Growing an audience
Running the business
Both cover social media management and analytics. Here is what separates them on price, billing, what you can take with you, and coverage.
| Buffer | Metricool | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | From $5 | From $20 |
| Pricing model | Free plan, paid tiers | Free plan, paid tiers |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Billing | Monthly or annual | Monthly or annual |
| Free trial | 14 days | Not stated |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Data export | Some of it | Not stated |
| Their cut | Not stated | Not stated |
| Runs on | Not stated | Web, iOS, Android |
| Covers | Social Media Management, Analytics | Social Media Management, Analytics |
| Works with | TikTok, Instagram, X, LinkedIn, Facebook, Threads | YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, LinkedIn |
| Founded | Not listed | Not listed |
| Reader rating | No reviews yet | No reviews yet |
| Live deals | None right now | None right now |
Schedule posts across every account at once
Buffer queues posts for most networks, suggests times and reports on what landed. The free plan covers three channels, which is enough for a lot of people. It stays out of the way, which is the main thing a scheduler can do.
Our note
Buy it for the calm rather than the features. Per-channel pricing punishes anyone posting everywhere, so count your channels before comparing the headline price with a competitor's flat fee.
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Scheduling and analytics across brands
Metricool schedules to most of the networks a creator uses and then reports on what happened, including competitor tracking and paid campaign numbers in the same view. Pricing counts brands rather than seats, which suits somebody running several accounts. The free plan schedules 20 posts a month, enough to decide whether the reports are worth paying for.
Our note
Twenty scheduled posts a month on the free plan lasts a single creator a long time. Against Later the pricing is per brand rather than per social set, which is why it scales better across clients and gives less to somebody managing one account closely.
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Ratings are the average of reviews readers left. The facts are stated by each tool’s own listing and are not verified by CloutStack. How we make money.