Eight of 25 social media schedulers still have a free plan in 2026, all capped. Schedchie skips the capped tier: a 14-day free trial, then €7.99 flat, unlimited accounts and posts.
Updated September 13, 2026. Every row below was re-read on the vendor's own pricing page on 13 September 2026. Publer, Sendible, Swat.io and Zoho Social render prices only in the browser and are quoted as displayed in August 2026. The flat €7.99 plan covers twelve platforms: Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube, Threads, Bluesky, Mastodon, Telegram, Google Business Profile and X. X (Twitter) is a €4.99 add-on per 30 posts.
This is the September 2026 update of a census we first ran in July. Since August one more tier disappeared: Pallyy dropped its $15 Starter plan, so the step up from its free tier is now $25. Tailwind published its free limits again, and they are the smallest in the census at 5 posts a month. Later's free plan stays gone, and Bulkly, a whole scheduler rather than a free tier, shut down on 31 August. Free tiers keep shrinking; the listicles recommending them mostly have not noticed.
How we checked
Every claim in this article comes from the official pricing page or help center of each tool. We first checked all 25 on 6 August 2026 and re-read every row on 13 September 2026. Not review-site roundups, not last year's blog posts. Several current "best free scheduler" listicles contradict what those pages now say, which is why we keep re-running this census. Schedchie is in the table on the same terms as everyone else. The full paid-tier ladder for the whole market lives in our social media scheduler pricing index; this page only answers one question, who still has a free plan and what it actually includes.
The free-plan census: 25 schedulers, September 2026
Real free plans first, then the technicalities, then everyone who only offers a trial. Prices are per month; where a vendor displays only annual-billing rates, we say so.
| Tool | Free plan in September 2026? | What you actually get | The catch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Buffer | Yes | 3 channels, 10 scheduled posts per channel, 1 user | The 10-post queue per channel refills but caps hard; paid is $6 per channel billed monthly, so five channels cost $30 a month and ten cost $60 ($25/$50 billed yearly) |
| Publer | Yes | 3 social accounts, 10 pending posts per account (30 total), 25 drafts | No X (Twitter) accounts on free; published posts disappear from your Publer history after 24 hours (as displayed in August 2026) |
| Metricool | Yes | 1 brand, 20 posts a month, 30-day analytics | Free cannot connect X at all; paid starts at €20 a month (€16 annual) for 5 brands, and X is a $10 per connected account add-on |
| Zoho Social | Yes (free edition) | 1 brand across 6 fixed channels, unlimited posts, 1 user | One brand, one user, fixed channel list; paid prices render only in the browser (Standard €10 per brand billed annually as displayed in August 2026) |
| Pallyy | Yes | 1 social set, 15 posts a month, image posts only | The $15 Starter tier is gone; the next step is Pro at $25 a month for one social set of up to 11 accounts with unlimited posts |
| Social Champ | Yes | 3 accounts, 15 scheduled posts in total, 1 user | Paid is $5 per account a month ($4 annual), or Standard at $29 a month for 6 accounts and 2 users |
| CoSchedule | Yes | 15 scheduled posts per profile | Paid starts at Starter, $39 a month ($29 annual) for 3 profiles, extra profiles $5 a month each; an X (Twitter) profile costs $16 a month on top |
| Tailwind | Yes | 1 account, 5 posts a month across Instagram, Pinterest and Facebook | The smallest free allowance in the census; Pro is $17.99 a month on promotion ($29.99 list) for 150 posts on a single account |
| Planable | Technically | Your first 50 posts, total | Not a monthly allowance: once the 50 lifetime posts are used, it is $33 per workspace for 4 pages and a 60-post cap |
| Planoly | In name only | Mobile app only, 10 uploads a month | No web scheduling on free; paid starts at $14 a month |
| Later | No, killed its free plan | Starter $25 a month ($18.75 annual), 1 social set, 30 posts per profile | The biggest free-plan removal of 2025–26; Growth $50 allows 180 posts per profile and unlimited posting needs Scale at $110 a month ($82.50 annual) |
| Agorapulse | No (30-day trial) | Standard $99 per user a month ($79 annual), 10 profiles | Priced per user, so costs multiply with team size |
| Sendible | No (14-day trial) | Core $35 a month, 6 profiles | The next tier, Plus, jumps to $99 a month for 18 profiles |
| Radaar | No (14-day trial) | Basic $4.99 a month, 3 profiles, 90 posts a month | Standard at $9.99 removes the post cap but allows only 6 profiles; 12 profiles means $29.99 |
| SocialPilot | No (14-day trial) | Essentials $30 a month ($25.50 annual), 7 accounts, 1 user | Ten accounts means Essentials plus 3 extra accounts at $4 each, $42 a month on one user, or Standard at $50 a month ($42.50 annual) |
| FeedHive | No (7-day trial) | Creator €15 a month, 4 accounts, 30 scheduled posts | The trial is only 7 days, the shortest we found |
| SocialBee | No (14-day trial) | Bootstrap $29 a month ($290 a year), 5 profiles | Ten profiles means Accelerate at $49 a month; it works out to roughly $5 to $6 per profile either way |
| MeetEdgar | No (30-day trial) | Eddie $29.99 a month, 5 accounts | Extra accounts cost $4.99 a month each ($3.99 annual) |
| Loomly | No (7-day trial) | Starter $65 a month ($49 annual), 12 accounts | The tier ladder collapsed to three: after Starter, the next step is Beyond at $332 a month |
| Swat.io | No (21-day trial) | Small €39 a month excl. VAT, 3 channels | That is €13 per channel; extra channels are €25 a month each |
| Vista Social | No (14-day trial) | Professional $79 a month ($64 yearly), 15 profiles, 2 users | $79 is the entry tier; there is no cheaper way in, and X (Twitter) is a $29 a month add-on |
| Hootsuite | No (14-day trial) | Standard $99 per user a month, 10 accounts | That is $1,188 a year minimum before a second user; unlimited accounts start at Professional, $199 a month |
| Sprout Social | No (30-day trial) | Essentials $99 per seat a month ($79 annual), 5 profiles | Per-seat pricing: three seats run $237 to $297 a month, and the old entry tier (Standard) is $199 to $249 per seat |
| Predis.ai | No (7-day trial) | Core $24 a month ($288 a year) | Some third-party sites still claim a free tier; the official pricing page lists only paid plans |
| Schedchie (that's us) | No, 14-day free trial | €7.99 a month flat: unlimited accounts, unlimited posts, unlimited client Groups, CSV bulk import | X (Twitter) publishing is a €4.99 add-on per 30 posts; approvals and client review links come with the €24.99 Team plan |
Prices verified on 13 September 2026 on each vendor's own pricing page. Publer, Sendible, Swat.io and Zoho Social render prices only in the browser and are quoted as displayed in August 2026. SocialPilot re-read on September 25, 2026.
Quick tally, September 2026: 8 free plans still standing, 2 free-in-name-only, 15 tools with no free plan at all. A few years ago most of this list had a free tier. If you are comparing the survivors in detail, our rundown of the top free schedulers in 2026 goes deeper on each one.
Free plans that died (2025–2026)
This is the part existing "best free scheduler" articles have not caught up with. Five significant free options disappeared or were gutted within roughly eighteen months, and the squeeze on what is left continues.
Later: free plan killed, $25 minimum
Later's free plan was one of the most popular entry points in social media scheduling; for years, "free Instagram scheduler" basically meant Later. As of September 2026 it is gone. The cheapest way into Later is the Starter plan at $25 a month ($18.75 billed annually), which covers one social set and caps you at 30 posts per profile a month. Growth at $50 raises that to 180, and unlimited posting only arrives on Scale at $110 a month. If you signed up for Later expecting the free tier you read about in a 2024 listicle, this is why you cannot find it. Our Schedchie vs Later comparison has the plan-by-plan picture.
Agorapulse: free tier dropped
Agorapulse removed its free plan too. Entry now starts at $99 per user a month ($79 billed annually) with a 30-day trial. A tool that once had a genuine freemium on-ramp is now positioned for agencies and teams with budgets.
Crowdfire and SocialOomph: gone from scheduling
Crowdfire, once a staple of free-scheduler roundups, pivoted away from social media scheduling entirely; its pricing page serves the pivot notice, not plans. SocialOomph, one of the oldest scheduling tools on the internet, permanently shut down after 17 years. Any article still recommending either as a free Buffer alternative is running on stale data. Former users who want a free replacement usually land on Buffer, Publer or Metricool; those who want no caps at all move to Schedchie at €7.99 a month flat.
Planoly: hollowed out, not killed
Planoly technically still advertises a free option, but it is mobile-app-only and capped at 10 uploads a month. There is no web scheduling on it at all. Call it the quiet way to kill a free plan: keep the word "free" on the site, remove the reasons anyone wanted it.
Bulkly: shut down on 31 August 2026
And it is not just free plans. The newest name on the casualty list is a whole scheduler: Bulkly announced on its own site that it shut down on 31 August 2026. Queued posts stopped publishing, account connections were revoked, and there was no data export. Our Bulkly alternatives guide covers the migration route, including rebuilding a queue by CSV import.
The pattern behind all of these is the same: platform API costs went up and free users became expensive to serve. Expect the survivors to keep tightening limits rather than loosening them.
When a free plan costs more than €8
A free plan is only free while you fit inside it. The typical surviving free plan gives you 1 to 3 accounts and somewhere between 10 and 20 posts a month. Consistent posting blows past that fast: four posts a week on three networks is roughly 50 posts a month, past Buffer's 10-per-channel queue, Metricool's 20 posts and Pallyy's 15. Creators pushing volume ahead of YouTube's doubled 2027 monetization thresholds burn through caps faster still; our YouTube schedulers guide runs that math.
And the moment you outgrow free, the pricing cliff is steep, because most tools price per channel or per seat:
- Buffer: $6 per channel billed monthly, so five channels is $30 a month and ten is $60. Our Schedchie vs Buffer breakdown runs the numbers at every footprint.
- Later: the first rung is $25 a month and still caps you at 30 posts per profile.
- Pallyy: the $15 middle rung is gone, so the first paid step is now $25 a month.
- Metricool: Starter is €20 a month billed monthly for up to 5 brands, and connecting X adds $10 per connected account on top. See Schedchie vs Metricool.
- Hootsuite and Sprout Social: per-user pricing from $99 before you have done anything; three seats on Sprout run $237 to $297 a month. Hootsuite has no free plan at all, which is why "free alternative to Hootsuite" searches land on the survivors in the table above. Our Hootsuite alternatives guide prices them at a small-business footprint.
Against that cliff there is exactly one flat number to remember: Schedchie is €7.99 a month for unlimited accounts and unlimited posts, the only plan in this 25-tool census with no cap on either. The closest flat-price runner-up, Radaar's $9.99 Standard, removes the post cap but stops at 6 profiles. X publishing on Schedchie is a €4.99 add-on per 30 posts. Team work sits on the €24.99 Team plan: invited members with no seat fees, post approvals, and client review links that open without an account. Our comparison table puts these numbers side by side.
Free plan or free trial: which one to pick
Free plans fit light posting: under about 15 posts a month on one or two accounts, inside a single tool's caps. Growth puts you back on the pricing page within months, and per-channel rates are waiting there. The free plans that survive are also getting narrower: Tailwind allows 5 posts a month, Pallyy allows images only, Social Champ 15 posts in total. A free trial is the other route: 7 to 30 days of the real product with everything switched on, which is a better test of whether a scheduler fits than the capped edition ever is. Our list of schedulers with free trials and low monthly fees compares trial lengths. Schedchie's 14-day trial includes every feature, including scheduling straight from ChatGPT or Claude over MCP, and cancelling is one click. Cancel anytime, no questions asked.
FAQ: free social media schedulers in 2026
What is the best free social media scheduler in 2026?
The best free social media scheduler in 2026 depends on which cap you can live with: Buffer allows 3 channels with a 10-post queue each, Publer 3 accounts with 10 pending posts each, and Metricool 1 brand with 20 posts a month. All verified on official pricing pages in September 2026. If those caps are too tight, Schedchie's €7.99 a month flat plan removes them entirely.
Does Later have a free plan in 2026?
No. Later dropped it, and later.com/pricing now shows three paid tiers plus a 14-day trial. Starter is $25 a month ($18.75 billed yearly) for one social set of 8 profiles, metered at 30 posts per profile; Growth is $50 ($37.50) for 180 posts per profile; unlimited posting starts at Scale, $110 ($82.50). Our Later alternatives guide prices the switch. Schedchie meters nothing: €7.99 a month flat, unlimited accounts and posts, twelve platforms, after a 14-day free trial.
Does Buffer have a free plan in 2026?
Yes. Buffer's free plan covers 3 channels, 10 scheduled posts per channel and 1 user, and the queue refills as posts publish. Paid is priced per channel: Essentials is $6 per channel billed monthly, $5 billed yearly, so five channels cost $30 a month and ten cost $60 ($25 and $50 on annual billing). Schedchie has no capped tier: €7.99 a month flat for unlimited accounts and unlimited posts across twelve platforms, with a 14-day free trial first.
Does Publer have a free plan in 2026?
Yes. Publer's free plan covers 3 social accounts, 10 pending posts per account and 25 drafts, read in-browser on Publer's own plans page in August 2026 because the page does not render outside a browser. Two catches: X (Twitter) accounts are excluded, and published posts leave your Publer history after 24 hours. Paid is $5 for one account plus $4 per extra account, so ten accounts cost $37. Schedchie covers ten accounts at €7.99 a month flat with unlimited posts on twelve platforms, after a 14-day trial.
Does Metricool have a free plan in 2026?
Yes. Metricool's free plan covers 1 brand and 20 posts a month with 30 days of analytics, and connects neither X nor LinkedIn. Paid Starter is €20 a month (€16 billed annually) for up to 5 brands and €37 (€29) for up to 10, with X charged at $10 per connected account on top. Schedchie is €7.99 a month flat for unlimited accounts and posts on twelve platforms, LinkedIn included and X a €4.99 add-on per 30 posts; the 14-day trial runs the full plan.
Does Pallyy still have a free plan in 2026?
Yes. Pallyy's free plan covers one social set, 15 posts a month, images only. What changed in September 2026 is the step above it: the $15 Starter tier is gone, so the first paid plan is Pro at $25 a month, one social set of up to 11 accounts with unlimited posts.
Is Schedchie free?
Schedchie does not run a capped free tier. It runs a 14-day free trial with every feature included, then €7.99 a month flat for unlimited social accounts and unlimited scheduled posts across Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube, Threads, Bluesky, Mastodon, Telegram, Google Business Profile and X. X (Twitter) is a €4.99 add-on per 30 posts.
The bottom line
The free-plan era of social media scheduling is winding down: 8 free plans left out of 25 tools checked in September 2026, every one capped, and the squeeze is still on. Later's free tier is gone, Pallyy's middle rung is gone, Tailwind's free tier is down to 5 posts a month. If a free plan's caps fit your posting, the table above tells you exactly what you are getting. If they do not, skip the per-channel cliff: start a free 14-day Schedchie trial, every feature on, €7.99 a month flat after, cancel anytime, no questions asked. Every number in this article sits on our pricing page or the official vendor pages we checked on 13 September 2026.