If you run your own social accounts, the best scheduler is the cheapest one that covers your networks, your team and the one job you need done, whether that is a simple queue, replying to comments or getting posts written at all. This guide sorts nine social media schedulers by that job. Every price was read off the vendor’s own pricing page between 24 and 30 September 2026.
We make PostPost.ai, and it is on the list. We say where the others do a job better than we do.
Quick picks by use case
| If you want | Pick | Costs for 3 channels, one person |
|---|---|---|
| The posts written for you from your website | PostPost.ai | $29 a month |
| The simplest queue, with a free plan | Buffer | $18 a month, or free for 3 channels |
| An Instagram grid you can drag around | Later | $25 a month |
| The lowest paid price | Publer | $12 a month |
| Analytics and reports | Metricool | $25 a month |
| Client approvals | Planable | $39 a month |
| A big inbox with listening and reporting | Sprout Social | $99 a month per person |
| A full suite with seats for a company | Hootsuite | £89 a month per person |
| To host it yourself or pay less per channel | Postiz | $29 a month |
Prices are on monthly billing. The next section has annual prices and a two-person case.
What a social media scheduler does
A scheduler lets you write posts ahead of time and publishes them at the hours you pick, on every network you connect, from one calendar. That is the whole core, and every tool on this list does it.
The tools differ in what surrounds the calendar: whether they write posts, whether they collect comments and messages, how they report results, and how they charge (per channel, per person, per brand or per workspace). The price of the same setup varies about eightfold, from $12 to $99 a month, mostly because of that last point.
What each scheduler costs for three channels
We priced one setup at every vendor: one brand on Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn, run by one person, then by two.
| Tool | One person, monthly | One person, annual (per month) | Two people, annual (per month) | Charged per |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PostPost.ai | $29 | $24 | $24 | brand |
| Buffer | $18 | $15 | $30 | channel |
| Later | $25 | $19 | $38 | social set (one profile per network) |
| Publer | $12 | $10 | $11 | account |
| Metricool | $25 | $20 | $53 | brand tier |
| Planable | $39 | $33 | $33 | workspace |
| Sprout Social | $99 | $79 | $158 | person |
| Hootsuite | £89 (annual only) | £89 | £178 | person |
| Postiz | $29 | $23 | $31 | channel bundle |
Two things to take from the table. Tools that charge per person or per channel cost more as the team grows. Tools that charge per brand or per workspace stay flat, and Publer is the cheapest at this size. Sprout Social has no inbox on the $79 plan, and Planable sells analytics and the inbox as extra add-ons, so these figures are the price of publishing only.
To price your own number of channels, brands and people, use our social media scheduler pricing calculator.
How we picked these nine
We took the tools that rank for this search and kept those a small business could realistically buy, across the jobs listed above. For each one we read the vendor’s pricing page, priced the same setup, took a screenshot and noted the date. We did not use review sites for prices.
Hootsuite’s page showed pounds, because it decides the currency from your location. Its FAQ quotes dollars without saying whether they are monthly or annual, so we show the pounds.
The 9 best social media schedulers
1. PostPost.ai
Best for: small businesses where nobody has time to write the posts.
Price: Starter is $29 a month ($290 a year) for one brand on three channels. Business is $59 ($590 a year) with no channel cap. Pro is $149 for three brands and Studio $299 for ten. Every plan has unlimited seats. 7-day trial, and you see your first posts before entering a card.
PostPost.ai starts from your website. It reads the site, builds a brand kit from it (services, prices, tone, colours, logo) and writes a week of posts for each channel, with images to match. You review and approve every post before it goes out. It publishes to Instagram, Facebook, Threads, X, TikTok, YouTube, LinkedIn, Telegram, Google Business Profile, Bluesky and Pinterest, and collects comments and messages in one inbox.
Where it stops: the plan is built around a website. A business with no site, or with almost nothing on it, gives the tool little to write from. Starter is capped at three channels, and the inbox covers replies on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube and Threads, with direct messages on Facebook and Instagram only.
A week of posts in PostPost.ai, with one draft open for review.
2. Buffer
Best for: one person who wants a clean queue at a low price.
Price: Free covers 3 channels with 10 scheduled posts each. Essentials is $6 per channel a month ($5 annually) for one user. Team is $12 per channel ($10) with unlimited users and approvals. 14-day trial.
Buffer is the easiest scheduler to start with: a queue, a calendar, good mobile apps and a free plan that works. It connects many networks, including X, Bluesky, Mastodon and Google Business Profile, and its community inbox is on every plan.
Where it stops: it charges for every channel, so ten channels on Team cost $120 a month. It writes captions but does not read your business, and it does not make images.
Buffer’s pricing page, monthly billing, 24 September 2026.
3. Later
Best for: Instagram-first brands that plan their grid.
Price: Starter is $25 a month ($18.75 annually) for one social set and one user. Growth is $50 ($37.50) for two sets and two users, and is where the inbox and approvals start. Scale is $110 ($82.50) for six sets.
Later’s visual planner is its strength. You drag posts around an Instagram grid before they go out, and it has link-in-bio pages.
Where it stops: it no longer publishes to X, and a second person moves you to a plan twice the price. Later’s Starter plan has no inbox.
Later’s pricing page, monthly billing, 24 September 2026.
4. Publer
Best for: the lowest paid price for a few accounts.
Price: Professional is $5 a month for the first account, $4 for each one after and $2 per extra member. Business is $10, then $7 an account and $3 a member, and adds analytics, approvals, recycling and the API. Annual billing saves 20%. The free plan covers 3 accounts, without X.
Publer is the cheapest paid scheduler here at three channels. It adds bulk scheduling, RSS automations, a link-in-bio page and replies to comments from the calendar.
Where it stops: analytics and approvals need Business, and the price grows account by account. It does not write posts from your business.
Publer’s pricing page, 24 September 2026. The page served pounds; we quote the dollar figure it prints underneath.
5. Metricool
Best for: people who care most about analytics and reports.
Price: Free covers one brand, without LinkedIn or X, and 20 scheduled posts a month. Starter is $25 a month ($20 annually) for up to 5 brands. Advanced is $67 ($53) for 15 brands and adds team management and post approval. X is an add-on at $10 a month per account.
Metricool combines scheduling with analytics that go further than most tools at this price. It tracks competitors and ads, and keeps unlimited history from the first paid plan.
Where it stops: a second person needs Advanced, which is 2.7 times the Starter price on monthly billing, and X costs extra.
Metricool’s pricing page, annual billing, 30 September 2026.
6. Planable
Best for: agencies and brand teams whose posts need client approval.
Price: Basic is $39 per workspace a month with 4 social pages and 60 posts. Pro is $59 with 10 pages and 150 posts. Annual billing gives two months free ($33 and $49). Analytics ($14) and the inbox ($9) are add-ons per workspace. The first 50 posts are free, with no time limit.
Planable is built around approval. A client sees the post as it will appear, comments on it in place and approves it. Users are unlimited on every plan, so clients cost nothing.
Where it stops: analytics and the inbox cost extra, and 60 posts a month on Basic is a real ceiling for someone who posts daily on three channels.
Planable’s pricing page, yearly billing, 30 September 2026.
7. Sprout Social
Best for: a company that answers many messages and needs deep reporting.
Price: Every plan is per seat, per month, on annual billing. Essentials is $79 ($99 billed monthly) with 5 profiles and no inbox. Standard is $199, where the consolidated inbox starts. Professional is $299 and Advanced $399. 30-day trial with no card.
Sprout Social has one of the strongest inboxes and reporting suites on the market, with listening and review management. For a company with a social media team, it does the daily work well.
Where it stops: it is priced per person, so a two-person team that replies to comments starts at $398 a month. Listening, premium analytics and influencer marketing are separate products on top.
Sprout Social’s pricing page, annual billing, 25 September 2026.
8. Hootsuite
Best for: larger teams and companies that need an established, full-featured suite.
Price: Standard £89, Professional £169 and Advanced £349 per user a month on annual billing. Standard covers up to 10 social accounts. Enterprise is custom. 14-day trial, no card, and no free plan.
Hootsuite covers publishing, the inbox, listening and reporting in one product, with many integrations. It publishes to Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, X, LinkedIn, Threads, Pinterest and Bluesky, and its inbox includes WhatsApp.
Where it stops: it is priced per user, which suits companies more than small teams, and approvals need the £349 Advanced plan.
Hootsuite’s pricing page, annual billing, 30 September 2026. The page served pounds.
9. Postiz
Best for: one person who wants a queue that refills itself, or who wants to host the tool.
Price: Standard is $29 a month for 5 channels and one person. Team is $39 for 10 channels, Pro $49 for 30 and Ultimate $99 for 100, all with unlimited team members. Yearly billing brings them to $23, $31, $39 and $79 a month.
Postiz is open source, so you can run it on your own server, and the hosted version is priced by channel bundle. It connects more networks than most tools here, and it has an API and MCP server.
Where it stops: it is a scheduler with AI suggestions, not a tool that knows your business, and self-hosting means you maintain it.
Postiz’s pricing page, monthly billing, 25 September 2026.
How to choose
Pick PostPost.ai if the missing piece is the posts themselves and you have a website. Pick Buffer or Publer if you write your own posts and want the lowest price. Pick Later if your business lives on Instagram and the grid matters. Pick Metricool if the report matters more than the calendar.
Pick Planable if a client has to approve every post. Pick Sprout Social or Hootsuite if several people answer messages all day and the budget is per seat. Pick Postiz if you want to host it or need many channels at a flat price.
To see what PostPost.ai writes for your business, paste your website and read the first week of posts before entering a card.
FAQ
What is the best free social media scheduler?
Buffer’s free plan covers 3 channels with 10 scheduled posts per channel. Publer’s free plan covers 3 accounts without X. Metricool’s covers one brand without LinkedIn or X, and Planable lets you publish the first 50 posts free.
What is the cheapest paid social media scheduler?
At three channels and one person, Publer is the cheapest on our list at $12 a month on monthly billing, then Buffer at $18.
Which scheduler is best for Instagram?
Later, for planning the grid before posts go out. If you want the posts and images written from your website, PostPost.ai.
Which scheduler is best for a small business?
One that charges per brand or per workspace rather than per person, so the price stays flat when someone joins. PostPost.ai, Planable and Publer do.
Can a scheduler write the posts for me?
Most add an AI caption helper. PostPost.ai goes further: it reads your website and writes the posts and images, and you approve each one.
Do I need a paid scheduler?
Not to start. Buffer’s free plan covers three channels. The price of staying free is a cap on scheduled posts and, on most free plans, missing networks.
If you also want to compare a specific tool, see our guides to Buffer alternatives, Later alternatives and Sprout Social alternatives.