Loomly vs Buffer: Which Is Better for Your Business?

Overview

Loomly was founded with the primary objective of simplifying the process of creating and posting content on social media. Initially, it was just a social media calendar, but it has evolved into a full-fledged social media management software.

One of Loomly’s USPs is its neat and streamlined dashboard, which users prefer over other tools’ elaborate but complicated interfaces. Also, it has retained its signature function, the content calendar.

The social media content calendar provides a bird’s eye view of your upcoming social media posts. This calendar makes planning and scheduling your content in advance easy, ensuring you never miss a post or run out of ideas.

Buffer supports multiple social media platforms, including Facebook, Google Business, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, TikTok, Pinterest, and Shopify. Buffer has distinguished itself from Buffer alternatives by integrating the new social platform Mastodon.

It allows users to schedule and publish posts from its dashboard without switching to native platforms. You can access audience insights and content-performance analytics for all platforms from one space. Marketing teams find the tool useful since it streamlines the collaborative workflow of all activities involved and takes virtually no time to get used to.

One of the standout features of Buffer is its Start Page builder, which enables users to create a landing page and share it on their social media. This feature can showcase a brand and its offerings to its target audience without creating an entire website.

So, this was something about the two tools we shall be talking about. Now, first and foremost, let’s compare Buffer and Loomly to see which one of them fits a wider variety of businesses.

Best Suitable For

Loomly

Start with $42

Agency, Small Business

Buffer

Start with $60

Freelancer, Small Business, Agency

SocialPilot

Start with $30

SMBs, Agencies, Multi-Location Brands

At a Glance

Let us quickly summarize the results of Loomly vs Buffer based on user ratings after thoroughly using both.

Overall ratings on users’ experience say that Loomly has left Buffer behind by a considerable margin. When rated for their set-up process and ease of using the tool, both got the same results, quite high.

However, when it came to the quality of support among these two tools, Loomly passes with shining accolades, leaving Buffer in the dust.

Here’s a snapshot of the user ratings for Buffer vs Loomly, and how SocialPilot stacks up.

	Loomly	Buffer	SocialPilot
Number of Reviews	1261	962	741
Overall Star Rating
Ease of Use
Quality of Support
Ease of Setup
	Learn More	Learn More	14 Days Trial

Quick Comparison

Now, we’ll shuffle through all the essential qualities of both social media management tools, which can’t be missed while comparing them. Let us see which one of them, Buffer or Loomly makes a better tool.

Buffer is known to be a very cost-effective tool for small businesses and solo entrepreneurs. But upon calculation, it came to light that both tools cost $360 to allow users to connect 50 social accounts. With Buffer, users have to pay per account after the initial 10, and Loomly gives it all at once at a higher rate.

Also, Buffer has a limit to how many posts can be scheduled from one profile, but Loomly has no such restriction. Also, Buffer does not give its users white-label solutions, but Loomly has it available in its higher plans.

Note: It is a notable fact that Loomly charges $360 to provide a white-label solution to its users for a customized branded experience, but SocialPilot delivers the same at less than a fraction of the exact cost. This makes SocialPilot a good choice amongst other Loomly alternatives.

The table below lists all the essential features to compare Loomly and Buffer. Also, we have kept SocialPilot with them for added reference.

	Loomly	Buffer	SocialPilot
Can't Miss to Compare
Minimum Pricing	$42/Month	$60/Month	$30/Month
Number of Accounts	10	10	10
Number of Team Members	2	1	2
Number of Posts that Can Be Scheduled	Unlimited	2000	Unlimited
Core Capabilities
Scheduling & Publishing
Analytics
Inbox
Collaboration
Competitor Tracking
Whitelabel
Localization	English	English & Spanish	German, English, French, Portuguese, Spanish
Support	Email, FAQs, Chat, Knowledge Base	FAQs, How-To-Guides, Video Tutorials, Social Media Support & Email Support	Email, Chat, Social Media, Phone
	Learn More	Learn More	14 Days Trial

Reviews

Loomly

Positive

• The user-friendly calendar makes it simple to rearrange scheduled posts, facilitating quick rescheduling and adjustment of pre-planned social media content.
• Loomly's approval process enables quick content review and approval or suggesting edits, reducing the time and effort required for back-and-forth collaboration.
• Features include scheduling threads and customizing text copies for each social media platform, resulting in more effective reach engagement.

Negative

• Loomly lacks a feature to toggle between grouped and ungrouped posts on the calendar, leading to inconvenience for users who have to manually ungroup posts frequently.
• It lacks the ability to copy and paste post structures, which can be time-consuming for users who want to replicate a post with minor changes.
• Loomly's analytics are limited in their insights and only provide basic information. This makes it challenging for users to evaluate the effectiveness of their social media strategies and make informed decisions.

Buffer

Positive

• The cost-effective pricing of Buffer makes it accessible to a diverse group of users, regardless of their budget.
• With Buffer, users have the ability to monitor and analyze customer responses from multiple social media platforms in a single, centralized location, facilitating a better understanding of their audience.
• Buffer allows for the customization of posts for each individual platform by enabling users to utilize specific tags and hashtags, which can effectively increase the reach of their posts and increase engagement.

Negative

• One potential drawback of Buffer is that its analytics capabilities are limited. Users have noted that the platform should offer a more in-depth analysis of each post's performance and engagement levels.
• Buffer requires an admin within the organization to reconnect unlinked accounts, which can be challenging and time-consuming when the user and admin are not in close proximity to each other.
• The lack of assistance in handling social media conversations in Buffer could hinder its effectiveness as a complete social media management solution.

SocialPilot

Positive

• SocialPilot constantly keeps updating itself by keeping a keen eye on customer suggestions and dynamic needs of social media channels. This way, the platform, backed by features that users require, is able to fulfill every demand a marketer may have.
• You can upload and schedule up to 500 posts at once using SocialPilot through its handy bulk import feature. These can be link posts, text, or even image posts to any of the platforms which SocialPilot supports.
• SocialPilot allows users and clients to collaborate efficiently and save a great deal of time managing social networks.

Negative

• Although the Bitly integration is convenient, you'd like to see all these features built natively within SocialPilot or have automated workflows that create UTM links for all campaigns and other variables.
• Users can post directly using their Instagram business account, but they will get mobile reminders in case of a personal account. This is a common issue on all social media management platforms since there is no available API for Instagram personal accounts.
• SocialPilot does not have a free version available, leaving users with only a 14-day free trial option to test the app. The free trial can be accessed without the need for a credit card, making it a risk-free opportunity for those who want to explore the features and capabilities of the app before making a purchase.

Pricing – Loomly vs Buffer

Now let us compare the pricing plans of both the contenders to see which one of them, gives a better deal to theory clientele.

Buffer has a free plan which requires no veiled payment at all, whereas Loomly’s base price starts at a mere $35 per month. However, we must compare the agency-level plans, which are more used by their client base.

Loomly, at a monthly fee of $360, allows 30 users to connect up to 50 social accounts and posts with no cap on the number. Upon some extrapolation, we find that Buffer allows 50 social accounts to be connected at the same price as Loomly but also has unrestricted team members’ access.

If we compare Buffer to SocialPilot, the latter provides 50 social accounts with unlimited users and clients to be onboarding at just $200. This makes customers consider SocialPilot as a well-matched Buffer alternative.

Look at the table below for a clearer understanding of the pricing plans of Buffer and Loomly compared side by side along with SocialPilot.

Loomly	Buffer	SocialPilot
Basic $42/per month	Free	Professional $30/per month
Standard $80/per month	Essential $6/per channel	Small Team $50/per month
Advanced $175/per month	Team $12/per channel	Agency $100/per month
Premium $369/per month	Agency $120/per channel	Agency+ $200/per month
Enterprise Custom	-	-
15 Days Free Trial No Credit Card Required	14 Days Free Trial No Credit Card Required	14 Days Free Trial No Credit Card Required
Learn More	Learn More	Start Your free Trial

In-depth Scheduling and Publishing Capabilities Comparison

Scheduling abilities are the bedrock on which the effectiveness of any social media tool depends upon. So now we’ll go over the scheduling and publishing capabilities of Loomly and Buffer.

Both tools have more than sufficient features to be powerful social media scheduling tools. Advanced capabilities include smart queueing, platform-specific post customization, visual content support, cloud content storage, and more.

However, there are some discrepancies between the two tools. For instance, Buffer cannot schedule Facebook reels, carousel posts, or boost posts, while Loomly can.

Also, Buffer does not support YouTube publishing and is unable to give content curation or RSS feed automation. All of these gaps have been filled by Loomly, providing many more advanced scheduling features which Buffer lacks.

Note: Loomly lacks a specific feature which is very much in demand for creating engaging and optimized posts. It does not allow users to schedule the first comment with their Facebook posts. However, you can do that with SocialPilot.

Based on the table below, you can determine which tool, Loomly or Buffer, performs better for scheduling and publishing. Alongside, we have given the data for SocialPilot as it has very robust scheduling abilities and gives tough competition to the tools in question.

	Loomly	Buffer	SocialPilot
Smart & Advanced Queueing
Customize Post for Each Platform
Post Preview
Canva Integration
Unsplash Integration
Slack Integration
URL Shortener
Visual Post Support (Image, Video, GIF)
UTM Parameters
Cloud Storage
Hashtag Suggestions
Advance Publishing Capabilities
Save Draft Posts
AI Assistant
Watermark on Images
Bulk Scheduling
Content Curation
Auto publishing from RSS
Social media calendar
Mobile App
Browser Extension
Advance Facebook Publishing Capabilities
Reel Scheduling
Support Album Posts
Support Carousel Posts
Alternate Text on Image
Support Facebook First Comment
Audience Targeting
Boost Post Scheduling
Support Mention and Hashtags
Advance Twitter Publishing Capabilities
Location Tagging
Support Mention and Hashtags
Support Multiple Image Posts
Threads Scheduling
Advance Instagram Publishing Capabilities
Reel Scheduling
Story Scheduling
Tag Profiles on Images
Location Tagging
Support Instagram First Comment
Instagram Grid
Advance LinkedIn Publishing Capabilities
Audience Targeting
Support LinkedIn First Comment
Advance YouTube Publishing Capabilities
#shorts Scheduling
Mention of Other Youtube Accounts
	Learn More	Learn More	14 Days Trial

In-depth Analytics Capability Comparison

Analytics is the roadmap that every social media marketer must refer to for creating successful strategies. In this section, we are trying to determine which tools have stronger analytics and reporting features.

Both Buffer and Loomly have similarly sufficient capabilities when it comes to collecting data on how your content is performing on the relevant platforms and the actions it is generating among the users. This data helps you determine your audience’s preferences and prevalent social media trends.

Buffer lacks reporting functionalities because it can’t automatically send the analytics reports it generates to concerned stakeholders, while Loomly can do it. And so can SocialPilot at a much lesser cost!

For better comparison, here are all the analytics and reporting functions for these tools along with SocialPilot.

	Loomly	Buffer	SocialPilot
Whitelabel Downloadable Report in PDF Format
Email PDF Report to Client
Auto Schedule Report with Team and Client
Custom Report Builder
	Learn More	Learn More	14 Days Trial

In-depth Inbox/Listening Capability Comparison

Listening abilities in a social media management tool helps monitor audiences’ opinions of their images and manage all the engagements and reviews.

Loomly has adequate listening abilities where users can reply to messages they receive from their audience on specific platforms. But Buffer seriously lacks in this criteria, missing all essential social inbox or listening capabilities.

Note: SocialPilot has a very capable inbox where users can monitor all the messages and comments they receive on their business pages. They can even see the review and star ratings they get on their Google Business pages. Engagement becomes super easy when all of it can be managed from one integrated and intuitive dashboard.

Here’s a brief look at all the listening capabilities of both Buffer and Loomly with SocialPilot for extra reference.

	Loomly	Buffer	SocialPilot
Can Reply Message
Can Reply Questions and Reviews
Can Reply on Visitor Posts
Real-Time Social Listening
	Learn More	Learn More	14 Days Trial

In-depth Social Media Collaboration Capability Comparison

Now we come to the last but crucial feature of the tool to be discussed. Collaboration functionalities are fundamental for marketing teams to work together on a social media management tool.

Both these tools have effective team and client workflows. Users can work and collaborate on a single post, get approval, and admins can decide on permission-based access.

Here is a brief summary in the table for all the collaboration features for Loomly and Buffer, along with SocialPilot.

	Loomly	Buffer	SocialPilot
Free Unlimited Client Onboarding
Per Post Multi-User Collaboration
Access Management
Content Approval Workflow
	Learn More	Learn More	14 Days Trial