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← Back to Blog Free Social Media Schedulers: What Each Free Plan Really Includes (2026)
PostClaw Team · · 5 min read
scheduling free-tools small-business comparison

Free Social Media Schedulers: What Each Free Plan Really Includes (2026)

A free plan is the right place for a small business to start: you find out whether scheduling posts actually saves you time before you pay for anything. The catch is that "free" means something different at every company. One tool limits the channels, another the posts, a third leaves out LinkedIn or X.

We checked each tool's own pricing page on 7 October 2026. Plans change, so check the page again before you decide.

Full disclosure: PostClaw is our product. It is in the list, and we have tried to describe the others as fairly as we describe ourselves.

The free plans side by side

Tool Accounts on the free plan Posting limit Worth knowing
Buffer Up to 3 channels 10 scheduled posts per channel at a time AI assistant included
Metricool 1 brand 20 posts a month No LinkedIn or X on the free plan
Publer 3 social accounts 10 scheduled posts per account at a time No X on the free plan; published posts kept for 24 hours
Zoho Social 1 brand with up to 6 channels See their pricing page Includes LinkedIn Company Pages and Google Business Profile
PostClaw 2 social accounts 50 posts a month AI writing included (20 free AI calls, then your own AI key); X on paid plans

Hootsuite, Sprout Social and Later offer free trials instead of free plans.

Buffer

Buffer's free plan connects up to three channels, and each channel can hold ten scheduled posts at a time. When one goes out, you can add another. It includes Buffer's AI assistant and the ideas board. It is a simple, well-made scheduler, and three channels covers a lot of small businesses.

Good for: a business on two or three platforms that posts a few times a week. Watch for: ten queued posts per channel means you top up the queue every week or two.

Metricool

Metricool's free plan covers one brand and up to 20 posts a month, with 30 days of analytics and a look at five competitor profiles. LinkedIn and X are not available on the free plan.

Good for: a business that cares about analytics as much as scheduling. Watch for: 20 posts a month is about one a day on a single platform, and LinkedIn needs a paid plan.

Publer

Publer's free plan gives one user three social accounts, with ten scheduled posts per account at a time and 25 saved drafts. X accounts cannot be connected on the free plan, and published posts are kept for only 24 hours.

Good for: trying a capable scheduler with Facebook, Instagram and similar networks. Watch for: the short post history makes it hard to look back at what you published.

Zoho Social

Zoho Social's free plan covers one brand with up to six channels: an X profile, an Instagram profile, a Facebook Page, a LinkedIn Company Page, a LinkedIn profile and a Google Business Profile, for one team member.

Good for: businesses that already use Zoho, or need LinkedIn Company Pages or Google Business Profile. Watch for: the free plan is a starting point; check its current posting limits before you build a routine on it.

PostClaw

PostClaw's free plan connects two social accounts and schedules up to 50 posts a month across Instagram, Facebook Pages, TikTok, LinkedIn profiles, YouTube, Threads, Pinterest, Bluesky and more. The difference is the writing: you describe your business once, and the AI drafts posts in your voice and adapts each one for every platform. The free plan includes 20 AI calls to start; after that you can connect your own AI key, with no markup on what you pay the AI provider.

Good for: a business owner who has the time to schedule but not the time to write. Watch for: posting to X is on paid plans, LinkedIn posting is for personal profiles (not Company Pages), and there is no Google Business Profile.

How to choose

  1. Count your platforms. If you only use two or three, every plan above covers you.
  2. Count your posts. Three posts a week on two platforms is about 26 a month. Check which limit you would hit first.
  3. Check the networks you need. LinkedIn, X and Google Business Profile are where the free plans differ most.
  4. Decide whether you need help writing. If the blank page is the real problem, pick a tool that writes the first draft.

You can try the writing part without signing up at all: our free Instagram caption generator, LinkedIn post generator and post ideas generator. To plan the week, there's the free content calendar template.

Try it: start free and connect two accounts. No credit card.