If you only need to write a post today and publish it Tuesday at 9am, you do not need a LinkedIn scheduling tool at all: LinkedIn schedules posts natively, from the composer, for free. A paid tool earns its price when you plan weeks ahead, publish to more than one network, work with someone who reviews your drafts, or want analytics LinkedIn does not show you.
There is a second thing people mean by this phrase, and search results mix the two badly. Some people want to schedule posts. Others want to schedule outreach: invitations and follow up messages going out on a timetable. Those are different products, and buying the wrong one wastes a month.
Below: both families, nine tools, what each one is really for, and the honest reason to skip most of them.
A note on prices. I have not listed monthly prices here. Every vendor in this list has changed them at least once this year and I could not re-check each official pricing page while writing, so the only number on this page is our own. Open the vendor's pricing page before you commit to anything.
The list at a glance
| # | Tool | Family | Built for |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sendable | Outreach scheduling | Founders sending LinkedIn sequences on buying signals |
| 2 | LinkedIn native scheduler | Post scheduling | Anyone who just wants the post out on Tuesday |
| 3 | Buffer | Post scheduling | Solo creators posting to several networks |
| 4 | Publer | Post scheduling | People who batch a month of content at once |
| 5 | Metricool | Post scheduling | Posting plus reporting in one place |
| 6 | Hootsuite | Post scheduling | Teams with approval steps and many accounts |
| 7 | Taplio | Post scheduling | LinkedIn only personal branding |
| 8 | AuthoredUp | Post scheduling | Writers who care about formatting and previews |
| 9 | Supergrow | Post scheduling | Solo creators who want writing help |
Scheduling conversations, not posts
Start here, because half the people searching for a LinkedIn scheduling tool are actually trying to solve this one and end up buying a post scheduler by mistake.
1. Sendable
Full transparency: this is the product I am building with my cofounder, so treat what follows as a description and not a verdict.
Sendable schedules outreach on LinkedIn rather than content. You describe the customer you want, it watches a set of signals (job posts, webinars, profile visits, first degree network activity), filters the profiles that match with AI, and pushes them into a LinkedIn sequence you built in a visual workflow: invitation, wait, message, conditions on whether the person accepted or opened, stop on reply. Replies land in one inbox, and agencies get one workspace per client with several sender accounts.
Published pricing: $49 per sender per month from 1 to 4 senders, $39 from 5 to 25, $1,000 a month for unlimited senders.
What it is not for: Sendable does not schedule posts. If your job today is a content calendar, nothing on this page from the sections below is replaced by it, and you should skip to the free options. It also does not do email, only LinkedIn, and part of the pipeline still involves manual work on our side while we finish the current version. More at getsendable.io.
If outreach scheduling is what you were looking for, the tools that compete with us on it are compared in Gojiberry alternatives, and the way the two halves fit together is in outbound sales automation.
The free options
2. LinkedIn's native scheduler
The default answer, and the one most listicles bury because it pays nobody. LinkedIn lets you schedule from the share box: write the post, use the clock icon, pick a date and time, and it publishes without you. LinkedIn documents the steps and the limits on its help page for scheduling posts, including the window you can schedule inside and the post types that are not supported. Company pages have their own equivalent.
Use it if: you post to LinkedIn only, you write posts one at a time, and nobody has to approve them.
Outgrow it when: you want a calendar view of the next three weeks, you publish to other networks too, or you need someone to review drafts before they go out.
It is also the only option on this page with no third party product sitting between you and your account, which counts for something given how LinkedIn treats prohibited software and extensions.
3. Buffer
The long standing simple option, and the one I recommend most often to founders who post on two or three networks. Buffer is a queue: you set posting slots, you drop content in, it goes out in order. It has kept a free tier for years, which is why it turns up in every "free LinkedIn scheduling tool" list, though the current channel and post limits are on their pricing page rather than in my memory.
Use it if: you want a calendar and a queue, without learning a suite.
Skip it if: you need LinkedIn specific formatting, carousels or per post analytics beyond the basics.
Multi network schedulers
These treat LinkedIn as one channel among several. Good if LinkedIn is not your only network, weaker on the details that only matter on LinkedIn.
4. Publer
Aimed at people who batch. Bulk scheduling, recycling of evergreen posts, and a workspace model that suits someone managing accounts for more than one brand. The strength is volume handling rather than LinkedIn craft.
Use it if: you plan a month of content in one sitting across several accounts.
5. Metricool
Scheduling and reporting in the same product, which is its whole argument. If the weekly job is "publish, then send someone a report", doing both in one tool removes a step.
Use it if: the reporting matters as much as the publishing.
Skip it if: you only need the calendar. You are paying for the analytics half.
6. Hootsuite
The enterprise end of this list. Many accounts, roles, approval workflows, and the integrations a marketing department asks for. For a founder posting three times a week it is more product than the job needs, and it is priced for the department it was built for.
Use it if: posts have to be approved by someone before they go out, or you manage many branded accounts.
LinkedIn only tools
These do less, on one network, and know that network better. This is usually the right trade if LinkedIn is where your buyers are.
7. Taplio
Built for personal branding on LinkedIn. Scheduling sits alongside content inspiration, drafting help and analytics, aimed at people trying to grow an audience rather than teams pushing announcements.
Use it if: LinkedIn is your main channel and you are building a personal audience.
Skip it if: you post from a company page more than from your own profile.
8. AuthoredUp
The writer's option. It works around the composer to solve the things that annoy people who post often: how the text will actually look once LinkedIn renders it, where the "see more" cut falls, saved snippets, and post by post performance.
Use it if: you already post consistently and you want the writing and the formatting to get better.
Skip it if: you have not published regularly yet. Formatting is not the reason.
9. Supergrow
The newer, cheaper end of the LinkedIn only group, built around writing assistance plus scheduling for solo creators. Useful if the blocker is the blank page rather than the calendar, with the usual caveat: assistance that writes the whole post for you produces posts that read like it.
Use it if: you want help drafting and a queue, at the low end of the market.
The four things actually worth paying for
Every tool on this list schedules a post. That part is solved and free. Four features are the real reasons to pay, and knowing which one you need tells you which half of the list to read.
A calendar you plan in. The native scheduler shows you a list of what is queued. It does not show you that you have three posts on the same theme next week and nothing the week after. If you plan content rather than write it the night before, the calendar view is the feature you are buying.
Preview and formatting. LinkedIn renders text in ways that surprise people: line breaks collapse, the "see more" cut lands mid sentence, and a post that looked fine in a document looks cramped in the feed. Seeing the rendered version before you commit saves a post a week.
Approvals and multiple hands. The moment a second person writes or signs off on posts, sending drafts over chat stops working. Roles, a review step, and a record of who approved what are worth real money to a team and nothing at all to a solo founder.
Analytics you can compare over time. LinkedIn shows per post numbers and a rolling window. It does not make it easy to ask which format worked best over six months. Tools that keep your history answer that question, which is the only analytics question worth asking.
If none of those four describes your week, you have your answer: stay on the native scheduler and spend the money on something else.
How to choose in five minutes
Answer three questions in order and the list collapses.
| Question | If yes | If no |
|---|---|---|
| Do I want to schedule outreach, not content? | Look at outreach tools, none of the schedulers do this | Continue |
| Do I post to LinkedIn only? | LinkedIn native, or a LinkedIn only tool | A multi network scheduler |
| Does anyone review my posts before they publish? | A tool with approval steps | The free options are enough |
Most founders end at "LinkedIn native is enough, for now". That is a fine place to end. The scheduler is not what makes the posts work.
What no scheduling tool will do for you
Three things people expect from these tools and never get.
Reach. Scheduling changes when a post goes out, not how many people see it. If your posts get 200 views today, they will get 200 views on a schedule.
A point of view. The tools that draft for you produce competent, forgettable text. The posts that work in B2B contain something only you know: a number from your own operation, a decision you regret, a specific objection you keep hearing.
Pipeline. This is the big one. A person who reads your post and thinks "we have that problem" does nothing next unless you start a conversation. Publishing creates attention. Someone has to act on it, which is why content and outreach end up in the same week's work: post about the problem, then talk to the people who engaged with it. Writing about the terms your buyers actually search is the part I cover in high intent keywords.
FAQ
What is the best LinkedIn scheduling tool?
For most people, LinkedIn's own scheduler, because it is free, built in, and enough for one network and one author. A paid tool becomes worth it when you publish to several networks, plan weeks ahead in a calendar, need approvals before posts go out, or want analytics LinkedIn does not give you.
Is there a free LinkedIn scheduling tool?
Yes. LinkedIn schedules posts natively at no cost from the share box, for both personal profiles and company pages. Several third party tools also keep a free tier, Buffer being the best known, usually limited by number of accounts and posts in the queue. Check the current limits on the vendor's pricing page.
Can I schedule LinkedIn posts without a third party tool?
Yes. Write the post in the share box, click the clock icon, pick a date and time, then confirm. LinkedIn shows your scheduled posts in one place so you can edit or delete them before they publish. A few post types, including events and jobs, cannot be scheduled this way.
What is the difference between a LinkedIn content planner and a post scheduler?
A scheduler publishes at a chosen time. A content planner adds the layer before that: a calendar of topics, drafts in progress, and often approval steps. Most paid tools sell both together. If your problem is remembering to post rather than deciding what to post, a scheduler alone is enough.
Do LinkedIn scheduling tools risk my account?
Scheduling posts through official integrations is the low risk end of LinkedIn tooling, unlike tools that automate connection requests or scrape profiles, which LinkedIn's help pages list as prohibited. No vendor can promise you an outcome on account standing. Prefer tools that publish through LinkedIn's own API rather than browser extensions acting as you.