Metricool vs Buffer: pricing, features, and which wins

Metricool and Buffer both offer a genuine free plan, both support team collaboration, and both get recommended as “the affordable option” in social media scheduling conversations. But they are priced on completely different units, Metricool by the brand, Buffer by the channel, and that difference changes which one is actually cheaper depending on how your accounts are structured.

Metricool also carries a far heavier analytics and reporting toolkit, built originally around the agency and marketer crowd that needs client dashboards and competitor tracking. Buffer stays leaner and leans into AI content tools and simplicity. This comparison breaks down both the numbers and the feature gap so you can tell which structure actually fits your setup.

TL;DR

• Metricool prices per brand: Free (1 brand), Starter from $20/month (5 brands) or $25 billed monthly, Advanced from $53/month (15 brands) or $67 billed monthly, scaling up to $159/month for 50 brands.
• Buffer prices per channel: $5/month (Essentials, 1 channel) to $10/month (Team, 1 channel), with per-channel volume discounts past 10 channels, and unlimited team members on Team at no extra charge.
• Metricool’s free plan allows unlimited brands’ worth of nothing extra, it’s capped at one brand, 20 scheduled posts/month, and excludes LinkedIn and X entirely. Buffer’s free plan allows three full channels with 10 scheduled posts per channel.
• Team collaboration and approval workflows require Advanced on Metricool (no team members on Starter at all) and Team on Buffer (included, unlimited seats, no per-seat charge).
• X/Twitter costs $10/month per connected account as a paid add-on on every Metricool plan; Buffer includes X at no extra charge beyond the standard per-channel rate.
• Metricool includes a far deeper reporting and competitor-analytics toolkit (PDF/PPT exports, Data Studio connector, 100 tracked competitors on paid plans); Buffer has no competitor tracking feature of any kind.
• For agencies managing many distinct client brands with light per-brand channel counts, ContentStudio often beats both on a true multi-workspace, per-seat basis, see the comparison sections below.

Metricool vs Buffer at a glance

	Metricool	Buffer
Pricing unit	Per brand (with per-network connection limits)	Per connected channel
Free plan	Yes: 1 brand, 20 posts/month	Yes: 3 channels, 10 posts/channel
Entry paid price	$20/month (Starter, 5 brands, annual)	$5/month (Essentials, 1 channel, monthly)
Team members	None on Free/Starter; unlimited on Advanced and Custom	1 on Essentials; unlimited on Team, no extra fee
X/Twitter access	Paid add-on, $10/month per account, every plan	Included in standard channel pricing
AI content credits	5–35 credits per brand/month depending on tier	Unlimited on every paid plan
Competitor tracking	Yes: 5 to 100 tracked competitors by tier	Not offered
Approval workflows	Advanced and Custom only	Team only
Reporting	PDF/PPT exports, Data Studio connector (Advanced+)	Branded reports, custom analytics (Essentials+)
API access	Advanced and Custom only	All plans, including Free
Free trial	Not stated on pricing page; free plan serves as entry point	14 days

Related: ContentStudio vs. Top Social Media Management Tools

Pricing: per brand vs per channel

How Metricool prices

Metricool’s structure runs Free, Starter, Advanced, and Custom, with Starter and Advanced each split into brand-count sub-tiers:

Plan	Annual billing (per month)	Monthly billing	Brands	Team members
Free	$0	$0	1	None
Starter, 5 brands	$20	$25	Up to 5	None
Starter, 10 brands	$36	$45	Up to 10	None
Advanced, 15 brands	$53	$67	Up to 15	Unlimited
Advanced, 25 brands	$85	$107	Up to 25	Unlimited
Advanced, 50 brands	$159	$210	Up to 50	Unlimited
Custom	Contact sales	Contact sales	Custom	Unlimited

Metricool’s annual savings advertise “up to 24% off,” and the prices shown exclude VAT, which is calculated separately at checkout. A “brand” in Metricool’s model allows one profile per connected social network, so a single brand with five networks connected still counts as one brand, not five.

The catch that changes everything: Starter, no matter how many brands you’re on, includes zero team members. If more than one person needs to log in, you’re on Advanced regardless of how few brands you manage, meaning a two-person team managing a single brand pays Advanced’s $53/month rather than Starter’s $20/month, purely for the second login.

How Buffer prices

Buffer’s Essentials and Team tiers price per connected channel, with the first channel at $5/$10 per month (Essentials/Team, monthly billing) and volume discounts kicking in as channel count rises:

Channels	Essentials (monthly)	Essentials (yearly)	Team (monthly)	Team (yearly)
1	$6/mo	$5/mo	$12/mo	$10/mo
5	$30/mo	$25/mo	$60/mo	$50/mo
10	$60/mo	$50/mo	$120/mo	$100/mo
25	$120/mo	$100/mo	$180/mo	$150/mo

Unlike Metricool, Buffer’s Team tier includes unlimited team members at no additional cost, the per-channel rate is the entire bill, regardless of headcount.

Real-world cost comparisons

Solo operator, one brand, five channels: Metricool Starter (5 brands) at $20/month covers five separate brands, not five channels on one brand, if those five channels belong to a single brand, you’re actually using one Metricool “brand slot” out of five available, making Metricool’s $20/month cover far more room than you need. Buffer Essentials for five channels costs $25/month on annual billing. 

If you’re genuinely managing five separate brands each with one or two networks, Metricool is the better fit at this price point; if you’re managing one brand across five networks, Buffer’s per-channel model charges closer to what you’re actually using.

Team of three, one brand: Metricool forces Advanced at $53/month (15-brand tier, annual) the moment a second person needs access, regardless of brand count, team of three costs $53/month flat. Buffer Team with three channels costs $30/month on annual billing ($36 monthly), with all three seats included free. For a small team on one brand, Buffer is meaningfully cheaper.

Agency, 15 brands, five staff: Metricool Advanced (15 brands) at $53/month on annual billing includes unlimited team members, a genuinely strong rate for this shape of business. Buffer would need 15 channels at minimum (likely many more once you count each brand’s individual network connections), which at Team’s per-channel rate climbs past $150/month well before matching Metricool’s brand-based bundling. For a true multi-brand agency, Metricool’s per-brand pricing wins decisively.

The X/Twitter line item: Metricool charges $10/month per connected X account as an add-on on every paid plan, a cost that doesn’t appear in the headline price. Five X profiles connected adds $50/month on top of whatever plan you’re on. Buffer includes X in its standard per-channel rate with no separate charge. If X/Twitter is central to your publishing, factor this in before comparing headline numbers.

Metricool vs Buffer: Feature comparison

Analytics and reporting

This is Metricool’s clearest advantage. Paid plans include unlimited analytics history, PDF and PPT report exports with automated monthly sending, a Data Studio (Looker Studio) connector on Advanced and above, customizable report templates, and tracked competitor analysis, up to 100 competitors on paid tiers versus 5 on Free.

Buffer’s analytics are solid but narrower in scope: advanced analytics and branded reports are included on Essentials and Team with unlimited history, but there’s no Data Studio-style connector, no PDF/PPT export workflow, and critically, no competitor tracking feature of any kind. If client reporting or competitive benchmarking is part of your job, Metricool’s toolkit is built for that in a way Buffer’s isn’t.

AI content tools

Buffer wins clearly here. Its AI Assistant is unlimited on every paid plan, no credit system, no metering. Metricool’s AI Social Media Assistant is credit-based: 5 credits per brand/month on Free, 20 on Starter, 35 on Advanced, with AI Alt Text consuming credits on Free and Starter but not on Advanced and Custom.

If AI-generated captions and content ideas are a daily workflow tool for you, Buffer’s unmetered approach removes a constraint Metricool imposes at every tier below Custom.

Team collaboration and approvals

Both tools gate real collaboration behind their upper tiers, but the terms differ. Metricool requires Advanced (minimum $53/month) for any team member access at all, Free and Starter are strictly single-user regardless of brand count. Once you’re on Advanced, team members are unlimited, plus you get role management, client management, and a post approval system.

Buffer requires Team (starting around $10/month for one channel) for unlimited team members and approval workflows, a dramatically lower entry price to unlock collaboration, though Buffer’s collaboration features (approvals, custom access) are less elaborate than Metricool’s client-management and role-based permission system.

For a small team, Buffer gets you collaborating for less money. For an agency needing granular client role management, Metricool’s Advanced tier offers more structure once you’re there.

Integrations and automation

Metricool connects with Google Drive, Canva, Adobe Express, Zapier, Make, and a Data Studio connector, plus website connectors for WordPress, Shopify, Squarespace, Wix, and Joomla. Its Flows add-on ($12/month for 2,500 monthly executions) extends automation further, though that’s an additional paid layer.

Buffer’s 25-app integration list includes Canva, Zapier (7,000+ apps), Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, IFTTT, Make, Microsoft Power Automate, n8n, and several AI-assistant integrations (ChatGPT, Claude, Grok, Perplexity). Buffer also offers API access on every plan including Free, whereas Metricool reserves API access for Advanced and Custom only.

If you build custom automations or connect Buffer to AI agent workflows, its open API-on-every-plan approach and the volume of native integrations give it an edge for technical users.

Social networks supported

Metricool supports Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X/Twitter (add-on), Bluesky, Pinterest, TikTok, YouTube, Twitch, LinkedIn, and Google Business Profile, plus Facebook Ads, Google Ads, and TikTok Ads management, a genuinely wider net than most schedulers, including ad platform management Buffer doesn’t attempt at all.

Buffer supports Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, LinkedIn, X, YouTube, Threads, Pinterest, Google Business Profile, Bluesky, Mastodon, and its own Start Page link-in-bio tool. Mastodon is Buffer’s one network advantage over Metricool; ad platform management is Metricool’s clear advantage over Buffer.

Free plan comparison

Metricool’s free plan is permanent but tightly capped: one brand, 20 scheduled posts per month, 5 tracked competitors, 30-day analytics history, and no LinkedIn or X/Twitter access at all. Buffer’s free plan allows three full channels, 10 scheduled posts per channel (so up to 30 posts in rotation across three channels), unlimited AI Assistant use, and full network access including X.

For testing a tool at zero cost with real channel access, Buffer’s free tier is more usable out of the gate.

Which is easier to use

Buffer’s interface is built for simplicity, one clean workflow applied consistently across every channel, which makes it approachable for solo users and small teams who don’t need a deep analytics dashboard.

Metricool’s interface carries more depth (and more surface area) because it’s built to serve agencies managing multiple client brands with reporting obligations, that power comes with a steeper initial learning curve.

If you’re a solo creator or small brand that wants to get scheduling quickly without wading through reporting dashboards, Buffer is the faster on-ramp. If you’re managing client brands and need to produce professional PDF reports and track competitors, Metricool’s additional complexity is doing real work for you.

Pros and cons

Metricool

Strengths: per-brand pricing that scales efficiently for true multi-brand agencies, unlimited team members once on Advanced, deep reporting and competitor tracking, ad platform management (Facebook Ads, Google Ads, TikTok Ads), a genuinely free permanent plan.

Weaknesses: no team member access at all below Advanced regardless of brand count, X/Twitter requires a separate $10/month-per-account add-on, AI credits are metered at every tier except Custom, and API access is locked behind Advanced.

Buffer

Strengths: unlimited AI Assistant and unmetered team collaboration on Team with no per-seat charge, API access on every plan including Free, broader free-plan channel allowance, simple and consistent interface.

Weaknesses: no competitor tracking or social listening feature at all, no ad platform management, and per-channel pricing can outpace Metricool’s per-brand model once you’re managing many distinct brands rather than many channels on one brand.

Metricool vs Buffer: the verdict

If you’re running a true multi-brand agency, five, ten, fifteen separate client accounts, Metricool’s per-brand pricing and unlimited team members on Advanced will almost always cost less than trying to replicate that structure on Buffer’s per-channel model, and you get competitor tracking and client reporting Buffer simply doesn’t have.

If you’re a solo creator, freelancer, or small team managing one brand across several networks, Buffer’s unlimited AI, unmetered collaboration on Team, and lower effective cost per channel make it the more efficient choice, especially if X/Twitter is part of your regular publishing mix and you don’t want to pay Metricool’s per-account add-on for it.

Where ContentStudio fits

Both tools solve for a specific shape of business, Metricool for the multi-brand agency with reporting needs, Buffer for the lean single-brand operator, and both have real structural gaps outside their lane. Metricool locks collaboration behind its most expensive tier and meters AI credits even there. Buffer has no competitor analysis or ad management of any kind at any price.

ContentStudio combines unlimited workspaces for true multi-brand management with unmetered AI content credits and built-in competitor and approval tooling, without Metricool’s add-on-heavy X/Twitter charge or Buffer’s complete absence of listening features. 

The Metricool vs. ContentStudio and Buffer vs. ContentStudio pages break down the feature-level case directly, and the Metricool alternative and Buffer alternative pages cover what each migration actually looks like in practice. For the full pricing math, Metricool pricing goes deeper than the summary tables above.

If you’re still weighing your options more broadly, our guide on how to choose a social media management tool walks through the evaluation framework before price becomes the deciding factor.

Metricool vs Buffer: where this leaves you

The honest split here is brand count versus channel count. Metricool’s per-brand pricing and unlimited team members on Advanced make it the stronger buy for a multi-brand agency with real reporting obligations. 

Buffer’s per-channel pricing, unmetered AI, and free collaboration on Team make it the leaner, cheaper option for a single brand or a small team that doesn’t need competitor tracking or ad management. 

Run your own brand count and channel count through the tables above rather than assuming one tool is the default cheaper option, because the answer flips depending on which side of that line you’re on.

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