Buffer vs Sprout Social Comparison 2026
Buffer is a plain per-channel scheduler, free for three channels and $5 each after that. Sprout Social is priced per seat at $99 a month for five profiles on its entry plan, and the extra cost buys inbox triage, approvals and reporting built for someone outside the team to read. Its own listing does not pretend otherwise: a solo creator is not the buyer, and the five-profile cap on the entry plan makes that explicit.
At a glance
- Buffer starts cheaper, at $5.
- Only Buffer has a free tier.
Side by side
Buffer | Sprout Social | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price (they differ) | From $5 | From $99 |
| Pricing model (they differ) | Free plan, paid tiers | Free trial, then paid |
| Free tier (they differ) | Yes | No |
| Billing | Monthly or annual | Monthly or annual |
| Free trial (they differ) | 14 days | 30 days |
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.
Only on this side
- Works with X
Sprout Social
The heavyweight, priced per seat
Sprout Social is what a social team buys when the job has stopped being scheduling and become inbox triage, approvals, listening and reporting somebody outside the team will read. The consolidated inbox and the review management are the parts creators with a manager tend to notice first. Everything is priced per seat, which is the fact that decides whether it belongs in a one-person setup: a second person doubles the bill.
Why people weigh these two
- Sprout Social instead of Buffer
- Sprout Social is the heavyweight version of the same job, priced per seat from $99 with no free plan, for teams that want depth over Buffer's simplicity.
- Buffer instead of Sprout Social
- Buffer keeps a free tier and starts at $5, a plain scheduler for a solo creator that Sprout Social's five-profile, per-seat entry plan is not built for.
Which one should you pick
Pick Sprout Social if social has become customer service and somebody has to answer for the numbers to people who are not on the team. Its entry plan is $99 a seat a month, and a second person roughly doubles that, so this is a decision measured against hiring, not against a cheaper scheduler.
Pick Buffer if scheduling is the actual job, without an inbox to triage or a report somebody outside the team will read. Three channels are free, and even a fully paid Buffer account undercuts Sprout Social's entry price by a wide margin, which is exactly the gap Sprout's own listing points out.
Common questions
- Which one is built for a solo creator?
- Buffer is. Sprout Social's own listing says plainly that a solo creator is not the buyer, pointing to the five-profile cap on its cheapest plan as proof, at $99 a seat a month regardless of team size.
- Why does Sprout Social cost so much more than Buffer?
- It bundles a consolidated inbox, review management, listening and reporting built for people outside the social team to read, none of which Buffer offers. Sprout's own listing says to multiply the price by the number of people who need a login before comparing it with anything else, since that is where the real cost shows up.
- Does Buffer include a shared inbox or review management?
- No. Buffer's feature list is a queue, an ideas space and per-channel insights. Sprout Social's inbox and review management arrive on its Standard plan and above, which is a large part of the price difference.
- How does team size change the price on each?
- Sprout Social is priced per seat, so a second person roughly doubles the bill. Buffer's price does not change with headcount at all; it scales with the number of connected channels instead, at $5 or $10 each.
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.