Crowdfire vs Hootsuite in 2027: Crowdfire Has Shut Down, So What Should a Founder Use Now?
Crowdfire and Hootsuite used to be the classic choice for a founder who wanted to schedule social media posts: Crowdfire was the cheap, beginner-friendly scheduler that also suggested articles and images to share, and Hootsuite was the full social media suite for teams. That comparison no longer works, because Crowdfire's scheduler is gone. We checked both official sites in November 2026, together with the pricing pages of the closest Crowdfire-style replacements, so this guide shows what happened to Crowdfire, what Hootsuite costs today and which tool to pick in 2027 whether you search for Crowdfire vs Hootsuite or Hootsuite vs Crowdfire.
Quick answer: Crowdfire shut down its social media management platform in May 2025, and crowdfireapp.com now says it is becoming a media platform about social media, Web3 and AI. If you liked Crowdfire because it was free or cheap for one person, move to Buffer (free for 3 channels, then $5 per channel a month billed yearly) or Publer (free for 3 accounts, RSS automation and trending news on paid plans). Choose Hootsuite when a team runs social media every day and needs listening, a shared inbox and approvals: it has no free plan, costs from $99 per user a month on annual billing and offers a 14-day free trial.
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Crowdfire vs Hootsuite at a Glance
Sources: hootsuite.com/plans, buffer.com/pricing and publer.com/plans (default views, checked 3 November 2026); Crowdfire's last plans from its archived pricing page of February 2025.
What Happened to Crowdfire
Crowdfire was a social media app for creators and small businesses. Its last pricing page (archived in February 2025) offered a free plan for 3 accounts with 10 scheduled posts per account, Plus at $7.48 a month billed yearly ($9.99 monthly) for 5 accounts, Premium at $37.48 for 10 accounts and VIP at $74.98 for 25 accounts. Its signature feature was content curation: unlimited article and image suggestions for your topics, RSS feeds from your own blog, YouTube or shop on paid plans, an AI caption writer and a Chrome extension for sharing articles.
In May 2025 the product ended. Internet Archive snapshots show the normal Crowdfire site on 12 May 2025 and a farewell notice on 19 May 2025, in which the team wrote that it had "made the difficult decision to shut down Crowdfire" and that the platform was offline. When we checked in November 2026, every Crowdfire address, including the pricing and features pages, showed one page titled "Crowdfire is evolving": the company says it is becoming a media platform with daily news about social media, Web3 and AI. Its help centre is closed, the Google Play listing returns an error and we could not find the app in Apple's App Store. There is no Crowdfire scheduler to sign up for, and no Crowdfire tutorial will bring it back.
If you still had an account, your queued posts and curated feeds are gone with the platform. The steps below show how to rebuild your setup in another tool.
Hootsuite: The Full Social Media Suite, Still Running
Hootsuite is the opposite of what Crowdfire was: a paid suite for teams that publish, answer messages and listen across many accounts. According to its press release of 24 June 2026, Hootsuite rebuilt the product as Hootsuite Social OS around an AI agent called Wisdom: publishing became Perch, the inbox Nest, employee advocacy Parliament and Talkwalker listening Lumen by Talkwalker, with MCP connectors so AI assistants can work with Hootsuite data. The plans page says every plan runs on Wisdom.
Plans (checked 3 November 2026, per user per month, billed annually):
- Standard, $99: up to 10 social accounts, unlimited scheduling, AI-generated posts and images, one inbox for messages, brand and competitor monitoring.
- Professional, $199: unlimited social accounts, automated inbox replies and workflows, trend forecasting up to 90 days ahead and custom reports.
- Advanced, $399: content approvals, messages assigned and routed to the right teammate, and team performance tracking.
- Enterprise, custom: advanced analytics and listening, single sign-on and compliance tools, by demo.
- Trial and billing: a free 14-day trial on Standard, Professional and Advanced. Hootsuite's FAQ says regular billing begins when the trial ends, so cancel before then if you do not want to pay. Trial accounts can post 10 to 20 times a day per organisation, without bulk scheduling. Monthly billing costs more per user than annual billing, and taxes come on top.
From Europe the default view showed the same figures in euros (€99, €199, €399); the FAQ gives them in US dollars. On 3 November 2026 a fall sale banner also offered 50% off the Standard plan, so check the page for current offers. Hootsuite's integrations page lists Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, X, LinkedIn, Threads, Pinterest and Bluesky, WhatsApp messages in the inbox, listening across more than 30 networks and more than 150 apps. Keep in mind that Hootsuite is priced per user: a team of three pays three seats.
Comparing Hootsuite with other suites? Read Hootsuite vs CoSchedule and Sprout Social vs Later, or see the free Hootsuite alternatives if the price is the problem.
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The Closest Crowdfire Replacements for a Solo Founder
Crowdfire's appeal was a free plan for a few accounts and help finding things to post. Two active tools come closest on both counts.
Buffer: the simplest free plan
Buffer is free forever for up to 3 channels with 10 scheduled posts per channel, refilled as posts go out, for 1 user. The free plan also includes the AI Assistant, insights, a community inbox and room for 100 saved ideas. Essentials costs $5 a month per channel ($60 billed yearly) and removes the post and idea limits; Team costs $10 a month per channel ($120 yearly) and adds unlimited team members, access levels and approval workflows. Both paid plans have a 14-day free trial. Buffer connects Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, LinkedIn, X, YouTube, Threads, Pinterest, Google Business Profile, Bluesky, Mastodon and Substack.
Publer: closest to Crowdfire's curation
Publer has a free plan for 1 user and 1 workspace with 3 social accounts (X cannot be connected on Free), 10 scheduled posts per account and 25 saved drafts; published posts are kept for only 24 hours on Free, and you can try most paid features without a credit card. The paid plans bring back what Crowdfire users miss most: Professional adds unlimited scheduling, unlimited RSS automations, trending posts and news, and X; Business adds unlimited AI prompts, analytics, best times to post, competitor analysis and post recycling. From Europe the default view showed Professional at €3.57 and Business at €7.14 a month per account billed yearly, with a 7-day trial on Professional and a 14-day trial on Business.
Want to own your scheduler instead? Our open-source Buffer alternatives can be self-hosted, and the open-source social media analytics tools cover reporting.
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Discontinued and Changed Since the 2026 Version
- Crowdfire shut down its scheduler in May 2025 (official farewell notice, archived 19 May 2025). The old text still described its prices, AI scheduling and curation as current; those parts are now history.
- ManageFlitter, another tool often compared with Hootsuite, is gone too: its website says the service has not been available since January 2022.
- Hootsuite rebuilt its product as Social OS with the Wisdom AI agent in June 2026, still has no free plan and charges $99 per user a month and up on annual billing.
- Removed: an unsourced survey statistic, unverifiable claims about each tool, the case studies, third-party "learn more" links and a garbled "common mistakes" section.
Crowdfire or Hootsuite Today: Which Should You Choose?
- You were a happy Crowdfire user on the free plan: Buffer Free (3 channels) or Publer Free (3 accounts, no X).
- You used Crowdfire mainly for article suggestions and RSS feeds: Publer Professional, with RSS automations and trending news.
- You post a lot on X on a tiny budget: Buffer, because Publer's free plan cannot connect X.
- You are a team with a busy inbox, approvals and listening needs: Hootsuite, starting with the 14-day trial.
- You want something else entirely: browse the free Hootsuite alternatives, the Social Status alternatives for analytics, or our Planoly vs MeetEdgar comparison for visual planning and evergreen posts.
How Founders Use a Social Media Scheduler to Get Customers
Crowdfire's best idea is still a good habit: mix your own posts with useful articles from others, and keep a queue so you post even in busy weeks. Pick two or three networks where your customers spend time, plan a month around one launch or one problem you solve, and review what drove clicks and messages every week. Our guide to social media content calendars shows how to plan that month, and the social media management guide for startups covers the daily routine.
Make graphics with one of the free Canva Pro alternatives, answer DMs automatically with the tools in ManyChat vs Chatfuel, and compare calendar tools in Loomly vs CoSchedule. Before you spend on promotion, validate your startup idea.
Social posts fade within days, while search traffic keeps coming. The F/MS AI SEO Tool writes articles from your keywords that are built to rank on Google and to be cited by ChatGPT and Perplexity, and the F/MS AI SEO Blog turns them into a blog you can share through your scheduler. F/MS Marketing Services help you get backlinks and guest posts that build authority.
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FAQ: Crowdfire vs Hootsuite
Is Crowdfire still available?
No. Crowdfire shut down its social media management platform in May 2025. In November 2026 crowdfireapp.com showed a page saying Crowdfire is becoming a media platform about social media, Web3 and AI, and there was no scheduler to sign up for.
Is Crowdfire better than Hootsuite?
The comparison no longer applies, because Crowdfire's scheduler is gone. If you want what Crowdfire offered, a free or cheap scheduler for one person, use Buffer or Publer. If you need a team suite with listening and approvals, use Hootsuite.
What is the best Crowdfire alternative?
For most solo founders, Buffer: free for 3 channels with 10 scheduled posts each, and $5 a month per channel billed yearly after that. If you used Crowdfire's article suggestions and RSS feeds, Publer's paid plans with RSS automations and trending news come closest.
How much did Crowdfire cost before it closed?
Its archived pricing page of February 2025 listed a free plan for 3 accounts, Plus at $7.48 a month billed yearly ($9.99 monthly), Premium at $37.48 and VIP at $74.98, for 5, 10 and 25 accounts.
Where can I submit a guest post about my startup?
You can publish a guest post in one of the Fe/male Switch startup blogs, which rank in Google and in AI tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity. Get a quality backlink.
How much does Hootsuite cost in 2027?
When we checked in November 2026, Hootsuite listed Standard at $99, Professional at $199 and Advanced at $399 per user per month on annual billing, with Enterprise priced on request. Monthly billing costs more, and taxes come on top.
Does Hootsuite have a free plan?
No. Hootsuite offers a free 14-day trial on Standard, Professional and Advanced. Its FAQ says regular billing begins when the trial ends, so cancel before then if you do not want to continue.
Is there a Crowdfire tutorial for 2027?
There is nothing to set up, because the Crowdfire scheduler is offline. To rebuild a Crowdfire-style routine, list the accounts and feeds you used, connect them to a new tool such as Buffer or Publer, save your article sources there and fill a two-week queue.
What happened to ManageFlitter?
ManageFlitter's website says the service has not been available since January 2022. Hootsuite is still running, but it is a paid team suite rather than a follower-management tool.
Can I use AI to write the posts and articles I share?
Yes. Hootsuite runs every plan on its Wisdom AI, Buffer includes an AI Assistant even on its free plan, and the F/MS AI SEO Tool writes keyword-based articles that you can then share through any scheduler.
About the Author
Violetta Bonenkamp, also known as MeanCEO, is an experienced startup founder with an impressive educational background including an MBA and four other higher education degrees. She has over 20 years of work experience across multiple countries, including 5 years as a solopreneur and serial entrepreneur. Throughout her startup experience she has applied for multiple startup grants at the EU level, in the Netherlands and Malta, and her startups received quite a few of those. She’s been living, studying and working in many countries around the globe and her extensive multicultural experience has influenced her immensely.
