Buffer

Pros

Buffer is perhaps one of the simplest & easiest social media platforms on the market today; offering comprehensive and crucial features for managing your social media streams. This platform allows for the easy management of multiple social media accounts, allowing you to customize post-times & days, and then schedule posts quickly via the Queue only for those days. It offers built in analytics, direct posting to Instagram & Instagram stories, team management features & more - assuming you are willing to pay for those features.

Overall, Buffer was probably my favorite social media management platform due to its simplicity & base features, yet it suffers in a few key areas.

Cons

I loved using Buffer for the period of time that I actually used it, but quickly discovered that the platform could not suite my needs because of one insurmountable obstacle - price. As a non-profit youth organization, having a low overhead cost for platforms such as this is extremely important, and I quickly found myself unable to continue using Buffer as my social media team grew simply because I could not afford their $65 CAD/month just to be able to have a second user (without admin privileges). The added features like direct Instagram Story & first comment seem interesting for me, but not at the cost $663/annually when there are alternatives (be it, with less features) out there that offer a lower overhead cost AND non-profit discounts.

Furthermore, while the platform itself is extremely simple to use, I found their pricing structure & different brand building products to be quite confusing - with products such as "Reply", "Publish" and "Analyze" featuring little to no immediately accessible descriptions, and each one carrying a different pricing structure & subscription requirement.

Lastly, one feature I've found on other social media platforms (but not on buffer) that I wish were available is the ability to draft a single post that can be queued in multiple social media channels, and customized for each channel. With buffer, you would need to recreate each post - which can take added time dependent on your social media channels.

Pros

Buffer makes it easy to schedule out your social media posts ahead of time and you can also manage multiple different accounts from one place.

At our marketing company, it's also easy for clients to understand and use on their own time whether they're on their phone or computer.

Cons

Using Instagram with any social media scheduling app can be a pain and Buffer is no exception to this rule. Some IG posts have to be scheduled manually which defeats the purpose if you're just using Buffer to control IG accounts.

Their pricing structure is also confusing with different prices for publishing, analyzing and replying. It can make it difficult for potential clients to understand exactly what they're paying for.

Pros

Buffer is extremely affordable, but in that the variety of options is limited. Buffer is extremely easy to use and as such I have had no problem teaching team members to use it in a matter of minutes. Being able to post directly in groups is a game changer.

Cons

When I first started using buffer the analytics side of the equation was included in all plans, now that it's separate it's harder to justify the price tag.

Pros

Does what they say which is allows one to schedule posts to social media.

Cons

Raised their price for individual accounts from 10 to 15 a month. Went to the free plan because of it then you lose posting abilities. Software has always had issues with it as each "upgrade" can result in loss of features. I hesitate to upgrade because of this. Sometimes it is best to leave things along. Some of the responses the software give can seem sophomoric, "Oops" comments, how about programming in not allowing times that have gone by instead of the comments? Every third post the app hangs for at least 3 minutes which is very annoying. They had better versions than the current ones as of late.

Pros

It's very easy to use if you're new to scheduling. Just connect the platforms and you'll be scheduling in no time.

Cons

The bolt-on features are on different pages and hugely expensive. Prefer to keep everything in one place and make the prices affordable rather than big leaps.