Later Starter is $25/month for exactly one social set — one profile per platform — with a hard cap of 30 posts per profile per month. Schedchie is €7.99/month flat with unlimited social accounts and unlimited scheduled posts. Five Instagram accounts on Later means five social sets. Ten means ten. On Schedchie it means five accounts, or ten, at the same €7.99. Later's free plan is gone. We verified every number below in July 2026.
Full disclosure: Schedchie is our product — so check the numbers yourself; every Later price and limit below comes from Later's official pricing page and help center as of July 2026. We also keep a verified comparison table of 20+ schedulers that we re-check regularly.
Later vs Schedchie pricing, verified July 2026
| Later Starter | Later Scale | Schedchie | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price (billed monthly) | $25/month | $110/month | €7.99/month |
| Price (billed yearly) | $18.75/month | $82.50/month | €7.99/month (one flat plan) |
| Social accounts | 1 social set (up to 8 profiles, one per platform) | 6 social sets (up to 48 profiles) | Unlimited |
| Post limit | 30 posts per profile per month | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Users | 1 | 4 | 1 on €7.99; the €24.99 Team plan adds 3 invited members who pay no seat fee |
| AI | 5 AI credits/month | 100 AI credits/month | No built-in AI — connects to ChatGPT or Claude over MCP |
| Free plan | No — removed | No — removed | No — 14-day free trial |
Two things stand out. First, the gap: Later Starter costs roughly three times Schedchie's price and caps you at one profile per platform and 30 posts per profile. Second, the cliff between tiers: the plan that removes Later's post caps is Scale at $110/month — there's a middle Growth tier ($37.50/month billed yearly) with 2 social sets and 180 posts per profile, but nothing between "capped" and "$110" gives you unlimited publishing.
A concrete scenario, since abstract limits hide the real cost. Say you're a freelancer running your own Instagram plus two client Instagram accounts, posting daily on each. On Later, three Instagram accounts means three social sets — Starter's single set won't do it, so you're looking at Growth plus an extra set, or Scale, and daily posting blows through the 30-post Starter cap anyway. On Schedchie, that exact workload is €7.99/month, because neither accounts nor posts are counted. The comparison isn't close for this user.
What changed at Later: the free plan is gone
For years, Later's free plan was the default answer to "how do I schedule Instagram posts for free?" It was the company's main acquisition funnel and the reason half the internet's tool roundups recommend it as a free option.
That's over. As of July 2026, Later's pricing page lists three paid plans and a 14-day trial — no free tier anywhere. If you finish the trial and don't pay, you don't post.
Worth flagging: a lot of older comparison articles still claim Later has a free plan. They're stale. If you're reading a "best free schedulers" list that includes Later, check its publish date — and check the pricing page yourself. (The broader budget market has been shifting too: Agorapulse also dropped its free plan, Crowdfire pivoted away from scheduling, and SocialOomph shut down entirely in 2026. We track this in our roundup of schedulers that still have genuinely free tiers.)
One more quiet change: Later's social set no longer includes X (Twitter). The official plan pages list eight profile types per set — Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Pinterest, LinkedIn, YouTube, Threads, and Snapchat — and X isn't one of them.
What exactly is a "social set"?
Later doesn't count accounts individually; it sells bundles. One social set = one profile on each supported platform: 1 Instagram, 1 Facebook, 1 TikTok, 1 Pinterest, 1 LinkedIn, 1 YouTube, 1 Threads, and 1 Snapchat — up to 8 profiles total.
The catch is duplication. Want a second Instagram account? That requires a second social set, even if the rest of the first set sits empty. On Starter (1 set) you simply can't connect two Instagram accounts; on other plans, extra sets cost $11.25/month each on annual billing. For freelancers juggling a personal brand plus one or two client accounts, this is where Later's pricing model bites hardest — and it's the single most common reason people land on our pricing page comparing the two.
Feature comparison
| Feature | Later | Schedchie |
|---|---|---|
| Visual planner / feed preview | Yes — this is Later's core strength, built around the Instagram grid | Yes — visual planner and unified calendar, less Instagram-grid-centric |
| Instagram tools | Feed, stories, reels, carousels; strong visual-first workflow | Feed, stories, reels, carousels, custom Reel covers and frame picking |
| Platforms | 8: Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Pinterest, LinkedIn, YouTube, Threads, Snapchat. No X, no Bluesky | 9: Instagram, TikTok, Facebook (pages/groups), LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube, Threads, Bluesky, plus X as a paid add-on |
| Post limits | 30/profile/month (Starter), 180 (Growth), unlimited (Scale) | Unlimited on the one plan |
| AI assistance | Credit-based: 5/month on Starter, 100/month on Scale; extra credits cost more | 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 | Basic on Starter; custom reports, competitive benchmarking, and brand monitoring on Scale | Post and account performance on LinkedIn, YouTube, Bluesky and Pinterest, plus engagement on Instagram, Facebook and Threads — included, not tiered |
| Team features | 1 user on Starter; content approval workflows from Growth up; 4 users on Scale; extra users $3.75/month | €24.99 Team plan: 3 invited members at no seat fee, post approvals that hold a post until the owner signs off, per-client Group scoping, client review links, 30-day activity view |
| Free option | None — 14-day trial | None — 14-day trial |
All Later details above come from later.com's pricing and Link in Bio pages, checked July 2026. Neither tool is an enterprise suite; both cover the ground a small team actually works on (we map the wider landscape in our guide to social media management).
What Later is built for
- Instagram-grid planning. Later was built around the grid, and its visual planning workflow is the most polished in this price bracket. If you plan a feed like a mood board, that is the product you are paying for.
- Link in Bio. Later's Link in Bio is a mature product: custom landing pages, up to five clickable links per Instagram post on higher tiers, click analytics, affiliate link tracking.
- Snapchat. Later publishes to it.
Choose Schedchie if...
- You manage more than one account per platform. Two Instagram accounts on Later means two social sets. On Schedchie, unlimited accounts are in the base price — connect ten Instagram accounts if you want.
- You post more than 30 times a month per profile. A post a day breaks Later Starter's cap. Schedchie has no post limits, at €7.99 instead of the $110 Later charges for unlimited publishing.
- Budget is the constraint. €7.99/month vs $25/month is the entry-level gap; against Scale it's roughly a 12x difference. Schedchie is the cheapest tool we can verify with both unlimited accounts and unlimited posts (Radaar Standard at $9.99 is the nearest rival) — the receipts are on our alternatives page.
- You want Bluesky or X. Later supports neither. Schedchie includes Bluesky (and Threads) in the base plan, and offers X publishing as an add-on.
What €7.99 and €24.99 cover
The €7.99 plan is the whole scheduler: nine platforms, unlimited connected accounts, unlimited scheduled posts, unlimited client Groups, the calendar and visual planner, CSV bulk import, recurring posts, custom Reel and video covers, and the analytics tab. The €24.99 Team plan adds three invited members who pay no seat fee and hold no billed seat, post approvals that hold a post until the owner signs off — a retry or a reschedule cannot slip past them — per-client Group scoping, client review links the client opens with no account and no login, and a 30-day activity view. X (Twitter) publishing is a €4.99 add-on per 30 posts, valid 30 days, because X's API fee lands on the accounts that use X rather than on everyone's subscription.
FAQ: Later pricing and alternatives in 2026
Does Later still have a free plan?
No. As of July 2026, Later's pricing page lists only paid plans (Starter, Growth, Scale) with a 14-day free trial. Older articles claiming Later has a free plan are out of date.
How much does Later cost in 2026?
Starter is $25/month ($18.75/month billed yearly) for 1 social set and 30 posts per profile per month. Growth is $37.50/month billed yearly for 2 social sets and 180 posts per profile. Scale is $110/month ($82.50/month billed yearly) for 6 social sets and unlimited posts. Verified on later.com in July 2026.
What is a Later social set?
One social set is one profile on each platform Later supports: 1 Instagram, 1 Facebook, 1 TikTok, 1 Pinterest, 1 LinkedIn, 1 YouTube, 1 Threads, and 1 Snapchat — up to 8 profiles. A second account on any single platform requires a second social set.
Does Later support X (Twitter) or Bluesky?
No. As of July 2026, Later's social sets cover eight platforms, and neither X nor Bluesky is among them. Schedchie includes Bluesky in its base plan and offers X publishing as a €4.99 add-on per 30 posts.
What is the cheapest Later alternative?
For unlimited accounts and unlimited posts, Schedchie at €7.99/month is the cheapest option we can verify. The per-unit tools look cheaper only at the very bottom: Buffer is $5/channel, which is $25 at five channels and $50 at ten, and Publer is $4–$5/account, which is $20 at five and $36 at ten. We compare the full field in our ranked review of 2026's affordable schedulers.
Does Schedchie have a free plan?
Schedchie runs a 14-day free trial of the full product — nothing is held back during it — and then it's €7.99/month for the single flat plan with unlimited accounts and unlimited posts. Cancel anytime, no questions asked.
Is Later worth $25 a month?
$25 buys one social set and 30 posts per profile per month. If that is your entire footprint and Link in Bio is part of your funnel, the plan matches the work. If you run a second account on any platform, post more than once a day, or need Bluesky or X, fixing any one of those on Later means climbing toward the $110 Scale plan — the same workloads cost €7.99 here.
The bottom line
Later without its free plan is a $25-and-up product that counts your profiles and counts your posts. Schedchie counts neither: €7.99/month flat, unlimited accounts, unlimited scheduled posts, €24.99 when you want three invited members and approvals. Try it free for 14 days — the full product, cancel anytime, no questions asked. Every figure above is on our alternatives page too, verified against each vendor's own pricing page.