Note: Competitor free-plan details below were checked against each vendor’s own pricing page on 29 August 2026. Plans change often, so verify before committing.
Free scheduling plans differ in a way the feature lists hide. Some cap how many posts sit in the queue at once and refill as posts publish, so over a year you can schedule an unlimited number. Others cap how many you may schedule per month, which is a hard ceiling.
A “10 post” limit of the first kind is far more generous than a “20 per month” limit of the second. That distinction, plus channel count, is what separates these seven.
At a glance
| Tool | Channels | Scheduling limit | Limit type |
|---|---|---|---|
| BulkPublish | 3 (1 per platform), extendable at $2.99 each | 3 per day | Daily |
| Buffer | 3 | 10 per channel | Queue, refills |
| Publer | 3 accounts | 10 per account | Queue, refills |
| Zoho Social | 6 (fixed set) | Not capped | Channel-limited |
| Pallyy | 1 social set | 15 per month | Monthly cap |
| Metricool | 1 brand | 20 per month | Monthly cap |
| Mixpost Lite | Unlimited | Unlimited | Self-hosted |
One caution before reading across that table: the units are not the same, so the numbers are not directly comparable. BulkPublish counts a post once no matter how many channels it goes to, so three a day means three pieces of content across everything you have connected. Buffer’s allowance is per channel and Publer’s is per account, which is where their 10 comes from. Check each vendor’s own wording before assuming a bigger number is a bigger allowance.
1. Buffer
- 3 channels, 10 scheduled posts per channel, refilling as they publish
- API access on free: 1 key, 3,000 requests/month
- Paid from $5/channel/month billed annually
Thirty queued posts across three channels, and the slots come back as posts go out. For steady daily posting this is effectively uncapped, which makes it the most generous free tier here for volume.
The thing to look ahead at is the pricing model: per channel, so cost scales with the accounts you add.
2. BulkPublish
- Channels: Free: 3 (1 per platform). Pro: 30 (2 per platform). Business: 75 (5 per platform).
- Posts: Free: 3/day. Pro: 30/day. Business: unlimited. A post counts once however many channels it goes to.
- Storage: Free: 100 MB. Pro: 2 GB. Business: 10 GB.
- All 15 platforms available on free, none withheld
- Extra channels are $2.99/month each and can be added to the free plan
Three a day is roughly 90 a month, and the cap is daily rather than monthly, so a quiet week does not bank credit for a busy one. Per-platform customisation is included on free rather than reserved for paid.
The free plan is also the only one here whose channel count is not fixed. Every other free tier on this list stops where it stops, and a fourth connection means buying the paid plan; here a fourth channel is $2.99 a month and the plan stays free. That is a different kind of generosity from Buffer’s, which is volume rather than connections.
The limit that binds first for video is storage, not posts: 100 MB does not hold many exports.
3. Zoho Social
- 6 channels, the highest free channel count here
- Fixed set: X, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn Company Page, LinkedIn Profile, Google Business Profile
- 1 team member, 15-day trial of paid then permanent free
No stated post cap, and six channels including X and both LinkedIn surfaces. If your accounts are inside that fixed six, this is the most capable free tier on this list.
If you need TikTok, YouTube, Pinterest or Threads, they are not available at all, which makes it unusable rather than merely limited.
4. Publer
- 3 social accounts, 10 scheduled posts each, refilling
- 25 saved drafts, 24-hour published-post history
- X cannot be connected on the free plan
Close to Buffer’s shape with a useful drafts allowance. Two caveats: the X exclusion, and that your published history is kept for only 24 hours, so the free plan is not a record of what you posted.
5. Pallyy
- 1 social set, 15 posts per month, 1 user
- Includes the content calendar and analytics on free
- Paid from $15/month Starter, $25 Pro for unlimited posts
Fifteen a month is a hard cap, so this is a genuine trial rather than a long-term free plan. What it does give you free is the calendar view, which several of the others reserve for paid.
6. Metricool
- 1 brand, 20 posts per month, 30 days of analytics, 5 competitor profiles
- Excludes LinkedIn and X on the free plan
- Paid from €16/month (about $20) for 5 brands
The analytics allowance is the most generous here and the publishing allowance is among the tightest. Worth using free if you want competitor tracking; not if you want to schedule.
7. Mixpost Lite
- Free and open source, unlimited accounts and posts
- Publishes to Facebook Pages, Mastodon and X only
- Pro $299 one-time unlocks the rest, Enterprise $1,199
The only genuinely unlimited option, because you run it yourself and nothing is metered. The cost is operational: a server, updates and backups.
Choosing between them
- Check platform exclusions first, since they eliminate options outright: Publer has no X on free, Metricool no LinkedIn or X, Zoho Social a fixed six, Mixpost Lite three.
- Work out your monthly publishes, which is posts multiplied by platforms, then compare against the cap in that tool’s own units.
- Note whether the cap refills or resets. Buffer and Publer refill; Pallyy and Metricool are monthly ceilings.
- Check the paid plan you would grow into, because that is the one you will actually be on, and whether it is priced per channel.
The short version
Buffer has the most generous free scheduling volume. Zoho Social gives the most channels, if yours are among its six. BulkPublish is the only one here with no platform withheld on free. Pallyy and Metricool are trials wearing a free-plan label. Mixpost Lite is unlimited if you will run a server.