Getting Started with Buffer Tutorial
Published by BufferWatch on YouTube
Updated Oct 5, 2026
Social Media Management
Buffer
Social media scheduler for small businesses, billed per channel
From $5/mofree trial
Buffer at a glance
from our research
Social media scheduler with analytics and a comment inbox, aimed at small businesses, creators and agencies
Billed per connected social account, not per user; channels 11 to 25 cost $4 each on monthly billing
No social listening or competitor benchmarking, and Community collects comments but not DMs
Essentials: $6 per channel a month, or $5 billed yearly; three channels cost $18 a month paid monthly
Overview
What is Buffer?
Buffer is a social media management tool from Buffer, Inc., a United States company founded in 2010. It's aimed at small businesses, creators and agencies that schedule posts, check how they perform and reply to comments, and it publishes to Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, X, TikTok, YouTube Shorts, Pinterest, Threads, Bluesky, Mastodon and Google Business Profile.
Each connected social account is a channel, such as one Instagram profile or one Facebook page, and each channel has its own posting schedule of time slots. A post written in the composer, with its caption adjusted for each network, either takes the next open slot in the queue or gets a fixed date and time, and the calendar lets you drag posts to a new day. Instagram posts, Reels and Stories from Business or Creator accounts can publish automatically. When a post uses something Instagram keeps from outside tools, such as music, stickers or product tags, Buffer sends a phone notification instead and you finish the post in the Instagram app. Insights reports followers, engagement and post performance for one channel or all of them, and Community collects comments from ten networks.
Buffer runs in the browser, as a mobile app and as a browser extension, and its Start Page builds a link-in-bio page. Integrations include Canva, Google Drive, Dropbox, Bitly, WordPress, Zapier, Make and n8n, and every plan has API access. The Free plan covers three channels and one user; paid plans charge a monthly price for each connected channel, with lower rates above 10 channels, and Team adds unlimited users.
Our verdict on Buffer
Updated Oct 5, 2026Pricing checked Oct 5, 2026
Buffer suits a small business, creator or freelancer who publishes to a handful of accounts and wants posts to go out on a schedule without much setup. Billing follows channels rather than people, so on the Team plan a colleague, a contractor or a client reviewer can join without changing the price, and drafts from anyone with approval-only access wait for someone with full posting access to sign off. The Free plan is enough to run three real accounts for a while before paying anything.
Publishing is the core, and the rest is thinner. Buffer's own comparison with Sprout Social says it has no social listening or competitive benchmarking, and that Community handles comments but doesn't track DMs or mentions. A shop that answers customers in Instagram or Facebook messages will still be doing that inside each app. Instagram posts with music, stickers or product tags need a final tap on a phone, and a bulk upload handles text and single-image posts, one channel per CSV file.
Essentials, the one-user plan, costs $6 per channel a month, or $5 per channel a month billed yearly. Team costs $12 per channel a month, or $10 billed yearly, for unlimited users, approval workflows and access levels per channel. On either plan, channels 11 to 25 cost $4 each on monthly billing. Three channels, say an Instagram profile, a Facebook page and a LinkedIn page, come to $18 a month on Essentials or $36 on Team, paid monthly. Upgrading from Free means paying for every connected channel, the three free ones included, and a Start Page counts as one.
Choose Buffer when the job is getting posts out on time for a few accounts on a small budget. Look elsewhere if you need competitor tracking or a place to answer direct messages. Metricool's Starter plan, at $25 a month or $20 a month billed yearly for up to five brands, includes competitor analysis and an inbox that takes messages as well as comments. Sprout Social's Standard plan adds case assignment for teams that handle customer service on social, at $199 per seat a month billed yearly or $249 month to month.
Written by Lokesh Kapoor
Pros & cons
Buffer pros and cons
What it does well
- Team plan allows unlimited users at no extra cost, since the bill counts channels, not people
- Free plan covers 3 channels with 10 queued posts each, and a slot reopens as each post goes out
- Instagram posts, Reels and Stories can publish automatically from Business and Creator accounts
- Refunds within 7 days of starting a monthly plan, or 30 days for an annual plan
Where it falls short
- Buffer says Community doesn't track DMs or mentions; it collects comments on your own posts
- Essentials allows one user, and approval workflows need Team at twice the per-channel rate
- Bulk CSV upload works one channel at a time and is limited to text and single-image posts
Editor's assessment from vendor documentation and published pricing
Pricing
Buffer pricing
Buffer's paid plans start at $5/month, below the $20 median across the 5 tools in our Social Media Management ranking. A free plan is available, and you can test it on a 14-day free trial.
Free
$0
Free plan
For one person
- Up to 3 channels
- 10 scheduled posts per channel
- 100 ideas
- 1 user account
- 30 days of analytics history
Usage: Limited to three channels and one user. Each channel can hold 10 scheduled posts at a time; a slot frees up once a post publishes.
Essentials
$5/mo
per channel, per month
or $6/mo billed monthly
For one person
- Unlimited scheduled posts per channel
- Advanced analytics and exportable reports
- Hashtag manager
- First comment scheduling
- 1 user account
Usage: Billed per connected channel, including any channels you had on Free; $6 a channel monthly or $5 a channel a month on yearly billing ($60 a channel a year). The rate drops above 10 channels (channels 11 to 25 are $4 each on monthly billing). One user is included.
Team
$10/mo
per channel, per month
or $12/mo billed monthly
- Everything in Essentials
- Unlimited team members
- Content approval workflows
- Access levels per channel
- Branded reports
Usage: Billed per connected channel; $12 a channel monthly or $10 a channel a month on yearly billing ($120 a channel a year). The rate drops above 10 channels (channels 11 to 25 are $4 each on monthly billing). Users are unlimited.
Checked against Buffer, Inc.'s pricing page on October 5, 2026 · see the full breakdown
Capabilities
Buffer features
Checked against the same feature list as every other tool in its category.
Publishing
- Included:Approval workflowsRoute posts for internal or client sign-off before they publish.Team plan only
- Included:Bulk schedulingUpload many posts at once from a spreadsheet or media batch.
- Included:Instagram first commentAutomatically posts hashtags or links as the first comment.Paid plans only
- Included:Link-in-bio pageHosted landing page linking profile traffic to your content and products.
- Included:Multi-network schedulingQueue posts across every connected network from one calendar.
- Included:Reels & TikTok publishingDirect publishing of short-form video rather than a push notification reminder.
- Included:Visual content calendarDrag-and-drop calendar showing the published grid as followers will see it.
Engagement
- Included:Saved replies & automationCanned responses and rules for routine comment and message handling.
- Not included:Social listeningMonitors mentions and keywords beyond your own accounts.
- Included:Unified inboxComments and messages from every network in one queue with assignment.Comments only, not direct messages
Measurement
- Not included:Competitor benchmarkingCompare your performance against named competitor accounts.
- Included:Cross-network analyticsPerformance across every network in one comparable view.
- Not included:Paid & organic togetherAd performance alongside organic in the same reporting view.
- Not included:Scheduled client reportsBranded reports generated and emailed on a schedule.
Ecosystem
Buffer integrations
Videos
Watch Buffer in action
Product walkthroughs from Buffer's own YouTube channel.
How to Use Buffer in 2 Minutes | 2026 Quick-start Guide ⚡️
Published by BufferWatch on YouTube
Alternatives
Top Buffer alternatives
Tools that do the same job, from the same category.
Metricool
Best for freelancers and small agencies reporting on organic and paid social for several brands
Free plan
Later
Best for Instagram- and TikTok-led brands and creators who plan posts by how the grid looks
Free plan
Hootsuite
Best for marketing teams that manage organic posts and social ads in the same tool
From $99/mo
Fit check
Will Buffer fit your team?
Support
- Email support
- Knowledge base
Training
- Documentation
- Video tutorials
- Webinars
Deployment
- Web
- iOS
- Android
Typical users
- Freelancers
- Small businesses
- Mid-size companies
FAQs
Buffer FAQs
Written by our editorial team.
Is Buffer free?
Yes. The Free plan connects up to three channels for one user and holds 10 scheduled posts per channel at a time; once a post publishes, its slot opens again. It includes the AI Assistant, the Community inbox with five AI reply suggestions a week, a Start Page and 30 days of analytics history. First comments, the hashtag manager and reports need a paid plan, which starts at $6 per channel a month, or $5 billed yearly, on Essentials. See Buffer pricing.
How does Buffer's per-channel pricing work?
Paid plans charge for each connected channel, meaning each social account, such as one Instagram profile or one LinkedIn page. Essentials costs $6 a channel per month and Team $12, or $5 and $10 on yearly billing, and channels 11 to 25 cost $4 each on monthly billing. In Buffer's own example, five brands with an Instagram account and a Facebook page each make 10 channels, or $60 a month on Essentials paid monthly. A Start Page counts as a channel, and upgrading from Free means paying for the three channels you used for free.
Can Buffer manage direct messages?
No. Buffer's Community inbox collects comments on your posts from Facebook pages, Instagram professional accounts, LinkedIn, X, Threads, Bluesky, Mastodon, TikTok, YouTube and Google Business Profile, and Buffer's comparison with Sprout Social says it doesn't track DMs. In Community you can reply, resolve comments in bulk and use saved replies, and paid plans get unlimited AI reply suggestions. When you connect a channel, Buffer pulls in its comments from the last 30 days. For a shared inbox that covers DMs, see Buffer alternatives.
Does Buffer publish to Instagram automatically?
Yes, for Instagram Business and Creator accounts, when a post meets Instagram's rules for outside tools. Posts, Reels and Stories can all go out automatically. Personal accounts, and posts that use music, Story stickers or links, product tags or collaborators, are sent to the Buffer mobile app as a notification at the scheduled time, and you finish them in Instagram. Carousels published through Buffer hold up to 10 images, a limit Instagram sets for outside tools.
Can I get a refund from Buffer?
Yes, if you ask soon after subscribing: Buffer refunds monthly plans within 7 days of starting and annual plans within 30 days. Outside those windows, cancelling stops the next renewal. The plan stays active until the end of the billing period, and then the account moves to Free. If more than three channels are connected, you pick the three to keep, and the rest are locked but stay connected. Deleting the account is permanent, though posts already published stay on the networks.
Sources & methodology
Product details come from Buffer, Inc.'s public website and documentation (United States). Every plan and price was checked against the vendor's pricing page on October 5, 2026. We haven't tested this product hands-on; the verdict is a desk assessment. How we research and rank tools
- Founded 2010
- 1 language supported
- buffer.com