Social media management tools are your best friends when it comes to integrating social media into your marketing strategy.

They can help you manage multiple profiles, track specific keywords, as well as allow you to schedule your posts in advance so you don’t have to spend hours every day coming up with content and logging into various accounts just to post updates.

The four on the table today are Hootsuite, Sprout Social, Social Bakers & Agora pulse. These represent a huge market share, with a ton of features baked in. While they all serve the same purpose, they have differing strengths and weaknesses. Research them thoroughly before you make a choice, so you know you’re investing in the right one. It’s also likely you’ll learn more after using multiple tools as they help you realize what you need and help you evolve as a social media manager as well.

We created a table comparing the four platforms so you don’t have to:

PS: If there’s a ‘ N/A ‘ in a column, it’s because the information was not easily available on their website.

Which to choose?

Hootsuite is very much the high roller’s app. If you’re a mid-to-large sized business, it’s going to give you what you want, though the price of the analytics may hurt. On the other hand, for a small business, the free version doesn’t offer enough and the lowest tier is costly enough that you may as well go with Agora Pulse or Sprout instead.

Agora Pulse does have the added advantage of providing historical data for 12 months which can be a gamechanger for some businesses. Their low tier plans are much cheaper and give you more. If you know what you want, and prefer all the bells and whistles, Hootsuite is the unchallenged ruler of the contest. It all comes down to what you want and need from your social management system.