20 Best Social Media Scheduling Tools: Key Features, Pros, and Cons

Keeping up with social media can feel like a full-time job — that's where social media scheduling tools come in. These handy scheduling tools let you plan, create and schedule your posts in advance, making it easier to stay consistent and engaging online. Imagine having all your content lined up and ready to go, freeing you up to focus on strategy and campaign planning. 

In this blog, we explore the main benefits of social media scheduling tools and showcase some of the top platforms that can help streamline your workflow and strengthen your social strategy.

Social media scheduling tools are software solutions designed to help you ideate and post your content ahead of time. These tools enable you to manage multiple social media accounts from one centralized platform, making it easy to schedule posts in advance and maintain a consistent posting schedule.

By allowing you to queue up content ahead of time, scheduling tools ensure that your posts go live during the best times to post for your brand, like when your audience is most engaged, even when you're not online. This removes the hassle of only posting during office hours or chasing approvals for copy, creative, UTMs, and all the extras that slow teams down. Whether you're managing a personal brand, a business, or multiple clients, scheduling tools streamline the process, which saves you time, and helps your team stay organized.

There are thousands of social media schedulers out there, all promising to be “the best.” To save you the research rabbit hole, we dug into 50+ platforms, read through hundreds of reviews on G2 and pulled together the 20 schedulers that truly stand out. Let’s take a look.

Note: This information is accurate at the time of publication and is subject to change.

1. Dash Social

Dash Social's Scheduler lets you plan, publish, and ideate your posts. It integrates seamlessly with the Content Library, which uses Dash Social's Predictive AI to help your team determine which social posts have the best chance to perform. In fact, in our recent Social Media Trends Report, we uncovered that brands that use our Predictive AI receive 66% higher average engagement than brands that don’t utilize this feature. 

With Scheduler, your team has a calendar overview, so you can collaborate with all relevant stakeholders to ensure alignment on everything you publish. The collaboration features enable your team to work seamlessly, streamlining workflows, and saving social managers up to 10 hours per week.

‍Key Features:

• Visual content planning
• Performance analytics
• Instagram-specific tools
• Major social media platform partnerships

Pros:

• Great for visual planning
• Easyt-to-use interface
• Stremlined workflow
• In-depth analytics, sophisticated insights and reporting
• Dedicated customer success team
• Unlimited seats for users

Cons:

• Higher cost for advanced features
  

Price: $499/month

What Dash Social users are saying: 

“Dash Social has such a user-friendly interface and is so clean. It's so easy to use, especially compared to other social media management tools I've used in past companies. The boards and campaigns features make it extremely easy to capture metrics and easily report out with an overview and platform-specific view. It's so easy to quickly compare content performance across channels and date ranges.

My team loves how easy the scheduler is to use!” - Mina G.

2. Sprout Social

Sprout Social offers a comprehensive scheduling tool within its broader social media management tool suite. Social teams can use Sprout’s scheduling feature to generate captions with AI, add alt text, and even generate additional post ideas from a single line of copy. Beyond this, they offer data on when you should post with their ‘Optimal Send Times’ feature, and a robust content calendar that lets you plan various posts across Instagram, X, and Instagram.  

Key Features:

• Social media scheduling
• Comprehensive analytics
• Collaboration tools

Pros:

• Reporting and analytics
• Multi-platform integration

Cons:

• Can be expensive, as the seat per user cost adds up
• Steep learning curve for new users

Price: $199/month

Compare: Dash Social vs. Sprout

What Sprout Social users are saying: 

“The intuitive dashboard, powerful scheduling tools, and robust analytics empower me to stay connected with my audiences in ways that are both strategic and deeply human. Sprout truly allows me to show up fully—for my clients, for my students, and for the communities I serve.” - Marcus G., Founder

3. Later

Later’s scheduling tool lets you manage all of your social posts for various platforms, with a mobile app that makes taking content on your mobile device a breeze. For convenience, their scheduling tool lets you share one post to all relevant platforms (they have scheduling capabilities for Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, X, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and YouTube) and then tweak and optimize it for each specific platform. Their visual planner also lets you see how your feed will look before you post, saving you from removing posts, or uploading something in error. 

‍Key Features:

• Visual content calendar
• Instagram post scheduling
• Media library

Pros:

• Easy-to-use visual planner
• Instagram-focused features
• Free plan available

Cons:

• Limited number of schedulable posts in cheaper plans
• Lacks robust analytics and in-depth insights

Price: $73.33/per month

Compare: Dash Social vs. Later

What Later users are saying: 

“Later makes social media scheduling and content planning incredibly easy. The visual calendar is intuitive and helps us clearly map out campaigns across multiple platforms. We especially like the media library feature, which allows us to organize and reuse assets, and the link in bio tool, which adds real value to our Instagram strategy. The ability to preview posts before publishing helps ensure brand consistency, and the user interface is clean and approachable for team members of all skill levels.” - Bree M., Director Of Marketing And Community Relations

4. Emplifi

Emplifi’s Publisher tool lets you plan, organize and execute posting from one convenient platform. In addition to its basic posting function, they also offer AI-powered social captions, publishing time recommendations and pre-planned approval flows, so you make sure your pre-planned content is seen by the right stakeholders in your organization. They also provide cloud storage integration, so teams can access and share creative assets with external integrations. 

‍Key Features:

• Social media management
• Customer experience analytics
• Content scheduling

Pros:

• Comprehensive customer experience tools
• Strong analytics capabilities
• Integrates with multiple platforms

Cons:

• Can be complex to navigate
• Doesn’t offer public pricing

Price: Not public

Compare: Dash Social vs. Emplifi

What Emplifi users are saying: 

“When it comes to scheduling content on different accounts, it is very fast and saves me a lot of time for scheduling, it allows me to have very accurate reports, and the community part is very simple, so I can respond more quickly to my clients.” - Erika B. 

5. Buffer

Like the previously mentioned brands on this list, Buffer offers both post planning and the ability to get a bird’s-eye view of your content with a visual content calendar. Their AI assistant goes a bit beyond helping to generate caption ideas, but also helps your team brainstorm ideas, write faster, and repurpose posts. Their tool even lets you upload long-form content to get social media post ideas. They also offer collaboration among your team, so multiple people can draft, give approvals, and help manage your organization’s social presence. 

Key Features:

• Social media scheduling
• Analytics and reporting
• Team collaboration

Pros:

• User-friendly interface
• Affordable pricing
• Strong support and integrations

Cons:

• Limited features on lower plans
• Basic analytics compared to competitors

Price: Free-$10/month

Compare: Buffer Alternatives

What Buffer users are saying: 

“Buffer is extensively used in our company in marketing and corporate communication departments. It enables users to schedule and track scheduled posts across all major social networks. The analytics are great that show the performance of each post and also buffer is pretty affordable.” - Tracy W., Lead Digital Strategist, Information Technology and Services

Information Technology and Services

6. Meltwater

Meltwater’s scheduling tool is specifically designed for PR and marketing professionals. Meltwater offers publishing for TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, X, YouTube, and LinkedIn. Their tool has an integrated asset editor so you can make small adjustments to your content as needed. Within the drafting and approval process, you can even assign specific tasks and access to particular team members, so your campaigns and day-to-day content are seen by those who matters most, including external agencies.

 Key Features:

• Social media monitoring
• Analytics and insights
• Content scheduling

Pros:

• Excellent for media monitoring
• Detailed analytics
• Good for larger businesses

Cons:

• Doesn’t offer public pricing
• Steeper learning curve

Price: Not public

What Meltwater users are saying: 

“Meltwater has been super easy to use. It's very user-friendly and quick to find what feature I'm looking to use. I use it almost every day for marketing and communications purposes; it's helped with my day-to-day work. I really like the scheduling feature on Meltwater, which allows you to plan ahead and choose the ideal time to post based on the activity on your page. Marketing is all about getting the most eyes on your post, so that feature is great, and Meltwater really helps with that.” - Jillian G., Digital Marketing Coordinator 

7. Airtable

Airtable’s social media scheduling tool is flexible and functional. Social teams can schedule posts across platforms like Instagram, Facebook, X, LinkedIn, plus other notable channels. Their tool lets social teams create a bespoke content calendar tailored to your specific needs, with options to add tags, attachments, and custom fields. Airtable makes collaboration easy, with features that let multiple team members draft, edit, and approve posts and integrates with other tools to help align your strategy with your broader marketing and project management efforts for a holistic approach to planning and executing content. 

Key Features:

• Customizable databases
• Content planning
• Integration with social media tools

Pros:

• Highly flexible and customizable
• Great for organizing content
• Integrates with various tools

Cons:

• Requires setup and customization
• Can be overkill for simple scheduling

Price: Free-$24/month

What Airtable users are saying: 

“Airtable gives us the perfect blend of flexibility and structure. We use it primarily for planning and scheduling our social media content. The calendar view makes it easy to map out posts weeks in advance, while the grid view helps us organize by campaign, platform, and content type. The customization options—tags, checkboxes, collaborators—are incredibly helpful for tracking progress and approvals across our team.” - Brittany P., Director of Marketing

8. CoSchedule

CoSchedule’s bread and butter are their calendars. While many platforms offer robust calendars that suit a diverse range of needs, CoSchedule takes this a step further by offering calendars for social planning, overall marketing planning, and agency workflows. Their social calendar lets you compose, with AI capabilities that help you create posts, optimize messages, and even generate prompts. 

‍Key Features:

• Content calendar
• Social media automation
• Analytics and reporting

Pros:

• Comprehensive content calendar
• Integrates with various marketing tools
• Good for team collaboration

Cons:

• Complexity may be overwhelming for some users

Price: Free-$59/month

What CoSchedule users are saying: 

“I love their scheduling posts feature for social media - I oversee over 20 different social media accounts, and CoSchedule makes it so easy to post quality content at the right time. They have a feature that scores each post you make and shows you how to improve, and they use analytics to make sure each post gets sent at the best time for its page.” - Jenna P., Marketing Director 

9. Sendible

Sendible offers content publishing and a visual content calendar for TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, X and LinkedIn. Their tool is best suited for agencies, specifically offering a calendar that’s easy and intuitive to use when tailoring content to a unique voice and brand identity. Sendible offers an image resizer, which is great for last-minute adjustments and tweaks, as well as a Canva integration, which is perfect for leaner teams or teams without a dedicated graphic design team. Sendible users also have access to a unique ‘Smart Queue’ feature, which lets you upload longer, evergreen content, and automatically generate a post, which is helpful for those who are looking for something even more simplified than automation. 

‍Key Features:

• Social media scheduling
• Content curation
• Reporting and analytics

Pros:

• Affordable pricing
• User-friendly
• Strong content curation tools

Cons:

• Limited features in lower-tier plans
• Can be slow at times

Price: $199/month

What Sendible users are saying: 

“It is one of the most cost-effective ways to schedule posts to multiple platforms. Much more reasonably priced than some competitors. I use it daily at my current workplace, because I used Sendible at my last role too. Overall, a reliable, efficient platform. The customer service has always been very quick to get back to me too.” - Freya R., Marketing and Content Creation

10. Loomly

Loomly lets you preview, schedule and automate posts for Instagram, Facebook, X, LinkedIn, Pinterest, TikTok, Snapchat, YouTube and Google Business. For brands that rely on external images, they offer 5 million royalty-free photos and videos that teams can edit directly in the tool. They also have a built-in photo and video editor, so you can make any last-minute tweaks without having to re-upload. This is a great platform for teams without a dedicated design team or teams that want to maximize the amount of images at their disposal. 

‍Key Features: 

• Content scheduling
• Approval workflows
• Performance analytics

Pros:

• Easy approval workflows
• Visual content calendar
• Good customer support

Cons:

• Doesn’t offer public pricing
• Limited advanced analytics

Price: Not public

What Loomly users are saying: 

“It's really simple to use and has a calendar view so I can see all my posts scheduled for the week. It's super reliable and sends reminders if I've forgotten to change a post from draft to scheduled.” - Erin D.,Freelance Marketer

11. Agorapulse

Agorapulse allows you to schedule content across multiple platforms, including Instagram, X, Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok, YouTube, Pinterest and Google Business. Its publishing tool helps you optimize posts directly from the scheduler, collaborate with your team and manage everything in a visual content calendar, so you always know what’s going out and when. 

Key Features:

• Social media scheduling
• Engagement tracking
• Analytics and reporting

Pros:

• Comprehensive social inbox
• Good analytics and reporting
• Affordable pricing

Cons:

• Limited customization options
• Interface can be cluttered

Price: $99/month

What Agorapulse users are saying: 

“The scheduling feature is easy to view for all of the platforms and companies I represent. It has NEVER failed on me. The team is helpful when I've had questions that have never related to product failure, but use of a feature. Setup took no time, which was integral because I am a daily user for my business.” - Christine H., Owner 

12. SocialBee

SocialBee provides fully automated scheduling and publishing for brands on Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, LinkedIn, TikTok, Pinterest, YouTube, Google Business, Bluesky, and Universal Posting. The platform offers multiple ways to view your content, including a content category overview, a feed view, a calendar view, a grid view, and a list view that makeit ideal for larger social teams that prefer different ways of planning and viewing their content. SocialBee’s scheduling feature also contains AI-powered recommendations that go beyond content ideas, with platform suggestions, best posting time recommendations, and categorized content plans. 

Key Features:

• Content categorization
• Scheduling and automation
• Analytics

Pros:

• Robust content categorization
• Affordable pricing
• Easy to use

Cons:

• Limited integrations
• Basic analytics

Price: $49/month

What SocialBee users are saying:

“I like that I can post across multiple social media platforms at once, and customize each. It is simple enough for someone like me who isn't a super tech wiz to use and figure out without having to watch tons of training videos. It was very easy to implement and immediately start using…” - Dr. Jennifer Y., Adjunct Faculty

13. Canva

Canva's social media scheduling tool is designed to streamline content management across multiple platforms, including Instagram, Facebook, X, LinkedIn, Pinterest and TikTok. With Canva, you can plan and visualize your posts using a drag-and-drop content calendar, ensuring a cohesive and visually appealing feed. The tool integrates seamlessly with Canva's design features, which allow you to create stunning graphics directly within the platform and schedule them instantly. Collaboration is made easy with team features that let multiple users draft, approve and manage content. Canva's scheduling tool also offers analytics to track the performance of your posts, helping you optimize your social media strategy.

Key Features:

• Graphic design tool
• Social media post templates
• Scheduling integration

Pros:

• Excellent for creating visuals
• User-friendly
• Free plan available

Cons:

• Scheduling features are basic
• Limited to visual content creation

Price: Free-$19/month

What Canva users are saying: 

“...Users can share designs directly to platforms like Facebook, Facebook Stories, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, and LinkedIn, and they can also schedule social media posts. So, Canva provides a lot of integration utility for users onboarding any platform.” - Safi K., Business Consultant and System Structure Analyst

14. RecurPost

RecurPost is an AI-powered social media scheduling platform that lets users plan and automate content publishing across Facebook, Instagram, X, TikTok, LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest and even newer channels like Threads and Bluesky. The platform offers advanced features like evergreen content recycling, bulk scheduling, best time to post recommendations, hashtag suggestions and a visual content calendar to help simplify planning. 

Key Features:

• Evergreen content recycling
• Integration with newer platforms like Threads and Bluesky
• Unified inbox. 

Pros:

• Excellent customer service
• User-friendly interface
• Affordable option 

Cons:

• Lacks direct Story posting 
• Limited customization in regards to reporting 

Pricing: $9-$79/month

What Recur Post users are saying:

“I like how easily RecurPost simplifies my social media management. The user interface is really easy, allowing me to act fast. Setting up recurring posts has been a great solution—I can schedule weekly posts without much effort, and it keeps social media active without my constant action. The content library is also super handy. I can organize posts by multiple categories, so it’s easy to find and reuse content I have already created.” - Rutuja M., Executive Assistant

15. NapoleonCat

NapoleonCat’s social media scheduling tool lets you plan and post content to Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Google My Business, and LinkedIn. You can share a single post to multiple platforms, or tailor each post to specific platforms. The scheduler's AI assistant is built into the scheduler and helps analyze social media trends and past performance to offer content suggestions for your social posts. They also offer strong collaboration features, including a discussion panel so your team can exchange ideas in one central location. 

Key Features:

• Social media scheduling
• Analytics and reporting
• Social inbox

Pros:

• Good for engagement tracking
• Affordable pricing
• Easy-to-use interface

Cons:

• Limited integrations
• Basic analytics

Price: $89/month

What Napoleon Cat users are saying: 

“NapoleonCat is the best tool to manage your social media. It allows you to manage several social media profiles in one place and makes scheduling your posts and keeping your conversations easy and enjoyable.” - Kasia K.

16. Pallyy

Pallyy’s social media scheduling tool is a great choice for managing your content across platforms like Instagram, Facebook, X, LinkedIn, and Pinterest. Its drag-and-drop visual content calendar makes planning and organizing posts a breeze. Pallyy also makes team collaboration easy, letting multiple members draft, review, and approve content seamlessly. Their AI-powered features help your team generate caption ideas, optimize posts, and repurpose content, keeping your social media game fresh and engaging. Plus, Pallyy’s detailed analytics let you track performance and tweak your strategy for better results in your next posts. 

‍Key Features:

• Social media scheduling
• Analytics
• Content planning

Pros:

• User-friendly
• Good for small businesses
• Affordable pricing

Cons:

• Limited advanced features
• Basic analytics

Price: Free-$199/month

What Pallyy users are saying: 

“​​Super easy to schedule posts on all social media platforms at once and even transfer the same posts to other groups. I love how I always get a notification when something breaks right away so I never miss a post. The AI feature is helpful for creating that engaging post with minimal thought.” - Maria, Accountant

17. Plann

Plann’s social media scheduling tool is a versatile and user-friendly option for managing your content across Instagram, Facebook, X, LinkedIn and Pinterest. With its drag-and-drop content calendar, you can easily plan and organize your posts. Plann also supports team collaboration, allowing multiple users to draft, review, and approve content without skipping a beat. With the help of Plann’s AI, users can gauge content performance and adjust accordingly, keeping their social media strategy dynamic and engaging. Plus, Plann offers in-depth analytics to track your performance and refine your approach for better results. It's a great all-in-one solution to keep your social media game strong.

‍Key Features:

• Visual content calendar
• Instagram post scheduling
• Analytics

Pros:

• Great for Instagram scheduling
• Visual content calendar
• Easy-to-use

Cons:

• Limited to Instagram features
• Basic analytics

Price: $30/month

What Plann users are saying:

“Plann is a super helpful tool that makes running your social media way easier. You can plan out posts ahead of time, use the auto-posting feature, and see how well your posts are doing. Plann even lets you make shareable links to manage all your content in one spot.” - Fahim J., Author

18. Tailwind

Tailwind is a highly regarded, AI-driven social media scheduling tool designed specifically for Pinterest, Instagram, and Facebook. The tool allows users to efficiently create, batch, schedule, and auto publish content through one unified interface. Its features include SmartSchedule (which identifies optimal posting times based on engagement), SmartLoop (specifically for repurposing evergreen content) and the ever-popular drag and drop visual calendar which works to save brands time and boost engagement. 

‍Key Features:

• Pinterest, Instagram and Facebook scheduling
• Analytics
• Content planning

Pros:

• Excellent for Pinterest scheduling
• Good analytics
• Visual content planner

Cons:

• Limited schedulable posts in cheaper plans

Price: $99.99/month

What Tailwind users are saying: 

“Part of my job is scheduling social media posts (including Pinterest). I love being able to take 5 minutes out of my day to schedule a week's worth of posts so that I can focus on other aspects of work and save time.” - Riley S., Freelance Writer

19. monday.com

monday.com is a versatile Work OS that enables teams to build custom workflows and visual content calendars using flexible boards and prebuilt templates. With its social media planner and campaign status boards, teams can organize post ideas, set deadlines, assign tasks, track progress, and most importantly, centralize creative assets. Additionally, monday.com offers robust analytics to track the performance of your posts, helping you refine your strategy and boost engagement. It’s an all-in-one solution designed to keep your social media efforts streamlined and effective.

Key Features: 

• Customizable workflows
• Content scheduling
• Team collaboration

Pros:

• Highly customizable
• Good for team collaboration
• Visual interface

Cons:

• Complexity may be overwhelming

Price: Free-$32/month

What monday.com users are saying: 

“It is useful for scheduling purposes and allows various production teams to use monday.com to manage their hectic work schedules and production needs. They can make boards that track rejects, production requirements, and workflow charts. Monday.com is an excellent platform for keeping track of stuff, charting progress, and communicating statuses…” - Sandeep K., Android Developer

20. Eclincher

Eclincher is an all-in-one social media scheduling tool that helps users to schedule, automate, and publish content across multiple platforms from a unified visual calendar with smart queues and bulk scheduling. The tool supports automated posting from RSS feeds and content recycling, making it easier to maintain a consistent posting schedule and to repurpose evergreen assets. Eclincher also provides an integrated social inbox, AI-generated content, and analytics tools to enhance engagement and optimize overall strategy. 

Key Features:

• Social media scheduling
• Content curation
• Analytics

Pros:

• Comprehensive scheduling features
• Good content curation
• Affordable pricing

Cons:

• Interface can be cluttered
• Limited customer support

Price: $149/month

What Eclincher users are saying: 

“...Our social media manager also loves the scheduling feature because it allows us to plan and for her get ahead of the game and schedule posts so we are not scrambling last minute to get posts up on every social media platform…” - Alyssa L., Creative Director

Selecting the right social media scheduling tool is key to streamlining your online workflow, but as you can see from above, it’s not always obvious what the right choice is. That’s why it helps to set a few must-haves before you decide. Here are some of the major features to consider:

• Ease of Use: A user-friendly interface ensures you can schedule and manage posts effortlessly.‍
• Platform Support: Ensure the tool supports all the social media platforms you use, such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest, YouTube, X, and LinkedIn.
• Flexible Scheduling: Look for tools that allow you to plan posts well in advance, with features like bulk scheduling, calendar views, and auto-publish.
• Content Management: Opt for tools with content libraries and media storage to keep your posts organized and easily accessible.
• Analytics: Comprehensive reporting features are essential to track engagement and refine your strategy.
• Collaboration: If you work with a team, choose a tool that offers multi-user access and approval workflows.

Focusing on these aspects will help you find a scheduling tool that boosts your productivity, enhances your online strategy and meets your team's unique needs.

Which social media scheduler is the best?

The best social media scheduler is entirely dependent on what your brand needs from the tool. The best social media schedulers are going to be the ones that are within your budget, offer the platform coverage you need and can be relied on to auto-publish your content when you’re not online. 

Can I schedule social media posts for free?

Yes. Many social media platforms and social media scheduler tools allow you to schedule posts for free. Native tools like Meta Business Suite or TikTok Business Center offer built-in scheduling, while third-party schedulers such as Buffer and Later provide free plans with certain limits. Understanding what each option includes can help you decide which free route makes the most sense for your needs.

Are companies using social media marketing scheduling tools?

Yes, companies are increasingly using social media marketing scheduling tools. These tools help businesses streamline their social media efforts by allowing them to plan, schedule and automate their posts across various platforms.

This can save time, maintain a consistent posting schedule and enhance overall efficiency in managing social media campaigns. In 2025, the use of these tools has become even more prevalent as businesses aim to maximize their online presence and engagement without the constant need for manual updates.

How do I create a social media content schedule?

Creating a social media content schedule involves a few key steps to ensure consistency and effectiveness. Start by defining your goals and identifying your target audience. Then, conduct a content audit to see what has performed well in the past. Next, brainstorm and plan your content themes and topics, aligning them with your marketing goals. Use a social media calendar template to organize and visualize your posts across different platforms, scheduling them at optimal times for maximum engagement. Finally, monitor your performance and adjust your strategy based on analytics and feedback to continuously improve your social media efforts.