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Social media can be overwhelming and scheduling your time is a necessary skill for any business owner. There’s no need to shell out the money when there are plenty of free tools available that won’t make you feel like an obligation or worse.
Users may plan posts to social media networks for free using free social media scheduling tools. We looked at 15 social media scheduling tools and narrowed them down to the best six based on reporting, content kinds, social media platforms, and simplicity of use, as well as the sorts of companies they’re suitable for.
How We Tested Free Social Media Scheduling Apps
Social media scheduling solutions save time and resources for companies by enabling them to plan updates to social media platforms ahead of time and providing data on social media growth. We looked at various top solutions to help you choose the best free social media scheduling tool.
Our key assessment criteria are as follows:
- We looked at what platforms the tool supports and how many social accounts and posts it includes in the free plan.
- Analytics and reporting: The tools we looked at should be able to provide meaningful post data that aids in overall social media marketing success.
- We looked at the many sorts of material that these programs can schedule, such as numerous photographs at once, movies, and animated GIFs.
- Ease of use: Social media scheduling solutions should have a low learning curve, allowing you to save time while using them.
Buffer is our #1 free social media scheduling tool based on the criteria outlined above. Buffer is perfect for businesses that want a drag-and-drop calendar as well as specific post-performance data. Overall, its simplicity of use and content generation are excellent, and it is well-suited to the demands of new social media marketers.
Buffer
Buffer is the finest social media scheduler for busy organizations who want an easy-to-use, drag-and-drop scheduling calendar as well as for analytics on each post success rather than simply overall performance analysis, like Hootsuite and Social Report provide. Buffer also has a one-click rescheduling function inside their reports that enables you to postpone popular postings.
Features
Buffer’s free plan includes Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, and Instagram social network post scheduling. Buffer also offers a drag-and-drop scheduling calendar that makes it simple to shift material from one location to another. It also includes a report that displays the most popular and least popular posts on each platform separately rather than as a group, as well as the ability to “re-buffer,” or reuse, popular content.
Included Accounts and Platforms
Buffer’s free subscription enables you to manage three social media accounts. Buffer’s free plan has a 30-post limit each 30-day period, but no daily restriction. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, and Instagram are among the sites that Buffer supports. However, since you can only link three social network accounts at a time, you’ll have to choose which ones you wish to utilize. Pinterest is not currently available in Buffer’s free plan.
Types of Content
Buffer is a social media management application that lets you publish several photographs on Instagram and Facebook as well as share links. Buffer, on the other hand, does not yet enable you to schedule your own films. You may also plan material for up to 90 days in advance, which is significantly less than Hootsuite and Social Pilot.
Reporting
Buffer provides simple statistics to monitor your social media growth (as measured by followers) and individual post interaction. These data may be seen for each post published in the previous 30 days or as an aggregate report to illustrate your progress. These reports may also be exported to.pdf and Excel (.xls) as standard formats. It does not, like Social Pilot, allow you to export reports to PowerPoint.
The Ease of Use
Buffer makes scheduling social media postings a breeze. You pick the social media accounts for which you want to schedule posts from the dashboard, input the material for which you want to plan posts, and then select the date for which you want your content to be published.
Running reports has proven to be problematic for certain users due to the process’s lack of intuitiveness. Buffer is presently working on making this process more straightforward.
Cons
Buffer’s social media marketing reporting is limited to basic post and engagement metrics. It doesn’t provide cross-platform comparisons or social media monitoring to check whether your firm gets referenced. It also seems to wander off the calendar from time to time, failing to publish at the precise time you specified. Additionally, Buffer’s interface does not enable you to publish videos.
User Feedback
The majority of customers appear to prefer Buffer’s simplicity, with the exception that Buffer does not provide more extensive reporting. The majority of customers seem to be pleased with the product, particularly the inexpensive cost and simplicity of use of Buffer’s dashboard. Buffer’s sole unfavorable evaluations request that it be somewhat more complete in its reporting and that it loses connections to social accounts from time to time, resulting in planned posts not being sent to social media profiles.
Dashboard for Buffer.
“My favorite social media scheduling tool is Buffer, and I’ve been utilizing their services for over seven years.” I like how simple the design is and how easy it is to upload, schedule, and analyze material across all of your social network platforms. For solopreneurs, bloggers, and small company owners, it’s the perfect social media planner.”
— Monu Rohila, Hoho Media & Infotainment Agency Director
Hootsuite
For individuals who want to check how all of their accounts are functioning in one location, Hootsuite is the ideal scheduling application to utilize. While other social media management systems allow you to monitor stats, they don’t display them all on one dashboard as Hootsuite does. Hootsuite can also show you what’s planned and keep track of when your company is discussed on social media. It’s perfect for companies that run various social media initiatives.
Features
Apart from social media scheduling, Hootsuite includes a number of other valuable functions. On the Hootsuite dashboard, one of the most unusual features is the ability to manage many accounts at once. Bulk scheduling using a spreadsheet, which enables you to upload several articles at once, and launching a contest or sweepstakes from the dashboard are two more capabilities. The user may now “boost” a post on Facebook directly from the Dashboard for Hootsuite.
Included Accounts and Platforms
Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram are all supported by Hootsuite. Because the free plan only enables you to schedule posts on three social media accounts, you’ll need to decide which three to use. On any of these sites, Hootsuite will enable you to plan up to 30 posts in a month.
Reporting
Basic reporting is available in Hootsuite, allowing you to watch the development of each social media account as well as general interaction. Unlike Buffer, Hootsuite’s reporting does not indicate the performance of individual postings. Its reporting enables you to choose keywords to “listen” for on social media so you can keep track of what people are saying about a subject or your brand. As usual, you may export these reports to.pdf and Excel (.xls) files.
The Ease of Use
Hootsuite is a simple-to-use platform that allows you to get started straight away. You choose whatever platform you want to plan a post for from a sidebar, then write your post and input the date and hour you want it to go live. If you’re not sure how to utilize a feature, it has a quite comprehensive FAQ section that can generally resolve any concerns.
Cons
It is not possible to postpone popular posts in Hootsuite. To repost them, you’d have to recreate them. Hootsuite also doesn’t enable you to plan posts with more than one picture at a time, so you won’t be able to schedule Facebook collages or Instagram multi-image posts for now.
User Feedback
On G2, users generally give Hootsuite mixed ratings. Users seem to think the platform is a little out of date, and they desire a scheduling tool that keeps up with social network developments. Due to continuing issues with the Hootsuite and Facebook interface, a few users reported having trouble getting their scheduled articles published on Facebook.
Hootsuite dashboard.
Social Pilot
Social Pilot is a free social media scheduling tool designed for small teams that wish to plan social media posts in bulk using a Google or Excel spreadsheet. Social Pilot is a full-service social media management and reporting application that goes beyond post submissions. This is an excellent alternative for small companies who don’t have the time to manually schedule posts but want to plan ahead weeks or months.
Features
Apart from the ability to plan social network postings in bulk, Social Pilot includes a few unique features. These postings feature the option to view all of the material and posts planned for a given day in one location, as well as the ability to schedule a single post across numerous social media platforms at the same time.
Included Accounts and Platforms
Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram are all supported by Social Pilot’s free plan. On its free plan, Social Pilot enables you to schedule posts on three social media accounts, with each account allowing you to schedule up to 10 posts per day and 30 posts per platform every 30 days.
Types of Content
You may use Social Pilot to share links and single photos on Instagram and Facebook. You can’t publish videos from the scheduling dashboard on the free plan right now. You may also plan material for up to 90 days in advance, which is a little less than Hootsuite and Social Pilot.
Reporting
You may build reports on how your social media marketing is doing on Social Pilot, including comparing your progress on other social media platforms. In comparison to Buffer and Hootsuite, Social Pilot’s free subscription does not provide post-engagement data. Search reports that contain mentions of your brand or sector on social media are also included in Social Pilot, which may help you plan future content.
User-Friendliness
When you first start using Social Pilot, it is not intuitive. This is because learning where the various accounts are, how to choose the times to schedule, and how to run reports takes some experience. Navigation becomes much simpler if you know where these items are, but there is a learning curve due to the positioning of these elements.
Cons
In order to reuse material, Social Pilot does not provide information on the popularity of individual postings. It’s also more difficult to use than the other programs we tested.
User Feedback
The majority of G2 Crowd customers who have given reviews for Social Pilot seem to love utilizing it in their businesses, particularly after they’ve figured out how to use the dashboard. The most common issue is the steep learning curve that most people face while using Social Pilot for the first time.
Zoho Social
Zoho Social is a free social media scheduling tool designed for teams that need to collaborate on social media content. Zoho Social focuses on putting your postings in front of the appropriate audience at the right time, thus it offers detailed data, such as the optimal times to publish and cross-platform performance tracking, to help you improve your overall social media marketing outcomes. This is a good choice for mid-sized companies with bigger marketing departments.
Features
Zoho Social has a few unique features, like a location where you can plan out your social media material as a team and a place where you can get an overview of your post publication plans. In addition, Zoho Social provides extensive data that includes trend analysis and an examination of how your content is doing across various platforms.
Included Accounts and Platforms
The free plan of Zoho Social enables you to manage a complete brand’s social media profiles; integrations include Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, and Instagram. Its free plan also comes with a URL shortener that lets you monitor link clicks across all platforms.
Reporting
The free Zoho Social plan includes metrics for any platform to which a company is linked using the Zoho tool. Its metrics include analyzing post interaction and the most popular posts on Facebook and Twitter, as well as comparing the performance of your brand’s social profiles.
User-Friendliness
When you first start using Zoho Social, it’s easy to become lost since it has so many features. It becomes a lot easy to use once you comprehend the layout. It does provide some videos to help with the learning process and to demonstrate how to utilize the tool effectively.
What Zoho Social Isn’t Giving You
You cannot change the features that appear on your dashboard in Zoho Social. In addition, Zoho Social does not have a function that enables mass posting or scheduling of posts. Each post must be written separately.
User Feedback
The majority of Zoho Social user evaluations on Capterra are good. Some of the unfavorable reviews mention that you can’t add or remove items à la carte; instead, you must purchase the whole plan or you won’t be able to use the services included in your plan. For a free plan, most customers value the opportunity to communicate with their team and the depth of reports.
Dashboard for Zoho Social.
SumAll
SumAll is a free social media management and scheduling application designed for those who have many social media accounts on various platforms. SumAll will let enterprises with brands or goods with their own profiles to manage them for free, with no restriction on the number of profiles they may add.
Features
SumAll has a few unique features, like a location where you can plan out your social media material as a team and a place where you can get an overview of your post publication plans. SumAll also provides extensive data, which includes trend analysis and a look at how your content is doing across all platforms.
Included Accounts and Platforms
SumAll links to Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter for free. As part of its free plan, it enables you to create an infinite number of profiles and post to those profiles.
Reporting
SumAll doesn’t have any reporting capabilities other than showing you what material is planned for the profiles linked to the Dashboard for SumAll There is no post-performance, growth, or engagement reporting.
The Ease of Use
SumAll’s interface features a very clear navigation, which makes scheduling posts a breeze. This dashboard compiles all of the material you’ve planned to publish into a single calendar. It also offers a switchable date filter so you can identify what gaps you may need to fill with fresh material.
Cons
SumAll does not enable you to configure your dashboard to show just the platforms for which you are actively creating content. It also lacks a function that enables users to submit content in bulk. Most notably, SumAll lacks reporting capabilities.
User Feedback
SumAll’s features are well-liked by users, particularly because it is free. Some users have reported that navigating away from the website forces them to log in again each time they return. There are additional issues if you attempt to schedule material using the iOS app rather than the website. However, the majority of G2Crowd user evaluations of SumAll are good.
SumAll dashboard.
Crowdfire
Crowdfire is a free social media solution that is excellent for small teams looking to rapidly grow their social media followers and fans. With the stroke of a button, Crowdfire enables you to rapidly follow and unfollow anyone on your Twitter and Instagram accounts. It’s an excellent choice for companies looking to expand their audience and engagement in the near run.
Features
Crowdfire focuses on getting followers that are interested in a given subject on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. It provides statistics on the number of followers or “likes” on your social media accounts, as well as content development suggestions depending on the themes you choose.
Included Accounts and Platforms
The free version of Crowdfire allows you to connect to Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. It enables one account per social network on its free account. In addition, each 30-day period is limited to just 10 postings.
Reporting
Crowdfire’s free plan only allows you to view one day’s worth of reporting and is geared toward increasing your number of followers and fans. Post-performance and engagement data is restricted since it only indicates an overall rise or decline.
The Ease of Use
Crowdfire’s interface is overloaded with a chatbot that is continuously attempting to catch your attention and various offers flashing for upgrades. The social media profiles are similarly hidden behind a button; you must click on one to view them. It’s a little tricky to navigate because of this.
Cons
In comparison to Buffer or Hootsuite, Crowdfire limits the number of posts you may make in a 30-day period. It also doesn’t let you configure the interface so that you just see the platforms you’re working on right now. Finally, it lacks a function that enables users to bulk upload content.
User Feedback
While users who use Crowdfire primarily to generate organic followers and fans seem to appreciate the site, those who use it to schedule material have reported concerns such as difficulty seeing what content is planned and not knowing how to change a post after it has been scheduled. Also, when you use Crowdfire to answer to a Tweet, it adds “via @crowdfire” at the end of your remarks, which some people disliked.
Dashboard for Crowdfire,
Final Thoughts
Businesses may save many hours of effort by scheduling posts across all major social media platforms, planning future posts, collaborating with their team, and running reports that measure the company’s overall social media marketing success using free social media scheduling tools. Small companies who want to sell on social media but don’t have the time to do it on a regular basis can use social media management and scheduling solutions.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best free social media scheduling tool?
I would recommend using Buffer, as it is the best at giving you a sense of how your posts are performing. You can also use Hootsuite if you want to organize multiple social media accounts in one interface and have more extensive options for scheduling.
How do I schedule social media posts for free?
In order to schedule social media posts for free, you can create a bot on Twitter and Facebook. These bots automatically post content from the platform at pre-defined time intervals or when certain keywords are used in a tweet or comment. You can also use automation software such as Buffer.com
