SocialPilot vs Buffer: Social Media Scheduling & Automation Tools

Both Buffer and SocialPilot have AI asistants, bulk scheduling options and browser extensions. But SocialPilot is better for agencies because of the white label feature, while Buffer’s free plan is perfect if you’re just starting solo.

I used both tools and found they have good scheduling and social media management capabilities. But there are some differences that would make you choose SocialPilot over Buffer. 

Below is a comparison of  SocialPilot vs Buffer features, pricing models, support, ease of use, and how they work.

SocialPilot vs Buffer for social media automation

Who is SocialPilot best for?

SocialPilot is best for small teams and large agencies handling multiple accounts. You can manage multiple social media accounts at a flat rate, assign tasks to a team and get approval from clients. Plus, the white label features allows agencies to customize the client-facing aspects of the app to match their brand styling.

Large social media management agencies can utilize the software’s Agency + or Agency plans which allow:

• Management of up to 50 social media accounts (agency+ plan) and 30 accounts (agency plan). 
• Unlimited users and clients for easy collaboration (but the agency plan only allows 6 users). 
• Pre-approval of messages by clients.
• Bulk scheduling of up to 500 posts across multiple social media platforms. 
• Integration with other software such as Canva for easy content creation.

These features make it easier to run multiple profiles and pages, automate posts without CC-ing your clients, and manage your team seamlessly.

And you can bulk schedule for future planning. 

How does SocialPilot work?

SocialPilot works by providing a single dashboard to manage and auto-publish posts on Facebook, Instagram, X (formerly Twitter), TikTok, Pinterest, YouTube, LinkedIn and Google Business Profile. It is an AI-powered social media management tool that integrates with Canva, a hashtag generator and watermark editor for customizing posts.  

One thing I love about SocialPilot is that it’s easy to use and navigate through whether you’re a beginner or have used other platforms.

All you need is to sign up for an account at SocialPilot, the phone app (which you can download from Play Store or Apple Store), or the browser extension. 

Once on the homepage click on “Start your free trial.” 

Then proceed to select your preferred plan and click on “Start your 14-day trial.” This will bring up the Sign Up form where you’ll create an account using your name and email.

Once you’ve created the account you can add your social media channels and start customizing, creating, and scheduling posts.

Who is Buffer best for?

Buffer is best for beginners, solopreneurs, and small teams managing few accounts. Beginners can manage upto 3 channels for free while using the social media scheduling and publishing tools, a landing page builder, an AI content creation assistant. For analytics, engagement and team collaboration tools, you’ll need to subscribe to the paid plans.

How does Buffer work?

Buffer works by providing a single dashboard to schedul and auto-publish posts to Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, Pinterest, TikTok, YouTube, LinkedIn, Google Business Profile, Mastodon and Shopify. It has an AI assistant and composer to create customized posts for each platform, customizable scheduling times, and a browser extension to pull content from any web source into the composer.

Buffer also has agency tools like approval processes, access control, analytic tools and exportable reports.

Buffer works like SocialPilot.  All you need is to sign up for an account at Buffer.

Once you’re on the platform click on “Get started here” as shown below:

This will take you directly to the signup page where you’ll create an account using your email and password.

Once done, you’ll have your Buffer account and can start your social media automation journey.

You can start by adding your social media channels and customize the start page to give it a unique feel and look. 

However, at this stage, you’ll only enjoy the free plan features. 

If you’re on a paid plan and want more features, you’ll need to cancel the 14-day trial to get full access to your plan’s features.

Click on “Start subscription now” as shown below:

After which a window will pop up to confirm your plan and add your payment details.

Confirm your plan and click on “Go to payment.” Another window will appear where you’ll fill up your debit card information.

Once you fill out everything, click “Subscribe,” and you’ll be automatically upgraded to your plan’s features.

SocialPilot vs Buffer pricing

SocialPilot has a flat rate pricing model starting at 30 US Dollars per month while Buffer charges per channel starting at 6 US Dollars per channel per month. When dealing with many social media accounts, Buffer is way more expensive than SocialPilot.

Below’s a breakdown of SocialPilot vs Buffer pricing plans.

SocialPilot pricing 

SocialPilot has 4 plans (all plans support all social media channels offered):

• Professional plan at 30 USD per month: 10 social media accounts managed by 1 user. This plan has the basics like auto-publishing, AI content creation assistant, bulk scheduling, image editor, custom CTAs and URL shortener. But it doesn’t have team and client collaboration tools. Neither does it have the whitelabel reporting or social inbox to reply to comments and messages.
• Small Team plan at 50 USD per month: 20 social media accounts managed by 3 users. This plan has everything in the Professional plan. It also has social inbox, content approval workflows, pdf reports, and Instagram Image Tagging to tag collaborators from the dashboard.
• Agency plan at 100 USD per month: 30 social media accounts managed by 6 users. This plan has everything in the Small Team plan. It also has UTM paramenters, adding watermark on images, whitelabel reports, scheduling pdf reports via email, unlimited clients and client approvals.
• Agency+ plan at 200 USD per month: 50 social media accounts managed by unlimited users. This is the ultimate plan that offers everything including a whitelable dashboard.

For each plan, you can pay extra for add-ons.

Buffer pricing

Buffer has 4 pricing plans, (all plans support all social media channels offered):

• Free plan: connect up to 3 channels. This plan allows you to schedule up-to 10 posts per channel at a time. You get all content creation and publishing tools except the hashtag manager to save and reuse hashtags, first comment scheduling, analytics and reporting tools. You don’t also get the team management tools like access control and approval workflows.
• Essentials plan at 6 USD per channel per month: This plan has everything in the Free plan, plus unlimited scheduled posts, unlimited Twitter Threads, hashtag manager, and first comment scheduling. You also get all analytics and reporting tools except custom branded reports and automated cover page for pdf reports. This plan doesn’t include team management tools except adding internal comments to your content.
• Team plan at 12 USD per channel per month: This plan has everything in the Essentials plan plus branded reports and automated cover page for pdf reports. It also includes all team management tools like approval workflows and access permissions. It’s the ultimate Buffer plan with everything included.
• Agency plan at 120 USD per month for the first 10 channels: Additional channels cost 6 USD per channel per month. This plan discounts agencies with more than 10 channels. It has everything in the Team plan.

SocialPilot vs Buffer features

Unlike Buffer, SocialPilot has whitelabel tools for agencies and a social inbox to reply to comments and messages in one dashboard. And unlike SocialPilot, Buffer has a landing page builder and sentiment labels to identify comments that need immediate attention.

However, Buffer and SocialPilot have some common social media management features like AI assistant for content creation, bulk scheduling, content approval workflows, team access control, analytics tools, reporting tools, and engagement tools.

The section below breaks down SocialPilot vs Buffer social media management and scheduling features.

SocialPilot features

• Whitelabel: this is a customization feature only available on SocialPilot ’s agency+ plan. It allows you to package and resell SocialPilot as your own company. You can add your brand logo, and customize the landing page, email, and URLs. I also like the fact it is easy to use hence you can do everything with a few clicks.   
• Social Inbox: helps you manage inboxes from a central position making it easy to reply to comments effortlessly and timely. You can reply to posts, comments, messages, Instagram Stories and Google Business Profile reviews
• Bulk scheduling: is perfect whether you’re a marketing agency or a solopreneur like me. You can simply create image posts and videos for a whole week in a day and schedule them for posting daily. You’ll only need to visit your inbox to reply to comments to keep your audience engaged.
• RSS feed integration: You can share your favorite blog posts on social media using this feature.
• Image editor: Allows you to customize images and watermark them if need be. 
• Social Media Calendar: Allow you to plan out weekly or monthly posts for bulk scheduling.  
• Multiple image and carousel posts: for editing multiple images individually for each of your social media channels.
• Instagram image tagging to tag collaborators for your scheduled posts inside your SocialPilot dashboard.
• Client approval workflows to collaborate with clients and get feedback on drafts before scheduling.
• Client management to onboard new clients and add new accounts easily.
• Reporting and Analytics to review posts performance and share reports with your clients.
• Schedule Reports to auto-generate and email weekly or monthly reports.
• Custom UTM parameters to track each post’s performance.

Buffer features

• Sentimental labels to automatically identify negative comments or queries that need immediate attention.
• Landing page builder: Create a landing page to put together all your content in one place. You can then place this page as a link in your bio.
• Content ideas with AI: get up to 2000 content ideas with the Agency or Team plan and store them for later use. Makes content creation a bliss when operating multiple social platforms.
• Image and Video Post scheduling. You can also include thumbnails for YouTube videos.
• Reporting and Analytics with performance overview for impressions, comments, and new followers. You can also view hashtag performance and individual post analytics, including boosted posts.
• Hashtag manager: to save and re-use hashtags for various social channels.
• Custom UTM parameters to track each post’s performance.

SocialPilot vs Buffer support

SocialPilot and Buffer offer different both online and offline customer support via email, call and chatbots. 

SocialPilot support

SocialPilot offers online support via chat, which is accessible through their website, the app, or from your account. 

You can chat with an agent 24 hours a day 5 days a week. What I like most about it is that they connect you directly with an expert and you’ll get your issues solved almost instantly. 

You can also contact them through email or schedule a call depending on your preferred time.

Other kinds of support include the concierge set-up support for new users. This is more like an onboarding process since you get help setting up your accounts, customizing features, and collaborating with teams and clients.

You can also get help/support from the FAQs and resources on their website for quick answers to common problems. 

They have a vast compilation of videos and how-to guides to help you with setting up, managing, and using various channels on the platform.   

Buffer support

Unlike SocialPilot, Buffer support is limited. The fastest way to get help is through their FAQS and website resources consisting of blogs.

And although you can use their online help platform you’ll have to wait several hours before you get a response.

However, if you have a pressing issue, you can schedule a call to speak to their support team.

SocialPilot vs Buffer ease of use

SocialPilot and Buffer are generally easy to use. So, you don’t need prior experience or knowledge to navigate.

SocialPilot ease of use

I love SocialPilot’s dashboard because everything is well displayed. Once you’ve set up the account, you get to this clean dashboard.

You can start by adding your social media accounts. 

Once your accounts are successfully added, you can customize your profile and add your organization/business details.

But you can also go straight to creating and scheduling posts.

In case you don’t find whatever you’re looking for, you can chat with online support and get instant help.

How to bulk schedule posts using SocialPilot

Buffer ease of use

Buffer is quite an easy platform to use as well. Once you have your account ready, you head straight to the dashboard.

Although I don’t find it as streamlined as SocialPilot, it’s a straightforward platform.

How to use Buffer for social media scheduling

SocialPilot vs Buffer integrations

Integrating SocialPilot and Buffer with other channels is easy since you seamlessly access other software as you create content.

SocialPilot software integrations

SocialPilot integrates with:

• Bitly
• Zapier
• Giphy
• Google Drive
• Dropbox
• Canva
• Unsplash
• and more

You access a variety of software like Zapier, Slack, and URL shorteners by clicking on the settings icon on the upper right.

For Canva or Unsplash, you’ll conveniently find them below the text box as you create content.

Buffer software integrations

Buffer software integration is smooth and you’ll find them all in one location. You’ll have access to a variety of apps including:

• Dropbox
• Canva
• Giphy
• Google Drive
• Google photos
• One Drive
• Unsplash 

From the create post window, click on the tiny arrow below the text box, and a pop-up with all the apps will appear. 

Try SocialPilot for free!

From this SocialPilot vs Buffer analysis, it’s clear that SocialPilot is the best social media scheduler. It has excellent features for individuals, small teams, and large agencies alike. They also have flexible payment plans that offer more for less which could offer a better return on investment.

Start your 14-day SocialPilot trial to enjoy these benefits and more. 

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