The best Buffer alternatives
7 tools, ranked by how much of the job each one does. Munshi Social, the AI content marketing engine for small teams, is first, and the reasons to skip it are stated under its own entry.
Prices dated on every entry · Updated September 2026
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If nobody has time to write, Munshi is the Buffer alternative to pick. It writes 15 articles and 1,000 posts a month and publishes them to every network for one flat price. If numbers matter most, Metricool is next on the list. If you write your own posts and run only two or three channels, stay on Buffer. It is hard to beat as a plain scheduler. People usually leave for one of two reasons: paying per channel stopped being cheap, or the queue is empty because nobody has time to write.
What sends Buffer customers shopping
These are Buffer's own published terms and the complaints its users repeat in public reviews, stated as fairly as we can. They are not our opinion of the product.
- Pricing is per channel, at $6 a channel a month on Essentials, so a brand on eight networks pays $48 a month
- The AI assistant refines what you write but does not write for you, so the queue stays empty when you are busy
- No blog publishing: Buffer is social only
- No content strategy or keyword plan behind the calendar
The full side-by-side is on Munshi vs Buffer.
7 Buffer alternatives, in order
Every list ranks tools by how completely they do a small business's content marketing. That means five jobs: strategy, writing, publishing to a blog, publishing to social, and measurement. Munshi does all five without a second subscription, which is why it is first on most lists. It is also the youngest, the narrowest on team features, and holds one account per network per workspace. Where the people leaving a tool are leaving for exactly those things, as agencies with many client accounts are, that need outranks the five jobs, the list says so under this line, and Munshi drops to where it belongs. Prices are quoted from each vendor's pricing page and dated. 1,000 posts and 8 networks are Munshi's own numbers, from our pricing page.
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Munshi Social
Munshi Social is the AI content marketing engine for small teams. It plans the content and writes the articles and the posts. It publishes them to your CMS and your networks and reports the results, all from one weekly approval.
- Best for
- A business where nobody has time to write. The output is the product: 15 articles and 1,000 posts a month, finished and waiting, not a blank editor with an AI button. It suits one or two people running one brand, who would rather read a week's work and say yes than start from an empty composer.
- Price
- $15/mo founding price, locked for life, with two seats and 8 networks and no per-channel fee. Studio runs three brands at $29/mo. The price rises to $49 at public launch.
- The gap
- It holds one account per network per workspace, so four Facebook Pages do not fit. It has two seats, no role hierarchy and five blog destinations (WordPress, Ghost, Webflow, Framer, or Sanity). X is coming soon, the inbox handles comments but not direct messages, and the track record starts in 2026.
Skip to number two if you write everything yourself and just want the queue to run. Buffer's free plan and Metricool's free plan both beat paying us for writing you do not need. Skip us too if you run several accounts on one network. Buffer charges per channel because it lets you have as many as you like, and a Munshi workspace holds one.
Our own pricing page and the app, September 2026
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Metricool
Metricool is a social media planner with unusually deep analytics. It schedules to eleven networks and puts your ad accounts, your website traffic and up to 100 competitors in the same dashboard. It also has an inbox, a link in bio page, a Looker Studio connector on Advanced, and a free plan that never expires.
- Best for
- A social media manager or agency whose job is reporting, across five or more brands, at a low price per brand. It also suits a one-brand owner who writes their own posts and fits inside 20 a month on the free plan.
- Price
- Free for 1 brand. Starter $20/mo billed yearly ($25 monthly) for 5 brands, or $36 ($45) for 10. Advanced from $53/mo billed yearly ($67 monthly). Prices exclude VAT
- The gap
- It measures what you publish, but it does not write it. The AI assistant drafts one post at a time on 20 credits per brand a month, and there is no blog publishing and no keyword plan. A second login needs Advanced at $53 a month billed yearly, and X is $10 a month per account on every paid plan.
Pricing and features checked against metricool.com/pricing, Metricool's product pages and its help centre on 30 September 2026
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Later
Later is a visual social media planner that grew up on Instagram. Its users know it for the drag-and-drop grid preview, the Link in Bio page, best-time slots in the calendar and good mobile apps. It publishes to eight networks, and it sits inside a company that also runs influencer campaigns.
- Best for
- An Instagram-first creator or brand that plans the feed by how it looks and writes its own captions. It also suits a small team that wants client approvals, review links and Instagram and Facebook direct messages, from Growth up. Social sets make several brands on one account a normal setup.
- Price
- Starter $18.75/mo billed yearly or $25 monthly, Growth $37.50/mo ($50 monthly), Scale $82.50/mo ($110 monthly). A limited free plan too
- The gap
- It publishes what you write. The AI drafts one caption per credit, from 5 credits a month on Starter, and each profile is capped at 30 posts a month there. Approvals, the inbox and a second user start on Growth. There is no blog publishing, no keyword plan, and its plans are non-refundable.
Pricing and features checked against later.com/pricing, Later's help centre and its about page on 30 September 2026
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SocialBee
SocialBee is a social scheduler built around evergreen recycling. You sort posts into categories and give each one a schedule. It then re-queues the evergreen posts with variations until an expiry date you set. It also has an engagement inbox on every plan and native mobile apps.
- Best for
- A brand with a deep library of evergreen posts, where re-running the best of them is the whole strategy. It also suits anyone who needs more than eight profiles. Plans are sold by profile count, from 5 on Bootstrap to 150 on the largest agency tier.
- Price
- Bootstrap $29/mo, or $24.17/mo billed yearly. Accelerate $49, Pro $99, agency tiers $179 to $449
- The gap
- It is social only. There is no blog publishing and no keyword strategy, only content pillars and a posting rhythm. Post approval starts on Accelerate at $49 a month, so the cheapest plan has no approval step. Analytics history is three months on Bootstrap.
Pricing and features checked against socialbee.com/pricing, its feature pages and its help documentation on 17 September 2026
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StoryChief
StoryChief is a content marketing platform for teams that write. It publishes articles and social posts from one calendar to seventeen CMS destinations. It also has editorial approvals with roles and comments, employee advocacy, and an AI assistant metered in credits.
- Best for
- A staffed content team or an agency that needs roles, a review chain and client workspaces. It also suits a site on HubSpot, Drupal, Wix or Contentful, thanks to its long CMS list. Agency plans price per client, not per seat, which is the right shape for that work.
- Price
- Social Calendar $22/mo yearly ($27 quarterly). Articles need Team Editorial at $81/seat/mo
- The gap
- Article publishing starts at $81 a seat a month, and the $22 plan is social only. Billing is quarterly or yearly, never month to month. The AI runs on a credit balance that runs out, and the whole design assumes a person who owns the draft.
Prices re-checked against storychief.io/pricing on 17 September 2026; features, roles and the CMS list checked against its help centre and integrations directory on 29 August 2026
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Hootsuite
Hootsuite is the enterprise standard for social media management, sold by the seat. It offers one dashboard for publishing, a unified inbox across networks, social listening, competitor benchmarking, employee advocacy and multi-team approvals.
- Best for
- An organization with a dedicated social team, many accounts across regions or departments, and social customer service at scale. If the job is answering customers on every network from one queue, nothing cheaper on this list truly replaces it.
- Price
- Standard $99 per user a month on annual billing (10 accounts). Professional $199, Advanced $399, Enterprise quoted
- The gap
- Its plans page starts at $99 per user a month on annual billing, for 10 accounts. Every tier assumes a person whose whole job is social. Nothing is written for you, there is no blog publishing, and team approval workflows sit on Advanced at $399 per user a month.
Pricing and features checked against hootsuite.com/plans and its Standard, Professional and Advanced plan pages, plus its analytics, listening, integrations, suite and about pages, on 17 September 2026
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Jasper
Jasper is an AI writing platform for marketing teams. It offers brand voices, knowledge assets, audiences, campaign templates and long-form drafting, with agents for marketing workflows on top.
- Best for
- A marketing team that writes a lot and wants an AI that holds one brand voice across several people. It suits a team that already has a scheduler and a CMS workflow it is happy with. Jasper is the strongest writer on this list by some distance.
- Price
- Pro is $69 per seat a month billed monthly, or $59 per seat a month billed yearly. It includes one seat, 2 brand voices, 5 knowledge assets and 3 audiences. Business is quoted, and there is a 7-day free trial.
- The gap
- It drafts, but it does not plan the calendar, publish to your CMS or your networks, or read the results. You still run the rest of your tools around it and pay for them separately.
Pricing checked against jasper.ai/pricing on 17 September 2026
Munshi, on the screens that matter here
You came here because the queue is empty. Here is what fills it: the article first, then every post that comes out of it.
These are real captures from the app, not mock-ups. The walkthroughs behind them are in the docs.
Choosing a Buffer alternative, answered
What is the best Buffer alternative if I do not want per-channel pricing?
Munshi, at $15 a month for eight networks with no per-channel fee. Metricool's free plan also covers one brand across every network it supports. The difference is the writing: Metricool schedules and measures what you bring it, and Munshi writes the posts and the articles. SocialBee prices by profile count, which lands in between at $29 a month for five profiles.
Is there a free alternative to Buffer?
Yes, Metricool has a free plan for one brand on every network it supports. It stops at 20 scheduled posts a month and 30 days of analytics. Buffer's own free plan is stronger, with three channels, 10 scheduled posts each and a community inbox, forever. Munshi has a 14-day trial with 3 real articles, 50 posts and no card, but no free tier. If free is a must, stay on Buffer.
Which Buffer alternative writes the posts for me?
Munshi writes them without being asked. It drafts 15 articles and up to 1,000 posts a month from a keyword plan you approved, and they wait in a weekly batch. Jasper writes well, but only when you ask, and it does not publish or schedule anything. Buffer, SocialBee, Later, Metricool and Hootsuite all have AI in the composer, which helps once you are already sitting there.
Which alternative lets me run several accounts on the same network?
Buffer itself, or SocialBee. Buffer's channels are unlimited on both paid plans, and SocialBee sells by profile count, from 5 up to 150. A Munshi workspace holds one account per network, so four Facebook Pages need four workspaces, which means Studio at $29 a month for three. If several accounts per network is the whole job, we are the wrong tool.
Does any Buffer alternative publish blog articles to my website?
Yes, two on this list do: Munshi and StoryChief. Munshi writes 15 articles a month into WordPress, Ghost, Webflow, Framer or Sanity. Ghost, Webflow and Framer take them as drafts you publish from your own dashboard. WordPress takes drafts too, except scheduled articles, and Sanity goes live on schedule. StoryChief publishes to seventeen platforms, from $81 a seat a month. Buffer, SocialBee, Later, Metricool and Hootsuite are all social only.
What do I lose by moving off Buffer?
It depends on where you go. You may lose the free plan, the iOS and Android apps, the Start Page link in bio, and an inbox that reaches ten networks. Munshi has none of those. Its web app works at phone width, but there is nothing to install. Its Community inbox handles comments on six networks and replies on four, with no direct messages. These are real losses, and worth weighing against a queue that arrives written.
The trial is the honest pitch
Describe your business and read what Munshi plans and writes for it. The trial gives you 14 days, 3 real articles and 50 posts, with no card. If the output is not better than what you had, you have lost an afternoon.
Other lists: StoryChief alternatives · SocialBee alternatives · Hootsuite alternatives · Loomly alternatives · Later alternatives · Planable alternatives · CoSchedule alternatives · Metricool alternatives · Blotato alternatives · SocialPilot alternatives · ContentCal alternatives · every comparison