# Buffer Alternatives in 2026: 8 Tools and What They Cost

> Buffer alternatives for November 2026: prices read on each vendor page, who each tool suits, and which ones make the posts and video too.

Canonical page: https://www.socialfaktory.com/blog/buffer-alternatives
Published: 2026-11-10
Language: en

The best Buffer alternatives in November 2026 are Metricool, Publer, SocialBee and Later for scheduling alone, and Predis.ai, ContentStudio or SocialFaktory if you want the posts and videos made too. If a whole team works one shared inbox, Hootsuite is built for that.

We read each price below on the vendor's own site during November 2026. Prices are billed monthly unless we say otherwise, because a yearly price next to a monthly one makes a bad comparison.

## What does Buffer cost in November 2026?

Buffer charges for each channel you connect. On monthly billing, Essentials is $6 a channel and Team is $12 a channel for the first 10 channels, according to [Buffer's pricing page](https://buffer.com/pricing). Yearly billing brings Essentials down to $5 a channel. There is also a $0 plan for up to 3 channels, with 10 scheduled posts per channel at a time.

| Channels | Essentials, billed monthly | Team, billed monthly |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | $6 | $12 |
| 3 | $18 | $36 |
| 7 | $42 | $84 |
| 10 | $60 | $120 |

We worked out the 7-channel row as 7 times the $6 or $12 rate, which holds up to 10 channels. Essentials buys scheduling, analytics and Buffer's AI Assistant, which the page describes as a way to create, refine and repurpose content. Team adds unlimited members, access levels and sign-off workflows for content. Buffer also reaches Threads, Bluesky, Mastodon, Substack and Google Business Profile. [SocialFaktory vs Buffer](/compare/socialfaktory-vs-buffer) sets the two side by side.

Three things push brands to look elsewhere. The bill grows with every account, the images and videos still have to be made somewhere else, or the team needs a deeper inbox. The rest of this page is sorted by those reasons.

## Which Buffer alternatives are worth comparing?

Eight tools cover the usual reasons to leave Buffer. The table lists what each one does and the price a small brand would pay, billed monthly, in November 2026. Three of them show no monthly price in their page text. For those the table sends you to their pricing page, and the section below gives the figure each one does show, with its label.

| Tool | What it does | Small-brand price, billed monthly (Nov 2026) | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Metricool | Scheduling, analytics, competitor tracking | Starter $25 for up to 5 brands, X (Twitter) $10 per account | Many brands, deep numbers |
| Publer | Scheduling priced per social account | See their pricing page | Paying for exactly the accounts you use |
| SocialBee | Category queues and AI content creation | Bootstrap $29 for 5 profiles | Evergreen posts on rotation |
| Later | Visual planning and scheduling for 8 networks | See their pricing page | Brands that plan by the grid |
| ContentStudio | Scheduling plus AI text, image and video credits | Standard $29 for 5 accounts | A scheduler with some generation |
| Predis.ai | Ads, posts, carousels and videos, then scheduling | Core $32 for 1 brand | Product ads for online stores |
| SocialFaktory | Writes X and LinkedIn posts, makes short video, posts to 7 channels | Starter $49 for 1 brand | One bill for making and posting |
| Hootsuite | Calendar, shared inbox, listening, reports | See their pricing page | Teams that share an inbox |

## Which tools schedule for less, or go deeper on analytics?

If you already make your content and the per-channel bill is the problem, these four schedulers price it another way. Metricool charges per group of brands, SocialBee per bundle of profiles, Publer per account and Later per set of profiles. Which one costs least depends on your own count, so price your real setup.

### Metricool

Metricool is a scheduler built around its analytics. The [Metricool pricing page](https://metricool.com/pricing/) shows Starter at $25 a month on the monthly tab for up to 5 brands, or $45 for up to 10. That includes unlimited publishing, analytics with unlimited history and up to 100 competitors.

X is an add-on at $10 a month per connected account, so one brand on 7 channels with X comes to $35. It also reaches Threads, Bluesky, Twitch and Google Business Profile, and reads Facebook, Google and TikTok ad accounts. It is the better fit for someone running several brands who reads the numbers every week. [SocialFaktory vs Metricool](/compare/socialfaktory-vs-metricool) compares it with a tool that makes the posts.

### Publer

Publer prices by the social account. [Publer's help page on plans](https://publer.com/help/en/article/what-are-publers-plans-and-pricing-15h4yqh/) says Professional starts at $5 a month with one account and Business at $10, rising as you add accounts and members.

It does not say whether that starting figure is monthly or yearly. The help page puts the yearly discount at 20%, while the plans page shows two months off. Every tenth account costs nothing. Professional adds X and bulk scheduling, and Business adds AI Assist, analytics, best times to post and team sign-off. It also posts to Telegram, Mastodon and WordPress. Pick it if your account count is odd and you want to pay for exactly that, and price it in the selector on [Publer's plans page](https://publer.com/plans).

### SocialBee

SocialBee sorts posts into content categories that refill the queue, so evergreen posts come back around on a schedule. The pricing table on [SocialBee's homepage](https://socialbee.com/) lists Bootstrap at $29 a month billed monthly for 5 channels, Accelerate at $49 for 10 and Pro at $99 for 25. Every plan includes AI content creation, and sign-off on posts starts on Accelerate. It posts to Threads and Bluesky as well as the larger networks. Calendars heavy on evergreen posts get the most out of it.

### Later

Later plans posts on a drag-and-drop visual calendar. Its [pricing page](https://later.com/pricing/) shows Starter at $18.75 a month billed yearly. The page calls that 25% off monthly billing, but the monthly figure is not in its text, so check it there.

Starter covers one social set of 8 profiles, one user, 30 posts per profile a month and 5 AI credits for ideas and captions. The supported list is Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Threads, YouTube, Pinterest, LinkedIn and Snapchat, and X is not on it. Brands that plan their feed by how the grid looks will feel at home.

## Which Buffer alternatives make the content as well as scheduling it?

Buffer's AI helps with the words. These three tools also make images or video, then schedule what they made. Match the tool to the content your calendar is short of.

### Predis.ai

Predis.ai makes ads, posts, carousels and videos, with product posts and product videos for Shopify and WooCommerce stores, and schedules them on a calendar. The [Predis.ai pricing page](https://predis.ai/pricing/) lists Core at $32 a month billed monthly for one brand and 10 social channels. Its 1,300 credits make about 325 images or 33 videos, the page says.

Rise is $79 billed monthly for up to 4 brands. It adds Auto Posting, where the AI drafts up to 2 posts a day for you to check before they go out. Team members are unlimited on every plan. Pick it if you sell products and want ad creatives made for you. [SocialFaktory vs Predis.ai](/compare/socialfaktory-vs-predis-ai) covers where the two differ.

### ContentStudio

ContentStudio is a full scheduler with an AI studio that generates text, images and video from prompts. The [ContentStudio pricing page](https://contentstudio.io/pricing) lists Standard at $29 month to month for 5 social accounts and one user, with 25 AI image credits and 100 AI video credits a month.

Advanced is $69 month to month and adds a social inbox, competitor analytics and a sign-off workflow. It handles X threads and LinkedIn carousels natively, has a clip maker, and publishes to twelve destinations, Threads, Bluesky and Tumblr among them. It suits a brand that wants Buffer's job plus some generation on one bill.

### SocialFaktory

SocialFaktory Starter is $49 a month billed monthly for one brand. It suits a brand that wants its posts written and its videos made where it schedules them. It writes X posts and threads and LinkedIn posts in your brand's voice. It makes short videos with [AI actors](/features/ai-actors) and motion graphics, plus animated stories of up to about 2 minutes in vertical or 16:9. It dubs them into 94 languages and adds captions.

Then it [schedules everything to 7 channels](/features/social-media-scheduling) from one queue and one [content calendar](/features/content-calendar): TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, X, LinkedIn, Facebook and Pinterest. Starter comes with 490 credits. A 15-second video is about 88 credits, so that is about 5 short videos a month, and scheduling costs no credits.

## Which tool suits a team that needs a shared inbox and team workflows?

Hootsuite suits teams that answer messages together and hand work from one person to the next. For more seats and sign-off on posts, Buffer's own Team plan is the lighter step up. It costs $10 a channel a month on annual billing, or $12 billed monthly.

### Hootsuite

The [Hootsuite plans page](https://www.hootsuite.com/plans) lists Standard from $99 per user a month based on annual billing, Professional at $199 and Advanced up to $399. It offers monthly billing at a higher rate per user but shows no monthly figure, so ask before you budget.

Standard covers 10 social accounts, AI that drafts posts and images, one inbox, and brand and competitor monitoring. Professional adds unlimited accounts and automated inbox replies. Advanced adds team sign-off on content and message routing. Pick it if several people share the inbox and need rules about who does what. [SocialFaktory vs Hootsuite](/compare/socialfaktory-vs-hootsuite) compares it with a tool that makes the posts.

## How should you choose a Buffer alternative?

Start from the job you are paying to get done, then price it at your real channel and brand count. Find your situation below. Each line names the tool whose own pages describe that job most closely.

- You make your own content and run many brands on a small budget: Metricool.
- Your account count is odd and you want to pay for each one: Publer.
- Your calendar is mostly evergreen and should repeat: SocialBee.
- You plan Instagram, TikTok and Pinterest by how the grid looks: Later.
- You sell products and want ad creatives made: Predis.ai.
- You want a scheduler with AI credits and native LinkedIn carousels: ContentStudio.
- You want X and LinkedIn writing and short AI video made and posted on one bill: SocialFaktory.
- Several people share one inbox: Hootsuite. For extra members and sign-off on posts, Buffer Team.
- You post on Threads or Bluesky: stay on Buffer, or look at Metricool, SocialBee, ContentStudio or Publer, which list both.

Is high video volume on a small budget the real job? Then a dedicated ad video tool beside a scheduler may suit you better, and the next section shows the sums.

## Is one tool cheaper than a scheduler plus a video tool?

Only when you would pay for the making anyway. If you already make your posts, a scheduler on its own costs less. Buffer Essentials at 7 channels is $42 a month and Metricool Starter with X is $35, both billed monthly, against $49 for SocialFaktory Starter.

The sum moves once you add a tool that makes video. Buffer at 7 channels plus Creatify Standard, an AI ad video tool, comes to $57 a month. [Creatify's pricing page](https://creatify.ai/pricing) shows Standard at $15 a month without its annual discount, or $10 on an annual plan. Creatify's 55 credits make about 11 avatar videos of 15 seconds, roughly twice what Starter's 490 credits make, so the stack buys more video per dollar. [SocialFaktory vs Creatify](/compare/socialfaktory-vs-creatify) goes through that trade.

The $49 bill buys breadth instead, with X and LinkedIn writing, dubbing into 94 languages, captions and publishing to 7 channels behind one login. So pick the stack if ad volume is the job, and one tool if you need every job done well enough on one bill. [What social media tools cost](/blog/social-media-tools-cost) prices four full stacks line by line. [The all-in-one AI social media tool roundup](/blog/best-all-in-one-ai-social-media-tools) compares the tools that try to do every job on one plan.

If your Buffer queue keeps waiting on posts nobody has written and videos nobody has shot, [open a SocialFaktory account](/login) and brief your first week in one place. [The plans page](/plans) shows what each credit buys before you spend it.

In one sentence: for scheduling alone stay on Buffer or try Metricool, Publer, SocialBee or Later, and when the content must be made too, pick Predis.ai, ContentStudio or SocialFaktory.

## Questions

### Which Buffer alternative costs least for several brands?

Metricool's Starter plan is $25 a month on monthly billing for up to 5 brands, with X at $10 a month per connected account. For a single account, Publer's help page says Professional starts at $5 a month without naming the billing basis, so price it in Publer's own selector.

### Is there a Buffer alternative that also makes videos?

Yes, Predis.ai, ContentStudio and SocialFaktory all generate video and schedule it. Predis.ai leans to product ads, ContentStudio to a scheduler with AI credits, and SocialFaktory to short videos with AI actors plus X and LinkedIn writing.

### How much does Buffer cost for 7 channels?

Essentials is $42 a month billed monthly, at $6 a channel, or $35 a month billed yearly. Team costs $84 a month billed monthly for the same 7 channels.

### Which Buffer alternatives post to Threads and Bluesky?

Metricool, SocialBee, ContentStudio and Publer list both networks on their own pages, and so does Buffer. SocialFaktory publishes to TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, X, LinkedIn, Facebook and Pinterest.

### What does SocialFaktory cost?

Starter is $49 a month billed monthly for one brand and 490 credits, Brand is $99 for 3 brands and Agency is $199 for 10. Every plan has every feature, scheduling costs no credits, and yearly billing costs 10 months.

### Is Hootsuite a better pick than Buffer for a team?

For a team that shares one inbox and routes messages, Hootsuite is built for the job, from $99 per user a month on annual billing. For a small team that mostly needs seats and sign-off on posts, Buffer Team at $10 a channel a month on annual billing is the lighter choice.

## More detail

- All articles: https://www.socialfaktory.com/blog.md
- What SocialFaktory does: https://www.socialfaktory.com/features.md
- Pricing: https://www.socialfaktory.com/plans.md