this in the pricing evaluation). I’m not a big fan.
If you do use one of these large enterprise suites like Hubspot or Salesforce, Brandwatch can make a lot of sense.
That being said, every integration offered by Brandwatch I was also able to find in Hootsuite’s intergation partner list:
Hootsuite also quite clearly offers MORE integrations, with well over 100 by my count, including many popular project management apps (Wrike, monday.com, Asana, etc…) and widely used comms platforms (e.g. Slack).
Hootsuite also benefits from having a fairly large Zapier network with all sorts of micro integrations to fill any gaps:

My Bottom Line on Integrations: While both platforms offer integrations, I much prefer the wider array of native integrations and larger Zapier network offered via Hootsuite here.
Vergleich von Preisplänen
Brandwatch is difficult to assess from a pricing standpoint as it’s hidden behind a sales “quote” system.
That said, from my initial probing on the sales team recently, it seems that all plans are priced on an annual basis (no monthly tiers) and get started around $20,0000-50,000 per year. In the best-case scenario, you are likely looking at $1,500+ per month for the most basic, negotiated-down package.
On the other hand, Hootsuite provides a fairly transparent entry and mid-tier pricing scale:
They are certainly not the cheapest SMM option on the market, but they are effectively a more affordable solution compared to the Brandwatch quotes I’ve seen. Just note that if you have more than 3 users, you’ll quickly be in the enterprise pricing discussion.
My bottom line on pricing: I hate quote-based pricing as you are victim to a sales process that invariably leads to overpaying or hard negotiating. Just a waste of time for everyone, except maybe the salespeople. I prefer Hootsuite’s standardized pricing to get started with (you know exactly what you pay / what you get).
Competitors to Brandwatch & Hootsuite
Context really matters in this suite class of tools. These are some other social media marketing platforms that I’ve used and might consider for slightly different looks:
- Sprout Social: Sprout Social is priced between Hootsuite and Brandwatch, starting at $249/month (but fully transparent up front, unlike Brandwatch). I like Sprout Social for their influencer analytics suite (recently acquired Taggr), making them a less expensive alternative to Brandwatch for this purpose BUT a similar suite to Hootsuite. Siehe wie Sprout Social compares to Hootsuite.
- Sprinklr: Sprinklr is most similar to Brandwatch in features and broad scope, but offers some additional customer experience and AI features. If you are leaning more towards Brandwatch, consider Sprinklr.
- Puffer: Buffer is a downmarket competitor with more entry-level pricing and a unique model that scales per social account and users. A good look if even Hootsuite is a bit out of your range to start. Siehe wie Buffer compares to Hootsuite.
- SocialPilot: SocialPilot is one of my favorite lower-cost SMM alternatives, a good fit for agency and specifically for marketing agencies that have local businesses (great Google business tools and other local features). Siehe wie SocialPilot compares to Hootsuite.
- Meltwater: Meltwater is a close comp to Brandwatch but features the influencer marketing suite that both Hootsuite and Brandwatch don’t have dedicated solutions for. They also have media analytics ideal for PR and reputation management across digital surfaces.
So Who is Best Suited for Brandwatch?
If you fit Brandwatch, you are likely a large enterprise looking for broad data insights. But there are some other specific enterprise types where Brandwatch makes more sense:
- Managing a large influencer network? I like that Brandwatch has dedicated features here for managing, measuring and optimizing influencer networks. Not every social media platform has this dedicated capability. If this sounds like you, go with Brandwatch.
- Measuring digital brand sentiment? If your use case truly expands beyond the typical social accounts to all forms of digital surface area, Brandwatch’s additional collection capabilities for news, blogs, and forums is a strong reason to consider unifying brand intelligence with their platform. If this sounds like you, go with Brandwatch.
And Who Should go with Hootsuite?
On the other hand, I think Hootsuite is more suitable for a wider range of the market segment. Specficially:
- Social media managers: If you’re wearing the social media manager hat, Hootsuite has more dedicated social media automation and analytics features, making it a clear fit if social is your primary use case. If this sounds like you, go with Hootsuite.
- Social-first brands: If social media is your primary channel, Brandwatch is likely overkill. Instead, Hootsuite offers all of the best in-class reporting, analytics, listing, inbox, and automation tools to maximize social distribution. If this sounds like you, stick with Hootsuite.
- Paid social marketers: If you are doing anything with paid spend on socials, Hootsuite is one of the few SMM platforms that adds useful features and layers to support your efforts here. If this sounds like you, go with Hootsuite.