PostSider vs Buffer: What You Get for $20 in 2026

I build PostSider. Read everything below with that in mind, and check every number against Buffer’s pricing page yourself. All figures are from July 2026.

Now the short version: Buffer wins below 4 channels. PostSider wins above 4 channels and anywhere code or AI agents touch your publishing. The rest of this post is the evidence.

The pricing models are philosophically different

Buffer charges per channel: $6 per channel per month on Essentials, $12 on Team (which adds unlimited team members). Connect a new network, pay more. It is fair at small counts and brutal at scale.

PostSider charges flat tiers: $20 for 5 channels, $35 for 10 channels with unlimited team members, $45 for 30, $90 for 100. Adding your Threads account or your blog costs nothing until you cross a tier.

Channels	Buffer Essentials	Buffer Team	PostSider
3	$18	$36	$20 (Standard)
5	$30	$60	$20 (Standard)
10	$60	$120	$35 (Team)
30	$180	$360	$45 (Pro)

Two honest notes on that table. Buffer’s free plan covers 3 channels with 10 queued posts each, and PostSider has no free plan at all, so a 3-channel solo creator who never schedules more than 10 posts ahead should use Buffer and pay nobody. And PostSider Standard caps at 400 posts per month, which is roughly 13 posts a day; if you publish more than that on 5 channels you want the Team tier anyway.

The API story is where the products split

This is the difference I care most about, because it is the reason I wrote the first line of PostSider’s code.

Buffer had a public API. Over 47,000 clients used it. In 2019 Buffer shut it down after the post-Cambridge-Analytica platform crackdowns, and spent the following years as a closed box. As of early 2026 there is a rebuilt API in limited beta, personal keys only, no third-party apps.

PostSider treats the machine interface as half the product:

• A REST API on every plan. Create a draft, schedule it, publish now, read analytics. 60 requests a minute, idempotency keys, an OpenAPI spec.
• An official TypeScript SDK, @postsider/node.
• An MCP server, so an AI agent (Claude, Codex, Cursor, anything MCP-compatible) can run your publishing conversationally. You say “queue this photo for Tuesday noon on Instagram”, the agent calls the same API your dashboard uses.

Buffer has nothing in this category, not even on the roadmap they talk about publicly. If your workflow is purely human, this difference is worth zero to you. If you have ever written a script, run an n8n flow, or asked Claude to do your posting, it is the whole comparison.

Feature by feature, without the marketing gloss

	Buffer	PostSider
Networks	~11 core networks	30+, including Bluesky, Mastodon, Nostr, dev platforms
Calendar and queues	yes, mature	yes, drag-and-drop, queue slots
CSV bulk import	weak, deprioritized	yes, on Pro
Approval workflows	Team plan	Team plan and up
AI features	AI assistant for captions	AI post checker plus per-network caption rewrite, our key or bring your own
API / SDK / MCP	API in closed beta	all three, every plan
Free plan	3 channels	none, 7-day trial without a credit card
Track record	since 2010	new in 2026

That last row is Buffer’s strongest argument and I am not going to hide it. Buffer has run for 15 years, publishes its revenue openly, and will exist next year. PostSider is a new product from a solo founder. Some buyers should weigh that heavily. The counterweight is that PostSider’s plans are flat, the API is open on day one, and the roadmap ships in public.

Where each tool actually fits

Pick Buffer if: you run 1 to 3 channels, you want a free plan, you value a decade of product maturity, and nothing in your workflow involves code. That describes a lot of people, and Buffer serves them well.

Pick PostSider if: you run 5 or more channels and are tired of per-channel math, you publish to networks Buffer does not cover (Bluesky, Mastodon, dev platforms like Dev.to and Hashnode), you want approvals and a team without $12-per-channel Team pricing, or you want your scripts and AI agents publishing through the same tool your humans use. Start with the 7-day trial, no card needed, and if you are coming from Buffer the migration guide gets your queue rebuilt in an afternoon.

If you want the wider field beyond these two, I compared seven Buffer alternatives with the same tables.

And if you read this whole thing and stay on Buffer: good. A comparison written by a founder that never concedes the other tool is not a comparison, it is an ad. Buffer at 3 channels for $0 is a better deal than anything I sell at that size. Above that, run the table again.