By Lucy Bloomfield, Founder, Magic Marketer® · Updated 12 October 2026

Buffer alternatives in 2026: six tools, prices checked

If the posts are the problem, Magic Marketer®. If you want better reporting, Metricool. If Instagram and TikTok are the job, Later. If you have a library to recycle, Publer. If you run an agency, HeyOrca. If you want an inbox and reviews too, Vista Social. If you have the posts and want the cheapest queue, stay on Buffer.

How we compared them

We read each vendor's own pricing page on 12 October 2026 and copied the list prices as published. Where a page did not show a price we could read, we wrote "Check current pricing" rather than guess. Each tool gets one best-for label, so no two are pitched at the same reader. The switching section comes from the vendor's own help centre. Magic Marketer® is our product. The choose-them-if lines are written so you can leave this page for someone else.

Why people leave Buffer

It is rarely the scheduling. Buffer is cheap, clean and reliable. It takes posts you already made and puts them out on time.

The reason people go looking is that the queue is empty. Buffer assumes the posts exist. (Ask us how we know.)

The other reasons are smaller: reporting that stops at the basics, no client approvals for agencies, and no inbox for reviews.

Plan	Price	What you get
Free	$0	3 channels, 10 scheduled posts per channel, 1 user
Essentials	$5/mo per channel	Or $60 a year per channel. Unlimited scheduled posts, 1 user
Team	$10/mo per channel	Or $120 a year per channel. Unlimited team members

USD list prices from buffer.com/pricing, checked 12 October 2026. 14-day trial on paid plans. The price per channel drops past 10 channels.

Stay on Buffer if

You already have the posts, or someone who makes them, and you want the cheapest reliable queue. Buffer does that job well, and the free plan is real.

Buffer alternatives at a glance

Tool	Best for	Starting price	Watch out for
Buffer	A cheap queue when the posts already exist	Free, then $5 per channel/mo	Does not make posts.
Metricool	Analytics across several brands on a budget	Free, then from $20/mo	Does not make posts.
Later	Instagram and TikTok planning with a visual grid	$18.75/mo billed yearly	No free plan. Posts capped per profile on Starter.
Magic Marketer®	Making the posts, then publishing them	A$99/mo for up to 2 brands	No free plan, a 7-day free trial instead.
Publer	Recycling a library of posts you already have	Free, then from $5/mo per account	Free plan has no X.
HeyOrca	Agencies that need client approval links	Free, then $59 per calendar/mo	Priced per calendar, so every client adds one.
Vista Social	An inbox and reviews in the same tool	$99/mo or $950/yr, 2 users	No free plan. X is a $29/mo add-on.

Prices from each vendor's own pricing page, checked 12 October 2026: buffer.com/pricing, metricool.com/pricing, later.com/pricing, publer.com/plans, heyorca.com/pricing and vistasocial.com/pricing. Competitor prices in USD. Magic Marketer® prices are in AUD.

Best for: Analytics across several brands on a budget

Metricool

Metricool is the closest like-for-like for Buffer, with much better reporting. A free plan for one brand, then Starter from $20 a month for five brands. Compared with Buffer, you get competitor and paid ads analytics. The posts still come from somewhere else.

Plan	Price	What you get
Free	$0	1 brand, 20 scheduled posts a month
Starter	From $20/mo	5 brands. $36/mo for 10 brands
Advanced	From $53/mo	15 brands, up to 50

USD list prices from metricool.com/pricing, checked 12 October 2026. Annual billing saves up to 24%.

Choose Metricool if

You already have content and mainly need a cheap, capable dashboard for scheduling, analytics, and competitor tracking across a lot of brands or accounts.

Pros

Generous free plan
Several brands on the entry plan
Organic, paid and competitor analytics

Cons

Does not make posts
Busier than Buffer
AI captions are generic

Best for: Instagram and TikTok planning with a visual grid

Later

Later is the visual planner. Grid preview, media library, Link in Bio. Starter is $18.75 a month billed yearly, with thirty posts per profile a month. Compared with Buffer, it is better for a photo-led feed and dearer for everyone else. There is no free plan.

Plan	Price	What you get
Starter	$18.75/mo billed yearly	1 social set (8 profiles), 1 user, 30 posts per profile a month, 5 AI credits
Growth	$37.50/mo billed yearly	2 social sets (16 profiles), 2 users, 180 posts per profile, 50 AI credits
Scale	$82.50/mo billed yearly	6 social sets (48 profiles), 4 users, unlimited posts, 100 AI credits

USD list prices from later.com/pricing, checked 12 October 2026. No free plan, 14-day trial. The page showed yearly billing only. For the month-to-month price, check current pricing.

Choose Later if

You are a visual brand with photos and video already shot, Instagram or TikTok is the main channel, and you want a grid preview and Link in Bio.

Pros

Grid preview and media library
Link in Bio included
Eight profiles on Starter

Cons

No free plan
30 posts per profile on Starter
Does not make posts

Best for: Making the posts, then publishing them

Magic Marketer®

This week · approved

MonThree things that stall week threeLinkedIn · 9:00Queued

TueReel from Tuesday's callInstagram · 18:30Best time

WedWeek three is where consistency diesLinkedIn · 8:15Queued

Thu"Consistency beats perfection."Facebook · 12:00Queued

Fri22 seconds, captions burned inTikTok · 17:45Best time

Magic Marketer® starts one step earlier than Buffer. One source - a recording, a voice note, a transcript, a link - becomes finished posts in eight formats, in your voice. Then they are scheduled to nine channels at the best time for each. Compared with Buffer, it costs more. It also fills the queue.

Plan	Price	What you get
Free trial	A$0 for 7 days	Card at sign-up. Publishing, scheduling and unlimited creations included. Free for 7 days. Cancel anytime before day 7 and you won't be charged.
Up to 2 brands	A$99/mo	Up to 2 brands. Unlimited team members. Publishing and scheduling included. A fresh batch on your schedule, daily, weekly, or monthly. Weekly community calls and workshops included. For 3 or more brands, book a demo and we quote agency pricing. Or A$986/yr, save 17%.
Agency	Custom	3 or more brands. No public rate, quoted on a demo.

Magic Marketer® prices are in AUD.

Choose Magic Marketer® if

Your Buffer queue is empty because nobody had time to make the posts, and you want them made before they are scheduled.

Pros

Makes the posts from a source you already have
Up to 2 brands on one plan, no per-channel charge
Brand guardrails and compliance presets

Cons

No permanent free plan
No social listening
Does not import a Buffer queue

Best for: Recycling a library of posts you already have

Publer

Publer prices per social account, with a free plan and every tenth account free. Paid plans add unlimited scheduling and post recycling. Compared with Buffer, it is better at reusing what you have. Same limit as Buffer: you supply the posts.

Plan	Price	What you get
Free	$0	1 user, 3 social accounts (not X), 10 scheduled posts per account
Professional	From $5/mo per account	Or $4/mo billed yearly. Unlimited scheduling and drafts, X included. 7-day trial
Business	From $10/mo per account	Or $8/mo billed yearly. Adds analytics, post recycling and unlimited AI. 14-day trial

USD list prices from publer.com/plans, checked 12 October 2026. Priced per social account, with extra members on top. Every tenth account is free. Ten accounts on Professional came to $36/mo.

Choose Publer if

You have a large library of finished posts and want the cheapest way to schedule and recycle them across two or three channels.

Pros

Usable free plan
Post recycling on Business
Bulk scheduling

Cons

Free plan has no X
Price climbs with every account
Does not make posts

Best for: Agencies that need client approval links

HeyOrca

HeyOrca is built around the client approval. One calendar per client, unlimited users, approval links. Basic is $59 a month per calendar. Compared with Buffer, it is the agency workflow. It gets expensive past a handful of clients, and someone still makes the posts.

Plan	Price	What you get
Free	$0 per calendar	1 user, 2 social profiles, 15 scheduled posts a month
Basic	$59/mo per calendar	Unlimited users and posts, 10 profiles per calendar
Pro	$149/mo per calendar	Adds reporting, a social inbox and listening
Agency	Custom	Quoted by sales

USD list prices from heyorca.com/pricing, checked 12 October 2026. Annual billing saves 15%. Five or more calendars save 40%. 14-day trial.

Choose HeyOrca if

You run an agency, you need unlimited seats, client approval links, and a shared calendar, and someone else is already producing the content that goes into it.

Pros

Client approval links
Unlimited users on paid plans
Inbox and listening on Pro

Cons

Priced per calendar
Free plan is 15 posts a month
Does not make posts

Best for: An inbox and reviews in the same tool

Vista Social

Vista Social adds what Buffer leaves out: an inbox, reviews and a listening add-on. Professional is $99 a month, or $950 a year, for two users and fifteen profiles. Compared with Buffer, it is a bigger tool at a bigger price.

Plan	Price	What you get
Professional	$99/mo	Or $950 a year. 15 profiles, 2 users
Advanced	$199/mo	Or $1,910 a year. 30 profiles, 3 users
Scale	$449/mo	Or $4,310 a year. 70 profiles, 4 users

USD list prices from vistasocial.com/pricing, checked 12 October 2026. No free plan, 14-day trial. X is $29/mo extra. Listening across social, web and news is $75/mo.

Choose Vista Social if

You run several brands with a small team and need the management layer: inbox, reviews, listening, advocacy.

Pros

Inbox and reviews included
Two users on the entry plan
Listening as an add-on

Cons

No free plan
X costs extra
Still assumes the posts exist

How to choose a Buffer alternative

Start with what Buffer is not doing for you. It is usually one of six things.

01
Nothing. You have the posts and want it cheap
Stay on Buffer. Nothing here beats the price.
02
You want to know what is working
Metricool. Five brands and competitor analytics from $20 a month.
03
Instagram and TikTok are the business
Later. The grid preview and Link in Bio are the point.
04
You have a library to reuse
Publer. Post recycling and a free plan.
05
You need client sign-off
HeyOrca, or Vista Social if you also want an inbox and reviews.
06
The queue is empty
Magic Marketer®. It makes the posts from a link, a photo or one line, then publishes. That is the only reason to pick us over Buffer.

Switching from Buffer: your queue, ideas and channels

Most roundups skip this bit. In Buffer, the order you do it in matters.

The short version: your numbers can leave, your queue has no export we could find, and disconnecting a channel deletes its history.

What moves

Your published posts and their numbers. On a paid plan, Insights exports to CSV, Markdown or PDF. The CSV includes a posts file.
Your charts, as images. Snapshots download on every plan, free included.
Your images and videos, from your own copies. Upload them again in the new tool.

What does not

The scheduled queue. We found no export for scheduled posts in Buffer's help centre. Copy what you want to keep.
Connected channels. Connections do not transfer. You reconnect each channel in the new tool.
Your history, if you disconnect first. Disconnecting a channel in Buffer removes its posts, comments and analytics for good.
Your ideas. They stay in Buffer on the free plan, up to 100.

In this order

Export Insights while you are still on a paid plan.
Copy the scheduled posts and ideas you want to keep.
Connect your channels in the new tool and rebuild the queue there. Magic Marketer® does not import a Buffer queue - it makes new posts from a source, so use the old queue as your brief.
Pause the queue on each Buffer channel, so nothing goes out twice. Pausing is per channel, and cancelling alone does not stop posts already scheduled.
Cancel from Buffer's billing page. The plan runs to the end of the billing period, then drops to the free plan.

From Buffer's help centre (Getting started with Buffer's analytics features, Pausing your queue, Disconnecting a channel from Buffer, What happens when you downgrade to the Free plan, and How to cancel your subscription or delete your account), checked 12 October 2026.

Buffer alternative FAQs

Is there a free Buffer alternative?

Metricool (1 brand, 20 posts a month), Publer and HeyOrca (1 calendar, 15 posts a month) all have free plans. Buffer's own free plan covers 3 channels and 10 scheduled posts each. Magic Marketer® has a 7-day free trial, with publishing included, then A$99/mo for up to 2 brands.

Does Magic Marketer® schedule posts like Buffer?

Yes. Every post Magic Marketer® makes goes into a calendar with best-time publishing across LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, X, Threads, Pinterest, YouTube and Google Business. The difference is that the calendar arrives full.

Can I export my scheduled posts from Buffer?

We found no export for the scheduled queue in Buffer's help centre. On paid plans, Insights exports published posts and their numbers to CSV, Markdown or PDF. Copy any scheduled posts you want to keep before you leave.

Will my Buffer posts keep publishing after I cancel?

They can. Your plan runs to the end of the billing period, then moves to the free plan. Posts already scheduled on the channels you keep still publish. Pause the queue on each channel so nothing goes out twice.

Why is Buffer so much cheaper?

Because it does less. Buffer is a queue for posts you make elsewhere. Compare it with Buffer plus whatever you spend making the posts: your time, a VA or a designer.

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