Buffer is the Metricool alternative when X should ship in the plan and a publisher MCP should work on Free. Later is the Instagram-first switch: the yearly tab on 9 October 2026 printed Starter $18.75, Growth $37.50, and Scale $82.50, and a Social Set still lists eight networks with no X. Publer help article 15h4yqh (updated 15 September 2026, re-read this run) still floors Professional at $5 and Business at $10 for one social account. Keep Metricool for competitor analytics, ads reporting, and a hosted MCP on Free. Trends MCP belongs here only when the job is live multi-source trend data for agents, not a replacement content calendar.

Which Metricool alternative includes X without a $10 add-on?

Buffer. Metricool help article wt5wy prices the X add-on at $10 or €10 per connected account per month, or $120 / €120 per year, with the current rate dating from 13 July 2026. Free cannot connect X. Starter or higher is required, and the yearly add-on total is the same as twelve monthly payments. Legacy $5 / €5 monthly ($60 / €60 yearly) applies only if at least one X add-on stayed active from before that July date. Remove every add-on and the legacy rate is gone.

Buffer's pricing page on 9 October 2026 listed X in the channel logo row next to Instagram, LinkedIn, Threads, YouTube, Bluesky, Mastodon, Pinterest, Google Business Profile, and Substack. Free includes up to 3 channels and 10 scheduled posts per channel. Essentials printed $5 per channel per month at $60 billed yearly. Team printed $10 per channel at $120 billed yearly, both marked "save 2 months." The same page's FAQ still says annual billing is a 20% discount. $60 against a $6 monthly equivalent is two months free, closer to 17% than 20%. Check the live card before treating the FAQ percentage as the invoice.

Later's Social Set FAQ on the same day named Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Pinterest, LinkedIn, YouTube, Threads, and Snapchat. Eight profiles. No X. Publer Free excludes X; help 15h4yqh puts X on paid plans. Metricool remains usable on X if the $10 line item is acceptable. It is not the cheaper X publisher.

What does the $20 Metricool Starter card actually include?

A five-brand Starter, not ten, if the USD annual footer is the contract. The Starter card on metricool.com/pricing (USD, annual tab, 9 October 2026) printed "From $20/month" and a bullet "Manage up to 10 brands." The footer under that card printed "Up to 5 brands for $20/month" and "Up to 10 brands for $36/month." Help article bl0v9, updated the same day, names Starter 5 (website) and Starter Mobile 5 (app) as the options that include up to 5 brands, and says Starter is "up to 5 or up to 10 brands, depending on the option." Help xux1u, also updated this run, repeats that split.

Read the footer, not the card bullet, before migrating a ten-brand agency onto the $20 line. Monthly USD Starter printed $25 / $45 for those same 5- and 10-brand rungs. Advanced annual USD printed $53 (15 brands), $85 (25), and $159 (50). Monthly Advanced printed $67 / $107 / $210. The annual tab headline is "save up to 24%." That 24% matches 50-brand Advanced ($210 to $159). Five-brand Starter ($25 to $20) is 20%.

EUR annual still prints the 50-brand Advanced footer as "Manage up to 50 brands for €130" with no "/month" on that line, while the USD sister line prints "$159/month." Quote the currency tab actually used at checkout.

Free stays useful: 1 brand, 20 published posts per calendar month, 30 days of analytics with a watermark, 5 fixed competitors on Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky, and Twitch, 5 AI text credits, and Metricool MCP. LinkedIn, X, PDF/PPT, SmartLinks, hashtag finder, Post library, Canva, and Drive stay off Free. Data Studio, Make, and Zapier stay Advanced or Custom (bl0v9, xux1u).

Advanced Analytics is a separate account-level add-on: help xux1u starts it at $12 / €10 per month on Starter and $36 / €30 on Advanced. REST API remains Advanced or Custom only. Hosted MCP is the exception, documented on any plan including Free.

A full SKU walkthrough of those rungs lives on the Metricool pricing post. This page is the switch decision, not a second price sheet.

Can Buffer replace Metricool's competitor analytics?

No, not at the Free or Essentials layer Buffer actually publishes. Buffer's 9 October 2026 cards list Insights on Free and Advanced analytics on Essentials and Team, plus API access on every plan (Free: 1 key and 3,000 requests/month; Essentials: 3 keys and 7,500; Team: 5 keys and 15,000). That is a publisher with light reporting. It is not Metricool's competitor module, ads reporting, or Looker connector.

Metricool paid Starter lists "Analyze up to 100 competitors" against Free's 5 fixed profiles. Advanced adds team roles, post approval, custom report templates, Data Studio, and the REST API. Those are the reasons to stay. The reasons to leave are the X add-on, brand-count invoices, and REST sitting behind Advanced while a hosted MCP already runs on Free.

Later Scale is the Later SKU that names competitive benchmarking (up to 20 competitors), Future Insights, Brand Health, and Brand Mentions. That sits at $82.50/month on the yearly tab, with 6 Social Sets (48 profiles) and extra users at $5 each. Starter is 1 user and 1 Social Set. Later is a visual planner first. It is an expensive way to buy listening that Metricool already puts on cheaper paid rungs.

Publer Business help copy lists competitor analysis, downloadable analytics, best times to post, and MCP for eligible customers. Professional at $5 is a scheduler. Analytics depth starts at Business ($10 floor in 15h4yqh). The live /plans page on this run was a JavaScript app that printed no dollar amounts in the HTML; the help article is the citable floor.

Which Cursor MCP JSON should a team paste?

Three different JSON shapes, three different auth stories, and two Metricool paths that are easy to mix up.

Metricool hosted MCP (any plan, including Free) uses OAuth against https://ai.metricool.com/mcp. Help eqp9h requires Cursor Desktop. The documented mcp.json fragment is:

"metricool-mcp": {
  "url": "https://ai.metricool.com/mcp",
  "type": "http"
}

After save, the server shows as unauthenticated until Connect finishes browser OAuth. Plan limits still apply: 20 posts and 30 days of analytics on Free (h72jg). N8N is not this path. N8N uses header X-Mc-Auth with an API key from Account Settings, which is the API product, Advanced or Custom only.

The local PyPI package mcp-metricool is a second product. PyPI 1.1.9 (uploaded 7 October 2025, still the latest on 9 October 2026) sets requires_python to >=3.12. The README still says "Python 3.8 or higher" and "A Metricool account with API access (Advanced Tier)," then a uvx config with METRICOOL_USER_TOKEN and METRICOOL_USER_ID. The README names 28 tools. Metricool's Claude marketing page still says "Over 20 tools" and still names the public GitHub repository metricool/mcp-metricool. A GET of that GitHub URL returned HTTP 404 during this run, same as the September pricing pass.

The OAuth permission screen and the tools list do not match. Help eqp9h tells operators the connect prompt grants inbox messages, post comments, SmartLinks, Google Business Profile reviews, autolists, Canva or Drive files, and Ads campaign management. Help h72jg, updated yesterday relative to this run, says those surfaces "are not available through the MCP at the moment." Help 5y3ib agrees: Ads campaign management and Inbox comments are out. Authorize expecting analytics, brands, scheduled posts, best time to post, and post create/edit. Do not authorize expecting the permission screen's full list.

Buffer's Cursor guide at developers.buffer.com documents OAuth with no key:

"buffer": {
  "url": "https://mcp.buffer.com/mcp"
}

The same vendor's buffer.com/integrations/cursor page still shows a Bearer API key in headers. The MCP overview at developers.buffer.com/guides/integrations/mcp.html still says an API key is required for clients that send headers. Paste the Cursor OAuth JSON from the Cursor guide if the goal is Connect-and-approve. Paste the Bearer JSON only with a key from publish.buffer.com/settings/api. MCP is listed in Buffer's site nav and on every pricing card including Free.

Trends MCP uses a Bearer key against the API host, with transport set. The Cursor fragment from the 9 October 2026 llms.txt mirror is:

"trends-mcp": {
  "url": "https://api.trendsmcp.ai/mcp",
  "transport": "http",
  "headers": { "Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" }
}

The homepage copy-config on the same day omitted both transport: "http" and the Bearer prefix. The llms.txt fragment is the one that matches Cursor's HTTP MCP schema. Claude.ai Connectors are a different host (www OAuth, no key). Do not "correct" that URL to api. Setup detail for Cursor sits on the Google Trends MCP for Cursor page; the same key covers the other keyword sources and live feeds.

When the missing piece is demand, not a queue. Metricool, Buffer, Later, and Publer schedule posts to networks a brand already operates. None of them return Google Search, TikTok, YouTube, Amazon, Reddit, Wikipedia, and a live ranked board from one MCP server. That is the Trends MCP job.

Public pricing on 9 October 2026 should be quoted as two sheets, because they disagree on the annual math. Markdown pricing.md lists Free $0 / 100 requests, Starter $19 / 1,000, Pro $49 / 5,000, Business $199 / 25,000, and "Annual billing saves 20%." The HTML yearly cards printed Starter $16/month ($192 billed annually), Pro $39/month ($468), Business $159/month ($1,910), all "after day 7." Twenty percent of $19 is $15.20, not $16. Twenty percent of $49 is $39.20, not $39. The FAQ still says the card is collected at checkout and not charged until day 8. The yearly cards say after day 7. HTML heading "30+ data sources" sits next to an FAQ that says "the same 40+ sources." The homepage hero says "35+ platforms." data-sources.md on this day listed 16 keyword sources and 20 live-feed rows. The llms.txt live-feed table still listed 24 types, because it keeps the four category boards (Google Trends by Category, TikTok Trending Hashtags by Category, Amazon Best Sellers by Category, Substack by Category) that the markdown data-sources table dropped. Do not flatten those counts. Check the sheet the invoice and the MCP type string actually use.

Keyword alerts are Starter 10, Pro 50, Business 250. History is Free 90 days, Starter 1 year, Pro 2+ years, Business the full archive. HTML FAQ counts one successful API or MCP call as one request. pricing.md and llms.txt still price MCP get_top_trends at 1 credit per 10 requested rows (max 10 credits per call), with REST as 1 request per call. Failed calls are free on every sheet.

A Buffer-shaped publisher MCP will not appear here. Trends MCP tools are read-only: get_time_series, get_growth, get_top_trends. For a side-by-side of other publisher MCPs, see Buffer alternatives. Stay on Metricool when the agent needs to schedule into Instagram from the same chat that reads last month's Reels. Switch to Trends MCP when the agent needs to see whether a topic is moving on Google and TikTok before anyone opens a planner.

FAQ

Is Metricool's free MCP a reason to skip Buffer?

Only if the account can live inside Free's 20 published posts, 30-day analytics, no LinkedIn, no X, and no REST. Hosted MCP on Free is real (h72jg, eqp9h). It does not raise those caps. Buffer Free includes X as a channel, 3 channels, 10 scheduled posts per channel, and an MCP on that same Free plan. Different free: Metricool's is analytics-shaped, Buffer's is publisher-shaped.

Does Later replace Metricool for a multi-client agency?

Later bills by Social Set, not by Metricool-style brand. Yearly Starter is $18.75 for 1 set (8 profiles) and 1 user. Extra users are $5, and Starter cannot add them. Ten clients is ten Social Sets, which is not the Starter card. Metricool Starter 5 at $20 annual is cheaper for five brands if X is not required. Buy Later for the visual Instagram calendar and Snapchat, not as a generic cheaper Metricool.

Can Publer's $5 floor undercut Metricool Starter?

On one account, yes, if help 15h4yqh is still the live floor and the /plans selector has not changed. Professional at $5 is a scheduler with X. It is not Metricool's competitor analytics. MCP and the public-sounding API are Business or Enterprise, and even then help says eligible customers, not every Business seat. Re-check the selector; the HTML this run did not print the dollars.

Why is GitHub's metricool/mcp-metricool repo a problem?

The Claude marketing page and help copy still point operators at that public GitHub repo as the up-to-date tool list. The URL returned 404 on 9 October 2026. PyPI mcp-metricool 1.1.9 is the installable local server, it wants Python 3.12 despite README 3.8+, and it wants Advanced API tokens. Hosted MCP at https://ai.metricool.com/mcp is the path that actually works on Free.

When should a team keep Metricool instead of switching?

When competitor tracking, ads reporting, SmartLinks, and a Looker connector are the product, and the $10 X add-on plus brand-count math are acceptable. Metricool wins that job. Buffer wins included X and a Free publisher MCP. Later wins Instagram Social Sets. Trends MCP wins live trend feeds for Cursor and Claude. Crowning any of them "best overall" hides the invoice that actually breaks.

Sources, accessed 9 October 2026: Metricool pricing; Metricool help h72jg, eqp9h, wt5wy, xux1u, 5y3ib, bl0v9; Metricool MCP for Claude; PyPI mcp-metricool; GitHub metricool/mcp-metricool (HTTP 404); Buffer pricing; Buffer Cursor MCP; Buffer MCP overview; Buffer Cursor integration; Later pricing; Publer help 15h4yqh; Trends MCP pricing HTML, pricing.md, data-sources.md, and homepage copy-config.