Planoly vs Buffer (2026): Bundle Pricing vs Per-Channel Pricing, Priced Out

2026-09-04 · 6 min read · By Marcus Lin · NoobClaw Blog

TL;DR

Buffer: $5 per channel per month (Essentials) or $10 (Team), free tier of 3 channels. Channels above 10 cost less per channel — Buffer says so on its own page.
Planoly: roughly $14 / $24 / $47 a month for 1 / 2 / 6 social sets, where a set bundles one profile per network.
For one brand on five networks Planoly costs about $14 and Buffer about $25. For eight accounts on one network Buffer costs $40 and Planoly costs $63.
Buffer's "unlimited scheduling" is capped at 5,000 posts per channel by its fair-use policy. Planoly publishes no post cap.

This is a comparison between two completely different theories of what you are renting. Buffer rents you connections, one at a time, and gets cheaper the more you take. Planoly rents you bundles, and a bundle is generous or absurd depending on the shape of your accounts.

Which means there is a crossover point, it is computable, and nobody prints it. Here it is.

Verified prices

Both checked against the vendors' own pricing pages on 4 September 2026.

Buffer	Price	Channels	Notes
Free	$0	3	10 scheduled posts per channel
Essentials	$5 / channel / month	Unlimited (priced per channel)	$60/channel/year
Team	$10 / channel / month	Unlimited (priced per channel)	$120/channel/year, unlimited members

Planoly	Annual (per month)	Monthly	Social sets	Users
Starter	$14	$16	1	1
Growth	$24	$28	2	2 (+$10/set, +$5/user)
Pro	$47	$55	6	6 (+$8/set, +$3/user)

Buffer's page states the volume behaviour in its own words: channels 1–10 are priced at the standard rate, and any channels above 10 cost less per channel. It also states that unlimited scheduling is subject to a fair use policy that caps usage at 5,000 posts per channel — the second number, again, doing the real work.

The crossover, computed

The variable that decides this is not how many accounts you have. It is how many networks you are spread across versus how many accounts you have on any one network.

Case 1 — one brand, five networks (IG, TikTok, Pinterest, Facebook, LinkedIn):

Planoly Starter: one set. $14/month.
Buffer Essentials: five channels × $5 = $25/month.
Planoly wins by $11.

Case 2 — eight Instagram accounts, nothing else:

Planoly: eight sets. Pro ($47) covers six, plus two add-ons at $8 = $63/month.
Buffer Essentials: eight channels × $5 = $40/month.
Buffer wins by $23.

Case 3 — three brands, three networks each (9 connections):

Planoly: three sets. Growth ($24) covers two, plus one add-on at $10 = $34/month.
Buffer Essentials: nine channels × $5 = $45/month.
Planoly wins by $11.

Buffer charges you for every connection. Planoly charges you for every identity. Count which of those two numbers is bigger in your operation, and you have your answer before you read a feature list.

Planoly vs Buffer · per-identity bundle pricing versus per-connection pricing — Count your identities and your connections separately. Whichever number is smaller tells you which pricing model to rent.

Where Buffer's volume discount matters (and where it does not)

Buffer's per-channel price drops above ten channels — that is stated on its own pricing page, though the exact per-channel figures above 10 are not itemised there. So the linear $5 × n arithmetic above is a ceiling, not the final bill, once you cross ten.

Practically: below ten channels, treat Buffer as strictly linear. Above ten, get the real number from Buffer before you commit — the difference compounds. We looked at that curve specifically in Buffer's volume pricing at scale.

The free tiers are not comparable

Buffer's free tier gives you three channels and 10 scheduled posts per channel — you refill as posts publish, so it functions as a rolling queue depth, not a monthly quota. It is genuinely usable for one person on three networks who plans a few days ahead.

Planoly's free tier is mobile-app only, 10 uploads a month. That is a trial in disguise.

If a permanent free plan is a hard requirement, Buffer is the only one of the two that has one worth the name.

What each includes that the other does not

Planoly ships Link in Bio, digital-product selling and Instagram DM automation on every tier, Starter included. Its tiers gate scale, not capability — which is the opposite of how most of this category is built, and genuinely good news if you are small.

Buffer is leaner and more neutral: scheduling, a queue, basic analytics, an AI assistant, and API access with published request quotas. It supports more networks and does not push you toward one platform's aesthetic.

Neither supports Chinese platforms — no Douyin, Xiaohongshu, Kuaishou, Bilibili, Toutiao or WeChat Channels.

The thing both are silent about

Both of these deliver posts you already wrote. Neither produces different content for different accounts. If you run several accounts in the same niche, the expensive part of your week is not clicking publish — it is generating material that is genuinely distinct per account, because posting near-identical content across accounts is the single easiest pattern for a platform to spot.

NoobClaw exists at that end of the problem: each account in its own isolated local browser profile under your own login, generating its own content from its own niche and persona, with randomised human-like timing instead of one synchronised queue. It is not a replacement for a content calendar and it does not do client reporting. But if the sentence "I have nine accounts and they all need their own posts" describes your week, no scheduler on this page moves that.

The users column, which nobody compares

Buffer's Team tier at $10 per channel includes unlimited members. Planoly meters users tightly: 1, 2 and 6 by tier, with additional users at $5 or $3 each.

So for a two-person operation on five connections:

Buffer Team: 5 channels × $10 = $50/month, both people included.
Planoly Growth: $24 for 2 sets and 2 users — but five networks on one brand is only one set, so Starter at $14 would cover the connections and not the second person. Starter plus a second user is not offered; you move to Growth at $24. $24/month.

Planoly wins that one comfortably. Flip it to a five-person team and the picture changes again: Planoly Pro at $47 covers six users, Buffer Team stays at $50 for five channels regardless of headcount. Roughly level — and that is the point. Three variables (identities, connections, people) and two products that meter different subsets of them. There is no ranking, only a fit.

Before you buy, verify

Buffer's actual per-channel price above ten channels. Buffer states channels above ten cost less but does not itemise the curve on its pricing page. Get the real number if you are crossing that line — see Buffer volume pricing at scale.
What Planoly counts as one set today. Bundle definitions change more often than headline prices.
Which of your networks each supports. One missing network settles the comparison faster than any table.
Today's figures. Both of ours are dated 4 September 2026.

Planoly vs Buffer · three variables metered differently by each vendor — Identities, connections and people. Each vendor meters a different subset — which is why the winner keeps changing.

FAQ

Is Planoly cheaper than Buffer?

Only when your accounts are spread across networks rather than stacked on one. One brand on five networks: Planoly, by roughly $11 a month. Eight accounts on a single network: Buffer, by roughly $23. Count both numbers before you decide.

What does Buffer's 5,000-post cap actually restrict?

It is a fair-use ceiling on "unlimited" scheduling, applied per channel. For nearly all human publishing schedules it is irrelevant — it exists to stop automated firehoses. It matters mainly if you are recycling an evergreen library at volume.

Can I move between them without losing my calendar?

Neither vendor offers a native import from the other. Plan on exporting your scheduled queue as CSV where possible and rebuilding — and treat that migration cost as part of the price difference when the gap is under about $15 a month.