Planable vs Buffer: Required Approvals or a Simple Queue

The short answer: if no post may go out before a client, a manager or legal has signed it, Planable enforces that: its Pro plan, $59 a workspace a month on monthly billing with unlimited users, lets you make approval required, and Enterprise adds multi-level approval (Planable pricing, checked on 26 October 2026). If approval is a courtesy rather than a rule, Buffer Team covers it at $12 a channel, with analytics and a comment inbox already in the price (Buffer pricing).

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Planable moves the centre of gravity from the calendar to the review. A post is a document that people comment on, annotate, suggest edits to and approve, and the plan decides whether that approval is optional, required, or a chain of levels. Buffer treats approval as one gate for contributors who are set to need it, while owners and Full Access users publish freely.

Three checks on the approval path:

1. Price the add-ons before you compare. Planable's analytics and social inbox are add-ons at $14 and $9 a workspace a month, so a Pro workspace with both comes to $59 + $14 + $9 = $82 on monthly billing (Planable pricing file). For example, a Buffer Team account for that brand's 4 channels is 4 x $12 = $48, with analytics and replies included (Buffer pricing).
2. Write down today's chain of signatures. Who drafts, who checks, who has the final word, and whether a client is one of them. One gate fits Buffer. A required gate fits Planable Pro. A legal step after the client fits Enterprise.
3. Measure how long a post waits. Take the last 20 posts and count days from first draft to approval. That number, not the feature list, is what a review tool is bought to shrink.

The approval path, step by step

Where the two models collide

Unlimited people, limited posts

Planable charges per workspace, one per brand or client, with no seat price on any plan. In exchange it caps volume: 60 posts per workspace a month on Basic, 150 on Pro, unlimited on Enterprise, with 4, 10 and 50 social pages per workspace (pricing file). Basic also limits publishing to X to one post every 24 hours. Buffer caps neither people on Team nor posts on paid plans, beyond a fair use ceiling of 5,000 per channel, and charges for every account instead.

What the base price includes

Buffer's Team plan includes analytics without a history limit, a comment inbox on ten networks and branded reports (Buffer pricing). Planable sells analytics ($14), a social inbox for comments and DMs ($9) and social listening ($99) as separate workspace add-ons, each with its own 30-day trial, and none of them can be tried on the free tier. A team that only needs approvals pays for exactly that on Planable. A team that needs the whole loop pays more.

An AI drafting step that cannot skip the review

Planable's MCP connector is in the Claude and ChatGPT connector directories and is listed on every plan, the free tier included (pricing file). Its setup article describes the flow: you ask the assistant for posts, and drafts show up in your workspace waiting for review. Pair that with the Required approval type on Pro and the assistant can draft a month of posts for a client, while nothing reaches a social network until an approver has signed each one. Buffer's MCP documentation offers a saveToDraft option, but its own security notes warn that create_post can publish immediately, so the check sits with whoever approves the tool call.

Prices on 26 October 2026

USD, from the Planable pricing page and its pricing file, and the Buffer pricing page. Monthly billing, yearly in brackets; the sums are mine.

Planable starts you with 50 free posts, no time limit and no card, then a paid plan per workspace. The free posts are a total, not a monthly allowance, per its pricing file. Every add-on also starts with a 30-day trial. Each 30-day add-on trial hands Planable a feature your team uses every week by the time the first add-on invoice arrives, which is reasonable for a vendor and worth planning around: note each trial's end date, and decide on the waiting-time figure from your third check.

Choose Planable if

• Your job is getting client or legal sign-off on every post, and skipping it must be impossible.
• Many people review and few posts go out, so a seat-free plan with a post cap fits.
• Newsletters, blog posts or ads go through the same approval as social posts.

Choose Buffer if

• Your job is publishing steadily with one optional check, and analytics and replies belong in the base price.
• A brand of yours publishes more than the 150 posts a month that Planable Pro allows, or posts to Bluesky and Mastodon.
• You want to start on a free plan that does not run out after a fixed number of posts.

Sometimes posts wait a week because five people must sign, and no tool shortens that. When the team is the problem rather than the tool, that is work for an interim CMO, not a scheduler.

FAQ

Is Planable cheaper than Buffer?

For one brand that only needs approvals, Planable Basic at $39 a month is cheaper than Buffer Team on 4 channels at $48. Once analytics and an inbox are added, or several brands need required approval, Buffer costs less, per the Planable and Buffer pricing pages.

Which networks does Planable publish to?

Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, X, YouTube, TikTok, Pinterest, Google Business Profile and Threads, per its pricing file. Buffer adds Bluesky, Mastodon and Substack (Buffer homepage).

Can a Buffer owner send a post for approval?

No. Its approval guide says owners and Full Access users do not get the option to request approval on their own drafts, and it points agencies to a workaround article.