Best social media posting APIs for multi-brand operators (2026).
Five posting APIs and schedulers, compared on what actually changes at scale: what 100 accounts cost, where the account caps sit, and what happens when a post fails. Every number below comes from an official pricing page.
At published rates, 100 connected accounts cost $99/mo on Publishly’s Growth plan (unlimited accounts), $1,228.30/mo on Ayrshare, between $147–$438/mo on Upload-Post, $1,200/mo on Buffer, and aren’t offered at all on Metricool, whose plans cap at 50 brands. Which one fits depends on whether the roster is growing, and whether you need an API-first product or a suite.
The five tools.
Strengths first — this is a comparison, not a takedown. Publishly is included on its own merits, not superlatives.
Publishly
Publishly is a social publishing API and scheduler built for teams running many brands, clients, or locations. Plans are sized by monthly post volume rather than account count, so paid plans have no account cap, and every post gets a delivery receipt, a failure reason, and an automatic retry. It’s new to the market — self-served, with an API on every plan.
Ayrshare
Ayrshare is a mature, well-documented posting API with a broad network list and an established enterprise track record. Pricing is per-profile: the published Business plan includes 30 profiles in its $599/mo base, then bills $8.99 for each additional one — 100 profiles works out to $1,228.30/mo at published rates.
Upload-Post
Upload-Post is a lightweight posting API priced in profile-count tiers, from a free 2-profile plan up to $438/mo for 225 profiles. It’s a straightforward fit for smaller or fixed-size rosters; growing past a tier means moving up to the next one.
Buffer
Buffer is a polished, well-known scheduler with a genuinely good free tier for a handful of channels. Its Team plan bills $12 per channel on monthly billing ($10 annually), which stays cheap at small scale but adds up as the channel count grows.
Metricool
Metricool is a strong all-in-one analytics and planning suite with tiered pricing from free up to $53–159/mo on its Advanced plan. Its published plans cap at 50 brands with no unlimited tier — a good fit under that ceiling, but not offered at 100 accounts.
Side by side.
At monthly rates checked on 2026-08-11, 100 connected accounts cost $1,228.30/mo on Ayrshare and $1,200/mo on Buffer, aren’t offered on Metricool’s capped plans, and land between $147–$438/mo on Upload-Post — Publishly’s Growth plan is $99/mo with unlimited connected accounts.
| Feature | Publishly | Ayrshare | Upload-Post | Buffer | Metricool |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Flat plans sized by post volume | Per-profile — $599/mo incl. 30 profiles, then $8.99/profile | Profile-count tiers — $0 to $438/mo | Per-channel — $10/channel/mo (Team) | Tiered — Free / $20–36 / $53–159 |
| Cost at 100 accounts | $99/mo Growth (unlimited accounts, 15k posts) | $1,228.30/mo (published rates, monthly billing) | Between $147–$438 (75/225-profile tiers) | $1,200/mo at 100 channels ($360/mo at 30), monthly billing | Not offered — plans cap at 50 brands |
| Account cap | Unlimited on every paid plan | No cap published — each added profile is billed | 225 profiles on the largest published tier | No cap published — each added channel is billed | 50 brands max |
| Failure webhooks | Yes — signed post.failure webhook | Not published | Not published | Not published | Not published |
| Delivery receipts | Yes — per-destination state history + live post URL | Not published | Not published | Not published | Not published |
Competitor pricing & features last checked: 2026-08-11
Run the numbers for your own accounts.
Plans are sized by how much you post, not how many brands, clients, or locations you run.