Later
A weekend of work, and real gaps remain.
Visual planning and scheduling for social posts: a calendar and a grid preview showing how a feed will look, with publishing to the major platforms.
Build a scheduler, and read the platform terms first. BEFORE ANY CODE - Each platform requires app review to post on a user's behalf. Budget days for that, not hours - Some platforms do not allow it at all for personal accounts STACK - Postgres, a worker, one page for the calendar POSTS - Text, media, target accounts, scheduled time in a named time zone - Status queued, publishing, published or failed; every transition appended PUBLISHING - A worker polls for due posts, marks publishing inside a transaction, then calls the API - Idempotency: never allow two workers to publish the same row - A failure keeps the post and the platform error, and does not retry blindly TOKENS - Encrypted at rest, refreshed before expiry, with a clear message when a reconnect is needed Include the schema, the worker locking and the token refresh.
What you lose
- Approved API access to publish on each platform, which requires review and is revoked when policies change
- A grid preview showing how a profile will look before you post
- Best-time suggestions built on data across many accounts
If you would rather not build
- Buffer, for the hosted version
- A calendar reminder, which many people find is enough
The escape hatch
open source · no votes, no paid placement
Postiz
$0Open-source social scheduling with several platform integrations.
gitroomhq/postiz-appfree · open source
Mixpost
$0Self-hosted social media management you run on your own server.
inovector/mixpostfree · open source
Why this verdict
our own opinion · changed only by a person
58/100
Verdict kinda at 58. The scheduler is straightforward; getting and keeping publishing permission on each platform is the real work.
History
tracked since 10 Aug 2026 · nothing is ever overwritten
Questions about Later
answered from the record above
Is Later free?
No — the plan we track is $25 a month. Starter at around $25/month billed monthly, cheaper annually, for one set of social accounts.
Can you replace Later by building your own?
ALMOST. A weekend of work, and real gaps remain. Replacement score 58 out of 100, build time a weekend. Read what you lose before you decide.
How much does Later cost?
$25 a month on Starter — $300 a year. Recorded 10 Aug 2026.
What do you lose by replacing Later?
Approved API access to publish on each platform, which requires review and is revoked when policies change; A grid preview showing how a profile will look before you post; Best-time suggestions built on data across many accounts. If any of those carry weight for you, keep paying.
Is there an open-source alternative to Later?
Yes: Postiz, Mixpost. The prompt on this page is for when you want it your way instead.
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