Buffer charges $5 per channel per month on Essentials and $10 on Team. Schedchie charges one flat €7.99/month for unlimited accounts and unlimited posts. At five channels — a normal 2026 setup — Buffer Essentials is $25/month against €7.99 here. At ten it is $50, or $100 on the Team plan. Schedchie's number does not move.
Full disclosure: Schedchie is our product — so check the numbers yourself. Every Buffer price and plan detail below comes from Buffer's official pricing page and help center as of July 2026, and we link our sources. If Buffer changes anything, their pages win, not this article.
The short version
This is a pricing comparison with the arithmetic shown. Buffer has been around since 2010 and publishes to two platforms we don't. Schedchie has its own team layer: the €24.99 Team plan carries three invited members, post approvals and client review links, with no per-seat fee at any point.
What we do have is a pricing model that doesn't scale with your channel count. Buffer's per-channel pricing is fair for small setups and gets expensive fast for everyone else. That single difference decides this comparison for most people, so let's start with the math.
Pricing: per-channel vs. flat rate (verified July 2026)
Buffer Essentials costs $5 per channel per month (billed monthly; annual billing brings it down about 20%, and Buffer applies volume discounts past 10 channels). The Team plan is $10 per channel. Schedchie is €7.99/month flat, no matter how many accounts you connect or how many posts you schedule.
One line of fine print before the table: on Schedchie, X (Twitter) publishing is a €4.99 add-on per 30 posts, valid 30 days, which passes X's API fee to the people who actually post there. On Buffer, X is another $5 channel — $60 a year whether you post to it or not.
| Channels | Buffer Essentials (monthly) | Schedchie (monthly) |
|---|---|---|
| 3 | $15 | €7.99 |
| 5 | $25 | €7.99 |
| 10 | $50 | €7.99 |
| 20 | $100 (before Buffer's 10+ channel volume discounts) | €7.99 |
Prices verified on buffer.com/pricing in July 2026. Buffer bills in USD and Schedchie in EUR, so exact conversion shifts with exchange rates — but at 10 channels the gap is roughly 6x regardless of the rate. On Buffer's Team plan ($10/channel), 10 channels is $100/month.
Read the table against your own account list. A 2026 creator on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Threads, Bluesky and LinkedIn is six channels: $30/month on Essentials, $60 on Team, €7.99 here. A freelancer with four clients at three channels each is twelve channels: $60/month on Essentials, $120 on Team, still €7.99 here. Schedchie has no channel counter to run.
Feature comparison
| Feature | Buffer | Schedchie |
|---|---|---|
| Platforms | Facebook (pages, groups), Instagram, X, LinkedIn (pages, profiles), Pinterest, TikTok, Google Business Profile, YouTube Shorts, Threads, Bluesky, Mastodon | Instagram (feed, stories, reels, carousels), TikTok, Facebook (pages, groups), LinkedIn (profiles, company pages), Pinterest, YouTube, Threads, Bluesky; X via €4.99/30-posts add-on |
| Post limits | Free: 10 scheduled posts per channel; paid plans: unlimited | Unlimited on the single €7.99 plan |
| Account/channel limits | Free: 3 channels; paid: pay per channel | Unlimited |
| AI | Buffer's own AI assistant, included on all plans | No built-in AI. An MCP server (mcp.schedchie.com, OAuth 2.1, 48 tools) connects ChatGPT, Claude or Cursor straight to your account |
| Analytics | Free: 30-day history; paid: unlimited history, best-time-to-post, audience demographics; some channels excluded from advanced analytics | Post and account performance on LinkedIn, YouTube, Bluesky and Pinterest, plus engagement on Instagram, Facebook and Threads — included in the flat price, on every plan |
| Team features | Team plan ($10/channel): unlimited users, approval workflows, custom permissions, branded reports | Included on the €24.99 Team plan: 3 invited members, post approvals, client review links, 30-day activity view — and no per-seat fee at any point |
| Entry | Free plan: 3 channels, 10 scheduled posts per channel, 1 user | 14 days of the full product, then €7.99 |
| Trial | 14 days on paid plans | 14 days, full access |
Buffer's channel list and per-channel analytics limitations are from Buffer's own supported-channels page, checked July 2026. Buffer also publishes to Google Business Profile and Mastodon. Read the analytics line carefully in the other direction: Buffer's advanced analytics skip several channel types (Facebook groups, LinkedIn profiles, Pinterest, Instagram Reels, per Buffer's own docs), while every platform Schedchie supports is included in the flat price.
Where the two are basically equal
Buffer bundles an AI assistant for captions and hashtags, included even on its free plan. Schedchie connects to the assistant you already pay for: mcp.schedchie.com is an OAuth 2.1 MCP server with 48 tools, so ChatGPT, Claude or Cursor can schedule, edit, approve and check posts in your account directly.
Day to day, scheduling a post feels similar in either tool: pick accounts, write once, tweak per platform, schedule. If you want the deeper background on what a scheduler should actually do for you, we've written a plain-language guide to what social media management involves. The differences that matter are the ones above and below this section: price structure, team features, and platform edges.
What Buffer's per-channel price buys
- A free tier for very light posting. Three channels, 10 scheduled posts per channel, one user, AI assistant included. The cap is per channel, so batching a month ahead exhausts it.
- Per-seat team workflows. Approvals and permissions live on the Team plan, which doubles the channel rate to $10 — ten channels is $100/month before anything else is added.
- Google Business Profile and Mastodon. Buffer publishes to both.
- A long track record. Buffer has run since 2010 and publishes openly about its business.
Choose Schedchie if...
- You manage 4+ channels. This is the whole argument. At 5 channels you're paying Buffer $25/month for what costs €7.99 here. At 10 it's $50. Per-channel pricing punishes exactly the people who need a scheduler most.
- You're an agency or freelancer on a budget. Every client account you add to Buffer adds $5–10/month to your costs. On Schedchie, client number twelve costs the same as client number one: nothing extra.
- You post at high volume. Unlimited posts, unlimited accounts, one price. No refill mechanics, no per-channel post buckets.
- You've already done Buffer's math and didn't like it. If you searched "buffer too expensive" and landed here — the per-channel model is why, and a flat rate is the fix. Our pricing page is one number long.
The complaint you can verify with a calculator
We won't invent quotes. The one criticism of Buffer you can verify with a calculator is structural: costs grow linearly with channels. A solo creator with an Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Threads, Bluesky and LinkedIn presence — six channels, a normal 2026 setup — pays $30/month on Essentials or $60/month on Team. The free plan's 10-scheduled-posts-per-channel cap also means anyone batching a month of content ahead outgrows it quickly. Neither is a bug; it's just the pricing model, and Buffer is transparent about it.
Switching from Buffer to Schedchie
There is no import-from-Buffer button. The practical route: connect your accounts to Schedchie — an OAuth consent screen per platform, a few minutes total — let any posts already queued in Buffer finish publishing, and rebuild the queue here. Rebuilding is a CSV away: Schedchie's bulk import takes a spreadsheet with datetime and text columns, plus optional media and title columns, and drops the whole month into the calendar at once. Run the 14-day trial alongside your remaining Buffer time so you are never uncovered.
Before deciding, you may also want the wider view: our alternatives page compares Schedchie against Buffer, Hootsuite, Later and the rest of the market in one table, every price verified on the vendor's own pages.
FAQ: Schedchie vs Buffer
Is Schedchie cheaper than Buffer?
From 2 channels upward, yes — usually by a lot. Buffer Essentials is $5/channel/month, so 5 channels cost $25 and 10 cost $50; the Team plan is $10/channel, so 10 channels cost $100 (verified on buffer.com/pricing, July 2026). Schedchie is €7.99/month flat for unlimited accounts and unlimited posts, at any channel count.
Does Buffer still have a free plan in 2026?
Yes. As of July 2026, Buffer's free plan includes 3 channels, 10 scheduled posts per channel, 1 user, the AI assistant, and 30-day analytics history. Schedchie runs a 14-day trial of the full product instead.
How much does Buffer cost for 10 channels?
$50/month on Essentials or $100/month on Team, billed monthly ($5 and $10 per channel respectively, per Buffer's official pricing as of July 2026). Annual billing reduces this by about 20%, and Buffer offers volume discounts beyond 10 channels. Schedchie is €7.99/month at any channel count.
Does Buffer support more platforms than Schedchie?
Slightly, yes. Buffer supports Facebook, Instagram, X, LinkedIn, Pinterest, TikTok, Google Business Profile, YouTube Shorts, Threads, Bluesky and Mastodon. Schedchie covers Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube, Threads and Bluesky, with X as a €4.99/30-posts add-on. Buffer's extras are Google Business Profile and Mastodon.
Does Schedchie have team features like Buffer?
Yes. Schedchie’s Team plan is €24.99 flat and includes three invited members, post approvals and client review links, with no per-seat fee. Buffer’s Team plan is $10 per channel per month, so ten channels costs $100 a month before you add a single teammate.
Can I move from Buffer to Schedchie?
Yes, but manually — there's no automated import. Reconnect your social accounts in Schedchie (a few minutes of OAuth), rebuild your queue in the calendar, and let existing Buffer posts publish out. The 14-day trial is long enough to run both side by side before you cancel anything.
The bottom line
Per-channel pricing charges you for growing. Five channels is $25/month on Buffer Essentials, ten is $50, and the Team plan doubles both. Schedchie is €7.99/month for every platform we support, unlimited accounts and unlimited posts, with a 14-day free trial of the full product first. All Buffer figures in this article were verified on Buffer's official pages in July 2026 — please do check them yourself.