Publer is one of the cheapest ways to schedule posts to a long list of networks, and its free plan is usable. People leave it when the plan they actually need turns out to be Business: analytics, approvals, post recycling and unlimited AI all start there, at almost twice the price per account.
This guide compares eight Publer alternatives and says who each one suits. Every price was read off the vendor’s own pricing page on 24 or 25 September 2026, and each entry has a screenshot of that page. We make PostPost.ai, which is one of the eight; we say where the others beat it.
On this page: At a glance · What Publer costs · Why people switch · The 8 alternatives · Pricing compared · How to choose · FAQ
Best Publer alternatives at a glance
| Tool | Best for | Starts at (monthly billing) | Priced by | Free plan | Users on the entry plan |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PostPost.ai | Businesses with nobody to write the posts | $29 | Brand | No, 7-day trial | Unlimited |
| Buffer | The simplest scheduler with a free plan | $6 per channel | Channel | Yes, 3 channels | 1 |
| Postiz | Many channels at a flat price | $29 | Channel count | No | 1 |
| SocialPilot | Agencies with many accounts | $30 | Social account | No | 1 |
| Metricool | Analytics and reports | $25 | Brand | Yes, 1 brand | 1 |
| SocialBee | Evergreen posts on repeat | $29 | Profile count | No | 1 |
| Planable | Teams that need approval | $39 per workspace | Workspace | First 50 posts | Unlimited |
| Later | Instagram visual planning | $25 | Social set | No | 1 |
| Publer | The lowest paid price | $5 | Social account | Yes, 3 accounts | 1, extra members paid |
A “social set” at Later is one profile on each network it supports, which is one brand. Annual billing is cheaper at every tool here, usually by 15% to 33%.
What Publer costs in 2026
Publer charges per social account and per extra team member, on two self-serve plans. The plan owner is included, and every tenth account or member is free.
| Plan | First account | Each account after | Each extra member | Annual billing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0, up to 3 accounts | Not available | Not available | $0 |
| Professional | $5 a month | $4 a month | $2 a month | 20% off |
| Business | $10 a month | $7 a month | $3 a month | 20% off |
| Enterprise | Custom | Custom | Custom | Yearly only |
The free plan has no X, 10 scheduled posts per account at a time and 24 hours of post history. Professional adds X, unlimited scheduling, RSS automations and bulk scheduling.
Business is where the team and reporting features are. Publer’s help centre lists analytics, best times to post, post approval workflows, automatic post recycling and unlimited AI Assist prompts as Business features.
Why people switch from Publer
Four reasons come up in reviews and in the pages ranking for this search.
- The features a team needs are on Business. Approvals, analytics and recycling move every account from $4 to $7, and every member from $2 to $3.
- The free plan is small. Three accounts, no X, and 10 scheduled posts per account at a time.
- There is no inbox. You can reply to comments on published posts from the calendar, and Publer documents no place to answer direct messages.
- It does not write the posts. AI Assist helps inside the composer, and the ideas, the writing and the pictures are still yours.
How we chose these alternatives
We started from the tools named by the pages ranking highest for “Publer alternatives” and kept the eight a Publer user would realistically move to. We left out API-only posting services, which suit developers rather than people who plan a calendar.
For each tool we read the pricing page, set any calculator to realistic numbers, took a screenshot and noted the date. We did not take prices from review sites, because they go stale quickly.
The 8 best Publer alternatives
1. PostPost.ai
Best for: small businesses where nobody has time to write the posts.
PostPost.ai starts from your website instead of an empty calendar. 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.
Key features
- Posts, carousels and images written from your own website
- One calendar for Instagram, Facebook, Threads, X, TikTok, YouTube, LinkedIn, Telegram, Google Business Profile, Bluesky and Pinterest
- Comments and DMs in one inbox, and analytics, on every plan
- Unlimited team seats on every plan
Pricing: Starter is $29 a month ($290 a year) for one brand on three channels and about 30 posts. Business is $59 a month ($590 a year) with no channel cap and about 60 posts. Pro is $149 for three brands and Studio $299 for ten. There is a 7-day trial, and you can see your first posts before entering a card.
Pros
- Writes the posts, which none of the other seven do
- Analytics, the inbox and approval on every plan, with no per-seat charge
Cons
- No free plan, and no link-in-bio page
- Needs a website to read; without one there is nothing to build from
- DMs come in from Facebook and Instagram only
“We were spending 4–5 hours a week on Instagram posts alone. I had to employ someone — separate images, separate text, then load it into every channel. Now it takes me 15 minutes for the whole week.” — 2VP.Uk, design and build contractor, London
Paste your website and see the week it writes.
2. Buffer
Best for: one person with a few channels who wants the simplest tool.
Buffer is the easiest scheduler on this list to learn, and its free plan is a little roomier than Publer’s because it includes X. The community inbox for comments is on every plan, Free included.
Key features
- A queue and calendar that a new user understands in minutes
- Comment replies in the community inbox on every plan
- Analytics from Essentials
Pricing: 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.
Pros
- Analytics on the cheapest paid plan, which Publer keeps for Business
- A free plan that includes X
Cons
- A second person moves every channel to Team at twice the rate
- No RSS automations or post recycling
3. Postiz
Best for: someone with many channels who wants one flat price.
Postiz charges by how many channels you connect, in large steps, so ten channels and a whole team cost $39. It is also open source, so you can run it on your own server for free.
Key features
- Plans from 5 to 100 channels, with unlimited posts
- Unlimited team members from the Team plan
- An API, webhooks and RSS auto-posting on every plan
Pricing: Standard $29 a month for 5 channels and one person. Team $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.
Pros
- Cheaper than Publer Business for a team with seven or more accounts
- Self-hosting is free if you have someone to run it
Cons
- Standard has no team members at all
- AI images start on Team, and AI videos come in monthly quotas
4. SocialPilot
Best for: agencies that manage many accounts on a budget.
SocialPilot bundles accounts and users into plans, so a team gets approvals and an inbox without paying Publer’s Business rate on every account.
Key features
- Social inbox and manager approval from Standard
- Client approval and free client seats from Premium
- X, Google Business Profile and Bluesky included
Pricing: Essentials $30 a month for 7 accounts and 1 user. Standard $50 for 15 accounts and 3 users. Premium $100 for 25 accounts and 6 users. Ultimate $200 for 50 accounts and unlimited users. Annual billing saves 15%. 14-day trial.
Pros
- Fifteen accounts, three people and an inbox for $50
- Extra accounts are $4, extra users $5
Cons
- Essentials has no inbox, analytics or approvals
- No free plan
5. Metricool
Best for: people who care most about analytics and reports.
Metricool’s analytics start on the first paid plan, with unlimited history and competitor tracking. That is the part of Publer that needs Business.
Key features
- Analytics with unlimited history and competitor tracking
- Up to 5 brands on the entry plan
- Link in bio pages
Pricing: Free covers one brand, without LinkedIn or X. Starter $25 a month ($20 annually) for up to 5 brands. Advanced $67 ($53) for 15 brands, with team management and approvals. X is an add-on at $10 a month per account.
Pros
- The best reporting for the price
- Several brands on one plan
Cons
- X costs extra per account
- A second person needs Advanced
6. SocialBee
Best for: one person who wants a queue that refills itself.
SocialBee sorts posts into content categories and recycles the evergreen ones on a schedule. Recycling is on every plan, where Publer keeps it for Business.
Key features
- Content categories with automatic recycling
- X, Bluesky and Google Business Profile on every plan
- Post approval from the Accelerate plan
Pricing: Bootstrap $29 a month for 5 profiles, Accelerate $49 for 10, Pro $99 for 25 profiles and 3 users ($290, $490 and $990 a year). An extra user is $10 a month. 14-day trial.
Pros
- Recycling and categories on the entry plan
- Five profiles and every network for $29
Cons
- The first two plans are single-user
- A team of three costs $99
7. Planable
Best for: teams and agencies whose posts need approval before they go out.
Planable is built around approval. A client or manager sees the post as it will look, comments on it and approves it, and users are unlimited on every plan.
Key features
- Approval workflows, from optional to multi-level
- Feed and calendar views, and a grid view on Pro
- Unlimited users on every plan
Pricing: Basic $39 per workspace a month with 4 social pages; Pro $59 with 10. Annual billing is $33 and $49. Analytics ($14) and the inbox ($9) are add-ons per workspace. The first 50 posts are free.
Pros
- The best approval flow here
- Reviewers cost nothing
Cons
- Basic publishes one post to X per 24 hours
- Analytics and the inbox cost extra
8. Later
Best for: Instagram-first businesses that plan the feed visually.
Later’s visual planner and link-in-bio page are the best on this list for Instagram. It prices by social set, so one price covers every network it supports for one brand.
Key features
- Visual Instagram grid planner
- Link in bio and UGC collection
- Snapchat, which almost nothing else here supports
Pricing: Starter $25 a month ($18.75 annually) for one social set and one user. Growth $50 ($37.50) for two sets and two users, where the inbox and approvals start. Scale $110 ($82.50) for six sets.
Pros
- The best Instagram planning here
- One set covers all its networks for one brand
Cons
- No X, no Google Business Profile, no Telegram
- Starter holds one user and 30 posts per profile a month
Publer vs the alternatives: pricing compared
Here are two typical Publer setups priced at every tool: one brand on 3 accounts for one person, and one brand on 7 accounts for a team of three.
| Tool | 3 accounts, 1 person | 7 accounts, 3 people |
|---|---|---|
| Publer Professional | $12 | $32 |
| Publer Business | $21 | $55 |
| Postiz | $29 | $39 |
| SocialPilot | $30 | $50 |
| Later | $25 | $55 |
| PostPost.ai | $29 | $59 |
| Planable | $39 | $59 |
| Metricool | $25 | $67 |
| Buffer | $18 | $84 |
| SocialBee | $29 | $99 |
Monthly billing. Publer’s and Buffer’s free plans would cover the first setup at $0 if you can live with their limits. Later has no X, and Metricool charges $10 a month for each X account on top.
For one person Publer is hard to beat on price. For a team that needs approvals, compare the Business row, which is the plan that has them.
Your own setup is probably different. Set it below: each tool is priced for it, with our estimate of the hours a week it leaves you.