Head to head
Hootsuite vs Vista 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
Vista Social packs a lot into one tool: scheduling to a dozen networks, a unified inbox with DM automations, listening, review management, competitor analysis, and a link-in-bio page. It used to be the cheap option, but it dropped its free plan and reset pricing higher, so the entry is now $79 a month.
- From
- $64 /mo
- Free plan
Bottom line
Vista Social is the pick for agencies and teams that want publishing, listening, and review management in one tool, and it's the cheaper start, from $64 a month. Hootsuite fits small teams that need listening and reporting in one place better.
Vista Social starts cheaper, $64 a month against $99 per user / mo for Hootsuite. They bill on different units, so the real gap depends on how much you run. Vista Social adds posting queue that Hootsuite leaves out.
Key differences
Where the two actually diverge, before the full tables.
- Vista Social starts at $64 a month, Hootsuite at $99 per user / mo.
- Hootsuite posts to 9 networks, Vista Social to 12.
- Only Vista Social reaches Google Business, Reddit, and Snapchat.
- Vista Social has posting queue; Hootsuite doesn't.
Features compared
| Feature | Hootsuite | Vista Social |
|---|---|---|
| AI captions | Yes | Yes |
| Basic analytics | Yes | Yes |
| Advanced reports | Yes | Yes |
| Bulk upload | Yes | Yes |
| Evergreen recycling | No | Partial |
| Team roles | Yes | Yes |
| Approvals | Yes | Yes |
| Link in bio | Yes | Yes |
Platforms compared
| Network | Hootsuite | Vista Social |
|---|---|---|
| Auto | Auto | |
| Auto | Auto | |
| X (Twitter) | Auto | Auto |
| Auto | Auto | |
| TikTok | Auto | Auto |
| Auto | Auto | |
| YouTube | Auto | Auto |
| Threads | Auto | Auto |
| Bluesky | Auto | Auto |
| Google Business | No | Auto |
| 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
- $64/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.
Vista Social
Professional
$64/mo billed annually
- Seats
- 3
- Accounts
- 15
- Scheduled posts
- Unlimited
- $79/mo, $64 on annual ($758/yr)
- 15 social profiles, 3 users
- Planning, engagement, reports, listening (own profiles), review management
- Vista Page link-in-bio, DM automations, 2,500 AI credits/mo
Advanced
Popular$120/mo billed annually
- Seats
- 6
- Accounts
- 30
- Scheduled posts
- Unlimited
- $149/mo, $120 on annual ($1,430/yr)
- 30 social profiles, 6 users
- Adds advanced workflows and reporting, Zapier/Make/MCP integrations
- Advanced DM automations and Vista Page, 10,000 AI credits/mo
Scale
$304/mo billed annually
- Seats
- 10
- Accounts
- 70
- Scheduled posts
- Unlimited
- $349/mo, $304 on annual ($3,638/yr)
- 70 social profiles, 10 users
- Adds white-label setup, client profile connect, unlimited AI assistant
Enterprise
- Seats
- Unlimited
- Accounts
- Unlimited
- Scheduled posts
- Unlimited
- Custom pricing, unlimited profiles and users
- Sentiment detection, premium analytics, brand safety and compliance
- Dedicated account manager, custom integrations, SSO, data migration
- Flat, quota-bundled plans: each tier bundles a set number of social profiles and users, and you move up a plan as you grow rather than buying one profile at a time. Extra users run about $3.75 a month each, and extra profiles are available on the higher tiers.
- X (Twitter) is a paid add-on at $29 a month on every plan (publishing, boosting, automations, and analytics), because of X's API pricing.
- Social listening is free for your own profiles; listening across social, web, and news is a $75-a-month add-on. Employee Advocacy is a separate $199-a-month add-on for 25 employees.
- There's no free plan (Vista Social dropped its old free tier and cheaper Standard plan when it revamped pricing); the way in is a 14-day trial, no card required.
- Annual billing is about 20% cheaper: Professional works out to $64 a month, Advanced $120, Scale $304.
- DM automation contacts are capped per plan (10,000 / 25,000 / 100,000), and the AI assistant is credit-limited (2,500 / 10,000 / unlimited a month).
- Prices are USD, read off the live pricing page by toggling monthly and yearly and cross-checked against current third-party listings.
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
Vista Social
- Broad by design: publishing, inbox, listening, reviews, and reporting together
- Wide network list, including Reddit, Snapchat, and Google Business
- Built-in link-in-bio, DM automations, and AI for copy and images
- Strong agency features on Scale: white label and client connect
- No free plan anymore, and the entry price jumped to $79 a month
- X, deeper listening, and employee advocacy are paid add-ons
- AI and DM automations are capped per plan
- A lot of tool to learn if you only need basic scheduling
Hootsuite vs Vista Social: FAQ
- Is Hootsuite or Vista Social cheaper?
- Vista Social is cheaper to start, from $64 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 Vista 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 Vista Social?
- Hootsuite is the stronger pick for small teams that need listening and reporting in one place, while Vista Social is the better fit for agencies and teams that want publishing, listening, and review management in one tool. We don't score them; the right call comes down to how you post.