Social media scheduling tools for a small business: Metricool, Postly or Buffer

Social media scheduling tools let you prepare a week or a month of posts in one sitting, then publish them at the times you chose without opening each app. For a small business that posts between two jobs, that is often the difference between an account that goes quiet after three weeks and one that keeps going.

I am not a social media manager, and the studio does not sell social media management, because I prefer work whose results are easier to measure, such as websites and SEO. My advice on these tools is short all the same: Metricool is really good, Postly is good enough to get you going, and the right pick depends on your needs. Buffer, which many people already know, is the general alternative, and I compare it here on its published plans.

Below, you will find what each tool costs at the time of writing (October 2026), the networks it covers, and what the free schedulers built into Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube and Google already do. A scheduler is one of the cheaper small business marketing tools, and it only pays off on the networks that suit your business.

What a scheduling tool does, and what it does not do

A social media scheduling tool is an app that connects to your accounts and publishes the posts you prepared on the dates and at the times you set. You connect each account once, write or upload your posts, choose when they go out, and the tool does the rest.

What you gain:

• one calendar for every network, so you see at a glance what goes out on Pinterest, YouTube, Instagram and your Google Business Profile this month;
• batch work: a month of posts written in one afternoon, instead of a daily scramble for something to say;
• one idea adapted to several networks, such as the same photo with a longer text on Facebook and a link to your website on Pinterest;
• one place to see what you published and what people reacted to.

What it does not do is talk to people. When I helped a client with their social media, the 60 new relevant followers they gained in a month came from two things: posting content and engaging with people on the platform. A tool only handles the publishing. Replies, comments and conversations stay with you, so keep ten minutes a day for them.

Social media scheduling tools at a glance: Metricool vs Postly vs Buffer

On the points that decide most small business choices, the three compare like this.

The prices are US-dollar list prices at the time of writing (October 2026), with rough pound equivalents. All three adjust their plans from time to time, so check the official pages of Metricool, Postly and Buffer for the final amount in your currency, VAT included, before you subscribe.

Metricool: scheduling, competitors and growth in one place

Metricool is really good. Besides scheduling your posts, it lets you monitor what your competitors are doing, more specifically the ones that are succeeding, and analyse your own growth. That makes it more than a calendar: instead of guessing what to post, you can look at what already works in your trade and make your own version of it.

Metricool charges by brand. A brand is one business with its profiles: its Instagram account, Facebook Page, Pinterest account, YouTube channel, Google Business Profile and so on.

• Free: one brand and 20 scheduled posts a month, on every network except LinkedIn and X.
• Starter: up to five brands for about £15 ($20) a month billed yearly, or about £19 ($25) billed monthly. Up to ten brands cost about £27 ($36) a month billed yearly.
• Advanced: from 15 brands, at about £40 ($53) a month billed yearly, for agencies and teams.
• Custom: a quote, beyond 50 brands.

Five brands on the first paid tier is very generous. A shop with a second activity, or a freelancer who also looks after a partner’s accounts, fits in one subscription.

To make the competitor view useful, pick three to five businesses in your trade that clearly do well on one network. Follow them for a month, note which formats and topics get the most reactions, and plan your next month with what you learned. Your own growth figures then tell you whether it worked.

Postly: good enough to get going, Google Business Profile included

Postly is good enough to get you going. It can also publish to Google Business Profile and to a self-hosted WordPress site, connected with an application password: useful if local customers find you through your Google profile and you keep a blog on your site.

Its pricing page now shows one Pro plan priced per channel, a channel being one connected account. Five channels cost about £12 ($16) a month billed yearly ($192 a year), which works out at $3.20 per channel. Its help pages list Pinterest, YouTube, TikTok and Google Business Profile among the accounts you can connect. Pinterest boards show up as separate channels, so check how many your plan counts before you connect them all.

Look on AppSumo or directly on Postly’s website, and take the better offer.

Buffer: the simple option, priced per channel

Buffer is the scheduler many people already know, and the general alternative to the two above. Its plans at the time of writing:

• Free: three channels, with up to 10 scheduled posts per channel.
• Essentials: about £3.80 ($5) per channel a month billed yearly, or about £4.50 ($6) billed monthly.
• Team: about £7.50 ($10) per channel a month billed yearly, or about £9 ($12) billed monthly.

Paying per channel is easy to understand, and fair when you post on two or three networks. It adds up as you add networks: five channels on Essentials cost about £19 ($25) a month billed yearly, against about £15 ($20) for up to five whole brands on Metricool Starter. Buffer also schedules Pinterest Pins, YouTube Shorts and Google Business Profile posts, so it covers the networks I recommend below.

What a month of posting costs: one business, five channels

Take a bakery in Leeds that posts on Instagram, a Facebook Page, Pinterest, YouTube Shorts and its Google Business Profile: five channels, about 20 posts a month in all.

On price, Postly wins this example and Metricool Starter is close behind, with room for four more brands. On free plans, Metricool covers all five channels as long as the bakery keeps to 20 posts a month, while Buffer’s free plan stops at three channels. The native schedulers cover all five as well, but you fill four calendars instead of one.

The free schedulers you already have

Before you pay for anything, look at what the networks give you for free:

• Meta Business Suite schedules posts for a Facebook Page and its linked Instagram professional account.
• Instagram also lets professional accounts schedule a post from the app.
• YouTube Studio schedules uploads, Shorts included, from a computer; my guide to YouTube Shorts for business shows the steps.
• Pinterest lets you choose to publish a Pin at a later date when you create it.
• TikTok offers scheduling when you upload from a computer.
• Google Business Profile posts (updates, offers and events) have a Schedule this post switch for the date and time, and a Repeats menu for a weekly or monthly post. My guide to Google Business Profile posts covers what to post and how often.

If you post on Facebook and Instagram only, Meta Business Suite is enough and you can skip paid tools. A scheduling tool earns its price when your networks belong to different companies, typically Pinterest, YouTube and your Google profile, and you want one calendar and one report for all of them.

Schedule for the networks that keep working

A tool does not change how a network treats your posts. On Instagram, TikTok and Facebook, you have to keep finding new ways to catch people’s attention, and for a long time: those platforms turn you into an unpaid employee begging to be seen. Pinterest and YouTube Shorts work for you instead. Once a Pin or a Short is out, it keeps bringing results, because people find it through search long after you posted it. Even Google Business Profile is nicer to work with than the attention-hungry feeds.

So if you work alone, Pinterest and YouTube Shorts are probably your best allies in 2026, with your Google profile for local searches. My guide to Pinterest for business explains how Pins bring visitors to a website, and my comparison of the best social media for small business helps you choose where to spend your time.

Metricool, Postly or Buffer: which one to choose

Choose Metricool if:

• you want scheduling, competitor tracking and growth analytics in one tool;
• you manage more than one brand, since the first paid tier covers five;
• you post on Pinterest, YouTube Shorts and Google Business Profile and want one calendar for all three, free up to 20 posts a month.

Choose Postly if:

• you want to get going for little money;
• you also publish to Google Business Profile and a WordPress blog;
• you find a good offer, on AppSumo or on Postly’s own site.

Choose Buffer if:

• you post on two or three channels and like paying per channel;
• three channels on the free plan are enough for now.

Stay with the free native schedulers if you post on Facebook and Instagram only, or on YouTube only.

Whichever you pick, the tool matters less than the habit. It is easy to fall for the next shiny tool; results come from sticking with the channels you already use.

Plan your first month in one sitting

1. Choose two or three networks you can keep up for six months. Alone, start with Pinterest and YouTube Shorts, plus your Google profile if you serve a local area.
2. List twelve questions your customers ask. Each answer can become a Pin, a Short and a short Google post that links to the page of your website answering it.
3. Make the visuals in one go. I use Canva every day for small tasks like this, and my article on whether Canva Pro is worth it shows what the free plan already covers.
4. Write each caption once, then adapt it to each network’s length and tone.
5. Schedule four weeks ahead, at a rhythm you can repeat. Two Pins and two Shorts a week beat twenty posts in one weekend followed by silence.
6. Keep ten minutes a day for replies and comments.
7. Once a month, look at which posts brought visits or calls, check what your successful competitors did, and adjust the next month.

If you have the budget but not the time, hire an agency with strong, proven results instead. Then be patient with it: do not hold it against the agency if the results do not show up straight away.