Social media schedulingFree plan14-day free trial

Buffer review 98/100 on verified data

Buffer is a social media scheduling tool: Social media publishing tool with scheduling queues, an idea library, analytics, a community inbox, a link-in-bio page and an AI assistant.

Visit Buffer Buffer pricing

Data checked Oct 14, 2026 against the vendors' own pages. How we verify

Homepage captured Oct 14, 2026

Score (rank 1 of 117): 98/100
Coverage (6 of 8 criteria): 80%
From, per month: $5/account
Free plan: Yes

BufferFrom $5/account/moVisit

Paid plans start at $5 per social account per month billed yearly on the Essentials plan, and there is a free plan with 3 social accounts and 1 user and a 14-day free trial.

Buffer has a public API.

In our social media scheduling tools ranking Buffer scores 98/100, rank 1 of 117, based on 6 of 8 criteria (80% of the scorecard weight backed by verified data).

Buffer at a glance

Each value links the vendor page it was read from and the date we checked it.

Pricing model: Free plan + paid plans source, Oct 14, 2026
Cheapest paid plan: Essentials: $5/account/mo (billed yearly) source, Oct 14, 2026
Free plan: Yes source, Oct 14, 2026
Free trial: 14 days source, Oct 14, 2026
Public API: Yes source, Oct 14, 2026

Buffer plans

3 published plans, per month, billed monthly and yearly.

Free
Free
Billed monthly
Free
Billed yearly
Free
Charged per
per social account
Published limits
- 3 social accounts
- 1 user
Essentials
$5per month, billed yearly
Billed monthly
Not offered
Billed yearly
$5
Charged per
per social account
Published limits
- 1 user
Team
$10per month, billed yearly
Billed monthly
Not offered
Billed yearly
$10
Charged per
per social account
Published limits
- Unlimited users

Prices in USD per month, before tax. Read from the vendor's pricing page on Oct 14, 2026. "Not stated" means the page does not publish it.

Full Buffer pricing and plan limits

How Buffer scores

The social media scheduling tools scorecard applied to Buffer's verified data: 98/100, rank 1 of 117, based on 6 of 8 criteria.

Score

98/100

Rank #1 of 117

Coverage 80%

6 of 8 criteria. Ranked at 60% or more.

Full ranking of social media scheduling tools How we score

Entry price
100/100
Weight 31%$5/month per account billed annually on Essentials; no monthly-billed price published (scored against annual-billed prices) source
Free plan or trial
100/100
Weight 19%Free plan (Free) source
Pricing transparency
100/100
Weight 13%3 of 3 plans have a public price source
Verified features
90/100
Weight 19%9 of 19 tracked features verified: posting queue, calendar view, first-comment scheduling, ai caption assistant, post and account analytics, approval workflows, user roles and permissions, unified social inbox, content repurposing source 1 source 2
API, integrations and export
100/100
Weight 13%public API source
Platform coveragecategory criterion
Excluded
Weight –No published data: left out, the other criteria are re-weighted.
Cost per connected accountcategory criterion
Excluded
Weight –No published data: left out, the other criteria are re-weighted.
Free plan limitscategory criterion
100/100
Weight 6%Free plan: 3 connected accounts source

Buffer features

9 of the 20 features we compare social media scheduling tools on, as Buffer publishes them.

Posting queue: Yes source, Oct 14, 2026
Calendar view: Yes source, Oct 14, 2026
First-comment scheduling: Yes source, Oct 14, 2026
AI caption assistant: Yes source, Oct 14, 2026
Post and account analytics: Yes source, Oct 14, 2026
Approval workflows: Yes source, Oct 14, 2026
User roles and permissions: Yes source, Oct 14, 2026
Unified social inbox: Yes source, Oct 14, 2026
Content repurposing: Yes source, Oct 14, 2026

13 more details we track are not published by the vendor or not verified yet. How we verify

Buffer alternatives

The highest-scoring of 134 comparable tools.

Top Buffer alternatives
#	Tool	Score	Coverage	From, billed monthly	From, billed yearly	Free plan	Platforms	Checked
1	Zoho Social	96/100	90%7 of 8 criteria	Not offered	$10/mo	Yes, 1 workspace	14	Oct 14, 2026
2	Posterly	94/100	95%7 of 8 criteria	Not offered	$6/mo	No	12	Oct 14, 2026
3	Iconosquare	93/100	100%8 of 8 criteria	Not offered	$10/mo	Yes, 2 social accounts	8	Oct 14, 2026
4	Publer	92/100	65%6 of 8 criteria	Free	Free	Yes, 1 user	12	Oct 14, 2026
5	TrackMediaOur product	90/100	100%8 of 8 criteria	Not offered	$8.25/mo	Yes, 15 scheduled posts per month	13	Oct 15, 2026

Each value links the vendor page it was read from (hover for the check date). Coverage is the share of the scorecard's weight with verified data, and "N of M criteria" how many criteria the score is based on; a tool is ranked at 60% or more.

All 134 Buffer alternatives, ranked

More ways to weigh up Buffer

Competitors, cheaper and open-source options, computed from the same verified data as this page.

Compare Buffer

Questions, answered from the data

How much does Buffer cost?

Paid plans start at $5 per social account per month billed yearly on the Essentials plan, according to Buffer's pricing page (checked Oct 14, 2026).

Does Buffer have a free plan?

Yes: Buffer has a free plan with 3 social accounts and 1 user and a 14-day free trial (checked Oct 14, 2026).

Does Buffer have an API?

Yes, a public API is documented (checked Oct 14, 2026).

How does Buffer score?

In our social media scheduling tools ranking Buffer scores 98/100, rank 1 of 117, based on 6 of 8 criteria (80% of the scorecard weight backed by verified data).

What are the best Buffer alternatives?

By our scorecard the top-ranked alternatives are Zoho Social (96/100), Posterly (94/100) and Iconosquare (93/100).

Buffer

Rankings it appears in

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Pricing last read Oct 14, 2026. Vendors change prices; the linked page is the final word.