Postiz Alternatives: 5 Open-Source and Free Options

Buffer is the easiest Postiz alternative if you have three channels or fewer, because its free plan needs no server. If you want to self-host, Mixpost Lite is free under the MIT licence but covers only Facebook Pages, X and Mastodon, and TryPost is an AGPL-3.0 project listing 13 networks. Postiz's hosted Ultimate plan is $99 a month for 100 channels, which is what pushes many people to look.

What matters when you leave Postiz

According to Postiz's pricing page, hosted plans are Standard at $29 a month for 5 channels, Team at $39 for 10, Pro at $49 for 30 and Ultimate at $99 for 100. Annual billing brings these to $23, $31, $39 and $79 a month. Every plan has a 7-day trial and none is free. The same page says self-hosting is a secondary option, with agent features shipping on the hosted platform first.

The criteria that decide this choice:

• cost at your real channel count;
• how much server and developer-app work you will accept;
• whether the licence is open source;
• which networks you need;
• what the free tier actually allows.

Two public issues on Postiz's repository show the self-hosting side. In one from October 2026, an operator said TikTok rejected their self-hosted app as personal or internal use, while Facebook, Instagram and a LinkedIn Page worked. In another from September 2026, a commenter said managing their own Meta and TikTok apps was a pain. This applies to any self-hosted scheduler, not only Postiz.

If you only want a cheaper scheduler and have no strong open-source need, see our free social media scheduler comparison first.

Mixpost

Mixpost is a self-hosted social media scheduler with a free Lite edition and paid one-time licences. According to its pricing page, Lite is free and open source, covers Facebook Pages, X and Mastodon, and gets lifetime updates. Its licence file is the one the tool data records as MIT for Lite.

Pro costs $299 once and lists 12 networks, unlimited social accounts, one domain and one year of free updates, with a perpetual fallback licence afterwards. The page adds that paid licences are source-available and that running a SaaS requires Enterprise at $1,199.

Who should not pick it: anyone who needs Instagram, LinkedIn or TikTok without paying, since Lite does not list them.

TryPost

TryPost is an open-source scheduler built for AI agents and the teams behind them. Its repository shows AGPL-3.0, an MCP server, a REST API and a web composer with a calendar and approvals. It lists 13 networks: Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, X, YouTube, Facebook, Threads, Bluesky, Pinterest, Mastodon, Google Business, Telegram and Discord.

The repository says the self-hosted version has every feature of TryPost Cloud, with no paid tiers. It had about 758 stars on 2026-10-27, against about 39,000 for Postiz, so expect a smaller community. The hosted price is not stated on the page.

Who should not pick it: people who want a large community or documented migration help.

Buffer

Buffer is a hosted scheduler with a free plan. According to Buffer's pricing page, free covers up to 3 channels with 10 scheduled posts per channel, one user and 30 days of insights history. Essentials is listed at $5 per channel a month and Team at $10, with the page showing $60 and $120 billed yearly.

Its channel list includes Bluesky, Facebook, Google Business Profile, Instagram, LinkedIn, Mastodon, Pinterest, Threads, TikTok, X and YouTube (Shorts). Because it is hosted, there is no server to run. In a December 2024 Hacker News thread, a poster using the Postiz team's account said they were a big fan of Buffer before, and no reason for the change was given. More Buffer options are in our Buffer alternatives guide.

Who should not pick it: anyone with many channels, since cost grows per channel.

Metricool

Metricool pairs scheduling with analytics. Its pricing page lists a free plan with 1 brand, up to 20 scheduled posts a month and 30 days of analytics, and a Starter plan from $20 a month on annual billing or $25 monthly.

Its unit is the brand, not the channel, which suits someone running one business across several networks. It is hosted only, so there is nothing to install. Our Metricool alternatives guide covers the next steps.

Who should not pick it: people who need more than 20 scheduled posts a month on the free tier.

Publer

Publer is a hosted scheduler with a free plan. Our tool data, checked October 22, 2026, lists a free plan with 1 user, 3 social accounts (not X), 10 scheduled posts per account and 24-hour post history. Professional is $4 a month billed yearly or $5 billed monthly, according to Publer's plans page. That page could not be opened on October 27, so confirm the numbers before you subscribe.

Who should not pick it: anyone who needs X on the free plan or long post history.

When a paid tool is the better answer

Paying can be reasonable. Self-hosting trades the monthly fee for your own server time and developer-app approvals, so a hosted plan is the better answer if you will not maintain a server. Buffer at $5 per channel a month comes to about $25 a month for five channels, close to Postiz Standard's $29 for 5 channels monthly or $23 annually.

Mixpost Pro suits the reverse case: one $299 payment for 12 networks and unlimited accounts on one domain, with a year of updates. Hosted Postiz Ultimate stays the only plan here shown with 100 channels under one price. If you need approvals and listening at team scale, see Hootsuite alternatives.

Comparison

How to choose

• You left because of the $29 to $99 hosted price and have 3 channels or fewer. Buffer's free plan.
• You want open source and can run Docker, a reverse proxy and developer apps. TryPost for breadth, Mixpost Lite for a small, MIT-licensed base.
• You run one business and want analytics too. Metricool.

If you stay on Postiz and self-host, expect the work to centre on Meta and TikTok apps rather than the install itself.