Buffer vs Publer Comparison 2026
Both cover social media management and analytics. Here is what separates them on price, billing, what you can take with you, and coverage.
Schedule posts across every account at once
Scheduling priced per account, not per seat
At a glance
- Both have a genuinely free tier.
Side by side
Buffer | Publer | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | From $5 | From $5 |
| Pricing model | Free plan, paid tiers | Free plan, paid tiers |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Billing | Monthly or annual | Monthly or annual |
| Free trial (they differ) | 14 days | 7 days |
| API | Yes | Not stated |
| Data export | Some of it | Not stated |
| Their cut | None | None |
| Runs on |
Shaded rows are where the two answers disagree and both listings have answered. A row where one side has not stated a fact is left plain, because silence is not a difference.
Buffer
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.
Publer
Scheduling priced per account, not per seat
Publer schedules to most of the networks a creator actually posts on and prices by social account rather than by seat, with every tenth account free. Recycling and auto-scheduling matter more than the calendar view for anyone running an archive of evergreen posts. The free plan is a real one, with the caveat that it will not connect X and keeps published posts for a day. Paid plans add the workspace, the bulk tools and unlimited scheduling.
Our note
Work out your account count first, because that is what the bill scales on and it is where this beats the per-seat tools. If X is central to what you post, note that it needs a paid plan here for reasons Publer attributes to the network's own API cost.
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.