Hootsuite vs Buffer, is a simple scheduler enough?

For a solo account, scheduling plus native analytics may be enough. A separate approver changes the need: approval should attach to the exact draft and reset after edits, so an approved caption is not silently replaced before publishing.

Scheduling alone is enough if it's one person and one or two accounts. The test I'd use: do you ever wait on someone else before a post goes out? If not, skip approvals and just use each network's native analytics, which are usually better than what the schedulers show anyway.

The thing that matters more than the Hootsuite vs Buffer gap is whether the tool posts through the official APIs and covers the networks you actually use. TikTok and short video are where a lot of tools are weakest, so check that before paying. Also check how many accounts the plan includes, since that's where the price jumps.

I post short videos and slideshows across TikTok and a few other networks for my own app marketing, and I ended up building Sendhour for that. It's a scheduler for app founders and small brands, with a library of niche videos that are outperforming and an AI studio to make your own version. Not the right pick if you need multi-step approvals, though.

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Co-founder of SocialBu here, so take this with a grain of salt.

The thing I'd check is replies, not approvals. Once you run several accounts, the work that slips isn't posting. It's comments and DMs sitting unanswered across five apps. If someone on your team spends time each day hopping between inboxes, you've already outgrown a plain scheduler.

If it's just you and Instagram, Buffer's free plan is plenty. We built SocialBu for the in-between: small teams that need a shared inbox and approvals without Hootsuite pricing.

If it's only Instagram posts planned for the week, scheduling is enough, and I'd start on Buffer's free plan before paying for Hootsuite. Approvals only matter once someone other than the writer has to sign off, so I'd add them the day a second person joins. Analytics can stay in Instagram's own insights until the numbers have to go into a report for someone.

Disclosure, I build TryPost, an open source social media scheduler, so weigh my bias.

For just analytics, kre8content is pretty good and for schedulers, I used repurpose, didn't like repurpose that much. You can see retention rates (3-5), full watch time, followers gained, tags based on video performance and stuff to see what types of video to make next.

Hootsuite is a staple, not sure of their offerings though, I assume it's a scheduler

If you're a small business owner and social media isn't your day job, creating the content is usually a bigger time sink than scheduling it. For simple scheduling, you don't even need all the features Hootsuite or Buffer offer. Tried both back in the day, ended up building our own.

Or what about Sprout Social? :)