Why Tweetdeck is better than Hootsuite

I was a paying Hootsuite user for five years, but I cancelled my service last year, and moved to Tweetdeck. Why?

Both Hootsuite and Tweetdeck let you set up multiple columns to view live tweets from Twitter lists and searches. With either service, you can be a power-user of Twitter. But which service is better? Tweetdeck or Hootsuite?

Hootsuite costs $10/month, so you’d think Hootsuite would be better than the free Tweetdeck. Hootsuite even offers a training program where you can become a “Hootsuite Certified Professional”. I took the program and was a certified user for two years.

But after being a “Hootsuite Certified Professional” I still cancelled my service. Hootsuite is missing some major features that Tweetdeck has. These features make Tweetdeck a better service.

Four reasons why Tweetdeck is better than Hootsuite

1) Tweetdeck can hide retweets in columns

This is the biggest reason why I no longer use Hootsuite. I want to hide retweets in my columns.

One of my columns is a Twitter list. It’s a very focused list, but it can get crowded by retweets. I would like to keep this column focused to just the people in the list. I do not want to see the retweets in this column.

Hootsuite does not have option to hide retweets in a column. In 2012, I asked Hootsuite to implement this feature. They never did. The request even has 119 votes.

Tweetdeck has this ability. I use Twitter to engage with people. If I see a bunch of retweets from other users, then I can’t reply to the people I follow. My Tweetdeck columns are nice and focused.

2) Tweetdeck allows you exclude keywords from a Twitter list 

While watching a Cubs game, I like to set up a column based on a Twitter list. But sometimes there are curse words or negative tweets. I don’t really want to see those tweets. Excluding those tweets with curse words would be really handy.

Hootsuite can do exclusions in columns based on searches, but they cannot do exclusions for columns based on lists.

Tweetdeck can do exclusions on both lists and searches.

@mattmaldre Unfortunately, no, the exclusion can only be added to a search stream. ^MW

— Hootsuite Helpers (@Hootsuite_Help) November 18, 2015

3) Tweetdeck shows ALL your lists when adding or removing someone.

When you want to add or remove someone from a Twitter list, Hootsuite will only show 10 random lists. Odd. I want to see ALL my lists. I have about 50 lists. Why does Hootsuite pick 10 lists at random, but not the rest? Tweetdeck shows all the lists.

4) @mentions column in Tweetdeck is across all accounts

An @mention column in Hootsuite is for only one account. In Tweetdeck, the @mentions column shows replies for ALL your accounts. It’s pretty handy to see all your replies in one column.

Regrets? 

I’ve been using Tweetdeck for a year now, and I love it. However, there are a few features from Hootsuite that I do miss.

Three benefits Hootsuite has over Tweetdeck

1) Hootsuite has tabs

Hootsuite lets you group your columns into tabs. Tweetdeck does not. In Tweetdeck, you just end up with one REEEEEALLLLY long row of columns. If you have 30 columns, you’ll have to scroll by 30 columns in Tweetdeck. With Hootsuite, you can group them into handy tabs.

2) Hootsuite has customer service

Try tweeting @tweetdeck. You’ll never get a reply. If you ask @hootsuite_help a question, they always reply, usually promptly too. Over the years, Hootsuite has sent me 37 replies.

3) Hootsuite lets you bulk schedule tweets with a .csv upload

Both Tweeetdeck and Hootsuite let you schedule tweets, but only Hootsuite lets you upload a .csv file to bulk schedule tweets. Tweetdeck has no bulk upload feature.

Summary

For my every day use, Tweetdeck gets my attention. However, I am considering adding Hootsuite back to the mix to be able to bulk schedule tweets via .csv.