# Hootsuite Pricing 2026: Plans, Real Yearly Cost and Billing Rules

> Hootsuite costs $99, $199 or $399 per user a month billed annually, plus quoted Enterprise. Yearly costs for 1, 3 and 5 users, trial limits and refund rules.

_Source: https://professionalstoolkit.com/articles/hootsuite-pricing — The Professional's Toolkit · updated October 2026_

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**$99** — Per user a month for Standard, billed annually: the lowest list price for a new Hootsuite plan (nonprofits pay less through HootGiving).



- **$99 / $199 / $399** — per user a month, billed annually
- **14-day trial** — no card, no free plan
- **Up to 60% off** — for eligible nonprofits


## What Hootsuite costs in 2026, in one paragraph

Hootsuite sells three self-serve plans and one quoted tier, and **every price is per user**. Standard is $99, Professional $199 and Advanced $399 per user a month, billed annually and before tax, while Enterprise is priced only after a demo [1]. There is no free plan. You get a 14-day trial without a card, a nonprofit discount of up to 60%, and a monthly billing option whose price the page does not show. That leaves one question for most buyers. How many people need a login? The answer moves the bill far more than the plan name does, because a second seat doubles the cost on any tier.

The lineup has also changed shape recently. Since June 24, 2026 the dashboard is called Social OS, and its parts carry new names: Perch for planning and publishing, Nest for the inbox, Lumen for listening, Parliament for employee advocacy and Wisdom for the AI layer. Older plans such as the earlier Professional and Team still exist for customers who bought them, but moving from one of those to a current plan requires a new account. If you are pricing a fresh purchase, ignore every legacy plan name you meet on older help pages and comparison sites.

## The four plans, and what each one adds

| Plan | Price per user a month (billed annually) | Social accounts | Listening search window |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Standard | $99 | Up to 10 | 7 days |
| Professional | $199 | Unlimited | 30 days |
| Advanced | $399 | Unlimited | 30 days |
| Enterprise | Quote | Unlimited | 13 months (Lumen) |


> 💡 **Count logins before choosing a plan:** Every Hootsuite plan is priced per user, so the number of people who need access moves the bill more than the tier does. Add seats only for people who publish or answer messages.


These figures are the list prices for the United States. The plans page renders in the visitor's local currency, so a reader in Europe sees euros, and every price excludes applicable taxes. The ladder is steep but logical: each step roughly doubles the per-user price, and each step adds a different kind of work rather than more of the same. **Standard is for publishing, Professional for scale, Advanced for teams with sign-off and routing**, and Enterprise for organizations that need listening, compliance and analytics beyond the dashboard.

### Standard at $99: one person, up to ten accounts

Standard covers the core job well. It manages up to 10 social accounts with unlimited scheduled posts, Wisdom AI for drafting posts and images, a single Nest inbox, analytics, link in bio, asset libraries and social ads publishing. Listening is the basic kind: quick search over the past seven days and two searches compared. Competitor benchmarking stops at five rivals, and it works only on Facebook, Instagram and X. The plan page itself says Standard does not suit anyone managing more than 10 accounts or needing in-depth listening, which is a fair summary. A freelancer or a single in-house marketer with a handful of brands fits here comfortably.

### Professional at $199: no account cap

Professional removes the social account limit, which is the main reason people move up. The plans page also credits it with automating inbox replies and workflows, though the help center puts auto-responders and inbox automation rules on Advanced. It adds auto-replies that send a direct message when someone comments, automatic boosting of top posts, custom-branded links with tracking, outbound message tagging, custom performance reports and AI trend forecasting up to 90 days. Listening stretches to 30 days with up to five searches compared, and benchmarking covers 20 competitors on the same three networks. What it lacks matters too. There are no approvals, no team productivity reporting and no routing of customer messages, so it is still a plan built around one capable operator.

### Advanced at $399: approvals and a real team inbox

Advanced is the first plan designed for several people working the same accounts. It adds approval workflows with up to three layers, internal comments, suspending scheduled posts, message assignment with skill-based routing, inbox collaboration and customer satisfaction surveys. Reporting gains your own logo, sharing inside Hootsuite, team performance measurement and CSV or XLSX exports. Listening stays at 30 days. Hootsuite's approval page says approval workflows on Advanced need more than one user seat, and the pricing page notes that some features are only available with multiple user seats. A single-user buyer gets little from Advanced.

## What a team actually pays in a year

Because pricing is per user, the yearly bill grows in straight lines, and it is worth doing the sums before you talk to sales. **By our arithmetic**, one user on Standard pays $1,188 a year, three users pay $3,564 and five pay $5,940. On Professional the same headcounts cost $2,388, $7,164 and $11,940 a year. On Advanced they cost $4,788, $14,364 and $23,940. All of those figures are annual list prices before tax, and on annual billing the whole year is charged in one payment at the start of the term. A five-person team on Advanced is writing a single check for nearly twenty-four thousand dollars.

The gaps between tiers are just as useful to know. Moving one user from Standard to Professional adds $1,200 a year, and moving that user from Professional to Advanced adds $2,400 more. For a solo marketer, the first jump is easy to justify the moment an eleventh account appears. The second jump only makes sense when approvals or routing solve a real problem. Overbuying is easy here. If only one person ever approves posts, Professional with a shared calendar habit may be enough, and the savings on three seats come to $7,200 a year.


> ⚠ **Deleting the account forfeits the year:** Annual plans are paid upfront and are non-refundable. Deleting the account closes it at once with no partial refund, so cancel the renewal instead and keep access to the end of the term.


## Monthly billing exists, but its price is a mystery

Standard, Professional and Advanced can all be billed monthly instead of annually, and the plans page says annual billing gives a lower per-user rate. What the page does not do is print the monthly price. The figures it lists are annual prices expressed per month, and the month-to-month cost is higher by an amount Hootsuite does not publish. We will not guess it. If flexibility matters to you, start the checkout, pick monthly and read the number before you enter a card. Monthly plans are charged a month in advance, and you can switch to annual later.

That switch is less tidy than it sounds. Hootsuite's own help pages disagree on timing: the billing FAQ says moving from monthly to annual starts immediately with a prorated invoice, while the account FAQ says it takes effect at the end of the monthly cycle. Ask support which rule applies before you change the plan. The practical advice is simple. Pay monthly while you are still deciding, and commit to annual billing only once the seat count and the plan feel settled for a full year.

## The billing rules that cause the angry reviews

Hootsuite's billing rules are strict, and they explain much of the frustration buyers report. **An annual subscription is a one-year commitment paid as one discounted, non-refundable payment** [2]. Cancelling stops the renewal but does not refund the rest of the term; you keep access until it ends. Deleting the account is different. It closes the account at once, with no proration and no partial refund, and an organization deleted by its owner loses its teams, scheduled posts, tags and permissions for good. Read that twice before you click delete to stop a charge.

Several smaller rules follow the same pattern. Subscriptions renew automatically at the end of the commitment unless cancelled before the renewal date, and Hootsuite charges on the calendar day that matches your first paid day. Upgrades take effect immediately, while downgrades wait for the end of the paid period. Add-ons removed mid-cycle stay active until the commitment ends and are not refunded. Paid apps from the App Directory are billed monthly only, each starting with a trial of 30 days, and their cancellations are not prorated. The self-serve terms say all fees are non-refundable, though the refund article adds that Hootsuite will review a charge on request.

### Enterprise contracts renew on their own

Enterprise runs on a contract rather than a checkout, and its renewal rule deserves a calendar reminder. Contracts renew automatically for another year unless you send written notice of non-renewal at least 60 days before the term ends [3]. Hootsuite may also raise Enterprise fees at renewal, with written notice at least 90 days before the end of the term. Put both dates in the calendar the day you sign. Payment is more flexible at this level: annual Enterprise can be invoiced and paid by card, check, wire or ACH, whereas self-serve plans take credit cards or PayPal only.

## The 14-day trial, and what it will not show you

The trial lasts 14 days and starts without a credit card. Only one trial is allowed per person, and changing the plan type during the trial does not restart the clock, so use the two weeks on the plan you actually expect to buy. The pricing FAQ says the trial does not charge you automatically at the end; to continue, you pick a plan and enter payment details. Hootsuite's self-serve terms (July 2025) and its help center account FAQ (October 2025) say a trial with a payment method on file converts to the plan chosen at sign-up and is charged. If you added a card, cancel before day 14 unless you mean to continue.

The trial also has limits that hide part of the product. Trial accounts can post only 10 to 20 times a day per organization, depending on the plan, and bulk scheduling is switched off entirely. That matters for agencies and social teams that load a month of posts from a spreadsheet, because the feature they care about most is the one they cannot test. Plan the trial around inbox, listening and reporting instead, where the limits bite less. For more on the difference between a trial and a free tier, see [whether Hootsuite is free](/articles/is-hootsuite-free).


> 💡 **Test the trial without bulk scheduling:** Trial accounts cannot bulk schedule and are capped at 10 to 20 posts a day. Spend the 14 days on the inbox, listening and reports instead.


## Nonprofit pricing through HootGiving

Registered charities can get **up to 60% off** Standard, Professional or Advanced through the HootGiving program [4]. The nonprofit prices are $39, $79 and $159 per user a month, billed annually. By our arithmetic, that is $468, $948 and $1,908 per user a year. A three-person charity team on Professional would pay $2,844 a year instead of $7,164 at list price, a saving of $4,320. Verification runs through TechSoup, which reviews most requests in 2 to 14 business days, or Goodstack, which usually takes 2 to 3. Build that wait into your timeline.

Eligibility is narrower than the word nonprofit suggests. Schools, hospitals, government bodies, credit unions, political, labor and fraternal groups, trade associations and individuals are all excluded, and Hootsuite points them to separate higher education, healthcare, government and financial services offerings instead. The charitable foundation of a hospital or healthcare organization does qualify, which is a useful exception for development teams raising money for a health system. You may also see a larger nonprofit discount quoted on one of Hootsuite's comparison pages; the HootGiving page is the current source, and it says 60%. Our [Hootsuite for nonprofits guide](/articles/hootsuite-for-nonprofits) covers the workflows.

## What you can only buy with Enterprise

The biggest pricing surprise is how much of Hootsuite's marketing describes Enterprise. **Advanced listening is not on the Advanced plan.** Lumen, the listening product powered by Talkwalker, adds 13 months of history, more data sources, alerts and scheduled reports, and it is Enterprise-only. So is the Advanced Inbox, with SLA notifications, automatic language detection, smart replies and sentiment, plus integrations such as Salesforce and Zendesk. The generative AI chatbot for the inbox, which answers only from a knowledge file your organization approves, sits on the same list, and like the Salesforce and Zendesk links it needs the Advanced Inbox upgrade. Parliament, the employee advocacy product formerly called Amplify, is part of Enterprise too.

Analytics follows the same pattern. Advanced Analytics brings attribution and ROI reporting, Google Analytics and Adobe Analytics connections, auto-tagging and access to the Analytics API that launched in April 2026, and it is an Enterprise add-on. LLM Insights, which tracks how ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Perplexity describe your brand against competitors, is an add-on to Lumen, and its page offers only a demo request with no price. Single sign-on, compliance integrations such as Proofpoint and expert-led onboarding round out the tier. None of these carry a public price. If your shortlist depends on any of them, budget for a quote.



> ⚠ **Enterprise needs 60 days' notice:** Enterprise contracts renew automatically for a year unless you cancel in writing at least 60 days before the term ends.

## How the price compares with Sprout Social and Buffer

Sprout Social is the closest match in structure, since it also charges per seat. Its Standard plan costs $199 per seat a month on annual billing and covers five social profiles. Professional costs $299 and Advanced $399 per seat a month, and a newer Essentials plan costs $79 per seat a month billed annually or $99 billed monthly. Sprout also publishes monthly prices for every plan (Standard $249, Professional $399 and Advanced $499 per seat a month billed monthly) and offers a trial of 30 days without a card. Listening and premium analytics are paid add-ons there, available from Standard up. Seat for seat, Sprout's Essentials undercuts the Hootsuite entry plan, but it covers five profiles and has no Smart Inbox, while Hootsuite Standard includes an inbox for up to 10 accounts. Sprout's Standard costs about twice as much and covers half as many accounts. Neither vendor is cheap.

Buffer prices the problem differently. It charges per channel rather than per person, with a free plan for up to three channels, and its Essentials and Team plans cost $5 and $10 per channel a month billed yearly. Team includes unlimited team members and approval workflows. A Buffer Team account with ten channels comes to $1,200 a year, by our arithmetic. Buffer also gives nonprofits 50% off its paid plans. The trade-off is scope. Buffer Essentials includes a single user, and approvals and branded reports wait on Team. For a wider list of options and their prices, read our [Hootsuite alternatives](/articles/hootsuite-alternatives) guide.


## FAQ

**How much does Hootsuite cost per month?**

Standard is $99, Professional $199 and Advanced $399 per user a month, billed annually and before tax. Enterprise is priced by quote after a demo.

**Does Hootsuite have a monthly plan?**

Yes. Standard, Professional and Advanced can be billed monthly, but the pricing page lists only annual prices; month-to-month costs more and the amount is not published.

**Does Hootsuite offer refunds?**

Annual plans are one non-refundable upfront payment, and cancelling only stops the renewal. Hootsuite says it will review a charge on request, and approved refunds usually take 5 to 10 business days.

**Is there a free version of Hootsuite?**

No. Hootsuite has no free plan, only a 14-day free trial that starts without a credit card, limited to 10 to 20 posts a day and without bulk scheduling. The pricing page says you are not charged automatically, but the terms and the help center say a trial with a payment method on file converts and is charged.

**Does Hootsuite have nonprofit pricing?**

Yes. Through HootGiving, eligible charities pay $39, $79 or $159 per user a month billed annually, up to 60% off, after verification by TechSoup or Goodstack.

**Which Hootsuite features need Enterprise?**

Lumen advanced listening with 13 months of history, the Advanced Inbox, Parliament and SSO are available on Enterprise. The generative AI chatbot needs Enterprise with the Advanced Inbox upgrade, and Advanced Analytics and compliance integrations such as Proofpoint are Enterprise add-ons.


## The bottom line

Hootsuite is priced for teams that will use a lot of it. Count the people who need a login first, because the per-user model multiplies every plan. One marketer with up to ten accounts belongs on Standard at $1,188 a year; anyone past ten accounts needs Professional; only teams that need approvals and message routing should pay for Advanced. If listening history, the advanced inbox or attribution is the real requirement, skip the self-serve ladder and ask for an Enterprise quote, then mark the 60-day notice date on day one. Start with the trial, avoid bulk scheduling plans during it, and pay annually only once the seat count is settled.



## Sources

[1] Hootsuite Plans, Prices, and Features — https://www.hootsuite.com/plans (2026-10)
[2] Hootsuite Help: billing FAQ — https://help.hootsuite.com/s/article/billing-FAQ?language=en_US (2026-10)
[3] Hootsuite Enterprise Plan | Price and Features — https://www.hootsuite.com/plans/enterprise (2026-10)
[4] Hootsuite Nonprofit Discount, Pricing, and Application — https://www.hootsuite.com/about/hootgiving (2026-10)
[5] Hootsuite What's New — https://www.hootsuite.com/whats-new/social-os
[6] G2, Hootsuite reviews — https://www.g2.com/products/hootsuite/reviews