Are you juggling your social media and wishing there was an easier way?
Posting on different sites like Facebook, Instagram, and X (formerly Twitter) can take up a lot of time, right?
What if there were tools to help you plan and post everything in one place?
Agorapulse vs Buffer are two popular options that promise to do just that.
Overview
We’ve spent time exploring both Agorapulse and Buffer.
Getting a feel for how they work day-to-day.
Our hands-on testing involved scheduling posts, engaging with audiences, and analyzing results to compare their strengths and weaknesses clearly.
Over 8,000 businesses trust Agorapulse to manage their social media. Explore for more!
Pricing: It has a free trial. The paid plan starts at $79/month
Key Features:
- Social Inbox.
- Publishing & Scheduling.
- Social Listening.
Level up your social media strategy with Sprout Social! Explore its powerful features.
Pricing: It has a free plan. Paid plan Starts at $5/month
Key Features:
- Advanced Listening.
- Customer Management.
- Multi-Channel Marketing.
What is Agorapulse?
Okay, so what’s the deal with Agorapulse?
Think of it as a super-organized hub for all your social media stuff.
It helps you manage posts, view comments, and check the performance of your content, all in one place.
Pretty handy, right?
Over 8,000 businesses trust Agorapulse to manage their social media. 25% increase in engagement for users leveraging its social listening tools. Explore it today!
Key Benefits
- Social inbox management is streamlined.
- Team collaboration improves by 35%.
- Engagement increases by 25% with listening.
- Social media reporting is simplified.
- Content publishing is automated.
Pricing
- Standard: $79/month (billed annually)
- Professional: $119/month (billed annually)
- Advanced: $149/month (billed annually)
- Custom: Contact Agorapulse, Unlimited social profiles
Pros
Cons
What is Buffer?
So, what about Buffer?
It’s another tool that’s really good for scheduling your social media posts.
It’s known for being easy to use and helps you plan your content ahead of time.
Think of it as a straightforward way to keep your social media active without posting everything in the moment.
Take the headache out of social media! Buffer’s intuitive platform and affordable plans. Let you effortlessly schedule and manage your content. See the difference it makes!
Key Benefits
- Sell products directly on social media: Set up a Shop Grid to showcase and sell your products.
- Curate and share engaging content: Use the Start Page to discover and share articles with your audience.
- Track your progress: Monitor all of your social media performance with in-depth analytics and reporting.
- Shorten links and track clicks: Use Buffer’s link shortener to optimize your posts and track engagement.
- Collaborate with your team: Work together seamlessly on content creation and scheduling.
Pricing
Buffer offers a free plan & three paid plans, making it accessible to everyone:
- Free: $0/month.
- Essentials: $5/month per channel
- Team: $10/month per channel
Pros
Cons
Feature Comparison
Now, let’s get into the nitty-gritty and see how Agorapulse and Buffer stack up when we look at what they actually do.
We’ve compared them side by side across key areas to help you decide which social media management tool might be better for your needs.
Social Inbox
- Agorapulse: This offers a truly unified social inbox, bringing all your comments, messages, and mentions from various social media channels into one stream. This makes response time significantly faster and ensures you don’t miss any interactions. For teams, multiple team members can easily manage conversations.
- Buffer provides more basic inbox functionality. While it allows you to see and respond to comments, it’s not as comprehensive or unified as Agorapulse, potentially making it harder for larger teams to manage high volumes of interactions efficiently.
Social Listening
- Agorapulse: This tool has a robust social listening feature that allows you to track relevant keywords, hashtags, and mentions across social media platforms. This is crucial for understanding your brand on social media and identifying opportunities.
- Buffer: Offers limited social listening capabilities compared to Agorapulse. While it allows some keyword tracking, it’s not as in-depth or feature-rich. If social listening is a key part of your social media strategy, Agorapulse is slightly ahead.
Social Analytics
- Agorapulse: Provides advanced social analytics, offering a wide range of metrics and reports to help you understand your content performance and audience engagement across your connected social media channels.
- Buffer offers more basic social analytics. While it gives you an overview of your post-performance, it lacks the depth and customization available in Agorapulse. For those needing detailed insights, Agorapulse is ahead of Buffer.
Content Creation & Scheduling Workflow
- Agorapulse: Facilitates a collaborative content creation workflow with features for assigning tasks, content approval, and a visual content calendar. This is particularly beneficial for teams and agencies managing multiple brands on social media.
- Buffer: Focuses on streamlined scheduling. While it offers a user-friendly interface for planning and scheduling posts, its content creation and collaboration features are not as extensive as Agorapulse.
Team Collaboration
- Agorapulse: Excels in team collaboration, often offering unlimited users on many of its paid plans. This makes it a strong contender for businesses with multiple team members involved in social media marketing.
- Buffer: Typically limits the number of team members, especially on its lower-tier paid plans. This might be a consideration for small businesses or larger teams needing access for more than one user.
Number of Social Media Channels
- Agorapulse: Generally offers more flexibility in terms of the number of social media channels you can connect, especially within its team plan and agency plan options.
- Buffer: Often restricts the number of social media channels, particularly on its more affordable plans. If you manage a significant presence across many social media platforms, Agorapulse might be more suitable.
Quality of Support
- Agorapulse: Agorapulse is often praised for its responsive and helpful quality of support. Many users report positive experiences with their customer service.
- Buffer: While generally considered helpful, some users have noted that their response time can vary compared to Agorapulse.
What Should You Look For When Choosing a Social Media Scheduler?
- Think about the number of social media platforms you use.
- Consider if you need advanced features like automation.
- Evaluate if team collaboration is important for your workflow.
- Check if the tool integrates with other marketing tools you use.
- Read reviews about the platform’s reliability.
- See if they offer a free trial to test the features yourself.
Final Verdict
Okay, so we looked at Buffer vs Agorapulse.
Both help with social media.
If it’s just you, and you want to plan posts easily, Buffer could work.
It’s not too tricky and doesn’t cost much.
But if you have a team or lots of social media (more than 10), Agorapulse has cooler stuff.
The social inbox helps a lot.
The reports tell you more, too, than Bufferr.
For teams and growing brands, Agorapulse gives you more for your money.
We tried both, so we know what we’re talking about.
Frequently Asked Questions
What’s the main difference between Buffer and Agorapulse?
Buffer is often simpler and more affordable for a single user focused mainly on scheduling. Agorapulse is a more comprehensive social media management platform, offering advanced features like a unified inbox and detailed analytics, which is better for teams managing multiple (even 10 social accounts.
Which platform is better for a small team?
Agorapulse is generally better for small teams. Its collaboration features and unified inbox make it easier for multiple people to manage social media efficiently. While Buffer has team features, they are often more limited on lower-tier plans.
Can I manage all my social media channels with either tool?
Yes, both Buffer and Agorapulse allow you to connect and manage multiple social media channels. However, the number of channels you can connect often depends on the specific pricing plan you choose for each social media management platform.
Is Buffer or Agorapulse easier to learn for a beginner to learn?
Buffer is often considered easier to learn, thanks to its straightforward and user-friendly interface. Agorapulse, with its more extensive features, might have a slightly steeper learning curve initially, but it’s still generally well-designed.
Which platform offers better customer support?
Agorapulse is often praised for its responsive and helpful customer support. While Buffer also offers support, some users report that Agorapulse’s response times and the quality of support are generally higher.
