GettingLoggedInOnBothBufferAndLater
Buffer let me skip the tutorial. Just boom — Google login, and I’m in the dashboard in about ten seconds. Later made me pick my first platform, add a profile picture, tell them my goals, decide if my team is just me or other people… too many clicks. I kept forgetting to connect my Instagram page because it wasn’t required until the last step. So yeah — Buffer honestly feels more like logging into Slack. Later feels like you’re setting up a Pinterest business account real slow.
One weird moment — Later asked me to verify Instagram, but it wouldn’t let me use the same tab where I had Meta Business Manager open. It took a couple tries to realize it was trying to open a pop-up but Chrome was blocking it. I finally noticed a tiny invisible window hovering behind my other tabs. Sigh.
So if you need to check something quickly like “Did I already schedule Friday’s post?” — Buffer wins this round just by getting out of your way.
FreePlanLimitsYouWillHitImmediately
Later’s free plan is technically generous: you get 30 posts per profile per month. But if you do two social channels, boom, that’s capped way sooner than you expect. There’s also a weird thing where “stories” don’t count as normal posts and can’t be auto published on Instagram — you have to do a manual notification thing. Buffer, meanwhile, gives you 10 scheduled posts at a time per channel, which sounds tiny but doesn’t reset monthly — it’s more like a live queue. If you post every day, you’ll be constantly pushing older queuers out just to add new ones. Kind of like playing Tetris with your calendar 😛
In reality, this means:
– Later is better for batch planning the whole month and uploading everything now.
– Buffer is better if you post randomly and only a few planned items sit in the queue at once.
A big heads-up: Later blocks you from uploading long blog links if you don’t pay for linkin.bio, their link landing page thing. Buffer doesn’t care what URLs you add, unless maybe you’re trying something sketchy. I once shortened a Mailchimp link through Bitly and Buffer flagged it as spam — apparently, that’s a thing now ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.
ActualSchedulingWorkflowClicksAndHiccups
Here’s my actual flow using both. With Buffer:
– Click Create Post
– Type stuff
– Select platform(s)
– Choose the time
– Done
With Later:
– Click Create Post
– Drag media from Media Library
– Wait for metadata panel to open
– Choose specific placement: Story, Feed, Reel
– Write caption (but their mobile preview keeps jumping around)
– Decide between Auto Publish or Notification (not always available)
– Then pick time
– Then Confirm Schedule
Honestly, Buffer’s editor is boring-looking but consistent. Later’s preview boxes are nice if you write visual-heavy posts, but they occasionally mis-render recycled captions with special quotes or emojis. One time Later double-scheduled a post because I accidentally dragged the same image twice. There was zero warning — just I opened my grid and saw two identical Reels back to back 🤦
Also: Buffer lets you schedule the same post to multiple channels at once. Later forces you to duplicate individually unless you’re on a paid plan.
MobileAppExperienceIfYoureOnTheGo
The Later app looks polished but it’s slow to react sometimes — especially when you switch time zones. It doesn’t always update previews unless you refresh manually. I ended up publishing a post with the wrong time just because my phone auto-switched from EST to PST and Later didn’t flag the change. Messages like “Post scheduled for 4 PM” are timezone-relative, but the app doesn’t warn you.
Buffer’s app is super minimalist. It’s not great-looking, and editing captions inside it feels cramped — especially on an older phone. But it syncs quickly. If you add something from desktop, it shows up on mobile nearly instantly.
The big difference: Later pushes reminders for posts that require manual publishing. Buffer mostly lets those fail silently unless you enable push alerts.
If you plan to batch schedule from desktop, you’re fine with either. If you keep posting from your phone between coffee breaks, Buffer’s less flashy app might actually work better just by being fast and predictable.
WhenYouNeedToEditScheduledPosts
Editing posts in Buffer feels like opening Google Docs. Click the post, revise the caption, shift the time — done. You get a clean timeline view that’s basically one vertical column.
Later, on the other hand, uses a full grid calendar. On desktop, it’s kinda fun to drag posts around — but when your list gets long, the calendar loads slowly. More than once I clicked a scheduled post only to watch it highlight… then do nothing. Had to refresh the whole tab. One bug I ran into: changing captions after setting the post time can unschedule the post silently. I didn’t notice until I came back two days later and saw it listed under Unscheduled. Super frustrating.
Another awkward detail: you can’t bulk edit post times in Later without upgrading. So if you messed up the entire week’s schedule, you’re clicking into each day, each individual post. Oof.
AnalyticsDifferJustEnoughToMatter
In the free tier, Buffer gives you basically nothing. There’s a tab called Analytics, but it’s mostly locked. You can see how many likes or retweets each post got, that’s about it. Later shows you slightly more — their Instagram analytics pane is surprisingly usable. You get basic reach, impressions, save counts. But only for Instagram and only for the last few posts.
The trick is Later tucks many analytics inside their “Performance Summary” email, which only sends weekly. One week I resized all my images thinking I’d get better engagement. But there was no way to see results for four days. When the email arrived, it showed I had actually lost reach… but I couldn’t dig in further unless I upgraded.
Buffer’s analytics aren’t even worth checking unless you pay. But its post-by-post stats are visible immediately after posting, so for quick feedback (like testing different hashtags), Buffer’s slightly ahead.
ForgottenSettingsThatActuallyChangeEverything
Okay, here’s the thing no one ever talks about.
Buffer lets you set your default posting times per platform. It’s tucked under Settings > Posting Schedule. Once I bothered to set that up — like Mondays 9 AM, Wednesdays 2 PM — I could just hit Add to Queue instead of manually selecting a time. Total time saver. But I totally forgot to set it when I first signed up, so my queue just kept defaulting to 12 PM every time 😩
Later has a similar feature called Quick Schedule, but it’s more visual. You drag time slots onto the calendar and they become sticky. Later automatically places the next post on the next available sticky spot. BUT — if you use Auto Publish for Instagram, you have to verify your Facebook page *first*, even if you’re not posting there. Otherwise, it’ll act like Auto Publish is broken with no error.
Took me four support tickets to figure that out.
FinalThoughtsWhenEverythingIsAlreadyBroken
Both tools are legit useful — until something small breaks and you don’t know which setting or browser or OAuth refresh caused it. Buffer’s simplicity means you can tell when something’s wrong. Later’s prettier interface sometimes hides the actual error.
If you schedule posts once a week and want automatic publishing, Later’s free tier will take you pretty far. But if you’re experimenting a lot, resizing images, testing platforms, or just don’t want to deal with puzzles — Buffer is boring in a good way.
I still use both. I just keep a sticky note near my monitor that says “Disable LinkinBio Reminder” and “Never trust scheduled Stories.” 🙂