Head to head
Hootsuite vs SmarterQueue
Last updated 4 June 2026
vs
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
SmarterQueue is built around evergreen recycling and content curation: you sort posts into categories, it re-shares the best ones automatically with small variations, and a curation tool helps you find fresh content to fill the gaps. It runs two flat plans with a profiles slider, no free plan, and a trial that starts after your first queued post.
- From
- $21 /mo
- Free plan
Bottom line
Hootsuite and SmarterQueue both cover the basics; the right one comes down to how you post. Hootsuite is the stronger pick for Small teams that need listening and reporting in one place; choose SmarterQueue for Creators and small businesses who want evergreen recycling and curation.
Features compared
| Feature | Hootsuite | SmarterQueue |
|---|---|---|
| AI captions | Yes | Yes |
| Basic analytics | Yes | Yes |
| Advanced reports | Yes | Yes |
| Bulk upload | Yes | Yes |
| Evergreen recycling | No | Yes |
| Team roles | Yes | Yes |
| Approvals | Yes | Yes |
| Link in bio | Yes | No |
Platforms compared
| Network | Hootsuite | SmarterQueue |
|---|---|---|
| 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 |
Pricing
Hootsuite
Standard
$149 per user / mo
$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$399 per user / mo
$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
Custom
- 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.
SmarterQueue
Pro
$25 /mo
$21/mo billed annually
- Seats
- 1
- Accounts
- 5
- $25/mo, $21 on annual; base covers 5 social profiles and 1 user
- 1 workspace, 10 content categories, 1 RSS importer
- 100 scheduled posts and 100 published posts per profile a month
- 10,000 AI words a month
Team
Popular$50 /mo
$42/mo billed annually
- Seats
- 3
- Accounts
- 5
- $50/mo, $42 on annual; base covers 5 social profiles and 3 users
- Unlimited workspaces, 20 content categories, 3 RSS importers, advanced importer
- 250 scheduled and 200 published posts per profile a month, advanced analytics
- 25,000 AI words a month
- Two plans, Pro and Team, with a slider: the base price covers 5 social profiles and the bundled users, and you add more profiles and users to scale, so the monthly cost grows with the slider. SmarterQueue recently replaced its older Solo / Business / Agency lineup with this Pro / Team-plus-slider structure.
- There's no free plan, only a free trial whose timer starts after your first queued post rather than at signup.
- Annual billing is 15% cheaper: at the 5-profile base, Pro is $21 a month and Team $42.
- Extra social profiles and extra users are add-ons priced through the slider. AI caption writing is metered (10,000 words a month on Pro, 25,000 on Team), and X posting is capped at 5 tweets a week.
- Nonprofits, charities, schools, and full-time students get 50% off.
- Prices are USD, read off the live pricing page with the currency switched to USD and the billing toggled; the GBP figures (about £17 and £34 a month on annual) cross-check to the same numbers.
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
SmarterQueue
- Strong category-based evergreen recycling with text and media variations
- Built-in content curation and importer to keep the queue full
- Fairly priced, with competitor analysis and a social inbox included
- Publishes to nine networks with an AI caption writer
- No free plan, and the trial timer starts after your first queued post
- AI words are metered and X posting is capped at five a week
- No visual feed planner or link-in-bio
- Profiles and users scale the price through the slider
Hootsuite vs SmarterQueue: FAQ
- Is Hootsuite or SmarterQueue cheaper?
- SmarterQueue is cheaper to start, from $21 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 SmarterQueue 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 SmarterQueue?
- Hootsuite is the stronger pick for small teams that need listening and reporting in one place, while SmarterQueue is the better fit for creators and small businesses who want evergreen recycling and curation. We don't score them; the right call comes down to how you post.