Best social media scheduling software: 8 tools compared by price and job

Best social media scheduling software: the picks

The best social media scheduling software for recycling evergreen posts by category is SocialBee, from $29 a month, billed monthly, as read on 7 October 2026. Buffer is the pick for a free start, SocialPilot for 3 users on 10 accounts and Hootsuite Professional for unlimited social accounts.

All prices are in US dollars and billed monthly, except Hootsuite, which publishes annual-billing prices only. RecurPost recycles from $9 a month for 2 accounts; SocialBee's price buys 5 profiles, 10 categories and a weekly schedule by category. The units differ: SocialBee, SocialPilot and RecurPost price a plan, Buffer a channel, Hootsuite a user, Publer accounts and members, and Metricool brands.

SocialBee: best for recycling evergreen posts by category

SocialBee puts posts into content categories, and a weekly posting schedule says which category each slot draws from. An evergreen category shares its posts in turn and starts again at the first after the last; a Share Once category shares each post one time. SocialBee's pricing page lists recycling, expiry, drafts and posting at a specific time on every plan.

Bootstrap has 5 profiles, 10 categories and 1 user. Accelerate is $49 a month and Pro $99, billed monthly. The post approval system, bulk post editor, CSV uploads and hashtag organizer start on Accelerate, and internal notes arrive on Pro. SocialBee's help center says that, at the moment, it does not limit AI content generation on any plan.

The limits: Bootstrap and Accelerate have 1 user, so a team of two needs Pro or a $10-a-month user add-on, and SocialBee has no free plan, only a 14-day trial of Pro. Its terms give a 30-day money-back guarantee on the first purchase, not on renewals. SocialBee review covers every plan.

Buffer, Publer and Metricool: free starts

Buffer Free covers up to 3 channels, with 10 scheduled posts per channel and 1 user; its pricing page names no recycling feature, only a queue you can re-arrange or shuffle. Publer Free covers 3 social accounts (except X), with 25 saved drafts and a 24-hour post history, and lists post recycling on Business, not Professional. Metricool Free covers 1 brand with 20 posts a month and 30 days of analytics, and keeps post approvals for Advanced.

Buffer Essentials is $6 a month per channel and Team is $12, billed monthly. Publer Professional is $9 a month, billed monthly, for 2 accounts, with a 7-day trial, and Business has a 14-day trial. Metricool Starter is $45 a month, billed monthly, for up to 10 brands. Best free social media scheduling software lists each free plan's limits.

SocialPilot and Later: small teams

SocialPilot Standard is $40 a month, billed monthly, for 10 accounts and 3 users, and adds content approval workflows that Essentials lacks. Premium is $100 a month for 20 accounts and 6 users, with client approval workflows. SocialPilot lists Repeat Post, which publishes a post repeatedly, on all four plans, and offers a 14-day trial with no credit card.

Later Starter is $25 a month, billed monthly, for 8 profiles, 1 user and up to 30 posts per profile, and extra social sets and users are not available on it. Growth is $50 a month for 16 profiles, 2 users and up to 180 posts per profile, with internal and external collaboration and approvals; on monthly billing, extra sets cost $15 a month and extra users $5. Later's trial is 14 days.

Best social media scheduling software for small business narrows these to six picks by budget.

Hootsuite and RecurPost: unlimited accounts or a small budget

Hootsuite sells by the user: Standard is $99 and Professional is $199 per user a month, billed annually, and the plans page shows no monthly-billing price. Standard manages up to 10 social accounts and Professional has unlimited social accounts; approvals start on Advanced, $399 per user a month, billed annually. Its 14-day trial has daily posting limits of 10 to 20 posts per organization, and there is no free plan.

RecurPost lists evergreen content libraries, which recycle posts, on every plan. Starter is $9 a month for 2 accounts and 1 user, Personal is $25 for 5 accounts and Agency is $79 for 20 accounts and 3 users, all billed monthly; the approval workflow starts on Agency. RecurPost sells extra accounts at $4 a month and, on Agency, extra teammates at $20 a month.

How the eight schedulers were priced

Every price comes from the vendor's own pricing page, read in US dollars on 7 October 2026, with the billing basis and unit named each time. None of it comes from hands-on use. Social media scheduling software cost per month sets eight entry plans side by side on monthly billing.