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    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

    Viralheat (Discontinued)

    Score5.1 out of 10
    N/AViralheat was acquired by Cision in 2015 and rebranded Cision Social Edition. It was later discontinued.N/A
    Pricing
    Sprout SocialViralheat (Discontinued)
    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 SocialViralheat (Discontinued)
    Free Trial
    YesNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Sprout SocialViralheat (Discontinued)
    Considered Both Products
    Sprout Social
    Chose Sprout Social
    SHORTLIST:
    • Radian6
    • Act-On
    Discontinued Products
    Chose Viralheat (Discontinued)
    I like Viralheat better than Sprout Social and Hootsuite because it shows pictures that accompany your posts! Moreover, I like how the representatives are all very responsive when you have difficulties using Viralheat!
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    92%
    Would buy again
    73 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Delivers good value for the price
    96%
    Delivers good value for the price
    71 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Happy with the feature set
    96%
    Happy with the feature set
    76 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    95%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    62 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation went as expected
    96%
    Implementation went as expected
    64 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Features
    Sprout SocialViralheat (Discontinued)
    Listening/monitoring
    Comparison of Listening/monitoring features of Sprout Social and Viralheat (Discontinued)
    Feature
    Sprout Social
    7.6
    87 Ratings
    2% below category average
    Viralheat (Discontinued)
    -
    Ratings
    Boolean keyword searches7.465 Ratings00 Ratings
    Filtering out noise/spam7.276 Ratings00 Ratings
    Sentiment analysis7.156 Ratings00 Ratings
    Broad channel coverage8.765 Ratings00 Ratings
    Publishing
    Comparison of Publishing features of Sprout Social and Viralheat (Discontinued)
    Feature
    Sprout Social
    8.5
    110 Ratings
    6% above category average
    Viralheat (Discontinued)
    -
    Ratings
    Content planning and scheduling9.5110 Ratings00 Ratings
    Audience targeting7.687 Ratings00 Ratings
    Content optimization8.296 Ratings00 Ratings
    Workflow management8.796 Ratings00 Ratings
    Engagement
    Comparison of Engagement features of Sprout Social and Viralheat (Discontinued)
    Feature
    Sprout Social
    8.0
    100 Ratings
    1% above category average
    Viralheat (Discontinued)
    -
    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 Viralheat (Discontinued)
    Feature
    Sprout Social
    7.2
    78 Ratings
    7% below category average
    Viralheat (Discontinued)
    -
    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 Viralheat (Discontinued)
    Feature
    Sprout Social
    8.6
    110 Ratings
    2% above category average
    Viralheat (Discontinued)
    -
    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 Viralheat (Discontinued)
    Feature
    Sprout Social
    8.8
    111 Ratings
    11% above category average
    Viralheat (Discontinued)
    -
    Ratings
    Campaign success analytics8.8103 Ratings00 Ratings
    Real-time tracking8.6100 Ratings00 Ratings
    Competitor analysis8.889 Ratings00 Ratings
    Account management
    Comparison of Account management features of Sprout Social and Viralheat (Discontinued)
    Feature
    Sprout Social
    7.8
    104 Ratings
    3% below category average
    Viralheat (Discontinued)
    -
    Ratings
    Role-based user permissions & privileges7.999 Ratings00 Ratings
    Mobile access7.892 Ratings00 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Sprout SocialViralheat (Discontinued)
    Small Businesses
    Sendible
    Score7.6 out of 10
    Sendible
    Score7.6 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Vista Social
    Score9.5 out of 10
    Vista Social
    Score9.5 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Salesforce Marketing Cloud Social Studio (discontinued)
    Score7.3 out of 10
    Salesforce Marketing Cloud Social Studio (discontinued)
    Score7.3 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Sprout SocialViralheat (Discontinued)
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.7
    (168 ratings)
    8.3
    (14 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    9.5
    (65 ratings)
    8.3
    (13 ratings)
    Usability
    8.6
    (95 ratings)
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    Availability
    7.7
    (8 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Performance
    8.0
    (7 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Support Rating
    4.2
    (38 ratings)
    8.8
    (2 ratings)
    Online Training
    7.3
    (3 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    10.0
    (11 ratings)
    8.2
    (1 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    7.8
    (23 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Sprout SocialViralheat (Discontinued)
    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
    Discontinued Products
    If social is a big part of your business in more departments than just marketing and communications (marcom), make sure to let the team know and ask how Viralheat can accommodate multiple users and departments. Viralheat was great during the evaluation process because they were willing to show us exactly what they could do for our company - they even customized accounts for us to show us the true value of signing on.
    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
    Discontinued Products
    • Viralheat’s reporting feature delivers analytics in presentation-grade spreadsheets. I include these images in reports or presentations to different teams.
    • Monitoring is definitely a strong point. I am not limited by a conversation or mention limitation, which is especially important when tracking high-volume products or brands. We are able to quickly identify trends and act accordingly.
    • The user experience is a pleasant one. Viralheat offers many comprehensive features but the layout of the product is simple and intuitive. I’m able to access any feature without having to click around into multiple places.
    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
    Discontinued Products
    • Not being able to reference in the native platform (e.g. LinkedIn, Facebook) the name of companies or users referenced in a post.
    • Not being able to embed images natively. (e.g. Image attached to a post on Viralheat shows up as a url link on the native platform).
    • Would love to see a calendar view of the scheduled posts as well as the current list view.
    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
    Discontinued Products
    Viralheat provided our team with the kind of monitoring tool we were looking for. As an added bonus, they had a member of their team brainstorm the best ways for us to set up our account to ensure we weren’t missing anything. Great customer service.
    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
    Discontinued Products
    I found it really easy to use and I use it on a daily basis and can easily find my way around. It has the usability of a consumer application for an Enterprise product that does very complex things in a very elegant manner.
    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
    Discontinued Products
    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
    Discontinued Products
    No answers on this topic
    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
    Discontinued Products
    The customer success team clearly cares about how well we do. They are quick to get back to us and they always offer to jump on a screen share so we can understand and learn new features.
    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
    Discontinued Products
    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
    Discontinued Products
    We were up and running within an hour.
    Read full review
    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
    Discontinued Products
    We chose Viralheat because it allowed us to do multiple things from one tool. We were able to monitor our brand mentions after each video, song, or album release - this provided us with valuable feedback abouout our brand and music. We were also able to connect our accounts and engage directly with our fans as well as post new content. We monitored the analytics around each release and campaign and were able to determine which were successful.
    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
    Discontinued Products
    • Viralheat has helped me understand how real-life users react to things I build and/or test.
    • I’ve gotten a better understanding of my space and the relevant news surrounding it. This helps me build a better product.
    • It saves me a lot of time. I’m able to quickly monitor what’s important to me.
    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.