Yes, Hootsuite supports post approval before publishing: you can require approval for chosen team members, so their posts wait for an approver, who approves, edits or rejects them before they go live. In Mydrop's September 2026 price check, approvals needed Hootsuite's Advanced plan, not its entry plan, so the real question is usually cost, and who has to log in to approve.
TLDR: Hootsuite's approval queue works well for in-house teams already on the right plan. If you need clients or managers to approve without a paid seat, or a cost that stays flat as your reviewers grow, compare Mydrop, Sprout Social, Agorapulse, Loomly and Planable.
Mydrop pricing check, September 2026: the entry paid plans of the eight tools most often compared with Mydrop run from $6 per channel (Buffer) and $25 a month (Later) to $99 per user (Hootsuite) and $199 per seat (Sprout Social), read on each vendor's pricing page. Mydrop is free to start, then $19 a month flat, not per seat. Full table on Mydrop's compare pages.
How post approval works in Hootsuite
The general flow looks like this:
- An admin decides who needs approval. Some team members can publish freely, while others need their posts approved on certain social accounts.
- Those members submit instead of scheduling. The post is created as usual, but it doesn't go into the publishing queue.
- The post waits for review. It sits in a list of posts pending approval.
- An approver acts on it. They approve it, edit it, or reject it with a note.
- Approved posts publish on schedule. Rejected ones go back to the author.
Higher tiers add more control over who approves what. Plan names and features change, so check Hootsuite's own help centre and pricing page before you build your process around any detail.
Where teams hit limits with Hootsuite approval
Hootsuite is a capable tool. The friction usually comes down to five questions, so test each one against your own setup:
| Question to check | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Which plan includes approvals? | In Mydrop's September 2026 price check, approvals needed Hootsuite's Advanced plan. |
| How is it billed? | Hootsuite bills per user, so every reviewer you add as a member can push the bill up. |
| Can a client approve without a seat? | Agencies and freelancers need sign-off from people outside the team. |
| Where does feedback live? | If rejection notes travel by email, the history leaves the post. |
| Can approvers act from a phone? | Managers approve between meetings, not at a desk. |
If two or more answers hurt, look at tools where approval and publishing are one flow and reviewers don't need an account.
5 Hootsuite alternatives that approve and publish in one flow
| Tool | How approval works | Best fit |
|---|---|---|
| Mydrop | Per-post review link with live preview, no login; approve, hold or suggest edits; WhatsApp approvals; automatic reminders; flat pricing, not per seat | Agencies and teams with outside reviewers |
| Sprout Social | Message approval workflows in its publishing tools | Large in-house teams |
| Agorapulse | Review and approval steps in the publishing calendar | Teams that also lean on the social inbox |
| Loomly | Approval steps and comments on each post | Small marketing teams |
| Planable | Feed-style preview with comments and approvals | Teams that review visually |
For a side-by-side view, see Mydrop vs Hootsuite.
Mydrop's approval flow: one link per post, no seat for reviewers
In Mydrop, approval and publishing are the same flow. You create the post, send it for approval and it waits as pending. The reviewer gets a link with a true-to-platform preview and taps approve, hold or suggest edits. No login, no seat, no password.
A few details matter in practice:
- Hold pauses publishing. Putting a post back on hold returns it to pending and stops the schedule until an approver moves it forward.
- Feedback stays on the post. Suggested edits from the link or from WhatsApp land in the post's own chat, so the team sees them in context.
- Reminders do the chasing. Overdue approvals get nudged automatically.
- Clients get a home. Each client can approve inside a branded client portal on your domain or theirs.
The approval workflow then hands the post straight to publishing on 14 networks. Mydrop's data shows both halves of that flow: on posts that went through a client approval on Mydrop, the median time from submission to approval was 6 hours, and 98.5% of posts published through Mydrop in the 30 days to 16 September 2026 went live at the first attempt.
Stay on Hootsuite, or move your approvals?
Stay if every reviewer is already on your team, you already pay for the plan that includes approvals and you rely on Hootsuite features you'd miss.
Move if you pay for seats for people who only approve, if clients still approve by email because they can't get into the tool, or if your bill grows every time you add a reviewer.
For the full list of reasons and a one-week move plan, read Hootsuite approval workflow: 8 reasons teams switch.
Test it on one week of posts: create a free Mydrop account, connect the same profiles and send next week's posts for approval through a review link. Then compare how long sign-off takes against your Hootsuite queue.
Google review
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