6 Best Buffer Alternatives

To some marketers, Buffer is considered the Michael Jordan of social media management tools -- it’s abso-freakin-lutely awesome! Considering how intuitive, feature-packed, and affordable the software is, it’s hard to argue the claim.

The software lets you plan, schedule, and publish your social media posts. And it has analytics and custom reporting features to help you analyze and optimize your campaigns. With Buffer, running your social media campaigns becomes easy peasy.

If Buffer isn’t quite what you’re looking for, however, there are several alternatives you can consider. In this guide, we will explore several alternatives to Buffer.

Here are the top alternatives to Buffer as a social media management software solution:

• Hootsuite
• Sprout Social
• Social Pilot
• MeetEdgar
• SocialFlow
• Gain

What to look for in a great Buffer alternative

Buffer has a lot of great things going for it. But if you’re looking for alternatives to the Buffer app, consider these points.

1. Number of social media profiles you can connect

The Buffer business plan lets you add 25 social media profiles; other social media management software options allow you to connect less, while some more.

Look for a social media management tool that lets you add multiple accounts from the same social media platform. This is crucial if you’re a large company and need to manage multiple profiles for various company projects or events.

2. In-depth analytics and reporting

Choose social media management software with extensive analytics features to track your marketing initiatives. Ensure the tool provides in-depth reports about your activities on various platforms and gives you an overall picture of your campaign’s performance and more.

This functionality lets you assess the overall performance of your posts, address gaps, and refine your efforts from a single social media management platform.

3. Value for money

The Buffer pricing plans offer separate packages to users who want to access the Pro and Premium analytics features on top of its main pricing tiers.

Select a tool that provides robust, all-in-one social media management features at a price that matches your budget, or a pricing plan that allows you optimum value for your money.

Our top 6 picks for Buffer alternatives

Narrow down your options for the best social media management software with this list of Buffer competitors and their features and functionalities.

1. Hootsuite

Hootsuite helps you schedule your posts, curate relevant content, manage your team, measure your social media marketing return on investment (ROI), and more.

Whether you manage a small or large social media marketing team or need a custom social media management solution -- or even if you’re just an individual user, Hootsuite has features for seamless social media management.

The platform’s essential social media management features include:

• Social network integrations: Connect over 35 social networks, including Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube, to your Hootsuite account and publish your content to each social network from the platform directly.

Use Hootsuite to connect to multiple social networks and publish social media content directly from the platform. Image source: Author

• Analytics: Use Hootsuite’s analytics features to generate performance reports and gain audience insights, influencer recommendations, and hints for choosing the best publishing time for your posts.

Hootsuite’s free 30-day trial lets you manage three social profiles and thirty scheduled messages for one user. To access more reporting templates and advanced analytics features, choose the appropriate package, such as Business or Enterprise.

Buffer might seem like the obvious winner when it comes to Hootsuite vs. Buffer pricing. However, it all comes down to your business needs and the value you get from the software.

Read The Ascent’s full Hootsuite review

2. Sprout Social

Sprout Social, a Buffer alternative, offers a single hub for your social media engagement, publishing, and analytics throughout your social profiles. It is suitable for all business sizes with its robust set of social media management features.

The platform is pricier than most social media management tools, with the Standard plan running $99/month per user. But if you have the budget and want to access a more comprehensive suite of social media and community management tools, Sprout Social is an excellent solution for managing your social media campaigns.

Sprout Social’s key features include:

• Social listening: Track and analyze social media posts and mentions of your brand, products, and industry with Sprout Social’s social listening features.

Sprout Social streamlines your social listening efforts with specialized templates. Image source: Author

Use the platform’s templates for competitor activity, industry insights, brand health, and others to better understand consumer trends, assess audience sentiment, and more.

• Team collaboration tools: Sprout Social lets you customize its interface according to your sub-team’s responsibilities. Users with Managed profiles and permissions enabled can grant privileges and set permissions. It helps you mitigate risks and improve your team's efficiency.

Other features include content creation collaboration through the platform’s interface, scheduling social media posts on multiple channels, and accessing content libraries of videos and images in the advanced subscription.

Read The Ascent’s full Sprout Social review

3. SocialPilot

SocialPilot provides tailored social media scheduling automation and features that can help you increase traffic, raise brand awareness, and bolster your social media campaigns.

The platform caters to small businesses, startups, and marketing agencies that need to manage social media marketing campaigns and connect multiple social networks without paying for high-end features.

Compared to Buffer, SocialPilot is a better choice if you want the features of a free Buffer account without accessing the advanced functionalities of its more expensive packages.

Access SocialPilot’s central features starting at $25 per month. This includes:

• Social inbox: Stay on top of your social media conversations with the social inbox. This lets you promptly respond to posts, messages, and comments across your Facebook pages from a single inbox.
• Content recommendations: Streamline your content sharing strategies through SocialPilot’s recommended content. Simply type in your keywords, and the platform will show you a list of industry-relevant posts to add directly to your posting schedule.

This feature also connects you to various Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds and manages new posts under the content and feed interface.

SocialPilot’s content recommendations help streamline your content strategies. Image source: Author

Read The Ascent’s full SocialPilot review

4. MeetEdgar

MeetEdgar is a social media scheduling tool that automates your content scheduling, sharing, and recycling (among others). The tool is a good fit if you curate content, have an existing blog, manage three to five social profiles, and if your social media efforts focus on inbound marketing strategies.

Choose either the Lite package for $19/month or the entrepreneur and small business tier at $49/month.

MeetEdgar’s main features include:

• Content categorization: MeetEdgar allows you to organize your content in a library. This helps you balance the type of content you publish -- promotional, curated, or created content -- refining your social media content strategies.
• Content syndication: Import content from your website or external sources, such as relevant blogs, with MeetEdgar’s content syndication function.

For instance, the tool offers you related content under Recommended Reads, but designates that content as pending until you review and confirm it for publishing, streamlining your content curation.

Simplify your content syndication through MeetEdgar. It will import content from external sources, which you can review and approve before publishing. Image source: Author

Additional MeetEdgar features include crawling your linked social media accounts to identify and suggest relevant content, recommending posting times in your weekly schedules, auto variations, and recurring posts, and more.

Read The Ascent’s full MeetEdgar review

5. SocialFlow

SocialFlow uses business rules and real-time data to identify the best content and times to publish your owned and paid social media posts.

The platform quantifies your audience’s attention by analyzing metrics such as comments, shares, and likes across a massive user base. It then automatically posts your content at the perfect time using algorithmic predictions to optimize audience engagement.

SocialFlow’s pricing is available upon request. Generally, prices are based on your required tools, social media integrations, and specific business needs.

SocialFlow’s essential features include:

• Content optimization: Instead of configuring a specific posting schedule, SocialFlow lets you set a window of time for your content to go live. Specify the posting time frame by setting and customizing rules to help you space your posting times properly.
• Custom reports: SocialFlow’s platform gives you marketing analytics insights and reporting, including customizable dashboards you can integrate with external data sources. It gives you a detailed view of your vital social media metrics across different platforms.

View an array of data sources on SocialFlow’s customizable reporting dashboards. Image source: Author

The Trending now section of SocialFlow’s report also flags new hashtags and relevant social media trends in your industry. This shows you the link between data from the report and strategic actions you can take to boost your social media marketing efforts.

Read The Ascent’s full SocialFlow review

6. Gain

Gain offers customizable approval workflows and a highly intuitive dashboard. However, it lacks robust social media management features, such as analytics and social listening, offered by other tools in this list, focusing instead on a few social media capabilities.

Gain reduces cumbersome administrative tasks and helps you manage workflows from a single social media approval tool. This makes the platform an excellent choice for social media teams, marketing agencies, and big businesses in highly regulated industries.

Draft social media posts and share them with team members within the platform so everyone on your team can comment and approve the proposed content with ease.

Store your content drafts in Gain and share them with team members for comment and approval. Image source: Author

Access content within Gain through organized folders and set permission levels for different teams and departments. Gain also offers a social media content calendar, a content publishing and scheduling tool, and more features that help streamline your social media content management.

Get Gain for $99/month for up to 10 members. Additional users are $10/month each.

Read The Ascent’s full Gain review

Find the right Buffer alternative for you

Don’t limit your social media management strategies to what Buffer has to offer. Expand your options and find the best-fitting social media management software solution for your business with the help of this list.

It can take some trial and error to find the best fitting platform, but as long as you know what your business needs from a social media management tool, you’ll be on your way to running successful social media marketing campaigns.