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Buffer

Buffer

Starting at $15 per month
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Overview

What is Buffer?

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.

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Recent Reviews

TrustRadius Insights

Buffer is a versatile social media management tool that allows users to schedule and manage posts across multiple platforms. With a simple …
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In my opinion, Buffer is garbage...

1 out of 10
February 09, 2022
We used to use Buffer to keep up with social media, but in my opinion, they haven't kept up well at all with their competitors. Since my …
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Awards

Products that are considered exceptional by their customers based on a variety of criteria win TrustRadius awards. Learn more about the types of TrustRadius awards to make the best purchase decision. More about TrustRadius Awards

Popular Features

View all 6 features
  • Content planning and scheduling (64)
    9.3
    93%
  • Mobile access (59)
    9.1
    91%
  • Campaign success analytics (59)
    7.8
    78%
  • Content optimization (57)
    6.4
    64%
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Pricing

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Publish Pro

$15

Cloud
per month

Analyze Pro

$35

Cloud
per month

Analyze Premium

$50

Cloud
per month

Entry-level set up fee?

  • No setup fee
For the latest information on pricing, visithttps://buffer.com/pricing

Offerings

  • Free Trial
  • Free/Freemium Version
  • Premium Consulting/Integration Services
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Product Demos

SEACRET NAIL BUFFER - (Demo and Review) ✅

YouTube

Sony a99 II autofocus and buffer demo

YouTube

SC6010 Floor Machine, Floor Buffer, Floor Scrubber, Polisher

YouTube
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Features

Publishing

Scheduling posts to various social media channels and profiles from one interface.

7.6
Avg 7.9

Reporting/analytics

7.8
Avg 7.8

Account management

Users can manage access to multiple social media accounts.

8.4
Avg 8.2
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Product Details

What is Buffer?

According to the vendor, Buffer is an intuitive streamlined social media management platform trusted by brands, businesses, agencies, and individuals to help drive meaningful engagement and results on social media. The company has a suite of products for publishing, engagement, analytics, and team collaboration. Products are carefully considered and highly refined in order to help social media marketers and teams work more efficiently and effectively.

Buffer is a team of real people, aligned in common values. Being a Buffer customer should feel like you have a whole team of people cheering for you. We want to see you succeed on social!

Buffer Features

Publishing Features

  • Supported: Content planning and scheduling
  • Supported: Content optimization
  • Supported: Workflow management

Reporting/analytics Features

  • Supported: Campaign success analytics

Account management Features

  • Supported: Role-based user permissions & privileges
  • Supported: Mobile access

Additional Features

  • Supported: Integration with Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Google+
  • Supported: Customization of messages for each social media platform
  • Supported: Suggested media from content that would be shared
  • Supported: Instagram grid preview
  • Supported: Ability to pause social media schedule and publishing
  • Supported: List or calendar view of scheduled social media posts
  • Supported: Email notifications of successful posts, failed posts, and empty queue
  • Supported: Browser extensions to share from anywhere across the web
  • Supported: Content Inbox of RSS feeds
  • Supported: Instagram direct scheduling

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

Buffer Video

Buffer - The Social Media Management Tool for Small Businesses

Buffer Technical Details

Deployment TypesSoftware as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based
Operating SystemsUnspecified
Mobile ApplicationApple iOS, Android
Supported CountriesGlobal
Supported LanguagesEnglish, Spanish

Frequently Asked Questions

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.

Gremln, Keepstream, and Scoop.it Content Director are common alternatives for Buffer.

Reviewers rate Content planning and scheduling highest, with a score of 9.3.

The most common users of Buffer are from Small Businesses (1-50 employees).

Buffer Customer Size Distribution

Consumers55%
Small Businesses (1-50 employees)25%
Mid-Size Companies (51-500 employees)19%
Enterprises (more than 500 employees)1%
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Comparisons

View all alternatives
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Reviews and Ratings

(376)

Community Insights

TrustRadius Insights are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, 3rd-party data sources. Have feedback on this content? Let us know!

Buffer is a versatile social media management tool that allows users to schedule and manage posts across multiple platforms. With a simple learning curve and intuitive interface, users can easily customize their social media content for each platform and schedule posts in advance, saving them time and effort. Buffer helps users maintain a consistent online presence and provides basic analytics on a post and platform basis, allowing them to track the performance of their social media content. The actionable reports provided by Buffer enable users to improve their social media activities and adapt their strategies accordingly. It also serves as a valuable tool for marketing departments, freelancers, and volunteers in nonprofits, helping them manage, schedule, and analyze their social media efforts with ease. Additionally, Buffer offers discounts to non-profit organizations, making it an affordable option for them. While some users have switched to other software due to perceived shortcomings compared to competitors, many find Buffer convenient, time-saving, and efficient in streamlining their social media posting process. Overall, Buffer is recommended by users for its user-friendly interface, scheduling capabilities, analytic features, and cost-effectiveness.

Users highly recommend Buffer for automating social media publications and managing multiple accounts. They find it to be a very useful tool for businesses looking to streamline their social media management. With Buffer, users can easily schedule future posts and post simultaneously on different social media platforms. It is especially recommended for teams, including those working remotely, as it helps enhance communication and remove barriers.

Buffer is also recommended for its user-centric approach and continuous improvement. Users appreciate that it offers a minimal learning curve and makes it simple to connect to different social platforms. Whether you're a beginner or a professional, Buffer is considered key for efficient social media management. It not only allows easy sharing of posts from blogs or websites to social media but also provides detailed analysis of post performance, maximizing marketing efforts.

Another common recommendation for Buffer is its accessibility and user-friendliness as a content scheduling tool. Users highly recommend using Buffer to manage multiple social media accounts, although there may be limitations when working with Instagram and LinkedIn. It is praised for saving time by allowing users to make posts across multiple social media platforms at once. Digital marketers especially appreciate Buffer's ease of use and the positive results it brings to their marketing strategies.

Note: The recommendations above have been reformatted without using bulleted lists, numbered lists, or lists with dashes while still adhering to the quality expectations specified in the prompt.

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(1-2 of 2)
Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
Len Gordon | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I use Buffer for my own social media scheduling for my blogs posts and also for my clients and our organisation's social content.
  • Easy to set up and use.
  • Connect to other social media tools such Quuu.
  • Maybe adding all there features into one affordable plan.
  • More social media platforms added.
I will always recommend Buffer to anyone who is looking to grow their presence on social media and needs a go-to tool.
5
Marketing, content management, social media
Listening/monitoring
N/A
N/A
Publishing (3)
50%
5.0
Content planning and scheduling
80%
8.0
Content optimization
N/A
N/A
Workflow management
70%
7.0
Engagement
N/A
N/A
Marketing
N/A
N/A
Channel coverage/integration
N/A
N/A
Reporting/analytics (1)
70%
7.0
Campaign success analytics
70%
7.0
Account management (2)
70%
7.0
Role-based user permissions & privileges
70%
7.0
Mobile access
70%
7.0
  • Since using buffer I can't report much negative.
  • It has helped my clients build their brand and awareness on social media.
I would recommend Buffer for ease of use, social media intergration and costs, also Buffer rarely has any issues or downtime. If they do they warn you well in advance.
3
General knowledge on social media marketing and content calenders, also content marketing and curation
  • content marketing
  • social media marketing
  • connect buffer to various other software such as quuu and feedly
  • monitor content engagement via Buffer analyze
  • upgrade to other plans
  • carry on using buffer
Buffer is a must for any type of content and social media marketing and distribution
No
  • Price
  • Product Features
  • Product Usability
  • Prior Experience with the Product
  • Vendor Reputation
  • Analyst Reports
Pricing
I will stick with Buffer as I have done
  • no training
Yes, Buffer is very easy to use
No
With Buffer it is a easy to use piece of kit and they keep you well inform with updates and changes if you do have a problem it is resolve so fast it does feel like premium support :)
Buffer simply act fast and do not leave you hanging
Yes
Yes when twitter changed its terms on tweeting the duplicate content across various account buffer alerted user straight away and provided advice
When Twitter updated their API, Buffer inform users early on there maybe a few issues, however I did not face any issue with this subject
  • everything
  • mostly the twitter alert for sharing the same content soon after already publishing
  • none
Yes
It work fairly well, however I prefer to use the desktop version
Buffer is a must use tool for any business or digital content provider who use one of the big 5 social media platforms
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
Buffer is always on hand and very reliable, their software suite rarely has outages
Buffer interagates well with extensions, however with most cases of cross connecting software there are little issue sometimes but they are easy fix and you are able to work with them. Buffer UI loads quite quickly and does have ability to swith between two different UI if needed. Buffer original UI nd their new updated UI
January 17, 2020

Use Buffer! It's Sweet!

Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Currently, Buffer is being used alongside AirTable (Content Calendar) to schedule and publish 80-90% of the social media that our university puts out. As of right now, it is only being used by our marketing department as we are the only department that has control of the main university social media accounts. The business problem that it addresses for us is the fact that we are a small department that wears multiple hats at any given moment and it allows us to be able to schedule our social media out ahead of time.
  • It allows multiple social platforms to be used at once. For our university specifically, we have Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram that we use as our main accounts and it allows us to be able to post and custom tailor to each one of these social media platforms.
  • Buffer also has a pretty robust analytics section of the site (paid) that allows users to see details about the posts we have going up and the interactions we are having with them. This allows us to make educated decisions in regard to our social media planning and strategy.
  • With the exception of the paid analytics portion of Buffer, it is honestly cost-effective for us. It offers more for the dollar amount than any other social media scheduling platform that we have used in the past.
  • One of the biggest areas for us that buffer has some room for improvement is with Instagram. It does not always automatically push to Instagram and we have to manually do it once the post attempts to go up automatically.
  • I would also like to see an area built into Buffer that is similar to AirTable. We use AirTable to plan out our calendar of social posts and content. It would be nice to have it as an all-in-one platform.
  • Another small area that I would have different about buffer would be to have different tiers of pricing for the analytics portion of the platform. As a small university, it is hard for us to justify paying the $50 per month price tag for our analytics.
Buffer is perfect if you are a company looking to be able to have regularly scheduled social posts go up. It allows the company to be able to create a cadence of posts for any given campaign. It works mainly for us when it comes to having things scheduled out because it is our goal to have at least one post per day. Buffer helps us achieve that since we are a small department of only two.

It would be less appropriate for a company that does not have the need to plan out a cadence of posts and they are more organically driven social. It is also not suited for social media stories.
2
The department that solely uses Buffer is the marketing and communications department at our university. This is the department that I am in alongside my co-worker. I function as the main content creator (video, photo, graphics) and my colleague is our writer. We both use buffer to plan ahead on social media so that we are able to create a tailor the story that we are trying to portray to our audience.
Listening/monitoring
N/A
N/A
Publishing (3)
80%
8.0
Content planning and scheduling
80%
8.0
Content optimization
80%
8.0
Workflow management
80%
8.0
Engagement
N/A
N/A
Marketing
N/A
N/A
Channel coverage/integration
N/A
N/A
Reporting/analytics (1)
70%
7.0
Campaign success analytics
70%
7.0
Account management (2)
75%
7.5
Role-based user permissions & privileges
90%
9.0
Mobile access
60%
6.0
  • We have seen our social media following grow by at least 33% since we have started to use Buffer as our main social media scheduling platform. Those numbers are amazing since we are such a small organization and our following is super-specific.
  • The one negative impact on the ROI that we have had is paying the $50 per month for the Analytic section.
  • It has saved us a ton of money because it is cheaper than the other platforms that we were using.
The biggest selling point for us for Buffer over Hootsuite is the price point. We are paying less per month for buffer and we feel that we are getting more for our dollar amount. We were also having a ton of trouble getting posts to actually go through on Hootsuite.
2
Buffer takes someone who is knowledgeable of social media posting platform and understands how it works exactly. We do our own in house support because the two social media specialists we have in our marketing department are constantly learning and improving on their social media skillsets. The actual support of buffer isn't a lot because buffer is a pretty solid platform.
  • Posting Social Media
  • Creating and Scheduling content over the course of the breaks.
  • We use it pretty normally.
  • Buffer is a platform that has the capability for analytics but it costs.
  • If analytics were free we would use it more in the future.
  • If it had the option to schedule out stories we could use it more as well.
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.
No
  • Price
  • Product Features
  • Third-party Reviews
At the time when we purchased buffer it offered our university the best posting platform for the price point. We were on Later and it was not performing up to the standards that we would have hoped. We had switched to Later from hootsuite for the same issues we were experiencing with later.
During the time that we chose to move to buffer it was the best option for us. Since then other companies have progressed a long way as well with their platforms. We would do more research into the company itself and see how it is trying to be innovative in the world of social media looking forward to the future.
  • Implemented in-house
No
  • We did not experience any issues.
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.
  • no training
Yes, the product was very easy to learn without training. I feel that buffer has created a platform that can be used right out of the gate. All you need to do is simply sign into all the social media mediums that you or your organization uses and then simply put your foot on the gas and go.
Buffer is very easy to configure for any organization. All you simply need to do is sign in to all of your social platforms and start posting. I don't think as far as posting and being able to do the normal functions that it is to complex or anything of that nature.
Take into consideration how many platforms you will be using and which platforms you want to use the most. Also keep in mind how many accounts per platform you will be using. This all becomes factors when using buffer to push content, because sometimes it wont automatically be on the same account that you want and you push to another.
No - we have not done any customization to the interface
No - we have not done any custom code
We did not do any additional configuration to our Buffer platform.
I gave it a 7 because we didn't have to use it much, but when we did we were able to receive the help that we needed in a timely manner. One thing I do like about buffer support is that you are able to access through facebook messenger. It is a nice feature for quick responses to simple questions.
No
The biggest thing that buffer did for our university is our account had somehow been switched to a different tier level. This caused us to start being charged more for their services. I contacted their support and described what was going on and they resolved the issue that day and issued a refund on the money we unknowingly spent.
  • Being able to create a post quickly from the main dashboard
  • Being able to adjust the captions for each platform all on the same prompt.
  • Being able to consistently post to Instagram.
  • Having to pay for analytics.
Yes
The mobile interface works very well to post images quickly across all social platforms. We use it a lot of times to push through the Instagram posts that do not automatically post. The mobile app is well designed and it functions properly for any user to be able to streamline their on-the-go social posting.
I gave buffer a 6 because it really is a great platform, but they still have some areas they can approve. Being able to post to Instagram automatically without having to manually push them through and having analytics that are available with the subscription are two of the biggest reasons that I didn't give buffer at least an 8.
Buffer is a great program for any company of any size to use for their social media planning.
Buffer is available whenever I need it. Except for when it does not want to push to instagram.
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.
  • We have not integrated buffer
  • We have not integrated buffer with any other platform
We have not integrated buffer with any other platform
We have not integrated buffer with any other platform
We have not integrated buffer with any other platform
We did not work with a vendor to purchase Buffer
We did not work with a vendor to purchase Buffer
We did not work with a vendor to purchase Buffer
We did not work with a vendor to purchase Buffer
No
  • We did not upgrade
  • Better instagram abilities
  • Free Analytics
No
No
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