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The short answer
Buffer is $5/mo per channel (Essentials). Sprout Social is $79/seat/mo Essentials (annual), $99 monthly. Buffer suits the cheapest way to start on one or two channels, while Sprout Social suits enterprise reporting and workflow. Work out which description fits how you actually post, because the feature lists overlap far more than the pricing models do.
Buffer vs Sprout Social at a glance
| Buffer | Sprout Social | |
|---|---|---|
| Entry paid price | $5/mo per channel (Essentials) | $79/seat/mo Essentials (annual), $99 monthly |
| Free plan | Yes, 3 channels and 10 scheduled posts | No, 30-day trial |
| Best for | The cheapest way to start on one or two channels | Enterprise reporting and workflow |
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.
Sprout Social
Essentials is $79 per seat per month billed annually, $99 monthly, and covers 5 social profiles. Standard is $199 and Professional $299 per seat. The per-seat model is what makes it expensive for teams, and it is aimed at organisations that need the reporting, approval workflow and support depth rather than at anyone who mainly wants to schedule. No free plan.
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 | $29/mo (Starter, 5 accounts) | No, 7-day trial | Deliberately minimal publishing |
| Zoho Social | $10/mo (Standard, billed annually) | No | Teams already inside the Zoho suite |
| PostNext.io | 19 EUR/mo (Premium, 15 channels); 11 EUR/mo billed yearly | Yes, 1 connected account and 10 posts/mo | 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 |
| Metricool | $20/mo (Starter, 5 brands) | Yes, 1 brand and 20 posts/mo | Analytics depth at a small-team price |
| SocialPilot | $20/mo Essentials ($17/mo annual) | No | Agencies managing many client accounts |
| 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 |
What 15 connected accounts cost
PostNext Premium includes 15 connected accounts. This is what the same fifteen cost on the tools people compare it with, taken from each vendor's own pricing page on 5 September 2026, billed monthly, in the currency the vendor lists.
| Tool | Plan that covers 15 accounts | Per month |
|---|---|---|
| PostNext | Premium, 15 connected accounts | $19 |
| Post Bridge | Creator, 15 connected accounts | $39 |
| Postiz | Pro, 30 channels (Standard stops at 5) | $49 |
| Buffer | Essentials, $5 per channel, times 15 | $75 |
Buffer prices per channel, so fifteen channels is fifteen times the Essentials price. Postiz's entry plan stops at 5 channels; the next plan up carries 30. Post Bridge's Creator plan carries exactly 15. Prices move, so check the vendor pages before you decide.
Checked (2026-09-05)
Read the full comparisons
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