Posting to Social Networks From Code: 8 APIs Ranked by What 10 Accounts Cost
Affiliate disclosure: some links here are affiliate links and we may earn a commission at no cost to you. The order below follows the stated criterion and nothing else; no vendor paid for a position or saw this page before it went up.
If your product or your AI agent has to post to Instagram, LinkedIn and the rest, these eight sell the same promise: one API in front of many networks. They price it on five different units. Zernio, Unipile and Publer count connected accounts, and Postiz counts channels, one per connected account. Blotato sells flat plans with a cap on connected accounts. Ayrshare and Upload-Post count profiles, where a profile is one brand, client or user holding an account on each network. Outstand counts posts: one post delivered to one connected account is one, and its connected accounts are free. So this page fixes one setup, 10 accounts made of an Instagram account and a LinkedIn account for each of 5 brands, and prices it at each vendor on monthly billing. The answer runs from $19 a month at Outstand, whose fee includes 3,000 posts a month, to $299 a month at Ayrshare.
Price is the clearest difference between them, but not the only one. Outstand bills each post above the 3,000 its base fee includes, Zernio sells ads, messaging and telephony through the same API as posting, each with its own meters and fees on top of the per-account price, Unipile is mainly a messaging, email and calendar API that can also post, Publer is a scheduler whose API starts on its Business plan, and Ayrshare sells ads as an add-on. Each pick says what the cheaper plans leave out. Every price and limit comes from the vendors’ own pages and docs, read on 6 November 2026, and nobody installed, subscribed to or ran anything. Zernio pays this site a commission on referrals; it sits fifth because that is where the rule below puts it.
What this ranking measures
This ranking measures one thing: what it costs per month, at the cheapest published price on monthly billing, to publish through one account’s API to 10 social accounts: an Instagram account and a LinkedIn account for each of 5 brands, clients or end users. Monthly billing is the yardstick because it is the only basis all eight publish a price for: Zernio, Unipile and Outstand offer no annual billing, and Blotato publishes no annual dollar figure. The annual price is shown beside each pick that has one. Each vendor is priced on its own unit for exactly that setup: 10 connected accounts at Zernio, Unipile and Publer, 10 channels at Postiz, 10 of a plan’s connected accounts at Blotato, 5 profiles at Ayrshare and Upload-Post, and posts at Outstand, where the 10 accounts are free. Instagram and LinkedIn are two of the networks all eight say they publish to; X is left out because several of them bill or gate it separately and Unipile does not support it yet. A plan counts only if its API is included, so Publer starts at Business. Only Outstand charges per post for this setup: its $19 includes 3,000 posts a month, and one post to all 10 accounts counts as 10, so the price holds up to 300 posts per account a month, 10 a day in a 30-day month (our arithmetic), and each post above that costs $0.007. The other seven do not charge per post, so for them volume is not priced; the posting caps that apply are given with each pick. Where serving the 5 as clients or end users costs more than serving your own brands, the pick says so: Outstand’s Terms treat reselling to clients, including within your own products, as a Business-plan right ($129/month) or one that needs written permission. No free plan or trial covers this setup, and self-hosting is not priced because the server bill is yours. Deliberately not measured: network count, analytics, inbox, ads, reliability or support. Nobody installed, subscribed to or ran any of these.
The short answer
Outstand charges for posts, not accounts: connected accounts and seats are free, and the $19 a month includes 3,000 posts, where one post delivered to one connected account counts as one. A post to all 10 accounts here is 10, so the $19 holds up to 300 posts per account a month (our arithmetic); posts 3,001 to 10,000 cost $0.007 each. Instagram and LinkedIn connect through Outstand’s own apps (Managed Keys), with no Meta app review and no LinkedIn developer app of your own. What the low price leaves out: there is no free plan or trial, failed deliveries count, opt-in video re-encoding costs $0.05 per 10-second block, a charge its pricing pages do not mention, and its Terms make reselling to clients, including within your own products, a Business-plan right at $129/month or one that needs written permission.
Upload-Post counts a profile as one person or client, and each profile connects one account on each network, so five brands with an Instagram and a LinkedIn account each fit inside Basic’s 5 profiles, with unlimited uploads and no per-post fee; from 3,715 posts a month Outstand costs more than this $24 (our arithmetic). Its pricing page says every plan includes the REST API, the Python and JavaScript SDKs and the MCP server. Basic has one seat (owner only) and no white-label, which starts on Professional at $50/month, and its own docs say Reddit posting currently returns HTTP 503 although its marketing pages list Reddit.
This ranking is by price, so the cheapest plan that qualifies is the top pick itself. No free plan or free trial qualifies: the two lasting free tiers that include the API stop at 2 profiles or 2 connected accounts, and every trial ends; ‘You want to call the API before paying’ below lists each one.
All 8 compared
| # | Product | Best for | Price from | What decides its place | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Many accounts at a modest posting volume | $19/month base plan, billed monthly, including 3,000 posts (Pay as you go); then $0.007 per post to 10,000; no annual billing | $19/month on monthly billing: the 10 accounts are free, and 3,000 posts a month are included, 300 to each account here | Visit | |
| 2 | Several brands or clients on the smallest bill | $24/month, or $16/month billed yearly, for 5 profiles (Basic) | $24/month on monthly billing for 5 profiles, each holding one Instagram and one LinkedIn account | Visit | |
| 3 | Up to 20 accounts on one flat monthly price | $29/mo (Starter), billed monthly; no annual price published | $29/month on monthly billing for up to 20 connected accounts, twice this setup | Visit | |
| 4 | A scheduling app with an API, or code you host yourself | $39/mo (Team) on Monthly; $31 a month billed yearly | $39/month on monthly billing for Team’s 10 channels; Standard stops at 5 | Visit | |
| 5 | Agents that also handle comments, DMs or ads | $48 /month for 10 accounts on Build (2 accounts free, then 8 accounts × $6), usage-based, card on file; no annual billing | $48/month: the first 2 accounts free, then 8 × $6, on usage-based monthly billing | Visit | |
| 6 | LinkedIn and WhatsApp messaging that also posts | $55.00 / month total for up to 10 linked accounts (49.00€ / month total), post-paid every 30 days per its pricing FAQ (each monthly period per its Terms) | $55.00/month total in USD for up to 10 linked accounts, but no field to schedule a post | Visit | |
| 7 | Teams already scheduling in a calendar app | $63.00 / month for 10 social accounts (Business, Monthly); $50.40 / month billed yearly | $63.00/month on monthly billing for 10 accounts on Business, the first plan with the API | Visit | |
| 8 | One brand posting to many networks | $299/mo billed monthly for up to 10 social profiles (Launch); $249/mo billed annually | $299/month on monthly billing: 5 profiles need Launch, because Premium holds 1 | Visit |
1. Outstand
Why it sits at 1 $19/month on monthly billing: the 10 accounts are free, and 3,000 posts a month are included, 300 to each account here
Outstand prices posts rather than accounts or seats. Its two self-serve plans are both billed monthly, with no annual contract: Pay as you go is a ‘$19/month base plan, which includes 3,000 posts’, and its pricing.md says ‘Connected social accounts are unlimited and free on every plan.’ The homepage calculator, which opens at 10 connected accounts, shows ‘10 connected accounts $0.00’ and a Pay as you go monthly total of $19.00, excluding tax. The billing unit is ‘one post delivered to one connected account’, so one post to this setup’s 10 accounts counts as 10; pending, published and failed deliveries all count, and included posts do not roll over. The $19 therefore covers 300 posts per account a month (our arithmetic). Posts 3,001 to 10,000 cost $0.007 each and posts above 10,000 $0.005, so from 3,715 posts a month Outstand costs more than Upload-Post’s $24 (our arithmetic). Business, $129/month per organization, includes 50,000 posts. There is no free plan, trial or credit: creating an account is free, but the API answers 402 until the subscription status is ‘active’, and a ‘trialing’ status also gets 402.
Instagram and LinkedIn both connect through Managed Keys, Outstand’s own apps, so there is no Meta app review to pass and no LinkedIn developer app to register; Instagram needs a Business or Creator account. Two charges sit outside the $19: DM conversations above 500 a billing period cost $0.025 each, and opt-in video re-encoding costs $0.05 per 10-second block of output, which neither pricing.md nor the homepage pricing section mentions. Its Terms say Business ‘expressly permits reselling the Service to your clients, including within your own products or agency services’, and Pay as you go needs written permission to resell, so the $19 fits a company posting for its own 5 brands, while an agency or a product serving 5 clients may need Business. Outstand’s own pages disagree in several places: Instagram’s cap is 100 posts per account per rolling 24 hours in its docs and 50 on its Instagram page; the homepage says ‘You never see a 429’, while the docs answer requests over the limit with 429 and the Terms set 20 to 500 requests a minute per account; and the homepage names 12 platforms in one place and ‘X, LinkedIn, Instagram, and 11 more’ in another.
- 10 connected accounts free and 3,000 posts a month for $19, with Instagram and LinkedIn on Outstand’s own apps and no app of your own to get reviewed.
- Every delivery counts, failed ones too; no free plan or trial; reselling to clients needs Business at $129/month or written permission; and video re-encoding is billed outside its pricing pages.
2. Upload-Post
Why it sits at 2 $24/month on monthly billing for 5 profiles, each holding one Instagram and one LinkedIn account
Upload-Post sells flat plans sized by profiles, and its pricing page says a profile is one person or client, not one social account: each profile connects one account on each network. Five brands with an Instagram and a LinkedIn account each are therefore 5 profiles, which is Basic: $24/month on monthly billing, or $16/month billed yearly ($192 a year). Basic has 1 seat (owner only), unlimited uploads and TikTok, and the pricing page says all plans include the REST API, the Python and JavaScript SDKs, the n8n and Make integrations, the MCP server, scheduling and analytics. White-label starts on Professional, $50/month ($33 billed yearly) for 25 profiles, the plan Upload-Post labels ‘Most popular’. The pricing page advertises a 15-day money-back guarantee, though its Terms of Use say payments are ‘generally non-refundable’ and refund requests are considered case by case.
Unlimited uploads still meet daily caps, which the docs set per connected account over a rolling 24 hours: 50 on Instagram and 150 on LinkedIn. API requests on Basic are limited to 60 a minute and 300 per 10 minutes, plus 2 a minute and 10 per 10 minutes for each profile. Upload-Post’s own pages disagree in two places. The pricing page’s Annual toggle carries a ‘-40%’ badge, while the docs say annual billing saves up to 33%, and Basic’s prices work out to a third off (our arithmetic). And the marketing pages list Reddit among 22 networks, while the docs say Reddit posting is currently unavailable and returns HTTP 503.
- Profile pricing fits five brands’ Instagram and LinkedIn accounts into the $24/month Basic plan, with the REST API, SDKs and MCP server on every plan.
- One seat and no white-label on Basic, and its own pages disagree on Reddit (listed in marketing, HTTP 503 in the docs) and on the size of the annual discount.
3. Blotato
Why it sits at 3 $29/month on monthly billing for up to 20 connected accounts, twice this setup
Blotato sells three flat monthly plans, priced for the whole account rather than per seat, post or API call: Starter $29/mo, Creator $97/mo, which Blotato labels ‘MOST POPULAR’, and Agency $499/mo. Starter allows 20 connected social accounts in total across all platforms, counting each Facebook Page and each LinkedIn company Page separately, so the 10 accounts here fit with room to spare. All three plans include the same REST API and MCP server; there is no API tier and no API add-on. The pricing page sells monthly billing only. Blotato says yearly billing, switched on in its Billing Portal, saves about 17% (pay for 10 months, get 12), but it publishes no yearly dollar price.
Starter’s other caps are 1,000 active contacts a month for DMs and comment replies, 200 scheduled posts in the queue at any one time and 1,250 AI credits a month. Blotato’s own posting caps are 50 per Instagram account and 50 per LinkedIn profile in 24 hours. It publishes to 9 platforms, which its rate card calls an exhaustive list, so there is no Reddit, Google Business Profile or Telegram. Comments and DMs cover Instagram and Facebook only, LinkedIn returns no analytics yet, and the API reference has no ads endpoints. The 7-day free trial needs a card and excludes the API and the MCP server: generating an API key ends the trial and starts the paid plan.
- 20 connected accounts with the full REST API and MCP server for $29/month, and no per-post or per-seat fees.
- The trial excludes the API, so you pay before your first call, publishing stops at 9 platforms, and LinkedIn has no analytics yet.
4. Postiz
Why it sits at 4 $39/month on monthly billing for Team’s 10 channels; Standard stops at 5
Postiz Cloud sells four flat plans tiered by connected channels, and its homepage says each connected social account is one channel. Ten accounts therefore need Team: $39/mo on monthly billing or $31 a month billed yearly, with 10 channels, unlimited posts per month and unlimited team members. Standard, at $29/mo, holds 5 channels and is a solo plan. The pricing page says every plan includes the MCP server, CLI and API, and every plan card lists webhooks; Postiz labels Pro, at $49/mo, ‘Popular’. There is no free plan on the hosted cloud, and its 7-day free trial needs a card. The AGPL-3.0 edition can be self-hosted at no charge beyond your own server, though Postiz says you handle installation, updates, backups and the developer-app approvals on each social network yourself; its GitHub repository showed 40,995 stars on 6 November 2026, and this ranking does not price self-hosting, because the server bill is yours.
The Public API’s create-post endpoint is limited to 90 requests an hour by the cloud limits page, a figure the API overview raises to 100 on cloud and the OpenAPI spec’s description lowers to 30; one request can carry several posts. The API creates, schedules or drafts posts with a settings schema per platform, uploads media, lists channels and reads channel and post analytics. The docs disagree on comment replies: its Instagram self-host page says ‘You can post a reply through the API’, while the OpenAPI spec has no comment path and the MCP docs say ‘Comment replies must be triggered through the Postiz UI.’ The docs list no inbox, DM or ads endpoints. Postiz’s sources also disagree on its platform count: 27 in the OpenAPI description, 28+ in the CLI docs, 30+ on the homepage, 32 in the API overview and 34 in the platform docs, whose table has 35 rows.
- 10 channels with unlimited posts and unlimited team members for $39/month, and an AGPL-3.0 edition you can run on your own server.
- No free plan on the cloud, no inbox, DM or ads endpoints, and its own docs disagree on the API’s hourly limit and on how many platforms it supports.
5. Zernio
Why it sits at 5 $48/month: the first 2 accounts free, then 8 × $6, on usage-based monthly billing
Zernio, the API formerly called Late, has no plans and no seats. It charges per connected account per month on a graduated ladder: accounts 1 to 2 free, 3 to 10 at $6, 11 to 100 at $3 and 101 and up at $1, each band pricing only the accounts inside it, with billing prorated by account-day. Its pricing page opens with the slider at 10 accounts and shows this setup’s price: 2 accounts free plus 8 accounts × $6, $48 a month, an average of $4.80 per account. Billing is by card, monthly, with no annual option. The free tier of 2 connected accounts, with unlimited posts, analytics and the full API and no card, is ongoing rather than a trial; a card is needed before the third account or the first X account.
Each account is capped at 25 posts an hour and a daily limit by platform: 100 on Instagram, 50 on LinkedIn. With 3 to 2,000 accounts connected, the API allows 600 requests a minute, against 60 on the free tier. The $48 covers the 10 posting accounts; the rest of the API has meters of its own. The docs list analytics and comments on Instagram and on LinkedIn organization pages and DMs on Instagram, while its LinkedIn page says ‘LinkedIn blocks third-party DM access’. Ad accounts count as connected accounts on the same ladder (‘A Page, its Instagram account and the Meta ad account behind them are 3’), and so does each WhatsApp number, plus its number fee. Phone numbers cost $3 to $30 a month each and SMS from $0.008 per segment, managed ads are free up to 500 active ads and then $0.01 per ad a month, and sent inbox messages are free up to 10,000 a month, then $1 per 10,000. Its own pages disagree on whether any feature needs an add-on and on how many networks it covers, from 12 social posting platforms in one docs list, two of them Reddit and Snapchat, which their docs pages say are temporarily unavailable and not available yet, to 38 on its docs’ platforms index. Zernio pays this site a commission on referrals; $48 is the fifth-lowest price for this setup, so it sits fifth.
- One API covers posting, comments, DMs, analytics and ads, and the first 2 connected accounts stay free with no card.
- No annual billing; X calls, ad accounts, WhatsApp numbers, phone numbers, SMS and managed ads above 500 add to the bill; and its pages disagree on add-ons, billing timing, whether Reddit and Snapchat are available, and how many networks it covers.
6. Unipile
Why it sits at 6 $55.00/month total in USD for up to 10 linked accounts, but no field to schedule a post
Unipile bills per linked account, whatever the channel, post-paid on the peak number of accounts linked at the same time, at the end of each 30-day period per its pricing FAQ (its Terms say each monthly period). Up to 10 linked accounts is a flat 49.00€ a month in total, or $55.00 in the page’s USD view, so this setup lands exactly on the minimum; from 11 to 50 accounts every linked account is billed at $5.50 a month (5.00€), with lower per-account rates above 50. Prices exclude VAT, the page’s only toggle is currency, and there is no annual option. The 7-day free trial needs no credit card, and no free plan is listed. Unipile’s Terms count every account shown on the dashboard toward the bill, including accounts in error or disconnected.
Unipile is a messaging, email and calendar API first. Its v2 Create a Post endpoint publishes to LinkedIn (Classic), Instagram and Facebook, but the request has no scheduled-time field, so your own code decides when a post goes out, and the docs list no post-analytics or ads endpoints, although its Social Media API page lists ‘Post Analytics’ among its LinkedIn search features. Its pricing FAQ says LinkedIn, WhatsApp and Instagram work ‘through reverse engineering’, while its REST API page promises ‘No Scraping’, and it says it is not a Meta Partner. Its pages also conflict on rate limits: the pricing FAQ says Unipile enforces no usage limits, while the v2 docs say requests over its own limits get HTTP 429.
- One linked-account price covers LinkedIn, WhatsApp, Instagram and Telegram messaging plus Gmail, Outlook and their calendars, with a 7-day trial that needs no card.
- Posting reaches only LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook with no scheduling field, and its own FAQ says LinkedIn, WhatsApp and Instagram work through reverse engineering.
7. Publer
Why it sits at 7 $63.00/month on monthly billing for 10 accounts on Business, the first plan with the API
Publer is a scheduler first, and its API is not sold on its own: the docs say it is ‘available exclusively to Business and Enterprise customers’. Publer prices by connected social account plus any additional members, and for every 9 paid accounts the 10th is free. With the calculator set to 10 accounts and no additional members, Business came to $63.00 a month on monthly billing, the same as for 9 accounts, or $50.40 a month billed yearly. Business starts with a free 14-day trial, payments carry a 14-day money-back guarantee, and VAT is not included. Publer’s ‘Most Popular’ badge sits on Professional, which has no API, and the Free plan ($0, 3 social accounts, X excluded) has none either.
The API allows 100 requests per 2-minute window per user, across all of that user’s API keys, and creating posts is asynchronous: you submit a job and poll its status. Business caps posting per connected profile over a rolling 24 hours: 25 on Instagram, 14 on a LinkedIn profile and 24 on a LinkedIn Page, limits the plans page says Publer ‘can always waive’ for specific scenarios on paid plans. The docs cover posting, media, analytics and competitor analysis; they document no inbox, DM, ads or webhook endpoints, and Publer lists no official SDK, only a Postman collection. The plans page’s Yearly toggle says ‘2 months free’, about 16.7% off (our arithmetic), while the yearly prices it shows are 20% lower than the monthly ones and the same page’s FAQ says paying yearly earns ‘a 20% discount’.
- The API reaches Publer’s analytics and competitor-analysis data, and every 10th connected account is free.
- The API starts on Business, $63.00 a month for this setup on monthly billing, with no official SDK, no documented webhooks and 14 posts a day per LinkedIn profile.
8. Ayrshare
Why it sits at 8 $299/month on monthly billing: 5 profiles need Launch, because Premium holds 1
Ayrshare bills per social profile, which it defines as one customer, brand or location connected to any number of social networks. Five brands are 5 profiles. Premium, at $149/mo billed monthly ($129 billed annually), covers 1 profile, so this setup needs Launch: $299/mo billed monthly or $249/mo billed annually (the calculator on the same page shows $248 billed yearly) for up to 10 social profiles, with unlimited team members. Launch is the only plan with the 28-day free trial, which needs a payment method; Premium and Business are billed at signup. The pricing page says all plans include API access. Ayrshare’s ‘Most Popular’ badge is on Business, $599/mo billed monthly with 30 social profiles included, and its pages disagree on whether a free plan still exists: the help center says the free Basic Plan ‘is no longer available to new sign-ups’, while the Launch Plan docs still refer to ‘New customers on the free Basic Plan’.
For a single brand the arithmetic changes: Premium’s one profile reaches up to 14 social accounts across 14 networks on its plan card, or 13 in the comparison table on the same page, for $149/mo billed monthly. The API allows 300 requests per 5 minutes per profile, and since March 31, 2026 every X operation needs your own X developer credentials. The pricing FAQ promises unlimited posts, while the help center sets a monthly post quota per profile whose size the pricing page does not show. Beyond publishing, Ayrshare documents comments on 9 networks; DMs, which its Messages API docs price at a flat $49 a month per account on Premium and $0.09 per active conversation, metered, on Launch and Business, although the same page says messaging is included with all Business Plans; webhooks, which the pricing page lists from Launch and the Register Webhook docs from Premium; and an Ads add-on at $100 a month. Its MCP server has 27 tools on the homepage and 33 in the docs.
- One profile carries a brand’s accounts on up to 13 or 14 networks, and Launch adds historical content access, webhooks and unlimited team members.
- Five brands cost $299 a month on Launch, and the size of each profile’s monthly post quota is not published.
Which one fits your situation
Outstand Pay as you go at $19/month on monthly billing, with connected accounts free and 3,000 posts a month included; it stays the smallest bill up to 3,714 posts a month across the 10 accounts (our arithmetic), and its Terms make reselling to clients, including within your own products, a Business-plan right at $129/month or one that needs written permission. Upload-Post Basic at $24/month ($16/month billed yearly) covers 5 profiles, each with one account on each network, with no per-post fee. If your setup is 10 to 20 accounts on the 9 platforms Blotato covers, Blotato Starter at $29/mo allows 20 connected accounts.
Check white-label and resale terms before price. Upload-Post includes white-label from Professional, $50/month ($33 billed yearly) for 25 profiles. Ayrshare says publishing is white-label except the OAuth consent screen, which has to name Ayrshare, and lists custom branding options from Launch at $299/mo billed monthly. Zernio’s homepage says ‘Your users never see Zernio branding’, but its docs say accounts connected without your own app ‘keep running on Zernio’s app’: to show your name on the consent screen you register your own app on each platform, which on Instagram and Facebook needs App Review. Outstand shows your brand on the consent screen if you bring your own app, and its Terms permit reselling within your own products on Business, $129/month; Pay as you go needs written permission.
Ayrshare and Zernio document comments on 9 networks each. Ayrshare adds DMs on Facebook Messenger, Instagram, X and WhatsApp (private beta), which its Messages API docs price at $49 a month per account on Premium and $0.09 per active conversation on Launch and Business, though the same docs page says the Messaging API ‘is included with all Ayrshare Business Plans’, and an Ads add-on at $100 a month. Zernio’s docs list DMs on 6 social networks (on TikTok, replies only, for Business Accounts registered outside the EEA, Switzerland and the UK; none on LinkedIn; and Reddit, among both its 9 comment networks and its 6 DM networks, is temporarily unavailable, its docs page says), messaging on WhatsApp, RCS, iMessage, Telegram, Discord and Slack, SMS on phone numbers and an Ads API across 9 ad networks; each ad account and WhatsApp number counts as another connected account, and numbers, SMS, sent messages above 10,000 a month and managed ads above 500 are billed on top. Upload-Post has comments on 8 networks, Instagram DMs and ChatGPT Ads. Outstand replies to comments on posts it published and bills DMs per conversation above 500 a billing period. Blotato’s comments and DMs cover Instagram and Facebook only, Postiz and Publer document no inbox, DM or ads endpoints, and Outstand’s docs list no ads endpoints.
Postiz offers an AGPL-3.0 edition you can self-host for the cost of your server, though Postiz says you handle installation, updates, backups and the developer-app approvals on each social network yourself; its hosted Team plan is $39/mo on monthly billing for 10 channels. None of the other seven describes a self-hosted edition on the pages read for this comparison.
Upload-Post Free (2 profiles, 10 uploads a month) and Zernio’s free tier (2 connected accounts, 60 API requests a minute) both include the API and need no card, and Unipile’s 7-day trial needs no card either. Ayrshare’s 28-day trial is on Launch only and needs a payment method, Postiz’s 7-day trial needs a card, Blotato’s trial excludes the API altogether, Publer’s API comes only with Business, whose trial runs 14 days, and Outstand has no free plan or trial: its API answers 402 until a paid subscription is active.
Unipile: messaging across LinkedIn (including the Sales Navigator, Recruiter and Company Page inboxes), WhatsApp, Instagram and Telegram, plus Gmail, Outlook and their calendars, at $55.00 a month in total for up to 10 linked accounts. Read its FAQ on access first: it says LinkedIn, WhatsApp and Instagram work through reverse engineering.
What this market gets people for
- Counting accounts when the vendor counts profiles. Ayrshare and Upload-Post bill per profile, one brand, client or user holding an account on each network. Ten accounts across five brands are 5 profiles there, but 10 connected accounts at Zernio, Unipile and Publer and 10 channels at Postiz, while Outstand bills none of them and counts posts instead, one for each account a post reaches. One brand on ten networks flips it: one profile, which is Premium at $149/mo billed monthly on Ayrshare, against ten accounts at the per-account vendors.
- Reading ‘unlimited posts’ as no limit. Outstand’s Instagram docs allow 100 posts per account per rolling 24 hours and its Instagram page 50, and every post past 3,000 a month is billed. Upload-Post allows 50 Instagram and 150 LinkedIn posts per account per rolling 24 hours, and Blotato 50 per Instagram account and 50 per LinkedIn profile in 24 hours. Postiz limits API post creation to 90 requests an hour by its cloud limits page, though one request can carry many posts. Zernio caps each account at 25 posts an hour plus a daily limit (100 on Instagram, 50 on LinkedIn). Publer Business allows 25 on Instagram and 14 on a LinkedIn profile per rolling 24 hours, limits it says it can waive on paid plans, and Ayrshare sets a monthly post quota per profile whose size its pricing page does not show.
- Leaving X out of the bill. Zernio passes X API calls through at X’s rates, $0.015 per post created and $0.200 per post with a link, and asks for a card before the first X account. Ayrshare has required your own X developer credentials for every X operation since March 31, 2026. Upload-Post strips links from X posts unless you add its X links add-on, $19 a month on monthly billing, for up to 50 link posts a month shared across all your X profiles; its docs price it at $152 a year on annual billing, while the pricing page’s annual view labels it ‘+$19/mo (billed monthly)’. Outstand needs your own X app, and any fees X charges for its API are paid to X directly. Unipile does not support X yet, and Publer’s Free plan cannot connect it.
- Assuming a free trial lets you try the API. Blotato’s 7-day trial excludes the API and the MCP server, and generating an API key ends the trial and starts the paid plan. Ayrshare’s 28-day trial is on Launch only and needs a payment method, and Postiz’s 7-day trial needs a card. Publer’s API comes only with Business, whose trial runs 14 days. Outstand has no trial, and its API answers 402 to a subscription whose status is ‘trialing’. Upload-Post Free, Zernio’s free tier and Unipile’s 7-day trial need no card.
Questions buyers ask
What is the cheapest way to publish to 10 social accounts through one API?
For 10 accounts made of an Instagram and a LinkedIn account for each of 5 brands, on monthly billing: Outstand Pay as you go at $19/month with 3,000 posts a month included (a post to all 10 accounts counts as 10), Upload-Post Basic at $24/month ($16/month billed yearly), Blotato Starter at $29/mo, Postiz Team at $39/mo ($31 a month billed yearly), Zernio at $48 a month, Unipile at $55.00 a month in total, Publer Business at $63.00 a month ($50.40 billed yearly) and Ayrshare Launch at $299/mo ($249/mo billed annually). From 3,715 posts a month Outstand costs more than Upload-Post (our arithmetic), and if the brands are clients served through your own product or agency, Outstand’s Terms point to Business at $129/month or written permission.
Which of them have a lasting free tier that includes the API?
Two. Upload-Post Free gives 2 profiles and 10 uploads a month, without TikTok, and its pricing page says it needs no credit card and includes the API, the MCP server, scheduling and analytics. Zernio’s pricing page says its first 2 connected social accounts are free with no credit card and include unlimited posts, analytics and the full API; its docs allow 60 API requests a minute on the free tier against 600 from the third account; its billing docs grant it as $12 of credit each calendar month, and a card is needed before the third account or the first X account. Neither is a trial, and neither covers this setup. Publer’s Free plan has no API, Postiz has no free plan on its cloud, Blotato, Unipile and Outstand list none, and Ayrshare’s pages disagree on whether its free Basic Plan is still open to new sign-ups.
Which of them also handle comments, DMs and ads?
Ayrshare documents comments on 9 networks, DMs on Facebook Messenger, Instagram, X and WhatsApp (private beta), priced in its Messages API docs at $49 a month per account on Premium and $0.09 per active conversation on Launch and Business, though the same docs page says the Messaging API ‘is included with all Ayrshare Business Plans’, and an Ads add-on at $100 a month. Zernio’s docs list comments on 9 social networks and DMs on 6, with TikTok DMs limited to replies for Business Accounts registered outside the EEA, Switzerland and the UK, no DMs on LinkedIn, and Reddit, among both, temporarily unavailable, its docs page says, plus messaging on WhatsApp, RCS, iMessage, Telegram, Discord and Slack, SMS on phone numbers and an Ads API across 9 ad networks; ad accounts and WhatsApp numbers each count as a connected account, and numbers, SMS, messages above 10,000 a month and managed ads above 500 are billed separately. Upload-Post has comments on 8 networks, Instagram DMs and ChatGPT Ads. Outstand replies to comments on posts it published and bills DMs per conversation above 500 a billing period; its pricing.md and Conversations docs name Instagram, Facebook Pages (Messenger) and X as its DM networks, and its docs list no ads endpoints. Blotato covers comments and DMs on Instagram and Facebook only, Unipile is built for messaging and email, and Postiz and Publer document no inbox, DM or ads endpoints.
Do they all work with AI agents through MCP?
All eight describe an MCP server, and four give conflicting tool counts. Upload-Post’s has 50 tools on its homepage, 40 in its llms.txt and ‘nearly 60’ in its docs. Zernio’s, hosted at mcp.zernio.com, has 496 on its homepage, ‘280+’ on its affiliate page and 20 core tools plus one per API endpoint in its docs. Unipile’s AI-agent page shows four tools generated from its OpenAPI spec, while its v2 MCP doc lists nine. Ayrshare’s has 27 tools on its homepage and 33 in its docs. Outstand’s, at mcp.outstand.so, has 28 tools, Postiz lists 13 and Blotato 35, and Publer’s comes with Business and Enterprise only.
Which publish official SDKs?
Upload-Post and Ayrshare publish Node.js and Python packages, and Zernio ships official clients in 8 languages generated from one OpenAPI spec: Node.js, Python, Go, Ruby, Java, PHP, .NET and Rust. Unipile publishes a Node.js package (@unipile/sdk); its Python SDK installs from GitHub because it is not on PyPI yet, and its README labels API v2 BETA. Postiz lists a Node.js SDK, @postiz/node, last updated on npm in July 2025. Outstand’s docs name no server-side SDK, only a React component library (@outstand-so/ui) and a Claude Code plugin marketplace. Blotato documents no official SDK, and Publer lists none, linking a Postman collection instead.
What do reviewers on Trustpilot say?
As displayed on Trustpilot on 6 November 2026: Publer 4.9 from 1,059 reviews, Blotato 4.8 from 384, Zernio 4.8 from 213 and Postiz 3.5 from 16. Ayrshare’s profile had only 5 reviews, too few for us to show a score, and Outstand’s is an unclaimed profile with no reviews. On the Publer, Blotato, Zernio and Ayrshare profiles, Trustpilot notes that the company has not invited customers recently, so the reviews may not be representative. Upload-Post and Unipile have no Trustpilot reviews: both review addresses first returned HTTP 404 on 6 November 2026 while the other vendors’ profiles loaded, and a Trustpilot search for each brand showed neither on its first page; after we searched Trustpilot for their domains, both addresses showed unclaimed profiles with 0 reviews. G2 blocked automated access for all eight, so no G2 score is shown.
What none of them publish
These are the questions a buyer would want settled that no vendor on this page answers in public. If one of them decides your purchase, ask the vendor and hold them to the answer.
- Ayrshare’s per-profile monthly post quota. Its help center says each profile can send a set number of posts a month; its pricing page shows no figure and promises unlimited posts.
- Blotato’s annual price in dollars. It says yearly billing, switched on in its Billing Portal, saves about 17%, and publishes no figure.
- When Zernio charges the card. Its pricing FAQ says at the end of each billing period; its billing docs say as usage accrues, at thresholds that start at $10.
- Whether any Zernio feature needs an add-on. The pricing page says nothing is gated behind a plan, while API reference entries for analytics, ads and the inbox still mention one (many of them, not all, as notes for legacy plans).
- How many networks Zernio covers: 16 on its homepage and in its docs, 15 on its affiliate page, 30 in its API overview and 38 on its docs’ platforms index, against 12 entries in its docs’ list of social posting platforms. Two of the 12 cannot be used today: Reddit’s docs page says ‘Reddit is temporarily unavailable’, though its platforms index and support table list it without a warning, and Snapchat is badged ‘Closed beta’, its docs page says it is not available yet because Snap has not approved Zernio’s app, and its marketing page says ‘No allowlist needed - start posting immediately’.
- Whether Upload-Post can post to Reddit today. Its marketing pages list Reddit; its docs say Reddit posting returns HTTP 503.
- Whether Ayrshare still has a free plan. Its help center says the free Basic Plan ‘is no longer available to new sign-ups’ and its comparison page says ‘no free tier’, while its Launch Plan docs still refer to ‘New customers on the free Basic Plan’.
- Postiz’s API limit and platform count: 30, 90 or 100 create-post requests an hour, and 27, 28+, 30+, 32 or 34 platforms, depending on the page; and whether comment replies can go through its API.
- Whether Unipile limits your requests, and whether it sells Facebook messaging. Its pricing FAQ says it enforces no usage limits while its v2 docs answer requests over its limits with HTTP 429, and its pricing page lists Messenger as coming soon while its docs say Messenger is available in v2.
- Whether Publer sends webhooks. Its help center’s Automations category mentions them and its API help article names a settings tab ‘API & Webhooks’, but no webhook endpoint is documented.
- How many Instagram posts Outstand allows each account a day, and how it limits requests. Its Instagram docs say 100 per rolling 24 hours and its Instagram page 50; its homepage says ‘You never see a 429’, its docs answer requests over the limit with 429, and its Terms set 20 to 500 requests a minute and 50,000 a day per account.
- Each MCP server’s real tool count. Zernio, Ayrshare, Upload-Post and Unipile each give two or three different figures on their own pages.