Buffer vs. Meta Business Manager

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Buffer
Score 8.4 out of 10
Small Businesses (1-50 employees)
Buffer is a social sharing tool. When browsing content, clicking on the Buffer icon automatically stores the content and schedules posts to social media channels throughout the day.
$0
Meta Business Manager
Score 7.9 out of 10
N/A
Meta Business Manager (formerly Facebook Business Manager, or Pages Manager) is a mobile app that supports management of up to 50 Facebook pages from a smart phone or tablet, allowing social media managers to see activity, post updates, and respond immediately to customers.N/A
Pricing
BufferMeta Business Manager
Editions & Modules
Free
$0
Essentials
$6
per month per channel
Team
$12
per month per channel
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
BufferMeta Business Manager
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
YesYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsA discount is offered for annual billing.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
BufferMeta Business Manager
Features
BufferMeta Business Manager
Publishing
Comparison of Publishing features of Product A and Product B
Buffer
8.6
Ratings
7% above category average
Meta Business Manager
5.9
Ratings
31% below category average
Content planning and scheduling9.00 Ratings7.10 Ratings
Content optimization8.00 Ratings5.80 Ratings
Workflow management8.80 Ratings4.70 Ratings
Audience targeting00 Ratings6.00 Ratings
Reporting/analytics
Comparison of Reporting/analytics features of Product A and Product B
Buffer
8.3
Ratings
5% above category average
Meta Business Manager
5.6
Ratings
34% below category average
Campaign success analytics8.30 Ratings7.20 Ratings
Real-time tracking00 Ratings5.80 Ratings
Competitor analysis00 Ratings3.80 Ratings
Account management
Comparison of Account management features of Product A and Product B
Buffer
9.0
Ratings
12% above category average
Meta Business Manager
6.1
Ratings
27% below category average
Role-based user permissions & privileges9.00 Ratings5.30 Ratings
Mobile access9.00 Ratings7.00 Ratings
Listening/monitoring
Comparison of Listening/monitoring features of Product A and Product B
Buffer
-
Ratings
Meta Business Manager
6.1
Ratings
23% below category average
Boolean keyword searches00 Ratings5.90 Ratings
Filtering out noise/spam00 Ratings5.30 Ratings
Sentiment analysis00 Ratings7.30 Ratings
Broad channel coverage00 Ratings6.00 Ratings
Engagement
Comparison of Engagement features of Product A and Product B
Buffer
-
Ratings
Meta Business Manager
5.9
Ratings
29% below category average
Automated routing and prioritization00 Ratings5.30 Ratings
Customer interaction histories00 Ratings4.60 Ratings
Bulk actions00 Ratings7.80 Ratings
Marketing
Comparison of Marketing features of Product A and Product B
Buffer
-
Ratings
Meta Business Manager
6.1
Ratings
24% below category average
Lead generation00 Ratings4.80 Ratings
Content marketing00 Ratings5.60 Ratings
Paid media management00 Ratings6.20 Ratings
Campaigns and promotions00 Ratings7.60 Ratings
Channel coverage/integration
Comparison of Channel coverage/integration features of Product A and Product B
Buffer
-
Ratings
Meta Business Manager
6.3
Ratings
29% below category average
Twitter00 Ratings4.00 Ratings
Facebook00 Ratings8.10 Ratings
LinkedIn00 Ratings5.90 Ratings
Google+00 Ratings7.30 Ratings
Instagram00 Ratings7.30 Ratings
Pinterest00 Ratings6.00 Ratings
YouTube00 Ratings5.60 Ratings
Best Alternatives
BufferMeta Business Manager
Small Businesses
CoSchedule Marketing Suite
CoSchedule Marketing Suite
Score 10.0 out of 10
CoSchedule Marketing Suite
CoSchedule Marketing Suite
Score 10.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
CoSchedule Marketing Suite
CoSchedule Marketing Suite
Score 10.0 out of 10
CoSchedule Marketing Suite
CoSchedule Marketing Suite
Score 10.0 out of 10
Enterprises
Social Suite by Reputation.com
Social Suite by Reputation.com
Score 9.4 out of 10
Social Suite by Reputation.com
Social Suite by Reputation.com
Score 9.4 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
BufferMeta Business Manager
Likelihood to Recommend
8.8
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
9.0
(0 ratings)
7.6
(0 ratings)
Availability
8.2
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
8.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
6.1
(0 ratings)
6.1
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Configurability
10.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
8.6
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
BufferMeta Business Manager
Likelihood to Recommend
It is a very interesting tool for entrepreneurs or CEOs of startups who do not have much time to manage social media communication and also have few resources at the beginning of their venture. It can also be convenient for small companies that do not have specific personnel with training in community management and require easy-to-use tools to carry out the basic actions of scheduled publication on social media.
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When utilizing a Lookalike audience based off a client's Current Customer list, Meta Business Manager does a great job in identifying who our ICP is. Pair that that CAPI and the platform is nearly fool proof. We have generated some of the highest pipeline through Meta Business Manager when done correctly, and the channel has great potential. We find that Lead Generation with Mid-funnel content drives more pipeline than direct response or Demo offers. Webinars and On-Demand webinars perform well on Meta Business Manager as well.
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Pros
  • I can plan and publish content on social channels.
  • Buffer's interface is quite tidy and generates the necessary facilities to save us time in publishing consistent content.
  • It has a special price; it is pretty affordable.
  • It has the possibility of integrating with other tools to improve its functions.
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  • Pages Manager allows fans and followers to message your organization privately to resolve issues that may not be right for the public interface
  • Pages Manager gives you a insights into how content is performing, including paid content, in terms of reach and engagement.
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Cons
  • Analytics-- The analytics on the Pro plan are limited at best. You can simply review your posts from the past 30 days, but you can't access any analysis (or even simple tallying of Likes, Shares, etc.) without upgrading to the Premium or Business plans, which are otherwise more than we need at the moment.
  • Publish+Reply+Analyze-- It's a bit tedious to have these basic social media functions/tools separated out as three distinct products, as well as overkill for a small nonprofit without a dedicated social media team. I imagine each tool is good at its job if you need 'em.
  • Linking to Accounts-- Buffer seems to lose touch with Facebook and LinkedIn somewhat frequently. It's vaguely annoying but very simple to fix, so I just roll with it.
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  • The only thing I have noticed is when on my device, it calls out a list of names that have shared your post, and it only shows one. On the computer it will let you scroll down and see all of them.
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Likelihood to Renew
Ease of use, affordability, time saved and just love for the app and the team. It's not a miracle tool that will suddenly increase your company's value or leads, you still need to put in quality posts, thoughts and content but when used regularly and with thought, you'll be happy in the long run
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No answers on this topic
Usability
Easy enough to use even my boss got it right away. It helps to off-set the workload to less active times, and we can preschedule way in advance, which also helps to keep the team on track as we know what we have planned and want to reach our milestones before posts go online.
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The UI is easy and intuitive for any beginner, but it also has a lot of depth for more advanced users. There have been very few cases where I could not do something I wanted to do regarding media buying. However, there are big limitations regarding account management, admin settings, and user appeals.
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Reliability and Availability
Buffer is always on hand and very reliable, their software suite rarely has outages
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No answers on this topic
Performance
Buffer performs well on both desktop and mobile platforms. The one area as I have stated before is that it does not always want to automatically push to Instagram and the user will have to go do it manually. Buffer works very well pushing to other platforms. The instagram issue is the only reason buffer does not get a 10 on this section
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No answers on this topic
Support Rating
  1. It really helped to my business to grow online.
  2. I was able to take actions mindfully as the analytics are damn good.
  3. Also used for managing clients social media accounts and it proved to be a best resource.
  4. Clients were really happy as they got high demand and growth on internet and the secret is Buffer.
  5. The user interface is really easy to understand and manage. Support is 24/7 available to help.
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Facebook is notoriously difficult to access for help and FBM is no exception. Only the chat feature will get someone in touch with you and then there is very limited help. The most they do is send links from their 'help section' without really offering much help at all. Business owners and directors need a person on the phone that can understand the problem and help fix it, not 'helpful links that have already been tried.
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Implementation Rating
We were very satisfied with the implementation of Buffer. We had no issues switching from the platform that we were using over to buffer. Our staff did not even miss a beat when it came to posting content. It was an easy transition and I feel that is something that buffer has really done well. They have an "out of the box" usability platform
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No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
Both of them are great at their own levels but I find Buffer quite easy to go and the way they perform every task is quite like my way of work so I personally like Buffer more, it has helped me save my most of the time hence improved my work efficiency and also the creativity they put into my work is outstanding. The support I get whenever I run into problems they provide a quick response every time.
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When it comes to B2C marketing, we don't see any alternative as present in India to Meta Business Manager. However, we use youtube Ads to an extent yet we will stack Meta Business Manager higher. When it comes to B2B marketing, we feel Meta Business Manager lacks a bit and we go for more specific targetting via LinkedIn Ads and LinkedIn Sales Navigator. Also, for inbound lead generation we use Google Search Ads.
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Scalability
Buffer does what it say on tin as they say! you can always count on Buffer. Buffer can be scale to 25 social account with 2,000 scheduled post which is enough for most agencies or businesses
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No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
  • It has saved money by allowing us to automate our social using one person
  • It allows us to connect one channel at a time instead of wasting money on larger account management tools
  • We are making money, because it has already delivered several clients
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  • Meta Business Manager allows us to see all of our content posted to Instagram and Facebook in one place, which is valuable for basic-level engagement fluctuation data.
  • Meta Business Manager doesn't really have tools to measure overall performance against ourselves or similar institutions, so even with years of content "banked" in its history, we still have to rely on outside tracking to determine our benchmarks.
  • Facebook is still the primary place for our older audience to engage with our institution, so it's nice to be able to do most of our posting on Instagram where our primary audience is and carry over only what is relevant to Facebook through Meta Business Manager.
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ScreenShots

Buffer Screenshots

Screenshot of The Buffer dashboardScreenshot of Customizable posting scheduleScreenshot of Tailored PostsScreenshot of List or calendar view of scheduled postsScreenshot of Browser extensionScreenshot of Social media analytics