Buffer
Buffer is a social media management tool that schedules and cross-posts content to Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, Threads, Bluesky, X and other networks. It also covers a comment inbox, performance analytics and team approval workflows.
#15 in Marketing ToolsSocial Media Management ToolsFree plan
Who it's for
Best for
Creators posting to several networks who want one scheduling queue
Agencies and in-house teams that need approvals on scheduled posts
Not for
- Heavy Bluesky posters who rely on threaded posts and hashtag links
Marketers scheduling across time zones who need exact local times
Free plan$0
Essentials$6/mo
Team$12/mo
Features
Publishing to major platforms
Schedules and publishes content to Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, Threads, Bluesky, YouTube Shorts, Pinterest, Google Business, Mastodon, X and Substack.
AI Assistant
Brainstorms ideas, rewrites existing content and drafts posts tailored to each connected platform from inside the composer.
Community inbox
Brings comments from connected channels into one dashboard so replies can be triaged and answered quickly.
Insights and reporting
Shows performance analytics for published posts and produces in-depth reports on which content worked.
Team collaboration
Posts are managed, edited and approved in a shared workspace before publishing, so a whole team can review content ahead of time.
What users say
Pros
- The same posts publish to Bluesky, Mastodon, Threads and other networks from one queue.
- Post ideas written late at night get queued to go out at a chosen morning time.
- The free tier queues ten scheduled posts at a time across three social channels at zero cost.
Cons
- Threaded posts to Bluesky crash the mobile app and publish only the opening post on the web.
- Scheduling defaults to London time for accounts elsewhere and slips an hour when daylight saving changes.
- Random publishing errors made the scheduler unusable for two days, with one network posting and another failing.
- Bluesky posts containing only a link and short text bounce back as too large a file.
- Posts carrying hashtag URLs repeatedly failed to publish to Bluesky across many attempts.
A selection of the review sources we used:
Summarized from public user reviews and community discussions. View details
Global Traffic Rank
Top 500k
Alternatives
Rank#15 in category#9 in category#18 in category#20 in category
Free planYesYesYesNo
ProCross-posting, scheduled posting, free three-channel planFast human chat, easy refunds, multi-brand reports, carouselsAutomation-ready uploads, strong Bluesky support, alt-text draftsFast client reports, bulk scheduling, many accounts in one place
Better forManaging Google, Facebook, and TikTok ad campaigns alongside automated direct message flows.Publishing threaded Bluesky posts reliably instead of crashing on threads or failing on hashtag links.Handling private direct messages alongside public comments with message assignments in one inbox.
Weaker atScheduling to LinkedIn and X on the free tier without paying to unlock full analytics and custom reports.Replying to social comments from a built-in community inbox without switching back to native apps.