Head to head
Hootsuite vs Sked Social
Last updated 4 June 2026
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
Sked Social started life as Schedugram, the Instagram scheduler, and grew into a broader agency tool: a visual feed planner, bulk scheduling, a unified inbox, listening, and reporting across ten networks. Flat plans run from $24 a month on annual billing, with profile and user add-ons.
- From
- $24 /mo
- Free plan
Bottom line
Sked Social is the pick for Instagram-led agencies and brands that plan visually, and it's the cheaper start, from $24 a month. Hootsuite fits small teams that need listening and reporting in one place better, and it adds ad management that Sked Social leaves out.
Sked Social starts cheaper, $24 a month against $99 per user / mo for Hootsuite. They bill on different units, so the real gap depends on how much you run. Hootsuite adds ad management that Sked Social leaves out.
Key differences
Where the two actually diverge, before the full tables.
- Sked Social starts at $24 a month, Hootsuite at $99 per user / mo.
- Hootsuite posts to 9 networks, Sked Social to 10.
- Only Hootsuite reaches Bluesky.
- Only Sked Social reaches Google Business and Snapchat.
- Hootsuite has ad management; Sked Social doesn't.
Features compared
| Feature | Hootsuite | Sked Social |
|---|---|---|
| AI captions | Yes | Yes |
| Basic analytics | Yes | Yes |
| Advanced reports | Yes | Yes |
| Bulk upload | Yes | Yes |
| Evergreen recycling | No | No |
| Team roles | Yes | Yes |
| Approvals | Yes | Yes |
| Link in bio | Yes | Yes |
Platforms compared
| Network | Hootsuite | Sked Social |
|---|---|---|
| Auto | Auto | |
| Auto | Auto | |
| X (Twitter) | Auto | Auto |
| Auto | Auto | |
| TikTok | Auto | Auto |
| Auto | Auto | |
| YouTube | Auto | Auto |
| Threads | Auto | Auto |
| Bluesky | Auto | No |
| Google Business | No | Auto |
| Snapchat | No | Auto |
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.
No free plan; 30-day trial.
- 1 seat
- $149/mo~$99/mo annual
- 3 seatsTypical
- $447/mo~$297/mo annual
Cheapest plan: Standard.
No free plan; 14-day trial.
- Cheapest paid plan
- $24/mo
Whole-plan price; it doesn't scale per unit.
Hootsuite
Standard
$99/mo billed annually
- Seats
- 1
- Accounts
- 10
- Scheduled posts
- Unlimited
- $99 per user/mo on annual, $149 monthly
- Up to 10 social accounts
- Unlimited scheduling, AI assistant, one inbox
- 7-day mention search, benchmark vs 5 competitors
Advanced
Popular$249/mo billed annually
- Seats
- 1
- Accounts
- Unlimited
- Scheduled posts
- Unlimited
- $249 per user/mo on annual, $399 monthly
- Unlimited social accounts
- Bulk schedule up to 350 posts at once
- Custom reports, approval workflows, 30-day listening
Enterprise
- Accounts
- Unlimited
- Custom pricing, 5+ users, unlimited accounts
- SSO, employee advocacy (Amplify), premium listening
- Salesforce, review management, compliance integrations
- Priced per user/seat: the headline $99 / $249 is for one seat and multiplies by how many people you add.
- No free plan. There's a 30-day trial, and the 25% trial-skip discount only applies on annual billing.
- Annual billing is much cheaper than monthly: Standard is $99 vs $149 a seat, Advanced $249 vs $399.
- Prices are USD list. Hootsuite renders prices client-side in local currency by region, so the annual figures were read off the live plans page and the monthly figures corroborated against current third-party listings.
What it really costs
Hootsuite charges per seat, so the headline price is for one. Here is the monthly cost as you connect more, with the 3-seat row marked as a realistic setup.
| seats | Standard | Advanced |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | $149/mo | $399/mo |
| 3Typical | $447/mo | $1197/mo |
| 5 | $745/mo | $1995/mo |
| 10 | $1490/mo | $3990/mo |
| 25 | $3725/mo | $9975/mo |
| 50 | $7450/mo | $19950/mo |
Monthly billing.
Sked Social
Basic
$24/mo billed annually
- Seats
- 1
- Accounts
- 1
- Scheduled posts
- Unlimited
- $29/mo, $24 on annual
- 1 profile per platform, 1 user, unlimited scheduling
- Visual planner, AI captions, social inbox, analytics
Grow
Popular$58/mo billed annually
- Seats
- 3
- Accounts
- 6
- Scheduled posts
- Unlimited
- $69/mo, $58 on annual
- 6 profiles (extra at $8/mo), 3 users
- Adds collaboration, team workflows, and basic approvals
Accelerate
$166/mo billed annually
- Seats
- 6
- Accounts
- 10
- Scheduled posts
- Unlimited
- $199/mo, $166 on annual
- 10 profiles (extra at $10/mo), 6+ users (extra at $15/mo)
- Adds advanced approvals, external review portals, role-level permissions, dedicated support
Custom
- Seats
- Unlimited
- Accounts
- Unlimited
- Scheduled posts
- Unlimited
- From $299/mo, custom profiles and users
- Enterprise support and onboarding
- Flat, quota-bundled plans: each tier bundles social profiles and users. Extra profiles are about $8 a month on Grow and $10 on Accelerate, and extra users about $15 a month.
- There's no free plan, only a 14-day trial, no card required.
- Annual billing is roughly 17% cheaper (two months free): Basic works out to about $24 a month, Grow $58, Accelerate $166.
- Sked's plan names and prices have shifted over time, so older listings vary; these are the current Basic / Grow / Accelerate / Custom figures.
- Prices are USD; the live page also offers AUD, GBP, and EUR.
Pros and cons
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
Sked Social
- Strong Instagram visual feed planner
- Bulk scheduling, unified inbox, listening, and competitor monitoring
- Approvals and external client review portals on Accelerate
- Ten networks, including Snapchat and Google Business
- No evergreen recycling
- Plan names and prices have shifted over time
- Profiles and users cost extra on top of the plan
- Mid-range pricing for the fuller feature set
Hootsuite vs Sked Social: FAQ
- Is Hootsuite or Sked Social cheaper?
- Sked Social is cheaper to start, from $24 against $99 for Hootsuite. The unit each one charges by differs, so the real bill depends on how many channels or seats you run.
- Does Hootsuite or Sked Social have a free plan?
- Neither has a free plan. You get a free trial to test things, then you pay.
- Which is better, Hootsuite or Sked Social?
- Hootsuite is the stronger pick for small teams that need listening and reporting in one place, while Sked Social is the better fit for Instagram-led agencies and brands that plan visually. We don't score them; the right call comes down to how you post.