Overview
Buffer is one of the longest-running schedulers. It began in November 2010 as a weekend project by Joel Gascoigne, who is still chief executive, and the company has been fully remote since 2013; it publishes its own metrics, including 73 staff, 86,536 paying customers and US$28.4 million in annual recurring revenue[2].
Scheduling is organised around a queue of time slots per channel and a visual calendar. The Free plan connects three channels and holds ten scheduled posts per channel at a time, with drafts, templates, a community inbox, link shortening and integrations with Canva and Zapier[1]. Essentials, at US$5 per channel per month, removes the post cap and adds first-comment scheduling, channel groups, a hashtag manager, custom video covers, custom UTM parameters and reports; Team, at US$10 per channel per month, adds unlimited team members, approval workflows, access levels and branded reports[1]. Each plan has a public API allowance, from 1,000 requests per channel per month on Free[1].
Buffer’s straightforward pricing and free plan make it a default for small businesses. Its constraints are a fair-use cap of 5,000 posts per channel on paid plans, single-user access on Essentials, and engagement and listening features that are lighter than management suites[1]. Nonprofits receive 50 percent off[1].
Buffer features
- Time-slot queues per channel
- Visual calendar and drafts
- First-comment scheduling (Essentials+)
- Hashtag manager and channel groups
- Approval workflows (Team)
- Public API on every plan
- Free plan for three channels
- Visual calendar and queue
Buffer pricing
Free: 3 channels, 10 queued posts per channel. Essentials: US$5/channel/month. Team: US$10/channel/month, unlimited users. Discounts above 10 channels; 50% nonprofit discount; 14-day trial.
Buffer strengths and limitations
Strengths
- Free plan suitable for light use
- Costs scale with channels, not users (on Team)
- Unlimited team members on Team
- API available on all plans
- Usable free plan
- Low per-channel prices
Limitations
- Free plan holds only ten queued posts per channel
- Essentials is single-user
- Limited listening
- Fair-use cap of 5,000 posts per channel
- Limited listening and customer-care tools
- Free plan capped at 10 queued posts per channel
Appears in
Buffer alternatives and competitors
Alternatives to Buffer: companies ranked in the same lists.
- Zoho Analytics
Loomly
Agorapulse- SocialPilot
Hootsuite- Later Influence
Metricool
Tailwind
Hopper HQ
Pallyy
ContentStudio
Planable
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