Sprout Social: In-depth Review
Best For:
Pricing:
Top Features
Large businesses, Organizations
Per Month
- Expensive introductory plans.
- Competitive Benchmarking
- No team collaboration without credentials.
- Limited content curation options.
- Bot builder for Automated workflows
- Sprout browser Extension
Sprout Social Comparisons
Sprout Social Features Overview
Sprout Social is a social media management software designed to help brands to communicate with their audience, manage their presence and track their performance across multiple social platforms.
It's a tool that comes with a range of functionalities that streamline social media management activities, including content scheduling, monitoring, analytics, and team collaboration.
Below, we are going to have a look at the balanced and in-depth review of Sprout Social, which will help you find out whether it is the perfect social media management tool for your business or not.
Sprout Social's Listening Tools give you the power to monitor what's being said about your brand and your industry across the social web. This feature helps you stay informed about customer opinions, industry trends, and competitive landscapes, enabling proactive engagement and strategic adjustments
Sprout Social's Social Inbox consolidates all your social media interactions into one efficient platform, enabling quick responses and streamlined communication. It's an essential tool for maintaining an active, engaging social media presence
Let's begin.
Sprout Social is Suitable for: Medium and Large Enterprises, Social Media Managers, Freelancers and Consultants, Influencers and Bloggers.
Sprout Social Ratngs
Although Sprout Social offers quite a range of features, newer and more feature-rich options have emerged, and among them, RecurPost stands out as an exceptional choice. Let us compare the two to see which one of the social media management tools is the best fit for your case.
When comparing RecurPost to Sprout Social, it becomes evident that RecurPost offers a significant advantage with its advanced features and seamless management of social media accounts.
RecurPost provides access to a wide array of powerful tools, such as recurring schedules, AI assistant, best time schedules, white-label reports, and much more. These features surpass what Sprout Social currently provides, making RecurPost a compelling and promising alternative.
| Feature | Sprout Social | RecurPost |
|---|---|---|
| Star Rating (Out of 5) | 4.4 | 4.3 |
| Meets Requirements (Out of 10) | 8.5 | 9 |
| Ease of Use (Out of 10) | 8.9 | 9.1 |
| Quality of Support (Out of 10) | 8.8 | 8.3 |
| Product Direction (Out of 10) | 8.8 | 8.1 |
| Pricing per month (5 accounts) | $249 | $25 |
Sprout Social Reviews
Positive Reviews
I work in marketing and report to professionals who don’t have as much marketing expertise as me. Having a dashboard view of the social media statistics really helps me explain and analyze the significance of changes.
~ Tara C. (Capterra link)
We most like the ability to manage multiple accounts easily. We manage over 20 social media accounts across several platforms using Sprout Social and we have always found it very intuitive and easy to use. Adding new accounts is easy and there are several features that add value to the product that we use regularly.
~ Greg A. (Capterra link)
The snippet of information is beautiful. A very specific utility for finding specific information is the export to pdf capability, which is really nice. It is non-commercialized and adds value to my research and observations of air currents. Anyone who is at the forefront of their community is making a great effort to look like the real thing, rather than simply trying to get individuals to sign up for their internet course. One of the first things I perceived about Sprout was its reliability of the publishing module. I haven’t stopped utilizing it in the sixteen+ months I’ve been utilizing it, and it’s straightforward to navigate to update scheduled posts I’ve made.
~ Kelly S. (Capterra link)
I have been using Sprout Social to manage my social media presence for quite some time now and I can honestly say that it has been an absolute pleasure. The dashboard is extremely user-friendly and intuitive, and the features are laid out in a very logical way. It’s easy to manage multiple accounts and the reporting features are great. Highly recommend!
~ Dieudonné K. (Capterra link)
I’ve been using Sprout Social for a couple of months now and I’m really impressed with the features and the ease of use. The interface is intuitive and there are plenty of features to help manage and monitor your social media accounts. Scheduling posts is really easy and the analytics provide great insights for improving your social media strategies.
~ Yasmeen Y. (Capterra link)
Negative Reviews
Just about everything else. The data is often inconsistent and incorrect. They will tell you that they’re just tapping the APIs, which is a nice way of pointing the finger, but it’s also telling us we may as well just go straight to the source and bypass these problems. We’re spending way too much time cross-checking the data we get from Sprout, which really means we’re the dummies for bothering with this in the first place.
~ Mike P. (Capterra link)
Quite a lot. Lack of customer service. Unclear billing. Hidden fees beyond subscription plan. On-going fees and recurring costs with no clear indication of what these are for.
~ Sinead M. (Capterra link)
It is 10 times easier to use Facebook and Instagrams native tool for handling comments. A response that would normally take 5 seconds on FB and IG would take 5 times longer on Sprout. There were many glitches in the software that made it unusable as well. The support and onboarding were not helpful at all. I reached out multiple times and never got responses until I said I was going to cancel, and even then they couldn’t help. And of course they locked me into a full year contract and after 3 weeks we wanted to cancel but they wouldn’t help us at all.
~ Daniel L. (Capterra link)
The platform is very difficult to use we do not understand how to put the product online sometimes, there are even advertisements that do not go away automatically.
~ Liv S. (Capterra link)
In my opinion, this entire system could be updated. The time it takes to complete simple tasks, for instance, rescheduling multiple posts is staggering mostly because there isn’t a drag and drop feature. Changes to the calendar should appear in real time instead of having to click between multiple pages to see drafts, dates, etc. Drafts disappearing from the Sprout Social calendar when they haven’t been scheduled is also an issue–they should just go into a “drafts folder” when that happens. Direct publishing to Instagram for videos is a huge issue. Every video published from Sprout has a black box present on the feed when the post goes live meaning that we have to manually fix it every time. Sometimes hidden tags do not show up on Instagram. The permissions levels do not make sense therefore the app that it meant to tell you when posts fail in real time doesn’t actually work.
~ Abigail A. (Capterra link)
Sprout Social pros and cons
Pros
- CRM Capabilities: Unlike many other social media tools, Sprout Social includes CRM (Customer Relationship Management) features that allow you to create rich, detailed profiles of your customers. This integration enables more personalized marketing strategies and can enhance customer engagement by providing insights into past interactions and social media behavior
- Smart Inbox: Sprout Social’s Smart Inbox stands out with its ability to not only aggregate all messages from various platforms but also to filter and tag conversations for streamlined management. This allows users to prioritize responses and handle high volumes of interactions more efficiently.
- Bot Builder for Automated Workflows: Sprout Social provides a bot builder tool that helps in creating custom chatbots for Facebook and Twitter. These bots can automate part of the customer service process, provide instant responses to common inquiries, and route more complex issues to human agents.
- ViralPost Algorithm: The platform’s ViralPost feature analyzes your audience’s engagement patterns and determines the optimal times for posting content. This goes beyond basic scheduling to ensure posts have the highest potential reach and user engagement, tailored specifically to your audience’s habits
Cons
- Price Point for Advanced Features: While Sprout Social offers advanced features, accessing the full suite of tools can be cost-prohibitive for some businesses. The higher-tier plans, which include most of the unique features, come at a premium.
- Complex Interface in Advanced Modules: Some users find the interface overwhelming, particularly when dealing with more complex features like CRM integration or the analytics dashboard. The depth of functionality might require a steep learning curve beyond basic social media tasks.
- Integration Limits: Despite its robust features, Sprout Social may have limitations in integrating with lesser-known or industry-specific platforms, which can be a significant drawback for businesses relying on these tools for their operations.
- Response Time for Support: Some users have reported slower response times from customer support, especially when dealing with technical issues or during peak times, which could impact user experience and problem resolution
Sprout Social Pricing
Sprout Social offers a variety of pricing plans to cater to different needs and budgets. The ‘Standard’ plan, which is the most basic offering, costs $249 per month. It provides the core features required for social media management but is limited in terms of advanced capabilities.
Next is the ‘Professional’ plan priced at $399 per month. This plan offers additional features like competitive reports for Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, and added customer care tools, which can be beneficial for growing businesses that need to track their performance against their competitors and engage more deeply with their customer base.
Their ‘Advanced’ plan, costing $499 per month, offers all the features of the Professional plan with some extras. These include message spike alerts for sudden increases in message volume and digital asset and content library, which is beneficial for larger businesses or agencies handling multiple accounts.
Lastly, Sprout Social also provides an ‘Enterprise’ plan with custom pricing. This option is tailored for large organizations or agencies with specific needs that cannot be met by the standard plans. The Enterprise plan offers more advanced tools and customized solutions, with the price determined based on the specific requirements of the business.
Sprout Social Features
Social Listening
This feature extends beyond merely tracking likes or shares. With Sprout Social, you can monitor brand mentions across multiple platforms, track usage of specific keywords, and keep an eye on competitor activities. This deeper level of understanding helps in identifying opportunities for engagement, discerning the general sentiment around your brand, and keeping up with industry trends. The promptness this feature allows can enhance your brand’s reputation for responsiveness and engagement.
Analytics and Reporting
Sprout Social provides a robust suite of analytics tools that offer actionable insights into your social media performance. Comprehensive reports give a clear understanding of audience engagement, the success of individual posts, and the effectiveness of entire campaigns. These data-driven insights can inform your content strategy, help refine marketing tactics, and measure return on investment.
Bulk Scheduling
Sprout Social’s Bulk Scheduling feature allows users to upload and schedule multiple social media posts at once using a CSV file. This tool simplifies content management by letting you plan and execute weeks or months of posts in advance, ensuring consistent engagement across different platforms. It’s ideal for large campaigns or teams managing multiple channels, saving time and maintaining a regular posting schedule efficiently
Helpdesk Integration:
The platform can be integrated with helpdesk services like Zendesk, allowing customer support issues raised on social media to be converted into support tickets. This ensures a seamless transition from social media interaction to formal customer service processes
Team Collaboration
Sprout Social’s team collaboration tools are vital for businesses with a team-based approach to social media management. They allow for easy task assignments, approval workflows to maintain content consistency and quality, and shared Sprout Social content calendars to ensure everyone is in sync. These features foster efficient collaboration and streamline the social media management process.
Response Rate and Time Analysis
An important aspect of customer service on social media is prompt and efficient response. Sprout Social provides analysis on how quickly and effectively your team responds to customer messages. This can help identify bottlenecks, streamline your response process, and improve overall customer service.
Competitive Benchmarking
With Sprout Social, you can directly compare your social performance with that of your competitors. By understanding where you stand in terms of follower growth, engagement rates, and content success, you can adjust your strategies to stay competitive in your industry.
Content Library and Digital Asset Management
Included in the Advanced plan, this feature allows you to centrally store, manage, and organize all your digital assets. This can include images, videos, and posts. This centralization facilitates easy access and efficient use of your resources, streamlining the process of planning, creating, and publishing content.
Compare the Best Sprout Social Alternatives: Sprout Social vs. Buffer | Sprout Social Vs. Coschedule
Conclusion
While Sprout Social has robust functionalities, its pricing can be a roadblock for many. On the other hand, RecurPost, with its affordable pricing and a wide array of features, presents a compelling alternative. It’s not just about cost savings – it’s about getting more value for your investment.
One of the standout features of RecurPost is its ability to automatically recycle evergreen content. This feature allows users to maximize the lifespan and visibility of their best posts without having to manually reschedule them, ensuring continuous engagement over time
Apart from these RecurPost proves itself as a better alternative for Sprout Social because of its User-friendly Interface and extensive range of Social Platforms coverage.
With RecurPost, you’re not just managing your social media, but efficiently running your online presence. Consider RecurPost as your ultimate social media management tool and the perfect Sprout Social alternative!
Interested in a comparison between Sprout Social and Loomly? Check out our in-depth review to discover the differences and choose the right platform for your social media management needs.
Get a firsthand feel of RecurPost’s capabilities by utilizing its free trial. This trial period allows you to assess its features, providing you with a genuine understanding of its offerings!
Frequently Asked Questions
1. What social media platforms does Sprout Social support?
Sprout Social supports scheduling posts on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube, and TikTok.
2. Is Sprout Social worth it?
Sprout Social offers useful features, but there are more cost-effective social media management tools available, particularly for medium to large enterprises. Agencies can find cheaper alternatives, such as RecurPost, which fills the gaps at comparatively lesser costs.
3. Does Sprout Social have a free plan?
No, Sprout Social features pricing plans start from $249 per month. You can obtain a 30-day free trial.
4. What are the limitations of Sprout Social?
The limitations of Sprout Social include its higher cost compared to similar tools, a learning curve due to extensive features, limited customization options for reports and dashboards, absence of a free plan, and the need for an upgrade to access more comprehensive functionalities.
5. Which are the best Sprout Social alternatives?
If you’re looking for the best Sprout Social alternatives, look no further than RecurPost. It offers affordable pricing and the convenience of managing multiple social media accounts in one dashboard. You can take the free trial to experience its features.
6. How much does Sprout Social cost?
Sprout Social pricing starts at around $249 per month for the Standard plan. Pricing increases based on features, users, and plan type.
7. What is Sprout Social used for?
Sprout Social is a social media management tool used for scheduling posts, monitoring engagement, analyzing performance, and managing multiple social media accounts in one place.