Buffer vs Agorapulse: With Whom Should You Go With?

Overview

If a brand or business is looking for a simple yet effective tool to manage all their social media activities from one place, Buffer is the perfect candidate. Connect all your social media accounts or business pages to this tool and get started on your social media marketing journey.

Buffer supports all the major social channels, including Facebook, Google Business Profile, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest, Shopify, and TikTok. What differentiates Buffer from its alternatives is that it is the first social media scheduling tool that integrated Mastodon, an up-and-coming social media channel.

Additionally, Buffer offers an analytics dashboard that provides detailed insights into engagement and performance metrics, helping users to optimize their social media strategy.

This is the perfect software to get a handle on your branding and social media image on multiple platforms. You can outline your whole content strategy and create posts from scratch right in the scheduler. The platform-specific customizations polish every piece of content to perfection to get the optimum results from the audience.

Agorapulse supports all the major social media platforms like Facebook, Google Business Profile, Instagram, Linkedin, Twitter, YouTube, and Tiktok. The hiccups like going to separate native websites to post content and monitor audience reactions become redundant with a scheduling tool like Agorapulse.

The best thing about this software is that it provides all-around social media management at a cost-effective rate that very few Agorapulse alternatives match without compromising on the features provided.

Best Suitable for

Buffer

Start with $6

Professionals and SMBs

Agorapulse

Start with $69

Mid-sized businesses, Mid-sized agencies, and Enterprises

SocialPilot

Start with $30

Marketing Agencies, SMBs, Multi-Location Brands & Professionals

At a Glance

In this section, we will brief you about the summarized rating on the user experience of these tools. Let us see which one of them has impressed the users more.

In overall star rating, Agorapulse is slightly ahead of Buffer. But when we came to ease of usage and the process of setting up, Buffer won, albeit by a slight margin. However, the quality of support in Agorapulse is way better as compared to Buffer.

Let us see all the criteria considered by the users and the scores they gave to compare Buffer vs Agorapulse accurately. We will also see the scores of SocialPilot for extra reference.

	Buffer	Agorapulse	SocialPilot
Number of Reviews	1006	925	814
Overall Star Rating
Ease of Use
Quality of Support
Ease of Setup
Minimum Pricing	$6/Month	$69/Month	$30/Month
Number of Social Accounts	1	10	10
Number of Team Members	1	1	1
Scheduling & Publishing
Analytics
Social Inbox
Collaboration
Whitelabel
Best For	Professionals and SMBs	Mid-sized businesses, Mid-sized agencies, and Enterprises	Marketing Agencies, SMBs, Multi-Location Brands & Professionals
	Learn More	Learn More	14 Days Trial

Quick Comparison

Now let us go through all the basic but vital features of both the tools in question, which one has to know before making the right judgment.

It is a known fact that Buffer is a very economical tool, suitable for solopreneurs, small-scale agencies, and businesses, and so is Agorapulse. Buffer allows unlimited users to work from the same profile in its agency plan, but Agorapulse changes its users for each user onboarded in a team.

If we go into further details, you will see that Buffer only allows users to connect 10 social accounts, limiting the number of posts you can schedule. However, SocialPilot, a Buffer alternative, allows 30 social accounts to be linked to one profile and a limitless amount of posts to be scheduled at a lower price!

Look at the detailed table below to weigh each feature and see whether Buffer or Agorapulse is a more capable tool along with SocialPilot.

	Buffer	Agorapulse	SocialPilot
Can't Miss to Compare
Minimum Pricing	$6/Month	$69/Month	$30/Month
Number of Accounts	1	10	10
Number of Team Members	1	1	1
Number of Posts that Can Be Scheduled	2000	Unlimited	Unlimited
Core Capabilities
Scheduling & Publishing
Analytics
Inbox
Collaboration
Competitor Tracking
Whitelabel
Localization	English & Spanish	German, English, French, Portuguese, Spanish	German, English, French, Portuguese, Spanish
Support	FAQs, How-To-Guides, Video Tutorials, Social Media Support & Email Support	Priority Email & Chat Support	Email, Chat, Social Media, Phone
	Learn More	Learn More	14 Days Trial

Reviews

Buffer

Positive

• Buffer offers valuable insights into the performance and engagement of each individual post, allowing users to optimize their content strategies and measure their success.
• Buffer is known for its highly helpful customer support team, who are both quick and responsive in addressing users' inquiries and concerns.
• Buffer provides a simple and effective solution for social media collaboration, allowing teams to manage multiple clients' accounts with ease, streamlining their workflow and maximizing productivity.

Negative

• Buffer requires an admin within the organization to reconnect unlinked accounts, which can be challenging and time-consuming when the user and admin are not in close proximity to each other.
• The lack of assistance in handling social media conversations in Buffer could hinder its effectiveness as a complete social media management solution.
• Buffer requires you to have the app installed in order to receive reminders to publish Instagram posts manually at a designated time, as scheduling posts directly on Instagram is not possible.

Agorapulse

Positive

• Agorapulse serves as a central inbox manager for multiple social media accounts. It effectively organizes all incoming messages, making it easy for users to keep track of their interactions and ensuring nothing is lost in the shuffle.
• You can share content calendars directly with your clients for review using Agorapulse. This feature allows for seamless collaboration and communication, ensuring that your clients are kept in the loop every step of the way.
• The flexibility provided by Agorapulse in managing comments allows users to respond to comments quickly and efficiently, as well as like or block unwanted comments, which helps maintain a positive online presence.

Negative

• Despite being a good application, Agorapulse’s cost makes it inaccessible to many users, excluding those who can afford the high monthly fee.
• The lack of control over linking images and URLs in Agorapulse can be a drawback for users, as the URL is automatically linked to the thumbnail image and cannot be separated.
• In Agorapulse, there is no way to re-distribute a post once its sent, making it difficult for users to make changes or corrections to their content after it's published.

SocialPilot

Positive

• You get a social media calendar screen in SocialPilot, which gives a bird-eye view of all the scheduled content as well as create and schedule new content from. You can also change the publishing time and date of any queued posts right from the calendar and reschedule it.
• SocialPilot's interface is easy to use. Unlike other tools, it doesn't require a learning curve hence users get used to it pretty quickly.
• Users get to see how each and every post would look on the social platform it is meant for even before it is published. The newly designed SocialPilot dashboard generates a preview of the post with all the content and customizations, before scheduling it. This gives insights as to how the customer would see the post content.

Negative

• Users have expressed a desire for more information on setting up accounts and configurations for approvals. Some have struggled with this aspect and had to face challenges in figuring it out.
• Some users have noted that specific posts require follow-up actions, such as importing them into Instagram and manually posting when they appear in the schedule. While this process may be necessary for particular posts, users find it frustrating.
• SocialPilot does not have a color coding feature which simplifies the interface and makes it easier to navigate.SocialPilot does not have a color coding feature which simplifies the interface and makes it easier to navigate.

Pricing

No comparison is ever complete without a close inspection of pricing. So now we will set the paid plans of both the tools side by side to effectively compare them.

Buffer and Agorapulse both have similar pricing for their agency plans. However, thinking about the solo marketers out there, Buffer has a free plan which Agorapulse does not.

Buffer costs $120 per month with no specific limit on team members to connect 10 social accounts and schedule up to 2000 posts on all the supported social channels. In contrast, Agorapulse charges a fee of $149 for only one user to connect 20 accounts and schedule however many posts they want. You can add users to your account in Agorapulse, but it’ll cost you add-on charges.

These were the biggest plans discussed at length, but for a complete picture, look at the table below, where we have compared Agorapulse and Buffer along with SocialPilot.

Buffer	Agorapulse	SocialPilot
Free	Standard $69/per month	Essentials $30/per month
Essential $6/per channel	Professional $99/per month	Standard $50/per month
Team $12/per channel	Advanced $149/per month	Premium $100/per month
Agency $120/per channel	Enterprise Custom	Ultimate $200/per month
14 Days Free Trial No Credit Card Required	30 Days Free Trial No Credit Card Required	14 Days Free Trial No Credit Card Required
Learn More	Learn More	Start Your free Trial

In-depth Scheduling and Publishing Capabilities Comparison

One of the prime requirements users expect from a social media management tool is its content scheduling and publishing capability. So let’s look at the same and see where either one of them wins.

Both Buffer and Agorapulse have all the basic scheduling features, such as advanced queueing, platform-specific customizations, visual post-scheduling, in-app integrations, etc. However, both apps cannot publish Facebook reels, carousel posts, and first comments on posts.

Here is a full picture comparing Agorapulse vs Buffer, showing all the discrepancies in their scheduling and publishing capabilities along with SocialPilot for a better perspective.

	Buffer	Agorapulse	SocialPilot
Smart & Advanced Queueing
Customize Post for Each Platform
Post Preview
Canva Integration
Unsplash Integration
Slack Integration
URL Shortener
Visual Post Support (Image, Video, GIF)
UTM Parameters
Cloud Storage
Hashtag Suggestions
Advance Publishing Capabilities
Save Draft Posts
AI Assistant
Watermark on Images
Bulk Scheduling
Auto publishing from RSS
Social media calendar
Mobile App
Browser Extension
Advance Facebook Publishing Capabilities
Reel Scheduling
Support Album Posts
Support Carousel Posts
Alternate Text on Image
Support Facebook First Comment
Audience Targeting
Boost Post Scheduling
Support Mention and Hashtags
Advance Twitter Publishing Capabilities
Location Tagging
Support Mention and Hashtags
Support Multiple Image Posts
Threads Scheduling
Advance Instagram Publishing Capabilities
Reel Scheduling
Story Scheduling
Tag Profiles on Images
Location Tagging
Support Instagram First Comment
Instagram Grid
Advance LinkedIn Publishing Capabilities
Audience Targeting
Support LinkedIn First Comment
Advance YouTube Publishing Capabilities
Shorts Scheduling
Mention of Other YouTube Accounts
	Learn More	Learn More	14 Days Trial

In-depth Analytics Capability Comparison

Sustaining a successful social media marketing venture depends on how your content performs and what type of results in engagement it generates. For that, the analytical features of a tool are very important. So let’s compare Buffer vs Agorapulse for analytics and reporting.

Both tools have similar capabilities in the analytics department, giving out robust performance and audience insights for all social platforms they support. But when it comes to reporting, Buffer lacks behind.

Here’s a bird’s eye view of all the analytics and reporting features for these tools along with SocialPilot.

	Buffer	Agorapulse	SocialPilot
Whitelabel Downloadable Report in PDF Format
Email PDF Report to Client
Auto Schedule Report with Team and Client
Custom Report Builder
	Learn More	Learn More	14 Days Trial

In-depth Inbox/Listening Capability Comparison

Now we will see how the tools in question perform when it comes to managing all the public engagement on multiple platforms from their integrated dashboard.

It is a bit jarring to know, but neither Buffer nor Agorapulse has much in the name of listening features or social inbox. Agorapulse has the ability for users to reply to messages they get but other than that, not much.

SocialPilot, in comparison, has streamlined social inboxes, which allow users to monitor DMs, reviews, and queries from the audience as well as reply to them.

Here are all features related to social listening, for both our contenders, along with SocialPilot.

	Buffer	Agorapulse	SocialPilot
Can Reply to Messages
Can Reply Questions and Reviews
Can Reply on Visitor Posts
	Learn More	Learn More	14 Days Trial

In-depth Social Media Collaboration Capability Comparison

Social media management tools are used to make the task of marketing teams easier. For that, team and client workflows are crucial for tools like these to have.

Both Buffer and Agorapulse have capable team and client functionalities with higher subscriptions. This includes multi-user collaboration, permission-based access to content, client onboarding, and post-approval.

But where Buffer allows unlimited users in a single profile under its agency plan without extra charges, Agorapulse can be used only by a single user. Users need to pay more if they want to add team members to their profiles.

Here is a brief overview of the collaboration capabilities of Agorapulse and Buffer with SocialPilot.

	Buffer	Agorapulse	SocialPilot
Free Unlimited Client Onboarding
Per Post Multi-User Collaboration
Access Management
Content Approval Workflow
	Learn More	Learn More	14 Days Trial