Managing multiple social media accounts while running your small business feels like spinning plates in a hurricane.
Consistent posting is vital to growth, yet something always slips when you balance content creation, follower engagement and business operations. Social media scheduling tools offer the perfect solution to this challenge.
The ideal scheduling tool transforms social media chaos into a streamlined process and saves precious hours every week. Dozens of options are accessible to more people now, which makes selecting the best social media scheduling tool a daunting task based on your needs.
Our team tested and compared 5 prominent social media scheduling tools that suit small businesses perfectly. Whether you prefer Buffer’s straightforward approach or Sendible’s robust analytics, we’ll guide you toward the right solution that matches your budget and goals.
5 Best Social Media Scheduling Tools
Choosing the right social media scheduling tool can revolutionize your approach to managing content. These platforms simplify your work process, ensuring your brand stays active, responsive, and engaged. With a myriad of options available, finding the perfect fit for your needs is crucial. Let’s explore the top social media scheduling tools that small businesses will find invaluable.
1. Buffer
Trusted by over 160,000 small businesses, Buffer is a detailed social media toolkit that makes your social media management trip easier. Small business owners and team managers will find Buffer’s easy-to-use interface turns social media scheduling from a chore into a competitive advantage.
Buffer Features and Capabilities
Buffer helps you keep a consistent social presence on multiple platforms. The platform’s best features are:
- Content planning with customizable posting schedules
- AI-powered content generation and repurposing
- Visual planning tools with a content calendar
- Engagement tracking and analytics
- Team collaboration tools with simplified processes
Buffer’s Start Page lets you create a beautiful landing page at no cost. The social media engagement tools bring your Facebook and Instagram comments to a single dashboard. This makes managing interactions the quickest way possible.
Buffer Pricing Plans for Small Business
Buffer’s flexible pricing grows with your business needs. The free plan has these features:
| Plan | Price | Key Features |
|---|---|---|
| Free | USD 0 | 10 scheduled posts per channel |
| Essentials | USD 6/month per channel | Buffer’s advanced analytics, reporting, and engagement tools. |
| Team | USD 12/month per channel | Unlimited users and collaboration features |
How Buffer Saves Time for Small Teams
Buffer changes your social media workflow by automating everyday tasks. Users save up to 60 hours monthly with automated publishing and reporting features. The browser extension schedules content while you browse without switching tabs.
The AI Assistant simplifies content creation by helping you:
- Generate fresh content ideas quickly
- Repurpose existing posts for different platforms
- Rewrite copy with a single click
Buffer’s permission levels and approval flows let the core team work independently while you retain control. Analytics tools provide applicable information about post-performance. This helps you improve your strategy using data instead of guesswork.
Buffer stands out by showing all social media comments in one dashboard. You can respond quickly and have engaging conversations with your audience. This feature alone saves hours you’d spend switching between platforms.
2. Later
Later stands out as a powerhouse among visual-first social media scheduling tools. Businesses that heavily rely on image and video content love it. The platform started as an Instagram scheduling tool and evolved into a detailed solution that supports multiple social networks while staying true to its visual-first roots.
Later’s Visual Planning Tools
Later’s Visual Planner makes content planning user-friendly and changes how you organise social media content. The platform’s Media Library acts as your content hub. You can store unlimited media files and access them from all your devices.
The drag-and-drop calendar simplifies scheduling. Just drop your content into preferred time slots and Later takes care of the rest. You can also check your Instagram grid layout before posts go live to keep your feed looking consistent.
Later’s Instagram-Focused Features
Later supports multiple platforms, but its Instagram features shine. Here’s what makes it a powerful tool for Instagram management:
- Stories and Reels Scheduling: Schedule Instagram Stories and Reels ahead of time, with auto-publishing capabilities for business accounts
- Visual Feed Planning: Preview and adjust your Instagram grid to maintain your brand’s look
- Analytics and Insights: Monitor performance metrics and get detailed data about your Instagram engagement
Later’s Link in bio feature creates a custom landing page that turns your Instagram and TikTok profiles into shopping destinations. This tool helps direct traffic to your products or content and converts followers into customers easily.
Later’s Small Business Pricing Options
Later’s flexible pricing plans grow with your business:
| Plan | Monthly Price* | Key Features |
|---|---|---|
| Starter | USD 16.67 | 1 social set, simple features |
| Growth | USD 30.00 | 3 social sets, advanced analytics |
| Advanced | USD 53.33 | Unlimited posts, full feature access |
*Annual billing prices shown here save you 4 months compared to monthly billing.
Each plan has simple features like auto-publishing, hashtag suggestions, and a custom Link in Bio page. The Growth plan gives small teams great value with access to 150 posts per social profile and detailed analytics.
Later’s AI-powered Caption Writer helps small businesses create engaging Instagram captions quickly. The platform also suggests the Best Time to Post for Instagram and TikTok. This ensures your content reaches your audience during peak activity times.
3. SocialBee
SocialBee revolutionises your social media management. This detailed social media scheduling tool blends smart content organisation with AI capabilities to give you an edge in social media management.
SocialBee’s Content Categories System
The platform’s innovative content categories system makes it stand out. These categories work like smart folders that sort your posts by type and help you keep your content mix balanced. Your posts stay sorted in categories such as:
- Promotional posts
- Educational content
- RSS feed imports
- Curated industry news
- Engaging questions and quotes
This system automatically recycles evergreen content while removing time-sensitive posts when they expire. You can create different posting schedules for each category, so your promotional content won’t overwhelm your educational posts.
SocialBee’s AI-Powered Features
The AI Copilot takes your social media strategy to new heights. This smart assistant helps you succeed in several ways:
It creates custom posts for each platform with over 1,000 AI prompts. The system adapts your content automatically to perform well on each social network.
SocialBee’s AI speeds up your content creation by a lot. It writes social media posts from detailed prompts, turns long articles into summaries, and creates promotional content from product descriptions.
The AI post editor helps you write engaging captions that match your brand’s voice. You can pick different tones like polite, witty, or enthusiastic to make your content appeal to your audience.
SocialBee’s Cost-Effective Plans
The platform has flexible pricing that adapts to your business needs:
| Plan | Monthly Price | Key Features |
|---|---|---|
| Bootstrap | USD 29.00 | Connect up to 5 social profiles 1 user/ workspace | 1 workspace Analytics up to 3 months of data |
| Accelerate | USD 49.00 | Connect up to 10 social profiles 1 user/ workspace | 1 workspace Analytics up to 2 years of data |
| Pro | USD 99.00 | Connect up to 25 social profiles 3 users/ workspace | 5 workspaces Analytics up to 2 years of data |
Every plan has the AI post generator, Canva integration, and analytics tools. The platform works with all major social networks like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest, and TikTok.
SocialBee shines with its integration ecosystem. You can access Canva for design, Unsplash for stock photos, and GIPHY for GIFs – all in one place. The hashtag generator suggests relevant tags based on your images or captions automatically, which saves you research time.
Teams benefit from excellent collaboration features. You can set up multiple workspaces, control team permissions, and streamline content approval. The analytics dashboard gives you a clear picture of your social media performance, so you can improve your strategy based on real data.
4. Crowdfire
Crowdfire started as JustUnfollow in 2010. Now it has grown into a detailed social media management platform. The platform helps users find content and schedule posts. This tool is a chance to handle both content creation and distribution tasks effectively.
Crowdfire’s Content Discovery Features
The platform stands out with its resilient content curation system. Users can share relevant content through multiple channels:
- Article Curation: Unlimited articles recommended based on your topics
- Image Curation: Access to approved, shareable images with proper credits
- RSS Feed Integration: Connect up to 25 feeds in the VIP plan
- Blog and eCommerce Integration: Your Shopify, Etsy, WordPress, or YouTube updates transform into automatic posts
The smart content discovery algorithm suggests articles and images that line up with your audience’s interests. This saves hours you’d spend searching for content manually.
Crowdfire’s Publishing Tools
Crowdfire’s publishing features create simplified processes. The platform provides:
Scheduling Flexibility: Posts can go live immediately or follow custom schedules. You can also use automated best-time posting based on audience engagement patterns. A calendar view displays your content strategy with colour-coded indicators for successful and failed posts.
Cross-Platform Customization: Content adapts automatically for each social network. This removes the need to create different posts for various platforms. Post previews show exactly how content will look on each platform.
Bulk Scheduling: Premium and VIP plans let users schedule multiple posts at once. This works great for advance content planning.
Crowdfire’s Pricing Plans
The platform has four pricing tiers that match different business needs:
| Plan | Monthly Price | Key Features |
|---|---|---|
| Free | USD 0 | 10 posts per account, 3 social profiles |
| Plus | USD 9.99 | 100 posts per account, 5 social profiles |
| Premium | USD 49.99 | 100 posts per account, 10 social profiles |
| VIP | USD 99.99 | 800 posts per account, 25 social profiles |
Each plan has unlimited article and image curation. Higher tiers add features like:
- Bulk scheduling capabilities
- Extended analytics access
- Priority customer support
- Team collaboration tools
Annual billing brings substantial savings. The Plus plan drops to USD 7.48/month, Premium to USD 37.48/month, and VIP to USD 74.98/month. Users get access to major social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Pinterest.
Crowdfire’s value shines especially when you have eCommerce platforms like Shopify. New products automatically become social posts. The platform’s analytics help track top-performing posts and find the best posting times for your audience.
5. Sendible
Sendible stands out as a powerful social media scheduling tool that gives small businesses simple team collaboration tools and detailed analytics. The platform blends complete reporting with natural team coordination.
Sendible’s Team Collaboration Features
Sendible’s collaboration tools help optimise your team’s workflow. You can automate the review process with custom approval workflows – perfect when you manage junior team members and interns. The platform lets you:
- Assign posts for approval before they go live
- Create custom user permission groups
- Enable secure client access through dedicated dashboards
- Integrate with design tools like Canva, Dropbox, and Google Drive
The platform’s Client Connect feature lets your clients add their social profiles without sharing admin credentials. This promotes collaboration while keeping everything secure.
Sendible’s Analytics and Reporting
Sendible’s robust reporting capabilities turn your social media data into actionable insights. Each plan has pre-built reports that cover key metrics from Google Analytics to engagement statistics. The platform lets you:
Generate detailed reports with over 250 drag-and-drop modules to customise your analytics. The reporting hub gives you eight channel-ready social media reports to spot trends and identify top-performing posts across platforms.
Automated delivery options make reporting quick and simple. You can schedule custom-branded reports to reach your team or clients daily, weekly, or monthly. Everyone stays informed without manual work.
Sendible’s Pricing Plans
The platform offers flexible pricing tiers that grow with your business:
| Plan | Monthly Price | Features |
|---|---|---|
| Creator | USD 29.00 | 1 user, 6 social profiles |
| Traction | USD 89.00 | 4 users, 24 social profiles |
| Scale | USD 199.00 | 7 users, 49 social profiles |
| Advanced | USD 299.00 | 20 users, 100 social profiles |
| Enterprise | USD 750.00 | 80 users, 400 profiles |
Sendible gives you great value compared to competitors, with savings of up to 71% on similar features. Each plan has unlimited scheduling and simple reporting. Higher tiers give you advanced features such as:
Scale Plan Benefits:
- Content library access
- Custom branding options
- Automated client reporting
- Dedicated account manager
The workflow management system helps organise tasks quickly with bulk importing and a complete content library. Teams can work together naturally across departments, from social media managers to designers. This ensures consistent brand messaging on all channels.
Sendible excels at scalability and client management. The platform’s permission system creates custom access tiers. Your team members get exactly the right level of access they need. This detailed control prevents mistakes while keeping workflows smooth.
Agencies and growing brands benefit from Sendible’s white-label features. Custom branding options and domain settings help maintain your agency’s identity throughout the client experience.
Conclusion
Social media scheduling tools help small businesses turn overwhelming social media management into a manageable daily task. These tools come with distinct advantages. Buffer excels with its easy-to-use interface, and Sendible distinguishes itself through its comprehensive analytics capabilities.
The selection of a scheduling tool might feel overwhelming initially, but your specific needs will make the decision easier. Your posting frequency, number of social accounts, and need for detailed performance tracking should guide your choice.
The time saved through automated scheduling can go toward creating better content and building genuine connections with followers. You can begin with a single platform and become skilled at its features. Your social media presence will grow steadily without the daily pressure of manual posting.
