Buffer and Metricool price scheduling by different units

The test

Buffer and Metricool, two scheduling and analytics tools used to plan and publish short-form posts across multiple accounts, each publish their own pricing pages. Both were retrieved as living documents on 16 September 2026 rather than as records of a single announcement: Buffer's pricing page and Metricool's pricing page.

What the evidence says

Buffer prices by 'channel' rather than by user seat. A Free plan connects up to three channels at no cost, an Essentials tier lists $5 per channel monthly ($60 billed yearly), and a Team tier lists $10 per channel monthly ($120 billed yearly). The page's own FAQ defines a channel as 'one social account you connect to Buffer -- a single Instagram profile, Facebook page, LinkedIn page, TikTok account, and so on,' meaning five brands each running Instagram and Facebook counts as ten channels, not five. Metricool prices instead by plan tier covering a bundle of connected brands: its page lists a Free tier, a Starter tier advertised 'From $20/month' billed annually (or 'From $25/month' billed monthly) covering up to ten brands per its own feature list, and an Advanced tier from $53/month annually ($67/month billed monthly), with a Custom enterprise tier quoted only on request. Both vendors' pages list TikTok among supported networks alongside Instagram and YouTube, but neither states an independently audited count of active accounts using the tool.

The sample and the variance

These are two vendors' own current, self-published price lists, not a comparison compiled by either company against the other or against alternatives such as Later or Hootsuite. The exact discount for annual billing and the per-brand limits are each vendor's own stated terms, subject to change without a version history visible on the page itself. Neither document supports a claim about which tool is more widely used for short-form scheduling specifically.

What to try next

As an editorial reading rather than a recommendation, someone comparing the two tools for a short-form workflow can count how many distinct social accounts a real workflow needs, since Buffer's per-channel price and Metricool's per-brand-bundle price scale differently as that account count grows.

• Does the workflow need scheduling for a small, fixed number of accounts, or a growing roster where a bundled brand limit matters more than a per-channel fee?
• Does either tool's own documentation cover TikTok-specific mechanics, or only generic post scheduling?
• Has either vendor's advertised annual discount changed since this 16 September 2026 reading?

A scheduling tool's price list answers what a workflow will cost to run, not whether that workflow itself produces short-form output worth scheduling.