Buffer vs. Meta Business Suite

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Buffer
Score 8.0 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
Meta Business Suite
Score 7.3 out of 10
N/A
Formerly 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
BufferMeta Business Suite
Editions & Modules
Free
$0
Essentials
$6
per month per channel
Team
$12
per month per channel
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
BufferMeta Business Suite
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
YesYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsA discount is offered for annual billing.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
BufferMeta Business Suite
Considered Both 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.
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 …
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 …
Meta Business Suite

No answer on this topic

Features
BufferMeta Business Suite
Publishing
Comparison of Publishing features of Product A and Product B
Buffer
8.0
77 Ratings
1% below category average
Meta Business Suite
7.1
16 Ratings
13% below category average
Content planning and scheduling8.677 Ratings7.716 Ratings
Content optimization7.470 Ratings6.813 Ratings
Workflow management7.966 Ratings6.311 Ratings
Audience targeting00 Ratings7.616 Ratings
Reporting/analytics
Comparison of Reporting/analytics features of Product A and Product B
Buffer
7.3
70 Ratings
5% below category average
Meta Business Suite
7.7
16 Ratings
0% below category average
Campaign success analytics7.370 Ratings7.916 Ratings
Real-time tracking00 Ratings7.616 Ratings
Competitor analysis00 Ratings7.710 Ratings
Account management
Comparison of Account management features of Product A and Product B
Buffer
8.4
72 Ratings
6% above category average
Meta Business Suite
7.3
14 Ratings
8% below category average
Role-based user permissions & privileges8.559 Ratings7.514 Ratings
Mobile access8.268 Ratings7.213 Ratings
Listening/monitoring
Comparison of Listening/monitoring features of Product A and Product B
Buffer
-
Ratings
Meta Business Suite
6.3
14 Ratings
19% below category average
Boolean keyword searches00 Ratings6.49 Ratings
Filtering out noise/spam00 Ratings6.111 Ratings
Sentiment analysis00 Ratings6.611 Ratings
Broad channel coverage00 Ratings6.213 Ratings
Engagement
Comparison of Engagement features of Product A and Product B
Buffer
-
Ratings
Meta Business Suite
6.7
13 Ratings
19% below category average
Automated routing and prioritization00 Ratings6.99 Ratings
Customer interaction histories00 Ratings6.512 Ratings
Bulk actions00 Ratings6.811 Ratings
Marketing
Comparison of Marketing features of Product A and Product B
Buffer
-
Ratings
Meta Business Suite
7.3
16 Ratings
5% below category average
Lead generation00 Ratings7.215 Ratings
Content marketing00 Ratings7.014 Ratings
Paid media management00 Ratings7.715 Ratings
Campaigns and promotions00 Ratings7.113 Ratings
Channel coverage/integration
Comparison of Channel coverage/integration features of Product A and Product B
Buffer
-
Ratings
Meta Business Suite
7.9
14 Ratings
6% below category average
Twitter00 Ratings8.34 Ratings
Facebook00 Ratings8.613 Ratings
LinkedIn00 Ratings7.55 Ratings
Google+00 Ratings7.45 Ratings
Instagram00 Ratings8.314 Ratings
Pinterest00 Ratings8.05 Ratings
YouTube00 Ratings7.25 Ratings
Best Alternatives
BufferMeta Business Suite
Small Businesses
CoSchedule Marketing Suite
CoSchedule Marketing Suite
Score 10.0 out of 10
CoSchedule Marketing Suite
CoSchedule Marketing Suite
Score 10.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
CoSchedule Marketing Suite
CoSchedule Marketing Suite
Score 10.0 out of 10
CoSchedule Marketing Suite
CoSchedule Marketing Suite
Score 10.0 out of 10
Enterprises
Social Suite by Reputation.com
Social Suite by Reputation.com
Score 9.4 out of 10
Social Suite by Reputation.com
Social Suite by Reputation.com
Score 9.4 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
BufferMeta Business Suite
Likelihood to Recommend
7.9
(97 ratings)
7.1
(109 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.0
(15 ratings)
10.0
(7 ratings)
Usability
8.5
(33 ratings)
6.3
(17 ratings)
Availability
8.2
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
8.0
(2 ratings)
3.0
(1 ratings)
Support Rating
7.0
(24 ratings)
10.0
(4 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.0
(3 ratings)
10.0
(4 ratings)
Configurability
10.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
8.6
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
BufferMeta 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.
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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.
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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.
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.
Read full review
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.
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.
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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
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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.
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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
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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.
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Reliability and Availability
Buffer
Buffer is always on hand and very reliable, their software suite rarely has outages
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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.
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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
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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.
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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.
Read full review
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.
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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
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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
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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.
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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!).
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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
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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.
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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
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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.
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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