Buffer
Social scheduling priced per channel, so small accounts stay cheap.
- Marketing
- Productivity
- from $5/mo
Buffer schedules and publishes social media posts across networks, with a queue-based model, basic analytics and an AI assistant for drafting. Its distinguishing decision is pricing: you pay per connected channel rather than per seat, so a solo operator on three networks pays a fraction of what a suite-priced competitor charges.
Buffer ranking and coverage
- In Marketing
- #1 of 14
- Overall
- #12 of 122 tied
- Terms score
- 7.7 /10
- Referenced here
- 2 pages
Cost position 9.2 · Portability 5 · Subscription flexibility 9 - Ranked on published terms only: entry price against category peers, portability and subscription flexibility, equally weighted. This is not a quality score.How the rank is calculated.
Buffer: the short answer
Every line below is drawn from facts verified on 9 August 2026.
- What it is
- Social scheduling priced per channel, so small accounts stay cheap
- Best for
- Solo founders and creators on a few networks
- Starts at
- Free; paid from $5 per channel/month
- Free option
- Free plan available, 14 days trial
- Biggest strength
- Per-channel pricing is genuinely cheap for small accounts
- Biggest drawback
- Analytics are shallow compared with dedicated tools
- Based on
- Primary-source research, not hands-on use
- Closest alternative
- Hootsuite - Far more capable on listening and approvals, at many times the price
- True annual cost
- from $60 a year on Essentials, the cheapest paid tier ($5 a month)
Buffer at a glance
| Best for | Solo founders and creators on a few networks, Small teams wanting scheduling without a suite, Anyone whose social budget is under $50 a month |
|---|---|
| Category | Marketing, Productivity |
| Starting price | Free; paid from $5 per channel/month |
| Free plan | Yes |
| Free trial | 14 days |
| Pricing model | freemium |
| Company | Buffer, Inc. |
| Founded | 2010 |
| Headquarters | Fully remote, incorporated in the United States |
| Founders | Joel Gascoigne, Leo Widrich |
| Platforms | Web, iOS, Android |
| Public API | Yes |
| Browser extension | Yes |
| Mobile apps | iOS + Android |
| Self-hosting | No |
| Affiliate programme | No |
| Data source | Vendor pricing page and public records |
| Last checked | August 2026 |
Buffer pricing
Prices below were read from the vendor's own pricing page on 9 August 2026. Pricing model: freemium. Free trial: 14 days.
| Plan | Price | Billing | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | per month | Up to 3 channels, 10 scheduled posts per channel |
| Essentials | $5 | per month | per channel - Billed yearly at $60 per channel. Unlimited scheduling, 250 tags |
| Team | $10 | per month | per channel - Billed yearly at $120 per channel. Unlimited team members |
What Buffer actually costs over a year
A monthly price is not the same thing as a monthly contract. These are the plans above resolved both ways, per seat or unit where the plan is charged that way. Where a vendor quotes only a yearly figure it is divided by twelve rather than left out, and the Quoted column says which figure the vendor actually publishes.
| Plan | Quoted | Monthly | Over 12 months |
|---|---|---|---|
| Essentialsper channel | per month | $5 | $60 |
| Teamper channel | per month | $10 | $120 |
Which Buffer plan should you buy?
| Your situation | Recommended | Why |
|---|---|---|
| You post to three networks or fewer, lightly | Free | Three channels and 10 queued posts per channel. A real trial, not a permanent plan. |
| You are a solo creator on a handful of networks | Essentials | $5 per channel. Three channels is $15 a month, against $99 for a suite you would not open. |
| Several colleagues contribute posts | Team | $10 per channel with unlimited team members and draft approvals. |
| You manage more than about ten channels | Reconsider per-channel pricing | The model inverts at scale. Ten channels on Team is $100 a month, where flat-rate suites become competitive. |
| You need listening, an inbox or client reporting | Do not buy Buffer | Buffer is a publishing queue by design. Hootsuite or Sprout Social do management. |
Verdict by who you are
Solo founder or creatorYes
Per-channel pricing makes this the cheapest credible scheduler for a small footprint.
Small in-house marketing teamYes
Unlimited team members on Team means the cost follows channels, not headcount.
Agency with many client accountsNo
Per-channel pricing becomes expensive past roughly ten channels, and there is no client management layer.
Brand handling high inbound volumeNo
No serious inbox or listening. Messages will be missed.
Should you buy Buffer?
Buy Buffer if…
- Solo founders and creators on a few networks
- Small teams wanting scheduling without a suite
- Anyone whose social budget is under $50 a month
Do not buy Buffer if…
- Agencies managing dozens of client accounts
- Teams needing social listening and inbox management
- Organisations wanting deep competitor analytics
Key features
- Queue-based scheduling across major networks
- Only pay for the channels you actually connect
- AI Assistant for drafting and repurposing posts
- Engagement inbox for comments on paid tiers
- Start Page, a simple link-in-bio page
- Per-post and per-channel analytics
- Draft approval workflow and unlimited team members on Team
- Browser extension for scheduling while browsing
Integrations
- Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, X, TikTok, Pinterest, YouTube, Threads, Bluesky, Mastodon
- Canva and Dropbox
- Zapier
- Shopify
- Buffer API
Buffer screenshots
Captured by us in August 2026 at 1440px, unedited. Interfaces change, so these show the product as it looked on the date we verified this profile. Pricing pages are captured from a US vantage point, so the currency shown matches the USD figures recorded above.
Our assessment
Buffer is the sensible default for anyone whose social media need is scheduling rather than management. Per-channel pricing means a creator on three networks pays $15 a month while a comparable suite would charge $99 for capabilities they will not open, and the product is quick, stable and pleasant to use. The honest limit is depth: listening, competitor tracking and advanced reporting are thin or absent, and the per-channel model inverts against you at scale, where twenty channels costs more than a flat-rate competitor. Buffer knows this and has stayed deliberately small in scope.
What works in Buffer
- Per-channel pricing is genuinely cheap for small accounts
- Usable free tier covering three channels
- Fast, uncluttered interface with a good mobile app
- Bootstrapped and profitable, so unlikely to be sold or gutted
What doesn't
- Analytics are shallow compared with dedicated tools
- No meaningful social listening
- Per-channel pricing becomes expensive past roughly ten channels
- Free tier limits you to 10 scheduled posts per channel
EveryAny Decision Score
3 of these 8 dimensions are calculated from verified facts; the rest are our judgement, shown as a band rather than a figure unless something specific sits behind them. How each score works.
- Cost position9.2/10
derivedentry tier at $5 a month against a category median of $20 a month across 13 comparable tools
- Portability5/10
derivedpublic API
- Subscription flexibility9/10
derivedfree plan, free trial, freemium, monthly billing
- Feature depthModerate
editorialour judgement, with no measurement behind it
- Ease of learningVery high
editorialour judgement, with no measurement behind it
- CollaborationHigh
editorialour judgement, with no measurement behind it
- AI capabilityModerate
editorialour judgement, with no measurement behind it
- Professional adoptionHigh
editorialour judgement, with no measurement behind it
What leaving Buffer would cost
moderate lock-in
Buffer scores on public API. Portability 5/10 ; lock-in is the inverse. How this is calculated.
Buffer competitors and alternatives
| Alternative | Why you might pick it instead |
|---|---|
| Hootsuite | Far more capable on listening and approvals, at many times the price. |
| Later | Stronger for visual planning on Instagram and TikTok. |
| Metricool | Better analytics and advertising reporting for a similar budget. |
Hootsuite
Marketing
The incumbent in social media management, priced like one.
Checked Aug 2026
Later
Marketing
Visual-first scheduling, priced by social sets rather than seats.
Checked Aug 2026
Per-channel pricing changes who should buy it
Buffer charges per connected channel, not per user. Essentials is $5 per channel per month and Team is $10, both billed yearly at $60 and $120 per channel. Those are the yearly-billing figures, which is the default the pricing page loads with; the page describes the yearly discount as saving two months, so monthly billing costs proportionally more. Team includes unlimited team members.
Work out your own number before comparing. Three channels on Essentials is $15 a month. Hootsuite starts around $99. For a solo operator the difference is not marginal, it is the entire decision. Run the same arithmetic at twenty channels and the conclusion reverses, which is exactly the point at which you have outgrown Buffer.
What the free tier actually covers
Three channels, ten scheduled posts per channel, 100 stored ideas, three tags and one user account. The AI Assistant is included even here. That is enough to evaluate the product and enough for genuinely light use, but a normal posting cadence exhausts ten queued posts in a week or two. Treat it as a real trial rather than a permanent plan.
There are only three plans. Buffer no longer sells an agency tier, so the feature comparison runs Free, Essentials and Team and nothing above it.
Scope is a feature here
Buffer does not do social listening, sentiment analysis or competitor benchmarking, and it does not pretend to. What it does is get posts out reliably, on time, across networks, with analytics good enough to see what performed. If your need is a publishing queue, that restraint is why the product stays fast and cheap.
If you need to monitor conversations, handle inbound at volume or report to clients in depth, you need a suite and should price Hootsuite or Sprout Social instead.
The company is worth a note
Buffer is bootstrapped, profitable and publishes its own revenue and salary figures. It bought back investor equity rather than pursuing an exit. For a tool you are asking to hold your publishing schedule for years, that reduces the usual risk of acquisition followed by repricing, and it is a fair consideration alongside the feature list.
Buffer questions, answered
- Is Buffer worth it?
- Buffer is the sensible default for anyone whose social media need is scheduling rather than management.
- How much does Buffer cost?
- Free; paid from $5 per channel/month. The cheapest paid tier we recorded is Essentials, published at $5 a month, which works out at $5 a month or $60 over a year. Verified against the vendor's pricing page.
- Does Buffer have a free plan or free trial?
- Buffer has a free plan. A free trial is available: 14 days.
- What is the best Buffer alternative?
- It depends on the job. Hootsuite: Far more capable on listening and approvals, at many times the price. Later: Stronger for visual planning on Instagram and TikTok. Metricool: Better analytics and advertising reporting for a similar budget.
- Can I self-host Buffer?
- No. Buffer is a hosted service only, so your data lives on the vendor's infrastructure.
What this profile is based on
Every claim below is about our work, not about Buffer. A "no" is recorded rather than omitted, because the difference between a tested review and careful desk research is the reader's to weigh. How we research a profile.
-
Prices read from the vendor : yes
Read from Buffer's own pricing page on 9 August 2026
-
Plans and terms recorded : yes
3 rows, each with its billing period
-
Original screenshots : yes
2 captured by us: homepage, pricing page
-
Sources cited and dated : yes
1 primary source, each with the date it was read
-
Product used first-hand : no
Not tested. This profile is desk research from primary sources
-
Alternatives used first-hand : no
None, so comparisons here rest on published facts rather than use
-
Vendor contacted : no
Not contacted for this profile
Where Buffer appears on this site
2 other pages here reference Buffer. Every one is listed below, so the figure can be checked rather than taken.
- Another profile Later names it as a competitor
- Another profile Sprout Social names it as a competitor
Counts pages on this site that name the product by choice - buyer guides, articles, deal records and other profiles. Category and directory indexes list everything automatically and are not counted.
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Provenance and freshness
When each fact was last checked
- Pricing ·
- Plans ·
- Free trial
- Features
- Platforms
- Integrations
- Affiliate programme
- Company details
What has changed
-
August 2026
- Pricing verified as yearly-billing rates; confirmed no agency tier is sold
- Added plan picker and verdicts
Sources & verification
Facts on this page were read from the sources below on the dates shown. Where a vendor does not publish a figure, we record it as not disclosed rather than estimating it.
- Buffer pricing - checked 9 August 2026
Spotted something out of date? Email [email protected] and we will re-check it. Corrections are logged on the page.
