Updated for 2026 · competitor facts verified 2026-10-04
Seven social media schedulers compared on what they publish to, how fast you can fill a calendar, what you can measure and what it costs. Competitor facts are read from their own pages.
Every feature free to start. No credit card required.
Our pick is Byvano. It schedules and publishes automatically to Instagram, Facebook and YouTube from one calendar, includes analytics, bulk CSV scheduling, AI caption drafts and an API, and every feature is free until 17 March 2027 with no credit card. It is built around an online store: the video you schedule can be shown on your product page with the product tagged in it.
The other six on this page are Buffer, Hootsuite, Later, Metricool, Publer and Sprout Social. Each is described below in its own words, with a link to a full side-by-side comparison.
| Tool | YouTube | Bulk scheduling | Analytics | Shoppable video | Pricing | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Byvano | Yes — Business/Creator | Yes — Pages | Yes — videos and Shorts | Yes — CSV import | Yes — Instagram, Facebook and YouTube | Yes — core product | Free until 17 March 2027, then Free, $29 or $99/mo |
| Buffer | Yes | Yes | Yes | UNKNOWN | Yes | UNKNOWN | See buffer.com |
| Hootsuite | Yes | Yes | UNKNOWN | Yes | Yes | UNKNOWN | See hootsuite.com |
| Later | Yes | Yes | Yes | UNKNOWN | Yes | Yes | See later.com |
| Metricool | Yes | Yes | Yes | UNKNOWN | Yes | UNKNOWN | See metricool.com |
| Publer | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | UNKNOWN | See publer.com |
| Sprout Social | Yes | Yes | Yes | UNKNOWN | Yes | UNKNOWN | See sproutsocial.com |
Our pick
Byvano is a social media scheduler and social commerce platform in one. You plan posts on a calendar, it publishes them on time, and it shows you what worked. Then it puts your best videos on your store.
Buffer is the reference point in this category. It has been publishing to social networks for over a decade, its interface is deliberately spare, and it prices per channel rather than per seat — which makes it unusually cheap for one person running a handful of accounts and unusually expensive for a team running forty.
Hootsuite is the oldest and most enterprise-oriented product in this comparison. It sells to marketing teams and agencies that need approvals, permissions, social listening and reporting across many accounts, and its published pricing starts an order of magnitude above Byvano's.
Later grew up around Instagram and still shows it: the visual grid planner is its signature, and its positioning leans toward creators, influencer marketing and visually-led brands. Of the general-purpose schedulers it is the closest fit for Byvano's actual audience, which makes it the most useful comparison on this list.
Metricool leads with measurement rather than publishing, covers a wide range of networks, and prices aggressively — including a free tier. It is the strongest value proposition in this comparison for someone who wants reporting across many channels without an enterprise contract.
Publer is the most feature-dense product in this comparison relative to its size, with an unusually long list of supported networks and a large surface of publishing options. Its pricing is not published in a form that can be read without running JavaScript, so this page does not state it.
Sprout Social sells to marketing organisations: deep analytics, employee advocacy, formal approval chains and stakeholder-ready reporting, at published prices that put it firmly in the enterprise tier of this comparison.
Start with the networks you actually post on. Every tool here covers Instagram and Facebook. Check that it covers the others you use, and that it publishes automatically instead of sending you a reminder.
Then look at how you fill the calendar. If you plan a month at a time, bulk scheduling from a spreadsheet saves the most hours.
Check what is measured and whether analytics cost extra. A scheduler without results only tells you what you posted, not what worked.
Finally, look at how the price grows. Some tools charge per channel or per user. Byvano uses flat plans, so adding an account does not change the bill.
Competitor facts were read from each vendor's own pricing, features and channels pages on 2026-10-04. The head-to-head pages list the source URLs.
Where a value could not be read from the vendor's own site, this page prints UNKNOWN. Byvano's own column describes the product as it runs today.
Byvano is free until 17 March 2027 with every feature included, no credit card and no cap on scheduled posts. After that it has a Free plan. Several other tools on this page also publish free tiers, with limits listed on their pricing pages.
For a small business that sells products, Byvano: one person can plan a week of Instagram, Facebook and YouTube posts in one sitting, and it costs nothing to start.
Instagram Business and Creator accounts, Facebook Pages and YouTube channels. LinkedIn Pages are coming next.
No. These tools publish through the official APIs the networks provide for businesses. What moves reach is the content and how consistently you post.
Every competitor value was read from that company's own published pages on 2026-10-04, and each head-to-head page lists the source URLs it used. Where a value could not be verified it is printed as UNKNOWN rather than guessed.
Schedule Instagram, Facebook and YouTube posts from one calendar. Every feature is free to start, with no credit card.
Get Started Free →