Buffer or Later: Which Scheduler Should You Actually Pick?

Pick Buffer if X is part of your mix, if you want to try a scheduler without paying, or if you post to more than a couple of platforms. Pick Later if Instagram is the channel that matters and you plan your feed visually before you post.

Two facts settle it for most people, and neither is about features. Later ended X support in August 2025. Later has no free plan and Buffer does. If either applies to you, the decision is already made.

The short version

Where these figures come from: our saved Buffer and Later comparison pages, checked September 2026. They are reference points from our own research, not live checkout quotes, and neither company publishes a native GBP price. Confirm current pricing and plan limits before you buy. This article is written by the founder of a competing product, so treat the recommendation as a shortlist rather than an independent test.

The three things that actually decide it

1. Later does not publish to X

Later ended X support in August 2025. If X is part of how you post, Later means running a second tool alongside it, which usually costs more than the difference between the two products.

This is the single most decisive fact in the comparison and it is the one most old articles still get wrong, because they were written before the change and never updated. Check the date on anything you read about Later's platform list, including this.

2. Buffer has a free plan and Later does not

Buffer's free tier covers three channels with ten queued posts per channel. That is genuinely enough to find out whether scheduling changes how you work, which is the question most people are actually asking when they compare these two.

Later gives you fourteen days and then asks for money. Nothing wrong with that, but it means you cannot casually try it.

Ten queued posts per channel is the limit worth understanding on Buffer. It is a queue depth, not a monthly cap: publish one and a slot frees up. If you batch a month of content in one sitting across a single channel, you will hit it. If you schedule a week at a time, you will not notice it.

3. Their pricing scales on different things

Buffer charges per channel. Adding Instagram, then LinkedIn, then Facebook raises the bill each time. Cheap at one or two channels, and the cheapest option if that is genuinely all you use.

Later charges per social set, where a set is a bundle of accounts. That suits one brand posting everywhere, and it gets expensive if you manage several brands.

So the crossover depends on your shape, not on which is "cheaper":

• One or two channels, one brand: Buffer is cheaper.
• Five or six channels, one brand: Later's bundling usually wins.
• Several brands: check both carefully, because this is where the models diverge most.

What Later is genuinely better at

Later's Instagram visual planner is the best in the category and it is not close. You see your grid as it will look before anything publishes, and for a brand where the feed is the shop window, that is worth the price on its own. Buffer has a preview; Later has a planning tool.

Later also leans into creator and influencer workflows, more so since the Mavely acquisition. If that is your world, it is built for you. If it is not, you are paying for it anyway.

What Buffer is genuinely better at

Breadth and simplicity. Buffer publishes to Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, X, Threads, TikTok, Pinterest, Bluesky, Mastodon and Google Business Profile. It does one job, the queue, and does not ask you to learn a system.

Its AI Assistant writes captions from a prompt. It is text only, it does not make images, and it does not know your brand beyond what you type into it. Useful for unsticking a blank box, not for producing a week of content.

Neither of them writes your content

This is the honest limitation of the whole category and it is worth saying plainly before you pick one.

Buffer and Later are both scheduling tools. They take content you have already made and put it out at a sensible time. If your bottleneck is "I have posts and I forget to publish them", either will fix it and you should choose on the three points above.

If your bottleneck is "I sit down on Sunday and cannot think what to post", a scheduler does not help. You will still be staring at a blank box, just a better organised one. That is a different product category, and it is worth knowing which problem you have before you pay for a solution to the other one.

Rheos is in that second category: it reads your website to learn your brand, drafts the posts and the images, then schedules them. It costs £55 a month, has no free plan, and publishes to LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook and X, which is fewer platforms than either tool here. If breadth of platforms is what you need, Buffer is the better answer and we would rather say so.

Frequently asked questions

Is Buffer or Later better for Instagram?

Later, if Instagram is your main channel. Its visual grid planner shows your feed as it will look before you publish, which Buffer does not match. Buffer is better if Instagram is one of several channels, because Later's strengths are concentrated there.

Does Later still support X or Twitter?

No. Later ended X support in August 2025. Buffer still publishes to X. If X is part of your content mix, that single fact rules Later out unless you are willing to run a second tool.

Which is cheaper, Buffer or Later?

It depends on your shape rather than on the headline price. Buffer charges per channel, so it is cheapest at one or two and rises as you add more. Later charges per social set, which suits one brand posting across many platforms. Both are priced in USD, so a UK buyer pays an exchange rate on top. Check both pricing pages directly, since plan structures change.

Does Buffer or Later have a free plan?

Buffer does: three channels with ten queued posts per channel. Later does not; it offers a fourteen-day trial. If trying before paying matters, Buffer is the only one of the two that allows it.

Do Buffer or Later write posts for you?

Neither writes finished content. Buffer's AI Assistant generates caption text from a prompt. Later offers caption suggestions and content ideas. Both are text only, neither generates images, and neither learns your brand voice from your website. You still supply the content and the visuals.

Can I use both?

You can, and some people do: Later for Instagram planning and Buffer for everything else. It is two subscriptions for one job, so it is usually worth picking the one that fits your main channel and living with the compromise on the rest.