Buffer vs Cloud Campaign (2026): pricing, features, which to pick
Buffer from ~$5/mo per channel (free plan), Cloud Campaign $49/mo (Freelancer); 14-day free trial, checked by hand in 2026. Where each one wins, what each plan includes, and the cases where neither is the right buy.
One brand is one account on each of the 11 networks. Most tools charge per account or per seat; ViralHunt charges per brand with all of them inside, so the same 11 accounts come to a fraction per account.
- Buffer: 1 brand, 11 accounts: Essentials is $5 per channel for one user: 11 channels are $55 (Team, $10 per channel, would be $110). 4 brands, 44 accounts: Team is $10 per channel: 44 channels are $440 (users are free).
- Cloud Campaign: 1 brand, 11 accounts: Freelancer stops at 7 accounts per client, so 11 accounts for one brand need Team (unlimited accounts). 4 brands, 44 accounts: Team: 5 brand workspaces with unlimited social accounts.
- ViralHunt: Creator $29: 1 brand, 11 connected accounts, all 11 networks. Studio $99: 4 brands, 44 connected accounts.
Networks it publishes to, and networks it watches to find what is rising before you post.
| Tool | Best for | Starting price | What that price covers | Free plan |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Buffer | creators and small teams wanting simple, affordable multi-network scheduling | from ~$5/mo per channel (free plan) | 1 user per channel; the free plan has 3 channels and 10 posts per channel | Free trial |
| Cloud Campaign | agencies that resell social media management under their own brand and want client approvals and white-label reports | $49/mo (Freelancer); 14-day free trial | 1 brand workspace, 7 social accounts per client, unlimited users | Free trial |
| ViralHunt | discovering viral content across 13 networks and publishing to 11 networks per brand | from $29/mo | 1 brand, 11 connected accounts (Creator). Studio: $99/mo for 4 brands and 44 connected accounts | Yes, and it never expires |
Every price was read off the vendor's own pricing page. We show no G2 or Capterra ratings because we are not listed there, and an invented rating would destroy the only thing these pages have, which is that all of it can be checked.
Choosing between Buffer and Cloud Campaign? Below we break them down feature by feature, on pricing and on use case, and show where ViralHunt fits as the all-in-one alternative that tracks viral content across 13 networks.
| Feature | Buffer | Cloud Campaign | ViralHunt |
|---|---|---|---|
| Social platforms covered | 11, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, X, YouTube, Threads, Pinterest, Google Business, Bluesky, Mastodon | 9, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, X, YouTube, TikTok, Pinterest, Google Business, Threads | 13, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, Reddit, X, Bluesky, Mastodon, Douyin, RSS, Quora, Tumblr, Hacker News |
| Real-time viral content discovery | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Per-post engagement tracking | ✓ | Partial | ✓ |
| Cross-platform trending radar | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Editorial board (Kanban workflow) | Partial | Partial | ✓ |
| AI content studio | ✓ | Partial | ✓ |
| Built-in team chat | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Browser-extension scrapers | Partial | ✗ | ✓ |
| Niche / keyword tracking | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Mention / sentiment listening | ✗ | Partial | Partial |
| Post scheduling & publishing | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Auto-DM (comment → DM) | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Public API + AI-agent access | ✓ | Partial | ✓ |
| Free trial | ✓ | ✓ | Free plan, no expiry |
| Starting price | from ~$5/mo per channel (free plan) | $49/mo (Freelancer); 14-day free trial | from $29/mo |
📡 13 networks, one screen
TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, Reddit, X, Bluesky, Douyin, RSS, Quora, Tumblr & Hacker News, viral posts and engagement in a single radar.
🗂️ Built-in workflow
Assign any post to an editorial board, draft with the AI studio, and coordinate in team chat, no extra tools.
💸 Better value
One affordable plan instead of stacking a discovery tool + a workflow tool + a listening tool.
What is Buffer?
Buffer is a simple, popular social media scheduler for planning and publishing posts across up to 11 networks including Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, X, YouTube, Threads, Pinterest and Bluesky. It offers a clean queue and calendar, an AI Assistant for drafting, own-account analytics, a reply inbox, a link-in-bio page and team approvals. Its permanent free plan (3 channels, 10 posts each) makes it a favourite for solo creators. It is built to publish your content, not to discover viral posts across networks.
- Very affordable, with a genuinely usable permanent free plan
- Broad publishing coverage, 11 networks including Threads and Bluesky
- Clean, beginner-friendly scheduling with an AI Assistant
- Per-channel pricing adds up for many accounts
- No viral/trend discovery, you source content yourself
- No social listening; deeper features gated to the Team plan
Pricing: from ~$5/mo per channel (free plan)
What is Cloud Campaign?
Cloud Campaign sells brand workspaces to agencies. Freelancer is $49 a month for one brand workspace with 7 social accounts per client; Team is $199 for 5 brand workspaces with unlimited social accounts and standard white-labeling; Agency is $299 with advanced white-labeling, paid social reporting, client migration and SSO. Extra workspaces cost $29 to $49 a month depending on the plan, users are unlimited on every plan, and annual billing saves about 17%. It includes client approval links, unlimited AI captions, AI image credits, an AI social inbox, a content library with recycling and drip automations, analytics and exportable reports, plus a paid CloudStudio add-on from $99 a workspace that has posts made for you. Its API lists Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, X, YouTube, TikTok, Pinterest, Google Business and Threads among its account types. The only trend feature it names is hashtag trend analysis; it does not find what is going viral across networks.
- White-label app, domain and reports for agencies (Team and Agency plans)
- Unlimited users and unlimited AI captions on every plan
- Client approval links and a shared monthly calendar
- No viral or trending discovery across networks, only hashtag trend analysis
- Freelancer caps a client at 7 social accounts; Team is $199
- No free plan, only a 14-day trial
Pricing: $49/mo (Freelancer); 14-day free trial
When to buy one of these two
You came here comparing two tools, not looking for a third. So first, plainly, what each one is the better buy for:
- Buffer if your job is creators and small teams wanting simple, affordable multi-network scheduling. Very affordable, with a genuinely usable permanent free plan.
- Cloud Campaign if your job is agencies that resell social media management under their own brand and want client approvals and white-label reports. White-label app, domain and reports for agencies (Team and Agency plans).
If either of those sentences describes your job, you have your answer and the rest of this page is not for you. What follows is for the case where neither one does.
The third option: ViralHunt
ViralHunt is a viral-content discovery platform that tracks the top-performing posts across 13 networks, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, Reddit, X, Bluesky, Mastodon, Douyin, RSS, Quora, Tumblr and Hacker News, in real time. Beyond discovery, it turns trends into a team workflow with an editorial Kanban board, an AI content studio and built-in team chat, and now schedules and auto-publishes finished posts to 11 social networks, with separate brand/client projects. So a whole team can find, create and publish content in one place instead of stacking a discovery tool, a workflow tool and a scheduler.
- Tracks viral posts across 13 networks in one dashboard
- Editorial board, AI studio and team chat built in, no extra tools
- Schedules & auto-publishes to 11 networks, with multi-brand projects
- Affordable, a free plan that never expires, plus a REST API for AI agents
- Not a dedicated enterprise listening/analytics suite
- Younger brand than the incumbents
Pricing: from $29/mo
Comparing Buffer and Cloud Campaign because neither one quite does what you need? ViralHunt has a free plan that does not expire, so checking is free and there is no countdown.
Try for freeWhich should you choose?
- Buffer, best for creators and small teams wanting simple, affordable multi-network scheduling.
- Cloud Campaign, best for agencies that resell social media management under their own brand and want client approvals and white-label reports.
- ViralHunt, best if you want to discover viral content across 13 networks and turn it into content as a team.