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PostWharf: priced per brand, with API and MCP on every plan
One workspace per brand, unlimited channels, no X surcharge: $67 a month for six brands on five networks, against $135 on Buffer Essentials. Its pricing page lists no multiple users, approvals, analytics or Google Business Profile.
See PostWharf's pricingHow Buffer's bill grows
Buffer counts each connected social account as a channel and prices on graduated tiers. On monthly billing, Essentials charges $6 a channel for the first ten, $4 for channels 11 to 25, $3 for 26 to 50 and $1 after that. Team charges $12, then $4, $3 and $2.
That works at small scale, but brands multiply channels: a client on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok and X is five channels. Six such brands cost $135 a month on Essentials, which has one user; more users and approvals need Team, at $195. Per-brand and per-workspace tools charge the same whether a brand uses one network or five.
Who should stay on Buffer
Buffer's Free plan covers three channels for one user, with ten scheduled posts per channel at a time, an API key and Buffer's MCP server, which it includes on every plan. At one or two channels, Essentials ($6 or $12 a month) costs less than PostWharf's cheapest plan ($15), though Publer's per-account price is lower still. Buffer also posts to Google Business Profile, as do Metricool, Publer, Sendible, SocialPilot, Agorapulse, Sprout Social and Vista Social (PostWharf and Later don't list it, and Hootsuite's plans page doesn't mention it), and its paid plans have no post cap beyond a fair-use limit of 5,000 posts per channel.
Stay if you run a few channels, want Google Business Profile plus an API and MCP server without paying (no other tool here offers all three on a free plan), or rely on Team's approvals and the bill is still manageable.
Buffer at 10, 30 and 60 channels against each alternative
We priced three sizes on monthly billing, each brand on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok and X: 10 channels is two brands, 30 is six and 60 is twelve. Our comparison of scheduling tools for agencies goes deeper at 30 channels.
| Tool | 10 channels (2 brands) | 30 channels (6 brands) | 60 channels (12 brands) | API and MCP at that price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Buffer Essentials 1 user | $60 | $135 | $205 | Yes |
| Buffer Team unlimited users, approvals | $120 | $195 | $275 | Yes |
| 1. PostWharf Startup, Plus, Pro | $29 | $67 | $99 | Yes |
| 2. Metricool Starter, Starter, Advanced, with X add-on | $45 | $105 | $187 | MCP with limits; API from Advanced ($87, $127, $187) |
| 3. Publer Professional | $36 | $108 | $216 | No: Business is $63, $189, $378 |
| 4. SocialPilot Essentials, Standard, Standard, plus extra accounts | $42 | $110 | $230 | MCP yes; API Enterprise only |
| 5. Vista Social Professional, Advanced, Scale, with X add-on | $128* | $228* | $478* | MCP yes; no API on the plan cards |
| 6. Agorapulse Standard, plus extra profiles; per user | $99 | $399 | $849 | MCP yes; API on Custom only |
| 7. Sprout Social Professional; per seat | $399 | $399 | $399 | No: API from Advanced ($499 a seat); no MCP listed |
| 8. Sendible one workspace per brand | $70 | $189 | $299 | Not published |
| 9. Hootsuite Standard, Professional; per user | $99† | $199† | $199† | No publishing API or MCP on these plans |
| 10. Later no X; brands on its other networks | $50 | $110 | $200 | Not published |
* Vista Social's X add-on is $29 a month; its page doesn't say whether that is per profile, so we counted it once. † Hootsuite publishes annual prices only.
Per-brand pricing flattens the curve: PostWharf goes from $29 to $99 while Buffer Essentials goes from $60 to $205. Per-user tools flatten it too, but from a higher starting point: one Sprout Social seat is $399 at every size. And per-account pricing isn't automatically cheaper: Publer and SocialPilot beat Buffer Essentials at 10 and 30 channels but cost more at 60, where Buffer's rate drops to $1 a channel.
How we ranked them
We ranked on the 30-channel column, in three groups. First come tools whose price for our setup includes both an API and an MCP server, as Buffer's does on every plan. You need them if an AI assistant or a script does your posting (see how to automate social media posting with AI). That group is PostWharf ($67), Metricool ($127 on Advanced) and Publer ($189 on Business).
Second come tools that publish one of the two, ordered by the price of the cheapest plan that includes it and covers our setup: SocialPilot (MCP, $110), Vista Social (MCP, $228), Agorapulse (MCP, $399) and Sprout Social (API on Advanced, $499). Last come tools with neither on a published plan: Sendible ($189), Hootsuite ($199, annual billing) and Later, which is last of all because it doesn't support X and so can't run the setup. At 60 channels the first group keeps its order; in the second, Sprout Social's Advanced seat ($499) undercuts Agorapulse ($849). At 10 channels, Publer's Business plan ($63) undercuts Metricool Advanced ($87).
We haven't tested usability, analytics or support side by side, so we didn't score them. Prices for Buffer, PostWharf, Metricool, SocialPilot, Vista Social, Agorapulse, Sprout Social and Hootsuite were read on 25 September 2026. Publer's, Sendible's and Later's come from their pricing calculators, read on 24 September 2026.
The 10 alternatives, ranked
1. PostWharf: the lowest price per brand, with API and MCP
Starter $15 · Startup $29 · Plus $67 · Pro $99 a month
Why it's first: it's the cheapest at all three sizes with an API and MCP server included, and the cheapest at all three without them too. You pay per brand workspace (one, three, ten or unlimited), with no per-network fee or X surcharge. Every plan includes per-network wording, a REST API, an MCP server for Claude, ChatGPT and other assistants, a CLI, webhooks and a delivery receipt per network on every post. Yearly billing brings the prices to $10, $23, $54 and $79.
Where it falls short: there's no free plan (Starter has a 7-day trial) and no Google Business Profile, and Reddit, Discord, Snapchat and WordPress can't be connected yet. Its pricing page lists no multiple users, approval workflow, inbox or analytics, all of which Buffer Team has. Plans cap scheduled posts at 200, 400, 1,000 and 2,500 a month; the page doesn't say whether one post to five networks counts once or five times, and posts over the cap are refused rather than billed. postwharf.com/pricing
Best for: agencies and multi-brand businesses whose posts come from an AI assistant, a script or an automation platform, and who don't need an inbox or analytics in the same tool.
Prefer not to run a scheduler yourself? Our social media automation service plans, writes and publishes the posts for you; tell us your channels for a quote.
2. Metricool: per brand, with approvals for teams
Free · Starter from $25 · Advanced from $67 a month
Metricool also prices per brand, with one profile per network in each. Advanced covers up to 15 brands for $67 and adds unlimited team members, client management, post approvals, the API, Zapier and Make. MCP is on every plan, with limits below Advanced. It also has a free plan. For Buffer Team users it's the closest per-brand swap: Advanced with X costs $87, $127 and $187 at our three sizes, against Team's $120, $195 and $275. Where it falls short: X is $10 a month per connected account: $60 of the $127 at 30 channels and $120 of the $187 at 60; Starter has no team members; and white label needs the Custom plan. metricool.com/pricing
Best for: Buffer Team users who want approvals and unlimited team members at a per-brand price, and who post to X on only a few brands.
3. Publer: per account, cheaper than Buffer up to a point
Free · Professional from $5 · Business from $10 per account a month
Publer charges per social account, and every tenth account is free. Its calculator put Professional at $36, $108 and $216 for our three sizes, so it beats Buffer Essentials at 10 and 30 channels but not at 60. Extra team members bring collaboration and approval workflows; two added $4 a month on Professional in the calculator. It also posts to WordPress and Telegram. Where it falls short: the API and MCP server need Business, which costs $63, $189 and $378 at our sizes; and the free plan can't connect X. publer.com/plans
Best for: up to about 30 accounts, where its per-account price undercuts Buffer Essentials, especially if you also post to WordPress or Telegram.
4. SocialPilot: client approvals and an MCP server for less than Buffer Essentials
Essentials $30 · Standard $50 · Premium $100 · Ultimate $200 a month, plus $4 for each extra account
SocialPilot sells plans with a fixed number of accounts (7, 15, 25 and 50) and charges $4 a month for every account beyond that, so its bill grows with your channel count much as Buffer's does, only more slowly up to about 30. Our 30 channels come to $110 on Standard (15 included, 15 added), $25 a month less than Buffer Essentials, and Standard also brings three users, a social inbox, analytics and manager approvals. Premium is the agency tier, with unlimited client seats, client approval workflows, client management and white-label reports. At our 30 channels Premium costs $120 (25 included, 5 added), still $15 less than Buffer Essentials. SocialPilot's pricing document says an official MCP server comes with every paid plan, and that Google Business Profile is supported.
Where it falls short: the API is on Enterprise only, at a price you have to ask for. Essentials has no analytics, inbox or approvals, and Standard's approvals are for managers only, not clients. And at 60 channels it costs $230, more than Buffer Essentials ($205).
Best for: agencies that want client approvals and white-label reports at roughly the price of Buffer Essentials, with an AI assistant able to draft and schedule posts through MCP. socialpilot.co/plans
5. Vista Social: approvals on every plan, with an X surcharge
Professional $99 · Advanced $199 · Scale $449 a month
Vista Social sells a profile allowance per plan: 15 profiles and two users on Professional, 30 and four on Advanced, 70 and eight on Scale, where more profiles can be bought in blocks of ten. Every plan card lists a post approval workflow, one inbox for messages, comments and reviews, reporting, and its Ask Vista assistant with MCP. Advanced adds approval chains for internal teams and clients, custom reports, and Zapier and Make. Scale adds white label and lets clients connect their own profiles.
Where it falls short: X costs $29 a month extra, and the page doesn't say whether that is per profile, so our $228 at 30 channels is the lowest it could be. No API appears on the plan cards. The page also contradicts itself: its search description says pricing starts at $64 a month, while the cheapest card shows $99 billed monthly ($950 a year).
Best for: teams that want approvals on the entry plan, plus reviews and comments in the same inbox. vistasocial.com/pricing
6. Agorapulse: inbox first, with MCP on every plan
Standard $99 · Professional $149 · Advanced $199 per user a month on monthly billing ($79, $119 and $149 billed annually)
Agorapulse charges per user, and each of its three paid plans includes ten social profiles. Each profile over that costs $15 a month on monthly billing ($10 annually), and Google Business Profile counts as one. Every plan lets you connect ChatGPT or Claude through Agorapulse's self-hosted MCP. Its feature list includes replying to Google reviews from the inbox. Simple approval workflows start on Professional, and multi-step approvals are on the Custom plan. The 30-day trial needs no card.
Where it falls short: the ten-profile cap makes channel-heavy setups expensive. Our 30 channels cost $399 a month on Standard, the same as a Sprout Social seat, and 60 cost $849, the most in the table. The API is on Custom only, and each extra person is another paid user.
Best for: one person or a small team that spends the day in the inbox and runs about ten profiles. agorapulse.com/pricing
7. Sprout Social: for reporting and customer care, priced per seat
Essentials $99 · Standard $249 · Professional $399 · Advanced $499 per seat a month on monthly billing ($79, $199, $299 and $399 billed annually)
Essentials and Standard allow five social profiles, so anything past five channels needs Professional, which has no profile limit. That makes one seat $399 a month at 10, 30 or 60 channels. Professional adds message approval workflows and competitor, tag and paid-media insights. Advanced adds the Sprout API, approvals for outside reviewers such as clients, and approvals for replies. The 30-day trial needs no card.
Where it falls short: every extra person is a full seat, the API needs Advanced at $499 a seat, the pricing page doesn't mention an MCP server, and if publishing is all you need, every other tool in the table costs less at 30 channels, apart from Agorapulse, which ties at $399.
Best for: brands that need deep reporting and customer care from one or two people, where the analytics matter more than the posting bill. sproutsocial.com/pricing
8. Sendible: per workspace, unlimited users
Core $35 · Plus $99 · Premium $199 · Elite $299 a month
Sendible sells workspaces of six profiles, meant as one per client or brand, and every plan has unlimited users. One workspace per brand costs more than Buffer Essentials at every size in the table, so it isn't the cheap option. It's for Team users who want many logins and client-facing workflow: approvals and assignment from Plus, and client dashboards. With approvals, Plus covers two brands for $99 against Team's $120 and six for $189 against $195; at twelve brands, Elite's $299 is more than Team's $275. Where it falls short: no API or MCP on its pricing page, and its FAQ's white-label prices don't match its plan prices. sendible.com/pricing
Best for: Buffer Team users who want unlimited logins and a separate workspace, inbox and report set for each client.
9. Hootsuite: one user, unlimited accounts, annual billing
Standard $99 · Professional $199 · Advanced $399 per user a month, billed annually
Standard covers ten social accounts. Professional removes the limit and adds automated inbox replies, trend forecasts up to 90 days ahead and custom reports, so one person running our 30 or 60 channels pays $199 a month on annual billing. Every plan includes the inbox and brand and competitor monitoring. The 14-day trial needs no card, though trial accounts are limited to 10 to 20 posts a day and can't bulk schedule.
Where it falls short: you pay per user, and the plans page publishes annual rates only, although its FAQ says monthly billing exists. Post approvals start on Advanced at $399 per user. The only MCP connector in its plan table is Lumen, a listening product, and it isn't part of Standard, Professional or Advanced. No publishing API is priced.
Best for: one person running many accounts who also wants an inbox, monitoring and trend forecasts, and doesn't need approvals. If per-seat pricing is what's hurting, see our Hootsuite alternatives. hootsuite.com/plans
10. Later: per social set, if you don't post to X
Starter $25 · Growth $50 · Scale $110 a month
Later sells social sets, each holding one profile on each of its eight networks. Growth includes two sets and Scale six, extra sets are $15 a month, and Scale has unlimited posts and four users. Approvals and a social inbox start on Growth. Where it falls short: Later doesn't support X, so it can't run our setup; the figures in the table are for the same brands without X. Starter caps posts at 30 per profile a month, and no API or MCP is published. later.com/pricing
Best for: brands built on Instagram, TikTok and Pinterest that don't post to X.
Which one fits
Short answers
Several brands, few logins, posts from AI assistants or scripts: PostWharf.
Approvals and unlimited users at a per-brand price: Metricool Advanced.
Client approvals and white-label reports for about Buffer Essentials money: SocialPilot.
Approvals on the entry plan, with reviews in the inbox: Vista Social.
You're on Team for client dashboards and many logins: Sendible.
Deep reporting and customer care, with a seat budget: Sprout Social.
Mostly Instagram, TikTok and Pinterest, no X: Later.
A few channels, including Google Business Profile: stay on Buffer.
If your bill is per seat rather than per channel, see our Hootsuite alternatives. If you'd rather not run a scheduler at all, our social media automation service plans, writes and publishes posts for UAE businesses, with your approval each month.
Questions people ask
How much does Buffer cost for 30 channels?
$135 a month on Essentials and $195 on Team, billed monthly, by Buffer's own calculator on 24 September 2026. Billed yearly, they are $112.50 and $162.50 a month.
Is Buffer's free plan enough?
For one person on up to three channels, often yes. It includes ten scheduled posts per channel at a time, one API key and Buffer's MCP server. You need a paid plan for more channels, more users or unlimited scheduling.
Which Buffer alternatives can I try for free?
Metricool and Publer have free plans. Metricool's free plan covers one brand but excludes LinkedIn and X and allows 20 posts a month; Publer's free plan can't connect X. Among the paid tools, Agorapulse and Sprout Social offer 30-day trials without a card, SocialPilot and Hootsuite offer 14 days without a card, Vista Social offers 14 days, and PostWharf's Starter plan is free for its first seven days. Buffer's own free plan remains the only one here with both an API and an MCP server.
Sources
Every price above comes from these pages. Prices change often; check before you buy. Spotted something wrong? Email hello@highstreetagency.com and we'll correct it.
- buffer.com/pricing, including its calculator at 10, 30 and 60 channels (read 24 September 2026), and buffer.com/pricing.md (read 25 September 2026)
- buffer.com/mcp: MCP on every plan, including Free (read 24 September 2026)
- postwharf.com/pricing and postwharf.com/llms.txt (read 25 September 2026)
- metricool.com/pricing (read 25 September 2026)
- publer.com/plans, including its account and member calculator (read 24 September 2026)
- socialpilot.co/plans and socialpilot.co/socialpilot-pricing.md (read 25 September 2026)
- vistasocial.com/pricing (read 25 September 2026)
- agorapulse.com/pricing (read 25 September 2026)
- sproutsocial.com/pricing (read 25 September 2026)
- sendible.com/pricing, including its workspace calculator (read 24 September 2026)
- hootsuite.com/plans (read 25 September 2026)
- later.com/pricing (read 24 September 2026)
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Get a free visibility checkDrafted with AI assistance from our own research and the vendor pages linked above, and reviewed by the High Street team before publishing. Prices, features and policies change; check the linked source before you act.