Back to Blog
8 min read

Buffer Alternatives 2026: Free Plans Compared Honestly

Buffer's free plan vs Status 200 Uploads, Publer and self-hosted Postiz: channels, post limits and API access, checked on 26 Oct 2026.

Buffer Alternatives 2026: Free Plans Compared Honestly

Short answer: If you want to stay free, the main alternatives to Buffer are Status 200 Uploads (30 posts a month on 7 networks, with a REST API on the Free plan), Publer (3 accounts, no X, no API on Free) and Postiz, which is free if you host it yourself. Buffer's own free plan is still strong: 3 channels, 10 scheduled posts per channel at a time, and an API key. Hootsuite, Later and Sprout Social list paid plans with free trials, not free plans. Every plan detail below was checked on the vendors' own pages on 26 October 2026.

Key Takeaways

Point Details
Buffer Free 3 channels, 10 scheduled posts per channel at a time (slots refill), 1 API key with 3,000 requests a month
Status 200 Uploads Free 1 profile on 7 networks, 30 successful posts a month, REST API with unlimited keys and no monthly request cap
Publer Free 3 social accounts (X not included), 10 scheduled posts per account, no API
Postiz Open source (AGPL-3.0); self-hosted is free, but you create your own developer app on each network
No free plan Hootsuite (from $99), Later (from $18.75 a month, billed yearly), Sprout Social (from $79 per seat a month)
Pick by need More channels free: Buffer or Publer. API on Free: Status 200 Uploads or Buffer. Own your stack: Postiz

What Buffer's free plan gives you

Start with the baseline, because for many small creators Buffer Free is enough. Buffer's pricing page lists for Free: "10 scheduled posts per channel - refill anytime", "1 user account", the AI Assistant, Insights with a "30-day history", and API access with "1 API key" and "3,000 requests/month" (Buffer pricing).

The channel limit is in Buffer's FAQ: after a trial, "Channels will be locked if you exceed the three-channel limit for the Free plan." The 10-post limit counts posts waiting at once, not posts per month: "Once a post is published, the slot becomes available again, up to the 10-post maximum per channel." Paid plans are priced per channel. Essentials is $5 a month per channel billed yearly ($60 a year), and Team is $10 a month per channel billed yearly ($120 a year). Buffer says its pricing "was last updated in November 2025".

Two things push people to look elsewhere. On YouTube, Buffer's channel table lists "YouTube (Shorts)", so it publishes Shorts, not long videos. And once you need a fourth channel, you pay for every channel, including the three you had for free. Buffer's FAQ says: "you will pay for each channel โ€” including any channels you had while on the Free plan." For a side-by-side of paid plans, see Status 200 Uploads vs Buffer.

Free plans compared

Checked on each vendor's own pricing page on 26 October 2026:

Buffer Free Status 200 Uploads Free Publer Free Postiz (self-hosted)
Accounts 3 channels 1 profile: one account on each of 7 networks 3 social accounts, X not included Unlimited
Post limit 10 scheduled per channel at a time 30 successful posts a month, all networks combined 10 scheduled per account at a time Unlimited
Networks Channel list includes Bluesky, Mastodon, Google Business Profile, Substack; YouTube Shorts only TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Threads Every network it supports except X; Pinterest needs 100 followers or a claimed website Every provider it supports, through your own developer apps
API 1 key, 3,000 requests a month REST API, unlimited keys, no monthly request cap Business and Enterprise plans only Public API and webhooks
Cost $0 $0 $0 $0 plus your own server

Sources: Buffer pricing, Status 200 Uploads pricing and vs Buffer, Publer plans, Publer API docs, Postiz README.

Status 200 Uploads

Our Free plan is "1 profile ยท 30 posts per month" on 7 platforms: TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Threads. It counts "successful posts across all platforms; failed posts do not count" (pricing). A profile is one set of accounts under one name, so connecting TikTok, Instagram and Facebook for one brand "counts as 1 Profile".

The difference from Buffer and Publer is the API. Free includes a "REST API with unlimited keys", with no monthly request cap (vs Buffer). Scheduling through the API "works on every plan, Free included" (API docs). Media can be large: videos up to 5 GB and images up to 20 MB, and we publish full-length YouTube videos, not just Shorts.

Where we're weaker: Free is one profile, while Buffer gives you 3 channels. Skool needs the Beginner plan ($9 a month), and X is a $9 a month add-on on any plan. The AI connector (MCP) for Claude and other AI apps is on paid plans from Beginner, not Free. We don't post to Bluesky, Mastodon, Google Business Profile or Substack, and Buffer has a community inbox for replying to comments, which we don't.

Publer

Publer's Free plan includes "1 user", "1 workspace", "3 social accounts (except ๐•)", "10 scheduled posts per account", "25 saved drafts" and a "24-hour post history" (Publer plans). Like Buffer, the 10-post limit refills: "Once a scheduled post is published or deleted, you can schedule another one", and there's "no such limitation when publishing right away".

Two catches. Publer says it "can only support Twitter / X accounts on a paid subscription basis" because of X's API cost. On Pinterest, free accounts "can only connect accounts with at least 100 followers or a claimed website." And the API isn't on Free: "The Publer API is available exclusively to Business and Enterprise customers" (Publer API docs). Compare the two tools in Status 200 Uploads vs Publer.

Postiz (open source)

Postiz is the open-source pick. Its repository is licensed AGPL-3.0, and the self-hosted edition is "Free forever (AGPL-3.0); you pay only for your own infra", with unlimited channels, posts and team members (Postiz README).

The cost is setup time. You "deploy with Docker / Coolify / Railway / any VPS" and configure Postgres, Redis and storage yourself. You also "create your own developer apps on each platform and go through their approval (Meta, YouTube, TikTok can take weeks)". Postiz Cloud, the hosted version, is a "subscription per plan, 7-day free trial", so the free option is the self-hosted one.

Alternatives without a free plan

These come up in every "Buffer alternatives" list, but none has a free plan on its pricing page today:

Tool Lowest listed price Trial
Hootsuite "Paid plans start at $99 for a Standard plan" (per user, billed annually) Free 14-day trial, no credit card
Later Starter $18.75 USD a month, billed yearly 14-day free trial
Sprout Social Essentials $79 per seat a month; $99 per seat billed monthly Free trial

Sources: Hootsuite plans, Later pricing, Sprout Social pricing. Prices can change, so check the vendor's page before you buy.

Which Buffer alternative fits you?

  • You manage several brands and want to pay nothing: the hosted free plans stop at 3 channels (Buffer), 3 accounts (Publer) or 1 profile (us). Self-host Postiz, or pay. With Buffer you pay per channel; with us, per profile.
  • You want an API without paying: Status 200 Uploads (no monthly request cap) or Buffer (3,000 requests a month). Publer keeps its API on Business and Enterprise.
  • You post to Bluesky, Mastodon or Google Business Profile: stay on Buffer or try Publer. We don't support those networks.
  • You post long YouTube videos: Buffer publishes Shorts only. We publish full-length videos up to 5 GB.
  • You want the code and the data on your own server: Postiz self-hosted.

Example: post through the API on the Free plan

Here's what "API on Free" means in practice. First, check a LinkedIn post without sending it. With "dryRun": true, "every check a publish makes is run and nothing is sent", and a check isn't counted in your API key's request count (API docs).

curl -X POST 'https://status200uploads.com/api/v2/posts' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -H 'Authorization: Bearer rl_your_api_key' \
  -d '{
    "dryRun": true,
    "post": {
      "accountId": "@myprofile",
      "platform": "linkedin",
      "content": { "text": "Comparing Buffer alternatives? Here is what each free plan includes." }
    }
  }'

The answer is 200 with dry_run: true, an outcome (publish, queue, schedule for a post with a time, or refuse), would_publish, a reason when it wouldn't be sent now, and warnings. To post for real, drop dryRun and add an Idempotency-Key header, so a retry after a timeout never posts twice. Text-only posts are accepted for LinkedIn, Threads, X, Skool and Facebook. The other networks need an image or a video.

On Free, the 31st successful post in a calendar month (UTC) is refused with 429 monthly_limit_reached, and error.resets_at is the 1st of the next month. Failed posts don't count toward the 30.

From n8n. On self-hosted n8n, install our community node, @status200uploads/n8n-nodes-status200uploads, under Settings, Community Nodes, Install. n8n Cloud only installs community nodes that n8n has verified, so on n8n Cloud our docs point you to the HTTP Request node, which sends the same request as the curl above (API docs).

FAQ

What is the best free alternative to Buffer? It depends on what you need. Publer Free gives you 3 accounts (no X) and no API. Status 200 Uploads Free gives you 7 networks on one profile, 30 posts a month and a REST API. Postiz is free if you host it yourself.

Is there an open-source Buffer alternative? Yes. Postiz is open source under AGPL-3.0, and the self-hosted edition is free with unlimited channels and posts. You run the server and create your own developer app on each network.

Which Buffer alternative has an API on the free plan? Status 200 Uploads includes a REST API with unlimited keys and no monthly request cap on Free. Buffer Free also has an API, with 1 key and 3,000 requests a month. Publer's API is for Business and Enterprise customers only.

How many channels does Buffer's free plan allow? Three. Buffer locks channels beyond the three-channel limit on Free, and each channel can have 10 scheduled posts waiting at a time.

Do Hootsuite, Later or Sprout Social have a free plan? Not on their pricing pages as of 26 October 2026. All three offer free trials. Hootsuite starts at $99, Later at $18.75 a month billed yearly, and Sprout Social at $79 per seat a month.

Sourced (all pages read on 26 Oct 2026)

  1. Buffer pricing (Free plan, three-channel limit, per-channel prices, API limits, YouTube Shorts, "last updated in November 2025"): https://buffer.com/pricing
  2. Publer plans (Free plan, X paid only, Pinterest rule): https://publer.com/plans
  3. Publer API docs ("available exclusively to Business and Enterprise customers"): https://publer.com/docs
  4. Postiz README (AGPL-3.0, Cloud vs self-hosted): https://github.com/gitroomhq/postiz-app
  5. Hootsuite plans: https://www.hootsuite.com/plans
  6. Later pricing: https://later.com/pricing/
  7. Sprout Social pricing: https://sproutsocial.com/pricing/
  8. Status 200 Uploads pricing (Free plan, add-ons): https://status200uploads.com/pricing
  9. Status 200 Uploads vs Buffer (no monthly request cap, full-length YouTube): https://status200uploads.com/vs/buffer
  10. Status 200 Uploads API docs (dryRun, Idempotency-Key, Free allowance, text-only networks, n8n): https://status200uploads.com/docs/api
All articles