Head to head
Birdeye vs Hootsuite
Last updated 21 July 2026
vs
Birdeye is a reputation and customer-experience platform, reviews, listings, messaging, surveys, with social media management bolted on. It's priced per location, from around $299 a month, and aimed at multi-location brands rather than creators or small teams.
- From
- $299 per location / mo
- Free plan
Hootsuite does more than schedule: listening, a shared inbox, and deep reporting sit in one dashboard, and you pay for the breadth. It starts at $99 a user each month and there's no longer a free plan.
- From
- $99 per user / mo
- Free plan
Bottom line
Hootsuite is the pick for small teams that need listening and reporting in one place, and it's the cheaper start, from $99 per user / mo. Birdeye fits multi-location brands and franchises focused on reviews and reputation better.
Hootsuite starts cheaper, $99 per user / mo against $299 per location / mo for Birdeye. They bill on different units, so the real gap depends on how much you run. Hootsuite adds ad management that Birdeye leaves out.
Key differences
Where the two actually diverge, before the full tables.
- Hootsuite starts at $99 per user / mo, Birdeye at $299 per location / mo.
- Birdeye posts to 8 networks, Hootsuite to 9.
- Only Birdeye reaches Google Business.
- Only Hootsuite reaches Threads and Bluesky.
- Hootsuite has ad management; Birdeye doesn't.
Features compared
| Feature | Birdeye | Hootsuite |
|---|---|---|
| AI captions | Yes | Yes |
| Basic analytics | Yes | Yes |
| Advanced reports | Yes | Yes |
| Bulk upload | Not assessed | Yes |
| Evergreen recycling | No | No |
| Team roles | Yes | Yes |
| Approvals | Yes | Yes |
| Link in bio | Not assessed | Yes |
Platforms compared
| Network | Birdeye | Hootsuite |
|---|---|---|
| Auto | Auto | |
| Auto | Auto | |
| X (Twitter) | Auto | Auto |
| Auto | Auto | |
| TikTok | Auto | Auto |
| Auto | Auto | |
| YouTube | Auto | Auto |
| Threads | No | Auto |
| Bluesky | No | Auto |
| Google Business | Auto | No |
Pricing
Headline prices are for a single unit. Here is the real monthly cost as each tool scales, costed on its own unit so the two stay honest.
Birdeye
Starter
$299 per location / mo
- About $299 per location/mo
- Core review management and reputation tools
- Basic social publishing
Growth
Popular$349 per location / mo
- About $349 per location/mo
- Adds Social AI for publishing and replies
- Reviews, listings, messaging, and analytics
Dominate
$449 per location / mo
- About $449 per location/mo
- Adds a dedicated chatbot AI
- Full reputation, social, and customer-experience suite
- Birdeye is priced per location, starting around $299 (Starter), $349 (Growth), and $449 (Dominate) a month per location. These are starting rates; multi-location and enterprise deals are custom-quoted, and many buyers negotiate.
- It's a reputation and customer-experience platform first, reviews, listings, webchat, surveys, and referrals, with social media management as one module. Social AI arrives on Growth.
- There's no free plan and no public self-serve checkout; you go through sales.
- Prices are USD from current listings; Birdeye doesn't publish a fixed price ladder, so treat these as approximate starting points.
Hootsuite
Standard
Custom
$99/mo billed annually
- Seats
- 1
- Accounts
- 10
- Scheduled posts
- Unlimited
- $99 per user/mo billed annually
- Up to 10 social accounts
- Unlimited scheduling, AI assistant, one inbox
Professional
PopularCustom
$199/mo billed annually
- Seats
- 1
- Accounts
- Unlimited
- Scheduled posts
- Unlimited
- $199 per user/mo billed annually
- Unlimited social accounts
- Automations for repetitive work
- No approval workflows (Hootsuite points approval-heavy teams at Advanced)
Advanced
Custom
$399/mo billed annually
- Seats
- 1
- Accounts
- Unlimited
- Scheduled posts
- Unlimited
- $399 per user/mo billed annually
- Approval workflows, team assignments, custom reports
- Customer care routing
Enterprise
Custom
- Accounts
- Unlimited
- Custom pricing, 5+ users, unlimited accounts
- SSO, employee advocacy (Amplify), premium listening
- Salesforce, review management, compliance integrations
- Hootsuite restructured its lineup between June and July 2026: a Professional tier at $199 now sits between Standard ($99) and Advanced (previously $249 on annual, now $399), and the trial dropped from 30 days to 14.
- Priced per user/seat: the headline $99 / $199 / $399 is for one seat and multiplies by how many people you add.
- The advertised prices are the billed-annually rates. Monthly billing exists for all three self-serve plans at a higher per-seat rate, but Hootsuite no longer prints the monthly figures on the plans page; they appear at checkout. Before the restructure, Standard was $149 monthly vs $99 annual.
- No free plan. The 14-day trial needs no credit card. Nonprofit discounts exist on some plans.
- Prices are USD list from the plans page structured data (offers marked 'Billed annually'), read 2026-07-21.
Pros and cons
Birdeye
- Best-in-class review and reputation management
- Social publishing, inbox, and AI in the same platform
- Revenue-tied outcome dashboards and listening
- Built for multi-location scale
- Social is a secondary module, not a dedicated scheduler
- Expensive: per-location pricing from ~$299/mo, sales-led only
- No free plan or self-serve checkout
- Overkill if reputation isn't your priority
Hootsuite
- Broad by design: scheduling, listening, inbox, and reporting together
- Deep analytics and competitor benchmarking
- Publishes to nine networks, including Bluesky and Threads
- Strong approval workflows on Advanced and up
- Expensive, and per-seat pricing climbs quickly
- No free plan, and the entry price is $99 a month
- Monthly billing costs far more than annual
- The depth is overkill if you only schedule a few accounts
Birdeye vs Hootsuite: FAQ
- Is Birdeye or Hootsuite cheaper?
- Hootsuite is cheaper to start, from $99 against $299 for Birdeye. The unit each one charges by differs, so the real bill depends on how many channels or seats you run.
- Does Birdeye or Hootsuite have a free plan?
- Neither has a free plan. You get a free trial to test things, then you pay.
- Which is better, Birdeye or Hootsuite?
- Birdeye is the stronger pick for multi-location brands and franchises focused on reviews and reputation, while Hootsuite is the better fit for small teams that need listening and reporting in one place. We don't score them; the right call comes down to how you post.