Sure, you don’t get access to all the features and you’ll be restricted in terms of how many social platforms you may connect and posts you may schedule. However, if you’re still starting out and responsible for managing and growing only your own social media presence, the free plans offered by the following tools will usually meet your needs. After all, why pay for things that you’re probably not going to use (at least not in the early days)? We’ve searched the internet, read reviews, and tried out a number of tools to come up with the following list. There might be only eight tools, but you’ll only need one social media management tool (or at least that’s the ultimate goal). And, no, we didn’t include tools that are “kind of free” because they offer a free trial. All of the following tools have a free forever plan.
8 Completely Free Social Media Scheduling Tools to Try Out in 2023:
- Planoly For Instagram and Pinterest, you can check out Planoly’s free plan. While it’s a great tool for scheduling, it’s probably the most basic free plan of all the options listed. Not only may you add only one social profile, but you can also choose only between Pinterest or Instagram. That said, it allows you 30 uploads per month. An upload counts as anything that you add to the grid. One of the special features that deserve honorable mention is that it includes interesting international events on its calendar. What’s more, if you click on the particular event, it will give you more info as well as hashtag suggestions. This makes it a lot easier to plan relevant content. On the drawback, it doesn’t offer any analytics. For that, you’ll need to upgrade one of its paid plans. Key features include: One Instagram or Pinterest social profile 30 uploads per month Pricing: With its free plan, you can add only one Pinterest or Instagram profile. For the ability to add both social profiles, pricing starts at $11.25 per month 4.5 out of 5 stars PLANOLY makes it easy to create, customize, plan and schedule content for Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, and Twitter, as well as sell anything to anyone with a single click - no website needed. Ratings Features & Pricing Pros and Cons Ratings Features 4.0 Ease of Use 5.0 Support 4.0 Overall Score 4.5 Features & Pricing AnalyticsAutomated PublishingContent ManagementMulti-Account ManagementPost SchedulingReporting/Analytics Price starting at:$11.25 Pros and Cons Straightforward setup for Instagram and Pinterest Caters for Instagram posts, Stories, and Reels Practical workarounds to improve linking on Instagram, particularly for social commerce Facebook and Twitter integration is only via Instagram Can only auto post to an Instagram Business account (not Personal or Creator) Calendars remain separate for each social network Best for: Businesses of all sizes who post to Instagram and Pinterest 4.5 out of 5 stars PLANOLY makes it easy to create, customize, plan and schedule content for Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, and Twitter, as well as sell anything to anyone with a single click - no website needed. View 2. Buffer If you’re new to social media scheduling tools, Buffer is a good place to start. Not only does it offer a free plan (which is always welcoming if you’re not sure if you’ll actually use the tool), but it’s also very easy to understand and use. In fact, this is probably our favorite feature of Buffer. It’s dashboard is clean and their own branding that they’ve applied consistently spurs you on to do the same for your own business. In addition to scheduling social media posts, you can also use it to plan and publish your content on Pinterest, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram (while it doesn’t include TikTok, it does offer TikTok reminders for when it’s time to post to the platform). On top of its social media management features, its free plan also offers a useful landing page builder. With this feature, you can create a landing page for your brand that you can then use to share important info like a special promo or upcoming sale. Though, like with all of the free plans, there are certain features that are excluded. In Buffer’s case, arguably the biggest downside to its free plan is that it doesn’t include any analytics, insights, or reporting whatsoever. Also, while post scheduling for Instagram is included in its free plan, it doesn’t include preparing and scheduling Instagram Stories. Key services include: 10 scheduled posts per social channel Calendar view by week or month Buffer-branded link shortener Twitter hashtag suggestions Landing page builder Several integrations with third-party tools that include Canva, Google Drive, Dropbox, and OneDrive Email and social media support Pricing: With its free plan, you can manage up to three channels. You can add additional channels starting from $5 per month. 4.4 out of 5 stars Buffer is one of the most popular social media scheduling platforms. This software helps drive engagement and traffic on social media with the help of their scheduling, engagement, and analytics tools. Ratings Features & Pricing Pros and Cons Ratings Features 4.0 Ease of Use 4.6 Support 4.5 Overall Score 4.4 Features & Pricing Automated PublishingContent ManagementMulti-Account ManagementPost SchedulingReporting/Analytics Price starting at:$5 Pros and Cons Simple cross-posting Straightforward calendar view Integrates with almost every social platform Buffer Analyze may be too basic for some Buffer may glitch with Instagram Arbitrary character limits for Facebook, Twitter Pay-as-you-go packaging Best for: Publishers, mid-stage startup teams, non-profits, higher education, sports teams, e-commerce, solopreneurs, businesse 4.4 out of 5 stars Buffer is one of the most popular social media scheduling platforms. This software helps drive engagement and traffic on social media with the help of their scheduling, engagement, and analytics tools. View 3. CoSchedule If you’re specifically searching for a free social media scheduler to help you with Twitter or LinkedIn, be sure to check out CoSchedule. While it also includes scheduled social messages for Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest, it’s one of the best tools for LinkedIn and Twitter specifically. All in all, it’s a great tool if your goal is to save time without spending a dime. If you take a look at some of the case studies, the results speak for themselves with customers reporting that they’ve managed to increase their marketing workload by between five and 12 times. And, it’s not just about posting more content. Customers have also shared that CoSchedule has helped them to streamline their workflow, increase their visibility, and drive more organic traffic. One of the features included in the free plan that deserves special mention is the single calendar. Even if it will be only you on your marketing team, this unified content calendar is still extremely useful as it will let you see all your projects at a quick glance. If a project needs to be changed, rescheduling it is easy. All you need to do is drag and drop the project to the new date. Also, unlike Buffer, it does offer some reporting in its free plan. Though, this is only available for Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and Instagram. Key features include: Basic customer service and access to a self-serve knowledge base Social analytics reports for Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn Several integrations with third-party tools that include Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, and Mailchimp Project tag management Customizable color coding Unified content calendar Pricing: With its free plan, you’ll get two social profiles. For more social profiles and access to its other features like real-time team member access, you’ll need to sign up for its Pro plan at $39 per user per month. 4.4 out of 5 stars Plan, organize, and execute all your content marketing tasks in one place with CoSchedule. This all-in-one platform has drag-and-drop calendars to make it easy to collaborate with co-workers and schedule all projects in the same place. Ratings Features & Pricing Pros and Cons Ratings Features 4.8 Ease of Use 4.2 Support 4.3 Overall Score 4.4 Features & Pricing AnalyticsAutomated PublishingContent ManagementMulti-Account ManagementPost SchedulingCustomer EngagementMulti-User CollaborationReporting/AnalyticsSocial Media Monitoring Price starting at:$39 Pros and Cons Centralized dashboard and calendar Easy collaboration for teams and clients Project management tools Multiple features Noncompetitive pricing Not enough customization options Slow loading Best for: Professional marketers, marketing teams, and marketing agencies 4.4 out of 5 stars Plan, organize, and execute all your content marketing tasks in one place with CoSchedule. This all-in-one platform has drag-and-drop calendars to make it easy to collaborate with co-workers and schedule all projects in the same place. View 4. Crowdfire If access to analytics is a must-have feature, Crowdfire’s free plan will get you fired up. While you’ll only get access to one day’s data, it includes advanced analytics as well which is rare to find with a free plan. With regards to social media scheduling (the main reason why you probably landed on this blog post), its free plan includes 10 scheduled posts per account and supports Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram. It also has auto-tailored posts for the different platforms with previews before posting which comes in very handy if you’ll be posting on multiple platforms. Though, one feature that it lacks in this department is bulk scheduling. Just like Buffer and CoSchedule, it also doesn’t include team member features in the free plan. So, if you know that you’ll be working with larger teams down the line, you can still take advantage of its free trial, but know that you’ll have to sign up for its Premium or VIP plan. Key features include: Chrome extension to share articles Article and content curation Hashtag recommendations Pricing: With its free plan, you’ll get three accounts. For the ability to link more accounts and access additional features like post analytics, you’ll need to sign up for one of its paid plans with pricing starting at $7.48 per use per month. 3.8 out of 5 stars Crowdfire works to make your social media maangement simple. This tool lets you discover and schedule content in your niche as well as manage all your social accounts from one platform. Think of them as your marketing sidekick! Ratings Features & Pricing Pros and Cons Ratings Features 3.2 Ease of Use 4.3 Support 4.0 Overall Score 3.8 Features & Pricing AnalyticsAutomated PublishingContent ManagementMulti-Account ManagementPost SchedulingBrand TrackingCustomer EngagementMulti-User CollaborationReporting/Analytics Price starting at:$7.48 Pros and Cons Automated scheduling suggestions Tailor posts to each platform in one view Manage multiple accounts Not easy to link accounts Some processes can take time to set up Best for: Social Media Managers, agencies, brands, individuals, enterprises and startups 3.8 out of 5 stars Crowdfire works to make your social media maangement simple. This tool lets you discover and schedule content in your niche as well as manage all your social accounts from one platform. Think of them as your marketing sidekick! View 5. Hootsuite Here’s the thing about Hootsuite. It’s one of the best social media management apps available on the market, but its free plan is extremely limited. Also, as soon as you want to access more of its functionality, it becomes pretty expensive pretty quickly. There’s a significant price difference between its different subscription plans. For example, if you need to add multiple users, you can end up paying more than double. With its free plan, you’ll be able to manage only two social media accounts (you can choose from Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, or Pinterest). Also, you’ll only be able to schedule a maximum of five posts at the same time. In order to start scheduling again you will need to wait until at least one of the scheduled messages is published. For what it’s worth, in the past their free plan was a bit more generous and users could add three social accounts and schedule 30 posts. That said, we still love them (and not just for their software but also for their own social media efforts). For analytics and reports, you’ll need to sign up for its Professional plan. That said, it’s quite generous with its free trial. Whereas most tools in this niche offer only a 14-day free trial, you can use Hootsuite for free for up to 30 days. Key features include: Self-serve support via its online Help Center Basic free apps from their App Directory can be integrated into your Hootsuite dashboard Pricing: With its free plan, you can manage two social media accounts. You can add additional channels starting from $5 per month. For more advanced features, pricing starts at about $49 per month. 4.6 out of 5 stars One of the first platforms designed to streamline social media management, Hootsuite continues to be one of the market leaders. Ratings Features & Pricing Pros and Cons Ratings Features 4.8 Ease of Use 4.8 Reporting 4.3 Overall Score 4.6 Features & Pricing AnalyticsAutomated PublishingContact ManagementContent ManagementConversion TrackingCustomer TargetingKeyword FilteringMulti-Account ManagementPost SchedulingBrand TrackingCustomer EngagementMulti-User CollaborationReporting/AnalyticsSocial Media Monitoring Price starting at:$49 Pros and Cons Customizable feeds show you all the social posts you need to see—no filler Highly flexible post composer and scheduler, with a bulk option, drastically simplifies the most challenging part of the job Inbox consolidated every message, comment, and mention—you’ll never miss a conversation No demo- or psychographic data for the audience Best for: Small, Medium, and Large Businesses 4.6 out of 5 stars One of the first platforms designed to streamline social media management, Hootsuite continues to be one of the market leaders. View 6. Later If you’ll be posting mainly to Instagram, Later is one of the best free social media management tools to try out and is great for visual content. In addition to Instagram, you can also use it to schedule posts to Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, TikTok, and LinkedIn. Together, these six platforms are viewed by Later as a Social Set and with its free plan you’ll be able to add one social set (one profile per social media channel) and one user. So, this is quite a huge plus that it has over other free plans. Though, it includes only 10 posts per month per social profile. Similarly to Hootsuite, this number used to be higher previously. That said, not all change is negative. Recently, they’ve also added video scheduling to its free plan that lets you schedule a video post to Instagram. Key features include: Hashtag suggestions Saved captions Integration with Unsplash Pricing: With its free plan, you can add one social set and schedule 10 posts per social media channel included in the set. For more advanced features, pricing starts at $18 per month. 4.3 out of 5 stars Later is a calendar-focused social media scheduling platform with a drag-and-drop interface. Their planning and scheduling tools make it easy to visualize your social media management. Features include photo editing, publishing for stories, and more. Ratings Features & Pricing Pros and Cons Ratings Features 4.0 Ease of Use 4.5 Support 4.3 Overall Score 4.3 Features & Pricing AnalyticsAutomated PublishingContent ManagementMulti-Account ManagementPost SchedulingReporting/Analytics Price starting at:$18 Pros and Cons Easy to use, simple interface and media gallery Competitive pricing plans “Best time to publish” feature Lack of eCommerce integration You need business accounts on social Limited features compared to competition Free version has basic features Best for: Businesses of all sizes 4.3 out of 5 stars Later is a calendar-focused social media scheduling platform with a drag-and-drop interface. Their planning and scheduling tools make it easy to visualize your social media management. Features include photo editing, publishing for stories, and more. View 7. Socialoomph If you know that you’ll be posting frequently on only one platform, SocialOomph might be the most cost-effective solution. With its free plan, you get unlimited scheduled posts, but you may not schedule more than three posts per hour (which we doubt you’ll need to do). That being said, compared to the other free post schedulers, SocialOomph is more difficult to understand and use. Connecting your social accounts via its clunky dashboard can test your patience. Though, you probably suspected that this would be the case when you were greeted by its rather dated home page. Another con is that its free plan only lets you connect one social profile. It also doesn’t offer integration with all the major social media platforms (Instagram and Pinterest aren’t supported). On the other hand, unlike most other social media tools, you can also add a Discord account and blog platforms (WordPress or Tumbler). Drawbacks aside, it offers a lot of functionality. With regards to posting and scheduling specifically, it makes it easy to tag which posts need approval or revision and which ones have been scheduled and published. Key features include: Free support Basic posting features Unlimited scheduled posts Pricing: With its free plan, you add only one social profile. For more advanced posting features, you need to sign up for one of its premium plans which start at $15 per month. 3.7 out of 5 stars SocialOomph is a social media scheduling platform for businesses. This solution helps schedule posts for Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr, and LinkedIn. In addition, you can monitor your posts and engagement. Ratings Features & Pricing Pros and Cons Ratings Features 3.4 Ease of Use 4.0 Support 3.8 Overall Score 3.7 Features & Pricing Content ManagementConversion TrackingKeyword FilteringPost Scheduling Price starting at:$55 Pros and Cons Extensive integrations Lifetime free account Competitive features for post publishing and use Bulk scheduling feature Fast billing cycle every 2 weeks Basic reporting features for some platforms Best for: Social media users 3.7 out of 5 stars SocialOomph is a social media scheduling platform for businesses. This solution helps schedule posts for Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr, and LinkedIn. In addition, you can monitor your posts and engagement. View 8. Tailwind Trusted and loved by more than one million members that include the likes of Shopify, Tailwind initially started as a tool for Pinterest marketing and analytics. Fast-forward more than a decade and they’ve expanded their functionality to include a number of other social networks. One of the features that set Tailwind apart from other social media management tools is that it also includes email marketing in their free plan. While it’s very basic (you can add 20 contacts and send up to 200 emails per month), it’s a good place to start. Plus, this way you don’t necessarily have to invest in another tool for your email marketing. With regards to social media marketing, the free plan lets you add one Pinterest and Instagram account as well as one Facebook page and you can schedule up to 20 posts per month. As mentioned, it started out as a Pinterest marketing tool and as an official Pinterest partner, it’s still where its strong suit is. In fact, according to their website, you can plan and schedule an entire week of pins in just 20 minutes. Not only will it help you to save time, but with its SmartSchedule feature you will know that you reach your audience at the time that they’re most engaged. On average, their users can get nearly seven times more repins and almost four times more followers. That said, take nothing away from its Instagram scheduler. One special feature regarding its Instagram functionality that deserves special mention is that its free plan also includes a bio link tool. While other tools also offer this, it’s often only available if you sign up for one of the premium plans. Key features include: 20 post designs per week Basic analytics Instagram link-in-bio tool Bulk uploads Pricing: With its free plan, you can schedule as many as 20 posts per month across Pinterest, Facebook, and Instagram. For more scheduled posts, you need to sign up for one of its paid plans which start at $12.99 per month.
Wrapping Things Up
Nowadays every business needs a strong online presence and without a social strategy there’s no way to achieve that. Though, creating social media content is a time-consuming process if you’re doing it manually. Luckily, there’s an answer and it doesn’t necessarily need to cost you anything. With the help of one of these social media management platforms, you can plan, create, and schedule posts in advance. One of the special features that deserve honorable mention is that it includes interesting international events on its calendar. What’s more, if you click on the particular event, it will give you more info as well as hashtag suggestions. This makes it a lot easier to plan relevant content. On the drawback, it doesn’t offer any analytics. For that, you’ll need to upgrade one of its paid plans. Key features include:
One Instagram or Pinterest social profile 30 uploads per month
Pricing: With its free plan, you can add only one Pinterest or Instagram profile. For the ability to add both social profiles, pricing starts at $11.25 per month In fact, this is probably our favorite feature of Buffer. It’s dashboard is clean and their own branding that they’ve applied consistently spurs you on to do the same for your own business. In addition to scheduling social media posts, you can also use it to plan and publish your content on Pinterest, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram (while it doesn’t include TikTok, it does offer TikTok reminders for when it’s time to post to the platform). On top of its social media management features, its free plan also offers a useful landing page builder. With this feature, you can create a landing page for your brand that you can then use to share important info like a special promo or upcoming sale. Though, like with all of the free plans, there are certain features that are excluded. In Buffer’s case, arguably the biggest downside to its free plan is that it doesn’t include any analytics, insights, or reporting whatsoever. Also, while post scheduling for Instagram is included in its free plan, it doesn’t include preparing and scheduling Instagram Stories. Key services include:
10 scheduled posts per social channel Calendar view by week or month Buffer-branded link shortener Twitter hashtag suggestions Landing page builder Several integrations with third-party tools that include Canva, Google Drive, Dropbox, and OneDrive Email and social media support
Pricing: With its free plan, you can manage up to three channels. You can add additional channels starting from $5 per month. All in all, it’s a great tool if your goal is to save time without spending a dime. If you take a look at some of the case studies, the results speak for themselves with customers reporting that they’ve managed to increase their marketing workload by between five and 12 times. And, it’s not just about posting more content. Customers have also shared that CoSchedule has helped them to streamline their workflow, increase their visibility, and drive more organic traffic. One of the features included in the free plan that deserves special mention is the single calendar. Even if it will be only you on your marketing team, this unified content calendar is still extremely useful as it will let you see all your projects at a quick glance. If a project needs to be changed, rescheduling it is easy. All you need to do is drag and drop the project to the new date. Also, unlike Buffer, it does offer some reporting in its free plan. Though, this is only available for Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and Instagram. Key features include:
Basic customer service and access to a self-serve knowledge base Social analytics reports for Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn Several integrations with third-party tools that include Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, and Mailchimp Project tag management Customizable color coding Unified content calendar
Pricing: With its free plan, you’ll get two social profiles. For more social profiles and access to its other features like real-time team member access, you’ll need to sign up for its Pro plan at $39 per user per month. With regards to social media scheduling (the main reason why you probably landed on this blog post), its free plan includes 10 scheduled posts per account and supports Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram. It also has auto-tailored posts for the different platforms with previews before posting which comes in very handy if you’ll be posting on multiple platforms. Though, one feature that it lacks in this department is bulk scheduling. Just like Buffer and CoSchedule, it also doesn’t include team member features in the free plan. So, if you know that you’ll be working with larger teams down the line, you can still take advantage of its free trial, but know that you’ll have to sign up for its Premium or VIP plan. Key features include:
Chrome extension to share articles Article and content curation Hashtag recommendations
Pricing: With its free plan, you’ll get three accounts. For the ability to link more accounts and access additional features like post analytics, you’ll need to sign up for one of its paid plans with pricing starting at $7.48 per use per month. With its free plan, you’ll be able to manage only two social media accounts (you can choose from Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, or Pinterest). Also, you’ll only be able to schedule a maximum of five posts at the same time. In order to start scheduling again you will need to wait until at least one of the scheduled messages is published. For what it’s worth, in the past their free plan was a bit more generous and users could add three social accounts and schedule 30 posts. That said, we still love them (and not just for their software but also for their own social media efforts). For analytics and reports, you’ll need to sign up for its Professional plan. That said, it’s quite generous with its free trial. Whereas most tools in this niche offer only a 14-day free trial, you can use Hootsuite for free for up to 30 days. Key features include:
Self-serve support via its online Help Center Basic free apps from their App Directory can be integrated into your Hootsuite dashboard
Pricing: With its free plan, you can manage two social media accounts. You can add additional channels starting from $5 per month. For more advanced features, pricing starts at about $49 per month. Though, it includes only 10 posts per month per social profile. Similarly to Hootsuite, this number used to be higher previously. That said, not all change is negative. Recently, they’ve also added video scheduling to its free plan that lets you schedule a video post to Instagram. Key features include:
Hashtag suggestions Saved captions Integration with Unsplash
Pricing: With its free plan, you can add one social set and schedule 10 posts per social media channel included in the set. For more advanced features, pricing starts at $18 per month. That being said, compared to the other free post schedulers, SocialOomph is more difficult to understand and use. Connecting your social accounts via its clunky dashboard can test your patience. Though, you probably suspected that this would be the case when you were greeted by its rather dated home page. Another con is that its free plan only lets you connect one social profile. It also doesn’t offer integration with all the major social media platforms (Instagram and Pinterest aren’t supported). On the other hand, unlike most other social media tools, you can also add a Discord account and blog platforms (WordPress or Tumbler). Drawbacks aside, it offers a lot of functionality. With regards to posting and scheduling specifically, it makes it easy to tag which posts need approval or revision and which ones have been scheduled and published. Key features include:
Free support Basic posting features Unlimited scheduled posts
Pricing: With its free plan, you add only one social profile. For more advanced posting features, you need to sign up for one of its premium plans which start at $15 per month. One of the features that set Tailwind apart from other social media management tools is that it also includes email marketing in their free plan. While it’s very basic (you can add 20 contacts and send up to 200 emails per month), it’s a good place to start. Plus, this way you don’t necessarily have to invest in another tool for your email marketing. With regards to social media marketing, the free plan lets you add one Pinterest and Instagram account as well as one Facebook page and you can schedule up to 20 posts per month. As mentioned, it started out as a Pinterest marketing tool and as an official Pinterest partner, it’s still where its strong suit is. In fact, according to their website, you can plan and schedule an entire week of pins in just 20 minutes. Not only will it help you to save time, but with its SmartSchedule feature you will know that you reach your audience at the time that they’re most engaged. On average, their users can get nearly seven times more repins and almost four times more followers. That said, take nothing away from its Instagram scheduler. One special feature regarding its Instagram functionality that deserves special mention is that its free plan also includes a bio link tool. While other tools also offer this, it’s often only available if you sign up for one of the premium plans. Key features include:
20 post designs per week Basic analytics Instagram link-in-bio tool Bulk uploads
Pricing: With its free plan, you can schedule as many as 20 posts per month across Pinterest, Facebook, and Instagram. For more scheduled posts, you need to sign up for one of its paid plans which start at $12.99 per month. With regards to which tool is the best, it depends on your social media strategy. If you want to increase your social media activity on all major platforms, a tool like Planoly or Tailwind won’t tick all your boxes. On the other hand, if you want to make a point of keeping track of analytics, Crowdfire might be the better option. Nevertheless, all these eight tools deserve your consideration.
