Best Time to Post on LinkedIn in 2026: 10 Tools That Find Your Best Times
Compare the 10 best time to post on linkedin tools on price, timing recommendations and analytics, with every price checked November 6, 2026.
Shamim Mia, Founder, SerpAstraLast verified November 6, 202614 min readWe compare pricing pages, documentation and public reviews. We never accept payment for rankings.
Key takeaways
- Sprout Social gives the most direct timing answer at $99 a month per seat, with Optimal Send Times on its entry plan; Buffer is the cheapest honest start at $6 a month per channel, and Later puts Best Time to Post on its $25 Starter plan.
- Every tool here bases its timing on your own engagement history, not a generic chart — connect LinkedIn, wait for a few months of data, and the recommendations get sharper.
- Watch the billing unit before you compare prices: Hootsuite, Sprout Social and Agorapulse charge per user or seat, Buffer charges per channel, and Metricool charges per brand, so the same team can pay very different totals.
- Loomly repriced in 2026: the old Base plan is gone and Starter now costs $65 a month billed monthly ($49 annual), so it is no longer the budget pick it once was.
On this page
Quick comparison
| Tool | Best for | Starting price | Free plan |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sprout Social | Solo marketers and small teams that want the most direct timing answer, with Optimal Send Times on the entry plan | $99/mo | No (30-day trial) |
| Hootsuite | Teams managing many accounts that also want listening, reporting depth and AI drafting in one tool | $99/mo | No (14-day trial) |
| Buffer | Solo creators and small businesses that want the cheapest honest start, with a free plan for up to 3 channels | $6/mo | Yes (free plan) |
| Later | Visual brands and creators who plan on a calendar and want Best Time to Post on the entry plan | $25/mo | Yes (free plan) |
| SocialPilot | Small teams and freelancers managing several accounts on a flat monthly price | $20/mo | No (14-day trial) |
| Agorapulse | Marketers who want timing recommendations next to a unified inbox, with replies landing in one place | $99/mo | Yes (Archie plan) |
| Metricool | Marketers who want the deepest timing data for the lowest price, with competitor posting times too | $25/mo | Yes (free plan) |
| Sendible | Small teams scheduling for one brand, where every teammate needs a seat at no extra cost | $35/mo | No (14-day trial) |
| CoSchedule | Marketers who plan whole campaigns on a calendar and want LinkedIn slotted into the wider schedule | $39/mo | Yes (free plan) |
| Loomly | Small teams that need approval workflows on every LinkedIn post, with post ideas built in | $65/mo | No (free trial) |
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Request a listingThe best tools that find the best time to post on LinkedIn
Sprout Social
Best for: Solo marketers and small teams that want the most direct timing answer, with Optimal Send Times on the entry plan
Sprout Social puts its timing recommendation front and centre: Essentials includes Optimal Send Times, which looks at when your own LinkedIn audience has engaged in the past and suggests the best slots for each post. You schedule from the same calendar you report from, so a time that worked last month is one click away from the next post. Essentials costs $99 a month per seat billed monthly, or $79 on annual billing, and covers five social profiles.
The catch is the per-seat price and the five-profile cap: a second seat doubles the bill, and the unified inbox waits for Standard at $199 a seat. For a solo marketer or a small team that lives on LinkedIn, Essentials is the most direct route from audience data to a time. Buy it when timing decisions need evidence, not a guess.
What we like
- Optimal Send Times on Essentials recommends the best posting slots from your own LinkedIn engagement
- Scheduling, calendar and reporting live in one place, so a time that worked last month is one click away
- 100 AI-agent credits per paid seat help draft posts to fill the recommended slots
- The largest review base in this list, with the strongest reporting for teams that present results upward
Watch out for
- Every seat costs the same again: a three-person team pays $297 a month on annual billing
- Essentials caps at 5 social profiles and has no unified inbox — that waits for Standard at $199 a seat
- No free plan, only a 30-day trial
Hootsuite
Best for: Teams managing many accounts that also want listening, reporting depth and AI drafting in one tool
Hootsuite has published best-time recommendations longer than almost anyone in this list: its Best Time to Publish feature analyses your past post performance and suggests slots per network, and the OwlyWriter AI drafts the post to fill them. Standard costs $149 a month per user billed monthly, or $99 on annual billing, and covers up to 10 social accounts with unlimited scheduled posts.
The price is the problem. At $99 a user a month billed annually ($149 billed monthly), Hootsuite costs more than six of the tools here combined for a solo account, and there is no free plan, only a 14-day trial. The value shows up for teams that also need social listening and reporting depth. Buy Hootsuite when one person manages many accounts and the budget allows it; buy Buffer or Later when the job is timing alone.
What we like
- Best Time to Publish analyses your past performance and suggests slots per network
- OwlyWriter AI drafts posts to fill the recommended slots
- Standard covers up to 10 social accounts with unlimited scheduled posts
- The widest integration list in this list, built for teams that manage many accounts
Watch out for
- The most expensive entry here: $149 a month per user billed monthly, with no free plan
- Every extra user costs the same again, so team costs climb fast
- Approvals and deeper listening wait for Advanced at $399 a user a month
Buffer
Best for: Solo creators and small businesses that want the cheapest honest start, with a free plan for up to 3 channels
Buffer is the cheapest honest way to test posting times: its analytics highlight your best times to post, and the queue lets you drop LinkedIn posts into those slots in seconds. Essentials costs $6 a month per channel billed monthly, or $5 on annual billing, so a LinkedIn-only account costs $6 a month, and the free plan covers up to three channels with ten scheduled posts each.
The trade-off is depth. Buffer suggests times from your own engagement history but does not run the audience modelling that Sprout Social or Hootsuite do, and deeper reporting waits for higher tiers. For a solo creator or a small business posting to LinkedIn a few times a week, that is usually enough. Buy Buffer when the budget is tight and the schedule is simple.
What we like
- The cheapest entry here: $6 a month per channel, so a LinkedIn-only account costs $6 a month
- Analytics highlight your best times to post, and the queue drops posts into those slots in seconds
- A real free plan covers up to 3 channels with 10 scheduled posts each
- The simplest setup in this list — a new user can schedule the first timed post in minutes
Watch out for
- Timing suggestions come from your own engagement history only — no audience modelling like Sprout Social
- Deeper analytics and reporting wait for higher tiers
- Per-channel pricing adds up fast once you connect many networks
Later
Best for: Visual brands and creators who plan on a calendar and want Best Time to Post on the entry plan
Later puts Best Time to Post on its entry plan: Starter analyses when your audience is most active and marks those slots on the visual calendar, so you drag a LinkedIn post onto the best hour instead of guessing. Starter costs $25 a month billed monthly, or $18.75 on annual billing, and covers one social set of up to eight profiles, one user and 30 posts per profile a month.
The limits are the post cap and the single user: 30 posts per profile suits a steady LinkedIn rhythm but not a high-volume account, and a teammate means Growth at $50 a month. The free plan covers one social set with ten posts a month, enough to test the timing suggestions. Buy Later when visual planning matters as much as timing.
What we like
- Best Time to Post is included on Starter and marks the best slots on the visual calendar
- One social set covers up to 8 profiles, so LinkedIn plus seven more networks cost one price
- Drag-and-drop calendar with Instagram grid preview and Link in Bio included
- The free plan lets you test the timing suggestions before paying
Watch out for
- Starter caps at 30 posts per profile a month — high-volume accounts need Growth at $50 a month
- Only one user on Starter, and Starter cannot buy extra social sets or users
- No publishing API, and X scheduling was removed in 2025–2026
SocialPilot
Best for: Small teams and freelancers managing several accounts on a flat monthly price
SocialPilot keeps the price flat and the timing visible: Essentials shows your best times to post for each connected account and lets you bulk-schedule a week of LinkedIn posts into those windows. Essentials costs $20 a month billed monthly, or $17 on annual billing, and covers five social accounts, one user and 500 AI credits a month for drafting posts.
There is no free plan, only a 14-day trial, and white-label reports wait for Premium at $100 a month, so agencies that brand client reports pay more. The timing data is solid rather than spectacular: it reports your best hours from past engagement without the audience modelling of the pricier tools. Buy SocialPilot when you manage several accounts on a flat budget.
What we like
- Flat pricing: Essentials covers 7 social accounts for $30 a month with no per-seat charges
- Best-time recommendations show per account, and bulk scheduling fills a week of LinkedIn posts at once
- 500 AI credits a month on Essentials help draft posts for the recommended slots
- Extra accounts cost a flat $4 a month, so adding a profile is cheap
Watch out for
- No free plan, only a 14-day trial
- White-label reports and client approval wait for Premium at $100 a month
- Timing data reports your best hours from past engagement without deeper audience modelling
Agorapulse
Best for: Marketers who want timing recommendations next to a unified inbox, with replies landing in one place
Agorapulse pairs timing with the inbox: its best-time recommendations sit next to unified inbox and reporting, so a LinkedIn post goes out at the hour your audience replies fastest and the replies land in one place. Standard costs $99 a month per user billed monthly, or $79 on annual billing, and includes ten social profiles, unlimited scheduling and a 30-day trial.
Every user costs the same again, so a three-person team pays $297 a month on annual billing for the same ten profiles, and the classic free plan ended in July 2026 — only the AI-only Archie plan is free now. Buy Agorapulse when the inbox matters as much as the schedule; buy SocialPilot or Sendible when the team is the expensive part.
What we like
- Best-time recommendations sit next to the unified inbox, so replies to well-timed posts land in one place
- Standard includes 10 social profiles, unlimited scheduling and branded report exports
- 30-day trial is the longest in this list, with no credit card required
- Strongest reviewer scores here for support and ease of use among the inbox tools
Watch out for
- Every user costs the same again: three people on Standard pay $297 a month on annual billing
- The classic free plan ended July 6, 2026 — only the AI-only Archie plan is free now
- Listening and advocacy cost extra, and X is a paid add-on
Metricool
Best for: Marketers who want the deepest timing data for the lowest price, with competitor posting times too
Metricool is the analytics-first pick: its best-time-to-post report breaks your LinkedIn audience down by hour and day from your own data, and the same dashboard tracks competitors, so you can see when rivals post too. Starter costs $25 a month billed monthly, or $20 on annual billing, for up to five brands, with unlimited posting, LinkedIn included, and PDF and PowerPoint reports.
The free plan covers one brand and 20 posts a month but cannot connect LinkedIn at all, so the timing features need the paid plan, and X costs $10 a month extra per account. Approvals and team controls wait for Advanced at $53 a month. Buy Metricool when you want the deepest timing data for the lowest price.
What we like
- Best-time-to-post report breaks your LinkedIn audience down by hour and day from your own data
- Competitor tracking shows when rivals post, so you can pick hours they leave open
- Starter covers up to 5 brands with unlimited posting and PDF and PowerPoint reports
- Priced per brand, not per seat, so adding a teammate costs nothing extra
Watch out for
- The free plan covers 1 brand and 20 posts a month but cannot connect LinkedIn at all
- X costs $10 a month extra per connected account on every plan
- Approvals and team controls wait for Advanced at $53 a month
Sendible
Best for: Small teams scheduling for one brand, where every teammate needs a seat at no extra cost
Sendible gives every plan unlimited users, which changes the maths for teams: Core suggests optimal posting times for each profile and costs $35 a month billed monthly, or $29.75 on annual billing, for one workspace with six social profiles, and adding a teammate costs nothing extra. A 14-day trial covers the paid plans.
The catch is the workspace model: six profiles per workspace means a second brand needs another workspace, and white-label dashboards wait for Elite at $349 a month. The timing suggestions are straightforward, drawn from your own posting history rather than audience modelling. Buy Sendible when several people schedule for one brand.
What we like
- Unlimited users on every plan, so adding a teammate never raises the bill
- Core suggests optimal posting times for each profile in the workspace
- Client Connect dashboards and approval workflows suit agencies from the Plus plan up
- Annual billing saves 15% across all plans, with no long-term contract
Watch out for
- One workspace holds 6 social profiles — a second brand needs another workspace
- White-label dashboards wait for Elite at $349 a month
- Timing suggestions come from your own posting history rather than audience modelling
CoSchedule
Best for: Marketers who plan whole campaigns on a calendar and want LinkedIn slotted into the wider schedule
CoSchedule treats LinkedIn as one slot in a wider campaign: its Best Time Scheduling and ReQueue features fill gaps in the calendar with your best-performing posts at the hours they performed best. Starter costs $39 a month billed monthly, or $29 on annual billing, for one user and three social profiles, with unlimited scheduling, analytics and the AI Social Assistant.
The free plan covers one user, one profile and 15 scheduled posts at a time, enough to try the calendar, but X costs $16 a month extra per profile and approvals wait for Professional at $49 a month. CoSchedule is a calendar first and a timing tool second. Buy it when campaigns, not just posts, need scheduling.
What we like
- Best Time Scheduling and ReQueue refill empty calendar gaps with your best-performing posts at their best hours
- The drag-and-drop calendar shows blog posts, campaigns and social posts in one view
- Starter includes the AI Social Assistant and analytics for one flat price
- A free plan covers 1 profile and 15 scheduled posts, enough to try the calendar
Watch out for
- X costs $16 a month extra per profile on Starter and Professional
- Approvals wait for Professional at $49 a month, and the free plan covers only 1 profile
- A calendar first and a timing tool second — the timing data is thinner than Metricool or Sprout Social
Loomly
Best for: Small teams that need approval workflows on every LinkedIn post, with post ideas built in
Loomly rebuilt its pricing in 2026: the old Base plan is gone, and Starter now costs $65 a month billed monthly, or $49 on annual billing, for three users, 12 social accounts and unlimited calendars. Best time to post is included on Starter, alongside post ideas, approval workflows, the AI Assistant and advanced analytics.
That reprice roughly doubles the old entry price, so Loomly is no longer the budget pick it was — Buffer, Later and Metricool all start lower — and there is no free plan, only a trial with no credit card required. What you get for the money is the smoothest approval flow in this list. Buy Loomly when two or three people must approve every LinkedIn post.
What we like
- Best time to post is included on Starter, alongside daily post ideas and approval workflows
- Starter covers 3 users and 12 social accounts — the most seats at this price in the list
- The smoothest approval flow here, with Slack and Microsoft Teams integration
- Highest G2 score in this list at 4.6 out of 5 from 1,796 reviews
Watch out for
- Repriced in 2026: Starter is now $65 a month billed monthly, roughly double the old Base plan
- No free plan, only a trial — and no permanent free tier to fall back on
- Beyond at $249 a month is a steep jump for the custom branding and roles it adds
The best time to post on linkedin is not a single hour you can memorise: it depends on when your own audience is online, and that shifts by industry, timezone and content type. The ten tools below work it out from your own engagement history instead of a generic chart, then schedule your posts into those windows. We ranked them by how directly they answer the timing question for a LinkedIn marketer, and every price was checked on the vendor's own pricing page on November 6, 2026.
How to choose the best time to post on linkedin
- Start with your own data, not a chart. Every tool here reads your past LinkedIn engagement to find your hours. A tool that only shows a generic industry chart is not doing the job this list is about.
- Check what the entry plan actually includes. Later and Loomly put best-time features on the entry plan; Metricool needs its paid plan before LinkedIn timing works at all, because the free plan cannot connect LinkedIn.
- Count the billing unit, not just the headline. Hootsuite, Sprout Social and Agorapulse charge per user or seat, Buffer charges per channel, and Metricool charges per brand. A $99 plan can cost $99 or $297 depending on your team.
- Match the tool to the workflow. If two people must approve every post, Loomly's approval flow matters more than its price. If you post alone, Buffer's $6 channel is hard to beat.
- Try the free plan or trial with real posts. Two weeks of scheduled posts at the recommended times tells you more than any review: check whether engagement actually rises before you commit to a year.
Timing is one part of being found, not the whole job. If LinkedIn brings in leads but your website does not convert them, our guide to AI social media management tools covers the wider stack, and the free SERP snippet preview tool shows how your pages will look in Google before you publish them. A good posting time gets the click; the page still has to earn it.
Whatever you shortlist, give it real data before you judge it. Connect LinkedIn, let the tool read at least a month of past posts, then schedule two weeks at its recommended times and compare the engagement with the two weeks before. If the numbers do not move, the tool is not the problem — the content or the audience is. Every tool in this list offers a free plan or a trial long enough to run that test.
LinkedIn scheduling tools pricing: what you will actually pay
Take one marketer posting to LinkedIn and three other channels. On annual billing, the year costs $225 on Later Starter, $240 on Buffer Essentials (4 channels at $5 each) or Metricool Starter, $204 on SocialPilot Essentials, $348 on CoSchedule Starter, $357 on Sendible Core, $588 on Loomly Starter, $948 on Sprout Social Essentials or Agorapulse Standard, and $1,188 on Hootsuite Standard. The same person and the same four channels cost $225 a year at the cheap end and $1,188 at the dear end — a $963 gap that comes entirely from the billing unit and the depth of the timing data.
Monthly billing widens the gap further. The same setup costs $25 a month on Later or Metricool, $24 on Buffer, $20 on SocialPilot, $35 on Sendible, $39 on CoSchedule, $65 on Loomly, $99 on Sprout Social or Agorapulse, and $149 on Hootsuite. Three costs sit outside every number above. First, the per-seat tools multiply with headcount: a second seat on Sprout Social or Agorapulse adds $99 a month on monthly billing. Second, the add-ons: X costs $10 a month per account on Metricool and $16 a month per profile on CoSchedule. Third, the step-ups: the unified inbox starts at $199 a seat on Sprout Social, white-label reports at $100 a month on SocialPilot, and custom branding at $249 a month on Loomly.
Annual billing is the cheapest way to buy every tool here, saving roughly 15 to 33 percent: Later drops from $300 to $225 a year, Metricool from $300 to $240, SocialPilot from $240 to $204, CoSchedule from $468 to $348, Sendible from $420 to $357, Loomly from $780 to $588, and Sprout Social and Agorapulse from $1,188 to $948 each. If you run a social media agency rather than a single brand, the per-brand and per-workspace tools change the maths again — see our guide to the best social media marketing company for the agency side.
Know the difference: best-time recommendations vs audience analytics
The confusion in this category is between two different answers. A best-time recommendation is a suggested posting slot: "post at 9am on Tuesday." Audience analytics is the data behind it: when your followers are online, and when your past posts earned engagement. The recommendation is the output; the analytics are the input. A tool that shows you a chart of your audience's online hours but never suggests a slot is only doing half the job.
There is a second, quieter confusion: your own data versus the industry average. Generic best-time charts average thousands of accounts, and they are useful for a brand-new account with no history. But they cannot know that your buyers check LinkedIn at lunch rather than at 9am, or that your posts perform best on Thursdays. Every tool in this list bases its recommendation on your own account history once it has enough of it — usually a month or more of posts — and falls back to general patterns only for new accounts.
A third distinction worth knowing is per-post timing versus per-account timing. Sprout Social, Hootsuite and Metricool recommend a slot for each individual post, based on how similar posts performed. Buffer, Later and SocialPilot mark your best hours on a calendar and leave the exact slot to you. Neither is wrong; the per-post version suits accounts that post varied content, while the calendar version suits a steady rhythm of similar posts.
Quick comparison: tool type by need
| Buyer | Best pick | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Solo marketer who wants the direct answer | Sprout Social | Optimal Send Times on Essentials, from $99/month per seat |
| Team managing many accounts | Hootsuite | Best Time to Publish per network, from $99/month per user billed annually ($149 monthly) |
| Smallest budget, LinkedIn only | Buffer | $6/month per channel, with a free plan for up to 3 channels |
| Visual planner | Later | Best Time to Post marked on the calendar, from $25/month |
| Several accounts, flat budget | SocialPilot | 5 accounts for $20/month, no per-seat charges |
| Inbox matters as much as timing | Agorapulse | Best times next to a unified inbox, from $99/month per user |
| Deepest timing data, lowest price | Metricool | Hour-by-hour timing plus competitor times, from $25/month |
| Team scheduling for one brand | Sendible | Unlimited users, optimal posting times, from $35/month |
| Campaign planning first | CoSchedule | Best Time Scheduling inside a full calendar, from $39/month |
| Approvals on every post | Loomly | Best times plus the smoothest approval flow, from $65/month |
Mistakes to avoid
- Buying on the headline price without counting the billing unit. A $99 plan that charges per seat costs $297 for three people; a $35 plan with unlimited users costs $35. Count seats, channels and brands before you compare.
- Paying for LinkedIn timing on a free plan that excludes LinkedIn. Metricool's free plan cannot connect LinkedIn at all. Check the free plan covers LinkedIn before you build a workflow on it.
- Judging the tool after three posts. Timing recommendations need history: a new account gets generic slots until it has a month or more of engagement data. Give it at least two weeks of recommended times before deciding.
- Posting at the recommended time with the same tired content. Timing lifts a good post; it cannot save a weak one. If engagement does not move after two weeks at the best times, fix the post, not the hour.
- Forgetting the add-ons. X costs extra on Metricool and CoSchedule, the inbox costs extra on Sprout Social, and white-label reports cost extra on SocialPilot and Sendible. Price the setup you will actually run.
How we chose
We checked each vendor's own pricing page on November 6, 2026 and recorded the starting price exactly as shown, including the annual-billing figure where the page lists one, and we ranked the tools by how directly they answer the timing question for a LinkedIn marketer, not by brand size. G2 ratings come from fresh search-index copies of the exact G2 comparison pages, crawled within the last two weeks. Two prices need a note. Hootsuite's static pricing page shows only the annual figure ($99 per user a month); the $149 monthly figure comes from Hootsuite's own pricing endpoint as read by independent October 2026 checks, so we use it as the monthly-billing price and say so here. Loomly rebuilt its plans in 2026 — the old Base plan is gone, and the $65 monthly ($49 annual) Starter price comes from Loomly's own pricing page read on November 6, 2026, superseding every older figure. No vendor paid for a place in this list, and none of the links here are affiliate links.
What to do next
Start with the free plan or trial of your top pick and run two weeks of LinkedIn posts at its recommended times. Compare the engagement with the two weeks before — likes, comments and clicks, not just reach — before you commit to a year. If the timing works but new customers are still not finding you, our monthly SEO service handles the visibility side — or compare providers in our guide to the best platform for social media marketing. Once your tools are in place, find out what's holding your rankings back.
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Get a free audit→Sources we checked (16)
- Sprout Social pricing — sproutsocial.com/pricing (checked November 6, 2026)
- Hootsuite pricing — hootsuite.com/plans (checked November 6, 2026)
- Buffer pricing — buffer.com/pricing (checked November 6, 2026)
- Later pricing — later.com/pricing (checked November 6, 2026)
- SocialPilot pricing — socialpilot.co/plans (checked November 6, 2026)
- Agorapulse pricing — agorapulse.com/pricing (checked November 6, 2026)
- Metricool pricing — metricool.com/pricing (checked November 6, 2026)
- Sendible pricing — sendible.com/pricing (checked November 6, 2026)
- CoSchedule pricing — coschedule.com/pricing (checked November 6, 2026)
- Loomly pricing — loomly.com/pricing (checked November 6, 2026)
- G2 Hootsuite vs Buffer comparison — g2.com/compare/buffer-vs-hootsuite (checked November 6, 2026)
- G2 Later Social vs Sprout Social comparison — g2.com/compare/later-social-vs-sprout-social (checked November 6, 2026)
- G2 Agorapulse vs Sendible comparison — g2.com/compare/agorapulse-vs-sendible (checked November 6, 2026)
- G2 Sendible vs SocialPilot comparison — g2.com/compare/sendible-vs-socialpilot (checked November 6, 2026)
- G2 Loomly vs Metricool comparison — g2.com/compare/loomly-vs-metricool (checked November 6, 2026)
- G2 CoSchedule vs Sprout Social comparison — g2.com/compare/coschedule-vs-sprout-social (checked November 6, 2026)
Shamim
Founder of SerpAstra
A full-stack SEO and digital marketer who spends most days on Local SEO for dental practices, AI search visibility and lead generation.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best time to post on LinkedIn?
There is no single best hour for every account. Most tools in this list find weekday mornings work best for professional audiences, because people check LinkedIn before and around work, but your own data beats any general rule. Connect your account to one of these tools, let it read a few months of engagement, and post at the hours it recommends for two weeks before judging.
How much does a best-time-to-post tool cost?
Entry prices run from $6 to $149 a month on monthly billing. Buffer costs $6 a month per channel, Later and Metricool cost $25 a month, and Sprout Social and Agorapulse cost $99 a month per seat or user. Hootsuite is the dearest entry at $149 a month per user. Annual billing cuts every price here by roughly 15 to 33 percent.
Is there a free tool that finds the best time to post on LinkedIn?
Yes, with limits. Buffer, Later and CoSchedule all have free plans that include timing features, and Buffer is the most useful free start for LinkedIn. Metricool also has a free plan, but it cannot connect LinkedIn at all, so its timing features need the $25 Starter plan. Loomly, Hootsuite, Sprout Social, SocialPilot and Sendible offer trials only.
Do I need a paid plan to get best-time recommendations?
Not always. Later includes Best Time to Post on its $25 Starter plan and its free plan lets you test the suggestions, and Buffer shows best-time highlights on its free plan too. Metricool is the exception that matters: its free plan excludes LinkedIn entirely, so you must pay $25 a month before it can time a single LinkedIn post.
How do these tools work out the best time to post?
They read your own account history: when your posts earned likes, comments and clicks, and when your followers were online. Sprout Social, Hootsuite and Metricool turn that into a recommended slot per post, while Buffer, Later and SocialPilot mark your best hours on a calendar. The more history you give them, the sharper the recommendation gets.
Can I just follow a generic best-times chart instead?
A generic chart is a fine place to start, but it is an average across thousands of accounts, not your audience. A chart cannot know that your buyers check LinkedIn at lunch rather than at 9am, or that your posts perform best on Thursdays. Use a chart for your first week, then let one of these tools replace it with times drawn from your own engagement.
Which tool is best for a small business on LinkedIn?
Buffer is the best pick when the budget is tight: $6 a month per channel, a free plan, and timing highlights that cover the basics. Later is the better pick when visual planning matters, at $25 a month with Best Time to Post on the entry plan. Metricool is the best pick when you want the deepest timing data, also from $25 a month.
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