Social media scheduling tools let you queue, plan and publish posts across networks from one place. We evaluate free tiers, the billing model (per channel, per account, per brand or per user), network coverage, and the scheduling-plus-analytics bundle to cut the back-and-forth of posting by hand.
5 Social Media Scheduling tools are tracked in this index. 3 of them ship a free plan (Buffer, Publer, Metricool). and 2 offer a trial instead (Later, Hootsuite). The lowest published entry price in the category is $5/channel/mo (annual) (Buffer). Across the 5 scored Social Media Scheduling entries, the index average is 4.0/5, led by Metricool at 4.2/5. Most common tags on this page: Scheduling (5 tools), Social Media (5 tools), Freemium (2 tools), Multi-Channel (2 tools). Pricing figures behind these entries were last checked between 2026-09-18; every tool page carries its own check date.
Browse every head-to-head in the Social Media Scheduling comparison hub →
The full set of Social Media Scheduling entries, with the plan shape each vendor actually publishes:
Every price point above is copied from the vendor's own pricing page and carries the date it was checked on the individual tool page — we do not fill gaps from third-party roundups. Where a figure could not be verified against an official source, the tool page says so instead of guessing.
Buffer is a social scheduling tool built around one clean idea: queue and schedule posts across Instagram, X, Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok, YouTube and Threads from a single feed. It bills per channel, not per seat, and its free tier is a real standing plan (3 channels, 1 user) rather than a trial.
Publer is a low-cost social planner that bills per account on a flat workspace with unlimited scheduling. Its free tier covers 3 social accounts, and its paid entry is among the cheapest in the cluster when a small team needs many accounts without the per-seat math.
Later is a social-first scheduler built around a visual Instagram-first grid. It has no free plan — only a 14-day trial that requires a credit card and auto-charges — and bills by 'Social Set' (a bundle of profiles and posts) rather than per user.
Hootsuite is the established enterprise social management platform: publish, monitor and route a shared inbox across networks, with Wisdom AI and Talkwalker listening. It bills per user and has no free plan.
Metricool is an all-in-one social planner plus analytics platform: schedule across networks, run a content calendar and get built-in analytics and competitor tracking. It bills by brand and has a genuinely useful free tier.
When you compare Social Media Scheduling tools, the fields that decide the outcome are the ones this index actually stores: whether a free plan exists and what it limits, the published entry price and how it bills (per seat, per month, per workspace), what the trial covers, which of the six index dimensions the tool scores on, when each figure was last checked against the official page, and which alternatives sit in the same category. Each tool page prints those fields with its own verification date, the Social Media Scheduling comparison pages put two products side by side on the same fields, and the list pages rank the category against the rest of the index — so you can move from a shortlist to a decision without opening a vendor's sales page.
Browse the rest of the index by category: Form Builders (5) · AI Writing (5) · CRM (8) · Email Marketing (5) · Project Management (5) · No-Code (5) · Analytics (5) · Customer Support (5) · Scheduling (5) · Password & Security (5) · AI API Gateways (5) · Online Courses (5) · Invoicing & AR (5) · eSignature (5) · SEO Tools (5) · Avatar Video (5) · AI Meeting Notes (5) · Conversational AI (5) · AI Presentation Tools (5) · AI Image Generation (5) · AI Video Generation (5) · AI Transcription Services (5) · Workflow Automation (5) · AI Video (1) · AI Image (1) · AI Assistant (1) · Developer Tools (4) · AI Chat (1) · AI Agents (1) · AI Voice Generation (5) · Time Tracking (5) · AI Coding Assistants (5) · Personal AI Agents (4) · LLM Observability (5) · Expense & Spend Management (5)
5 tools are tracked here, 3 of them with a free plan, and paid entry pricing starts at $5/channel/mo (annual) (Buffer). Social media scheduling tools let you queue, plan and publish posts across networks from one place. We evaluate free tiers, the billing model (per channel, per account, per brand or per user), network coverage, and the scheduling-plus-analytics bundle to cut the back-and-forth of posting by hand
Buffer, Publer, Metricool list a free plan in this index; Buffer paid plans start at $5/channel/mo (annual).
Buffer has the lowest published entry price on this page at $5/channel/mo (annual) (Buffer bills by channel, not by user. Free $0 forever: 3 channels, 10 scheduled posts per channel, 1 user. Essentials $6/channel/mo monthly ($5 annual, 14-day trial). Team $12/channel/mo monthly ($10 annual) adds analytics and integrations. Each additional channel adds to the bill; there is no per-user charge, so it scales better for many-brand accounts than seat-based rivals). Buffer also lists a free plan.
Every price point above is copied from the vendor's own pricing page and carries the date it was checked on the individual tool page — we do not fill gaps from third-party roundups. Where a figure could not be verified against an official source, the tool page says so instead of guessing.
Metricool leads this category at 4.2/5 — Metricool is an all-in-one social planner plus analytics platform: schedule across networks, run a content calendar and get built-in analytics and competitor tracking. It bills by brand and has a genuinely useful free tier. The category average across 5 scored entries is 4.0/5.