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Social Media Management

Buffer pricing

Buffer pricing: Free for 3 channels; Essentials $5/channel/mo (annual). Free plan: yes — 3 channels, 1 user. Rated 4.3/5 on G2 (1,041 reviews). Each figure links to the comparison it was verified in.

Entry price
Free for 3 channels; Essentials $5/channel/mo (annual)Per connected channel per month, not per user; billed annually ($6 monthly); Essentials is 1 user, 1 user includedVerified in hootsuite-vs-buffer
Free plan
Free planYes — 3 channels, 1 user
G2 rating
4.3 / 51,041 reviews · checked · G2
Bill Belcamino
Bottom line up frontby Bill Belcamino, founder of HelpCompare
Editorial assessment

Bottom line up front: How does Buffer's per-channel pricing work out for a growing social team?

Buffer bills per connected channel, not per user, so adding a colleague on Team costs nothing while every extra social account adds to the bill.

The free plan covers 3 channels and 1 user, Essentials is $5/channel/mo billed annually ($6 monthly) and still 1 user, and Team is $10/channel/mo annual ($12 monthly) with unlimited users and approvals. That model rewards a tidy account list, so audit it before you connect anything and drop profiles you haven't posted to in months, since you pay for each one. Then check who actually owns each account: a brand page registered to a former freelancer's personal login is one resignation away from being locked out, and no scheduling tool can fix that for you. Move ownership to company logins first. If you need listening or ads management, Buffer offers neither, so read Hootsuite vs Buffer.

My read of the verified data on this page, checked against vendor sources on September 19, 2026. Disagree or spot an error? Tell Bill

Everything we have verified about Buffer

Every row was recorded on a HelpCompare comparison page. The Source column links to the page it was verified on and the date it was last checked.

AttributeValueSource & date
Entry price Free for 3 channels; Essentials $5/channel/mo (annual) hootsuite-vs-buffer
Free plan Yes — 3 channels, 1 user hootsuite-vs-buffer
Team $10/channel/mo annual ($12 monthly), unlimited users hootsuite-vs-buffer
Users Essentials 1 user; Team unlimited hootsuite-vs-buffer
Not offered Social listening and ads management hootsuite-vs-buffer
Approvals Team hootsuite-vs-buffer
Verified data

Buffer security, offline access & remote work

Compliance reports, sign-in controls, offline access and the setup details that matter for remote, hybrid and in-office teams. Each value links to the vendor page it came from. Buffer’s own security documentation: buffer.com.

Security & compliance

SOC 2 report
Not published
ISO/IEC 27001
Not published
HIPAA (BAA)
Not published
GDPR data processing agreement
DPA offeredsource
Single sign-on (SAML/OIDC)
Not published
SCIM user provisioning
Not published
Two-factor authentication
YesEnforcement: Teamsource
Admin audit log
Not published
Data residency choices
US onlysource
Self-hosting option
Not published

Offline access

Offline mode
Not documented
Desktop apps
Not published
Mobile apps
iOS, Androidsource

Remote, hybrid & in-office

IP allowlisting
Not published
Device & session controls
Not published

Buffer: worth knowing

  • SecurityBuffer says it is SOC 2 compliant (on a Buffer-owned blog post), without stating the report type. source
  • RemoteTeam owners and admins can require every team member to turn on two-factor authentication before using Buffer; the 2FA article says this is on the web for Team and Essentials users with Beta features enabled. source
  • RemoteBuffer recommends an authenticator app over SMS codes for people working without cell reception, for example on a plane. source
  • RemoteSupport is by email on every plan, including Free; the pricing page does not list phone or live chat. source

Checked September 19, 2026 against each vendor’s own trust center, help docs and app pages. Hover or tap “source” to see the exact wording we relied on. “Not published” means we could not find the vendor saying it on its own site; it doesn’t mean the feature is missing. Plan names are the lowest plan the vendor says includes the feature. Security · Offline · Remote vs office · Download the data

Buffer in context

How Buffer connects to the rest of the software we track — head-to-head research, switching paths, and the closest alternatives in its category.

Head-to-head comparisons

Full pricing and feature breakdowns featuring Buffer.

Switching away from Buffer

What transfers, what you rebuild by hand, and what to budget.

Switching to Buffer

Moving in from another platform.

Alternatives in Social Media Management

Other tools we track in the same category, with their entry price.

Where this data comes from

HelpCompare records pricing and feature data from vendor pricing pages and documentation at the time each comparison is researched, then re-checks it on a published schedule. This entity page is generated from those records — it does not introduce any figure that has not already been verified on a comparison page.

  • Vendor pricing and documentation — buffer.com, checked September 19, 2026.
  • HelpCompare research — 2 comparison pages listed above, each with its own verification date.
  • G2 — aggregate rating and review count, checked . Review counts change daily; treat them as a snapshot.
  • Machine-readable copy — /data/tools.json, /data/tools.csv, and the open data hub.
Prices change often and vendors do not always announce it. Every figure here carries the date it was last checked — confirm current pricing with the vendor before you buy. If you find something out of date, the comparison page it came from is linked in the table above.
Start with the job

Guides for the jobs this software does

Plain-language guides: the steps, what to check before you buy, common mistakes, and every tool it takes with verified prices.

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Turn this into a one-page decision brief

Verified prices costed for your team size, a check against your must-have requirements, the questions to settle before you sign, and a source for every figure. Print it, or paste it into an email to whoever approves the spend.

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From shortlist to switched

Built for the leader who owns the selection, answers for the spend, drives the rollout, and lives with the results. HelpCompare covers the whole decision, not just the first step.

Bill Belcamino, founder of HelpCompare
About the author

Bill Belcamino

Founder and author, HelpCompare

Engineer by training, operator by experience, marketer by choice. Bill spent eight and a half years as an engineer at HP, was COO of Auctiva (the number one third-party selling platform on eBay, past 200,000 users) and ran Google’s $70M/year search syndication partnership at Alot.com. Then he spent 13 years building his own web properties with his own money at stake. He has bought, trialled, integrated and cancelled more SaaS tools than he can count, and started HelpCompare because the real cost of switching tools is the part nobody covers.

“I’ve sat on both sides of the table: the agency recommending the tool and the client paying for it.”

Researched and fact-checked by the HelpCompare team. No paid sponsorships, no affiliate commissions.