switching guide
Free Postiz alternatives
Postiz is free if you run it yourself, and a 7-day trial if you do not. This page is for the second case: the free alternatives, hosted and self-hosted, what each gives your agent, and when staying on Postiz is the better answer.
The free options, side by side
Five facts per plan, each read from the vendor's own page. The full free-scheduler survey has the sentences and sources behind every cell.
| Fact | ShapelessAIFree Forever | Postiz | Buffer | Mixpost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Posts on free | 10 a day, 300 a month | No cap, if you host it | 10 queued per channel | No cap, if you host it |
| Networks | 9, no account cap | 30 plus, if you host it | 3 channels | 3 on Lite |
| Your agent schedules | Yes: MCP, API, CLI | Yes, if you host it | Yes: MCP, API | No, Pro only |
| Your agent makes the post | Yes, $5 a month, refilled | No | No | No |
| Hosted for you | Yes, no card | No, $29 after a trial | Yes, no card | No, self-host only |
Why people leave Postiz
- The self-host stopped being free the third time an OAuth token expired on a Sunday.
- You wanted a free scheduler your agent can reach, and the hosted answer is a 7-day trial and then a monthly bill.
- The copilot writes what you ask for, and knowing what to ask for every week is the part that is hard.
- AI video metering (3 a month on the entry tier) does not survive contact with a real posting cadence.
Check these before you cancel
In the order they bite. Some of these turn out to be reasons to stay, and it is cheaper to find that out now than after the subscription lapses.
- The long tail of networks. Slack, WordPress, Dev.to, Warpcast and Nostr are Postiz-only in this list.
- The cap. Our Free plan is 10 posts a day; if you publish more than that, compare paid plans, not free ones.
- Whether your objection is hosting or capability. If it is hosting and you need no free tier, Postiz's own hosted plan is the smaller move.
- Anything you built against the Postiz API. Ours is different, and porting is real work.
What carries over
- Accounts reconnect through each platform's OAuth.
- Your data is yours in both directions - that is the point of AGPL. Export before you tear the container down.
- Your agent setup. Point Claude or ChatGPT at https://shapelessai.com/mcp instead of your own server; the tools differ, the job is the same.
Where to go instead
4 honest answers, one of which is staying where you are. We are last on purpose - if one of the others fits you better, take it.
- Postiz hostedNot free, but the obvious first step off a self-host: same product, $29 a month, someone else on call.
- Mixpost LiteFree and open source if you want to keep self-hosting, but Lite publishes to Facebook Pages, X and Mastodon only, and the API and MCP server are on the $299 Pro license.
- Buffer FreeHosted and free: 3 channels, 10 queued posts each, MCP and API included. It schedules what you made; it does not make anything.
- ShapelessHosted and free: 10 posts a day to every network you connect, MCP, API and CLI on the Free plan, and agents that research, write and design the post.
Questions about moving
- What is the best free Postiz alternative?
- It depends on what free has to mean. Hosted, free and agent-ready: Shapeless (10 posts a day to every network you connect, with MCP, API and CLI) or Buffer (3 channels, 10 queued posts each, MCP and API). Free and still self-hosted: Mixpost Lite, at three networks and no API. Free and uncapped: Postiz itself, self-hosted. Nothing hosted beats $0 with no cap; it just costs you the server.
- Is there a free hosted version of Postiz?
- No. Postiz Cloud is a 7-day trial, then $29 a month for 5 channels ($23 billed yearly). The free version is the AGPL-3.0 source you deploy yourself.
- Can my agent use a free plan, or only a paid one?
- On ours, the free one. Add https://shapelessai.com/mcp to Claude or ChatGPT as a custom connector, or call the REST API or CLI with a key from a free account. The 10-a-day cap is the same whether a person or an agent posts. On Buffer Free the MCP server and API are included too; on Mixpost they start at Pro.
- Is there another open-source option?
- Mixpost is the other serious one: Lite is free and open source, Pro is a $299 one-time license, both self-hosted. We are not open source and will not pretend that self-hosting us is an option.
- What does self-hosting Postiz actually cost?
- The licence is $0. The real bill is a small server, Postgres and Redis, a developer app registered per network, upgrades, and your attention when a platform changes its API. Meta, YouTube and TikTok reviews take weeks, and Postiz sells app approval as an optional paid service for exactly that reason. For a technical person it can be genuinely cheap. For everyone else it is not.
Free forever. 10 posts a day to every network, plus $5 of AI credits on us every month. No card.
Start free foreverSources, verified 2026-10-08
- [postiz.com/pricing]Tier prices monthly and yearly, channel counts, the 7-day trial as the free answer, AI image, video and clipping metering, API/MCP/CLI on every plan, self-hosting as a secondary option, paid app approval.postiz.com/pricingverified 2026-10-08
- [github.com/gitroomhq/postiz-app]Stars, forks, licence, creation date and last push, read through the GitHub API; the README's cloud vs self-hosted table.github.com/gitroomhq/postiz-appverified 2026-10-08
- [mixpost.app/pricing]Mixpost Lite's three networks and free licence; API, webhooks and MCP listed under Pro at $299 one-time.mixpost.app/pricingverified 2026-10-08
- [buffer.com/pricing]Buffer's free plan: 3 channels, 10 queued posts each, API and MCP included.buffer.com/pricingverified 2026-10-06