Buffer has been around since 2010. It is a fine tool. But it was built for a different era. Here is the honest side-by-side with tinyposter.
Price
Buffer:
- Free: 3 channels, 10 posts queued
- Essentials: $6/mo per channel
- Team: $12/mo per channel
5 channels on Essentials = $30/mo. With AI add-on = $40+/mo.
Tinyposter:
- Starter: $9/mo for 30 posts across all 11 platforms
- Creator: $19/mo for 100 posts plus AI captions
- Studio: $39/mo for unlimited
5 channels on Starter = $9/mo flat.
Winner: tinyposter, by a lot.
Platforms
Both cover the big ones. Tinyposter has 11: Instagram, X, Threads, TikTok, YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook, Pinterest, Bluesky, Mastodon, Reddit.
Buffer has 9 (no Mastodon, no Reddit on most plans).
Winner: tinyposter.
AI support
Buffer has an AI Assistant that writes captions. Decent.
Tinyposter is AI-native. You can post from Claude Desktop, ChatGPT, Cursor, Codex, or any MCP-aware agent. Your AI sees your calendar, drafts, scheduled posts, and analytics. You can say "schedule a thread for tomorrow at 9am" and it just works.
Winner: tinyposter, by a lot.
Composer
Buffer has a clean composer. Per-platform tweaks. Drafts. Standard stuff.
Tinyposter has the same composer plus drag-and-drop scheduling on the calendar, URL ingest (paste a link, get a draft), and per-channel character counts.
Winner: tie.
Analytics
Buffer has decent platform analytics built in.
Tinyposter has none. We send you to each platform's native analytics. Instagram Insights is better than anything we could build, so we do not try.
Winner: Buffer (if you need analytics in-app).
Team features
Buffer supports teams, approval workflows, comments, shared inbox.
Tinyposter is single-user. No team. No approvals. No comments.
Winner: Buffer (for teams).
Speed and quality
Buffer scheduling sometimes fails silently. Reports of posts not going out.
Tinyposter uses Bundle.social as the publishing backend, with retry and status sync every 2 minutes. If a post fails you get an email and a clear error.
Winner: tinyposter.
Who should pick what
Pick Buffer if:
- You manage a 5+ person social team
- You need approval workflows
- You want analytics in one place
Pick tinyposter if:
- You are a solo creator or small founder
- You want AI assistants to post for you
- You hate paying $40+/mo for one tool
- You post to more than 3 platforms
Try tinyposter
3 days free. $9/mo after.