HootSuite Way Off with Premium Pricing (OPINION)

HootSuite just announced new Freemium pricing yesterday and here are the options. If you create a new HootSuite account today, you’ll have to choose between the different free or paid options and if you already have a HootSuite account, you’ll have to make your decision next week.

Interestingly enough, $99/month is not the top price point – the highest price plan is actually $1,999/month with Ow.ly Vanity URL service (see this page for more information). Beyond the fact that only the largest of organizations can afford nearly $50,000 a year for an SaaS social media management solution, I’m feeling a bit betrayed by HootSuite by their new pricing structure.

I’ve long been a supporter of HootSuite and have recommended it to anyone who manages their organization’s social media initiatives. I’ve even written about them several times on this blog. I don’t even mind that ads are included in the free plan. Most web users are used to seeing ads when they get something for free. And while I completely understand that HootSuite can’t continue to offer their product for free forever – no company can survive on unlimited VC funding without a solid revenue model – but I think they went about creating their paid accounts the wrong way.

Where Did HootSuite Go Wrong?

• First of all, only giving current users about a week to decide which plan to sign up for seems really quick. I’ve known that some kind of paid options was on its way for some time now, but the number and cost of options makes this a difficult decision to make in a week’s time.
• HootSuite has completely eliminated Team Members from the Free and $5/month options and even with the $20 option, you only get to add 1 team member. You have to move up to the $50/month plan in order to delegate your social media duties to more than one other team member.
• This feels like a bit of a bait & switch to me. Typically, when a service introduces paid options, they’ll include extra features and more in-depth analytics with their paid packages, but the free option usually stays the same. HootSuite is now crippling their free (and, in my opinion even their $5/month) option by limiting the number of social networks and RSS feeds.

What Could HootSuite Have Done Differently?

• Give current HootSuite users more of a heads-up and the ability to switch between the different account options for a month or so to better determine which package they would need to continue using HootSuite for their organization’s social media management.
• Create fewer, more simplified options. Rather than 4 paid options (not including the Enterprise option) HootSuite could have offered $10, $25 or $50 per month options in addition to their free plan. These options could contain escalating features, but this could offer users a more simplified way to choose their plans. They could have also offered a one-time fee to  “purchase” any of the plans, rather than paying by the month.
• HootSuite also should have either left the free option as it was (with the ability to add Team Members and manage more than 5 accounts and more than 1 RSS feed) and added more advanced features for paid users, or they should have implemented their paid structure before introducing all of their advanced features. By implementing so many great features, then putting many of them behind the pay wall, I wouldn’t be surprised if HootSuite sees a significant amount of users defect to other platforms.

Is HootSuite Still Worth Using?

In a word…Absolutely. I still think HootSuite is the best and most complete social media management tool out there and even though most of its best features are only available to paid members now, it’s still worth looking into for your organization. While you’ll have to decide for yourself whether it’s worth $20 or $50 per month for the more in-depth features, I still think HootSuite offers more than its competitors.

If you’re interested in checking out an alternative to HootSuite, you should look into Seesmic (both web- and desktop-based versions), CoTweet (web-based) and TweetDeck (desktop-based). Seesmic and TweetDeck also have iPhone and Android versions available. In fact, Seesmic, TweetDeck, CoTweet and others would do themselves a big favor if they started courting frustrated HootSuite users like Posterous’ campaign to woo users from Blogger and from Wordress.

Have you used HootSuite before? If so, does their new pricing structure make you rethink using them to manage your social media initiatives?