We signed up to 7 social media schedulers (October 2026)

We make sprkly, a social media scheduler. We signed up to 7 others on 2026-10-06 and read every price and limit. This is what we found, as of October 2026.

The short answer

• Price: one brand on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Threads and Facebook costs $22.50 to $39 a month across the eight tools.
• The unit: most tools charge per handle. Five platforms means five times the price.
• The trial: 2 of the 7 want a card first. One trial keeps the calendar locked.
• AI agents: all 7 have an AI agent connection (MCP). It lets Claude or ChatGPT post for you. What differs is the plan it sits on.
• The fit: pick by the platforms you post to. Many rivals have X, LinkedIn and Pinterest. sprkly does not have them today.

One brand, five platforms, eight bills

Monthly billing, read 2026-10-06. Sorted low to high.

• Range: same brand, same five platforms, $22.50 to $39.
• Lowest: sprkly, by a hair. Publer is about $1.50 more.
• PostFast: Starter is US$ about 13 (€12), but it holds only 4 accounts. Our five platforms need Creator.
• Metricool: $25 covers up to five brands, not just one.

The unit trap: an account is one handle

Most tools price per "account" or "channel". Both mean one handle on one platform.

• Buffer: a channel is "one social account you connect: a single Instagram profile, Facebook page, LinkedIn page, TikTok account, and so on".
• Postiz: a channel is "the number of social media accounts you can connect (X, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, etc.)".
• Buffer's "$5 a channel": that is the yearly rate. Paid monthly, Essentials is $6 a channel. Five channels cost $30 a month.
• PostFast: Starter holds four accounts. A brand on five platforms needs Creator, at US$ about 32 (€29).
• post-bridge: Marketer is $39 for 15 accounts. Its plan card says "For one person marketing a business". One brand on five platforms uses five. Ten sit empty.
• Metricool: the one that prices per brand. "Under each brand, you can manage 1 profile for each social network."
• sprkly: prices per handle too, US$4.50 each on Creator. So one brand on five platforms is US$22.50.

The free-tier trap: 10 posts is not 10 posts

Two free plans say "10 posts". They do not mean the same thing.

• SocialBu: the pricing page says "10 lifetime posts". The meter in the app reads "Lifetime Posts 0/10".
• Buffer: "10 scheduled posts per channel". Buffer says "refill anytime". The cap is on the queue, not on all time. This is the kind of free plan we like. Credit to Buffer.
• Publer: the smartest idea we saw. Each paid feature gets trial credits on Free. Bulk scheduling gets 5 uses. Recurring posts get 2. You can try the paid tools with no time limit.
• Publer media: its banner says "Photos and videos not attached to a post are removed after 7 days." sprkly Free does the same with media not attached to a post.
• Metricool: the plan panel reads "Max brands 1, X accounts 0 of 0, 20 posts/month."
• sprkly: Free holds 3 accounts and 10 queued posts per account. It refills like Buffer's. No card.

The trial trap: card first, or calendar locked

• Two tools want a card first. Postiz shows "Pay NOTHING for the first 7-days" right after signup. Then it asks for card number, expiry and CVC. No dashboard without them.
• post-bridge does the same at checkout: "7 days free", then US$39 per month. Card information is required. Total due today: US$0.00.
• Card first, still growing: they are the two fastest-growing tools we looked at.
• PostFast: the 7-day trial needs no card, but it is a Starter trial. On Starter the calendar reads "Unlock Content Calendar". Analytics reads "Unlock Performance Analytics". You can finish the trial and never see either.
• SocialBu: the pricing page lists Free with 5 listening streams (keyword tracking) and 5,000 automation runs a month. It also lists Curate (its content finder). The meter on a new Free account shows Listening Streams 0/0 and Automations 0/0. Curate says "not available on your current plan".
• sprkly: 14 days of Power, no card, 5 accounts, 30 posts a month. The calendar, analytics and the AI agent connection are all open.
• When sprkly's trial ends: you land on Free. Nothing is locked or deleted.

Every one of them connects to an AI agent

All 7 have an AI agent connection (MCP). What differs is the plan it sits on.

• Buffer: every plan, Free too.
• PostFast: every plan, the 7-day trial too.
• Postiz: "hosted MCP server, CLI, public API and webhooks on every plan".
• post-bridge: "MCP agent connect" on the base plan.
• SocialBu: on Free.
• Metricool: every plan, Free too. Its MCP server is open source.
• Publer: Business only, since 2026-09-28. That is about US$9.60 an account.
• sprkly: the AI agent connection is on Creator, Power and the trial. Free has the API (for your own code), not the agent connection.

Buffer wins on setup help. It wrote 12 setup pages, one per tool. Each has four steps and three prompts you can copy.

The comparison

What it costs to start:

What you get on the first plan:

sprkly analytics covers Instagram, TikTok and YouTube.

Which one fits you

Choose Buffer if

• You post to X, LinkedIn, Bluesky, Pinterest or Substack. We do not have them today.
• You want a free plan that refills, and a comments and mentions inbox on Free.
• You post from many AI agents and want a setup page for each.

Choose Publer if

• You need X, LinkedIn, Pinterest or Telegram. It has 13 platforms.
• You run recycled or recurring posts with labels and spintax (one post, many wordings).
• You want a team with roles, or a free plan with credits to test paid tools.

Choose PostFast if

• You need X, LinkedIn, Bluesky or Pinterest. It has 11 platforms.
• You onboard clients. Its Public Link lets a client connect accounts without logging in.
• You want an inbox on the trial, and agent setup on one screen with n8n, Zapier and Make.

Choose SocialBu if

• You post to Reddit, Mastodon, X or LinkedIn. It has 12 platforms.
• You want AI post writers (60 credits on Free), or listening and curation, which are paid.
• You want a link that lets a client connect accounts, offered at signup.

Choose Postiz if

• You want to host it yourself. The code is open source.
• You want AI video. Standard has 3 AI videos and 60 minutes of AI clipping a month.
• Nobody else we saw sells AI video.

Choose post-bridge if

• You post to X, LinkedIn, Bluesky or Pinterest. It has 9 platforms.
• You want it listed in ChatGPT's app list and Claude's connector list, with no link to paste.
• You run two or three brands. 15 accounts covers three brands on five platforms for $39.

Choose Metricool if

• You run ads. Meta, Google and TikTok Ads sit next to your posts.
• You run several brands. $25 covers up to five.
• You want PDF reports, Looker Studio, and an inbox with reply-time stats.

Where sprkly sits

Choose sprkly if:

• You run one brand on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Threads and Facebook. It is US$22.50 a month on Creator.
• You want analytics on every plan for Instagram, TikTok and YouTube.
• You want to try it with no card: 14 days of Power, 5 accounts, 30 posts a month.
• You want a free plan that refills: 3 accounts, 10 queued posts per account.
• You post from Claude or another AI agent. The AI agent connection is on every paid plan, the trial too.
• You need post approvals, post delays or priority support. Power is US$9 an account, so US$45 for one brand on five.

Skip sprkly if you need X, LinkedIn or Pinterest, or a team. We do not have them today.

FAQ

What is the lowest price for one brand on five platforms?

The lowest price we found was sprkly Creator at US$22.50 a month. Publer Professional was close, at about $24. Next came Metricool Starter at $25. Rival prices were read 2026-10-06, ours 2026-10-15.

Is Buffer really $5 a channel?

$5 is the yearly rate. Paid monthly, Essentials is $6 a channel, so five channels cost $30 a month.

Which schedulers need a card for the free trial?

Postiz and post-bridge ask for a card before you see the app. Buffer, Publer, PostFast, SocialBu, Metricool and sprkly let us in with no card.

Which social media schedulers connect to AI agents?

All 7 we tested have an AI agent connection (MCP). Publer keeps it on Business. The rest have it on every plan or on Free. sprkly has it on Creator, Power and the trial, not on Free.

Does sprkly have a free plan?

Yes. Free holds 3 accounts and 10 queued posts per account. The cap is on the queue, so it refills as posts go out. No card.

The trial is 14 days of Power with no card, 5 accounts and 30 posts a month. When it ends, you land on Free.

Which free plan is best?

Buffer's: 10 queued posts per channel, and the page says "refill anytime". sprkly's Free works the same way, with 10 per account. SocialBu's is 10 posts for life.

Method and sources

• We signed up to all 7 tools on 2026-10-06, with no social accounts connected.
• Prices come from each pricing page and in-app billing screen, read that day. Monthly billing unless we say yearly.
• Publer bills in Singapore dollars, so its US$ figure is "about".
• PostFast bills in euros. We show US$ about 32 (€29), to sort it.
• Quotes are copied from each tool's own page or app.
• At Postiz and post-bridge we stopped at the card form. So some of their table cells say "not seen".
• These facts are as of October 2026. We will update this page when we re-check.
• Prices change. Check each tool's pricing page before you buy.