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Posting consistently is one of the least glamorous parts of running a small business, and it's also one of the easiest to let slide when things get busy. A scheduler fixes that by letting you sit down once a week and load everything in at once. The free tools below all do the job, but they draw their limits in different places, channels connected, posts queued, and which platforms are actually included, so the right pick depends less on which is "best" and more on what you're posting and where.
Zoho Social
This is the one to know about if local search is part of your strategy, and for most small businesses it should be. The free plan connects six channels, including Facebook, Instagram, both LinkedIn formats, X, and Google Business Profile, and lets you schedule an unlimited number of posts. No other free tool on this list includes GBP without a catch.
It's capped at one brand and one user, so it's built for a single business run by one person, not an agency managing several clients. For that use case, it's the most complete free plan here.
Buffer
Buffer's free plan connects three channels and queues up to ten posts per channel at a time, refilling the slot as each one goes out. It doesn't include Google Business Profile, but it covers more mainstream platforms than almost anything else here, and the queue-based interface is the easiest one on this list to sit down and actually use without a learning curve.
If your business lives mainly on Instagram, Facebook, and maybe TikTok, and you don't need GBP posting in the same tool, this is the one most people land on and stay with.
Publer
Publer connects three accounts on the free plan (X is the one platform it excludes) and gives you ten scheduled posts per account, plus 25 saved drafts to plan ahead without committing to dates yet. It also includes Google Business Profile, making it the second option here, alongside Zoho, for keeping GBP posting in the same place as everything else.
The platform list is the widest on this list, Pinterest and WordPress included, which matters if your business posts blog content or product pins alongside the usual social channels.
Meta Business Suite
Meta's own scheduler is free with no post or channel limits, because it's built by the platform you're posting to rather than a third party working around its API. If your business genuinely only needs Facebook and Instagram, there's no real reason to add another tool into the mix.
The tradeoff is obvious: it stops at Meta's two platforms. The moment you want to add TikTok, GBP, or anything else into the same weekly planning session, you're back to needing one of the other tools here.
Metricool
Metricool's free plan schedules 20 posts a month for one brand and pairs it with 30 days of analytics history and tracking on up to five competitor profiles, which none of the other tools here offer for free. If you want to see what's actually performing without paying for a separate analytics tool, this is the closest thing to two tools in one.
The catch worth knowing up front: Google Business Profile is not part of the free plan here, unlike Zoho and Publer. If GBP posting is the main reason you want a scheduler, this isn't the one.
Free plan limits on every one of these tools change often, and platform support changes even more, a tool that includes Google Business Profile today isn't guaranteed to keep it free forever. Before you schedule thirty posts into one tool, confirm on the pricing page that your specific platforms and post count are actually still covered. It's a two-minute check that saves you from discovering a limit mid-month.
How to Actually Choose
Match the tool to what you're posting to, not to whichever one your competitor uses:
- Local search is part of your strategy: Zoho Social or Publer, so Google Business Profile posts live in the same queue as everything else.
- You want the simplest tool that just works: Buffer, if you don't specifically need GBP in the mix.
- You only post to Facebook and Instagram: Meta Business Suite. No reason to add a third-party tool for two platforms its own scheduler already handles for free.
- You want to see what's actually working, not just post and hope: Metricool, with the understanding that GBP needs to be posted separately.
A scheduler only pays off if there's something worth scheduling. If your GBP hasn't been posted to consistently, here's how to actually optimize the profile it's posting to, and if reviews are part of what you're planning to share, this is how to keep them coming in without ever having to beg for one.