Publer vs Buffer in 2026: Pricing, Free Plans and Which to Choose

Publer is the better pick if you want the lowest price per account and power tools for scheduling: bulk uploads of up to 500 posts, RSS automations, recycling, Telegram and WordPress. Its Professional plan starts at $5 a month for one account and its Business plan at $10, per Publer's plans and pricing article. Buffer is the better pick if you want analytics, an AI assistant, a comment inbox and an API without paying for a top plan, since Buffer's pricing page puts all four on its free plan and charges $6 per channel a month for Essentials. Both pages were read on October 19, 2026.

The gap in price depends on which features you count. For scheduling alone, Publer Professional is cheaper at every size up to 54 accounts: 6 accounts cost $24 a month against $36 on Buffer Essentials. Once you need analytics, the order flips, because Publer keeps them on Business at $7 an account while Buffer includes them on Essentials at $6, so 6 accounts cost $42 on Publer and $36 on Buffer. For a team that needs approvals the two land within a few dollars of each other around 30 accounts. The worked sums are below.

The free plans split on two points. Publer Free covers 3 accounts but cannot connect X, keeps published posts for 24 hours and leaves out analytics and AI unless you bring your own OpenAI key. Buffer Free covers 3 channels with X allowed, 30 days of analytics, an unlimited AI assistant and API access. Both cap you at 10 scheduled posts per account at a time.

A word on who is writing. We make Spreadcast, which designs and publishes social posts for apps on the App Store. Neither Publer nor Buffer works with us, both names are trademarks of their owners, and this page compares the two with each other using their own pages. Spreadcast gets one section near the end, for readers who have an app.

Yes, both are free for 3 accounts with no time limit, and for many solo creators that is enough. The reasons to pay are different on each side. On Publer the most common one is X: Publer's free plan article says X accounts can only be added after an upgrade, and Publer's list of supported networks puts that down to the cost of X's enterprise API. The second is history: on Publer Free a published post leaves Publer after 24 hours, so there is nothing to look back on. The third is volume, since a CSV on Free stops at 5 posts.

On Buffer the free plan is wider, and the push to pay comes from the queue and from team features. Ten scheduled posts per channel is about two weeks of daily posting, and analytics on Free show 30 days. Approvals, extra users, first comment scheduling, channel groups and reports all wait for a paid plan, per Buffer's machine readable pricing file.

One rule is the same on both sides and catches people out. When you upgrade, the 3 free accounts stop being free. Buffer's article on paying for channels after an upgrade says you pay for every connected channel, the first 3 included, and Publer's article on locked accounts says the free allowance no longer applies on a paid plan, so accounts beyond the slots you buy are locked until you add slots.

Publer prints only its starting prices. Publer's plans and pricing article, updated on September 15, 2026, says Professional starts at $5 a month and Business at $10 for one social account, one user and no extra members, that every 10th social account or extra member is free, and that yearly billing takes 20% off. For any other total it sends you to the price selector on its plans page. We read that selector on October 19, 2026. It charges $5 for one account and $9 for two on Professional, and $10 and $17 on Business. From the third account it is a flat $4 per account on Professional and $7 on Business, so 3 accounts cost $12 or $21, 9 accounts cost $36 or $63, and 10 accounts cost the same as 9 because the 10th is free. Extra team members cost $2 each on Professional and $3 on Business. The plans page redirects in a loop for automated link checkers, which is why the help center article is our cited source for these rules.

Publer counts each profile, Page, group or channel as one account, so 5 Facebook Pages, 2 LinkedIn Pages and 3 Instagram accounts make 10. The number of accounts is separate from the number of workspaces, which are unlimited on paid plans.

Buffer publishes every rate. Buffer's machine readable pricing file lists channels 1 to 10 at $6 on Essentials and $12 on Team, channels 11 to 25 at $4 on both, channels 26 to 50 at $3 on both, and channels from the 51st at $1 on Essentials and $2 on Team. The file says yearly billing saves about 2 months, which is how $6 becomes $5 and $12 becomes $10. Users cost nothing extra on Team. Buffer takes cards only, with no PayPal or bank transfer.

So the two models reward different shapes. Publer is cheaper per account at almost any size, and it charges for people. Buffer is dearer for the first 10 channels, gets cheaper in steps after that, and charges nothing for people on Team. A solo user with many accounts and a large team with few accounts end up on different sides, as the setups below show.

For scheduling alone, Publer Professional is the cheaper bill from 1 account to 54. One account costs $5 against $6, 10 accounts cost $36 against $60, and 50 accounts cost $180 against $195. The two meet at 55 accounts, where both come to $200 a month on monthly billing, and from 56 accounts Buffer Essentials is cheaper, because its rate drops to $1 per channel after the 50th. Very few one person accounts are that large, so in practice Publer wins this comparison.

For the cheapest plan with analytics, Buffer wins at every size. Buffer Essentials includes analytics at $6 a channel, and Publer's analytics start on Business at $7 an account. One account costs $6 against $10, 10 accounts cost $60 against $63, and 20 accounts cost $100 against $126. Buffer's step down to $4 after the 10th channel widens the gap from there.

For the plans with approvals, the answer turns on headcount. With only the owner, Publer Business is cheaper up to 31 accounts ($196 against $198 on Buffer Team) and Buffer Team is cheaper from 32 ($201 against $203). Each extra Publer member adds $3 a month, and Buffer Team adds nothing per user, so the crossing moves down as the team grows: with three extra members Buffer Team is already cheaper at 28 accounts ($189 against $191).

Read those crossings with the features in mind. Publer Business at $7 an account also buys unlimited AI, recycling, recurring posts, best times to post and competitor analysis, which Buffer does not sell. Buffer Essentials at $6 a channel also buys a comment inbox, an API and an MCP connection that Publer keeps for Business. The cheaper bill is only the better deal if you would use what it includes.

Buffer's AI Assistant is on every plan, Free included, with no usage limit, per Buffer's pricing page. It drafts, rephrases, shortens and expands text in the composer, adapts a post to each network's character limit, and generates post ideas from a description of your business and audience, per Buffer's AI Assistant guide. Alt text generation for images arrived on June 17, 2026, per Buffer's changelog. Its comment inbox suggests replies too, 5 a week on Free and without a cap on paid plans.

Publer's AI Assist does more, but costs more to reach. It is unlimited on Business and opens as a chat beside the composer for posts, comments, threads, alt text, signatures and whole WordPress articles, per Publer's AI Assist article. It also generates images, up to 10 variations per prompt, per Publer's AI image guide, and it can write in a brand voice built from your instructions, up to 5 uploaded files and your past posts, per Publer's brand voice guide. On Free and Professional you can still use it by connecting your own OpenAI account, and OpenAI bills you for each prompt.

So for text help at no cost, Buffer is stronger. For images, brand voices and an MCP connection that can read your analytics, Publer Business is stronger. Neither tool makes the finished post for you: both work from your prompt and leave the design and the decision to you.

Buffer gives every plan analytics. Its rebuilt Insights, launched on April 14, 2026, shows follower growth, engagement, impressions and results per post across all channels or one at a time, with AI Takeaways that suggest what to post next. Free keeps 30 days and offers last 7 days, last 30 days and month to date. Paid plans keep the full history and add custom date ranges, reports and exports as CSV, Markdown or PDF, and Team adds branded reports, per Buffer's Insights guide. Google Business Profiles, Facebook groups, Instagram personal profiles and Start Page are left out.

Publer keeps analytics for Business, and gives that plan more depth. Publer's analytics overview says it pulls data from each network twice a day, covers posts published outside Publer once they are synced, filters results by team member, suggests best times to post from last week's results and tracks hashtags. Reports export as PDF or Excel and CSV, and PDF reports can be emailed on a schedule, per Publer's reports guide. Competitor analysis compares up to 10 competitor pages per account on Facebook, Instagram and X, per Publer's competitor analysis guide. Enterprise adds white label reports.

Buffer is stronger if you want your own numbers on a small budget, since analytics start at $0 and full history at $6 a channel. Publer is stronger if you report to clients or watch competitors, since competitor analysis, best times and hashtag analytics have no Buffer equivalent, but you pay $7 an account for them.

Buffer has a dedicated inbox called Community, on every plan. Buffer's Community guide lists comments from Facebook Pages, Threads, Bluesky, LinkedIn profiles and pages, X, Instagram professional accounts, Google Business Profiles, TikTok, YouTube and Mastodon, ten networks in one list sorted with unanswered comments first. It pulls in the last 30 days of comments when you connect a channel. Saved replies, comment likes and LinkedIn reactions work from there, and a Mentions tab for X is in Beta. Access to Community is set per person and per channel, separately from publishing.

Publer handles comments post by post. Publer's comment management guide says you open a published post from the calendar to view, add, delete or reply to its comments, on Facebook Pages, Instagram, X, Mastodon, LinkedIn, Threads, Bluesky and YouTube, and that only Admins can manage comments. AI Assist can suggest a reply, per Publer's guide to replying with AI. There is no single list of all new comments, and in Publer's 2025 review its founder described a unified inbox as an upcoming separate product called Kibo.

Neither tool lists private messages. If your customers write to you in DMs, both leave that to each network's own app, and if they comment, Buffer's inbox is the faster place to work.

Publer does not offer a single inbox for comments or any place for private messages, and it does not list Substack. Its free plan has no X, no analytics and a 24 hour history. Analytics, AI, recycling, approvals, the API and the MCP server all sit on Business. A downgrade costs data: Publer's guide to changing plans warns that moving from a paid plan to Free deletes all scheduled posts and moving from Business to Professional removes recycling and recurring posts. Mobile subscriptions bought through Apple or Google are fixed monthly plans that cannot be customized. Publer also applies its own daily post limits per account, which Enterprise removes, per Publer's comparison of its paid plans.

Buffer's pricing file lists no recycling, competitor analysis or best time to post suggestions, and Buffer has no Telegram or WordPress channel and no place for private messages. Its bulk upload skips video and carousels, Facebook groups and personal Instagram accounts publish by phone notification only, and recurring posts are still in Beta. Approvals need the Team plan at twice the Essentials rate for the first 10 channels, and Buffer accepts cards only, with no PayPal.

One more caution: Publer's own comparison is out of date. Publer's Buffer vs Publer post, dated January 12, 2026, says Buffer does not support YouTube and has an Agency plan with 10 networks for $120, and it lists Publer Professional from $12 for 3 networks. Today Buffer publishes YouTube Shorts, its plans are Free, Essentials and Team, and Publer's own pricing article starts Professional at $5 for one account. We found no Buffer page comparing itself with Publer. Check the plans pages, not a rival's summary.

Publer added features at a steady pace and changed how its prices are shown. Publer's 2025 review lists folders in the Media Library and threads that go to X, Threads, Mastodon and Bluesky at once at the end of 2025. In 2026 Publer launched Ideas, a Kanban style board for drafts, on March 18, per Publer's Ideas announcement, then Instagram Trial Reels and a Zapier integration, as Publer's product updates page lists, automatic posts to Linkie on June 17, per Publer's Linkie announcement, hashtag groups and reusable text in August, and its MCP server on September 28. Its pricing article, updated on September 15, now starts Professional at $5 and Business at $10 for one account.

Buffer's last price change was in November 2025, per Buffer's pricing file. Since then Buffer's changelog records more than 100 composer templates on March 19, 2026, four more networks in the Community inbox on April 7, the rebuilt Insights on April 14, MCP connections to Claude, ChatGPT and Perplexity on June 10, AI alt text on June 17, a new Home page on June 24, X mentions in Community on July 13, custom post templates and new team permissions in July, a new image editor on September 15, Substack Notes as a channel on September 23, posts that mix images and video on September 28, and music and collaborators for Instagram posts on October 7.

The direction is clear on both sides. Publer is adding automation and AI to its Business plan, and Buffer is adding networks, analytics and AI connections to every plan at the same price.

Publer and Buffer have one thing in common that none of the tables above shows: both start with an empty composer. You decide what to post, design the image, write a caption for each network and then schedule it. Their AI helps with the words once you have an idea. For someone who builds an app, that first step is usually why the feed goes quiet.

Spreadcast does that step. You paste your App Store link once at the Spreadcast start page. Spreadcast checks the listing every day. When a new version goes live, it becomes an update post: your own screenshot in an iPhone frame, a headline and two or three points from the release notes, written in the language of the release notes. When the app reaches a rating milestone, it becomes a thank you post. Every post is designed in your icon, screenshots and colors, with the logo and fonts from your website, and a caption is written for each network. Each post takes the next free slot on the calendar, and by default it waits for one tap of approval. On paid plans you can switch to full autopilot, which schedules posts for nine in the morning in your time zone.

Beyond the automatic posts, you can make review quote posts from a real 5 star review, carousels of 3 to 8 slides, and text or picture posts on demand in Create or from an AI assistant such as Claude or ChatGPT. Spreadcast publishes to Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, Facebook, Threads, Pinterest, Bluesky and Telegram. Analytics show interactions, new followers, taps on your App Store link and the best day and time to post.

Compare what the money buys. Those 8 networks cost $32 a month on Publer Professional (8 × $4) or $56 on Publer Business (8 × $7), and Buffer Essentials covers 7 of them for $42 (7 × $6), because Buffer has no Telegram. Each of those prices buys a queue for posts you still make. Free drafts your posts; Pro is $29 a month and includes design, captions and publishing to every network, for 1 app and up to 10 social accounts. Studio is $79 a month for 5 apps, each with its own brand and accounts, 50 social accounts and 3 seats. Plans are on Spreadcast pricing, with a full refund within 7 days.

Spreadcast works only for apps on the Apple App Store, and it does not post to X, Google Business or WordPress. It has no comment inbox, RSS automation, bulk CSV upload or recycling. If you need any of those, keep Publer or Buffer for that work and let Spreadcast run the posts about your app: new versions, rating milestones and the posts you make on demand.

Publer vs Later is a choice between price per account and price per set. Later's pricing page sells Starter at $18.75 a month billed yearly for one social set, which is one profile on each of 8 networks, with 30 posts per profile a month, 5 AI credits, 3 months of analytics and a link in bio page. Growth at $37.50 adds approvals, a social inbox and 180 posts per profile. On Publer, 8 accounts cost $32 a month on Professional with unlimited scheduling but no analytics. Later has no X, Bluesky, Telegram or Mastodon, which Publer covers. Pick Later for visual Instagram and TikTok planning with one profile per network, and Publer for more accounts, more networks and no post cap.

Publer vs Meta Business Suite turns on how many networks you use. Meta's overview of Business Suite says it is free on desktop and in its phone app, schedules Facebook and Instagram content, and puts messages and comments from a Facebook Page, Messenger, Instagram and a WhatsApp Business account in one inbox. Meta's cross posting guide adds Facebook Groups and Threads as destinations. Nothing outside Meta is covered. If Facebook and Instagram are your whole plan, start with Business Suite and pay nothing. Add Publer or Buffer once LinkedIn, TikTok, Pinterest or X matter.

The same rule answers Buffer vs Meta Business Suite. Buffer's free plan covers 3 channels across any of its networks, so it is the free step up from Business Suite when you add a network outside Meta, and Business Suite stays the better place to answer Meta private messages, which neither Publer nor Buffer lists.

Everything on this page was read on October 19, 2026. For Publer we used 35 help center articles and 6 posts from its own blog, all listed in the sources. Publer's plans page redirects in a loop for automated link checkers, so we read its price selector for the per account and per member rates and cite Publer's plans and pricing article for the rules behind them. For Buffer we used its pricing page, its machine readable pricing file, its changelog, its about page, its open dashboard, its MCP page and 23 help center articles. Publer's support article and Buffer's pricing file describe each support team.

Three things could not be verified and are left out: when Publer was founded, how many people work there, and Publer's daily post limits per network, which its help center describes without numbers. Buffer has no published comparison with Publer, so the only vendor comparison quoted is Publer's, and we flag where it is out of date. We did not run paid accounts on either tool for this page, so nothing here is a claim about speed or reliability.

We make Spreadcast, and it appears in one section and one table. If a price or limit here no longer matches a vendor's page, the vendor's page is right.