Not a lot in life is free. When you do get some kind of free offer, there’s usually a catch involved. This isn’t the case with the following free social media posting and scheduling tools.
Sure, you don’t get access to all the features and you’ll be restricted in terms of how many social platforms you may connect and posts you may schedule. However, if you’re still starting out and responsible for managing and growing only your own social media presence, the free plans offered by the following tools will usually meet your needs. After all, why pay for things that you’re probably not going to use (at least not in the early days)?
We’ve noticed that there are now fewer completely free social media scheduling tools than previously, however. So, we also include platforms that place a time restriction on their free plans. These tools may not be as suitable as the completely free plans for small users, wanting to access just a few features, as those platforms that offer a “Forever free” plan. However, they are great for users wanting to try out various social media scheduling tools to see which suits them best, before committing to their preferred one.
We’ve searched the internet, read reviews, and tried out a number of social media scheduling tools to come up with a list of the best free social media scheduler tools.
Please note that although we have included case studies in each of these reviews, they generally don’t represent users of the free plans (although many would have started their involvement with the product by using a free trial). The operators of social media scheduling and publishing tools tend to focus their case studies on successful paying customers, and probably never know about the people who find value from their free products.
16 Free Social Media Scheduling Tools to Simplify Multi-Platform Management in 2024:
- 1. Loomly
- 2. Sendible
- 3. Planoly
- 4. Iconosquare
- 5. Agorapulse
- 6. HeyOrca
- 7. Buffer
- 8. Socialoomph
- 9. Crowdfire
- 10. NapoleonCat
- 11. Tailwind
- 12. Later
- 13. SocialPilot
- 14. Hootsuite
- 15. CoSchedule
- 16. ContentCal
- Features to Look for in Social Media Scheduling Tools
- Comparing Top Free Social Media Scheduling Tools
- Optimize Your Social Media Strategy with the Best Free Scheduling Tools
- Frequently Asked Questions
Supported Networks: Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, X, Pinterest, YouTube, TikTok, Snapchat, and Google Business Profile Limitations of the free version: Loomly doesn’t have a Forever Free plan, so is only free for a 15-day trial (no credit card required). During those 15 days, you have access to the full product – you can try the top-tier Premium plan if you choose. Pricing: After the free 15-day trial you need to select a plan to continue using Loomly. Pricing starts at $42 per month, but you can save a substantial 25% by signing up for yearly billing. As we’ve mentioned, Loomly is only free for its 15-day trial period. What you pay after that depends on the plan you’ve selected. You can pick any plan during your trial period and enjoy its features. If you opt for the Base plan after your trial, you still have useful capabilities. You can use up to two users, and post to a generous 10 social accounts. This should be enough for most small and medium-sized businesses. Even this Base account gives you unlimited scheduling, direct publishing, a hashtag manager, link managers, and unlimited media storage. Base plan users gain access to all content creation and engagement features, along with some relating to reporting (post analytics dashboard and link shortener analytics). Trusted by thousands of marketing teams that include global brands like L’Oréal Paris, Porsche, and BMW, Loomly does a lot more than simply scheduling. In terms of its scheduling capabilities, it integrates with virtually all the major social networks and supports automated publishing even on platforms like TikTok. However, it currently doesn’t support automated publishing for Snapchat. That said, it can help with manual publishing by sending you reminders for the platform and for other custom channels. If you have no content to schedule, you can check out the custom post ideas that Loomly shares. Alternatively, you can refer to the central library where Loomly lets users store digital assets, like links and videos, to be used later. All features are available during your free trial (depending on the plan you select). These include: Loomly has received a range of awards recently. These include Most Implementable Small Business (Winter 2024), Best Results (Winter 2024), Top 100 Highest Satisfaction Products (Best Software Awards 2024), and Fastest Implementation – Enterprise (Winter 2024). Plant With Purpose is a non-profit based in San Diego, California. It was founded in 1984 by Tom Woodard, who recognized the link between deforestation and rural poverty. In 2021 the organization opted to work with Loomly to try and reach more people with its social accounts. Since then, Plant with Purpose has seen an increase in website traffic, visitors, and supporters as the organization has doubled in size. Strategic Approach Plant with Purpose changed from using a manual system (a bunch of folders saved to a hard drive, with graphics for social media and a Google Sheet with copy and slots to input analytics) to Loomly’s automation. According to Philippe Lazaro, Communications Manager and Storyteller at Plant With Purpose, “Thankfully, we no longer have to use such an ad hoc system [after switching to Loomly]. Monitoring and seeing what works well has also become important as the social media landscape has changed so much. And I don’t think we would have been able to do so effectively based on that old system.” They love being able to custom-tailor each post for the appropriate social media platform, and not having to post everything to each social channel. Until recently (April 2024), The Scottish Institute of Theatre, Dance, Film, and TV was MGA Academy of Performing Arts. They adopted Loomly as their main tool in 2022. The institute’s Head of Marketing and Communications is Greg Clark. Since integrating Loomly into his social media workflow, Greg has saved substantial time by efficiently scheduling various types of content. Before using Loomly, Greg would spend two days each week prepping his week’s social posting. With Loomly, that time dropped to just a Monday morning. “Being able to gain a day and a half and not having to worry about social posting is a godsend.” Strategic Approach Greg (on behalf of The Scottish Institute of Theatre, Dance, Film, and TV) was able to take advantage of Loomly’s multiple flexible approval workflows, which ensure content is smoothly published and reaches target audiences effectively. They utilize Loomly’s ability to adapt each post to take advantage of a channel’s special features. Loomly features a clean design, which welcomes users to settle in without being overwhelmed by too much data. It’s simple to create posts, starting at a high level with the constant details common to all platforms, and then adapting each post to meet the needs of each channel. Loomly has integrations with Facebook and Instagram that allow you to target or restrict your audience by demo- and psychographics, as well as being able to create sponsored posts. While Loomly isn’t free after fifteen days, its lowest plan is comparatively inexpensive and includes all core features. Supported Networks: Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, X, YouTube, TikTok, and Google Business Profile Limitations of the free version: Sendible doesn’t have a Forever Free plan, and is only free for a 14-day trial. During those 14 days, you have access to either the Creator or Traction plans. This gives free access to most (but not all) features while you try the product and decide whether to pay for a plan after that. Pricing: Sendible offers a free 14-day trial (no credit card required). Pricing starts at $29 per month when billed monthly, but you can save 15% by choosing to be billed yearly instead. Sendible’s entry-level plan includes a maximum of 100 sends per day across 6 social profiles, although they note that the daily posting limit is lower during your trial period. While Sendible is only truly free for 14 days, it does offer an entry-level plan making it affordable to most small businesses. As we see in a case study below, even solopreneurs can gain great value from using the platform. You can auto-post directly to any of the social platforms and engage with comments for Facebook, X, and LinkedIn. You can even schedule and auto-post Stories to Facebook and Instagram. In the case of Instagram, you can plan and schedule reminders for Stories with interactive stickers and sounds. Every Sendible plan comes with useful, pre-built reports including Google Analytics, so you can showcase your campaign successes. If you’re somebody who loves to share other people’s content, then the Sendible Chrome extension makes this very easy. If you’re on a page that interests you, and you want to schedule a post related to it, then click on the Sendible icon in your Extensions bar and Sendible starts to create a post based on the page. Most features are available during your free trial (depending on the plan you select). These include: Sendible is currently showcasing the following awards: Leader (Winter 2024), Users Most Likely to Recommend – Enterprise (Winter 2024), Best Usability – Small Business (Winter 2024), Easiest to Use – Enterprise (Winter 2024), Best Results (Winter 2024), High Performer – Mid-Market (Winter 2024). Swamp Fox Bookstore is an independent bookstore in Marion, Iowa. They are a small store with a team of three. Operating a social media presence can be challenging because the team has a myriad of responsibilities. Sendible allows them to streamline their social media posting process, meaning it now takes less time to keep their Facebook page and Instagram feeds going with content. Strategic Approach The team at Swamp Fox Bookstore takes full advantage of the queues and repeat scheduling on individual posts. For the repeat scheduling, they have a post that gets sent every day encouraging people to stop by the store during their regular hours and if they can’t make it, to place orders online. They set up this post a month in advance, so they can change the photo or adjust their opening hours if necessary for the following month. Solopreneur Marc Creighton runs Social Media Manager Ireland, helping small businesses grow their digital presence. He offers a full suite of digital marketing and IT services. We don’t just do #SocialMedia, we also offer a range of #enterprise #email and #hosting packages, get in touch if you want to know more ➡️ https://t.co/PSGp6fbGqQ pic.twitter.com/AZMKlbXTFQ — Social Media Manager Ireland (@ie_smm) October 12, 2020 As his business grew, Marc found it challenging to reliably schedule content across a variety of platforms and report on social media activities. He initially struggled to find a product at the right price to do this. Sendible allows him to do this both from the desktop and while on the go for a competitive price. Strategic Approach His favorite feature is Client Connect. This allows a customer to connect their social profiles without sharing passwords. Marc has also found the built-in content library to be a big advantage, allowing him to build and store reusable content. As with other Sendible clients, Marc observes that Sendible has halved the time it takes him to schedule content. Sendible focuses on doing the basics well, without adding all the bells and whistles that some of its competitors have. This makes it an ideal social media posting and scheduling tool for many businesses. It is not free after your 14-day trial, but its lower-level plans are comparatively cheap, with sufficient features to make it viable for many small businesses. However, Sendible hasn’t ignored large businesses and agencies and offers a White Label plan where you can create dashboards with brand colors and logos, adjust system-generated email notifications, and use your web domain. Supported Networks: Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, X, LinkedIn. Limitations of the free version: The free version of Planoly limits you to one “social set” – which means you can have up to one of each social channel). You get access to a multi-channel workspace to repurpose content across channels and one dedicated workspace for Instagram & Pinterest each. You can auto-post, although you can’t post all content types to each platform. The main limitation of the free plan is with media (which is Planoly’s specialty on its paid plans). You can only make 10 media uploads per calendar month. Video content planning is accessible in the multi-channel workspace only (not the Instagram and Pinterest-specific workspaces). Some tools like Hashtag Manager, Ideas Manager, and the AI Caption Writer require a paid plan. As with many of the other social media scheduling tools reviewed here, Planoly offers a free trial on its paid plans, although this is shorter than many at just seven days. However, you do get access to everything on your trial, giving you a chance to try out some of the more advanced features. Pricing: Planoly offers a basic free plan with very limited functionalities. For the ability to plan for and schedule content across all social networks, pricing starts at $16 per month or $14 per month when billed annually. The main difference between the three paid plans (Starter, Growth, and Pro) is the number of social sets you can attach, users, and uploads/month. Despite its limitations, Planoly has one of the best free plans available. Indeed, small businesses and solopreneurs may find that the free plan is all they need. However, the lowest-tier paid plan is relatively inexpensive and is a better option for anybody wanting to share more than a few images. Planoly is currently highlighting the following awards: Highest User Adoption (Winter 2023), High Performance – Small Business (Winter 2023). Jenell B. Stewart is a brand coach and social entrepreneur. She launched a blog and a YouTube channel as outlets to express herself and build an online community. In time, these channels grew, and she eventually rebranded herself from the natural hair guru to a social media maven. She managed to turn her hobby into a six-figure business. Jenell struggled to keep up with posting as her channels grew and quickly realized that she needed a social media scheduler to help her keep up with the task. “Planoly has made it possible for me to post every single day, even sometimes multiple times a day without trading off time with my clients and the people that matter to me most.” Strategic Approach Jennell has found many of Planoly’s features particularly helpful, including quick schedule, auto-post, edit & share, drafts, account switcher, comments, and the history feature. For example, the quick schedule feature helps Jenell stay consistent with her posting schedule and sleep in a little bit on the weekdays. With help from a quick schedule and auto-post, Jenell can post daily on Instagram at 6 a.m. and interact with her community, despite still sleeping. “On Sundays, I sit down and open Planoly and start drafting out my content from my content buckets. I’ll put everything into my grid and plan out my week.” Chelsea Francis is an influencer and a cofounder of the lifestyle brand Fluffi. Through photography, words, consulting, and public speaking, Chelsea’s goal is to capture your story. Social media helps Chelsea achieve this. Like many influencers, Chelsea quickly ran out of time to perform all her social tasks manually on their native platforms. “I spend so much time in my inbox. Whether that’s on social media like answering comments or DMs or in my email. Plus, planning content takes time.” As a result of this, Chelsea searched for a platform that would help optimize her eight-hour workday. She has found that Planoly can do this for her. Strategic Approach Chelsea has particularly benefited from using features like the visual grid, scheduler, drag & drop, and comments to simplify her social media planning and scheduling. She loves using Planoly’s visual grid. It allows her to create a personalized grid that represents who she is as a brand. She uses Planoly’s comments feature to view and respond to Instagram comments directly on Planoly. At the time of our review, Planoly predominantly focused on Instagram and Pinterest, with Facebook and X (Twitter) having recently been added, and tacked onto a separate calendar. Since then, Planoly has added support for TikTok, YouTube and LinkedIn. They still operate separate advanced Instagram and Pinterest calendars, but now have a multi-purpose planning schedule for everything else. Planoly may have evolved, but it still very much keeps its visual focus. We observed in our reviews the ease that Planoly made of posting content to Instagram. Considering how important Instagram is to a social media strategy, it is surprising that more developers haven’t worked on simplifying the process. Instagram posting can be a chore on many of the competing platforms. Planoly has made a point of including all of Instagram’s offshoots, including Reels and Stories. Although Planoly’s support of the other social networks isn’t quite as advanced as that of Instagram (Pinterest is close), it has now added sufficient platforms to allow you to create posts and schedule them to your entire social set. Supported Networks: Instagram, Facebook, X, LinkedIn, TikTok, Pinterest. YouTube is coming soon. Limitations of the free version: Iconsquare is only truly free for a 14-day trial (no credit card needed). After that time, you will have to select one of the paid plans. Pricing: The platform offers a 14-day free trial. The smallest paid plan is the $59/month Single plan. This is for one user and allows you to use 5 social profiles. If you are prepared to pay annually, the Single plan equates to $49/month. Prices rise for teams and additional social profiles. Iconosquare prides itself on the quality of the data you can extract from the platform. But Iconosquare is much more than just an analytics tool. You can use it to view your analytics, schedule content, and check out your reports. You can easily upload content and have it in one place, ready to be scheduled. It lets you crop your images, add tags and mentions, create your first comment, add geolocation, and much more. Draft your posts and put them up for approval by your colleagues or clients, with an unique link. You can save time crossposting by creating a base post, and then schedule the same content on different social channels. During the duration of your free trial, you can experiment with all of Iconosquare’s features. These include: Iconosquare says that they now have more than 10,000 satisfied customers around the world. Recent awards include High Performer, High Performer – Mid-Market, and Easiest to Use – Mid-Market. Iconosquare is both an Instagram Partner and a Meta Business Partner. Horn Media is run and owned by sisters, Annika and Jessica Horn – daughter of acclaimed explorer Mike Horn. Mike Horn already had a strong Instagram following, currently having 974K followers. He also has a strong presence on Facebook (730K followers) and YouTube (822K subscribers). At that size, you can definitely consider him an influencer. Horn Media manages Mike Horn’s presence and image on social media. The social team (led by his daughters) is pleased that Mike has always understood the importance of social media and has kept a photographic and video record of his trips since the beginning. The social team has to work quickly at times, however. For example, Mike may use a satellite to beam in footage of his latest expedition to Horn Media and they have to be able to create exclusive posts before the traditional media report on the events. The team at Horn Media needed to know what content was of most interest to the Mike Horn community, to ensure that they posted appropriate and valued posts in the future. Monitoring the performance of the various social media profiles is fundamental to understanding what resonates with the audience. Strategic Approach Horn Media opted to use Iconosquare because of the quality of the data it provides. This helps Jessica to see which formats and topics are generating the most engagement. In turn, she can adapt future posts to be more valuable for Horn Media’s followers. She makes a point of planning a themed week of posts in advance. For example, Monday is #MondayMotivation, and Tuesday is #ChillyTuesday (for North Pole content). Gymshark Gymshark has built up an impressive social media presence of over 8M followers from 131 countries. They have a particularly strong presence on Instagram. The number one focus for Gymshark across all of its social media channels is engagement. They set themselves a target to double their follower growth each financial year while ensuring that engagement stats continued to rise – unusual for most social media accounts. Within weeks of using Iconosquare, the team saw positive results. After 1.5 years of using the platform, they saw a noticeable increase in key metrics like: Strategic Approach Gymshark chose to work with Iconosquare to assist their team perform various aspects of social media activity, from planning and scheduling content to data analysis. They gave 10 members access to the tool, from across the organization. Iconosquare streamlined Gymshark’s processes and saved them time. The regular reports they set up allowed them to track performance and optimize as required without having to do lengthy data extractions and analysis. Iconosquare is a powerful tool. Our reviewer felt its feature set was a perfect blend, making it easy to fall in love with and use. Its particular strength is with analytics – some of the most in-depth analytics we have ever seen. However, it is much more than that. You can use it to manage your social media and your analytics all in one place. It includes a versatile Post Scheduler tool that leverages drag-and-drop functionality, making it easy to order content. You can easily optimize your posts for each social platform. Our review itemized all Iconosquare’s main features – it’s a very long list. Yet it is not overly complex. You can easily unpack your data in an easy-to-understand format, using visuals that tell a clear story. Supported Networks: Facebook, Instagram, X (Twitter), LinkedIn, Pinterest, TikTok, YouTube Limitations of the free version: The free version of Agorapulse only lets you schedule up to 10 social media posts and add one user and three social profiles. It only provides basic reporting and retains up to one month of data. Plus, you won’t have access to the content library or an advanced social inbox, which makes it challenging to use it as a tool for managing your entire social media efforts. Pricing: In addition to offering a free plan, Agorapulse offers an extremely generous free trial of 30 days (no credit card required). Paid plans start at $69 per month, which gets reduced to $49 per month if you choose the annual billing option. During your free trial, Agorapulse gives you access to 1 user and 20 social profiles, although you can add up to 3 more users. They also give you access to their more advanced features like the Content Library and advanced Social Media ROI reports. TrustRadius – Top rated 2024 Kaspersky is a giant in the world of cybersecurity. They have more than 400 million users of their security products. Enhance your #security with Kaspersky Next! Our next-generation product line protects your business from multiple threat types, preventing and resolving critical #cybersecurity issues. Learn more: https://t.co/9MUxmI31an pic.twitter.com/WGzDKyWP1P — Kaspersky (@kaspersky) July 8, 2024 Jeff Esposito, Head of Social Media at Kaspersky, oversees a global team of 55 members, split between headquarters and regional teams. Before using Agorapulse, the Kaspersky social media team faced several challenges: Strategic Approach Kaspersky found that Agorapulse provided the best solution to these challenges. It offered robust security features, including multi-factor authentication, a critical requirement for Kaspersky to safeguard its digital assets. Agorapulse’s tagging and reporting features allowed Kaspersky to streamline its reporting process and analyze campaign success through detailed data analysis. Kaspersky was able to use Agorapulse’s reporting features to automatically aggregate relevant metrics and data points from all its platforms. Its team could instantly access up-to-date performance metrics in real time, empowering them to make timely adjustments to campaigns and strategies based on current data. Citrus Content is a UK-based content writing agency that specializes in real estate. Its core clients are estate agents. They were already using a social media scheduling tool before changing to Agorapulse but found that it couldn’t provide them with sufficiently in-depth reports about their social performance. At one point this meant that they had to use a second platform to build reports – adding to the time and effort they had to put into their social management. Strategic Approach Citrus Content chose Agorapulse because it did everything that they needed, without having to split their time across platforms as previously. They now have a robust tool that does both scheduling and reporting at a sufficiently in-depth level. In addition to its reporting capabilities, Citrus Content found that Agorapulse had some useful posting and scheduling capabilities. For example, Agorapulse’s auto image upload feature saved the company time. Andrea Morgan, Founder and Managing Director of Citrus, believes that auto image uploading saves a minute per post. We found Agorapulse to be a fully featured social media management program with an extremely user-friendly interface. Possibly its most useful feature is its inbox. This shows your comments, ad comments, mentions, conversations, and reviews relating to each of your social accounts. You can set rules that automatically clean up and organize each account’s inbox. You can post and schedule posts in multiple ways. The most powerful way is by using its bulk publish feature. You can import a series of posts from a CSV file, a website using RSS feeds, or a group of pictures to transform into posts. The Agorapulse Chrome extension is one of the best extensions we’ve seen. You can share virtually any webpage, including tweets. The main niggle in our review was the lack of Pinterest connectivity. Pleasingly, Agorapulse has now fixed this deficit, as well as adding support for TikTok and YouTube. Limitations of the free version: Although there’s no time limit for the free version of HeyOrca, you can only schedule up to 30 posts. This translates to one social media post a day for one account, which can be very limiting if you’re looking to ramp up your social media activity with a regular posting schedule across various channels. Pricing: Pricing starts with a free plan and extends to tiered paid options ranging from $24.65 to $149 per month, based on features and the number of calendars needed. Users benefit from a 40% discount when adding five or more calendars. HeyOrca emerges as a distinctive player in the realm of social media scheduling tools, designed with an acute awareness of the diverse needs of small to medium-sized agencies, nonprofits, and businesses. It emanates from a founder’s genuine struggle with existing tools and evolves into a comprehensive, user-centric solution. Unlike the predominant, complex platforms, HeyOrca epitomizes simplicity and efficiency without compromising on the robust features essential for seamless social media management. The best part is that it lets you schedule social media posts free of cost for an unlimited timeframe. Central to HeyOrca’s ethos is fostering enhanced collaboration between teams and clients. Its client-specific calendars stand as a testament to this commitment, offering tailored, intuitive interfaces that mitigate the complexities often associated with social media planning and approvals. Every feature is engineered to streamline processes, enhance accuracy, and augment the creative latitude of social media managers. The AI Caption Writer is a hallmark of HeyOrca’s innovation, a feature that underscores its commitment to simplifying and improving content quality. It enables users to generate engaging, contextually apt captions automatically. Limitations of the free version: Like with all of the free plans, certain features are excluded. In Buffer’s case, arguably the biggest downside to its free plan is that it doesn’t include any analytics, insights, or reporting whatsoever. Moreover, the free version of Buffer only lets you connect up to three social media channels and schedule up to 10 posts per channel. You also don’t have the option to schedule the first comment or videos. Pricing: Buffer offers a free plan with access to a limited number of social media channels (three). To access more features and add more social media channels, paid plans start at $5 per month per channel. You can also try these paid plans for free for 14 days. If you’re new to social media scheduling tools, Buffer is a good place to start. Not only does it offer a free plan (which is always welcoming if you’re not sure if you’ll actually use the tool), but it’s also very easy to understand and use. In fact, this is probably our favorite feature of Buffer. Its dashboard is clean and its branding that it’s applied consistently spurs you on to do the same for your own business. In addition to scheduling social media posts, you can also use it to plan and publish your content on Pinterest, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram. It even supports direct scheduling for TikTok, which will auto-publish your post at the chosen time. Alternatively, it gives you the option to set reminders for when it’s time to post to the platform. On top of its social media management features, its free plan also offers a useful landing page builder. With this feature, you can create a landing page for your brand that you can then use to share important info like a special promo or upcoming sale. Limitations of the free version: With the free plan, you can only add one social profile. Although you get unlimited scheduled posts, this capacity is still restricted with the ability to schedule a maximum of three posts every hour. So, it’s really only suitable for individual users who only need to schedule posts for a single social media account. Pricing: SocialOomph has a free plan with basic scheduling features. For more advanced posting features, you need to sign up for one of its premium plans which start at $15 per month. If you know that you’ll be posting frequently on only one platform, SocialOomph might be the most cost-effective solution. This free social media scheduling tool lets you schedule an unlimited number of social media posts from one social profile. That being said, compared to the other free post schedulers, SocialOomph is more difficult to understand and use. Connecting your social accounts via its clunky dashboard can test your patience. However, you probably suspected that this would be the case when you were greeted by its rather dated home page. Another con is that it doesn’t offer integration with all the major social media platforms. For instance, you can’t schedule posts for Instagram, LinkedIn, or TikTok. On the other hand, unlike most other social media tools, you can also add a Discord account and blog platforms (WordPress or Tumblr). Drawbacks aside, it offers a lot of functionality. With regards to posting and scheduling specifically, it makes it easy to tag which posts need approval or revision and which ones have been scheduled and published. Limitations of the free version: With the free plan, you can only link up to three social media accounts and schedule a maximum of 10 posts per account. This version also misses some key features such as custom posting schedule, video scheduling, and bulk scheduling. Moreover, it doesn’t support scheduling for Pinterest. Pricing: Crowdfire offers a free plan with limited scheduling features. For the ability to link more accounts and access additional features like post analytics, you’ll need to sign up for one of its paid plans starting at $9.99 per month or $7.48 per month with an annual subscription. If access to analytics is a must-have feature, Crowdfire’s free plan will get you fired up. While you’ll only get access to one day’s data, it includes advanced analytics as well which is rare to find with a free plan. This free post scheduler supports Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram. With the paid version, you can also schedule posts for Pinterest. It also has auto-tailored posts for the different platforms with previews before posting which comes in very handy if you’re posting on multiple platforms. However, one feature that it lacks in this department is bulk scheduling, which is only available with one of the Premium or VIP plans. Additionally, Crowdfire is the ideal scheduling tool if you want to streamline your content creation. It lets you curate an unlimited number of articles and images from across the internet even with the free version. Limitations of the free version: The main drawback of the free version is that it’s only accessible for a limited number of days, after which you’ll need to sign up for one of the paid plans. Pricing: NapoleonCat offers a free 14-day trial (no credit card required). Pricing starts at $32 per month for unlimited scheduling, but you can get two months free if you pay annually. NapoleonCat is an all-in-one social media management platform that’s trusted by brands like Energizer and has been featured by publications like SocialMediaToday. From individual content creators to small businesses to marketing agencies to growing teams, NapoleonCat can be used for various business needs. You can use it to publish and schedule content on several main channels – Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Google My Business, and LinkedIn – all via a single dashboard. It can be especially useful if Instagram plays a big role in your marketing strategy. You can also use it to publish and schedule Instagram Reels, schedule your first comment with your Instagram post, create Instagram carousels, and automate moderation of conversations on Instagram. Limitations of the free version: The free version of Tailwind lets you connect only one account for each social media platform and schedule a maximum of 20 posts across all channels. Moreover, only one user can access the free tool. Pricing: Tailwind provides a free forever plan with limited scheduling capabilities. For more scheduled posts, you need to sign up for one of its paid plans which start at $19.99 per month or $12.99 per month with an annual subscription. Trusted and loved by more than one million members including the likes of Shopify, Tailwind initially started as a tool for Pinterest marketing and analytics. Fast-forward more than a decade and they’ve expanded their functionality to include a number of other social networks. One of the features that set Tailwind apart from other social media management tools is that it also includes email marketing in its free plan. While it’s very basic (you can only send up to 20 emails per month), it’s a good place to start. Plus, this way you don’t necessarily have to invest in another tool for your email marketing. As mentioned, it started out as a Pinterest marketing tool, and as an official Pinterest partner, it’s still where its strong suit is. In fact, according to their website, you can plan and schedule an entire week of pins in just 20 minutes. Not only will it help you to save time, but with its SmartSchedule feature you will know that you reach your audience at the time that they’re most engaged. On average, their users can get nearly seven times more repins and almost four times more followers. That said, take nothing away from its Instagram scheduler. One special feature regarding its Instagram functionality that deserves special mention is that its free plan also includes a bio link tool. While other tools also offer this, it’s often only available if you sign up for one of the premium plans. Limitations of the free version: The free plan is limited to one user and one access group. You can only add one social set and schedule up to five posts per social media platform included in the set. Pricing: Later lets you sign up for a free forever plan without a credit card. For access to more advanced features, the paid plans start from $16.67 per month. You also get to try these paid plans for free for 14 days. If you’ll be posting mainly to Instagram, Later is one of the best free social media scheduling tools to try out and is great for visual content. In addition to Instagram, you can also use it to schedule posts to Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, TikTok, and LinkedIn. You can use the free trial for scheduling social media posts free of cost for a limited period. Later supports bulk scheduling and lets you post to all social media at once free of cost during the trial period. It even provides personalized recommendations on the best time to post so you can adjust your posting schedule accordingly. Limitations of the free version: The free version of SocialPilot is only accessible for a limited number of days. Pricing: SocialPilot offers a free 14-day trial (no credit card required). Pricing starts at $30 per month, but you can save 15% by switching to yearly billing. SocialPilot is a popular alternative to Sendible and offers sophisticated scheduling features. With SocialPilot’s social media scheduler, you can publish your content across Pinterest, TikTok, Google My Business, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube without effort. Considering this impressive list of supported networks, it’s a great solution if you want to post on multiple channels. Then, with the help of its advanced Post Composer feature, you can customize your posts for each of these different platforms by, for example, adding hashtags, alt texts, and mentions conveniently via one place. To make sure that all your custom elements appear as you have in mind, you can use the post-preview window. It will show you what your post will look like after it has been published on the individual networks. SocialPilot not only shines in terms of integrations and customization but also flexibility. It provides multiple scheduling options, making it a great tool if your target audience is scattered all over the world. You can schedule your posts immediately or add them to queues, helping you to reach your audience at a time that’s most convenient to them. Its bulk scheduling and content calendars are two of the other time-saving features that deserve special mention. You can schedule up to 500 posts at once, helping to fill up your content calendar quickly. And, just to make sure that there aren’t any gaps, you can use the content calendar for a micro as well as macro-level view. If you spot an issue, you simply use the drag-and-drop functionality to reschedule posts. Limitations of the free version: The biggest disadvantage of the free version is that there’s a time limit. It’s free to use only for the first month, after which you’ll need to start paying for access. Pricing: Hootsuite offers a 30-day free trial. Paid plans start at $99 per month for single-user access. Here’s the thing about Hootsuite. It’s one of the best social media management apps available on the market, but its free plan is extremely limited. Also, as soon as you want to access more of its functionality, it becomes expensive quickly. There’s a significant price difference between its different subscription plans. For example, if you need to add multiple users, you can end up paying more than double. That said, it comes with powerful publishing capabilities that offset these limitations with the option to set your posts to go out at the best time for optimal results. Its bulk scheduling feature lets you plan hundreds of posts in advance. With additional tools such as Canva templates, Grammarly spellcheck, and automated captions, Hootsuite can help you save hours spent on planning and creating social media posts. Limitations of the free version: The free version of CoSchedule is limited to one user and two social profiles. You can schedule a maximum of 15 social messages with this plan, which isn’t much for brands that want to maintain a regular posting schedule on social media. Moreover, it doesn’t support free post-scheduling for X (Twitter). Pricing: Buffer offers a forever free plan with limited social scheduling capabilities. You can sign up for the Social Calendar plan starting at $19 per month for access to more advanced tools and capabilities. If you’re specifically searching for a free social media scheduler to help you with LinkedIn, be sure to check out CoSchedule. While it also includes scheduled social messages for Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, TikTok, and YouTube, it’s one of the best tools for LinkedIn specifically. All in all, it’s a great tool if your goal is to save time without spending a dime. If you take a look at some of the case studies, the results speak for themselves with customers reporting that they’ve managed to increase their marketing workload by between five and 12 times. And, it’s not just about posting more content. Customers have also shared that CoSchedule has helped them streamline their workflow, increase their visibility, and drive more organic traffic. One of the features included in the free plan that deserves special mention is the single calendar. Even if it will be only you on your marketing team, this unified content calendar is still extremely useful as it will let you see all your projects at a glance. If a project needs to be changed, rescheduling it is easy. All you need to do is drag and drop the project to the new date. Supported Networks: Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest, TikTok Pricing: Adobe Express Content Scheduler is free to use for up to 1000 scheduled posts every calendar month. You can connect up to three accounts to each social channel with their new multi-account publishing feature with a Premium plan of $9.99 per month. Adobe Express Content Scheduler, previously ContentCal, is the ultimate free content calendar and social media scheduling platform that helps thousands of individuals, businesses, and agencies with their content planning and social media. Content creators can use the application to design visual content by modifying the layout and adding a header color and personalized logo. Additionally, you can create and store posts as drafts for your team to review before publishing.1. Loomly
Noteworthy free features:
Awards and Recognitions
Notable Campaigns (Scheduling Related)
Plant with Purpose
The Scottish Institute of Theatre, Dance, Film, and TV
Key Findings of Our Review
2. Sendible
Noteworthy free features:
Awards and Recognitions
Notable Campaigns
Swamp Fox Bookstore
Social Media Manager Ireland
Key Findings of Our Review
3. Planoly
Noteworthy free features:
Awards and Recognitions
Notable Campaigns
Jenell B. Stewart
Chelsea Francis
Key Findings of Our Review
4. Iconosquare
Noteworthy free features:
Awards and Recognitions
Notable Campaigns
Horn Media
Key Findings of Our Review
5. Agorapulse
Noteworthy free features:
Awards and Recognitions
Notable Campaigns
Kaspersky
Citrus Content
Key Findings of Our Review
6. HeyOrca
Noteworthy free features:
7. Buffer
Noteworthy free features:
8. Socialoomph
Notable free features:
9. Crowdfire
Noteworthy free features:
10. NapoleonCat
Noteworthy free features:
11. Tailwind
Noteworthy free features:
12. Later
Noteworthy free features:
13. SocialPilot
Noteworthy free features:
14. Hootsuite
Noteworthy free features:
15. CoSchedule
Noteworthy free features:
16. ContentCal
Customizing Visual Content and Draft Management
Noteworthy free features:
Features to Look for in Social Media Scheduling Tools
There's no shortage of social media scheduling tools on the market. It's easy to get distracted by the top-of-the-line tools with all the bells and whistles but your wallet will thank you for reeling it in and focusing on the three most important features you should look for when choosing scheduling tools for social media.
Easy Management From a Single Dashboard
The purpose of using a social media scheduling tool is to make your job easier. The tool you choose should make it easy to manage scheduling for all the most popular social media platforms from a single dashboard.
Automation
Another important thing to look for when choosing the right social media scheduling tool for your business is automation. Any tool worth its salt will give you what you need to schedule and automatically publish content.
Performance Tracking
Social media marketing isn't a "set it and forget it" thing. After you've started publishing, you need to know how your content is performing. Performance tracking is another feature that you need in your social media scheduling tool.
Comparing Top Free Social Media Scheduling Tools
For businesses, agencies, and individuals looking to streamline their social media management, the table below compares some of the best free social media scheduling tools available. The comparison includes details on supported channels, the number of users and profiles available with free accounts or trials, and scheduling capabilities to help you determine which tool best fits your needs.
Platform Best for Supported Channels No. of users (with free account/trial) No. of profiles (with free account/trial) Scheduling Loomly Agencies, freelancers, startups, nonprofit organizations, influencers, and individuals Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Google My Business, YouTube, Snapchat, TikTok 2 10 Unlimited Sendible Businesses of all sizes and agencies Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Google My Business, YouTube, TikTok 1 6 Unlimited Planoly Businesses of all sizes Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, YouTube, TikTok 1 1 30 HeyOrca Agencies and teams Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Google My Business, TikTok 3 3 30 Agorapulse Mid-sized agencies, mid-sized businesses and some enterprise brands Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Google My Business, YouTube, TikTok 1 3 10 Iconosquare Brands and Agencies Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok 1 3 Unlimited Later Businesses of all sizes Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, TikTok 1 6 5 per month per platform Buffer Businesses of all sizes, agencies, influencers, and individuals Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Google My Business, YouTube, TikTok, Mastodon 1 3 10 per channel CoSchedule Professional marketers, marketing teams, and marketing agencies Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram 1 2 15 Crowdfire Businesses of all sizes, agencies, influencers, and individuals Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram 1 3 10 per account SocialOomph Social media users Discord, Facebook, LinkedIn, Mastodon, Twitter 1 1 Unlimited Tailwind Businesses of all sizes, influencers, and individuals using only Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest 1 3 20 NapoleonCat Small businesses, e-commerce, agencies, marketers, digital influencers Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Google, My Business, YouTube, Messenger, TikTok 1 3 Unlimited SocialPilot Digital marketing agencies and SMBs Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Google My Business, YouTube, TikTok 1 10 Unlimited Hootsuite Businesses of all sizes Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, YouTube, TikTok 1 10 Unlimited
Optimize Your Social Media Strategy with the Best Free Scheduling Tools
Nowadays every business needs a strong online presence and without a social strategy, there’s no way to achieve that. However, creating social media content is a time-consuming process if you’re doing it manually. Luckily, there’s an answer and it doesn’t necessarily need to cost you anything.
With the help of one of these social media management platforms, you can plan, create, and schedule posts in advance. You can even use some of these social media scheduling tools free of cost for an unlimited period. This gives you ample time to consider whether you should upgrade to a paid version or switch to a different option.
With regards to which tool is the best, it depends on your social media strategy.
As we’ve seen, many of the “free” social media scheduling tools only are free for a limited trial period. They allow you to test platforms before deciding on which is best for you in the long term.
You have fewer options if you’re looking for a permanently free product, although we have found 10 tools that may be of use to those with limited social media needs.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best scheduling tool for social media?
These 16 social media scheduling tools will help boost your social media marketing workflow:
- Loomly
- Sendible
- Planoly
- Iconosquare
- Agorapulse
- Later
- HeyOrca
- Buffer
- CoSchedule
- Crowdfire
- Socialoomph
- Tailwind
- NapoleonCat
- SocialPilot
- Hootsuite
- Adobe Express Content Scheduler
Is there a free social media scheduling tool?
We have found ten social media scheduling tools that have a free plan. If you are prepared to pay for a tool, we also look at six platforms that offer a free trial of up to 30 days.
What is the easiest social media scheduler?
Defining what is an “easy” social media scheduler is subjective. It all depends on the features that you will most use. Some of the best and easiest social media scheduling tools for 2024 include:
- Loomly
- Sendible
- Planoly
- Iconosquare
- Agorapulse
