Sprout Social Reviews: What Reviews From 5,000+ Users Reveal

As an all-in-one platform, Sprout Social is a popular choice for social media management, influencer marketing, and marketing automation. But is it really the right tool for your social media team? Reading Sprout Social reviews can help you make an informed decision about this social media software. Yet for busy social media managers, reading all 5,000+ reviews isn’t realistic.

In this article, we’ll analyze reviews of Sprout Social from sites like G2, Capterra, and GetApp for you. We’ll highlight common themes, so you can see what real users like about the platform—and why you may want to consider a different option instead.

We’ll also show how Agorapulse solves many of the downsides of Sprout Social. Want to test it yourself? Sign up for a free trial of Agorapulse to try our social media publishing, listening, and reporting tools.

Quick Overview of Sprout Social Reviews

Here’s how Sprout Social stacks up across the major software review sites:

• G2: 4.4 out of 5 stars (3,400+ reviews)
• Capterra: 4.4 out of 5 stars (575+ reviews)
• GetApp: 4.4 out of 5 stars (575+ reviews)
• TrustRadius: 8.4 out of 10 stars (500+ reviews)
• Trustpilot: 2 out of 5 stars (50+ reviews)

Positive Sprout Social Reviews

Sprout Social users leave plenty of positive reviews across sites like G2 and Capterra. Most often, they highlight capabilities like publishing, engagement, and reporting.

As these reviews detail, here are some top Sprout Social capabilities:

Managing multiple profiles

One of the biggest perks of Sprout Social is its ability to support multiple social profiles across various networks. As this Capterra review explains, the platform allows users to control multiple profiles from a single dashboard and approve team members’ posts.

 

Engaging via the smart inbox

Users can also manage comments and messages to multiple social profiles using the platform’s smart inbox. As this G2 review states, the smart inbox makes it easy for social media managers to view and respond to all engagement and mentions in one convenient place.

Generating AI-powered responses

Managing a high volume of social media engagement can be time-consuming, especially for large brands and agencies. As this G2 review details, the platform’s AI assist feature is helpful for writing relevant responses more efficiently.

Producing social media reports

Many users appreciate the platform’s customizable social media reports. As this G2 review says, Sprout Social allows users to create reports for different stakeholders and access helpful insights for improving social media campaigns.

Benchmarking competitors

When you want to know how well your brand performs compared to others in your industry, competitive benchmarking can help. As this G2 review shares, the platform’s industry analysis tool helps you monitor competitor activity to improve your own brand strategy.

Critical Reviews of Sprout Social

The platform also has plenty of critical reviews. Read closely, as some of these issues may be dealbreakers.

Overly high prices

For many users, the biggest downside of Sprout Social is its pricing. As this G2 review claims, the platform doesn’t have “a lot of functionality beyond what is available directly on the social platforms themselves,” making it “very expensive for what it does.”

Teams that can truly leverage the platform’s features may realize the full value of Sprout Social. But small teams may not be able to justify paying such a high price.

Subscriptions start at $199 per user per month. As this Capterra review explains, small businesses and nonprofits may not be able to absorb the cost.

The platform has four plans with basic, intermediate, advanced, and enterprise features. However, all standard plans have user-based pricing. So, if you needed to add more users, you’d have to multiply the base price.

But when the base price is $199 for the platform’s entry-level plan, the cost can climb quickly for teams. As this G2 review states, “the cost of additional users is extremely high.”

Extra add-on charges

The prices listed above account for each plan’s base features. So, what’s the catch?

Sprout Social has several features that it deems premium solutions. Social listening, premium analytics, employee advocacy, and influencer marketing are only available as add-ons.

Our deep dive into Sprout Social pricing found that social listening alone costs $999 per month. If you were to add it to the entry-level Standard plan, you’d end up paying $1198 per month.

For some social media teams, this monthly subscription fee simply isn’t in the budget. This can result in teams purchasing a tool that doesn’t quite meet their needs.

As this G2 reviewer laments, “I would be using their social listening tools if they weren’t so pricey. Competitors are significantly cheaper.”

Automated renewals

Sprout Social offers both monthly and annual plans. But some users end up having to pay for an additional year even though they no longer use the platform.

As this G2 review explains, the platform failed to communicate the upcoming auto-renewal effectively. Despite that, Sprout Social wouldn’t allow the user to end the contract early.

This GetApp review shares a similar sentiment. “They will not let me out of the contract. They auto-renewed me after a year for another year and we have since moved all our accounts elsewhere but they are still charging us $400/month.”

Other users mention difficulty navigating Sprout Social’s cancellation process. As this Trustpilot review explains, cancellations aren’t immediate and instead require a discussion with customer success.

Poor onboarding experience

When you invest in a new software platform, you want the time to value to be as low as possible. Issues with usability and onboarding can make this metric much higher than anticipated.

However, Sprout Social’s onboarding process can be lacking. As this G2 review states, “I felt like the sales team was able to explain features better than the person who onboarded us.”

Wasted time

Any social media management tool you choose should help your team save time—not waste time. However, many Sprout Social users report that the platform causes them to have to repeat tasks, use more time-consuming workflows, or repeatedly request access to tools.

This G2 reviewer reports dealing with platform issues on a daily basis, resulting in substantial wasted time.

Another G2 reviewer details repeated requests to access a tool included in the team’s plan. Between this access issue and frequently having to redo tasks, the customer explains, “it has been a very expensive way to spend the exact same amount of time posting as we were before.”

Missing features

Ideally, an all-in-one platform should help you handle virtually all social media tasks, rather than requiring you to spend the same amount of time in the Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok apps as you were before.

However, many Sprout Social users report that the platform lacks many capabilities they expect. For example, this G2 reviewer laments not being able to schedule Instagram stories from a desktop device.

And this G2 reviewer reports issues with tagging other accounts in social media posts. Instead of tagging them with Sprout Social, the customer has to add the tag from the social media app once the post is published.

Underdeveloped mobile app

As a social media manager, you may rely mainly on a desktop device. But you probably need to create content, publish posts, and respond to engagement while on you’re on the go, too.

However, Sprout Social’s mobile app is a common complaint among customers. As this G2 reviewer explains, the mobile app often slows down workflows rather than making them more efficient.

“My biggest dislike is probably the mobile app. I find it to be a bit messy and it lacks some of the essential features of the desktop version, which can really put a stop to on-the-go social management (and isn’t that the point of an app?).”

Other users report crashes and other repeated issues with the mobile app. As this G2 reviewer explains, “It seems there’s always a glitch with the mobile app—captions not copying when you go to IG to post, looong loading time for mobile publisher posts, posts created from mobile don’t always show up when you look for them on desktop, app crashes.”

Insufficient customer support

When you pay a premium price for software, you expect reliable support and quick responses to your questions. However, some Sprout Social users receive insufficient support and slow responses.

This Capterra reviewer reports getting ample help from the sales team during the purchasing process. But afterward, the customer struggles to receive timely responses from the support team.

This G2 reviewer shares a similar experience with slow response times from the customer support team.

Negative experiences with Sprout Social’s customer support were one of the main reasons Quimby Digital switched to Agorapulse. Between the disjointed customer service and the overly expensive social listening add-on, the agency’s decision to switch was relatively easy.

How Agorapulse Addresses Sprout Social’s Downsides

Between our industry-leading customer support, our highly rated features, and our balanced pricing model, Agorapulse addresses many of the issues users report with Sprout Social. Let’s take a closer look at a few key areas, including comparisons from G2, Capterra, and TrustRadius.

Try Agorapulse

Usability and functionality

As this Capterra comparison shows, reviewers give Agorapulse (4.6 stars) a higher rating than Sprout Social (4.4) for user satisfaction. Agorapulse earns top marks for ease of use (4.6 out of 5 stars) and functionality (4.3 stars).

This G2 comparison shows similar results. While the two platforms tie for meeting requirements (8.5 out of 10), Agorapulse ranks first for ease of use (9.1), ease of setup (9.1), and ease of admin (9.1).

Part of this is due to Agorapulse’s aim to create a good user experience and a product that’s easy to navigate. But our onboarding process is also a contributing factor. We provide group training for customers on all our paid plans. Plus, Custom subscribers get one-on-one training.

Support quality

As you can see above, Capterra reviewers give Agorapulse (4.7 stars) a higher rating than Sprout Social (4.3) for customer support. G2 reviewers share a similar sentiment, giving Agorapulse a 9.2 to Sprout Social’s 8.7.

If you compare the two platform’s guaranteed support response times, it’s easy to see why these scores are so different.

Sprout Social guarantees a first reply within two hours. However, this option is only available to Premier Success customers. There are no publicly posted support windows for other users.

In contrast, Agorapulse guarantees different response windows for each plan level:

• Standard subscribers receive a response within six hours.
• Professional subscribers receive a response within two hours.
• Advanced subscribers receive a response within one hour.
• Custom subscribers receive a response within 30 minutes.

But overall, Agorapulse’s support team responds in an average of 30 minutes or less, no matter your plan. Our support team is proud to have a 96% user satisfaction rating.

Price and value for money

Capterra users rate Agorapulse (4.4 stars) much higher than Sprout Social (4.0 stars) for value for money. This is hardly a surprise, given Sprout Social’s relatively high rates per user and expensive add-ons.

We reviewed Sprout Social’s pricing structure above. Here’s a snapshot of Agorapulse’s pricing structure:

Like Sprout Social, Agorapulse also has four paid plans. Except for our Custom plan, all plans use per-user pricing. When you need to add more users, you simply multiply the base price by that number.

However, Agorapulse’s base prices are much lower. For example, our Standard plan starts at $49 per user per month (billed annually).

Each of these plans includes 10 social profiles. You can customize them by adding more social profiles at a rate of $10 each per month.

Almost all of our features are built into the base cost. But you can opt to add on advanced social listening for $40 per search per month or employee advocacy for $150 per month.

Product direction

Between Sprout Social and Agorapulse, G2 users see the latter as a better business partner. Users give Agorapulse a 9.1 and Sprout Social an 8.8 for being a good partner in doing business.

G2 reviewers give the platforms similar scores for positive product direction. Agorapulse gets a 9.1, while Sprout Social gets an 8.9.

When you review Agorapulse’s release notes, you can easily see why users prefer Agorapulse’s product direction. From new tools like advanced social listening and employee advocacy to new integrations with Slack to more robust support for social media networks, our product team regularly launches high-impact updates.

Social media publishing features

According to G2 users, Agorapulse far outranks Sprout Social for social media publishing. Reviewers rate Agorapulse’s content calendar, approval workflow, and social inbox higher. Customers also prefer Agorapulse’s approval workflows.

Capterra users also prefer Agorapulse’s features over Sprout Social’s. Reviewers rate Agorapulse’s post scheduling, social media integrations, and multi-account management higher.

TrustRadius reviewers rate Agorapulse significantly higher than Sprout Social. Agorapulse gets an 8.9 for publishing, compared to Sprout Social’s 5.0. And Agorapulse gets an 8.6 for engagement, compared to Sprout Social’s 6.4.

With Agorapulse’s publishing calendar, you can just as easily schedule a social post to one profile as you can to multiple profiles across social networks. When you have a busy content calendar to schedule, you can upload and publish in bulk to complete the task faster.

Our social inbox lets you review and respond to comments and DMs from every connected profile in one convenient place. You can also customize your workflow by assigning inbox items to colleagues or processing engagement in bulk.

Social media listening features

Sprout Social offers social listening as a premium add-on. However, reviewers prefer Agorapulse for social listening. TrustRadius users give Agorapulse an 8.9 and Sprout Social an 8.1.

G2 users share a similar sentiment. Reviewers rate Agorapulse higher for social measurement, brand monitoring, and keyword tracking.

With Agorapulse’s advanced social media listening tool, you can track mentions and keywords across social media networks and other online sources. It automatically tracks search volume, engagement trends, and sentiment analysis so you can see how much people are talking about your brand and how they feel.

Social media analytics features

TrustRadius reviewers also rate Agorapulse much higher for social media reports and analytics. Agorapulse earns a 9.5, while Sprout Social gets a 6.2.

G2 users give the two platforms’ reporting features a similar score breakdown. Agorapulse ranks higher for report exporting and customizability as well as scalability.

With Agorapulse’s standard reports, you can easily track all the metrics that matter to your team, from audience growth to engagement to brand awareness. And with our power reports, you can customize reports for clients or in-house teams.

Our social ROI reports help you assess and prove the value of your social media efforts. Agorapulse’s ROI tool reveals the value of every channel, profile, and campaign—as well as posts and comments. As a result, you can easily identify high-value initiatives and use the data to drive your social media strategy.

Wrapping Up Our Analysis of Sprout Social Reviews

While Sprout Social certainly has positive reviews, user-reported issues like high prices, missing features, and an underdeveloped mobile app may give you pause. It’s easy to see why Agorapulse outranks Sprout Social in most categories across major software review sites.

Of course, you don’t have to take other users’ word for it. Sign up for a free trial of Agorapulse and test our social media management solution at no cost for 30 days.