Hootsuite
hootsuite.com
Enterprise social management
from $99/moFree trial
Buffer
Straightforward social scheduling
Free plan availableSocial MediaSince 2010
from $5/moVisit buffer.com
What Buffer is
Queue-based publishing across the major networks with a clean interface, basic analytics and a free tier for three channels.
What Buffer has cost
We have read this pricing page 14 times since Aug 2021, including archived copies of it. Each figure below was pulled from the page itself, not from a summary of it.
- $5†Aug 2021 · Essentials · 1 reading · archived page
- $5/mo*Jan 2022 · Essentials · 1 reading · archived page
- $5/moJul 2022 – Jan 2023 · Essentials · 2 readings · archived page
- $6†Jul 2023 – Jan 2024 · Essentials · 2 readings · archived page
- $5†Jul 2024 · Essentials · 1 reading · archived page
- $5/moJan 2025 · Essentials · 1 reading · archived page
- $5/mo*Jul 2025 – Sept 2026 · Essentials · 6 readings · archived page
* That reading is the effective monthly cost when paying for a year up front, which is what the page published at the time.
† The page showed this figure beside a monthly/annual switch and did not say which one it belonged to, so we publish the number without claiming a billing period. Readings like this are shown but never compared, which is why they never produce a price change.
Gaps are ours, not the vendor's: where a capture was unreadable, or the price could not be tied to a plan at all, no reading was recorded rather than a guess. See every price change we can stand behind.
People use it to
Current offers
Free plan
Free plan, no card required
Ongoing free tier published by the vendor. Limits vary by plan.
Buffer alternatives
Other tools in social media that cover similar ground. Full comparison.
Sprout Social
sproutsocial.com
Social management with serious reporting
from $79/moFree trial
Later
later.com
Influencer marketing with social scheduling attached
from $18.75/moFree plan
Where Buffer sits on price
Entry prices across Social Media, cheapest first.
- Publer$4.28
- Buffer$5
- Hypefury$6
- Contents Pilot$9.90
- Typefully$12.50*
- Later$18.75
- Metricool$25
- SocialBee$29
- Sprout Social$79
- Hootsuite$99
9 of these 10 prices were read from the vendor's own pricing page; the rest are marked * and are indicative. The median is taken across the 9 verified prices in Social Media.
Buffer pricing questions
- How much does Buffer cost?
- Buffer starts at $5 a month on its Essentials plan, billed annually. That figure was read from buffer.com's own pricing page on 21 September 2026.
- Does Buffer have a free plan?
- Yes. Buffer publishes an ongoing free tier — not a countdown trial. Limits vary by plan, so check what the free tier covers before you commit.
- What is Buffer used for?
- Queue-based publishing across the major networks with a clean interface, basic analytics and a free tier for three channels. People mainly use it to schedule social posts, plan a content calendar.
- What are the best alternatives to Buffer?
- The closest alternatives in the same category are Hootsuite, Sprout Social, Later, Metricool. Later and Metricool publish a free plan.