Buffer vs. eClincher

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
eClincher
Score 7.9 out of 10
N/A
eClincher aims to be the most powerful, complete and intuitive social media management software. According to the vendor, the product is designed to help users, businesses, and agencies manage social media presence with one platform, and offers the following capabilities: advanced publishing publishing automation (queues, RSS feeds, recycle evergreen content) engagement with unified social inbox & live social feeds monitoring content…
$149
per month
Pricing
BuffereClincher
Editions & Modules
Free
$0
Essentials
$6
per month per channel
Team
$12
per month per channel
Standard
$149
per month
Professional
$349
per month
Enterprise
Contact Vendor
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
BuffereClincher
Free Trial
YesYes
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.A discount is offered for annual billing.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
BuffereClincher
Features
BuffereClincher
Publishing
Comparison of Publishing features of Product A and Product B
Buffer
8.6
Ratings
7% above category average
eClincher
6.0
Ratings
29% below category average
Content planning and scheduling9.00 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Content optimization8.00 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Workflow management8.80 Ratings6.00 Ratings
Audience targeting00 Ratings1.00 Ratings
Reporting/analytics
Comparison of Reporting/analytics features of Product A and Product B
Buffer
8.3
Ratings
5% above category average
eClincher
4.0
Ratings
66% below category average
Campaign success analytics8.30 Ratings4.00 Ratings
Real-time tracking00 Ratings4.00 Ratings
Account management
Comparison of Account management features of Product A and Product B
Buffer
9.0
Ratings
12% above category average
eClincher
4.5
Ratings
56% below category average
Role-based user permissions & privileges9.00 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Mobile access9.00 Ratings1.10 Ratings
Listening/monitoring
Comparison of Listening/monitoring features of Product A and Product B
Buffer
-
Ratings
eClincher
7.0
Ratings
10% below category average
Boolean keyword searches00 Ratings7.00 Ratings
Filtering out noise/spam00 Ratings7.00 Ratings
Broad channel coverage00 Ratings7.00 Ratings
Engagement
Comparison of Engagement features of Product A and Product B
Buffer
-
Ratings
eClincher
6.3
Ratings
23% below category average
Automated routing and prioritization00 Ratings7.00 Ratings
Customer interaction histories00 Ratings4.80 Ratings
Bulk actions00 Ratings7.00 Ratings
Marketing
Comparison of Marketing features of Product A and Product B
Buffer
-
Ratings
eClincher
1.0
Ratings
154% below category average
Lead generation00 Ratings1.00 Ratings
Content marketing00 Ratings1.10 Ratings
Channel coverage/integration
Comparison of Channel coverage/integration features of Product A and Product B
Buffer
-
Ratings
eClincher
6.8
Ratings
21% below category average
Twitter00 Ratings7.00 Ratings
Facebook00 Ratings8.00 Ratings
LinkedIn00 Ratings6.00 Ratings
Google+00 Ratings9.90 Ratings
Instagram00 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Pinterest00 Ratings8.00 Ratings
YouTube00 Ratings1.00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
BuffereClincher
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
BuffereClincher
Likelihood to Recommend
8.8
(0 ratings)
1.0
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.0
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Usability
9.0
(0 ratings)
1.0
(0 ratings)
Availability
8.2
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
8.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
6.1
(0 ratings)
1.0
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.0
(0 ratings)
8.0
(0 ratings)
Configurability
10.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
8.6
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
BuffereClincher
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.
Read full review
If you are on a tight budget and sick of comparable options, this is the ideal solution. For an incredibly reasonable price, this can do everything I need to manage social media for a handful of mobile apps simultaneously. If you have infinite money, handle massive brands, and harbor huge expectations for powerful social media tools, you should go with one of the pricier options. But keep in mind, this will end up being the difference between $99 USD a month, and $3,000 USD a month. You need to really decide what you need before making that leap because, in the mobile world, it's often the case that money like that is best allocated elsewhere.
Read full review
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.
Read full review
  • We use eClincher to schedule posts and reply to messages on various social platforms.
  • The platform compiles all of the social outlets so that we can see and reply to all outlets in the same dashboard.
  • The reporting is wonderful! Easy to generate and easy for clients to read.
  • There are so many outlets to post your message, the more on one platform the better. There are a couple of things that we've requested from eClincher and they've always been able to deliver.
Read full review
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.
Read full review
  • It's not very visually appealing, but this is not a dealbreaker.
  • The reporting features could definitely use some work. I still get more value from the native SNS pages, but this is quickly changing. They removed the "export to CSV" functionality, but they plan to reintroduce it soon. As mentioned previously, they really respond to criticism well and update the tool constantly.
  • The inbox could use some work. I don't like being directed offsite to view certain comments deemed "requests for further info" when they could just easily display them there.
Read full review
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
Read full review
Unless the price of eClincher moves to a point where it is too much to justify, I don't see any reason why we wouldn't continue to use eClincher for our agency. The value at this price-point is unbelievable and we'd be foolish to move to a pricier program purely for the sake of slicker graphics or UI. eClinchers pricing is fantastic, and is only matched by its functionality—it matches or beats any of the major Social Media Manager SaaS programs out there for a fraction of the cost. This tool is great for growing agencies, but would also be useful for any marketing department or large agency that wants to streamline their social media workflow.
Read full review
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.
Read full review
Its usability was good until they changed their plans and stopped their LTD program for its early adopters who helped raise the tool by giving it positive reviews. I don't think eClincher is ethical in any sense based on the recent actions.
Read full review
Reliability and Availability
Buffer is always on hand and very reliable, their software suite rarely has outages
Read full review
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
Read full review
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.
Read full review
[In my experience,] due to the fact that they did a bait and switch on their plans and blamed AppSumo for the lifetime program ending is simply wrong. [I believe that] it's unethical to get support and reviews from their early adopters then take the plan away later.
Read full review
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
Read full review
Be patient. eClincher isn't perfect and has some software issues. These issues will be exacerbated if you get frustrated or have a slow connection. If something "breaks" or locks up, just refresh the page and re-do that step. It may take your team a couple weeks to get use to using the new system. Once they've gotten the hang of it, I'm sure they'll love the amount of time they save. I'd recommend taking your time with the set-up. Though there aren't a lot of steps to get everything squared away, you can break the process into small chunks to make sure you're managing your time. To just hook-up all the social accounts, it may only take an hour or so. But, if you want to set-up all the extra tools (such as user accounts, listening feeds, posting groups, schedules, etc.) it'll take longer. I think it took around a day to set-up completely, but your mileage my vary.
Read full review
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.
Read full review
I used Sprout in a past life and while it does have some more features and might be a bit more aesthetically pleasing and a tad more intuitive, it doesn't have the queues feature eClincher has, and it is much more expensive. The only feature I miss from Sprout really is the customer history feature.
Read full review
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
Read full review
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
Read full review
  • Improved staff productivity tenfold.
  • Have not been able to calculate an ROI however, it has enabled us to take on more client accounts therefore improving turnover.
Read full review
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

eClincher Screenshots

Screenshot of eClincher Publishing/Draft workspaceScreenshot of eClincher Inbox/Assignment/Tags workspaceScreenshot of eClincher Analytics workspaceScreenshot of eClincher Reporting workspaceScreenshot of eClincher Content Curation workspace