Buffer is a social media workspace: your team plans, schedules and publishes posts to Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, LinkedIn, X, YouTube, Threads, Pinterest, Google Business Profile, Bluesky, Mastodon and Substack, then answers comments and checks results in the same place. Its “Made for” menu lists Creators, Small Business, Agencies, Nonprofits, Higher Education and Developers. You pay per connected channel, not per brand: the Free plan covers up to 3 channels, and paid plans start at $5 a month per channel, billed yearly.
Quick verdict
If your business or agency runs several social accounts and wants one queue, one calendar and one comment inbox for them, Buffer covers that. Per-channel pricing means the bill follows the number of accounts, not the number of clients. Essentials is $5 a month per channel and Team is $10 a month per channel, both billed yearly; only Team adds more than one user, approval workflows and channel-level permissions. The pricing page lists 16 integrations, including Canva, Zapier, Make, n8n, WordPress, ChatGPT and Claude, plus an API on every plan. The limits: Instagram personal profiles and Facebook groups only get reminders to post by hand, the terms say fees are not refundable, and payment is by credit or debit card. App reviewers like posting to several networks at once and say the app is easy to use, but the complaints that come up most are posts that fail to publish and channels that lose their connection.
Buffer at a glance
| Vendor | Buffer |
|---|---|
| What it does | Schedules and publishes social posts, collects comments in one inbox, and reports on performance |
| Price | Free; Essentials $5/month per channel; Team $10/month per channel; billed yearly ($60 and $120 a year for 1 channel) |
| Free plan | Yes: up to 3 channels, 10 scheduled posts per channel, 1 user, 30 days of analytics history |
| Free trial | 14 days on Essentials and Team |
| Integrations | Bitly, Canva, ChatGPT, Claude, Cursor, Dropbox, Google Drive and Photos, IFTTT, Make, n8n, One Drive, Perplexity Web, Raycast, Unsplash, WordPress, Zapier; API on every plan |
| Apps | Android (4.5 stars, 57,973 ratings), iPhone (4.7 stars, 34,810 ratings); browser extension |
| Data checked | November 4, 2026 |
Features
These come from the home and pricing pages on buffer.com.
- Publishing: a queue you can re-arrange or shuffle, a visual content calendar, unlimited drafts, duplicate posts, link shortening and threads for X, Bluesky, Threads and Mastodon. Paid plans add first-comment scheduling for Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn, channel groups for bulk selection, a hashtag manager and custom video covers for Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. For Instagram, TikTok and YouTube, Buffer can send a mobile reminder so you finish the post in the network’s own app.
- Ideas and creation: an ideas library (100 ideas on Free, unlimited on paid plans), 250 tags for campaigns or topics, templates, a kanban-style board view, a browser extension and an AI Assistant that the pricing page says comes with unlimited credits on every plan.
- Community: reply to comments on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Threads, Bluesky, X, TikTok, Google Business Profile, YouTube and Mastodon posts. There’s a comment score for consistency and speed, AI replies (5 suggestions per week on Free), saved replies, and a way to turn a comment exchange into a new post.
- Analytics: built-in reports on follower growth, engagement, impressions and post performance, with 30 days of history on Free and unlimited history on paid plans. Paid plans add a performance overview with period-over-period comparisons, filters by tag or channel, custom UTM parameters and reports you can export as CSV, PDF or markdown. Team adds branded reports with your logo and a cover page.
- Team work (Team plan): unlimited users, approval workflows that set who can draft and who can approve, and custom access that sets which channels each team member can use. Notes with mentions and two-factor authentication are on every plan.
- AI tools and API: the home page says you can connect Buffer to Claude or ChatGPT to pull performance data, plan content and send posts to your queue. The API comes with 1, 3 or 5 API keys depending on the plan, and a 30-day limit of 1,000, 3,000 or 10,000 requests per channel (up to 3,000, 30,000 and 100,000).
- Support and company: email support and a help center on every plan. The home page says support comes from real people, with “no bots”, and that Buffer has shared its finances and salaries openly since 2013; its public figures list 85,568 total customers and 73 teammates across 15 countries.
Plans and pricing
| Plan | Price | Main additions |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 (“Free forever”) | Up to 3 channels, 10 scheduled posts per channel, 100 ideas, 1 user, AI Assistant, analytics with 30-day history, community inbox, 1 API key |
| Essentials | $5/month per channel, billed yearly ($60 a year for 1 channel) | Unlimited scheduled posts and ideas, 1 user, advanced analytics and reports, hashtag manager, first-comment scheduling, channel groups, custom video covers, 3 API keys |
| Team | $10/month per channel, billed yearly ($120 a year for 1 channel) | Everything in Essentials, plus unlimited team members, approval workflows, custom access and permissions, branded reports, 5 API keys |
Every price is per channel, which the pricing page defines as one connected social account, so five brands with an Instagram and a Facebook page each count as 10 channels. Channels 1 to 10 are charged at the standard rate and each channel above 10 costs less. A Start Page (link-in-bio page) also counts as a channel. “Unlimited” scheduled posts are capped at 5,000 per channel under Buffer’s fair use policy.
You can pay monthly or yearly: the plan cards say yearly billing saves 2 months, and the FAQ calls it a 20% discount. Only the yearly-billed prices appear in the page text we saved, so check the monthly price on the pricing page before you budget. Essentials and Team come with a 14-day free trial; if you don’t add payment details, the account drops to Free and any channels above three are locked. Upgrading means paying for every channel, including the three you had free. Nonprofits and charities get 50% off paid plans. Buffer takes Visa, Mastercard, American Express, JCB, Discover and Diners Club cards, but not PayPal, checks or bank transfers. The terms of use say fees are non-refundable unless the terms provide otherwise. The pricing page says prices were last updated in November 2025.
Supported channels
Buffer’s pricing page lists what each kind of account can do. Reminder posting means Buffer notifies you on your phone and you publish the post yourself.
| Channel | Automatic publishing | Reminders to post | Basic analytics | Advanced analytics | Community engagement |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bluesky profiles | Included | Not included | Included | Not included | Included |
| Facebook pages | Included | Not included | Included | Included | Included |
| Facebook groups | Not included | Included | Included | Not included | Not included |
| Google Business Profiles | Included | Not included | Not included | Not included | Included |
| Instagram business accounts | Included | Included | Included | Included | Included |
| Instagram creator accounts | Included | Included | Included | Included | Included |
| Instagram personal profiles | Not included | Included | Not included | Not included | Not included |
| LinkedIn pages | Included | Not included | Included | Included | Included |
| LinkedIn profiles | Included | Not included | Included | Not included | Included |
| Mastodon profiles | Included | Not included | Included | Not included | Included |
| Pinterest business accounts | Included | Not included | Included | Not included | Not included |
| Pinterest personal accounts | Included | Not included | Not included | Not included | Not included |
| Start Page | Included | Not included | Included | Not included | Not included |
| Threads profiles | Included | Not included | Included | Not included | Included |
| TikTok business profiles | Included | Included | Included | Not included | Included |
| YouTube (Shorts) | Included | Included | Included | Not included | Included |
| X / Twitter free profiles | Included | Not included | Not included | Included | Included |
| X / Twitter premium profiles | Included | Not included | Included | Included | Included |
Facebook personal profiles aren’t in the table. Neither is Substack, even though the home page lists it as a channel.
Data export and leaving
Reports can be exported as CSV, PDF or markdown on Essentials and Team. Buffer’s data retention notice says it stores your content indefinitely while you’re a customer, including unpublished posts, and keeps invoice information for up to 7 years after your last payment. Deleting your Buffer account deletes your content from Buffer but not from the social networks, so posts already published stay there. The terms of use say you are responsible for keeping copies of your content, because you may lose access to it when your account ends.
Mobile apps
The Android app, “Buffer: Social Media Scheduler”, is version 9.6.7, updated October 6, 2026, with 1,000,000+ downloads. It’s free, has no ads and lists in-app purchases from $5.99 to $299.99 per item. The iPhone app, “Buffer: Plan & Schedule Posts”, is version 16.2.1, updated October 22, 2026, and needs iOS 18.0 or later. Both listings cover scheduling posts, Reels, Stories, Shorts and TikTok videos, organizing ideas with tags, analytics and a calendar. The App Store listing’s notes for version 15.0 add an Apple Watch app (queues, goals, streaks and ideas), idea capture from an iOS Shortcut or the Action Button, and a calendar day view across all channels.
Web vs. mobile apps
| Feature | Web | Android and iPhone apps | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Schedule and publish posts | Yes, all plans | Yes | Pricing page, store listings |
| Ideas with tags | Yes, all plans | Yes | Pricing page, store listings |
| Analytics | Yes; history depends on plan | Yes | Pricing page, store listings |
| Month calendar | Visual content calendar, all plans | The iPhone listing describes a monthly to weekly view; two reviewers say the app has no full month view | Pricing page, App Store listing, reviews |
| Threads (X, Bluesky, Threads, Mastodon) | 1 on Free, unlimited on paid plans | Not in the listings; a few reviewers say they can’t write or schedule threads in the app | Pricing page, reviews |
| Approval workflows and permissions | Team plan | Not in the listings | Pricing page |
| Apple Watch app | Not on the pricing page | In the iPhone listing only | App Store listing |
Pros (from app reviews)
These come from Android and iPhone reviews from the last 24 months; older iPhone reviews are left out. The newest review in our data is from November 2026.
- Posting to several networks at once: several reviewers like that one post can go out to multiple networks on a schedule. Two others say a post didn’t reach every network they picked, and one iPhone reviewer says the app dropped their second channel after scheduling.
- Easy to use: several call it easy or simple, and one iPhone reviewer says they figured it out in “less than 10 minutes”. Several others find the app hard to use, fiddly or clunky.
- Scheduling ahead: several say it saves time and keeps them posting on a steady schedule. One Android reviewer writes the week’s posts every Sunday, schedules them “and forget about it”. A few like the suggested times to post.
- Free plan and price: several say the free plan is enough for them, and several call the paid plans affordable. About as many find the free plan too limited, and about as many find the pricing too high or confusing.
- Support: two praise Buffer’s support, including one Android reviewer who got a refund.
Cons (from app reviews)
- Posts that fail: several reviewers say posts fail, get stuck, won’t schedule or never go out. One Android reviewer in May 2026 says scheduled Bluesky posts fail “what feels like 50% of the time”. Several also say the error message doesn’t tell them why a post failed.
- Lost channel connections: several say a channel won’t connect or keeps disconnecting, and most of them name Instagram or Facebook. Several have to reconnect channels again and again. One Android reviewer in December 2025 says Facebook flagged a security alert every time they connected it.
- Recent updates: several say an update made the app worse, and two say it added taps or steps. A few say a feature they used was removed, such as the full calendar view, images with links in one post, or the “email to buffer” option.
- Less than the web version: several say the app does less than the web version or that they go back to the browser.
- Posting by hand: several complain that the app asks them to finish posts by hand instead of posting automatically. The pricing page’s channel table shows which accounts get reminders and which can’t post automatically at all.
- Speed, sign-in and crashes: several say the app is slow or laggy, and several can’t sign in or create an account. A few report crashes, and a few are stuck on a prompt to update when no update is available.
- Images and double posts: two say posts with several images went out with only one image, one says every image turned into a copy of the first, and a few say posts were published twice.
- Billing and support: two complain that upgrading meant paying for the channels they had free, which the pricing page confirms. A few say channels were locked above their plan’s limit. Several say support was slow or unreachable; one Android reviewer in August 2026 says they had no answer after two weeks. The developer’s replies on Android, from February and March 2026, ask reviewers to email for help and don’t describe a fix.
Rating breakdown
| Stars | Ratings | Share |
|---|---|---|
| 5 | 44,512 | 76.8% |
| 4 | 6,381 | 11.0% |
| 3 | 2,758 | 4.8% |
| 2 | 1,466 | 2.5% |
| 1 | 2,843 | 4.9% |
Google Play’s breakdown covers 57,960 ratings; the listing shows 57,973 in total. About 7.4% are one or two stars. The Android reviews we collected were picked partly by star level, so low ratings make up a much bigger share of them than of all ratings. The data we collected doesn’t include a star breakdown for the iPhone app.
Who it’s for
A good fit if:
- You run social accounts for several brands or clients and want to pay per channel, not per brand or client.
- Your team needs drafts approved before they go out and wants to limit who can post to which channel (Team plan).
- You already use Canva, Zapier, Make, n8n or WordPress, or want to manage your queue from Claude or ChatGPT.
- You’re a nonprofit or charity: paid plans are 50% off.
- One person posts to up to 3 accounts and 10 scheduled posts per channel is enough (Free plan).
Look elsewhere if:
- More than one person needs access but you only want Essentials: it includes 1 user.
- Your posting depends on Instagram personal profiles or Facebook groups, which get reminders only, or on Facebook personal profiles, which aren’t in the channel table.
- You need to pay by PayPal, check or bank transfer, or you expect refunds on fees.
- Your team posts mainly from phones: app reviewers report failed posts, lost connections and missing web features.
FAQ
How much does Buffer cost for a business?
You pay per connected channel. Essentials is $5 a month per channel and Team is $10 a month per channel, both billed yearly, and channels above 10 cost less each. Only Team includes more than one user. Nonprofits get 50% off.
Is there a free Buffer plan?
Yes. The Free plan connects up to 3 channels, holds 10 scheduled posts per channel at a time and has 1 user, with 30 days of analytics history. If you upgrade, you pay for every channel, including the three that were free.
Can Buffer post to Instagram automatically?
For Instagram business and creator accounts, yes, according to the pricing page’s channel table. Instagram personal profiles get a reminder only, and you finish the post in Instagram yourself. Several app reviewers complain about having to post by hand.
Does Buffer have approval workflows?
Yes, on the Team plan only. It lets you set who can draft and who can approve posts, and which channels each team member can use. Team also includes unlimited team members.
How this review was put together
We did not test Buffer. This review is based on public information from official sources: the vendor’s own website (its features, pricing and policy pages) and, where the product has mobile apps, its Google Play and App Store listings, ratings and user reviews. Features, prices and claims are the vendor’s own descriptions; what users like and dislike comes from store reviews, when there are any. Everything was checked on November 4, 2026. Prices and features change, so check the vendor’s site before you buy.
