Short answer: want the widest platform list, or free if you self-host — Postiz. Want a clean cross-poster that also reaches YouTube and Google Business — Post Bridge. Running 1 to 3 accounts and want a genuine free plan — Buffer. Want the most platforms and the most MCP tools for the least money, with agent access on the free plan — Upload-Post. Building social publishing into your own product or agency, on a serious budget — Ayrshare. Bill through RevenueCat specifically — planpo.st. Mostly writing for X, LinkedIn and Threads and want a free tier that already includes API access — Typefully. And if you sell something and want to know which post produced the sale, not just which one an agent was able to publish, that's what I built seenpaid for.

I make seenpaid, one of the eight schedulers below, so read this with that in mind. Every price, platform count and MCP tool count here was read off each vendor's own site — Upload-Post and Ayrshare fresh today, 24 September 2026, since neither has been checked in this series before; the rest were checked 23–24 September 2026 for the two comparison posts this one continues from. Typefully's paid pricing still doesn't render as static text, so it's left out rather than guessed at, same as the last two times it was tried.

Why people look for a Blotato alternative

Blotato's own pricing page is upfront about the one limit that matters most to the audience this piece is for. Its 7-day trial gives, in its own words, "Access to all features - except the API" — quoted directly from blotato.com/pricing, checked today. You can explore the dashboard, generate AI images and video, and schedule posts by hand during the trial; generating an API key to test the MCP server or the REST API ends the trial immediately and starts the $29/month Starter plan billing. Every one of the eight alternatives below lets you test its agent access — MCP or API — for free, on a trial or a free tier. Blotato is the one scheduler in this comparison where you can't.

The second thing worth knowing: Blotato runs on a monthly AI-credit allowance rather than a flat feature set. Starter includes 1,250 credits a month, Creator 5,000, Agency 28,000 — spent on AI image and video generation specifically; scheduling and publishing itself isn't metered. Heavy AI-content users are the ones who hit the ceiling, so it's worth checking blotato.com/pricing for current per-generation credit costs before assuming a plan covers your workflow. There's also no self-hosted or open-source version — if running your own infrastructure matters, Postiz, the first alternative below, is free to self-host under an open license; Blotato has no equivalent.

None of that makes Blotato badly reviewed — its own Trustpilot page shows a 4.8 TrustScore across 386 reviews, 90% five-star, as of today. But among the 4% one-star reviews are two patterns worth knowing before building an agent workflow around a trial: "free trial is a LIE, barely added just 1 facebook account and 'Your subscription payment is past due' shows up" (Flo, 3 November 2025), and "I paid for my subscription, but it kept asking me to pay again. They have left support to an AI chatbot pretty much" (Shridhar Maheshwari, 2 August 2026).

The 8 alternatives, at a glance

Price at 5 and 20 connected accounts, since Blotato's own Starter plan covers 20 — every MCP/trial detail below is what each vendor states on its own site, checked 24 September 2026 unless noted.

Postiz: $29/mo at 5 accounts (Standard); $49/mo at 20 (Pro, which covers up to 30). 30+ platforms, open source and free to self-host. MCP: hosted server, 13-tool per its own docs, on every plan.
Post Bridge: $29/mo at 5 accounts (Starter); $49/mo at 20 (Pro, which covers up to 49). 10 platforms. MCP: 16-tool, on every plan, 7-day trial with nothing due today.
Buffer: $30/mo at 5 accounts, $120/mo at 20, billed monthly (its Essentials plan is priced per channel; billed yearly it's $25 and $100). 12 platforms, plus a genuine free plan for 3 accounts with MCP included.
Upload-Post: $24/mo at 5 accounts (Basic, exactly 5 profiles; $16 billed annually); $50/mo at 20 (Professional, which covers up to 25). A 22-platform list. MCP: 40-tool, MIT-licensed, works on the free plan too.
Ayrshare: priced by 'social profile,' not by account — one profile can link up to 14 networks. Premium is $149/mo for 1 profile; 5 or 20 separate client profiles needs Launch, $299/mo for up to 10 profiles (no smaller step between 11 and 29 — Business starts at 30 for $599/mo). 14+ platforms. MCP: 27-tool, publishing gated to Premium and above.
planpo.st: $19.99/mo at 5 accounts (Creator covers up to 15); $39/mo at 20 (Pro, unlimited). 7 platforms. MCP: a 45-tool server, hosted or local, no stated gate on its 7-day trial.
Typefully: no computed price — typefully.com/pricing still doesn't return plan prices to an automated check, as of today. Free plan: 10 posts/mo with API and MCP included outright. 6 platforms: X, LinkedIn, Threads, Bluesky, Mastodon, Instagram.
seenpaid (mine): $19.99/mo at both 5 and 20 accounts (Solo) — plans count workspaces, not accounts: Solo covers 5 workspaces (brands), each connecting every platform with no account cap. 21 platforms. MCP: 50 tools, included on every plan including the trial.

Postiz — the widest platform list, free if you self-host

Postiz is open source under AGPL-3.0 with over 36,000 GitHub stars, and can run on your own infrastructure for nothing. Hosted, Standard is $29 a month for 5 accounts; 20 needs Pro at $49, since Team's 10-account ceiling falls short. Its MCP server ships with OAuth sign-in and 13-tool per its own docs, on every plan — the 7-day trial covers agent access the same as everything else. Pick it if platform breadth matters more than anything else here: 30+ platforms, including Nostr, Farcaster and Discord, none of which Blotato reaches. Weakness: no revenue attribution, and no built-in AI image or video generation the way Blotato has.

Post Bridge — a clean cross-poster that also reaches YouTube and Google Business

Starter is $29 a month for 5 accounts; 20 needs Pro at $49, which covers up to 49. Its MCP server, 16-tool, is included on every plan, and the 7-day trial has nothing due today — you can test the agent side for free from day one. Pick it if you want a straightforward cross-poster that also publishes to YouTube and Google Business Profile, neither of which Blotato supports. Weakness: no AI content generation of any kind, and no revenue attribution — analytics is in beta with no payment-processor connection.

Buffer — the free plan, if you run a few accounts

Buffer's free plan covers 3 channels, no card, with MCP included since 27 May 2026 — no trial needed to test the agent side at all. Past that, Essentials is $6 per channel a month billed monthly ($5 billed yearly): $30/month at 5 accounts, $120/month at 20 on monthly billing, or $25 and $100 billed yearly. It reaches 12 platforms, including Bluesky, Mastodon, Threads and Substack, none of which Blotato covers. Pick it if you run 1–3 accounts and want the safety of a real free tier with agent access already built in. Weakness: no AI content or video generation, and per-channel pricing makes it the most expensive option here once you pass a handful of accounts.

Upload-Post — the most platforms and MCP tools per dollar

Basic is $24 a month for exactly 5 profiles ($16 billed annually); 20 needs Professional at $50/month, which covers up to 25. Both numbers were read directly off upload-post.com/llms-full.txt today. It reaches a 22-platform list — the widest of anything on this page apart from Postiz's self-hosted 30+ — including Discord, Telegram, Slack, WordPress and Whop. Its MCP server, 40-tool and MIT-licensed, works on the free plan (2 profiles, 10 uploads a month, no card) with an API key generated from any tier. It's also a reviewed app in ChatGPT's own directory — "reviewed and listed by OpenAI," per its own chatgpt page, checked today — the same directory seenpaid joined 24 September 2026. Pick it if you want the widest platform and tool surface for the least money. Weakness: no revenue attribution, and no AI video or image generation the way Blotato has.

Ayrshare — API-first, built for developers, not a single creator

Ayrshare prices by 'social profile' rather than by connected account, and one profile can link up to 14 networks — so the 5-accounts/20-accounts framing this piece uses everywhere else doesn't map cleanly onto it, worth saying plainly rather than forcing a number. Premium is $149 a month for 1 profile; managing 5 or 20 separate client profiles needs Launch at $299/month for up to 10, with no smaller step available between 11 and 29 profiles — Business starts at 30 for $599/month. Its Action MCP server exposes a 27-tool surface, working with Claude Code, ChatGPT, Copilot, Cursor, Gemini CLI, n8n and more; Launch includes a 28-day free trial that, unlike Blotato's, includes full API access, since the API is the entire product. Pick it if you're building social publishing into your own product or agency rather than posting for yourself. Weakness: the cheapest useful plan is $149/month, several times every other option here, and client-profile management features sit at Business tier and above.

planpo.st — closest on revenue attribution

planpo.st is the other scheduler on this list that connects directly to a payment processor for revenue attribution — it reads Stripe, Shopify and RevenueCat. Creator is $19.99 a month and covers up to 15 accounts, so 5 costs the same; 20 needs Pro at $39/month, unlimited. Its MCP server exposes a 45-tool surface, hosted or local, with no stated gate on the 7-day trial. Pick it if you specifically bill through RevenueCat, which seenpaid doesn't read, or want client approval workflows. Weakness: 7 platforms is the fewest here, and neither AI content generation nor DM automation, both of which Blotato has.

Typefully — writing-first, with agent access on the free tier

Typefully's free plan gives 10 posts a month and includes the API and MCP server outright — no trial needed to test the agent side. Per typefully.com, checked today, it covers X, LinkedIn, Threads, Bluesky, Mastodon and Instagram — 6 platforms, no Facebook, TikTok or YouTube. There's still no number for its paid plans: typefully.com/pricing doesn't return plan prices to an automated check, same as the last two times this was tried, so no computed price at 5 or 20 accounts is given here. Pick it if your posting is mostly text for X, LinkedIn and Threads and a free tier with real agent access matters more than platform breadth. Weakness: no Facebook, TikTok or YouTube, and no AI video or image generation.

seenpaid — mine, and the only one here that reads what a post earned

This is what I built, so weigh it accordingly. Every scheduler above will let an agent post; most will let it check analytics. None of them, Blotato included, connect to a payment processor, so none can tell an agent a post produced a sale — except planpo.st, above, which reads three sources against seenpaid's eight (Stripe, Gumroad, Lemon Squeezy, Whop, Shopify, Paddle, Polar and Dodo Payments). Solo is $19.99 a month for 5 workspaces (brands), each connecting all 21 platforms with no cap on accounts, so 20 accounts for one brand still costs $19.99. MCP is 50 tools, included on the trial itself, and seenpaid has been listed in ChatGPT's plugin directory since 24 September 2026 — the same directory Upload-Post is in, and that Blotato, per its own pages, is not ("ChatGPT connects too, through Developer mode"). The honest downsides: there's no free plan and the 7-day trial needs a card, no AI image or video generation the way Blotato has, and X is bring-your-own-key so you pay X directly for posting there. If what you need is an agent that posts and generates content, several of the seven above do that better or cheaper; if the question is which post paid for itself, that's the one nothing else compared here answers except planpo.st.

How to choose

You want the widest platform list, or free if you self-host → Postiz.
You want a clean cross-poster that also reaches YouTube and Google Business → Post Bridge.
You run 1 to 3 accounts and want a free plan → Buffer.
You want the most platforms and MCP tools per dollar, with agent access on the free plan → Upload-Post.
You're building social publishing into your own product or agency → Ayrshare.
You bill through RevenueCat → planpo.st.
You mostly write for X, LinkedIn and Threads and want a free tier with agent access → Typefully.
You sell something and want to know which post paid for itself → seenpaid.

FAQ

Does Blotato's free trial include API or MCP access? No — its trial gives access to every feature except the API; generating an API key ends the trial and starts the paid Starter plan billing immediately, per blotato.com/pricing.

Which Blotato alternative has the most social platforms? Postiz, at 30+, if self-hosting or its hosted cloud works for you; among options with a genuine free tier, Upload-Post's 22-platform list is the widest.

Is there a free alternative to Blotato with agent (MCP) access? Yes — Buffer (3 channels), Typefully (10 posts/month) and Upload-Post (2 profiles, 10 uploads/month) all include MCP or API access on a genuinely free tier, no card required.

Which Blotato alternative reads revenue, not just engagement? Two: planpo.st, reading Stripe, Shopify and RevenueCat, and seenpaid, reading eight payment processors including Stripe, Gumroad and Shopify. Neither Blotato nor any of the other six alternatives compared here connects to a payment processor.

Blotato alternatives: 8 AI-agent schedulers compared (2026)