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The short answer
Metricool is $20/mo (Starter, 5 brands). Buffer is $5/mo per channel (Essentials). Metricool suits analytics depth at a small-team price, while Buffer suits the cheapest way to start on one or two channels. Work out which description fits how you actually post, because the feature lists overlap far more than the pricing models do.
Metricool vs Buffer at a glance
| Metricool | Buffer | |
|---|---|---|
| Entry paid price | $20/mo (Starter, 5 brands) | $5/mo per channel (Essentials) |
| Free plan | Yes, 1 brand and 20 posts/mo | Yes, 3 channels and 10 scheduled posts |
| Best for | Analytics depth at a small-team price | The cheapest way to start on one or two channels |
Metricool
The reason to choose it is reporting: unlimited analytics history on paid plans, PDF and PowerPoint export, competitor benchmarking, and unified Google, Facebook and TikTok ad campaigns in one dashboard. There is a unified inbox and a SmartLinks bio page too. Note X is a paid add-on per account on some tiers, which is easy to miss when comparing sticker prices.
Buffer
Per-channel pricing is the whole story: $5/mo for one channel, so two channels cost $10/mo and ten cost $50/mo. Cheapest entry here for a narrow setup, middling for a wide one. The free plan is permanent, capped at 3 channels and 10 scheduled posts at a time. Publishing-first and deliberately shallow on analytics and inbox. Wide platform coverage including Bluesky, Mastodon, Pinterest and Google Business Profile.
If neither fits
These two are not the only options, and for a lot of people they are not the right two. Everything below is a working alternative, cheapest first.
| Tool | Entry paid price | Free plan | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Publer | $5/mo Professional ($4/mo billed yearly) | Yes, free forever tier | The cheapest paid tier with a real free plan |
| Post Bridge | Around $7.50 to $9/mo (Starter) | Yes, 5 posts/mo | Deliberately minimal publishing |
| Zoho Social | $10/mo (Standard, billed annually) | No | Teams already inside the Zoho suite |
| PostNext.io | 11 EUR/mo (Premium, 15 channels) | Yes, 1,000 posts/mo fair use | AI post and blog generation on a flat price |
| Planoly | Around $16/mo Starter (annual) | Yes, limited to 1 user and 1 social set | Instagram-first visual planning |
| Tailwind | $17.99/mo annual Pin Scheduling ($29.99 monthly) | Yes | Pinterest, and Pinterest SEO in particular |
| Later | $18.75/mo Starter (annual, 25% off) | No | Visual planning for Instagram-led brands |
| FeedHive | $19/mo (Creator, 4 social accounts) | No | Solo creators who want AI recycling |
| CoSchedule | $19/mo Social Calendar (annual) | Yes, Free Calendar with 1 user and 1 profile | A marketing calendar that happens to post |
| SocialPilot | $20/mo Essentials ($17/mo annual) | No | Agencies managing many client accounts |
| Sprout Social | $79/seat/mo Essentials (annual), $99 monthly | No, 30-day trial | Enterprise reporting and workflow |
| SocialBee | $29/mo Bootstrap ($20.17/mo annual), 5 profiles | No, 14-day trial | Category-based evergreen recycling |
| MeetEdgar | $29.99/mo Eddie ($24.91/mo annual), 5 accounts | No, 30-day trial | Set-and-forget evergreen automation |
| Sendible | $29/mo Creator (1 user, 6 profiles) | No | White-label agency reporting |
| Planable | $33/workspace/mo Basic | Yes, 50 free posts with no time limit | The cleanest approval and review experience |
| HeyOrca | $35/mo per calendar (Agency Basic) | Yes, light posting on 1 calendar | Client approval workflows |
| Kontentino | $39/mo (Basic, billed annually) | No | Approvals with a brand-safety review step |
| Loomly | $49/mo Starter ($65/mo monthly) | No, trial only | Unlimited calendars and a post-ideas board |
| eClincher | $65/mo (Basic, 10 profiles, 1 user) | No | The closest all-in-one to Hootsuite itself |
| Agorapulse | $79/mo Standard (annual) | Yes, limited | A social inbox without enterprise pricing |
| Mixpost | $299 one-time (Pro), self-hosted | Yes, Lite is open source | Owning your data on your own server |
| Hootsuite | ~$99/user/mo (Standard, list) | No, discontinued | Enterprise listening, ads, support inbox |
Read the full comparisons
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