Buffer vs. Rival IQ

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
Rival IQ
Score 10.0 out of 10
N/A
Rival IQ in Seattle delivers social media analytics and competitive insights to help digital marketers make informed decisions, improve results, and better understand competitors. Using benchmarks and comparative analysis, Rival IQ's technology is designed to enable digital marketers to uncover new opportunities, identify trends, and track results across all the main social channels and the web.N/A
Pricing
BufferRival IQ
Editions & Modules
Free
$0
Essentials
$6
per month per channel
Team
$12
per month per channel
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
BufferRival IQ
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
YesNo
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
BufferRival IQ
Features
BufferRival IQ
Publishing
Comparison of Publishing features of Product A and Product B
Buffer
8.6
Ratings
7% above category average
Rival IQ
-
Ratings
Content planning and scheduling9.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Content optimization8.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Workflow management8.80 Ratings00 Ratings
Reporting/analytics
Comparison of Reporting/analytics features of Product A and Product B
Buffer
8.3
Ratings
5% above category average
Rival IQ
-
Ratings
Campaign success analytics8.30 Ratings00 Ratings
Account management
Comparison of Account management features of Product A and Product B
Buffer
9.0
Ratings
12% above category average
Rival IQ
-
Ratings
Role-based user permissions & privileges9.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Mobile access9.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
BufferRival IQ
Small Businesses
CoSchedule Marketing Suite
CoSchedule Marketing Suite
Score 10.0 out of 10
Agency Analytics
Agency Analytics
Score 9.9 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
CoSchedule Marketing Suite
CoSchedule Marketing Suite
Score 10.0 out of 10
Echobox Social
Echobox Social
Score 9.7 out of 10
Enterprises
Social Suite by Reputation.com
Social Suite by Reputation.com
Score 9.4 out of 10
1-Social
1-Social
Score 8.0 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
BufferRival IQ
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)
8.0
(0 ratings)
Availability
8.2
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
8.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
6.1
(0 ratings)
10.0
(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
BufferRival IQ
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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It is great for competitive analysis if that's an ongoing need, and the upside of how it calculates engagement rate is that it's consistent across competitors (even if I think the methodology is flawed). We really only used the competitive data up front, and then sparingly afterward. If you want true impressions/engagement rate for Twitter, Instagram, and in some cases Facebook, then this is not as good.
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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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  • Rival IQ shows engagement data perfectly. You can see the engagements of your brands and any competitors your tracking.
  • The overall comparisons for the competitors is a great way to benchmark if you're using engagement data as measurements.
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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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  • Include new metrics not only based on engagement.
  • New metrics for Instagram ads.
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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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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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This is a really easy package to use and understand, once you've walked thru the interface. Onboarding is a must.
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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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Support is continuous and very helpful. Email, phone, and chat support are always on and someone is always there to help. Your CSR will contact you quarterly to take your temperature and offer assistance or training, if necessary. Feature requests are taken seriously. They share their product development roadmap, which is a major plus.
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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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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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These products are similar, but don't provide the same friendly interface or analytical view of the social space. Both of the platforms above (Olapic + Track Maven) are great for social media users, influencers, and trend-data, but if you're looking at improving your own brands' performance, Rival IQ is the best bet.
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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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  • We're able to create more effective content resulting in better metrics, resulting in retained and growing business.
  • We are able to sell this package as a value add to our clients.
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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