Gane Index
All indexesEvery index and its categoriesGTMMarketing, sales, customer and revenue operations softwareITSecurity, IT operations, cloud, developer and data softwareHRHR, payroll, recruiting, performance and learning softwareFinanceAccounting, planning, spend, billing and treasury software
Claim your listing
Index › GTM › Marketing › Social media › Sprout Social vs Zoho Social
Social media management · November 2026 Edition

Sprout Social vs Zoho Social

Ten of fourteen models named Sprout Social first on the direct prompt; zero named Zoho Social. Both were named by all fourteen models and Sprout Social carries 63 labels and Zoho Social 29, so the shares are not directly comparable.

Sprout Social

endorsed leader

Chicago, United States, founded 2010. Named in eleven categories this edition.

Zoho Social

accepted challenger

Named in two categories this edition.

First-choice share47%10%Of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, 0 to 100.
Negative rate17%3%Negative labels as a share of the product's labels, 0 to 100.
Rank in category#1#4A position in a field of 12; printed, not drawn.
Labels6329A count; the two differ.
The two percentage rows are drawn on one 0 to 100 track, Sprout Social reading right to left. Rank and label count are printed, not drawn.Hootsuite was named alongside these two in nine of the fourteen direct answers. Sprout Social vs Buffer · Sprout Social vs Oktopost · Sprout Social vs Agorapulse

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts over all fourteen models, for a mid-market B2B company; rank is within the category; every quote names the model and the prompt it came from. Both figures come from the social media management page.

By framing

How many of the fourteen models made each the first choice, per way of asking, and how many argued against it.
Sprout SocialFirst choices, of fourteen modelsZoho Social
Direct1001 against Zoho Social
Paraphrase100
Comparative21
Budget-constrained054 against Sprout Social
Scale-constrained30
Negative007 against Sprout Social
Bars are first choices, 0 to 14 each sideModels that argued againstA model can name both, so the two sides of a row do not sum to fourteen.

Across every category in the November 2026 Edition, Sprout Social and Zoho Social were named in the same answer fifty-one times, of the 292 answers naming Sprout Social and the 76 naming Zoho Social. In those answers Zoho Social took the first choice fifteen times and Sprout Social six.

Every model, every framing

The eighty-four answers behind the chart above, one cell each: where Sprout Social and Zoho Social stood in it.
ModelDirectParaphraseComparativeBudget-constrainedScale-constrainedNegative
Claude Haiku 4.5
GPT-5.4 mini
Gemini 3.5 Flash
Perplexity Sonar
Grok 4.20
Mistral Small
DeepSeek V4 Flash
Llama 4 Maverick
Qwen 3.7 Flash
Kimi K2
GLM 4.7 FlashX
MiniMax M2.5
GPT-6 Luna
Muse Glimmer 30B
Sprout Social Zoho Social first choice named as an alternative argued againstblank: not namedEach cell is one answer, Sprout Social on the left and Zoho Social on the right.

The direct prompt

The plain question, one answer per model, grouped by where Sprout Social and Zoho Social stood in it.

Sprout Social first, Zoho Social an alternative

10 of 14 modelsZoho Social was named in the answer but not as the choice, or not at all.
GPT-5.4 miniSprout Social alternatives: Hootsuite, Oktopost, Planable
Perplexity SonarSprout Social alternatives: Buffer, Oktopost, Planable, SocialPilot
Grok 4.20Sprout Social alternatives: Agorapulse, Hootsuite, HubSpot Social
Mistral SmallSprout Social alternatives: Hootsuite, Oktopost
DeepSeek V4 FlashSprout Social alternatives: Agorapulse, Emplifi, Hootsuite, HubSpot Marketing Hub
Qwen 3.7 FlashSprout Social alternatives: Agorapulse, Oktopost
Kimi K2Sprout Social alternatives: Agorapulse, Hootsuite
GLM 4.7 FlashXSprout Social alternatives: Agorapulse, HubSpot Social Media Management Software
MiniMax M2.5Sprout Social alternatives: Agorapulse, Buffer, Hootsuite, Zoho Social
Muse Glimmer 30BSprout Social alternatives: Agorapulse, Buffer, Hootsuite

Neither was the first choice, one was named

3 of 14 modelsThe answer put something else first and named one of the two as an alternative.
Gemini 3.5 FlashOktopost alternatives: Agorapulse, Hootsuite, Sprout Social
Llama 4 MaverickOktopost alternatives: Agorapulse, Hootsuite, Sprout Social
GPT-6 LunaOktopost alternatives: Sprout Social

Neither was named

1 of 14 modelsThe answer made no first choice from these two in this category.
Claude Haiku 4.5no first choice

Bold names in an answer are the products the judge labeled a first choice; a model naming several gives each of them that label. The full answer text for every row is in the record.

By buyer segment

The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment and they are never added together. The figures above are the mid-market standing, which is the one the category orders by.
Small business
Zoho Social leads by fourteen points.
Zoho Social21%#2 of 11
Sprout Social7%#3 of 11
The full small business standing →
Mid-marketThe figures above
The order flips: Sprout Social leads at mid-market.
Sprout Social47%#1 of 12
Zoho Social10%#4 of 12
The full mid-market standing →
Enterprise
Sprout Social leads by eighteen points.
Sprout Social18%#3 of 11
Zoho Social0%#– of 11
The full enterprise standing →

What the models said about Sprout Social

Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Five of six in this category shown.

“Note on "Avoid": Platforms like Hootsuite and Sprout Social, while powerful, typically start at $99–$149/month” Qwen 3.7 Flash · budget prompt · hard negative
“Generally too expensive for limited budgets” Kimi K2 · budget prompt · hard negative
“Strong for teams; excels in analytics, inbox, reporting, and customer care. Good for mid-sized with collaboration features. Starts ~$249/month; scales well.” Grok 4.20 · scale prompt · first choice
“Best-in-class reporting and engagement features, but per-seat cost adds up. If you have 15–25 social users, this is a strong choice.” DeepSeek V4 Flash · scale prompt · first choice
“Mid-market to Enterprise (All-in-one) | Exceptional UI, strong team workflows, robust reporting, top-tier customer support.” Gemini 3.5 Flash · scale prompt · first choice

What the models said about Zoho Social

Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Four of five in this category shown.

“Budget-friendly options (~$30–$100/month) with solid scheduling and analytics... but they lack the depth in listening and enterprise-grade reporting.” Grok 4.20 · direct prompt · soft negative
“The best social media management platform for a company with a limited budget is Zoho Social, with paid plans starting from $10 per month” Llama 4 Maverick · budget prompt · first choice
“the best social media management platforms for a company with a limited budget are Buffer and Zoho Social” Qwen 3.7 Flash · budget prompt · first choice
“Best value for a small company: Zoho Social Standard—if one person will manage the accounts.” GPT-6 Luna · budget prompt · first choice
Also compared
Sprout Social vs BufferSprout Social vs OktopostSprout Social vs AgorapulseSprout Social vs HootsuiteBuffer vs Zoho SocialOktopost vs Zoho SocialZoho Social vs AgorapulseZoho Social vs HootsuiteAll fifteen head-to-head pages and the full social media standing

Comparisons are drawn for the top eight products in each category, each against each. The output is the models' output; nothing here is a recommendation by the index.