Metricool vs Hootsuite: which one should you use in 2026?

Metricool is the stronger pick for small teams and agencies that want built-in analytics and competitor tracking at a lower price. Hootsuite is built for larger organizations that need multi-approver workflows, a bigger app ecosystem and dedicated support. Neither tool designs your posts for you, which is the gap AI-native platforms like Quetzal are now built to close.

What Metricool and Hootsuite actually do differently

Both are social media management platforms: you connect your accounts, schedule posts, and pull reports. The difference is in what each one treats as its core job.

Metricool started as an analytics tool and grew scheduling on top of it. That history still shows: its reporting dashboards, competitor benchmarking, and link-in-bio tools (Metricool has its own "Mylinks" feature) are more detailed out of the box than Hootsuite's, especially on the lower-priced plans.

Hootsuite started as a scheduling and inbox tool for enterprise social teams. It leans into team permissions, content approval chains, a large third-party app directory (Canva, Salesforce, Hubspot integrations), and social listening add-ons aimed at brands managing dozens of accounts across departments.

Neither platform generates the actual creative. You still need to design the graphic, write the caption, and bring your own visual assets before either tool schedules anything.

How do Metricool and Hootsuite compare on pricing?

Pricing structures differ enough that a like-for-like comparison matters more than headline numbers. Metricool prices per number of connected profiles and adds a free tier for a single brand. Hootsuite prices per number of users and social accounts bundled into named tiers, with no meaningful free plan beyond a trial.

	Metricool	Hootsuite
Free tier	Yes, 1 brand, limited features	30-day trial only
Entry paid plan	Roughly 18 EUR/month (Advanced)	Roughly 99 EUR/month (Professional)
Mid tier	Roughly 45 EUR/month (Advanced Plus)	Roughly 249 EUR/month (Team)
Built-in analytics	Included from entry tier	Basic on entry, advanced reporting is extra
Approval workflows	Limited on lower tiers	Core feature from Team tier up
Best fit	Freelancers, small agencies, solo brand managers	Multi-brand teams, marketing departments with approval chains

Prices shift often and vary by billing cycle and region, so treat these as directional rather than exact quotes; check each vendor's pricing page before budgeting. The practical takeaway holds regardless: Metricool is materially cheaper for a single brand or small agency, while Hootsuite's cost is tied to seats and governance features that only pay off once you have a real team structure around approvals.

Which one is better for content creation and design?

Neither. This is the honest answer, and it's the one most comparison articles skip.

Metricool has a basic built-in editor for resizing images and adding text overlays, plus AI caption suggestions on higher tiers. Hootsuite added an AI caption and image-suggestion tool (OwlyWriter AI) but it's aimed at drafting text and picking stock-style visuals, not producing on-brand designed graphics.

If your workflow is "design in Canva or Figma, export, then upload," both tools handle the upload and scheduling half fine. Where they don't help is the design half itself: matching your logo placement, brand colors, and font pairing post after post, week after week, across six platforms with different aspect ratios.

That's the specific gap AI-native tools are starting to fill. Quetzal, for instance, is built around generating the actual designed asset (static posts, carousels, infographics, stories, ads) in a brand's own visual identity, using its logo, palette, fonts and product photos, rather than just scheduling whatever you upload. It's a different category of problem than what Metricool or Hootsuite solve, and worth knowing about before you assume "social media tool" means "scheduler."

Which one is better for scheduling and publishing?

Both cover the essentials solidly: visual calendar, bulk upload, best-time-to-post suggestions, and direct publishing (not just reminders) to the major networks.

Metricool publishes to Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, X, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Twitch and Google Business Profile, with strong Instagram-specific tools (first-comment hashtags, Stories scheduling, Reels support).

Hootsuite covers Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok, X, YouTube and Pinterest, with a broader third-party integration list for tools like Canva, Dropbox, and various CRMs, which matters if your team already lives inside a bigger marketing stack.

For a single marketer scheduling a week of content, the difference is marginal. For a team routing posts through a legal or brand-compliance review before anything goes live, Hootsuite's approval chains are more mature.

Which one is better for analytics and reporting?

This is Metricool's strongest category. Even on its entry paid tier, it gives per-post and per-network breakdowns, competitor comparison (see what public metrics competitor accounts are posting and how they perform), and downloadable branded PDF reports without needing an add-on.

Hootsuite's analytics are serviceable on lower tiers but its more advanced reporting, and its Impact/social listening tools, sit behind higher-priced plans or separate modules. If detailed analytics is the main reason you're evaluating tools, Metricool gets you there at a lower price point.

Neither tool, notably, closes the loop back into content decisions automatically. You still have to read the report and manually decide what to post differently next week. Some AI-native platforms build that feedback loop into the product itself: Quetzal, for example, measures every post at 1, 6, 24 and 72 hours after publishing and uses that data to adjust the following week's content automatically, whether the account is run fully autonomously under standing brand guidelines or with per-post human approval.

Where do AI autopilot tools like Quetzal fit into this comparison?

Metricool and Hootsuite are schedulers with analytics attached. Quetzal is a different kind of product: an AI social media autopilot that generates the designed post, caption, and format, publishes it to Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok, X and YouTube, and uses performance data to refine future content, with AI video support in development.

If your bottleneck is "we don't have anyone to design and write six platforms' worth of content every week," neither Metricool nor Hootsuite solves that, because both assume you're arriving with finished creative. If your bottleneck is "we have content, we just need to schedule and analyze it," Metricool or Hootsuite is the more direct fit and likely the cheaper one.

Quetzal is built in Málaga, Spain, works natively in both English and Spanish, and runs on annual pricing (Starter 60, Growth 150, Pro 300, Ultra 600 EUR/month) with a 14-day free trial available via launch code. Worth evaluating specifically if content creation, not scheduling, is the actual bottleneck.

Which should you choose: Metricool or Hootsuite?

Choose Metricool if:

• You're a solo marketer, freelancer, or small agency managing a handful of brands.
• Detailed analytics and competitor tracking matter more than team governance.
• Budget is a real constraint and you want a usable free tier.

Choose Hootsuite if:

• You manage social for a larger team with multiple approvers before anything publishes.
• You need deep integration with existing enterprise tools (CRM, Canva, help desks).
• Social listening and brand-monitoring at scale is part of the job.

Choose neither, and look at an AI autopilot platform, if:

• The real bottleneck is producing on-brand designed content every week, not scheduling it.
• You want the system to learn from post performance and adjust automatically.
• You'd rather set brand guidelines once and approve (or not) than design every asset by hand.

Frequently asked questions

Is Metricool cheaper than Hootsuite?

Yes, at every comparable tier. Metricool's entry paid plan runs roughly a fifth of Hootsuite's entry Professional plan, and Metricool also offers a genuine free tier for a single brand, while Hootsuite only offers a time-limited trial. The gap narrows somewhat at higher tiers where Hootsuite's team and approval features start to justify the cost for larger organizations.

Can Metricool or Hootsuite design my posts for me?

Not meaningfully. Both offer basic editing tools (cropping, resizing, text overlay) and AI-assisted caption writing, but neither generates fully designed, on-brand graphics, carousels, or ads from your logo and brand assets. For that, you'd typically still design in a tool like Canva first, or use an AI-native platform such as Quetzal that builds the designed asset itself as part of the workflow.

Which tool is better for a small business managing its own social media?

Metricool is generally the better fit for a small business with one person handling social media, mainly because of its lower cost and stronger built-in analytics. Hootsuite becomes more competitive once a business grows into a marketing team with multiple people who need to approve content before it publishes.