Introducing HootSuite Freemium ~ Message from CEO Ryan Holmes
Hello HootSuite Community,
HootSuite is pleased to announce new premium packages designed for business and organizations, while also continuing to provide a free version for most customers.
Following in the steps of industry giants like Salesforce, Basecamp and Flickr, we’ve crafted the package tiers to provide the most useful tools to as many customers as possible while also providing advanced tools to customers who need the business-centric features. We’ll keep listening closely to see how we succeeded in meeting your needs.
Tiers for All
We aim to continue providing free service to approximately 95% of our current users. Based on a customer survey (thanks again to all of you who offered your opinions), along with a comprehensive review of usage data, we’re confident we’ll achieve this goal.
This means most of you will continue to use HootSuite in much the same way you do today. Additionally, power users and enterprises with teams can confidently rely on HootSuite for critical campaigns knowing there will be continuity of service from a stable company.
What’s This Mean for Me?
Starting today (Wednesday, Aug. 11th), all new customers will be required to select a plan upon signing-up — including choosing the free option if desired.
The following week, current HootSuite users will be asked to choose a package with the help of a migration wizard to help you choose the best plan.
For all customers (aside from Enterprise-class accounts), we’ll include a 30-day free trial. This period will allow you to experiment and discover which plan best fits your needs. Again, we’ll continue to offer a free plan for those of you who don’t require advanced options at this time.
While you don’t need to select a plan straightaway, take a look at the Pro Plans and Enterprise Package to see what is included at each level.
Keep on Flying
Since first spreading our owl wings over a year ago, we’ve listened closely to feedback from all corners. In the past 8 months, we’ve rolled out iterations galore — adding thoughtful tools to help you spread messages, monitor conversation and track results.
And don’t think we’re slowing down the pace! The upcoming road-map is loaded with new tools and integrations which will make for more enjoyable surprises. Plus we’ll keep listening to your feedback and offering help as we continue to create the preferred dashboard for social media managers, community builders, marketing agencies, and passionate fans.
Thanks to You
We sincerely appreciate you sharing HootSuite with your friends, mentoring your colleagues, and telling your company about the power of our social media dashboard. We take your trust seriously and look forward to growing with you.
Stay tuned to the HootSuite blog for more info and feel free to share your thoughts with us via Twitter @hootsuite_help.
With best regards,
Ryan Holmes, CEO, HootSuite
More
HootSuite Pro Plans
HootSuite Enterprise Plans
Online Media Kit — includes logos, descriptions and interview scheduling info
http://hootsuite.com/enterprise and http://hootsuite.com/plans aren’t working right now…
Stand by, software switching shortly … then links will work.
Need to fix your links in this article to the Enterprise and Pro plans — they go to 404 pages.
Yup, just a minor hiccup.
The Plans aren’t showing up, very interested in finding out, keep getting page not found.
It’s not worth the $60 a year to do what I currently do. As soon as I have to choose, I’m cancelling my account.
Thanks for your feedback Yost. What isn’t provided in the free plan to meet your needs? We’re reviewing the pricing plans and over the next few weeks will be adjusting plans so they work better for more customers.
more than one rss, I only have three right now. But I already switched to something else for that.
Do you have any options available for users of hootsuite that are not for profit. Such as working with local usergroups and the tech community. We spread the work of our accounts using hootsuite and do not make any money. This means that we will have to leave hootsuite because we can not afford to pay for it.
Thanks,
Chris
+1
I work almost exclusively with non-profits and would definitely need a discounted plan in order to continue.
Ditto! I work for a virtual organization that does educational and nonprofit work and we will probably just go back to each using our own favorite Twitter clients rather than pay $50-100 a month.
The same here. We are not for profit and we utilize Hootsuite to user community/entertainment fans.
Will, perhaps there be non-profit discounts (or even better free) for the premium services, like YouTube? That would rock.
We’re working to add a discount program for qualified non-profits. Check out the recent blog post for the link to application form.
Most businesses have Corporate Amex cards, so why wouldn’t Hootsuite accept Amex as payment for these plans?
+1 for Amex
Thanks for feedback re: AMEX – we’ll look to add this in the near future.
+1 for Amex
The $20/ month plan should include at least 2 members of the team, that’s a shame I can’t even share with ONE other employee for $20/ month? Look at 37signals and the others you are supposedly “following in the footsteps of”. They don’t limit to a single user for paid customers.
+1 for 2 users on silver plan – that would be very reasonable.
We’re reviewing the pricing plans and over the next few weeks will be adjusting plans so they work better for customers like you.
When trying to view the plan links via my iPhone. Your site keeps redirecting me to your iPhone landing page.
A tad too optimised for your own good really.
GREAT now the send button is missing.
Nn
This is now fixed.
No it isn’t
What will happen to the paid iphone app when free-account users start seeing ads? I think the reason people paid for the app in the first place was to get an ad-free experience.
The paid iPhone app will remain ad free.
Thanks, Dave, for answering all questions so promptly
Thanks for the reply.
I tried to upgrade but it declined two credit cards. Is that part working? I quite sure my corporate Visa should be OK.
Hmm, should all be working now. If still having problems, please submit a Billing Problem ticket at http://help.hootsuite.com with details and we’ll get you sorted out.
Sorry, we’re a non-profit and just can’t afford to pay.
We’ll just login and logout of the various facebook fan pages we manage.
I imagine many others are in the same position.
I advise a bunch of non profits and now i get to find alternatives for the exact same reason.
We’re reviewing the pricing plans and over the next few weeks will be adjusting plans so they work better for customers. We’re also releasing a discount program for qualified non-profits. Check out the recent blog post for the link to the form.
@petermcc, Us too!!! It’s a real loss to not be able to have more than one account or RSS feed now. Means more staff time on posting and less on actual program work.
Twitter just announce to create a similar button like TweetMeme. What will Hootsuite do if Twitter added the features they have in Twitter. Also, many will look for a free social dashboard than to pay.
Keep in mind, HootSuite integrates with many more social networks than just Twitter.
HootSuite is really nice for aspiring bloggers such as myself who wanted power tools that could help them make a few bucks on the side. Now I will have all kinds of limitations unless I’m willing to pay more for HootSuite ($19.95 a month) than I pay for UNLIMITED web hosting from DreamHost!I pay $10.95 a month for that. That’s absurd.
I hope the Google Analytics and regular tweet stats remains free, and you guys should really consider just making unlimited RSS feeds free for everyone. And by the way if you guys are gonna charge people more money for the RSS feeds, you might want to consider having the option to check them at least every 10 minutes if not 5…
Thanks for the feedback. We think the Bronze package is great for bloggers and individual power users who want unlimited accounts and RSS feeds. We’re reviewing the pricing plans and over the next few weeks will be adjusting plans so they work better for customers like you.
Could you post some more details on what the advertising in the free tier amounts to? I see absolutely no details on this. I assume this means you are going to be posting ads into my Twitter feed for my followers to read? How often? Do I have any control over what ads appear or don’t appear? (i.e. can I block competitors ads or other ads inappropriate for my community?).
Please advise. All I see now is the phrase “advertising will appear in your social streams” which really leaves a lot to the imagination.
Thanks for your question Tim. We won’t push ads to your followers rather adding Twitter’s promoted tweets into your stream. Will explain further in a blog post shortly.
Yes, Please provide more information on the advertising. Thanks!
I’ve posted a bit more about the ads in the recent “Freemium Clarifications” blog post.
As a government user, we are not allowed to have a credit card. We can only pay for items after issuing a PO and receiving a bill. I know this is the case for many government agencies as well. I am also in support of non-profit and government doscounts. Your pricing plans for the services that we have been using for free since you launched seemed very steep when I spoke with the Mayor and Board of Trustees earlier.
We are adding a discount program for qualified non-profits and looking at other ways we can collect payments from customers like governments. What do you think is a reasonable package for groups like yours?
Hi – not sure I’m understanding the “team” tier – I work with a variety of clients on a variety of different accounts – will I still be able to assign/share rights to various accounts as part of the standard usage or will this be considered multiple “team” members?
Thanks,
Dave
(HU Member too!)
I need to know that too – I don’t have more than one collaborator per account, but I have more than one account and the collaborators are different for each client. It all seems very complicated and the explanations are not clear.
I’ve clarified the Team Members on the follow-up blog post. Please take a look and see if we’ve answered your questions there.
still tedirect to iphone instead of info about plans…
I understand you’re a company and you’re here to make business. Unfortunately I am dissapointed to read this article not because of your decision of providing free and premium services but about your policy regarding the switch (you could have warned users that in near future you were going to remove some features from the free account) and regarding your prices. One of the features I liked the most was sharing the account with two teammembers without providing passwords, which now is not free anymore. Unfortunately 20$ per month (240$ per year) to get only one team member is by far more that I can afford, provided that I don’t get any profit. To be honest: when I saw your prices I thought that either you were crazy or there’s a lot of people earning a lot of money with social networks (and I would like to know how do they do it)
Thanks for your feedback Carlos, we surveyed HootSuite users and analyzed data to determine the pricing levels. HootSuite will remain free with the standard features for about 95% of users based on the data.
What precisely do you mean by “ads appearing in your social streams?”
Does this mean (1)I will see your ads, or (2)My followers/friends customers will see your ads?
Big difference to me.
Hi David, We’ll be adding Twitter’s promoted tweets into your viewable stream but we will not push ads to your followers via your account. Hope that clarifies things for you.
How does the team-membership piece work? I assume that one person – buys the gold account and pays $49/month – and then can invite 4 team members to contribute to that account – and they don’t have to pay a dime? Is that correct?
I use hootsuite for both personal and professional at the moment. If my company buys an enterprise account, and I’m a team member – can I still maintain my independent personal social networks in the same hootsuite account that I use to contribute to the company accounts?
A.
Thanks for the question Andy — you are correct on both questions. We’ll clarify this a bit more in a forthcoming blog post.
I have set things up, so that each of my websites have their own independent Hootsuite Account, of which I am the ONLY Team Member and that allows me to operate ALL my SM needs from a single account/sign in. (I currently have 10 websites set up like this)
With Freemium are you saying that I have to pay for each of my separate accounts because I am the only Team Member? Can you please clarify this potentially disastrous situation?
If you are the only team member, you don’t need to use a Pro account package. The Free version will allow you to continue to manage the accounts in the manner you’ve described.
Yes, but only so long as the individual accounts who have assigned me as a team Member pay – is that right? So rather than 95% of users remaining free. I would have the only Free account while all my clients would have to pay! I’d venture to say only 5% of accounts will remain free at this rate.
It’s not just $5 bucks they’ll have to pay – it’s $20, come on guys this is not good.
Where, on your home page is the “sign me up” nav??????
AHA I see it is a link from the image – so your entire call to action on the home page is alt text?
Our aim with this post was to let current users know what to expect in the coming weeks. Sign-ups and migrations will begin next week.
Current users will be presented with a migration wizard next week while new users will be taken through the sign-up process straight-away.
HootSuite is by far my favorite Twitter client, but with three team members using HootSuite, this would take us from free to $50 per month with about a week’s notice? It’s a great tool, but the cost will have me quickly looking for alternatives.
Hi Melanie, thanks for your feedback, we’re listening toy our concerns.
Actually, this is kind of crazy. I understand that this is business and we all need to make a living but to go from free to exorbitant fees seems a little radical. My account has 10 users. Even $100 per month won’t be enough to accommodate that many. My company is struggling to stay alive, we can not afford $100 per month or even $20 per month. I am really, really unhappy. I need to find something else.
Looks like you can only tweet once, then you have to close down the program and then reopen to tweet again. Is this the new way? or you pay?
That doesn’t sound right at all! Please submit a detailed ticket at http://help.hootsuite.com including browser type and any error messages you receive.
Does this mean analytics/stats will only be features in the Gold + Tiers?
Ow.ly stats will remain included for all users — the recently added Google analytics are available in certain packages.
Never mind $ 50.00 to add google not good
Keep in mind the Ow.ly stats are still included in all packages.
I’m looking forward to seeing what the wizard does next week.
I have 3 twitter accounts which I share with 1 other person each. As I understand it I will have to pay $50 a month to continue doing this? Why don’t you limit the number of team members on each twitter account to 1 then the $20 option may be viable for me.
I have to say thought that the comparison to flickr is somewhat poor. $25 per year buys me flicker, the cheapest annual pricing you have is more than double this.
Lastly I guess I will have to look at why I would have rss feeds in hootsuite given you are partially using this to differentiate service levels.
Apart from the above I applaud your efforts to make money, but for me it’s looking like an expensive option.
Thanks for your feedback Stewart. We’re reviewing the pricing plans and over the next few weeks will be adjusting plans so they work better for customers like you.
All sounds like great forward thinking BUT what does this actually mean for those of us who have already paid for the premium Android client so as to avoid the inline stream adverts?
Are we being asked to pay again?
No changes on your paid Android app. You are still ad free so keep on Hooting!
$49 a month for custom URL branding, and that’s *only* if you pay $100 a month for the Platinum package.
Seriously?
Sorry but that’s really disappointing.
Thanks for your feedback Martin. Indeed, the Ow.ly Pro service is designed for businesses users who need access to this powerful branding tool along with the other tools in the Platinum package. Are you seeking Ow.ly Pro as a standalone service?
I would have been happier with a charge per Team Member. On the basis of what the account tiers are this would in effect equate to $10 per Team Member. Thus 2 Team Members would be $29.99 and 3 Team Members would be $39.99 rather than having to pay say $49.99 for 2 Team Members. The jump from free to $49.99 or $99.99, not to mention $1499 or $1998, per month is quite a leap. Do you think you could consider introducing a tier level based on a $10 per month charge per added Team Member?
Great feedback re: “a la carte” team members Brian. We’re reviewing the pricing plans and over the next few weeks will be adjusting plans so they work better for customers.
I’m very afraid that I may have to leave Hootsuite.
I work for a state agency and these changes, very likely, will not work out for us. ;-(
Not having team members is a huge problem. I have to have my marketing manager and key people from each of the multiple departments whose social media I help manage/monitor as team members…
We’re reviewing the pricing plans and over the next few weeks will be adjusting plans so they work better for customers.
What a shame. I really loved Hootsuite–and agree with Jodi. Not having team members is a huge problem for me.
I will now need to find something other than Hootsuite.
$60 a year in order to have a fellow team member is a real problem for me. I am just a sole operator not a huge company.
Even if you just allowed one team member for your free account it would really help keep people
As of today I’m going to be looking for an alternative and will not use Hootsuite any more unless I can find a way to have a team member (my intern) working with me
very disappointed that I sang so highly of Hootsuite all these months, getting so many persons on board! Now, we all are now considering a migration, to another client. These packages just are not suitable, nor are some issues clearly defined (especially as it relates to non-profits) I do both non-profit and corporate accounts, and these packages just do not suit me at all. There are clients with >8 team members, therefore you are expecting us to suddenly pay $1500 per month? For 10 persons? I am definitely considering moving, unless you review these unrealistic packages.
Thanks for the feedback Rachel, we’re reviewing the pricing plans and over the next few weeks will be adjusting plans so they work better for customers. We’ve also added an application form for qualified non-profits to receive a discount on services.
All I use HootSuite for is to have a single place to read and post to all streams I have and not for any of the advanced networking or group features… so I guess it looks like I will have to drop one of my networks since 6 is out of the free range and even $5 a month seems steep for just having a place to read it… I guess I’ll log into the actual site for that one… If I remember to do that.
I am bummed, but understand.
Adding features to a for-pay PRO version is fine. Taking away features from a FREE version people are using is not cool. Guess I will be going elsewhere…
BTW, main issue for me is the new limitation on RSS/Atom feeds.
Al
Is this still available? We are interested in using the technology for our social media?