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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Buffer

    Score7.6 out of 10
    Small Businesses (1-50 employees)
    Buffer is a social sharing tool. When browsing content, clicking on the Buffer icon automatically stores the content and schedules posts to social media channels throughout the day.

    $6

    per month per channel

    Iconosquare

    Score5 out of 10
    N/A"Iconosquare is a social media analytics and management platform helping brands and Agencies with in-depth reporting and analysis for Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and TikTok." Iconosquare's social media analytics aim to enable users to: Make strategic decisions for Instagram, Facebook and Twitter based on concrete data; Build a brand using statistics; Save time with content scheduling, in-depth…

    $29

    per month

    Meta Business Suite

    Score7.4 out of 10
    N/AFormerly known as Facebook Business Suite or Facebook for Business, a solution for small businesses used to manage all business activity on Facebook, Messenger and Instagram from one place. It is presented as a one-stop shop where business owners can manage all marketing and advertising activities on Facebook and Instagram. It centralizes tools that help the user to connect with customers on all apps and get better business results.N/A
    Pricing
    BufferIconosquareMeta Business Suite
    Editions & Modules
    Free
    $0
    Essentials
    $6
    per month per channel
    Team
    $12
    per month per channel
    Single
    $29
    per month per user
    Team
    $49
    per month
    Custom
    Contact Us
    per month
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    BufferIconosquareMeta Business Suite
    Free Trial
    YesYesNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    YesNoYes
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional DetailsA discount is offered for annual billing.——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    BufferIconosquareMeta Business Suite
    Considered Multiple Products
    Buffer
    Chose Buffer
    Honestly i’ve only mostly worked with Buffer and the big pro against Meta Business Suite is that you can add social accounts from non meta apps.
    Incentivized
    Chose Buffer
    Buffer is much more affordable than Hootsuite. Another benefit is that Buffer allows more accounts to be loaded onto the platform. Hootsuite charges in tiered levels based on how many accounts you want to load onto the software. This makes it difficult to schedule and post for …
    Incentivized
    Chose Buffer
    It's been a while since we compared Hootsuite to Buffer side-by-side, but when we originally did this analysis Buffer provided more features, with a simpler UX and UI all for a better price. Today both platforms have continually advanced their feature set and restructured …
    Incentivized
    Tripnity (ICONOSQUARE)
    No answer on this topic
    Meta Platforms Inc
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    91%
    Would buy again
    30 Answers
    100%
    Would buy again
    6 Answers
    65%
    Would buy again
    15 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    93%
    Delivers good value for the price
    28 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    85%
    Delivers good value for the price
    17 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    85%
    Happy with the feature set
    28 Answers
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    6 Answers
    70%
    Happy with the feature set
    16 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    96%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    26 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    70%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    14 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    29 Answers
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    5 Answers
    85%
    Implementation went as expected
    17 Answers
    Features
    BufferIconosquareMeta Business Suite
    Publishing
    Comparison of Publishing features of Buffer and Iconosquare and Meta Business Suite
    Feature
    Buffer
    7.8
    77 Ratings
    4% below category average
    Iconosquare
    -
    Ratings
    Meta Business Suite
    7.3
    15 Ratings
    11% below category average
    Content planning and scheduling8.677 Ratings00 Ratings8.015 Ratings
    Content optimization7.370 Ratings00 Ratings7.212 Ratings
    Workflow management7.666 Ratings00 Ratings6.310 Ratings
    Audience targeting00 Ratings00 Ratings7.915 Ratings
    Reporting/analytics
    Comparison of Reporting/analytics features of Buffer and Iconosquare and Meta Business Suite
    Feature
    Buffer
    7.0
    70 Ratings
    10% below category average
    Iconosquare
    -
    Ratings
    Meta Business Suite
    8.0
    15 Ratings
    3% above category average
    Campaign success analytics7.070 Ratings00 Ratings8.215 Ratings
    Real-time tracking00 Ratings00 Ratings8.015 Ratings
    Competitor analysis00 Ratings00 Ratings7.99 Ratings
    Account management
    Comparison of Account management features of Buffer and Iconosquare and Meta Business Suite
    Feature
    Buffer
    8.1
    72 Ratings
    2% above category average
    Iconosquare
    -
    Ratings
    Meta Business Suite
    8.0
    13 Ratings
    1% above category average
    Role-based user permissions & privileges8.359 Ratings00 Ratings8.113 Ratings
    Mobile access7.968 Ratings00 Ratings8.012 Ratings
    Listening/monitoring
    Comparison of Listening/monitoring features of Buffer and Iconosquare and Meta Business Suite
    Feature
    Buffer
    -
    Ratings
    Iconosquare
    -
    Ratings
    Meta Business Suite
    6.6
    13 Ratings
    15% below category average
    Boolean keyword searches00 Ratings00 Ratings7.08 Ratings
    Filtering out noise/spam00 Ratings00 Ratings6.510 Ratings
    Sentiment analysis00 Ratings00 Ratings6.810 Ratings
    Broad channel coverage00 Ratings00 Ratings6.312 Ratings
    Engagement
    Comparison of Engagement features of Buffer and Iconosquare and Meta Business Suite
    Feature
    Buffer
    -
    Ratings
    Iconosquare
    -
    Ratings
    Meta Business Suite
    7.1
    12 Ratings
    14% below category average
    Automated routing and prioritization00 Ratings00 Ratings7.18 Ratings
    Customer interaction histories00 Ratings00 Ratings7.011 Ratings
    Bulk actions00 Ratings00 Ratings7.110 Ratings
    Marketing
    Comparison of Marketing features of Buffer and Iconosquare and Meta Business Suite
    Feature
    Buffer
    -
    Ratings
    Iconosquare
    -
    Ratings
    Meta Business Suite
    7.4
    15 Ratings
    4% below category average
    Lead generation00 Ratings00 Ratings7.614 Ratings
    Content marketing00 Ratings00 Ratings7.013 Ratings
    Paid media management00 Ratings00 Ratings7.714 Ratings
    Campaigns and promotions00 Ratings00 Ratings7.212 Ratings
    Channel coverage/integration
    Comparison of Channel coverage/integration features of Buffer and Iconosquare and Meta Business Suite
    Feature
    Buffer
    -
    Ratings
    Iconosquare
    -
    Ratings
    Meta Business Suite
    8.5
    13 Ratings
    2% above category average
    Twitter00 Ratings00 Ratings8.63 Ratings
    Facebook00 Ratings00 Ratings8.812 Ratings
    LinkedIn00 Ratings00 Ratings8.54 Ratings
    Google+00 Ratings00 Ratings8.54 Ratings
    Instagram00 Ratings00 Ratings8.413 Ratings
    Pinterest00 Ratings00 Ratings9.04 Ratings
    YouTube00 Ratings00 Ratings7.54 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    BufferIconosquareMeta Business Suite
    Small Businesses
    Sendible
    Score7.2 out of 10
    Talkwalker by Hootsuite
    Score8.1 out of 10
    Sendible
    Score7.2 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Emplifi
    Score8.9 out of 10
    Talkwalker by Hootsuite
    Score8.1 out of 10
    Emplifi
    Score8.9 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Salesforce Marketing Cloud Social Studio (discontinued)
    Score8.1 out of 10
    1-Social
    Score5.1 out of 10
    Salesforce Marketing Cloud Social Studio (discontinued)
    Score8.1 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    BufferIconosquareMeta Business Suite
    Likelihood to Recommend
    7.5
    (97 ratings)
    8.0
    (9 ratings)
    7.4
    (108 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    8.0
    (15 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (7 ratings)
    Usability
    8.4
    (33 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    6.7
    (17 ratings)
    Availability
    8.2
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Performance
    8.0
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    3.0
    (1 ratings)
    Support Rating
    7.0
    (24 ratings)
    9.4
    (3 ratings)
    10.0
    (4 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    8.0
    (3 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (4 ratings)
    Configurability
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    8.6
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    BufferIconosquareMeta Business Suite
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Buffer
    It helps me save hours by devoting only half an hour in a month's worth of posting, in addition to that it is quite simple to use. Buffer for scheduling social posts well in advance, but I have begun using it instead of posting natively on the social apps themselves because it makes it super easy to post the same messages to more than one platform.
    Read full review
    Tripnity (ICONOSQUARE)
    A good match for someone looking into Iconosquare would be a social media manager looking to streamline their analytics process. It is for someone who may be pulling these numbers manually and wants a centralized location to pull numbers across platforms. Iconosquare also allows you to schedule your content, which provides another one-stop shop. Where it would be less suited is someone who may not use more than one social platform.
    Incentivized
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    Meta Platforms Inc
    Meta Business Suite has been highly effective in exposing our brand and our clients' brands to a large audience. It is also one of the most cost-effective ad platforms for B2B marketing campaigns. The issue is filtering out low-quality leads from a B2B lead generation process, as you often receive as many poor-quality leads as high-quality ones.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Buffer
    • I can plan and publish content on social channels.
    • Buffer's interface is quite tidy and generates the necessary facilities to save us time in publishing consistent content.
    • It has a special price; it is pretty affordable.
    • It has the possibility of integrating with other tools to improve its functions.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Tripnity (ICONOSQUARE)
    • Provides in-depth analytics on engagement.
    • Provides in-depth analytics on consistencies among your follower base.
    • Provides insight into ways to grow your followership and refine your content.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Meta Platforms Inc
    • Segmentation is HUGE. You can segment by almost anything you want, be it demographic, sociological, behavioral... you name it. You can also create targets based on your visitors and their actions. Even custom lists.
    • They are very good at optimizing your campaigns automatically. This is so important because it will improve your ROI in several multiples otherwise
    • Managing ads in general works fine, and the data, even though is not exactly as accurate as Analytics, it's pretty decent.
    • Gives you placements and different ad types so you can get the most out of it.
    • Pixel and catalog integration are very powerful. You can almost instantly start tracking and catalog fetches your site daily for updates.
    Incentivized
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    Cons
    Buffer
    • Expensive Analytics: The upgrade you need to access your analytics is quite expensive, and I have come across other tools that provide the same or even more for a lesser priced plan.
    • No Media Library: The one feature I have found on another social media planning tool that I wish Buffer had is a media library. This allows you to upload photos you aren't using right away to have them readily available when you do decide to use them. This is not a feature in Buffer.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Tripnity (ICONOSQUARE)
    • Manipulating data can be difficult.
    • Paid and organic posts couldn't be separated.
    • Tracking story posts you wanted to group is messy.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Meta Platforms Inc
    • The planner enables timings of others' posts to be seen easily, but an easier view of that content (eg by hovering over it) would be preferable
    • Insights gives detailed information on the performance of posts, but could be more intuitive - and it would be helpful if it flagged particularly good performers or practices.
    • Sometimes using @ tags is a little slow - and it's not always easy to tell which ones you want without opening another window and testing them yourself.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Buffer
    I am giving buffer this rating because of a couple issues that it has compared to other platforms. It does not always post to instagram and you will need to go in an manually post. Also, one of the biggest qualms that we have with buffer is the price it costs to have robust analytics
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Tripnity (ICONOSQUARE)
    No answers on this topic
    Meta Platforms Inc
    We have to continue using this tool in order to be effective on this marketing platform. Though there are several changes I wish we could see, the fact is that we will still need to use this product to provide customers with the information they need.
    Incentivized
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    Usability
    Buffer
    We use Buffer for certain website content that should be shared on social networks, having this tool helps us to do it faster and easier since we can send the publications from the internet browser and the stack of scheduled messages. It is really fast and easy for all team members who share access to the account, so at the same time that we analyze the information that we can share, the message stack is prepared
    Incentivized
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    Tripnity (ICONOSQUARE)
    No answers on this topic
    Meta Platforms Inc
    Meta Business Suite is a solid, centralized tool that covers the core needs of social media planning and publishing. However, some limitations — like inconsistent Reels functionality, clunky previews, and lack of creative asset organization — hold it back from being a seamless, end-to-end solution. There's a lot of potential with continued improvements.
    Incentivized
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    Reliability and Availability
    Buffer
    Buffer is always on hand and very reliable, their software suite rarely has outages
    Incentivized
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    Tripnity (ICONOSQUARE)
    No answers on this topic
    Meta Platforms Inc
    I've only dealt with the API having issues a couple times, but as you can imagine an outage is not something an advertiser would find acceptable, especially during any ecommerce-heavy time of year. The overall platform could use some help with availability when it comes to authentication, as it struggles with consistency in authentication.
    Incentivized
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    Performance
    Buffer
    Buffer performs well on both desktop and mobile platforms. The one area as I have stated before is that it does not always want to automatically push to Instagram and the user will have to go do it manually. Buffer works very well pushing to other platforms. The instagram issue is the only reason buffer does not get a 10 on this section
    Incentivized
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    Tripnity (ICONOSQUARE)
    No answers on this topic
    Meta Platforms Inc
    There are a lot of shortcomings when it comes to performance. There are pages that I do not expect to have much information to load on the page, yet it takes an incredibly long time (10+ secondes). I have not had experience with the integration slowing other platforms down too much.
    Incentivized
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    Support Rating
    Buffer
    1. It really helped to my business to grow online.
    2. I was able to take actions mindfully as the analytics are damn good.
    3. Also used for managing clients social media accounts and it proved to be a best resource.
    4. Clients were really happy as they got high demand and growth on internet and the secret is Buffer.
    5. The user interface is really easy to understand and manage. Support is 24/7 available to help.
    Incentivized
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    Tripnity (ICONOSQUARE)
    We never had a problem with customer support, nor really needed it. The UX of the site was easy to follow and simple to use.
    Incentivized
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    Meta Platforms Inc
    I've found the Facebook for Business support to be hit or miss. For billing questions they're timely and helpful. For complex questions about specific services I've often received a longer wait and a less helpful experience. I'm often redirected to their docs, which are often not particularly helpful.
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    Buffer
    We were very satisfied with the implementation of Buffer. We had no issues switching from the platform that we were using over to buffer. Our staff did not even miss a beat when it came to posting content. It was an easy transition and I feel that is something that buffer has really done well. They have an "out of the box" usability platform
    Incentivized
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    Tripnity (ICONOSQUARE)
    No answers on this topic
    Meta Platforms Inc
    Take all of the training offered through Facebook first before attempting to create a page on the platform. Learn all of the capabilities available to you. Learn about the different types of audiences who might be interested in seeing your page. Create short video clips as though they are viewed at a much higher rate than anything else. Offer free giveaways or raffles to further build to your list of prospects and drive traffic to your website
    Incentivized
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    Alternatives Considered
    Buffer
    I also used Combin which is easy and free to use. However, Combin only posts when the computer is active and connected to the internet. So, posting while you are not actively using your computer at that moment is not possible, therefore Buffer is much more efficient as you can even post while being on vacation without working.
    Incentivized
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    Tripnity (ICONOSQUARE)
    We focus primarily on Instagram with our social media strategy, so Iconosquare delivers the best experience by far for that platform
    Incentivized
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    Meta Platforms Inc
    Compared to the other tools listed above, Meta Business Suite has good navigation, great interest audience-building tools, okay ad analytics, a great messaging system, and below-average customer support. We chose Meta Business Suite for its massive user base and for its industry-leading targeting functionality (which is a result of that massive user base!).
    Incentivized
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    Scalability
    Buffer
    Buffer does what it say on tin as they say! you can always count on Buffer. Buffer can be scale to 25 social account with 2,000 scheduled post which is enough for most agencies or businesses
    Incentivized
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    Tripnity (ICONOSQUARE)
    No answers on this topic
    Meta Platforms Inc
    This product is definitely able to run at scale, but it would be wise to have enough eyeballs to oversee it and the tools for keeping the campaigns, adsets, and ads organized could use some improvement. I can also see the UI interfering with usability at greater amounts of scale.
    Incentivized
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    Return on Investment
    Buffer
    • It has saved money by allowing us to automate our social using one person
    • It allows us to connect one channel at a time instead of wasting money on larger account management tools
    • We are making money, because it has already delivered several clients
    Incentivized
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    Tripnity (ICONOSQUARE)
    • It's allowed us to view IG story metrics even after they have passed over the 14 day review in Instagram Insights
    • The graphs are easy for us to send to clients as they are not very complex or complicated to read
    • There have been no issues or errors with retrieving data with a quick turnaround.
    Incentivized
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    Meta Platforms Inc
    • Overall positive ROI has been achieved using this platform. You must have a clear understanding of where your CPL maximums are to remain profitable and either optimize to success or pull the plug on campaigns that are bleeding spend.
    • This is a great platform to build new audiences or grow existing ones.
    • Building audience segments via pixel tracking is a huge win for this platform.
    Incentivized
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    ScreenShots

    Buffer Screenshots

    Screenshot of The Buffer dashboardScreenshot of Customizable posting scheduleScreenshot of Tailored PostsScreenshot of List or calendar view of scheduled postsScreenshot of Browser extensionScreenshot of Social media analytics

    Iconosquare Screenshots

    Screenshot of Performance analytics overviewScreenshot of Media ViewerScreenshot of Industry BenchmarkScreenshot of Competitor trackingScreenshot of Schedule postsScreenshot of Comments management