TrustRadius: an HG Insights company

Save this comparison

Save this comparison

Add Product

Recommended Comparisons

    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Sprout Social

    Score8.6 out of 10
    N/ASprout Social provides social media management, marketing, customer care, data and intelligence, and employee advocacy solutions for brands and agencies, including Ticketmaster, Chipotle, Grubhub, Subaru, and Zendesk. Sprout’s platform is used to simplify social publishing, engagement, reviews, analytics and listening for customers. Sprout also provides customer success and technical support, to deliver consistent value to all users. Any organization, regardless of size or industry, receives…

    $249

    per month per user

    Talkwalker by Hootsuite

    Score9.1 out of 10
    N/ATalkwalker is a consumer intelligence company that bring sin data from 30+ social networks, 150 million websites, and 100 data partners to give customers a unified view of their consumers. Talkwalker is a Hootsuite solution since the 2024 acquisition.N/A
    Pricing
    Sprout SocialTalkwalker by Hootsuite
    Editions & Modules
    Standard
    $199 annual / $249 monthly
    per user/per month
    Professional
    $299 annual / $399 monthly
    per user/per month
    Advanced
    $399 annual / $499 monthly
    per user/per month
    Free Trial
    Free
    for 30 days
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Sprout SocialTalkwalker by Hootsuite
    Free Trial
    YesYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoYes
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Sprout SocialTalkwalker by Hootsuite
    Considered Both Products
    Sprout Social
    No answer on this topic
    Hootsuite
    Chose Talkwalker by Hootsuite
    Sprout Social seemed like a really great tool, but a lot of the features on Talkwalker were more what we were looking for in terms of reporting and the deeper listening software available. Social listening seemed more new to Sprout Social so we wanted a product with more …
    Incentivized
    Chose Talkwalker by Hootsuite
    Talkwalker is a complete package and within budgets and easy to use.
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    92%
    Would buy again
    73 Answers
    100%
    Would buy again
    6 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    96%
    Delivers good value for the price
    71 Answers
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    5 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    96%
    Happy with the feature set
    76 Answers
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    6 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    95%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    62 Answers
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    5 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    96%
    Implementation went as expected
    64 Answers
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    5 Answers
    Features
    Sprout SocialTalkwalker by Hootsuite
    Listening/monitoring
    Comparison of Listening/monitoring features of Sprout Social and Talkwalker by Hootsuite
    Feature
    Sprout Social
    7.6
    87 Ratings
    2% below category average
    Talkwalker by Hootsuite
    -
    Ratings
    Boolean keyword searches7.465 Ratings00 Ratings
    Filtering out noise/spam7.176 Ratings00 Ratings
    Sentiment analysis7.156 Ratings00 Ratings
    Broad channel coverage8.765 Ratings00 Ratings
    Publishing
    Comparison of Publishing features of Sprout Social and Talkwalker by Hootsuite
    Feature
    Sprout Social
    8.5
    110 Ratings
    6% above category average
    Talkwalker by Hootsuite
    -
    Ratings
    Content planning and scheduling9.5110 Ratings00 Ratings
    Audience targeting7.687 Ratings00 Ratings
    Content optimization8.396 Ratings00 Ratings
    Workflow management8.796 Ratings00 Ratings
    Engagement
    Comparison of Engagement features of Sprout Social and Talkwalker by Hootsuite
    Feature
    Sprout Social
    8.0
    100 Ratings
    1% above category average
    Talkwalker by Hootsuite
    -
    Ratings
    Automated routing and prioritization7.962 Ratings00 Ratings
    Customer interaction histories8.088 Ratings00 Ratings
    Bulk actions8.185 Ratings00 Ratings
    Marketing
    Comparison of Marketing features of Sprout Social and Talkwalker by Hootsuite
    Feature
    Sprout Social
    7.2
    78 Ratings
    7% below category average
    Talkwalker by Hootsuite
    -
    Ratings
    Lead generation7.257 Ratings00 Ratings
    Content marketing8.474 Ratings00 Ratings
    Paid media management6.23 Ratings00 Ratings
    Campaigns and promotions7.24 Ratings00 Ratings
    Channel coverage/integration
    Comparison of Channel coverage/integration features of Sprout Social and Talkwalker by Hootsuite
    Feature
    Sprout Social
    8.6
    110 Ratings
    2% above category average
    Talkwalker by Hootsuite
    -
    Ratings
    Twitter9.098 Ratings00 Ratings
    Facebook9.2109 Ratings00 Ratings
    LinkedIn9.0100 Ratings00 Ratings
    Google+7.636 Ratings00 Ratings
    Instagram9.199 Ratings00 Ratings
    Pinterest8.633 Ratings00 Ratings
    YouTube8.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Reporting/analytics
    Comparison of Reporting/analytics features of Sprout Social and Talkwalker by Hootsuite
    Feature
    Sprout Social
    8.8
    111 Ratings
    11% above category average
    Talkwalker by Hootsuite
    -
    Ratings
    Campaign success analytics8.9103 Ratings00 Ratings
    Real-time tracking8.6100 Ratings00 Ratings
    Competitor analysis8.889 Ratings00 Ratings
    Account management
    Comparison of Account management features of Sprout Social and Talkwalker by Hootsuite
    Feature
    Sprout Social
    7.8
    104 Ratings
    3% below category average
    Talkwalker by Hootsuite
    -
    Ratings
    Role-based user permissions & privileges7.999 Ratings00 Ratings
    Mobile access7.892 Ratings00 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Sprout SocialTalkwalker by Hootsuite
    Small Businesses
    Sendible
    Score7.6 out of 10
    Followerwonk
    Score6.8 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Vista Social
    Score9.5 out of 10
    Crowdbooster (discontinued)
    Score7 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Salesforce Marketing Cloud Social Studio (discontinued)
    Score7.3 out of 10
    1-Social
    Score8 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Sprout SocialTalkwalker by Hootsuite
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.7
    (168 ratings)
    8.3
    (13 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    9.5
    (65 ratings)
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    Usability
    8.6
    (95 ratings)
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    Availability
    7.7
    (8 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Performance
    8.0
    (7 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Support Rating
    4.1
    (38 ratings)
    8.0
    (4 ratings)
    Online Training
    7.3
    (3 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    10.0
    (11 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    7.8
    (23 ratings)
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Sprout SocialTalkwalker by Hootsuite
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Sprout Social
    IMO it's best for an organization that has a lot of different people working on social media. They could be in different departments or just different members of the same team responsible for different types of posts (corporate, e-commerce, branding, etc.). I don't think it's as vital for a one-person team working solely within the Meta platform, for instance, especially if they're less concerned with detailed analytics.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Hootsuite
    Talkwalker is well suited for big companies and agencies that are looking for a long-term solution to keep track of the industry and/or their brands and key competitors. While setup requires a bit of dedication (especially in terms of custom filters and tags), once it's done, the tool will give the user a lot of flexibility to analyze the conversations and find the relevant results that answer the business questions. Companies just looking for a tool to track a short time period, or simple things like Twitter hashtags, won't take advantage of the full capabilities of this tool. Therefore, they could feel frustrated when comparing the outcomes/usage versus the costs.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Sprout Social
    • For each account, customize posts for each platform, and schedule them to go live simultaneously.
    • Employee Advocacy via Sprout Social has integrated AI assistance for captions. Usually I would generate one suggested caption for employees to use/stem from when re-sharing to their socials. But now, EA message ideas display in random orders to better promote the full range of content.
    • Sprout Social has made the option to gamify the sharing concept quite easily with Employee Advocacy. Using the Leaderboard feature, employees can earn points in Employee Advocacy. Customized point values ensure you know how to climb the Leaderboard and start some friendly competition.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Hootsuite
    • Truly global listening platform - monitor a deep range of media types from all over the world. Particularly strong in supporting competitive monitoring and analysis briefs across regions and countries. It monitors content in original language which I believe is a very strong monitoring factor.
    • Easy to use yet powerful dashboard visualisations - the dashboard interface is among the best I have seen. While it can accomplish many things, and under the hood is a very powerful and complex tool, the user interface is very intuitive, slick, quick and packed with all the KPIs you could want.
    • Customisation of the tool is a great feature. You can build your own dashboard and reporting spaces to suit your needs. You can schedule alerts from the system in a variety of outputs to keep you up to date with the latest events.
    • Customer support & technological advancement - the team at Talkwalker are highly proficient, always willing to support our every need, however big or small. Talkwalker aim to release around 4 software updates each year which means the platform is always full of the latest data visualisations and monitoring technologies
    • Having 'traditional' media monitored alongside social as well as owned media assets in one dashboard space is invaluable to help brands understand where their media footprint lies and how they perform in each media set, relative to the others.
    • AI - Talkwalker has introduced greater AI capabilities recently which means the capability of the tool in monitoring is ever-increasing, and the accuracy of targeting content and sentiment analysis is improving. The Visual Insights and image recognition technology is a really strong feature, and a very welcome addition to the monitoring aspect
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Sprout Social
    • Social media platforms don't always play nice with Sprout so it will always be a challenge to get all integrations to work properly.
    • Sprout Social is a growing organization and they are acquiring new technologies, which can be good. However, they often spend time in meetings upselling new services. I like to learn about enhancements and opportunities but prefer to focus on my investments first.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Hootsuite
    • The system is complicated. With everything that you're able to do, it does come at the cost of simplicity. It definitely requires training and a high level of expertise to properly leverage what it can do.
    • The system can be slow. If you "ask" it to do too many things at once, it can get hung up and do the spin of doom.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Sprout Social
    I like Sprout for our needs and I like that it is easy to use. We want something better than HootSuite but don't need a high-level fancy program. The only think I don't like is customer service (except for chat).
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Hootsuite
    Love it! In most cases, Talkwalker is a no-brainer: I can confidently recommend it to clients.
    Read full review
    Usability
    Sprout Social
    Sprout Social's ease of use and navigation throughout the technology are relatively easy to figure out and teach. We also had a representative thoroughly walk us through the features and functionality to set us up for success in using the platform. I didn’t give it a ten because there were times when the navigation didn’t make sense, but once you figured out the quirks, it didn’t cause any trouble.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Hootsuite
    Despite all the functionalities available on the platform, I never felt overwhelmed or confused
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    Sprout Social
    Uptime was OK, but given the fact that we are in Europe, there were some specific problems: They tended to take the system down for maintenance during the night in the US, which was during our workday. This was definitely problematic and hard to explain to our clients.
    Read full review
    Hootsuite
    No answers on this topic
    Performance
    Sprout Social
    It is quick to post, however you have to refresh the page every time you add a new scheduled item.
    Read full review
    Hootsuite
    Talkwalker gets the job done at a basic level. It performs regular indexing of existing webpages and tracks the instances in which a particular brand or company is mentioned. Especially for being free, this is an awesome resource. However, it should be said that this product does not perform nearly at the level of the paid options.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    Sprout Social
    Sprout Social's customer support is extremely responsive. They're also always looking for suggestions on how they can make the product better and will actually take your ideas to their team to see if they're worth implementing. I've never had an issue that couldn't be resolved by them in a timely manner.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Hootsuite
    They are very helpful, but can sometimes be a little too quick and not explain things in as great a depth as we would like. They have great staff and programs, and we don't really have any other major complaints. Support is very responsive and helpful when need be.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Online Training
    Sprout Social
    Their training is good, but the promotion of it is even better. I don't need or have the time for training, but I was always happy to know it was there. They did a great job sending updates out and making me aware when there was a new feature that I may want training for. As for the training I never used it, so I can't comment on that
    Read full review
    Hootsuite
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation Rating
    Sprout Social
    Make sure you do it all the way. Do not break it into phases. Pour yourself a coffee, start it in the morning and you'll be done before you finish that coffee.
    Read full review
    Hootsuite
    No answers on this topic
    Alternatives Considered
    Sprout Social
    We are constantly exploring our options and looking for the most cutting-edge products that suit our needs as a business. Sprout ticked the boxes for what we needed when it was time for a change. Both are powerful tools, and you can only see by doing.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Hootsuite
    I have yet to find another tool that would provide me with such a detailed information per query. It's such a find! Plus, I get separate emails per a search query and I'm able to archive those emails to the appropriate folders and always have a way of looking back. It's very useful for building monthly reports.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    Sprout Social
    • One positive impact has been a huge time saver for our team. Where we once had multiple systems and delays from producing content to approval to publishing, now everything is seamless.
    • Another positive impact is streamlining the onboarding process for new team members. Sprout Social is user-friendly and intuitive, making it easy to study even for someone completely new to social media.
    • One negative impact has been the time it takes to wade through irrelevant social listening posts. The filtering is not effective enough to eliminate the noise.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Hootsuite
    • The free tool is a no-brainer. It absolutely helps ferret out mentions on social media that I wasn't aware of before.
    • Now, I can use the tool for clients, too, so for consultants, it can be a great way to help stay on top of what's being said about them online, as well.
    • Using the paid version would help delve into even more insights for your business.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    Sprout Social Screenshots

    Screenshot of Sprout’s social media publishing tools, used to schedule and post messages to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and LinkedIn simultaneously from a single Compose window.