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SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGEMENT · MIGRATION GUIDE

Switching from Sprout Social to Hootsuite

Moving from Sprout to Hootsuite can lower per-seat costs where you need unlimited profiles, and brings listening and ads into every plan. Posts move by CSV.

Jump to migration steps Read the full comparison
By Bill Belcamino · Last updated September 19, 2026 · Our methodologyResearched and fact-checked by the HelpCompare team
Switching from Sprout Social to HootsuiteVerified Sep 19, 2026
Bill Belcamino
Bottom line up frontby Bill Belcamino, founder of HelpCompare
Editorial assessment

Bottom line up front: When does leaving Sprout Social for Hootsuite not make sense?

When your team lives on approvals, because they move from Sprout Professional at $299 a seat to Hootsuite Advanced at $399 a user, both on annual billing.

The move does fit a team that needs unlimited profiles without approvals: Hootsuite Professional is $199 a user against Sprout's $299, with basic listening and ads on every plan. Compliance is the second check, since Sprout offers a HIPAA BAA, SCIM and IP allowlisting and we found none of the three documented for Hootsuite. The piece that quietly breaks is the plumbing. If Sprout messages feed a helpdesk or reviews get routed to a named person, those handoffs vanish at cutover and customer issues fall between two tools without anyone noticing. Before you cancel, export Smart Inbox messages with Inbox Export, list every integration and routing rule, and send a test message through each rebuilt path in Hootsuite.

My read of the verified data on this page, checked against vendor sources on September 19, 2026. Disagree or spot an error? Tell Bill

Estimate · your inputs

Switching Cost & Friction Estimator

Most buyers only budget for the new subscription. This estimates the hidden labor, data-cleanup, and retraining cost of actually making the switch.

25,000
10

Estimate assumes: 1 hour of data-mapping/cleaning labor per 2,000 records, a blended $75/hr ops rate, tiered migration & cleaning tooling fees, and 4 hours of retraining per seat at a $45/hr fully-loaded rate.

Estimated Migration Time —
Data Friction Rating —
Total Hidden Switching Cost $0

    Why teams move from Sprout Social to Hootsuite

    Listening and ads included

    Basic listening and ads publishing on every Hootsuite plan.

    Unlimited accounts for less

    Hootsuite Professional is $199 a user; Sprout’s unlimited-profile tier is $299.

    Bulk scheduling on every paid plan

    Hootsuite’s Bulk Composer takes up to 350 posts per CSV.

    How the migration actually works

    If you rely on approvals, budget for Hootsuite Advanced ($399 a user, annual).

    StepWhat you do
    1Export your Sprout reports and messagesExport reports to CSV or PDF (for example the Post Performance Report), and Smart Inbox messages, including sent messages, to CSV with Inbox Export.
    2Choose a Hootsuite planProfessional for unlimited accounts; Advanced for approvals and message routing.
    3Reconnect each social profileConnect every network account to the new tool and re-authorise it; tokens do not transfer between vendors.
    4Upload the queueRebuild future posts in Hootsuite’s Bulk Composer CSV (after the trial).
    5Recreate inbox workflowsSet up saved replies, automations and assignment in Hootsuite.
    6Move reportingRebuild custom reports; history stays in Sprout exports.

    What this path doesn’t do for you:

    No importer exists. Sprout’s review management, Trellis AI and helpdesk integrations need checking against Hootsuite equivalents.

    Pricing side by side

    PlanSprout SocialHootsuite
    Pricing unitPer seatPer user
    Entry planEssentials $79/seat/mo (annual), 5 profilesStandard $99/user/mo (annual), 10 accounts
    ApprovalsProfessional $299/seat/moAdvanced $399/user/mo
    Free plan / trialNo free plan; 30-day trialNo free plan; 14-day trial
    Bulk upload350 messages per CSV (Professional+)350 posts per CSV

    Prices checked on each vendor’s pricing page on September 19, 2026, annual billing.

    Feature parity check

    CapabilitySprout SocialHootsuite
    Import from the other toolBulk scheduling CSV (Professional+)Bulk Composer CSV only
    ListeningPaid add-onBasic on all plans
    ApprovalsProfessionalAdvanced
    Unlimited profilesProfessional ($299)Professional ($199)
    Free trial30 days14 days

    Going the other direction, or want the full comparison first?

    Read the Hootsuite vs Sprout Social comparison Switching from Hootsuite to Sprout Social instead?
    Verified data

    Security & access: what changes when you switch

    Security, offline and access rules that differ between Sprout Social and Hootsuite. Rows where both tools are the same (4) are left out; the full side-by-side is on each tool’s page: Sprout Social, Hootsuite.

    What changesSprout Social (today)Hootsuite (after)
    Other certificationsISO/IEC 27701, CSA STAR Level 1, PCI DSSsourceISO/IEC 27017, ISO/IEC 27018, ISO/IEC 27701, FedRAMP Li-SaaS, CSA STAR Level 1, UK Cyber Essentials, TX-RAMP, SOC 3source
    HIPAA (BAA)BAA availableGuardian (add-on) for PHI collection via Secure FormssourceNot published
    Single sign-on (SAML/OIDC)YessourceYesEnterprisesource
    SCIM user provisioningYessourceNot published
    Two-factor authenticationYesEnforcement: All plans (email two-step verification is enforced by default)sourceYessource
    Admin audit logYessourceNot published
    Data residency choicesUS onlysourceNot published
    EncryptionAES-256 or greater at rest (including backups); TLS 1.2+ in transitsourceCustomer information encrypted at rest and in transit; TLS 1.2 or abovesource
    IP allowlistingYesAdvancedsourceNot published
    Editorial assessment

    Before you cut over

    • Set up single sign-on in Hootsuite on Enterprise before you invite the team, so accounts are created through your identity provider rather than by hand.
    • If you restrict Sprout Social to office or VPN IP addresses today, check how you will enforce the same rule in Hootsuite; we found no IP allowlisting documented.
    • Sprout Social offers a HIPAA BAA; we found none for Hootsuite. Don’t move protected health information until that is settled.

    Checked September 19, 2026 against each vendor’s own trust center, help docs and app pages. Hover or tap “source” to see the exact wording we relied on. “Not published” means we could not find the vendor saying it on its own site; it doesn’t mean the feature is missing. Plan names are the lowest plan the vendor says includes the feature. Security · Offline · Remote vs office · Download the data

    Frequently Asked Questions

    Can Hootsuite import from Sprout?

    Not directly. Rebuild the queue as a Bulk Composer CSV.

    Will approvals cost more?

    Yes: approvals need Hootsuite Advanced ($399 a user) against Sprout Professional ($299).

    Can I keep my Sprout reports?

    Export them to CSV or PDF before cancelling; history does not transfer.

    Will my analytics history come with me?

    No. Analytics history stays with the old tool; the new one starts collecting from the day you connect each profile. Export the reports you need first.

    Canonical data for the tools on this page

    Every pricing fact, rating, AI billing model and switching guide we hold on each tool, on one page, with the date each figure was last verified.

    Sprout SocialPricing, free plan, AI cost & every comparison›HootsuitePricing, free plan, AI cost & every comparison›
    Hootsuite vs Sprout SocialHead-to-head comparisonBuffer vs Sprout SocialHead-to-head comparisonHootsuite vs BufferHead-to-head comparison
    Hootsuite to Sprout SocialSwitching guideBuffer to HootsuiteSwitching guideBuffer to Sprout SocialSwitching guideHootsuite to BufferSwitching guideSprout Social to BufferSwitching guide

    Sources

    Prices on this page were recorded from each vendor’s own pricing page on the date shown at the top of the page. Vendors change pricing often — check the live source before you buy.

    Every figure is also in our open dataset (JSON and CSV, CC BY 4.0), with its source page and verification date. See how we research pricing.

    Cite this page: HelpCompare, “Switching from Sprout Social to Hootsuite”, helpcompare.com/sprout-social-to-hootsuite-migration/ (updated ).

    Source links on this site are checked every month; last check . How sources are checked.

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    Built for the leader who owns the selection, answers for the spend, drives the rollout, and lives with the results. HelpCompare covers the whole decision, not just the first step.

    01 · CompareWhich tool fits your team, side by side.133 comparisons 02 · Price & approveSourced, dated pricing and a one-page brief for sign-off.Decision brief 03 · SwitchWhat moves, what you rebuild, what it costs.264 guides 04 · ShareDownload and cite the data. CC BY 4.0.Open data
    Bill Belcamino, founder of HelpCompare
    About the author

    Bill Belcamino

    Founder and author, HelpCompare

    Engineer by training, operator by experience, marketer by choice. Bill spent eight and a half years as an engineer at HP, was COO of Auctiva (the number one third-party selling platform on eBay, past 200,000 users) and ran Google’s $70M/year search syndication partnership at Alot.com. Then he spent 13 years building his own web properties with his own money at stake. He has bought, trialled, integrated and cancelled more SaaS tools than he can count, and started HelpCompare because the real cost of switching tools is the part nobody covers.

    “I’ve sat on both sides of the table: the agency recommending the tool and the client paying for it.”

    Researched and fact-checked by the HelpCompare team. Pricing on this page was last verified on September 19, 2026. No paid sponsorships, no affiliate commissions.

    Read Bill’s story How we verify pricingSpot an error? Tell Bill