Unified Inbox takes the fight to social media giants Buffer and Hootsuite with Outbox Pro

Communication-as-a-service platform Unified Inbox announced today the launch of its first product in the form of social media management tool Outbox Pro. Not unlike Buffer and Hootsuite, this Chrome browser extension allows users to schedule and publish web content on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Outbox Pro’s key difference from the two social media giants lies in its multi-author and approval functions, which make it very enterprise-friendly. Users can enable multiple authors to publish content on their social media networks, subject to their approval – something that companies would likely appreciate, according to a representative from Unified Inbox:

The approval function is key to social media management. With the typical number of social media stakeholders and authors involved, the approval and posting process can become cumbersome and be an obstacle for efficient and timely communication for companies. Outbox Pro then provides a simpler and more fluid process for companies to create a better internal/external workflow to manage their social media content.

In addition, these features give selected employees access to live social networks without divulging account passwords or fear they will post erroneous content.

Notably, Hootsuite also offers approval functionality, but only at the enterprise level which costs considerably more than the lower tiers. Outbox Pro’s advantage is in packaging these features in at a cheaper price point.

Outbox Pro’s pricing plan is quite different from the rest. The first 100 posts come free-of-charge, with additional posts costing US$0.25 per post thereafter. On the flipside, both Buffer and Hootsuite offer monthly plans for a flat rate, which cost US$10 and US$9.99 respectively. Similar to Outbox Pro, the former allows for 100 scheduled posts – the next tier, which costs US$25, features unlimited scheduled posts – while the latter bumps it to 350 posts.

For Unified Inbox, this tool is a small piece of a much bigger picture: to streamline conversations and collaboration on one single platform. “We will be launching our namesake product, Unified Inbox, as well as Unified Pro for enterprises, later in 2015,” Unified Inbox’s representative tells Tech in Asia. “Both products focus on integrating communications into a single platform so users do not have to visit 20+ different sites to check all of their communications channels.”

See: Unified Inbox wants to make communication simple again