Entry-level paid plans across the 25 social media schedulers we re-checked in August 2026 range from $4.99/month (Radaar Basic) to $99/month (Hootsuite Standard), with a median entry price of $20/month. But the advertised number rarely matches what you actually pay: many tools price per channel, per seat, or per brand, and more than half now display the annual-billing rate as if it were the monthly one. We read every official pricing page again in August 2026 — here is the full index.
Every price below comes from the vendor's own pricing page, read in August 2026. No affiliate feeds, no third-party roundups, no cached data.
How we built this index
Every price in this article was read directly from the tool's official pricing page in August 2026. Where a vendor's page was ambiguous, we recorded only what we could verify and marked the rest with a dash.
While collecting the data, we kept running into the same four pricing-page tricks. Knowing them is half the work of comparing tools:
- Annual price advertised as monthly. More than half of the 25 tools now show the annual-billing rate as the headline number — Hootsuite's $99, Agorapulse's $79, Sprout's $79, CoSchedule's $19, Loomly's $49, Later's $18.75, Planoly's $14, Predis's $19, and Planable's $33 are all "per month, billed annually." Loomly's actual month-to-month price is $65, not $49; Predis's is $32, not $19.
- Per-channel multiplication. Buffer's "$5/month" is per channel, billed yearly. Ten channels is $50/month, not $5.
- Per-seat pricing. Sprout Social's and Hootsuite's prices are per user. Three people on Sprout Essentials start at $237/month even at annual rates.
- Hidden platform add-ons. X (Twitter) costs extra on several tools because of X's API fees — and those fees are rising: Metricool doubled its X add-on to $10 per connected account in July 2026, CoSchedule bills X profiles separately at $16/month each, and Vista Social sells X as a $29/month add-on. Schedchie prices it as a €4.99 add-on per 30 X posts, listed here so you can put it in the comparison.
If you want the deeper feature-by-feature breakdown behind these numbers, our verified alternatives comparison is kept current alongside this index.
What moved between the July and August checks
- Metricool doubled its X (Twitter) add-on to $10/month per connected account, effective mid-July 2026.
- Metricool restructured its Advanced tier into brand bands that start at 15 brands (€54/month, or €43 billed annually).
- Sprout Social's "NEW"-badged Essentials tier now anchors its ladder at $79/seat billed annually ($99 month-to-month).
- Vista Social's free plan is gone from its pricing page — the third vendor to drop a free tier this year, after Later and Agorapulse.
The master table: 25 schedulers by entry price (August 2026)
Sorted by cheapest paid plan as advertised, ascending. Billing state is noted wherever the headline figure is an annual-billing rate. A dash means the vendor doesn't publish that detail (or we couldn't verify it), so we won't guess.
| Tool | Entry paid plan | What's included | Post limits | Free plan? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Radaar | Basic — $4.99 | 3 profiles, 1 user | 90 posts/mo | No (14-day trial) |
| Buffer | Essentials — $5/channel (billed yearly) | 1 channel per $5; Team is $10/channel | Priced by channel; 5,000 scheduled posts per channel fair-use cap | Yes (3 channels, 10 posts each) |
| Publer | Professional — $5 | 1 account; +$4 per extra, every 10th free | — | Yes (3 accounts, 10 pending posts each) |
| Schedchie | €7.99 flat | Unlimited accounts: Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube, Threads, Bluesky, Mastodon, Telegram (X is a €4.99 add-on per 30 posts) | Unlimited | No (14-day trial) |
| Zoho Social | Standard — €10 (billed annually) | 1 brand | — | Yes (limited) |
| Planoly | Starter — $14 (billed annually; $16 monthly) | 1 social set, 1 user | Unlimited uploads | Mobile-app-only, 10 uploads/mo |
| Pallyy | Starter — $15 | 2 accounts | 20 posts/mo (Pro $25 is unlimited posts, 11 accounts per set) | Yes (1 account, 15 posts) |
| FeedHive | Creator — €15 (billed annually; monthly rate not published) | 4 accounts | 30 scheduled posts | No (7-day trial) |
| Tailwind | Pro — $17.99 (billed annually; $29.99 monthly) | 1 account, 1 user | 150 posts/mo | Yes (1 account, 5 posts/mo) |
| Later | Starter — $18.75 (billed yearly) | 1 social set | 30 posts/profile/mo | No (dropped it) |
| Predis.ai | Core — $19 (billed annually; $32 monthly) | 1 brand, 10 channels | — | No (7-day trial) |
| CoSchedule | Social Calendar — $19/user (billed annually; $29 monthly) | 3 profiles; +$5/mo per extra; X profiles +$16/mo each | — | Yes (1 profile, 15 messages) |
| SocialPilot | Essentials — $20 | 5 accounts (Standard $40 covers 10) | — | — |
| Metricool | Starter — €20 (€16 billed annually) | 5 brands; X accounts +$10/mo each | — | Yes (1 brand, 20 posts/mo) |
| SocialBee | Bootstrap — $29 | 5 profiles | — | — |
| Social Champ | Standard — $29 ($23.20 billed yearly) | 6 accounts; +$5 per extra profile | Unlimited | Yes (3 accounts, 15 posts) |
| MeetEdgar | Eddie — $29.99 | 5 accounts | Unlimited | No (30-day trial) |
| Planable | Basic — $33/workspace (billed annually; $39 monthly) | 4 pages | 60 posts/mo | First 50 posts total |
| Sendible | Core — $35 | 1 workspace, 6 profiles | Unlimited scheduling | No (trial) |
| Swat.io | Small — €39 | 3 channels, 2 users | No posting limit | No (21-day trial) |
| Loomly | Starter — $49 (billed yearly; $65 monthly) | 12 accounts, 3 users | — | No |
| Vista Social | Professional — $64 (billed yearly; $79 monthly) | 15 profiles, 2 users | — | No (14-day trial) |
| Agorapulse | Standard — $79/user (billed annually; $99 monthly) | 10 profiles per user | — | No (30-day trial) |
| Sprout Social | Essentials — $79/seat (billed annually; $99 monthly) | 5 profiles, per seat | — | No (30-day trial) |
| Hootsuite | Standard — $99/user (billed annually) | 10 accounts (Professional $199 for unlimited accounts) | — | No (trial) |
Freshness note: two names you'll still see in older roundups are gone. Crowdfire shut down in May 2025, and SocialOomph closed after 17 years. If a "best schedulers" list still recommends either, its prices are probably stale too.
What 10 social profiles actually costs
Entry prices only tell you what one profile (or one brand) costs. Most real users — a freelancer with several clients, a small brand on six platforms — need more. Here is the honest monthly math for 10 social profiles, computed from the same August 2026 pricing pages. We only include tools where the math is actually derivable from published pricing.
| Tool | Monthly cost for 10 profiles | How it's calculated |
|---|---|---|
| Schedchie | €7.99 | Flat plan, unlimited accounts and posts |
| Radaar | $29.99 | Professional plan — Standard covers only 6 profiles |
| Publer | $37 | $5 Professional + 8 × $4 extra accounts (every 10th is free) |
| SocialPilot | $40 | Standard covers exactly 10 accounts |
| Social Champ | $49 | $29 Standard (6 accounts) + 4 × $5 add-on profiles |
| Buffer | $50 | 10 channels × $5 (Essentials, billed yearly) |
| Vista Social | $64–79 | Professional covers 15 profiles ($64 billed yearly, $79 monthly) |
| Sprout Social | $79+ | Essentials, per seat, billed annually — multiply by team size |
| Sendible | $99 | Core caps at 6 profiles, so you need Plus (18 profiles) |
| Hootsuite | $99 | Standard covers exactly 10 accounts, per user, billed annually |
The spread is 12x between the cheapest and the most expensive way to run the same 10 profiles. That gap is not about features scaling 12x — it's about which pricing model each vendor chose. And if you're committing high posting volume for the rest of the year, the caps column above matters more than the entry price — we ran the same math against a holiday-season posting load in our Q4 scheduler comparison.
The four pricing models (and who each one punishes)
1. Per-channel (Buffer, Publer)
You pay a small unit price per connected account: $5/channel on Buffer (billed yearly), $5 plus $4 per extra account on Publer. The entry number looks tiny with 1–3 accounts. It punishes growth: the same Buffer plan that costs $10 for two channels costs $50 for ten — $600 a year for a footprint Schedchie covers at €7.99/month flat.
2. Per-seat (Hootsuite, Sprout Social, Agorapulse, CoSchedule)
You pay per human user: $99/user at Hootsuite, $79/seat at Sprout, $79/user at Agorapulse, $19/user at CoSchedule — all billed annually. This suits enterprises where approval chains and role permissions matter more than the subscription line item. It punishes small teams brutally — three people on Sprout Essentials is $237/month at annual rates, $2,844 a year before you've posted anything.
3. Per-brand or per-workspace (Metricool, Zoho Social, Planable)
You pay per brand or client workspace: Metricool Starter covers 5 brands at €20/month, Zoho Social Standard covers 1 brand at €10 (billed annually), Planable is $33–39 per workspace. This maps well to agencies that bill per client and can pass the cost through. It punishes anyone managing many small brands — a freelancer with 8 client workspaces on Planable is looking at $264/month even at annual rates.
4. Flat unlimited (Schedchie, Radaar Standard)
One price, no meters on posts: Schedchie at €7.99 flat gives unlimited profiles and unlimited posts. Radaar Standard at $9.99 lifts the post cap but still meters profiles by tier (6 on Standard, 12 on Professional at $29.99, 24 on Advanced at $149.99) — re-checked on radaar.io on 13 August 2026. This suits multi-account users — creators on six platforms, freelancers with several clients — who would get multiplied by every other model. On our side the Team plan is €24.99 flat: three invited members who pay nothing themselves, post approvals before anything publishes, client review links that need no client account, and a 30-day activity view. X publishing is a €4.99 add-on per 30 posts, priced at what X charges for API access.
Of the 25 tools in this dataset, only one offers both unlimited accounts and unlimited posts on a flat plan: Schedchie at €7.99. Radaar Standard at $9.99 comes closest — unlimited posts — but caps profiles at 6. Everything else meters you on at least one axis.
Key findings from the August 2026 index
- Entry-level paid plans run from $4.99 to $99/month across the 25 tools, with a median of $20/month.
- Free plans keep disappearing: Later, Agorapulse, and now Vista Social have all dropped theirs.
- Two long-running tools are gone from the market — Crowdfire shut down in May 2025 and SocialOomph closed after 17 years.
- X (Twitter) fees are rising: Metricool doubled its add-on to $10/account in July 2026, CoSchedule charges $16/mo per X profile, Vista Social $29/mo. Schedchie's €4.99 per 30 posts is the lowest X fee in this index.
- More than half of the 25 tools now advertise the annual-billing rate as the headline monthly price — Loomly's $49 is really $65 month-to-month, Predis's $19 is really $32.
- Running 10 social profiles costs anywhere from €7.99 to $99+/month depending on the pricing model — a 12x spread for the same profile count.
- The cheapest paid plan of all (Radaar Basic, $4.99) caps you at 3 profiles and 90 posts/month; the cheapest genuinely unlimited option is Schedchie at €7.99.
If budget is the main constraint, we also maintain a ranked list of affordable Hootsuite alternatives and a roundup of the best free schedulers still standing in 2026.
FAQ: social media scheduler pricing in 2026
What are the current pricing options for social media post apps available in 2026?
Across the 25 tools in this index, entry paid plans run $4.99–$99/month with a median of $20 as of August 2026. Pricing follows four models: per channel (Buffer, $5/channel billed yearly), per seat (Hootsuite, $99/user), per brand or workspace (Metricool, Planable), and flat unlimited (Schedchie, €7.99 for unlimited accounts and posts). More than half of the tools display annual-billing rates as the headline price, so check the billing toggle before comparing. Our guide to the cheapest schedulers of 2026 ranks the budget end in detail.
What is the cheapest social media scheduler in 2026?
Radaar Basic at $4.99/month is the cheapest paid plan we found in August 2026, but it caps you at 3 profiles and 90 posts/month. The cheapest plan with unlimited accounts and unlimited posts is Schedchie at €7.99/month. Radaar Standard at $9.99 removes the post cap but not the profile cap — it includes 6 profiles.
How much does a social media scheduler cost for an agency?
It depends heavily on the pricing model. Per-seat tools like Sprout Social ($79/seat billed annually) and Agorapulse ($79/user, billed annually) scale with headcount, so a three-person agency team starts around $237/month at annual rates. Per-workspace tools like Planable ($33–39/workspace) scale with client count. Flat-rate tools don't scale with either: Schedchie is €7.99 for unlimited accounts and unlimited posts, and its €24.99 Team plan adds three invited members who pay no seat fee, post approvals before anything publishes, and client review links the client opens with no account and no login. We break the agency math down footprint by footprint in our agency pricing guide.
Which social media schedulers have unlimited posts?
From our August 2026 check: Schedchie (€7.99, also unlimited accounts), Radaar Standard ($9.99, 6 profiles), Pallyy Pro ($25, 11 accounts per set), MeetEdgar Eddie ($29.99, 5 accounts), Social Champ Standard ($29, 6 accounts), and Swat.io Small (€39, 3 channels). Most entry plans are capped — Later Starter allows 30 posts per profile per month, Pallyy Starter 20 posts/month, FeedHive Creator 30 scheduled posts, Planable Basic 60 posts/month, Radaar Basic 90, and Tailwind Pro 150. If YouTube is central to your posting plan, see our YouTube scheduler comparison, written after YouTube doubled its 2027 monetization thresholds.
Is Buffer or Hootsuite cheaper?
For small setups, Buffer: at $5/channel billed yearly, five channels cost $25/month versus Hootsuite's $99 minimum. The gap narrows as you grow — 10 channels on Buffer is $50 against Hootsuite Standard's $99 for 10 accounts — and Hootsuite's price is per user billed annually, so a three-person team is $297/month. Neither number moves on a flat plan: Schedchie is €7.99 whether you connect two accounts or twenty. Buffer still has a free plan; Hootsuite does not.
Do schedulers charge extra for X (Twitter)?
Increasingly, yes — and the fees are going up, because X charges for API access. Metricool doubled its X add-on to $10/month per connected account in July 2026, CoSchedule bills X profiles separately at $16/month each, and Vista Social sells X as a $29/month add-on. Schedchie sells X publishing as a €4.99 add-on covering 30 posts over 30 days — the lowest X fee in this index. Check the fine print before assuming X is included in any advertised price.
Which schedulers still offer a free plan in 2026?
Buffer (3 channels, 10 posts each), Publer (3 accounts, 10 pending posts each), Metricool (1 brand, 20 posts/month), Pallyy (1 account, 15 posts), Zoho Social (limited free plan), Social Champ (3 accounts, 15 posts), CoSchedule (1 profile, 15 messages), Tailwind (1 account, 5 posts/month), and Planable (first 50 posts, then paid). Later, Agorapulse, and Vista Social dropped their free plans. Hootsuite, Sprout Social, Radaar, Sendible, FeedHive, Predis, MeetEdgar, Swat.io, and Loomly offer trials instead — as does Schedchie (14 days). Planoly's "free" tier is mobile-app-only with 10 uploads a month.
Why do advertised prices differ from what I'm charged?
Usually one of four reasons: the advertised price assumes annual billing (true of more than half the tools in this index, including Hootsuite, Sprout, Agorapulse, CoSchedule, Loomly, Later, Buffer, Vista Social, Planoly, Predis, and Planable), it's a per-channel unit price (Buffer, Publer), it's per seat (Sprout, Hootsuite), or platform add-ons like X fees apply at checkout. Multiply the unit price by your real account and team count before comparing.
Where Schedchie fits
We built Schedchie for the people the other models punish: creators, freelancers and agencies running many profiles. It's €7.99/month flat for unlimited accounts and unlimited posts across Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube, Threads, Bluesky, Mastodon, and Telegram, with one composer, a unified calendar, CSV bulk import, and unlimited client Groups. You can also drive the whole thing from Claude or ChatGPT through the Schedchie MCP server. Team work sits on the €24.99 Team plan: three invited members who pay no seat fee, post approvals, and client review links that need no client account. The prices above are on the vendors' own pages, dated August 2026 — start your free 14-day trial and put the €7.99 line in the table to work.