Cheapest Social Media Scheduler in 2026, Priced by Account

The cheapest social media scheduler depends on how many accounts your brand runs. Among the paid hosted plans on this page, PostWharf has the lowest monthly price once one brand connects five or more channels: $15 a month on Starter, covering unlimited channels and 200 scheduled posts a month, with no per-channel fee. You write a post once, adjust it for any network that needs it, and PostWharf publishes it to every account the brand connects, then checks each network afterwards and gives you a delivery receipt. Lower sticker prices do exist, each with a limit. Buffer's free plan covers 3 channels with 10 queued posts per channel. Publer's free plan covers 3 accounts, but not X. Metricool's free plan takes one brand on every network except LinkedIn and X, for up to 20 scheduled posts a month. Publer's Professional plan is $12 a month for 3 accounts.

For other needs: Metricool adds analytics and ad reporting for $25 a month (up to five brands), with each X account $10 a month on top. Postiz is open source, free on your own server or $39 a month hosted for 10 channels. Later plans Instagram and TikTok content on a visual calendar, from $25 a month for one set of eight profiles, and Sendible includes unlimited users on every plan, from $35 a month for six profiles. Every price here is in US dollars on monthly billing for one brand, read on 16 October 2026.

If one flat price for every account you run is what you want, start PostWharf's Starter plan. The first seven days are free, and your card is charged only when the trial ends.

How we chose and priced these 9

We began with 14 schedulers. Twelve are the tools whose own pricing pages we read on 16 October 2026: PostWharf, Buffer, Hootsuite, Later, Sprout Social, Metricool, Publer, SocialPilot, SocialBee, Sendible, Agorapulse and Postiz. The other two are free or self-hosted options that budget buyers ask about, Meta Business Suite and Mixpost. A tool made the numbered list only if it passed three tests:

• it publishes to at least three social networks from one queue,
• it sells a hosted plan whose price appears on its own pricing page, with no sales call needed,
• it has a plan at $35 a month or less on monthly billing.

Nine passed. Hootsuite, Sprout Social and Agorapulse fail the price test, because each starts at $99 per user a month. Meta Business Suite fails the second test, since it is a free tool from Meta that sells no hosted plan, and Mixpost fails it too: what we found is a licence you install on your own server, not a hosted plan. All five appear further down with their prices, because they are what many readers are comparing against.

We priced every tool for one brand at 3, 5, 10 and 25 channels, where a channel is one connected social account or profile. Each figure is the lowest monthly total the vendor's paid plans allow at that count, including the add-ons it sells (extra accounts, profile packs, extra social sets or extra workspaces), before tax and before any charge for a specific network, which we note separately. The list is ordered by the 10-channel price, lowest first.

Prices and limits for the twelve tools come from each vendor's pricing and help pages, read on 16 October 2026. Publer's rate past five accounts, the SocialPilot and SocialBee add-on terms, Meta Business Suite and Mixpost each come from one web search that day, and the entries say where those sources disagree. Plans change often, so check the vendor's page before you pay.

What one brand pays at 3, 5, 10 and 25 channels

Monthly billing, US dollars, read 16 October 2026. The last column divides the 25-channel price by 25.

Three things the table leaves out. Metricool charges $10 a month for each X account on its paid plans, so a brand with one X account pays $35 rather than $25. Later does not publish to X at all. And Hootsuite's plans page shows only annual-billing prices, so its figures are not monthly-billing rates like the rest.

The 9 schedulers, ranked

11. PostWharf

Best for one brand with five or more accounts that wants a single flat price for all of themFree trial · from $10/moPlans and prices

PostWharf is a social media scheduler for posting the same message everywhere a brand has an account. You write one caption with one set of hashtags, change the wording for any network that needs its own version, and publish now or at a set time to any of the 10 networks it supports today: Instagram, TikTok, X, LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook, Threads, Pinterest, Bluesky and Telegram. After a post goes out, PostWharf checks each network again and records a delivery receipt with one row per network, and it retries a failed delivery on its own (PostWharf, read 16 October 2026).

It bills per workspace, and a workspace is one brand: its channels, drafts, queue and delivery history, kept apart from any other brand. A workspace holds as many channels as you connect, and no network costs extra, X included. That is why its price is the same in every column of the table. Starter is $15 a month, or $10 a month billed yearly, for one workspace and 200 scheduled posts a month. Startup is $29 ($23 yearly) for three workspaces and 400 posts, Plus is $67 ($54) for ten workspaces and 1,000 posts, and Pro is $99 ($79) for unlimited workspaces and 2,500 posts (PostWharf pricing, read 16 October 2026). At 25 channels, Starter works out at 60 cents a channel; Buffer's per-channel bill for the same 25 is $120.

Every plan also includes a REST API with one key per workspace, webhooks, an MCP server for Claude Code and other MCP clients, and a command-line tool, wharf, installed from npm. PostWharf lists Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, Codex, n8n, Zapier and Make among the tools it works with, so a workflow that auto-posts new blog items to social with n8n and Claude can hand its captions straight to the queue. When an AI assistant drafts the posts, nothing publishes until you approve it.

Where it falls short: there is no free plan, only the seven-day Starter trial. Starter caps scheduled posts at 200 a month, so a brand that posts several times a day may need Startup at $29 for 400. Its pages describe no analytics reports or reply inbox, and Reddit, Discord, Snapchat and WordPress are available on request but cannot be connected yet. At three channels, Publer's $12 is less.

See PostWharf's plans and start the Starter trial: one brand, every channel, $15 a month.

22. Metricool

Best for a brand that wants scheduling plus analytics and ad reports on one low bill, and posts little to XFree plan · from $20/moPlans and prices

Metricool plans, publishes and reports on Facebook, Instagram, Threads, Bluesky, Pinterest, TikTok, YouTube, Twitch, LinkedIn, Google Business Profile and X, and it also reports on Meta, Google and TikTok ads. It prices in tiers of brands, and each brand holds one profile per network. Starter is $25 a month ($20 billed yearly) for up to five brands, or $45 ($36) for up to ten. Advanced starts at $67 ($53) for 15 brands and adds team and client management, post approvals and the API. Prices exclude VAT (Metricool pricing, read 16 October 2026).

For one company, the brand tiers stretch further than they look. Ten channels on ten different networks fit inside a single Metricool brand. Twenty-five channels need at least three brands, because each holds one profile per network, and Starter's five brands cover that as long as no network carries more than five of your accounts. Both land at $25. The catch is X: every connected X account costs $10 a month, or $120 a year, on Starter and above (Metricool's plans and add-ons guide, read 16 October 2026).

The free plan covers one brand on every network except LinkedIn and X, with 20 scheduled posts a month and 30 days of analytics. Its MCP server, for Claude, ChatGPT and other assistants, is included on every plan, the free one too.

Where it falls short: X is a paid add-on per account, approvals and team roles need Advanced, and spreading one company's accounts across several Metricool brands means managing them as separate brands. There is no standard free trial of the paid plans.

33. Publer

Best for a brand with three or four accounts, or one that bulk-schedules posts from a spreadsheetFree plan · from $4/moPlans and prices

Publer publishes to Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X, Threads, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube, Google Business Profile, Bluesky, Mastodon, Telegram and WordPress, with bulk scheduling of up to 500 posts from a CSV file, recurring posts and first-comment scheduling. It bills for each social account, plus a fee for each extra team member. Professional is $5 a month for one account ($4 billed yearly), $12 for three and $20 for five, and each extra member adds $2 a month; every tenth account is free. Business, which adds analytics, best times to post, the API and an MCP server, is $10, $21 and $35 at one, three and five accounts (Publer's plans page, read 16 October 2026).

From the third account on, Professional works out at $4 an account, so 10 accounts come to $36 a month (the tenth is free) and 25 come to $92 (the tenth and twentieth are free). The sources do not quite agree. Publer's help centre describes $5 for the first account and $4 for each one after it, which would make three accounts $13, not the $12 the plans page showed, and one pricing guide read Publer's calculator at $40 for ten accounts (Publer help centre, SocialKit on Publer pricing, both found 16 October 2026). The table uses the plans page.

The free plan has one user, one workspace and three social accounts, X excluded, with 10 scheduled posts per account, 25 saved drafts and 24 hours of post history. Paid plans start with a 7-day trial on Professional or 14 days on Business.

Where it falls short: every account adds to the bill, so by 10 channels Publer costs more than double PostWharf's Starter, and analytics and API access need Business. Daily posting limits apply per profile below Enterprise.

44. Postiz

Best for anyone who wants open-source software, hosted for now and movable to their own server laterOpen source · cloud from $23/moPlans and prices

Postiz is an open-source scheduler that publishes to 34 platforms, among them X, LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Reddit, Discord and Bluesky. Its hosted plans are sized by channel count, and every one includes unlimited posts plus its API, MCP server and CLI. Standard is $29 a month for 5 channels with no team members, Team is $39 for 10 channels with unlimited team members, Pro is $49 for 30 and Ultimate is $99 for 100. Billed yearly, those are $23, $31, $39 and $79 a month (Postiz pricing, read 16 October 2026).

From 10 to 25 channels the hosted bill goes up $10; only PostWharf and Metricool, which stay flat, rise less. The code is AGPL-3.0, so you can also run it yourself without paying for the software (see the self-hosting section below).

Where it falls short: there is no free hosted plan, and the 7-day trial needs a card. Standard has no seats for teammates, annual plans are not refundable, and some AI video tools unlock only once the trial converts to a paid plan.

55. SocialPilot

Best for a small business that expects to add a shared inbox, reports and client approvals laterFree trial · from $25.50/moPlans and prices

SocialPilot schedules to Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X, LinkedIn, Threads, YouTube, Pinterest, Google Business Profile and Bluesky. Its plans are sized by social accounts and users: Essentials is $30 a month for 7 accounts and one user, Standard is $50 for 15 accounts and three users, Premium is $100 for 25 and Ultimate is $200 for 50. Yearly billing takes 15% off, to $25.50, $42.50, $85 and $170, and extra accounts cost $4 a month each (SocialPilot's plans page, read 16 October 2026).

The add-on sets the table's figures. Ten channels are Essentials plus three accounts, $42, below Standard's $50. Twenty-five channels are Standard plus ten accounts, $90, just under Premium's $100. SocialPilot's plans page lists the $4 add-on, and third-party pricing guides say it is sold on every tier (Blotato on SocialPilot pricing, found 16 October 2026). The trial lasts 14 days and needs no card, and its MCP server for Claude and ChatGPT comes with every plan.

Where it falls short: Essentials has no analytics, social inbox or approvals; bulk scheduling and CSV upload start on Premium; and API access is on Enterprise only.

66. SocialBee

Best for one marketer who sorts evergreen posts into content categories and recycles themFree trial · from $24/moPlans and prices

SocialBee schedules posts by content category to ten networks, including Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok and Bluesky, and its mobile app sends reminders for networks it cannot post to directly. Bootstrap is $29 a month for 5 profiles, one user and one workspace ($290 billed yearly, or $24 a month). Accelerate is $49 for 10 profiles and adds the bulk editor, CSV uploads and post approval. Pro is $99 for 25 profiles, 3 users per workspace and 5 workspaces. Five more profiles cost $15 a month, and extra users or workspaces $10 a month each (SocialBee pricing, read 16 October 2026).

With the profile pack, Bootstrap reaches 10 profiles for $44 and 25 for $89, each a little under the plan built for that size. Third-party guides describe the same $15-per-five pack, billed per workspace, but we could not confirm on SocialBee's page how many packs Bootstrap can take (Hackceleration on SocialBee pricing, found 16 October 2026). If you want approvals or CSV uploads anyway, Accelerate at $49 and Pro at $99 are the plain routes.

Where it falls short: there is no free plan, and posting stops when the 14-day trial ends. Bootstrap keeps three months of analytics, and its pages describe no public API or MCP server; automation runs through Zapier, Make or Pabbly.

77. Later

Best for Instagram- and TikTok-led brands that plan visually and drive traffic through a link-in-bio pageFree trial · from $18.75/moPlans and prices

Later is built around a drag-and-drop calendar and publishes to Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Threads, YouTube, Pinterest, LinkedIn and Snapchat. It prices by social set, which is one profile per network. Starter is $25 a month ($18.75 billed yearly) for one set of 8 profiles, one user and 30 posts per profile a month, and it takes no add-ons. Growth is $50 ($37.50) for two sets, two users and 180 posts per profile, with a social inbox and approvals; an extra set costs $15 a month and an extra user $5. Scale is $110 ($82.50) for six sets and unlimited posts (Later pricing, read 16 October 2026).

Three or five channels fit Starter's $25 only if each sits on a different network: a second Instagram account already needs a second set, which means Growth. Ten channels need Growth at $50. Twenty-five need four sets, so Growth plus two extra sets, $80, rather than Scale.

Where it falls short: it does not publish to X, Bluesky or Google Business Profile, there is no free plan (the trial is 14 days), and 30 posts per profile a month on Starter is tight for daily posting.

88. Buffer

Best for one to three channels, where its free plan, or a small per-channel bill, is all you needFree plan · from $5/moPlans and prices

Buffer charges for each connected channel: $6 a month on Essentials ($5 billed yearly) and $12 on Team ($10). On monthly billing, channels 11 to 25 cost $4 each, 26 to 50 cost $3 and every one past 50 costs $1 (Buffer pricing and its machine-readable price list, read 16 October 2026). That puts three channels at $18, five at $30, ten at $60 and twenty-five at $120 on Essentials. It publishes to 12 networks, Mastodon, Google Business Profile and Substack among them, and its API and MCP server come with every plan, Free included.

The free plan covers 3 channels with 10 scheduled posts per channel at a time, one user, 100 saved ideas and 30 days of insights. Paid plans start with a 14-day trial.

Where it falls short: once you upgrade, the three channels the free plan covered are billed too, Essentials has one user, and Instagram personal profiles and Facebook groups get reminder notifications rather than automatic posting.

99. Sendible

Best for a team that needs several logins, since every plan includes unlimited usersFree trial · from $30/moPlans and prices

Sendible publishes to Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, X, YouTube, Threads, Bluesky and Google Business Profile, with a shared inbox and reports. It sizes plans in workspaces of six profiles. Core is $35 a month ($30 billed yearly) for one workspace, and each extra workspace on Core adds $35. Plus is $99 ($84) for three workspaces, or 18 profiles, with approval workflows, and an extra workspace on Plus costs $30. Premium is $199 ($169) for seven workspaces (Sendible pricing, read 16 October 2026).

Ten channels are Core plus one workspace, $70, below Plus. Twenty-five are Plus plus two workspaces, $159, below Premium. Core publishes up to 100 posts a day per workspace, and the trial runs 14 days without a card.

Where it falls short: no Pinterest, no free plan, approvals only from Plus, and one brand's accounts end up spread across several workspaces once it passes six. Its API covers single sign-on only, and its pages mention no MCP server.

Free plans: what $0 covers

If your bill has to be zero, these are the options, and each one's limit decides whether it fits.

Meta Business Suite is Meta's own free tool for scheduling Facebook and Instagram posts, Reels and Stories from a calendar (Social Champ's 2026 guide to scheduling Facebook posts, found 16 October 2026). For a brand that lives only on Meta's networks, it may be all you need. The moment you add TikTok, LinkedIn or X, you need one of the schedulers above.

If what eats your budget is the time spent writing rather than the tool, cut that first: turn one blog post into five social posts with AI, or plan a month of posts in a single ChatGPT chat, then load them into a free queue. Automate Basics' free AI courses for work cover the same kind of workflow.

Self-hosting: Postiz and Mixpost

Self-hosting swaps a subscription for a server you run. Postiz's code is AGPL-3.0, and the self-hosted version has no limit on channels, posts or team members. The cost moves elsewhere: you register your own developer app with most networks, which Postiz says can take weeks for Meta, YouTube and TikTok, and you bring your own AI keys (Postiz's platform docs and GitHub repository, read 16 October 2026).

Mixpost is the other name buyers raise. Third-party comparisons describe a free Lite edition that publishes to only a few networks (one lists Facebook Pages, X and Mastodon), a Pro licence at $299 one-time with a year of updates, and an Enterprise licence at $1,199, each licence covering one domain (Blotato's Mixpost and Postiz comparison, found 16 October 2026). We could not confirm these on Mixpost's own pages, so check them there before you buy.

For either one, the server, backups and updates are yours to pay for and to maintain.

Hootsuite, Sprout Social and Agorapulse, for comparison

Many people searching for a cheap scheduler are leaving one of these three, so here is what they cost for the same brand. All three bill per user, so every teammate adds the full plan price again.

• Hootsuite: Standard is $99 per user a month on annual billing and covers up to 10 social accounts; Professional, at $199, removes the account limit. The plans page does not show the monthly-billing rate (Hootsuite plans, read 16 October 2026).
• Sprout Social: Essentials is $99 per seat a month ($79 billed annually) for 5 profiles, and Professional, the first plan with unlimited profiles, is $399 ($299) (Sprout Social pricing, read 16 October 2026).
• Agorapulse: Standard is $99 per user a month ($79 billed annually) with 10 social profiles shared across users, and each extra profile costs $15 a month on monthly billing, which takes 25 channels to $324 (Agorapulse pricing, read 16 October 2026).

Every numbered tool above costs less than Hootsuite's Standard at 10 channels. What the three suites sell on top of scheduling, priced per person, is mostly a unified inbox, social listening and team reporting.

Which one to pick

Start from how many accounts the brand runs. At three or fewer, a free plan (Buffer, Publer or Metricool) or Publer's $12 plan will usually do. From five accounts up, PostWharf puts every channel on one queue for $15 a month, checks that each post landed and gives you an API and MCP server for automation: compare PostWharf's plans. If analytics and ad reports matter more than X, price Metricool's $25 Starter. If you want the code itself, run Postiz on your own server. If a team needs its own logins, Sendible includes unlimited users from $35.

Once the scheduler is chosen, the rest of the job is writing and automating the posts. Start learning with Automate Basics' courses.