Open-source alternatives to Hootsuite and Buffer

At a glance

Open-source alternatives to Hootsuite and Buffer compared
Tool	Licence	Self-hosting difficulty	Who it suits	Strengths
Postiz	AGPL-3.0	Harder: a Docker stack with PostgreSQL, Redis and Temporal, plus your own developer app on each social network	Teams posting across lots of networks who are happy to do the setup	All the main networks, calendar, team collaboration, public API and n8n node, no feature gating in the open-source edition
Mixpost	MIT	Moderate: Docker, or Laravel with PHP 8.3, MySQL and Redis. You'll still need developer apps for each network	Small teams who mainly post to Facebook Pages, Mastodon and X, or who'll pay once for Pro	Simple Laravel app, calendar and media library, one-off price for Pro rather than a subscription

Postiz: AGPL-3.0. Licence checked 31 October 2026.
Mixpost: MIT. Only the Lite edition is open source. Pro and Enterprise are separate paid products. Licence checked 31 October 2026.

Hootsuite is the expensive one here. Standard starts at $99 per user a month on annual billing, so three people cost $3,564 a year, and that's for up to 10 social accounts. If you're a small business posting a few times a week, it's a lot of money for a calendar with a Post button.

Buffer is a different story, and I'm going to be straight about it. Buffer's Team plan is $10 per channel a month with unlimited team members, so five channels is $600 a year. Essentials is half that. There's a free plan as well. At those prices, running your own server won't save you anything once you count your time.

So the open-source tools below make the most sense if you're paying Hootsuite prices, you've got lots of channels, or you want control over your scheduling. Let's look at the two main options.

Postiz

Postiz is the most active open-source social scheduler by some way. It's AGPL-3.0 licensed, and the project says it doesn't gate features or limit the licence. So the self-hosted edition isn't a cut-down version.

All the main networks: Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, Reddit, TikTok, Facebook, Pinterest, Threads, X, Mastodon and Bluesky, plus Slack and Discord.
A calendar with cross-posting, repeated posts and comments.
Team collaboration, with invited members able to comment and schedule.
Analytics, provided your developer apps have the right permissions.
AI features, using your own AI provider keys when self-hosted.
A public API and webhooks, plus an n8n node and a Make integration.

The stack is heavier than you'd expect for a scheduler. Alongside Postiz itself, the Docker setup runs PostgreSQL, Redis and Temporal, and Temporal brings its own Elasticsearch and PostgreSQL containers. The docs say it was tested on a machine with 2 GB of memory and 2 vCPUs. With all that lot running, I'd give it more than that.

The bigger job isn't the server. When you self-host, you have to create your own developer app on each social network, and each one goes through that network's approval process. The project warns that Meta, YouTube and TikTok can take weeks.

If that sounds like too much, Postiz has a hosted version that uses its own approved connections, from $29 a month for five channels, though team members start on the $39 plan. That's a perfectly reasonable option, and it spares you the developer apps.

Mixpost

Mixpost is a tidy Laravel app, and it comes in several editions. That needs a bit of explaining, because only one of them is open source.

Lite is free and MIT licensed. It publishes to Facebook Pages, Mastodon and X only, with a calendar, media library, post versions and basic analytics.
Pro is $299, paid once. It adds all the other networks, approvals, an engagement inbox, advanced analytics, an AI assistant, an API and more. It isn't open source, and that price includes a year of updates.
Enterprise is $1,199, and it's for reselling Mixpost as a service, so you can ignore it.

Lite suits a very small setup. If you only post to a Facebook Page and X, it does the job. LinkedIn and Instagram aren't in there, which rules it out for most UK small businesses.

There's another thing to check. The public repository's last commit was in March 2026, and the latest release I can see there is 2.6.0. That may simply mean the work is going into the paid product, but I wouldn't pick Lite expecting much new to arrive.

To run it, the Docker image has what you need, or a manual install needs PHP 8.3 or newer, MySQL or MariaDB, Redis 6.2 or newer, and a queue worker. The docs recommend at least 4 GB of memory.

What it costs

Hootsuite and Buffer

Hootsuite Standard: £75 per user a month, billed annually (converted from $99 at the European Central Bank reference rate on 2 October 2026). Checked 31 October 2026 (source).
Buffer Team: $10 per channel a month, with unlimited team members. Checked 31 October 2026 (source).

Self-hosted, run for you

No per-user fees. Adding people doesn't add licence costs.
Setup: a one-off fee to set it up and move your data across.
Hosting and care: a fixed monthly fee covering every app on your server.
I'll quote once I know what you need.

Paid tool prices exclude VAT unless stated.

The UK angle

This one's simple: your social posts are public anyway. Scheduling them through a US tool is fine for most small firms, and I wouldn't switch for that reason.

The personal data involved is limited: your team's logins, plus any comments and messages you pull in from an engagement inbox. Keep that side tidy and you're fine under UK GDPR.

The part I'd think about is ownership of the accounts. Whether you use Hootsuite or Postiz, make sure the social accounts themselves belong to your business, and not to a member of staff or a freelancer. With self-hosting, the developer apps should be registered to the company too, or you'll have a nasty job on your hands when somebody leaves.

Honest drawbacks

Connections will break. Social networks change their APIs and rules often, and when you self-host, fixing it is on you. Expect the odd failed post.
Developer app approval is slow and fiddly, and you need one per network.
Your server isn't the expensive part. It's the time spent on connections. Buffer at $10 a channel is hard to beat.
Mixpost Lite is very limited. No LinkedIn or Instagram, and a quiet repository.
Less mature than the paid tools. Hootsuite and Buffer have had years to polish reporting and team features, so compare the ones you really use.
Analytics depend on your setup. With Postiz, they need the right permissions on your own apps.

Which one?

My pick is Postiz, for a team moving off Hootsuite or managing plenty of channels. It covers the networks that matter and doesn't keep features back for a paid tier. The main drawback is the setup: you'll need a developer app on every network, and some approvals can take weeks.

Paying Hootsuite prices, several networks: Postiz, self-hosted.
Only using Facebook Pages and X: Mixpost Lite will do it.
Want a one-off payment rather than a subscription: Mixpost Pro, though it isn't open source.
Happy on Buffer: stay there. Honestly.

If you need scheduled posts driven from your own systems, such as new products going out automatically, the team at Dev Partners can build that as custom software.