Buffer vs. Zoho Social

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Buffer
Score 8.4 out of 10
Small Businesses (1-50 employees)
Buffer is a social sharing tool. When browsing content, clicking on the Buffer icon automatically stores the content and schedules posts to social media channels throughout the day.
$0
Zoho Social
Score 8.9 out of 10
N/A
Zoho Social is a comprehensive social media management platform designed for businesses of all sizes and agencies. It is used to schedule and publish posts, manage conversations—including direct messages, comments, and mentions—across multiple platforms, track keywords, competitors, and hashtags, and generate reports from one dashboard. Supported platforms: Meta (Facebook, Instagram, and Threads), Google Business Profile, YouTube, Pinterest, Mastodon, X (formerly Twitter),…
$0
per month per user
Pricing
BufferZoho Social
Editions & Modules
Free
$0
Essentials
$6
per month per channel
Team
$12
per month per channel
Free
$0
per month per user
Standard
$15
per month per user
Professional
$40
per month per user
Premium
$65
per month 3 users
Agency
$320
per month 5 users
Agency Plus
$460
per month 5 users
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
BufferZoho Social
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
YesYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsA discount is offered for annual billing.Add Ons Users at $10 / user / month Brands $10 / brand / month Discount available for annual pricing.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
BufferZoho Social
Features
BufferZoho Social
Publishing
Comparison of Publishing features of Product A and Product B
Buffer
8.6
Ratings
7% above category average
Zoho Social
8.8
Ratings
9% above category average
Content planning and scheduling9.00 Ratings9.20 Ratings
Content optimization8.00 Ratings8.80 Ratings
Workflow management8.80 Ratings00 Ratings
Audience targeting00 Ratings8.40 Ratings
Reporting/analytics
Comparison of Reporting/analytics features of Product A and Product B
Buffer
8.3
Ratings
5% above category average
Zoho Social
8.4
Ratings
6% above category average
Campaign success analytics8.30 Ratings8.60 Ratings
Competitor analysis00 Ratings8.20 Ratings
Account management
Comparison of Account management features of Product A and Product B
Buffer
9.0
Ratings
12% above category average
Zoho Social
9.1
Ratings
13% above category average
Role-based user permissions & privileges9.00 Ratings9.10 Ratings
Mobile access9.00 Ratings9.20 Ratings
Listening/monitoring
Comparison of Listening/monitoring features of Product A and Product B
Buffer
-
Ratings
Zoho Social
8.2
Ratings
6% above category average
Sentiment analysis00 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Broad channel coverage00 Ratings8.40 Ratings
Engagement
Comparison of Engagement features of Product A and Product B
Buffer
-
Ratings
Zoho Social
8.6
Ratings
8% above category average
Automated routing and prioritization00 Ratings8.30 Ratings
Customer interaction histories00 Ratings8.80 Ratings
Marketing
Comparison of Marketing features of Product A and Product B
Buffer
-
Ratings
Zoho Social
8.8
Ratings
13% above category average
Lead generation00 Ratings8.50 Ratings
Content marketing00 Ratings9.10 Ratings
Channel coverage/integration
Comparison of Channel coverage/integration features of Product A and Product B
Buffer
-
Ratings
Zoho Social
9.3
Ratings
10% above category average
Twitter00 Ratings9.30 Ratings
Facebook00 Ratings9.20 Ratings
LinkedIn00 Ratings9.20 Ratings
Google+00 Ratings9.30 Ratings
Instagram00 Ratings9.30 Ratings
User Ratings
BufferZoho Social
Likelihood to Recommend
8.8
(0 ratings)
9.2
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.0
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Usability
9.0
(0 ratings)
9.2
(0 ratings)
Availability
8.2
(0 ratings)
8.2
(0 ratings)
Performance
8.0
(0 ratings)
8.2
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
6.1
(0 ratings)
9.3
(0 ratings)
Online Training
-
(0 ratings)
8.2
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.0
(0 ratings)
8.4
(0 ratings)
Configurability
10.0
(0 ratings)
7.3
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
-
(0 ratings)
3.6
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
8.6
(0 ratings)
8.2
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
-
(0 ratings)
8.2
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
-
(0 ratings)
8.2
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
BufferZoho Social
Likelihood to Recommend
It is a very interesting tool for entrepreneurs or CEOs of startups who do not have much time to manage social media communication and also have few resources at the beginning of their venture. It can also be convenient for small companies that do not have specific personnel with training in community management and require easy-to-use tools to carry out the basic actions of scheduled publication on social media.
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n a crowded landscape of scheduling software options, this particular solution stands out as a beacon of simplicity and user-friendliness. What truly sets it apart is its ability to strike a delicate balance between ease of use and content flexibility. Unlike some other platforms that may impose restrictions on content size and compromise quality during scheduling, this software manages to preserve the integrity of the content while offering an intuitive interface.
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Pros
  • I can plan and publish content on social channels.
  • Buffer's interface is quite tidy and generates the necessary facilities to save us time in publishing consistent content.
  • It has a special price; it is pretty affordable.
  • It has the possibility of integrating with other tools to improve its functions.
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  • Zoho Social helps us develop posts, and it facilitates the automated publishing, which is vital in sharing the content we want.
  • Besides, Zoho Social is fruitful in customer engagement plan, where the software manages different accounts, and there is free communications throughout.
  • Finally, there is social media evaluation, monitoring, and analytics, and all of them brings to us an inference that is accurate and digital.
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Cons
  • Analytics-- The analytics on the Pro plan are limited at best. You can simply review your posts from the past 30 days, but you can't access any analysis (or even simple tallying of Likes, Shares, etc.) without upgrading to the Premium or Business plans, which are otherwise more than we need at the moment.
  • Publish+Reply+Analyze-- It's a bit tedious to have these basic social media functions/tools separated out as three distinct products, as well as overkill for a small nonprofit without a dedicated social media team. I imagine each tool is good at its job if you need 'em.
  • Linking to Accounts-- Buffer seems to lose touch with Facebook and LinkedIn somewhat frequently. It's vaguely annoying but very simple to fix, so I just roll with it.
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  • The Calendar view displaying published posts would be a great feature. You can view published posts displayed in a list, but when scheduling and arranging posts based on a calendar, seeing upcoming posts as well as past posts can be very helpful.
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Likelihood to Renew
Ease of use, affordability, time saved and just love for the app and the team. It's not a miracle tool that will suddenly increase your company's value or leads, you still need to put in quality posts, thoughts and content but when used regularly and with thought, you'll be happy in the long run
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I am enjoying using Zoho Social and I look forward to really unwrapping what it has to offer. I need to be able to essentially offload all my social media posting and work so that I can do the actual work of sewing clothes, which is what my business actually does. This way, I can spend a few weeks making different types of content while also sewing clothes and post the content in a way that builds a story for my business and is entertaining.
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Usability
Easy enough to use even my boss got it right away. It helps to off-set the workload to less active times, and we can preschedule way in advance, which also helps to keep the team on track as we know what we have planned and want to reach our milestones before posts go online.
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I think it provides good value for money, a streamlined, intuitive, user friendly platform, with lots of features I'm still discovering. The social media publishing is easy and effective to use. We would love to see the monitoring feature included in the basic package but for the price you can't ask much more, really
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Reliability and Availability
Buffer is always on hand and very reliable, their software suite rarely has outages
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No answers on this topic
Performance
Buffer performs well on both desktop and mobile platforms. The one area as I have stated before is that it does not always want to automatically push to Instagram and the user will have to go do it manually. Buffer works very well pushing to other platforms. The instagram issue is the only reason buffer does not get a 10 on this section
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No answers on this topic
Support Rating
  1. It really helped to my business to grow online.
  2. I was able to take actions mindfully as the analytics are damn good.
  3. Also used for managing clients social media accounts and it proved to be a best resource.
  4. Clients were really happy as they got high demand and growth on internet and the secret is Buffer.
  5. The user interface is really easy to understand and manage. Support is 24/7 available to help.
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The guys at Zoho are amazing. They are always in touch and are willing to help. They regularly send support emails to find out how they can help. They send tips and information on updates. When you need help, they don't hesitate to call. Support is really great from Zoho.
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Implementation Rating
We were very satisfied with the implementation of Buffer. We had no issues switching from the platform that we were using over to buffer. Our staff did not even miss a beat when it came to posting content. It was an easy transition and I feel that is something that buffer has really done well. They have an "out of the box" usability platform
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No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
Both of them are great at their own levels but I find Buffer quite easy to go and the way they perform every task is quite like my way of work so I personally like Buffer more, it has helped me save my most of the time hence improved my work efficiency and also the creativity they put into my work is outstanding. The support I get whenever I run into problems they provide a quick response every time.
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Zoho Social is more practical. It has the features we need. We just want to share content on our social media accounts and view the post-share stats. The integration process is easy, the sharing process is easy, and these are the key features we need at the moment. Also, we can manage our team and responsibilities by Zoho Social's permission system quite efficiently.
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Scalability
Buffer does what it say on tin as they say! you can always count on Buffer. Buffer can be scale to 25 social account with 2,000 scheduled post which is enough for most agencies or businesses
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No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
  • It has saved money by allowing us to automate our social using one person
  • It allows us to connect one channel at a time instead of wasting money on larger account management tools
  • We are making money, because it has already delivered several clients
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  • Zoho Social allows me to "see" my messaging planning weeks into the future. I can create themes for a week or month and easily see how it performs.
  • Having all my social accounts in one place saves me time.
  • It is too early for any ROI from Zoho but the amount of content I am putting out has increased by at least 400%.
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ScreenShots

Buffer Screenshots

Screenshot of The Buffer dashboardScreenshot of Customizable posting scheduleScreenshot of Tailored PostsScreenshot of List or calendar view of scheduled postsScreenshot of Browser extensionScreenshot of Social media analytics

Zoho Social Screenshots

Screenshot of the Zoho Social interface, which appears when logging into an account. It provides navigation to switch between brands, monitor follower growth, and analyze post performance across connected channels—offering a unified view of an organization's social media health, posts, and interactions.Screenshot of the interface to publish content across all connected channels at once, or by selecting specific ones individually. It also offers the option to schedule posts for later or use SmartQ to automatically pick the best time for optimal engagement.Screenshot of the interface to manage all social media conversations, including direct messages, comments, and mentions, across all channels in a single unified inbox.Screenshot of the Monitor feature, used to track keywords, relevant accounts, and content, with notifications.Screenshot of an example of Zoho Social's data-driven insights, used to crunch numbers and generate reports.Screenshot of the Social Media Calendar, used to plan and deliver experiences.